Ming Dynasty man

Chapter 547 Fight against mergers
"Su Wu." Li Jing smiled.

"Yes, it's called Su Wu. If Guan Lao Er is really a righteous man, he should have the integrity of Su Wu and vow not to surrender." Chen Dahu said.

Wen Qing couldn't help being dumbfounded when he heard this.

Guan Yu has been respected by the world as a model of loyal ministers and righteous men for thousands of years, and was even conferred the title of Martial Saint by Emperor Wanli of Ming Shenzong. He didn't want to be dismissed as worthless by Chen Dahu.

Seeing that Wen Qing hesitated to speak, Li Jing knew that Wen Qing didn't quite agree with Chen Dahu's comparison of Su Wu and Guan Yu, so he smiled and said, "Dahu, it's inappropriate for you to compare Mr. Su Wu with Guan Yu. If you compare Mr. It would be more appropriate to use Wen Tianxiang and Wen Shangong as a metaphor in the former dynasty."

Wen Qing was silent when he heard the words.

Wen Qing naturally respected the elder of the Wen family even more, since he was also captured, Wen Tianxiang was much more upright than Guan Yu.

After a while, Wen Qing bowed deeply to Chen Dahu: "Students are taught."

Li Jing shook his head and said with a smile: "The first half of what Dahu said is good, but the second half is not quite right. It is a strategy to be in Cao Ying and to be in Han. , This is what a mature politician should do.

If Gao Gong, Xu Jie, Zhang Juzheng and others hadn't endured the humiliation, how could they eradicate Yan Song, a treacherous minister, in one fell swoop.

However, respectfully, Duhu has never read a book, so it is not easy to say this truth, I think it is better than many scholars. "

"What the commander-in-chief said is not bad, what Mr. Chen said is indeed very reasonable." Wen Qing said hurriedly.

Li Jing smiled, looked at Chen Dahu and said, "Brother Big Tiger, the drought in the northern provinces has not diminished this year. Although we have built many water conservancy facilities, they can only relieve a small part of the drought.

I used troops against Liaodong this year, and the grain reserves in Shanxi were almost used up, so I had no choice but to ask my father-in-law to transfer grain from your side.

Now it seems that the pressure of spring plowing in the coming year is very high. If there is no rain in the coming year, the food problem must be solved by the south.Brother Big Tiger, can you estimate how much grain can be stored in various prefectures and counties in Zhejiang? "

Chen Dahu thought for a while and said, "I have prepared 100 million shi of grain here in the provincial government. This is the grain tax that is going to be sent to the capital. The reserve grains of the following prefectures and counties can add up to at least 150 million shi."

Li Jing shook his head and sighed softly: "I'm afraid 200 million taels of grain is not enough. We have to plan ahead for some things. As the saying goes, if you have grain in your hand, don't panic. In this way, you use 100 million taels of tax to buy grain from the people, and then let The firms of Jixian and Gu Bingyou purchased a batch of grain. You store these two batches of grain separately for emergencies."

Chen Dahu nodded, pondered for a while and said, "Brother, the two provinces of Nanzhili can still get 150 million shi of grain, you have to know that."

Li Jing smiled: "Understood. Well... Brother Dahu, you have to make preparations in your heart. I will appoint you as the governor of Jiangsu and Zhejiang next year. You have to show me the granary of Daming."

"This..." Chen Dahu pondered for a while and said, "Brother, you know your brother's ability. If you want me to take care of such a big business, I have to ask you for soldiers. If I don't have soldiers in my hand, it won't be a big deal. Emmanuel."

Li Jing shook his head and smiled, "I don't have any soldiers. I can't transfer any of them. You can only figure out a way by yourself. How about this, recruit your own soldiers. How many soldiers do you think you will need? I will ask Gao Qi to increase the number of recruits for you."

Chen Dahu was overjoyed: "Then I will recruit one hundred thousand soldiers."

Li Jing glared at Chen Dahu: "You are not afraid of dying! Can you afford a hundred thousand soldiers? I have already told you that the soldiers you recruit can only be supported by the finances of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces for the time being, and you are not allowed to go there. The common people will be apportioned. You can calculate how many soldiers can be supported by the financial resources of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces."

Chen Dahu said with a smile: "It's not as evil as what the elder brother said. All I recruit are recruits. It's amazing to draw over the former Guards Army. The salary of a soldier does not cost a tael of silver a month, and 10 people are less than 10 a month. Two, one million taels a year is just over one million taels, with the financial resources of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, what is one million taels a year?"

Li Jing shook his head: "You only count the military salary, what about food and grass? What about clothing? How much food do 10 people have to eat a year? At least four sets of clothing a year, how much does it cost? The most important thing is weapons, 10 people , How can I make you so many weapons all at once?"

"Hey, I don't need a grain of food from the imperial court, and I don't need to distribute it to the common people. I don't need so many weapons, as long as I can equip 2 people with rifles. As for clothing, the garment factory opened by our family in Pingyang Prefecture does not make What are you doing with clothes? These years, the garment factory has only supported people and has no income, so it’s time to see the return money this time.” Chen Dahu laughed.

"Huh? You don't want a grain of grain from the court, and you don't apportion it, so where does your grain come from?" Li Jingqi asked.

"I have land in my hand!" Chen Dahu laughed.

Li Jing was even more puzzled when he heard the words: "You have land in your hand? Where did you get the land from?"

"Hahaha, big brother abolished the garrison, but each garrison has a lot of land! It's just that most of the land in the garrison was sold or occupied by officials, or it was abandoned. I don't care about that, whoever occupies it Spit it out for me, whoever buys it quickly hand it over to me, as for the barren ones, after I have soldiers in my hand, it will not be easy to open them." Chen Dahu laughed.

"Wait!" Li Jing suddenly withdrew his smile and said, "I remember Zhang Ao saying that the unregistered land was distributed to landless farmers and demobilized soldiers. Don't tell me that the land you took back was not distributed to the landless." peasants and demobilized soldiers?"

Chen Dahu said with a smile: "How can it be, I always follow the order of the eldest brother, and distribute the land to them according to the head, and each head has five acres of land."

"Then why do you still have so much idle land in your hands?" Li Jingqi asked.

Chen Dahu smiled wryly and said, "Can you blame me? There are only so many military households in the guard. What can I do if there are so many land left after the distribution is over?"

Li Jing was startled, pondered for a while, then slapped his forehead suddenly, and finally understood what was going on.

Before sending Zhang Ao to measure the amount of arable land in Ming Dynasty, Li Jing already had the approximate data.

In the early years of Wanli, Zhang Juzheng carried out a whip method and carried out a detailed measurement and statistics of the land of the Ming Dynasty for four to five years. The statistics in the sixth year of Wanli were 700 million hectares, or 30 million mu of land.According to the records of Ming Shenzong, in the 12th year of Wanli, the area of ​​cultivated land in the Ming Dynasty was more than 500 billion mu.

The reason for the difference is that the land of the capital and guards is not under the jurisdiction of the local government, which means that this part of the land is not included in the statistics of the local government.In the 30th year of Wanli, many capitals and guards were assigned to local prefectures and counties, which resulted in a sharp increase in the area of ​​cultivated land.

However, Li Jing did not fully believe in the 30-year measurement data of Wanli, because the land of the guard had long been embezzled by private individuals, and there must be repeated statistics during the measurement, so Zhang Ao was asked to re-measure and count.

According to Li Jing's estimate, Daming's arable land area should be around [-] million mu to [-] billion mu.And after so many years of wars and natural disasters, a lot of land will be barren, that is to say, the current actual area of ​​cultivated land will definitely decrease.

After Zhang Ao's measurement and statistics for a year and a half, although there are still many places that have not been measured, the measured data is very close to Li Jing's estimate.If all statistics are completed, the country's cultivated land area should be between 5000 million mu and [-] million mu.

Once the amount of land has been obtained, the population must also be counted, so that we can know how much land each person can share.

So what is the total population of Ming Dynasty?
According to the statistics of Daming's household registration and military registration, the total population of Daming is about 5000 million.

But in fact, it is only a little over 1 million.

It sounds funny, how could there be only 300 million people on nearly 700 million mu of land?Nine acres of land per capita, more than 300 catties of grain per mu, each person has more than [-] catties of grain to eat, even if there are [-] million people, each person has more than [-] catties of grain, the common people can’t eat it all, how could they not be able to eat meal?
The reason is simple: land annexation.A large amount of land in the Ming Dynasty was in the hands of the emperor's relatives and officials, almost occupying more than [-]% of the land in the Ming Dynasty, and the common people did not have much land.

However, ordinary people accounted for more than [-]% of the population in Daming. How could more than [-]% of the population be fed with less than [-]% of the land?
In fact, when land mergers reached a certain level and ordinary people began to have no food, the population began to decline.

In the late Ming Dynasty, land annexation became more and more serious, and the population decline became more and more serious.

During the reign of Chongzhen, natural disasters continued in the northern provinces for more than ten years, and there were riots everywhere, mixed with plagues, and the population of these places declined particularly sharply.Especially in Shaanxi and Shanxi, when the rogues were at their worst, many places were almost empty.

Li Jing cracked down on land mergers, and a large amount of land was confiscated. According to the registered population, in the north, Li Jing allocated land according to [-] mu per capita, while in the south, he allocated land according to [-] mu per capita.

According to Li Jing's calculations, with this distribution, basically Daming would no longer have idle land, and with an average of five acres of land per capita, the common people could have no worries about food and clothing.

However, Li Jing ignored the problem of population decline. Li Jing did not expect that the actual population of Daming was far less than the registered number, especially the military households in the guard.After fleeing for many years, the actual number of guards is far less than the registered number.

Moreover, the amount of land occupied by Wei is far more than Li Jing imagined, with fewer people and more land, so a lot of land is left unused.

Thinking about this verse, Li Jing couldn't help but smile wryly. It seems that it is not enough to just abolish the guard system, and the household registration must be re-established.

Seeing that Li Jing was silent, Chen Dahu continued: "When I took back the land of the guard, I distributed it according to the regulations of the eldest brother, and I didn't expect that there would be so much land left.

In addition, it was autumn when I did not distribute the land, and there were still crops in some fields that had not been harvested.I thought that this matter should not be too extreme, so after collecting the taxes, I did not force the remaining grain to be collected.In other words, the land was officially recovered this year. "

(End of this chapter)