At a time when all the tax-exempt classes in the Ming Dynasty were in panic and hatred of Shandong's political axe, Zhao Yan ordered the measurement of acres of land in four provinces in early April, and at the same time announced the Shanxi Agricultural Tax Reform Act, a total of five provinces to carry out agricultural tax reform.

Most of Shaanxi's cultivated land has already been measured, that is, the one under Zhao's whole circle, as long as the remaining cultivated land is measured again.

The measurement of acres of land in Shanxi has long been completed, and when the agricultural tax reform was not announced, the landlords were very cooperative.

In the three provinces of Sichuan, Huguang, and Henan, there are a large number of landlords.

Although these three provinces have been ravaged by thieves, many of those landlords are safe and sound, because most of the landlords have forts to defend themselves, and in the process of thieves raging, they generally do not attack those landlords who walk in the countryside, first of all, time does not allow, because many times the official army is behind, and secondly, the distribution is too scattered.

The measurement work is presided over by local officials, personnel are transferred from Shandong, and the armed police force is responsible for cooperating.

Surveyors have already arrived in the provinces, and as soon as the Agricultural Tax Reform Act was announced, local officials began to measure local arable land.

Whoever owns the land must take it to the government to re-obtain the title deed, and the white deed in the hands of those landlords will not be recognized.

The landlords in the prefectures and counties of Sichuan, Huguang, and Henan provinces were in a panic for a while, and teams of surveyors began to measure the acres of land under the protection of the heavily armed police.

Whoever owns the land must take the title deed to the government to get a new land deed, and after the arrival of the Shandong officials, the household registration has been re-registered.

This registration does not matter, but it can be found that many people have never registered their household registration. In order to register everyone's household registration, local officials have had to vigorously publicize the policy.

Under the management of Shandong's political axe, the people who have registered their household registration not only do not have to bear the forced labor, but also do not have to bear the harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes, and their children will be able to enjoy free education and free medical care in the future.

However, the scope of free education and free medical care has not yet been fully expanded, which has a lot to do with the shortage of teachers and medical personnel.

Financial insufficiency is also one of the larger factors, although Shandong's financial revenue is large, but if it is responsible for the education and medical care of the entire Ming Dynasty, it is simply not enough. Under the vigorous propaganda of the local government, those people who have never registered with the government have gone to the government to register.

In the process of measuring the land, violent incidents of resistance to the law broke out in various provinces one after another.

Some landlords relied on their own fortresses to confront the officials sent by the Shandong political axe.

Reports of violent resistance to the law flew like pieces of paper to Zhaojiapu, and most of the local officials took a back-down attitude without Zhaojiabao's instructions.

The concessions of the Shandong officials in various prefectures and counties on the issue of measurement made those landlords even more arrogant.

Within half a month, the landlords of Sichuan, Huguang, and Henan provinces violently resisted the law, and the government's concession made those landlords think that they had enough strength to protect their ancestors' family business.

In mid-April, Zhao Yan ordered a crackdown.

"All dynasties and dynasties, as in the Ming Dynasty, there are so many privileged classes, a huge country, because of the financial exhaustion, was oppressed by a small barbarian, it is really a big joke in the world, if there are landlords who violently resist the law, they will be suppressed, and there will be no tolerance." Zhao Yan clearly expressed his position in the "Daming Daily".

This is also Zhao Yan's warning to the old forces of the whole Ming Dynasty, if there is no repentance, he will take iron-fisted measures to eliminate all disobedient people.

Provincial officials received instructions from Zhao Yan to suppress landlords who violently resisted the law.

The armed police units in various provinces began to move frequently, rushing to the places of violent resistance to the law with squadrons and squads, bombarding the landlords' fortresses with artillery and arresting the anti-French personnel.

There are many armed police in each province, and because of the advance arrangement, with sufficient troops, they can quickly suppress the violent anti-French incidents in various places.

The front was suppressed, and the acres of land were immediately measured later.

The arrested landlords will be sent to Shandong for trial, and the Shandong court will make different judgments according to the different circumstances of resisting the law.

Those with less serious circumstances can be released after being detained at the local level for half a month, while those with serious circumstances will face fines of varying degrees, and if they cause injuries or homicides, they may also face the fate of imprisonment. If the circumstances are particularly heinous, all family property will be confiscated.

However, the vassal kings were the most serious in violent resistance to the law, and each vassal king had some guards in his hands, and when he heard that Zhao Yan was going to carry out an agricultural tax reform, those vassal kings all sent guards to confront the measuring personnel one by one.

King Cunji of Qin, King Qiu Gui of Xi'an and Jin Dynasty, King Gongqi of Zhou of Taiyuan, King Huakui of Chu of Kaifeng, Zhishu King of Wuchang of Domain, Naijun of Chengdu Dynasty, King Shuyan of Datong Liao, King Yiming of Xiangwang of Jingzhou, King Yu of Xiangyang Ji of Xiangyang, and Changsha These are the vassal kings of Shaanxi, Shanxi, Sichuan, Huguang and Henan provinces.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, there were 25 vassal kings and 137 county kings. There are more than 60 county kings in these five provinces. These vassal kings and county kings were the largest landlords. Almost all of Sichuan was swallowed by these vassal kings and county kings.

"Except for the king of Chu, who is more cooperative, the other vassal kings have all confronted the measuring personnel with force, and many of those county kings are the same, lord, this is the time to make trouble." Mao Yuanyi said more than Zhao Yan.

"Well, let the armed police forces of the provinces take the place of those vassal kings and county kings who violently resisted the law." Zhao Yan laughed, these vassal kings and county kings dared to violently resist the law, which was also in line with Zhao Yan's wishes.

Zhao Yan waved his hand and said: "After they are arrested, their land and property will be confiscated according to the severity of the situation." ”

The main purpose of dealing with these feudal kings was to obtain land.

"Then what should the king of Chu do?" Mao Yuanyi asked.

"Issue a breeding license to the king of Chu, give him a limit of 20,000 acres, allow him to enter and leave the city freely, and I will write a letter to him later." Zhao Yan said that the king of Chu had also contributed military funds at the beginning, and the plot was much better than that of other vassal kings.

Moreover, the King of Chu and Zhao Yan also have some friendship, and it is not good to do so much.

"Yes." Mao Yuanyi got instructions, so he went down to arrange it.

In the General Staff, at this time, Liu Yuan and Zhang Zhi were in charge of military operations, while Mao Yuanyi was responsible for directing the operations of internal affairs.

Later, Zhao Yan wrote a letter to the king of Chu, in which he moved with affection and reason, which was very face-saving to the king of Chu. After the letter was written, Zhao Yan asked people to send it out. The provinces received Zhaojiabao's order, and they also began to take action, starting to arrest the vassal kings and county kings who violently resisted the law.

The armed police of the five provinces were frequently mobilized, and Shaanxi and Shanxi provinces were the first to solve those thorns, and nearly half of the armed police of the two provinces were transferred to Sichuan and Huguang provinces, which were understaffed.

The reform of the agricultural tax was accompanied by the work of reclaiming the land and returning it to the people.

There are a large number of toasts in the Ming Dynasty, and these toasts are the leaders of ethnic minorities, and this toast model is intolerable to Zhao Yan.

There is also a lot of work to reclaim the land, and there are a large number of ethnic minorities in Sichuan and Huguang, most of whom are exploited by the Tusi.

This point is not to be discussed, that is, these toasts are outside the administrative management, which is what Zhao Yan can't look down on the most, so the toasts must be banned.

…… In the twelfth year of Chongzhen, from April to May, it was the darkest day in the entire Ming imperial clan.

Shandong Zhengaxe sent armed police forces to arrest seven vassal kings and fifty-three county kings one after another, only Zhu Gongfang, the king of Zhou in Kaifeng, and the three vassal kings of Tang and Chu were not stupid enough to confront Zhao Yan.

It's just that according to the intelligence department's spying, although Tang Wang is very cooperative, he is the most hostile to Zhao Yan, and is actively contacting the old forces that oppose Zhao Yan.

Chongzhen in the Forbidden City, as well as the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty, were shocked.

Zhao Yan actually arrested so many vassal kings and county kings in just one month.

And not only that, the provincial armed police forces are still fighting with the toast everywhere, and dozens of toasts have been eliminated within a month.

Most of the toasts are still very cooperative, but a few toasts are the type that disobeys the king's law, and some ethnic minorities also seem very barbaric.

In the Ming Dynasty, there was often a phenomenon of burning, killing and looting during the Tusi soldiers' battles, and annihilating the silver Han women. The armed police force is extremely ferocious in suppressing the Tusi, and every time the Tusi is defeated, the ethnic minorities will inevitably be forcibly relocated for hundreds of miles.

Migration is the usual method of the Ming Dynasty to deal with ethnic minorities, but it is often only a matter of moving dozens of miles, where will the ethnic minorities be moved hundreds of miles like the Shandong political axe.

Moreover, the relocation of Shandong political axe this time is to break up and relocate, often only a dozen households in one place, which means that within a few generations, these ethnic groups will be integrated. The only thing that can be regarded as more tolerant is that after the migration, some acres of land will be given to them to cultivate.

Chongzhen didn't care about the life or death of those toasts, but the Zhu family clan was bullied, and after the shock, he was furious, but he was still a little rational in the anger.

At this time, Chongzhen was still not ready, although the old forces in the provinces were connected, they were not integrated, and his 300,000 forbidden army was also not trained.

Most of the vassal kings and county kings who were arrested were detained for half a month, although they had land and property confiscated and released out, and those who bought land across provinces were also confiscated.

Public opinion in this month was undoubtedly extremely turbulent, and almost the entire elite of the Ming Dynasty vigorously attacked the behavior of Shandong's political axe in various newspapers.

At present, there are several newspapers that can influence the entire Ming Dynasty, most of which are from Shandong, and the others are Chongzhen's "Royal Newspaper".

As a result of this incident, all Shandong newspapers, including the Daming Yuebao, failed in their newspaper sales outside the administrative region.

Zhao Yan shook the interests of the vast number of privileged classes, which, in addition to the imperial relatives and relatives, were the literati class.

Only the literati who have been lifted are exempt from taxes, but the problem is that Zhao Yan offended not only those who were lifted, but also those who were not lifted, because Zhao Yan killed their hopes.

A literati, no matter how down-and-out he is, as long as he is lifted, he is the lord of the lift, why is he called the lord, the title of the lord is generally some people with more status, that is because the lift is tax-free after the lift, and someone will take the initiative to stick to the door.

The public opinion of the Shandong newspapers was on the side of the Shandong political axe, and most of the literati naturally did not buy it, except for a few sensible literati, the other literati did not buy the Shandong newspapers, so all of them fell into the sand, but the sales volume of the "Royal Newspaper" was booming.

The royal newspaper vigorously criticized Zhao Yan's approach, during which Zhao Yan and Chongzhen sprayed each other in the newspaper several times.

Chongzhen angrily denounced Zhao Yan for being lawless and flouting the law.

Zhao Yan retorted that this aspect was not stipulated in the law, and that the Shandong political axe had autonomy in internal affairs, and that it was clearly stipulated in the law, and those vassal kings and landlords who violently resisted the law should naturally be severely punished. At the same time, he angrily accused the royal family of occupying acres of land and competing with the people for profit.

Zhao Yan didn't take Chongzhen in his eyes at all, and sprayed whenever he wanted. Chongzhen's anger came up and he had a war of words with Zhao Yan.

The two sides have been spraying each other for more than a month, and there has been no military action, and many people are still expecting Emperor Chongzhen to be able to counterattack militarily, but their expectations have all been disappointed.

Chongzhen didn't plan to do it now, and Zhao Yan's expectations were disappointed.

"Chongzhen can endure it at this time, it's really unexpected!" Zhao Yan sprayed with Chongzhen in Zhaojiabao for more than a month, which was really unexpected.

The four cavalry brigades of the Shandong Army have been transferred back to Monan, just waiting for Chongzhen to make the first move, once the covenant is broken, Zhao Yan will have an excuse.

In fact, you can make excuses or not, it's just that it's not so upright, how could Zhao Yan destroy his glorious image!

But it's okay to cook Chongzhen to death slowly.

Since he can endure it like this, let's continue to make inchs! Cut off his arms again. When the two sides clash, see if Chongzhen still has some help.

At this time, after Zhao Yan defeated the vassal kings, county kings, and landlord class in Shaanxi, Shanxi, Sichuan, Huguang, and Henan provinces, Chongzhen had lost a large part of his support.

The lands of those vassal kings and county kings were confiscated, and they were confiscated.

Those who have not been confiscated, under the implementation of the agricultural tax reform bill, the land in their hands will inevitably be transferred, or when the tax is paid, they will violently resist the law, and then the land will be confiscated directly.

Land is the most important means of production in this era, and no land is equal to no money.

If there is no money, it means that he can't help Chongzhen, so Chongzhen will slowly lose the capital to jump.

Zhao Yan's behavior is a serious violation of the law, because he didn't even go through the cabinet procedure, but who will pursue it?

As long as it is not too sensitive, Zhao Yan said that legal is legitimate.

The so-called sensitive, that is, military. The core is about the throne, and these are sensitive. And the vassal kings and landlords, although sensitive enough to shake the entire ruling class of the Ming Dynasty, did not shake the emperor.

Since Chongzhen did not react, Zhao Yan immediately issued an order to increase political propaganda.

The so-called political propaganda is to go to other provinces to publicize the various benefits of Shandong's political axe to the people.

When the upper class collectively hated Zhao Yan, the lower class was collectively eager for Zhao Yan to be in charge of the world.

The Ministry of Intelligence has continuously publicized the benefits of Shandong political axe in various provinces, so that the people in all provinces are very yearning for life under the management of Shandong political axe.

There is no need to pay all kinds of miscellaneous taxes, there is no need to worry about the officials breaking the family, there is no need to bear the conscription, the children go to school for free, the medical treatment is also free, and if you are willing to immigrate, you will be given hundreds of acres of land.

What kind of good thing is that?

The propaganda of the Ministry of Intelligence is very comprehensive, and it does not only rely on intelligence personnel to carry out propaganda, but also mobilizes all Shandong personnel in other provinces to carry out propaganda.

Especially those engineering teams, under their propaganda, many people who came to the construction site to work were all interested in Shandong political axe, because Shandong political axe can create a fantastic life for them.

In particular, the five provinces that implemented the agricultural tax reform law have made the people of these provinces support Shandong's political axe under the propaganda of the government and the administrative style of the government.

No matter how the landlords instigated, there were not many people who supported them.

At this time, the political axe of Shandong can be said to be the will of the people, and no matter how Chongzhen and those landlords make trouble, they will not get any results.

After this incident, there were fewer literati who came to Shandong to take up jobs, but all of them looked at the literati who were no longer good in the Ming Dynasty.

Change in the world is the trend of the times, and it is better to adapt than to resist.

Many of these literati have seen the changes in the hearts of the people, and those who win the hearts of the people win the world, even if the political axe of Shandong is not popular with the people of the world, the hearts of the people in Shandong alone are enough to be invincible.

The reform of agricultural taxes in the five provinces is actually a process in which the means of production change hands.

Eighty percent of the land in Sichuan has fallen into Zhao Yan's hands, and who to distribute these lands to is a question that needs to be carefully pondered.

It is obviously not possible to distribute dozens of acres and dozens of acres to individuals, because that will only create a group of middle peasants, and will not create a middle class at all.

There is so much land in the world, what is the benefit of trapping people on dozens of acres of land? But who the land is given to, this has to be measured, Zhao Yan feels that the land cannot be given to those people with low character.

The land of the first veterans has been demarcated, five hundred acres each. One by one, they all went to the state and county where the fields were located, and became their farmers.

In terms of how to manage the land in hand, Zhao Yan chose to keep the land in his hands, and still cultivated it by the original tenants.

Wait until later.

This kind of distribution requires thresholds, first of all, there are certain technical conditions in production, which requires training, and secondly, there are also requirements in the morality and character of the farmer, preferably in the diploma is high enough.

This is just like the Yankee farmers in later generations are all college graduates, and only farmers with high diplomas know how to run a farm better.

In Huguang and Sichuan, more than 100 million mu of land fell into the hands of Zhao Yan, plus 5,000 mu in Shaanxi and more than 3,000 mu in Shanxi, Zhao Yan can be described as a super big landlord.

In the Northeast, Monan, Mobei, Moxi, Nurkandus, Sakhalin, and Hokkaido, there is land everywhere, and the entire South China Sea is in Zhao Yan's bag, as well as Taiwan and Cochin.

And in Australia, colonies have already begun to be established, as well as the Hawaiian Islands, California and other places.

If you say who has the most land in the Ming Dynasty, Zhao Yan can be said to be the most deservedly. It's just that most of this land is undeveloped.

The 200 million population of the Ming Dynasty is enough for each person to divide 20 acres, 20 acres, what kind of concept is that, under intensive cultivation, 10 acres of land has 10,000 catties of grain, although the land in the north cannot be reached, but 15 acres also have 10,000 catties of grain. Can a person eat 10,000 catties of grain in a year? Eat 1,000 catties of grain and it will be heavenly.

Generally speaking, in the future generations, using the method of intensive cultivation, one acre of land can feed two to three people, after all, in the era of the general rice yield of 600 kilograms per mu, planting two seasons can feed many people, but in the state of intensive cultivation, not every farmer will plant two or even three seasons.

When land resources are abundant, it is not a problem to feed everyone with meat.

(To be continued)