The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 397: The Land of Shuntian Prefecture
Meritorious generals such as Liu Biao and Zheng Ruian have now reached the highest positions in the country.

The status and honor that one can obtain as a subject, and the wealth and enjoyment that one can obtain as a human being, have now reached their peak.

There is no further possibility except rebelling and becoming emperor.

As for their current emperor, even if the Ministry of Rites listed a long list of titles such as "Divine Emperor", "Saint King", and "Great Emperor", they would feel that they were appropriate and not a monarch who was just bragging.

At this time, any minister who wanted to rebel was really desperate.

Workers and craftsmen in state-owned factories, soldiers and farmers in military garrisons, and hundreds of millions of Ming people all supported their emperor.

The key point is that even if we put aside the issue of this Divine Emperor and consider the Ming Dynasty's army and equipment system, no military general or vassal state would dare to rebel.

As long as the military factories controlled by the imperial court stopped supplying, the troops outside could only fight one more battle at most, and then they would go back to the agricultural age.

The army in the agricultural era was nothing but a bunch of losers when facing other armies of the imperial court.

From now on, it will be impossible for the local military governors and local troops to rebel.

In fact, most of the ministers would not even think of rebelling to become emperor, but instead began to consider their second half of life and their reputation after death.

Now Zhu Jianxuan has also made arrangements for them directly.

An unprecedented skyscraper, five times higher than any building allowed to be built by the public, was built specifically to record and publicize their deeds, and would later be open to the public.

After hearing the final imperial edict, most people only had one thought in their minds:

"This life is worth it——"

After the final imperial edict was read, all the ministers dispersed again with surging emotions, and prostrated themselves before the emperor in the hall and in the square in front of it.

“Long live my emperor, long live long live—”

This time, after they finished bowing, Zhu Jianxuan did not ask them to stand up. Instead, he began to pour cold water on them in a very serious manner:
“The things I am going to tell you next are what the Emperor Taizu Gao must have told his founding fathers, and the Emperor Chengzu Wen must have told his Jingnan heroes.

"Throughout the dynasties, most of the famous emperors who could be called the successors of the past also gave instructions to their ministers who had served them well.

“Even the owners of an ordinary company or business may have said something similar.

“But the final effect is often not satisfactory.

“It does work, but some people just forget about it after listening to it.

"But I still have to speak now, and I have to be particularly strict, because there are only a handful of ministers in history who can be compared with you.

"When the world is truly united, you should be proud and proud. This is natural.

"But even though you have achieved success and fame, and even though you may have reached the highest position in the government, your life is not over yet.

"What kind of reputation you will leave in the history of this world has not yet been determined.

"I hope that my subjects can enjoy wealth and prosperity with me, and have a good beginning and a good end together.

"So I still have to remind you again that you must continue to guard against arrogance and impatience, and remember not to disregard the law.

“Otherwise, even if you have been admitted to the Hall of Merit, you may still be included in the Ming Dynasty Law Case Collection and become a warning to future generations of subjects.

"Now that the world is at peace, I will reorganize the laws of the Ming Dynasty.

“Whether it is the emperor, the prince, the vassal king, the noble, the official, or the gentry, anyone who breaks the law will be punished like the common people.

"There is no golden ticket to immunity in this dynasty! Merits and demerits cannot be offset!"

Zhu Jianxuan's authority and reputation had reached a level that no one could reach, so he no longer needed to use a harsh tone to make his subjects take his words seriously.

So I seldom speak in a very serious tone.

In particular, they rarely use the more serious "I" to refer to themselves, and most of them use "I" like ordinary people.

Now this attitude and these words are really heartfelt.

There are too many lessons from past dynasties. After the world was settled, the heroes became complacent and started to act recklessly.

Some monarchs were willing to indulge them and would punish these old ministers with a fine of 300 glasses of wine for their various mistakes. This naturally led to the corruption of officialdom and the loss of prestige of the court.

Some monarchs severely punished old ministers, which resulted in dissatisfaction among the old ministers, alienation between the monarch and his ministers, and unrest in the world.

Some monarchs deliberately indulged and then severely punished them to eliminate the difficult-to-control founding heroes.

Whether the punishment is severe or not, it will be troublesome and may lead to all kinds of turmoil, big or small.

Now Zhu Jianxuan has also expressed his position on this matter. He will choose severe punishment, but at the same time he does not want to specifically purge these heroes of unification.

This is an open and clear warning and reminder that when these heroes really commit serious crimes in the future, they may face a rigid and strict trial.

Of course, the ministers present did not dare to complain about this statement.

Zhu Jianxuan’s reputation is too great. The key is that the heroes in front of him are already the second batch, and they grew up under Zhu Jianxuan’s reputation.

Zhu Jianxuan's first batch of direct ministers, the old ministers who took over from his father, had already entered retirement, and some had already begun to die.

The outcomes of these first batch of ministers also demonstrated Zhu Jianxuan's care for them. As long as they had no faults, they would be able to have a good ending.

All the officials present waited for Zhu Jianxuan to finish speaking, bowed to him again and shouted loudly:
"I will follow the instructions of His Majesty..."

Zhu Jianxuan sighed, then shook his head:
"Be flat."

Zhu Jianxuan knew that even if he warned them like this, some of these people would definitely not take it to heart.

Even if they remember it themselves, their families may not be honest.

After Zhu Jianxuan finished speaking, he stood up and left the hall. Today's enthronement ceremony was thus over.

The ministers at the scene bowed again hurriedly:

"Farewell to Your Majesty."

Seeing Zhu Jianxuan's figure completely disappear, everyone at the scene breathed a sigh of relief, but they still didn't dare to relax completely.

They still maintained a relatively serious attitude and left the stage one by one under the arrangement of officials from the Ministry of Rites.

After they left the palace and even walked a short distance, they basically relaxed and started to call their friends to have fun.

After this ceremony, everyone felt that it was time to enter an era of peace and tranquility, and everyone's mentality began to change.

The current Ming Dynasty is not a founding country but is better than a founding country. They are all participants in the founding of the country and the unification of the world.

Just as Zhu Jianxuan said, the heroes were naturally very proud.

All the recipients of the titles will not have any special tasks before the beginning of the next year, and the next step will be to celebrate and have fun with family and friends.

The official conferment of a title requires celebration, and noble officers from other places must return to their hometowns to receive the assets and status they deserve, but before going home they must of course have a dinner to celebrate with their current comrades.

Shuntian Prefecture was already exceptionally lively this year, as so many nobles and meritorious officials had gathered here, and the following period would become even more lively.

Almost all the restaurants in Shuntian Prefecture were fully booked, and most of the consumers were lavish and careless about money.

A large group of people who had just returned from the battlefield, and most of them were military officers of various levels, became excited after drinking, and all kinds of conflicts and contradictions might occur.

Zhu Jianxuan had guessed this long ago, so he had already issued an order to the Jinyiwei in the capital, requiring all personnel to go out on patrol.

Garrisons from the four fortresses around Shuntian Prefecture came out to maintain order.

At the same time, orders were given to the Ministry of Honors, which was composed of royal family nobles, to arrange personnel to accompany the Embroidered Uniform Guard and the army on patrol.

Special authorizations and orders were also given, that even if the princes and dukes dared to cause trouble on the streets, they could all be arrested and sent to the Ministry of Honors for punishment.

The key is to ensure that there are patrol soldiers or Jinyiwei patrolling all the streets.

These uniformed people wandering around the streets can pose a certain deterrent to everyone and fundamentally reduce the probability of conflict.

At the same time, if a conflict does occur, it can be stopped as quickly as possible and the incident can be controlled in the bud.

If the parties are still in the stage of swearing at each other and see the Jinyiwei and the patrol team coming over, it is usually difficult for the situation to escalate into a fight.

Such an arrangement directly reduced the number and intensity of various conflict incidents.

Almost all noble officers attend two parties in the days after being conferred the title, and most of them attend three or more.

For example, Cui Guodong from Heze, Shandong, the lucky last among the new dukes, drank in various high-end restaurants in Shuntian Prefecture for three consecutive days.

On the first day, he met with the newly-appointed dukes, on the second day, he met with the senior officers who had fought under him, and on the third day, he met with other senior officers who had fought with brother troops. Cui Guodong drank for three consecutive days and finally got a few free days. He rested in the official room of the governor's office for two days, sobered up a little, and regained his spirits.

Then he took his enthronement document and went to confirm his new residence in Shuntian Prefecture.

When Cui Guodong was awarded the title last time, he actually got a mansion in the city, but Cui Guodong has been serving in the army for many years and has never received it.

Now that he has been promoted to Duke, he no longer has to go back to his original residence and has directly moved to a bigger one.

In the years after the Ming Dynasty officially "returned to the old capital", it was almost impossible for ordinary people to obtain land that belonged entirely to them inside or outside the city of Shuntian Prefecture.

Zhu Jianxuan was essentially an emperor of industry and commerce, promoting state capitalism and collective economy.

Zhu Jianxuan supported centralized land management. Military settlements were actually collective farms, and land companies were agricultural companies that employed labor.

Zhu Jianxuan would never be like traditional emperors who would grant land to royal family members, nobles and ministers around him.

The ownership of land in Shuntian Prefecture in the capital also experienced a series of twists and turns and coincidences.

More than a hundred years ago, after the Qing Dynasty occupied Shuntian Prefecture, all the land inside and outside the city was occupied by the Eight Banners.

Later, a small amount of land fell into the hands of other groups, but these people were also members of the Qing ruling group identified by Zhu Jianxuan.

After Zhu Jianxuan conquered the Qing Dynasty in the Northern Expedition, he cleared out the entire Qing ruling group and confiscated all their original wealth, including all the land in and around Shuntian Prefecture.

Zhu Jianxuan originally planned to convert the entire Shuntian Prefecture City into a history museum, so he did not reward the houses and land in the city to the meritorious officials.

Later, under the intervention of the old emperor Zhu Zhonglin, the complete outer city wall of Shuntian Prefecture was first built, and then the urban planning of Shuntian Prefecture was adjusted.

Taking environmental pollution and water use issues into consideration, Zhu Jianxuan explicitly prohibited the construction of factories around Shuntian Prefecture, while also retaining land ownership within and outside Shuntian Prefecture.

Although the inner city of Shuntian Prefecture has not become a museum, all the houses in the inner city have become "official residences."

The property rights belonged directly to the imperial court and were distributed to officials in office for residence.

Anyone who did not hold an actual position in the court, even a prince of the royal family, could not live in the inner city unless they obtained special approval from the emperor.

All the officials of the central court, even the lowest-level clerk, were allocated a house in the inner city when they took office, but they had to return it after leaving office or retiring.

This type of housing is a welfare for officials. Not all officials are required to live in official housing. They can rent land in outer cities and build their own houses.

Only in the outer city areas can houses be owned by individuals, but there are still restrictions on the areas and types of people.

The East Outer City area belonged to the nobles and bureaucrats.

For all the royal family members and nobles who remained in the capital, as well as the bureaucrats who were recognized by the emperor as having made special contributions, and those who worked in the central court until retirement and wished to stay in Beijing, the court built private residences of specific standards for them in Dongcheng District.

Xiwaicheng belongs to the scientific research and education system.

Zhu Jianxuan's artisan students, senior craftsmen from the Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Engineering, teachers and presidents of the Inner City University, the court built private residences for them in the West Outer City.

Beiwaicheng belongs to industrial and commercial management personnel and technical maintenance personnel.

All managers and stewards of the headquarters of state-owned enterprises, and technicians and staff of Shuntianfu City Supply Company, were provided with centralized housing construction by the supply company in Beiwaicheng.

Only the South Outer City area is an open industrial and commercial area, allowing ordinary people to build houses on their own.

However, only the houses built and distributed by the court in East City and West City were private properties that belonged completely to the parties involved and could be inherited by their descendants.

Under normal circumstances, houses in the north city have lifelong usage rights, and the person concerned can only apply for ownership if he continues to work until retirement.

Others who did not receive government housing allocations, and those who received allocated housing but wanted more property, had only to apply to the government-run Shuntianfu Land Company to purchase the right to use specific land for a specific number of years, with the maximum period being one hundred years.

This kind of long-term lifelong right of use is actually not much different from personal ownership, but it will ultimately make many people feel uneasy.

If you really want to own land and services that are completely your own, you can only find a way outside the city.

Most of the land outside Shuntian Prefecture still belonged to the king.

They were all confiscated by Zhu Jianxuan after he drove out the Qing ruling group. Later, military settlements and land companies were established to manage them.

These lands are allowed to be sold to the outside world. In theory, anyone can go to the land company to apply to purchase them, but they need to provide the purpose of purchasing the land and a general business plan.

If the land company wanted to rent the land to tenants simply to collect rent, it would not sell it at all.

It was useless for them to get the land because the people around Shuntian Prefecture were all working in the garrisons and land companies, and no one was willing to rent their land.

If the property is used to build various schools, scientific research facilities, sports facilities, entertainment facilities, large parks, holiday estates, airport stations and other industrial facilities, and sufficient property proof is provided, there will be a chance to obtain purchase qualifications.

At the same time, the land company reserves the right of first refusal. If the party fails in business operation or wants to give up, it can only sell it to the land company again and cannot change the use on its own.

According to modern logic, small peasant economy and various industries are not allowed here, and only the tertiary industry can be developed.

If you simply want to build a house, you can apply for purchasing qualifications.

But it can only be purchased in limited areas, and the area closest to Shuntian Prefecture City is also east of Tongzhou City and south of Fangshan City.

At the same time, strict restrictions were imposed on the scale of land purchased and houses built by individuals. Ordinary people could purchase a maximum of 200 square meters of land, and princes could purchase a maximum of 20,000 square meters.

Those who worked in the court already had official housing in the city, and they wanted to build their own houses because they wanted better and bigger ones.

Therefore, the court officials and nobles had little interest in the land and houses in Tongzhou and Fangshan.

It is better to rent land outside the city and build a house than to go to Tongzhou or Fangshan to build a house which is not much bigger than the official one.

If you really want a large manor, you can buy it in your hometown.

Zhu Jianxuan's intention was also very clear. Only those who worked directly for the court could live in the inner city of Shuntian Prefecture, which was closest to their workplace.

Important information and intelligence from the court were also only transmitted within the inner city area to reduce the possibility of leaks.

Only close relatives of the royal family, nobles and senior craftsmen who had made contributions to the country, and bureaucrats who had served the court for their entire lives and had no guilt, had the opportunity to settle down in the outer city area of ​​Shuntian Prefecture and become locals of Shuntian Prefecture.

People who are not related to the central court administrative agencies will not have the opportunity to occupy land and establish properties in the suburbs of Shuntian Prefecture, so as to avoid the rapid expansion of Shuntian Prefecture's urban scale as much as possible.

At the same time, by selling residential land in areas outside Tongzhou and Fangshan, the merchants and migrant workers who were constantly concentrating in the capital were evacuated.

However, Zhu Jianxuan’s true descendants, the new generation of nobles from the former Wu Kingdom and Tiangong Dynasty, and senior bureaucrats serving in the court, must of course be placed in the nearest place.

Therefore, the imperial court basically arranged for them all the things that ordinary people could not obtain.

Cui Guodong now holds the position of governor of the Governor's Office. Naturally, he has the most convenient and highest-level official residence in the inner city at his disposal at any time. Cui Guodong now lives in this house.

He also obtained the most honorable title of Duke outside of the royal family and the vassal states, and naturally he also had a Duke's mansion specially built by the court in the outer city.

After this great war that truly unified the world, Zhu Jianxuan gave them additional land rewards.

Twenty acres of land were allocated to all dukes near the main road outside the city wall near the East Outer City, where they could build their own houses or other facilities.

This piece of land is not large, but it is completely privately owned and is naturally a symbol of status.

At the same time, this kind of land close to the capital can easily generate considerable monetary returns, whether it is rented directly to merchants or used for other operations.

In his hometown, in the southern part of Caozhou Prefecture, Shandong Province, he was also allocated 100 acres of private land.

The North-to-South Water Diversion Project and the Grand Canal water supply trunk lines pass through here, and it is also the location of the central hub of the new Yellow River and northern water network regulation systems.

Relying on its unique water transportation conditions, this area has become the most prosperous place in the heart of the Central Plains, and a huge emerging urban cluster is rapidly taking shape.

The land value here is also increasing, making it very convenient for developing industry and shipping.

Cui Guodong could directly build a large manor here to show his honor and wealth in his hometown, or he could rent it to businessmen to obtain more actual benefits.

In addition, Cui Guodong was allocated 1,000 square kilometers of land, or 1.5 million acres, on the Brazilian Plateau in Linzhou.

Although the Brazilian Plateau is called a plateau, its climate is warm and humid, which is very suitable for agricultural and animal husbandry development.

You can develop and operate it yourself, or directly contract it out to a businessman or rent it out.

In addition, he actually owns one share in Northern Industrial Company and one share in Northern Agriculture and Land Company.

Although the two share ratio figures are very low, the denominator is too large, and he has a small share of the industrial and agricultural income in the northern part of the Ming Dynasty.

This group of people are the original shareholders of the Ming Empire in this new era, so naturally they have both face and substance.

As long as their descendants do not cause trouble, they will all become wealthy and powerful people who will prosper together with the country.

(End of this chapter)