Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 450 Zhejiang New Deal
"The head of the household, Zhao Qian, has a household registration of seven people. The original land was 12 acres. Now the average land is 28 acres, and the grain is 28 shi..."

"The head of the household, Wang Mu, has two household registrations. The original land was two acres, but now it is eight acres, and the grain is eight stones..."

"The head of the household, Wu Hui, has one household registration. He originally had no land, but now he has four acres of land and four stones of grain..."

In mid-September, in Jian Town, Yongning County, Ji'an Prefecture, Jiangxi Province, a vigorous land equalization movement is taking place at this moment.

Ji'an Prefecture in Jiangxi Province, as the gathering place for Jiangxi officials, is undoubtedly the place where the most officials have been exiled and the most acres of land have been confiscated.

With the arrival of the New Deal officials, the exiled officials and clerks devolved from the imperial court began to take over the affairs of Ji'an Mansion, the most important of which was the land equalization policy.

With the end of the autumn harvest, those former tenants were reorganized into households and got their own farmland.

Most of the grain they harvested was handed over to the court, and the court issued them rations for the next year.

No one felt uncomfortable with such a policy, because they were all immersed in the joy of suddenly getting equal land.

"Mr. Wang's land is mine now!"

"There are more than 12,576,000 people with more than 42,133,000 acres of cultivated land, including 34,276,000 acres of paddy fields and 290,000 acres of irrigated land. More than 7,000 acres, 7.54 million acres of dry land.”

The New Deal mainly targets the gentry and wealthy households in Jiangxi, but does not target some rich farmers. Moreover, even if it is not targeted, the cultivated land in Jiangxi is definitely not enough to be divided equally among the people.

The New Deal faction is so powerful that if they suppress Western Zhejiang in one fell swoop, then the New Deal faction will really dominate the temple.

"Antique calligraphy and paintings were sent to Beijing for money, and the courtyards were handed over to local officials for sale."

"Pass on my decree, after the twelfth lunar month, recruit 40,000 officials, transfer them to the south to teach, and implement the new policy in Zhejiang!"

Zhu Gaoxu remembered that the last time he inspected the entire territory of Nanzhili, it was found that only more than 10,000 yuan had been spent after the implementation of the New Deal. Looking at Jiangxi now, Zhu Gaoxu didn't know how they had accumulated so much wealth.

"In addition, Jin Yiwei and Xichang also confiscated their properties. There are more than 5,000 houses and villas, more than 69,700 taels of gold, and more than 4,364,900 taels of silver. There are more than 17.7 million guan of copper coins, more than 24.6 million guan of treasure notes, more than 140,000 pieces of antique calligraphy and painting, and more than 3 million shi of grain."

It has to be said that the fastest way to get money is to confiscate homes. Even in the Ming Dynasty before the great voyage, the gentry and wealthy households had a lot of gold and silver.

"Jiangxi's population is still too dense. I'm planning to move the less than three acres of cultivated land per capita to Guizhou. What do you think?"

With his ability, he can stably produce more than ten shi per year from his four acres of paddy field.

Zhu Gaoxu asked Guo Zi, who frowned and said, "Many of the criminals who were previously exiled have not yet arrived at the exile point. Their rations are also a big burden for the imperial court."

It's only October now, and there are still two months left before the twelfth lunar month. Now that we are announcing the implementation time of the New Deal, isn't this a reminder to those guys?
But this confusion didn't last long, and Guo Zi thought of Zhu Gaoxu's meaning.

In just a blink of an eye, this group of farmers who had been encouraged to resist the New Deal now became the New Deal's staunchest supporters.

"With this money, Zhejiang's New Deal can be put on hold."

The hard days are finally over, and all this is thanks to the court's new policy.

"It's time for Zhejiang's officialdom to be reorganized."

"The more than 16 million acres confiscated by the imperial court have been distributed equally to more than 8 million people through word of mouth, and more than 60% of the people in Jiangxi have benefited."

"The reason why it can still be maintained this year is mainly due to the confiscation of part of the land tax on the fields seized this year."

As Zhu Gaoxu spoke, he pushed a memorial to the past. Yishiha handed the memorial to Guo Zi. After reading it, Guo Zi immediately understood Zhu Gaoxu's intention.

In early October, with the complete end of the land equalization movement, Zhu Gaoxu in the Chunhe Hall also received the results of the Jiejin case and the Jiangxi New Deal.

“The population of towns and villages basically meets the standard of four acres per capita, with a small number exceeding it and a small number falling short.”

If he manages it well, he can harvest at least nine dan every year. Excluding his own food rations, he can save at least 6 dan. After selling, he will have enough money, which is almost equal to his efficiency in the past ten years.

Zhu Gaoxu's voice sounded majestic, but Guo Zi was a little confused.

“When there was a major epidemic in Wucheng, Gui’an, and Deqing counties last time, I issued an edict on this matter, asking them to pay close attention to post-disaster management. But now, not only has it failed to contain it, but it has spread to the other five counties, causing more serious deaths and injuries. ”

The people who are most afraid of the exiled people now are not the imperial court, but these farmers who have equalized their fields...

How could such a change make a tenant like him unhappy or unhappy?

Even if he had to pay about 30% of the land tax and exorbitant taxes every year in the past, he could still keep nine shi of food, let alone only collect 10% of the tax now.

Twenty years later, the money he had saved over the years was no more than five guan, and he originally thought that would be it for the rest of his life. However, with the start of the court's land equalization movement, he also got his own land, and it was also a paddy field.

In a few words, Zhu Gaoxu solved the problem of this seizure.

"The treasure banknotes are destroyed, the gold is put into the treasury, and the silver and copper coins are minted into new coins and stored in the treasury."

As a famous bachelor in the town, the thirty-two-year-old Wu Hui grinned. Although he was wearing coarse linen clothes and his whole face was unkempt, he now felt that he was the richest man in the world.

At this point, Guo Zi presented a document: "This is the land tax and grain of the more than 16 million acres of cultivated land seized this year. According to the rules, 50% will be left to the people based on their head count, and the rest will be handed over. A total of more than 1,724,000 stones."

Although he is a bachelor, he is not lazy. He is single only because his family is poor.

In the past twenty years, he has lived as a tenant of Wang Juren in the town. Every year, the fields he manages can produce more than two and a half dan per mu, but the food that belongs to him is only one stone and two bushels.

On the field ridge, thousands of people in Ji'an town excitedly threw themselves on their own fields. From then on, they were no longer tenants, but landowners.

"If we want to relocate the people, I suggest we start next year."

According to the report from Guo Zi, the Minister of Household Affairs, Zhu Gaoxu stood in front of the window with a smile on his face:
"It has been equally distributed to more than eight million people. In other words, there are at least more than eight million people now with four acres of cultivated land per capita?"

"Reporting to Your Highness, that's the case." Guo Zi bowed in response and continued:
"The people of Jiangxi have been registered as household members very quickly. Currently, there are 2.16 million people living in cities, leaving more than 1.4 million people in towns and villages."

[Wuzi, the epidemic occurred in five counties of Yinxian, Congxi, Fenghua, Dinghai, and Xiangshan, Ningbo, Zhejiang, with more than 9,100 men and women dead]

"My field!!"

Compared to the last time when the six prefectures in Jiangdong were thunderous and rainy, Jiangxi can be said to be the representative of silent prosperity.

A temple with only one voice is undoubtedly very scary for those in power.

"I accept the teaching order..."

Guo Zi accepted the teaching order and then slowly exited the Chunhe Hall.

Shortly after his withdrawal, news that Zhejiang was about to implement a new policy began to spread.

Regarding such news, everyone in the temple understood what it meant. The New Dealers were a little uncomfortable, while the Western Zhejiang faction breathed a sigh of relief and hurriedly wrote letters to inform local officials to make early plans.

What they can change is nothing more than land and household registration status, but they cannot change things like years of bad debts and corruption.

All of a sudden, there was an endless stream of officials who self-reported. In October alone, 62 officials with grades above seven were self-reported.

For them, Zhu Gaoxu ransacked their homes but did not exile them.

For this group of people, he could not implicate the nine tribes, and even if they migrated, there would not be many people. His target was always subordinate officials and military households.

Time passed little by little, until the firecrackers went off, and the 14th year of Yongle arrived as scheduled. A large number of graduating students received admission notices from officials based on their grades. Without students in the north to teach, their families began to move south.

On the 16th day of the first lunar month of the 14th year of Yongle, just after the Lantern Festival, Zhu Gaoxu issued a teaching order to the Governor's Mansion of the Sixth Army.

The soldiers from the original 15th Guards and the 4th Post of Zhejiang Dusi were reorganized into three recruited guards and transferred to Daning to guard the border.

The three guards of Daning, Xincheng and Yingzhou under the command of Daning Dusi went south to Zhejiang to change defenses.

In addition, the remaining twelve and four guards of the Zhejiang Dusi were controlled by the two left and right guards of Zhaozhou and the two left and right guards of Jilin who were listening in Beijing. They went to Guangxi to guard the border and changed their nationality.

When the edict was issued, the Four Zhaozhou Guards had already arrived in Zhejiang and began to reorganize the Zhejiang Dusi. Finally, more than 70,000 field guards from the Twelve Guards and Four Divisions were supervised and moved to Guangxi by sea ship.

Behind the 70,000 garrison guards were more than 300,000 relatives and dependents, so this border guarding was nothing more than a migration.

The Tuntian Guards of Zhejiang Dusi had not fought in a war for almost forty years, and their weapons and equipment were left over from the Hongwu period. Therefore, no one dared to resist the supervision of the Zhaozhou Four Guards.

Nearly 400,000 military households were relocated, and counties and towns were established where they were once stationed.

The New Deal officials who arrived first began to appease the people around them and took over the local farmland to continue farming. The 400,000 military households who moved to Guangxi were resettled in Guangxi with 30 guan of money and 40 dan of grain per household, and cattle were distributed.

This migration continued from the 16th day of the first lunar month to March, and the New Deal army from the north also entered Zhejiang, began to inspect the capital of Zhejiang, and implemented the New Deal.

After more than ten years of surviving Jiangdong and Jiangxi, the rest of Zhejiang has come naturally.

Under the organization of the army and tens of thousands of officials, Zhejiang's New Deal began to be implemented, and Guangxi in the south also frequently achieved success.

In mid-July, Duke Muchun of Guizhou and Duke Li Jinglong of Cao put down the Miao Yao rebellion in Datengxia, and the Qi people of Guangxi established their households and measured their land.

The 400,000 migrating military households were settled in the vast land of Guizhong Plain in units of townships and towns, together with the Miao and Yao people who migrated from the mountains. The booklet was also constantly updated and was not delivered until October in winter. Arrive at Zhu Gaoxu's desk.

[Eleven prefectures, 48 ​​prefectures, 50 counties, 524,327 households, 2,464,232 people, 13.76 million cultivated land Five thousand four hundred and twenty-seven acres]

[We seized 7,364 taels of gold, 793,620 taels of silver, 1,754,200 guan of money, and 794,000 dan of grain. One thousand, four hundred and twenty horses, twenty-three thousand seven hundred and fifty cattle, three million seven hundred and fifty-four thousand fields...] "Compared with Jiangxi, the chieftains in Guangxi are really poor."

Taking the memorial, Zhu Gaoxu sighed. After all, judging from the seizures in the memorial, even if 50% was divided equally among the army, the total amount would only be four to five million.

On the other hand, in Jiangxi, after excluding treasures and cultivated land, there is still more than 20 million yuan, which is close to 40% of the Ming Dynasty's fiscal revenue.

"Compared to the 14th year of Hongwu, the population increased by nearly one million, and the cultivated land increased by more than 3 million acres."

After evaluating the situation in Guangxi, Zhu Gaoxu spoke to Yi Shiha:

"He ordered Zhang Fu to attack the British Duke, and granted Zhang Chun the title of Sicheng Bo, Sheng Yong as the Xunzhou Bo, Liu Zhen as the Qingyuan Bo, and Meng Ying as the Baoding Bo..."

"Besides, since Chen Gong attacked the Duke of Jing, Chen Mao must have made great contributions to Ning Yang Bo."

"As for the Duke of Guizhou, Duke Cao, Duke Ying, Marquis of Jiangyin and others, each will be rewarded with a Nanyang Tongshan."

"Each army's officers and men will be rewarded and promoted according to their merits..."

After explaining everything, Zhu Gaoxu rubbed his brow: "Where is Zheng He?"

A month ago, Zheng He crossed the Xiaoxi Ocean and arrived at the Manchuria Customs Office. Now a month later, Zheng He had almost arrived in Guangdong and Guangxi, so Zhu Gaoxu asked specifically.

"Zheng He is now stopping at Jiaozhi and is going to hand over the cinchona bark he brought back to Fu Rang, so that Fu Rang can go deep into Changshan to encircle and suppress the barbarians."

As Yi Shiha explained, Zhu Gaoxu also raised his head and looked at Yi Shiha.

Yishiha is eleven years older than Zhu Gaoxu. Now Zhu Gaoxu is thirty-four, and Yishiha is also forty-five.

The people around him were moving from young to old. Although he was in his prime, he could still feel the passage of time on him.

"The new policies in Zhejiang should be implemented quickly, and then the new policies in Huguang, Guangdong and Fujian should be implemented."

"When the New Deal in Zhejiang and these three places ends, the situation in the court will be clear."

The situation Zhu Gaoxu mentioned was the financial situation under the New Deal system of the Ming Dynasty at this time.

"Your Highness..."

Suddenly, the sound of footsteps came from outside the palace, and the eunuch on duty walked into the palace and bowed: "Huang Fu, Minister of the Ministry of Industry, please see His Highness..."

"Let him come in." Zhu Gaoxu nodded, and the eunuch on duty quickly summoned Huang Fu into the palace.

Huang Fu walked into the hall wearing regular clothes, bowed to Zhu Gaoxu and said:

"The railway survey has been completed, but when the survey reached Beijing, His Majesty issued an order to order officials to survey the railway from Beijing to Daning-Baicheng-Hecheng-Zhenlu."

"Your Highness, look..."

Although Zhu Di is the emperor, Huang Fu should also listen to Zhu Di, but Zhu Di does not understand railways after all, so Huang Fu wants to ask Zhu Gaoxu first.

After hearing this, Zhu Gaoxu smiled and said: "The old man is thinking about building a railway to reach Mobei..."

"You don't need to worry about this matter. I'll just write to the old man later. The railway must be built, but the value of this railway is too low. If it is built now, it will take until the Year of the Monkey to get the money back."

"After the construction of the Beijing-Beijing Railway begins, I will naturally send people to survey a new railway."

After Zhu Gaoxu explained, Huang Fu bowed and said: "I asked people to trial build a mile of railway. The cost is higher than the originally expected 6.3 million guan, and I am afraid it will be around 8 million guan."

Huang Fu told the construction cost, and this cost did not seem to be as high as the five million pounds in the late Qing Dynasty, but considering the price of goods, the actual cost of this railway was not low.

"It must be built no matter how much it costs." Zhu Gaoxu's tone was unquestionable, and Huang Fu also bowed and said:
"The materials should be sufficient. After last year's improvement, it will not be a problem to stock up 30,000 tons of iron materials every year to build the railway. Now as long as enough manpower is invested, the construction can be completed in about five years and three months."

"However, in order to prevent theft of railway tracks, I suggest building warehouses along the route, transporting the materials first, and then mobilizing hundreds of thousands of people at once to build more points, which will not delay the construction period."

The Beijing-Beijing Railway runs from Beijing east to south to Cangzhou, Dezhou, Dongchang, Yanzhou, Xuzhou, Suzhou, Fengyang, Dingyuan, Chuzhou to Jiangpu.

The whole journey crosses the canal twice and the Yellow River once. The canal bridge can be built, but the Yellow River cannot.

The Ming Dynasty did not have the ability to build a bridge on the Yellow River. Although Feng Sheng built a bridge on the Yellow River in Lanzhou, it was only a pontoon bridge and could not pass the train at all. Therefore, in the end, you had to transfer to the South Bank by boat, and take the train from Fengyang from the South Bank. Arrive directly at Jiangpu.

"Eight million strings, completed in five years, will support 1.6 million strings every year..."

Huang Fu naturally knew that the court had searched a lot in the Jie Jin case, but eight million yuan was not a small amount, so he carefully reminded Zhu Gaoxu.

However, Zhu Gaoxu is now rich and powerful, and the investigation of the Jie Jin case is enough for the Ming Dynasty to build four such railways, so he decided to build this railway with a wave of his hand.

At the same time, he also said to Huang Fu:

"In addition to this railway, as the Minister of Industry, what other railways do you think the Ming Dynasty needs to build now?"

"I thought..." Huang Fu seemed to have thought about this problem a long time ago, so he said without thinking:
"The northeast is our granary for the north. It also produces iron and gold. It is natural that we need to build it. But just now, Your Highness, you have made preparations, so I will not worry about it."

"If steam engines can appear in the future, then Chen believes that building a railway south of the Yangtze River will be enough."

"That is the railway from Jiaozhi to Kunming and then to Manmo."

"In addition, in addition to the northeastern railway, the north also needs to build a railway from the capital through Shanxi, directly to Xi'an, and then to Lanzhou."

Huang Fu's thinking was conservative. After all, railways were expensive to build, and the Ming Dynasty did not have the ability to build bridges on the Yellow River, let alone the Yangtze River.

In the event that steam-powered ships may appear in the future, Huang Fu believes that steam-powered ships can be used on both sides of the Yangtze River such as Sichuan, Huguang, and Jiangxi, as well as in coastal provinces.

Only the southwest and northwest, which are not accessible by river, need two railways to deal with local situations.

Although there are only two railways, the cost is not cheap. After all, there are many mountains and rivers along the way, and the cost is probably several times that of the Beijing-Beijing Railway.

These two railways were enough to keep the Ministry of Industry of the Ming Dynasty busy for more than ten years.

"Your idea is good, but it is still too conservative. The northwest railway should not be limited to Lanzhou, but should be built further west to Hami."

Zhu Gaoxu is very satisfied with the southwest railway. The railway from Jiaozhi to western Yunnan will be built. The grain from Jiaozhi can be transported to western Yunnan continuously, while the military industry from the northeast and Jiangnan can be transported to Jiaozhi by sea and by land to western Yunnan. Helped the Ming Dynasty to control the Three Proclamations and Ten Comforts.

But for Northwest, he felt that Huang Fu was too conservative.

Building a railway from Beijing to Datong, Taiyuan, Xi'an, Lanzhou, Suzhou and Hami is something Zhu Gaoxu must do in the next twenty years.

Only if the railway is built in Hami, Zhu Gaoxu can regain the Western Region when the Eastern Chagatai Khan is in civil strife in the future. This is something he can do in his lifetime, and he will naturally not let it go.

Moreover, he could only change the Ming Dynasty, but he could not change the earth. Therefore, the Little Ice Age would still come two hundred years later, and a drought of more than ten years would still break out in the northwest.

Once the northwest railway is completed, the food from the south can be transported to the north and northwest by sea transportation and the Beijing-Beijing Railway. As long as there is no emperor like Wanli who did not even appoint ministers, resulting in a shortage of grassroots officials, these railways will be enough to solve the food problem in the north.

"Your Highness wants to regain the Western Region?"

Huang Fu guessed Zhu Gaoxu's thoughts, and Zhu Gaoxu didn't hide it:
"Yili Li is still loyal to Li at the moment, so naturally I won't take action against them, but being loyal now doesn't mean I'll be loyal in the future."

"We still need to take good precautions against Yili. If we encounter an invasion in the future, we must have the ability to fight back and regain lost ground."

"The Western Region does have vast areas of yellow sand, but it is not without oases."

"With the capabilities of the imperial court, it is completely possible to develop millions of acres of arable land for cultivation in the capital city of Yili, and to rely on railways to feed tens of thousands of troops."

"After the advent of railways, many places will turn waste into treasure. For example, although farming in Mobei is difficult, there are many open-pit minerals."

"In the past, we didn't dig because the cost was too high. But now that we have the railway, if we don't dig, wouldn't it make Oara and Tatar cheaper?"

"Except for Mobei, Nanyang is the same, but it's too early to say this now. You are only fifty-two, and you and I, our rulers and ministers, still have more than ten or twenty years to live. Don't worry, just watch..."

Zhu Gaoxu remembered that Huang Fu seemed to have lived into the Zhengtong period, which was much longer than himself in history.

If Zhu Gaoxu hadn't often asked doctors to check him to make sure he didn't have any hidden diseases, he might not have been able to say this to Huang Fu with confidence.

After all, all his dead bones are gone, and Huang Fu is not even dead.

"I am deeply honored...I resign."

Huang Fu bowed respectfully and saw that Zhu Gaoxu had nothing to say, so he withdrew from Chunhe Hall.

After he left, Zhu Gaoxu also touched his mustache, and then lowered his head to deal with the memorial.

While he was processing the memorial, a fleet thousands of miles away slowly approached a port from the southeast.

From a distance, they saw the plaque hanging at the port in front of them. The three characters "Port of Luzon" made people cry.

Standing on the deck, this group of soldiers wearing mandarin duck jackets had tears in their eyes, while Hong Bao, standing in front of them, breathed a sigh of relief:

"Walked around and finally came back..."

(End of this chapter)