Wanli Xinming

Chapter 102 Expansion

Looking at the whole country, the contradiction between man and land has become very prominent at this time.The development of the Northeast was the first pressure relief valve that Zhu Yijun opened for the boiler that was about to explode.

During the heyday of the Kingdom, the territory reached the Sea of ​​Japan and the Xing'an Mountains in the northeast; the Gobi Desert in the north and Hami in the northwest; the Bay of Bengal in the southwest and the entire territory of Annan was recovered;The land area exceeds 1000 million square kilometers.

In the first year of Wanli, this huge territory shrunk to the Liaohe River Basin in the northeast; the north was all evacuated behind the Great Wall; the northwest Xinjiang was completely absent, and the Ming army retreated to Jiayuguan; although the southwest did not return to Yunnan, Myanmar had already left the British Lord. Chaos is imminent.

Known as "no ceding land, no amicable relationship, no payment", the emperors of successive dynasties were helpless in the face of the rebellion in the frontier areas.Large swathes of the country that was once occupied and imprisoned were lost.

The loss of national territory, on the one hand, is the weakening of national strength and incapacity.More importantly, among the monarchs of all dynasties, there was not one Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, but a bunch of cynics.

After Renzong, no matter what the national strength was, the emperors of all dynasties rarely had the heart to expand their territories.There are one or two who are a little ambitious, or have high eyes and low hands, and leave a shameful laughing stock;

When Zhu Yijun took over, only half of the original super-large territory remained, which was not much larger than the territory of Wei during the Three Kingdoms period.

The population of the empire in the first year of Wanli was about 500 million according to the Yellow Book.Zhu Yijun didn't believe this data at all. Last year, Jinyiwei selected a place in the east, west, north, and south, and did a sample survey-half of the south was not on the yellow list, and the north was at least half of the yellow list. one third.

According to a rough estimate based on this ratio, the current national population should be around 2000 million.With less than two-thirds of the country's land area at the time of Chengzu, it can support nearly double the population of Chengzu's period——Zhu Yijun thinks with his toes, and can also judge the reasons for the prevalence of slavery among the people and the low price of the population.

In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, nobles, nobles, merchants, and tyrants intensified their plundering of land. On the one hand, they evaded and evaded taxes, and on the other hand, they transferred the burden of taxation and labor to ordinary people.

The vulnerable characteristics of the small-scale peasant economy are most prominently exposed at this time. A slight natural disaster or a family accident can immediately tear a small homesteader's home to shreds and fall into the doom of tenant servants.

In the early years of Jiajing, the decree of slave ownership, which was explicitly prohibited by the Ming Dynasty, had already existed in name only under the impact of economic laws. At this time, there were a lot of contents about the use of slaves in Ming people's "Family Instructions" or notes.

In the Wanli period, the record of "Everyone's servants, as many as ten thousand fingers" has appeared in the county annals of Jiading County, Suzhou Prefecture.It shows that at this time, the large family has more than thousands of slaves.

In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, under the influence of peasant uprisings in various places, slaves followed a large-scale "slave change", and tens of thousands of slaves rioted at every turn in the north and south.More than [-] members of Xu Xiake's family, including his eldest son Xu Qi, died in the "slave change", which reflects the extent of the population pressure at this time.

Zhu Yijun put aside the data on slave ownership of large families surveyed by Jin Yiwei, and then analyzed the reasons for the large-scale bankruptcy of peasants. Zhang Juzheng and Lu Tiaoyang were silent about it.

There were not as many servants in Lu Tiaoyang's house as in Zhang Juzheng's house, but they were over a hundred.He had never thought about the price of slaves and the contradiction between population and land before, but he was deeply horrified by the emperor's statement today.

Zhu Yijun said: "People are born to be human beings, and there is no self-respect. If it is not for living, who can sell their daughters? Besides, are these people not my children? The development of the Northeast does not require the court's troubles and efforts to mobilize the people to emigrate. I have a strategy that may alleviate the disadvantages of the Northeast where there are too many people and few people."

When Zhang Juzheng heard this, he felt the same feeling when the emperor used his wild ideas to solve his helpless problems.This kind of feeling is amazing, like the window paper is replaced by glass windows all of a sudden, and the whole room is instantly translucent.

Sure enough, I heard the emperor say: "I have decided to make Beishan, Heilongjiang, and Taining three provinces as 'the places of promotion'. For more than a year, the whole family will leave the country!"

When Zhang Juzheng and Lu Tiaoyang heard it, they both called out "Miao!".Zhang Juzheng bowed his body and said, "The emperor observes the secrets of the people and is meticulous, treats the people leniently and cultivates the political and religious understanding. This is really a way of worrying about Li Yuan and benefiting the people!"

Lu Tiaoyang also praised with sincerity.He also added the emperor's method of renunciation and introduction of the people: "On the one hand, the imperial court must spread the emperor's virtues to the four seas, and on the other hand, it must reiterate the ban on slavery! People, common people and slave owners, one hundred sticks.' It's time to make a good statement on this ancestral system!"

Zhang Juzheng frowned and said, "Is this too harsh?"

Lu Tiaoyang listened to it and said, "No. If the rich family needs to be ostentatious, they can hire idle helpers. What the court has to do is to release the personal relationship between the servants and the rich family. For this matter, the minister suggested that the emperor issue an decree before the end of the year. The judicial divisions should convey that if there are slaves who have more slaves than Taizu ordered, they will be punished according to the "Daming Law"."

Zhang Juzheng listened and looked at Lu Tiaoyang, as if he knew him again.Lu Tiaoyang smiled and said, "Yuan Fu thinks that a certain person is an irresponsible person?" Zhang Juzheng even said that he did not dare.

Zhu Yijun was very pleased when he saw that Lu Tiaoyang also had a fighting spirit.He added: "In addition to absorbing low-ranking and happy households to the northeast, if there are disasters in various places and refugees appear, the court will guide the refugees to reclaim wasteland in the northeast. Before the end of this year, this policy should also be publicized and implemented."

Hearing this, Zhang Juzheng said with a wry smile: "Your Majesty, at this time, the flooded areas of Huai and Yang are full of refugees, all of them have nothing but a mouth. I need to feed them all the way, send them to Liaodong, and then give them to Seeds, cattle, and farm tools cost a lot."

Zhu Yijun listened to it and said, "What the old gentleman said is true. But the imperial court can't just count small accounts like local officials, but big ones. The drought in northern Zhili and Shaanxi, and the local officials to organize displaced people to return to their hometowns, how much does it cost?"

"I estimate that it is less limited than going to the northeast; the victims of Huaiyang are far away from the northeast, but close to the north of Zhili - you can use the replacement method to fill the northeast with the north Zhili, and then fill the north Zhili with Huaiyang. ."

Zhang Juzheng promised, but thinking about the huge workload and cost, he couldn't help frowning.Zhu Yijun said with a smile: "Old gentleman, you can make money, and you have to spend money. Silver, if you don't spend it, it's a dead thing. If you put it in the warehouse, can you give birth to a baby?" .

Zhu Yijun paused and said, "No matter who it is, when you get to the place of promotion, the imperial court will give you seeds and farm tools. We must clearly express my will: the imperial court will set up a land granting office, and if there are more than [-] male families who move there. , [-] mu of land will be granted to each family; if there are more than [-] families relocated, each family will be granted [-] mu; Ten thousand acres of land belong to his family! No matter who goes, at least a tiny hundred acres!"

Zhang Juzheng and Lu Tiaoyang were stunned when they heard it, and then they wanted to understand. Given the vastness of the three provinces now, ten or eight years of land granting like this may not be able to fill the land.Zhang Juzheng said with a smile: "Your Majesty, if you deal with it like this, I'm afraid that the people who are here are not refugees, they are all branches of the wealthy family!"

Lu Tiaoyang also said: "Now the small noble families in the north and the south, their land is intertwined, and some enclaves are separated by ten miles or eight miles away from their own homes. The emperor's method of granting land is right in their arms, and it is quite attractive."

Zhu Yijun took the case and said: "I haven't finished talking yet, anyone who enters the place of promotion will enjoy five-year tax exemption and ten-half tax treatment. He will not be charged a penny in the first five years of tax; in the sixth year to No.15 In [-], the income will be halved based on the northern Zhili standard.”

He said again: "15 years just happened to be a generation, regardless of the wealthy family or the refugees, they came to the three provinces, set up villages, multiplied for two generations, and finally they will become Northeast silver for me!"

After Zhu Yijun finished speaking, he finally concluded: "Mr. Lu, although the imperial court spent several million taels, after several decades, there will be millions of Han Chinese in the Northeast—who can take this land away? How many Chinese people can be raised in this boundless fertile land? In my opinion, if you go to the countryside of these three provinces and walk ten miles in the countryside in 30 or 50 years, you may not be able to see a single family!"

(End of this chapter)