Zhu Youzhen didn't pay attention to the second half of Huang Liji's reason, but he fell into thinking about the first half of the reason. After being silent for a while, he asked Sun Chengzong on the side, "Does Mr. Sun also see this as to the matter of moving the domain?" ”

Sun Chengzong hesitated for a moment before replying: "Back to Your Majesty, what Huang Shoufu said is good. Qing Fan was stationed in the ancient Weizhou city in the north of Qingyang, and controlled Yan'an, Sui, and Ning; Han Fan was stationed in Pingliang Mansion and controlled the land of the Three Plains; These two feudal domains formed a horn and protected the Guanzhong Plain. The Qin clan lived in Xi'an, sitting on the Guanzhong Plain. The above three feudatories, plus the king of Su sat in Lanzhou, this is also the intention of Taizu to divide the kings to guard the frontier.

Although since the Yongle Emperor, the kings' guards have been drastically cut, and the duty of guarding the country no longer exists. However, these clans lived in the local area, and together with the local government, they could still represent the imperial court to deter and suppress local forces. Now that these three feudatories are moved out of the local area, there is a risk that the local order in Shaanxi will be out of balance.

The minister was worried that if the local order was out of balance, there might be another rebellion, and with the local situation in Shaanxi today, it was like a pile of dry wood poured with oil, and once the fire burned, I am afraid it would not be comparable to those homeless riots in the past.

As for the issue of the land and residence that the three feudal clans have to compensate for the three feudal clans after they move out of Shaanxi, this is not a matter that ministers can intervene in. ”

Sun Chengzong's explanation made Zhu Youzhen's thoughts clearer. Although the canonization of the four feudal states in Shaanxi has had a great impact on the lives of the local people, these clans are not useless for the local people. For example, in the areas where these clans lived, the local gentry, the young people, and the Hui were also suppressed, but indirectly maintained the order of the imperial court.

Zhu Youzhen thought for a long time before continuing: "Your worries are not non-existent, but for today's imperial court, the first thing we have to consider is not the possible growth of various separatist forces in Shaanxi, but the survival of the entire low-level people in Shaanxi.

Compared with the uprising of the displaced people, which led to the erosion of the whole of Shaanxi and affected the surrounding areas; The idea that some local gentry and ethnic minorities want to cede land and become kings is better for the Ming Dynasty.

Of course, I don't mean to connive at local forces to split my Ming Dynasty. What I mean is that judging from the situation in Shaanxi today, Shaanxi, which has been experiencing natural disasters year after year, can no longer afford the daily expenses of the four feudal states. In order to alleviate the burden on the people of Shaanxi and ensure that large-scale homeless riots do not break out in the local area, the most efficient and effective way is to move the three feudatories.

After the relocation of the three feudatories, the land of the three feudatories was nationalized, and then the land was used to resettle the displaced people, so the sharp contradictions between the common people of Shaanxi and the imperial court, officials and gentry will certainly be greatly alleviated. And after the imperial court disposed of the clan, the local gentry in Shaanxi must have been touched, and some brutal and unkind actions were reined in, which could be regarded as achieving the goal of killing chickens and police monkeys.

As for the problem of the local power balance being upset after the relocation of the three feudatories, I think that the imperial court cannot turn a blind eye. We must re-establish the balance of power in the local area, so that the local gentry do not take advantage of this opportunity to steal the position of the clan after the departure of the clan and shake the authority of the imperial court in the local area.

I believe that the gentry councils, the promotion of school education, and the construction of roads and water conservancy facilities can demonstrate the authority of the central government to a certain extent. In addition, the cabinet should also speed up the adjustment of the areas under its jurisdiction, and after Mr. Sun returned to the General Staff, he also discussed the plan for speeding up the rectification of the Shaanxi border army and the preparation for the establishment of a new army. With these measures, it should be possible to ensure the ability of the imperial court to respond to the chaos in Shaanxi. ”

Hearing that Chongzhen was so resolute, Huang Liji immediately changed his tone and replied: "Since Your Majesty already has a proposition, the ministers will naturally obey Your Majesty's wishes, but the address of the relocation of the three feudatories, I am afraid that it will be difficult for the ministers to decide today, and I ask Your Majesty to allow the postponement of the discussion." ”

It was not easy to block these officials in the corner of the moral wall, how could Zhu Youzhen let them go so easily. God knows when they will be able to postpone this postponement, and the people of Shaanxi may not be able to endure it for so long.

Zhu Youzhen's left hand shook the armrest, and after thinking for a while, he spoke: "Then discuss the issue of the relocation of the clan from the three feudal clans and other incidents, and today we will first draw conclusions on the investigation of the rebellion case of the Han and Qin feudal clans and the involvement of the children of the clan in the criminal case."

Discussions on where the three feudatories will be relocated and how the land will be distributed can be postponed, but there are a few principles that must be established first. ”

Huang Liji immediately continued: "Your Majesty's so-called principle is"

Zhu Youzhen said without thinking: "First, don't do a one-size-fits-all approach. The relocation of the three feudal clans in Shaanxi is certainly a sentence for the imperial court, but in terms of specific individuals, we still have to distinguish between them.

For example, those clan women who are married, they are already married to the locals, and they must not be allowed to move out with their mother's family.

Second, after the land of the three feudatories was repossessed to the imperial court, the rules for the distribution of land in the relocated areas of the relocated clans were also reformulated. Since they are all descendants of Taizu, there can't be some people who have no food and clothing.

Therefore, the feudal king, the county king, the general, and the lieutenant, each of these four grades set four standards, and the farmland given by Taizu to the feudal king that day was 60 tilts, taking into account the price changes at the beginning of the country and today, the feudal king should not grant more than 120 tilts, of course, the field must be upfield, not shoddy. The criteria for granting fields under it are: 60 tilts for the county king, 10 tilts for generals, and 5 tilts for lieutenants. ”

Huang Liji and the other three suddenly changed color when they heard this, and Huang Liji hurriedly interrupted Chongzhen and said, "Your Majesty, it's easy to say that the land grant of this vassal king and the county king is also easy to say. Although the number of generals and lieutenants granted is small, the generals and lieutenants of the three feudal clans combined are at least thousands, and the number of fields granted has exceeded the total number of fields recovered by the imperial court, and other places may not be able to meet the needs of the relocated clans. ”

Zhu Youzhen nodded, waved his hand to signal the three of them to calm down first, and then said: "I know that there are 28 relatives in the world, and although the number of clans officially registered on the jade is only more than 174,000, if you add the number of people who have not been included, it should be no less than 700,000.

According to Mr. Xu's calculations, the clan population doubles roughly every 30 years. I don't want to say anything big, the ministers of the previous dynasty Wang Shizhen, Zhang Juzheng, Li Tingji, and Ye Xianggao once said: The difficult things in the country today are not as good as the clan. The country's financial endowment is limited, and the clan has infinite teeth.

Although the previous reform of Zhangjiangling fixed the clan at 8 million stones, the current population of the clan is almost more than double that of the Zhangjiangling period.

Grandfather, father, and brother could close their eyes and pretend they couldn't see the problem, but I couldn't pretend I didn't know. After all, these clans and I are all related by blood, I can't watch the low-level clans starving, and they are not as good as ordinary people, right? Second, if this continues, the clan will be full of resentment, and it will inevitably not be able to settle down locally, which will also be unfavorable to the local governance of the imperial court. Third, if the clan problem drags on any longer, I'm afraid it really won't have to be solved.

In order to solve the problem of the clan, in the final analysis, it is necessary to reduce the number of people supported by the state. How to reduce the number of people supported by the state, I think that the number of clan titles should be reduced. For example, for those who have not been registered, the state has paid a very small amount of money and food, but they rarely come out to make noise, and only ask the court to relax the restrictions on their four professions.

On the contrary, it was the men and women of the clan who had titles on their bodies, and from time to time they begged the court and local officials for money, and the clan of the Han clan heard that it was the most troublesome. I have also heard: The Ze of the Gentleman is beheaded in the fifth generation; The villain's Ze, the fifth and beheaded. But my Ming clan has eight ranks from vassal king to lieutenant, and the number of people the court needs to support is naturally too much.

Therefore, I plan to adjust the titles of the clan, the prince, the prince of the county, the general of the town, the lieutenant of the auxiliary state, the lieutenant of the Fengguo, and the following are the common people. In addition, I intend to fix the number of titles, 28 princes, no more than 300 county kings, no more than 1,000 generals of Zhenguo, and no more than 3,000 lieutenants of auxiliary states and lieutenants of Fengguo. Only if one person dies can he make up for a knighthood.

I have already calculated that if this plan can be successfully implemented, the annual cost of the state subsidy to the clan will be reduced to 8 million yuan. And solving the problem of the clan can be regarded as a good start.

However, if we want to reduce the number of clans with titles and fix the number of clans with titles at 7,328, we must eliminate more than 160,000 clans, which will inevitably cause strong opposition from clans. I don't mind being infamy, but in the current environment, the voices of these clans may be used to oppose the various reforms implemented by the imperial court.

So, before we can reduce the clan titles, we need to give them some benefits. Didn't the ancients say: If you want to take it, you must first take it. The land we give to these relocated clans to a higher standard will inevitably make the low-level clans everywhere forget about the punishment of the guilty people of the three feudatories.

Without the support of these low-level clans, even if the feudal kings and county kings in various places opposed the imperial court's policy of relocating the three feudal clans, they would not be able to raise many voices. And as long as there are voices from the low-level clans that want to reform the old system of the clan, it will become logical for the imperial court to reduce the title of the clan.

As for the land needed for the relocation of the three feudatories, I don't think there is any need to panic. In the north, the annual income of one mu of land is only one yuan, which is converted into cash every year, the highest is 12,000 yuan per year for the vassal king, and the lowest is 500 yuan per year for the lieutenant, and the total will not exceed 2 million yuan per year.

The average value of Shaanxi's fields is about 10 yuan per mu, and if we sell it to the local people with a 30-year installment loan, the recovered fields in the hands of the three feudal clans can be realized for about 30 million yuan. We naturally can't get the 30 million yuan, but if we mortgage it to the bank, we can at least get 15 million yuan in cash.

You gentlemen should know one thing, the current whaling industry, mining industry, shipbuilding industry, chemical industry, iron and steel smelting industry, textile industry and other industries have an annual income of less than 35%. So we put the 15 million cash into these industries, and even if the imperial court can't take out the land to distribute to the relocated clans, we can pay them in cash.

Therefore, my suggestion was to divide the fields recovered from the three feudal domains into small plots and sell them to the local people, and then mortgage the land to the bank. The collateral was used to set up an industrial investment fund, and the clan's due endowment was converted into a fixed annuity income. Of course, if some people really want land, we have land in Taiwan, Borneo, the Malay Peninsula, Sakhalin and other places that need to be developed, and if they want to go, they can get twice as much land as they are given at a ratio of 1:2. ”

After listening to Chongzhen's plan, Huang Liji always felt a little uneasy, he felt that there were too many uncertainties in this plan. Will the people of Shaanxi be able to afford to buy the land? Can banks invest 15 million yuan in these industries, and can they maintain so many returns every year?

After thinking about it for a long time, he finally couldn't help but ask Chongzhen this question tactfully. Zhu Youzhen thought for a while before he replied euphemistically: "So the annuity we pay to these clans must be a fixed amount. Now it seems to us to be a huge number, but in 10 or 20 years, you will find that it is not a big deal.

As for whether the return on investment can be maintained, I think the three gentlemen don't have to worry about this problem. This should be a headache for me and the next few cabinet members..."