at the same time.
After receiving the news, Tongzhou Guard Commander Qiu Pei, Qianshi Fang Sheng and others also quickly took their own guards and hurriedly ran into Tongzhou City from outside the city.
"The last general, Qiu Pei, is here to see His Highness!"
"Get up."
Zhu Di was quite impressed with the generals of Tongzhou Guard. He waved his hand casually and asked a little tiredly: "I wonder what Commander Qiu is here for?"
Qiu Pei was speechless. You rushed into Tongzhou City with a thousand soldiers in armor early in the morning. What else do you ask?
"The general heard that His Highness led troops to Tongzhou and came here to pay his respects."
"I am just here to catch a few thieves and gentry who are using my name to exploit and harm the people. There is no need to make such a fuss."
At this moment, Zhu Di also realized something and explained casually.
Qiu Pei looked slightly relaxed.
At this moment, I also noticed that under the court, a group of Tongzhou officials and several famous gentry in Tongzhou were paralyzed, and a look of surprise flashed in their eyes.
However, he didn't pay much attention to it.
There was even some gloating in my heart.
These civil servants and gentry looked down upon him and others, and naturally they were happy to see these civil servants and gentry suffer misfortune.
Zhu Di was tired after a long night, so he didn't pay much attention to Qiu Pei. He gave instructions to the officials in the courtroom and went directly to rest.
At this time, Guo An and the officials of Prince Yan's palace, Shisi, as well as the governor of Peiping, Yu Rentian, the officials of the inspection envoy and the chief envoy were pitied.
Zhu Di can rest, but they can't, and the interrogation must continue.
Almost all the officials in Tongzhou were caught in one fell swoop. Regardless of whether they made mistakes on their own initiative or not, from the superior officials to the officials, they all more or less shared some money.
Under the interrogation of the Jin Yiwei and the officials of the Procuratorate and Envoys Department, they basically confessed happily.
In fact, these officials did not make much of a mistake. Most of those who committed the most heinous crimes had been killed a year ago.
The most troublesome thing is He Ji and the other four gentry families. These gentry have all read books, and their hearts are darker and more cunning. Even if they are re-interrogated, they will still keep complaining.
However, the name Jin Yiwei did not come for nothing.
To make King Yan so disgusted, every Jin Yiwei showed no mercy or scruples when interrogating these gentry.
So, basically by the afternoon, these people were all talking about it.
at the same time.
Zhu Di also walked out of the backyard in high spirits.
Seeing this, Guo An, Pu Sanji and others, holding a pile of money and food books in their hands, quickly stepped forward to report.
"Your Majesty, I have found out some land thieves and arrested a few gentry."
"How many acres are they hiding?"
Zhu Di said with some expectation.
Pu Sanji said: "Currently, there are fifteen field thieves who have hidden acres of land, and the number of hidden acres of land is 46,000 acres."
As soon as these words came out, Zhu Di was immediately shocked.
You must know that the number of acres of land registered in Tongzhou's yellow book is only over 105,000 acres.
After only one day of investigation, half of the hidden acres were discovered.
Zhu Di took the bozi and looked at it. They were all great gentry and country sages who had more than 2,000 acres of hidden land.
With murderous intent in his eyes, "I have given all these land thieves who deceived the emperor and his superiors to me. To be able to hide so many acres, they must be land thieves like He Ji who exploited and oppressed the people."
As for the field thieves hiding under a hundred acres, I will register them one by one and ask them to make up for the taxes they have owed for so many years.
If someone doesn't want to pay, then their farmland will be confiscated. "
"Yes, Your Highness!"
Pu Sanji responded and walked away murderously.
At this time, half of the entire Beiping Prefecture's Jinyi Guards have arrived in Tongzhou.
As for the Beiping government office, the chief envoys department, and the inspection envoys department, they also received the news and rushed to Tongzhou one by one.
Also coming at the same time were the five hundred-household offices of Yanshanwei.
The entire Beiping Mansion began to shake.
Especially the magistrates and county magistrates under the rule of Beiping Prefecture, as well as the great gentry and rural sages.
Hiding their fields is already their instinct engraved in their bones.
Originally, all this was tacit common sense among all the officials, gentry, and sages of the Ming Dynasty from top to bottom.
However, who would have thought that a few gentry and country sages in Tongzhou who were as smart as pigs would dare to target King Yan just because of a mere 500 acres of land.
Moreover, the lid on the hidden fields was directly lifted.
If this matter spread to Yingtian and the emperor who was born as a cowherd boy knew about it, wouldn't something big happen?
At the same time, many gentry, sages, and even officials wrote letters one after another with anxious faces, and then hurriedly sent them out.
However, before them, two memorials had already been sent to Yingtian City in the name of Beiping Mansion Jinyi Guards Station and Yanwang Mansion respectively.
Two days later.
Lao Zhu, who was far away in Yingtian City, received memorials from Jin Yiwei and Prince Yan's Mansion at the same time.
"How dare these land thieves hide so many acres of land and exploit and bully the people like this? Are they really trying to bully us?"
Your Highness, Prince Zhu Biao also read the two memorials and looked angry.
"How dare these gentry and wise men in Tongzhou do this? Don't they know that this is deceiving the emperor and ignoring their superiors?"
Lao Zhu coldly snorted: "We never believe that these country sages and gentry can be kind. They used to talk about benevolence, justice and morality, but they are like a few crows, spewing excrement and croaking non-stop..."
"Biao'er, we are going to kill people this time, and you are not allowed to stop us. If we don't kill chickens to scare monkeys, if things go on like this, these country sages will turn our Ming Dynasty into a miserable scene like the late Yuan Dynasty again.
All the land has been occupied by these gentry and village sages, but they have not paid a single acre of land tax. All the taxes have fallen on the common people, and the common people have to live hard..."
Zhu Biao's expression changed and he said hurriedly: "My father wants to kill those gentry, gentry and wise men who have done many evil things, but I dare not stop him.
However, there are thousands of gentry, countrymen, and sages in the Ming Dynasty. If we kill them all together, something big will happen.
Moreover, if Ming Dynasty wants to educate the countryside, it must rely on these rural sages and gentry.
Therefore, I asked my father to keep some of the gentry and country sages who did not bully and exploit the people. "
Lao Zhu grinned, "Don't worry Biao'er, we won't kill some of the country's sages and gentry who are kind-hearted.
The tens of thousands of officials in our Ming Dynasty are all gentry. If we kill them all, who will govern the Ming Dynasty for us?
However, no matter how much land tax they swallowed from us, we have to spit it out, otherwise, don’t blame our steel knife for driving to their necks..."
"Father is wise."
There was still some worry in Zhu Biao's eyes.
Although he has a kinder temperament, he also knows that those gentry and country sages will never hand over their hidden fields so easily.
On the throne, Lao Zhu grinned, his mouth full of yellow teeth, which looked like a bloody mouth, "This time, let's take Beiping Mansion as an example. Let's see how many acres of land are hidden in just Beiping Mansion? "
…
Half a month later.
The hidden conditions of the fields in seven counties and four states of Beiping Prefecture were also found out.
In one Beiping Prefecture, there are actually 350,000 acres of hidden land, which is nearly half of what is registered in the Yellow Register of the entire Beiping Prefecture.
What makes Guo An a little unbelievable is that Wanping County also found more than 10,000 acres, of which more than 1,000 acres were hidden by two gentry families. Moreover, these two gentry families were guilty of many evil deeds and even exploited and oppressed the people.
And no matter how much he wandered around the villages when he was the magistrate of Wanping County, he never noticed a trace of it.
Naturally, the homes of these two gentry families were also confiscated.
And after half a month, he finally understood the true meaning of family in the ancient countryside.
The interests of the family are the highest criterion in the hearts of rural people.
And how good a person's conduct is in the countryside depends on how much benefit he can bring to the family.
He has always relied on the morality of the previous life as his concept of dealing with things in this era, but he is blind.
Here, people exist as families. As long as they are close relatives, they are the closest family members and allies when facing outsiders.
In this era, everything may involve family members. As long as you do something wrong or you are weak, many people may be killed, even your family members!
As the report of the number of hidden acres of land in Beiping Mansion was reported to Yingtian City, Lao Zhu stood directly in Fengtian Hall and cursed the courtiers with an angry face all morning.
In the afternoon of that day, the imperial edicts of the imperial court were spread to all provinces, prefectures and counties in the world.
Jin Yiwei investigates the hidden fields in various prefectures, states and counties.
The prefects and magistrates of various prefectures and counties, as well as all the gentry, felt like they were mourning for their heirs.
Although they have their own ways to deal with the Jin Yiwei who are investigating, but with the backing of Beiping Mansion hiding the number of acres, they will definitely not be able to hide the number of acres they hide.
Moreover, if they dare to continue to hide it, those royal guards can keep an eye on them until the day they are exposed.
As a result, in just half a month, there were more than 3.8 million acres of hidden acres in the entire Ming Dynasty.
Lao Zhu and the Ministry of Revenue looked at the amount of grain and money collected from various places, and smiled with cold eyes for five days.
…
Prince Yan's Mansion, inside the Cunxin Hall.
Zhu Di's face was filled with joy.
"Guo Qing, our Prince Yan's Mansion has gained an additional 250,000 acres of farmland. How do you think these fields should be handled?"
According to the laws of the Ming Dynasty, all confiscated properties were confiscated and turned into official fields, or directly became imperial estates.
We found out that 350,000 acres of hidden land were owned by some gentry and country sages with relatively good character. Their homes were not confiscated, but they were asked to pay all the land taxes for these years.
As for the remaining 250,000 acres, they were directly confiscated.
When Lao Zhu was happy, he directly gave the entire 250,000 acres of land confiscated by the Beiping Mansion to Prince Yan's Mansion.
As a result, the entire government office of Beiping Mansion worked hard for half a month, but in the end they got nothing, and instead benefited Zhu Di, the King of Yan.
However, there was such a big mess in the Beiping Mansion, and Lao Zhu did not seek to settle the score with them. These officials were considered to be in high esteem.
Therefore, I have no shame and no courage to come out and argue this matter.
Zhu Di has been extremely happy these past two days.
I bought a 500-acre piece of land near Zhangjiawan Pier at a low price, and even received an additional 250,000 acres of land as a gift.
"Your Highness, I think it would be better to give it to the original farmers for farming!"
After Guo An thought for a moment, he said, "As for the grain tax, the government will collect as much as the grain tax."
Zhu Di asked again: "What does Zhu Qing think?"
Zhu Fu said: "Wei Chen also thinks this is the best."
Zhu Di nodded slightly, "I will leave this matter to Zhu Qing."
"Wei Chen obeys the order."
Zhu Fu responded.
…
(End of chapter)
