The Rise of Ming Dynasty 1646

Chapter 571 The Foundation of National Stability
So fast!Zhu Linmei was a little surprised when she heard this.

You must know that there are no modern laser rangefinders at present, and the land of tens of miles square is measured with knotted ropes, and the search for land deed files depends on a pair of human eyes, and its efficiency can be imagined.

He originally thought that Feng Kang had only finished measuring the land in one province and came here to ask for credit, but he didn't expect that he had already measured most of the land in the south.This speed will definitely make those dignitaries with formal imperial examination backgrounds in the court ashamed.

"Well done." He nodded and praised first, and then frowned in doubt, "We gathered four chief envoys so quickly, did you pay attention to it, and didn't miss anything?"

Feng Kang knelt down hastily, "Grandpa Wang, more than 9 slaves have been used, and there are more than [-] people who are in charge of the field books and counting the size. They have been working day and night for dozens of days, and they have such a speed. Dare to have the slightest carelessness."

"9 people?" Zhu Linmei squinted at the eunuch, "I allocated a total of 3 taels to count the acres of the Huangzhuang farm. How can I hire so many people?"

"Back to Grandpa Wang, before the slaves left, the princess was worried that the slaves were stupid and would miss important things, so she took out 7000 taels from her room for the slaves. The slaves who were doing things exchanged some silver by themselves, and the people who used it Mostly the servants were summoned from the old family and the old clan, just to give them food, so they dealt with it and settled the matter."

Zhu Linmi stepped forward to help Feng Kang up, and couldn't help but feel a little moved.At the end of the Ming Dynasty, those officials who talked about "preserving the principles of nature and destroying human desires" all day long made a lot of money in their own pockets, and these eunuchs actually used their private money to do business...

He also remembered that when Meishan hanged himself in Chongzhen, all the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty went to greet the new master Li Zicheng, but only one eunuch Wang Chengen accompanied him to die.

No wonder the eunuchs were always in power in the Ming Dynasty, probably because the courtiers couldn't do it, and the emperor had no choice but to do it.

Zhu Linmi patted Feng Kang, and said: "Turn back and hand over the accounting for the flowers to the household department, and ask Yang Tinglin to report the money you paid. The court is not rich, but it is not easy for you to save some money, you can't. Set this precedent."

Feng Kang immediately waved his hands gratefully, "This is a little loyalty from the slaves, Grandpa Wang doesn't have to..."

"Okay, it's settled." Zhu Linmi interrupted him, "Tell me how much land has been collected in various Huangzhuang."

"This, yes." Feng Kang hurriedly took out a thick booklet from his body and opened it, "Zhejiang 18 Qing. Jiangxi 15 Qing. Fujian 11 Qing. Guangdong [-] Qing.

"On the other hand, Guangxi, Guizhou, Yunnan, and Shu only measured [-] to [-] percent of the ground, with fields of [-], [-], [-], and [-] acres respectively.

"The Huangzhuang that has been collected now has a total of more than 74 dumps."

Zhu Linmei nodded happily. There are still four provinces that have not been measured. The unclaimed land, the prisoner's land and various contributions total more than 70 yuan, which is basically not much different from what he expected.This is almost one and a half times more than Zeng Ying Tobe's statistics of 32 at that time!It seems that these eunuchs really did their best.

According to Zhu Linmei's estimate, the entire unclaimed land south of the Yangtze River should be at least one million or more. Considering that there is no statistics for Nanzhili, it should be steadily surpassed by then.You know, Nanzhili includes the two provinces of Anhui and Jiangsu in later generations, but they are both large farmland households, and they can draw more than 30 yuan at least.

In other words, more than 100 million "contracted fields" can be set up in the south alone.According to the degree of fertility of the land, each household contracted 25 to 500 mu—this is enough for a family of four to five—the land can support four to five million households to cultivate!At present, there should be less than 700 million households in the southern part of the Ming Dynasty, and the living conditions of the people at the bottom of the Ming Dynasty will be greatly improved.

This is only the case in the south. After the north has been thoroughly invaded by Jianlu, there must be more unowned lands of all kinds.

All social contradictions in the feudal era can ultimately be attributed to land distribution.After the previous dynasties conquered territory, most of them granted rewards or distributed them to individuals to complete the land distribution and temporarily achieve a state of social balance.However, after hundreds of years of land annexation, a large amount of cultivated land will be concentrated in the hands of a few people, and the people who account for the majority of the population will lose their source of livelihood, social inequality will increase, and eventually lead to various uprisings and riots.

However, the "joint production contract responsibility system" brought by Zhu Linmei from later generations holds the cultivated land in the hands of the state, and the state agencies distribute it to the people for cultivation, which fundamentally eliminates the possibility of land annexation.

After Daming's industrialization is completed and the importance of cultivated land has dropped significantly, the country will not be in turmoil due to land distribution issues.

Feng Kang went on to report: "Grandpa Wang, because of the military disaster this year, most of these lands are barren, or the water conservancy is ineffective. I am afraid that it will take a lot of energy to restore production. Especially in Jiangxi, Fujing, and Zhejiang. .”

That's right, I'm afraid it will take a lot of investment in the early stage.Zhu Lin thought in her heart, it seems that completely solving the life problems of the low-level people is not something that can be accomplished overnight.

He asked Feng Kangdao again: "How many of these registered cultivated lands have been contracted out?"

"This..." The smile on Feng Kang's face disappeared, he lowered his head and said, "Back to Grandpa Wang, there are only less than [-] households who have signed the contract, and a total of [-] households have signed the contract."

"So few?!" Zhu Linmi couldn't help being surprised.

According to his expectation, Huangzhuang only pays ten to fifteen catties of harvest per mu, and the rest of the output is the contractor's own. Such a favorable condition should be a situation where everyone loots it all.Why are there only so few people contracting now?
"Grandpa Wang." Feng Kang stammered, "Actually, there are a lot of landless people right now, and there are many people who want to take over Huangzhuang. It's just..."

"Just what?"

"The 'imperial grain' that our Huangzhuang collects per mu is less than [-]% of the land rented by tenants everywhere." Feng Kang glanced at him. It has been cultivated by hand, so... this contracting has been greatly hindered in various places."

"Constraint?" Zhu Linmei frowned, "How to constrain? Who dares to constrain?!"

"Back to Grandpa Wang, it is the work of landlords and gentry from all over the country. They are all local tyrants. As long as people threaten and intimidate the contractors, those honest and responsible people will dare to mention the contracting of Huangzhuang. What's more. What's more, rumors spread in private, saying that planting Huangzhuang means selling oneself to the royal family as slaves, and the harvest will increase every year in the future, and the whole family will be cut off and buried in the ground for fattening..."

"The royal family dares to intervene in recruitment?!" Zhu Linmei was so angry that she yelled, "It's unreasonable!
"Say, who spread the word? Let's see how many heads he has!"

(End of this chapter)