"On July 14 of this year, there was an earthquake in Changsha, Changde, Baoqing, Yuezhou, Hengzhou and other prefectures in Huguang, especially in Changde and Lizhou."

"In Wuling County, Changde Prefecture, there was an earthquake in the middle of the night, black air blocked the sky, wells and springs flooded, cracked holes in the ground, slurry water gushed out, countless walled houses collapsed, and hundreds of people were crushed to death."

"In Lizhou, the earthquake was like thunder, the ground cracked and the sand gushed with the water, the houses fell and the trees were uprooted, and 600 people and animals were crushed."

"Four-tenths of the bad city walls of Jingzhou Mansion and three-tenths of the people's houses have crushed more than 300 soldiers and civilians."

"In addition, the people of more than 60 prefectures and counties, including Zhongxiang, Jingling, Qianjiang, and Chuyang Prefecture in Chengtian Prefecture, Suizhou Prefecture in De'an Prefecture, Yuanling Prefecture in Chenzhou Prefecture, Zili, Baling, and Pingjiang Prefecture in Yuezhou Prefecture, as well as Longyang and Taoyuan Prefecture in Changde Prefecture, suffered disasters, with nearly 10,000 dead and injured and tens of thousands of houses collapsed, so more than 60 prefectures and counties were exempted, and only 4.72 million Tianfu rice and wheat were missing......

】

In the carrying hall, when Bi Ziyan talked eloquently, explaining why the six provinces in the central and southeastern provinces had paid more than 4 million yuan of Tianfu rice and wheat, Zhu Youzhen's face was not good-looking.

"Has it really affected more than 60 prefectures and counties?"

Zhu Youzhen questioned Bi Ziyan, and Bi Ziyan could only bow his head when he heard this: "That's what the local yamen below reported, and the officials sent to the nuclear survey also said so." ”

"Which officials are being sent?" Zhu Youzhen continued to question.

"The three divisions of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, the Ministry of Officials, and the Dali Temple ......," Bi Ziyan replied.

It's just that when he finished answering, Zhu Youzhen didn't speak for a long time, and he could only say:

"Your Highness, the earthquake should be real, but the scope of the impact should not be so large."

"Since His Royal Highness implemented the new policy in Sichuan, the gentry in the central and southeastern regions have been in fear, and it cannot be ruled out that they will take advantage of this earthquake to exempt the land from the tax."

Bi Ziyan's words actually explained the reason why Tianfu rice and wheat were less than 4.7 million yuan this time.

Sichuan's new policy is good news for small and medium-sized landlords and poor peasants and rich peasants, because the complicated miscellaneous items of the past have disappeared, and they only need to honestly pay one out of ten land endowments.

But for the gentry and large landowners who did not need to pay miscellaneous taxes in the first place, this new deal was something that Zhu Youzhen used to cut their flesh.

The taxes of the Ming Dynasty, or the taxes of the ancient dynasties, are mostly in miscellaneous, and nothing can be seen just by looking at the Tian Fu.

For example, in the first year of the Apocalypse, the common people only had to pay thirty and one field tax, but in fact, if they added miscellaneous items, they needed to pay taxes as much as eight pieces of silver.

Eight coins of silver, with the price of rice of 400 wen and one stone that year, the people had to hand over at least two stones of rice and wheat to meet the government, but the problem was that for a family with only three or four acres of cultivated land in their hands at that time, even if they produced two stones per mu, they could only have an output of six or seven stones.

What was handed over at once was not two stone rice, but one-third of their annual income.

Because of this, part-time work was popular in the late Ming Dynasty, because if you don't work, you can't pay the government's taxes at all.

The land endowment of the Ming Dynasty was fixed, and since the people paid more, the gentry and officials and landlords naturally paid less.

Zhu Youzhen understood this truth very early, so he dared to directly set the military tun law of three out of ten and two out of ten when he was engaged in military tuntian.

Because he knows that even if he makes such a relationship, the people can live a nourishing life than before.

However, with the advent of the great drought, Zhu Youzhen can no longer do this, and there is no need to do this.

The reason why he couldn't do it was because he wanted to let the people have savings and grain deposits, so he had to reduce or reduce the land tax.

The reason why there is no need to do this is because the proportion of overseas taxes and the proportion of land endowments has accounted for a large part of Daming's tax revenue.

At the same time as the tax is expanding, Zhu Youzhen can completely let the people rest, but at the same time, he must also come up with a fair tax law, and one out of ten is the fairest law in the new policy.

Anyway, the gentry and Haoqiang don't have to pay too many miscellaneous items, so simply Zhu Youzhen directly abolished this tax law, and then changed from thirty to one to ten to one.

On paper, the burden of the people has increased, but in reality the burden of the people has been lightened.

The burden of the people has never been land endowment, but miscellaneous and conscription.

In the current Ming Dynasty, if the local government wants to launch a conscription, it must go to Zhu Youzhen's front and obtain Zhu Youzhen's consent, and his approach is basically to deny conscription and distribute silver to the local government's employees.

When the conscription is gone, the burden of the people is only miscellaneous.

What Zhu Youzhen had to do was to abolish the miscellaneous items, so that the people and the gentry would fairly pay the thirty and one land tax together.

However, the Tian Fu of thirty to one could not support the Ming Dynasty, so Zhu Youzhen needed to raise the Tian Fu to ten Fu one.

Even so, the burden on the common people was greatly reduced, and it was the gentry and the powerful who were really burdened.

Originally, they only needed to pay thirty levies and one field tax, and they did not need to pay miscellaneous items or serve in forced labor.

As a result, they now have to pay a land tax of one out of ten, and they are treated the same as the common people.

There is no sense of superiority without comparison, and capitalists do not necessarily deprive people for money, but may also satisfy their own bad taste of watching others work, and the same is true for the gentry and the powerful.

Looking at the people who are living a hard life, and then seeing that they don't have to serve conscription or miscellaneous, the sense of superiority suddenly comes up.

However, Zhu Youzhen now wants to break their sense of superiority with a hammer, and he has to cut the flesh from them.

They didn't dare to resist Zhu Youzhen, but they were cautious.

This earthquake is one of the ways they evade taxes.

However, it is the inaction of local officials that needs to be noted, so in the final analysis, it is necessary to talk about the corruption of grassroots officials.

"Let Chengde come to see me."

Zhu Youzhen turned his head sideways and asked Cao Huachun to call Chengde, and then put Bi Ziyan aside like this, and there was no movement for a long time.

It wasn't until half an hour later that footsteps sounded from outside the hall, and Chengde's voice suddenly appeared:

"The left of the Imperial Court of the Imperial Court is Chengde, please see His Royal Highness......"

"Enter!" Zhu Youzhen responded, and Chengde also walked into the carrier hall when he heard this, and saluted when he saw Zhu Youzhen:

"Your Highness, see Your Highness, I respectfully ask Your Highness to ......"

"Everything is known, right? What do you think should be done about the tax and official problems in the six provinces of Jiangnan, Beijing, and Beijing? ”

Zhu Youzhen didn't wait for Chengde to sit down and asked, but Chengde was also very decisive:

"Since the local officials do not follow the laws of the imperial court, act recklessly, and shield the gentry and the powerful to refuse to pay taxes, they should be punished in accordance with the "Da Ming Law"."

"The lower officials suggested that officials from one Beijing and six provinces be ordered to verify the number of people affected by the disaster, the number of acres of fields, and pursue the taxes on the fields that have not been affected."

"At the same time, the officials of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, the Ministry of Officials, and the Dali Temple who were sent to the first Beijing and six provinces for verification and investigation will be arrested and exiled to Nanzhou!"

"For the officials who did not pursue and suppress the taxes on the affected fields afterwards, they will also be punished and exiled to Nanzhou!"

Chengde responded to Zhu Youzhen's dissatisfaction with a tough attitude, and he didn't care how many local officials and Yanshan officials would be dismissed by his words.

I'm afraid that, as he said and thought at the beginning, since he chose to embezzle and cover up, he must be prepared to fall off the horse.

They can't blame Sun Chuanting, they can't blame Lu Wenzhao, they can only blame themselves.

"......" Bi Ziyan listened to Chengde's words, but for the first time, he was impressed by Chengde.

He knew very well that if Chengde dared to say such a thing, he must have been fully prepared, not to mention anything else, just the thoughts of thousands of Yanshan officials in Beijing, he had to unify first.

In the same way, since Chengde unified the thinking and political views of thousands of officials in Beijing, local officials must also have their supporters.

Who are the supporters of Chengdeok?

Bi Ziyan thought about it, and thought of the tens of thousands of new Yanshan officials who graduated from Enke last month.

Those people were still waiting to be sent to take office in the official shop in the capital, and Da Ming did not have so many positions for them at the moment, so cracking down on internal corruption became what Cheng De, the leader of the Yanshan faction, had to do.

suppressing and exiled all those whose political views were different from his, and then supporting his own people to ascend to the throne, Zhu Youzhen also played this set of methods.

Thinking of this, Bi Ziyan took a deep look at Chengde, and everything he could think of, Zhu Youzhen could naturally think of it.

Zhu Youzhen squinted his eyes, he looked at Chengde's neither humble nor arrogant appearance, wondering if he was really for the people or for power.

If Chengde is really for the people, Zhu Youzhen will be very happy, because even if Chengde can't become the second Zhang Juzheng, as long as he has Zhang Juzheng's mind and adheres to the system he left behind, then Daming and the people can still live a good life for decades.

If he deliberately behaved like this for the sake of power, then Da Ming would probably have to go out of a deep consistency again.

Therefore, whether it was to test Chengde or to test the internal problems of Yanshan, Zhu Youzhen chose to speak:

"In that case, I'll leave the matter to you."

"In addition......" Zhu Youzhen looked at Bi Ziyan:

"From the beginning of the first month, the dynasty promulgated a new policy, abolishing all miscellaneous items, abolishing the ding tax, and changing the land endowment to one out of ten."

"Those who dare to disobey, or those who fail to impose it, will ...... the three tribes"

Zhu Youzhen said the words of the Yi three clans, which made Chengde and Bi Ziyan's hearts tighten.

It is necessary to know that in Zhu Youzhen's style of doing things, unless it is someone who has stepped on the red line in his heart, the end of most officials is exile to Nanzhou and Dongshan Mansion and Nanshan Mansion.

Since Zhu Youzhen dared to say the words of "Yi San", it means that in his heart, the officials who missed the taxes of the gentry and the powerful and tried to impose the missed taxes on the people were actually a dead man.

"Xiaguan...... Commanded ......"

Bi Ziyan and Chengde responded one after another, and Zhu Youzhen's step was actually to start "spreading the land into the mu, and the gentry paid the grain in one".

Once the new policy of ten endowments was promulgated, the gentry's hard life came.

is different from Yongzheng's "spreading the ding into the mu, the gentry and the gentry are integrated to collect grain and be on an errand", Zhu Youzhen did it more thoroughly than Yongzheng.

Due to the stability maintenance policy of the small and large clans, the Qing Dynasty destroyed a large number of official schools left by the Ming Dynasty, so that the literacy rate of the common people was cut in half.

Therefore, there are very few officials and spare officials in Yongzheng's hands, and they are all gentry and wealth, or they are funded by the gentry and power.

The only thing Yongzheng can use is the Eight Banners nobles in his hand, and Zhu Youzhen is different, he does not have the hindrance of the Qing Dynasty's national views, he can unscrupulously promote official learning, unscrupulously support the children and grandchildren of ordinary people as officials, and can also pull down the corrupt them at the necessary moment.

As long as his merits are great enough, he is not afraid that there will be people below who dare to speak against him openly, and those who dare to go against him will either die or be deposed.

Such as Zhu Guozuo, Shen Yu and others, even if they are in a hurry? Isn't it just that he can only watch him Zhu Youzhen's new policy be implemented?

Want to kill Zhu Youzhen? That's who's going to live longer......

It's really time for Zhu Youzhen to die, or when he is about to leave Daming.

Zhu Youzhen promised that he would take this group of guys away in waves, and at least let the Ming Dynasty be politically clear for more than ten years.

"Wow!"

"Let's go! Let's get it! ”

"Where's the sleepers?!"

Just as Zhu Youzhen was making a national policy, Shuozhou County, which was more than 700 miles away from him, was lively.

After a year and a half, the laying of the railway finally arrived at the boundary of Shuozhou from the Beijing West Railway Station, and with the arrival of the railway, there is still a large number of labor needs.

Shuozhou, Daizhou, Shanyin, Mayi, Yanmenguan and other places along the railway had no land to cultivate because of the great drought.

For a time, the laying of the more than 100-mile railway from Shanyin to Shuozhou actually gathered more than 100,000 workers.

It can be said that more than 100,000 workers are almost engaged in linear construction next to each other, and such labor demand also euphemistically expresses the tension and urgency of the people of Shanxi.

Although there is still surplus food at home, it is not enough to support the surplus food that is consumed every day.

Therefore, the people could only work to earn money to buy rice and noodles in the imperial store.

Behind the hot scene, there is the helplessness brought about by the great drought.

Railways, reservoirs, canals, government roads, county roads, township roads......

All kinds of cash-for-work projects continue to appear, but they are scattered after the construction is completed.

In the past year, 152 reservoirs have been built in Datong and Taiyuan provinces, 732 li of canals have been built, 400 li of roads have been built, and 1,200 li of county roads and 1,900 li of township roads are still under construction.

These projects, together with the railways, barely allowed one million of the three million people in Taiyuan and Datong to work.

To put it bluntly, one or two people from each household go to the construction site to work, and the rest either help Huangdian as casual laborers, or can only go to the Taihang Mountains to find some wild vegetables to alleviate the family.

Where there is water, it is okay, although the yield has decreased, but at least there is still land to cultivate, and where there is no water, you can only go to work in the major coal yards in Huangdian.

But even so, Daming still can't create jobs that can give more than seven million people in Shanxi something to do, so a large number of people who can't bear it can only choose to move.

For example, in the past few years, the Xuanfu of Northern Zhili has moved from more than 500,000 people to only 100,000 people, most of whom have gone to Modong Province.

With the establishment of the three provinces outside the Guanxi Province, many people in Shanxi also have the intention of relocation, after all, the drought really shows no signs of stopping.

They haven't left yet, because they want to survive the winter and save some money by the way.

Because of this, Shanxi is particularly lively this winter.

Even though the temperature outside is more than 20 degrees below zero, it still can't stop the people from wearing cotton clothes to work.

Although the frozen soil is hard, one person can still dry a few steps of ditch in a day, and more than 100,000 workers can dry hundreds of thousands of steps of ditch in a day.

The gravel was laid by manpower, and the sleepers and railroad tracks were also built by manpower, so I went to the tent next to the construction site to drink ginger soup.

The overseers of the Ministry of Works set up two tents on both sides of the road every 100 paces, and in the tents there was a large vat of boiling ginger soup, one jar of ginger soup was enough for more than 100 people.

There are more than a dozen catties of brown sugar in the tank, and just drinking this ginger syrup can fill people.

This kind of small people's life is the life of most of the people in Shanxi.

At present, they are not as good as the people of Shaanxi, at least the people of Shaanxi have been able to basically support themselves after almost relocation, but they still need the imperial court to transfer grain from time to time.

Compared with Shaanxi, the people of Shanxi are miserable, although millions of people have moved out in four years, but the population of Shanxi is too much, and everyone is hungry under the lack of water.

Zhu Youzhen went to the northeast in order to resettle the hungry people in Shanxi, and the tragic situation in Shanxi can only be seen by officials in Shanxi.

"Dad, do you think their days will be better next year......

On the hill far away from the construction site, when nine-year-old Sun Bingwen opened his mouth to ask, Sun Chuanting could only sigh:

"If the tractor thing is true, then they should be better, but I don't know how many of these hundreds of thousands of people will leave their homes in the coming year."

"Many of my classmates in the government school said that they were going to follow their parents to the three provinces outside the border after this semester, and they didn't know where to go, and whether they still had any books."

Sun Bingwen, who shared a horse with Sun Chuanting, revealed some reluctance in his words, but Sun Chuanting was only silent after listening.

He knew that it was right for the people to leave their hometowns, because with this situation, the drought would obviously not disappear suddenly, and although it would take two or three years to move to the three provinces outside the Guanwai, there would always be a headway.

If the tractor mentioned by the imperial court can really reclaim more than ten acres of wasteland a year, then the people's lives will be somewhat guaranteed.

Sun Chuanting didn't understand these things, but he believed that the people of the Imperial Horse Prison would not let them go for no reason.

He glanced at the hot construction site, looked at the speed of their work, and couldn't help but sigh:

"If we continue like this, I'm afraid that in a month at most, the 100-mile railway will be laid."

Isn't it just a little more than a month to use more than 100,000 people to use more than 100,000 people for a project that originally took more than a year to complete?

It's just a pity that they built fast, but the speed of Daming's steel couldn't keep up with them.

Sun Chuanting's idle days at home can be seen that the imperial court is using steel and cement everywhere, in order to let the people have jobs and food.

It's just that the production capacity of steel and cement can't keep up with the speed of construction at all, so every time a section of the project is completed, the place has to rest for more than half a month.

For these hundreds of thousands of people, their wages for a month's work on this construction site can only buy 130 or 40 catties of rice at most.

They may be able to feed their family for two months, but after two months, they will still need to eat and save money.

Thinking of this, Sun Chuanting couldn't help sighing, and even wanted to ask if he could increase the wages of Shanxi workers.

Just before his idea could be put into practice, he saw two teams of fast horses running in the distance, holding up their Chinese books and shouting back and forth:

"Long live the purpose! Shanxi workers' wages increased by three articles! The previous working hours will be based on this standard and made up for the time and length! ”

"Long live Your Majesty! Banzai! Banzai! ”

"Hahaha!

！ ”

When the two teams of overseers shouted the news of the imperial court's wage increase, the workers who heard this began to revel.

Some of them held up their tools and sang long live, some stamped their feet excitedly, and some laughed, all of them with smiles on their faces.

Sun Chuanting couldn't hear the sound of the fast horse, but the family behind him went down to the hill to ask the workers, and then passed the news back to Sun Chuanting.

Sun Chuanting breathed a sigh of relief when he heard the good news, but he also knew that the so-called "Long Live Decree" was actually "King Qi had an order".

Zhu Youzhen is just doing things under the banner of Zhu Youxiao and pushing the credit to him.

It's just that it's not necessarily a good thing for him to do so.

When people know that the king they respect is actually a ruler who relies on others to give credit, and the person who gives merit is going to leave the Ming Dynasty, such a result will be extremely cruel to the people.

Why are some people of the Yanshan faction distorted, to put it bluntly, Zhu Youzhen said the emperor too well, and Zhu Youxiao couldn't do what he said at all.

When ideals and reality deviate, people will only become paranoid.

"Dad, the salary has only risen by three cents, why are they so happy?"

Sun Chuanting was still immersed in the future questions of Da Ming, but Sun Bingwen asked about the reality.

In Sun Bingwen's opinion, it doesn't seem to be a lot of money, because he has ten yuan in change every day.

In the face of his inquiry, Sun Chuanting was silent for a few seconds, and only after a moment did he say:

"For you and me, it's not a lot of money, but for them, it's just a pound of rice, and it's a hope that people can live."

"The salary of fifteen wen is very small for us, but for them, they can not only feed the family, but also save one or two catties of rice and noodles to go to a place where they can live a better life."

"Then can't the imperial court directly send rice noodles to them? Didn't we also have food stamps before? Sun Bingwen was puzzled.

Faced with his question, Sun Chuanting was also very puzzled, he didn't understand why Zhu Youzhen was willing to send food to the people before, but now he is unwilling.

Is there a problem with the imperial court's taxation? Or is the expenditure too great?

However, the imperial court has even destroyed the captives, what is there to make the imperial court unable to make ends meet?

Sun Chuanting couldn't figure it out, because he had been away from the court for too long, even if it was only two years, but in these two years, Daming became unrecognizable.

Thinking of this, Sun Chuanting could only reply: "Your Highness and the imperial court have their own considerations. ”

"You're going to class tomorrow, so that's all for today, go home......"

After that, Sun Chuanting turned his horse's head and rode back towards Zhenwu with the four family members around him, until he disappeared at the end of the county road......