I am Emperor Wanli

Chapter 726 One dares to report, the other dares to believe!
"The cabinet is all here, Eunuch Yang, how about you?"

Zhang Juzheng turned his head and looked at Yang Jinshui beside him.

Yang Jinshui smiled and replied, "In reply to Prime Minister Zhang, our six departments of the Planning Bureau, Organization Bureau, Education Bureau, Finance Bureau, Banking Bureau and Audit Bureau are all here."

Zhang Juzheng scanned the faces of the six people under Yang Jinshui, his eyes sparkling, "Well, the six major bureaus of the famous Shaofu Supervisor, the six great kings, have all come to our cabinet today. It's an honor, an honor."

"You're welcome, Prime Minister Zhang." The six people responded quickly.

Others looked at the Shaofujian as if they were confused, thinking that this "money-making" agency in the inner court controlled by the eunuch party was complicated and intricate. However, Zhang Juzheng knew that the Shaofujian was in charge of many government offices, but the ones who were really in charge were these six bureaus.

The rest, such as the China Merchants Group, the Agricultural Reclamation Bureau, the Transportation Bureau, this group, and that bank, are actually industrial and commercial enterprises that are specifically responsible for making money.

Above them all, he manages dozens of giant enterprises that influence the Ming Dynasty's economy. He is in charge of all six aspects, from project establishment, capital operation, personnel management, mutual coordination, supervision and auditing.

To put it bluntly, the Shaofujian is equivalent to a small cabinet, the six major bureaus are equivalent to the six ministries, and the rest, including the China Merchants Steam Navigation Company, the Agricultural Reclamation Bureau, the Transportation Bureau, the Luanzhou Coal and Iron Group, the Taiyuan Coal and Iron Group, and the Huijin Bank, are equivalent to the provincial governors.

The organization and operation model were nominally established by Yang Jinshui, but in fact he built it on the emperor's orders and only made some minor adjustments.

As far as Zhang Juzheng knew, the efficiency of the Shaofujian was much higher than that of the cabinet. They would smell any opportunity to make money, discuss it behind closed doors, and quickly make a decision, followed by vigorous and resolute action.

Their internal slogan is: "Time is money, efficiency is life!"

Shocking, yet incredibly inspiring.

But the Cabinet cannot be like it, because the Shaofujian is just a special agency set up by the emperor to focus on making money.

The cabinet is not capable of this. In addition to raising money, it also has to take into account people's livelihood, and the balance between localities, the central government and localities, and between industry, commerce and agriculture. There are many constraints and fetters.

However, the Shaofujian is worthy of learning for the Cabinet, as it is there that the Emperor's truest philosophy of governing the country is hidden.

Zhang Juzheng sighed softly in his heart and spoke loudly.

"Okay, everyone is here, let's stop talking and start the meeting."

Cabinet meetings now also follow the new style passed down from Luanzhou.

Small meetings are held at a round table, while large meetings are held across the table.

Today's half-year economic work summary meeting was attended by very high-level officials, the lowest being the Right Junior Secretary of each temple. Only the chief assistants from the Ministry of Revenue, Ministry of Rites, Ministry of Works, and the four temples of Taifu, Sinong, Dushui, and Taichang came, plus the Junior Supervisor Yang Jinshui and his six great Vajras.

Belongs to a small meeting.

There was a long oval table, with Zhang Juzheng sitting in the middle seat, with Yang Jinshui on the left and Zhang Xueyan, the chief secretary of the cabinet, on the right.

On the left came the six great Vajras of the Ministry of Households. They were guests of the Cabinet and were naturally to be treated with courtesy. Next came the four chief ministers of the Temples, with Pan Jixun, the chief minister of the Dushui Temple, at the head.

Going down to the right are the Minister of Revenue Wang Guoguang, the Minister of Rites Pan Sheng, and the Minister of Works Zhu Heng, and below them are the Left Vice Ministers of the three ministries, as well as the Right Vice Ministers such as Yang Wei and Pang Shangpeng who are in charge of important departments.

There were two rows of long tables against the east and west walls outside, where the left and right Shaoqing of the four temples and other right vice ministers sat respectively.

Sitting in a row opposite were four secretaries from the Cabinet Experience Office Secretariat, who were responsible for taking notes on the meeting.

Zhang Juzheng continued, "In the first half of the second year of the Wanli reign, the most important task was completed, which was the land survey and population census throughout the country."

He looked around at everyone and said with deep emotion: "The land survey has been going on for four years, from the first year of Longqing to the first half of this year.

A total of 44,600 officials, observers and interns, as well as 47,500 students from public schools and colleges were mobilized, and 133,600 temporary personnel such as scholars, students, and craftsmen were hired. The cost was 2.75 million yen. Although it was a huge amount of money, the results were finally seen.

The reason it took so long and cost so much was that there were many obstacles and twists and turns along the way. Even in the third year of the Longqing reign, many areas were re-surveyed for the second and third time.

Everyone knows about these sufferings, so there is no need to talk about them here.

This land survey was accompanied by a population survey, also known as a census.

Zhang Changshi, please read out the preliminary data results to everyone."

"Yes!"

Zhang Xueyan, the chief secretary of the cabinet, said, "Before the meeting, Prime Minister Zhang told me to read out the summary of the previous land survey in the Ming Dynasty so that we can compare them for analysis."

Zhang Juzheng added, "That's right. Today's meeting is not only for summary, but also for analysis. Only with comparison can we analyze. We need to compare with the previous land survey or estimated statistical data of the country, and compare our data of this survey, and then analyze whether our economy is progressing or regressing, and why."

After he finished speaking, he waved his hand and said, "Zhang Changshi, start."

"It's Zhang Xiang."

"In the 14th year of Hongwu, the farmland was 366,770,000 mu, and the tax grain was 26,100,000 dan. In the 26th year of Hongwu, the farmland was 850,760,000 mu, and the tax grain was 32,790,000 dan."

Zhang Xueyan looked at everyone, "I need to explain this. The data from the Nanjing Jiage Treasury of the Ministry of Revenue is like this, but it is far from the 387,470,000 mu in the 24th year of Hongwu. How could so much land be reclaimed in two years? And the tax grain is not far from the 32,280,000 dan in the 24th year of Hongwu.

Comparing this with the 412,460,000 mu in the first year of Xuande, we believe that either the local officials over-reported or lied about a large amount of farmland, causing the land survey figures in the 26th year of Hongwu to be greatly distorted.

Everyone looked at each other and understood what was going on.

In the 26th year of Hongwu, Emperor Taizu was about to die. He was moody at that time, and coupled with several major cases in previous years, hundreds of thousands of officials, civilians, soldiers and civilians had been killed. The people below would tremble with fear when they heard him sneeze.

In order to please Emperor Taizu, they must have tried their best to add numbers and fill in the blanks randomly.

"In the 21st year of Chenghua, the Ming Dynasty had 48,110,000 mu of farmland and 26,580,000 dan of tax grain. In the 23rd year of Chenghua, the farmland increased sharply to 825,390,000 mu, but the tax grain dropped to 26,320,000 dan.

In the first year of the Hongzhi reign, the amount of farmland remained at 825.39 million shi, but the tax grain was reduced to only 19.56 million shi.

By the 18th year of the Hongzhi reign, the farmland had grown to 469,720,000 mu, and the tax grain was 26,790,000 dan.”

Zhang Juzheng pointed at Zhang Xueyan with his left hand, signaling him to pause.

"Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Taizu of the Hongwu period has dispatched personnel to go deep into the local areas to thoroughly survey the fields and make a fish scale book. After that, there was no actual measurement, but only the increase and decrease of the numbers in the fish scale book by the local provincial governments, prefectures and counties were sorted and counted.

I think that the land figures for the 26th year of Hongwu, the 23rd year of Chenghua, and the land figures for the first year of Hongzhi to the 18th year of Hongzhi are all just a joke and are all written randomly! "

At the last sentence, Zhang Juzheng's face turned red.

"How much land the Ming Dynasty has is like how much wealth a family has. How dare they make up such an important matter? The local government and the Ministry of Revenue, one dared to report it, the other dared to believe it!
Are they playing? They dare to play like this when it comes to matters concerning the national economy and people's livelihood!
Not only did our predecessors dare to play like this, but even local officials dare to do so now. It is really a fine tradition that has been passed down from generation to generation!
The reason why it took so long to survey the land this time is that some places made up stories and didn’t even go to the land to measure. They just made up some numbers and reported them!

From now on, if you dare to report it, I will dare to collect grain! The Ministry of Revenue will collect grain according to the number of acres of land you report. If you can't collect the grain, you will go bankrupt to fill the gap for me!

If you dare to send more troops, the Jinyiwei, the Commercial Investigation Department, and the News Agency will all be watching you. I will see how many heads you will have chopped off! If you force the local people to rebel, I will directly report to the emperor and execute your entire clan!"

Zhang Juzheng's murderous words made the meeting room silent.

Everyone was secretly wondering in their hearts, what did Zhang Xiang mean by this?
Zhang Xiang would not get angry in front of everyone at a meeting for no reason. Any important person's words and actions in front of the public have their own intentions.

Some sharp-minded people figured it out.

Zhang Xiang’s next step is to take action on local administration.

Receiving Zhang Juzheng's gaze, Zhang Xueyan coughed twice lightly and continued.

"In the third year of Zhengde, the Ming Dynasty had 469,720,000 mu of farmland and 26,790,000 dan of tax grain. In the twenty-third year of Jiajing, the land was 428,930,000 mu and the tax grain was 22,860,000 dan.

In the third year of Longqing, there were 491,450,000 mu of farmland and 27,950,000 shi of tax grain.

The above land figures were also calculated by the Ministry of Revenue based on the fish scale book and according to the increase and decrease of local areas. It can be said that there is some water, but compared with the figures during the Hongzhi period, it can be said to be close to the real situation.

Tax grain is real and needs to be counted and stored. The Ministry of Revenue will check and confirm it again and again. The Ministry of Agriculture and the Censorate will also check back and forth. There is some false reporting, but it has been squeezed out. "

Zhang Xueyan paused and coughed twice. Everyone knew that the highlight was coming.

"As of 24:00 on the evening of December 30th, the first year of the Wanli reign, that is, before 0:00 on the first day of the first lunar month of the second year of the Wanli reign, the total area of ​​farmland in the Ming Dynasty was 776,790,000 mu."

so much!
Everyone looked at each other, with surprise and admiration in their eyes.

Everyone knows how difficult the work of surveying land is. Gao Gong suffered a lot in this regard and almost stopped it in the later period. Finally, Zhang Juzheng took over, overcame all difficulties, continued to push it forward vigorously, and finally achieved this result.

So many newly emerged fields were wrenched out from the hands of royal family members, external relatives, nobles and gentry. All the fields that had been hidden for hundreds of years were turned out.

Destroying someone's wealth is like killing one's parents!
It is conceivable how much pressure Zhang Juzheng, who was in charge of the land survey, was under and what kind of crazy slander and attacks he faced.

Fortunately, the emperor who lives in the West Garden can keep things under control!

First, the royal family was dealt with. Nearly half of the princes were deprived of their kingdoms, and more than 90% of the royal family became commoners, making their own livings. Then came the gentry and local tyrants. They were all tied together.

The Confucius Mansion of Duke Yansheng was ordered to give up all the land under its name except for 3,000 acres of sacrificial land.

At the residence of the former Prime Minister Xu Jie, only 3,000 acres of family land was left under the name of the Xu Family Ancestral Hall. The remaining hundreds of thousands of acres of land had all been given away.

The royal family's land and the various royal farms were first surveyed and then unified under the Shaofujian Agricultural Reclamation Bureau, forming an agricultural reclamation bureau group company, farms and ranches, and implementing the family contract system.
There will definitely be seven people who are dissatisfied and eight who are angry, and then there will be deaths.

According to statistics from some people who like to circumvent the issue of land survey, since the first year of the Longqing reign, when the emperor became the crown prince, he had killed 30,000 people and exiled nearly 300,000 people just because of the land survey.

Including other major cases, more than 50,000 people were killed and more than 500,000 were exiled.

His achievements in civil and military affairs surpassed those of Emperor Taizu.

However, Emperor Taizu killed so many people, and most of the people sighed and felt that it was unfair.

The emperor killed so many people, and people all over the world cheered and praised his wisdom.

Apart from the fact that every killing was justified and the evidence was solid, it was also because the emperor had one more Taichang Temple than Emperor Taizu.

Zhang Xueyan continued, "At the same time, in the first year of the Wanli reign, the tax grain collected was 44,980,000 dan."

There's nothing wrong with that.

Why was there so much resistance when Zhang Juzheng was surveying the land? After the land was surveyed and registered, the court would collect the autumn grain based on the land.

As more fields are surveyed, more taxes will naturally be collected. Otherwise, it would be abnormal.

The tax grain has not increased, so what is the point of surveying the land?

"At the same time, statistics show that the registered population of the Ming Dynasty, as of midnight on December 30th of the first year of the Wanli reign, totaled 184,360,000 men, women, old and young.

These included the newly established Mongolian left and right wings, Haidong, Jinghai and Rinnan provinces.

Rinan Province was surrendered by Champa Kingdom in the first year of Wanli.

This incident did not cause any major stir in the country, and the cabinet and the Rong government also felt that this was a natural outcome.

Zhang Xueyan added, "Sanbao County, Yanzhou, Luzon, and Sulu Islands are directly under the jurisdiction of the region and have not yet been fully civilized, so the population is not counted for the time being. The recently discovered islands of Yuanxu and Fanghu to the east of Yandong Island are still under investigation, so it is impossible to do a population count."

Yuanxu Island (New Guinea Island) was named Sanhe Island when it was discovered. Later, the survey team finally completed the survey and mapping of the entire island's coastline. The Surveying and Mapping Bureau merged the data and sub-maps into a large map. When the full picture of the island was clearly seen, it was amazing that it looked like a turtle.

The name of Turtle Island spread, but calling it Turtle Island was not elegant, so the Surveying and Mapping Bureau named it Yuanxu Island.

Yuanxu is an elegant name for turtle. Everyone thought it was a good name, so it became the official name.

"Now it is the non-agricultural fiscal revenue in the first year of the Wanli reign, which is the tariff, industrial and commercial tax, salt, tea, wine and sugar monopoly tax and other miscellaneous taxes. There is also the output of major industrial products such as coal, iron, cotton and cloth. There are quite a lot of numbers, I will read them one by one."

Everyone held their breath and waited with anticipation.

(End of this chapter)