Daming: Mixed in Dangzhi County, Beiping

Chapter 144
at the same time.

After receiving the news, the commander of Tongzhou Guards, Qiu Pei, Fang Sheng and others, also quickly took their own guards and ran into Tongzhou City from outside the city in a hurry.

"The last general, Qiu Pei, sees Your Highness!"

"Get up."

Zhu Di was quite impressed with the generals of Tongzhou Guard, he waved his hand casually, and asked a little tiredly, "I don't know why Commander Qiu is here?"

Qiu Pei was speechless. You rushed into Tongzhou City with a thousand soldiers in full armor early in the morning. What are you asking?

"The final general heard that His Royal Highness led troops to Tongzhou, and came here to pay a visit."

"This king is only here to catch a few thieves and gentry who use the name of this king to exploit and harm the people. Don't make such a fuss."

At this moment, Zhu Di also realized something, and explained something casually.

Qiu Pei looked a little relieved.

At this time, I also noticed that under the court, the paralyzed chief officials of Tongzhou and several famous gentry in Tongzhou had a flash of surprise in their eyes.

However, I didn't pay much attention to it.

Even, there is some gloating in my heart.

These civil servants and gentlemen looked down on him, Qiu Ba, and he, Qiu Ba, was naturally happy to see these civil servants and gentlemen suffer.

Zhu Di was tired all night, so he didn't pay much attention to Qiu Pei, gave instructions to the officials in the court, and went directly to rest.

This time, I feel sorry for Guo An, the officials of the Shi Si, the chief of Yan Wangfu, Yu Rentian, the magistrate of Beiping, the officials of the inspector's department, and the chief minister of the government.

Zhu Di can rest, but they can't, they have to continue the interrogation.

Officials in Tongzhou were almost wiped out, regardless of whether they made mistakes on their own initiative or not, but from the upper officials to the servants, they were more or less allocated some money.

Under the interrogation of Jin Yiwei and the officials of the Procuratorate, they basically confessed happily.

In fact, these officials did not have much fault. The group who committed the most heinous crimes had almost been killed a year ago.

The most troublesome thing is He Ji and the other four gentry. These gentry have all been educated, and their hearts are darker and more cunning. Even if there is a new trial, they will still keep complaining.

However, the title of Jin Yiwei is not for nothing.

To make King Yan so disgusted, every Jin Yiwei did not have any softness or scruples when interrogating these gentry.

So, basically in the afternoon, these people all confessed to each other.

Simultaneously.

Zhu Di also came out of the backyard in good spirits.

Seeing this, Guo An, Pu Sanji and others, holding a pile of money and food books in their hands, hurried forward to report.

"Reporting to Your Highness, the lower officials tried out some field thieves and captured some gentry."

"How many acres did they hide?"

Zhu Di said with some expectation.

Pu Sanji said: "At present, there are [-] field thieves who have been confirmed to have hidden fields, and the number of fields hidden is [-] acres."

As soon as these words came out, Zhu Di was immediately shocked.

You know, the number of acres registered in Tongzhou's yellow book is only more than 5000 acres.

After only one day of investigation, half of the hidden fields were discovered.

Zhu Di took the booklet and looked it over, all of them were big gentry and great village sages with more than 2000 acres of hidden land.

There was murderous look in his eyes, "I have copied all these thieves who bullied the emperor, and to be able to hide so many acres must be thieves who exploited and oppressed the people like He Ji.

As for the field thieves hiding under a hundred acres, register them one by one for the king, and let them make up the taxes they owed for so many years.

If someone does not want to pay, then their arable land will be confiscated. "

"Yes, Your Highness!"

Pu Sanji responded, and walked down with a murderous look.

At this time, half of the Jinyiwei in the entire Beiping Mansion have come to Tongzhou.

As for the Beiping government office, the chief envoy, and the procuratorial envoy, they all received news and rushed to Tongzhou one by one.

At the same time, there were also five hundred households from Yanshanwei.

The whole Beiping mansion began to shake up and down.

Especially the prefects and counties under the rule of Beiping Prefecture, as well as those great gentry and great village sages.

Hiding the fields and acres is already an instinct engraved in their bones.

Originally, all of this was the tacit common sense of all the officials and gentry and sages in Ming Dynasty from top to bottom.

However, who would have thought that a few pig-headed gentry and country sages in Tongzhou would dare to hit the king of Yan because of a mere [-] acres of land.

Moreover, it directly lifted the cover that would hide the field.

If this matter spread to Yingtian and the emperor who was born as a cowherd boy knew about it, wouldn't it be a big deal?
At the same time, many gentry, countrymen, and even officials wrote letters one after another with anxious faces, and then hurriedly sent them out.

However, before them, there were already two memorials, which were rushed to Yingtian City in the names of Beiping Mansion Jinyiwei Office and Yanwang Mansion respectively.

Two days later.

Lao Zhu, who was far away in Yingtian City, received memorials from Jin Yiwei and Prince Yan's Mansion at the same time.

"These field thieves dare to hide so many acres, and still exploit and oppress the people like this? Are they really bad at bullying us?"

Your Highness, Prince Zhu Biao also read the two memorials, his face full of anger.

"The gentry and country sages in Tongzhou dare to do this. Don't they know that this is deceiving the emperor?"

Old Zhu snorted coldly: "We never believed that these sages and gentry from the village would be kind. They used to be full of benevolence and morality, but they were like a few crows chirping and croaking like crows spewing dung..."

"Biao'er, we are going to kill people this time, so you are not allowed to stop us. If we don't kill chickens and monkeys, in the long run, these sages and gentry will turn our Ming Dynasty into a miserable scene like the end of Yuan Dynasty again.

All the land is occupied by these gentry and sages, but they don’t pay a single acre of land tax, and all the taxes are on the people, and the people can’t live anymore..."

Zhu Biao's expression changed, and he said hastily: "Father wants to kill those gentry and village sages who have done a lot of evil, and my ministers dare not stop them.

However, there are tens of thousands of gentry, gentry, and sages in my Ming Dynasty. If they hacked and killed together, something big would happen.

What's more, if I, Ming, want to educate the village, I still have to rely on these sages and gentry.

Therefore, the minister asked the father to keep some gentry and country sages who did not oppress and exploit the people. "

Lao Zhu grinned, "Don't worry, Biao'er, we won't kill some kind-hearted gentlemen from the countryside.

The tens of thousands of officials in our Ming Dynasty are all gentry, if we kill them all, who will govern Daming for us.

However, we have to honestly spit out how much land tax they have swallowed from us, otherwise, don’t blame our steel knife on their necks..."

"Father is wise."

There was still some worry in Zhu Biao's eyes.

Although he has a more benevolent temperament, he also knows that those gentry and country sages will never hand over their hidden fields so easily.

On the throne, Lao Zhu grinned, his mouth full of yellow teeth, which looked like a big mouth, "This time, let's take Beiping Mansion as an example, let's see how many acres are hidden in just one Beiping Mansion? "

……

half a month later.

The concealment of fields in the seven counties and four states of Beiping Prefecture was also found out.

In a Beiping mansion, there are 35 mu of hidden land, which is nearly half of the registered yellow book of the entire Beiping mansion.

To Guo An's surprise, more than 1 mu was found in Wanping County, and there were two gentry hiding more than [-] mu, and both of these two gentry did a lot of evil, even exploiting and oppressing the people.

And these, no matter how he wandered around in various villages when he was the magistrate of Wanping County in the past, he didn't even notice the slightest bit.

Naturally, the homes of these two gentry were also ransacked.

And after half a month, he really understood the true meaning of family in the ancient countryside.

The interests of the family are the highest criterion in the hearts of the rural people.

And how good a person's conduct in the country is depends on how much benefit he can bring to the family.

He has always focused on the morality of the previous life as his own way of doing things in this era, but he is blind.

Here, people exist as a family, as long as they are relatives who are close relatives, they are the closest family members and allies when facing outsiders.

In this era, everything may involve family members. As long as you do something wrong here, or if you are weak, how many people may be killed, even your family members!

Following the reporting of the number of acres of hidden fields in Beiping Mansion to Yingtian City, Lao Zhu stood directly in Fengtian Hall, scolding all the courtiers with fury all morning.

In the afternoon of that day, imperial edicts from the imperial court spread throughout all provinces, prefectures and counties in the world.

Jin Yiwei investigated the hidden fields in various prefectures, prefectures and counties.

The prefects and magistrates of all prefectures and counties, as well as a group of gentry, are all in mourning.

Although they have their own methods to deal with the Jinyiwei who have been traced, but with the backing of the number of acres of hidden fields in Beiping Mansion, they will definitely not be able to hide the number of acres of fields they are hiding.

Moreover, if they dare to continue to hide, those Jin Yiwei will be able to watch them all the time until the day they are exposed.

As a result, in just half a month, the entire Daming had an additional 380 million mu of hidden fields.

Lao Zhu and the Ministry of Household Affairs looked at the amount of food and money summarized in various places, and smiled with cold eyes for a full five days.

……

King Yan's Mansion, inside the Cunxin Hall.

Zhu Di's face was full of joy.

"Guo Qing, our Prince Yan's Mansion has an extra 25 mu of land. How do you think these fields should be handled?"

According to the laws of the Ming Dynasty, all confiscated properties were confiscated as official land, or directly became Huangzhuang.

Of the 35 mu of hidden land that was found, [-] mu of it were some kind-hearted gentry and country sages, who didn't confiscate their homes, but asked them to make up the land taxes for these years.

As for the remaining 25 mu, it was confiscated directly.

And in Lao Zhu's pleasure, he directly gave the 25 mu of land confiscated in the entire Beiping Mansion to Yan Wang Mansion.

As a result, all the officials in the entire Beiping Mansion worked hard and worked hard for half a month, but in the end they got nothing. Instead, Zhu Di, the King of Yan, was taken advantage of.

However, there was such a big mess in Beiping Mansion, and Lao Zhu didn't settle accounts with them, so these officials were already burning incense.

Therefore, I have no face, let alone the courage to come out and argue about this matter.

In the past two days, Zhu Di has been very happy.

Bought a 25-mu land near the Zhangjiawan Wharf at a low price, and even gave away [-] more fields.

"Your Highness, I think it's better to distribute it to the original farmers for farming!"

After thinking for a while, Guo An said, "As for the food tax, the government will charge as much as the food tax."

Zhu Di asked again: "What does Zhu Qing think?"

Zhu Fu said: "I also think it's the best."

Zhu Di nodded slightly, "The matter will be handled by Zhu Qing."

"The humble minister obeys the order."

Zhu Fu responded.

……

(End of this chapter)