prosperous age

Just as Wei Guangde thought, there were many visitors to the Wei Mansion at night.

"Master Liu, Master Huang, please don't talk to me about this. I couldn't stop you from doing what you said.

Today, everyone in the cabinet, except me, raised their hands in favor. What can I do?
Besides, you are a senior official in the court, so how could you not know about the deficit of the Ministry of Revenue?

The way the people below eat is really ugly.

People have laid out the numbers. During the Hongwu period, there were 8 million hectares of farmland, but now there are less than 4 million hectares.

How much land was merged into the palaces of the princes before? The figure was less than two million hectares, so there should be at least six million hectares of land. However, the fish scale list of the Ministry of Revenue only shows less than four million hectares.

Of course, I also know that this is not something that has just happened now, but has happened before.

There was a disaster in the local area, and the damage level of farmland has been lowered, which is right.

What they want to do now is to take another look at the land of our Ming Dynasty and re-evaluate its grade. What can I say? Should we stop them from surveying the land just because the court has no money?

How does the court solve the problem if it has no money?

I think everyone should think about how to deal with it, since I can’t stop it anyway.”

At this time, in the flower hall, several officials surrounded Wei Guangde, wanting him to take the lead in opposing the land survey.

The reason is nothing more than that every re-check and registration of the Yellow Book and the Fish Scale Book is not an easy task. Not only is it time-consuming and costly, it also causes chaos in the local area and often leads to public resentment.

Ask Wei Guangde to take the lead in opposing it, but Wei Guangde will not do it.

He expressed his disapproval and disagreement with the command, but it was not his idea to take the lead in opposing it.

Each of these people is a large landowner who owns tens of thousands of acres of land. They are afraid of being investigated because they are afraid that they will have to pay an unknown amount of taxes.

Wei Guangde thought that no matter how much land his family had, it was no more than a thousand acres, which was definitely not on the same order of magnitude as these people.

Besides, his money mainly comes from business, so how much rent can he collect?
Before this group of people were sent away, two more came soon. The entire hall was crowded with people in no time, and Wei Guangde had to repeat his speech.

"The court is in financial difficulty, please be more considerate. It would be good to check the financial situation of our Ming Dynasty and see how much tax should be collected. I know it is a waste of manpower and the people below are also working hard, but the Ministry of Revenue insists on checking, and several cabinet ministers agree."

Wei Guangde talked all night long, and it was almost three o'clock in the morning before he sent everyone away. Then he dragged his tired body back to the backyard.

"all gone?"

As soon as I entered the room, the lady who was sitting at the head of the bed reading a book asked.

"If they leave, it won't be necessary for me to arrange a guest room for them."

Wei Guangde smiled bitterly.

"I heard that the imperial court is planning to survey the land. Is that true?"

The lady put down the book in her hand at this time and asked.

"The national budget is insufficient, and the cabinet does have this plan."

The news of today's incident has already been released. I believe the Ministry of Revenue and the Prime Minister will soon submit a memorial to explain the matter.

Once the palace approves it, it will be a done deal and the action in Fujian will begin.

"Can't stop it?"

Suddenly, the lady asked abruptly.

"How can we stop it? The Ministry of Revenue strongly demands it, and the Prime Minister and the Assistant Ministers all support it. What can I say when I'm stuck in the middle?"

Wei Guangde came over and sat down on the bed, smiling bitterly.

"Has the cabinet discussed this matter before?"

Xu Jianglan continued to ask, as if wanting to know Wei Guangde's true thoughts.

In the past, Wei Guangde did not hide important matters in the court from her, including major decisions such as the performance evaluation system. Xu Jianglan actually knew all about them. They were discussed behind closed doors by the two people in the cabinet and then implemented step by step.

Even for major events such as foreign military operations, the cabinet would not discuss the matter in the court. Instead, the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister would reach a consensus and then proceed step by step. It was rare for them to issue any decrees abruptly.

The reason, of course, is to keep it confidential.

If all important matters are discussed in the court, there is no secret to be kept.

If the king is not secretive, his ministers will lose their integrity; if their ministers are not secretive, they will lose their virginity.

But this time it seemed a little different. In the past, the lady would just listen to him quietly and not say much.

"Why, ma'am, do you have anything else to say?

If it's about your eldest brother-in-law, tell him that he doesn't need to worry about the permanent land, and that part won't be checked. But if it's land that was purchased later and someone changed the grade, don't count on it this time."

Wei Guangde said casually.

The Duke of Wei's Mansion in Nanjing is large and powerful. As a duke for 200 years, the mansion must have a lot of land, which Wei Guangde can understand.

For such a large family, even if they have a lot of land, it is actually not enough for their luxury, not to mention that after two hundred years of reproduction, the Xu family has no idea how many side branches exist now.

Except for the main family who inherited the title of Duke, most of the other people have to seek financial support from the palace.

Don't say that many of them should separate and live on their own. Separating the family does not mean separating the clan. They still have the same ancestor and they still have to take care of him. Otherwise, how can we say that in ancient China, it was actually the clan forces that managed the country.

With so many people surrounding the mansion, the annual income would never be enough.

The tax for one acre of land is not much, but if it is the tax for tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of acres of land, it would be huge, at least enough to satisfy the mouths of hundreds of tribesmen.

"I don't know about Nanjing, but do you know your own family background?"

But unexpectedly, Xu Jianglan talked about the Wei family.

"What's wrong with my family? Don't you know where my family got their money? We don't live on the land."

Wei Guangde said casually.

Xu Jianglan just stared at him blankly, but didn't know what to say.

At this time, a maid brought in water and helped him wash up, and then brought a basin to wash his feet. Only then did Wei Guangde notice it.

After washing her feet in a hurry, she asked the maids to go down and rest. The lady had already moved inside to make room for them.

Wei Guangde got under the quilt and asked, "What did you mean by that just now? Is there something I don't know?"

"Master, you never asked Zhang Ji about our family situation?"

Madam Xu Jianglan spoke in a very serious tone this time.

"What's going on? Tell me about it. You know, I usually don't bother to take care of these things. I've left them to you."

Wei Guangde said with some grievance.

The man was in charge of the outside affairs while the woman was in charge of the inside affairs. Wei Guangde felt that the family had a little wealth, which could not be spent anyway, so he just ignored it for a long time.

There are accounts in the mansion, but he is too lazy to look at them. It is his wife who looks at the account books and manages the warehouse.

"We have a farm in the suburbs of Beijing, with more than 2,000 acres of land."

Xu Jianglan spoke slowly.

"What? When did it happen? How come I didn't know about it when I bought the farm?"

When Wei Guangde heard this, he was shocked. If his family had a farm outside Beijing, what about his hometown in Jiangxi?
At that time, my parents seemed to have said that they wanted to buy him some land and assets, so there wouldn't be a lot of it left.

“The Duke Cheng’s Mansion helped to collect the money, and my family only asked for silver.

But the bulk of your investment is not here, in your hometown of Jiangxi, you own more than 20,000 acres of land."

Xu Jianglan's words stunned Wei Guangde. When did he have so many fields?

He didn't think it was a big deal to say he had 2,000 acres of land, but this was more than 20,000 acres.

"How can there be anything more?"

Wei Guangde asked hesitantly.

"We only have 8,000 acres of land, and the remaining 10,000 acres are donated by others, and we also get a lot of rent every year."

Xu Jianglan was still whispering there, but Wei Guangde didn't think so.

The nominal land is 8,000 acres, but no one knows how many acres it actually is.

6◇9◇Book◇Bar

I'm afraid he must have tens of thousands of acres of land, but the grade of the land has been downgraded for various reasons.

Xu Jianglan was still telling him about her family's financial situation slowly and leisurely. Wei Guangde could no longer listen. He waved his hand and asked in a low voice, "Wait a moment. Let's talk about these fields first. They are the ones that our family bought. And the shop you mentioned. I know the shop in Jiujiang, but what about the one in Beijing, Nanchang, and Jinling?"

"Master Wei, you are such a hands-off manager. You don't know anything about the family affairs."

Xu Jianglan glanced at him with dissatisfaction and said, "In the beginning, it was the fields over there, and then every year the Chamber of Commerce distributed dividends, and the family had a lot of money, so my father-in-law asked those people from the Chamber of Commerce to look around and buy you fields and shops.

The shop in Sijiu City was found by the people from the Chamber of Commerce.

We pay the money to buy it, and the people from the Chamber of Commerce will come to the mansion to rent it."

"ok, ok, I got it."

Wei Guangde interrupted him hastily, knowing that the shop was bought with money, and that the earlier sources of income were not legitimate, but times had passed and circumstances had changed, and even if the court wanted to investigate now, there would be no evidence.

Yes, many of the people who were responsible for doing these things have been buried in the ground for many years.

It's funny to say that most of the wealth that Yan Shifan worked so hard to obtain ended up in other people's pockets, and he himself was branded as a corrupt official.

This matter was too complicated, and Emperor Jiajing died within two years. After that, Emperor Longqing forgot about it, and more than ten years passed in a flash.

Wei Guangde, who profited from it at the time, only knew the few people who were responsible for the investigation.

As for other people in the court, I believe Xu Jie also benefited a lot from it, and it is possible that he still took the lion's share.

But now that he thought about it, this matter was still a hidden danger after all. If someone kept an account book, Wei Guangde's life could be in vain.

After all, a lot of money was confiscated from the Yan family. It was said that most of it was houses and shops, and some of it was government land. Several boxes of valuables and hundreds of thousands of taels of gold and silver were also handed over to the palace, but Wei Guangde vaguely remembered that there seemed to be several hundred taels that were still missing.

Wei Guangde suddenly thought of the name he had long forgotten, Cheng Shoujie, the imperial censor who was sent by the court to the south of the Yangtze River to deal with the Yan family's property.

Although his name is good, in reality this guy has no moral integrity.

All the gold, silver and jade wares recorded in the records were turned over to the inner court, but there was no way to verify what happened to other items such as fields, houses, shops, etc.

However, Cheng Shoujie died during the Longqing period, and it has been several years since his death. Now Wei Guangde is worried that the old man still has things such as account books in his hands.

For example, if we list out one by one who those things were given to, something bad will happen sooner or later.

Thinking of this, Wei Guangde's heart couldn't help but move.

But for now, Wei Guangde still has to settle things at home first.

So, he smiled, turned his head and looked at his wife and said: "I know about this, but since the court has already decided to survey the land, we cannot go against it.

I will write a letter to my family tomorrow to explain this matter, and also to tell them that the lands under my name should be sold as much as possible, as they will not be accepted again in the future.

My family doesn't lack this little money. If it were revealed that I have 20,000 to 30,000 acres of land under my name, how would I face others in the future?'

"What are you afraid of? Elder Xu's family owns more than 200,000 acres of land, and you only have more than 20,000 acres."

Xu Jianglan didn't care.

In fact, these days it is not uncommon for Beijing officials to register tens of thousands of acres of land under their names. No matter what rank the official is, local officials will give him face.

The tax amount will not be reduced, but the land can be downgraded and less taxed can be paid. In addition, local levies will not be levied on these fields, but will be completely tax-free, which can save a lot of money.

Even if it is a donation, the family can still get a lot of money and food.

"The imperial court is going to survey the land, and the nominal owner of the land will inevitably be exposed.

It is revealed at this time that a poor boy like me actually owns more than 20,000 acres of land in my hometown. How do you think those bigwigs in the court will look at me?
How will the two ladies in the palace view me?"

Wei Guangde shook his head and said, "It seems that I have to write to Jiangxi and tell them that the more than 10,000 acres of land can no longer be registered under my name. They must be distributed. At most, I can help them find a buyer."

Wei Guangde thought for a moment and made a decision.

“As for the several thousand acres of land, we need to think about it carefully. If it doesn’t work, we can divide a part of it and register it under someone else’s name when we do the land survey.

After the land survey is completed, we will return to the palace."

Wei Guangde continued to say that he didn't want to reveal at this time that he was also a big landlord, especially since he really didn't know anything about it before.

Fortunately, the land survey in Fujian is estimated to take a year to complete.

It will take another half a year before other provinces in the country will start the survey work one after another, so he still has time to make these preparations.

"Also, I will write a letter to my brother-in-law in Nanjing and ask him not to go against the court this time."

Wei Guangde added one last sentence.

"Is Prime Minister Zhang determined to survey the land?"

Xu Jianglan asked in surprise.

She knew all this. Whether it was recompiling the Fish Scale Book or the Yellow Book, the workload was huge and it was no small matter.

The reasons for local opposition are actually true, because it requires the mobilization of too many people and consumes a lot of time, and in the end all costs will still be borne by the people, increasing their burden.

“I have been planning this for more than a year, how can I give up so easily?

I transferred Brother Ren Zhi back to the capital from the post of Governor of Fujian to make room for him."

Wei Guangde's words were actually a disguised proof that the cabinet had planned this in advance.

"I'll write to my brother. I think my family has some land in Fujian."

Xu Jianglan knew that this matter was irreversible, so she spoke.

"Well, then, just talk to him and tell him to pay what he should pay. There's no need to go against him.

If possible, some of the land can be sent out under someone else’s name.”

Wei Guangde said, "It has been two hundred years since our dynasty came to power, and no vassal king has owned more than ten thousand hectares of land."

"Not really. My family only has a few thousand at most."

Xu Jianglan paused when she got to this point. She finally realized, "No wonder people were so concerned about how much land Xu's family had. It turns out that he actually had two thousand hectares of land, which is comparable to some princes' palaces." (End of this chapter)