Ming Jiajing: Starting from Immortality

Chapter 328: The calamity of all races, the relocation of Yongling Order!
Capital, Yuxi Palace.

The entire hall was filled with picture albums of powerful families moved from the Chen family library.

Zhu Houcong couldn't help but be shocked.

In the past three years, the Jinyiwei and the Tiqi have been sent out everywhere, killing more than 100,000 court officials and clerks alone.

The number of people implicated could reach hundreds of thousands.

In addition, the three major business gangs of Jin, Hui and Chao executed more than one million people in two recent anti-gang and anti-evil campaigns.

Those who were sentenced to imprisonment, exile and other crimes numbered at least hundreds of thousands.

In the 39th year of the Jiajing reign, when the imperial court conducted a census, the entire Ming Dynasty had a population of only 120 million.

Although this number is inaccurate, the big families, wealthy families, and landlords all have the habit of hiding their population, and bandits, robbers, and refugees are not included in the census, but the population of the Ming Dynasty was only about 150 million at most.

Of course, in the past three years, the Ming Dynasty has had good harvests every year, the people have lived and worked in peace and contentment, and the number of newborns has increased dramatically. Zhu Houcong estimated that the population has increased by at least 10 million.

All in all, the current Ming Dynasty has a population of about 160 million.

It can be said that Zhu Houcong eliminated 2% of the vested interests in the Ming Dynasty and increased the number of newborns by more than 5%, and the overall population was still rising rapidly.

But Zhu Houcong never expected that even after killing so many people, there were still so many "stubborn forces" in the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Houcong, who didn't believe in evil, took out a picture album from the sandalwood box at random. It came from Zhejiang and Ningbo Prefecture.

Opening the catalog, the names of the four prominent families immediately appear.

The Yang family of Jingchuan, the Tu family of Jianqiao, the Lu family of Yuehu and the Zhang family of Chahu.

Ningbo is just a prefecture with only five counties under its jurisdiction, but there are prominent families from all over the place. Zhu Houcong's heart sank and he continued to look through the documents.

The Yang family of Jingchuan has flowers and trees growing together.

The Yang family lives on the south side of Jingchuan River, on the south side of Xiaojiang Lake, and on the top of Linfengzhou Island. It is known as "Yangjiacan" in the proverb. The family is very large and is divided into three parts: East Yang, West Yang, and Central Yang.

The first of the four major families in Ningbo, it has been accumulated and managed by several generations.

The first ancestor, Yang Zai Shiyi (whose name is lost), should be considered a relatively low-key one among them. He is not well-known for his poetry. During the Deyou period of the Southern Song Dynasty, which was the time when the Song and Yuan dynasties were in contact, Yang Gong considered himself a minister of the Song Dynasty, so he lived in seclusion and composed historical poems to show himself.

Afterwards, his descendants also adhered to his teachings and passed on the family tradition. Therefore, the Yang family at that time was praised as "Jingchuan Yang family, who uphold justice and refuse to serve in officialdom."

It was then passed down for seven generations until the brothers Yang Shouchen and Yang Shouzhi became famous during the Jingtai period of this dynasty.

It is said that at that time, all the flowers and trees in the Yang family would often grow double petals, which surprised the villagers, but they did not know what the omen was.

It was not until the brothers Shou Chen and Shou Zhi "won the first place in the local examination, both got the top grade in the first class, served as officials in the Ci Lin Academy, co-hosted the two capitals' academicians, and held the position of Junior Prime Minister" that people realized the sign of the intertwined flowers and trees. It was foreshadowing that one day, the Yang family would have two brothers flying side by side and raise the reputation of "Jingchuan Yang Family" to an unprecedented height.

However, the Chen family library records that the Yang family became prosperous even earlier, starting with Yang Fan, the grandfather of Yang Shouchen and Yang Shouzhi, who was known as "Mr. Qiyun".

Yang Fan, whose courtesy name was Jiuchou, was tall, handsome, and well-behaved. He was later posthumously awarded the title of Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel. He had three sons. The eldest son, Yang Zicheng, whose courtesy name was Fuzhi, was posthumously awarded the title of Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel; the second son, Yang Ziqian, was posthumously awarded the title of Minister of the Supreme Court; and the youngest son, Yang Ziyin, was posthumously awarded the title of Deputy Minister of the Ministry of War.

Yang Zicheng's two sons were the brothers Shouchen and Shouzhi.

The eldest brother, Yang Shouchen, was the Minister of Rites and was posthumously named Wenyi. The second brother, Yang Shouzhi, was the Prince's Guardian and the Minister of Personnel and called himself Bichuan.

The Yang family has three ministers. The other two are their cousins. Their uncle Yang Zixuan's son Yang Shousui was the Prince's Guardian and Minister of Works, with the posthumous title of Kang Jian. At that time, Yang Shousui returned home in glory and built the Kang Jian Mansion from Sanbanqiao to Qingshi Bridge on what is now Sanbanqiao Street. Sanbanqiao was also renamed "Jinli Bridge", and the alley in front of Kang Jian Mansion is Jinli Lane.

In addition to the powerful characters mentioned above, there are also Yang Shouyu, a member of the Yang family, who served as the Governor of Guangxi, Yang Maoyuan, who served as the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, Yang Maoren, who served as the Censor of Sichuan... and so on.

There are dozens of famous officials in the country, and the southeast is the most prosperous.

...

The Tu family of Jianqiao is elegant and knowledgeable.

...

The Yuehu Lu family is pragmatic and enterprising.

...

The Zhang family of Chahu is a prominent family in Ningbo.

...

During the two hundred years of the Ming Dynasty, more than two million officials were employed. Even if only one percent of these officials were passed down, there would be tens of thousands of clans.

Moreover, the prominent families from the Song Dynasty and the Northern Yuan Dynasty have not yet died out, and have revived in this dynasty, and there are even more inherited families.

In addition, the Tatars were destroyed, the Ryukyu Islands acceded to the country, the Malacca Islands submitted, Goryeo was recovered, the Japanese islands were controlled... and so on. All the former princes, nobles, dignitaries, and great families moved their families to the country and occupied one side.

The Chen family library is still in the process of collecting these powerful forces from outside, but there are at least tens of thousands of families that can be called big families.

Although these families gradually chose to keep a low profile under the pressure of the imperial court, the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and the Eastern Depot, decades, hundreds, or even thousands of years of operation have made these families lawless in the local areas. Their short-term dormancy only makes them more rampant later.

This group of people is also the biggest obstacle to the implementation of imperial laws at the local level.

The powerful and wealthy live in extreme luxury.

The poor often wear clothes made for cows and horses, and eat food made for dogs and pigs.

The imperial court's national policy of "surveying the land and distributing it equally to the people" was, to a certain extent, a compulsory "equalization of wealth", which caused heavy losses to the powerful families and was enough to damage these families.

But if we want to kill these unkind officials, unkind rich people, and unworthy sons of the human race, and let the Ming Dynasty and the people completely get rid of the "weak country and poor people", we must take ruthless measures that have not been seen in thousands of years.

Zhu Houcong let go of his hand, and the album of powerful families in Ningbo Prefecture fell back into the sandalwood box, and he turned and entered the temple.

The sound of the bronze chimes revealed Shengxu's irritability. Huang Jin, the eunuch in charge of the Imperial Household Department and the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Depot, dismissed all the eunuchs and palace maids and stayed behind alone.

The hall suddenly changed. In this late autumn season, it became as hot as midsummer, making people sweat profusely, but then it became as cold as deep winter, and the sweat just coming out froze into frost.

The Qin system influenced China for thousands of years.

The Qin Dynasty established a unified monarchical centralized state, implemented the county system, abolished all local autonomous offices such as the vassal states, and even the most basic county magistrates had to be appointed and dismissed directly by the emperor.

However, at the grassroots level below the county level, such as townships, pavilions, and villages, only rural clans could nominate local tyrants as township heads, pavilion heads, and village heads. Their ruling foundation was very weak. The execution of laws was ostensibly in accordance with the strict Qin law, but local tyrants and clan forces were very stubborn, and the localities would never closely follow the national policies and actions of the court. The patriarchal system since the Western Zhou Dynasty, whether in terms of morality, belief, or actual control, has deeply maintained this centrifugal force of the localities against the court.

Economically, the imperial court needed the rule of the big families and landlords in the local areas to maintain its rule.

However, once the big families and landlords annexed a lot of land, colluded with the scholar-official class, royal clans, the emperor's relatives and other powerful people, and became bigger and stronger, it would affect the rule of the court.

Therefore, from ancient times to the present, every dynasty has been a repeated struggle between the imperial court and local governments, and between the monarchy and the middle class of bureaucracy.

If Li Chunfang had not emerged this time and used various methods to go against the emperor's will, Zhu Houcong would have almost forgotten the real situation in the local area.

Zhu Houcong stood in front of the bookshelf of various dynasties in the Jingshe, and kept flipping through the history from the Ming Dynasty onwards, trying to find a way to deal with the powerful people in the world.

Northern Yuan Dynasty, the Two Song Dynasties, Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, Tang Dynasty, Sui Dynasty, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Two Jin Dynasties, Three Kingdoms, Eastern Han Dynasty...Western Han Dynasty.

At the founding of the Han Dynasty, Emperor Gaozu of Han, Liu Bang, implemented the policy of relocating the six great nobles and powerful people of the State of Chu to his own mausoleum, Changling, in order to suppress the local clan forces of the six countries that had been formed for a long time during the Warring States Period.

The early Han Dynasty was generally poor, and the local tyrants of the six kingdoms at the end of the Qin Dynasty migrated away, leaving basically no large tyrants or powerful landlords in the local areas.

But during the reigns of Emperor Wen and Emperor Jing, the policy of resting the people was adopted, and the state was governed by inaction. Thus, during the reigns of Emperor Wen and Emperor Jing, "during the first seventy years of Emperor Wu's reign, the state was free from disasters, except for floods and droughts, and the granaries in the capital and the countryside were full, and the treasury had surplus wealth."

In other words, Emperor Gaozu, Empress Lü, Emperor Wen, Emperor Jing and other emperors, empresses and queen mothers in the early Han Dynasty had made another super big cake.

When Emperor Wu of Han ascended the throne, the biggest problem facing the Han Dynasty was how to divide this big cake.

But in fact, this big cake has already been divided up by the emerging powerful groups.

This is the reason why the financial resources that the national treasury could mobilize were still very limited in the early years of Emperor Wu of Han.

The powerful interest groups in the Han Dynasty amassed most of the wealth and monopolized most of the interests of the court.

The power of the Han Dynasty was not in the hands of the Han emperor alone, but in the hands of a large number of powerful forces such as relatives of the emperor's wife, local tyrants, and the scholar-official class.

"Move to Maoling!"

Emperor Wu of Han's "soft" reform approach, which was quite brilliant and wise, caught Zhu Houcong's attention.

In the second year of Yuanshuo, Emperor Wu of Han issued the "Order to Move to Maoling".

All wealthy families with wealth of more than three million coins were moved to Maoling near the capital.

In the Han Dynasty, wealth mostly took the form of land and houses. The wealthy and powerful who were ordered to migrate had to sell their land and houses at low prices.

However, if all the wealthy families in the country have to move, who will buy the land?
As a result, the Han Dynasty court purchased tens of millions of acres of fertile farmland at low prices and then distributed them to the displaced landless farmers, and the court only collected one-tenth of the taxes.

Emperor Wu of Han also tried the agricultural "repayment" model of low-interest loans: the court provided loans to farmers, which were converted into silver three years later and returned to the court with only 10% interest.

In this way, the impoverished people were able to live and work in peace, the dynasty government's grain tax revenue increased sharply, and the huge wealth of the wealthy interest groups was forcibly "equally distributed" during the relocation process to Maoling.

Nowadays, land has been distributed under the national policy of "surveying the land and distributing it equally to the people", and what is lacking is houses.

There was a gleam in Zhu Houcong's eyes. It was time for the powerful family to build a mansion and make all the people happy.

What is most commendable is that the confiscation of property of powerful families by the Order of Moving to Maoling was not a bloody massacre, but an extremely attractive soft migration policy.

Emperor Wu of Han was very smart in this approach. He rewarded the wealthy and powerful who moved to Maoling. The court paid each household of the movers a high amount of "relocation compensation" of 200,000 coins.

Under the whole world, could it be the king's land.

On the shore of the land, could it be the king's ministers?

People and land all belong to the king. If you don't rob them and even give them money, you will be shameless if you still don't obey.

Emperor Wu of Han's sword was sharp, and my Jiajing's sword is not bad either!

"I order you to do so."

Zhu Houcong's voice came from the temple and echoed in the hall. Huang Jin knelt down upon hearing the voice.

"From today on, all wealthy families in the country with 30,000 taels of silver or more will be moved to Yongling, and the court will compensate them with 2,000 taels of silver. If there are families hiding, everyone can report them. If they are found to be correct, half of the money confiscated will be the money of the person who reported it."

Maoling is the burial place of Emperor Wu of Han.

Yongling Mausoleum was built after Zhu Houcong ascended the throne.

They were all located near the capital, making it convenient for the imperial court and the Embroidered Uniform Guard to monitor and control them. The key point was that they were separated from their original clan hometowns, so they could no longer develop and expand their power locally.

Like Emperor Wu of Han, this national policy was implemented for a long time. As long as new local tyrants or special interest groups emerged, they would move to the new emperor's mausoleum to live, away from the soil of their hometown where they could grow and develop.

As a result, everyone from the royal families to the unscrupulous businessmen and landlords could no longer grow and develop, and their status declined again.

The reason why the Han Dynasty did not carry out this national policy to the end was that during the reigns of Emperor Xuan of Han and Emperor Yuan of Han, the Han court was no longer able to firmly restrain the local powerful people from annexing land and expanding their power.

Even though Emperor Yuan of Han once wanted to restore the system of "moving the powerful to the mausoleum" during the time of Emperor Wu of Han, it was ineffective after five years of implementation and was resisted.

Finally, in October of the fourth year of Emperor Yuan of the Han Dynasty's Yongguang reign, under strong resistance from the literati and officials, an imperial decree was issued that the powerful would no longer be relocated.

After all, Emperor Wu of Han died.

But the present time is different from the Han Dynasty. Zhu Houcong is confident that he can make it impossible for the powerful people in the world to rise again forever.

Under the royal family, the most powerful family in the world was the Chen family of Nanchong. Judging from the Chen family’s performance, they did not seem like a foolish family. After the “relocation of the tomb”, the Chen family dominated the powerful families.

The Jinyiwei infiltrated every aspect of Yongling to ensure that no trouble would arise.

"The slaves obey the orders!"

Huang Jin received the order, got up from the ground, asked for a red brush and rice paper at the imperial desk, and wrote exactly according to the emperor's instructions. After writing the two words "秦此", he put down the red brush, blew the ink on the paper, solemnly asked for the imperial seal, and stamped it on the order.

The order to transfer to Yongling was successful.

This is an imperial edict without the consultation of the cabinet. The cabinet and the six departments have the right to refute the edict, but in this world, no cabinet or six departments have dared to refute the imperial edict for many years.

This was a serious matter, so Huang Jin went to the cabinet in person to convey the order. Before leaving, he notified the Jinyiwei to move all the sandalwood boxes in the hall back to the Beizhenfusi and put them away carefully. From then on, all the families recorded in these atlases would be relocated to Yongling without leaving behind. Obviously, this was all the work of the Jinyiwei.

(End of this chapter)