Yongli Ming Dynasty

Chapter 268 New System
In the hall of the governor's office of your province, the civil and military officials of the Ming court gathered to discuss the matter of advancing into Yunnan Province.

On the left are civil officials such as Qu Shisi, Zhang Huangyan, and Gong Yi, while on the right are military officials such as Jiao Lian and Ma Bao.

Gong Yi and Liu Xiangke had similar experiences. They were both former officials of Longwu who fled to Guangdong from Fujian. Later, they were recommended by Qu Shisi to serve as Langzhong of the Ministry of Personnel.

The reason why Gong Yi was accompanying the army this time was because he was born in Shunning Prefecture, Yunnan Province, and was familiar with the situation in Yunnan Province. Therefore, Zhu Lang transferred him to accompany the army. This time, Gong Yi will also accompany the army into Yunnan.
Sha Dingzhou rebelled in December 1946. It is now April 1947. The Sha Dingzhou rebels have occupied most of Yunnan Province.
The spies sent to Yunnan Province by the DPRK have reported accurate information. The capital of Yunnan Province, Kunming, has fallen. Yang Weizhi, the governor of Jincang, Chuxiong Prefecture, is still gathering troops to hold on.

There were many different opinions about Mu Tianbo. Some said he was dead, while others said he was gathering troops with Yang Weizhi in Chuxiong to resist. However, Zhu Lang knew that Mu Tianbo was definitely not dead. As for where he was, Zhu Lang was not sure.

"Ma Bao was the chief commander in this campaign to quell the rebellion in Yunnan. When he arrived in Yunnan, he immediately announced Sha Dingzhou's identity as a traitor to the whole province."

"The secret guards of the imperial court have obtained accurate information. Mu Tianbo, the Duke of Qian, escaped from the city when Kunming fell. However, Yunnan Province is in chaos now, so his exact whereabouts are difficult to determine."

"Once you enter Yunnan, you should immediately contact the local scholars and find Mu Tianbo as soon as possible."

Li Chengzhi, who was standing by, had a rather ugly look on his face when he heard this. He could not help but curse in his heart, "It's the Secret Guard again. How come there are secret guards everywhere? How can the Secret Guards find out any important information? How can the Jinyiwei feel embarrassed?"

Sha Dingzhou captured Kunming and captured Wu Zhaoyuan, the governor of Yunnan Province, and officials from the three Yunnan departments.
Sha Dingzhou had a large army under his control. Wu Zhaoyuan was forced to obey in order to save his life. He wrote a memorial to the Longwu court on Sha Dingzhou's behalf.

In his memorial to Fujian Province, Wu Zhaoyuan falsely claimed that Mu Tianbo rebelled and was suppressed by Sha Dingzhou. He also requested that Sha Dingzhou be given a title and that the Ming court order Sha Dingzhou to govern Yunnan Province.

The Longwu court was unaware of the situation and appointed Sha Dingzhou without knowing the truth. Although the Longwu court later learned the truth about the rebellion in Yunnan Province from other channels,

But by then the Qing army had already approached Fujian Province, and Emperor Longwu was already preoccupied with his own affairs, so he did not deal with the Yunnan Province issue.

The Longwu court's move made the situation in Yunnan Province worse. Sha Dingzhou took the imperial edict of the Ming court and tried to appease Yunnan Province. Although the people of Yunnan Province knew that Sha Dingzhou was a rebel, Sha Dingzhou had a strong army and had defeated the Yunnan Ming army. He also wiped out several chieftains and was very powerful.
In order to protect themselves, some officials and chieftains in Yunnan Province pretended to be ignorant and surrendered to Sha Dingzhou directly according to the order of the Ming court.
It can be said that the reason why Sha Dingzhou was able to occupy Yunnan Province within just one year was not only because Mu Tianbo and other Yunnan Ming troops were decayed, but also because of the imperial decree of the Longwu court to confer the title of Emperor Sha Dingzhou.
It was with this decree that the chieftains and officials in Yunnan Province surrendered with peace of mind.
There are many Tusi in Yunnan Province. The Mu family has been the de facto Tusi leader in Yunnan Province since Mu Ying came to Yunnan Province in the early Ming Dynasty. It has been hundreds of years since then.
If Mu Tianbo can cooperate with the call after the Ming court enters Yunnan, the chieftains in Yunnan Province will turn to the court again.
"Li Dingguo and Liu Wenxiu from the Western Army will accompany you to Yunnan to quell the rebellion. When they arrive in Guiyang, they will hand over the captured Western Army soldiers and generals to them for command."

Ma Bao heard this, but his face was hesitant, and he said

"There are 6,000 captives from the Western Army. Now that the Western Army has just joined, is it inappropriate to just hand them over to them?"

The Ming army is now concentrated in Sichuan and Guizhou provinces, but there are almost no soldiers stationed on the road from Guizhou to Yunnan.
It was fine for them to be in Guiyang at this time. If the Western Army suddenly rebelled halfway through their journey, the consequences would be disastrous.
Zhu Lang also understood what Ma Bao was worried about. After thinking for a moment, he said

"In this case, we will not send out the weapons yet. The weapons of these 6,000 surrendered soldiers will be stored in Tengxiang's army first. When we reach Yunnan Province, we will send the weapons to the soldiers of the Western Army."

In fact, Zhu Lang was not too worried about this matter. Li Dingguo and the others were willing to accept the surrender. The Western Army had been divided into two, and Sun Kewang's troops were isolated in Sichuan Province. The two troops could not respond to each other at all.
After Li Dingguo took over these Western troops, the probability of them rebelling again was very small. However, the people in the Ming court were naturally hostile to Li Dingguo and other rebels, so they were worried.

Zhu Lang thought of this and looked down at Ma Bao.
"Although the Western Army was defeated by the imperial court, you have also visited the camp and found that these veterans are indeed rare elites. It took Zhang Xianzhong more than ten years to accumulate these men."

"Although Sun Kewang is unruly, Li Dingguo and the other two are the faction in the Western Army that tends to be pacified. I think these two people should be trustworthy. If we can make them loyal, the Western Army can truly be used by the court."

"When you arrive in Yunnan Province, you don't have to deliberately consume these Western troops, and of course you don't have to be restrained by this. Just treat these people as a normal army of the court and deploy them."

Zhu Lang briefly explained the matter of sending troops, and then stopped talking and began to arrange the most important things after entering Yunnan.

The Sha Dingzhou rebellion certainly caused chaos in Yunnan Province, but this chaos also provided Zhu Lang with an excellent opportunity.
Zhu Lang had already started planning this when he was in Guangdong Province. Now that he had successfully recruited the Western Army and gathered enough troops to suppress the rebellion, he could finally start to lay out his own plan. Compared with this plan, Sha Dingzhou's so-called rebellion was not worth mentioning to Zhu Lang.

Zhu Lang looked down at Zhang Huangyan
"General Ma Bao will make all the decisions on the suppression of the rebellion during this visit to Yunnan. Zhang Qing, you will be promoted to the governor of Yunnan Province from today onwards and will accompany the army into Yunnan."

"After General Ma suppresses the rebellion, you will be responsible for surveying the unowned land in various parts of Yunnan Province. The Mu family estates and land in the lost prefectures and counties will also be considered unowned land."

"After these fields are collected, they will all be used as military settlements. After you have completed the survey, you will immediately recruit refugees and grant them land to resume farming and production."

After Sha Dingzhou's rebellion, although some chieftains surrendered, a large number of them also turned to the Ming court forces such as Mu Tianbo and refused to submit.
Sha Dingzhou's method of dealing with this was simple: to kill. All the chieftains and prefectures that refused to submit were massacred by Sha Dingzhou's army.

Sha Dingzhou's occupation of Yunnan Province was not legitimate and unpopular in Yunnan Province. In order to establish his own authority, Sha Dingzhou could only use killing to intimidate the people of Yunnan Province.

When Sun Kewang first started to implement the Yingzhuang system, he recruited refugees and distributed land. Part of the land came from the large amount of unowned land left after Sha Dingzhou slaughtered the prefecture and county chieftains, and the other part came from the forcibly confiscated Mu family manor.
The Mu family has guarded Yunnan Province for hundreds of years. After generations of annexation and occupation, it has already become a behemoth.

During the Wanli reign, Yunnan Province conducted an inventory of farmland and found that the Mu family had over one million mu of land, which accounted for almost one-third of the total farmland in Yunnan Province.
The Mu family is the head of the chieftains of Yunnan Province and has a very high prestige among the chieftains of Yunnan Province. The Mu family's title can be retained, but Zhu Lang will not be able to leave these Mu family farms to Mu Tianbo.
The reason why the Mu family can enjoy such a special honor in Yunnan Province is that they can help the Ming court to stabilize Yunnan Province. But now Mu Tianbo has caused chaos in Yunnan Province, so the court cannot be blamed for taking action.
After the rebellion is quelled, all the farms of the Mu family in the lost prefecture and county areas will be confiscated as unowned land.
These are the lands that the imperial court recovered from the rebels. Since the Mu family is unable to defend the land, these fields should also be taken by the imperial court.

After these unowned fields were collected, they would all be used as military settlements. The imperial court would recruit refugees and give each household 30 mu of land. The rice produced from these military settlements would all be used to supply the war in the southwest.
The military settlement system was similar to the garrison system, with a hundred households as one unit and a hundred-household official. Ten hundred-household military settlements would have a thousand-household official.

The only difference between the military settlement system and the garrison system is that the people in the military settlement only need to farm and provide food, and do not need to bear military service.
Zhu Lang looked at the people below and said in a deep voice

"The military settlement is of great importance. In the future, the supply of food and wages in the southwest can only rely on Yunnan Province. Compared with the elimination of Sha Dingzhou, this matter is the top priority."

Nowadays, almost all the food and money for the Sichuan-Guizhou front is transported from Guangxi Province, and a considerable part of Guangxi Province's food and money is transported from Guangdong Province. The transportation is thousands of miles away, and the consumption is several times higher.

The grain transportation model from Guangxi Province can barely provide supply in the short term, but it will certainly be difficult to maintain in the long run.
Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan are the three southwestern provinces. Sichuan is the front line, Guizhou is mountainous and narrow, and only Yunnan is in the rear, with suitable land conditions and can produce stable food and money to support the war in the southwest.

Yunnan Province was able to support hundreds of thousands of Dashi troops in the past. In addition to land conditions, climate was also an extremely important factor.
The Little Ice Age at the end of the Ming Dynasty affected almost all provinces of the Ming Dynasty. The land of abundance, such as Lianchuan Province, also suffered from severe droughts in recent years. Only Yunnan Province in the entire Ming Dynasty was almost unaffected by the drought.

Qu Shisi had no objection to the establishment of military settlements, but he was hesitant about placing the farmland of the military settlements under the jurisdiction of the army. Qu Shisi said, "Since the people in the military settlements are only responsible for farming and supplying food, and do not need to serve as soldiers, they are civilian settlements. In this case, why not directly place these people under the jurisdiction of the local prefectures and counties?"

Upon hearing this, Zhu Lang waved his hand and said

"Most of these unowned fields in Yunnan Province came from the chieftains and the Mu family farms. If they were to be transferred to the prefectures and counties, how would these local officials be able to resist the demands of the Mu family? I'm afraid that these fields will be taken back by the Mu family soon after they are distributed."

"Only when these fields are placed under the jurisdiction of the army and used exclusively for their intended purpose, and with the imperial army intimidating them, will the Mu family and those chieftains not dare to act rashly."

Upon hearing this, Qu Shisi also frowned. The Mu family's arrogance had long been well-known in the Ming court. All officials who served in Yunnan Province throughout the dynasties had impeached the Mu family for their arrogance.
The Mu family often bullies the three departments in Yunnan Province. Even if a servant of the Mu family breaks the law, the three departments of Yunnan Province cannot punish him.
In order to control the Mu family, the three chieftains of Yunnan Province often secretly supported other chieftains in Yunnan Province to suppress the power of the Mu family.
The reason why these rebellious chieftains such as Pu Mingsheng, Wu Bikui, Sha Dingzhou were able to grow up smoothly is also inseparable from the conflict between the three chieftains and the Mu family. However, this matter is really complicated. If you are not in the Yunnan Provincial Bureau, it is difficult to tell the right and wrong twists and turns.
Qu Shisi instinctively did not want to let Wu Chen's power expand further, but Zhu Lang did not want to dwell on this matter any further, so he decided to do it.

Zhu Lang then discussed the logistics of the expedition with everyone, and then ordered Fan Yan, Gao Yigong and others to retreat first to prepare.

Qu Shisi and his companions were about to leave, but were stopped by Zhu Lang. Fan Yan and other officials from the three ministries in the hall soon left, leaving only Qu Shisi and a few others.
Although there were few people in the hall at this time, they were all important officials in the court.

On the left were Qu Shisi, Zhang Huangyan, and Liu Xiangke, while on the right were Jiao Lian, Ma Bao, Longxiang Army missionary Kuang Hong, and Tengxiang Army missionary Zhu Xuexi.

After everyone was seated, Zhu Lang waved his hand and the door outside the hall was closed. The Jinyiwei soldiers who were originally guarding the hall were all dismissed, leaving only Li Chengzhi in the hall.

Qu Shisi and the others looked at each other, their faces also became serious. At this time, even Fan Yan, the governor of your province, was dismissed. The matter that His Highness was going to discuss next might be of great importance.

Zhu Lang glanced at the people below and said

"I want to try out the new system in Lin'an, Yunnan Province"

Lin'an Prefecture in Yunnan Province was the seat of Sha Dingzhou's hereditary chieftainship. At this time, all the chieftains in Lin'an Prefecture who were not submissive to Sha Dingzhou had been wiped out by Sha Dingzhou, and the prefectural capital Lin'an was also occupied by Sha Dingzhou.

Sha Dingzhou occupied Lin'an Prefecture. When the imperial army wiped out Sha Dingzhou, everyone in Lin'an Prefecture, as the place where the thieves lived, could be regarded as traitors. All the land in Lin'an Prefecture could be confiscated by the imperial court.
It is impossible for all the gentry and common people in Lin'an Prefecture to join the thieves and rebel. In fact, it does not matter who sits in the Lin'an Prefecture, whether it is the prefect of Lin'an or Sha Dingzhou. No matter who is in the top position, they have to pay grain and serve.

If we regard Sha Dingzhou as a traitor just because the people of Lin'an Prefecture pay taxes to him, it is obviously too much, but this is not important.
Sha Dingzhou was causing chaos throughout Yunnan. The imperial court was furious and wanted to punish the people in Sha Dingzhou's den of thieves. No one could say anything.

Sha Dingzhou massacred so many people in Yunnan Province that the Ming court would probably applaud even in Sha Dingzhou's old nest Tucheng. The court wanted the pretext of arbitrary disposal.
Zhu Lang planned to transform all of Lin'an Prefecture into a military prefecture, and to try out the new system in Lin'an Prefecture under the name of military settlement.
All the land in Lin'an Prefecture was confiscated, regardless of whether it belonged to the scholars or the common people, and then 30 mu of land was allocated to each household in the prefecture.
Since all the people in Lin'an Prefecture were criminals, no matter if they were gentry or commoners, they could only own 50 mu of land at most. If they owned more than 50 mu, they would be charged with a crime.
All fields in Lin'an Prefecture were taxed at six dou per mu, and all Junyao labor service was abolished. As long as the people paid six dou of rice per mu, they would not have to bear any levies from the county government.
The land tax and miscellaneous labor silver were all included in the six dou of rice per mu, and without the permission of the court, all county offices were not allowed to levy any additional taxes at will.

At that time, the yield of farmland in the Ming Dynasty was about two shi per mu. The collection of six dou of rice was about 30% of each mu. Compared with the Ming Dynasty law that required a dou of rice per mu, it seemed like a heavy tax. However, if the miscellaneous labor silver that the Ming court wanted to collect was included, then these six dou of rice were really not worth mentioning.

Liu Xiangke, who was below, was shocked when he heard what His Royal Highness the Regent said. He immediately said

"How can this be feasible? If corvée is abolished, who will be the clerks, warehouse workers, and storekeepers in the county government? Where will the fodder, letters, coal, and other supplies in the county government come from?"

This was the status quo of the time. Except for a few high-ranking officials such as the county magistrate and the county magistrate, and a few registered clerks in the six offices, the rest of the entire county government, from the clerks in the six offices to the cooks and the three shifts of yamen runners, all relied on free conscription of the people to serve.
Not only did the permanent positions in the county government require the conscription of civilians, but even if a piece of wall fell off the county government and there was a shortage of firewood for cooking, the county government could also conscript civilians from the public to come and repair the wall and collect firewood.
The county government had no office expenses, and all the expenses were collected from the people.
The former type of corvée that recruited people was called labor service, while the latter type of corvée that collected silver was called silver service.

Whenever the county government needed it, it could almost arbitrarily recruit civilians to serve, or impose additional taxes on them.
Today the county government office is short of firewood, so we need to send more firewood. Tomorrow the post station’s horses are thin, so we need to send more firewood. The day after tomorrow, the third uncle-in-law of the high-ranking official’s brother-in-law will pass through our county, so we need to welcome him and give him more firewood.

Common people were not afraid of heavy taxes, but only of being assigned to do menial tasks. Once targeted by clerks and runners, even wealthy families would be robbed of everything in an instant.

Zhu Lang looked at the stunned ministers below, his face calm, and said

“So this is the new system.”

"Compared with previous dynasties, the land tax in our dynasty is only five liters and one dou per mu, which can be said to be light."

"But the corvée labor in our dynasty is dozens of times heavier than in previous dynasties, and the county clerks often do not know how to restrain themselves and wantonly impose additional labor on the people. The people of the world are almost terrified at the mention of labor."

"How many people chose to abandon their land and flee or even become bandits because they could not afford the corvée labor assigned by the county government? You have been among the people for a long time, and you should know the harm of corvée labor better than I do."

"If there are really people who don't know, you can ask the soldiers in the Loyalty Camp and the Western Army. I think they can explain it more clearly than I can."

"Whenever there is a shortage in the county government, they will arbitrarily impose additional charges. After the imperial court issued a warning, the county governments in various places will go even further. Today, there is a new reason, and tomorrow, they will find a way to make the people pay silver to pay the taxes."

"The court wants to collect one, but the people pay ten, and nine out of ten fall into the hands of the clerks, which eventually led to the rise of bandits in the Ming Dynasty."

"The new system in Lin'an, Yunnan Province, is to test a scale. How many people and how much money and grain are needed to maintain the operation of a prefecture or a county, and how much can be handed over to the court."

"If six dou is not enough, then seven dou will be collected; if seven dou is not enough, then eight dou will be collected. In short, all county government expenses are collected from the land. County government officials are not allowed to collect taxes at will."

"This time I will include all kinds of miscellaneous labor in the land tax, in order to completely abolish all miscellaneous labor in the world. I will make sure that from now on there will be no additional taxes and no miscellaneous labor in the world."

Zhu Lang looked at Zhang Huangyan below and said in a deep voice

"Mr. Zhang, this is what you are going to do in Yunnan this time. Do you have the confidence to find a way out for the people of this world?"

The hall was completely silent, with only the young man's gentle voice echoing in the hall.
Qu Shisi, Jiao Lian and other civil and military officials were all so shocked that they could not speak. The words "abolishing all menial duties in the country, never adding more, never having menial duties" shocked everyone in the room for a long time.
(End of this chapter)