Compared with the Han dynasty in China, the Ming Dynasty had two major drawbacks, one was the huge clan burden, and the other was the integration of the family and the country, and the financial division.

The unity of the family and the state is manifested in the fact that the emperor sends eunuchs to collect taxes everywhere, and the taxes go into the inner treasury, rather than the household department in charge of state finance to manage them in a unified manner.

For this matter, the entire civil official group, either for the state or for private reasons, has been fighting against the inner court until the collapse of the Chongzhen and Hongguang dynasties, the great decline of imperial power, the majesty of the central government, and the situation of the inner court sending eunuchs to collect taxes was completely ended.

The clan is cumbersome, because the clan not only needs to be supported by taxes from the imperial court, but also embezzles a large amount of civil land.

Wang Yan said that the clan was dissatisfied with him, so it was related to the land.

"Your Highness means to exchange the land of the clan to Taiwan?" Wang Fuzhi listened to Wang Yan's words and couldn't help asking.

Wang Yan nodded, "After Su Ge Lao reformed the clan, he stipulated that the title of the clan was reduced, and each generation was lowered by one level, and after the lieutenant of Fengguo, the imperial court only retained the clan name, and did not issue the title of the prince, and limited the number of children of the prince and the prince of the county. In the long run, the amount of money that the imperial court has to pay to the clan will inevitably be greatly reduced, and it will be effective within 20 years, but this only solves one aspect of the problem, and there is also the problem of the feudal fiefdom of the clan and the non-payment of taxes, but it has not been solved. ”

Yan Qiheng, the secretary of the ministry, stood up and said: "A few days ago, there was news from Zhejiang, a side branch of the Yue Domain, wanting to take back the fief, clashed with the local people, killed two people, and seriously injured more than 20 people. The imperial court now gives the clan a limited amount of money, so they take the previous jade and title deeds to take back the fiefdom and make trouble for the imperial court everywhere! ”

"I think the clan saw that the imperial court liquidated the land and property of the gentry who were taken away by the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and returned part of the land to the anti-Qing gentry, but did not return their fiefdoms, so they were dissatisfied, so they went down to seize the land by themselves with the identity of the royal family." Shi Fang, the head of the Chu Prince's Mansion, sneered every year.

"That being said, after all, these land deeds are in the hands of the clan, and those lands are indeed the fiefs and land properties of the clan, so it is not okay to let the common people occupy them without giving an explanation!" King Jing Zhu Changchao is an official of the Zongren Mansion, and he has to say a word for the clan.

"Why is there no explanation, Your Highness's policy of exchanging land, the lower officials think it is good, it can avoid conflicts caused by land disputes, and it can give an explanation to the clan." Wang Fuzhi said.

The land returned to the hands of the clan, and it was difficult for the household to collect taxes, but if it was in the hands of the people, and the people did not have a land deed, it was the land of the imperial court, and the household not only had tens of thousands of acres of land, but also could rent seeds for the people and collect taxes.

Zhu Changchao's words have little weight, but after all, he represents the clan and has to consider the interests of the clan, Taiwan is a wild land in his eyes, and if the fief is changed to Taiwan, it is basically no different from exile.

"I'm afraid that's not fair! Taiwan has not yet been developed, where can the fields be compared with Jiangnan and Huguang? The imperial court is a clever asset to seize the clan. ”

After the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs, a large number of Ming Dynasty clans fled, and the fiefs became terra nullius, which were embezzled by the Manchu nobles or allocated to the displaced people by the local government, and some anti-Qing gentry also retreated all the way to the southwest with the Ming regime, discarding their family business in Jiangnan and other places.

Now that the Ming Dynasty has recaptured Jiangnan, Nanyang and other places, there needs to be an explanation for what to do with the land that originally belonged to the clan and gentry.

If the clan doesn't run, it will die, which is nothing to say, but those gentry, just like Chen Zilong, Xia Wanchun and others, they were originally all wealthy families in Jiangnan, but for the cause of resisting the Qing Dynasty, not only did their relatives die of resisting the Qing Dynasty, but the family property was also seized by the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and now they have fought back and recovered the old land, so what should they do with the land that originally belonged to them? Does the court want to call the shots for them?

This is a major problem that plagues the Nanjing court, after all, these lands have been cultivated by others for many years, and there have even been several resales in the middle, and if they want to take it all back, it will inevitably cause public anger, but the gentry as the main force to resist the Qing Dynasty, as well as the ruling class of the Ming Dynasty, the imperial court can not say that after letting them abandon their families and businesses to resist the Qing Dynasty, they will not even be able to get back the assets that originally belonged to them.

The Wang family of Hengyang itself is a wealthy clan of Huguang, a big landowner, Wang Yan's birth determined that he represented the interests of the gentry, so after the recovery of Nanjing, the Nanjing court was in the land of recovery, from the new inventory, the Manchu Qing Dynasty issued the title deed was invalid, issued by the Nanjing court from the new, and took the opportunity to clear the land, recover part of the land under the name of the Manchu gentry, and return it to the anti-Qing gentry who held the title deed.

For the land planted by the displaced individual households, the proposal will be put on hold.

The imperial court safeguarded the interests of the anti-Qing gentry, but did not do anything about the fiefdom of the clan, which made many clansmen very dissatisfied, and many people relied on the status of the royal family to return to the fiefdom and began to collect land and grain on their own, which led to fierce conflicts.

The small people make profits, and some clan fiefdoms, no one has planted them for several years, and they have been abandoned, and the small people have reclaimed it and spent their efforts, and it has long been regarded as their own land, where is the clan willing to take it back.

Legally speaking, these lands belong to the clan, just as the land of the gentry belongs to the gentry, and it cannot be said that the master has fled, and the family property is placed there, and whoever occupies it belongs to whomever it is. In this way, there is no law, and there is no stable foundation for society.

But the legal principle does not mean that it is reasonable, the Ming Dynasty clan did not contribute to the court and the world, and enjoyed so much land and rights, which obviously did not benefit the whole world, that is, it was unreasonable, and the law needed to be changed.

Since the rule of the country, Wang Yan has also realized that in the whole world, the ruling class wants to enjoy privileges, which is an inevitable reality, but this privilege must be moderate, the more privileges the ruling class enjoys, the heavier the burden of the common people, and after the degree exceeds the ability of the common people, Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong will swarm.

Therefore, the ruling class should grasp this degree well and not exceed, so it depends on the ruling class, within this degree, how to distribute this benefit, and in the Ming Dynasty, the clan undoubtedly accounted for the majority.

Some people say that the gentry is not a thing, and it is indeed not a good thing, but the Ming Dynasty only took more than 300 scholars every three years, and the Ming Dynasty took more than 270 years, and the total number of people taken was only about 80,000, and the number of clans at the end of the Ming Dynasty was indeed more than 200,000, and the benefits of the clan were much more than those of the gentry.

The gentry of the Ming Dynasty did not have privileges, naturally there were, the gentry did not pay taxes, but this did not pay taxes, not really did not pay taxes, but after winning the fame, there was a certain amount of exemption, but in the later period of each dynasty, they were faced with the corruption of the bureaucracy and the phenomenon of collusion with each other.

In all dynasties, the gentry were privileged, and the gentry of the Song Dynasty were also limited and exempt, and they also had privileges.

Yue Fei was born in an ordinary peasant family, after becoming an official, his family had more than 2,000 acres of land, and he became a big landlord at once, and Han Shizhong had tens of thousands of acres of land, but the operation of the Song Dynasty was relatively normal, which was the privilege enjoyed by the ruling class.

The reality of the Ming Dynasty was that the Zhu family did not give enough benefits to the working gentry class, and the officials were pitiful, and the clan stood for most of the benefits, but did not contribute, so the gentry broke through this degree and transferred the burden to the common people.

As for the later generations boasting that the Manchu gentry paid the grain in one piece, in fact, there is nothing to brag about, don't forget the Manchu Eight Banners and the royal family, the Manchu Qing just took away the interests of the Han gentry, to raise hundreds of thousands of Manchus, Eight Banners, to create their prosperity, and took away the benefits of the Han gentry, why should the gentry still be officials, "greedy", in the end the gentry still transferred the burden to the common people, otherwise where did the Qing prefect come from 100,000 snowflakes of silver a year.

At this time, the pie in front of the entire Nanjing court is only so big, Wang Yan must give the gentry who govern the country, not the clan that has no contribution, he must not take back the fief for the clan, otherwise the gentry occupy a piece, the clan occupies a piece, and the common people should rebel.

Wang Yan pondered for a while, waved his hand to let a few people not fight first, and then said to Zhu Changchao: "The imperial court wants to improve the official salary this year, and the financial expenditure will inevitably increase in the future. Lone will give the clan an explanation today, the imperial court has the right to move the domain, and this time not only to move the domain, but also to collect taxes. The side branch of the Yue Domain, which killed people in Zhejiang, the Zongren Mansion will be demoted to the common people, and then handed over to the three law divisions for trial, of course, the people who make trouble must also be arrested and investigated together, and the court will not protect anyone. ”