When the noose was put on Wu Nag's head, Zhu Youzhen had already gotten into the carriage and returned to Zunhua City. Before leaving, he also specially called Cui Chengxiu to accompany him.

After being called into the emperor's royal carriage, Cui Chengxiu knew that Chongzhen's patience had almost run out, and he probably couldn't drag it out today. But he finally figured it out and decided to have an open and honest conversation with the emperor.

"As for the plan that His Majesty said to the minister a few days ago, the minister has already thought clearly, and as long as His Majesty can agree to a condition for the minister, the minister is willing to assist His Majesty in advancing this plan. The minister has already made a plan, so he will start to implement it from Jizhou and from the minister's family. ”

After Cui Chengxiu made up his mind, he seemed to be very single, and without waiting for Chongzhen to ask, he took the initiative to confide in his thoughts. For Cui Chengxiu's attitude, Zhu Youzhen still appreciates it.

The more influential big landowners in the entire Beizhili area can actually be counted with both hands. The first place is naturally Chongzhen himself, and the imperial village under the name of the palace is almost all over the entire Beizhili. However, after two years of rectification, these Huangzhuang and the tuntian of the Beizhili Guard Office were turned into independent farms, and now they have become the largest agricultural product supply base for the Gyeonggi army and the Imperial Palace.

After removing the heads of the village and the officers of the guard post on the head of the military household, the taxes borne by these farmers and military households who were allocated land were suddenly reduced to a slightly higher level than that of ordinary households, and their income more than doubled compared with previous years.

Although some of the village heads and guards were very unconvinced, after all, their incomes plummeted to the same level as ordinary village and military households. However, after a small number of people who wanted to destroy the division of land and the new tax method were directly sent overseas, the rest of the people were suddenly much more honest.

Zhu Youzhen, who had accumulated a lot of experience and cadres by virtue of the renovation of Huangzhuang and Weisho Tuntian, naturally wanted to continue to expand to other regions, and it was best to comprehensively carry out land reform in the three provinces of Beizhili, Shandong, and Henan, or the two provinces, including Shaanxi and Shanxi.

As long as the gentry and landlords in Beizhili can accept the land reform strategy, Shandong will not be able to make any big waves. And the Henan gentry and landlords have already been cleaned up once, and obviously they will not rush out again to be the first bird to oppose the imperial court. As for Shaanxi and Shanxi, they are still busy digesting the drought of the previous two years, and Zhu Youzhen does not plan to directly promote land reform in the two places for the time being, but wants to try another thing or two.

In this way, the land reform in the North Zhili area has become the most important part, and only if the land reform plan in the North Zhili area is implemented, it can make a good start for other regions. And Zhu Youzhen also has the strength and excuse to suppress the opposition forces in the provinces.

In fact, Bukzhili was the first place to defend Gyeonggi, so a large number of land here was encroached upon by emperors, eunuchs, nobles, and bureaucrats. After Zhu Youzhen cleared the land of the imperial village and the guard, it was natural that he would start to target the large amount of land occupied by eunuchs, nobles and bureaucrats.

Before the Apocalypse, the land occupied by the eunuchs in Beizhili was actually not much less than that of Huangzhuang, because the great eunuchs who were close to the emperor would often ask the emperor for Huangzhuang, and even many powerful eunuchs simply coveted the land of Huangzhuang.

However, after the apocalypse, in order to come to power, Wei Zhongxian fought many big eunuchs in the palace, and also confiscated a lot of land and property back, although this part of the land property was also reclassified as Huangzhuang, but there were also a large number of land into Wei Zhongxian's pocket. When Chongzhen came to power and Wei Zhongxian was driven out of the capital, he was sure that Chongzhen did not mean to kill them all, so he was very smart to contribute most of his land and property, wanting to gain Chongzhen's trust.

And Wei Zhongxian's purge of the forces in the palace also reduced a lot of trouble for Chongzhen, and when he reorganized the twenty-four yamen after he ascended the throne, he basically did not encounter any obstacles. And after those eunuchs were ordered out of the palace, only a small part of the land they had embezzled over the years was saved, and most of them were confiscated by the newly established Internal Affairs Office.

As a result, Chongzhen implemented land reform in Beizhili, leaving only two opponents, the nobles and the bureaucratic landlords. In addition to the emperor's rewards, their fields were the result of successive lords and nobles who continued to annex the land near Gyeonggi over the years.

One of the nobles who occupies the largest amount of land is the British government, and most of the land near Baoding is in the hands of the British government. Last time, with the help of the reform of the Tuntian system of the Weisho and the case of the Marquis of Yangwu, Zhu Youzhen knocked on the Xungui group and forced them to spit out a lot of illegally occupied fields, and he did not plan to move the British government again for the time being.

Therefore, the target of this land reform in Beizhili, Chongzhen's target was the local bureaucratic landlord class. The famous big landlords in Beizhili, one is the Feng Quan family in Zhuozhou, and the other is the Cui Chengxiu family in Jizhou, the amount of land occupied by these two families is basically more than half of the land in this state, and others cannot be compared at all.

Feng Quan, who had just been given the position of prime minister of the Yamen, was more interested in power and status than land, so Zhu Youzhen felt that he could still be convinced to agree with land reform.

Now, as long as Choi Chengxiu also supports his land reform plan, then the land reform of Beizhili will basically not meet much resistance. Therefore, Zhu Youzhen still attaches great importance to Cui Chengxiu's choice, and when he heard Cui Chengxiu relax, Zhu Youzhen suddenly smiled and said: "Cui Shangshu can only put forward any conditions, as long as it is not too difficult, I will definitely agree to you." ”

Cui Chengxiu cautiously looked at Chongzhen from the corner of his eyes and said: "It's nothing for Your Majesty to be broken, but I hope that Your Majesty can give a guarantee that the minister's family will not fall behind Zhang Jiangling." ”

Zhu Youzhen paused for a moment before replying tentatively: "Cui Shangshu wants me to write a guarantee?" ”

Cui Chengxiu hurriedly lowered his head and said: "The minister doesn't dare, how dare the minister force His Majesty to do this, if it leaks out, I'm afraid the minister will really be pointed at by Qianfu." ”

Zhu Youzhen couldn't help but reach out and touch his forehead, thought for a moment, and then asked nervously: "So how can Cui Shangshu guarantee what he wants me to do?" ”

Cui Chengxiu replied without raising her head: "The younger brother has a daughter, who is fourteen years old, although she is not a national beauty, but she is also a lady, if she can enter the palace to serve His Majesty, it will also be her blessing." ”

Zhu Youzhen only thought for a moment, and then understood what Cui Chengxiu meant, if Cui Chengxiu's younger brother became a national relative, even if something really happened to him in the future, his family would automatically get his own protection. Since it is not his own daughter, this can be regarded as bypassing the unspoken rule of the Ming Dynasty to choose a concubine for the emperor, and it will not affect his career.

"Yes, I promise you. However, if you return to the capital and mention this matter, no one will inevitably come out to interfere. I don't want this to be a storm in the city, and it won't do you or me any good.

After today, the war is officially over, and I will return to the capital in a few days, I heard that Cui Shangshu's courtyard is very elegant, and I am afraid that I will be disturbed for a day or two. You'll take care of the rest, and I hope it's not too ostentatious. ”

After hearing Chongzhen's reply, Cui Chengxiu was half relieved, and he immediately replied: "The minister will definitely arrange it properly, and please rest assured." So, can you ask Your Majesty to tell us about the land reform strategy that Your Majesty wants to implement for the cultivators to have their own fields, but does you have a concrete implementation plan? ”

Zhu Youzhen was suddenly in a trance, just like that, between asking and answering with Cui Chengxiu, he decided on the lifelong event of an irrelevant woman, and he seemed to be more and more like a person of this era.

After this thought flashed in his mind for a moment, Zhu Youzhen returned to normal in Cui Chengxiu's question, which was different from what Cui Chengxiu expected, and when he thought that the emperor might not have a mature plan, Zhu Youzhen easily threw three ideas to him.

"I thought about it for a long time, and I thought that there were at least three ways to implement the land reform program in Daming where the cultivators had their own land. The first is to first set up a per household land standard, forcibly confiscate those land that exceeds the standard in the name of the imperial court, and then distribute it to those landless or landless peasants for cultivation;

The second is that the imperial court first redeems the land that exceeds the per capita standard, and then sells it to the landless or landless peasants in installments;

The third is that I have heard that a new kind of warehouse has recently appeared in the south, and the landlord rents the land to the warehouse and then collects the rent next year. The owner of the warehouse, on the other hand, leased the land to the peasants, either to collect land rent, or to arrange for the peasants to grow cotton, mulberry and other crops through contracts to meet the needs of their own workshops.

I thought this was a good idea, and the court, landlords, and peasants set up a land management company together. The imperial court issued policies, the landlords contributed land and funds, and the peasants sold their labor, and then the income was distributed proportionally.

In the past, everyone farmed in the hope of self-sufficiency, and then took the surplus produce to the market to exchange for money or other living supplies. I think this approach will change in the future. We must make the land produce for the needs of the market, not for the needs of the landlords.

Of course, for those landlords who are unwilling to change the status quo, we can use the first or second methods to expropriate their land and distribute it to the peasants. ”

Cui Chengxiu felt that he had a toothache, although when he took over Chongzhen's task, he already had the consciousness of losing property, but when he heard that the emperor wanted to deprive the landlord of the land without compensation, he was still a little unhappy in his heart.

"Your Majesty, the minister thinks that the second and third methods of land reform are still feasible, and this first one is a bit overbearing. If it spreads, I am afraid that all the landlords in the world will write to the court to oppose this cultivator's plan to have his own land. ”