The ruthless emperor in the late Ming Dynasty forced Chongzhen to abdicate at the beginning

Chapter 235 Ultimate Land Reform

"Criminal Zhang Xianzhong, kowtow to my emperor, long live my emperor, long live, long live!"

"Criminals Liu Zongmin, Li Guo, Li Dingguo, and Liu Wenxiu kowtow to my emperor, long live my emperor!"

After the five people were brought to the platform, they all knelt down and prayed, feeling quite apprehensive in their hearts, not daring to vent their anger.

And the five of them are all generals of the imperial court in name, especially Zhang Xianzhong, who is also a prince, so they all call themselves criminal ministers.

"Get up!"

Zhu Cilang glanced at the five people kneeling on the ground and said in a low voice, making it impossible to see what state of mind they were in.

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

Only then did the five get up one after another, and when they got up again, they only dared to take a peek at the emperor on the dragon chair.

Seeing that the Son of Heaven was indeed only a young man in his twenties, the five of them felt extremely complicated, as if they were unwilling or admired.

Among the five, Zhang Xianzhong was the oldest, already in his early fifties, and after many years of wandering, he looked extraordinarily old. His hair and beard were half white, like an old man in his 60s.

Liu Zongmin is slightly younger, but in his forties, he also looks like an old man in his 50s.

Obviously, the anti-thief industry is extremely old-fashioned.

The second is Li Guo, who looks like he is in his 30s, which can be regarded as the prime of life.

Although his uncle Li Zicheng was killed by the red lady, Li Guo really didn't have any resentment towards the red lady. Instead, he hated Liu Zongmin, Liu Wenxiu, Sun Kewang and others.

The remaining Li Dingguo and Liu Wenxiu are only in their 20s.

After carefully looking at the five people, Zhu Cihong made up his mind.

Zhang Xianzhong obviously didn't have much time left to live, so he could just reward him with a house and let him retire in the capital, and Liu Zongmin could be his companion next door.

And the other three are in their prime of life, and they are all generals who can lead an army alone, especially Li Dingguo. It would be a pity to let them retire now.

After all, now that Daming can stand alone, there are really very few handsome talents who can lead the army.

After all, it was just him and Hong Niangzi, that's why he wanted to train Wu Sangui, but this guy's performance this time really disappointed him.

As for Huang Degong, Zhou Yuji, Li Dakai, Ying Yinggong and others, they all lack some ability to coordinate the overall situation.

Zuo Liangyu and Qin Lihua can barely be alone, but one is a female general, and the other will belch someday. Although the Ming Dynasty is unified, the future battles will definitely not stop. Naturally, the more generals who are good at fighting, the better.

So Zhu Cilang planned to send the three of them to the Daming Royal Military Academy to study for a period of time, and then directly start as a lieutenant general.

After explaining the treatment of the five people, Zhu Cihong encouraged Li Dingguo, Liu Wenxiu, and Li Guo to resign.

The three of them were very excited about being able to study in the lecture hall, and they were also full of hope for the future.

Zhang Xianzhong's reaction was rather flat, the little emperor would have burnt incense if he didn't kill himself, and now that he and his wives and concubines can enjoy their old age in the capital, he is really satisfied.

Only Liu Zongmin was a little unwilling, but he could only accept to be Zhang Xianzhong's companion.

The next day, Zhu Cihong formally issued an order to pardon Zhang Xianzhong and other surrendered generals, and then made corresponding arrangements according to the list handed over by Hong Niangzi.

Among them, more than 200 generals followed Li Dingguo and the other three to the military academy for advanced studies, and the remaining 300 generals, large and small, were randomly assigned the status of thousands of households to make a living by themselves.

Liu Zongmin bestowed a third-rank commander, while Zhang Xianzhong assumed the vain title of right-hand governor. As for the title of king of Shu, what a fart!
After arranging all the rebels big and small, Zhu Cihong finally put his mind and energy on governing the southwest and northwest, and also planned to make a thorough adjustment to the national army.

First of all, the more than [-] soldiers captured will naturally all be discharged from the army and return to their hometowns to work in agriculture. After all, Ming Dynasty no longer needs so many soldiers and horses, and even if it is needed, Zhu Cihong would rather recruit and train again.

Secondly, the designation and garrison of each army was changed again. The Imperial Forest Army was officially changed to the First Army, the Central Army was changed to the Second Army, and the Left Army was changed to the Third Army.

The First Army was also responsible for defending the imperial city, Miyagi, without a regiment commander.

The Second Army and the Third Army were stationed near the capital. The head of the Second Army was also held by Hong Niangzi, while the head of the Third Army remained the same and was still the Duke of England.

Wu Sangui's former army was changed to the Fourth Army, stationed in the northwest.

Zhou Yuji's rear army was changed to the Fifth Army, still stationed at Shanhaiguan.

Huang Degong changed the Right Army to the Sixth Army, stationed on the grassland.

Qin Lihua's Eighth Town was upgraded to the Seventh Army, with Qin Liangyu concurrently serving as the head of the Seventh Army, Qin Lihua and Li Dakai serving as deputies, and the Seventh Army stationed in the southwest.

Li Dakai's Ninth Town and Nanjing's Tenth Town merged into the Eighth Army. Zuo Liangyu served as the commander of the Eighth Army, and was promoted to general and stationed in Nanjing.

The numbers of the other towns remained the same, but the locations were adjusted. Liu Zeqing's first town was transferred to Xuanfu Datong, Gao Jie's second town was transferred to Huguang, Liu Liangzuo's third town was transferred to Shandong, Liu Fangliang's fourth town was transferred to Henan, Wu Sanfu's fifth town was transferred to Fujian, Tang Tong's seventh town was transferred to Guizhou, and Zuo Menggeng's eighth town was transferred to Guangdong and Guangxi.

This time Zhu Cihong finally did not forget Mu Guogong, awarded him the rank of general, gave him the designation of the Ninth Town, and ordered him to be stationed in Yunnan.

The strength of the eight legions remained unchanged at 6, but the strength of the towns was reduced to [-], and the excess veterans were all turned into garrison troops.

These veterans will serve as generals of the garrisons in the north, southwest, and northwest counties, and the soldiers will still be recruited.

In this way, Daming's field army has eight armies and nine towns, with a strength of about 66.

But this time, Zhu Cihong finally completely abolished the hereditary system of guards. All guards were changed to prefectures and counties, thousands of households were changed to townships, hundred forts were changed to villages, and all military and artisan households were changed to civilian households.

All military officers with more than [-] households also either retained their official titles, gave up their land, and went to the capital, or abolished their official titles and stayed in the local area.

And this time, Zhu Cihong has restricted the land of the military officers, according to which each household can only keep a maximum of [-] mu of private land, and the rest will be confiscated.

Because he intends to take the opportunity to implement the ultimate land reform plan in the southwest and northwest.

That is, in the future, anyone can only own a maximum of [-] mu of private land per household, and all other land will be nationalized, and then distributed to ordinary people for rent and plantation according to the population.

In this way, in order to keep more private land, those big landlords will definitely separate their families and open new households. However, if they want to set up separate households, there is also a condition, that is, they must be males with a family.

That is to say, there will be no big landlords in the two lands in the future, and small landlords of at most [-] mu will manage the cultivation by themselves and hire some temporary staff when harvesting.

It is absolutely impossible to wait for the good thing about rent collection without caring about anything like before.

Such a radical land policy is indistinguishable from beating local tyrants to divide the land. Once it is implemented, the gentry all over the world will definitely fry the pot, because it is digging their roots.

That's why Zhu Cihong planned to implement it in the southwest and northwest first, because the big landlords in the two places were basically tossed about by the two anti-kings.

And after the two places are implemented, it will be implemented in the four northern provinces, and after the implementation of the four northern provinces, it will be gradually implemented in the southern provinces.

Such a step-by-step, differentiated governance in different regions can not only prepare the big guys psychologically, but also reduce obstacles as much as possible.

(End of this chapter)