General Constitution of Ming Dynasty

Chapter 177
"Wu Dongshun, your family has Tian 250, Shangshang Tian 210, and Zhongshangtian [-]...total and share [-] taels plus fire consumption, the silver you brought is a total of [-] taels or eight taels of silver! "

The rich man Wu who came to the county government office with silver was like a thunderbolt from the blue sky.

"Seven taels of silver?! Thirty shi grains! Our whole village only pays [-] shi. You asked my family to pay an extra [-] shi?!"

The yamen servant at the gate of the county government looked at rich man Wu with a smile and said with a smile: "Master Wu, you are joking, the price is seven taels for half a year, and 15 taels a year."

"Does the imperial court care about the life and death of the people?! How much food does one mu of land produce?!"

The clerk raised his head suspiciously, looked at the rich man Wu and asked: "Master Wu, we don't understand what you said. This stall is paid for by the mu... It is for those who have land to pay. Your family has a big business, so it won't be paid by you." Can't even get this little money?"

The rich man Wu slapped the silver in front of the scribe.

"That's all! Yamen loves it or not!"

The scribe stood still, looking at rich man Wu with a smile.

"Master Wu, do you know what crime it is to roar the court?"

"Qin Xianzun of the county government is an old friend of mine! Wait..."

The clerk then said softly: "Master Wu doesn't know something. The county lord Qin has already been executed by the whole family. Now our Xishan county magistrate is vacant and is waiting for a new master."

Sweat dripped from rich man Wu's forehead.

"How can I not know?!"

"Let's not talk about you, we only found out when Ning Qianxian came back. The official letter for the Dongchang case has not yet come down. In short, you won't be able to see Qin Xianzun for a while."

Rich man Wu panted heavily, gritted his teeth and said, "Success, isn't it just a share of the money?! I'll pay!"

"Can't I just increase the rent?! Add another seven catties of grain per mu of land! Tell Ning Qianxian that he will also be beheaded if he forces the tenants of Xishan back in the future!"

There is no need for rich man Wu to say that many landlords think so.

"Pay the money first, and go home to increase the rent!"

"Forcing the tenants, at worst, I'll die with Ning Qianxian!"

"..."

I heard the yelling and cursing of the former landlords.

The scribe quickly ran into the back office.

"Qian Xian, the landlords are threatening to go back and increase the rent. After this, won't these small taxes go back to the tenants?"

Ning Jue looked at the clerk but said with a smile: "Let them add it, we don't care about their land, take my seal and go to Changzhou Fucheng to send two cavalry teams over, just two hundred people."

"Ah? Don't we care about the rent increase of the rich?"

"We can't control the rent increase. We can't prevent some people who don't just want to increase the rent."

The scribe didn't understand what Ning Jue's words meant, so he took Ning Jue's seal and rushed to Changzhou Fucheng.
-
Above the canal, three slightly larger ships went south and down the canal.

Every boat was full of Tiwei in strong and sharp clothes, and the governor Lu Bing stood at the bow, coordinating the progress of the fleet.

"Mr. Zhang, how long do we have to walk on the canal?"

"It will take 21 days for the boat division to travel across the northern and southern capitals, and we should be able to reach Jinling in half a month."

"Three thousand miles of canal, are there such waterworkers everywhere?"

"Yes."

"Is farming bitter, or pulling fiber bitter?"

Zhang Juzheng pondered for a moment before opening his mouth and said: "Your Highness, it's not bitter."

"Why?"

"The pain of tenants is not in farming, but in transporting grain, and the pain of water labor is not in pulling fiber, but in delaying wages."

"Spreading into the mu, the lonely can wait, the father and the emperor can wait, can the common people wait?"

Zhu Zaiyu walked into the cabin with a heavy expression.

"Master Ning's stall in Xishan can be successful, and it must be successful. With Nanjing Mai Gonggong doing his best to help, the sooner the stall is in the mu, the world will be less likely to starve to death."

"Here."

Zhang Juzheng bowed his body, then stood in front of the desk to draw up an order.
-
Xishan County.

I don't know how many small and medium-sized landlords like rich man Wu, after being stunned by the county government, cut off a handful of meat, turned their heads and went back to their homes.

Before everyone entered the village, they wanted to send long-term workers into the village.

"After the notice, each family will add another ten catties per mu!"

"The imperial court cares about the common people casually, but this place belonged to my family when the grandpa was beaten, so I can set as much rent as I want!"

The long-time worker frowned.

The long-term worker himself also rented a few acres of land from the Wu family, and if the rent was increased, their own family would also have to bleed.

"Master, adding so much rent, it's a bit..."

"What a panic? Do you think our family is the only one who will increase the rent? Let me tell you, within a hundred miles, not only my Wu family will increase the rent! As far as these rents are concerned, they will plant them or not, and if they don't plant them, get out of here!"

Chang Gong gritted his teeth helplessly and sighed.

I had no choice but to jump out of the car and ran towards the village.

When the long-term worker appeared in Houbang Village with a gong, almost all the tenants' faces were pulled down.

One mu of land can't support five shi grains a year.

Add and add, hard work for a whole year.

The tenant didn't even have [-]% left, and the rest was taken away by the landlord. Which tenant wanted to live like this.

Following rich man Wu's ox cart into the village, he saw tenants stunned in the village.

"What are you looking at me for?! This is an order from the court!"

"Your family has no surplus food, so can my Wu family have surplus food? The rent is only at this price! I will give you a night and go to the four miles and eight villages to inquire about it!"

"If you want to plant, plant it! If you don't want to plant it, then pack up and get out! Hou Bang can't afford you big Buddhas!"

Rich Man Wu's chest heaved unceasingly, and then he drove the ox cart back to his home.

Thinking of the ten taels of silver a year, rich man Wu couldn't help but feel pain again.

That night, countless tenants went out to inquire.

But after they left Houbang, they met tenants who also came to Houbang village in confusion.

The whole group just looked at each other in silence.

Until the sky turns white, the morning bell rings throughout Xishan at five o'clock.

A family of five outside the county just showed up at the pass into the city.

The pawn with eye feces on his face yawned and stood at the wooden fence, even as the fence turned forward, a slightly timid voice sounded.

"Master, the rent in the village is too high, can you let us go to the city to find a way to survive? I beg you..."

The soldier raised his head and glanced, then waved his hands and said, "Just go there, your legs are on your own body, and I still want to carry you to the county seat, don't you?"

The old man's family of five were all stunned.

He looked at the soldiers in disbelief.

"Is it really possible to enter the city? Don't need a guide?"

"The county government issued a letter a few days ago. The various passes are only used for tax collection by caravans. Our pass will be closed after a while."

Just listening to the old man's words, the soldier still thought hard for a moment.

"There is no way to guide, it should be fine if you leave the county."

"The corvees are all spread out in the fields. Why do we stop you from doing things when we are full? I really think others are willing to take care of you, don't you?"

The old man burst into tears with excitement.

"Hey, let's go now, so it won't be in the way of the poor man."

This is the first time since the existence of corvee in 2000 that there are no hundreds of refugees punching cards, and tenants can carry out their own activities in the county openly and aboveboard.

Because there was no corvee, the imperial court no longer had the motivation to tie tenants to the land.

And this point is far more important to the direction of the entire history than those taxes.

After the tenements entered the mu, land tax and corvee became a direct game between the imperial court and the landlords and gentry.

No matter how difficult it is for a gentleman to force the self-respect of the people, the landless tenants can stay out of the matter.

After the old man passed by, countless tenants and their families dragged their carts towards Xishan County.

It only takes a few days for this kind of news to spread, and everyone in Xishan will know about it.

Although it is inconvenient for them to travel, they also know that everything in the county is not so beautiful, but at least there is one more road that can be walked, which is always a glimmer of hope.

That night, Mr. Wu lying on the bed had a long nightmare.

His family's [-] mu of land has changed from "you don't plant it, some people rush to plant it" to "no one cares about it."

There are more than ten members of the Wu family, so they had to drive the oxen and plow to cultivate the fields.

It wasn't until the sun was three poles high that the sweaty rich man Wu woke up from his dream.

And the courtyard of the Wu family was already full of people.

Rich man Wu wiped the cold sweat off his forehead, got up and washed his face with cold water before recovering, and then walked out of the yard with a golden knife.

Looking at the tenants in front of him, he took a sip of tea, and then said, "Have you figured it out? Will you pay the rent?"

"Master Wu, we've made it clear. These hoes belong to the Wu family. Let's pay them back here. Don't mention the rent increase. We'll pull them down this year."

Rich Man Wu was startled when he heard this.

"What about next year?!"

"Next year? We won't be renting next year."

"If you don't rent it, what do you eat? How much do you get to pay the land tax?! How much do you get to pay..."

Before rich man Wu finished speaking, he realized the seriousness of the problem.

It's all over the place.

They don't have land, so they don't have to pay anything!

The rich man Wu suddenly felt as if his lungs had been stabbed, and looked at the tenant in front of him excitedly.

"Then you don't have the guidance that Lao Tzu opened for you, and you are still walking every inch..."

"My lord, you don't need a guide when you enter the city. As long as you register with the county government, you can walk freely in Xishan."

"Impossible! Since ancient times, when did the world not pass by? How many books have you read? Who do you want to deceive?!" Rich man Wu looked at the tenant in front of him in panic.

Those tenants still looked at rich man Wu with a smile.

"My lord, the imperial court said that monks can't run away from the temple if they run away, and as long as the fields in the village can't run away, they don't have to worry about managing people."

"To be honest, we are looking at our friendship for many years. I came here to tell you that I will save you and me trouble. Many people in the village have already left with the things of the Wu family."

Rich man Wu slumped down on the ground.

It wasn't until this moment that Tan Ding Ru Mu really showed his blade for the first time.

For the gentry and landlords of the Ming Dynasty, this was far more terrifying than a few taels of silver or a few catties of grain.

The core interest of the landlord has never been how much rent the court will charge.

It is the tenant who left the land, unable to survive, unable to pay the heavy corvee, etc...

In other words, the core interest of landlords is the "personal attachment" of tenants to the land in their hands, through which they control nearly [-]% of the labor force on the land.

Now, the way for the gentry to transfer the land tax to the tenant farmers through rent increases has been cut off.

These poor tenants have enough confidence to choose not to farm.

Rich Man Wu's nightmare has come true.

No matter how many years you look at it, a whip method is a milestone reform, but the significance does not lie in the whip method itself, but because the "one whip method" has become a clear-cut gap between the reforms of the past dynasties .

Before a whip, all the positive significance of agricultural reforms lay in agriculture itself.

After a whip, the most fundamental and positive significance of all agricultural reforms is to weaken the "personal attachment" of farmers to the land and thus release the labor force to other industries.

And there is only one reason for all this.

--Monetization.

In short, the tenant farmers who have been imprisoned for 2000 years on this one-third of an acre of land.

become free.

(End of this chapter)