Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 555 The Collapse of the Medium-Sized Landlord Class

Zhu Chongba was given a long lecture by Lu Jin, who also taught him about the geography and climate of Hokkaido and gave him many suggestions on land reclamation. At the same time, Lu Jin also tried to persuade and win him over.

Lu Jin had long heard from the military instructors that Zhu Chongba had privately complained about the nine-tiered tax policy.

He was fine when he didn't own any land. Later, when he was ennobled as a count, Lu Jin rewarded him with 300 mu of land. At first, it wasn't a big deal, but after the implementation of the nine-tier tax system, he had to pay a high tax of 16.6% on his 300 mu of land, a heavy tax of one-sixth.

He had been serving in the military for a long time, and most of his family members had died, leaving no one to cultivate the land. Since the land could not be left to lie fallow, he had no choice but to hire tenant farmers to cultivate it.

However, in the current situation, it is difficult to recruit tenants. According to the custom of the land, the landlord and the tenant should split the profits at least 50/50. If the tenant's share is less than half, then the landlord is too shameless and will be criticized. At this time, the landlords are not as shameless as they were in the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China.

In addition, after the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, land was distributed to many people. The official land confiscated from landlords was then rented out to the people. The rent collected by the official land was generally 10-20% lower than that collected by the people. The government only collected 30-40% of the rent, while the tenants could get 60-70%.

As a result, even if some people still wanted to rent land, they preferred to rent government-owned land first, forcing landlords to lower their rents, which made the landlords even more distressed.

Zhu Chongba was in the same situation. He had leased his 300 mu of land to a dozen or so households. The rent was only 40%, and the tenants received 60%. Otherwise, if the rent was split 50/50, he wouldn't be able to attract any tenants. The taxes from his land accounted for 16.6% of his income. After deducting the taxes from the 40% rent, he was left with only 23.4% of the output, which was barely enough to keep the land from going to waste. He couldn't make any money at all.

He had complained about the tiered tax many times, but he wasn't stupid. Zhu Chongba knew Lu Jin's intention in setting up the tiered tax to restrict land annexation, but when it happened to him, it made him very uncomfortable. After all, one's position determines one's perspective.
Lu Jin directly pointed it out to Zhu Chongba, saying, "Don't think I don't know what you've been saying down there." He then gave Zhu Chongba a severe dressing-down, asking, "What kind of background do you have, Zhu Chongba? A beggar monk! Your grandfather's family had dozens of acres of land, but why did your parents, brothers, and sisters all starve to death? Wasn't it because of land annexation?"

Why did we risk our lives to build this empire? Wasn't it to prevent such things from happening again? The nine-tiered tax system is a shackle on land consolidation. If you complain about this now, will you have the face to face your deceased parents when you pay respects to your ancestors?

Zhu Chongba was thoroughly scolded. He wasn't stupid; he understood the purpose of restricting land annexation. Now that Lu Jin had pointed it out, he felt even more ashamed.

However, Lu Jin gave him a stern warning and then offered a sweet treat, promising that as long as he made contributions to the land reclamation in Hokkaido and laid the foundation for future attacks on Japan, his title would be raised by one rank and he would be made a marquis.

At the same time, considering his many contributions during the conquest of the empire, he was granted 3,000 mu of low-tax land, with only 10% tax payable per mu, and was also given a certificate of merit.

However, Lu Jin's iron certificate was not a get-out-of-jail-free card, but a special land deed bestowed by the emperor. It specified how much land a person was granted for a certain merit, the location of the granted land, and the tax rate per acre. With this iron certificate, one could enjoy tax reduction benefits.

The back of the iron certificate specified the scope of rewards, as well as the conditions for rewards and punishments. First, no rewards would be given without military merit; second, no rewards would be given without meritorious service in expanding the territory of the state; and third, no rewards would be given for core Chinese lands. The certificate also listed the names of many provinces, and the lands to be rewarded could only be overseas, or border regions such as the Northeast, the Northern Desert, and the Western Regions.

Fourth, the tax incentives for the reward shall not be less than 10%, and the land area shall not exceed 10,000 mu, even if the title of king is granted.

Fifth, the land granted as a reward can only be used for agriculture and animal husbandry, not for industry and commerce, and not for mining. All mineral resources on the land belong to the state, and tax incentives are limited to agriculture and animal husbandry, excluding taxes on industry, commerce, and mining.

Sixth, if the imperial court has any needs, such as land acquisition for engineering projects, road construction, mining, etc., it has the right to exchange the granted land for other places.

7. Those who hold iron certificates and dare to conceal or annex land, illegally use the granted land for business or commerce, evade taxes, or refuse to obey the imperial court's land requisition will be directly demoted to commoners and dealt with according to law.

Zhu Chongba was overjoyed when he received the iron certificate. Although the three thousand mu of land granted to him had many restrictions and was located on Chengzhou Island, requiring him to cultivate it himself, it was a genuinely low-tax area, requiring only a 10% tax rate. Although it was not the lowest tax rate, the amount was still considerable.

If he splits the income 50/50 with the tenants, he can at least keep 40% of the earnings.

Zhu Chongba then thanked him profusely and took his leave. Lu Jin watched his departing figure, sighed inwardly, and shook his head. This guy was a landlord and peasant at heart.
On the other hand, Zhu Chongba also got busy after leaving the palace. Lu Jinsheng appointed him as the commander of Chengzhou, in charge of the Chengzhou land reclamation affairs, and made a plan to first immigrate a land reclamation division next year, dividing it into 15 farms by battalion, to establish a foothold in Hokkaido.

A division is like a prefecture, a regiment is like a county, a battalion is like a town, and a company is like a village. First, set up the framework, and the population will naturally multiply. This is how the military settlements in the Great Northern Wilderness developed. Some places in Northeast China still use military unit numbers as place names, or simply call themselves Farm XXXX.

The imperial court only provided them with grain for one year, and they had to be self-sufficient in the second year. Then, starting from the second year, a new batch of immigrants was added every year to gradually increase the Han Chinese population in Hokkaido.

All immigrants started as soldiers of the military colony, serving a five-year term. During the five years, they ate together from the same pot but did not have to pay taxes. After five years, they were converted to civilians and each immigrant was allocated land and began to pay taxes.

This was done primarily to improve land reclamation efficiency and concentrate resources on major projects. Otherwise, if each household only reclaimed their own land, it would not only disperse resources such as farm tools and oxen, but also result in a shortage of manpower. Even if they worked themselves to death for a year, they would not be able to reclaim much land, making it difficult to establish a foothold in a new place in the early stages.

Before leaving the palace, Zhu Chongba secretly met with his nephew Li Dingbang (Li Wenzhong) and told him that His Majesty had sent him to Chengzhou to cultivate land and had granted him 3,000 mu of land there. He estimated that he would settle down in Chengzhou and it would be difficult for him to return.

So he instructed Li Dingbang to take care of his family's ancestral graves if he had time, and wrote a letter on the spot, instructing Li Dingbang to pass the letter on to his nephew Zhu Shouqian (Zhu Wenzheng) if he had the chance. Zhu Wenzheng was one of only two male descendants left in the Zhu family, so their relationship was closer than that of this nephew.

As for his nephew Li Dingbang and brother-in-law Li Zhen, they have both made something of themselves. His nephew is the commander of the imperial guards who is close to His Majesty, and his brother-in-law is the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Agriculture, in charge of promoting new crops. He doesn't need to worry about them too much.

Zhu Chongba sighed, patted his nephew on the shoulder, and then left the palace.

Then, at Lu Jin's behest, he visited Marquis Wang Dayuan, who was on vacation at home, to inquire in detail about the situation of the natives of Chengzhou Island, and also obtained a manual on new crop planting techniques.

When Zhu Chongba heard that corn could be rotated with wheat, and that potatoes and sweet potatoes could yield thousands of catties per mu, and that these things were all brought from Lizhou by Wang Dayuan at the emperor's behest, he was filled with emotion. This emperor was truly a good emperor. Restricting land annexation was for the people's benefit, and sending people to sea to find high-yield seeds was also for the people's benefit.

Such a good emperor who was devoted to the people. It's just a pity that Lu Jin didn't rebel earlier. If Lu Jin had become emperor earlier and brought these high-yield crops sooner, his family might not have starved to death. This honest and simple farmer might not have embarked on the path of rebellion. It's all about timing and fate. Alas.
With a sigh, after leaving Wang Dayuan's house, he hurriedly set off back to his hometown of Haozhou. It was already December, and he would be leaving for Chengzhou next spring. He wanted to take advantage of the time before the New Year to go back to his hometown to sweep his parents' graves one last time, kowtow to them a few times, and tell them the news that he was about to immigrate to Chengzhou.

On the other hand, Lu Jin also issued several orders, instructing the Privy Council to recruit 13500 immigrants from Chengzhou in southern Jiangsu and all of Zhejiang to form a garrison division, and to have them arrive in Jiankang before February and migrate to Chengzhou in the spring. The selection of immigrants must be based on the people's voluntary application.

There is no shortage of people migrating out of Jiangnan now. After all, the Taihu Plain alone has more than 20 million people. In the original history, Zhu Yuanzhang sent 300,000 Ming soldiers to conquer Yunnan. Then, the 300,000 Ming soldiers settled in Yunnan. Most of these 300,000 Ming soldiers were locals from Nanjing. Many people in modern Yunnan are descendants of people who came from Nanjing during the Ming Dynasty. Lu Jin only conscripted more than 10,000 people, which is more than enough.

However, although the population of Jiangnan is large, the selection of people to voluntarily sign up for immigration is a delicate matter.

Currently, land in Jiangnan can be roughly classified into several categories. One type is government-owned land that is rented to the people at low prices. Lu Jin only allocates land to soldiers. He will not easily allocate land to those who are not soldiers. He would rather keep the land in the hands of the government to collect rent than easily distribute it to the people.

After all, it's not scarcity that's the problem, but inequality. These people haven't contributed any labor. If we easily distribute land to them, what will the soldiers think?
The second type is self-cultivating farmers and small landowners, which includes soldiers who were given land and some small landowners who retained only a small amount of land after the division of their families.

The third type was also government-owned land, but it was not rented to the common people; instead, it was a government-run farm cultivated by the Imperial Guards.

The fourth type consists of medium-sized landlords who own hundreds or thousands of acres of land. Most of them rent out their land to landless people for cultivation.

Among the immigrants recruited this time, the tenants who rent private land were the most numerous to apply.

First, those households that received land through military merit, as well as self-cultivating farmers and small and medium-sized landlords who practiced a combination of farming and renting, already owned land and were therefore unwilling to migrate. They were not interested in the small amount of land allocated to them through migration. Second, those landless tenants who rented government-owned land generally lived comfortably because the rent for government-owned land was relatively low—the government in the Jiangnan region typically only collected 30% of the rent—and because grain production in Jiangnan was relatively high. Unless their families were exceptionally large and they could not support themselves solely through rented land, they were also unwilling to migrate.

Some of these tenant farmers of government-owned land even thought that while life was good now, they should save up some money and then buy land from the government's land to settle down. Therefore, only a small number of these tenant farmers of government-owned land signed up for immigration.

As a result, the largest number of applicants were the landless tenants from medium-sized landlord families.

Most of these medium-sized landlords were originally large landlords. Due to Lu Jin's tiered tax policy, they were forced to divide their property. However, these people were quite stubborn and preferred to divide their property rather than hand over most of their land to the government. After careful calculation, they began to exploit loopholes.

For example, according to the tiered tax system, 20% is levied on 500 to 1,000 mu; 25% on 1,000 to 3,000 mu; 33.4% on 3,000 to 10,000 mu; and 50% on more than 10,000 mu.

They definitely couldn't stay if it was more than 10,000 mu, because there were no tractors in this era, and farming had to rely entirely on people. Even if oxen were used for plowing, someone still had to do the farming.

So, as long as you hire tenants, you have to share the profits with them. If it's a minimum 50/50 split, the tenants get 50%, and the remaining 50% goes to the government as taxes. You don't get a single penny for yourself, so what's the point? You might as well just give the land to the government.

However, for areas under 10,000 mu, they have room to maneuver. For areas between 3,000 and 10,000 mu, they collect 33.4% of the tax. If they hire tenants to cultivate the land, they split the profits 50/50. After giving the tenants 50% and paying taxes to the imperial court, they can still keep 16.6% for themselves.

To be honest, such a small harvest is practically nothing, because after the grain is harvested, it needs to be transported, stored, transported, and sold, all of which incur costs. Even if you don't have to work in the fields yourself, hiring people to do the work still costs money. At the end of the year, you can hardly save any money at all; it's better than nothing. The only advantage is that the land can remain in your name temporarily.

Of course, this situation is rare, there are almost none, because there are government lands there that collect rent. The government lands are divided 30/70, with the tenants receiving 70%. If they want to retain nearly 10,000 mu of land, they must recruit tenants at a 50/50 split in order to barely make ends meet. But now it is almost impossible to recruit tenants for this rent. Tenants will definitely give priority to renting government lands.

With the rent from government-owned land blocking the way, landlords could no longer split the land 50/50. They were forced to split it 60/40 in order to attract tenants. And this was only when government-owned land was really not enough to go around, so they were forced to rent land from private landlords.

With a 60/40 split and a heavy tax of 33.4% paid to the court, they were left with only 6.6%. This was simply unsustainable. As a result, most landlords in Jiangnan now only owned medium-sized land with 1,000 to 3,000 mu of land.

The tax rate for this tier is 40%, with 25% going to the tenants and 60% to them. After paying the tax, you'll still have 15% left, which is enough to keep you afloat. You won't make much money, but you won't lose money either.

Of course, these medium-sized landowners weren't really that stupid, willing to bear such heavy taxes just to hold onto their land; they were simply stuck in old habits.

They always thought that even if they couldn't make money, they could keep the land in their name and then distribute the thousands of acres of land to their children when their descendants grew up in the future. At that time, they could reduce their tax bracket and leave the land to their children.

It's all for the sake of future generations; they just want to leave more land to their descendants.

Lu Jin was happy to see this situation. Since the rules had already been set, he wouldn't force them too much. The current situation was that tenants paid less rent and the court collected more taxes, achieving a world where only landlords suffered losses. Some people were foolish enough to prefer to bear the losses themselves rather than pay heavy taxes to the court. Lu Jin wished there were more fools like this.

In this way, he could collect heavy taxes with a clear conscience, without any sense of cruelty or inhumanity. On the contrary, most people were grateful to the emperor, since it was the landlords who had chosen this path themselves. Lu Jin had not forced them; it was their own fault for clinging to their land.

However, the situation changed immediately after the immigration recall order was issued!
The tenants of those medium-sized landlords began to pressure their landlords, demanding that they either continue to reduce the rent to the same 30/70 split as the official land, with the tenants receiving 70%, or they would stop farming for them, since His Majesty was allocating land to them and they were ready to sign up for immigration!
These tenant farmers were fearless, after all, with His Majesty backing them up, they were not afraid of not having land to cultivate, while the landlords were genuinely worried about not being able to find labor. It was a seller's market for labor, not a buyer's market for landlords. There were many jobs for farming, but few laborers who could farm.

Just before the Lunar New Year, the landlords rushed to their ancestral halls and wailed in front of their ancestral tablets. They said they couldn't live like this anymore, that they were unfilial descendants who had failed their ancestors, and that they were about to lose all the land that their ancestors had passed down to them.
Cry? Crying won't help! After crying, they still have to face reality.

Some landlords were forced to agree to rent reductions for their tenants. Those with better relationships split the rent 30/50 or 60/50, with the tenants receiving 65% and the landlords 35%. After paying 25% tax to the imperial court, they were left with only 10%. The landlords were heartbroken and felt like they were going to vomit blood.
Some landlords and tenants didn't get along well and insisted on a 30/70 split, refusing to budge. Some landlords were forced to compromise, and after paying taxes, they only had 5% of the harvest left. Others were adamant and refused to reduce the rent. The tenants were too lazy to argue and simply left, immediately going to the government to register for immigration to Chengzhou.

Many of them didn't know where Chengzhou was. They only heard from the official announcement that Chengzhou was about the same distance as Liaodong, but it was warmer and the land there was fertile, with paddy fields that could be cultivated and rice grown. If they signed up to immigrate, they would serve in the agricultural settlement for five years, and after that, each person would be allocated fifty mu of land. If they brought their wives with them, their wives would also be allocated ten mu of land based on their household registration.

Moreover, the military settlers did not have to fight, and there were no powerful enemies around them. They only needed to be responsible for reclaiming wasteland and settling farmland. During their service, they ate communal meals provided by the government. After five years, they were converted into civilian households and were allocated cultivated land. It was not too late to pay taxes at that time.

Such generous treatment naturally attracted many tenants to sign up, and the imperial court didn't have to put in much effort to assemble a division of immigrants.

Those landlords who initially stood firm and refused to reduce rents were left in despair after they had actually driven their tenants away. They had to find new tenants before the spring of the following year, otherwise their land would be abandoned after the spring, but the imperial court would not reduce its tax revenue by a single cent.

I don't care whether you plant or not. It's your business if you leave the land fallow. Anyway, the imperial court will levy taxes according to how many acres of land you own, and not a single grain of rice will be shortchanged!
So these landlords, driven to desperation, either swallowed their anger and accepted the 30/70 rent split, and started recruiting tenants to cultivate the land again, or they had no choice but to donate their land to the government and turn it into government land, so that they would no longer have to pay heavy taxes.

However, this triggered a series of chain reactions. After they surrendered these lands to the government, the government's land holdings increased. The government then continued to rent out these lands at a low rent of 30/70, attracting a group of tenants from landlords who refused to reduce rents.

This triggered a chain reaction, causing the entire middle-sized landlord class in Jiangnan to quietly collapse, unable to continue operating, and their assets to shrink.

Some families continued to divide their property, distributing the land to their own members. Others, whose families didn't have that many members, simply sold off the land at a low price, turning the real estate into working capital, and then partnered with others to establish a company to do business.

Some set up paper-making workshops, others partnered to engage in maritime trade, and still others went to the inland to collect goods such as raw silk, silk fabrics, cloth, porcelain, and tea. They would then transport these goods to the port for wholesale to maritime merchants, who would then sell them overseas.

After a year of holidays, the landlords in Jiangnan suffered heavy losses once again. Many medium-sized landlords who originally owned 3,000 mu of land saw their assets shrink, and they were reduced to small and medium-sized landlords or self-cultivating farmers with less than 1,000 mu of land.

As for rebellion? Heh, those who aren't afraid of death can try. His Majesty's Imperial Guard has penetrated deep into the villages and towns. They probably won't even have time to muster their troops before being wiped out by the Imperial Guard.

Suppressing the rebels was a great achievement, and the Imperial Guards and county magistrates were all excitedly watching from all sides.

On Lu Jin's side, in addition to recruiting immigrants, at the end of that year, on the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, the last grand court assembly at the end of the second year after the founding of the country, Lu Jin also publicly announced the rewards for a large number of founding heroes in the court. The rewards were so high that they left all the officials speechless.

The first batch of founding heroes who were granted the title of Duke included 25 people. Apart from a few generals from Liu Futong’s and Sesame Li’s factions, most of the rest were from Huaixi.

These 25 dukes can be roughly divided into four categories. First, there are eleven people who hold the rank of general or above in army groups, including field army commanders, and who hold the ranks of general, grand general, and marshal.

There are also some senior officers who, although holding the rank of lieutenant general, have considerable experience and have followed Lu Jin for a long time.

And senior, meritorious civil officials who serve as assistants.

Finally, there are generals who have incorporated other forces, as well as generals in the Holy Martial Army who serve in the cavalry, navy, and imperial guard. All four categories combined make up 25 people, not including those posthumously awarded the title of Duke after their deaths, only those currently alive.

In this time and space, the even more powerful Huaixi noble group also officially stepped onto the historical stage!
(End of this chapter)