Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

On Jinming Pond, several painted boats cruise around the lake.

The concubines in the Imperial Palace and the East Palace chatted lively with the officials and their families, asking questions and not even listening to music.

After a long time of excitement, Zhu Ming waved to Bai Chongyan, and the two strolled to the bow of the ship.

The spring breeze made the lake water sparkle. Zhu Ming threw some steamed bun crumbs to feed the fish and asked, "Do you know what I want you to do in Henan Province?"

"Spread it into an acre." Bai Chongyan said.

Ju Ming said: "Hunan and Hubei were the first to push away the land for small tenants because of the large amount of land. The problems encountered were relatively few but enough to cause headaches for local officials. Then came Gyeonggi, Huainan, Shandong, and Hebei. Every place has experienced famine and war, so the resistance was originally relatively small, but it still couldn’t be fully rolled out.”

Bai Chongyan said worriedly: "There is no chaos or famine in Henan, but I'm afraid there are many obstacles."

Ju Ming said: "I will give you some official documents later, all related to the diversion of land into acres. Resistance comes not only from landlords, but even from some small farmers who have more land but less land."

Bai Chongyan said in surprise: "Since there are many people but little land, it should be beneficial to them to divide the people into acres."

Zhu Ming shook his head: "It depends on the actual situation of each province. Due to construction of water conservancy projects or other reasons, some counties temporarily have a small amount of grain and a heavy load. In the past, even the poor and landless people had to share the labor. Now it is all divided into acres, and the land is more than the land. On the contrary, the small people suffered a loss, and the landowners with more land, such as Shao Ding, suffered even more losses. Therefore, as long as they have land in their name, both big households and small people will make trouble together to oppose it."

"There are also issues left over from the previous dynasty. Many of the land is not private land, so less taxes need to be paid. After the land is divided into acres, even if you only have a small amount of land in your hand, the total amount of taxes you need to pay will increase."

"There are also prefectures where some prefectures and counties have more dings and less fields, and some prefectures and counties have more dings and less fields. When the prefects were allocating dings to acres, they used rich counties to help poor counties, which led to opposition not only from the people in the rich counties, but also from the county magistrates in the rich counties. None of them cooperate. But if we don’t do this, it will put a heavy burden on poor counties.”

"Last year, the chief envoy of Huainan tried to promote equal sharing across the province, which almost led to a civil uprising, which aroused the excitement of the people in rich counties. And many county magistrates in rich counties, more than 20 people went to court one after another to impeach the chief for being unkind to the remaining people. . Equal sharing across the provinces is very good, and the imperial court is very supportive, but many wealthy county officials are not cooperating. Even if they are forced to implement the decree, they all obey and disobey it. "

"There are people who make trouble evenly in a county, there are people who make trouble evenly in the state capital, and there are still people who make trouble evenly across the province. Moreover, the people who make trouble are different every time. The central court and local officials are constantly summing up experience and making adjustments, which can be adjusted every time After that, there will always be another group of people whose interests will be harmed."

“It’s actually more difficult to implement than you think, especially in provinces like Henan and Jiangxi.”

"As for Shaanxi, I dare not move for the time being. Because Shaanxi has a large number of barren border areas, and guarding the border requires a large number of soldiers every year. The Ming Dynasty is indeed not afraid of Xixia, and many Shaanxi border troops are also transferred to other provinces, but there are a large number of villages in Xihe and Hengshan areas Fortresses, these forts have to be maintained by collecting labor service money from the whole province."

"Shaanxi has little land and a lot of poverty. Once the land is divided into acres, the burden on the people will be heavy, and civil unrest will inevitably occur. The imperial court is asking the cabinet to come up with a plan. The central government will allocate more money and food every year to reduce the amount of land in Shaanxi Province. After the arrangements are made, Only then do you dare to share your land."

"Of course, the biggest problem with allotment of land is to conduct a thorough inventory of the fields in various places. This is also the reason for the most troubles. The fish scale book must be re-drawn to sort out the messy land ownership. Tiangen (field bones), field surface (fields) The skin must be straightened out. Otherwise, countless land disputes and lawsuits will tire the county officials to death."

After hearing these words, Bai Chongyan suddenly felt his head was as big as a bucket.

Ju Ming smiled and said: "I have asked Lu Benzhong to clear the way for you, and asked the Lu family to investigate the big clans in Luoyang. Last year, they split up and moved a group. Otherwise, after you go to Henan, you will have a hard time in Luoyang."

Bai Chongyan cupped his hands and said, "I will do my best to handle it well."

Ju Ming said: "Don't worry, if it doesn't take three years, then six years. When you step down from Henan, you will at least be a minister."

Henan has a very serious problem, that is, in a few prefectures and counties such as Luoyang, the current situation is that there is less land and more people, and land annexation is very serious. And there are many prefectures and counties with few people and even large areas of land abandoned.

If the land is directly divided into acres, it must be shared equally across the provinces, resulting in a heavy burden for the people in wealthy prefectures and counties.

If it is not shared equally among the provinces, poor counties with fewer people and more land will also bear a heavy burden.

Therefore, Bai Chongyan needs to first arrange for intra-provincial immigration to move people from densely populated rich counties to poor counties with fewer people and less land in batches. During the migration process, all counties must cooperate with each other to take the opportunity to inventory the land and smooth out the mess to confirm land rights.

It is more difficult to spread a small family into an acre in Henan than in Jiangxi, because it combines all the problems encountered in various provinces.

Jiangxi, on the other hand, is relatively simple. All you need is a tough head, courage, and an iron fist to attack the gentry!

Ju Ming patted Bai Chongyan on the shoulder: "After you open up the situation in Henan, I can safely move the capital here. From now on, the surrounding areas of Luoyang will be changed to Gyeonggi, and Kaifeng will become the capital of Henan Province."

"Really moving the capital?" Bai Chongyan was shocked. He felt that the burden on his shoulders was heavier. This was laying the foundation for the imperial court to move the capital.

Ju Ming smiled and said: "Huang Guinian is very capable and does not come from a wealthy family. I will ask him to go to Henan to be your deputy."

"That's okay." Bai Chongyan knew Huang Yaoshi.

The Qing Dynasty's method of spreading people into acres was a continuation of the Ming Dynasty's one-whip method.

In fact, in some areas during the Ming Dynasty, officials already did this. That is, when the one-piece whipping method was being reformed, the money of Ding's servants was also whipped. At that time, it was called "Ding Suitian Office" and "Suiliang Paiding".

Ju Ming's current job is not to pay money, but also to pay copper coins or grains.

In addition, Zhu Ming, a merchant and craftsman's corvee, did not dare to sell the goods directly to the fields.

This stems from the abnormal urbanization development in the Song Dynasty, which resulted in an excessively high urbanization rate. If the labor money of merchants and craftsmen is spread into land tax, it will inevitably become unbearable for farmers.

The Ming and Qing dynasties were different. Due to the rapid development of productivity, a large number of towns outside the city sprang up. With each small town as the center, China's unique rural economic model has been nurtured. Farmers can obtain daily necessities by going to the town market.

Let’s look at the data and it will be clear. In the Jiangnan region during the heyday of the Southern Song Dynasty, the number of small towns was only one-quarter of that in the Ming Dynasty.

In the Song Dynasty, landless peasants rushed to the city and did not form so many small towns. It means that most of the small town residents in the Ming and Qing Dynasties became urban residents. So how can the urbanization rate not be high?

This phenomenon is caused by insufficient development of productivity and also by the government's excessive oppression of farmers.

Even Zhu Guoxiang and Zhu Ming and his son abolished a large number of exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes. However, the tradition of heavy taxation left over from the Song Dynasty resulted in the actual taxation of the Ming Dynasty being still very heavy compared to previous dynasties.

Bai Chongyan held up a pile of information on how to pay for tenants, all of which were typical cases implemented in various provinces.

Ju Ming was afraid that local officials would have their hands tied. As long as those officials who caused civil uprisings were not too outrageous, they would not be severely punished, but would only be given a symbolic fine of one or two months. Then, find another opportunity to reward.

Some county magistrates even sent officers out of the city to arrest troublemaking people. The people were so frightened that they ran for their lives in panic and scrambled to cross the bridge on the moat. More than eighty people fell into the water and drowned, and the court only fined them three months' salary.

The county magistrate did nothing wrong, but was a rioter, and his family was sent to Youzhou to farm.

The political signal was very clear, and many officials who wanted to climb up the ranks were reckless enough to promote the idea of ​​dividing the land from one person to another.

When Bai Chongyan came to Luoyang, Huang Guinian led the officials out of the city to greet him.

Bai Chongyan, the chief envoy on the left, Huang Guinian, the right chief envoy, Zhang Yi, the general commander, Zhang Jin, the prefect of Luoyang, Lu Benzhong, and some political advisors, general magistrates, county magistrates, etc. These are the three-level yamen in Luoyang officials.

Zhang Yi is a descendant of Zhang Dun. He seems to be a good guy at ordinary times, but he can make quick decisions at critical moments.

Historically, he was promoted by Zhao Gou to the position of Shangshu of the Ministry of Revenue because he solved money and food problems many times. He also put forward reasonable suggestions during the Miao and Liu rebellions, and knew how to attract investment and farmland. He was a hard-working official in the Southern Song Dynasty.

During this time and space, Zhang Yi was promoted by Zhu Guoxiang to the post of Inspector of Henan due to his success in promoting the idea of ​​dividing people into households.

Zhang Jin was an old man who followed Ju Ming in Jinzhou and raised an army. When he was the general, he was good at killing disobedient lieutenants, which seriously affected his normal promotion later. Because he lost a finger in combat, he was thrown into the inspection system by Ju Ming. After several military reforms, he was promoted to the commander of the Henan capital.

All the officials in Luoyang came to support Bai Chongyan, and they talked happily and harmoniously.

The next day, Bai Chongyan asked Huang Guinian: "Brother Deshao came to take office first and knows Henan better. Which officials can work together?"

Huang Guinian smiled and said, "Anyone can."

Bai Chongyan suddenly realized that the prince had made arrangements, and he immediately summoned Zhang Yi, Zhang Jin, and Lu Benzhong to discuss the matter.

Lu Benzhong was the most active. He was tricked by Ju Ming into Luoyang, and as the son of the Lu family, he was responsible for investigating the Lu family. Although they had lived in two places for a long time, the two Lus had the same origin. The Lu family in Luoyang hated Lu Benzhong so much that his reputation in Luoyang was completely ruined.

Without stopping to do anything, Lu Benzhong simply went all out and devoted himself to cleaning up the Luoyang clan. Nearly a hundred people from various clans were sent to Shaanxi and Youzhou by him. Last year, the big clans were split up and more than 2,000 people were moved to northern counties.

"The people in the counties of Luoyang Prefecture still have more people and less land. They must move south within the province and reclaim all the wasteland in the southern counties and counties!" Lu Benzhong became more and more iron-fisted.

Huang Guinian said: "Brother Yisou (Zhang Yi) is good at managing money. The money, grain, seeds, cattle, and farm tools needed to move the people need to be planned by Brother Yisou."

Zhang Yi said: "I am just on duty and have no right to do these things."

Bai Chongyan said: "Then we will make a temporary assignment and Mr. Zhang will take the lead."

Huang Guinian said: "General Yang and I are keeping an eye on the immigration issue to prevent any trouble."

Zhang Jin cupped his hands and said, "If there is a disturbance in Xiaoxiao, I will mobilize my troops to suppress it!"

Zhang Yi reminded: "It is the powerful county magistrates and gentry in various places who need to be comforted more. If it is not possible, force will be used."

Bai Chongyan said: "I will set off in a few days to inspect various prefectures and counties in the province and talk to local officials and gentry face to face. Understand their thoughts and demands, and comfort them if I can. If I can't, I will use strong methods! The prince said no In a hurry, it will take six years to spread the land in Henan, but how can we ministers delay? We will set a date today to complete the matter within three years!"