Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

Seeing Cao Wenheng preparing to leave, the people of the Shen family suddenly panicked.

Shen Tingfang, Shen Jifang and others hurriedly stopped him and refused to let the Governor of Jiangnan leave no matter what.

Otherwise, if the students from outside broke in, the Shen family would not know what would happen. They, who lived a life of luxury, did not want to face those lawless scholars.

After Cao Wenheng told Shen Yongmao the truth, he could no longer pretend.

He had also heard of the system of primogeniture inheritance proposed by the emperor some time ago at home.

The core idea of ​​this inheritance system is that all emperors after Chengzu should be established according to the order of seniority.

Therefore, it was only natural for Emperor Guangzong Taichang to become the crown prince.

As the Prime Minister, Shen Shixing failed to get this natural thing done, which meant that he was indecisive and his stance was not firm enough.

This also made him understand why his father, though the Prime Minister, was not even included in the Purple Pavilion’s wise ministers.

This is because in the eyes of the current emperor, his father Shen Shixing cannot be considered a meritorious official.

Unable to rely on his ancestors' merits, and having his true identity exposed, Shen Yongmao was ashamed and angry. He said:

"Whatever amount Cao Futai wants to collect, then just take it!"

"All the wealth of the Shen family is here. Governor Cao can take as much as he wants."

Cao Wenheng heard the shame and anger in his words, but he didn't care at all.

He smiled again and said:

"The government collects taxes, not robbery. How can they collect them at will?"

"Your Majesty has ordered that from now on the yellow and white books must be unified, and taxes must be paid according to the yellow book."

"If your government does not provide the land register, I can only collect it according to the official records."

“If there is any mistake, your government can appeal.”

Shen Yongmao was forced to hand over the Shen family's land register and the tax was collected according to the actual acreage of the land.

When Shen Yongmao heard this, he became angry again.

Because Cao Wenheng was clearly threatening him that if he didn't hand over the land register, the government would confiscate it at will.

But after the land book was handed over, the Shen family's true colors were exposed. How could they evade taxes in the future?
So the situation came to a standstill here, but Cao Wenheng knew that since the Shen family had taken a step back, they would continue to retreat.

Not wanting to delay and cause trouble, he immediately gave the order:
"Come here, measure the Shen family's land according to the government's yellow and white books, and then collect taxes based on the acre."

"The court has decreed that no one may own more than a thousand acres without a title, and all output may be confiscated."

"Measure the Shen family's land and see if it exceeds one thousand acres."

This tax collection method was set by the Ministry of Revenue for the convenience of calculation.

Originally, Zhu Youjian had set a tiered tax system, with a 10% surcharge on land between 100 and 375 acres, a 20% surcharge on land between 375 and 750 acres, and a 30% surcharge on land between 750 and 1,000 acres. Land above 1,000 acres was not allowed to be owned without a title.

However, the Ministry of Revenue thought that such taxation was troublesome, so it directly stipulated that all lands with more than 100 mu would be subject to an additional 10% property tax. Later, all lands were subject to an additional 20% and 30% tax.

This makes calculations more convenient, as there is no need to calculate each interval one by one.

In this way, if the land exceeds one thousand acres, the output of all land can be expropriated, leaving nothing behind.

The Shen family's land obviously far exceeds one thousand acres. According to this policy, Cao Wenheng can directly collect all output as taxes.

This made Shen Yongmao so angry that he slammed the table and said angrily:
"The governor is going to drive the Shen family into despair!"

"I wonder which gentry in Jiangnan is willing to pay taxes like this?"

Cao Wenheng remained unmoved and said:

"Don't worry about that!"

"Besides, not all people in Jiangnan are as free as Lord Shen. Some have donated their titles or divided up their property."

"How many families in Jiangnan can still have more than a thousand acres after the division?" This is the truth. Since Hai Rui's descendants came to Suzhou and Songjiang and planned to go to Southeast Asia to establish a fiefdom, many wealthy families planned to donate a title and go to establish a fiefdom together with the Hai family.

In order to raise funds, some of these people sold some of their land, and some began to divide their property after learning about the court's policy.

There are many large landowners in Jiangnan with thousands or tens of thousands of acres, but there are more small and medium-sized landowners with hundreds of acres. They don't even need to pay property tax if they divide the land a little.

Only a wealthy family like the Shen family, who are proud of their status and think that local officials would not dare to act recklessly, would still retain so much land.

What Cao Wenheng wanted was to use the Shen family as a breakthrough point to completely open up the situation.

Shen Yongmao also understood at this time that Cao Wenheng, or the emperor behind him, had chosen the Shen family.

If he doesn't admit defeat today, there will be more tricks waiting for him later.

So he said dejectedly:

"Collect it! Collect it!"

"Look, you have collected all the output. How can the tenant farmers survive?"

"Without the protection of my Shen family, let's see how they can deal with the government officials."

Seeing that Shen Yongmao was still a little stubborn, Cao Wenheng bowed and said:
"Then please let Lord Shen watch!"

"It just so happens that many of the students outside are also studying mathematics, so we can go together to measure the land and collect taxes."

He ordered the soldiers to turn around and take the students to collect taxes.

He already had a complete plan, which was to collect taxes and then distribute them to the tenants in the name of disaster relief.

I believe that it will be more than what the Shen family left them, so they won’t make trouble.

This year, the harvest in Jiangnan was not good, and some prefectures and counties suffered from floods and droughts. He had petitioned the court to exempt the additional tax of more than 400,000 taels and applied for disaster relief.

The court attached great importance to this and sent people to verify it. But at the same time, it also required him to pay the taxes he should pay.

This is also the reason why Cao Wenheng was so tough and wanted to come to the Shen family to collect taxes.

He needed to break up the situation and collect enough taxes from these big households.

Seeing Cao Wenheng's determination, Shen Yongmao had no choice but to retreat again. He withdrew on the grounds that he was old and weak, and summoned his sons and nephews to take out the land book.

Then he divided the land among his sons and nephews, and set aside special land for sacrifices, thus officially dividing the Shen family from one family to thirteen families.

Each of the thirteen families was given one thousand mu, plus the sacrificial land left, that was fourteen thousand mu. The Shen family's own land was basically distributed.

Most of the other lands were donated and registered in the name of the Shen family to reduce taxes and labor service. Shen Yongmao then had these lands returned to them and they no longer belonged to the Shen family.

Finally, several thousand acres were left. Shen Yongmao said to his sons and nephews:

"Please invite teachers from surrounding schools to come and each school should donate 1,000 acres."

"Tell them to control those students and disperse from the Shen family's gate as soon as possible."

This made everyone in the Shen family feel unwilling, because they were forced into this situation because of those students.

Otherwise, even if Cao Wenheng was the governor, how could he dare to touch the Shen family? The spit of the gentry and the wealthy could drown him.

Shen Chuanfang shouted:
"Instead of holding them accountable, we should donate land to the people who taught them?"

"How can the great Shen family do this? How will people look at us in the future?"

He firmly disagreed with this and shouted that he did not want to donate it.

Shen Yongmao was so angry that he kicked him hard and yelled:
"If it weren't for you, this evil creature, how could the Shen family have ended up like this?"

"Instead of taking the ready-made path, they only know how to suppress their own people."

Blame him for being jealous of Li Yu's talent, so much so that he lost control of his relationship with the emperor's close ministers.

Otherwise, with Li Yu speaking in front of the emperor, how could the Shen family have come to this point?
He, Shen Yongmao, might have already been reinstated, and become a meritorious official of the Chongzhen Dynasty, like the ministers currently in the court, with a title. (End of this chapter)