Early Ming Dynasty: Turning Clouds and Rains into New Learning Saints

Chapter 150 Zhu Yuanzhang's thoughts
This issue is actually a development issue.

If the court really implements this policy, as the population grows, the number of grain fields per capita will definitely become less and less, but when it falls below a certain red line, a hunger crisis will still break out.

Therefore, the court must ensure that such a thing cannot happen.Then there are two solutions.

The first is to relocate the population and reduce the number of people sharing local grain fields.

The second method is to increase the number of grain fields. After clearing up wasteland, we can only expand the territory.

Of course, there is a third method, which is to increase the yield per mu to lower the hunger red line.However, in ancient times, it was not as direct as the first two.The third type can be used as a supplement.

Zhang Yifan did not need to explain this matter to the people of Xiangshan County, because there was no such possibility.

At this time, Zhang Yifan was still explaining this policy: "If someone doesn't want to farm and feels that he can make more money and live a better life by doing other things, then he can sublet the grain field to others, but he can't do it himself. At that time, you still have to bear the rent paid to the government, that is, taxes. After the use period of the grain fields is up, the grain fields still have to be taken back and redistributed. "

After saying this, he raised his voice and emphasized: "Therefore, in the next time, you must complete the county's household registration and grain field measurement as soon as possible. You are limited to complete this matter within one month. Retreat!"

After finishing speaking, Zhang Yifan was stunned, announcing the end of the meeting, and turned around to go to the Yamen.

Seeing the county magistrate's consort leaving, the people in the county government hall immediately started talking.

The new policy that the Prince Consort is going to implement in Xiangshan County is really unheard of and cannot be discussed without discussion.

Zhu Wu, of course, followed Zhang Yifan and transferred to the back office. He was also thinking about the matter that the prince-in-law had done, and said with a little worry: "My prince-in-law, will this matter cause civil unrest?"

All grain fields must be owned by the government. This is what worries him the most.

After hearing this, Zhang Yifan turned to look at him and immediately said with a smile: "It's hard to say in other places, but it is absolutely no problem in Xiangshan County."

At this point, he said with emotion: "Thanks to that big fat man!"

Upon hearing this, Zhu Wu thought for a moment and understood the trick. He couldn't help but look at the consort's back with admiration.

If in other places, there are all kinds of powerful squires, or even officials or relatives of the emperor, it is really impossible to spit out the large amounts of grain fields in their hands.

After all, for people of this era, nothing is as important as grain fields.

However, in Xiangshan County, Ma Ruhai and the people with him used clever plunder and plunder, and after years of hard work, almost all the good land in Xiangshan County was under their name.

Most of the people in Xiangshan became their tenants and worked hard for them.Only a small number of people who are often hit by disasters, and what they look down on, belong to other people.But these people are often paid the taxes that originally belonged to Ma Ruhai and others, which can be described as miserable.

Now, with Ma Ruhai and his accomplices being caught committing crimes, most of the grain fields in Xiangshan County have been confiscated and turned into official fields.

Zhang Yifan's policy, because of this matter, the biggest resistance is gone.

Now, because of his noble status, the emperor has given him the greatest power, and it is not under the control of the local government. He is allowed to do whatever he wants in this one-third of an acre of land, and then he has the greatest reliance.

In addition, confiscating the money of Ma Ruhai and his accomplices is one of Zhang Yifan's greatest confidences in implementing a series of policies.

If you have money in your hands, you can do things without panic!
To a certain extent, this Ma Ruhai really helped Zhang Yifan a lot!
The reform of household registration will also allow Zhang Yifan to gain support from many people.Especially those whose jobs were originally lowly, would be grateful to Zhang Yifan.

Zhang Yifan asked Zhu Jingjing to write a memorial about his situation and immediately sent it to the capital; at the same time, he also devoted himself to the work of household registration and grain field measurement.

………………

Five days later, in the Wuying Hall of the Forbidden City in Nanjing, Zhu Yuanzhang asked the eunuch on duty to pass the memorial that was directly delivered to him to Prince Zhu Biao, and then asked: "What do you think of this kid's troubles?"

At this time, there were no foreign ministers in Wuying Hall, so he could speak as he pleased.

The things Zhang Yifan did, such as taking the grain fields into government ownership and then distributing them, were not included in the original memorial.

Zhu Biao looked at the memorial, frowned and thought for a while, then answered Zhu Yuanzhang: "Father, Yifan is taking advantage of the situation and doing it conveniently. I think you can give it a try."

"Well, please tell me more specifically!" Zhu Yuanzhang put down other matters, leaned back on the dragon chair, found a comfortable position, and looked at his successor and said.

Zhu Biao listened and replied seriously: "Generally speaking, the difficulty in government governance is the difficulty of collecting taxes, which includes hidden fields and hidden households. Now, Yifan's approach can put an end to hidden fields and hidden households." household!"

At this point, when he saw Zhu Yuanzhang wanting to speak, he knew what Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to say, and immediately continued: "It is true that Xiangshan County is relatively remote and there are no tax-free grain fields. However, I think Yifan Even if it exists, it can be dealt with in this way. Then, the rent of tax-free grain fields, that is, taxes, will be exempted. The advantage of this approach is that the amount of these exemptions can be checked with the Ministry of Household Affairs to avoid Consecrate Hidden Damage!"

After Zhu Yuanzhang heard this, he stopped talking and just nodded, indicating to his son to continue.

When Zhu Biao saw it, he frowned again and said, "I can't understand the labor aspect. According to Yifan's method, the government will spend a lot of money. Where does this money come from?"

After a pause, he added: "Even with the land tax, according to his method, it will be much more than before. But I think that the extra part is still not enough to offset the cost of hiring substitute labor!"

After Zhu Yuanzhang heard this, he reminded: "This guy asked for the establishment of a cement workshop in the memorial!"

"Even if we set up a cement workshop in Xiangshan County, I'm afraid the income won't be enough for expenditure." After hearing this, Zhu Biao shook his head and said, "Yifan said, the coastal areas are seriously affected by wind and floods, so we need a lot of cement, but this According to his wishes, the money also needs to be provided by the government.”

Zhu Yuanzhang listened, thought for a moment, nodded and said: "It's really not enough. Anyway, let him work on that one-third of an acre. If he asks for more money, he won't have it. Let's see, he can finally get enough money." What a look!"

Generally speaking, Zhu Yuanzhang still meant that, and he designated that remote place for you to play in. You can play in any way you like. However, it is impossible to use resources from outside Xiangshan County to embellish your achievements in Xiangshan County.

His purpose is to test whether those policies are effective, not to add political achievements to your consort!

As for the appointment of people in Xiangshan County, neither Zhu Yuanzhang nor Zhu Biao paid any attention to it and just let him do whatever he wanted.

At this time, Zhu Biao added: "Yifan also mentioned in the memorial that he sent a letter to his fourth brother, inviting him to go fight pirates with him."

"It doesn't matter!" Zhu Yuanzhang said nonchalantly after hearing this, "Whether it's fighting Japanese pirates or suppressing pirates, let the fourth child decide for himself. If he wants to go, he can go, and if he doesn't go, he won't go. It's all within the scope of his responsibilities."

Having said this, he paused and said: "It will take three years to see what he can do! The follow-up to the field matter will also have to wait and see what he does." The things in that memorial are all just The household registration matter has been announced, and other things have not been said yet. Just watch what he does!

Zhu Biao understood what his father meant. At the same time, he was also curious. Let's wait and see what happens!

………………

In Xiangshan County, following the announcement of the policy, it immediately attracted huge attention.

For example, after hearing about it, people from Panyu County next door came to Xiangshan County to inquire about the situation.

Household registration was reformed, grain fields were returned to the public, everyone was guaranteed to receive grain fields, labor was abolished and employment laws were adopted, etc.

Not to mention that ordinary people were inexplicably shocked by these innovations. Even Daotong, the magistrate of Panyu County, did not speak for a long time when he heard about it.

Then, a series of troubles came to him.

What's the trouble?
Even those with low-level status, and even those with no low-level status, also ran away and went to Xiangshan County next door.

These are actually not bad, they are all registered with household registration, and once the paperwork is completed, Xiangshan County will repatriate them.

The key is that many squires originally had hermit households in their homes. After these people heard about the situation in Xiangshan County, they ran away and went to Xiangshan County and said that they were hermit households hiding in the mountains and now they are not hermit households. Now, if you want to be a citizen of Xiangshan County, it doesn't matter if you become a lowly registered citizen first. Anyway, the penalty for hiding a household is not severe, and you can change your registered permanent residence later.Besides, humble status also comes with grain and land.

For these people, if there is no official household registration certificate, those who run away will not come back!
However, it is impossible for those squires to suffer the consequences of being dumb and find reasons to put pressure on Dao Tong.

For example, if you bribe the county government and forge documents to say that the escaped hermit is their slave, then you have reason to recover him.

However, Yinhu who escaped would definitely not do it and just cry out for injustice.

Although the people of Xiangshan County definitely don't want those hermits to come and share their grain fields with them, Zhang Yifan is willing!

Only when the population under the rule is large can the economy of Xiangshan County be developed. Only with people can everything be possible.

As a result, Daotong was a little bit miserable.

Zhang Yifan is the consort of the county magistrate, and he is in his hands. He decides the case. How to fight this lawsuit?
There were many such things, and Daotong also discovered something fishy. After investigation, it was found that his people violated laws and disciplines. According to his temper, he would definitely deal with it ruthlessly.

But then, those squires quit.In particular, one of the squires surnamed Huang married a daughter to Marquis Yongjia. When he went to Marquis Yongjia to tell him, Marquis Yongjia would not be able to cause trouble for his consort, but he could trouble Tao Tong.

I really put Dao Tong into trouble!

Zhang Yifan could not know immediately about these matters outside Xiangshan County, nor would he reach out to take care of them. That was beyond his authority.He is busy enough just by focusing on his own affairs.

The one-month deadline has not yet come, and the results of the county's household registration and grain field measurement have been completed.

Good guy, the population of Xiangshan County has tripled.Grain fields have also doubled.

In fact, the population is understandable. It was mobile and difficult to control before, but now it is attracted back by the land allocation!However, the grain fields have doubled, which only shows that Ma Ruhai and his associates were too greedy!

At this time, Zhang Yifan's memorial also received a reply.

According to the decree of Emperor Hongwu, 80.00% of Ma Ruhai and his accomplices were sentenced to death.Others were sent to the army and sent to the southwest.Of course, the leader, Ma Ruhai, will be beheaded.

This scene was so bloody that Zhang Yifan happened to be ill one day, so he had Zhang Sanjian, who had removed the word "temporary generation", behead him.

He was hiding in the county government office, calculating the county's population and grain fields, and preparing for the next step of announcing the plan.

"Brother Fan, it's so lively. It would be a pity not to go!" Erniu hurried in. Seeing Zhang Yifan writing something with a quill, he couldn't help but said excitedly, "Almost all the people in the county are here. Tsk, tsk, help. The old and the young are all talking about the consort Qingtian!"

The noise outside was so loud that even if it was a little far away from the county government office, one could still hear the noise coming in waves.If you didn’t know better, you would have thought there was some kind of competition going on!

Zhang Yifan raised his head, listened attentively, and said to Erniu with a smile: "You can go if you want to, or come with me to do arithmetic!"

As soon as Erniu heard this, he jumped back and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Zhu Jingjing brought a plate of peeled and nodular sugar cane to Zhang Yifan and said with a smile: "I didn't expect Brother Fan to be so kind-hearted!"

"Haha, I'm just a coward, I don't want to see blood!" Zhang Yifan replied with a smile, not caring about exposing his shortcomings in front of his wife.

Then he threw the quill on the table, stretched and said, "This situation is a bit difficult. We need to hold a training class!"

"What?" Zhu Jingjing listened and couldn't understand for a moment. She reached out and handed over a towel to Zhang Yifan to wipe his hands, and asked doubtfully.

Zhang Yifan took the towel, wiped his hands, and said with a smile: "There are too many illiterates, and they can't even do the arithmetic of addition, subtraction, and subtraction. This won't work!"

There are very few people in Xiangshan County who have not been dragged into the trap by Ma Ruhai and who can read and write. They are all employed as clerks and officials, which is actually not enough.Otherwise, it would only be one county, and it would not take that long to register household registration and measure land.

Others don't tell me, but Zhang San, who became a classic, doesn't know how to read.It's a shame that he was asked to supervise the beheading. Otherwise, he would have to write something, and he would definitely be dumbfounded.

In the next New Deal, people need to be literate and able to write and calculate more.

"Brother Fan, there should be some people in the county who can read and write, such as some women." Zhu Jingjing reminded with her big eyes blinking.

As for herself, and Qiu Ju, they have already been sharing some clerical work for Zhang Yifan.

Zhang Yifan felt moved after hearing this.

　Ask for support!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)