“… Although the purpose of the officials sent by the imperial court was to let them return the land so as to appease the dissatisfaction of those who had returned to their hometowns, we could not adopt a one-size-fits-all model for the treatment of these squires.

As you know, Shaanxi is a vast area, but except for the Guanzhong Plain, the rest of the region is a hilly plateau area lacking water sources. If we want to change Shaanxi's agriculture that depends on the sky for food, we must build all kinds of small water conservancy facilities throughout Shaanxi, and these small water conservancy facilities are obviously difficult to accomplish only by relying on the investment of the imperial court.

In this way, the water conservancy construction model led by the local squire, the local people contributing, and the imperial court giving a part of the subsidy is the most in line with the local people in Shaanxi. Now, if we completely shift the responsibility and loss of this incident to the local squires, in addition to intensifying the antagonism between the local people and the squires and undermining the trust of these squires in the imperial court, it will also make most of the squires reduce their enthusiasm for leading the local people in water conservancy construction.

In that case, we may be able to pacify and stabilize the local people in Shaanxi in a short period of time, but in the long run, the imperial court will lose control of the local people in Shaanxi. Without the support of these local gentry, the imperial court would not be able to rule and administer the region through them, which was also a thorny problem.

Therefore, while setting the goal of returning the land usurped by the Shaanxi gentry to the victims, we also need to formulate a plan on how to return the land to the gentry. Zhu Youzhen said frankly to Huang Liji, which made the ministers, including Huang Liji, feel a little relaxed and surprised.

The emperor did not beat these Shaanxi squires to death with a stick, which was a relief to them. After all, they are also local squires after becoming officials. If they bought a few pieces of land for the victims, they would be severely punished by the imperial court, and they still had some sympathy in their hearts.

And to their surprise, the emperor came up with a plan so quickly to get the gentry to obediently withdraw from the land. In their view, this is basically an unsolvable problem. Although the gentry class in the Ming Dynasty belonged to the elite who had read books, it did not mean that they did not like money.

To be honest, in today's declining world, the inferior gentry who regard wealth as their life and have low character are the mainstream at the local level. If it is suppressed by the power of the imperial court, maybe these inferior gentry will have to return the land and come out. If the court wants to reason with them, the top ten will not get a response.

And this is because this incident happened in Shaanxi, a relatively poor northwest region, and the power of the imperial court still has a certain prestige in the local area, and the local gentry are not very powerful, so the cabinet dares to use coercive power to deal with those local gentry. If this happened in the Jiangnan area, Huang Liji probably wouldn't dare to show this attitude.

Therefore, when the emperor proposed not to carry out a one-size-fits-all approach, all the cabinet ministers immediately turned their attention to him, wanting to hear whether the emperor was whimsical for a while, or really confident.

For example, after Huang Liji heard this, he immediately asked the emperor: "Your Majesty does you have any preliminary plans?" Please also speak out and let the ministers learn a thing or two, the ministers are really at a loss except for the method of forcing the squire to return the land. ”

Zhu Youzhen first sorted out the ideal method in his heart, and then opened his mouth and said: "Okay, I will give you gentlemen a brick and jade first, and please discuss it after listening to it, whether there is any mistake in this plan."

But before I talk about the plan, I want to say who the court wants to hit in this incident. The cause of this conflict was the encroachment of the local gentry on the land of the local exiles. Without this reason, no matter how capable Wang Ziyong and Gao Yingxiang are, there will be no rebels to follow them, and they can only be the king of the mountain.

Therefore, on the surface, the biggest problem facing Shaanxi is that Wang Ziyong and Gao Yingxiang instigated the riots of the victims, and the rioters in various places responded one after another, which greatly threatened to erode the whole province and affect the neighboring provinces.

In reality, however, these so-called rioters are nothing more than peasant groups organized by the returnees because their farmland was seized. As long as the prescription prescribed by the imperial court can dissipate their anger and escape back to their own fields for them, then these rebellious people will automatically disperse. And without the echo of the chaotic people, Wang Ziyong and Gao Yingxiang are just two bandit groups with more power, as long as the local officials and soldiers are careful, they can be captured.

Therefore, before we can deal with the rebels, we must first solve the problems of the victims in various places. In order to solve the problem of arable land for the victims in various places, it is necessary to first solve the problem of land encroachment by local gentry.

And if we want to solve the problem of the local gentry encroaching on land, we must first figure out what is the attitude of the local squires towards the imperial court? In my opinion, the attitude of these squires is no more than three.

The first type was the gentry forces close to the imperial court, although they also encroached on the land, but it was not out of cunning, but when the victims could not survive in the local area, they bought the fields of these fleeing victims at a low price;

The second type is the gentry forces who only value their own interests, and most of the land they occupy is not from the sale of the victims, but in collusion with the grassroots officials, and the land is assigned to their own name;

The third group is the neutral squires who wait and see what the court does, although they encroach on the fields of the victims, but they are not so sure in their hearts whether they are doing so in accordance with the laws of the court, so their attitudes will change with the policies and implementation capabilities of the court.

The officials sent by the imperial court should be close to the first type of squires and win over the third type of squire, but they should resolutely suppress the second type of squires. But no matter how close and co-opted we are, in addition to the means of confiscation and punishment, we always need to find a way out for the first and third types of gentry before they can get closer to the court.

Therefore, after consulting with the representatives of the three banks yesterday, I decided to implement a measure of a farmland water conservancy fund in Shaanxi. We calculated the discount of all the disputed land in Shaanxi, and when the victims got the land back, the squire who handed over the land received a water bond of equal value.

The bond is not convertible into principal, but holders of the bond receive an annuity of 5% per annuity from the bank, and the bond is held for 99 years, after which the bond is voided and can be transferred through the bank. The guaranteed income of this bond will come from Shaanxi's local water tax revenue.

After the issuance of the bonds, no person or group is allowed to use the Shaanxi water conservancy facilities to collect fees without authorization, and the illegal gains will be confiscated and the offender will be fined 5-10 times. Water taxes will be collected in a lump sum after the fall, and no water charges of any kind will be charged during spring planting.

In view of the current state of water conservancy construction in Shaanxi, the upper limit of the fund will be initially set at 10 million yuan. Do you think this plan is feasible? ”

The others hadn't figured out the feasibility of the plan Chongzhen just said, and Guo Yunhou had already sensitively asked Chongzhen: "Your Majesty, although this water conservancy bond does not have to repay the principal, but the 99-year succession period, 5% of the annuity will be paid every year, which is almost five times the repayment of the principal, is this condition too generous?" And can Shaanxi's water tax really be collected on time? Are banks willing to guarantee for this? ”

Zhu Youzhen nodded and said: "Mr. Guo is right, the 99-year succession period will allow those who hold bonds to obtain nearly five times the return. From this point of view, the imperial court undoubtedly suffered a loss. But if there is no such high rate of return, how can the resentment of those squires be eliminated and thus obey the orders of the imperial court?

With 10 million as the upper limit, the total annuity paid each year is about 500,000 yuan, plus 150,000 yuan of local tax collection fees, 100,000 yuan of bank fees, and the annual water resource tax of Shaanxi is about 750,000 yuan. Within 10 years, this figure is about undercharged. However, in 10 years, if Shaanxi's water conservancy facilities are basically completed, there should be no problem with this number.

For banks, they lose some money in the first 10-20 years at most, but then they can make consistent profits. I had discussions with representatives of the three banks last night, and all three of them expressed their willingness to guarantee the Fund bonds, so on the bank side, you don't have to worry. ”

Although Chongzhen solved the financial problems in this plan, Huang Liji was still a little hesitant. In his opinion, the emperor's financial solutions one after another are to use future money to fill today's gap, although this way does alleviate today's contradictions, but how to fill the future debts.

After hesitating again and again, Huang Liji still raised this question to Chongzhen. Zhu Youzhen glanced at the others and found that most of the ministers were also deeply worried about this.

After thinking for a long time, Zhu Youzhen finally said to everyone: "Yes, this is indeed a very headache, we have solved the current problem with the future money, but you have to ask me how to repay the money in the future, which I really can't guarantee to you."

But there are a few things I can be sure of, if we are on the right path, we will have enough tax revenues to pay off these debts as the Ming economy recovers. Even if it is difficult to repay for a while, we can borrow a new debt to pay off the old debt. This is what the folk call is to tear down the east wall and make up the west wall.

But if we go down the wrong path, the country will collapse before the creditors demand that we pay it. At that point, do we still need to worry about these debts? ”

Although the answer given by the emperor was not what they wanted, the courtiers, including Huang Liji, had to admit that this answer was not unacceptable. When I die, who cares if there is a flood behind me?

After being silent in the conference room for a while, Huang Liji finally broke the silence and said, "The minister thinks that His Majesty's plan is still feasible. At least we can suppress the current popular uprising in Shaanxi, and as for the future problems, we might as well solve them in the future..."