The room goes through the late Ming Dynasty, and the back door leads to North America at the beginni

Two days after Liu Sheng held a meeting in Tianxin Hall, the Da'ei imperial court officially issued the "Qingtian Order" and "Census Order".

At the same time, work teams were dispatched to each state capital in the southern and northern Zhili provinces to conduct a land survey and conduct a population census.

The gentry and landowners in Southern Zhili were the first to learn of the news, and there was an undercurrent in all the state capitals...
Ningguo Mansion, Ningguo County.

In the south of the county seat, there is a large Jia family, a well-known gentry and big landowner in Ningguo Mansion.

It is said that my ancestor had something to do with Jia Sidao, the traitorous prime minister of the Southern Song Dynasty.

During the Yongle period of the pre-Ming Dynasty, someone from the Jia family became an official. It has been passed down to more than ten generations. I dare not say that every generation has someone becoming an official. On average, one person will be an official every two or three generations.

Although the ranks of the officials are not too high, the one with the highest official position is a fourth-rank prefect.

But from generation to generation, a considerable family fortune has been accumulated.

Nowadays, the Jia family not only has more than 20 shops all over southern Zhili, but also has several workshops in Ningguo County.

However, Jia's shop and workshop are not large in scale, so the family's main industry is still fields.

More than ten generations have accumulated land through various means. Now the Jia family has nearly 100,000 acres of paddy fields, dry land, and forest land!

Not only is he the largest landowner in Ningguo County, he is also ranked among the top ten among all the landowners in Ningguo Mansion!
The current head of the Jia family, Jia Jun, was a member of the former Ming Dynasty.

But he was already in his forties when he was elected, and he was elected ten years after Chongzhen.

At that time, the Ming Dynasty was already in turmoil, so Jia Jun worked as a county magistrate in Jiangbei for two years and made some money before resigning and returning to his hometown.

He said he hated the darkness of officialdom, but in fact he was afraid that the place where he worked would be captured by bandits, and he died along with it.

Although the dynasty has changed, the Jia family is still considered a family of officials. Although they have no connections at the top of the Damei court, they do have some connections at the state level.

After the imperial court's order to clear the land was issued, the Jia family heard the news before the relevant work team entered Ningguo Mansion.

So he quickly invited the heads of the two in-laws, the Xue family and the Wang family, who were both in Ningguo Mansion, to their home to discuss countermeasures.

Although the heads of the Xue and Wang families are a few years older than Jia Jun, they were only scholars in the previous Ming Dynasty. They had never won the imperial examination, let alone been an official. Therefore, the small circles of the three families are now dominated by Jia Jun.

After hearing the news, the two people rushed over immediately.

After the pretty maid served tea and the three of them chatted for a while, Wang Chongwen, the head of the Wang family, couldn't help but ask: "Brother Jia, is the incident about the Qingtian Order true? Why haven't you heard anything about it before?"

Jia Jun: "A few years after the founding of the People's Republic of China, when the new policy was to be implemented, when did the news come out many days in advance like it did tomorrow?"

"The reason why I was able to get the news about Qingtian Order this time is because the imperial court has no intention of keeping it secret."

"Even so, we don't have much time left now - Ningguo is too close to Nanjing. It is estimated that the work team will arrive in a day or two."

Hearing this, Xue and Wang became even more worried.

The three Gein families all have many hidden fields.

The so-called hidden fields are fields hidden from the records of the official fish scale atlas.

For ordinary people, if they have hidden farmland, it basically comes from land reclamation.

Most of the time, land reclamation is encouraged in the Qing Dynasty, but there are also restrictions - you must apply to the government to obtain the qualifications for land reclamation, and you cannot be allowed to open up wasteland indiscriminately.

Generally speaking, in order to encourage reclamation, newly cultivated fields are exempt from tax for the first two, three or even five years.

But you will have to pay taxes after five years.

In addition, the common people are afraid of the government, and they have to peel off a layer of skin when going to the government to report for land reclamation, or they simply do not know that they need to report for land reclamation, so they treat the newly reclaimed fields as hidden fields for cultivation until one day something happens. There is a high probability that the land will be plundered by officials and gentry.

For large landowners, especially those with official connections, the hidden fields were mainly due to the collusion between the government and the people. Through legal or illegal land transactions, some of the fields that originally existed in the fish scale album were hidden.

Apparently it has become a wasteland, or it may still be in the home of an ordinary person.

But it is actually owned by this big landowner.

Yintian doesn't have to pay a penny of taxes. At most, he spends a small amount of money every year to manage the officials and servants of the local government.

In the pre-Ming Dynasty, concealing the actual acres of land had become a habit of many landowners.

It feels like everyone is doing it, and if you don’t do it, you will lose.

Take the Jia family’s nearly 100,000 acres of farmland as an example, of which there are at least 30,000 acres of hidden land!
It doesn't sound like much, accounting for less than one-third of the Jia family's land. Even if it was found out, it would be nothing to pay taxes to the court according to law.

But in the pre-Ming Dynasty, and even a few years before the Great Era, there was no need to pay taxes on these more than 30,000 acres of farmland. Now you have to pay taxes, and the Da'ei imperial court may even ask you to make up for the taxes owed in previous years. How can you not feel distressed?

The Xue family does not have as much land as the Jia family, only over 50,000 acres, but they have nearly 20,000 acres of hidden land!

Therefore, Xue Changhui was the most anxious. After listening to Jia Jun's words, he asked urgently: "What should we do? Once this hidden field is found out, we will have to pay a lot more taxes every year."

"We may even be asked to pay back taxes for previous years, which is not a small amount of money!"

Although Jia Jun talked about things urgently, his expression was very calm.

He said: "Brother Xue, don't worry, the matter of clearing the land has happened in all dynasties. The most recent one was a few decades ago, during Zhang Juzheng's reform."

"At that time, the Ningguo Mansion was also among the clearing fathers. But according to what my father said, our three families didn't find too many hidden fields, right? We just gave a small part for officials to report."

"I had some knowledge of the matter of clearing my husband's land when I was the county magistrate. That is not something ordinary people can do."

"There are at most one or two people in a county who are good at this. It is said that acres are measured by ropes, and the number of acres depends on their expansion and contraction."

"So, this time when the Da'ei imperial court clears the throne, we can definitely repeat our old tricks."

"Of course, to be on the safe side, it's best to buy the county's land measurement book first, and have the county government take care of it as well."

"Each family needs to discuss how much Yin Tian they should throw out in advance, so that they don't get caught up in the rush and make mistakes."

After saying these words, Jia Jun picked up the tea bowl and sipped the tea leisurely, with a look of pride on his brows that was difficult to conceal.

Although everyone is a Ningguo gentry and big landowner, not everyone has his insight.

Didn't Xue and Wang panic when they heard that the court wanted to clear out their father-in-law's land?

At this time, after listening to his words, both of their eyes lit up and their worries disappeared.

Wang Chongwen asked in a slightly flattering tone, "How much Yin Tian do you think we should throw out, Brother Jia?"

Jia Jun put down the tea bowl and said, "I don't know how many hidden fields the Wang family has. How do I know how much the Wang family should throw away?"

"Brother Wang, there is no need to tell. After all, this is a secret of each family. Even the in-laws had better not tell each other."

"If I have to give you one suggestion, don't be too stingy. Otherwise, the Qingzhang officials will be dissatisfied and go through repeated troubles in Ningguo until they finally find out our details. Then it will be all over."

Xue and Wang looked at each other, and they both felt that what Jia Jun said was reasonable. For a moment, they were thinking about how much hidden land they should give to the Qingzhang officials to complete the task.

If it's too much, I feel distressed, but if it's too little, I'm afraid that I won't be able to send away the official.

It's a bit confusing when I think about it.

At this time, Jia Jun said again, "I have sent my servant to the Household Affairs Bureau to ask Lin Chuzheng from the Land Management Office to bring a few close officials to the Piaoxiang Pavilion for a banquet tonight."

"If the two in-laws are determined to participate in this matter, then go back and prepare, and go to Piaoxiang Pavilion with me tonight."

Xue Changhui asked doubtfully, "Why not invite the chief and deputy bureau chief of the Household Affairs Bureau?"

Jia Jun said quietly, "Their official positions are too big."

Is the official position too big?

In the early Ming Dynasty, the so-called household affairs bureau chief was the household official, that is, an official who compiled scriptures. When seeing a leader like Jia Jun, he would have to bow his head, and it was almost impossible to become a serious official.

However, it is different in Da'ei.

The Household Affairs Bureau is originally a ninth-grade official. As long as the political performance is acceptable, it can be promoted.

As for the deputy bureau chief of their county's household affairs bureau, he was a "juren" who passed the Da'ei Township Examination and Imperial Selection, and he always supported the imperial court's new policies.

Of these two people, one is difficult to bribe and the other is probably impossible to bribe, so they really shouldn’t be invited.

In Jia Jun's view, if he wanted to hide part of the hidden land from the clear land, it would be enough to get some officials from the Land Management Department under the Household Affairs Bureau.

That Lin Chuzheng already had a relationship with the Jia family, and he was just an official.

Although he is a high-ranking official, in theory he is only one step away from being a ninth-grade official, but there is a big hurdle in the middle that is not so easy to overcome.

It is naturally easier and safer to bribe this person. (End of chapter)