Dagongfang, West Garden.

The sound of the piano is rippling, melodious and tactful, making people listen like a spring breeze, and occasionally a glide, like a swallow copying water, splashing a little ripple.

In an octagonal pavilion, Zhu Cihong and several of his henchmen were listening to the Kou Baimen Fuqin brought by Zheng Sen. Among them, the two fathers and sons of the Wu family frowned slightly-what does the surname Zheng mean? Why bring a beautiful woman to Dagongfang? Is it to be dedicated to Chitose?

Just when the two fathers and sons were worried about whether Wu Sanmei could continue to be favored, the sound of the piano stopped abruptly, and Kou Baimen looked faint and nodded lightly.

Zhu Cihong just waved his hand lightly, without saying a word, and sent Kou Baimen away.

Kou Baimen is very beautiful, and it is indeed worthy of Qin Huai's first beauty, but it is not Zhu Cihong's dish.

Seeing that Zhu Cihong casually sent Kou Baimen, the father and son of the Wu family breathed a sigh of relief, and then the two looked at each other, Wu Sanfu smiled and said: "Master Chitose, you have summoned all the big guys today, won't you just listen to this little lady's song together?" ”

Zhu Cihong smiled, "You are all henchmen of this palace, you will come to Dagongfang more in the future, everyone will listen to a song, listen to a play, drink a little wine, in short, don't be rusty." ”

He glanced at Zhu Chunjie, the commander of the Jinyi Guard. Zhu Chunjie smiled and took out a thick account book, "Chitose Lord, this is the property account book of the eunuch rebel thieves that Jinyiwei has just sorted out, please take a look." ”

"Haha." Zhu Cihong beckoned, Huang Xiaobao hurriedly stepped forward, took the account book, and handed it to Prince Zhu with both hands.

Zhu Cihong looked through it and asked, "How many gardens have you copied?" How much cash and cash? How many acres of land? ”

Zhu Chunjie replied: "As of yesterday, there are 128 gardens that can be confirmed to be located in Yingtianfu, of which 66 are located in Nanjing. ”

"Hahaha," Zhu Cihong laughed, "everyone here has a garden!" ”

Zhu Chunjie said: "The total amount of gold and silver copied is more than 2,600 taels, of which more than 100 taels are gold. ”

Zhu Cihong said: "5 million taels of silver will be dissolved, and the rest will be divided!" ”

That's a lot of money! The wealth worth nearly 25 million taels was divided by Zhu Cihong in this way!

Of course, these 25 million taels are only part of the "financial assets" owned by the Nanjing nobles and lords, and more than 30 million taels of debts and shares will be put into Zhu Cihong's pocket.

Zhu Chunjie continued: "There are more than 50 million acres of land! Among them, there are no less than 28 million acres of land on the ground in Nanzhili, and the rest are mostly in Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Fujian and Huguang. Of the 28 million mu in Nanzhili, about 8 million mu are Juntun, more than 400 mu are private fields and given fields, and most of the rest are hidden fields. ”

"Haha, 16 million acres of hidden fields!" Zhu Cihong smiled, "It's really good!" By the way, how many fields are registered in Nanzhili? ”

"There are about 77.4 million acres." Zhu Chunjie replied.

"What about Zhejiang?"

"There are about 46.7 million acres."

"Hehe," Zhu Cihong sneered twice, "Nanzhili is all plains, and Zhejiang is all mountains." Moreover, Nanzhili is more than one and a half times larger than Zhejiang Province. There are only 31 million acres more at the root...... This is still the number that Zhang Juzheng found out when he was in power! ”

Nanzhili corresponds to Jiangsu, Anhui and Shanghai in later generations. Although Jiangsu Province at this time was not as large as later generations - part of the land in northern Jiangsu was still sunk in the sea and had not been silted out. But no matter how you calculate it, Jiangsu definitely has more arable land than Zhejiang!

As for Anhui Province, it was a large grain province with fertile fields, and the cultivated land area of Anhui Province in later generations was more than one and a half times that of Zhejiang Province. At present, the cultivated land of Nanzhili, which is made up of the land of Anhui, Zhejiang, and Shanghai provinces and one city, is actually only seventy or eighty percent more than that of Zhejiang Province.

"Chitose Lord, it's already good to get more than 3,000 acres of land!" Wu Xiang couldn't close his mouth with a smile, "Even if there are 100,000 new troops, 10 million mu is enough...... It is enough to follow the heroes of Chitose Ye and reward another 5 million mu. 15 million mu can be classified into Juntun, and one mu can be rented for seven buckets, and there can also be more than 1,000 stone income! ”

What a fart! Zhu Cihong sneered in his heart: There are obviously 150 million mu of land, but more than 70 million are recorded on the books, of which there are at least 1 million mu of military tun that does not pay taxes. Of the remaining 60 million mu, seventy or eighty percent are all kinds of gentry land, which do not need to pay taxes......

......

The river is surging and flowing slowly. Perhaps the hard-working Emperor Chongzhen is no longer in power, and the climate in the south of the Yangtze River this year is also wetter than in previous years, and the water flow of the Yangtze River, the golden waterway that runs through the waist of the land of China, is also very abundant, rolling and churning and flowing towards the sea.

In the territory of Yingtianfu in Nanjing, on the south bank of the Yangtze River, a young man wearing a red arrow suit is riding a horse by the river with a large group of young people who are also wearing arrow clothes. Behind is a large group of guards. The south bank of the Yangtze River is full of verdant rice fields, and many Jiangnan farmers with hats are busy in the fields, hoeing weeds or fertilizing, and carefully serving the late rice in the paddy fields.

There are many kinds of rice in the south of the Yangtze River, which are divided into early rice and late rice, and the high-quality paddy fields can produce as much as three stones of rice a year! Once in the Ming Dynasty, it was equivalent to about 1890 catties in later generations, and three stones were 500 catties. And it's rice, not husked rice.

For the era when there are no fertilizers and no pesticides, this kind of yield is really not low.

The "heavy tax" of the Ming Dynasty in the south of the Yangtze River, taking Suzhou Prefecture, which had the heaviest tax, as an example, in the Hongwu period, when the tax work was most powerful, the annual tax grain was 2.7 million stone - 2.8 million stone, accounting for less than 10% of the total number of the country. The average mu tax is less than three buckets, about two buckets and eight liters. Can it be regarded as a "heavy tax" if it produces three stones of rice, pays less than three buckets of grain, and has a tax rate of less than one percent?

In the Wanli period, although Zhang Juzheng's repeated rectification, Suzhou's Tianfu was still much lower than that in the Hongwu period, and it was just over 2 million stones. The mu tax should be up and down the second bucket. Producing three stones of rice and two buckets of grain, is this tax considered heavy?

Of course, the taxes in Suzhou and Jiangnan are still very heavy compared to the rest of the country. In terms of mu tax, Suzhou's land tax is about seven to eight times the national average!

From this point of view, it is indeed a heavy tax.

However, even before the Xiaoice period, the yield (flour) per mu in the dry fields of the Central Plains and Northwest did not reach one stone, usually only a few buckets. Even if it is tax-free, the income from planting one acre of dry land in the north cannot be compared with the same acre of paddy fields in the south of the Yangtze River.

From this point of view, the land tax in Jiangnan is not heavy at all.

Of course, the premise of not being heavy is that the tax can fall evenly on the land in the south of the Yangtze River, rather than most of the land does not pay taxes, and a small part of the land bears the entire tax amount...... And the lush paddy fields that Zhu Cihong sees now were originally not tax-paid! Because these fields are all land owned by the Wei State Mansion!

Zhu Cihong grabbed the reins, and immediately went up, looking at the rich fields, thoughtfully. His original foreman guard, Wang Qi, who is now the commander of the new army, stepped forward, approached Zhu Cihong's side, and said in a low voice: "Chitose Lord, it's not too early, it's time to go back." It is not peaceful outside Nanjing, and there are still many eunuch rebels who are on the run. ”

Zhu Cihong sneered: "Is there any traitor that your Chinese military division can't clean up?" Seventh, you don't have to say more...... Be sure to finish looking at this land today. If it's late, I won't go back to the city, there is a courtyard of the Xu family here, just sleep for one night. ”

"Chitose Lord, why do you bother to ask about such an insignificant matter?"

"It doesn't matter?" Zhu Cihong glanced at him, "Is there anything else important?" ”

Yes!

Wang Qixin said: You still have a big position to usurp, a Tartar to defend, a Donglin Party to woo, and Zuo Liangyu to deal with......

Zhu Cihong said lightly: "The land here will soon be distributed to the middle and lower-level officers and soldiers of the middle division...... The land of the four levels, such as guards, samurai, captains, and small flags, will be divided into this area. Among them, 50 acres are divided into guards, 70 acres are divided into samurai, 100 acres are divided into school captains, and 150 acres are divided into small flags. In total, about 600,000 acres of paddy fields will be allocated. ”