A century-old family that runs through the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 356 New Deal

These landlords and gentry believed that the military government of Jiangsu and Zhejiang would soon introduce some policies to appease them, or invite some of the "great Confucians" to work directly in the government without taking the examination, in order to win over them and gain their support.

After all, since ancient times, every feudal dynasty has basically chosen to win over the landlord class to stabilize its rule, or to increase its bargaining chip in the fight for the world.

However, Yan Ling did the opposite, which was extremely inconsistent with their expectations and undoubtedly shocked them.

Although they actually understand that in order to stabilize their own rule, the imperial court will definitely crack down on land annexation and seize their interests, but that will only happen after the imperial court is unified. You guys are still in the entrepreneurial stage. , instead of coming to please us, he actually issued such an order.

Aren't you afraid of losing the hearts of the "people" and losing the world as a result?

Of course they don't know that the head of the Jiangsu and Zhejiang military governments does not belong to this time and space. He has ideas from later generations. He does not want to fall into another reincarnation.

Moreover, at this time, apart from the areas originally controlled by the family, conflicts in other places were actually very acute.

At the end of almost every dynasty, various problems such as land annexation will be faced, which will lead to massive peasant uprisings. After the impact of the peasant uprisings, the land and social conflicts will be eased. After that, after a lot of competition, the world will be determined. This will start another prosperous era.

But the problem is that the Zhejiang area has not been attacked by large-scale rebels at this time!

Whether it was Zhang Xianzhong or the previous Potian King, they were defeated very quickly. At this time, the power of the landlords in Zhejiang was still huge, and many people were still severely oppressed.

From every aspect, reform is imperative, and Yan Ling needs to use this to ease social conflicts.

Of course, as the largest landowner, Yan Ling naturally led by example and adjusted the rent of the land owned by the Yue Kingdom to an extremely low level.

This is the brilliance of Yan Ling's two policies, and their appropriate benefits to people's hearts.

They will make the gentry feel angry and dissatisfied, but they will not lead to direct revolt. In other words, although these two policies are an invasion of the gentry's money and power, they are still within their tolerance.

However, it is just a "voice of dissatisfaction".

As for the second item, not to mention, of course Yan Ling would not allow the imperial power not to go to the countryside to happen in a new country, but this is also difficult for the landlords to accept - their rule over the countryside has always been theirs. The important power is also one of the important ways to exploit the people, so how can it be given up so easily.

Suddenly, voices of dissatisfaction arose one after another.

Although Yan Ling is not afraid of them starting a war, once the gentry all over the world resist with all their strength, and then mix with the likes of the court kings, it will eventually cause certain obstacles and pay a greater price, which is not worth it.

He did not directly confiscate all these properties. After all, public and private matters must be distinguished. An important flaw in the fiscal policy of the Ming Dynasty was the lack of distinction between public and private matters. The royal finances invaded the national finances. When the country ran out of money, it frequently requested internal funds, leading to financial chaos. Wanli even sent eunuchs from time to time to collect taxes and add them to the internal funds, which resulted in excessive and heavy taxes, which was criticized.

Although Yan Yinghui and some clan elders were heartbroken, they thought that this was also for a big event, so they didn't say anything more.

As for the landlords, seeing that the Yan family had cut themselves off, their resentment became much less intense. After that, officials from various towns and villages quickly arrived, and they quickly began to fulfill the orders issued by their superiors. Many of them were from civilian families and received modern education. Naturally, they had no sympathy for the landlord class. Be gentle, check hidden houses, reduce rents, and be meticulous.

Although many landowners finally decided to cooperate with the Jiangsu and Zhejiang military governments, some were unwilling to compromise. They took out gold and silver and tried to bribe officials. After the failure, they became angry and overtly and secretly obstructed the officials' actions.

However, Yan Ling was not a vegetarian. Soon after, officials took a piece of paper and arrested people door to door.

These people disobey orders, and Yan Ling has no intention of keeping them. It just so happens that the new policy also requires bloodshed to show the government's determination and deter Xiao Xiao.

Many landlords had servants in their homes, so they naturally did not want to be taken away like this. However, once they encountered resistance, the officials were merciless - soldiers from the Jiangsu and Zhejiang Army followed behind and opened fire without saying a word.

Even in the end, Yan Ling simply took advantage of the situation and punished some landlords and squires who were notorious in the towns. They themselves were either executed or imprisoned in the mining areas to do hard labor, their properties were confiscated, and their land, Naturally, it was distributed to the rest of the people.

Of course, there were also officials who could not resist the temptation and accepted bribes. These people were recorded by Yinlong, and they were soon found. The officials who had worked hard to pass the exam were directly exempted, and they themselves ended up in jail. .

Such iron-blooded methods successfully frightened all the landowners and officials. From then on, at least on the surface, no one dared to resist the orders of the military government.

After this investigation, the total population of Zhejiang was increased by hundreds of thousands. This was only the "result" of their unscrupulous behavior in the few years after Yan Chenhao's death. It can be seen that these landlords usually concealed the number. How huge it is. The imperial court collects a lot of taxes from Jiangsu and Zhejiang every year, but in fact, this has been greatly emasculated!

However, this scheme of course no longer works. How many fields there are, you have to pay taxes, and the hidden households have been restored to tenant farmers, registered as household registrations, and enjoy the protection of the government. They are no longer allowed to bully them wantonly.

For a time, although the landowners in Jiangsu and Zhejiang were mourning their heirs, the people were rejoicing and supported the newly established military government of Jiangsu and Zhejiang even more. As the ruler, Yan Yinghui's reputation also reached its peak.

However, when the news spread and reached the court, Emperor Wuxing was very angry and vigilant. He believed that the other party was trying to win over the people, so he lost his temper and executed several generals and officials in prison who were unfavorable in the war.

Then he increased business taxes.

There is no way, the imperial court's annual tax revenue is only 7 million taels, and this value is still falling. The Ming Dynasty is poor.

Anyway, compared to the rogue bandits and the Yan family in the southeast, his behavior can be said to have done the least harm to the interests of the landlords and scholar-bureaucrats.

Originally, the landowners and businessmen complained about his collection of commercial and mining taxes, but now compared with them, he looks like a good person.

If you don’t support me, how about supporting them?

You have no choice.

(End of this chapter)