In the late Ming Dynasty, rising from the grassland

Chapter 261 Bureau of Statistics and Investigation
For 3000 million acres of land, if the rent stipulated by China is followed, 1500 million acres of first-class land will cost three taels of silver per mu, which is 450 million taels of silver.

Ten million acres of B-grade land cost two taels of silver per mu, which is 1000 million taels. Five million acres of C-grade land cost one tael of silver per mu, which is 200 taels.

In other words, according to this data, China has to pay a total of 700 million taels of rent to the landlords and gentry every year.

By doing this calculation, we can understand the calculations of the landowners and gentry, and we can also understand the attitude of the civil servants and scholars responsible for measuring the land in each county.

Hong Chengchou naturally understood how outrageous this data was. Although he was angry, he was helpless. All he could do was to select a few counties, send a group of people to verify, deal with some people, intimidate them, and then count again. I just didn't expect Lin Rui to come back so soon.

At this moment, facing Lin Rui's anger, he could only explain: "Your Majesty, this data is naturally not convincing, so I am planning to randomly check a few counties, send people to verify, and deal with a group of officials seriously. In this way, I believe officials everywhere would not dare to fool around like this."

"Hmph! Even so, I'm afraid this data really doesn't go anywhere, right?"

These scholars and civil servants are all scholar-bureaucrats. Lin Rui doesn't believe how effective it will be to let them investigate themselves. Otherwise, the Ming Dynasty would not have become so corrupt.

"Your Majesty, this is just the data reported by various places. As for the specific amount of land in each state and county, it will naturally be decided by the Ministry of Agriculture in the end. This matter is actually easy to deal with. Just cut the land area data reported by each county by [-]% and choose whichever A discrepancy of [-]% shouldn’t be big.”

Hong Chengchou had no choice but to explain: This kind of thing is unlikely to be true. How could it be so clear?

Since ancient times, after various localities report the situation, they will randomly check a few counties and issue warnings, and then the central government will take a reasonable value.

"Haha, Hong Aiqing is very good at peace. Will the central government ministries have to engage in psychological warfare with local officials to calculate data in the future?"

Lin Rui suddenly laughed angrily. Such actions will only make the data reported by various places in the future more and more outrageous.

Now it is land, in the future it will be population and taxation.

Hong Chengchou was also speechless. As the saying goes, a good woman cannot make a meal without rice. He and a few honest officials from the Ministry of Agriculture would not be able to measure all the fields in person even if they were exhausted. Otherwise, What else?

"Get the specific data from each state and county."

Lin Rui waved his hand and didn't bother to talk to him. He knew that this guy was actually powerless.

Seeing that Lin Rui was holding on to him, Hong Chengchou sighed helplessly, and had no choice but to order people to move all the data reported from various places, which amounted to two large boxes of field records.

Lin Rui just ordered him to dig out the field records of Gaoyang County, and then looked through it carefully. When he saw that a mere Yanggao County had 100 million acres, he was convinced and immediately looked at the people standing aside. Lu Waner said: "Go and call your mother over."

"It's the king."

After a while, Mrs. Lu hurried over. Seeing Lin Rui's unkind expression, she felt a little worried.

"See Your Majesty!"

Mrs. Lu bowed carefully, while Hong Chengchou looked on with cold eyes. He did not believe that Lin Rui could solve this ancient problem by finding a woman.

"Madam, do you know how many acres of land the former Yanghewei and Gaoshanwei had in total?"

"what?"

Mrs. Lu was stunned. She obviously didn't expect that Lin Rui called her over to ask this question. However, seeing Lin Rui's expression getting more and more ugly, she quickly replied: "Back to your Majesty, Yanghe Yiwei has [-] to [-] acres of land. As for the mountains, It’s not clear how many concubines there are in Wei and other civilian fortresses.”

"Just give a rough estimate. You don't have to be too precise." Lin Rui waved his hand.

"Gaoshanwei is similar to our Yanghewei. If we include more than a dozen nearby civilian forts and some villages in the mountains, we should have 15 acres!"

After Mrs. Lu thought for a while, she was not sure.

"Snapped!"

"One million acres and 100 acres are nearly seven times. Hong Aiqing, if you take three out of ten, it will still be twice as much as the actual situation. It seems that my expectations for you are still too high."

After hearing this, Lin Rui also slammed the field register on the table, and the murderous intention in his eyes almost turned into reality.

Lu Wan'er knew the cause and effect of the matter, and was better prepared. However, Mrs. Lu was so frightened by Lin Rui's sudden outburst that she trembled. After all, she had not seen Lin Rui lose such a temper for a long time.

"Your Majesty, this minister has neglected his duties. Please punish me."

Hong Chengchou had no choice but to kneel down and apologize honestly, and did not say anything about resigning, because he knew that he was not qualified to resign. "You are not to blame for this matter, but in troubled times, heavy rules should be used. I hope Aiqing can come up with thunderous means instead of just thinking about peace with Xini."

Lin Rui said coldly.

If Sun Chuanting hadn't refused to surrender, he would have been replaced directly.

"Your Majesty, now that our country of China is in its infancy, it is the time to recruit people. Next year, we will send troops to the Ming Dynasty. If we kill the scholars at this time, it will not only cause panic among the gentry everywhere, which will not be conducive to the war next year. I am afraid it will also cause people to defect to the Ming Dynasty. The scholars were disloyal and left angrily."

Hong Chengchou had no choice but to persuade him.

In his opinion, if you deal with them now, you just need to be able to get by. After the Ming Dynasty is overthrown and the world is unified, it will not be too late to impose harsher punishments.

"If they want to leave, just leave. Those who choose to leave must be some speculators. This kind of people are not rare for me. Anyone who resigns and leaves will be blacklisted. Their descendants will not be included in our country for three generations." appointment."

Lin Rui was unmoved and wanted to threaten him with resignation, but there was no way. Although he also knew that now was not the time for harsh punishments, but if even a small Datong Xuanfu could not be managed well, then in the future Let alone govern the entire Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, even if the Ming Dynasty is destroyed two years later, he must lay down a solid foundation. Otherwise, if he gives in and compromises this time, it will be more difficult to implement the New Deal after the world is unified in the future, and those scholars will only be more unscrupulous and fooling.

So he looked at Mrs. Lu and said coldly: "Madam, the Bureau of Statistics and Investigation was established immediately. Two hundred ladies were selected to come out and verify the two counties of Huairen and Gaoyang for me first, and measure the land in the two counties for me inch by inch. All landowners and gentry who have access to more than one acre will have their homes ransacked and imprisoned, and the officials responsible for surveying will be taken to Datong and executed on the spot!"

"It's the king."

Mrs. Lu probably guessed what was going on at this moment. Although she felt that it was really not appropriate to kill people now, she still answered honestly.

"Your Majesty, think twice!"

Hong Chengchou was anxious. He didn't expect Lin Rui to be so decisive. He wanted to use these women to verify and kill people. If he did this, he, the deputy minister, and the Ministry of Agriculture would have no authority in the future. .

Moreover, the Statistics and Investigation Bureau of Lao Shizi is almost catching up with Dongchang. He will definitely escape in large numbers of scholars who come to seek refuge by then.

"This king has given you a chance, but you don't cherish it."

"The great kingdom has national laws. Even so, those officials should be handed over to the Ministry of Justice for trial. Such direct execution is really hard to convince the public!"

Seeing that Lin Rui had made up his mind, Hong Chengchou stopped trying to persuade him and chose to try his best to preserve the authority of the Ministry of Punishment and his second-in-command.

This time, Lin Rui hesitated for a moment, and then nodded: "Okay, then when the person is captured, he will be handed over to the Ministry of Criminal Justice for trial."

Anyway, everyone has caught Datong. If the officials of the Ministry of Punishment dare to cover up and impose random sentences, then they will take the blame from the Ministry of Punishment and execute them together.

"Your Majesty Yingming!"

Hong Chengchou breathed a sigh of relief, and then tentatively asked about the Bureau of Statistics and Investigation.

"The Bureau of Statistics and Investigation, as the name suggests, will be responsible for statistical investigation of data from various places in the future. It is directly under the palace and is only responsible to the king. Of course, the cabinet can also access the data of the Bureau of Statistics and Investigation in the future, or it can set up a statistics department of its own."

"Well, this Mrs. Zhou used to be the Minister of Agriculture and will serve as the director of the Bureau of Statistics and Investigation in the future."

"Madam, this is Hong Chengchou, the Second Assistant to the Cabinet of our country."

After Lin Rui finished explaining, he realized that he hadn't introduced them yet.

"Your Majesty Zhou Xinlan has met Mr. Hong Ge!" Mrs. Lu had no choice but to give her real name and pay homage to Hong Chengchou.

"Director Zhou is too polite."

Hong Chengchou didn't know the specific relationship between Mrs. Lu and Lin Rui, so he just returned the favor with a polite word.

After Mrs. Lu returned, she immediately selected two hundred ladies over thirty, and then divided into two teams. They brought the measuring ropes from the Ministry of Agriculture, and under the protection of a thousand personal guards and escort battalions, they went non-stop. Huairen County in the south, and Gaoyang County in the east.

As the news spread, officials, gentry and landlords throughout Datong Prefecture became panicked.

Fortunately, Hong Chengchou did not dare to leak it, otherwise the civil servants in the two counties would have been so frightened that they would have fled away. I am afraid even the landlords and gentry would have had to flee.

(End of this chapter)