I am Emperor Wanli

Chapter 617 I will not participate, you solve it yourselves!
"Yes, the contract responsibility system for linking output to remuneration." Zhu Yijun replied, "Before this, the imperial farms, including the royal farms of the imperial clan, were all managed by people sent by the inner court and the various vassal states, including the village heads, banner officers, and field heads, most of whom were relatives of the inner court and relatives of the royal family.

When they arrived at the imperial manor, they committed all kinds of crimes. In addition to paying taxes to the court, the tenants of the imperial manor and the royal manor also had to pay rent to the inner court and the royal palace. In addition, they had to give benefits to the manor head and others. They almost had to pay three times the rent and taxes for nothing.

That’s right, I can tell you that both the imperial and royal estates of the Ming Dynasty were not exempt from taxes, but the relationship between the land tax and the imperial rent was very mysterious.

Think about how stingy our ancestor Zhu Yuanzhang was. How could he leave such a big loophole?

But how could local officials dare to collect land taxes from imperial farms? They had to first collect the imperial rent that went into the treasury, and they also had to collect the personal benefits of management personnel such as the village heads and banner officers.

What should we do with the land tax on the imperial farm?
Just pass it on.

Over time, the self-cultivating farmers in the counties and prefectures could no longer bear such a heavy levy and could only impose a portion of it on the fields owned by officials and gentry.

How can this be possible? Isn't this just oppressing the people and bringing disaster to the community?

Scholars, Confucian scholars, and imperial censors all submitted memorials to the emperor, saying that the imperial farms were very bad and should be abolished, and the land should be distributed to the people.

The Ming imperial family is supported by the people of the Ming Dynasty. Are they still worried about food shortage?

The emperors of all dynasties, including the two who were famous for their benevolence and filial piety, are easy to deal with, but taking money out of my pocket is not acceptable.

It was not until the early years of the Jiajing reign that the emperor, who had won a great victory in the Grand Ceremony, was full of confidence and, on the advice of his ministers, implemented the Jiajing New Policies. One of the measures was to recall all the managers of the imperial farms, turn them into official land and hand them over to local management. In addition to the land tax, rent was collected in the form of silver.

The rent for tenants was three cents of silver per mu per year for top-quality farmland, two cents of silver per mu per year for medium-quality farmland, and one and a half cents of silver per mu per year for lower-quality farmland. This was also called grain silver. The emperor was so kind that he provided government land to the people for free for cultivation, and only collected some seed money as a token of his appreciation.

The grain of silver was collected by local prefectures and counties. After the government collected it, it was transferred to the internal transport warehouse for the royal family to spend.

But after a few years of the new policy, the emperor discovered that I was still squandering money!
Neichengyun Warehouse was so poor that even the rats had to move out overnight.

When we ask all the officials, from the Ministry of Revenue to the county officials, they all look compassionate. Alas, the people are suffering too much, and there have been natural disasters year after year. We really can't bear to collect the grain of silver.

Your Majesty, you are the father of all the people of the Ming Dynasty, you can't bear it, right?
Well, I can't bear it either. You have to transfer money from the national treasury to the inner treasury. I also have a big family to support.

All the officials spread their hands. The national treasury was in trouble. All the civil and military officials were tightening their belts and struggling to make ends meet.

Uh. Why does your burp smell like seafood?

Your Majesty, this is not important. How about we, the ministers, pool our funds and make you an heirloom, a golden bowl?

The emperor was dumbfounded. You said you would support me?
Are you going to deny your promise just because you turn against me?
Scumbag!

The emperor sent eunuchs back to take over the "official fields" and supervise the collection of grain silver.

From then on, the emperor saw the true face of the civil servants, and ministers such as Xia Yan who implemented the Jiajing New Deal also planted the seeds of their own death.

It was difficult for the Emperor to trust the Ministry of Revenue’s account books anymore, and he began to transform himself into the chief accountant of the Ming Dynasty.

Now that I am in power, I will have to adopt a new approach to the management of the official fields in my hands, including the fiefdom fields of the royal family.

Zhu Yijun continued, "I have issued an edict, and I also asked Master Li to formally compile it into the national law in the Law Courts. All the imperial estates, official fields, shops and companies under the supervision of the Ministry of Finance shall pay taxes together.

After the Shaofujian collected all the official and feudal fields, they were managed by two or three agricultural reclamation companies, which were divided into several farms or pastures. Pastures were used for grazing, and farms were used for farming.

The fields are directly contracted to individual households. The people contract farm fields and graze and cultivate under the guidance of the farm’s agricultural science station.

In the inland areas, the cultivation is mainly carried out according to the four-field rotation method recommended by the Agricultural Science Institute. After each household pays the land tax in full, the rest belongs to the farmer, and no additional grain silver or other miscellaneous taxes are required. This is called the household contract responsibility system.

When Hu Rugong heard this, he thought, isn't the emperor being a great philanthropist?

Impossible, how is it possible?

With Yang Jinshui involved, how could it not make money?

A light bulb went off in his head. The emperor had been talking about the household contract responsibility system at the beginning, but what he had just said was the household contract responsibility system, missing the word "linked output".

The secret lies in this joint production!

Hu Rugong asked: "Your Majesty, what does this joint production mean?"

smart people.

Zhu Yijun smiled and explained: "Joint production means diversified operations.

For example, fish can be raised in rice fields in the south, soybeans and mung beans can be planted between fields, and potatoes, sweet potatoes, rapeseed, cabbage, carrots or forage grass can be planted in winter.

In the northern four-field rotation method, a whole piece of land is divided into four parts, and soybeans, wheat, beets, and duckweed are planted respectively, which are rotated in turn every year.

Soybeans are used to extract oil, wheat is used as food, beets are used to extract sugar, and duckgrass is used to feed pigs, cattle and other livestock.

Ponds can be dug beside the fields in the north and south, to store water for drought prevention and to raise fish and ducks.
These are joint production, also known as diversified operations.”

"Joint production?" Hu Rugong's eyes lit up, "I understand, potatoes, rapeseed, cabbage, carrots, beets, fish, ducks, pigs and sheep are still in the hands of ordinary people, and they need to be sent to the town market to sell in exchange for money.

But the agricultural reclamation company is different. It collects soybeans, sugar beets and rapeseed from farms as raw materials and uses them to extract sugar and oil. Potatoes and sweet potatoes can be used to make wine. I heard that the demand for medical alcohol in the army and hospitals is increasing year by year.

Cabbage, carrots, other fruits and vegetables, fish, duck, pigs and sheep. There are so many factories and so many people in each factory. They eat as much of these things as there are.

Wonderful, Your Majesty, this joint production is wonderful!"

Of course it's wonderful.

Under the household contract responsibility system, the people contracted government land according to their families. Apart from paying taxes, they did not have to pay any more silver grains than before, and the land was truly free for you to farm.

But the average family would certainly not be satisfied with the little food they could dig out from the fields, so the farm stepped in and told farmers how to farm and make money.

Hu Rugong could imagine how the farm propaganda department encouraged everyone, and maybe even promised to lose money if they didn't make any money.

Then, under the guidance of the farm's agricultural science station, they planted cash crops and raised chickens, ducks, fish and pigs. The farm purchased them and sold them to the factories that belonged to the Shaofujian.

Everyone happily shares the profits.

Even if it is split in half, the farmers will be so happy that their noses are drooling, because this money is much more than growing crops.

Although half of the farm had to be divided out, a farm had at least tens of thousands of acres of land and hundreds of farmers. If each household received three or five silver dollars, the total would be several thousand silver dollars.

If the farm makes money, the Shaofujian makes money, and if the Shaofujian makes money, the emperor makes money.

On the surface, the emperor had a good reputation for loving his people like his own children and being benevolent and generous, and secretly he earned every penny he deserved.

The emperor really knows how to have fun.

After Hu Rugong figured it out, he immediately became interested in the land of the garrisons that were assigned to the Zhili Provincial Administration.

The Zhili Provincial Administration could establish an agricultural reclamation company, which would be directly under the Ministry of Revenue.

We will do whatever the Shaofujian's agricultural reclamation company does. As a technician at the Agricultural Science Station, I will risk my old face to ask for it from the Minister of Agriculture, old man Guo.

After all, I am from the southeast, and I have a say with Hu Rongzheng, Tan Bingbu, Eunuch Yang and others. If you pass on the message to Old Guo, can you not give me some face?

Hu Rugong immediately said, "Prime Minister Zhang, I will also set up a reclamation company for these garrison fields that were assigned to Zhili, and cross the river with the help of the Shaofu Supervisor."

Zhang Juzheng was waiting for this sentence, "You, the affairs of Zhili will all depend on Futai Hu."

It is still more convenient to discuss matters with new officials.

They are open-minded. If you give them a hint, they will know what to do. They are brave enough to take on tasks without hesitation. They will weigh their own gains and losses before making a decision. "Hu Futai, they are just farmers of the agricultural reclamation company. You and the governor need to worry more."

“No problem, isn’t it just robbing tenants?

I sent out capable personnel with large metal loudspeakers, starting with the largest landlord families in Zhili, and repeatedly shouted in the fields, laying out the benefits one by one. Are you still afraid that the tenants won't come over? "

That's right, you are the biggest in Zhili, and if you give the order to snatch people away, who can beat you?

But those wealthy and powerful families will suffer.

Suffer?

Zhang Juzheng's mind moved, but before he had time to think about it, Zhu Yijun said, "Master Zhang, the agricultural reclamation company is a new thing, a new production relationship. For any new thing, we should give it a process of adaptation and growth.

Master Zhang, should the cabinet give some preferential policies to agricultural reclamation companies, such as reducing or exempting a certain percentage of land tax over three to five years?

After all, the four-field rotation method benefits the country and the fields, but the farmers suffer losses. How can the court let the farmers who contribute to the country suffer losses? "

When Hu Rugong heard this, his eyes became as bright as the full moon. The emperor is so wise!

"Prime Minister Zhang, the emperor is right. The agricultural reclamation company is trying out a new production relationship that benefits the country and the people. Both the company and the farmers are suffering. How can the cabinet let those who have made contributions to the country suffer?

There has to be tax relief.”

Zhang Juzheng looked at Zhu Yijun with a wry smile on his face.

Your Majesty, you must have been a senior official in your previous life, a veteran in the political arena.

New production relations?

Zhang Juzheng's mind suddenly brightened and he completely understood everything.

Your Majesty, you are going to wipe out all the wealthy families and conservative establishment figures who make their living from the land!

Merchants worked hard to transport grain back from Annan, Siam and other places, and the price of rice was lower every year.

Low grain prices hurt farmers.

But after paying taxes and rents, ordinary people could barely make ends meet with the remaining food. Even if they wanted to exchange money, they would use poultry, eggs, cotton, linen and other agricultural and sideline products. They would not sell life-saving food unless they had no other choice.

The people who suffered the most from the drop in rice prices were not the self-employed farmers and tenants, who were the largest number of farmers, but the wealthy families who made a lot of money from selling grain. They were all large and medium-sized landlords and generally ran their own rice shops.

Disaster years are their favorite years, and many self-employed farmers will have to sell their land in order to save their lives.

Now that rice prices have been sluggish, they are the ones who are most anxious and hate the most.

The price of rice has not risen, and not only can we not make money, but it is also getting harder and harder to find tenants. In the past, the government and the people could collude to prohibit tenants from "roaming" to Shanghai, Luanzhou and other places, but after the Fuxing Society's conspiracy case, who would dare to do that?

They could only watch helplessly as their tenants left and there were fewer and fewer people willing to farm their land.

Now the emperor and the court are setting up agricultural reclamation companies on government fields and military fields, which is even more terrible.

Many farmers are willing to stay and not go out to "work", firstly because it is not far away from their hometown, and secondly because they are conservative and think that working is not secure and farming is more stable.

There is an agricultural reclamation company not far from my home, and they also do farming.

The fields on this side belong to the landlords, and the fields on the other side belong to the emperor and the government. The conditions there are extremely good, and the contract is signed for twenty years.

In other words, as long as you pay the land tax in full every year, this piece of land will be yours for twenty years. You can cultivate it however you want, and all the crops you grow are yours.

With such good conditions, would you like to go?
What a ruthless move.

The wealthy and powerful families were uprooted and will have a hard time in the future.

As the Prime Minister of the Cabinet, Zhang Juzheng knew that the emperor intended to implement the policy of unified tax payment by officials and gentry and the equalization of land tax. Based on his temperament and methods, it would only take two or three years for this to happen.

Once implemented, the lives of those wealthy and powerful families will be lost.

If there is no one to cultivate the fields, we can't ask the wealthy and spoiled families to work in the fields.

In the past, it was not a big problem to leave the land vacant, but it became a problem after officials and gentry paid taxes and distributed taxes on the land. First of all, officials and gentry were not exempted from special treatment, and all the people were counted as head taxes and distributed on the land.

The more fields a family has, the more taxes they have to pay. You can pay the land tax in grain, but you have to pay the capitation tax in silver. The price of rice has been low, so it is hard to sell it at a high price.

You can't engage in diversified operations like the agricultural reclamation companies and use other income to supplement farming. The more you plant, the more you lose.

Your Majesty, you are encircling and suppressing the old production relations from all angles, politically and economically, for fear that they will not die quickly enough or fragilely enough!

No wonder there are rumors that at the founding conference of the Federation of Industry and Commerce, those industrial tycoons asked the God of Wealth Yang Jinshui to point out ways to make money. He only suggested that after making money, they should not buy land, even if they wanted to buy a house to keep a mistress, they should not buy land.

When this news spread, many people laughed at him, saying that the God of Wealth had fallen from the altar.

It seems that the more land someone buys, the more miserable their death will be!

The God of Wealth is the God of Wealth after all!

"Your Majesty, Governor Hu, when I return to Beijing, I will discuss this with the Ministry of Revenue and will definitely introduce preferential policies to support agricultural reclamation companies."

After discussing this matter, Zhang Juzheng brought up another matter.

"The local governments abolished the various prefectures, and unified the powers and responsibilities at the provincial, prefectural, and county levels. Well, the Cabinet meant that prefectures would be changed to counties, and prefectural governors would be changed to county governors. The rest would remain unchanged.

Then, we also plan to establish new direct-controlled prefectures and scattered prefectures.

Sanzhou is the prefecture of Yu Province in Zhili, which has the same level as a county.

Zhili Prefecture is a prefecture directly under the Cabinet, with the same level as a county. Luanzhou in your province has a flourishing industry and commerce, and is listed as one of the three pillars of the Ming Dynasty's power and prosperity, along with Taiyuan and Shanghai. Therefore, the Cabinet decided to change Luanzhou to a Zhili Prefecture.

Before Zhang Juzheng finished speaking, Hu Rugong immediately refused, saying, "No. We in Zhili spent so much effort to help the Shaofujian build Luanzhou into what it is today.

Your cabinet has watched with envy, and now you have taken away the pot as well, leaving not a single morsel of soup for us in Zhili. No, absolutely not! "

Zhang Juzheng was stunned for a moment.

He refused it outright without any hesitation.

If I talk to the Zhili Provincial Governor, he certainly won't dare to refuse so bluntly. If I put more pressure on him, he will have to give up the position even if he is unwilling.

No matter how good Luanzhou is, it would be great if you could have your own official hat.

But Hu Rugong was different. He was the governor and could ignore me. I couldn't threaten him either.

If they went to the Provincial Government again at this time, the Governor and the left and right councilors would refuse, saying that such a big matter needed the Governor's approval.

According to the procedures and national laws, if Luanzhou was promoted to a direct-controlled prefecture, the Zhili governor would not give his approval, and the Advisory Council would not even discuss it, and the emperor would not give his approval either.

So Zhang Juzheng looked at Zhu Yijun.

Look at what I'm doing!

Master Zhang, this is a dispute between you and Hu Rugong, the cabinet and the local authorities. I will not get involved. You should solve it yourselves!

(End of this chapter)