I, the Ming Dynasty, can still save me

Chapter 168: I’m used to it all! (Please subscribe)

The second title book is also about farming, but it was jointly sent by Zou Yuanbiao, the governor of Gyeonggi Province, and Dong Yingju, the minister of Taipu Temple.

What's strange is that the cabinet did not draft the question book, but handed it over directly, seemingly asking him to make a decision.

Zou Yuanbiao, the governor of Gyeonggi Province, is responsible for farming in Gyeonggi Province, but he is not a reckless person.

Farming was not immediately promoted in the entire Gyeonggi Province. Instead, wasteland was purchased in the northeast of Gyeonggi, from Tongzhou to Shanhaiguan, or some tidal flats were cleared for farming.

Dong Yingju, the minister of Taipusi Temple, was also a pragmatic person. During the Wanli period, he had repeatedly written letters saying that he wanted to farm fields, and he wanted to do it himself.

Seeing that he was so keen on this matter, Zou Yuanbiao invited him over to assist him in this matter. Unexpectedly, Dong Yingju was so happy that he wrote to the cabinet to ask for a job as a field envoy in Gyeonggi Province.

Therefore, Dong Yingju has been doing it himself during this period, running back and forth in the northwest of Gyeonggi Province, recruiting refugees, and going to the prefectural and county government offices one by one to see if there is any vacant land, or to see if there are any gentry who can donate land. If it is not possible, it is okay to spend money to buy it.

It's just that Dong Yingju has been running for more than two months continuously, and he has not spent much time in the busy year, but he still has little effect. The reason is that every link is full of difficulties, and there are many people who oppose and block it.

This made it difficult for Dong Yingju to search, so he came to Zou Yuanbiao to complain and see if he could find a solution, so he came up with this joint memorial.

At first, Zhu Youxiao looked at their question books with great interest to see if there were any problems he could solve. But the more he looked, the angrier he became because he found that the entire Gyeonggi officialdom was opposed to the farming issue.

In order to enable farming in the capital, Zhu Youxiao specifically asked the cabinet to take 15 yuan. He then took out another 15 yuan from internal funds, giving a total of 30 yuan to Zou Yuanbiao.

Zou Yuanbiao gave Dong Yingju 10 taels in advance and asked him to spend the money to buy land, purchase farm tools, recruit refugees, and build farmhouses and warehouses.

But the problem is that wherever he goes, he is subject to all kinds of discrimination and obstruction by local officials. Some officials even spurn and scold him in front of his face, saying that Dong Yingju has bad intentions, flatters the country, has a low character, and is doing it for his own selfish interests. Not for the people.

The local government even threatened those gentry who wanted to donate land for farming, saying that offering land to the settlers as a donation, and those who wanted to establish a settlement as flattery, had bad intentions, and they could not donate or sell the land to Dong Yingju.

Some refugees and farm laborers felt that the rent they would pay would be lower after working with Dong Yingju, so they joined him. However, as long as they did this, government officials would come to arrest them immediately and torture these farm laborers and refugees. Tell them not to follow Dong Yingju in farming, which will make him half-dead.

He was afraid that the cabinet would not believe it, so he even gave an example.

On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, a businessman named Chen Wenbiao from Tongzhou, who also had some money and land in his family, knew that the imperial court was planning to farm farmland. He was determined to serve the country and gave all his [-] acres of land to Dong Yingju.

Dong Yingju was overjoyed when he heard the news, but within two days, the news reached the county government, so he escorted Chen Wenbiao to the county government, slapped him with forty blows, and scolded him for giving the land to Dong Wenju. Is it to pay less taxes, or is it to flatter others?

Chen Wenbiao had no choice but to drag his half-paralyzed body and cry to Dong Yingju. Dong Yingju could only sigh helplessly that there was nothing he could do.

There are countless such situations. Last month, in order to farm in Yongping, Dong Yingju started buying land and warehouses in Yongping. As a result, one of his clerks bought a warehouse from Cui Guangbi, a man named Caicun. The next day, the county magistrate beat Cui Guangbi thirty times with a stick and scolded Cui Guang for why he was so flattering.

Seeing this, Zhu Youxiao really had a wry smile on his face. He was helpless and even more angry, but he knew that being angry was useless. Being angry would make these officials listen to him.

So he continued to look down, and Dong Yingju started to complain one after another.

He said in his memorial that he had never bought land for farming like him. There were a lot of wasteland in many states and counties, but they just didn't report it. They felt that the money paid for farming was all given to the court and had nothing to do with them, so he couldn't use it. In these wastelands, you can only buy land, and what you buy is the poorest land.

Now Dong Yingju, an honest man, was really cornered. He couldn't help complaining about the current official culture. If you obey the emperor, you will be despised as a flatterer, and if you go against the central government, you will be noble and upright.

Providing or buying and selling land to the country for farming is a donation.If someone proposes to increase taxes, he will be called a dog pig.Many officials said they wanted to farm fields, but few actually did it. Most of them were fond of dragons. If people actually did it, they would be called fools and looked at with side eyes.

He couldn't help but ask questions repeatedly in the question book. The court had no money, the emperor was tight on food and clothing, and all expenses were cut in half.

But these officials are still not satisfied. Whenever the court talks about increasing taxes, they will be told that the people's support has been exhausted and taxes cannot be increased.Now they want to implement the farming, but they obstruct it in every possible way and abuse them wantonly. What is the mentality of these officials?
"Well said, well said."

Seeing this, Zhu Youxiao really couldn't help but praise him. The corruption of officialdom in the Ming Dynasty was not just one or two, nor one or two, but an all-round collapse.

Coupled with the freedom of speech in the Ming Dynasty, they could criticize at will and feel that they were justified and had a bad impression of the emperor.

As a result, they were able to defy the court's policy for their own interests, and felt that they were making the right decision.

Therefore, ministers are constantly criticizing the emperor. This is not good, that is not good, and they feel that whatever the emperor does is harmful, it is best to put it there like a mascot, just like Emperor Xiaozong.This is also the reason why Yan Guan is so arrogant. He has been scolding the emperor like this for hundreds of years. What's wrong with a few more curses now?When I punished them this time, they were probably still slandering them. They were just scolding the emperor, just next to each other. Why were they so impatient?

They are all bad habits!

It's just that he won't be as spoiled to them as the emperor was before. Before, he was worried that he had no reason to rectify them. Now Dong Yingju's memorial just gave him a reason.

"He Ning, go to the cabinet and call the ministers over."

In Wenyuan Pavilion, Liu Yishen and Ye Xianggao were on duty today. It was already past noon, but they did not continue working but were chatting, as if they were waiting for something.

"If I submit the memorial from Erzhan (Zou Yuanbiao's name), I'm afraid His Majesty will be angry again."

Zou Yuanbiao, who was also a member of the Donglin Party, had long told this matter to Liu Yisui, Ye Xianggao, Han Xu and others. They were also indignant after hearing this, especially Ye Xianggao, who originally supported the imperial court's farming. During the Wanli period, He wrote several letters asking for the rectification of military camps across the country and the encouragement of farming in prefectures and counties. However, due to the heavy involvement, nothing came to an end.

Now that the new emperor has ascended the throne, he has also adopted their opinions and made extensive use of Donglin people to encourage farming. Yang Lian in Liaodong, Zuo Guangdou in Tianjin, and Zou Yuanbiao in Gyeonggi are all practicing farming.

But among the three, the most difficult to implement is the implementation of farming in Gyeonggi Province.

The Gyeonggi region has many honorable people and intricate relationships. We cannot use anti-corruption to cut through the mess quickly like Yang Lian did, nor can we use rural education to promote education like Zuo Guangdou did.

That's why Dong Yingju, a dignified Taipu Siqing, was able to run from state to state and county, and still suffered criticism. How could this not make them angry?

Therefore, after Zou Yuanbiao submitted the letter, the cabinet did not vote on it and directly forwarded it to the emperor, asking Zhu Youxiao to decide the matter.

"The emperor is so concerned about the farming affairs, how could he not be angry? It's just that some officials in the capital have gone too far."

Seeing Ye Xianggao opening up the topic, Liu Yishen also picked up the tea cup, blowing on it while answering the conversation casually.

Ever since the Yanguan incident, he had vaguely guessed that someone was secretly instigating him behind the scenes. He now suspected that it was Ye Xianggao. Since he came, there were suddenly many more impeachments against him, and Han Xu also began to fall. Towards the leaves and towards the height.

"This is still Gyeonggi. The emperor is suppressing here and knows how to restrain himself. He is even more aggressive in other places. All reforms are blocked."

Ye Xianggao also complained about this matter. Although there is a gap between the two, their positions on this matter are still relatively unified.

"Yes, Shuntian Prefecture dares to do this, and other places dare to do this even more. Last year, His Majesty appointed Bi Ziyan as the Governor of Southern Zhili, responsible for collecting arrears and tax evasion, and transferred the power of the Nanjing Ministry of Household Affairs to the Beijing Ministry of Household Affairs. Such a big war, The resistance is probably even greater than this.”

Slowly, their conversation became more and more distant. They were quite familiar with South Zhili and naturally knew how difficult it would be for Bi Ziyan to do this in South Zhili.

Liu Yishen also thought so, but this matter had to be done, otherwise what would happen to the court's tax collection, but he still had confidence in Bi Ziyan, because Bi Ziyan was supported by the emperor and the cabinet.

"Hahaha, this Bi Ziyan has the style of Xu Min in the past. In those days, Xu Minshi carried out equalization of land and corvee in Nanzhili, checked the acres of land that had been given free tax, and required those township officials and powerful landowners who had evaded taxes to pay the grain and serve as errands. , arrange the corvee according to the size of the land, and whoever has more land will perform heavy labor."

"This made the Jiangnan gentry furious. Even his teacher, Mr. Shen Ge, who had retired to serve as an official at that time, was furious. He not only wrote to Xu Minshi to protest, but also said angrily that he would personally escort the grain and grass to Beijing. If the emperor asks, why did you, a retired cadre, suddenly come to the capital? I will tell you that Mr. Shen, the former bachelor, escorted the tax and grain to the capital to deliver a business to say hello to your majesty."

"If it hadn't been for the support of Mr. Ye Ge, who was the chief minister at the time, this Xu Min style would really not have been possible. Now many places in Jiangnan have followed the example of equalizing land and equalizing labor, and it is all the credit of Mr. Ye Ge. Now Bi Ziyan is doing it , then of course we must support it, it depends on man-made efforts.”

Liu Yishen's words not only praised Ye Xianggao, but also expressed his determination to do something.

It is indeed a matter of human effort, and we cannot stop doing it just because of the slightest obstruction. The same is true for Bi Ziyan's reforms in Nanzhili, and Zou Yuanbiao's farming in Gyeonggi.

But just as he was talking, He Ning also entered Wenyuan Pavilion. When he saw the two of them, he immediately raised his hands and said:
"The two chief ministers are here. Your Majesty has asked you to go to Dongnuan Pavilion to discuss matters."

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