nanming man

Chapter 48
Not long after Liang Yizhang left, Zhao Daxian, who went to Kaifeng, led hundreds of family members and returned with 1000 taels of silver and several carts of supplies.

These carts of supplies were sent by Zhao Daxian to Gao Zurong. After Li Yan learned about it, he specially asked for a batch of supplies, mainly grain and farm tools, for Gao Yihuan to manage Luyi County.

Li Yan also asked Zhao Daxian to bring a letter, instructing Gao Yihuan to manage Luyi well and show it to Li Zicheng.

Li Yan has always wanted to change the habits of the bandits who invaded the army, but the progress has been very difficult. After Li Guo returned to Kaifeng camp, he heard Li Guo talk about Gao Yihuan and the appointment of officials in Guide Mansion, and he immediately became excited. Thought this was a good start.

Gao Yihuan read Li Yan's letter to him, and guessed that Li Yan hoped that he could be used as a pilot for Chuangjun's transformation, and when the effect was achieved, it could be promoted in Chuangjun, but the second brother Gao was not optimistic about this.

He has opened the eyes of the sky, and he still has a lot of knowledge of future generations. It is not easy to run a county. Liu Heizi and Chen Baoping must be more difficult.

Now Chuangjun is too short of talents, and God does not provide food, sowing seeds does not grow wheat, no matter how you manage it, it will be useless.

After the personnel came back, Second Brother Gao temporarily settled them in a shanty in the city, preparing to be like Ying Long and Sun Yucheng, two sour talents, to sort out the population and land in Luyi, and then evacuate them outside the city.

After barely solving the problem of housing, Brother Gao set his sights on solving the problems of food and farming.

Early this morning, Second Brother Gao was playing swordsmanship with one of his subordinates in the yard. After practicing for a while, Yu Yinglong and Sun Yucheng came out of the room and stood aside and said, "Captain, go to the city today." Check the fields outside, will the captain come with us or come later."

Gao Yihuan withdrew his knife after hearing the sound, "Let's go there together, you wait for me for a while."

The second elder brother threw the sword to the subordinate who led him to practice the sword. This man is called Jin Xiangang, a member of the remaining Ming army. He has good sword skills and some skills.

Brother Gao finished his sword practice, tidied up briefly, went back to the house and changed his clothes, and then walked back to the yard.

Seeing Liang Yizhang's little boy holding a wooden knife and waving it around, he squatted down and pinched his tender face again, making the little boy cry loudly, and then stood up with a smile, refreshed He waved his hand in a refreshing manner: "Let's go, let's go outside the city and have a look."

Luyi County is located on the south bank of Woshui, on the Eastern Henan Plain, and has a lot of land that can be cultivated. However, most of the cultivated land in Henan is the land of the vassal king's family, and it does not belong to the poor.

Although Second Brother Gao occupied Luyi County, the villages outside the county are still in the hands of the squires.

In a plain area like Luyi, whether it is bandits or officers and soldiers, it is a disaster for the people.In order to protect themselves, all villages and towns outside the county must form villages like Gaojia Village.

Although the second brother is sure to take down these villages, the second brother does not intend to do so, but acquiesces in their existence. As long as they pay the second brother food and money, the second brother will not send troops to exterminate them for the time being.

After all, he only has a few hundred soldiers, and Luyi has a radius of more than tens of miles, so he can't manage it at all.

These squires are the cornerstone of local stability. Brother Gao does not plan to move for the time being. His goal is Luyi County, the land of the Ming Dynasty vassal.

The reason why the country gentry is said to be the cornerstone of local stability is because if a place suffers a disaster, the poor can borrow grain from the country gentry, or even mortgage their land, and they can survive the disaster year after all.

If a place is full of poor people and everyone is equally poor, then in the event of a famine, there will be no place to borrow, and the whole place will completely collapse, and only refugees will be formed, or they will starve to death.

There are evil gentry among the gentry, but not all of them are good things. Brother Gao needs them now, and if he doesn't move them, he can only target the vassal fields.

The huge parasitic group of the Zhu family, in Henan alone, had five pro-vassals and more than 80 county kings during the Longqing period, and there were a lot of generals under it, so that the taxes of one province were not enough for these vassals for half a year Lumi.

Officials and gentry have had tax reductions and exemptions to varying degrees in all dynasties, not just in the Ming Dynasty. One of the main problems of the Ming Dynasty's demise was mainly these suzerains and vassals.

This can be seen by looking at the feudal lands of the vassal kings, and then looking at the main areas where the rogue bandits are in trouble. It is not the area where the gentry is concentrated, but the area where the vassal kings are concentrated.

As the people at the top of the entire food chain, the vassal kings are not only the poor and weak people, but even the gentry, a class that plays a stabilizing role in society, is not as good as other places, and they may even become the targets of suzerain and vassal annexes.

To solve this problem, it is not a question of stopping the vassal's salary. The gentry pay some taxes, and the vassal can't afford it at all.

The manors of the feudal kings in the Ming Dynasty were privately owned by the royal mansion, and all their rented food was owned by the royal mansion. None of them were included in the state and county tax books, but were listed in the feudal mansion registers. It was an independent system and had nothing to do with the imperial court.

These vassal kings are rich and powerful. During the slaughter year, the people cannot survive, so they must borrow money from others, and the suzerain vassals can take the opportunity to lend money and annex the land wantonly, so that the big ones are always big, and the land property is rolling in more and more.

Taking Fufan as an example, the feudal state is in Luoyang, but his land properties have actually spread all over Henan, and even to Suzhou and Bozhou in Nanzhi.

The imperial court did not enjoy any of the taxes from these vassal lands, so even if the imperial court stopped paying and reduced the vassal salaries, the Ming Dynasty would still collapse if this cancer was not resolved.

Regarding this point, because of the demand for political restoration of the Ming Dynasty, one cannot speak ill of the Zhu family. Otherwise, how can one call for the restoration of the Ming Dynasty? Therefore, the responsibility for the Ming Dynasty's demise is shifted to other areas. The Zhu family's own problems, or after mentioning them, are not put in the main position, but the second brother Gao just happened to read some materials in this regard, so he knows a little more.

Right now, Second Brother Gao's strategy in Luyi is to appease the squires and then sell Zhu's land.Of course, this is somewhat suspected of an incomplete revolution.

Brother Gao and a few others left the city, walked along the vortex, and carefully looked at the surrounding situation. There were a lot of abandoned land on both sides of the vortex.

"Captain, the large area on the east bank of the river is the manor of King Zhou, and the west bank is the manor of King Chong Chong of Runing." Yu Yinglong pointed to the distance, "We roughly estimated these lands, there should be tens of thousands of people. as many acres."

Gao Yihuan looked from a distance and saw a large piece of land, but only the one near the river bank had been overturned and was still being cultivated, while it was all deserted in the distance.

"There are so many lands?" Gao Yihuan couldn't help laughing: "Then you should measure this place clearly, divide it, and then distribute it. At present, each soldier will be divided into ten acres, and the miscellaneous soldiers and logistics teams will be divided into five acres each. The land was leased to refugees for cultivation.”

Sun Yucheng frowned when he heard this, "Captain, these are all the lands owned by the vassals. Is it inappropriate to do so?"

Second Brother Gao was stunned for a moment, and realized that the two were still waiting for the imperial court to recruit them.

"Haha~" The second brother hurriedly patted his forehead, and explained: "The panic of these lands is also panic, why don't you let me use them. Besides, these feudal lands don't pay taxes, which is tantamount to a cancer of the country. I'm going to include them first. In the taxation system of the town, as for the future suzerains and vassals, let’s talk about it.”

Sun Yucheng and Yu Yinglong could only reluctantly accept what he said, and nodded slightly.

"Captain, even if these lands are divided, most of them cannot be cultivated." Sun Yucheng pointed at the wasteland in the distance again at this time, "In recent years, Henan has experienced repeated droughts, and the amount of water in the Guoshui River has decreased. The fields far from the shore cannot be cultivated. Irrigation, that's why it gradually fell into disrepair. Even if the fields are divided up and cultivated by others, God doesn't provide food for them, and if they sow seeds, they won't grow wheat."

Brother Gao looked at the vortex water, and there was only a ten-foot-wide trickle left on the five-foot-wide riverbed. The surrounding fields, except those near the river, could barely be irrigated, and those a little farther away had been abandoned.

This is indeed a big problem, but since the water in the vortex has not yet dried up, there is a way to solve this problem, Second Brother Gao pondered slightly, and then said: "Then build a dam to stop the water."

(End of this chapter)