Ming Jiajing: Starting from Immortality

Chapter 200: Survey the land and distribute it equally to the people!
Assist the Eastern Tartars.

The prime minister agreed.

The opposite is true.

Hu Zongxian, Li Chunfang and Chen Yiqin were in a dilemma. The two superiors each had their own reasons. If the problem could not be resolved in the cabinet, they could only go to Yuxi Palace.

Chen Yiqin took the initiative to accept the task of reporting the matter to the palace. This strange behavior made several of his peers feel very strange.

Most of the time, Chen Yiqin has always been a good guy in the cabinet, but when it comes to people's livelihood issues, he will not give in to anyone and is a good official who is dedicated to serving the people.

In government affairs, he was not ambitious, but he would never give up, and he rarely went to the palace alone to meet the emperor.

As a friend for many years, Li Chunfang knows his old friend better. Looking at his worried back, he always feels that something big is about to happen.

However, with the return of Yuan Fu, some government affairs had to be transferred, and Li Chunfang had no time to go into the details.

……

Ok Hee Palace.

Chen Yiqin recounted the cabinet's disagreements and sat on an embroidered cushion waiting for the emperor's decision.

He believed that the emperor knew more about the internal situation of Tatar than the cabinet.

After the Jingu explosion, the Jinyiwei restrained their open edge, but secretly, the Jinyiwei was the uncrowned king.

Not long ago, when he was practicing calligraphy at home, he was not careful enough with his strength and damaged the wolf-hair brush that he had used for many years. He could no longer use it.

And the very next day, the emperor bestowed a brocade box with four small boxes inside.

In the long rectangular box, there was a brush, and it was obvious that it was extraordinary.

The pen holder is about the same thickness as an ordinary brush, but it is green with mottled black spots.

Looking down along the pen shaft, the pen cap is made of crystal clear Khotan jade with a hollowed-out and ground tip.

Chen Yiqin is a connoisseur of valuables, and his family also has many records about the composition of this brush.

First of all, the brush holder was made of rhino horn that was brought back by Zheng He, the eunuch sent by Emperor Chengzu to the West. There has never been another rhino horn that big since then.

The pen cap is ordinary, carved from Lantian jade, just for the sake of charm.

The most precious thing is the brush tip with a translucent red interior. This was made by a chieftain in Yunnan in the 30th year of Jiajing, using the tail of a weasel with red hair all over its body.

Many people saw the weasel and said that there might only be one like it in a thousand years.

The chieftains of Yunnan presented tribute to the emperor, who ordered skilled craftsmen to make six brushes, two of which were kept in the palace and four were awarded to Yan Song.

Yan Song was never willing to use it and kept it for more than ten years.

Later, Yan Song was executed and the Yan family was confiscated. The four pens returned to the palace and the emperor gave them to him again.

The four small boxes in the brocade box all contain the same red-hair brushes, which are truly something that can be passed down from generation to generation.

While Chen Yiqin ordered people to send him back to his hometown in Nanchong, Shunqing, Sichuan, and enshrine him in the ancestral hall, he was shocked by the terror of the Jinyiwei.

A senior cabinet minister, for example, had his brush damaged, and the matter was recorded and reported to Yuxi Palace by the Imperial Guards.

The red-bristle brush bestowed by His Majesty might not have any special meaning, but the feeling of being watched at this moment, it would be a lie for Chen Yiqin to say that he was not afraid.

Even an important official of the country was treated like this, and the enemy Tatars had been infiltrated by the Jinyiwei for hundreds of years. I'm afraid that Altan of the Northern Tartars and the little prince of the Eastern Tartars were under the surveillance of the Jinyiwei in every move.

The letters for help sent by the tribal leaders of the Eastern Tartars to the Ming court were copied by the Embroidered Uniform Guards after they entered the territory of the Ming Dynasty. If the emperor said that he did not understand the Tatars, Chen Yiqin would never believe it.

Just as Chen Yiqin thought, without asking, Zhu Houcong gave the imperial decree, saying: "Allocate 2 million buckets of wheat and sorghum from the Changping warehouse to Xuanfu Town, and then transport 100,000 sets of cotton clothes and quilts to Liaodong Town, and sell them to the Eastern Tartars at the market price of our Ming Dynasty."

The territory of the Eastern Tartar had contact with the three towns of Liaodong, Jizhou and Xuanfu of the Ming Dynasty.

But Jizhou Town was more like an inner town, and the Eastern Tartars did not dare to set foot in it easily, so they could only transport things to the Eastern Tartars from Xuanfu and Liaodong Towns.

The reason why food and cotton were not given to the Eastern Tartars together was related to the special geography of the Ming Dynasty. Liaodong Town was the coldest, and many reserve cotton clothes and quilts were in Liaodong Town and Jizhou Town to prepare for the emergency needs of the Ming army.

As for grain, the imperial court set up a Changping warehouse in Shanxi and transferred grain from the Changping warehouse. The closest border town to the Eastern Tartar was Datong Town and Xuanfu Town.

Although two million dou of grain and one hundred thousand sets of cotton clothing could not completely solve the problem of the Eastern Tartars surviving the winter, they could solve their immediate problem. This would make it easier for the Ming Dynasty to provide assistance to the Eastern Tartars based on the actual situation.

The Eastern Tartar cannot fall, but they cannot be comfortable either, lest they raise a tiger to cause trouble.

"Yes." Chen Yiqin accepted the order.

The cabinet issue was resolved, but the people did not leave. Zhu Houcong stood up from the throne and asked, "Is there anything else?" while thinking about ways to destroy Buddhism and Taoism.

"Your Majesty, in our Ming Dynasty, the rich have fields stretching for miles, but there are few men to serve as corvee laborers. The poor have no place to live, but are burdened with heavy corvee labor. The source of all these disasters lies in the system of male labor service. I request an order to survey the land and distribute the male labor service according to the acreage." Chen Yiqin spoke out what was in his mind.

In the Ming Dynasty, the Ding silver, together with the four difference silvers including the Lijia silver and the Junyao silver, were all collected by local officials and not handed over to the court. Therefore, most of this income went into the private pockets of officials.

The imperial court did not have statistical figures on the national ding silver, only the total number of male adults in each household. Therefore, when formulating the imperial system, the court did not address the issue of how to deal with the ding silver and how to allocate it.

In this way, as long as the local governments met the requirements of the imperial court in terms of taxes and corvee, it would not matter who the taxes and corvee fell on.

Officials and gentry used their privileges to hide the number of people, and cunning people evaded the tax by claiming to be immigrants. However, the dingyin program still existed, so taxes and corvee labor naturally fell on the poor peasants.

In response to this, Chen Yiqin proposed a solution, which was to re-survey the entire country's farmland, abolish the ding-silver system, and instead distribute the ding-silver tax based on the amount of land.

This was a way to fill in the gaps in the practice of officials and gentry performing their duties and paying taxes together. Taxes and corvee labor would no longer be calculated based on the number of people, but would instead be distributed evenly based on the amount of land or land tax. For some farmers who had less land or no land, their burden would naturally be lighter than before.

However, those who owned a lot of land included not only officials and gentry, but also powerful families. Chen Yiqin's advice was intended to deal a heavy blow to the powerful families who passed down land from generation to generation.

The Chen family, the family that is closest to the aristocratic families in the world today, wants to dig up the roots of the big families below their own family.

There was more surprise and admiration in Zhu Houcong's eyes when he looked at Chen Yiqin. It can be said that he was still a scholar.

Above myself, all beings are equal; below myself, there is a clear order.

The Chen family took advantage of the fact that they did not dig up food from the fields and unscrupulously undermined the roots of other families.

Steady, accurate and ruthless!

land.

It is the foundation of inheritance for many big families.

No one can guarantee that all descendants from generation to generation will be smart.

The value of a family owning a large amount of land is reflected. As long as the descendants have a little bit of brains and don't squander the family property, they can survive for many years by collecting rent.

A thousand acres of good land can ensure the inheritance of a family for one generation; ten thousand acres of good land can ensure the inheritance of a family for two generations; and one hundred thousand acres of good land can ensure the inheritance of a family for three generations.

If there are prodigal sons for four consecutive generations, then that is destiny. The family will be ruined and there will be no regrets.

Measuring the land was like stabbing the aristocratic families in the lungs with a knife, and allocating the tax based on the land was like forcing the aristocratic families to death.

To pay taxes and labor service in full, those wealthy families in the Ming Dynasty who valued money as if it were their life would probably vomit blood upon hearing the word "full".

Zhu Houcong did not agree immediately, but of course he did not object. He smiled and asked, "Instead of allocating taxes according to the land, why not distribute the land equally to the people?"

Chen Yiqin's heart was suddenly filled with shock. He thought his idea was bold enough, but he didn't expect that the emperor was even bolder than him.

If the distribution of land tax according to the amount of land was like knocking on the coffin lid of the powerful and wealthy, then the equal distribution of land to the people was like opening the coffin lid of the powerful and wealthy, digging out their rotten corpses and exposing them to the sun.

Re-surveying the land and redistributing it to the people based on the number of people will completely destroy the living ground of the big families and powerful people.

Unless the powerful families use their wealth to buy and sell land and start over again.

The accumulation of several generations has vanished into thin air. It would be strange if the powerful families did not fight desperately.

But Zhu Houcong still felt that it was not enough, so he added: "After the land is measured and distributed equally to the people, the right to use the land will belong to the people, while the ownership will belong to the court. Private buying and selling of the land will not be allowed at any time."

He could guarantee good weather and good harvests for the Ming Dynasty, but he could not guarantee that hundreds of millions of people would not suffer from natural disasters and man-made calamities. In order to prevent the powerful and wealthy from deliberately creating suffering for the people, buying and selling the people's land at low prices and indirectly achieving the goal of annexing the land, it would be better to ban all transactions.

Chen Yiqin's eyes were as big as bells. His Majesty was putting the final patch on the land of the Ming Dynasty, grinding the rotten corpses of the powerful families under the sun into ashes.

It is just like the saying in Mencius: Teng Wengong I: "Those who have permanent property have permanent heart, while those who have no permanent property have no permanent heart. If one has no permanent heart, he will indulge in evil and extravagance and do whatever he wants."

The imperial court would not easily touch the farmland. The ownership of the land by the imperial court actually provided protection for the common people and transformed the land into permanent property in the hands of the people.

The land belongs to the court, the court belongs to the people, and those who own permanent property will have stable thoughts and behaviors because they have sufficient material foundation to support their lives and families, so that they can focus on moral and spiritual cultivation.

People who do not have permanent property may experience fluctuations in their thoughts and behaviors due to the instability of their lives, and may even do things that violate the laws of the Ming Dynasty due to the pressure of survival.

Everyone has permanent property, although it is not much, but they will not suffer from major disasters or misfortunes, and they can be self-sufficient in food and clothing.

But for officials, gentry, wealthy families and powerful people, that little bit of permanent property was no longer enough.

What officials want is to pass down power from generation to generation, and one of the biggest anchors is the power established on the land.

What the gentry wanted was poetry and books to be passed down from generation to generation, and the output of the land provided an anchor for themselves and their descendants to study, and also the land.

There is no need to say much about the big families and powerful people, as they are the guarantee of family inheritance.

Chen Yiqin wanted to say something, but he opened his mouth and moved his lips and teeth, but he couldn't make a sound. Now, there are 300 million acres of registered land in the Ming Dynasty, all of which belong to more than 100 million people, and each person has less than three acres of land.

Of course, the actual number of acres of farmland in the Ming Dynasty was far more than this. From the Hongwu to the Hongzhi period, the amount of farmland in the world had been reduced by more than half.

Specifically in some areas, such as Huguang, the original land quota was 2.2 million hectares, but by the Jiajing period, the remaining quota was only 230,000 hectares, with a loss of 1.97 million hectares; Henan had 1.44 million hectares of land, and during the Jiajing period, the remaining quota was 410,000 hectares, with a loss of 1.3 million hectares; Guangdong had 230,000 hectares of land, and during the Jiajing period, the remaining quota was 70,000 hectares, with a loss of 160,000 hectares.

The Ming Dynasty suffered from a serious land shortage, which was due to the tactics used by officials, gentry, and powerful families.

Measuring land and shrinking the rope, tricks, sprinkling, widening the rope, hiding fields, hiding households, etc.

The scholar group's control over land and land means of production has extended to the encroachment of political power today.

The elders of Chen Yiqin's family once estimated the country's land to be around 600 million acres.

All the people of the Ming Dynasty could have six acres of land to farm, and a family of five could have thirty acres of land to farm.

In a good year, thirty acres of land can produce eight or nine thousand kilograms of grain, which can be converted into two or three hundred taels of silver.

The prices of wheat and sorghum are lower, but even if they are less, they are still more than 100 taels of silver.

The annual income of a family of five is even comparable to the annual salary of an eighth-rank official in the imperial court.

Throughout history, have the common people ever been as rich as they are today?
In a trance, Chen Yiqin seemed to see the arrival of a prosperous era and the people were all happy, but he also knew that after people's lives became comfortable, the population would usher in a big explosion, and the scene of earning one hundred taels of silver a year would soon be balanced with the regulation of grain prices and population growth.

But Chen Yiqin wanted to see that prosperous era.

Even if it's only a few years or decades, Chen Yiqin and the Chen family are willing to make every effort.

A family will eventually go into extinction; even a noble family cannot escape this fate. This was also true during the Han and Tang dynasties when the noble families were stronger than the imperial power.

But if he and his family can accomplish the feat of surveying the land and distributing the land equally to the people, there will surely be a separate page for Chen Yiqin and the Chen family in the vast history book of China.

And that, perhaps, is a family’s way to eternal life!
The Chen family is willing to give everything!
After a long time, Chen Yiqin barely managed to control his excitement, prostrated himself in the hall, and slowly said, "Your Majesty, I and my family are willing to follow your orders and implement the national policy of measuring the land and distributing it equally to the people!"

Chen Yiqin believed that no one in the world knew better than the Chen family the amount of land in the two capitals and the thirteen provinces, prefectures, and counties, and knew better the ways and means by which officials, gentry, wealthy families, and powerful people hid and concealed land.

Even if I have to fight with officials and wealthy families until I die and my clan is destroyed, I will not hesitate!

Zhu Houcong stared at Chen Yiqin for a long time. Chen Yiqin sensed the dragon's gaze, raised his head, and met the dragon's eyes. His eyes were clear and open.

Chen Yiqin and his family have impure intentions, but this impurity benefits the country and the people.

Zhu Houcong didn't know what to say, so he nodded, then shook his head and said, "Lü Fang."

"The servant is here."

"Draft an imperial edict to survey the land and distribute it equally to the people. Then take the Emperor's sword and give it to Elder Chen."

"Yes."

Lu Fang took the order, went to the imperial desk, drafted an imperial edict, and directly stamped it with the imperial seal. Then he took out a brocade box from behind the throne, opened it, and took out the emperor's sword.

With an order and a sword, Chen Yiqin kowtowed and said, "I accept your order and thank you!"

"Go ahead. I will let the Jinyiwei and the Eastern Depot cooperate with you. I hope you won't let me down." Zhu Houcong waved his hand.

"If this fails, I will present my head to you!" Chen Yiqin signed a military order, stood up, bowed his back and left the hall.

"Lü Fang, go and see him off on my behalf."

……

cabinet.

Zhang Juzheng, Gao Gong, Hu Zongxian, and Li Chunfang were sorting out government affairs while waiting for Chen Yiqin to return.

But when Chen Yiqin and the eunuch Lu Fang, who held the seal of the Imperial Household Department, stepped into the Government Affairs Hall together, Li Chunfang's right eyebrow, which had been twitching for a long time, suddenly stopped twitching. At this moment, he was sure that his old friend had come to the palace to cause trouble.

Lu Fang conveyed the imperial edict of the Ming Dynasty to aid the Eastern Tartars. Zhang Juzheng was delighted, Gao Gong's face was as gloomy as water, Hu Zongxian thought everything was good, but Li Chunfang felt that a thunderbolt was approaching.

It feels like a thorn in the back, a fishbone stuck in the throat, and like sitting on pins and needles.

Lu Fang turned to look at Chen Yiqin and said softly, "Mr. Chen, do you want me to tell you what's going to happen next, or do you want me to tell you yourself?"

"No need to trouble Eunuch Lu, I can do it." Chen Yiqin said in a deep voice.

Lu Fang nodded and said with a smile: "When Lord Chen leaves the capital, I will let Chen Hong lead the East Factory guards. From now on, Lord Chen can tell Chen Hong and the East Factory as he pleases. If Chen Hong and the East Factory disobey Lord Chen, Lord Chen can kill them. If Lord Chen doesn't want to kill them, please send a message to me. The inner court has its own set of family rules."

"Thank you, Eunuch Lu." Chen Yiqin expressed his gratitude, and Lu Fang left with a smile.

Just now, with Lu Fang blocking and attracting attention, Zhang Juzheng did not notice the sword hanging on Chen Yiqin's waist. As soon as he walked away, the scabbard carved with dragons and phoenixes pierced the eyes of several people in the cabinet like a thorn.

The bad premonition became a reality. Li Chunfang could no longer hold back and asked, "Yifu, what is that sword?"

"The Emperor's Sword." Chen Yiqin replied.

But Li Chunfang was not unfamiliar with the Sword of the Son of Heaven. What he really wanted to ask was what divine will the Sword of the Son of Heaven represented?
And what did Lu Fang mean when he said that his old friend Chen Yiqin was about to leave the capital?
Gao Gong's face became darker and darker. He could no longer guess that Chen Yiqin had taken the opportunity of going to the palace to report on cabinet affairs to convey the emperor's will which the cabinet was unaware of. He should not be the second prime minister of the cabinet.

The return of the Prime Minister had already made him very unhappy, and Chen Yiqin secretly colluded with the emperor without consulting the cabinet. Gao Gong felt upset and very uncomfortable.

But the person in charge here was Zhang Juzheng after all. He put down the wolf-hair brush in his hand and asked with a smile, "Yifu, what new court system have you come up with that will benefit the country and the people? Has the emperor approved it?"

As a senior official, Chen Yiqin had the power to go to the palace alone to make reports and bypass the cabinet. In Zhang Juzheng's view, this was not a big deal.

Again, the etiquette and rules are to restrict people below the cabinet, not to restrict the ministers.

"The imperial edict is here, Prime Minister, please take a look." Chen Yiqin took out the imperial edict, walked to the desk in the middle, and handed it to Zhang Juzheng.

When Zhang Juzheng saw the eight words "Measure the land and distribute it equally to the people", his usually steady hands trembled.

After reading every word, Zhang Juzheng praised: "It is indeed a great event that benefits the country and the people. Yifu, you have great wisdom and courage!"

Being able to gamble with himself and his family against all the officials, gentry, noble families, and powerful people in the world requires courage that not everyone can match.

In the past, Zhang Juzheng discriminated against the children of big families like the Chen family, but now his thoughts have completely changed. These people are crazy!
Chen Yiqin and the Chen family are the biggest crazies in the world!

"You are too kind, Yuan Fu."

"Hey... I'm sincere, there's no falsehood at all."

Zhang Juzheng handed the imperial edict to the cabinet secretary Liu Tai who was waiting beside him, and asked him to pass it on to the other cabinet elders. He said sternly, "Are you really not leaving any way out?"

The fortune of several generations of the Chen family not only falls on Chen Yiqin, but also on Chen Yiqin’s two sons.

The eldest son, Chen Yubei, was a Jinshi in the 38th year of Jiajing. He was initially appointed as the magistrate of Qingyang by the imperial court. He worked diligently in the position and achieved excellent results in both the imperial examinations and the imperial examinations.

In March of this year, many official positions were vacant in the imperial court, so he was promoted to Shao Sikong and supervised the repair of the capital. During the construction, he was thrifty and planned carefully, plugged loopholes, ensured the quality and quantity, and completed the project ahead of schedule, saving more than 50,000 gold, for which he was rewarded by the emperor.

He was promoted again to the position of Zuo Sima, Governor of the Grain Transport Department, and Governor of Fengyang.

Over the past six months, Chen Yubei's name has often appeared in the court. He has rectified the water transport administration and ensured the smooth operation of the Grand Canal, with great achievements.

According to the court regulations, Chen Yubei should have received 130,000 yuan in official money, but he was not greedy for money. He used half of it to help poor students and gave the other half to the orphanage.

Therefore, Chen Yubei was highly praised in the court for his excellent moral character and talent, and he also got rid of a lot of criticisms of being "my father, the elder".

Zhang Juzheng once proposed that Chen Yubei be appointed as the head of one of the six ministries, with the intention of training him to become a prime minister, but Chen Yiqin politely declined the proposal, saying that "too many powerful people will bring disaster rather than blessing."

Chen Yiqin's second son, Chen Yujie, was indeed inferior to his father and elder brother. He passed the imperial examination in the 39th year of Jiajing, and then was selected as the magistrate of Tongcheng County in Jiangnan during the official selection this year. It is said that he was very strict in disciplining the subordinate officials around him, but very lenient to the people.

There was a barren but fertile puddle land dozens of miles long in Tongcheng County. Chen Yujie personally led people to build embankments and turn them into fields, and then rented them out to landless farmers at low rents.

According to reports from Nanzhili, those fields could produce hundreds of thousands of shi of rice every year.

He is a capable person.

If he waits a little longer, when there is a vacancy in the imperial court, Chen Yujie can be transferred to the capital. He can't catch up with his father and brother, but if he keeps going, he can expect to become a minister.

It would be a lie for Zhang Juzheng to say that he was not envious of the Chen family's fortune and family tradition.

If a family doesn't hold office for three generations, once they become an official it's like having wings, and several great talents will emerge one after another.

But in the imperial edict, Chen Yiqin actually took the initiative to ask his two sons to give up their current official positions and work to survey the land and distribute the land equally to the people.

In Zhang Juzheng's view, this move might cause the Chen family to lose a cabinet minister and a court official.

There is no need to do this to implement national policies. Whoever is asked to do it will do it. There is no need to drive your son too much.

"I'm worried about the others." Chen Yiqin groaned.

On the other side of the national policy is the representative of the old system that has existed for thousands of years. It is difficult for other people to have such determination to let go and survey and return the land equally.

"Yu Bi, would Yu Jie be willing?"

"It doesn't matter whether they are willing or not. They are my sons, members of the Chen family, and subjects of the Ming Dynasty. For the sake of filial piety and loyalty, they have no choice. This is their fate!" Chen Yiqin said indifferently.

(End of this chapter)