The Holy Emperor of Ming

Chapter 192: The Fire Consumption is Returned to the Public

A year and a half has passed since the two major cleanups in Jin.

This place has completely become the private territory of the Ming Dynasty court, and outside martial arts forces cannot enter.

The only remaining martial arts forces within the world were the righteous forces that had no choice but to behave themselves.

Other classes were also constantly purged, and without military support, they had to be even more honest.

Teachers from all walks of life, over the past year and a half, the officialdom in Jin, which is mainly composed of new officials, has given the court a satisfactory answer.

Population census and land measurement are the two most important tasks.

According to the latest statistics at the end of the second year of Shengwu.

In the 16th year of Hongzhi, official records in Jin showed that there were 33,539,216 acres of land.

The population is approximately 13.62 million.

(Don't be too picky about this data. The fields are about the same, but the population is definitely larger. As mentioned in the previous article, there are hundreds of millions of people in the Ming Dynasty. There will be an explanation for how to feed so many people.)
After a year and a half of inventory and measurement.

The population was 21,962,357, an increase of more than 8 million people.

The vast majority of these extra 8 million people are the population hidden by the martial arts class.

Originally, there were more than 200,000 people in the martial arts world, plus more than 100,000 bandits, a total of nearly 400,000 people.

To support these 400,000 people, plus officials, gentry, landlords, etc., more than 8 million people did not exist in the court records.

In terms of farmland, including imperial farms, the total area was about 66.38 million acres, nearly doubling.

Last year, the taxes on land and population in Jin were very gratifying, exceeding any previous year.

A total of 4.68 million shi of grain, plus about 10 million taels of silver in other aspects.

It is almost equivalent to half of the total annual tax revenue during the Hongzhi period.

In addition, there are commercial taxes.

The bulk of the money came from the Ministry of Commerce of the imperial court, which collected about five million taels of silver in commercial taxes.

In other words, the total income of the Jin court last year was about 15 million taels of silver.

This was absolutely unimaginable in the past, and it directly surpassed Nanzhili at its peak.

More importantly, last year was just the beginning.

The land of many people is tax-free for one year.

After suffering a heavy blow, commercial taxes have initially resumed operations.

The tax potential of Jin is still considerable.

Although so much tax was collected from Jin, the overall living standards of the people in Jin were much better than before.

This situation naturally made the court appear happy on the surface.

This is a great peace and prosperity that has not been seen in hundreds of years!
Of course, amid the joy, there are many people who are worried and concerned.

They were worried and concerned that with such good results, the emperor would be impatient for quick success and take drastic measures in other parts of the Ming Dynasty.

It’s no wonder that they were right to worry, as Zhu Houzhao did have such thoughts.

However, after looking carefully at the situation in Jin, he felt that there were still many shortcomings that needed improvement.

We must come up with the most suitable policy in Jin, and then implement it throughout the country in one fell swoop.

In addition, the power of the imperial court was not sufficient, so Zhu Houzhao gave up the idea of ​​taking action in various places without delay.

But on the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, he convened senior officials from the cabinet and six ministries to discuss areas that needed improvement in Jin.

"I have carefully reviewed the situation in Jin and found many problems.

First of all, the various taxes are too complicated, making it easy for officials and petty officials to oppress and deceive the people.

I thought about it and realized that the poll tax would easily lead to the people hiding their population.

People are easy to hide, but fields are difficult to hide.

It would be better to collect taxes based on fixed land and not collect population tax.

Also, those officials and landlords will find ways to annex land no matter what.

I was thinking, wouldn’t it be okay if the land couldn’t be bought and sold?

I will nationalize all the farmland in Jin. It cannot be bought or sold. It will be divided up into fixed portions for the people to cultivate, and I will collect a unified land tax.

What do you think? "

Zhu Houzhao proudly expressed the idea that he had been pondering for many days, and looked at everyone with pride and expectation.

The three people in Liu Jian’s cabinet and the seven people in the six ministries were all shocked.

There is a lot of information, and it is a bit shocking.

The head tax was no longer collected and all the land was nationalized.

Why is your majesty making such a big fuss again?
The ten people each thought quickly, and then several of them gave advice and advice, citing scriptures.

Zhu Houzhao frowned and everyone shut up immediately.

"I have already decided. The cabinet should improve the policy and take all aspects into consideration," Zhu Houzhao said arrogantly.

"Yes." Liu Jian and the other two felt helpless and under a lot of pressure. This would change the tax and land policies that had existed for more than two thousand years.

But since His Majesty insisted on doing so, they could only respond.

Also, if there is a problem in just Jin, it can be corrected in time.

“Another point is commercial tax.

I have decided to implement commercial taxes across the Jin area.

Minister Ye, Minister Wan, Minister Fan, the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Commerce, discuss how to collect commercial taxes comprehensively?" Zhu Houzhao looked at the three people from the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Commerce.

"Yes." Ye Qi, Wan Sanqian, and Fan Fenyang responded seriously. They were happy about this.

Because it means they have more authority.

"Hurry up, everything needs to be finalized before February. We will start preparing after the spring plowing in Jin this year.

It will be implemented immediately after the grain is harvested." Zhu Houzhao said seriously.

"Yes." Everyone responded.

Everyone left, and soon Li Xunhuan returned alone.

Li Xunhuan, who had not spoken to dissuade him just now, now said with a little concern: "Your Majesty, the tax and land policies have been formed over the past two thousand years. If they are changed rashly, I am afraid it will cause unrest."

"Old Li, don't worry, I won't be wrong.

I think this is the right thing to do, it is the best choice for both the people and the court." Zhu Houzhao said proudly.

What he feels can never be wrong.

Li Xunhuan also realized this, His Majesty really hasn't missed it.

"Yes, I will pay more attention to it."

"Well, I told the king first, and he also said that we could give it a try." Zhu Houzhao said proudly again.

Li Xunhuan felt more relieved.

"By the way, Old Li, I want to abolish the hereditary system of local officials and have them be appointed directly by the imperial court in the future.

What do you think about the clerks also being included in the ranks of the court and officially becoming officials?" Zhu Houzhao thought for a moment and suddenly said.

Li Xunhuan has become accustomed to His Majesty's willful behavior.

After thinking it over carefully, he said cautiously: "Your Majesty, this matter cannot be decided lightly. We need to discuss it carefully. And no matter what, it is best to implement it only in Jin first."

"I know. Then you, the Ministry of Personnel, should discuss this with the Cabinet." Zhu Houzhao easily added another task to the Cabinet.

"Yes." Li Xunhuan took the task and left.

The new year has just begun, and the cabinet and the six ministries are feeling even more pressure.

Zhu Houzhao didn't feel that way at all. He still trusted the cabinet and the six ministries. He only needed to give orders and they would definitely complete them.

Three things, no, it should be said that four things, soon spread throughout the court.

Even though everyone was used to their emperor's love of making trouble, the four things of not collecting poll tax, nationalizing land, collecting comprehensive commercial taxes, and abolishing the hereditary system of minor officials still caused a huge stir in the court.

After all, the impact is too great.

Even Wulin, whose attention was drawn to the matter of choosing a queen and concubines, couldn't help but look at him with worry and fear.

Although it is clear that the experiment is only being carried out in Jin, once it succeeds in Jin, Emperor Shengwu will definitely want to implement it throughout the Ming Dynasty in the future.

This is naturally something they cannot tolerate.

However, things haven't reached that point yet, so naturally no one dares to step forward.

The main discussion in the martial arts world of the Ming Dynasty was still about the selection of concubines and the establishment of a queen.

Over the following twenty days, the Cabinet and six ministries successively approached Zhu Houzhao for consultation.

Finally, the policies on the four things were initially improved one after another.

On the first day of February, Zhu Houzhao held a court meeting.

"Your Majesty, we think we can nationalize the land, abolish the population tax, and collect taxes based on land."

Liu Jian said that more than a hundred senior officials from the cabinet, six ministries, and military cabinet were here.

He spoke mainly to explain to these officials. Zhu Houzhao had already known about it for a long time, as the policy was set by him personally.

"First, let's talk about the nationalization of farmland. All farmland will be nationalized, and no one, including officials with honors and nobles, will be allowed to keep even half an acre for themselves.

Our Ming Dynasty is the center of the world. The power of heaven and earth is strong, and the grain produced here is incomparable to that of barbaric lands.

On average, the annual output of one acre of land can reach about three stones.

An adult, if eating food from barbarian lands, would need about two and a half stone of food.

But the grain produced by our Ming Dynasty is less than one stone.

For a family of five, four stone of grain is enough to live.

Of course, this is when the weather is good and the harvest is good.

Generally speaking, a family of five needs at least two mu of land to survive. " (To explain the issue of land and population, due to the power of heaven and earth, the food is nutritious and people eat less.)
“The imperial court nationalized all farmland in Jin, including the imperial farms, totaling about 66,380,000 mu.

Three acres of land will be allocated to men and two acres of land to women aged sixteen.

There are about 17 million adult men and women in Jin, and a total of about 43 million acres of land needs to be divided out.

According to this standard, the imperial court will use silver to purchase the land from those who own more land and nationalize it.

Of course, the court doesn’t have that much money right now, so we’ll pay it off over the years, and within five years, we’ll definitely pay it off.”

"From now on, the land cannot be bought or sold, and if the person to whom the land is allocated for farming dies, his farming rights will be revoked.

When everyone reaches adulthood, they can go to the government to claim the corresponding amount of land.”

"The population tax was completely abolished, and the tax was distributed according to the amount of grain produced per acre.

In addition, all the fire consumption will be returned to the public, and no official may collect excess taxes in any way..."

Liu Jian explained the general situation in one breath.

Many officials were confused.

The tax exemption for officials and those with achievements is gone!
No, there is no land left.

Although it is currently limited to Jin, what about the future?
(Chapter 1.)
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(End of this chapter)