The first assistant of the poor family

Chapter 554 Corvé Hidden House【4000 words two in one chapter】

After Xie Shen left the cabinet, he did not go directly to the Leopard Room to meet Zhu Houzhao, but instead went to the Ministry of Industry.

Major projects such as dredging canals and removing silt must be presided over by the Ministry of Industry.

There are specialties in the art industry, so if Xie Shen doesn't come to ask the opinions of professionals, who else can he ask?

At this time, the minister of the Ministry of Industry was Fan Cheng, a veteran of the Hongzhi Dynasty.

As the few remaining veterans of the Hongzhi Dynasty, Fan Shangshu's qualifications are definitely enough.But maybe it's because I'm getting old and mentally weak, and the basic affairs are handed over to the people below.

But even so, he is still the official of the Ministry of Industry, and he is still required to make decisions on some major policies.

However, after Xie Shen came to the government office of the Ministry of Industry, Fan Shangshu stood up tremblingly, and came to greet Xie Shen tremblingly, Xie Shen was so frightened that he hurried forward to support the old Fan Shangshu.

"Boss, why bother to be so polite, Zhe Sha is born late."

Fan Cheng was older than Li Dongyang, Xie Shen claimed to be a late student in front of him, there was no problem.

Fan Shangshu shook his head and said: "Cifu came here, how can I lose my courtesy."

Xie Shen said helplessly: "To tell you the truth, Wansheng came here to ask Fan Shangshu for an important matter."

"Cisuke came here to clear the canal, right? I don't dare to ask for advice, but the old man can indeed discuss something with him."

Zhu Houzhao had ordered Jiuqing to discuss this matter before.Fan Cheng, who lives in the Minister of the Ministry of Industry, is naturally also included in the Jiuqing court discussion.

Xie Shen hesitated for a while and said, "Wan Sheng thought that the canal should be dredged and dredged instead of digging new canals. It's not that the latter is not good, but that it consumes too much money."

What Xie Shen said was tactful, but in fact, the total amount of silver in the Daming Treasury is less than 100 million taels, which is not enough to dig new canals, so it is too expensive!
"Well, the old man thinks so too."

During the court discussion, Fan Cheng always insisted on the view that it is better to sparse than to drill.Because he is the minister of the Ministry of Industry and has strong professionalism, he directly affected the outcome of the court discussion.

"Then how many civilians do you think it will take to dredge the canal from Shandong to the capital?"

This is a professional question, and it is definitely not something that can be calculated with a pat on the head.

Xie Shen didn't want to show cowardice, so he asked Fan Cheng for advice very modestly.

Fan Shangshu did not answer immediately, but pondered for a moment.

"A conservative estimate would require 10 people, which is not a small project."

Fan Shangshu's words are undoubtedly the most authoritative.What he said proves that dredging the canal will take a lot of manpower.

Fortunately, dredging the canal takes much less time than digging a new canal, and the recruited civilians should be able to accept it.

"Is there any way to speed up the dredging?"

After all, Xie Shen is a cabinet minister, and he needs to think about many things, otherwise a series of problems will arise when he really starts to dredge the canal, and he will be in a hurry.

"This." Fan Cheng obviously hesitated, his eyes flickering.

Xie Shen cleared his throat and said, "Your Majesty, don't worry, it's okay to say what you want."

Fan Cheng sighed and said, "Actually, if it is really young and strong who come to dredge the canal, it will take at most three months to see initial results. But most of the people who come here are old and weak, and it is difficult to guarantee the time."

Xie Shen was shocked and said, "Why?"

Fan Cheng explained: "The corvée in the Ming Dynasty is compulsory, and every commoner is obliged to participate in the corvée. But there are policies and countermeasures. Many people don't want to suffer from corvée, so they pay for others to participate in it instead. Over time, they form There is a trend, and there is even a special kind of livelihood, which is to collect corvee on behalf of others."

Xie Shen nodded, he knew about this, but what does it have to do with the fact that all the corvee workers are old and weak?

Fan Cheng continued: "The corvee service is very hard. Once conscripted, they usually have to stay outside for more than half a year, so many people give up the idea of ​​making a living by taking part in it for once. The number of people who can stay is limited. getting old."

Xie Shen suddenly realized!

Participating in corvee service is not planting trees and watering instead. It is a life-threatening job, and it is estimated that not many young people are willing to suffer.

Most of the people who are willing to endure hardships are experienced old people. They understand that life is not easy, and they are willing to participate in corvee labor on behalf of others as long as they can earn a living.

"But why did the imperial court know that these people were acting as corvees but didn't report them?"

"Report? How to report? Even if you report, what's the use?"

Fan Shangshu sighed quietly: "In fact, the local government is well aware of it, but it is impossible to really turn against the local gentry."

Xie Shen understood.

In the Ming Dynasty, the emperor and the scholar-bureaucrats jointly ruled the world.

This co-governance is reflected locally.

In the Ming Dynasty, the imperial power did not come down to the county, and below the county level largely relied on the autonomy of the gentry and clan.

And what is a gentleman?Isn't it the officials or relatives of these officials?
They are inextricably linked with the official class and have a decisive influence in the local area.

The county magistrate is an outsider, and the term of office is three years. After three years, he just pats his ass and leaves. There is no need to tear his face with the local gentry for some "little things".

In other words, local officials were afraid of offending the gentry and affecting the evaluation of the Ministry of Officials, thereby delaying their promotion.And the local gentry also took advantage of this to do many things that benefited themselves, such as "people don't raise officials and don't investigate".

Finding someone to collect corvee is one of them.

Thinking of this, Xie Shen felt very depressed.

The feudal society has its own set of operating rules, which may not be all correct, but they are real and ubiquitous.

It is not an easy thing to change it.

Take the dredging of the canal and the collection of corvees as an example. The government knows that the people who come are all substitutes, but no one cares about them, and no one dares to manage them. Isn't this a lamentable thing?

Xie Shen takes care of things that no one dares to take care of, and Xie Shen does what no one dares to do!
"My lord, this matter must not be left as it is. The later students will play, please Your Majesty, and ask the local government to strictly investigate the corvee conscripts. If there is an impostor, both parties will be sent to prison as a felony!"

Xie Shen knew that doing so would violate the interests of the entire gentry class, but he had to do it!

After going through so much, he discovered that Daming's roots are rotten here.If the thorn of Jinshen is not removed, Da Ming can recover for a while, but it will not last forever.

The reason is very simple, the imperial power does not come down to the county.

What's the use of letting your New Deal be carried out in full swing in the capital and even in Zhili, but if you can't carry it out in the localities and encounter strong resistance from the gentry.

So in order for Daming to truly rise, this thorn must be pulled out.

The authority of the imperial court must not be threatened in any way, and if the gentry resisted, they would be kicked away.

Fan Shangshu was obviously a little excited, he hadn't heard such powerful words for a long time, and if Xie Cifu pushed this matter, it might really be successful.

"It's so good, it's so good." Fan Shangshu burst into tears, waving his fists excitedly and said: "Cifu just let go and do it, the old man will definitely agree!"

What Xie Shen wants is not Fan Cheng's statement. In fact, whether Fan Cheng expresses his position or not will not have a big impact on the matter.But Fan Cheng was willing to support him at this time, which still moved Xie Shen a little.

Now it seems that the silting of the canal is not necessarily a bad thing. If it can be used to rectify the domineering gentry, it will be a blessing in disguise.

In the Zhengde dynasty, Xie Shen's words carried the most weight besides the emperor.

Even if the things he believes cannot be done immediately, they must be developing in the direction of being done.

After a long talk with Xie Shen, the Son of Heaven also realized the crux of the problem, and decided to strike at the gentry.

It won't be easy, of course, but there's always something to try.

Zhu Houzhao is a heroic king with great ambitions, and he will not watch the empire decay and decay.

The emperor directly entrusted this matter to Xie Shen, with Gu Dingchen acting as his deputy.

The second assistant of the cabinet and the third university scholar are also responsible for the dredging of the canal, which is enough to show that the emperor and the court attach great importance to this matter.

Since dredging is necessary, the first step is naturally to levy corvee.

From Shandong to the prefectures and counties of Zhili, the government at all levels conveyed the imperial court's decree, but the response was not very enthusiastic.

Especially the gentry and landlords had a negative or even resistant attitude towards this matter.Not only did they fail to send those who applied for corvée to the government for filing in time, but they also shut the door to the officials who went to urge them.

It's nothing to dare to defy the government's intentions, but these gentry are already defying the imperial court's intentions.

In other words, in the eyes of these gentry, all government offices and courts are bullshit!
This made Xie Shen furious.He didn't expect that the gentry and landlord would defy the imperial order so blatantly.Originally, he thought that these people would act more reserved, but now it seems that they are confident.

Wealthy merchants in the southeast coast who owned enemies and communicated with the Japanese, and the gentry and landlords in Shandong and Zhili who oppressed their tenants into wealth and were unkind. In the Ming Dynasty, there were these moths. How could they really rise up?

Now it seems that the so-called Hongzhi Zhongxing is really a joke. Although Emperor Hongzhi was diligent in his administration, none of the key things were moved, and the other dared not move.

But if these things don't move, it is impossible to revive them only by the diligence of the emperor and the cabinet.

Emperor Hongzhi was afraid, Xu Pu, a scholar of the former dynasty, was afraid, but Xie Shen was not.If there must be one person to stand up, then he, Xie Shen, is duty bound!

Since he can mercilessly punish the southeast sea merchants who communicated with the Japanese, he can naturally train these gentry and landlords to be obedient.

Didn't these gentry and landlords refuse to serve corvee?Didn't you pretend to be ignorant?
Xie Shen didn't show politeness to them and directly ordered the guards from all over the country to go to the farms of these gentry and tie up these patriarchs to the yamen, and then escorted them to the river for dredging.

These gentry and landlords are all parasites who don't care about labor and production. They can't lift their shoulders or hands. They are naturally very resistant to the dirty and tiring work of dredging.

But I'm sorry, it is the official army who is responsible for the supervision of the river.They don't care whether you are a poor farmer who digs food in the land or a landlord with ten thousand hectares of fertile land.Since they participated in corvee service, they were all treated equally.

If there are lazy people, the whip will be drawn immediately, and blood purlins in the shape of earthworms will immediately swell up on the forearms and legs of these lazy bones.

How could these gentry and landlords have ever suffered such grievances? Even if they wanted to resist, the response to them was another whip.

The faces of the landlords were covered with bloodstains, and they never dared to dig mud with their trousers tied up, their sleeves rolled up and their buttocks pouted together with other corvee workers.

Even the local prefectural and county officials did not expect such a good effect, and they all admired Xie Shen.

In fact, Xie Shen just made a fuss by taking advantage of the psychology of all parties.

The local government and the gentry are inextricably linked, so it is impossible for them to completely offend the gentry.

But the guard army is different.They are not subject to local administrative constraints, and they do not need to look at the faces of the gentry.

Moreover, the officers and soldiers of the guards are generally strong-tempered, and they can't get used to the sissy landlords and gentry the most. These gentry will definitely suffer if they fall into the hands of the officers and soldiers of the guards.

Li Liwei's next work will be much easier.

If any gentry dares to refuse to serve corvee, it will be enforced by reference.

As for those who hired others instead of corvee, Xie Shen also focused on cracking down.

In Xie Shen's view, corvée is an obligation of the people of Ming Dynasty, and it must not be thrown away easily.

Those who have meritorious reputation can be exempted from corvee. This is a policy that cannot be changed.

But those gentry are mostly relatives of famous scholars or officials, so why can they be exempted from corvee?
Can a chicken and a dog ascend to heaven alone?

The more people escaped the corvee, the more it showed that Ming Dynasty tended to be more flashy.These people's bones were weak and broken, so Xie Shen helped them connect them.

Since you are alive, you have to live upright and straighten your spine.

Of course, the real Juren and Zhishi officials can be exempted from corvee.Xie Shen would not order the guards to use force.

In addition, there are also a large number of hidden households that Xie Shen ordered to investigate.

The so-called hidden households refer to black households who escaped from their hometowns in order to avoid corvee and taxes and were not on the local government register.

There were not many of these black households in the early Ming Dynasty, because Zhu Yuanzhang cracked down on hermit households very vigorously, and for this reason he invented Luyin.If the government catches hermits, they will punish them severely, and the cost of escaping is too high, and naturally there will be fewer people who escaped.

But that changed later.

Especially in the late Ming Dynasty, a large part of the village households fled their nationality and became hermits.In order to survive, they are often attached to the farms of local gentry landlords and become servants and tenant farmers of these landlords.

Although they are tenant farmers, they have not been registered with the local government as real black households.However, since these gentry and landlords are all local tyrants, the local government often turns a blind eye to it every time a population check is carried out.

These large numbers of hidden households were able to escape the investigation and continued to stay in the landlord's farm.

The official population recorded by the Ming court and the actual population were very different, because of the relationship between hidden households.

The peak population recorded in "Ming Shilu" is about 7000 million, but the actual number is nearly [-] million.The difference between the two is three times, which shows the huge number of hermits in the Ming Dynasty, especially in the late Ming Dynasty.

During the Zhengde Dynasty, there were already a large number of hidden households, but they were not as exaggerated as in the late Ming Dynasty.It's too late to rectify now.

Xie Shen ordered the officers and soldiers of the guards to take this opportunity of enlisting corvée to conduct population checks on these gentry and landowners' farms, and immediately locked up those who concealed the report and sent it to the government for punishment.

This opening must never be opened.

Because hidden households do not have to pay taxes, this will lead to a large loss of court tax money.

(End of this chapter)