In the Southern Song Dynasty, I competed with Mongolia for the world

Chapter 228
Lin Daguan is Lin Yuanshan, a big landlord in Fuzhou.

The Lin family is the largest landlord in Fuzhou Prefecture. They were the first to smuggle salt. After they had saved up, they started to trade in sea trade. They made more and more money. Then, like many landlords, they started hoarding farmland, and the family’s farmland grew more and more.

In the tenth year of Jiading, the Lin family had 1 mu of land, but now, in less than ten years, the Lin family already owned [-] mu of grain land, more than doubled.

Lin Yuanshan was annoyed when he heard that the land would be measured and taxed again, so he approached Yuan Kui, because it was Yuan Kui who helped him measure and report the 17th year of Jiading.

What he meant was to ask Yuan Kui to report [-] acres and the other [-] acres to help him conceal it. In return, he was willing to give Yuan Kui [-] acres.

That is to say, to conceal one mu and give it to Yiguanhuizi. Yuan Kui was very moved when he heard it.

Because in the 17th year of Jiading, the ratio of court members to copper coins was three to one, and in some places it could even reach 3.5:1.

However, since the imperial court has recycled a large number of old clubs and issued a small number of new clubs this year, the price of clubs has begun to rise slightly.

In the current market, it has reached 2.5:1, and the common people have also seen the appreciation of Huizi and began to agree with Huizi.

Lin Yuanshan wants to give [-] guan, which is close to [-] guan coins, which is a huge sum.

In the past, Yuan Kui dared to take it for himself, and then helped Lin Yuanshan hide it.

But Zhao Yurui's routine is different from before. Four people are required to come to the door together. Yuan Kui has no choice but to know that the other three are all Li Jiwen's people, so he can only come to the door and report to Li Jiwen, hoping to drag Li Jiwen into the water, everyone. Get rich together.

This time the amount was huge, close to [-] copper coins, and all five of them helped out. Except for the security chief below, they had to take care of a small amount, and each of them could get a lot of money.

Li Jiwen gasped when he heard that, and then endless greed flashed in his eyes.

He used to be a small servant, and his monthly salary was less than five guan.

He was promoted to the seventh-rank official through the imperial reorganization, and he had only been in it for a few months. Just last month, he just changed to a new house, and his family ran out of money.

It was really exciting to hear that such a large sum of money could be collected all of a sudden.

Yuan Kui caught Li Jiwen's expression in his eyes, and secretly smiled in his heart, this guy used to be a servant like Lao Tzu, so there is no one who doesn't like money.

However, the monthly salary of a seventh-rank official in the imperial court is still relatively high. Adding up the job field and various benefits, it is estimated to be two to three hundred guan a year, which is about two-thirds of that of a seventh-rank military officer.

Li Jiwen has just become a seventh-rank official. If he is a few more years and his income is high, he may not dare to do this.

Now is the time when Li Jiwen is short of money, Yuan Kui guessed that Li Jiwen couldn't resist.

Li Jiwen was very tangled in his heart and thought for a while. On the one hand, he was thinking that he had finally become a seventh-rank official, and he should abide by his duty, and he must not be greedy for ink. The monthly money for several years is really --- a dilemma.

"What is Mr. Li still thinking about?" Yuan Kui said in a deep voice: "From the founding of the Song Dynasty to the present, the court has reported on average every ten years or so, and the number of grain fields has been reported every time. I have never seen any objection from the imperial court, it is the same from top to bottom, and the whole country is the same."

Li Jiwen's face turned red: "Now that His Majesty has come to power, the methods are different."

"So what? The whole country will do this, everyone is covering up, the law does not blame the public, and the court can't do it."

"That's right." Li Chen, a family member, also said at this time: "I heard that Qian Zhifu's family is also a big landlord in Taizhou, and it is impossible for Qian Zhifu to report as many acres as there are. There are so many honorable clans in the court, who would be honest? report?"

"If the emperor wants to arrest people, first arrest these people."

Wu Guangming said again: "I heard that Master Yan has a relative who owns a thousand acres of land and plans to claim only [-] acres. Master Li, that's what everyone does."

Everyone talked to each other, and Li Jiwen was finally persuaded.

That's right, the whole country does this, why should I be prudish?
In case the Qian Zhifu is also hiding the report, I'm serious, just to offend the Qian Zhifu?

The law does not blame the public, and the emperor cannot punish the crimes of the people of the world.

It is impossible for the emperor to arrest all the landlords and officials in the world, right?
Li Jiwen basically represents 90.00% of the grassroots officials.

The success of the annexation of grain fields by the major dynasties of the past dynasties, and the fact that the North Five Roads were able to conceal hundreds of millions of acres of land in the early Northern Song Dynasty, the credit of these officials is not small.

It is precisely because of their self-serving, colluding with the local powerful landlords, and deceiving the upper and lower together, it is difficult for the imperial court to obtain the real number of grain fields.

So the next day, the four of them started to go to the countryside. First, they called the chiefs of the various places, the chief of the chiefs, and all the chiefs, and then arranged to come to measure them one by one.

The four of them were in charge of the measurement, and the accompanying chief or the elder was responsible for the records. Some of the elders who could not read could just watch from the sidelines. Afterwards, the landlords would give two shi of grain, or several Copper coins were given to the chief guarantors, and many landlords themselves were the chief guarantors, the chief guarantors.

In this way, one by one data began to be collected in the Fuzhou government office.

By the end of August, it had only been implemented for more than a dozen days, and Qian Hongzu, the system envoy, found something was wrong.

The government of Fuzhou is located in Min County. In the past ten days, the large landowners with more than 16 mu in Min County were first measured. After the data came up, compared with the one reported in Jiading in 5, it actually dropped by more than [-] mu.

Generally speaking, the land of ordinary people may change a lot. When life is not easy, they will have to sell their land, but the land of big landlords usually increases every year. How can it be less and less?
Of course Qian Hongzu knew why, Quan Yong told him that when the imperial court did this in Liangjiang Dusi, the result was the same.

He shook his head secretly, knowing that the people below and the tyrants from all over the world were still the same as before, thinking that the court would not take this matter seriously.

At that time, Wang Xianggong (Wang Anshi) was considered very good. He cleared the grain fields of the five northern roads, but it was still nothing. After Wang Anshi stepped down, the court measured the five northern roads again. The number of grain fields decreased every year. Dare to say anything.

"Report, master." At this moment, a servant came in from outside. It turned out that a letter from the Qian family's hometown in Taizhou had arrived.

The imperial court is reorganizing the post station. After bidding, only the Qin family is willing to pay to open Shunfeng Express.

Shunfeng Express is still under construction. At present, the imperial court is still delivering private letters, but after next year, Shunfeng Express may be used instead.

Qian Hongzu opened the letter, and his cousin asked, Liangzhe Road is about to start measuring the land, let us report it, cousin, we underreported a lot, as the chief official of the imperial court, you have to help say hello .

"Grass" Qian Hongzu burst into foul language at that time.

He already knew Quan Yong's routine in Liangjiang, and he knew how serious the consequences would be.

I just didn't expect that the family would underreport.

He immediately wrote a reply letter, and then counted the time. Fuzhou is not close to Taizhou, and he was afraid that the two Zhejiang provinces had already begun: "Hurry up, please send the post to Taizhou in [-] miles."

The local express post company is now under the control of the imperial court, but at present local officials also have part of the management power, so Qian Hongzu can still direct the action.

After the Shunfeng express came out, the express company did not send personal letters, so Qian Hongzu had no choice.

On the same day, he called all the officials of the magistrate's yamen and the Zhizhi envoy to hold a short meeting.

He said something solemnly, but he didn't dare to say it clearly, which means that the imperial court attaches great importance to this measurement, and the officials below must not be favoritism, and they must persuade the landlords to report honestly and not to hide.

However, there was no tradition of holding meetings in the Song Dynasty. During the meeting, many officials were not present, and the questions were all sent to the countryside to measure.

Yang Mude, the general judge of Fuzhou, was transferred from Quanzhou, so he was considered half of the locals.

Yang Mude was anxious when he saw Qian Hongzu, and found Qian Hongzu after the meeting.

He looked around furtively, and finally said in a low voice: "Qian Zhifu, if you conceal the report? What will happen to the court?"

Qian Hongzu was silent for a while, then lowered his voice and said, "We will definitely punish you severely."

He said the last two words emphatically, and the meaning was obvious.

But Yang Mude asked again: "How did the imperial court know to conceal the report? Could it be that Jin Yiwei did this?"

Didn't Jin Yiwei agree that he doesn't care about other things?
"Maozhi (Yang Mude's word) should know that Fuzhou now has Jinyiwei. Feng Tong, the head of the Jinyiwei, said that any local government\government that fails to implement the official documents of the imperial court is under their control."

Yang Mude didn't believe it anymore: "How many people are there in Jinyiwei? Feng Tong seems to have only twenty or thirty people, and he has the power to acquire several million acres of land in Fuzhou?"

There was such a thing in the imperial court before. Some officials wanted to do things seriously and went to the landlord's house to measure.

The landlord's family gathered hundreds of tenants, and when they saw someone coming to the door, they beat them up. The servants were beaten and ran around. There was nothing they could do.

There is no way to sue the prefect or the county magistrate, it is all for the landlord.

Just like in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the imperial court once wanted to collect land taxes from the landlords, and the landlords were able to beat the people who worked in the imperial court into a frenzy, and finally nothing happened.

Yang Mude obviously believed that it was impossible to measure the millions of acres of land in Fuzhou with only a few dozen Jinyiwei. If they dared to come to the door, the landlords would kill them.

At that time, the tenants would disperse in a rush, and the magistrate's yamen would just say that they couldn't find the victim, that they didn't know who beat them, or that the attacker had already run away, and the matter would be settled.

It's been done all over the country before.

Seeing that Yang Mude was still immersed in the good old days, Qian Hongzu didn't know how terrible the current emperor is. He thought that Yang Mude usually respected himself, and finally said solemnly again: "Maozhi didn't participate in these things, did he?" ?”

"Mozhi now earns nearly hundreds of guan every month. A family of four has inexhaustible resources. You are still young and your future is limitless. Don't do anything wrong."

Yang Mude finally changed his face this time, feeling Qian Hongzu's hint.

It turned out that some landowners approached him, willing to pay a lot of money to help conceal the number of grain fields.

Yang Mude thought it was a lot of money at the time, but now that he thinks about it, he earns hundreds of dollars a year, and doing this kind of thing for thousands of dollars is really not worth it.

After Yang Mude went back, he resolutely rejected the landlord, but said that he didn't know about it, and he didn't participate in it. After all, he didn't have to go in person for the measurement.

He neither shielded nor objected, anyway, he pretended not to know.

(End of this chapter)