Kaifeng is an important town in Henan, a famous historical city, known as Bianjing in ancient times, and the ancient capital of the Eight Dynasties.

It is located in the eastern part of the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River Plain, located in the central and eastern part of Henan, connected to Shangqiu in the east, adjacent to Zhengzhou in the west, Xuchang and Zhoukou in the south, and Xinxiang across the Yellow River in the north.

There are many rivers in the territory and it is known as the northern water city.

The area of Kaifeng is flat, rich in water sources, fertile fields, and is the rich hometown of the Central Plains and a large grain producing area.

Although Kaifeng has enough flat water and many fields, Kaifeng has also produced an area with a large number of displaced people in recent years. The fundamental reason for this is that the fields of Kaifeng were the most seriously annexed, and the vast majority of the land was annexed to the hands of a few large landowners. Among them, the people who occupy the most land are the former Ming Zhou kings and the clans of the Zhou kings.

The Ming Dynasty clans have always been treated well, and in addition to the generous lu, there are also preferential rewards, as well as a large number of fields.

After the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the wind of land donation prevailed. The so-called dedication, on the side of the donation, there are two kinds of "vain offering" and "self-offering"; On the side of "acceptance", there are royal families, Qi Wan, meritorious heroes and official gentry.

"Wanton sacrifice" refers to the fact that the land of the common people is falsely claimed by "treacherous people" as "their own business" or "ownerless idle land" and donated to the powerful and powerful; "Self-sacrifice" refers to the common people dedicating their own fields to the powerful and powerful families without compensation, and they themselves become tenants, tenants, or slaves.

After the dedication to the middle of the Ming Dynasty, it was very common.

The reason for this is because of the heavy service of the Ming Dynasty.

Many self-sacrifices sound unbelievable, but the common people actually gave their fields to those powerful and powerful families for free, and went to be slaves for them. But this is a fact, and it is not only in the Ming Dynasty, but in fact it has been something in all dynasties.

The reason is that in the feudal era, the land tied up the people, and the people were also tax servitudes. The taxes of the state are distributed to every common man. It's a huge burden. And those clan lords enjoy all kinds of privileges.

In the Ming Dynasty, the public land given to the relatives was recorded in the "Golden Book", and they were not reported to the official for naturalization, and enjoyed the privilege of being exempted from taxes, grains, and errands.

Although it is also stipulated in the law. Land other than land is generally referred to as private property, and should be "one with the people", but due to the power of the aristocracy, it is difficult to enforce the law. The disadvantages of "private land" and "refusal to be one with the people" appeared as early as the Hongwu period, and after the middle of the century, the law was abolished, and the magnates became more unscrupulous. And the yin is controlled by force, so that there are no divisions to make up and levy taxes." Therefore, in practice, all the fields of the royal palace and the nobles enjoyed the privilege of being exempt from all food shortages.

When the people became yeoman farmers, they had to pay taxes to the state, and even had to bear miscellaneous labor that was heavier than the land endowment. In order to escape these heavy servitudes, many people began to offer themselves to the privileged nobles.

Give your own land to your relatives and take the initiative to be a slave to your relatives. In this way, they are no longer the taxpayers of the Ming Dynasty, but only the slaves of the lords.

The nobles were given many fields. Naturally, they were happy to do so, and even in order to attract more people to contribute, they took the initiative to return the land they had donated to the slave tenants who had been cast under the door, that is, they still gave the land to the original owners to share, and even the tenant rent they collected took the initiative to reduce to a lower share than the taxes levied by the state.

And so it goes. The nobles got the land for nothing, and they got many slaves. And those who sacrificed and sold themselves as servants, although they were nominally servants and did not have their own land, their servitude was much lighter. Pay less rent to your relatives and don't have to bear heavy chores.

Both the relatives and the common people enjoyed the actual benefits, and only the interests of the imperial court were lost.

Generally speaking, giving is not so casual, there will be a form. The giver makes an offering, and the recipient asks the court for a request, and then the emperor gives it. In this way, the fields of the common people were transformed into the fields of the gods.

Without any payment, the recipient not only received the title of the land, but was also exempt from the food gap. In the final analysis, this good thing of receiving infinite benefits is due to the privilege of receiving and exempting.

Even in the late Ming Dynasty, not only those clan lords enjoyed this privilege of receiving and exempting, but also those scholars and officials with meritorious reputation.

Some sons of poor people, once they pass the imperial examination, as long as they enter the juren, there will be people who come to donate land and sell themselves as slaves, once they win the jinshi, it is even more terrible, and many businessmen with a small business will take the initiative to come to be slaves.

It is in this situation, at the end of the Ming Dynasty, although there were more than one billion acres of land and more than 100 million people in the world, but in fact, the imperial court could not collect taxes and grain, and the expenses of the imperial court were only pressed on the heads of a very small number of people, and they were all poor people, which eventually led to all kinds of civil unrest and social collapse.

Just like Kaifeng, a large grain-producing region, but the fields were mostly annexed to these powerful families headed by the King of Zhou.

In the Ming Dynasty, the weight of conscription even exceeded the tax grain.

However, the royal palace and the noble Zhuangtian enjoy preferential exemptions. Once they become their tenants, they can be exempted from state service under their shadow. Peasants, and even small and medium-sized landlords, in order to avoid the "hardships of servitude," often "threw their property into the palace and sacrificed their children to serve as slaves."

Gentry other than the nobility were likewise a privileged caste.

On the ladder of rank, although they were lower than the nobles, they were higher than the common people.

In terms of political identity, they are "officials" and "gentry", so they are called "official registration", "official household", and "official A" in household registration, which is completely different from ordinary people without status. The law of the Ming Dynasty strictly stipulates that "the rich and the poor" must not "transgress the etiquette"; The common people are not allowed to be called officials without authorization, and "whoever is called, the recipient shall be guilty of a crime." The officials and gentry, by virtue of their noble status and power, "regarded the people as weak meat" and "accepted the sacrifice of traitors". In that era, as soon as the scholars went to the township, they were all offered to the rich.

They also enjoy preferential rights in terms of economic status.

Unlike the aristocratic preferential exemption, they are exempt from the quota of goods. In the Ming Dynasty, the preferential exemption system for the gentry became more and more complete. During the Hongwu period, it was stipulated that the homes of the current officials were "exempt from forced labor"; Zhishi officials "return to their homes and have nothing to do with them for life"; In addition to the exemption of the students themselves, the indoors are exempted from two dings. After the middle of the century, it developed into "free grain for products" or "free for fields". Taking the "Preferential Exemption Rules" in the 38th year of Wanli as an example, the current Jingguan Jiake is exempt from 10,000 acres of land. The following decreases to 2,700 acres of eight-grade exempt fields, halved for foreign officials, six-tenths of this product for Zhishi Township officials, and up to 3,350 acres for unqualified squires, and 80 acres for students and supervisors.

"Preferential free grain" and "preferential free field". Although in fact it has the nature of preferential tax-free grain, it still refers to "exemption from military service" in the legal sense. The Ming Dynasty service law, "to the people for the service, to the field service". There are two types of servants, one is people, and the other is acres. The battle from the field is legally called "service", that is, the battle of the field grain. From the Battle of the People, which is legally called "No Servitude". That is, it is not from the field grain, but from the human service. "Notes on the Laws of the Ming Dynasty" cloud: "The giver produces tax grain, and the servant is on errand." There is a service to say that there is a field of grain as an errand, and no service is to say that there is no field of grain to stop when it is a miscellaneous service".

Not only the gentry themselves and their families were exempted from military service, but also their landed property was partially or completely exempted from military service.

Legally, the quota preferential exemption requires that the "surplus land" other than the preferential exemption field be on an errand with the people.

However, the gentry hierarchy, like the aristocracy, ignored the laws of the state and mostly broke through the boundaries of legal rights. and acting in accordance with customary rights. Therefore, in fact, the implementation is full preferential exemption, "Tian Lianqian Mo does not take the slightest servitude." This is not only true for official households. Moreover, the "tenants and servants, alienated from distant relatives, and the seeds that spread with them" who are attached to them also "have no hand or foot to serve the public service, and not a single penny or grain to serve the labor of the service".

King Zhou is the oldest of the princes of the Ming Dynasty, and the town of Kaifeng has been in Kaifeng for a long time. The fields given by the imperial court received by the kings of Zhou in various generations, plus their begging, contribution, and encroachment over the years, have reached more than 50,000 hectares so far, of which the heirs of King Gong of Zhou have given more than 5,200 hectares of land at a time.

The king of Zhou not only annexed a large amount of land, but also used his privileges to do business. Occupy Guanjin to set up tax collection, and even enjoy privileges such as salt tea monopoly.

Henan is the province with the most clans of the Ming Dynasty, and there are clan vassal kings everywhere, such as the Fu King of Luoyang and the Zhou King of Kaifeng.

Only Kaifeng's Zhou King lineage, in addition to the King of Zhou, there are thirty-six county kings below, as well as countless Zhenguo generals, auxiliary generals, etc.

More than half of the fields in Kaifeng are from the families of the Zhou king.

But now, in the palace of King Zhou, all the families of King Zhou are gathered together in the name of congratulating King Zhou's 60th birthday.

The kings, generals, and lieutenants of each family gathered together and sighed in mourning.

The old birthday star Zhou Wang Zhu Gongyu is the eleventh grandson of Zhu Yuanzhang and the tenth grandson of the first King of Zhou. It has been more than 20 years since the first year of the Zhou king.

Zhu Gongyu sat at the top, his eyes swept over his nine sons one by one, and finally fell on the remaining twenty or so county kings of the Zhou Dynasty below.

After a long time, he withdrew his gaze and sighed.

King Zhou has a family of children and grandchildren, but he looks around, but he can't find anyone who can give him hope.

The descendants of the Zhou dynasty have enjoyed peace and wealth for too long, so that no one can revive the Ming dynasty at this time.

"Boss, you will personally go to the barracks tomorrow and send some silver to reward them."

The prince Zhu Shaoxuan hurriedly stood up, and his fat body seemed to be a little overwhelmed. "Father, just call a steward to go to this matter, why do you have to let me go."

"Confused, you have to come forward in person. And we can't give less silver. "Zhu Gongfang is old, and after several dynasties, he knows very well what situation they have reached now.

"Send 500,000 silver dollars to Kaifeng Town, and then send 500,000 to the chief officer and those officers."

"Father, send so much?"

Zhu Gongfang ignored his son, "Third child, you prepare, follow me to Beijing in two days, and go to Sihai Yinzhuang to exchange some silver tickets, large amounts." He said to his third son, Zhu Shaoyu.

"How much to prepare?" Zhu Shaoyu asked.

"Let's exchange two million silver tickets first." After thinking about it, Zhu Gongyu shook his head again, "Forget it, change more, and prepare five million yuan." ”

The second child and the king of the county were shocked, "Father, you can't enter Beijing, and now you are in Beijing, isn't that self-defeating and sheep's mouth?" ”

"If I don't take this trip, I'm afraid that our Zhou Wang family will be uprooted." Zhu Gongyu said.

"Father, I'm afraid that the palace won't be able to scrape together six million silver dollars for a while." Shizi wiped the sweat from his forehead. Six million is not a small number, but it is actually nothing for Zhou Wangfu, and it can still be made up. However, the prince Zhu Shaoxuan obviously didn't want the money to come out of the Zhou Wangfu family.

"My father is in such a hurry, or the prince's mansions of all counties, as well as the palaces of the towns and the generals' mansions of the Fengguo, will also make up together. The county king's mansion will pay 100,000 yuan per family, and the town general's mansion will pay 10,000 yuan" (to be continued.) )

PS: Thank you daniel0216, Hancheng Bifeng, and the cannons of the world for their support!