In the late Ming Dynasty, rising from the grassland

Chapter 264 The first shortage of silver

Although it was delayed for seven or eight days, all the ladies gathered together to measure, so there was no need to waste time, and the efficiency immediately increased several times.

Basically, it only takes half a day for the bigger landowners, and it only takes half a day for the smaller landowners, so that the landowners in Huairen County can no longer take advantage of the loopholes. In just six days, all the land in Huairen County was measured. The measurement is [-].

All the land combined was only 23 acres, which was completely different from the reported 150 million acres. This made the county magistrate Huang Kai and more than 20 agricultural officials quite embarrassed, and the gentry landlords were just indignant.

Obviously they don't think China will do anything to them, and the most they can do is recreate the land title.

However, what no one expected was that all the civil servants, including the county magistrate Huang Kai, were immediately stripped of their official uniforms by two assistant ministers, put in cages, and escorted back to Datong.

It turns out that they can fall out faster than turning over a book, and the two ministers have no choice. If they don't take action, the king will do it himself, so it is better for them to do it themselves, which can at least guarantee the authority of the cabinet and various ministries.

Immediately, the Minister of Punishment, together with the remaining civil servants, mobilized more than 300 garrison troops stationed in Huairen County, deceived more than 100 large and small landowners into the county and arrested them all, and then split up to ransack their homes.

As a result, this time they encountered stubborn resistance from the landowners and gentry, and they returned in embarrassment, bringing the punishment department into disgrace.

But Mrs. Liu and others only supervised and did not help. When they came, the king said that they could only take action if these civil servants could not take it. If the civil servants engaged in malpractice, they would take it together.

"Master Li, can you do it? If not, I will report it to the king and send an army directly to execute it."

Seeing Li He, the Minister of Justice, and others returning in embarrassment, Mrs. Liu also felt a hint of schadenfreude.

"Inspector Liu, please be patient. I was careless this time. I didn't expect these powerful men to be so bold and dare to violently resist the law. I will contact Mr. Hong Ge and dispatch more garrison troops from various counties." , I don’t believe that I can’t take down a bunch of evil gentry and kid!”

Li He was really afraid that they would interfere, so he quickly said that if this matter failed and they took over, then he would not need to stay in China and just leave.

Mrs. Liu didn't say anything, since these landlords and gentry couldn't escape anyway.

After receiving the news, Hong Chengchou was unambiguous and directly mobilized more than 2000 garrison troops from around Datong County and went to Huairen County to help ransack homes.

In order to implement the New Deal, Lin Rui still gave civil servants in various places some power to mobilize troops, but it was limited to the garrison, and it could only mobilize the garrison. Other matters related to the garrison were not allowed to interfere.

Moreover, the prefects and counties can only mobilize the garrison troops stationed in their respective prefectures and counties. The county guards can also mobilize the garrison troops within the county. If you want to mobilize the garrison troops across counties, you must report to the Metropolitan Governor for communication. As for mobilizing field troops to assist, you must Approved by Lin Rui himself.

With the addition of two thousand garrison troops, more than 100 large and small landowners in Huairen County could only surrender.

After all, although the authority of the Hua Kingdom is not as high as that of the Ming Dynasty, it has finally established a country. Under the threat of confiscating their homes and exterminating their clans, the servants and guardians did not dare to actually kill officials and rebel, and went all the way to the dark side with the landlords. In addition, The common people were all on the side of China, and the landlords and gentry did not have much capital to resist.

Under the supervision of Mrs. Liu and others, Li He and other civil servants did not dare to enrich their own pockets. They could only search the house honestly, seal the real estate, and take the mobile property to the Ministry of Household Affairs.

More than 100 landowners and their family members, nearly a thousand people, were all taken to Datong without a trace. Mrs. Liu and others also completed their tasks and returned to Datong. Hong Chengchou selected a group of civil servants to go to Renhuai County.

The situation in Yanggao County was similar. All the civil servants and landlords were wiped out in one fell swoop, and the measured land was similar to Madam Lu's estimate, only 16 acres.

Gentlemen and officials from all over the country have been paying attention to the situation in the two counties. They were frightened when they saw that the king and Hong Chengchou had directly killed them, and those women had really measured out the land in the two counties.

When they learned that more than 50 civil servants in the two counties had all been sentenced to execution, and that all two to three hundred landlords and gentry had their homes confiscated and imprisoned, the three counties immediately went into a rage, cursing the tyrant and trembling at the same time.

Hong Chengchou also took the opportunity to notify all states and counties, asking officials and gentry in various places not to take chances anymore, and to report the data on land acres in each state and county again within one month. Anyone who fails to report as scheduled will be severely punished, and officially informed the functions of the Bureau of Statistics and Investigation. .

Originally, Hong Chengchou thought that after the notice was issued, there would be a large-scale phenomenon of desertion from office, but he obviously underestimated the official addiction of those scholars. Indeed, some civil servants were angry and chose to abandon their official positions, but most officials still stayed on. Re-measure honestly.

The reason why I was perfunctory at the beginning was not entirely because of greed for money, but because I was too tired. After all, scholars who can come to China have no shortage of money in their families, and they do not come here just to get rich.

These scholars can still tell the difference between depriving oneself and even the future of three generations of children and grandchildren in order to collect that little money.

Now that they saw Lin Rui decisively killing him and using thunderous methods, although everyone cursed the tyrant, they were even more certain in their hearts that the Chinese nation would definitely unify the world in the future.

After all, who has been able to unify the world and serve as the founding emperor since ancient times, who is not a decisive person?
Although the landowners and gentry wanted to run away, they could not and did not dare to run away. In this chaotic situation, if they rashly took their families, property and goods on the road, the final outcome would probably be that their families would be destroyed and their lives and wealth would be lost.Therefore, after some weighing, the landowners and gentlemen could only choose to compromise. After all, compared to confiscating the property and going to jail, if one acre of land could really be rented every year as stipulated, it would not be unacceptable.

When the fields were reported again from various places, it was already the autumn harvest season, and the entire Datong Basin was golden. It was obviously a rare harvest year.

"Your Majesty, this is the newly compiled land acre data. There are more than [-] million acres of Class A fields, more than [-] million acres of Class B fields, and more than [-] million acres of Class C fields, totaling more than [-] million acres." Hong Chengchou was careful. Dihui reports.

"Well, let's leave it at that for now. We will count the population after the autumn harvest. All the land must be divided before spring plowing next year, and production teams must be established."

Although Lin Rui knew that there must be a lot of water in it, he also knew that running a big country is like cooking small dishes, so he didn't dwell on it anymore and nodded.

Three counties and 800 million acres are also within a reasonable range. Unless he really sends all the ladies on hand to measure, it is impossible to get the most accurate data.

Seeing that he finally passed the test, Hong Chengchou breathed a sigh of relief. He reported on the upcoming affairs of the cabinet and then resigned.

Lin Rui also made preparations to purchase grain to the Ministry of Commerce. After the autumn harvest, the Ministry of Commerce would open stores in various states and counties to directly purchase grain from the people and landlords at the rate of two taels of silver and one stone.

There is no compulsion for the common people, but the landlords and gentry must sell a certain proportion of grain to shops according to the number of acres of their fields.

At the same time, banks in various places also officially opened for business.

As expected, all officials, landlords and common people immediately rushed to the bank to exchange the Chinese banknotes for ingots. This resulted in long queues forming at the entrance of banks in various states and counties.

"How is Sister Xiuying?"

"Rui Lang, the situation is not very good. A total of 600 million taels of Chinese banknotes have been issued to officials and military officers from various places, as well as to purchase grain, cattle farming tools, etc. with landlords and common people. Now, 500 million taels of Chinese banknotes have been recovered. , only 100 million taels are in circulation, and I estimate that most of these 100 million taels are still in the hands of ordinary people."

"Don't worry, there is nothing you can do about it. As long as you continue to maintain normal exchanges in banks around the world, with credibility, people will naturally stop running on Chinese banknotes after they get used to using them."

"But Rui Lang, we already only have 200 million taels of cash. If we continue to issue Chinese banknotes, we won't have that much cash to recycle. Now the branches simply don't dare to recycle copper coins, otherwise this will happen." I’m afraid the 200 million taels of cash have been exchanged long ago.”

Zhang Xiuying still had a worried look on her face and explained that if it hadn't been for the large sum of money gained from ransacking the house a while ago, I'm afraid the Ministry of Accounts and the bank would have gone bankrupt.

"Hua banknotes must continue to be sold. After all, the salaries of officials and military officers are indispensable every month, and the craftsmen in the Ministry of Industry will also start to pay their wages, and the ladies and ladies also have to pay every month. Will they give me some money?"

Lin Rui frowned when he heard that he only had 200 million taels of silver in cash. These daily salary and salary expenses were all necessary, and they cost at least a million taels in a month. In other words, this little money can support at most two It must be redeemed every month.

And once the bank runs out of money for exchange, the credibility of Hua Chao will be over, and it is estimated that it will not be much different from Bao Chao.

"Rui Lang, why don't you let the bank open a storage business? As long as the interest rate is higher, those landlords and gentry will more or less save some." Zhang Xiuying suggested after thinking about it. Obviously, with Lin Rui's teachings, she no longer has any interest in the financial industry. As strange as before.

"There are only a few people in each branch. If deposit and withdrawal services are opened, will they be busy?"

Absorbing deposits is indeed a way. Although the current conditions do not allow for remote withdrawals, local withdrawals are still not a big problem. What Lin Rui is most worried about is that the wives and maids of each branch are too busy.

"The exchange business can be left to the shopkeepers who have been recruited. As long as they don't cause any malicious trouble and make frequent deposits and withdrawals, it shouldn't be a problem." Zhang Xiuying said after thinking about it.

"Okay, let's do it like this. Let's set the interest rate at 100 taels per year for the time being. If you deposit 1000 taels, you will get 100 taels of interest every year. I believe it will be enough to attract the landlords and gentry, and there will be no formalities for saving money in the future. There is a fee, but a 1% handling fee will be charged for money withdrawal and exchange respectively to prevent malicious deposits, withdrawals and exchanges.”

Lin Rui gritted his teeth and said, although the income of 10% annual interest is a bit scary, with China's current reputation, if the interest rate is not set higher, those landlords and gentry may not take out real money to deposit in the bank. .

After Zhang Xiuying left, Lin Rui called the Secretary of the Ministry of Commerce over. Although the opening of the deposit and withdrawal business could alleviate the pressure on cash, the real circulation of banknotes had to rely on the shops of the Ministry of Commerce.

After all, although they exchanged all their real money and silver, they also purchased a large amount of grain this time, plus the salt, cloth, gold and silver jewelry, cotton and other materials they had hoarded before, so the overall wealth did not drop much.

He planned to let all stores under the Ministry of Commerce only accept Chinese banknotes from now on, and reject all silver and copper coins.

(End of this chapter)