The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 25 Land Annexation is Too Horrible

The little emperor left the capital without permission!
In the court, many civil and military officials were terrified at the news.

Because there are too many shameful things outside the capital.

Let’s not talk about anything else, just look at the military farms in the capital. Most of them were swallowed up by them!
Shuntian Prefecture was still a border town during the Hongwu Dynasty, and the Prince of Yan was one of the nine frontier kings.

At that time, this place was the site of a fierce battle between the Ming Dynasty and the Northern Yuan Dynasty, and it had already been reduced to devastation.

At the end of the Hongwu reign, during the Jingnan Campaign, this place was devastated and there were no fields left.

When Yongle moved the capital, he mobilized nearly 400,000 troops from 72 garrisons to form the Beijing Camp, and established military farms and garrisons around the capital.

In other words, the areas around the capital were either military farms and horse ranches for the imperial army, or imperial estates and fiefs of dukes and nobles, and there were very few private fields.

However, at this time, most of the military farms and horse ranches in the capital were swallowed up by them, and even a lot of the land of the imperial farm was swallowed up by them.

How could they not be terrified?
Even if the little emperor was blind, he could see that the capital was surrounded by fields and grasslands. Why were the accounts of the Beijing military camp and the imperial farms so small?
This is one of the reasons why after the 18th year of Jiajing, civil officials tried every means to prevent the emperor from leaving the capital.

Because since Yan Song and his son came to power in the 20th year of Jiajing's reign, corruption in the Ming Dynasty court has become increasingly serious, and land annexation has been even more shocking.

In order to suppress the upright officials, Jiajing clearly supported corrupt officials. Not only would the corrupt officials not be punished, they would also be reused.

Anyone who is not greedy is a fool.

It was eventually discovered that Xu Jie, the leader of the Qingliu clan, had annexed hundreds of thousands of acres of land. This shows how terrible land annexation was in the late Jiajing period.

It can be said that the thirty years from the time when Yan Song and his son came to power in the 20th year of the Jiajing reign to the 8th year of the Wanli reign when Zhang Juzheng implemented the land survey regulations were the most serious period of land annexation in the Ming Dynasty.

The land annexed by corrupt officials in the past thirty years exceeds the total amount of the previous hundred years.

From the Hongwu Dynasty to the Wanli Dynasty, no one knows how much farmland was reclaimed in the Ming Dynasty. The farmland in the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty was definitely more than 900 million mu. However, the "Yellow Book of Taxes and Services" only shows more than 300 million mu. This shows how serious the land annexation was.

As for why corrupt officials are keen on annexing land, it is mainly because the annexed fields produce grain every year, and if they work together to speculate, the price of grain will become higher and higher.

In the early Jiajing period, the price of grain in the capital was about one tael of silver per dan. In the middle of the Wanli period, the price of grain in the capital rose to about two taels of silver per dan. By the Chongzhen period, the price of grain in the capital had become more than three taels per dan.

At the end of Chongzhen's reign, the price of grain in the capital reached a terrifying five or six taels per stone!

There is no need to ask why the food prices soared. It was a natural disaster.

In fact, man-made disasters are more terrifying than natural disasters, and the surge in food prices is not caused by natural disasters.

In history, the Kangxi and Qianlong dynasties were also plagued by the Little Ice Age, but the population skyrocketed from more than 20 million to more than 280 million in just a few decades. Moreover, the price of grain did not increase but fell to less than one tael of silver per stone!
The skyrocketing grain prices in the Ming Dynasty since the late Jiajing period were actually the result of artificial speculation. In order to enjoy a life of luxury and extravagance without working, the vested interest groups of civil servants who had annexed a large amount of land deliberately hoarded grain and drove up the price of grain.

Wanli naturally knew the horror of land annexation. It can be said that the Ming Dynasty perished because of land annexation.

The reason why he suddenly ran out of the capital, broke out of the cage and got rid of the shackles was only one reason. On the other hand, it was also to solve the problem of land annexation.

Of course, solving the problem of land annexation is not that simple.

This problem cannot be solved by just leaving Beijing.

He wanted to use the image of an ignorant and rebellious teenager to mess around and fire the first shot to resolve the land annexation.

Just after the hour of Chen, the sun began to rise, and on the pipeline from Deshengmen in the north of the capital to the Wenyu River, the Jinyiwei and the imperial guards formed a long queue of more than ten miles.

The dragon head is Wanli's convoy.

Wanli was like a dragon entering the sea, winding his way north with tens of thousands of Jinyiwei and tens of thousands of imperial guards.

After the convoy passed Anji Bridge, it entered the territory of Changping Prefecture. After passing Chaozong Bridge to the north of Anji Bridge, it was not far from the tombs of emperors after Chengzu.

However, Wanli did not come to pay homage to the imperial mausoleum. The imperial mausoleum was in the northwest direction, but he ordered the convoy to head northeast.

Around 5 p.m., the sun had already set over the mountains in the west. The convoy, which had been traveling all day, finally arrived at the west bank of the Chaobai River in Huairou County, northeast of Beijing.

The location here is quite special because the Chaobai River valley leads directly to the outside of the Great Wall. The northern barbarians often invade from the famous river valley passage Gubeikou, so this place is considered the front line for resisting the invasion of the northern barbarians.

Originally, except for a circle of military farms around the county town, the rest of the place was basically the Beijing Army's horse ranch. This was mainly to prevent the northern barbarians from invading and trampling on all the grain that had been grown with great difficulty.

Now the area here is almost half farmland and half grassland, and many grasslands along the river have been turned into fields.

It is obvious that someone has annexed the grassland used by the Beijing Army to graze horses and use it to grow crops.

As the sun sets, the long line of people and horses finally slowly merges into the camp several miles in the middle of the grassland.

This was the large camp Qi Jiguang had set up by gathering the remaining tents from the Beijing Camp. It could easily accommodate 50,000 men, but the tents were quite worn and many were patched up. Seeing this scene in the setting sun was like being on a battlefield.

Wanli jumped off the carriage, settled Queen Wang and her daughter down, and then mounted his warhorse with a group of princes, nobles and generals, and galloped towards the Chaobai River.

The Chaobai River is one of the sources of water for the North Grand Canal. Going downstream for more than a hundred miles is the starting point of the North Grand Canal, the Tongzhou Canal Wharf.

This place is connected to the Grand Canal, with developed water transportation. To the north is a large valley with a radius of more than 20 miles. Most of the valley is grassland, which is perfect for stationing the Beijing army.

As long as he built a wall around the grassland in the valley under the pretext of building a summer resort, no one would know how many troops the Beijing army had.

More importantly, the Chaobai River originates from the Yanshan Mountains, with dense tributaries, numerous rivers and ponds in the mountains, and abundant water resources. The main river channel is hundreds of feet wide, and because of the large drop in the upper reaches, the water flow is relatively fast in the mountain valleys, which is enough to drive water wheels.

He wanted to station the Beijing army here for training, build water wheels and workshops, and manufacture weapons and equipment.

The key now is the fields on both sides of the Chaobai River.

There shouldn't be any farmland here. If there is, it proves that the powerful officials in the court reclaimed the land from the grassland originally used for horse grazing in the Beijing camp.

As for which powerful people they were, he naturally had some idea in his mind. Luo Sigong recruited so many secret guards not to do anything for nothing.

Wanli looked at the Chaobai River, which was over a hundred feet wide, and then at the neatly arranged fields on both sides. He then asked, "Duke Dingguo, you have always been in charge of the horse ranch in the Beijing camp, right?"

Upon hearing this, Duke Dingguo Xu Wenbi's expression changed slightly.

What does His Majesty mean by this?
He looked at Duke Cheng, Zhu Yingzhen, and Duke Ying, Zhang Yuangong, and thought carefully before explaining through gritted teeth, "Your Majesty, please forgive me. After more than a hundred years of reproduction, our lineage of Duke Ding has grown to over a thousand relatives. Add to that our families and servants, and the population is well over ten thousand. Without land, we can't support them."

The powerful officials in the court are the civil servants and dukes who are in power now or have been in power.

Luo Sigong's preliminary investigation revealed that the situation of princes and nobles annexing land was quite serious, especially the three dukes in the capital who had been in charge of the Five Military Commanderies. Their wealth was among the highest. After confiscating these three families, the total amount of money and grain was definitely five or six million taels.

This may be the fundamental reason why dukes and nobles dare not go against the civil officials. They have become corrupt officials, and the civil officials have leverage over them!

Of course, Wanli did not want to rob the homes of dukes and nobles.

He would never do such a stupid thing. When it comes to the struggle for power, one cannot care about right or wrong. What matters most is what he does that is most beneficial to him.

The dukes, marquises and nobles were in charge of the garrisons in the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty. It was beneficial for him to win over the dukes, marquises and nobles, but it was disadvantageous for him to deal with them.

So, he chose to win over the princes and nobles, it was that simple.

He asked directly, "How much land has your line of Duke Dingguo annexed?"

How do you say this?

Not saying anything or telling lies is deceiving the king.

The question is, can this truth be told?
The facts are before him, so it is better for him not to deceive the emperor. Besides, the emperor doesn't seem to want to punish him.

Duke Dingguo Xu Wenbi secretly glanced at Wanli's expression, then gritted his teeth and said, "Your Majesty, please forgive me. We have annexed hundreds of thousands of acres of land."

This is actually not a lot. After all, they are a family of dukes and nobles that has lasted for more than a hundred years. There are many civil servants who have been in power for more than ten years or even a few years and have swallowed more than them.

The royal family members are even more outrageous. The lands annexed by the feudal princes' lineages that have lasted for hundreds of years are truly terrifying.

Those princes had annexed at least millions of acres of land!

This is also the reason why Prince Lu and Prince Fu asked for millions of acres of land when they became vassal kings in history, because one or two million acres of land was considered small among vassal kings.

The land annexation in the Ming Dynasty was really terrifying. The royal family, the civil service group, the princes and nobles, and even the eunuchs in power in the palace were all frantically annexing land. It was really difficult to solve this problem.

Zhang Juzheng had just started surveying the land and had not had time to deal with the corrupt officials who had annexed the land when he died of an inexplicable illness.

He must learn from this lesson. He cannot kill all these people with one blow. He has to win over and divide a group of them. A strong fortress is usually broken from the inside.

Wanli thought about it carefully, then asked, "Are all the fields in Huairou and Miyun owned by your Dingguo Mansion?"

Duke Dingguo Xu Wenbi shook his head repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty, only a small part of the fields here belong to us."

So, it seems like I can’t just deal with you.

Then let’s do whatever we want!
Wanli thought carefully and then said decisively, "Yingzhen, immediately send a fast rider to convey my oral order. All civil officials above the third rank in the court and all nobles in the capital must rush here before noon tomorrow."

(End of this chapter)