Looking across the country, the contradiction between man and land has become very prominent at this time. The large-scale development of Northeast China was the first pressure reducing valve that Zhu Yijun opened for the boiler that was about to explode.
When the dynasty was at its peak, its territory reached the Sea of Japan and the Xing'an Mountains in the northeast; the Gobi Desert in the north, and Hami in the northwest; and the Bay of Bengal in the southwest, and the entire territory of Annan was recovered; a Jisi Guard Station was also established on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The land area exceeds 10 million square kilometers.
By the first year of Wanli, this huge land in the northeast had shrunk to the Liao River Basin; the north had all withdrawn behind the Great Wall; the northwest Xinjiang was completely gone, and the Ming army retreated to Jiayuguan; although the southwest had not all returned to Yunnan, Myanmar had already lost its British rule. Chaos is just around the corner.
The Ming Dynasty, which is known as "not ceding territory, not making peace, and not accepting payments," faced the rebellion in the border areas, but the emperors of the past dynasties were helpless. Large tracts of territory that were once occupied and controlled were lost.
The loss of territory means, on the one hand, that the country is weak and unable to cope with its needs. What's more important is that among the monarchs in the past dynasties, there was not a single Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. Instead, they were a bunch of house-keeping cynics.
After Renzong, no matter how powerful the country was, few emperors in the past had any intention of expanding their territory. There are one or two people who are somewhat ambitious, but they have high ambitions and low ambitions, leaving nothing but a shameful laughing stock; or they collapse as soon as they try to cheer up.
When Zhu Yijun took over, only more than half of this originally huge land was left, which was not much larger than the land area of Wei during the Three Kingdoms.
The population of the empire in the first year of Wanli was estimated to be approximately 65 million in the Yellow Book. Zhu Yijun didn't believe this data at all. Last year, he asked Jin Yiwei to choose a place in the east, west, north and south, and conduct a sample survey. At this time, half of the people in the south who were not in the yellow list were in the yellow list, and the number in the north who was outside the yellow list was at least 10%. one third.
Based on a rough estimate based on this ratio, the current population of the country should be around 120 million. With less than two-thirds of the land area at the time of Emperor Chengzu, it could support a population that was nearly double that of Emperor Chengzu. Thinking with his toes, Zhu Yijun could also determine the reasons for the widespread practice of slavery among the people and the low price of the population.
In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, nobles, gentry, businessmen, and powerful men intensified their plunder of land. On the one hand, they evaded taxes, and on the other hand, they passed on the burden of taxes and labor to ordinary people.
The fragile characteristics of the small farmer economy are most prominently exposed at this time. A slightly excessive natural disaster or family accident can immediately tear a small farmer's family into pieces and plunge him into the fate of a tenant servant.
In the early years of Jiajing, the prohibition of slavery, which was expressly prohibited by Ming law, had ceased to exist in name only due to the impact of economic laws. At this time, Ming people's "Family Instructions" or notes contained a large amount of content about the use of slaves.
By the Wanli period, there was a record in the county annals of Jiading County, Suzhou Prefecture, that "there were as many as ten thousand servants in the household". This shows that at this time, large households had more than thousands of slaves.
By the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, under the influence of peasant uprisings in various places, slaves followed large-scale "slave revolts", and tens of thousands of slaves rioted in various places in the north and south. More than 20 members of Xu Xiake's family, including his eldest son Xu Qi, died in the "slave rebellion", which reflects the extent of population pressure at this time.
...
Zhu Yijun laid out the data on slave ownership in large households surveyed by Jin Yiwei, and then analyzed the reasons for the large-scale bankruptcy of homesteaders. Zhang Juzheng and Lu Tiaoyang were both silent.
Lu Tiaoyang's family did not have as many servants as Zhang Juzheng's family, but it still exceeded a hundred. He had never thought about the connection between the price of slaves and the contradiction between population and land before. Today, the emperor made it clear and he was deeply horrified.
Zhu Yijun said: "No one is born to be a human being. If it is not for the sake of survival, who can pawn and sell their daughters? Besides, are these people not my children? The development of the Northeast does not require the court to bother and mobilize the people to immigrate. I have a plan that may alleviate the problem of too many people and too few people in the Northeast."
After hearing this, Zhang Juzheng felt like the emperor used his wild ideas to solve his own problems. This feeling is amazing, like window paper suddenly being replaced by glass windows, and the whole room is instantly bright.
Sure enough, I heard the emperor say: "I have decided to set the three provinces of Beishan, Heilongjiang and Taining as the 'places to promote citizenship'. All happy households with low-level registration can get rid of their low-level status as long as they settle in these three provinces for three years; after settling in these three provinces for ten years, If you are over 10 years old, your whole family will deregister!”
When Zhang Juzheng and Lu Tiaoyang heard this, they both exclaimed "Wonderful!" Zhang Juzheng bowed and said: "The emperor understands the people's privacy down to the smallest detail, treats the people leniently, and improves politics and education. This is really a way to show concern for Li Yuan and benefit the people!"
Lu Tiaoyang also praised him sincerely. He also added the emperor's method of expelling nationality and introducing people: "On the one hand, the imperial court wanted to spread the emperor's virtues to the world, and on the other hand, it wanted to reiterate the order prohibiting slaves! Taizu once stipulated the rules for keeping slaves: 'Three grades and above are no more than eight. People, common people who keep slaves, have a hundred sticks.’ It’s time to explain this ancestral system!”
Zhang Juzheng frowned and said, "Is this too harsh?"
After hearing this, Lu Tiaoyang said: "Otherwise. If a wealthy family needs to show off, they can hire helpers. What the court needs to do is to remove the personal relationship between the slaves and the wealthy family. For this matter, I suggest that the emperor issue an edict before the end of the year. The various judicial departments must inform that anyone who keeps more slaves than Taizu sets will be punished according to the Ming Code."
After Zhang Juzheng heard this, he looked at Lu Tiaoyang, as if he was getting to know him again. Lu Tiaoyang smiled when he saw it and said, "Yuan Fu thinks that someone is an irresponsible person?" Zhang Juzheng didn't dare to say.
Zhu Yijun was very pleased to see that Lu Tiaoyang also had fighting spirit. He added: "In addition to attracting low-income households to the Northeast, if there are disasters in various places and refugees appear, the court will guide the refugees to the Northeast to reclaim wasteland. Before the end of this year, this policy must also be promoted and implemented."
Zhang Juzheng smiled bitterly after hearing this and said: "Your Majesty, at this time, in the flooded areas of Huai and Yang, refugees are everywhere. They all have nothing but one mouth. We need to feed them along the way, send them to Liaodong, and then feed them Seeds, cattle, and farm tools cost a lot of money.”
Zhu Yijun listened and said: "What the old gentleman said is true. But the imperial court cannot just settle small accounts like the local government, but must settle big accounts. There is a drought in Beizhili and Shaanxi, and how much does it cost for local governments to organize refugees to return home?"
"I estimate that it will be a little less limited than going to the Northeast. The victims of Huaiyang are far from the Northeast, but they are closer to Beizhili. We can use the method of substitution, fill in the Northeast with North Zhili, and then fill in the North Zhili with Huaiyang .”
Zhang Juzheng agreed, but when he thought about the huge workload and cost, he couldn't help but frown. Zhu Yijun smiled and said: "Old sir, if you can make money, you must also know how to spend it. Silver is a dead thing if it is not spent. If it is kept in a warehouse, will it produce babies?" The two cabinet ministers couldn't laugh or cry at the same time. .
Zhu Yijun paused and said: "No matter who it is, when they arrive at the place where they are promoted, the court will give them seeds and farm tools. My decree must be made clear: if the court sets up an enclosure, if a clan with more than thirty people moves there, They are allowed to choose one person to walk in the enclosure for one day; if a family of more than fifty people moves there, they are allowed to ride horses for two hours; if the family of more than a hundred people moves there, the leader of the clan is allowed to ride horses for one day. The enclosed land belongs to his family!"
Zhang Juzheng and Lu Tiaoyang were shocked when they heard about it, and then they realized that given the vastness of the three provinces, it would not be possible to encircle them all even if they encircled them for ten or eight years. Zhang Juzheng smiled and said: "Your Majesty, if we deal with it this way, I'm afraid the people I'm going to go to are not refugees, but branches of wealthy families!"
Lu Tiaoyang also said this: "Nowadays, the small wealthy families in the north and south are intertwined with each other. Some enclaves are even close to each other ten or eight miles away from the family. They all dream of having a piece of land to prepare the land, reunite the clan members, and make sacrifices to their ancestors convenient. The emperor's method of enclosing the land is exactly what they want and is very attractive."
Zhu Yijun slapped the case and said: "I haven't finished talking yet. Anyone who enters the place where the citizenship is promoted will enjoy five-year exemption and ten-half tax reduction. In the first five years, he will not be charged a penny in taxes; from the sixth to the fifteenth year In 2017, based on the standard of Beizhili, the price will be reduced by half.”
He added: "Fifteen years is exactly one generation, no matter whether it is a wealthy family or a refugee, after arriving in the three provinces, setting up villages, multiplying and reproducing for two generations, in the end they will become Northeast Silver for me!"
After Zhu Yijun said this, he finally concluded: "Mr. Lu, Mr. Lu, although the court spent millions of taels, after a few decades, there were millions of Han people in the Northeast - who can take away this land? How many Chinese people can this boundless fertile soil support? From my perspective, in thirty or fifty years, if you go ten miles to the countryside in these three provinces, you may not see a single family!"
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