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Chapter 581 There's a Blood Tax Now
After the tea break, Zhu Houzhao, now full of energy, returned to his throne in the main hall and listened to Su Lu continue his report.

As usual, Su Lu presented a 'too long, don't read' briefing and began in a deep voice: "Your Majesty, the second part of my report concerns the reorganization and transformation of the 1,200 confiscated shops into the Eight Great Imperial Stores."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Houzhao chuckled and said, "Imperial shops? I've already done that before! I had Liu Daban take the lead and sent some eunuchs with capital to open imperial shops. In the end, after all that trouble, we didn't make much money and even lost money."

It was indeed Liu Jin who first started this imperial shop. Seeing the booming industry and commerce in the capital, he was envious and wanted to make a fortune as well. So, after obtaining the emperor's approval, he sent his trusted eunuch to open the shop.

But what business were those eunuchs doing? They were experts at embezzling public funds for their own gain; the meager profits from the imperial shops weren't even enough to fill their own pockets. After several years, the emperor hadn't even touched a hair on the head of the shop, so it would be strange if he wasn't interested.

Su Lu, however, remained calm and smiled, “Your Majesty, rest assured, the Imperial Shop’s lack of profit is due to Eunuch Liu’s mismanagement, not the shop itself… Our audit of these 1,200 shops revealed that they can consistently generate around two million taels of profit annually.”

"Oh my, so much?!" Zhu Houzhao finally widened his eyes. "How did they earn that much?"

"Because the monks run salt shops, rice shops, pawnshops, money exchanges, coal mines, transport companies, brothels, casinos, and the like—businesses that are guaranteed to make money as long as you have a strong backer. Moreover, they have been operating for many years and have a stable customer base. After we take over, as long as we don't act recklessly like the eunuchs, we should be able to maintain profitability."

He paused for a moment, then tempted Zhu Houzhao further, saying, "Moreover, the profits from these imperial shops are all pure, unadulterated income, which goes directly to the Emperor. Doesn't Your Majesty want such a long-term income of two million taels of silver every year?"

"Of course I want to." Zhu Houzhao nodded vigorously in agreement. "Don't even mention two million taels. As long as you can earn one million taels for me every year, you can do whatever you want with the rest. I will not interfere, nor will I allow the eunuchs to meddle or cause trouble!"

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Su Lu replied in a deep voice.

"But Secretary Su, your office of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices is where you advise me. You can't switch to business." Zhu Houzhao reminded him again, "Don't let it interfere with your official duties."

"Your Majesty, rest assured, it won't happen." Su Lu assured him again, thinking to himself that he would have to teach Zhu Shou a lesson later, to let him know that running an imperial shop was a serious matter—making money was secondary, the most important thing was to accumulate experience, strengthen the team, and prepare for future wars with the gentry of Jiangnan.

Of course, that would be digressing, so I won't go into the details of the report for now.

So he simply smiled and said, "Moreover, I have another consideration—by reorganizing these imperial shops, our reach can extend throughout the entire Beizhili region through the shop network, which will greatly facilitate our subsequent promotion of silver dollars and issuance of silver notes."

He paused for a moment, then explained further: "For example, we can transform existing money shops into branches of the Royal Bank, which will quickly expand our operations. Then, we can have all the royal shops take the lead in using banknotes and provide exchange services. When the people see that the royal shops are willing to accept banknotes and exchange them for silver dollars, they will naturally feel more comfortable following suit. This will greatly accelerate the process of establishing credit for banknotes!"

Zhu Houzhao nodded repeatedly and waved his hand, saying, "Very well, do as you say. I entrust you with all the arrangements. You don't need to ask me for instructions on everything."

~~
The second part passed quickly, and then came the third part—the Imperial Estate.

Su Lu dismissed his attendants, as he wanted to report this part of the story separately.

"Why all the secrecy?" Zhu Houzhao's curiosity was indeed piqued.

Su Lu's words sent chills down his spine.

"The 160,000 hectares of land confiscated are enough to support an army of 200,000 soldiers who are willing to pay their blood taxes for Your Majesty!"

Zhu Houzhao, who had been lounging lazily in his chair, sat up abruptly upon hearing this and asked in a low voice:
"You mean? To distribute these lands to the soldiers of the regiment?"

"Yes." Su Lu nodded and said, "I asked my second brother to investigate in the army. The land belonging to the families of most of the soldiers in the regiments and battalions has disappeared."

"How could they have disappeared?" Zhu Houzhao asked in shock. "According to ancestral rules, each regular soldier is entitled to fifty mu of land, which cannot be bought or sold. How could they have lost it?!"

"As a military household member myself, I know all too well what's going on," Su Lu said indignantly. "The ancestral rules stipulate that military land cannot be bought or sold, but those mid- to high-ranking officers and nobles find various pretexts, either using the excuse of desertion to directly seize vacant military land for themselves, or taking advantage of people's misfortunes to force soldiers to pawn or sell their military land—in reality, it's outright seizure!" "The military households of the Ming Dynasty are so miserable. Those commanders of a thousand households hold the fate and even the life and death of their entire families firmly in their hands. Like slaves, they have no other way to escape the control of high-ranking officers except to flee." Su Lu said, his voice choked with emotion.

"What's worse is that the nobles of the Ming Dynasty are mostly concentrated in the capital. These parasites are the most insatiable, and they are even more unscrupulous in their plundering than the local garrisons! In remote garrisons like ours, the officers are afraid of inciting the military households to rebel, so they dare not go too far. But the nobles have no such concerns at all, since the emperor will hold up the sky if it falls. Under such circumstances, how can the military households possibly protect their own land? After a hundred years, they have all become tenants of the powerful and wealthy!"

"No wonder we can't muster 50,000 able-bodied men out of 200,000 or 300,000 regiments and battalions. How can such an army fight?!" Zhu Houzhao cursed angrily. "Damn it, it's a good thing we didn't return the money to those nobles back then!"

"Yes, Your Majesty is wise," Su Lu replied respectfully. The more he learned about the nobles, the more he loathed them... They were nothing but a bunch of parasites destroying the Great Wall! How could such a group of worms accomplish anything great?

To Zhu Houzhao, this cliché sounded incredibly sarcastic. Feeling somewhat embarrassed, he said with a dark face, "Don't say that again! I've been spending more than half a year with the soldiers of the regiment. If I were wise, I wouldn't need you to bring up these things!"

“Your Majesty need not be so hard on yourself,” Su Lu quickly comforted him. “You are the Son of Heaven, high above all others, and you have no contact with ordinary soldiers. Even if you happen to meet with a few on a whim, it is all pre-arranged, and you would never have the opportunity to talk to them about these things.”

"Hmm..." Zhu Houzhao snorted and exhaled heavily. After a while, he said in a muffled voice, "Go on, tell me what other reasons there are, and I will rectify them all."

"The second layer is the disuse of the fish-scale registers and the rampant alteration of land records. Corrupt officials and sycophants colluded to tamper with the records with impunity—changing military land into civilian land so it could be transferred to other owners or incorporated into the estates of nobles! With this two-pronged approach, the land allocated to the soldiers by Emperors Taizu and Taizong completely disappeared," Su Lu sighed.

“When we were returning the land, we encountered many military households who said that the land originally belonged to them, but they could not produce any evidence, so we had to refuse their requests.”

"Hmm..." Zhu Houzhao nodded with a gloomy expression. "Liu Jin reported that the registered private land in the country had decreased by 45% compared to the time of Emperor Taizu. Now it seems that the situation of military land is much more serious than that of private land!"

"Yes, privately owned farmland is related to local taxes and is subject to government oversight, so it can't be overdone. But military farmland is much more corrupt; nobody cares about the lives of the military households!" Su Lu said with great distress.

"Your Majesty, in the end, it wasn't the soldiers who lost the military farmland; it was the powerful and wealthy who seized it, and the corrupt officials who embezzled it, leaving your entire regiment with no place to stand. How can they protect the capital and fight for Your Majesty under such circumstances?!"

He then cupped his hands and said in a deep voice, "That is precisely why I implore Your Majesty to use the 160,000 hectares of temple land that have been confiscated to rebuild the military camps and settlements—to give the soldiers a real and permanent property. Your Majesty has also paid them back wages; how could they not be willing to give their lives for Your Majesty?!"

"Hongzhi, you don't need to persuade me anymore." Zhu Houzhao raised his hand, calling Su Lu by his courtesy name for the first time, and said solemnly, "I know you mean well, so just tell me what to do, and I'll listen to you!"

“Yes.” Su Lu then said in a deep voice, “In fact, the military settlement policy was already very well formulated by Emperor Hongwu—fifty mu of land for each regular soldier, which cannot be bought, sold or transferred, and only the grain of the land needs to be paid… These are all very good, and have long been proven to be very effective. They can not only guarantee the supply of military food, but also provide a continuous stream of loyal soldiers, and can also deter the locals and greatly reduce local rebellions.”

"The problem lies in the later deterioration of the system and the rampant encroachment of the powerful and wealthy. Therefore, I believe that this time we should plug the loopholes in the old system and allow the land to remain in the homes of ordinary military households for a long time!"

"That's right, so how exactly do we do it?" Zhu Houzhao pressed.

"Your Majesty, I suggest adopting the imperial estate system, where all land belongs to the Emperor. I'd like to see who dares to covet His Majesty's lands!" Su Lu raised an eyebrow.
"Then establish military garrisons and imperial estates. Soldiers and officers can rent these estates for a long period of ninety-nine years! The soldiers only need to pay one dou of grain per mu of garrison land, and there are no other burdens!"

"The soldiers are nominally renting land, but in reality, they are cultivating it permanently. Their descendants can inherit it, but buying, selling, or pawning it is strictly forbidden. Furthermore, if any soldier dares to desert, be cowardly in battle, or disobey orders, the land will be immediately reclaimed, and even the inheritance rights of their descendants will be revoked. I guarantee the soldiers will be absolutely loyal to the Emperor!" Su Lu said in a deep voice.

"Moreover, the grain tax for military farms is set at one dou per mu, which is far lower than the tax on civilian land. This way, even if the soldiers are training and fighting outside, they can hire people to farm at home and still make a profit. In addition, the military camps also receive salaries, so the soldiers' families live a much higher standard of living than ordinary people!"

Then, he summarized for Zhu Houzhao: "Your Majesty, consider this: the fields of the soldiers in the garrison were bestowed by Your Majesty, their comfortable lives were granted by Your Majesty, and Your Majesty even personally guards their property. This kindness can never be repaid in generations! If they were to betray Your Majesty, they would lose their own property and ruin the livelihood of their descendants. I guarantee that the soldiers would rather die than do such a foolish thing!"

P.S. Post first, edit later.

(End of this chapter)