Chapter 352

Although he knew Liu Jin's intentions, Song Nan did not intend to obstruct it for no reason, it would be a fool's act to oppose it for the sake of opposition, if Liu Jin's measures could really consider the people's livelihood and increase the income of the imperial court, even if he was proposed by Liu Jin, Song Nan would vote in favor.

For Song Nan, the Ma Zheng and Tuntian system of the Ming Dynasty still need to be understood by themselves before they have the right to speak, and in the debate and discussion of the court within a few days, Song Nan, who was listening, quickly figured out what was going on.

When the Ming Dynasty opened the country, the cavalry accounted for as much as 30% of the million army, and the horses died in battle, died of old age or were embezzled and smuggled and sold, etc., and the imperial court had to add tens of thousands of heads to the army every year to maintain the number; Grandpa felt that this cost was too great, so he ordered the people to rotate, so all over the Jiangnan and Jiangbei Ming Dynasty, regardless of whether it was suitable for raising horses or not, it was stipulated that several households would raise a horse, and the disease would be treated together, and the death would be compensated, and raising horses became an obligation of the people of the Ming Dynasty.

At first, this method was still effective, but in the several northern expeditions of Chengzu, the Ming Dynasty's war horses lost hundreds of thousands, and even could not be restored for decades. Since the Hongzhi period, in order to strengthen the cavalry of the border army, the imperial court has to spend more than one million taels of silver every year to purchase war horses at home and abroad to fill the army, and this year is naturally no exception. It was because the money was too large that the Ministry of War refused to ask for the silver this year.

The financial revenue of the Ming Dynasty is really not high, the annual financial income is only about 134 million taels, a huge Ming Dynasty, how huge the internal and external use, and there is still a lot of money to use in places that should not be used. For example, the year before last and last year, the Inner Court built the Leopard House, rebuilt the Guanghan Palace, and renovated Qionghua Island, in addition to using up the 800,000 taels of silver deposited in the Inner Carrier Warehouse, it also took hundreds of thousands of taels from the household department. Of course, in order to block the mouths of civil officials, Liu Jin used the name of 'temporary support'.

Financial constraints have become the biggest problem in the Ming Dynasty, money needs to be used everywhere, but the fiscal revenue has plummeted every year, although there are natural disasters, but also because of the increasing number of bankrupt people, leading to the increase of displaced people.

The core content of Liu Jin's reform measures is to re-measure the acres of land in the country, clear the fields that have been encroached upon by private individuals, and distribute them to the landless people for cultivation, so that the displaced people can return to the land to settle down and cultivate; At the same time, it was proposed that the military households in the border town of Tuntian originally only needed to provide food for the local garrison, but now they also needed to pay taxes to increase the income of the imperial court.

At the same time, when the horse policy was changed to Hongzhi, the quota of 230 horses in one county was 400 in one county. The reason for this comes from the assumption that the number of households and the number of people increased after the first number of displaced people returned to the fields, and if the number of horses was not enough, they would be collected at the rate of thirty taels of silver each.

At first glance, these two measures seem to have a soothing effect on the situation of displaced people who have been displaced and stolen by the people who have embezzled a large number of acres of land, and can prevent the displaced people from being unwilling to undertake various obligations, including the obligation of forced labor and horse breeding, in the name of displacement. It looks beautiful! But Song Nan always felt that something was wrong.

Song Nan knew the life of the common people, and there were many military households in contact with Ulzhou, and the military fields were occupied by border generals, and the cultivation of the military households by the imperial envoys was also extremely common, and the military households nominally had land in hand, but in fact they had become tenant farmers; Originally, military households were only responsible for military supplies, which was the original intention of military households, but now once they are included in the system of collecting taxes, military households that have become tenant farmers will have no way to survive.

Moreover, the general regulation of the number of horses raised by the county will inevitably lead to the vigorous apportionment of the county officials, and in the current situation, it is almost impossible to raise hundreds of horses in the county, unless the rich families are willing to pay more money to raise them, but in fact, this qiē is egalitarian, which is naturally bearable for large households, but absolutely unbearable for the common people.

Taking the Hongzhi period as an example, the balance of ten households in Jiangbei was only three or five taels of silver a year, and the balance of a horse was thirty taels of silver, and they all had to pay three taels of silver to make up for each household, which was simply a great burden, and it was a small amount of money for large households. In terms of fairness, it is a big mistake, which seems to be fair, but in fact it is another oppression of the extremely poor.

In terms of returning land to the people, it seems to be a very fair policy, but Song Nan knew that it was impossible, and the reason why the people of the Ming Dynasty went bankrupt and fled was because a large amount of land was privately owned, and the family of Xun Qi often had tens of thousands of hectares of land, and they were all good land; The small amount of bad land in the hands of the common people could not support their families, so they could only rent other people's fields, but the private land rent was so high that they could not even have food and clothing, so they had to give up farming and become homeless beggars or even thieves.

Everyone knows that the so-called return of land to the people is just an empty word, how can the big families of honorable relatives hand over the land lightly? It is impossible for Liu Jin not to understand this, does Liu Jin dare to stand up and rob from the pockets of the nobles? Unless he's tired of living.

The thousands of noble families that have been inherited from the founding of the Ming Dynasty are now focusing on making profits, which is tantamount to looking for death.

The controversy in the imperial court on these aspects was naturally extremely fierce, and dozens of officials, such as Gu Zuo, the secretary of the household department, Jiao Fang, a scholar of the cabinet university, and Zhang Cai, the head of Ma Zheng of Taifu Temple, strongly seconded the proposal. However, Yang Tinghe and others in the cabinet strongly opposed it, and the two sides were at loggerheads.

In the face of this stalemate, Liu Jin decisively made some revisions in key places, and in the article of returning the land to the people, he commented that the removal of private property refers to the illegal embezzlement of private property, not the private property of reasonable trading and reward, which completely relieved the nobles, whose land is not reasonable? I have the title deed in my hand.

Another change made the nobles smile crookedly, stipulating that anyone who has land and does not rent and plant, and is willing to work for the pleasure and pleasure of the homeless beggars shall be punished according to law, and it is absolutely forbidden to have land without plowing and planting. The big landlords were already troubled by the fact that the rent of a large amount of land in their hands was too high and no one cultivated it, and they could not force others to cultivate it.

So the two grandfathers and more than a dozen Hou uncles who originally had gloomy faces on Liu Jin quickly seconded the proposal, so far there is no suspense about the victory or defeat of the strong or weak, and the opponents are helpless; A few days after the court meeting was determined, Zhengde planned to announce this policy to the world, and Zhengde was successful and triumphant.

Song Nan didn't figure out the twists and turns in the middle at the beginning, and when he felt that this discussion was inappropriate, it was too late, and even Zhang Mao seconded it, and it was obviously inappropriate for him to stand up and sing the opposite tone again, and the son-in-law of the Guogong Mansion stood up against the Guogong Mansion, wouldn't it make people laugh off their big teeth.

Moreover, Song Nan's emphasis on the country's policy is still in a stage of learning and exploring, and he is not yet able to quickly and freely judge the consequences caused by it, which is also the reason why his experience is still shallow. But even if Song Nan noticed the drawbacks early, he was powerless to oppose it, because it was too late.

On June 15 of the second year of Zhengde in the Ming Dynasty, the imperial court officially promulgated the policy of the new Ma Zheng and Tuntian, after the promulgation of this proposal, Song Nan always felt a little uneasy, and always felt that something was going to leak.

……

In July, the fire flowed, and Wen'an County, Bazhou, more than 800 miles south of the capital, was also so hot that people couldn't breathe.

There is a big jujube tree next to the yaya in Wen'an County, and under the jujube tree, two men with five short statures are sitting on the bluestone slab sprinkled with cold water under the jujube tree and chatting; The person sitting on the left is full of beards, and there is a red scar on his face, his eyes are sharp, and he does not dare to look at him; The person on the right looks very similar to the scar-faced bearded man, but he looks weaker.

The two were talking for a while, when they heard the sound of clogs stomping on the ground from the entrance of the yamen, and a lewd-looking man ran from the sun with a smile on his face, one hand shading the sun, and the other hand carrying a heavy blanket.

"Sixth master, seventh master, let's chat." The lewd man sat down under the tree, picked up a water hyacinth and drank it.

The scar-faced man said lazily: "Ergou, did you take the reward?" ”

"Took it, two taels for one person, seven guys, fourteen taels in all; The county lord asked why you two masters didn't go to receive the reward in person. ”

The scar-faced man snorted and said, "I, Liu Liu, can't get used to the face of being an official, damn it, Lao Tzu does it and he gives money, why do you want to see Lao Tzu?" ”

"That's, that's, that's what we told him. The old thing almost ran out of breath and crooked its nose. The lewd man and the second dog stretched out his hand to send the blanket up, Liu Liu didn't answer, and rushed to the man sitting on the side: "Old Seven, you take it, the brothers are divided into one or two, and the rest buy some rice, salt and wine to go home, by the way, pull two feet of flower cloth for the sister." ”

Liu Qi nodded in agreement, and when he saw Liu Liu get up to leave, he asked, "Where is my brother going?" ”

Liu Liudao: "I'll go around casually, my mother's heart is not happy, find a place to practice my fists and feet." ”

Liu Qi sighed lightly, beckoned to the second dog, and the two walked along the shade of the street corner to the west street of the county seat; After less than tea time, when he came to the only crossroads in the county, the second dog suddenly pulled Liu Qi's arm and whispered: "Seventh master, let's stay away, the dog day is coming." ”

Liu Qi also saw seven or eight people pouring out of the street, led by a tall and thin man, holding two iron balls in his hands and spinning around, several people behind him were all with open stomachs and crossed arms, and passers-by were hiding far away.

Liu Qi hurriedly turned around and pulled the second dog to walk across the street, but the thin and tall man had sharp eyes and shouted loudly: "Stop, isn't that our famous Liu Qiye in Wen'an County?" Why do you turn around and leave when you see your Liang Ye? Do you look down on your Liang Ye? ”