Aunt Chen is back from the world of cultivation

Yuan Songbo had presided over the land tax reform and had a lot of experience in this regard:

"Master, the biggest difficulty in this matter is that there is no land in the hands of the government to be divided."

Yan Qingzhi also said:

"Yes, Master. Jiangnan is densely populated. Even if each person gets one acre of land, it would take more than 10 million acres of land to be divided. The ownerless land nowadays is only a small part of the imperial estates that have not been divided out. It sounds good to say that there are too many monks and too little porridge. In fact, it is not enough to fill the gaps between teeth."

Chen Qingzhu naturally knew all this and smiled slightly:

"Then we should find a way to give the government more land to distribute."

"For example, if the dignitaries in the government office have committed crimes and oppressed the people, their homes can be directly confiscated. This should reveal a lot of land."

When Yuan Songbo carried out reforms, he spent a lot of money to survey the land in various places. Even after more than ten years, he was very familiar with the amount of land in various places.

Each of these local wealthy and powerful families in Nandu owns more than 30,000 acres of land, and giants like the Li family own more than 100,000 acres of land.

When it comes to the crimes committed by the powerful and wealthy and their oppression of the people, he has never seen an innocent family in his ten years in Nandu.

"Master, these families can all be confiscated, but even if we confiscate them, at most they only have less than two million acres of land."

"The bulk of the money still has to come from those small and powerful landlords and gentry."

"This is by no means an easy task. When I was in charge of the land tax reform, it was impossible to implement it in Jiangnan. Almost all the reformist officials I sent were assassinated."

His new policies have made some progress in other places, and the smaller the population, the better the effect.

Although the empress dowager eventually passed away and the government came to an end, many of the lands that had been distributed to the people were taken back into the hands of powerful landlords and gentry.

But it will never be as impossible to implement as in Jiangnan.

It is true that Jiangnan is a prosperous area, but its gentry are also the hardest nut to crack.

No matter how difficult the problem is, there is a solution.

Not only officials were present, but also businessmen like Qin Dafu and people from farming families like Huijing and Huiming.

They all see different things from where they were before.

With Chen Qingzhu's encouragement, everyone began to speak freely, raised many questions, and came up with many solutions.

In summary, the entire work of dividing the land can be divided into several aspects:

The first step was to directly issue a decree requiring local powerful landlords and gentry to pay the taxes owed last year according to the actual land they owned, or to keep five acres of land per person and hand over the rest.

If the tax is not paid within half a month or the payment is not made truthfully, all the property will be confiscated.

According to Yuan Songbo, tax arrears and tax evasion in the Jiangnan region were very serious. Most people with some connections had owed taxes for decades, while the best paddy fields only cost ten taels of silver per acre.

The money from tax compensation is definitely more than the money for buying the land.

If the land or taxes are not paid on time, the consequence will be the confiscation of property, and not a single penny will be left.

Therefore, after most people have figured out the cost, they will feel that it is more cost-effective to hand over the land.

Of course, this can only scare the timid ones, and most people will not give in so easily.

This requires the second step, killing the chicken to scare the monkey.

With the support of the army, we can eliminate a few troublemakers with many fields, and make the others behave themselves.

The third step, and also the most important step, was to let the people know that the land recovered from the local landlords would be distributed among them, with three acres of land per person, and the population tax plus land tax and corvée would total 20%, and there would never be an increase in taxes.

If the local powerful landlords resisted, the local people could act as militia and suppress the resistance together with the officers and soldiers. If each household sent one person, they would get one more acre of land, and if two people sent two more acres of land, they would get two more acres.

Land annexation was serious in the Jiangnan region. The vast majority of people did not have their own land and could only rent land from landlords with rents as high as 40% to 80%.

In addition, they had to pay additional poll tax and perform corvee labor.

If the land is divided, all the taxes added up will only amount to 20% of the land tax, which is something that every commoner would be tempted by.

In order to get the land as soon as possible and to get more land, they will definitely actively support the government in confiscating the land from the powerful landlords.

Of course, this requires ensuring that the government’s decrees are notified to every village.

(I haven’t finished writing it yet. I will add more than 1,300 words later.)

Once the strategy is formulated, it naturally needs to be assigned to specific people to do these things.

Therefore, Chen Qingzhu also awarded official positions to everyone.

Yuan Songbo was appointed as the first-rank prime minister and concurrently the Minister of Personnel, in charge of the land distribution and all other government affairs, and concurrently in charge of assessing officials.

Feng Huiyun was appointed as the second-rank assistant, assisting (supervising) Yuan Songbo.

Of course, important matters still need to be reported to her every day for her to decide personally.

Hui'an was appointed as a second-rank general and was in charge of all the troops in Nando.

Huiming was appointed as a third-rank general and was in charge of the imperial guards.

Huijing was appointed as the General Manager of the Imperial Household Department, responsible for the management of the imperial palace's internal affairs, finances, and all matters of Cihang Temple. Liang Bao was appointed as the Deputy General Manager of the Imperial Household Department, assisting Huijing in handling the internal affairs of the imperial palace.

Qin Dafu was appointed as the third-rank left vice minister of the Ministry of Revenue, in charge of the national treasury and taxation.

Yan Qingzhi was appointed as the second-rank governor of Southern Zhili, in charge of daily government affairs in Zhili including the Southern Capital.

Feng Yanyun was appointed as the fourth-rank Shaoqing of the Dali Temple, responsible for hearing lawsuits and criminal cases involving powerful officials.

Qin Dafu's wife Zhuo Yuxiu was appointed as a fifth-rank official in the Ministry of Works, responsible for weapon casting, water conservancy construction, road construction, etc.

Zhang Liu was appointed as the third-rank assistant minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, in charge of all intelligence and public opinion matters.

Yuan Songbo's granddaughter Yang Mo was appointed as a fifth-rank official in the Ministry of Rites, in charge of education, imperial examinations and other matters.

Yan Qingzhi's wife Kong Shuya was appointed as a fifth-rank official in the Ministry of Revenue to assist Qin Dafu in the affairs of the Ministry of Revenue.

This was an arrangement that Chen Qingzhu had been thinking about for a long time.

He read out the entire list in one breath, and everyone present was delighted.

Although some of the officials are not of high rank, they are all in charge of local affairs.

It can be predicted that as long as they work hard and gain the approval of the master, they will become Shangshu-level officials in the future.

Moreover, Chen Qingzhu also said that they could appoint their own subordinates, which gave them considerable power.

In fact, the reformist scholars brought by Yuan Songbo, as well as the orthodox scholar-officials such as the Yan family father and son, all had complaints about the many female officials holding high positions in the court.

The people of the Hui generation were previously just Taoist priests and attendants with limited abilities. They were afraid that they would cause trouble if they held high positions.

Of course, as the temple master's confidants, they don't want to offend anyone openly.

I had been planning to secretly advise the temple master (God) later whether or not to make some adjustments.

However, soon after, we heard that Yang Mo was granted authority over the Ministry of Rites.

The people from Yuan Songbo's group immediately shut up.

Hearing that Madam Yan was actually granted the position of Langzhong of the Ministry of Revenue, the Yan family father and son were extremely surprised and silently gave up the idea.

After assigning the positions, Chen Qingzhu began to issue orders:

"Yuan Songbo, Huiyun, your cabinet should first draft a specific decree for the distribution of land, and then hand it over to me for review. Rongniang, you go and listen."

"Yes!"

The three of them bowed and accepted the order.

Chen Qingzhu said again:

"Huian, Yan Qingzhi, the two of you will be responsible for confiscating the property of the twenty or so people in the government office, and throwing all their family members into the prison. We will deal with them after the Dali Temple has examined them one by one."

"Qin Dafu, your Ministry of Revenue is responsible for receiving and calculating the confiscated property."

"Hui Jing, Liang Bao, the two of you will take all the jades to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and temporarily assist the Ministry of Revenue in storing the property."

"Zhang Liu, go pick a thousand smart and eloquent people for your Propaganda Department to prepare for the next round of propaganda. It doesn't matter if they are from the civilians or the military, as long as they are smart and have a tight mouth. You can draw up the amount of money you need and ask Qin Dafu for it."

"Yes!"

Everyone accepted the order in unison.

Chen Qingzhu announced the end of the meeting and told everyone to go about their business. She herself was going to practice in the newly cleaned Huangji Palace.

In recent days, she has been busy with chores and has no time to practice.

Now that she has finally assigned the tasks to others, she can devote more energy to improving her cultivation.

"Master, there is one more thing I need to ask you."

Huiyun caught up and said.

"What's the matter?"

Huiyun took a few steps forward and whispered:

"I have brought the eldest prince of Emperor Yong'an back to Nandu on your orders. How should we place him now?"

Chen Qingzhu thought for a moment and said:

"Give it to Huijing, and ask her to find a trustworthy person to look after him in a house near the Huangji Palace. When the Salesian Hall is moved to the palace, we will put him there and raise him like any other orphan."

The Nandu Palace was so huge that she and Rong Niang couldn't even live in it.

Therefore, she planned to use part of it to support the orphans of the Salesian Church.

On the one hand, it saves the palace from being wasted, and on the other hand, it earns him a good reputation for loving his people like his own children.

The eldest prince of Emperor Yong'an is very important to the evil cultivator's soul, and she cannot let him leave too far away from her.

But at the same time, he cannot appear too special, so as to avoid rumors in the future that may affect Rong Niang's status.

Therefore, it is most appropriate to keep it in a Salesian Church.

*

Yan Qingzhi was appointed as a second-rank governor, and his wife and children also obtained power in the Ministry of Revenue and the Dali Temple. He seemed to be very powerful.

I just felt that my previous gamble was really worth it!

Originally, his status in Cihang Temple was lower than Qin Dafu's, but now he is on par with him.

Even in terms of official position, he was higher than Qin Dafu.

It can be seen that the master of the temple recognizes his abilities more than Qin Dafu.

He first discussed the division of labor with Hui'an, received the troops to confiscate the property from her, and then handed the first family over to his son Yan Yun, and immediately returned home.

He wanted to personally tell his wife the good news that she had been appointed as a doctor of the Ministry of Revenue, and ask her to report to Qin Dafu immediately and share the many matters that were about to come.

Although he did not think his wife was capable of holding the position of deputy director of the Ministry of Revenue.

But that is the Ministry of Revenue, which is in charge of the purse!

The temple master's move was obviously to let his wife check and balance Qin Dafu. How could he not want such important power!

If his wife couldn't do the job well, he and his son would force her to do it well.

Maybe if Qin Dafu makes a mistake one day, his wife will be able to directly take over as the chief of the Ministry of Revenue.

In short, he must not let the authority of the Ministry of Revenue slip away from the Yan family!

In order not to delay anything, he, who always rode in a carriage for the sake of elegance, asked the coachman to unload a horse and rode back to Yan's house with a few servants.