I really don't want to be emperor at the end of Ming Dynasty

Chapter 420: Once the pattern is opened, the problem will not exist
Chapter 420

The land policy in Liaodong is based on limited private ownership. The only people who own their own personal land in Liaodong are Ning Navy officers, civil and military officials of the Ning Navy system, as well as factory technicians and factory managers. Their land is divided into two pieces. , on the one hand is the field of duties, on the other hand is the field of merit.

However, Shandong, Henan, and Huaibei areas adopted private ownership and adopted the method of equal division of land. Of course, the policies here are actually somewhat similar to those in Liaodong. The same goes for the lands that Song Xiance took back from the gentry in order to expand his army. They were distributed to the officers and soldiers of the Dashun Army, as well as the civil and military officials and technical workers of the Dashun Army at that time.

However, the methods adopted are more radical and extreme than those in Liaodong.As for the prefectures and counties in Northern Zhili, they adopted the original system of the Ming Dynasty.

Although the area originally controlled by Song Xiance is somewhat similar to that of Liaodong where Ning Haijun is located, the problem is that the difference is still quite big, roughly equivalent to the difference between the Western Han Dynasty and the Eastern Han Dynasty. In other words, the area now controlled by Cheng Shijie has three Land policies, no matter which one is adopted, can be completely one-size-fits-all.

Cheng Shijie was in a dilemma, so he decided to hold a meeting in the capital. Of course, this meeting was an imperial edict, and it was attended by cabinet members and ministers from various ministries.

This was Cheng Shijie's first enlarged meeting since he became the regent. Although it was not like the great court meeting during the Chongzhen Dynasty, the number of participants directly exceeded a hundred.

The officials who came to the main hall found that a long table appeared in front of them. There were chairs in front of each table. There was a name plate on each table, which contained their position and name. The officials who came to the main hall They naturally found their place.

They were whispering to each other and discussing. It was different from the previous court meetings. At that time, everyone stood, and only the older ministers of the cabinet or the prince and grand master could be given special seats, which were just small circles. Dunzi.

Nowadays, the desks of officials attending court meetings not only have name tags, but also paper and pens, as well as biscuits, pastries, dried fruits, and dried meat.Tea, and of course a row of clerks, attending to take minutes.

The cabinet ministers were already used to it, but those officials who participated in this court meeting for the first time were very surprised. The court meeting of the Dingxin Dynasty was completely different from that of the Chongzhen Dynasty.

"Greetings to the regent, Jian Guo, long live the Jian Guo."

"All ministers, without courtesy, please take a seat!"

Cheng Shijie looked at the Prime Minister of the Cabinet, Sun Zhidan, and said, "How many topics are there in today's meeting?"

"Reporting to the King, there are seven topics in today's meeting. The first one is that the new year is approaching and the capital inspection needs to be carried out. The second topic is Enke in the coming year, which is the first year of reform. The third topic is land reform. The fourth... …”

Cheng Shijie nodded and said: "Okay, I will add an issue temporarily, and I will issue an order."

"Please show me, Your Majesty!"

"I am going to issue a no-war order for spring plowing. The Spring Festival will be celebrated soon. After the Spring Festival, it will be spring plowing. In the past two years, both the Central Plains and beyond the Great Wall have experienced many disasters. Therefore, I am going to issue this order. From now on Until the end of the spring plowing, the war in the Central Plains has been completely stopped. Let the people of the world live a good year and complete next year's spring plowing. Who dares to use weapons rashly. No matter what the reason is, after the spring plowing is over, I will be the first to attack him. ! All armies under my control must try their best to protect spring plowing. Anyone who dares to invade farmland will be killed!"

Cheng Shijie did not take the initiative and directly led the army south to capture the small court of the Southern Ming Dynasty, or to march westward to destroy the Western Qin Dynasty. The most important reason was the food problem. Of course, the issue of land reform was also urgently needed.

Hearing this, Lu Xiangsheng was greatly moved and knelt down and said: "Jian Guo is indeed a benevolent king. How lucky is it that the world has such a king!"

Cheng Shijie smiled and said, "I didn't expect Lu Jiandou to be quite good at flattering."

Lu Xiangsheng was a little stunned at first, but when he saw that Cheng Shijie's smile didn't seem to be malicious, he felt relaxed and happy. Your Majesty was willing to joke with him, which was a good start for him.

Cheng Shijie continued: "Besides this, there is one more thing. I want to tell the world that all the prefectures and counties under my jurisdiction from the east of Taihang will have all taxes collected this year refunded, and agricultural taxes will be exempted next year! The world has been exhausted, and now it is necessary to find ways to recuperate and recuperate for the people of the world."

Sun Zhiyi was originally a Confucian disciple and had always advocated benevolent government. But the problem is that now that he is the prime minister of the empire and the head of the family, he naturally understands the consequences of doing so!
Sun Zhiman couldn't laugh or cry and said: "I have objections!"

"But it doesn't matter!"

"There has been no war in Liaodong, and there has been no war in western Liaoning. There was no war between Shandong, Henan, and Jianghuai last year. If your Majesty were exempted from the tax, only Yongping Prefecture, Shuntian Prefecture, Baoding Prefecture, Zhending Prefecture, and Hejian Prefecture would be exempted. Just go to the government and you don’t need to be exempted from all agricultural taxes!”

Cheng Shijie said: "What do you think?"

"I think this is a good move!"

"I object to this!"

After a dispute, Cheng Shijie finally directly rejected Sun Zhiman's idea. Although Liaodong had not experienced war, the problem was that they had paid too much. Their contribution was no less than that of Beizhili, and they had to admit that the entire Beizhili It's your own fault.

It is inevitable that nothing can be collected.

Although Cheng Shijie attended the meeting, the person presiding over it was Prime Minister Sun Zhili.

Cheng Shijie is very clear that the ancient dynasties were countries with an economic development model based on the small-scale peasant economy. In the economic system based on the small-scale peasant economy, one of the biggest constraints was land annexation. Land annexation can be said to be the key to the change of ancient dynasties. important internal factors.

If there were no land annexation, there is a high probability that the ancient dynasties would not be replaced. The so-called prosperous age is nothing more than a period when the population and the land's bearing capacity are balanced, as long as the population growth rate does not exceed the limit of the land's bearing capacity. , even a pig can create a prosperous dynasty.

On the contrary, once the population exceeds the limit of the land's bearing capacity, and the limited land can no longer support so many people, there will be no choice but to engage in a man-made mass extinction to forcibly reduce the population to a relatively low level, which is equivalent to Clear the system and start over.

For thousands of years, not only China, but also the whole world has been repeating this process. The difference is that we can always get rid of great chaos after great chaos, while in some places, after great chaos, there is endless chaos, which lasts for thousands of years.

When the cabinet was discussing land reform, because this issue involved all aspects, all participants participated in the discussion. Although the discussion was red-faced, no result was achieved.

Fortunately, Cheng Shijie had people prepare tea, snacks, and biscuits for the officials attending the meeting, which could replenish energy. During the meeting, there would also be adjournments. Every hour, there would be a 15-minute break to use the toilet and rest. , more humane.

However, the meeting was temporarily interrupted.

Of course, although Cheng Shijie left, the meeting continued, but the military also left the meeting one after another, which also aroused many speculations.

In fact, this problem did not occur domestically, but occurred abroad.The Yamen of the Ministry of War that came to the capital has now been changed to the General Staff Headquarters.

Zhou Ning took the intelligence report that had just been sent to him: "The Spanish barbarians came to urge us and ask the king to agree to release the prisoners!"

Lu Xiangsheng asked in confusion: "Prisoner? What kind of prisoner?"

Cheng Shijie said calmly: "The prisoners captured when they recaptured Luzon and the officials. The Spaniards alone captured thousands of them, and they are still imprisoned in Luzon. Those foreign devils were so anxious that they wanted to redeem themselves. They won’t hesitate to cede territory to these captives!”

Lu Xiangsheng was even more confused: "For the sake of thousands of people, we have to cede land?"

"Lord Lu, you don't know something. This Spanish Empire has a small population. The entire Spanish Empire has a population of just over 800 million, but they controlled about five or six Ming Dynasties in their heyday!"

Lu Xiangsheng was stunned: "So much territory? How come there are so few people?"

"Because they never count natives and slaves as people. If their natives and slaves are included, the population may be slightly lower than that of the Ming Dynasty!"

According to later data, at this time, the most populous country in Europe was not Spain but the Holy Roman Empire, with about 500 million people living here. However, the problem is that the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy nor in Rome, nor was it in Rome. empire.This area is actually located in Central Europe, Germany and some areas around it.

France has a population of more than 450 million, Italy has a population of more than 20 million, and the combined population of England and Wales is only 90 million, which is only equivalent to the population of Philadelphia in the [-]s.

Before Cheng Shijie had time to read the information, he said calmly: "Although they have a lot of land, if I don't agree with the desolate land, which piece of land will they cut off in exchange for prisoners? If the land is not good, I won't take it, those bastards They have invaded our territory of the Ming Dynasty for decades, and they have to pay a price no matter what! Should we exchange it for Australia? I advise them to give up, because Australia is already in my pocket, and it is not their turn to make the decision!"

"This, this is the piece!"

Zhou Ning found the map on the huge map.

Cheng Shijie actually didn't understand Spanish. Looking at the area of ​​South America and combining it with later maps, he finally understood that this was the La Plata Plain.

"They think they know practical things!"

Cheng Shijie said with a smile: "The land they cut is definitely good land. Looking at the whole world, I'm afraid it will be difficult to find better land! The La Plata Plain is the most livable area on the entire earth!"

Lu Xiangsheng looked at the map with a suspicious look on his face. He instinctively felt that the land was really small. However, the word "plain" still caught his attention. Plains meant that it was easy to develop and suitable for farming and settlement. What a great place: "La Plata plain? How big is this area?

"How big is more than 100 million square kilometers?"

"More than 100 million square kilometers? It's equivalent to nine Henan provinces, eight Shaanxi provinces, and three Sichuan provinces!"

Lu Xiangsheng became interested instantly: "Where is it?"

"It's so far away that even the fastest sailing ship would have to travel for several months if it sailed around the clock. Of course, the speed of sailing ships can be improved. If we can build a ship driven by a steam turbine, Arrival within two months will no longer be a problem.”

Lu Xiangsheng was dumbfounded: "It's so far! Then you want to use this land for some purpose! To say it's far away is to be polite, this is simply another world!"

Cheng Shijie: "This land is great! According to the information provided by Xiyi, the La Plata Plain is so big. Think about it, does our country have such a vast plain? No, right?"

Lu Xiangsheng thought about it seriously, and he really didn't.The vastest plain in China is the North China Plain, but its area is only 30 square kilometers, which is only one-fifth of the La Plata Plain. What a gap!

"There are hundreds of large rivers in the La Plata Plain, which is extremely rich in water resources, and the land is sparsely populated. The entire plain is almost uncultivated. The fertile soil is unparalleled, and the climate is superior. The summer is not too hot, and the winter is not too hot. Too cold, suitable for farming and animal husbandry, is it wrong to say that it is the most suitable area for settlement?"

"The most incredible thing is that there is no decent country or nation around it! No wandering people or mountain barbarians exist there. Even if there is one, it will be chased by a mere hundred Spanish expedition members. We have gone to a very remote area, think about it, is there any place more comfortable and pleasant than this?"

Until now, Lu Xiangsheng looked shocked: "They, they..."

"What happened to them?"

"They actually exchanged such a large territory for thousands of prisoners. Are these prisoners made of gold?"

Cheng Shijie laughed and said: "Those idiots in the West only know how to rob gold and silver. They don't even know that the value of that piece of land is a thousand or ten thousand times more than the total gold and silver in the world! Of course, even if they know, they don't care. Because they are not good at farming at all, I agreed to exchange those thousands of prisoners of war with them for the La Plata Plains. They don’t want it, but we want it!”

Lu Xiangsheng still said: "I can't figure it out?"

"Youdao means what is lacking and what is most needed. Our Ming Dynasty has too many people but too little land!"

When Cheng Shijie said this, he instantly understood that the entire Ming Dynasty had actually fallen into a strange cycle, from prosperity and strength to the twilight of the empire, internal rebellions, years of war, a sharp decline in population, and finally, overthrowing and starting over.

Just as it is written in the opening chapter of "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms": "The general trend of the world is that if we divide for a long time, we will unite, and if we unite for a long time, we will divide!"

The problem of Ming Dynasty and China is ultimately a land problem. There is no way to solve this problem. Increase crop yields and feed more people with less land; let the rich pay taxes like the poor, or even Make the rich bear more taxes; or...

If we continue to open up new territories, let the land grow with the growth of the population, and ensure that farmers have land and every household has surplus grain and meat to eat, then...

Cheng Shijie suddenly realized that as long as the situation is opened, all problems will disappear.

(End of this chapter)