After signing a treaty with the Japanese to end the war between ASEAN and Japan, Chongzhen felt that the conditions were ripe to promote the policy of cultivating the land in some areas. So he closed the door and began to study the possibility of comprehensively promoting the cultivation of cultivators in Hebei, ignoring the dispute over the ownership of the treaty indemnity.

After a week of discussions, Cui Chengxiu finally agreed with the emperor's opinion, believing that it was feasible to comprehensively promote the policy of cultivators having their own fields in Hebei. In the past few years, the northern provinces of Xuanfu, Suncheon, Yongping, Hejian Bei, Yanqing, and Baoan Prefecture have largely completed the communalized land restructuring.

In the south of Baoding Mansion, Zhending Mansion, Shunde Mansion, Daimyo Mansion, and Hejian Mansion, because the land is more fertile and the population is more dense, so the powerful and noble relatives and eunuchs and gentry like to buy farm houses in these places, which should be the place where the annexation of the Northern Zhili was more serious.

However, as the nobles and eunuchs in the capital were rectified several times, and even the heads of the British government were driven overseas to join the barbarians, the magnates and eunuchs and gentry who occupied the largest area in these areas finally spit out a lot of land, and some of them also invested the remaining land in their hands into new cotton planting companies, changing from traditional landlords to shareholders of cotton planting companies.

As a result, the traditional self-sufficient landlord families in Hebei have become a minority, both in terms of the proportion of the total population and the proportion of land they occupy. Even if the imperial court left it alone, the old grange system would gradually be abolished under the new form of land management.

The reason why Choi Chengxiu and the investigators made such an assertion is that with the development of industrial production in the Gyeonggi area, all kinds of new and novel products are constantly emerging on the market, and these new products are either impossible to make at home, or they are extremely expensive to make, or the use function is too far apart.

This situation forced the residents of Gyeonggi to become accustomed to buying the necessities they needed in the market and turning their income into money as much as possible, rather than painstakingly sending the goods produced in the countryside farms into the city for the consumption of a large family.

As a result, the countryside in Hebei began to turn to production for money, rather than to meet the needs of the landlords. The subsistence small-scale peasant economy began to give way to the capitalist commodity economy. The purpose of manufacturing all raw materials and finished products is first to meet the needs of the market, not their own needs.

The landlords' demand for the feudal obligations of the peasants began to shrink, and the demand for the peasants' obligation to pay land rent began to expand. If the old mode of production continues, in order to plunder the peasants of all surplus grain and materials except rations, the landlords will need to keep a number of household and village heads to threaten and control the peasants. But in the end, the landlord's income was not much, because most of the materials were spent on these families and village heads.

Now, if agricultural production is turned to the market, then as long as the two parties can agree on a certain amount of land rent, then the landlord can get a monetized fixed rent income, and reduce the investment in the family and the head of the village. It is even possible to directly hand over the land to a cotton planting company, and directly take the dividends or rent given by the company, and even save the process of dealing with farmers.

These nimble landlords, having turned rent in kind into monetary income, reinvested the money in their stocks or in their workshops, earning them a higher profit than rent. And such landlords often relocate their families to the city, enjoying all kinds of conveniences and rapid information circulation in the city.

It should be said that this situation is not a phenomenon unique to Gyeonggi. As early as the Wanli period, the mature commodity economy in the south of the Yangtze River had greatly liberated the hands and feet of the peasants on the land, and caused many landlords to relocate to cities such as Suzhou and Songjiang. It's just that these gentry and landlords in the south of the Yangtze River are too greedy, and they have clearly stepped into the threshold of the commodity economy and society, but they still refuse to give up the right of slavery to their own slaves and tenant farmers, which makes it impossible for the market of the commodity economy to expand, and thus to produce changes in the relations of production and the industrial revolution.

However, the north under Chongzhen's leadership was different, and from the very beginning, Chongzhen focused on removing the personal dependence between the common people and the landlords and nobles, allowing them to own their own land and property as much as possible, and providing a rural and citizen sales market for the industrialization of Gyeonggi.

The commune, based on the common people of a village, the cotton-growing company with the commune as its goal, dismantled the enslaving power of the northern landlords over the tenant farmers. And use money to lure them to make a change in status, from chasing fields to chasing money.

Of course, not all landlords can accept such a change of identity, and in the eyes of some landlords whose values have been fixed, only land is the real wealth, and everything else is illusory. After all, in the year of the great famine, money could not be turned into grain, silk and cotton, and only the landlords who owned land could survive the famine.

To some extent, their ideas cannot be said to be wrong. When there is no food, cotton cloth and other daily necessities in the market, most people's money is equivalent to a piece of waste paper. But for the imperial court, such a person needs to use the political power to carry out forced education, and this is the work that Choi Chengxiu will preside.

Having just acquired a large sum of capital from the Treaty of Tianjin, Chongzhen decided to adopt a policy of compulsory redemption or a 1:2 exchange of overseas land for the remaining landlord granges in Hebei. In fact, the latter would be almost a forced exile, which would not only banish the landlord and his family from the country, but would also deprive the family of all gentry rights in the area.

When he heard Chongzhen put forward such a radical proposition for the first time, Cui Chengxiu, who was known for his boldness, also couldn't bear to persuade the emperor: "Your Majesty, will this treatment be too harsh?" These local bigwigs can be regarded as the leading figures in the local area, and if they don't think of taking risks for a while and causing trouble near Gyeonggi, I'm afraid the world will be shaken. ”

Zhu Youzhen replied disapprenously: "Just by them? Last year, pig iron production in the north accounted for two-thirds of the country's pig iron output, and the pig iron output of Tangshan Iron and Steel Base accounted for more than one-third of the pig iron output in the north. These rich landowners, who are less than 10% of Hebei's population, are they going to use anything to make trouble with the imperial court, kitchen knives?

Even if they want to rise up and make trouble, it is actually not a bad thing for the imperial court. We spent so much money to arm the army, and it happened that these rich landowners were trained to win the battle, and they didn't even have to give overseas land. ”

Cui Chengxiu suddenly shook his head again and again and persuaded him: "Your Majesty, please calm your anger, after all, this sword soldier is a murder weapon, and the saint has no choice but to use it." The minister felt that after all, these local big families were still the pillars of this dynasty, and His Majesty would not have lifted a stone to knock on his own foundation.

Besides, after all, there are a few stubborn local households in Hebei, but the other provinces are not a small number. If we have to shed blood in Hebei, where the situation is good, I am afraid that the gentry and wealthy families in other provinces will have to form a party against the cultivators of the imperial court in the future. In that case, wouldn't the gains outweigh the losses? ”

Zhu Youzhen suddenly looked up at Cui Chengxiu and asked, "I heard that Bachelor Cui's family is a big landlord in Jizhou, right?" ”

Cui Chengxiu hurriedly defended his own family: "Originally, this was the case, but in response to His Majesty's call to invest in the Tangshan Iron and Steel Base, and to give up the land for the Haihe River control project, my family's land has been reduced by more than half..."

Zhu Youzhen nodded and interrupted him and said, "I know these things, what I want to ask is, which is greater than the annual land income of your family and the return on investment in Tangshan Iron and Steel Base?" ”

Cui Chengxiu lowered his head and calculated carefully: "If you calculate the income of a year, there is still more income on the land, because most of the profits of the Tangshan Iron and Steel Base are placed on expanding reproduction." If the rate of appreciation is calculated, the shares of the steel base held by the minister are about to appreciate sevenfold, but the land value of the minister's family has only increased by 25%, which still depends on the results of the imperial court's management of the Haihe River. ”

Only then did Zhu Youzhen sigh and say, "Since this is the case, you should support my proposition even more." Now the iron and steel mills in Daming are increasing investment to expand production, and the largest investment to expand production is Tangshan Iron and Steel Base.

However, it is not enough to produce steel, and it is necessary to expand and digest the market for steel in order to turn steel products into currency. Our Ming Dynasty is an agricultural country, the country's farmers are not less than 30 million households, assuming that each household buys a set of iron farming tools, it will consume about half a ton of pig iron, that is, 15 million tons.

In the past few years, we have continued to invest in the ironworks, and last year we barely exceeded the annual output of 300,000 tons of pig iron. That is to say, if last year's pig iron production is calculated, it will take 50 years for the farmers of Daming to use iron farming tools just to make agricultural tools every year.

So do you know why there are so many farmers in my country who do not have a full set of iron farm tools, but the former government-run iron factories cannot sell raw iron, resulting in a loss of money? ”

Cui Chengxiu pondered for a long time before he whispered: "Maybe these farmers can't afford to use it, and it's a big expense to turn pig iron into fine iron farm tools." ”

Zhu Youzhen nodded at him and said: "What the bachelor said is right, most of the land in this world is concentrated in the hands of large landlords, and it would be good for those farmers to earn the rations of themselves and their families a year, where is there still extra financial resources to purchase a complete set of fine iron farm tools."

However, if a worker wants to do a good job, he must first sharpen his tools, and if he does not use fine iron farming tools to plough the field, he will not be able to obtain enough nutrients for the grain, and the harvest will naturally be reduced. And when the harvest is less, the farmer has no spare energy to buy farm tools and devote himself to the field. It's a vicious circle.

So, if we want to increase the grain production in the north, we need to let these farmers own their own land and let them create more wealth, so that they can afford to buy new farm tools, iron pots, cotton cloth and other daily necessities.

The purpose of the policy was not simply to seize land from the local gentry and landlords and distribute it to the landless peasants, but to create a rural market that could absorb industrial products.

The landlords and gentry who cling to their land, but are unable to create more wealth for exchange and increase consumption, are the greatest enemies of us, the shareholders who invest in the factories. If we don't bring them down, will we just watch the factories we invest in go bankrupt and go bankrupt? I will not allow this to happen. What is your opinion, Mr. Cui? ”

Cui Chengxiu was dumbfounded for a long time before he said hesitantly: "The minister thinks that before implementing the policy, these people should be given another chance to repent to show His Majesty's leniency..."