Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 715 Slave Quota
"The Master said: I have never seen anyone who loves virtue as much as he loves beauty."

"I am not immune to this!"

After a ridiculous night, Zhu Youjian sighed the next day.

Although the queen did not say anything, her act of accepting the concubine offered by her undoubtedly showed why the slave system could not be abolished.

Everyone has bad qualities, and no one can be as virtuous as lust. We should always hold ourselves to the standards of a saint.

He himself regarded the concubines in Kunning Palace as maids who served in the same room with his concubines. So did the rich and powerful people. Would they be willing to abolish the slave system, including the maids who served in the same room with his concubines?

The result of abolishing the slave system may well be that those people will come up with other ways to enjoy themselves, leading to the emergence of various variants.

So after Zhu Youjian thought about it, he felt more calm. He was no longer as eager to use the most drastic means to abolish slavery as he was yesterday when he learned that Zhang Pu had been attacked.

Looking at the briefing presented by the Jinyiwei, Zhu Youjian asked casually:

"Has the news of Zhang Pu's attack spread?"

"What is the situation in the court and among the people?"

Zheng Shiyi replied:

"The officials in the court did not react much. Except for those who were on good terms with Zhang Pu, many people believed that Zhang Pu was looking for trouble and acting recklessly by relying on the favor of His Majesty, which led to the disaster."

"Most people still don't know about it, but the newspaper industry is very angry and all the newspapers put this news on the front page."

"Ming Pao's Chen Zilong is planning to launch a sit-in and protest in front of the three judicial offices, demanding that the thugs be punished."

"Many people who work in the newspaper copying business and scholars who submit articles to newspapers responded."

"Do you want to agree to this?"

Zhu Youjian nodded slightly and said:
"As a matter of principle, we should not stop sit-in demonstrations."

"Some people have grievances in their hearts, so let them vent and express their demands through peaceful means."

"But we need to be careful about parades. We must not let them disrupt public transportation, and we must prevent theft, vandalism and other chaos during the parades."

"If the newspaper copyists want to sit in, let them do it. Otherwise, who will care about these civilian censors?"

Zhu Youjian has always advocated encouraging civilian supervision of officials.

This was also his original intention in establishing Congress, to use the so-called public opinion to check and balance the civil service group that was becoming increasingly difficult to restrict.

Newspaper public opinion supervision is an important part of civil supervision, so Zhu Youjian placed this industry under the protection of the Jinyiwei early on and sent people to supervise it.

Now is the time to set the rules. He asked the Royal Guards to interfere less in the affairs of the newspaper industry. Apart from news related to the royal family and confidential information, they should not interfere in other matters.

Zheng Shiyi took note of what he heard and asked the Weiwei Temple to approve the matter after leaving the palace.

Then he took Liu Qiao, the Minister of the Imperial Guards, to discuss with the Ministry of Revenue how to strengthen supervision over gatherings and associations.

Bi Ziyan, the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, had never paid attention to this matter before. Even the entire Civil Affairs Department did not have a very high status in the Ministry of Revenue.

The most important task of the Ministry of Revenue at present is to implement the tax-sharing system and to survey the land and compile the Yellow Book. This is the responsibility of the Finance Department and the Land Administration Department, which are the most important to the Ministry of Revenue. The Finance Department is even known as the first department of the Ministry of Revenue.

After Zheng Shiyi and Liu Qiao came to visit, Bi Ziyan remembered this matter. He said to them:
"Didn't the Emperor say long ago that the Civil Affairs Department would be in charge of gatherings and associations?"

"Why is the Weiwei Temple also intervening now?"

Zheng Shiyi drank his tea without saying anything. Liu Qiao, the Minister of the Imperial Guards, said:

"Assembly and association are related to public security, which is the responsibility of the Weiwei Temple."

"The emperor wants the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Finance to work together to come up with a charter."

Li Changgeng, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, disagreed:
"What kind of rules are required for this?"

"Isn't it just to send someone to inform you when there might be trouble?"

Liu Qiao narrowed his eyes and said with a fake smile:
"Minister Li, are you treating our Weiwei Temple as a tool?"

"Do you want to cooperate in the same way regarding household registration?"

Li Changgeng really wanted to do this, but Zhang Yandeng knew the difficulties involved.

He was promoted from Governor of Zhejiang to Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, and was responsible for various miscellaneous affairs in the Ministry of Revenue. He knew that household registration work seemed simple but was very difficult to do.

The requirements for address numbers and ID numbers ordered by the emperor were too high. Even the Weiwei Temple relied on the assistance of the guards to number all the households in its jurisdiction. How could a civil affairs department of the Ministry of Revenue take on such a tedious task?
He said to the two Jinyiwei high-ranking officials in front of him:
"What do you two think?"

"How do you want to cooperate?"

Liu Qiao looked at Zheng Shiyi and said:
"According to the cooperation on the household registration, we will make a copy of the information for you after the Weiwei Temple is done."

"Now the Ministry of Household Affairs only needs to obtain household registration information regularly and collect taxes based on the records."

"Isn't this simple? It saves you a lot of trouble?"

Half complaining and half threatening, he said:
"To be honest, the household registration data you collected before was really bad. At least half of the households were concealed."

"The emperor has used this as an example many times to illustrate the importance of statistical work."

"If we use this household registration system to provide disaster relief, who knows how many people would starve to death and how many would rise up in rebellion!"

These words made several high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Revenue blush. They knew that the emperor was dissatisfied with the work of the Ministry of Revenue, so he handed over the household registration affairs to the Weiwei Temple.

But they couldn't do anything about it. The Ministry of Household Registration didn't have enough staff to record the changes of every household and the birth, aging, illness and death of every person. So they could only make minor changes to the original household registration data.

Who would dare to believe that the official population statistics of the Ming Dynasty were not as high as those during the Hongwu period? If they continued to lie with their old data, the emperor would probably remove them first.

In the past two years, many officials have been arrested by the emperor for fabricating figures when compiling the Yellow Book.

What made them so unlucky was the Statistics Department under the Jinyiwei.

Although this department was established not long ago, it brought together a group of people who were best at mathematics from inner court institutions such as the Embroidered Uniform Guard and the Imperial Observatory.

When abnormal numbers are found, people will be sent to verify them, and many illegal activities of officials have been uncovered.

As the institution that suffered the most damage, the Ministry of Revenue hated and feared the Imperial Guards:
If it weren't for the supervision of this group of people, why would their Ministry of Revenue be so exhausted?

Stopping Li Changgeng who wanted to defend himself, Bi Ziyan said:

"It's definitely not possible like the household registration. We don't need so many people to organize gatherings and associations."

"The reason why the emperor handed this matter over to the Ministry of Revenue is that he is worried that the reputation of the Royal Guards is too great and people will not dare to register."

"In this way, the registration of the association will be handled by the Ministry of Revenue. The Ministry of Revenue will send the relevant association information to the Weiwei Temple on a regular basis."

"The gathering is more related to public security, so it will be handed over to the Weiwei Temple. But you also know that many people cannot distinguish the responsibilities of each government office. If someone files a record with the local government, the local household registration agency will pass it on to the Weiwei Temple after approval."

Before Liu Qiao could continue, Zheng Shiyi put down his teacup and said:
"Let's do as Minister Bi said. Let's set the rules:"

"The Weiwei Temple is responsible for assembly affairs, and the Ministry of Revenue is responsible for association affairs."

"However, violent groups such as fighting companies, escort companies, and gangs need to be approved by the Martial Arts Association before they can be registered."

"Associations that are not registered but are still carrying out activities will be treated as secret societies and organized mafia gangs by the Weiwei Temple."

Bi Ziyan briefly discussed with Li Changgeng and Zhang Yandeng, then nodded in agreement and set the rules for cooperation between the two yamen. After they left, Li Changgeng was still indignant, thinking that it was a great shame and humiliation for him, a minister of state, to discuss government affairs with the Jinyiwei.

It was also unheard of that the Jinyiwei dared to come to the Ministry of Revenue to compete for power:

"The emperor is too lenient towards the Jinyiwei, allowing them to act so recklessly."

"I think we shouldn't have established the Weiwei Temple and let them become one of the Nine Ministers."

Bi Ziyan was not as angry as he was, because he had served in the court earlier and knew why the Weiwei Temple was established. He said:

"It's a good thing to come to discuss."

"In the past, after they received authorization from the emperor, they would just do it."

"Now that we have the Weiwei Temple, the Jinyiwei will consult with other government offices on everything they do."

“That’s actually a good thing!”

Li Changgeng and Zhang Yandeng had both experienced the rampant factory guards during the Tianqi period. Upon hearing this, they nodded slightly and were not so angry anymore.

Compared with the Tianqi period, the Jinyiwei's current actions are far from reckless and are more restrained.

Zhang Yandeng also said:

"In fact, it's not a bad idea to let the Weiwei Temple be in charge of household registration and other matters."

"The household registration in Shuntian Prefecture is much clearer now, unlike before when it hid so many people's information."

"Even when someone died, they worked with the City God Department to get relevant data."

"Our Ministry of Revenue doesn't have that much power, nor does it have that many people."

"Without the help of the Weiwei Temple, how can we make these people pay taxes and serve in the army?"

Household registration is a very complicated task. Not only do we have to count births and deaths, but we also have to consider population migration.

The Jinyiwei had a hard time doing this and had to ask the guards for help. If the Ministry of Revenue wanted to do it on its own, the number of officials would need to increase several times.

Not to mention how much this will cost, the main function of the Ministry of Revenue is not household registration, but finance.

So they could only hand over these matters to the Weiwei Temple and only get the statistical data themselves.
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Li Changgeng thought about these current situations, and also thought about the statistics of slaves and hired workers in the Weiwei Temple, and sighed:
"It's not good to check the household registration too carefully. Look, the emperor is already trying to release the slaves."

"It took a lot of effort for each company to buy so many people, how could they let them go so easily?"

Bi Ziyan was somewhat surprised when he heard this, and thinking of Li Changgeng's hometown, he said:

"You in Huguang also have slaves like in Jiangnan, right?"

"I heard that you like to use slaves to farm, and some wealthy families have as many as a thousand slaves!"

"If the slaves in Jiangnan are released, will Huguang be implicated?"

Li Changgeng sighed and said:
“I’ve been implicated.”

"After the Ming Pao from Jiangnan reached Macheng, there were rumors that the court was going to release the slaves, and many slaves were restless."

"Many people in my hometown have warned of the slave rebellion."

Compared with Jiangnan, the number of slaves in Huguang is the best in the world, and Macheng is the best in Huguang.

The Li family, to which Li Changgeng belonged, and the Mei family, to which his nephew, the Gansu military governor Mei Zhihuan, came from, were both large families in Macheng. They had three to four thousand servants, more than the prime minister's family like the Wang family in Suzhou.

There are many big families like the Li family and the Mei family in Macheng. The reason why Li Zhi was expelled from Macheng was because he was involved in the fight between the Mei family and other families.

Even the county government in Macheng had more than 4,000 officials. You can imagine how serious the slavery culture was here and how many people became slaves.

In addition, Macheng suffered from drought last year and floods the year before, and many slaves had no savings. They were eager to change the status quo and hoped that the court would release the slaves.

When the news that Zhang Pu led the slaves and servants in Jiangnan to protest reached Macheng, the slaves and servants in Macheng immediately responded. Some slaves and servants from some families surrounded their masters and forced them to hand over their indentures.

Li Changgeng was now worried about the slave rebellion in his hometown, so he prepared to submit a petition to the court to request the dispatch of troops to prevent the rebellion. At the same time, he asked the emperor to clarify the rumors about the release of slaves and servants to avoid a bigger chaos.

Bi Ziyan, Zhang Yandeng and others were shocked beyond words when they listened to Li Changgeng's narration.

Although the two Shandong people knew that the slave-holding culture was very strong in Huguang and that Zhang Yandeng had once worked in Huguang, they still found it hard to believe that a large family like Macheng could keep thousands of slaves.

Zhang Yandeng sighed:

"With such land and servants, can't we call him a noble?"

"Except for not having a title, it's no different from having a fiefdom!"

Bi Ziyan asked:
"Can you manage so many slaves?"

"The imperial court has one guard for every 5,000 households, and many military households still escape."

"How do you manage the three or four thousand servants in each of your families?"

Li Changgeng wanted to explain it, but found that he couldn't explain it clearly, so he could only say:

"Of course, let the housekeeper take care of it. They will control the slaves."

Bi Ziyan shook his head and said:

"Then you have to be careful of them."

"Even the imperial court's military households are unwilling to continue serving, and they need to be suppressed by many thousand households and hundred households."

"The current emperor has even set up military sergeants and raised the status of some military households."

“You put capable servants in charge of your slaves, but you do not give them the proper place.”

"I guess you can guess what these people are thinking."

"Someone must have deceived the superiors and the subordinates. If a mutiny occurs, they will not be able to escape responsibility."

He sighed again:

"I originally thought that the Emperor wanted to release me out of kindness, but now it seems that he has no choice but to do so."

"If everyone keeps three or four thousand slaves like you do, the world will soon be in chaos."

"It should be noted that not every family can manage so many people."

Li Changgeng was silent now, because he also knew that some families really couldn't manage their slaves well.

Once a slave rebellion occurs in one family, all other families will be implicated.

Thinking about the current situation of various families in Macheng, he tore up the memorial he had written before and instead suggested to the emperor that the number of slaves should be stipulated according to official positions and titles, and those slaves exceeding the limit should be released.

This memorial received responses from many officials.

After a stalemate of nearly a month, Zhu Youjian and the ministers in the court finally reached a consensus and planned to adjust the current limit of slaves in the Ming Dynasty to adapt to the current reality.

Zhang Pu, who was far away in Suzhou, also began to discuss with the wealthy families in Suzhou how to limit slavery and which slaves to release.

(End of this chapter)