Chapter 352 Liu Jin's Reform

Chapter 352

Although he knows Liu Jin's intention, Song Nan does not intend to obstruct it for no reason. It is foolish to oppose it. If Liu Jin's measures can really consider people's livelihood and increase the income of the court, even if it is proposed by Liu Jin, Song Nan will vote for it.

For Song Nan, the Ma Zheng and Tuntian system of the Ming Dynasty still needed to have a good understanding of the right to speak. Within a few days, Song Nan, who was listening, quickly figured out what was going on.

At the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the cavalry occupied as much as 30% of the million army. For reasons such as the death of war horses or being embezzled and sold, the imperial court had to add hundreds of thousands of troops every year to maintain the number. Taizu felt that this cost was too big, so he ordered the people to take turns, so it was suitable for all parts of the Yangtze River and the Ming Dynasty, whether it was suitable. It is not suitable for horse breeding places. It is stipulated that several households raise a horse together, treat the disease together, and compensate for death. Raising horses has become an obligation of the people of the Ming Dynasty.

At the beginning, this method was still effective, but by the time of several northern expeditions at the time of Chengzu, hundreds of thousands of war horses in the Ming Dynasty were lost, and even could not be recovered within decades. As a result, the number of cavalry in the border town was small, and they were forced to adopt the strategy of building castles to defend, and never dare to have the example of large-scale cavalry battles. Since the Hongzhi period, in order to strengthen the border cavalry, the imperial court has to take out more than 1 million taels of silver to purchase war horses at home and abroad to join the army. Naturally, this year is no exception. The Ministry of Household refused the money that the Ministry of War asked for this year because the money was too huge.

The fiscal revenue of the Ming Dynasty is really not high. The annual fiscal revenue is only about 134 million taels. As big as the Ming Dynasty, how huge the internal and external use is. Moreover, there is still a lot of money to be used in places that should not be used. For example, the year before last and last, the inner court built a leopard house, rebuilt the Guanghan Hall and renovated Qionghua Island. In addition to using 800,000 taels of silver from the internal carrier, it also took hundreds of thousands of yuan from the household department. Of course, in order to block the mouths of civil servants, Liu Jin used the name of 'temporary support'.

Financial constraints have become the biggest problem in the Ming Dynasty. Money is needed everywhere, but the annual fiscal revenue has plummeted. Although there is a natural disaster, it is also due to the increasing number of bankrupt people, which has led to an increase in the number of people.

The core content of Liu Jin's reform measures is to remeasure the country's land mu, clear the privately embezzled fields, distribute them to landless people, and let the exiles return to their land to settle down for cultivation. At the same time, it is proposed that the soldiers in the border towns originally only need to provide food for the local military, and now they also need to pay taxes to increase the court. Income.

At the same time, when the horse government was changed to Hongzhi, the quota of 230 horses in a county was 400 horses in a county. The reason comes from the increase in the number of households after the first return of the exiles to the field, and the assumption of the increase in the number of people. If it is not enough to raise horses, it will be collected at 30 taels of silver per horse.

At first glance, these two measures seem to have a soft effect on the situation of exile and theft caused by a large number of acres of land, and can prevent the exiles from being unwilling to bear various obligations in the name of exile, including corvée and horse breeding. It looks beautiful! But Song Nan always feels that something is wrong.

Song Nan knew the lives of the people. There were many military households in contact with in Weizhou. The military fields were occupied by the border generals, and the cultivation of the military households' home was also extremely common. In the name of the military households, the military households had fields in hand, but in fact they had become tenant farmers. The military households were only responsible for military supplies, which was the original intention of the military households to store fields. But now once it is included in the tax collection system, the military households who become tenant farmers will have no way to live.

Moreover, the general regulation of the number of horses raised by the county will inevitably lead to the strong allocation of county officials. Judging from the current situation, it is almost impossible to raise hundreds of horses in counties, unless rich people are willing to pay more money to raise them, but in fact, all of this is egalitarianism, right It is naturally affordable for large households, but absolutely unbearable for the people.

Taking the Hongzhi period, ten households in Jiangbei take turns to raise a horse as an example. The balance of a poor family is only three or five taels of silver in a year, and a horse has to pay three taels of silver to make up for it. This is simply a great burden, but for large families, it is a small amount of money. In terms of fairness, it is a big mistake. It seems to be fair, but in fact, it is another squeeze on the extremely poor.

In terms of returning the land to the people, it is also a seemingly fair policy, but Song Nan knows that it is impossible. The reason why the people of the Ming Dynasty went bankrupt and exiled is that a large amount of land is privately owned, and the fields of Xunqi's family often have tens of thousands of hectares, and they are all good fields; a small amount of bad fields in the hands of the people cannot To support their families, they can only rent and farm other people's fields, but private land rents are so high that they can't even eat and clothing, so they have to give up farming and become migrant beggars or even stealers.

Everyone knows that the so-called return of the land to the people is just an empty word. How can the big families hand over the field easily? Liu Jin can't understand this. Does Liu Jin dare to stand up and rob the nobles from their pockets? Unless he is tired of living.

The focus of thousands of noble families from the founding of the Ming Dynasty is now focused on making benefits, which is tantamount to finding death.

Naturally, the debate on these aspects in the court was extremely fierce. Dozens of officials, such as Gu Zuo, the minister of the Ministry of Household, Jiao Fang, a cabinet scholar, and Ma Zheng and Zhang Cai, the special manager of Taipu Temple, strongly agreed. Yang Tin-he and others in the cabinet strongly opposed it, and the two sides could not fight at each other.

In the face of this stalemate, Liu Jin decisively made some modifications in the key points. In the article of returning the land to the people, he notes that the retreat of private property refers to the illegal embezzlement of private property, rather than the reasonable sale of the reward of private property, which completely relieved the nobles. Whose field is not reasonable? I'm holding the land deed in my hand.

Another change made the nobles laugh and crooked their mouths, stipulating that all those who do not rent land and are willing to work for the good, leisure and evil work for the exiles and beggars shall be punished in accordance with the law, and they are never allowed to have land without ploughing or planting. The big landlords are troubled by the large number of land in their hands because the rent price is too high and no one can cultivate it, and they can't force others to cultivate it. In this way, it is equivalent to a hard rule that these people who suspect that the rent too high the land must be tied to the land, otherwise they will be punished. It is really a rain from the sky.

So the two princes and more than a dozen marquis uncles, who were originally gloomy, quickly seconded Liu Jin's. So far, there was no doubt about the victory or defeat, and those who opposed it were helpless. A few days after the court's confirmation, Zhengde proposed to inform the world of this policy, and Zhengde's ambition was complete and proud.

At the beginning, Song Nan didn't figure out the twists and turns in the middle. When he felt that the proposal was wrong, it was too late. Even Zhang Mao seconded it. It was obviously not appropriate for him to stand up and sing the opposite tune. Isn't it funny that the son-in-law of the Duke stood up against the Guogong Mansion?

Moreover, Song Nan's major policies on the country are still in the stage of learning and exploring, and she is not yet able to quickly judge the consequences caused by various causes, which is also the shallow experience. But even if Song Nan noticed the drawbacks early, she was unable to oppose it, because it was too late.

On June 15, the second year of Zhengde of the Ming Dynasty, the imperial court officially promulgated the policy of new Mazheng and Tuntian. After the promulgation, Song Nan always felt a trace of uneasiness and always felt that something was going to make a mistake.

......

In August, the fire broke out, and Wen'an County, Bazhou, more than 800 miles south of the capital, was also too hot to breathe.

There is a jujube tree next to the government in Wen'an County. Two short men under the jujube tree are sitting on the bluestone board sprinkled in cold water under the jujube tree and chatting; the person sitting on the left head is full of beards, and there is a red scar on his face. His eyes are sharp, which makes people dare to look at each other. The appearance of the person on the right head and the scarred face are bearded man. The son is very similar, but he looks weak.

The two were talking without a match, when they heard the sound of clugs stepping on the ground from the door of the government. An obscene man ran from the sun with a smile on his face, with one hand to shade the sun and a heavy coat in one hand.

"Sixth Master, Seventh Master, let's talk." The obscene man sat under the tree, picked up a water hyacinth and drank it.

The scar-faced man said lazily, "Ergou, did you get the reward?"

"I took it, two taels per person, seven guys, a total of 14 taels; the county magistrate asked you why you two didn't go to receive the reward in person."

The scar-faced man snorted, "I, Liu Liu, can't stand the face of being an official. Damn, I pay him. Why do you want to see me?"

"That's, that's what we told him. The old man almost lost his breath and crooked his nose. The obscene man's two dogs stretched out his hand to bring up the coat. Liu Liu didn't answer and rushed to the person sitting beside him and said, "Lao Qi, take it. The brothers are one or two minutes each. The rest are bought some rice, salt and wine and go home. By the way, pull two feet of cloth for the girl."

Liu Qi nodded and agreed. Seeing that Liu Liu got up to leave, he asked, "Where are you going, brother?"

Liu Liu said, "I turned around casually. His mother was not happy. She found a place to practice fists and feet."

Liu Qi sighed and waved to Ergou. The two strolled along the shade of the street corner to the west street of the county. Before the tea time, they came to the only cross street in the county. The two dogs suddenly pulled Liu Qi's arm and whispered, "Master Qi, let's avoid it. That son of a bitch is coming."

Liu Qi also saw seven or eight people pouring out of the street, led by a thin and tall man, holding two iron balls in his hand and turning around. Behind him, they all opened their stomachs and crossed their arms, and passers-by hid far away.

Liu Qi quickly turned around and took the second dog to walk across the street. The thin man's eyes were very sharp and shouted loudly, "Sh on, isn't that the famous Liu Qiye in our Wen'an County? Why did you turn around and leave when you saw Master Liang? Do you look down on your Master Liang?