Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

After the officials left, the father and son strolled to the Mingtang.

This poor place has been built too grandly and beautifully, and it has a large garden around it. Now I don’t know what to do with it.

"The Cao family, the Xiang family, and the Han family were the first families to decide to split up and move," Zhu Ming said. "These three families occupy too large an area. After they move to other places, it is impossible to give farmland by acres. They have to find some excuse to confiscate it." Most of the land."

Zhu Guoxiang asked: "Is it easy to find a crime?"

Ju Ming said: "As long as you are willing, you can find out a lot of crimes. And there is a lot of land, and they can't get the land deeds, so they can just confiscate it directly."

"Then take action." Zhu Guoxiang did not hesitate. How could he be merciful?

The Cao family is the descendant of Cao Bin, the Xiang family is the descendant of Xiang Minzhong, and the Han family is the descendant of Han Qi.

The first two families occupied the largest area in the capital, and they continued to marry into Zhao and Song Dynasties. Emperors of all dynasties would grant them large amounts of land.

By splitting and relocating these three families, confiscating their land, and annexing the land in Gyeonggi Road, a small part of the problem can be solved. The consequences caused by Xicheng Suo and Jin Bing also solved part of the annexation problem. Many small and medium-sized landowners simply disappeared, while large landowners fled with their families to other places.

Ju Ming said: "Landowners who are coming back one after another must show their land deeds. Any land that cannot be obtained will be distributed to tenants, farmers and refugees."

Zhu Guoxiang worried: "Your order has too much room for maneuver. Will it cause officials to take the opportunity to extort small landowners and farmers, and instead help big landowners take the opportunity to annex more land?"

"It will definitely cause chaos for a certain period of time," Ju Ming has already raised the butcher's knife. "Many young officials with no roots are sent to serve as supervisory censors on Gyeonggi Road, allowing them to secretly inspect the implementation of this order. One can take the opportunity to cultivate More qualified censors will be trained in Gyeonggi Road and then sent to perform tasks across the country. Secondly, they can take the opportunity to punish corrupt officials and make the administration of Gyeonggi Road clearer. Thirdly, they can take the opportunity to attack the big landowners in Gyeonggi Road, which is particularly large-scale. Families of a moderate size were divided and relocated, and those of moderate size were confiscated of their excess land!"

Zhu Guoxiang said with a smile: "If you do this, you will be known as a tyrant."

"For the founding monarch, this method can only be considered mild." Ju Ming didn't care.

Zhu Guoxiang said: "Actually, land annexation for dozens of miles around Tokyo City is not serious. What is really serious is dozens or hundreds of miles away. The Cao family, Xiang family, and Han family's land is mostly located dozens of miles away. "

Ju Ming did not investigate carefully: "Is that so?"

Zhu Guoxiang nodded and said: "When I was an official in Tokyo, I did a brief research. The land around Tokyo in the Northern Song Dynasty went through three stages: school hunting, farming, and gardening."

Ju Ming listened obediently and did not interrupt.

Zhu Guoxiang said in detail: "At the beginning of the Northern Song Dynasty, it was an era of school hunting. At that time, the land was vast and sparsely populated. You could hunt at will around Tokyo City, and there were deserted mountains and plains everywhere. At that time, refugees were recruited to cultivate land, and agriculture was very extensive to produce staple foods. , mainly miscellaneous grains.”

"After the Chanyuan Alliance, the imperial court intensified its efforts to resettle and open up wasteland. Only twenty or thirty years later, the wasteland around Tokyo became less and less, and the emperor could not find any open space for school hunting. Every time a large-scale military review was held, there had to be The land tax in the capital was exempted because crops would be trampled. A large number of small and medium-sized landowners around Tokyo also emerged at that time."

"Why is it said that within dozens of miles around Tokyo, land annexation is not too serious? Because with the prosperity of the city, suburban agriculture has quickly entered the garden era. Tokyo's water transportation is accessible in all directions, and staple food can be purchased externally. Suburban farmers have turned to flowers, fruits, and vegetables. Wait for cash crops to be planted. These crops have high added value and can be sold as soon as they are grown. As long as there are no natural disasters and no harvest, farmers will rarely go bankrupt."

"Farmers in the suburbs continue to have children, and the children continue to divide the family and the property, resulting in the land being divided into more fine pieces. Even if larger landowners are merged, the families will soon be divided again. High value-added cash crops make a unit of land more sustainable. There are more farmers, and the suburbs of Tokyo are probably the most prosperous and developed small-scale farmer economy in the country."

"Aren't there any wealthy people who want to get involved in the land on the outskirts of the city?" Ju Ming asked.

Zhu Guoxiang said: "Of course there is, but it is very difficult to do, and the impact is particularly bad. When the emperor of the Northern Song Dynasty gave fields to noble clansmen, he would deliberately bypass the suburbs of the city and select fields dozens of miles away to give them. On the contrary, Yang Jianhe Li Yan, the two eunuchs, acted without scruples and took over many suburban gardens as the imperial estate."

"What about the land annexation in the suburbs of Beijing that we usually talk about?" Zhu Ming asked curiously.

"That was the official farmland in the early Song Dynasty, and there were also dedicated Xiang troops as army soldiers," Zhu Guoxiang said. "These farmlands have been occupied by nobles as private land, and the army in the farmland have long been reduced to tenants. There is no need to make any excuses, just go directly If it is confiscated, they will definitely not be able to produce the land deeds, and they will all be given to local tenants for farming. Those lands were all deserted in the early Song Dynasty, and they were originally cultivated by the ancestors of the tenants."

Ju Ming clapped his hands and said: "With this multi-pronged approach, the entire Gyeonggi Road land annexation problem will be solved!"

It is indeed troublesome to farm in the suburbs of Beijing. Song Shenzong wanted to acquire a thousand acres of land in the south of the city, and even asked the Ministry of Rites to come forward to find excuses.

Officials from the Ministry of Rites searched for chapters and excerpts, and finally found the relevant content in "Guoyu": "The king cultivated a farm, and the common people finally had a thousand acres, and they settled in the southeast of their hometown and hid it."

It was necessary to first build an agricultural altar, then set up a sacred warehouse, and arrange special officials and soldiers. Only in this way did a thousand-acre imperial village be built, and all the original farmers became tenants in the imperial village. These lands are basically used to grow vegetables and fruits, which are directly supplied to the nobles in the palace.

After more than a hundred years of development, different types of economic zones have emerged in the suburbs of Tokyo.

The western suburbs have a beautiful environment and a variety of fruits and flowers, making it a good place for city dwellers to enjoy an outing.

The water transportation in the eastern suburbs is developed, and there are many warehouses along the river. It is a semi-commercial and semi-agricultural state, and a large number of vegetables are grown.

The environment in the southeast is harsh and has become a gathering area for cemeteries, with a large number of livestock being raised in the surrounding area.

The northern suburbs are sparsely populated, the land has been salinized due to the flooding of the Yellow River, and there are many pastures. A few pastures were used for breeding, and most of the pastures were requisitioned by the Tiansi Supervisor and used as the site of the royal horse breeding farm.

The most staple and supplementary grains were grown in the southern suburbs, and the most serious land annexation was there because the emperor took the lead in enclosing land there.

…

Neiyanfu Palace.

Gu San led a group of guards in and came to the courtyard where the consort Cao Sheng lived: "Cao Sheng, Zhao Jinnu, you can go home!"

Cao Sheng was overjoyed and went out to greet him with his wife. He bowed and thanked him: "Thank you so much, general!"

"No need to thank me, you'll know when you get home." Gu San gloated.

As the couple left Yanfu Palace, other royal families, consorts, and eldest sons gathered to find out what was going on.

When Cao Sheng was walking halfway, he was led to the East Palace and found that his brother Cao Yao was also there.

Cao Zhuo was already in his forties. In his early years, he was sent as an envoy to the Liao Kingdom.

When Ju Ming besieged Tokyo City, Cao Zhuo was the commander of the cavalry capital of the bodyguards, and nominally commanded Zhao Huan's bodyguards cavalry (actually there were no cavalry left).

"Meet the Generalissimo!"

The two kowtowed and then knelt, fearing that Ju Ming would cause trouble for them.

Ju Ming got straight to the point: "We, the Cao family, have been intermarrying with Zhao and Song for generations, so we should retire with the country..."

As soon as these words came out, the two of them turned pale with fright.

"However, I can give you a chance." Zhu Ming smiled kindly, but that smile looked scary.

Cao Sheng said fearfully: "Please make it clear, Marshal Langjun."

Ju Ming said: "The land annexation in Gyeonggi Road is serious, especially the Cao family's land holdings are the largest. I plan to split up the Cao family and move them to various places."

Cao Yao explained: "The Cao family has been divided into many branches. The property and the main clan are not the same. The land has long been divided into more than a dozen parts without interfering with each other."

Ju Ming said: "Cao Sheng is the consort. He can take the princess of the old Song Dynasty, get back several slaves, own 300 acres of farmland in the southern suburbs, and a house in the southern suburbs. Cao Sheng can be incorporated into the Five-City Military and Horse Division and be responsible for the outskirts of Tokyo. For the security of both sides of the city, we took back several of our original servants and gave them a residence and a shop in the outer city of Tokyo."

The conditions were stingy, but the former nobles were very lucky to have such treatment.

"What do you want to do? Marshal, just ask!" Cao Sheng agreed immediately, because he was originally going to farm with the princess.

Zhu Ming said: "You two are very familiar with the Cao family. Except for you, all the Cao family members have left Gyeonggi Road and moved to at least eight counties separately! This matter should be coordinated with Kaifeng Mansion, and the sooner the better. All of the Cao family’s property was retained, and each of the Cao family’s branches collected two million yuan and handed it over. All the stores and other assets had to be confiscated, and the rest of the property was allowed to be taken to new places.”

Cao Yao hesitated and said: "This... I'm afraid they won't agree to this."

"You don't have to cooperate, then I will have to send troops to raid the house," Zhu Ming threatened, "I am trying to leave some leeway for the Cao family."

Cao Sheng gritted his teeth and said fiercely: "Marshal, please give me five hundred troops!"

Ju Ming nodded and smiled: "Okay."

Cao Yao sighed secretly: "Just ask the marshal to give me a hundred troops and horses."

In order to live humblely in Tokyo, one could be a small landowner in the suburbs of Beijing and the other could be a police officer in an outer city. They led their troops to find trouble for the Cao clan.

Soldiers and horses came out from all directions, threatening and coaxing, forcing each branch of the Cao family to hand over their mansions, shops, free money, and land.

There were a few who were unwilling to cooperate, and the whole family immediately arrested them and threw them into Dali Temple!

Next came the Xiang family and the Han family, the same routine and the same treatment.

"Your mansion can be kept," Ju Ming said to Han Zhao. "All the Han family's shops are confiscated, and you can choose any one as your own. Except for your parents and brothers, the rest of the Han family must leave Gyeonggi Road! "

Han Zhao took the task and said, "Yes!"

He was really lucky. He used to be Qian Chen's cockfighting lackey, and he had a good relationship with Ju Ming. They also went shopping in Goulan and listened to the opera together.

Before the spring started, the three wealthy families in Gyeonggi Road were forced to move due to the ice and snow.

Even if they want to get together and travel together, in order to prevent them from getting together in the future, each group of tribesmen must not exceed twenty, and the places where they move to each other must be at least three counties apart.

It wasn't too bloody, but the execution was extremely harsh, which scared the officials of the old Song Dynasty.

Of course, no one thought about splitting up the big companies. They simply felt that these three companies were too deeply involved with Zhao Song, so they aroused the fear of the Zhu family and his son.

Next year, the split will continue, including those in Luoyang!