Chapter 199: Yuxi Palace's edict is right

"Oh, you two ......" The emperor pondered for a moment and said, "If it really works, I have to try it anyway, Sun Qing, you talk about it carefully." A few days after I took office, I still have a black eye on what is going on. I also know some things, and my situation has reached the point where it is intolerable. ”

Zhu Houxuan was busy with the enthronement ceremony and the funeral of Emperor Wuzong Zhengde in the past two months, but he didn't care much about government affairs. In fact, in the past two months, he felt that he was just a child in the eyes of several major ministers of the cabinet, and when he encountered major events, people did not come to discuss him at all. Instead, a few people summed it up below, drafted a letter and sent it to the celebrant supervisor, and asked him to approve the matter.

The emperor has just succeeded to the throne, because he grew up in the vassal king's mansion since he was a child, and the education he received is to follow the rules and abide by the duties of the vassal king, and he does not know anything about government affairs at all. When he became a prince and an emperor, he hurriedly got on the horse to eliminate illiteracy, and in the past two months, he was instructed by the ministers like a marionette, and he studied carefully.

Emperor Jiajing was extremely talented, and he was quite qualified among the emperors of the Ming Dynasty. But because the time is too short, it is only a preliminary "touch" of the doorway.

In the past two months, he has no intuitive understanding of other government affairs. But the enthronement ceremony and the funeral of Emperor Wuzong cost a huge amount of money, but it was a pain for him.

To be honest, Emperor Zhengde really left Jiajing with a mess that was leaking everywhere. Wuzong has reigned for more than ten years, and he has used troops everywhere, and he has almost defeated the solid family foundation accumulated during the Renxuan period of the Ming Dynasty. By the time Jiajing took over, there were still 3 million taels of silver left in the treasury, and only 1 million taels in the Inner Tibetan Prefecture. This amount of money can only maintain the normal operation of the "government" and the palace, and if it is usual, it only needs to be harvested in the autumn, relying on the child to eat grain, tearing down the east wall and making up the west wall, and it can be rolled out.

It's a pity that now Wuzong's funeral and Jiajing's enthronement ceremony are connected, which one does not require millions of taels of expenses.

Therefore, when these two major events came at once, the treasury suddenly emptied. Not only are the officials nowhere to be found, but even the summer clothes of the eunuchs and palace ladies in the palace have not been purchased.

Not only did the officials of the household department complain all day long, but even the attendants in the palace were worried, and they looked at the emperor a little strangely.

"They must be blaming me, they must be laughing at my incompetence, right?" Jiajing is a suspicious person, and he can't help but think about it, and the more he thinks about it, the more angry he feels in his heart.

For now, at most, grit your teeth and hold on, and persist until Xia Shui comes up, you can calm down the uneasiness in the hearts of the government and the opposition. But what about after the summer harvest, after the summer harvest, you have to start calculating the expenses of the next year.

If we can't fundamentally reverse the erosive situation of the imperial court's finances, once the finances deteriorate completely, it will be useless to find a way at that time, and the dignity of the heavenly family will be gone.

Therefore, when Yang Tinghe proposed to abolish 30,000 officials and reduce the expenses of the imperial court. The emperor, who was anxious about lack of money, also thought it was a good idea.

But when he heard Sun Dan say it just now, he felt the seriousness of the matter. When he first ascended to the throne, it was the time to buy people's hearts and stabilize the political situation. At this time, I want to move the jobs of officials, but I am afraid that people will work hard with them. Not only is it not conducive to improving the deteriorating fiscal situation, but it will also cause the political situation to be uncontrollable.

The road of reducing staff and increasing efficiency will not work, so we can only start from other places.

When he heard Sun Dan say that there was a way to turn the situation around in one fell swoop, he suddenly came to his senses, held his breath, and listened carefully.

Sun Dan said: "The first Qingzhang land, this matter is a matter of course. Under the whole world, it is not the king's land, and the shore of the land is not the king's minister. The land in the world is His Majesty's own, and the peasants who planted His Majesty's land should naturally pay taxes. But does Your Majesty know exactly how much arable land you have? ”

Jiajing was stopped by Sun Dan's words, he was silent for a moment, and beckoned to Huang Jinyi, who was outside.

Huang Jin hurriedly ran in: "What does Your Majesty command?" ”

"Huang Ban, let me ask you, how much arable land is there in the whole world?"

Huang Jin was originally a straw bag, how to know this, he held it for a long time, until his face turned red, and then he replied: "Chen Jue, how can you say that there are millions of acres?" ”

"Millions of acres?" Jiajing's eyebrows were raised: "Your brain has grown on a dog, and there is more than this number in the lake alone." Get out of here, and check it out. ”

"Yes, yes, the old slave will go and check." Huang Jin ran out with a roll.

Jiajing looked at Huang Jin's back, shook his head helplessly, and then sighed: "I really don't know how much money I have. Sun Qing, do you know? ”

"When the minister was serving Emperor Wuzong, he had seen the relevant data in the celebrant supervisor, and he remembered it really."

"Oh, say it."

Sun Dan stretched out five fingers: "In the sixteenth year of Hongzhi, Emperor Xiaozong also felt that the taxes payable by the state were decreasing year by year, and felt that it was a little abnormal, so he ordered the governors of various places to take care of the land of Qingzhang, and came up with an approximate figure. According to the statistics of that time, there were 510 million mu of cultivated land in the country. ”

"Ah, so much, it seems that my net worth is still quite solid!" Jiajing became happy, and as soon as he was excited, he reached into his arms to "touch" the elixir, but he didn't want to "touch" it, and then he remembered that he hadn't taken the immortal medicine for several days. Only then did he take his hand back in disappointment.

Jiajing was already a very shrewd person, and he didn't speak, and quickly calculated the income and expenditure for the coming year in his heart. However, he soon became depressed. According to his mental calculations, the 510 million mu of taxes is simply not enough to spend.

However, he suddenly remembered what Sun Dan had just said, his heart lit up, and he lost his voice: "Sun Qing, is there more than this amount of land in the land?" ”

Sun Dan nodded heavily, and said slowly: "The reason why the people conceal the number of acres of land is because many broken households attach their land to the gentry who have tax-free privileges. As a result, many bureaucrats and gentry annexed large amounts of land, but tried their best to conceal the true size of the land and default on land payments. In this way, the land that should be handed over to the treasury goes into the pockets of private individuals. This wind has been proclaimed to the beginning of benevolence, and it has intensified in the last years of Zhengde. The land of the local gentry also swelled to an alarming level. ”

Jiajing realized the seriousness of the problem, and once the land began to be annexed in the past dynasties, it was a harbinger of a high degree of intensification of contradictions within a dynasty. He took a breath of cold air and asked with a calm face: "So, does Sun Qing have a definite number on hand, and how much land is hidden from the place?" ”

Sun Dan saw that the emperor humbly asked for advice, and he couldn't help but feel a little proud in his heart. But he remained composed, and held out another finger.

Jiajing: "Ten million acres? ”

Sun Dan shook his head: "Between 180 million and 200 million, this is still cultivated land, but it does not include mountains, forests, mines, rivers and lakes. ”

Jiajing slapped the table and said sharply: "It's bearable, who is it...... Intolerable. Every year, more than 40 percent of my taxes go into private hands. ”

"I'm afraid it's more than forty percent, according to Yichen, at least fifty percent." Sun Dan thought it was funny, this number was not what he saw from the documents of the celebrant eunuch, but from the database he had at hand.

A large part of his database is about Zhang Juzheng's economic reforms, and the three proposals he just made were also put forward by Lao Zhang in the future. All he needs to do is bring the occasion forward by decades. The death of the Ming Dynasty was due to the economy, and if the financial status quo of the Ming Dynasty that was about to collapse can be reversed, it will not be in vain that the Ming Dynasty suffered.

Sun Dan smiled lightly: "Your Majesty and the scholars share the world, it shouldn't be too much for everyone to divide fifty-fifty, right?" ”

"Fifty percent!" Jiajing's hair stood on end.

After the revolution, the emperor suddenly said angrily: "Sun Qing, don't joke in front of me, talk about it...... Let's talk about it. If this situation is allowed to continue, perhaps a hundred years later, the people of the world will only know that there are gentry, but they will not know that there is a court. ”

As he spoke, he pointed to the Jindun beside him, "Sit down and talk." After saying that, one crossed his legs and sat down first.

Sun Dan then remembered that Jiajing was not Zhengde, and it was a little inappropriate to joke in front of him, so he also learned from Jiajing's appearance and sat cross-legged beside him. Said: "Didn't the minister say just now, you need to clear the land, and let the magistrates do it immediately." This matter cannot be solved in a day or two, and it is estimated that it will take twenty or thirty years to completely clarify what happened. ”

"Yes, yes, this is time-consuming and labor-intensive, and it really can't be delayed." The emperor nodded again and again, but he was still a little annoyed: "I'm afraid that the magistrates will collude with the gentry and give me a perfunctory delay, and I will stay in the palace, and it is impossible to guard them all day long." ”

Sun Danxin said: I naturally have a way, but we can't do this kind of thing that offends people. Qingzhang land involves the vital interests of scholars, and my Sun Dan doesn't want to become the second Zhang Juzheng, emperor, you should find someone else to do this kind of dirty work.

Seeing that Sun Dan didn't speak, Jiajing frowned slightly and thought for a moment. Suddenly applauded: "There is, there is a way." There will definitely be resistance to Qingzhang land, because there are many specific interests involved. Otherwise, I will determine their stay, promotion, and promotion based on the quality of the local magistrates' achievements in cultivating the land. That is, you must increase after the clearance, if the clearance is the same as before, or less than before, then you are an incompetent official, and you must be dismissed and investigated. ”

Sun Dan said in his heart, "Oh! "A sound, a thumbs up: What a smart little emperor, isn't this Zhang Juzheng's test method? This has proved to be very effective, and if you want to be an official, you have to increase the arable land. And at any given time, there is no shortage of officials who are extremely eager for fame. If you don't do it, someone will do it. In any case, it is the state that benefits in the end.

There is indeed something in common between smart people, what Zhang Juzheng can think of, Jiajing can also think of.

Sun Dan's heart was suddenly a little excited, it seems that Jiajing is also a monarch with ideals, but it is also a correct choice for him to be the chairman of the Ming Dynasty Company. Working under him allows him to fully develop his ambitions.