I, the Ming Dynasty, can still save me

Chapter 170 Sun Chengzong (please subscribe)
The so-called corvee means working for the public for free, such as building roads, dams, transporting grain and grass, etc.

Apportionment means that in addition to regular taxes, there are some temporary taxes. Of course, in many cases, temporary taxes will gradually become permanent.

In fact, the literati in the Ming Dynasty did not have the privilege of tax exemption. If you had land, you had to pay grain to the emperor, and everyone had to perform corvee according to the amount of land. The more land, the higher the corvee.

However, for those who are officials or have meritorious status, they may be exempted from corvee due to their status.

It means that a few members of the family do not have to do corvee, or they can be given a certain amount of land exemption and have them perform lighter corvee.

For example, each person is exempted from two shi of grain and two ding of grain for each person. This means that he can exempt two people who do not have to do corvee, and others can also perform light corvee that is two dan less than the original.

Later, this privilege was widely abused, and all his relatives and friends were protected under his own name without having to perform corvee service.

In many cases, the government did not dare to send more troops to the gentry, so the pressure of corvee and taxation was put on the peasants.

And those aristocratic families with thousands of miles of land took advantage of this privilege. Although they paid regular taxes, they did not perform corvee at all and did not receive additional sects. It was very sad.

In order to be exempted from corvee service, many people voluntarily gave some of their fields to these gentry, hoping that they would protect them from doing corvee service.

The court had no choice but to allocate tax quotas to the remaining farmers.

Therefore, a strange circle emerged. The entire world's taxes were placed on the yeoman farmers who were getting smaller and smaller day by day. Many yeoman farmers were overwhelmed and fled or joined the squires one after another, and the squires owned more and more land.

Thinking about it this way, he could understand the courage of Ye Xianggao and Xu Min.

In order to prevent the gentry from annexing and expanding their land, they stipulated in advance the number of officials' exemptions. As long as it exceeded this amount, no matter how old your official position was, you had to perform corvee service for the court like the common people. You did not have to perform corvee service, and you could also convert it into silver.

So you can imagine how difficult it was for Xu Minshi to carry out this reform in Jiangnan where there were many officials and gentry, and as a supporter, Ye Xianggao was under great pressure.

"I didn't expect this to happen. I really didn't know about it, but equalizing land and corvee is indeed beneficial to the country and the people. Nowadays, in many places, corvee is exchanged for silver. If this continues, wouldn't it be possible that the court's income will increase, and it will also Suppress land annexation by local gentry.”

Liu Yishen didn't expect that after he explained it, Zhu Youxiao understood it immediately, and instantly figured out the pros and cons, so he struck while the iron was hot:

"Your Majesty is extremely intelligent, and the pros and cons are already clear, so I won't say anything more. The reason why I am talking about this is because Zou Yuanbiao and Dong Yingju's farm work in the capital was blocked, mainly because they were hindered by the local gentry and evil officials. They were afraid that Once the farming operation is completed and the imperial court sees its great benefits, it will definitely check the idle land in the prefectures and counties for farming. Then their occupation of land will be exposed. Therefore, it is urgent to carry out the farming operation throughout the capital to crack down on the powerful and suppress the annexation. .”

At this point, Liu Yisui looked solemn, looked at Ye Xianggao and nodded. The two stood up and bowed to Zhu Youxiao.

"Therefore, I plan to take this incident as an opportunity to implement Xu Min's method of equalizing land and labor in Gyeonggi Province to restrain the powerful and prevent land annexation. This will increase the tax revenue between the DPRK and China and allow the land settlement to proceed smoothly. , accomplish multiple things with one stone.”

At this time, there was silence in Dongnuan Pavilion, and even Wei Zhongxian didn't know what to say at this moment.

Because he knew how violently this would react among the gentry in Gyeonggi Province. So many nobles and relatives of the royal family who owned land in Gyeonggi Province would write letters of objection.

Zhu Youxiao also understood this truth, but he admired their courage very much.

"Is this the intention of the two of you or the cabinet?" Liu Yishui had long known that the emperor would ask this question, and replied in a neither humble nor condescending manner:

"Cabinet ministers, Mr. Ye Ge, and Mr. Han Ge all agreed to this matter, but Mr. Shen felt that it was necessary to consider the matter in the long term, fearing that there would be too much resistance and instability in the DPRK.

However, I feel that since His Majesty is determined to forge ahead and the wealthy and powerful families in Gyeonggi Province are doing everything possible to hinder the great cause of farming, then this matter cannot be ignored. Not only must it be taken care of, but it must be completed in one battle.Therefore, I took advantage of the fact that only the two of me were on duty this time to report this matter to Your Majesty. "

"What Shen Guan said makes sense. The relationship is indeed huge. If it is implemented rashly, it will cause political instability. Besides, I am afraid that there is little support from the DPRK and China, making it difficult to implement it."

The two of them had already thought of Zhu Youxiao's worries. Now seeing such a question, Liu Yishen immediately took out a fold from his sleeves and presented it forward with both hands. Zhang Chang saw the situation and took it and handed it to Zhu Youxiao. .

"Your Majesty, there is a consensus on this matter. The three of us in the cabinet, as well as the Minister of Personnel Zhou Jiamo, the Minister of Household Affairs Wang Yingjiao, and the Minister of Punishment Huang Kezuan also support this matter. The Governor of Gyeonggi Province Zou Yuanbiao, the Governor of Tianjin Prefecture Zuo Guangdou and others also wrote in support. I feel that It is feasible to implement the law of equalizing land and equalizing corvee in Gyeonggi.”

Zhu Youxiao took it and took a look and found that there were indeed many acquaintances inside. There were people from the Sixth Department, the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and Jiuqing who supported it, but most of them were members of the Donglin Party.

Seeing Zhu Youxiao staring at the list in silence, Ye Xianggao wondered in his heart whether the emperor was still hesitating.

"Your Majesty, although there are powerful local officials who are blocking it, there are also people in the court who want to revitalize the court. After Xu Min's reform, many prefectures and counties in southern Zhili also followed his example, making the common people and the small and medium-sized gentry Jubilation and encouragement.

Therefore, as long as the reform in Gyeonggi Province is successful, it can continue to be popularized and implemented throughout the country to benefit the people. "

Zhu Youxiao listened to Ye Xianggao's advice and looked at the list, and made up his mind.

What the Donglin Party wants to do now is what it has always wanted to do, but feels that the time has not come yet.I originally thought that if I enforced it, many people would be dissatisfied.

But now that the Donglin Party has taken the initiative to take over this matter, with such courage, why not do it as a favor?

"Okay, okay, okay. Since you are determined to plan for the country, I will give you my full support. I will not let you down. Let's start with the investigation and blocking of farming."

"I will ask the people from Dongchang and Jinyiwei to strictly investigate the powerful government officials who obstructed the farming. Anyone who has obstructed or even tortured to extract confessions will be investigated and punished. Those who are officials will be dismissed and will not be hired. Those who are officials will have their homes searched and jailed. interrogation.”

"As for the equalization of land and labor, do you have any suitable candidates?"

Regarding the candidate, Liu Yisui and others have been discussing continuously in the past few days and found a suitable person.

"Your Majesty, Chengzong, the descendant of Zuo Shu, is a resolute man. He was also familiar with Xu Minshi before. It is most suitable for him to do it at this time."

"Teacher Sun? Okay, then let Sun Chengzong be the right deputy censor, responsible for this matter.

Let him start from these counties. We really want to see whether it is the imperial court's fist that is stronger or the local powerful families who are stronger. "

　I went out to socialize and drink last night, and I'm still feeling very uncomfortable now. I'll give you a short chapter to forgive you. There will be more tonight.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)