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

Chapter 519: The th Year of Zhengde
Zhu Houxuan was bound to carry out the land clearing. Another option for Zhu Houxuan was to send employees of the Royal Group to replace local officials in clearing the land. However, the Ming Dynasty was still too large. Although Zhu Houxuan had invested in education for many years, he still could not provide enough manpower.

Moreover, the situation in various places is still too complicated. Anything can happen. Local forces can do anything for their own interests. The personal safety of these employees may be threatened, and they may also be quickly corrupted and degraded by the sugar-coated bullets of local forces.

Therefore, if Zhu Houxuan wanted to clear the fields, the officials from all over the country would be the main force. Although the old-style officials were destined to be swept into the garbage dump, it would still take time.

Zhu Houxuan asked: "Minister Sheng, how do you think we should prevent such incidents?"

"It is impossible to eliminate it, but we can try to control it as much as possible," said Sheng Yingqi.

Zhu Houxuan asked again: "How to restrain it?"

Sheng Yingqi said: "Reorganize the officials and strictly follow the ancestral rules!"

Zhu Houxuan smiled. He thought he had met a great talent, but he didn't expect it to be the same old tune. However, it was rare to think this way.

With the speed of communication in the Ming Dynasty, it was difficult for clerks to govern. Even if you let the employees of the Royal Group be clerks, would the employees of the Royal Group be honest and not corrupt?
Zhu Yuanzhang was able to quickly complete the land clearing because there was a large amount of wasteland at the time. As long as the farmers registered and cultivated the land, they could obtain the relevant land, and the taxes in the first few years were very light. In this way, the gentry and farmers naturally competed to clear the land and register, but now the land annexation is serious, it is almost impossible to complete the land clearing in that way. Even if Zhang Juzheng carried out reforms, there were still many problems in the process of land clearing, and it became evidence for his political enemies to attack Zhang Juzheng.
Restoring the ancestral system would not be very effective, as officials would have to be rotated after a three-year term.

When the three-year term is up, the father lets his son take over and waits for the son to complete the three years before returning the position to the father. Isn't it the same thing?
Of course, as a central decision-maker, we have to do it even if it means formalism, otherwise we will have no bottom line and will not even bother to do the formalities.

In the Ming Dynasty, officials also had ranks, but only civil officials were regulated, ranging from the first to the fifth rank. Zhu Houxuan was ready to start reforming the official system, intending to include the yamen officials in the regulations, also setting ranks from the first to the fifth rank, and giving them salaries. At the same time, it was strictly forbidden for officials to work for free!
In addition, Zhu Houxuan prepared a powerful weapon to clean up the fields. Before cleaning up the fields, he announced that the highest rank for officials was county magistrate. As long as the fields were cleaned up well, they could be promoted to the eighth or ninth rank after the review, giving officials a chance to move forward. This inevitably led to the emergence of a group of "good officials" who dared to clean up the fields and were willing to offend the local gentry for their own future.

Of course, strict scrutiny is required when promoting officials to prevent officials from being impatient and taking credit for their work, and from making random surveys that cause public outrage. What is needed in surveying the land is accuracy, not the more data the better.
This was an inducement. In addition, Zhu Houxuan also prepared punishment measures. He would send inspection teams to randomly check the results of land clearing in various places. If the results were inaccurate, local officials and clerks would be punished.

With this kind of reward and punishment, I believe many local officials and clerks will make the right choice.

As this group of reformist officials were promoted, the court's reform efforts became more vigorous. At their strong request, Zhu Houxuan directly announced the start of clearing the fields.
In fact, not all civil servants stood on the side of the gentry's interests. Many reformist officials pursued a place in history rather than vulgar interests.

Furthermore, the reform that Zhu Houxuan wanted to carry out now was not to force the gentry to die, but to let the gentry bear the taxes and labor service they should bear, instead of passing it on to the common people.

Avoid the situation where you own hundreds of thousands of acres of fertile land but don't pay any taxes.
Various reform policies, such as the Single Whip Law, the land-based tax system, and the integration of officials and gentry in paying taxes, were all painstakingly designed and invented by reformist officials who were familiar with the grassroots situation. Many of Zhu Houxuan's current reform policies actually originated from their inventions.

The twenty-fifth year of Zhengde.

Zhu Houxuan's reform policy has been implemented for three years. Now the Ming Dynasty has completed the land clearing and has begun to implement the land-based tax system. The system of officials and gentry serving as officials and paying taxes together is also in the process of being prepared for implementation.

These three years were destined to be uneasy and full of swords and blood.

The gentry of the Ming Dynasty would naturally not submit obediently. To implement the tax system based on the amount of land used was simply cutting their flesh and bleeding them.

They haven't suffered such a terrible blow in more than a hundred years.

So they used various means to prevent and sabotage the reforms, and even small rebellions broke out in some places, but in the end it was all in vain. This was all within Zhu Houxuan's calculations. The rebellion was put down as soon as possible, and then the people involved were exiled to various colonies.
Therefore, the Ming gentry could only continue to swallow their anger.
Zhu Houxuan knew that the gentry and royal family members from all over the country were suppressing their anger, and that this anger would only accumulate, but Zhu Houxuan did not care. He had to endure the anger. He was not prepared to face these gentry whose interests had been damaged. This anger would be dissipated over time.

During these three years, Zhu Houxuan was not only carrying out reforms. Zhu Houzhao finally launched a war against Jiaozhi. Zhu Houzhao was eager to command the military operation to recapture Jiaozhi. Zhu Houxuan also tried to persuade Zhu Houzhao not to go, but Zhu Houzhao did not listen.
But Zhu Houzhao was unable to make the trip because he was surprised to find that compared with the smooth inland river transportation, he could not stand the bumps of the sea ship. He soon vomited all over the ship and finally returned to Beijing in disgrace.

Dalian Railway Station.

The station was completely emptied today, with only people in various uniforms left, looking anxiously towards the end of the tracks.

As the garrisons moved out, Jinshanwei also became history. However, Jinshanwei did not move out because it had the most advanced and largest shipyard in the entire Ming Dynasty. Shipbuilding is a labor- and technology-intensive industry, so all the population of Jinshanwei had long been absorbed by the shipyard here.
For this reason, Zhu Houxuan deliberately changed "Jinshanwei" to "Dalian" which he was more familiar with.

A train appeared at the end of the track and slowly stopped at the platform of Dalian Railway Station.

The door opened, many people came out, and then Zhu Houxuan walked out of the carriage leisurely.
As soon as he appeared, he caused cheers from the people who greeted him, and he waved casually in response to people.

This was his first time in Dalian in this life, but he was not very excited.
Because he came to Dalian in the freezing winter to attend a trial.
(End of this chapter)