I am the prince of the Ming Dynasty, I don't give up

Chapter 518: The Problem of Clearing Fields
Zhu Houxuan looked at the resignation form on the table and sighed deeply. Since he became regent, this group of cabinet ministers has not changed in eleven years.

It is also one of the symbols of political stability after Zhu Houxuan became regent.

The reason why this group of cabinet ministers stayed in the cabinet for such a long time was not because they were secretly loyal to Zhu Houxuan. On the contrary, some of them often sang against Zhu Houxuan.

The reason why Zhu Houxuan kept them for so long was because none of them were villains, and they all behaved like humble gentlemen. Moreover, after getting along for a long time, they became familiar with each other, the cost of communication was very low, and it was easier to use them.

In fact, even if a group of cabinet ministers were replaced, it would not make much difference to Zhu Houxuan.

To put it simply, the cabinet ministers are the emperor's secretaries. If the emperor is lazy in governing, then the cabinet ministers are indeed in high positions with great power. But if the emperor is as hardworking as Zhu Houxun, then the power of the cabinet ministers is not that great.

Therefore, this group of cabinet ministers have been retained until now, and they have been cooperating happily with Zhu Houxuan.

But now, three of these cabinet ministers are leaving in such a short period of time.
Why did these people have no problems in the past ten years or so, but are now encountering problems one after another?
The answer is obvious, because Zhu Houxuan began to affect the interests of certain groups and classes!

Faced with Zhu Houxuan's reforms, those groups and classes were naturally unwilling to sit idly by and give up their own interests in vain, so they launched a counterattack using various means.
Zhu Houxuan guessed that the opposition forces must have thought that these cabinet ministers did not oppose these reform policies, and therefore believed that these cabinet ministers supported the reform, so they used this method to get rid of these cabinet ministers in an attempt to stop the reform.
The most obvious case was Liang Chu. Things that happened more than a decade ago were all dug up. The one who reported Liang Chu was a garrison officer who suffered a lot in this reform. However, Liang Chu was indeed wrong in this matter, and Zhu Houxuan was lenient to him by not pursuing the matter.
As for the resignation of Mao Ji and Jiang Mian, Zhu Houxuan also felt that they were under unknown pressure.
Zhu Houxuan tried to retain them, but they insisted on resigning.

Zhu Houxuan finally approved their resignations and let them go because they were too old. Each of them was in his sixties or seventies and could no longer withstand the ups and downs of the court.

Zhu Houxuan would naturally not be frightened by these counterattacks. He had been planning for this day for a long time and had made various preparations. He was determined to make the reform successful.

Moreover, these counterattacks were nothing in Zhu Houxuan's eyes. Liang Chu and his men could leave if they wanted. The opposition forces thought that they could stop or sabotage the reforms by leaving the cabinet, but they could not sabotage them at all.
Zhu Houxuan, who held the imperial power, had unlimited personnel power, so he was ready to let go and create a new reformist faction!

So he directly ordered Gui E, who was the Minister of Personnel at the time, to serve as the Grand Secretary of Wuying Palace and enter the cabinet to participate in state affairs.

In fact, Gui E's most famous thing in history is that he invented the "One Whip System", which was later used by Zhang Juzheng in his reforms.

Gui E had served in the local government for a long time and was familiar with the local conditions. He carefully studied the taxation and labor service laws under the grassroots government and saw the limitations of the already implemented equal labor service law and the ten-section book law. He wanted to eliminate the unreasonable phenomena in the real society and actively advocated equalization of taxes and labor service and land measurement.

Gui E had entered Zhu Houxuan's sight a long time ago. In recent years, under Zhu Houxuan's care, his career has been prosperous. He was a Jinshi in the sixth year of Zhengde and has now become the Minister of Rites.
Gui E was a reformist, and his political ideas coincided with those of Zhu Houxun, so Zhu Houxun wanted him to join the cabinet and become the standard-bearer of reform.

Then Zhu Houxuan also promoted a large number of officials who were inclined to reform, such as Sheng Yingqi, Yao Tan, Chang Lun, etc. These reformers had already been in Zhu Houxuan's mind, and they were all promoted this time. Sheng Yingqi is a very interesting person. His first job was to manage the water transport gates. He was ruthless and decisive. At that time, the family of eunuch Li Guang sold private salt and could not get through the gates. No matter how much they threatened or bribed, they could not get through. The boats were blocked in the river and could not move forward or backward. They could only pour all the private salt into the canal to get rid of the crime. Because of this incident, Sheng Yingqi was framed by the eunuchs and was demoted to Yunnan as a post station chief.

Later, he was reinstated as an assistant censor. The local governor of Wuding, Yunnan died of illness, his wife violated regulations in governing Wuding, and his son manipulated bandits to rob counties. When Sheng Yingqi learned of this, he drove to Wuding alone, immediately subdued the two men, and asked the court to arrange a new local governor.

Later, he served as the governor of Jiangxi and the governor-general of Guangdong and Guangxi. During his tenure, he carried out land clearing and was a person who supported reform.

Sheng Yingqi was a person who supported reform. As soon as he arrived in the capital, he went to ask for an audience with Zhu Houxuan.

"I know that His Royal Highness the King of Wu wants to reform the law, and the first step to reform is to clean up the fields. And we must be careful and cautious when cleaning up the fields, otherwise the good government will be taken advantage of by corrupt officials."

Zhu Houxuan immediately said seriously: "Minister Sheng, please speak."

Sheng Yingqi said: "Whether it is the governor or the provincial governor who is responsible for clearing the land, it is ultimately up to the county chiefs to carry it out, and the county chiefs must send clerks to measure the land. Whether the clearing of land can be successful depends entirely on the county chiefs and clerks, and it is often these people who do bad things. Clearing the land disturbs the people, and it is not a lie and it can be seen everywhere.

Zhu Houxuan said: "Tell me in detail."

Sheng Yingqi said:
"First, the county chiefs were perfunctory. They did not send people to measure the land, but just kept the fish scale books as before, copied and altered them at will, and only made minor changes. This practice caused the least harm."

"Second, shrink the bow to get the surplus. The gentry and the rich use a large bow (ruler), and one acre is measured as only half an acre. The common people use a small bow, and half an acre is measured as a full acre. In this way, good governance becomes tyranny, and clearing the fields becomes disturbing the people."

"Third, they take credit for merit and ask for rewards. Some officials, in order to curry favor with their superiors, use small bows to measure land. This way, they can increase the amount of land and taxes by a lot. This also turns good governance into tyranny."

"Fourth, the officials deceive their superiors and their subordinates, and take bribes. If you don't give money to the officials who clear the fields, the lower fields will become upper fields; if you give money to the officials who clear the fields, the upper fields will become lower fields. The lower fields of the common people are often turned into upper fields, and taxes and labor service are collected according to the quota of upper fields. This is also a tyranny that is cruel to the people!"

These problems were not only known to Sheng Yingqi, but also encountered by reformers such as Gui E and Chang Lun when they were clearing farmland in local areas. However, in order to speed up the clearing of farmland and not to dampen the enthusiasm of officials, they often turned a blind eye and only punished a group of people who went too far.

These are all execution issues. No matter how honest the county chief is, he still has to rely on clerks to measure the land. How can the clerks not play tricks?
Let alone the Ming Dynasty, even if it is hundreds of years later, you can't expect all grassroots officials to be honest. This is human nature.
(End of this chapter)