The North Road and East Road of Xuanfu Town are also facing a formidable enemy. Temporary inspection departments have been set up at the important gateways for all parties to enter to strengthen the inspection of people and goods entering to prevent anyone from entering the North Road and East Road. Destroy the place.
After all, "A dog jumps over the wall when it's anxious, and a rabbit jumps over the wall when it's anxious." The North Road and the East Road are the foundations of the Yongyi Army, and Zhang Cheng has to guard against them.
Under the vigorous propaganda of the Yongyi Army shogunate, the soldiers and civilians in the east and north areas were also united. They stepped up the production of various materials. Even if Shanxi and Datong were temporarily cut off from sales, there were still Gyeonggi, Liaodong, and Shandong. Waiting for orders from local merchants.
What's more, the large quantities of guns and artillery ordered by the generals of the four towns of Ji, Liao, Shanxi, and Datong were all worth real money, so they were working at full capacity to step up production.
On the other hand, the army and the people are united and strictly guard against it, especially ordinary people such as military households and civilian households. They do not want their small days of food and clothing to be ruined by outsiders.
Most of the households in the East Road area have been divided into fields, and many people have even applied to join military households. Therefore, these people who have just seen the good hope have a stronger desire to protect their own happiness.
Even for those large gentry families, although their fields were measured and recalculated by various health departments, and the extra fields of each family were taken back by the state government and the health department respectively, they were also given 30% compensation according to the quality of the land.
Although this cannot make up for everyone's losses, it is better than nothing. After all, thousands of soldiers of the Xuanwu Battalion of the Yongyi Army led by Li Jiyu are spread all over the place, and they are all murderous demons.
Zhang Cheng's front foot had just left the East Road and headed to the town to take up his post. Li Jiyu started an inventory of the fields on the East Road.
Most of the East Road is occupied by private households. After more than two hundred years of development, just like other state capitals in the Ming Dynasty, almost all the land is concentrated in the names of those wealthy gentry families.
And they used various reasons and excuses, even bribed local officials, under-measured the fields, and classified many fields as wasteland. In short, they tried their best to evade the land taxes and conceal the fields in their names so as to pay less land taxes.
This caused the majority of households to become tenant farmers under the names of large gentry families because they lost their fields, and were completely dependent on the gentry's names.
And those people who still have land have to bear the land taxes that they have evaded and concealed, which leads to more and more people selling their fields, land, and even their children and daughters because they cannot afford the land taxes, until they finally sell themselves. Slave.
As for the widely circulated statement in the Ming Dynasty that "the gentry did not pay for food", it does not exist at all. It is just a rumor and historical misunderstanding by some people!
In the Ming Dynasty, only the "Huangzhuang" in the name of the emperor and the empress, and the "Wang Tian" in the name of the princes of the past dynasties did not need to pay land tax to the court. Everyone else Wait, you can't get rid of it.
The Ming Dynasty's "gentry preferential and exemption policy" first appeared in the Hongwu Dynasty. According to the "Records of Taizu", "Families with food and salary are equal to the common people, and those who serve in service are the common people's affairs. If a virtuous man and a gentleman value him If one's body is restored to the service of one's family, there will be no difference between a gentleman and a barbarian. This is not the way to encourage scholars to treat the virtuous. From now on, those who have land and land in the families of officials appointed will be exempted from corvee service except for paying rent and taxes."
It can be seen from this that only the corvee service of officials' families is exempted, and the sentence "those with land and land lose in addition to rent and tax" more clearly indicates that even court officials have to pay the court's land tax, and then all other corvée services are exempted. .
The phrase "the home of officials appointed by hundreds of officials" also shows that those who are eligible for preferential exemptions only include court officials serving in the capital, and do not include local officials who are sent abroad, nor do they include those who have retired to serve, let alone What do you mean by Jinshi, Juren and Xiucai?
However, with the passage of time, starting from the 18th year of Hongzhi, it was clarified that "officials who meet appointments and those who are promoted to official positions based on courtesy will be exempted from miscellaneous work and corvee as usual." From then on, officials who became official officials also enjoyed the imperial court's policy of preferential exemptions.
Later, the scope of the imperial court's policy of preferential exemptions was further expanded. When the "Regulations on Preferential Exemptions" were revised in the 24th year of Jiajing's reign, it was clearly delineated that "a first-class official in the capital is exempted from service for thirty shi, and the number of people is thirty. The following shall be reduced in descending order...; foreign officials shall be reduced by half; officials in promotion, supervision and birth shall be exempted from two dan and two ding; those who become official shall be exempted from seven-tenths of this product."
From then on, even the families who won the Jinshi, Juren, and Scholars were exempted from corvee. This expanded exemption made the burden on the large number of Shengdou people even heavier.
The so-called "exemption of thirty dan of grain... thirty ding per person" mentioned here actually refers to the exemption from the miscellaneous corvee attached to the land per person. Instead of the regular land tax that should be paid, there is no penny at all. Relationship.
From the beginning to the end, the preferential and exemption policies in the Ming Dynasty generally referred to various types of corvee services other than the regular land tax, and never included the regular land tax.
But once it reaches the implementation level of the "preference and exemption policy", it completely breaks away from the scope of the imperial court's "Preference and Exemption Regulations". Although the preferential exemption in the Ming Dynasty always only included corvee labor, it never included the regular tax of land tax. .
However, when it came to the specific implementation level, the squires in various prefectures, prefectures, and counties would use various unimaginable means and collude with magistrates and county officials to neither serve the court nor pay official land taxes.
As a result, all labor and taxes were concentrated in the hands of the vast number of poor farmers who did not have a few acres of thin farmland to their names, and as a result, there was a large-scale flight of the poor.
And those greedy gentry and country officials once again invaded the poor people's fields after they fled, causing more poor people to flee their homes.
This is the root cause of why in the late Ming Dynasty, there were refugees everywhere in the world!
It was also the case with Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and others who were the bandit kings in the late Ming Dynasty. However, as long as they scattered a little grain and raised their arms, they would be able to gain the basis for a response from all over the world.
In fact, most of the time, policies are good, but the implementation of government orders requires officials at all levels to implement them at all levels, otherwise it will be difficult to even leave the Forbidden City.
In the process of implementation at all levels, various deviations will always occur, making many officials, gentry and country officials become vested interests. They will become more and more greedy and will eventually devour everything like gluttons until the country is finally destroyed. Death cannot be stopped!
This is the case with the gentry and rural eunuchs in Yanqing Prefecture and Baoan Prefecture on the East Road. Not only do they occupy a large amount of land, they also collude with state and county officials to hide the land tax in their own names and find ways to evade taxes.
Over the years, they have formed interest groups among themselves. No matter who is appointed as the magistrate of the state or county, they will take the initiative to show their goodwill. As long as their interests are not affected, everyone can live in peace.
Once their vested interests are touched, they will work together to make false accusations at the top, while at the bottom they will incite the tenants of each family to stop farming and cause trouble. In the end, they often win, while the prefecture and county magistrates are Transferred elsewhere.
Just like Liu Minshen, the magistrate of Yongning County at the time, although he wanted to straighten out local political affairs, clear out land and collect land taxes, he was faced with obstacles at all levels.
These resistances come not only from the dissuasion and prohibition of superior officials, but also from the opposition and obstruction of the poor tenant farmers at the bottom. However, those gentry and country officials who hide their land without reporting it and do everything possible to evade the official land tax from the state are completely invisible behind the scenes. He controls everything without revealing his head.
However, Li Jiyu had no such concerns at all. He was only responsible for Zhang Cheng alone, and the rest was not within his scope of consideration for matters such as land clearing on the east road, land taxes and commercial taxes.
…………
Previously, Zhou Ruli, an officer in the Xuanwu Battalion, had a conversation with Li Jiyu.
"Brother, it's not easy to do this on the east road."
Li Jiyu replied without changing his face: "It's not easy to do, but we have to do it anyway. This is my uncle's trust in us."
"Anita Buddha..."
After Zhou Ruli proclaimed the name of Buddha, he continued worriedly: "'One thought of becoming a Buddha, one thought of hell'. This matter on the East Road is not easy to handle. If it succeeds, it may not be a credit to the court, and if it fails, it may be a disaster. "
"Monk, I don't understand those principles any better than you who are practicing Buddhism."
Li Jiyu looked up at the sky and continued: "I only know one thing, that is the 'favor of knowing you' that my uncle has given us. We must accept this mission this time, and we must do it beautifully."
"Man, this is a hard job."
Zhou Ruli continued with a serious look on his face: "Brother, it is all because of the word 'faithfulness' that these brothers are willing to follow you until now. What you have done deserves my respect.
On that day, in Tiefo Village, you resolutely accepted Zhang Shuai's recruitment and led our group of old brothers to submit to the imperial court. Although you were bound by various military laws and regulations, it was the right path after all, and Zhang Shuai was also a person worth following.
But since we are already generals in the imperial court, we have to think about the future, let's talk about the East Road. They Zhang Guangda, Zhang Guodong, Chen Zheng, such veteran killers, didn't take action, but they taught me and the Henan Gang to be the villains.
If there are too many killings today and offend all the civil servants and gentry on the East Road, it may be detrimental to your future development, big brother! "
The corner of Li Jiyu's mouth raised with a hint of a sinister smile, and he said: "Monk, you have practiced martial arts in the Shaolin Temple and also read some books. What you say is very reasonable. You are indeed much better than those elders."
He first praised Monk Haiyong Zhou Ruli, but then the conversation suddenly changed: "However, although we are from a bandit background, we have read a few books when we were young, so we may not necessarily know less than your brother."
Zhou Ruli smiled slightly awkwardly: "Hai Yong has read a few Buddhist scriptures at best, how dare he compare with his elder brother."
Li Jiyu didn't care about these details with him. He looked at Zhou Ruli and said: "Although we have surrendered to the imperial court and become military attachés of the imperial court, what has become of the imperial court now, in our hearts All very clear.
If we hadn't been forced by those officials, we would never have taken the road of occupying the mountains and becoming bandits. Although we are now military attachés of the imperial court, if we associate with these bastards, sooner or later we will still be unable to escape the fate of being played to death by them. "
He stared at Zhou Ruli with his eyes firmly, and said in a firm tone: "I, Li Jiyu, surrendered to Marshal Yongning Bo Zhang, not to this damn court. Uncle treats me with sincerity, knows me and uses me, I will I will repay you with my life.”
"Although there are thousands of people, I am going!"
…………
Huang Daozhong, the magistrate of Yanqing, and Deng Rongxun, the magistrate of Baoan, both within Xuanfu East Road, collectively lost their voices.
Although there was an endless stream of people who went to the state government to visit the government every day, the two of them acted as if they had agreed not to meet the guests. They all refused on the grounds that they were ill and it was inconvenient to see the guests.
The gentry and officials in the prefectural and county towns on the east road were all as anxious as ants on a hot pot. However, they could not even get through the door of the prefecture government office. They had no way to appeal, but they had no choice but to scold Huang Daozhong and Deng Rongxun for being unethical. I usually enjoy everyone's benefits, but now my attitude is like this.
Many people also went to the Huailong Military Preparation Office in Huailai City to ask for an audience with Qi Yuchu, the military commander of Huailong. They were not rejected here, but they could not get any benefits.
Those who came to Huai to ask for an audience were all prominent families in the two states. Naturally, Qi Yuchu had to meet him. He treated him with courtesy and entertained him with delicious food and drinks, but did not mention anything about his father-in-law, land, and other matters.
Even if someone mentioned matters such as clearing land, pressing Chen to pay land taxes, and collecting commercial taxes, Qi Yuchu would always talk about him, and when pressed, he would say: "This matter was done by Uncle Yongning, not by his own authority." Responsibilities, it’s inconvenient to interfere.”
The gentry and officials had no choice on the east road, so they got together and asked Zhu Zhifeng, the newly appointed governor of Xuanfu in the town, and Jiang Yuxu, the governor of Xuanda in Yanghesuo.
At the same time, they also united to mobilize their relatives, friends, classmates and old friends, etc., and even went to Beijing to bribe the censor, bribe the courtiers, and tried every means to prevent Li Jiyu from tracing his land and other matters.
At the local level, they also resorted to the same tricks, using some vague promises, such as reducing land rents as bait, or distributing grain to buy them off, to encourage the landless tenant farmers to come out to the market.
Often in order to make the situation look more serious, they would send out their own servants and thugs, and also hire some green-skinned thugs from the city to mingle among the tenants in the city, not only to monitor them but also to stir up more trouble.
However, this time they completely miscalculated. Zhang Cheng had worked hard and planned for more than a year in advance for the east road.
He first rectified the military settlements on the East Road, vigorously cleared the land, and vigorously organized land reclamation. During this period, he occasionally touched civilian fields. However, there were not many fields, and he was able to solve the problem successfully in the end without causing too much trouble among the gentry and officials. care.
Although they had colluded with the Wei Division officers and occupied a lot of farmland before, these were military fields after all. Zhang Cheng investigated the matter in the name of the Wei Division. Even if they didn't want to, they couldn't get too entangled.
Afterwards, although Zhang Cheng never mentioned the matter of civilian land or official land openly, he had been planning it secretly. For a period of time, Su Yiyang's secret hall invested most of its personnel and energy on the East Road.
The situation of the gentry and officials in each hometown has already been clearly arranged, and now, with the fish scale records of Yanqing and Baoan Prefectures, the rest is as easy as following the map.
Teams of armored warriors, led by their respective superiors, went deep into the villages in each county, directly clearing the land according to the fish scale books, and at the same time clearing out the arrears of land tax of each large household.
Who dares to cause trouble in front of these elite warriors?
The agitated tenant farmers also knew in their hearts that all those military households were extremely poor before. After the Qing Dynasty, almost every household was allocated some land. Although they could not have enough food and clothing, they would not be cold or hungry. And die.
Furthermore, those green-skinned men know the truth of the saying "A wise man becomes a hero", so they will not rush forward stupidly and face the swords and guns of the Yongyi Army soldiers.
That was an existence that even the Liaodong Tatars felt intimidated by, so how could they compete with it?
Although there were some unsighted guys who mingled among the crowd, intending to cause trouble, but as soon as they made a move, they saw brave warriors in helmets and armor, quickly rushed into the crowd, and picked them out with great accuracy.
Without saying a word, he was beheaded in public!
This momentum of execution on the spot without interrogation completely shocked everyone in an instant. From then on, no one dared to cause trouble in front of the soldiers of the Yongyi Army.
(End of chapter)
