I'm sure of the prosperous age of Kangxi and Qianlong!

Chapter 381 Overseas Development

The Ming court moved quickly.

The imperial edict of dividing families and property had just been announced to the world. The Privy Council and the Cabinet, two political systems with separate civil and military systems, joined forces for the first time under the emperor's decree.

Not only the garrisons and governments in various places, but also the reserve forces were mobilized, and local governments cooperated to provide food and grass.

The battle was quite big, but not as bloody as expected.

Not only because the wealthy families who dared to resist were almost slaughtered by the emperor's butcher knife in the previous New Deal reforms.

Moreover, when the Ming Dynasty split up large households, it was really just about splitting up large households. Many landowners were actually not qualified to be split up.

Three hundred acres of land may not seem like a lot.

But in the Manchu Qing Dynasty, it was actually very powerful. It was very rare in ancient times for a wealthy family to own thousands of hectares of fertile land.

The Chen family of Yimen was so powerful that they even forced the emperor to personally issue an order to separate them. There were only less than 4000 people in the Dingkou family.

By the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, if you had [-] acres of good land south of the Yangtze River, you would be considered a middle-class landlord.

Moreover, Zhu Yijiong only touched their land and land, but not their frivolous wealth.It's not that I don't want to move, but it's just too ugly to eat like this.

Furthermore, after the family division and property analysis, these wealthy gentry who were forced to divide their families had to fight over their family property first.

After all, even if they are divided into branches of the main sect, they are still the same clan.

How could it be possible for the main family to monopolize the wealth?
Zhu Yijiong took advantage of the topic and used strong methods to break up large households. In essence, it was not to eliminate landlords.At this stage, it is difficult to eliminate landlords. It is not impossible to eliminate them, but it is easy to break their muscles and bones.

Even if the landlords don't resist, and you wipe them all out, who will fill the gap in the middle? Even the replacement bourgeoisie has not yet been formed.

We can only settle for the next best thing and eat our food one bite at a time.

First, break up the big households so that they can no longer continue to influence and interfere with the imperial court's local rule.

……

Quanzhou.

Fu Zhongyan called his sons: "This is an imperial edict just issued by the imperial court. All local wealthy families with more than [-] acres of land will divide their families and analyze their property from now on. Officials should be here in a few days. You will let them go after you go back." The members of my wealthy family have all prepared their account books. Although the government must have them, you still have to be prepared. Don’t even think about fighting against the government or the court."

When the sons heard this, they were all shocked.

Fu Yunrang reacted the fastest and said quickly: "Don't worry, father, I will take care of this matter immediately and will never delay the future of my second brother."

"Confused!" Fu Zhongyan frowned and admonished: "What do you mean for Hao'er's future? Hao'er is far away in Ryukyu. Although it is a foreign land, he is deeply trusted by His Majesty. Others have this intention. , and there is no chance. You are cooperating with the court now for the sake of the rich family and for yourselves. Sooner or later, the rich family's property will fall into your hands."

Fu Sheng asked: "But father, the court wants to divide my wealthy family's property. How can there be any family property to divide in the future?"

Fu Zhongyan did not rebuke, but instead smiled and said: "The imperial court only said that all those in the Ming Dynasty whose land exceeds [-] acres must be divided into families, but it did not say that overseas lands such as Luzon and those with more than [-] acres must be separated. In the past few days, you can go back and prepare the account books, and at the same time count the other properties of my rich family. The court will only touch the land this time, not the floating wealth. "

Fu Yunrang asked: "My father's intention is to go to Luzon to open up new fields? But will this affect my second brother..."

Fu Zhongyan said: "The imperial court has not placed any restrictions on Luzon. This is because His Majesty is deliberately leaving a loophole for us to exploit. I am afraid that he also has the idea of ​​​​further exploring Luzon. I will go to Luzon at this time to open up new fields. , His Majesty will not be angry, but will be happier. So, why not?" As the eldest son, Fu Yunrang has received a good education since he was a child, so he naturally understands faster: "What the father said is true, and the child understands it. When things happen with the government, the boy will immediately make arrangements to go to the countryside, recruit some tenants, and go to Luzon together."

Fu Zhongyan shook his head and said: "There are few Han people in Luzon, so how can we recruit them as tenants? Moreover, Luzon is an overseas place. If you recruit tenants, it is difficult for many people to be willing to go. Just tell those people that the travel expenses are , grain, and other crops are all provided by my wealthy family, and they don’t need to be tenants. They just need to live together and cultivate the land. After all, Luzon is a foreign land with many barbarians. One more Han will also provide more security."

Fu Yunrang frowned and asked: "But if there are no tenants, who will plant the newly reclaimed land? We can't ask my rich family members to plant it themselves!"

Fu Zhongyan thought for a while and said: "I heard what those merchants said, the land of Luzon is actually a lot of familiar land left by the red-haired ghosts, and there are still many indigenous people domesticated by the red-haired ghosts. Without the leadership of the big clan, in the early stage There must not be many Han people going to Luzon, so you can start with the indigenous people. Anyway, they are not our Han people. The court does not allow slaves, but it did not say that the indigenous people cannot be used as slaves."

Fu Yunrang nodded and said, "My child understands."

The rich family is ready to seize the opportunity and go to Luzon to open up new fields.

It just so happens that Luzon is now a blank slate. Not only does it have large tracts of cultivated land left by the Spaniards, but nearly [-]% of the remaining land is still undeveloped.

Even if there are competitors, there are still acres of good land waiting for them to cultivate.

As for the original natives of Luzon, are natives considered human beings?

Not only the rich families are preparing to take the opportunity to go to Luzon, but many wealthy families who have been divided and their property is also making preparations.

After all, this was a loophole left deliberately by the emperor, who did not restrict the land annexation of overseas territories in order to attract Han people to colonize overseas and actively attack and seize the territory of local natives.

The wealthy families in these places have never been stupid. The emperor has left them such a large "leeway", so who would go head-to-head with the court?

It has been more than two months since Luzon Island was conquered by the imperial court. If we don't seize the opportunity quickly, we won't let other wealthy families react.

If the imperial court blocks this loophole, it will really be a huge loss.

Of course, there are those who want to go to Luzon for colonization and reclamation, and there are also those who take the opportunity to go to sea and join maritime trade companies.

The imperial court has only opened the sea for two or three years, but the maritime trade business is still very profitable.

Moreover, this era was not like the Qing Dynasty's isolation from the country. Even if there were competitors, the huge maritime trade market was far from saturated.

As long as these wealthy gentry with a large amount of wealth don't play too much, they can basically make a profit without losing money if they invest in it.

Just like in later generations, as long as you have money, you can succeed in anything you do (the prerequisite is that you are in a serious profession).

It took only ten months for the imperial edict to be issued.

The entire Ming Dynasty immediately started a wave of overseas expansion, [-]% of which were led by high-ranking families in those places.

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, traveling overseas in Southeast Asia was full of dangers, and there was a risk of almost death.

If you are not really landless and propertyless, and your life is in embarrassment, then you can basically rely on money to induce you.

Zhu Yijiong just used the topic to split up the big players, which incidentally also accomplished the two tasks of managing Luzon and opening up sea trade.

It doesn’t cost the court a penny.

(End of this chapter)