Chapter 256 For whom does the bell toll? !
Back to the side hall.
Xia Zhibai finally met Hua Lun.
The last time we said goodbye, Hua Lun had changed a lot. His originally green cheeks had now grown a beard, making him less childish and more steady.
Seeing Xia Zhibai, Hua Lun looked at him with a complicated expression, and slightly arched his hands towards Xia Zhibai.
Xia Zhibai smiled and nodded.
Hua Lun said: "Brother Lian just told me what you want to do. Do you really want to go so far? The south is extraordinary. It can even be said that the south is the foundation of the Ming Dynasty. , once trouble occurs in the south, it will have a great impact on the Ming Dynasty."
Xia Zhibai walked a few steps quickly and said as he walked: "That's why we have to do it more."
"You know me."
"I always like to choose difficult things to do."
"And"
"Don't you think the world's order is too chaotic? The local grassroots level is one thing, the prefectures and counties are another way, and the imperial court is another. Because mountains and rivers are far away, it is easy for local governments to betray the imperial court. Doing some illegal things, but the court is still beyond its reach to achieve effective management."
"As an official of the Ministry of Accounts, you should know something about the world's accounts."
"If I don't. I remember wrongly. Last year, the Chief Secretary of Huguang had inventoried the local fields and reported the registered land area. "
"I accidentally saw the information submitted by the Chief Secretary of Huguang in "Zhu Si Zhi Zhi". Data.”
"Do you know what I saw in it?"
Hua Lun shook his head.
Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, His Majesty has ordered an inventory of the world’s fields. However, the Ming Dynasty is so vast that after so long, only six or seven chief secretaries have completed the inventory and reported the relevant data on acres of land.
Lian Zining walked up to the two of them and asked doubtfully: "What did you see inside?"
"Is there anyone else who is cheating?"
He wasn't very convinced.
In a sense, the Ming Dynasty implemented a fixed tax system. The amount of tax in each region was fixed. Concealing and underreporting land would not change the amount of taxes that need to be paid in various places. Instead, it would make the local gentry's land lose protection. , and it is also easier for officials in power to usurp it.
After all, the land that is not even listed in the fish scale book is the county magistrate who has the final say?
Say no more.
The Ming Dynasty originally gave privileges to scholars.
Even if there are no gentry in the imperial examination in your own clan, you can just find a scholar from all over the country and send it in. There is no need to fake it.
Because of this.
The imperial court of the Ming Dynasty almost never questioned the fish scale book.
At this moment, Jie Min and Ding Zhifang also stepped forward, looking at Xia Zhibai with puzzled faces.
Xia Zhibai chuckled lightly, with a hint of desolation in his eyes. Hua Lun and Lian Zining were in the south and had some understanding of the situation in the south. They had no doubts about the data in the fish scale book, let alone Zhu Yuanzhang is not very sensitive to data.
There is something fundamentally wrong with Ming Dynasty’s Fish Scale Book.
And it’s a big problem.
It was so big that Zhang Juzheng racked his brains and could not come up with so many acres in the future.
Xia Zhibai said: "This is the evil of the world."
"It is also the evil of the officials and gentry of the world."
"From the information found in "Zhu Si Zhi Zhi", do you know how many acres of land were reported by the Huguang Chief Envoy?"
"How many?" Lian Zining asked without thinking.
Hua Lun hesitated for a moment and said uncertainly: "If I remember correctly, it seems to be 220 million acres."
"Is there any problem with this?"
"Yes, and the problem is huge." Xia Zhibai said coldly: "Do you really know how many fields this is?"
"This is 220 million acres."
Hua Lun looked confused. What's wrong with this data?
Xia Zhibai shook his head.
Hua Lun and the others really have no idea about the fields.
In later generations, Hubei Province and Hunan Province were mechanized. The combined cultivated land area of the two provinces was only 120 million acres. In the Ming Dynasty, this was all due to human race, and many places were not even. , the energy is actually 220 million acres.
This is simply off the mark.
Xia Zhibai did not explain directly, and said: "The data submitted by the Chief Secretary of Zhejiang is 40 million acres, but if you really know about the fields, you should know that this data is simply unrealistic. , this deviation is not explained by the errors of manual measurement and the insufficient level of surveying and mapping officials. "
"The Ming Dynasty suffered from wars, severe population decline, and serious land abandonment."
"The field should have shrunk significantly."
"Even if it did increase, it is impossible for the same piece of land to have more than double the arable land in such a short period of time compared to the previous dynasty and the Song Dynasty."
Hua Lun's face changed slightly.
He looked at Xia Zhibai solemnly and said puzzledly: "Brother Xia, don't be alarmist. How is this possible? What benefits does local officials bring to the local area by reporting more fields? Is this possible? The previous dynasties and the Song Dynasty deliberately concealed reporting, but because our dynasty implemented a fixed tax system, there was no need to conceal reporting, so many fields that were concealed in the past were actually reported? "
Hua Lun did not dare to be careless at all.
The matter of land is related to the tax base of Ming Dynasty.
The imperial court attached great importance to this. If someone is really found to have committed fraud, I'm afraid there will be another bloody storm in the world.
Xia Zhibai said coldly: "No."
"Reporting more land is of great benefit to local officials."
"Because the imperial court has a larger tax base. And the Ming Dynasty implemented a fixed tax system. "
"If there is a lot of land, the tax will be fixed, so will the amount of tax transferred to the people be less? If the local government deliberately overreports the number of acres, it will not be the actual number of acres. , but what about the 'virtual acres' specially concocted to cater to His Majesty's requirements of 'loving the people, lightening taxes' and 'reducing burdens on the people'? ”
Xia Zhibai didn't lie at all.
If he remembers correctly, in the 26th year of Hongwu in history, Zhu Yuanzhang successfully completed the land inventory of the world. At that time, the registered household registrations were more than 10.6 million households, and the population was as high as more than 60 million , the land area reached more than 8.5 million hectares.
When Xuande first came to the throne, in just thirty years, and Zhu Di's expansion of territory, the Ming Dynasty's household registration was reduced to more than 9.9 million, and the population was directly reduced by nearly 10 million , as for the land, it was suddenly reduced to more than 4 million hectares.
In less than thirty years, half of the land was gone.
True.
Zhu Di and Zhu Zhanji are both just selling their father's land. Don't feel bad. They can abandon some health centers in the north as they please, but they will not lose half of the country at once. And if half of the country is gone, it does not mean that the Ming Dynasty's tax base has been reduced by half. , because field farming in the north is not as developed as in the north.
The South is the foundation.
In the period of Zhang Juzheng, Zhang Juzheng Shang Zonghe took credit for his excess.
Local government offices rushed to change their bows to obtain more fields.
Under such extremely false conditions, Zhang Juzheng only managed to collect 700 million acres.
Zhu Yuanzhang directly acquired 850 million acres.
This is not a sudden shrinkage of land.
But there was an emperor and a courtier. During the time of Zhu Yuanzhang, there was a trend of "loving the people" in the world, and local officials did what they wanted.
After the death of Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Di became a warrior and moved the capital to the north. Therefore, local officials did not want to fool around anymore. Instead, they used this to lower the data and put pressure on Zhu Di to let the court collect less taxes from the south, otherwise there would be trouble. The court may not be able to convince public opinion, but historically Zhu Di did compromise with the local government in order to secure the throne.
Hualun's face turned pale.
His pupils shrank, his body trembled slightly, and he felt a sense of fear. He heard the overtone of Xia Zhibai's words. There was widespread falsification of construction costs in the Ming Dynasty. His Majesty hates local officials concealing and underreporting the most, so he deliberately set the price. The tax system' is intended to solve the false situation of past dynasties.
As the saying goes, there are policies from above and countermeasures from below.
Everyone in the world knows that Your Majesty loves the people and has always been interested in reducing the burden on the people. How can local officials not do what they want?
One acre of direct fertilized land is converted into three acres of levied land, and one acre of secondary land is converted into two acres.
With this calculation, it is indeed very possible for the south to have twice as many acres of land.
Xia Zhibai said in a deep voice: "Many data and information in the Ming Dynasty are false, just to appease His Majesty. Moreover, the land is overreported, which not only makes His Majesty look good, but also caters to His Majesty's caring and caring for the people. If it is for Your Majesty, If you take it seriously, you will be able to rise through the ranks and get promoted. "
"If you were a local official, wouldn't you be tempted?"
"Other prefectures and counties pay so much for their land, why don't you pay more? Doesn’t that mean you are inferior to others?”
“When the world is turbid, it becomes a sin to be clean.”
“This is the current situation in the world.”
"I am telling you this just to tell you that the literati class in the Ming Dynasty is fundamentally broken, and it is hard to recover. These people only see official robes, only glory and wealth, and only official positions. Power."
"Many people in the world blame His Majesty for going the other way."
"But if you really understand the Ming Dynasty, some of His Majesty's actions may not be helpless. There are no people available in the Ming Dynasty. The people who can be used in the Ming Dynasty are all people who only care about their own selfish interests, only want to flatter their superiors, and work hard to climb up."
"You may think that I am too risky in targeting the south. "
"But if you do nothing and allow these officials to continue to torture the people, that is the real evil."
"I don't want to be their accomplice."
"Besides."
"Don't think too highly of them."
"These people don't have much ability. In addition to doing a lot of dirty things and disturbing the place, that's all. If they really dare to go all out to rebel, they just rely on their ability to confuse public opinion and build some momentum for themselves. "
< br>“This kind of ability is vulnerable to the state machine!”
"The new dynasty is supposed to have a new atmosphere."
"Isn't it not what the new dynasty should do to re-establish rules for the world?"
"Perhaps His Majesty is thinking about the old feelings and still considers it. We want the place to be stable, but I don’t have this concern.”
“What I want is to break the old ecological pattern.”
“Even if it’s just a big change!”
Xia Zhibai stood with his hands behind his hands, a hint of contempt on his lips.
He said indifferently: "I seem to have said too much today, but I can tell you with certainty that the current situation in the south will be fundamentally reversed, not only in terms of geography, but also in various political ecology Structurally, it will continue to change in the future.”
“I’m just going to sound the alarm for them this time.”
“Maybe next time. It’s not a wake-up call.”
"But the death knell!"
(End of this chapter)