There is no such thing as the Kangxi and Qianlong eras

Chapter 71 The power is in hand
"General, this is a book on current affairs sent by the old man." Feng Xiuyong, the chief secretary, handed over a written report.

After reading it carefully, Nie Yu passed it to the secretary below, and then raised his eyes to the Hubei map board placed in the center of the lobby.

The secretaries below were circulating the current affairs report while having their own thoughts.

In their opinion, the relationship between the general and the old man in the general's mansion today is quite subtle and complicated.

Because the general, as the son, was in charge of military affairs, while the old man, as the father, was in charge of civil affairs, this was a reasonable and clear division of labor. However, the old man liked to summarize the civil affairs documents and hand them to the general every time, which meant that the old man was only responsible for writing reports, and the general had to approve any documents.

It is quite similar to the relationship between Li Er and Li Yuan, father and son. In fact, this old man is not as good as Li Yuan. After all, Li Yuan was an emperor in the early days and held great power. He was later sidelined after the Xuanwu Gate Incident.

Of course, this is not important to the Secretariat, because the general has great power, which also means that their Secretariat has great power.

The Secretariat cannot directly handle government affairs and can only offer suggestions on military affairs, but this does not prevent the Secretariat from serving as the personal secretary of the general, the so-called disciple of the emperor.

Although the Han army had not yet conquered the world and did not even have the province of Hubei, the Secretariat itself was roughly equivalent to a hybrid of the Cabinet and the Grand Council.

The Secretariat under this mixed system will surely gradually expose problems in the future. Even the pseudo-Qing Dynasty abolished the Grand Council several times, but at least Nie Yu is still using it quite smoothly now, which can save a lot of trouble.

Feng Xiuyong had already arrived at the stage and pointed at the Jingzhou Prefecture on the map. He said, "General, according to the current affairs book sent by the old man, once our Han army unifies Jingzhou Prefecture, we will be able to obtain the entire Jianghan Plain."

"By then, the arable land under the Han army's control will increase by at least 40-50%, greatly alleviating the problem of insufficient farmland. Furthermore, while there are remote mountainous areas west of Jingzhou, the area east of Jingzhou is mostly fertile plains. We can certainly encourage the people to reclaim wasteland and increase the area of ​​arable land."

Encouraging the people to reclaim and open up wasteland was also a solution devised by the Civil Affairs Department.

If there is not enough land to be distributed, let the people organize themselves to reclaim the land. The reclaimed land can enjoy a one to three-year tax exemption or half-tax policy, depending on the reclaimed area and the actual reclamation situation.

Feng Xiuyong continued, "Tax reductions are definitely not enough, because the General's Office previously set an equal distribution of land for each household. From military households to tenants, and even refugee households, everyone has a set amount of land. It seems to take into account the interests of all parties, but in fact it is very unfair."

"Oh? What's unfair about that?" Nie Yu asked humbly.

Feng Xiuyong took out the household registration and land registers he had obtained from the Civil Affairs Office, and then said, "First, let's put aside the military households. They are the foundation of the General's Mansion, and their allotment of land is definitely sufficient. But when it comes to the tenant households and refugee households, the disparity becomes apparent. Because tenant households are local people, their registered population must be normal. In fact, many tenant households often have two or three male adults in order to rent and cultivate more land."

"But the refugees are different. To put it bluntly, they are all refugees from other provinces. Most of their wives, children, and parents have died on the way to escape. Many refugee households are single, and the most fortunate ones have married and started a family of two or three."

"Comparing the two, the tenants appear to own 6 mu of land, a full mu more than the refugees' 5 mu. However, the tenants also have nearly twice as many adults as the refugees. In other words, in terms of per capita land distribution, the tenants are far inferior to the refugees."

Nie Yu suddenly realized that he had only thought about dividing land according to household registration and adjusting taxes, but he forgot that refugees and tenants were different.

Most of the refugees are alone, and one person's food can feed the whole family. Although many refugees have now started to settle down with the help of grassroots officials, even so, at most a household has grown from one person to two people.

The tenants were all local people. It was normal for a household to have five or six people, and there were even many with seven or eight people.

In other words, the refugee households can basically get 2 to 3 mu of land per person, while the tenant households can hardly get even one mu of land per person.

This distribution of land was indeed very unfair, as most tenants hadn't carefully calculated it. Furthermore, the General's Office had reduced its harsh taxes and levies, and no longer required them to perform corvée labor. Even if they did perform corvée labor, it was to build water conservancy projects in villages and towns, and to repair official roads for the benefit of the people. It was also done during the slack season, and they were paid and given food.

Even if some tenants figured out something was wrong, they wouldn't come out and say anything at this time.

But not saying anything doesn't mean the problem doesn't exist. As the territory gets bigger and bigger, after a year or two, the tenants will definitely come out to make trouble.

Don’t worry about scarcity but inequality!
"Does the Secretariat have any good ideas?" Nie Yu asked.

"Reform the system!" Feng Xiuyong said, "The original household registration land distribution system needs to be abolished, but the land does not need to be taken back. Instead, it should be changed to per capita land distribution. Those who have more land do not need to return it, and those who are short can be supplemented by the General's Office."

"How much land is allocated per capita?" Nie Yu asked again.

Feng Xiuyong replied, "Under the previous pseudo-Qing rule, taxes were heavy, and with all the corvée labor and miscellaneous levies, even 5 mu of land per household, let alone 6 mu, was not enough to make ends meet. After paying the heavy taxes, there was basically no surplus grain left. To have enough to eat and still be able to pay the taxes, at least 3 to 4 mu of land per capita would be needed."

"Therefore, I believe that we can take advantage of the current expansion of our territory and the fact that much land has yet to be cultivated and distributed to the people to restore the average per capita land allocation of 3 to 4 mu. This will not only save the General's Mansion from significant losses, but will also resolve the hidden danger of uneven land distribution. It will also further win over the people and make them loyal to the General!"

To put it bluntly, it means giving more land to all the people. This will not only solve the problem of uneven land distribution, but also allow most people to get land for free. Even the registered refugees can get one or two acres of land for free.

An acre of land may seem like a small amount and not a big deal, but you have to learn to compare. In the eyes of the landlords, it is just an acre of land, but in the eyes of the common people, an acre of land means an extra acre of harvest and food.

Moreover, it didn’t exist before, but it exists now, which is equivalent to pure profit.

In addition, the General's Mansion has abolished the heavy and excessive taxes it once imposed, so the value of that acre of land is even higher.

This method of dividing more land would definitely not work before, because the average amount of land per household was not enough. But now that the territory has expanded, the amount of land that can be divided has increased again.

Everyone can benefit, and it can also promote the warlike and martial spirit of the military and civilians under the rule of the Han army, because there will always be a time when there is not enough land to be divided. In the past, when there was not enough land to be divided, we could only build water conservancy projects. Now that there is not enough land to be divided, we will continue to expand outward and get more land.

After careful consideration, Nie Yu immediately made a decision:
First, the land system was reformed. The land allocation per household was changed to per capita land allocation, increasing the per capita land allocation to 3 mu. This increase was not significant, but it allowed refugees to earn an extra mu of land. Those refugees who felt they had not earned enough could get married, have more children, and thus receive more land.

Second, organize the people to migrate and reclaim wasteland. While the area west of Jingzhou Prefecture hasn't reached its limit, concentrating the population in the west is unacceptable. It must be evenly dispersed, which will also dismantle the local gentry clans that have taken over the new territory. Furthermore, immigration and reclamation can increase arable land and foster a custom of migration. If a particular area runs out of farmland, then migration can be carried out. In the future, after unification, if there isn't enough land to go around, we can divide it up and colonize it.

After these two decisions were made, the pressure on Jingzhou Prefecture to distribute land was not so great, and it was also able to win over the hearts of refugees, tenants, and some self-cultivating farmers.

Self-cultivating farmers have land, but not much. Now each person is allocated 3 mu of land, so they can still make some money.

Even if you only get one more acre of land, it is still a profit, a big profit at that.

All the people who were allocated land would certainly follow the Han army wholeheartedly, because only as long as the Han army was there could they keep their land.

(End of this chapter)