Pingyang Fu of the Red Chamber

Chapter 696: Let the People Suffer Again

Over time,

Into summer,
The daytime hours were much longer, and the Jinling County City in the south of Dawu was still a place of peace and prosperity. Not to mention that after Luo Yunhou's massive hunt, Jinling City had returned to its former prosperity.

As night falls, the moon is as bright as a mirror and the stars are shining.

Thousands of bright lights were lit in every business in the city, like stars dotting the sky.

Along the streets, the bright lights of the shops reflected on the streets and alleys, as colorful as a kaleidoscope. After dinner, the people in the city strolled in the streets and alleys, shouting and hawking one after another.
Many wandering vagrants also performed on the streets to make people laugh and earn some money to supplement their family expenses. The people were not stingy and donated generously.

In Jinling,
Amid the lights of thousands of houses, near the east end of Mirror Lake,
The best house is none other than the Zhen family's large and deep courtyard.

A gentle breeze blew across the lake, creating ripples.

On the east bank of Mirror Lake,

The study room in the Zhen family compound was brightly lit at this moment, and there seemed to be a shadow flashing inside.

Zhen Yingjia, the second master of the Zhen family, was wearing a green silk robe, a wide silver belt around his waist, and a mutton-fat jade pendant. He sat behind the desk with a solemn expression, holding a secret letter in his hand, reading it with a frown, and from time to time he took a brush and drew circles on it, but no one knew what it said.

In the hall,

The eldest of the Zhen family, Zhen Yuandao, was wearing a dark satin jacket, a pair of breeches and fine leather boots. He sat below, impatiently drinking tea, looking at his second brother without saying a word, and asked with a gloomy face;
"Second brother, you have read that letter more than once. What is he talking about? He is just a small inspector. How could he want to do something bad behind our backs and cheat us? I am not making fun of him, but if he really dares to cause trouble for us, he will be punished."

His face was anxious and a little red, and he was still cursing. No one knew what he was anxious about. Zhen Yingjia, who was sitting behind the desk, was still calm. After a while, he put down the brush and the secret letter, looked at his brother's impatient expression, and replied with a smile;

"Brother, please be patient. Everything is under control. This letter is just a stepping stone. When Lord Jing first came, he was the first to visit us. We also gave him enough face. There is nothing to say about this. Reciprocity is the norm.
I thought he was a member of the Li Party and was sent by the Prime Minister to serve in Jiangnan. I paid attention to him and sent a letter to the Northern Prince's Mansion in the capital to ask about the Inspector General Jing Cunliang and the Salt Inspector Wang Mengshan. But the letter I received back said something different. "

Zhen Yingjia shook his head, opened the interlayer at the bottom of the desk, took out another secret letter, and handed it to his eldest brother sitting next to him, asking him to read it.
Zhen Yuandao looked at his second brother speaking mysteriously, put down the tea bowl, reached out to take it, opened the letter and saw that it said that Jing Cunliang, who once followed the eldest son Li Chaosheng, later became a disciple of Prince Zhongshun, and was later appointed as the Inspector General of Jiangnan, responsible for the important matter of converting farmland into mulberry trees.

As for the Salt Inspector Wang Mengshan, it was the same. He was a disciple of Prince Zhongshun. Damn it!

After a closer look, there was no signature, but it was clear enough. The eldest son of the Zhen family quickly folded the letter and put it back, cursing;
"He is not a man at all. He actually joined the Zhongshun Palace and wants to use the Li Party as an excuse to attack us. Who does he think he is? No, we need to teach him a lesson. Second brother, what do you think?"

The eldest brother complained for a while, but his eyes couldn't help but look at his second brother again. He was still the one in charge of the Zhen family. There were some things that he couldn't handle now.

Zhen Yingjia fiddled with the letter for a while, took it, sorted it out, and put it back where it was, smiling. Nowadays, the best farmland in Jiangnan is in the hands of these aristocratic families, and the rest is occupied and divided up by those aristocratic families. The rest of the scraps are for the peasants. Even if those people are hardworking, they can only have enough food and drink to eat and not starve to death. In bad years, they still have to sell their children.

As for converting farmland into mulberry trees, the court's idea is a good one. With more raw silk, the additional looms in the weaving factory will be put to good use. However, now we are worried that the weaving factory will not be able to be saved. The current director of the manufacturing bureau is named Qin, and he used to be a retainer of the Zhen family. If the inspector really takes action, he can only send a scapegoat.

As for the rest, we will start to convert half of the farmland in the mansion into mulberry fields. If the weaving bureau does not have enough raw silk, we will have to buy it. In the end, we will still have to ask them for help. Even if Shen Wanhe is so powerful, a good cook cannot cook without rice.
"Brother, please be patient. Jing Cunliang and Wang Mengshan must have been approved by His Majesty to take up such an important position in Jingnan. As the saying goes, a new official starts with three fires. The first fire cannot be set on us. We need to guide them and make the fire burn brighter, so that Lord Jing will know our good intentions."

Zhen Yingjia thought about the Suzhou Weaving Bureau, the power of the Eastern Palace, and even more about the court. The Li Party had disappeared, but Lu Ge Lao was still leading the Jiangnan literary world. These were all worth thinking about.
The Weaving Bureau was too hot to handle. Although the official in charge, Qin Sheng, was one of my own, the business of the Weaving Bureau was controlled by the wealthy Jiangnan businessman Shen Wanhe. This man had a close relationship with the Imperial Household Department and was very involved. I was very careful with him.

In this case, the chess piece must be abandoned. I wonder what General Jiao of the Jiangnan camp would think.

"What, second brother? You actually want to give up the weaving bureau. Although we don't run it, we can use it to weave 10,000 rolls of brocade every year. That's a lot of money. You say you want to give it up, so give it up. But do you want us to pay for the supplies in the north?"

The eldest brother Zhen Yuandao could no longer sit still, he stood up and asked anxiously, these 10,000 rolls of cloth were almost given to the Zhen family for free, the raw silk was all produced from the Zhen family's mulberry fields, and it would take a month to weave it after being transported to the weaving bureau, and it wouldn't cost much money to bribe people, so it was almost free, if the official in charge was replaced, would Shen Wanhe still be so easy to talk to? Even the Jiao family would probably not give face to the Zhen family anymore.

He stood up angrily, walked back and forth a few steps, panting a little, then took back the tea bowl and drank a few mouthfuls. Only Zhen Yingjia behind the desk had a gloomy face. He thought carefully. The official appointed by the capital this time was really strange. Jing Cunliang was a member of the Li Party, a leader of the younger generation. The leader, the eldest son Li Chaosheng, used to think highly of him. Why did he join the Zhongshun Palace? This was really unworthy of him.
another,
He was the Imperial Censor of Salt in Jiangnan, originally held by Lin Ruhai. Unfortunately, God was jealous of his talent, and he died tragically in Yangzhou. Later, he was killed by Luo Yunhou. After a few days of peace, Wang Mengshan came again. This Wang Mengshan also has the surname Wang. He couldn't be a member of the Wang family that was exterminated? After thinking about it, it shouldn't be. The court would have thought of this, but there were still some doubts in their hearts. It is better to be cautious in everything. The character Wang in the Wang family cannot be written in other strokes. How could it be such a coincidence!

"Brother, if you want to spend more money, just spend more. There are undercurrents in Jinling City right now. Many people are trying to test the waters. Jing Cunliang and Wang Mengshan are not good men and women. The local prefects and county magistrates are not just sitting there and watching. So let's take a step back and let them come out and fight. Once the water is muddied, we can fish in troubled waters. The East Palace, the North Palace, the Li Party, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs have all come. Now the Zhongshun Palace has come. Jiangnan is bustling."

"How could this happen? They are just too full and have nothing better to do. Damn it, all the silver is thrown away. Who wouldn't feel bad? What about the head of the weaving bureau? After all, he has been with us for so many years."

Although Zhen Yuandao is greedy, the major events in the mansion all revolve around his second brother. Now Jiangnan seems to be peaceful, but if you say this, it is dangerous. It is just a waste of time. There is only so much silver, and if there are too many people eating it, they need to rob it, and whoever grabs it will own it.

"We don't need to do anything. Send someone to the Inspector General's Mansion to pass on a message that our Zhen family has paid a lot of taxes this year, and we can exchange it for raw silk tax silver. The Weaving Bureau will be given to you to start the fire. Burn the account books between the Qin family and our mansion, but don't burn the account books for the government office. Give them to the Inspector General."

The kind-hearted second wife of the Zhen family actually spoke about the ruined family so naturally that the eldest brother standing at the table felt cold all over.

"Second brother, you are killing someone with a borrowed knife, it's too cruel, Jing Cunliang will definitely kill the chicken to scare the monkey, the Qin family will be in great danger."

"Yes, it's dangerous, but he is just a pawn. Saving his life is fine, but confiscating his property is also a last resort. After all, Lord Jing still needs money to do things." Zhen Yingjia shook his head. This was also helpless. If he wanted to break the situation, he had to break one point first. This point could not be started from his own side. He could only start from unimportant places, such as changing fields to mulberry trees. It was not to increase the output of raw silk, so that the weaving bureau could produce more brocade. If he didn't get out of it, he would be stuck.

"Brother, we still need your people to go there for this matter. The looms that the Ministry of Internal Affairs sent from the Ministry of Works have been unloaded, which means time is very urgent. Lord Jing will definitely take action, so time is short and you need to act quickly."

"Got it, second brother. Big brother has agreed to this matter. There seems to be a small box in the account book. Speaking of which, we haven't given Lord Jing a gift yet when he takes up his post. Let's send him a gift now. Qiao Hongyue happened to be back from the north, so let him do it."

Zhen Yuandao took on a lot of responsibilities and had no ability to handle serious matters, but he was the best at these dirty things, especially the Chamber of Commerce's head treasury manager Qiao Hongyue, who was well versed in this.

"Oh. Qiao Hongyue is back. That's good too. He who is capable should do more work. Let him go to the Inspector General's Office again and give a gift to Lord Jing."

Zhen Yingjia thought about it and felt that he was not sure about other people doing the work, so he needed his own people to do it. He glanced at his elder brother and quickly asked someone to find the account books. He picked out the account books, packed a small box again, and took some silver to pack two boxes, put them together, and asked Qiao Hongyue to take the servants to guard the house, and went to the street in the night.

Go to the residence of the Inspector General.

At this time, in the inspector's office,
The lights were still brightly on, and the officials in charge of various departments were still in the lobby of the yamen, with their men, checking the number of acres of farmland in the south of the Yangtze River to see how many there were and how much needed to be reclaimed. After just a few days, the number of acres of farmland counted was not a small one, but they were all in the names of aristocratic gentry and noble families. The actual number of acres of farmland was less than half. If the remaining land was converted into mulberry trees, this year's grain production would be gone.

Lord Jing Cunliang, with a gloomy face, was wearing a brand new official robe, spotless, with a pointed chin and a beard. He sat on the high platform of the government office, looking at the half-counted fertile land in front of him, a full 500,000 mu of excellent paddy fields. What a pity,

I thought I would get a good job in Jiangnan, but I didn't expect that I would run into a huge problem at the first thing. Half of the farmland in Jiangnan was in the hands of gentry, powerful people, and noble families. The only farmland the common people had needed to pay taxes to the court. With this calculation, let alone increasing the output of raw silk, it was not certain that they could even maintain the output of raw silk as last year.

Looking at the officials still busy below, he asked;
"Everyone, is this clear?"

"My Lord, we have made a preliminary calculation. In Jinling alone, there are 500,000 mu of high-quality paddy fields and 1.5 million mu of low-quality paddy fields. The same is true in Suzhou, Yangzhou and other places. There are also 500,000 mu of good farmland in the south of the Yangtze River."

A very capable counselor was reporting on the hard work of the past few days. The entire government office, including the chief officer, counselors, and many county yamen chief clerks, lived and ate in the government office to calculate the number of acres of land. Finally, the number was roughly correct.
"Okay, that's a good calculation. How many acres can the court collect taxes on?"

Jing Cunliang was also very surprised. It was indeed an important place in Jiangnan. All the fertile land in the world was here. With such a scale, any tax would be more than enough. If the production of raw silk was to be doubled, the production of mulberry fields would also have to be doubled.
With this calculation, the remaining acres of land would be enough to hand over grain to the court.

"this,."

suddenly,

Almost all the officials in the hall lowered their heads and dared not speak. How could these petty officials and clerks who had worked for a lifetime not know about the affairs of Jiangnan?
But this scene made Jing Cunliang's still warm heart feel like a bucket of cold water was poured on it, freezing his whole body. His face was ugly, like a ghost, and he shouted harshly,

"Tell me, the court, how much land can be taxed?"

"Your Excellency, I have just checked the land registration in Jinling City. Of the 2.1 million acres of good farmland, only less than 800,000 acres can be taxed. There is not even one acre of top-quality paddy fields. Only 800,000 acres of good farmland can be taxed. Many of the land is taxed, and there are many candidates and officials among them. The actual amount that can be taxed is less than 700,000 acres."

The head of the hall wiped the sweat off his face. These things were almost obvious. Everyone in Jinling City in the south of the Yangtze River knew that the best paddy fields near the banks of the canal were owned by someone.

Only Jing Cunliang, with a pale face, as if his father had died, muttered to himself;

"How could this be? I remember when the Emperor was retired, there were 600,000 acres of land registered, and more than 500,000 acres could be taxed. Now that so many acres have been added, less than half of them can be taxed. How can we accomplish what Your Majesty has entrusted us with?"

Although the voice was small, it was particularly clear in the silent government office. Everyone lowered their heads and dared not speak. As the saying goes, when gods fight, mortals suffer. They, the petty officials, were even more afraid of being implicated and bringing disaster upon themselves.

The master wiped the sweat from his forehead and said;

"Sir, most of the remaining land will be used to grow crops. Only less than 110,000 acres of good land are mulberry fields. Originally, the tax collection was basically able to maintain a balance. If you want to double the silk production, you need to at least double the mulberry fields. If you want to be safe, you need to add a little more. In this way, you will need more than 220,000 acres of mulberry fields. If this is the case, the autumn harvest will not be enough for the court, unless, unless..."

The chief suddenly felt regretful. How could he say such a thing that would damage his virtue and cut off his descendants? If it got out, how could he stay in Jinling City? He stopped talking immediately, but how could Jing Cunliang let him go? He came to Jiangnan where he was unfamiliar with the place, so he specially followed the method of the eldest son Li Chaosheng and summoned capable officials from all over the country to his side, so as to ensure that he would understand the situation in Jiangnan. As expected,
"Why are you hesitating? Hurry up and say it."

"Yes, sir. What I mean is that we need to open up wasteland outside Jinling City, increase the number of acres of land, and replant the lost grain. In this way, when the autumn harvest comes, the grain harvested will not change, and it will be in line with the court's instructions."

The person in charge spoke quickly, but changed his tone immediately. What he originally wanted to say about increasing taxes was changed to increasing the acreage of farmland. As long as the government was willing, they could reclaim wasteland. However, this method was difficult to implement. The nobles might not agree, and the common people did not have the ability to go. If things went wrong, they would lose both their land and their wealth. The method had been put forward, but whether to do it or not was up to the adults.

Jing Cunliang stood up and paced back and forth behind the desk. Thinking about it, it was true. The amount of losses should be compensated, but the number of people who could be reclaimed was relative. Most of those refugees were sold outside the Great Wall by the evil spirits in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Even if there were people to reclaim the land, the government would still need to pay silver and money. Not to mention the time, it might not be effective. As for those aristocratic families, Jing Cunliang did not take them seriously. Now, he had the imperial edict and the seal of the cabinet.

No one wanted to stop himself, except he didn't want to be an official anymore.

"What you said is a method, but this way, not only will it cost the court money, but it may not be effective if it is delayed for too long. Besides, the best farmland has been cultivated. If we want to increase the remaining land, we need to go further, and the water source problem cannot be solved. Therefore, if we want to complete the court's work, we need to make the people suffer more. This year, we will increase taxes by 20%. In this way, the grain collected will be more than enough."

In fact, the grain produced by the farmland in Jiangnan is more than that in other provinces, so a 10% tax increase would be enough. Unfortunately, officials always have to consider their official hats. What if they encounter a disaster year? So Jing Cunliang asked for 20% right away.
The people below couldn't believe it and wondered what to do.
(End of this chapter)