Brother Zhu Youxiao

"On the [-]th of July this year, there was an earthquake in Changsha, Changde, Baoqing, Yuezhou, Hengzhou and other prefectures in Huguang, especially Changde and Lizhou."

"In Wuling County, Changde Prefecture, there was an earthquake in the middle of the night, black air blocked the sky, wells and springs flooded, ground cracked holes, slurry water gushed out, collapsed city walls and houses, and crushed hundreds of people to death."

"In Lizhou, the tremors were like thunder, the ground cracked and the sand rushed in with the water, houses fell and trees were pulled up, and six hundred people and animals were crushed to death."

"Four out of ten city walls in Jingzhou Prefecture were destroyed, three out of ten civilian houses were destroyed, and more than [-] soldiers and civilians were crushed to death."

"In addition, Zhongxiang, Jingling, Qianjiang, and Mianyang Prefectures in Chengtian Prefecture, Suizhou Prefecture in De'an Prefecture, Yuanling Prefecture in Chenzhou Prefecture, Zili, Baling, and Pingjiang Prefecture in Yuezhou Prefecture, and Longyang and Taoyuan Prefecture in Changde Prefecture. People in Yufu prefectures and counties suffered disasters, nearly 470 people were killed and injured, and tens of thousands of houses collapsed. Therefore, more than [-] prefectures and counties were exempted, and hereby the land tax of [-] million and [-] yuan was lost..."

In the hall of Chengyun, when Bi Ziyan was talking eloquently, explaining why the six provinces of Central South and Southeast China had paid less than 400 million yuan in land tax and rice and wheat, Zhu Youjian's face was not good-looking.

"It really affected more than [-] prefectures and counties?"

Zhu Youjian questioned Bi Ziyan, but Bi Ziyan could only lower his head when he heard the words: "The local government office below reported this, and the officials sent to the nuclear survey also said the same."

"Which officials were sent?" Zhu Youjian continued to question.

"The Metropolitan Procuratorate, the Ministry of Officials, and the three divisions of Dali Temple..." Bi Ziyan replied.

However, after he finished answering, Zhu Youjian didn't speak for a long time, and when he saw this, he could only say:
"Your Highness, the earthquake should be real, but the scope of its impact should not be so large."

"Since His Royal Highness implemented the New Deal in Sichuan, the gentry in the south-central and southeast have been in panic. It is not ruled out that they will take advantage of the earthquake to avoid the land tax."

Bi Ziyan's words actually explained the reason why Tian Fu Mimai lost more than 470 million this time.

Sichuan's New Deal is good news for small and medium-sized landlords and poor and rich peasants, because the complicated and miscellaneous items in the past have disappeared, and they only need to honestly pay ten land taxes and one land tax.

But for the gentry and big landlords who didn't need to pay miscellaneous items, this New Deal is what Zhu Youjian used to cut their flesh.

The taxes of the Ming Dynasty, or the taxes of the ancient dynasties, are mostly on miscellaneous items, and nothing can be seen just by looking at the land tax.

For example, in the first year of the Apocalypse, the common people only needed to pay thirty Fu and one land tax, but in fact, if miscellaneous items were added, the tax they needed to pay could reach eight qian.

Eight qian silver, based on the rice price of four hundred renminbi and one shi back then, the people had to hand over at least two shi of rice and wheat to satisfy the government. Even if they produce two stones per mu, they can only produce six or seven stones.

What was handed over at once was not two stones of rice, but one-third of their annual income.

Because of this, part-time jobs became popular in the late Ming Dynasty, because if you don't work part-time, you can't afford the government's taxes.

The land tax in the Ming Dynasty was fixed. Since the common people paid more, the gentry and official landlords naturally paid less.

Zhu Youjian understood this truth very early on, so he dared to directly formulate the military settlement method of ten Fu three and ten Fu two when he was engaged in military settlements.

Because he knew that even with such handover, the common people could live a better life than before.

However, with the advent of severe drought, Zhu Youjian could no longer do this, and there was no need to do it.

The reason why it can't be done is because he wants to let the people have savings and food, so he wants to reduce or exempt the land tax.

The reason why there is no need to do this is because the proportion of overseas tax and land tax has already accounted for a large part of Daming's tax revenue.

While taxation is expanding, Zhu Youjian can completely let the people rest, but at the same time, he must also come up with a fair tax bill, and ten taxes and one tax are the fairest bills in the New Deal.

Anyway, the powerful gentry don't have to pay too many miscellaneous items, so Zhu Youjian simply abolished this tax law, and then changed from thirty tax one to ten tax one.

On paper, the burden on the people has increased, but in fact the burden on the people has been reduced.

The burden of the people has never been land tax, but miscellaneous and corvee.

In the current Ming Dynasty, if the local government wants to launch corvee, it must go to Zhu Youjian and get Zhu Youjian's consent. His approach is basically to reject corvee and distribute money to the local government to hire workers.

With the corvee gone, the common people's burden will only be miscellaneous.

What Zhu Youjian has to do is to abolish the miscellaneous items, so that the common people and the gentry will pay the thirty-one land tax fairly together.

However, the field tax of thirty Fu cannot support the Ming Dynasty, so Zhu Youjian needs to increase the field tax to Ten Fu.

Even so, the burden on the common people has been greatly reduced, and it is the powerful gentry who are really burdened.

Originally, they only had to pay the land tax of thirty one, and did not need to pay miscellaneous items or serve corvee.

As a result, they now have to pay ten land taxes and one land tax, which has become the same treatment as ordinary people.

There is no sense of superiority without comparison. Capitalists deprive people not necessarily for money, but also to satisfy their own bad taste of watching others work. The same is true for gentry and powerful.

Looking at the people living a hard life, and seeing that I don't have to do corvee or pay miscellaneous tasks, the sense of superiority comes up all at once.

However, Zhu Youjian now wants to smash their sense of superiority with a hammer and cut their flesh.

They didn't dare to resist Zhu Youjian, but they had some small thoughts.

This earthquake is one of the ways they evade taxes.

However, what needs to be paid attention to is the inaction of local officials, so in the final analysis, we still have to talk about the corruption of grassroots officials.

"Let Chengde come to see me."

Zhu Youjian turned his head and asked Cao Huachun to call Chengde, and then left Bi Ziyan aside like this, without any movement for a long time.

Half an hour later, footsteps sounded from outside the hall, and Cheng De's voice suddenly appeared:
"Censor Chengde, Zuoqian capital of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, please see Your Highness..."

"Come in!" Zhu Youjian responded, and Cheng De also walked into the Chengyun Hall after hearing the words, and bowed and saluted when he saw Zhu Youjian:
"Your Majesty, please refer to Your Highness, please respectfully greet Your Highness..."

"You know everything, right? What do you think about the taxation and official issues in the Jiangnan, Beijing and six provinces?"

Zhu Youjian questioned Chengde without waiting for Chengde to sit down, but Chengde was also decisive:
"Since the local officials do not follow the court laws, act recklessly, cover up the gentry and tyrants and refuse to pay taxes, they should be punished according to the "Law of the Ming Dynasty."

"The lower officials suggested that officials in Beijing and six provinces be ordered to check the number of people affected by the disaster and the number of acres of fields, and to pursue taxation on fields that were not affected by the disaster."

"At the same time, officials from the Metropolitan Procuratorate, Ministry of Officials, and Dali Temple sent to Beijing and six provinces for inspection and investigation will be arrested and exiled to Nanzhou!"

"Officials who did not chase after the disaster-affected land to pay taxes will also be punished and exiled to Nanzhou!"

Cheng De responded to Zhu Youjian's dissatisfaction with a tough attitude, and he didn't care how many local officials and Yanshan officials would be sacked by his words.

I'm afraid, just as he said and thought at the beginning, since he chose to cover up corruption, he must be prepared to fall.

They couldn't blame Sun Chuanting, they couldn't blame Lu Wenzhao, they could only blame themselves.

"..." Hearing Chengde's words, Bi Ziyan looked at Chengde with admiration for the first time.

He knew very well that if Chengde dared to say such a thing, he must have made sufficient preparations. Not to mention anything else, he had to unify the thoughts of thousands of Yanshan officials in Beijing.

In the same way, since Chengde unified the thoughts and political opinions of thousands of officials in Beijing, local officials must also have their supporters.

Who are Chengde's supporters?
Bi Ziyan thought about it, and thought of the tens of thousands of new Yanshan officials who graduated from Enke last month.

Those people are still waiting to be dispatched to take up positions in the official office in the capital, and Daming doesn't have so many positions for them right now, so cracking down on internal corruption has become what Cheng De, the leader of the Yanshan faction, has to do.

Zhu Youjian has also played this method of suppressing and exiling all those who have different political views from him, and then supporting his own people to rise to power.

Thinking of this, Bi Ziyan took a deep look at Chengde, and what he could think of, Zhu Youjian could naturally think of it.

Zhu Youjian narrowed his eyes. He looked at Chengde's neither humble nor overbearing appearance, wondering whether he was really for the people or for power.

If Chengde is really for the people, Zhu Youjian will be very happy, because even if Chengde can't become the second Zhang Juzheng, as long as he has Zhang Juzheng's mind and sticks to the system he left behind, how long can Daming and the people live? Ten years of good days.

If he acted like this on purpose for the sake of power, then Daming might have to step out of Shen Yiguan again.

Therefore, whether it was to test Chengde or to test the internal problems of Yanshan, Zhu Youjian chose to speak:
"In that case, I'll leave the matter to you."

"Also..." Zhu Youjian looked at Bi Ziyan:

"From the first day of the first lunar month, the country promulgated a new policy, abolishing all miscellaneous items, abolishing the small tax, and changing all land taxes to ten."

"Those who dare to resist, or those who fail to accept and impose, the Yi tribe..."

Zhu Youjian said the words of the Yi tribe, which made Chengde and Bi Ziyan feel tight.

You need to know that in Zhu Youjian's style of doing things, unless he is someone who stepped on the red line in his heart, most officials will end up exiled to Nanzhou and Dongshan Prefecture, Nanshan Prefecture at most.

Since Zhu Youjian dared to say the words of "the three tribes of barbarians", it means that in his heart, the officials who missed the tax collection of the powerful gentry and tried to add the missed tax to the common people are actually dead.

"The next officer...takes orders..."

Bi Ziyan and Cheng De responded one after another, and Zhu Youjian's step actually started "the gentry pays for the mu, and the gentry pays for the grain together".

Once the New Deal of Ten Fu and One is promulgated, the hard days of the gentry will come.

Different from Yongzheng's "salts into the mu, the gentry pays food and errands together", Zhu Youjian did it more thoroughly than what Yongzheng did.

Due to the stability maintenance policy of the small Ling family, the Qing Dynasty destroyed a large number of official schools left by the Ming Dynasty, so that the literacy rate of the people was cut in half.

Therefore, there are very few officials and backup officials available to Yongzheng, and they are all born or funded by powerful gentry.

The only thing Yongzheng can use is the nobles of the Eight Banners in his hand, but Zhu Youjian is different. He has no hindrance from the Qing Dynasty's national opinion. Pull them down who are corrupt.

As long as his merits are great enough, he is not afraid of someone below who dares to speak out against him, and those who dare to speak against him will either die or be dismissed.

People like Zhu Guozuo, Shen Yun, etc., even if they are anxious, so what?Shouldn't he just watch Zhu Youjian's New Deal being implemented?
Want to kill Zhu Youjian?Then compare whose life is longer...

It's really the time when Zhu Youjian is about to die, or when he is about to leave Daming.

Zhu Youjian promised to take this group of guys away in one wave, and at least make Ming Dynasty politically clear for more than ten years.

"Den!"

"Let it go! Let it go!"

"Where are the sleepers?!"

Just when Zhu Youjia was deciding on the national policy, Shuozhou County, more than 700 miles away from him, could be described as lively.

After a year and a half, the laying of the railway finally arrived at the border of Shuozhou from the West Railway Station of Beijing, and along with the railway, there was still a large demand for labor.

Shuozhou, Daizhou, Shanyin, Mayi, Yanmenguan and other places along the railway line had no land to cultivate due to severe drought. The people knew that the railway was recruiting workers, and after the wages were twelve cents a day, they came to vote one after another.

For a time, the laying of the more than 100-mile railway from Shanyin to Shuozhou actually gathered 10,000+ workers.

It can be said that 10,000+ workers are engaged in linear construction almost side by side. This kind of labor demand also euphemistically expresses the tension and urgency of the people in Shanxi.

Although there is still surplus food in the family, the surplus food is consumed every day.

Therefore, the common people can only work to earn money, so that they can go to the imperial shop to buy rice noodles.

Behind the scorching scene is the helplessness brought about by the severe drought.

Railways, reservoirs, canals, government roads, county roads, township roads...

All kinds of work-for-relief projects kept appearing, but they fell apart after the construction was completed.

In the past year, 150 two reservoirs have been built in Datong and Taiyuan Prefectures, 730 miles of canals have been built, [-] miles of government roads have been completed, [-] miles of county roads and more than [-] miles of roads have been built. The township road is still under construction.

These projects plus the railway barely allowed 300 million of the 100 million people in Taiyuan and Datong to have jobs.

To put it bluntly, one or two people from each household went to work on the construction site, and the rest were either doing casual labor for the Huangdian, or they could only go to the Taihang Mountains to find some wild vegetables to relieve their household expenses.

Where there is water, it’s okay. Although the output has decreased, at least there are still fields to cultivate. Where there is no water, they can only go to the major coal yards in Huangdian to work.

But even so, Daming still couldn't create jobs that would allow the more than 700 million people in Shanxi to have something to do, so a large number of people who couldn't bear it could only choose to relocate.

For example, the Xuanfu in Northern Zhili has moved from more than 50 people to only 10,000+ people in the past few years, and most of them went to Modong Province.

With the establishment of the three provinces outside the customs, many Shanxi people also have the idea of ​​relocation. After all, the severe drought really shows no signs of stopping.

They haven't left yet because they want to survive the winter and work to save some travel expenses.

Because of this, Shanxi is extremely lively this winter.

Even though the outdoor temperature has been minus [-] degrees, it still can't stop the people from wearing cotton clothes to work.

Although the permafrost is hard, one person can still make a few steps of ditches a day, and 10,000+ workers can make hundreds of thousands of steps a day.

The gravel was laid entirely by manpower, and the sleepers and rails were also built by manpower. The hands were too cold, so I went to drink ginger soup in the tent next to the construction site.

The supervisor of the Ministry of Industry set up two tents on both sides of the road every 100 paces. There was a large vat of boiled ginger soup in the tent, which was enough for more than [-] people.

There are more than ten catties of brown sugar in the tank, just drinking this ginger syrup can make people full.

This kind of small people's life is the life of most people in Shanxi.

At present, they are not as good as the people in Shaanxi. At least the people in Shaanxi can basically support themselves after they have almost migrated, but they still need the imperial court to transfer food for relief from time to time.

Compared with Shaanxi, the people in Shanxi are miserable. Although millions of people were relocated during the four-year relocation, the population of Shanxi is too large. Under the lack of water, everyone is starving.

Zhu Youjian took down the Northeast to resettle the hungry people in Shanxi. Only local officials in Shanxi can see the tragic situation in Shanxi.

"Father, do you think their life will get better in the coming year..."

On the hill far from the construction site, when nine-year-old Sun Bingwen asked, Sun Chuanting could only sigh:

"If the tractor incident is true, then they should feel better, but they don't know how many of these 10,000+ people will leave their homes in the coming year."

"Many of my classmates in the government school said that they will follow their parents to the three provinces outside the customs after finishing this semester. They don't know where they are going and whether they still have books."

Sun Bingwen, who shared the same horse with Sun Chuanting, revealed some reluctance in his words, but Sun Chuanting was only silent after listening.

He knew that it was right for the people to leave their hometowns, because with this posture, the severe drought would obviously not disappear suddenly. Although it would be hard work for two or three years to move to the three provinces outside the Guan, there was always something to be done.

If the tractors mentioned by the court can really reclaim more than ten acres of wasteland a year, then the lives of the people will be somewhat guaranteed.

Sun Chuanting doesn't understand these things, but he believes that the people in the Yumajian will not shoot the target for no reason.

He glanced at the bustling construction site and watched their working speed, he couldn't help sighing:

"Continuing on like this, I am afraid that within a month at most, the laying of the hundred-mile railway will be completed."

Using 10,000+ people on a project that originally only required 1 people, the project that originally took more than a year to complete can be completed in just over a month.

It's just a pity that they built very fast, but Daming's steel speed couldn't keep up with them.

These days when Sun Chuanting was at home, it can be seen that the imperial court is using steel and cement everywhere, in order to let the people have jobs and food.

It's just that the production capacity of steel and cement can't keep up with the speed of construction, so every time a section of project is completed, the place has to rest for half a month.

For these 10,000+ people, their wages for working on this construction site for a month can only buy [-] to [-] catties of rice at most.

It may be possible to feed a family for two months, but after two months, they still need food and savings.

Thinking of this, Sun Chuanting couldn't help sighing, and even wanted to ask if he could increase wages for Shanxi workers.

But before his thoughts could be realized, he saw two teams of fast horses running in the distance, holding up their Chinese books and shouting back and forth:

"Long live, there is a purpose! The wages of Shanxi workers have increased by three pennies! The previous working hours will be based on this standard, and they will be made up according to the length of time!"

"Long live Your Majesty! Long live! Long live!"

"Hahaha!!!"

When the supervisors of the two teams shouted the news that the imperial court had raised their wages, the workers who heard about it burst into revelry.

Some of them held up tools and sang long live, some stamped their feet excitedly, and some laughed loudly. In short, everyone had smiles on their faces.

Sun Chuanting could not hear the sound of the fast horse, but the servant behind him went down the hill to ask the workers, and then passed the news back to Sun Chuanting.

Sun Chuanting heaved a sigh of relief after hearing the good news, but he also knew that the so-called "long live has a decree" is actually "the king of Qi has an order".

Zhu Youjian was just doing things under the banner of Zhu Youxiao and giving him the credit.

It's just that it may not be a good thing for him to do so.

When people know that the king they respect is actually a ruler who relies on others to make way for him, and the person who makes way for him will leave Daming, such a result will be extremely cruel to the people.

Why did some people in the Yanshan faction distort it? To put it bluntly, Zhu Youjian said the emperor was too good, but Zhu Youxiao couldn't do what he said at all.

When there is a deviation between ideal and reality, people will only become paranoid.

"Father, the salary has only increased by three Wen, why are they so happy?"

Sun Chuanting was still immersed in the questions about the future of Ming Dynasty, but Sun Bingwen asked about the reality.

From Sun Bingwen's point of view, three pennies does not seem to be a lot, because his daily change is ten pennies.

Faced with his question, Sun Chuanting was silent for a few seconds, and then said after a while:

"To you and me, three Wen is not a lot, but to them, it is a catty of rice, a hope for people to live."

"Wages of fifteen cash are very little for us, but for them, they can not only feed their families, but also save a catty or two of rice and noodles, and go to places where they can live better."

"Can't the imperial court just distribute rice noodles to them? Didn't they also distribute food stamps before?" Sun Bingwen was puzzled.

Faced with his question, Sun Chuanting was also very puzzled. He didn't understand why Zhu Youjian was willing to distribute food to the people before, but now he is not.

Is there a problem with the imperial taxation?Or is it spending too much?

However, the imperial court has wiped out even Jianlu, so what is there that can make the imperial court unable to make ends meet?
Sun Chuanting couldn't figure it out, because he had been away from the court for too long, even if it was only two years, but during these two years, Daming gradually became unknown to him.

Thinking of this, Sun Chuanting could only answer: "Your Highness and the court have their own considerations."

"You have to go to class tomorrow, so come here today, go home..."

After all, Sun Chuanting turned his horse's head and led the four servants around him to ride back towards Zhenwu until he disappeared at the end of the county road...