For the so-called wealthy families of this era, the loss of three million taels is really too heavy.

Although this money is not a loss for one or two families, the absolute amount is too large, and all the gentry and wealthy families involved have also paid a price ranging from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands.

Among them, the biggest loss is the Jinling Jia family, they lost almost 400,000 Singapore dollars, plus the money spent on repairing the Grand View Garden, the money obtained in the name of the dowry of Miss Lin from the former Zhou Patrol Salt Imperial Shi Lin Ruhai was completely exhausted, and even left a deficit of hundreds of thousands of taels.

In the case that there is really no way, the Jia family can only hope that the young lady they sent to the north can help a little - those who have this idea don't know their family.

Some of the gentry and wealthy families, who also suffered heavy losses, had to send people to consult with the business director of the household department, hoping that the empire could recover the grain they had accumulated in the warehouse at a "relatively fair and reasonable" price, such as 4 taels and one stone.

This was naturally rejected sternly - the empire's unified purchase and sale of grain was for disaster relief and price balancing, not for the sake of losing money and making money.

If the gentry want to sell grain, then it is very good, 2 taels and one stone, as many empires as they want, don't think about taking more than a penny.

did not get the policy they wanted, and the gentry immediately began to cross the sea to show their powers.

Those who received the plaque of "enlightened gentry" simply carried the plaque directly to Jinling and tried to sue the imperial court, saying that the cabinet was "competing with the people for profit".

If there is no plaque, such as the four wealthy families in Jinling, they have to find people who are familiar with each other and are officials in the imperial court to come forward and put pressure on the household department.

Some families even sent their wishes directly to Xu Shiyang's desk!

"This is interference in the policy of the empire, and it is the same crime as treason."

Xu Shiyang's answer was simple, but full of chills:

"The Ministry of Punishment will conduct a thorough investigation."

Xu Shiyang's opinion is that all the participating gentry families should be deprived of all official political status for the crime of treason, and those who originally had noble titles should be revoked; Those who were originally citizens were all demoted to civilians; It turned out to be a commoner, and it was demoted to a commoner.

As long as the wealthy families who participated in the grain storage in the disaster area this time, their "enlightened gentry" door plaques will be confiscated.

At the same time, they were thoroughly investigated for the crimes of hoarding, disrupting market order, and embezzling public and private property during the famine season, and then sentenced them to fixed-term imprisonment, distribution, fines, and other punishments.

Thoroughly investigate the use of slaves and maids of all wealthy merchants, wealthy families, landlords, and gentry families in Jiangnan, and require that within one year, the proprietor sign a current contract with all Han servants, and pay a monthly salary according to the minimum wage standard set by the empire.

If there is a case of infringement of the personal rights of Han servants, the empire will severely punish them according to the corresponding laws.

Of course, commoners and slaves were not included in the inventory.

The gentry and wealthy families did not expect that the empire not only had no intention of retreating, but even thought of going further and giving them a bigger blow!

In view of the fact that in the pre-Zhou era of each family, some Han slaves were lynched and executed for various reasons, if the empire really investigated thoroughly according to Xu Shiyang's orders, then these families who had gone to the disaster area to try to make a fortune would probably be eradicated by the empire!

Now, instead of caring about the food and losses, they are doing everything they can to prepare how to cover up their past crimes.

After all, it is a person who can understand that the survival of the family is much more important than losing some money.

……

While a larger storm was brewing in Jiangnan, Xu Shiyang was still on his way to patrol the country.

As he walked, he checked the cabinet report against the spot, spot-checked, and spot-checked the accuracy of the report's data.

Facts have proved that the empire in the rising period has a decent grassroots execution, and the accuracy of the report obtained by Xu Shiyang is good.

According to the report, the empire had a population of 66.5 million commoners and 7.5 million commoners, and the number of slaves increased to 11 million due to the increase in the number of cochins.

With a total population of 85 million, with the Yangtze River as the dividing line, the most important public and civilian populations are 16 million in the north (including Liaodong and Northwest) and 50.5 million in the south.

Two million of the population in the north moved from Jiangnan to Jiangbei after reunification, and the rate of immigration is acceptable, but it still needs to be strengthened.

The advantage of the north is that after all, the rise of the empire is similar to Jiangbei, although the core population is relatively small, but the proportion of citizens is much higher than that of Jiangnan, so the proportion of imperial officials from Jiangbei is very large, and the cabinet's control over Jiangbei is still far greater than Jiangnan.

If he wants to make Jiangnan and Jiangbei completely equal in governance, it is not something that can be done overnight, Xu Shiyang must spend a long time to let the new education replace the old private school and the old education born for the imperial examination in Jiangnan, and let the new education be popularized to the ordinary Han people.

The empire's mastery of the grassroots level far exceeded the level of feudal society, and together with the state enterprises, royal enterprises, and public schools for universal education, the empire needed far more talent than was normal in previous dynasties.

In the previous Zhou period, 4 or 500 people in a subject were evaluated as "redundant officials", and the existing universities in the empire have more than 2,000 graduates every year, and they are all awarded the "Jinshi" diploma without exception.

Even so, Xu Shiyang still believes that there is a serious shortage of talent.

After all, nearly half of the college students in China have been recruited by the newly established scientific research departments of major state-owned and domestic industrial enterprises, and many have entered colleges and universities and newly established academies of science and engineering to work.

There are not many college students who have really become civil servants than the Jinshi in the previous Zhou period.

For this reason, Xu Shiyang still had to use military veterans and graduates trained by the cadre training class committee, combined with some college students and high school students, to work at the grassroots level in townships and towns at all levels.

Previously, Xu Shiyang had asked the Ministry of Officials to make a stipulation that all officials, if promoted, must have more than five years of grassroots work experience.

In layman's terms, if you want to become a township cadre, you must have at least five years of experience as a village cadre in an administrative village, and if you want to be promoted to a county-level official, you must have five years of work experience in a township.

By analogy, starting from the village level, at the township level, at the county level, at the prefecture level, at the senior official level, and at the cabinet level, even if a cadre is promoted to one level at a time, a cadre who enters the cabinet must work for at least 30 years.

Of course, after all, it is still a feudal country in nature, and the clan and nobility still have privileges.

For example, the emperor and the crown prince directly have the cabinet quota, and other princes, county kings, and nobles with territories (all of them are subject countries) can save some steps after passing the assessment - the prince level is equivalent to having provincial work experience, and the county king state level, and so on.

The first generation of the nobles without territory is meritorious, so the grassroots experience time can be reduced as appropriate, and the highest level can be reduced to two years.

Of course, the vast majority of the second generation of nobles do not have so much credit, so the cabinet requires that the domestic nobles descend in rank from generation to generation (you are a duke, your son will be a marquis after inheriting the title, and your grandson will only be an earl), down to the commoners (Han people do not commit crimes, the lowest is a commoner).

Xu Shiyang hoped to control the number of nobles in this way, so that the aristocratic population would not be too large in 2 or 3 hundred years, and they would be transformed into a pure rentier class and become a burden to the state.