Ming Dynasty: Moral blackmail? I, Emperor Chongzhen, have no morals!

Chapter 93: Confiscating property is the fastest way to acquire wealth.

After the prefect and his entire family of Laizhou were beheaded, the people in the distance who knew what had happened knelt down one after another, shouting "Long live the Emperor!"

"You officials in these seven counties, persuade the people to go back home, and collect the grain as it is due. I promise you, the magistrates of these seven counties will not be allowed to escape!" Zhu Jian said.

The burly man looked embarrassed: "We commoners killed a county magistrate and stole grain from the government treasury to use on our journey to Laizhou."

"Is there no food left to take back now?" Zhu Jian asked.

Yes, yes!

Zhu Jian waved his hand: "I pardon you all. Go back!"

"This humble subject kowtows in gratitude to Your Majesty!" said the burly man along with more than forty other leaders.

In their eyes, their rainy day had finally cleared.

"Issue an imperial edict to Sun Yingyuan, ordering him to arrest the entire families of the county magistrates and assistant magistrates of these seven counties, along with the county constables, yamen runners, and all the local gentry and their families involved in tax collection, and bring them to Laizhou City!"

"yes!"

For Zhu Jian, this matter was not troublesome. Grain allocation, suppression of rebellion, and evidence collection were not his duties. What he did was to make decisions on a whim and directly kill people and confiscate their property.

Because Prosecutor Zhu knew very well that if the punishment was too lenient, the local authorities would not be able to handle it. Only killing people indiscriminately could resolve the matter and deter other places.

Three days later, all the local gentry, their families, the county magistrate, and yamen runners involved in the incident, totaling more than 3,000 people, were escorted to Laiyang Prefecture.

Sun Yingyuan also came before Zhu Jian, clasped his hands in a fist and said, "Your Majesty, some gentry organized their servants to rebel and went to arrest soldiers, killing hundreds of people."

"So be it. The governor's office has already taken stock of the confiscated property in each county, hasn't it?"

"Yes, they're already counting it!"

Zhu Jian nodded slightly: "Tomorrow at noon, take all these people outside the city and behead them."

Sun Yingyuan was taken aback, then cupped his hands in a gesture of respect: "As you command."

More than three thousand people, killed just like that? This shocked Sun Yingyuan.

Most of the gentry in the seven counties of Laiyang and Dengzhou were involved in this incident. Killing these people would not only allow him to confiscate their property and seize their land, which was Zhu Jian's true intention.

With these 150,000 to 160,000 mu of land, grain could be produced three times in two years. Now, due to the reduced production caused by natural disasters, each mu can still produce more than 100 jin of grain, which is nearly 300,000 shi of grain in two years. After deducting the grain needed by the local tenant farmers, half of it would still be left, which would be enough to feed the Dengzhou-Laizhou navy and Dongjiang Town in the future. This is the most important reason why Zhu Jian took such drastic measures: to eliminate the gentry and confiscate their land.

Land annexation is particularly serious in various parts of the Ming Dynasty. These gentry have a lot of farmland, but they do not pay taxes because they have official titles. Meanwhile, ordinary people have little land and no official titles, but they have to pay heavy taxes. This situation would not be balanced in any era, so large-scale banditry will occur.

A few days later, the provincial governor's office reported the spoils of the confiscations in the seven counties to Laiyang Prefecture. Shandong Governor Song Xuezhu, holding the statistical accounts in his hand, frowned slightly: "Only 800,000 taels of silver?"

Confiscating property is a lucrative job; under normal circumstances, you're lucky if you can keep half of it.

"Your Excellency, these people haven't received their salaries for a long time, so they've taken some from inside. We can't just kill them all, can we? Otherwise, the governor's office would be left without anyone!" said a man who appeared to be an advisor to the governor's office.

The advisor's words were quite insightful. Killing someone is easy, but after the killing, who will take care of the work? And who can work for the court without receiving a salary?

This raid was a lucrative operation, and if we didn't take advantage of it to let these constables make some money, they would surely become disloyal in the future. Currently, less than three out of ten officials remain in Laizhou and Dengzhou prefectures, and the governor's office is short-staffed.

"How much did you take?" asked Song Xuezhu, the governor of Shandong, expressionless.

He understood what his advisors were saying, but they were now under the emperor's nose, and there was no guarantee the emperor wouldn't be angered. Just two days ago, the emperor had executed over three thousand people on the banks of the Fu River in Laizhou, and the air still smelled of blood. This made him extremely cautious.

"It's roughly five or six hundred thousand taels of silver!"

"So many?" Song Xuezhu asked, her eyes wide with disbelief.

The advisor nodded emphatically: "That's a conservative estimate! The governor's office, the provincial administration, and the provincial judicial commissioner all need money to maintain themselves. Shandong Province hasn't had any income since last spring. In the past, they could make up for it with salt, but now His Majesty has sent people to keep an eye on the salt..."

Zhu Jian not only exempted Shandong from taxes, but also had the Chongzhou Textile Bureau swallowing up small private businesses in Shandong. These people could originally contribute some commercial tax silver, but after the establishment of the Chongzhou Textile Bureau, because of the exemption of commercial taxes and in-kind cloth, more than 80% of the weavers in Shandong joined the Textile Bureau and wove cloth for it. This made it impossible for the Shandong governor and the provincial administration to intervene, as they could not compete with the Textile Bureau and the Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs in the palace.

Song Xuezhu stood up, put his hands behind his back, and paced back and forth. It was true that money could stump even a hero. He could refuse to take it, but he couldn't ask his subordinates not to either, since everyone had a family waiting to eat.

Seeing Song Xuezhu's anxious and troubled expression, the advisor sighed, "If the Grand Secretary is in such a predicament, should we have them strictly order some of it to be handed over, enough to raise a million taels of silver?"

"Taking 500,000 taels or 300,000 taels is the same, what's the point of handing it over!" Song Xuezhu stopped and said.

After thinking for a moment, Song Xuezhu asked again, "What about real estate, shops, and land?"

"They didn't touch those things. They only took grain, silk, antiques, calligraphy and paintings, and the like," the advisor said truthfully.

A man who can serve as a staff member for a provincial governor must be quite intelligent. Upon hearing that the emperor had established eight mints to unify the minting of silver and gold, he realized that the emperor would target the issue of silver loss due to fire, and that the confiscated loose silver and gold would be what the emperor valued most.

On the contrary, grain, silk, antiques and paintings are all valuable items that need to be passed through several hands before they can be exchanged for silver. Therefore, before confiscating the property, he instructed the yamen runners not to go against the emperor and to reach into the scattered gold and silver.

"Give me the bill, I'm going to see His Majesty!" Song Xuezhu said, grabbing the bill and heading towards the Laizhou government office.

As the emperor's temporary residence and central military camp, the Laizhou Prefectural Government Office was heavily guarded. Upon arriving outside, Song Xuezhu bowed respectfully and instructed the guards at the gate to announce, "Song Xuezhu, the Shandong Governor, requests an audience with His Majesty! Please inform him!"

"His Majesty has decreed that the Shandong Governor may enter directly!" the soldier replied.

Thank you!

Song Xuezhu strode into the mansion, passed through the corridor, and came to Zhu Jian's side. He bowed and said, "Your subject, Song Xuezhu, Governor of Shandong, pays his respects to Your Majesty. Long live Your Majesty!"

"Have you finished the statistics?" Prosecutor Zhu leaned back in his chair and asked softly.

Song Xuezhu bowed even lower, the earthy smell filling his nostrils, his throat bobbing as he reported, "Your Majesty, after deducting the value of houses, shops, and land, a total of 1.4 million taels of silver was confiscated, of which 600,000 taels were used by me to pay the soldiers' salaries!"

Song Xuezhu wanted to take the blame; if the emperor wanted to punish someone, he should be punished. He felt that as an official, he had failed to repay the emperor's favor, failed to care for the people, and had let down his colleagues. He felt he would have no regrets even if he were killed...