I'm really not doing business

Chapter 785 The Last Handful of Rice
At the moment, this thing Huang Zifu had tinkered with was of absolutely no value at all.

Two curved wooden boards were fixed together and released under traction. They could glide a distance of less than a hundred feet. As an unpowered glider, it had no other application except flying over the sea to observe the enemy situation.

And it seems like a waste of national treasury to spend 230,000 silver coins from the Institute of Gewu to make such a useless thing. If the 230,000 silver coins were exchanged for food, how many children who still can't even get enough food and clothing could be fed and well-dressed! Moreover, you, the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, want to continue to invest in such useless things. Isn't this a waste?
What a waste to pay for personal preferences!

The court, the emperor, please stop running, wait for your people, wait for your souls, wait for your morality, wait for your conscience!

Obviously, this is nonsense. It sounds like a petition for the people and a cry for the people, but in fact it is just using the people to gain power. It is useless nonsense except for inciting emotions.

The returns that the Ming Dynasty received from the Imperial Academy of Sciences had long exceeded its investment. The Shengping series of steam engines alone created millions of goods for the Ming Dynasty to meet its internal and external needs.

Zhu Zaiyu's steam turbine still had no practical use and could only rotate slightly. Its application scenarios were far inferior to those of a reciprocating steam engine, but during the research and development process, the Ming Dynasty gained so much.

Although steam engines cannot be used on airplanes, as long as they continue to develop, increase horsepower, continue to be miniaturized, and improve thermal efficiency, they can be used on ships and steamships, and they don't care much about the weight of the fuel.

Every year, the Royal Academy of Sciences has various experiments and results, useful or useless. Just because they are useless now doesn’t mean they will be useless in the future.

For example, recently the Gewu Academy has been using green vitriol oil and saltpeter under pressure to boil, and has produced a highly corrosive gold-dissolving water that can even corrode gold.

Zhu Yijun knew that this was nitric acid. If this thing reacted with oil, it would become the famous TNT explosive.

In the absence of a sufficiently reliable power source, the Ming Dynasty could only accumulate a lot of experience in gliding. When a reliable and stable internal combustion engine was invented in the future, it would become inevitable for airplanes to fly into the sky.

"As for the way of investigating things, I only have silver." Zhu Yijun gave full support. For such a romantic thing as exploring the boundaries of human cognition, only the support of silver is the most sincere blessing.

"Your Majesty, the Institute of Gewu still has silver. The 72-horsepower Shengping Iron Horse has just been mass-produced, and silver must be given to the Institute of Gewu for each one." Zhu Zaiyu chose to refuse tactfully. The Gewu doctors needed silver to tinker with things, but the Institute of Gewu was able to bear its own profits and losses. Last year, there was a surplus of 400,000 silver coins that had not been spent, and now it has become 600,000 silver coins.

"Two hundred thousand silver a year, that's it." Zhu Yijun said with a smile: "The money of the Institute of Gewu belongs to the Institute of Gewu, and my money is my money."

Zhu Zaiyu thought for a moment, bowed his head and said, "I thank your Majesty for your grace."

Prince De Zhu Zaiyu was like a nerd who only liked to study. It was not that he didn't know the ways of the world, but most people were not worth his time to think about them.

He agreed immediately, but it was actually out of political considerations. The Royal Institute of Studies always rejected the emperor's money. As time went on, the word "royal" would have to refer to the royal family of King De or the royal family of His Majesty?

No matter what, I want Your Majesty to maintain a high sense of participation. The sense of participation I have in steering the Institute of Gewu and the future Spring and Autumn Annals have all been made possible by Your Majesty's strong support for the Institute of Gewu. This investment is all achievement and evidence.

The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was busy with all kinds of affairs every day. Zhu Zaiyu's demonstration of the glider was a display of cutting-edge achievements. At the end of the glider demonstration, Zhu Zaiyu took the emperor to the northeast corner of Beidaying, where a new official factory was put into use.

When Zhu Yijun left the test flight site, he kept looking left and right with a frown on his face. He was looking for something because something was missing from this test flight.

"What is your Majesty looking for?" Zhu Zaiyu asked puzzledly.

Zhu Yijun hesitated and said, "Nothing."

Standing in front of the official factory, Zhu Zaiyu said with deep emotion: "This is a fully mechanical mint affiliated with the Internal Affairs Bureau. After it goes into operation, it can print 14 million silver coins a year, completely replacing the previous backward spiral printing machine, and the silver coins produced are more exquisite."

Zhu Zaiyu took out a new silver coin and handed it to His Majesty. The outer edge of the silver coin had teeth just to ensure the sufficient amount. Some merchants liked to scrape a little bit of silver from the outer edge of the silver coin to make a profit, and the edge teeth prevented this kind of scraping behavior. The edge band also had the same function.

"Let's go in and take a look." Zhu Yijun walked into the fully mechanized mint.

The mint covers an area of ​​about 800 acres. The walls here are very high, and there are several towers around the walls. There are people patrolling day and night. There are three gates in total. The soldiers check the badges of each person before letting them in.

There are twelve fully mechanized workshops in the mint. Each workshop is equipped with three iron horses. Thirty-six iron horses with 72 horsepower are roaring, and Zhu Yijun feels the power of them.

Zhu Zaiyu gave a detailed introduction to the coinage process of the fully mechanical mint.

All the colored silver and gold flower silver from the national treasury and the Ministry of Industry were handed over to the Baoyuan Bureau of the Ministry of Industry to be refined into gold flower silver. Copper and tin were added to the gold flower silver to maintain the hardness of the silver coins. All the silver materials that came to the mint contained 92.5% silver.

The silver material is heated and forged into silver bars, then passed through a rolling mill to become thin silver bars, which are then cut by a lathe into embryo cakes. They are annealed again and the edges of the embryo cakes are tied. The embryo cakes are then placed in a printing machine and rolled into silver coins.

In the past, manual screw presses were used, but manual printing was slow, not very refined, and the pressure was not easy to control accurately.

Now the fully mechanical workshop has replaced all the rolling, turning, cutting and pressing processes with steam engines, greatly improving production efficiency.

After being inspected in the factory, all the silver coins were transferred to Taicang and the Neiku and flowed to the Ming Dynasty.

The court priced each silver coin at three cents of silver. The mint of the Bingzhang Bureau produced 14 million silvers, and could receive 420,000 silvers from the Ministry of Revenue every year. However, the mint had only 2,000 craftsmen, so the average labor remuneration was 63 silvers per year, and the median was 33 silvers per year.

A craftsman with about three years' experience can earn an annual salary of thirty-three silver coins.

A sharp soldier in the Beijing camp only received twenty-three silver coins a year, not counting rewards.

All the silver except for labor remuneration was used for site expansion, purchase of machinery, equipment maintenance, purchase of various materials, etc. After all, a team of seventy-two iron horses cost seventeen thousand silvers.

"Is this the hydraulic printing press?" Zhu Yijun said curiously as he looked at the printing press in front of him. There was a long desk in front of the printing press. He did not disturb the craftsmen while they were working, but let them demonstrate it once.

The hydraulic printing press can print 146 silver coins at a time, and does not require much post-production modification. It is formed in one piece. Zhu Yijun witnessed this magical scene.

Each exquisitely crafted silver coin must be weighed three times to ensure sufficient quantity, but also to ensure that there is no excess that would cause losses to the official factory.

"Very good, 14 million coins a year is enough for now." After inspecting the mint, Zhu Yijun was very satisfied with the work of the Academy of Gewu.

The scale of silver coin printing each year by the Bingzhangju Mint was once the biggest obstacle to the Ming Emperor's large-scale investment. Now this obstacle has finally disappeared, and the output of silver coins has finally surpassed the total amount of silver inflows and began to consume the Ming Dynasty's existing silver.

The Mint of the Armory Bureau would not expand production blindly. Its expansion would be determined by how much silver the Ming court could collect and store each year.

After leaving the Mint of the Armoury Bureau, Zhu Yijun gave Zhu Zaiyu a few words of advice, telling him to just ask if he needed money, as there were still 1.2 million silver taels available in the treasury. The reason why there was only this much was that the remaining silver had all been given to Wang Qian to accumulate gold.

In the next ten years, even if Zhu Yijun wanted to live a luxurious life, he would have no money. He would only keep part of the silver as rewards for the soldiers, and the rest of the silver would be converted into gold and stored to ensure that there would be enough gold in the treasury to issue banknotes ten years later.

Whether to issue banknotes ten years later will be discussed at that time, but the key is that Zhu Yijun must ensure that there is enough gold and the ability to issue banknotes.

"Uncle, please stay. I'm going back to the palace." Before leaving, Zhu Yijun stood beside the imperial carriage, reluctant to get on. He looked around, hesitated, and asked, "Are there no glider models this time? Zhier likes these very much."

Zhu Zaiyu finally knew what the emperor was looking for when he left the test flight field!

Looking for models!

"Here." Huang Zifu slapped his forehead and quickly asked someone to bring the seven prepared models.

These are all models made in proportion. There are seven models, five single-wing and two bi-wing gliders. Each one can fly, and they have been carefully weighted so that they can land steadily in the windless indoor environment.

Huang Zifu was a little nervous for a moment and forgot that this model was very important. At least when His Majesty saw it, it would remind him of their group of people. The four words "Jian is in the Emperor's heart" were much more important than millions of taels of silver.

Without these four words "Jian is in the emperor's heart", the Academy of Gewu would have been immediately criticized by the lowly Confucian scholars, and the counterattack would have been useless.

"I'm asking for it on behalf of Zhier. He's grown up and is clamoring for toys. He's a child after all." Zhu Yijun waved his hand and asked the eunuch to carry the toys to the carriage. He didn't say anything nonsense. When he had enough of playing with them, he would give them to Zhu Changzhi.

"Okay, stay. No need to see me off." Zhu Yijun watched the model, which was half the height of a person, get on the car, and then he left the Beitucheng Mint with a smile on his face.

"Farewell, Your Majesty." Zhu Zaiyu and the other doctors of the Gewu School respectfully bowed and bid farewell to His Majesty.

Zhu Yijun returned to Tonghe Palace in high spirits. As soon as he sat down and started to deal with the memorials, his expression became solemn. There was a vermilion "Urgent" on the floating ticket. This "Urgent" was posted by the chief minister of the cabinet, meaning it was an extremely urgent matter.

"A civil uprising occurred in Ruijin County, Jiangxi Province." Zhu Yijun took a deep breath, opened the memorial and read it carefully.

The scale of the uprising was huge, with more than 30,000 people, and the uprising was mainly composed of local tenants, who called themselves Tianbing;

Thirty thousand farmers' soldiers swarmed into the city like ants, and successively captured Ningdu County, Ruijin County, and Ninghua County. They forced the county officials of the three counties to print tens of thousands of land redistribution notices. The demands of the civil unrest were equal distribution of land and rent reduction.

Feng Bao spread out the other two memorials from Jiangxi and said, "There is a gentleman in the three townships of Qingtai, Taiping and Huaide in Ningdu County. His surname is Shi. The Shi family occupies 80% of the land in these three townships, which is half of the county's family."

"The head of the Shi family is called Shi Chengwu. The Shi family demanded six dou of grain as rent for one mu of land. It was because of this rent that the people started the uprising."

"Since the Yongle period, the Shi family has collected one shi and two dou of rent per mu of land. The land in Shangsan Township is fertile and can produce two shi and four dou of rice a year. The rent of six dou of grain is actually not too high."

"After Shi Chengwu's father died, Shi Chengwu became the head of the family. Shi Chengwu calculated that the tenants earned three times as much as he did! The tenants earned one shi and eight dou, while he only earned six dou. Moreover, the Shi family also had to bear the taxes from the imperial court. This is simply outrageous!"

Zhu Yijun immediately asked, "Why did you charge 1 shi and 2 dou before, but now you charge 6 dou?"

Feng Bao handed the memorial to the emperor and said, "Shi Chengwu's father reduced the rent in the third year of Wanli. In the third year of Wanli, Jiangxi suffered a drought. It was a severe drought and people were starving. Pan Jixun, the governor of Jiangxi at the time, requested a rent reduction."

"Shi Chengwu's father exempted the rent that year and led the villagers to dig 12 wells. The next year, he reduced the rent again. All the tenants praised him for his kindness."

"Shi Chengwu wanted to increase the rent, but he couldn't do it. As soon as he said he was going to increase the rent, the tenants stopped renting. Some even left, going to Fujian, to Jilong Island. The Danshui Town on Jilong Island was reclaiming wasteland, and the reclaimed land would be theirs, so the tenants started to leave."

"Since the rent could not be raised any further, Shi Chengwu began to demand annual tributes, which means that every New Year, the tenants had to pay him tribute. The tenants began to leave again." Only after reading the memorial did Zhu Yijun realize what had happened to provoke the uprising.

Shi Chengwu failed to get the rent increased, and also failed to get the annual allowance. So this clever guy suddenly had an idea and came up with a good plan: to open a gambling house.

He couldn't do it alone, so he found six gentry in three counties and opened gambling houses. Within three years, every tenant owed money to the gentry, and it was only natural to repay debts.

Everyone is the same. If they owe money, they will feel insecure. It is easy to deal with this point. Since the ninth year of Wanli, the gentry of the three counties headed by Shi Chengwu began to increase the rent. In addition to increasing the rent, they also began to demand annual allowances.

"This Shi Chengwu! He is a rebel. He even dares to disobey my imperial edict!" Zhu Yijun was extremely angry after reading the memorial.

Running a gambling house, raising rents, and demanding annual dues could all be said to be done covertly, but he actually had the guts to openly defy the imperial edict!
Zhu Yijun had issued a clear imperial decree that the profits from the late-harvested beans, wheat, rapeseed, potatoes, and ginger vegetables would not be taxed or rented, and no violation was allowed.

The people were not taxed for growing sweet potatoes. Since the imperial court did not collect taxes, the landlords had no right to collect rent. Therefore, sweet potatoes were generally not grown in regular fields, and the landlords would not allow them to do so. Most sweet potatoes were grown on wasteland. Sweet potatoes were a famine relief food, a life-saving food for survival.

The policy of not collecting taxes on sweet potatoes has been implemented for fourteen years. Wherever sweet potatoes are promoted, everyone knows about this ban.

In addition to running a gambling house and increasing rent and annual dues, Shi Chengwu also has to collect rent for the late-harvest grain!

The last straw that broke the camel's back was the late payment of grain rent, which completely aroused public indignation. Even the emperor didn't collect it, so how could you, a nobleman, collect it?

Tenant farmers Wan Qianchang, Lian Yuanhou, Zheng Sanwan and others gathered together the tenants and called themselves the Tianbing. After they captured Ruijin, they invited tenant farmers from the three counties to join them in resisting rent.

Feng Bao bowed his head and said, "Your Majesty, the three counties captured by Tian Bing still have their government offices, and the post stations are running smoothly, and they can still exchange letters with the governor's office."

"The farmers demanded an alliance. The alliance was to reduce rent, eliminate old customs such as festivals, close gambling houses, request equal distribution of land, and eliminate traitors. Only if the court agreed to the alliance would the 30,000 farmers return to the fields."

In fact, Tian Bing’s request was very dangerous. Under normal circumstances, the emperor would send troops to suppress them instead of agreeing to their demands.

But Your Majesty is different. The people are not blind and ignorant of everything. From the abolition of slavery in Cao Gesochi, to the mutiny of the Nine Camps in Zhejiang, to Shen Shiqing leading the tenants in resistance, shouting "Tell my mother, I am not a coward", the Emperor has made choices time and time again, which allowed Tian Bing to choose to wait for the imperial decree.

From the magistrates of Ningdu, Ruijin and Ninghua counties, to the prefect of Ganzhou Prefecture, to the left and right provincial governors and councilors of Jiangxi, to the provincial governor of Jiangxi and the governor of Jiangxi, so many officials did not dare to say in their memorials that the Tian Bing Rebellion was actually partly caused by the emperor's indulgence.

The emperor was used to many things, but one thing was the most important. The emperor implemented equal distribution of land in Zhejiang, and it was very successful.

The news of the return of land in Zhejiang reached Jiangxi. When the tenants in Jiangxi saw that not only was there no order to return the land, but these gentry also found ways to increase taxes, annual fees, and gambling houses, and even demanded rent for late grain production. They were all His Majesty's subjects, so why was there such a huge difference between them? Finally, they started to make a fuss.

"The memorials from Jiangxi Provincial Governor Yu Li, Provincial Surveillance Commissioner Wang Xiangkun, and Councillor Cai Guozhen said that they had temporarily agreed to the request in order to prevent the unrest from escalating further. However, the Tian soldiers still refused to withdraw and would not give up until they saw an imperial edict." Feng Bao told the emperor about the local measures.

The local government agreed, but did not agree to Tian Bing's conditions. Instead, it sent troops to suppress Tian Bing. The local officials were afraid that the emperor would send the Beijing Army to suppress them. The slogan of the Beijing Army was: report to the emperor and save the people.

Moreover, Tian Bing has not yet attacked the government office. He has only arrested three people from gentry families who run a gambling house and sent troops to suppress the rebellion, which has intensified the conflict. Jiangxi has become chaotic. The rebel soldiers may not kill these local officials, but Your Majesty will definitely do so.

The only option is to agree to it and prevent the unrest from further expanding.

The fate of Li Hongdao, the prefect of Taizhou, Zhejiang, tells local officials in Jiangxi that it is impossible to cover up such unrest, and the tax inspectors spread across all prefectures, counties and cities will definitely report to the emperor what exactly happened.

But the Tian soldiers still refused to retreat, and still occupied the main roads, markets, and government offices in the three counties. In the eyes of these rebellious tenants, the promises of the local dog officials did not count at all, only the promises of the emperor counted! These dog officials dared not disobey the emperor's promises!
The attitudes of cabinet ministers such as Zhang Juzheng, Wang Chonggu, Wang Guoguang, and Shen Li in floating votes were still consistent, and they requested the emperor's decree.

The cabinet ministers believed that since the order to return the land had started in Zhejiang, it would inevitably be implemented throughout the Ming Dynasty. Even if the conditions for implementing the order to return the land were not met now, rents must be reduced to lower the benefits that landlords gained from the land.

Wang Guoguang's meaning was clear. Only by reducing rents could these local gentry give up land rent and taxes and turn to industrial and commercial investment and development. Only by reducing rents could they transform the production relations of strong personal dependence into large-scale free employment production relations and complete the transformation of the small peasant economy into a commodity economy.

Landlords such as local gentry and local nobles are obstacles to the progress of productivity and production relations.

"Issue an edict to Jiangxi. By the way, bring these three gentry who run gambling houses, collect annual taxes, and collect late-harvest grain to the capital!" Zhu Yijun chose to agree with the cabinet's opinion.

Many things seem to have many choices, but in fact, as the Wanli Reform has come to this day, Zhu Yijun has only one choice: to keep going.

The only difficult part of Tian Bing’s request was actually the implementation of the land return order in Jiangxi.

The implementation of the order to return the land requires a certain foundation, the most important of which is that the tenants realize that this is exploitation, so that the court can have the confidence to support it. Once the farmers made such a fuss, the biggest foundation for the order to return the land was established.

But this does not mean that the order to return the land can be implemented. The situation in Jiangxi is much worse than that in Zhejiang. Zhejiang has nine camps, and the Zhejiang government has plenty of money, so much that it wants to build the Zhejiang East Canal. But Jiangxi is poorer than Zhejiang and does not have nine camps. It does not have the conditions to implement the order to return the land, and there is no point in forcing it to be implemented.

"Are the county magistrates of these three counties clean? I don't think so." Zhu Yijun looked at the memorial and said solemnly, "The three gentry families headed by Shi Chengwu set up gambling houses, raised rents, and collected annual taxes, which eventually led to civil unrest. How could the county magistrates not know about it?"

"If there is no deliberate cover-up here, I don't need to be the emperor anymore."

"It's okay to embezzle a little money, but it's a crime to cause civil unrest."

They are accomplices of the tiger, and behind the accomplices is the tiger. These three gentry families have become like this. If they had not had the support of the local government, they would not have dared to do such excessive things.

Zhu Yijun could not figure out anything from the memorial, and the imperial edict he issued was also to appease the people. He needed the tax report from the imperial guards before making further decisions.

The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty did not have to wait too long, because the post roads were not cut off, so the reports from the Imperial Guards and the memorials from local officials arrived in the capital one after another. Only then did the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty and the officials in the capital learn the full picture of the matter.

Gambling houses, rent increases, demands for annual dues, and collection of rent for late-harvested grain were all the background to this Tianbing Rebellion. In fact, the people of the Ming Dynasty had been living like this for more than two hundred years.

What really ignited the anger of the people was that the Ningdu County government officials, together with Shi Chengwu's family servants, went to the countryside to collect rent, and someone died during the violent rent collection.

The villagers found the village elders and asked them to seek justice. The elders took out the decrees issued when Pan Jixun was still in Jiangxi. When Pan Jixun collected rent in Jiangxi, he asked the landowners instead of the tenants.

At that time, Pan Jixun held a knife and forced the local gentry to bow their heads. Pan Jixun had been in Suiyuan for five years, and the local gentry were no longer willing to acknowledge that the land rent included taxes from the imperial court.

The elders of the village held the notice issued by Pan Jixun that year and refused to pay extra land tax. The land tax of the gentry's fields was already included in the rent.

During the scuffle, Shi Chengwu's servant pushed the old man to the ground. As luck would have it, the old man hit his head on a stone and died at the age of over 60. Shi Chengwu's anger was completely ignited.

Collect taxes if you want, but kill people if you want!

The direct cause of the civil unrest was the yamen runners going to the countryside to collect rent, which had been quiet for more than ten years.

"My struggle volume is very clear. If these people could read the third volume of class theory, they would not have caused such trouble." Zhu Yijun continued to flip through the newspaper and said to Feng Bao.

Feng Bao thought for a moment and said, "Your Majesty, do you mean the last handful of rice?"

Zhu Yijun nodded and said, "Yes, it is about the suddenness of contradictions and struggles, but the words of chanting are a bit obscure. Your saying of the last handful of rice is very appropriate."

The last handful of rice is an apt term.

The outbreak of contradictions and struggles is sudden.

The county magistrate, yamen runners, local gentry, and servants did not want to force the poor and coolies into a desperate situation, because history has proved countless times that when forced into a desperate situation and the world is in turmoil, the poor and coolies will resist.

The tenants have been tolerating and persuading themselves.

Gambling houses are caused by gamblers’ inability to control their greed; the rent increase was because they collected so much before, but now they are restoring it; the annual rent is a sign of filial piety, after all, the land deeds in the hands of the gentry are passed down from generation to generation; the rent for the late grain crop is collected, and every inch of this land between mountains and rivers has an owner.

It was not until the elder of the village died in front of him that his self-deception completely failed. He went from being docile and allowing others to bully him to picking up all the weapons he could to fight back. In just a moment, the situation became a huge change that he could not reverse.

The same thing happened when the prefect of Taizhou Prefecture in Zhejiang Province suppressed the tenants. Li Hongdao never figured out until his death why these docile tenants suddenly began to resist?

Landowners or power holders, local gentry, powerful officials, government officials and the imperial court cannot clearly know and decide the limits of grain rent, straw tax, and private demands, and they are not clear whether what they are demanding is the last handful of rice in the people's rice jar.

The reason is very simple. Because meat eaters do not participate in labor, they cannot correctly measure the income from their labor, nor do they realize that these rice grains are the last bite. Meat eaters often feel that they can squeeze out some more to satisfy their desire for material and wealth.

Zhu Yijun sighed heavily and said, "Local gentry, powerful officials, and even the government officials and the imperial court all think that they can get a little more, that the people still have oil and water, and they can squeeze a little more. They don't realize that they have already stretched their hands to the last handful of rice in the people's rice jar."

"Similarly, the poor coolies don't know the limit of their patience. Most people choose to endure it a little longer, but when something happens suddenly, the thread breaks and they can only choose to resist to the death, and then spread from point to surface, burning the entire Ming Dynasty."

"It was too late to react and it was too late to regret."

The third volume, about struggle, will eventually lead to the natural conclusion that the Ming Dynasty will inevitably perish.

The suddenness of the intensified contradictions made the conflict that broke out have no clear boundaries and was unpredictable. This uncontrollability made Zhang Juzheng unacceptable.

But on the other hand, this can actually be prevented. Preventing conflicts and struggles from escalating to a point where they cannot be handled is actually very simple to solve. Don't exploit them too much. Leave some food for the people to eat, and then there won't be a catastrophe.

The second volume of class theory talks about distribution.

"Capture these three county magistrates and bring them to the capital." Zhu Yijun gave another clear order.

(End of this chapter)