The purpose of suppressing bandits is not to suppress bandits, let alone bandits, but just to train troops, the cost of suppressing bandits is too high, and for this time, the six battalions will have to spend almost 1 million taels of military expenses, and this Wang Lanping can't bear it.

If we want to fundamentally solve the problem of bandits, we have to start from the policy point of view, not all bandits are evildoers, the vast majority of them are ordinary people who are forced by the government to rebel against the people, as long as they let the cultivators have their own land and the conditions for survival, who is willing to risk the extermination of the clan to become bandits.

Wang Lanping came to the main hall of the Prime Minister's Mansion, and sure enough, all the officials he named came and gathered together.

There was also a bunch of pieces on the desk in front of the hall, Wang Lanping looked at it casually, it was the receipt of the things that everyone asked to do last time, it seems that all the officials dare not disobey their orders, and the work is still very effective, and the land and acres of land in the seven prefectures of Nanzhi and the land owned by the kings in the south of the Yangtze River are all registered one by one.

I don't know if I don't know, I was really shocked when I saw it, there are at least more than 30 Ming princes in the south of the Yangtze River, such as Zhu Changshu, King of Yi, Zhu Cijian, King of Tang, Zhu Yihai, King of Lu, Zhu Xiangjia, King of Jingjiang, Zhu Youlang, King of Chu, Zhu Rongfan, King of Huai, Zhu Changqing, etc., these palaces own almost one-tenth of the total land in Jiangnan, but the number of people is less than one-ten-thousandth of the total population of Jiangnan, which is no wonder that the people will go up the mountain and fall into the grass as bandits.

There is also about the homesteads of nobles at all levels, although the number is not comparable to that of the princes, but the amount of land they own is also amazing, I am afraid that their family's annual grain production will not be able to be eaten for dozens of generations, and the farmers who farm for them will not be satisfied.

This is not over, Wang Lanping picked up another volume, there are a total of more than a dozen guards in Nanzhi. There is a total of 30,000 mu of land under his name, but the annual grain paid to the imperial court is less than 20,000 stones. This number has been declining since the early years of Chongzhen, and it was last year. This number has dropped to seven thousand stones, where does the grain go? The land is here, the cultivators are here, why there is no harvest, Taiping Mansion has not heard of any major natural disasters in recent years, and it is impossible to reduce production so far.

When Wang Lanping finished reading these chapters, his face turned red with anger, where was there no money and no food in the Ming Dynasty. At least then the people will not follow the Li thief to rebel, but the problem is that the money and grain are not in the hands of the people at all, all of them are in the hands of powerful people, and even among these people sitting in the lobby of the Prime Minister's Mansion, most of them are people who have countless properties in their homes.

Wang Lanping will never tolerate such a thing, he was incapable of changing it before, and now no one can stop him from killing him.

The people of the country at this time. No matter how much money he makes in his life, his only idea is to buy a land and a house, and no amount of spare money will be invested lightly in business, and being a big landlord is absolutely a matter of drought and flood protection.

Rich people are too rich. With money, the only goal was to buy land, and the land was more and more concentrated in the hands of a small group of people, and the land that the common people could use to cultivate also shrank. In another natural disaster, the kind of food produced in the field was not enough to feed the family. You can only sell the land, and finally take a risk. Either rebel or go up to the mountains to become bandits, this is the consequence of land annexation.

If you want to change this kind of thing, there are only two direct methods, one is to learn from Li Zicheng to smash all the systems and kill all the landlords and old wealth and relatives of the previous dynasty, this method Wang Lanping thinks is too intense; The second is to learn the land policy of the Manchu Qing in the Han land that is now occupied, and directly declare that whoever is cultivating the existing land will own it, no matter who owns the land before, Wang Lanping agrees with this approach, but he himself cannot implement it, because the reason why the Manchu Qing can do this is mainly because Li Zicheng has almost killed the landlords who own large tracts of land before, and the Manchu Qing just picked up a leak and offended many people, but it can buy the hearts of tens of millions of Han people north of the Huai River.

The common people don't care if you are surnamed Zhu or Aixin Jueluo as the emperor, whoever gives them land will recognize and support whom, this is the unchanging iron law of dynasty change since ancient times.

These two Wang Lanping cannot be directly adopted and borrowed, but the land must be returned to the whole people, so there is only one way to go, to replace agriculture with business.

To put it bluntly, it is to encourage those big landlords and giants to sell their land and put the silver money into the commercial system, which not only solves the problem of lack of land and less land for the common people, but also prospers the business community at the same time, and then the imperial court levies a certain commercial tax on such merchants, so as to reduce the heavy taxes of people who live on farming at the root.

Replace agriculture with business!

Although the idea is good, but how to really implement it, Wang Lanping has no clue, to talk about war and conquest, he feels that he has a small reputation, when it comes to governing the country, that is, like a blind man touching an elephant, only knowing the general situation.

Princes, guards, relatives, nobles, and civil landlords, none of these types of people are fuel-efficient lamps, which one to start with?

Wang Lanping lowered his head and pondered, Prince? Don't even think about it now, as long as the emperor is still there, the prince can't move, and if he does, it's no different from rebellion;

Relatives? Ditto.

Honorable? The leaves are large and deep-rooted, and it is unlikely to be in a short period of time, but it is easier to deal with than the first two types.

Guards? It stands to reason that the difficulty of moving this is the greatest, but these are all military families, pick up the knife is a soldier, put down the knife and the people, do have a certain ability to resist, if you don't get it right, you will force them to rebel and shoot yourself in the foot.

But at the same time, the military households in the guard post are the easiest type of people to deal with, because these people have no backers in the government and the opposition, and they have no quarrel with the people, and more importantly, the land under the rule of the guard post has actually become the private property of the local guards and envoys, and has nothing to do with the lower-level military households, and the military households hate the officials, which is a force that can be united for Wang Lanping.

Well, Wang Lanping still feels that he should start with the governance of the Wei Institute first, there are several advantages to doing so, knocking on the mountain and suppressing the tiger, half of the nobles in Jiangnan are in the Wei Institute, and suppressing the Wei Institute is also equivalent to suppressing some of the middle and lower level nobles, which is used to warn those high-ranking nobles in the government and the opposition such as the Zhenguo Gong and the like.

Closing all the files, Wang Lanping exhaled deeply and glanced at the courtiers in the hall. Everyone was silent, but even Wang Lanping's eyes didn't dare to look.

Wang Lanping got up and smiled. Patting the stack of chapters, he said. "Your Excellency is really vigorous and resolute, you can sort out such complicated accounts in just half a month, you have worked hard, you have merit."

All the officials stood and arched their hands, and said in unison, "It's just to share the worries of the court, and I don't dare to take credit"

Wang Lanping paced down and came to the side of Zhang Shenyan's seat, "Zhang Shangshu." Do you know why I need to count and measure the land register? ”

Zhang Shenyan arched his hand and said, "Back to Prime Minister, didn't you say last time that you want to let the cultivators have their fields, right?" ”

Wang Lanping laughed, "Well, yes, that's right, the cultivator has his field." It's easy to say but it's hard to really do, thinking that when Wanli Shoufu Zhang Juding implemented this national policy, how many people were offended, and he didn't even have a place to live after death. Exhausted by thousands of fingers"

Zhang Shenyan pondered for a while and said, "It's man-made. If the prime minister is selfless, it is just for the people of the world. So what's so fearful, all dynasties and generations. Those who dare to be the first in the world will either be left behind for thousands of years, or they will shine through the ages, and you must have made a decision on this matter with the prime minister's active reform of the new style of government."

Wang Lanping was very satisfied with his reply, neither humble nor arrogant, he nodded, "Okay, that's good, you are the head of the household, you are the most qualified to say, you say, why do you want to return the land to the people?" ”

Zhang Shenyan looked at the officials on the left and right, but saw that everyone was looking sideways, okay, no one dares to say it, then I say.

"Prime Minister!"

Zhang Shenyan suddenly left his seat, knelt down in the hall, and arched his hand, "The lower official risked death to speak, I have established the country with agriculture for nearly three hundred years, but in fact, the land is not in the hands of the imperial court at all, the so-called official land is just a piece of paper, accounting for less than one-tenth of the country's land, and most of them are occupied by the family, so that the tax revenue of the imperial court is decreasing year by year, and the Wanli Dynasty can still maintain an annual income of 20 million taels of silver, but in the Chongzhen Dynasty has dropped to a mere 8 million taels, the financial deficit is becoming more and more serious, and the imperial court's finances cannot make ends meet. But the number of people who pay taxes has not changed, so why not? The lower officials believe that due to the annexation of the single land, a large area of land has fallen into the hands of the big families and relatives, but they do not have to pay taxes, the imperial court cannot collect taxes, and the various government policies cannot be implemented at all, so they can only increase taxes again and again.

As soon as these words came out, more than 30 officials in the hall were stunned, Zhang Shenyan said that this is death, how many people have you offended in one breath, if the prime minister wants to find death, you have to jump out and be this bird, do you want to accompany the funeral?

Wang Lanping was also surprised, Zhang Shenyan's words were actually saying what he was thinking, if you are bold enough, it's you.

"Okay, Zhang Shangshu is honest in seeking the country, dedicated to the national economy and people's livelihood, then good, if the prime minister implements the national policy of 'returning the land to the people', do you dare to be a pioneer in front of the prime minister?"

Zhang Shenyan did not hesitate at all, bowed and said, "The worries of the world are worried, and the government is sought in his position, and the lower officials are not hesitant to be the prime minister, the emperor, the court, and the people."

After Zhang Shenyan said this, he was stunned, how could he say that the prime minister was in front of the emperor, this is not good, but the words have been spoken.

Wang Lanping hurriedly stepped forward to help him up, "Lord Zhang is loyal to the country, very good, rest assured, you don't need to break your bones, you go back and sit down first"

Wang Lanping was in a good mood, at least someone supported him, he walked back to the table quickly, slapped the table and said in a deep voice, "Ladies and gentlemen"

The crowd got up again, and many of them began to sweat on their backs, because once the national policy of returning land to the people was implemented, many of their people would go bankrupt.

Wang Lanping said, "You eat the king's lu, you have to worry about the king, now the country's government is here, everyone sitting here has a responsibility that cannot be shirked, you have heard the words of Lord Zhang Shenyan, the court wants to implement the national policy of 'returning the land to the people', you can have objections, there are now put forward, I will not add guilt, this is a discussion of politics, if you don't say it today, but in the future it will be a hindrance, then don't blame the prime minister for the country."

The officials in the hall immediately looked left and right, some wanted to speak, but they were waiting for others to speak first, and in the end, no one spoke, and the prime minister's hall was silent for a while, and everyone looked at each other.

After a long time, a person stood up and said cautiously, "Dare to ask the prime minister, what is 'returning the land to the people'"

Wang Lanping heard the sound and looked at it, it was Qian Xiaole, the secretary of the Criminal Department.

"That's a good question, what does it mean to 'return the land to the people'? Well, Zhang Shenyan"

Zhang Shenyan went out to work and waited for the order, "the next official is here"

Wang Lanping beckoned Zhang Mingzhen, the commander of the Jinyi Guard, to come over, and shouted, "The left squire of the military department"

"The lower official is here!"

Wang Lanping frowned, his face was majestic, and he said in a deep voice, "Zhang Shenyan, you are not only the head of the household department, but also in charge of the financial department of the Prime Minister's Office, the wealth of the whole country is in your heart, and the prime minister will give you another errand, starting tomorrow, you will personally rush to the various guards of the seven prefectures of Nanzhi, act according to the land and military household registers, each household is allocated land according to the number of people, five acres per field, three good twice, the military department attendant accompaniment, the brocade guard escort, if there is anyone who dares to obstruct the emperor's mission, up to the emperor's relatives and relatives, down to the meritorious heroes and nobles, you can cut it first and then play, no, No need to play"

The head of the household, the commander of the Jinyi guard, and the squire of the military department immediately received the order, seeing that the prime minister's decree was much more authoritative than the holy decree.

"The subordinate officer receives the order!"

When the officials heard this, they immediately exchanged their heads and whispered, what is the prime minister trying to do? Do you want to force those military landlord leaders to rebel? Nanjing has finally settled down, and is it going to kill again?

"Something to say out loud!" Wang Lan stopped drinking, and the hall immediately fell silent.

Wang Lanping's eyes swept over the faces of the officials, "Under the rule of the guard, it has long been rotten, but our dynasty has accumulated defects for a hundred years, the army is not like the soldiers, the people are not like the people, they live harder than the soldiers, and the suffering is deeper than the people. ”

The officials and officials didn't dare to speak out of their anger, and they flattered Qi Dao against their will, "The prime minister is wise!" ”

"Wise? Hmph" Wang Lanping sneered, "Zhang Shenyan, you have another task here, to cancel all the military households on the register, and return them a real identity, tell them to work kindly, the court will exempt them from paying taxes for two years, and after two years, they can pay taxes according to the land owned by each household, let them come back in the military households that fled abroad, the court will not investigate their defection, if there are thieves who are rebellious, as long as they are willing to come back to farm with peace of mind, the court will not blame the past."

"The Commander Receives the Order"

Zhang Shenyan also secretly made a determination in his heart, this matter must be done, this may be the prime minister throwing stones to ask for directions, there are more difficult and arduous battles to be fought in the future, how can it be a good start, land annexation has plagued the government for a hundred years, and it is still a pool of backwater if the finances of these countries are not broken, so let me Zhang Shenyan be a stone to stir up that pool of backwater.

No one said anything more about the officials, since it was only for the guard, it was none of their business, the guard of the Ming Dynasty was self-contained, and it had nothing to do with anyone.

"Since there is no objection, this matter is decided, I don't want to hear you jump out and talk about these things in the future, okay, let's disperse, you don't have to hide it, you can go and report to them"

Wang Lanping smiled coldly, waved his sleeves and left the lobby, followed by the method. (To be continued.) )