Crazy at the end of the Ming Dynasty

After hearing Xue Yongli's words, Wu Shigong felt that what he said was very true.This land concentration is indeed a big problem!

After thinking about it for a while, Wu Shigong finally ordered: "They can't hold the land anymore. If we can get it back for them, we will have to collect some rewards. Ask the Foreign Affairs Department to talk to each of them. If they are willing to redeem it, we will give them Ru Ning The stocks and bonds of the military industry; those who are not willing to give us the right to cultivate for three to five years. They are not at a disadvantage under such conditions. It is cultivated land, if we make more progress, we will be too ignorant. Also, how much profit we make is secondary, the main thing is to be able to resettle refugees and resume production. Moreover, we will exclusively purchase the surplus grain grown. With food, our Runing Army will remain invincible."

Just after this conversation, according to Wu Shigong's suggestion, the Runing Army established the prototype of its own land policy.This land policy has the following characteristics:

First of all, the Runing Army abandoned the policy of confiscating the land of big landlords that was commonly used in dynasty changes, but mainly adopted the method of redemption.In the past dynasties, in order to solve the problem of over-concentration of land in the previous dynasty, the imperial court has always adopted the method of brutally beating local tyrants to divide the land or not changing it at all.However, this policy has caused continuous reincarnation in various dynasties.At the beginning of the dynasty, because of the war, there were fewer people and more fields, and social conflicts had not yet appeared.However, at the end of each dynasty, due to the large number of people and the lack of land, there were a large number of idle people. If natural disasters were added, there would be endless wars.

And the Runing Army must also solve the problem of land concentration.However, the adoption of the redemption method reduced the resistance of the landlords, officials and gentry, and reduced social unrest. It was easier to stabilize the society as soon as possible, and it was easier to get the support of the former officials and gentry.And this point is very important, because the scholars at that time were basically born or funded by officials and gentry families.

However, the rule of the country requires a large number of scholars.Because it is hard to imagine a group of illiterates running the country.Therefore, before a mature education system was established, these scholars left over from the previous dynasty were more precious than gold.

And the redemption can also distribute the land to the landless peasants.What the Runing Army pays attention to is the contribution value. The refugees they captured and recruited can join the army and become self-cultivated farmers after retiring from the army.They can even be farmed as serfs for a certain number of years, and then they can be converted into free citizens and allocated land that can support the whole family.Therefore, with the arrival of the number of years, the land bought and confiscated by the Runing Army will be gradually distributed, and the serfs they own will continue to be released. benevolent government.

Secondly.This land policy has led to a huge change in Chinese people's thinking about land ownership.

In order to solve the problem of land concentration that may arise in the future, the Runing Army formulated a hierarchical taxation system for land.First of all, all land, including Wu Shigong's own, all land must pay taxes.This is also the policy of gentry and gentry paying grain as a whole and appropriating each person into the mu.

And the land tax.It also made several huge changes.

One is to change the desire of rich landlords to buy land.Because when the land owned by a certain landlord exceeds the minimum level, the tax he will pay will increase significantly.Even down to the last few levels.The tax he has to pay will exceed the ground rent he collects.Therefore, the Runing Army used tax leverage to prevent excessive concentration of land.Of course, the minimum land tax collected by the Runing Army is quite low.

So in this way, those wealthy landlords will invest their spare funds in industry and commerce or deposit them in banks for interest, which also makes industry and commerce develop greatly, changes the industrial structure of the whole society, and finally gradually transforms from feudal society into a capitalist society.

There is another point.The huge amount of land owned by those big clans, in order to pay less taxes, they all put it under the names of their own clan's children.But as time went on, these lands gradually became the private property of these children.This greatly reduced the cohesion of those big clans.It also strengthened the centralization of the country.

Finally, this land policy also led to the colonial expansion of the country.

In order to encourage reclamation, the Runing Army gave those reclaimed land and newly occupied land overseas a long-term tax-free and low-tax period, which led to the formation of a large number of armed firms similar to Jimin Reclamation Firms.They cooperate with the country's army, organize funds, manpower and armed forces to go abroad to occupy land.

In this way, the country carried out colonial expansion, and the people cooperated closely, and everyone shared the benefits.This has fundamentally changed the long-standing situation of laboring people and wasting money in opening up territories, and led to a frenzy of "rushing out of the country" among the whole people.This also provided a huge amount of funds for the establishment of a capitalist society in the future.

Of course, at this time, Wu Shigong couldn't think about such far-reaching things at all, and he proposed such a decision just to solve the problem in front of him.However, in this time and space, the evaluation of this policy is extremely high.Later generations called this policy "Kaifeng Land Policy".

"Row quickly! Throw away all those rags! King Chuang is going to take everyone to Shanxi and Beijing, where there are delicious food and spicy food. Is there anything there? There is also a beautiful girl from Datong!" A military officer who broke into the camp encouraged.His words immediately caused a burst of laughter from the soldiers who broke into the camp.

At this time, some thin ice had begun to form on the surface of the Yellow River. In order to allow nearly a million people to cross the river, in addition to erecting more than a dozen pontoon bridges on the river, the Li and Luo coalition forces also collected all the nearby people, big and small. vessel.

On the surface of the river, there are people who are crossing the river.However, the morale of the soldiers of Li and Luo's allied forces was high, because Li Zicheng told them: entering the camp was not giving up the territory of Henan, but to attack Beijing, overthrow the Ming Dynasty, and establish a brand new new dynasty.

"King Chuang is here!" Suddenly someone saw Li Zicheng appearing on the south bank with his personal guards, so cheers erupted on both sides of the Yellow River and on the river.

Li Zicheng took off his felt hat and waved it to the cheering crowd with a smile. The cheers were even louder.Everyone believed in King Chuang's words, and everyone believed that King Chuang would make them live a good life.

Liu Zongmin approached Li Zicheng, raised his voice, and said, "Look, King Chuang, this is what the people want. What kind of bad idea did Cao Cao come up with? He wants to go back to Shaanxi, which is dirty and broken. It's not that my old Liu looked down on him, he It’s been like that for the rest of my life.”

While smiling at the cheering crowd, Li Zicheng reminded Liu Zongmin, "Won't you keep your words in your stomach? Do you know that you will lose your words if you talk too much? Anyway, didn't Cao Cao cross the river with us in the end?" ?”

On November 15th of the 25th year of Chongzhen, more than [-] people from the Runing Army and [-] troops from the Heiyun Army entered Henan Prefecture together, and launched the final expulsion of the Li and Luo coalition forces.Before the war, Wu Shigong personally wrote a letter and sent it to Li Zicheng. There was only one sentence in the letter: "Get out of Henan!"

At this time, Luo Rucai had returned to his nature as a bandit, and Li Zicheng also wanted to first integrate the various forces within the Peasant Army. Therefore, neither of them wanted to have a decisive battle with the Runing Army now.Therefore, on the 26th, the peasant army also gradually concentrated in the northwest of Henan Province, preparing for the complete withdrawal of the entire army from Henan.

But regarding the direction of withdrawal, Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai disagreed again.Luo Rucai hoped to return to Shaanxi, because Sun Chuanting's Qin army was no longer a threat, so Luo Rucai wanted to return to his hometown in fine clothes and show his face in front of the elders in his hometown.To be honest, Luo Rucai's small peasant thoughts are indeed serious enough.

But Li Zicheng's goal was to cross the Yellow River.The most critical factor in making this decision is: if you enter Shaanxi, there is no guarantee that the Runing Army will not follow and pursue.And crossing the Yellow River can completely throw off the Runing Army.

Because the Yellow River is not frozen yet, it can just cross the river.In the next month or so, the Yellow River will enter a period of freezing, and it will be impossible to sail boats, and it will be very inconvenient to erect pontoon bridges.Therefore, the peasant army was left with one month of free time.

Moreover, compared with the dilapidated state of Shaanxi, Shanxi and Northern Zhili are much richer and have a larger population, which is convenient for the peasant army to expand its population and plunder supplies. It is also far away from the Runing army and can establish a base for the peasant army.

Of course, crossing the Yellow River is also conducive to the propaganda of the peasant army.After all, the Li and Luo coalition forces were defeated in Kaifeng and driven out of Henan.However, under the propaganda of Song Xiance, Li Yan and others, it became "take Beijing City and overthrow the Ming Dynasty!"

Although Li Zicheng's strategy is to enter Shanxi first, and then go south to Shaanxi after strengthening his strength, use the northwest provinces as his base, and then directly attack Beijing.After overthrowing the Ming Dynasty, all the main forces will be concentrated to fight the decisive battle for the hegemony of the world with the Runing Army in the Central Plains.However, this propaganda of the Peasant Army swept away the shadow of defeat, making the soldiers of the Peasant Army seem to be victors, and their morale was high.

But in the end, Luo Rucai still took the overall situation into consideration, and finally acted together with Li Zicheng's camp.Although crossing the Yellow River has the disadvantage of being too slow, the Li and Luo coalition forces have already arranged the old, weak, women and children in the rear team. They only need to ensure that their main force of 60 to [-] horses can cross the river safely.

"Has the news of the spies come back?" After receiving the cheers, Li Zicheng immediately asked Li Guo about the movement of the Runing Army.

"Butcher Wu has been keeping about [-] miles away from our rear team, and he hasn't forced himself up yet. Now we report three times a day, and if we have any news, we will immediately report it to you, King Chuang." Li Guo replied hastily.

"How can I report three times a day? At least six times a day. You have to be careful when looking for information. Don't think that you are my nephew, so I won't use military law." Li Zicheng suddenly said angrily.

"Yes!" Li Guo didn't dare to answer back, and immediately went down to pass the order in desperation.

The surrounding generals all looked at Li Zicheng, and they all knew in their hearts: Li Zicheng's mental pressure is indeed too great these days! (To be continued..)

ps: Pay attention to one point: November in the 15th year of Chongzhen is a leap November, so please make a clear distinction.

Also, last month, the number of monthly tickets exceeded 200, which really made me ecstatic.

Really thank you friends!