"Let's go? Hehe...... My Xu family's fields are thousands of hectares, and there are thousands of slaves, how can it be changed in a moment? ”

"That's right, I don't believe that the imperial court will not remember the merits of my ancestors who contributed to the imperial court, and scourge us and other meritorious heroes!"

In the city of Suzhou, Nanzhili, when the voices sounded, hundreds of men also gathered in a large-scale mansion.

Although it is a private house, the house covers an area of nearly 80 acres, and the whole building is divided into three parts: east, middle and west.

The eastern part is bright and cheerful, mainly with Pinggang distant mountains, pine forest lawns, and bamboo dock qushui.

The middle part is dominated by water, the pond is wide and the trees are luxuriant, the scenery is natural, and the buildings with different shapes and heights are arranged near the water, and the main and secondary are distinct.

The western pond is in the shape of a curved ruler, it is characterized by the division of the Taiwan Pavilion, the undulating corridor, the reflection of the water waves, the special interest, the decoration is gorgeous and exquisite, and the main building is the Mandarin Duck Pavilion close to the side of the residence.

Although it seems to be a small area, its scale is already comparable to some small county palaces.

Where is this place? I'm afraid that the three words "Humble Administrator's Garden" on the plaque are enough to explain.

As one of the four famous gardens in Suzhou, the Humble Administrator's Garden was expanded by the frustrated Imperial History King Xianchen during the Zhengde period, and then his son lost the garden to the Xu family, and the Xu family thus became the owner of the Humble Administrator's Garden.

This entry is a full hundred years, and the Lingering Garden, which is also one of the four major gardens, is also the private property of another Xu family of the same sect.

Although the priorities are orderly, it can also be seen that the Xu family's financial resources are sufficient, otherwise it would be impossible to buy two famous gardens at once.

It's just that since the Wanli period, the Xu family has begun to age, and the reason is that there is no one in the court, and it is becoming more and more bulliable.

In the year of the Apocalypse, when the King of Qi was in charge, the Xu family had some opportunities, and there were a few children of six or seven grades in the court to support them.

After the news of Yiling spread, the Xu family, relying on several officials of their own family, did not choose to sell their slaves and family property and move overseas to save their lives, but chose to resist stubbornly.

They want to see if they don't move, then the King of Qi will really move them to Changping to guard the tomb of the previous emperor!

"My Xu family's acres, if the court can eat it, then we will move, if the court can't eat it, then it's not our problem."

Sitting on the main seat, the head of the Xu family, Xu Ji, was talking, as if their family's property had reached the point where even the imperial court could not clean it up.

But in the face of his rebelliousness, the children of the Xu family below did not feel strange, but felt that it was normal.

The Xu family has been entrenched in Suzhou for hundreds of years, with hundreds of thousands of acres of land, thousands of slaves and tens of thousands of tenants.

In addition, his family has shops on two streets in Suzhou and hundreds of people who work for him.

Looking at it this way, the Xu family is simply stronger than many feudal palaces before the New Deal.

This is just the head of the Xu family, and the side veins that are separated are also thriving in all parts of Jiangnan.

The property of the main family and the side veins are added together, and the thousands of children of the Xu family occupy more than 2 million mu of cultivated land in the south of the Yangtze River, and their slave tenants are as many as hundreds of thousands.

The slaves here are not the same as the tenants, and the slaves of the Ming Dynasty were mainly composed of official slaves and official slaves.

For example, Ming Taizu gave Li Shan a hundred and twenty people as slaves, and then gave him an iron book, also known as the iron book.

During the Yongle period, many of those who did not attach Yan soldiers from Jianwen were killed, and the relatives of the victims were all reduced to happy households and incorporated into slavery.

After Jiajing, the economy in the south of the Yangtze River was developed, and there were many wealthy households, some of whom had as many as one or two thousand slaves.

All such slaves have a contract of sale, and their descendants will not be allowed to leave their nationality for generations.

Therefore, if a man sins and becomes a slave of the gentry, then his children and grandchildren will be slaves of the gentry for the rest of his life, unless this law is abolished.

The Xu family's rebellion comes from the more than 1,000 slaves in his family, and the rebellion of the gentry in all parts of the Jiangnan also comes from this.

Naturally, they didn't want to rely on their servants to confront the court, but they thought very clearly.

Since the imperial court chose to exchange acres of land, it would give them enough overseas land to let them give the land to the imperial court willingly.

In this way, whether it was the court or the gentry, everyone was happy.

The Xu family thinks like this, the Peng family, the Song family, the Shen family, and the gentry in Suzhou City, as well as the Songjiang Xu family, the Hangzhou Sun family, and the Qian family......

In the course of the history of the Ming Dynasty, these major gentry and powerful men continued to annex land and raise slaves.

By the time of the Apocalypse, only the famous people in Jiangnan had no less than 100,000 mu of land under their command, and these hundreds of people added up, most of the more than 160 million mu of land in the three provinces of Jiangnan were annexed by them, and tens of millions of people were their tenants.

The acres of gentry land that Zhu Youzhen and Hong Chengchou acquired a few days ago were nothing more than cultivated land handed over by many small and medium-sized gentry landlords after they relocated.

The real big head still has to look at these families who have been entrenched in the place for hundreds of thousands of years.

The conflict between them and the imperial court was not only on the issue of land annexation, but also on the issue of taxation.

Land annexation was not a bad thing for feudal dynasties to a certain extent, such as the Song Dynasty, which had the most land annexation in all dynasties.

Although the common people had been overwhelmed by land annexation and imperial court taxes, the Song Dynasty turned a blind eye to the gentry's land annexation, regardless of whether the people lived or died.

The more land the gentry annexed, the easier it was for the court to collect taxes, and the more convenient it was to suppress the peasants.

The difference between the gentry of the Song and Ming dynasties was that one could collect taxes and the other could not.

In the early years of the Apocalypse, they didn't let Zhu Youzhen and the two brothers have a good time, and Zhu Youzhen naturally couldn't let them have a good time.

Although Xu Ji's words were inspiring, everyone knew that as long as it was Zhu Youzhen, the king of Qi, who was in charge, most of their rebellions would be suppressed.

Therefore, even though the main family behaved with confidence, some side veins still sold their family property early and moved to Nanzhou and Jiaozhi.

Among the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River, they hesitate in the wave of going or not going, but the hesitation is often fatal.

"In the past two months, more than 600,000 people have been relocated from the south of the Yangtze River, two-thirds of whom are ordinary people, and one-third of whom are gentry and powerful people."

"Your Highness and the imperial court need to give more than 42 million acres of land to the gentry......

In mid-July, in the palace of the Qi Palace, Hong Chengchou took the document of the Migration Division to ask Zhu Youzhen, his eyes were full of anxiety, and Zhu Youzhen got a letter sent by King Charles I of England last year.

[Charlie, the king of England, Scotland and Ireland, and the guardian of the faith, hereby pays tribute to the great and powerful and invincible Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, His Royal Highness King Qi, the patron of all countries. 】

[On behalf of the nationals of England, Scotland and Ireland, I would like to express my ...... to you]

A letter also about commerce, but mainly about the taxation of royal shops in England.

Charles I's idea was for the Ming to pay the taxes of the royal shops in London and Ireland directly to the British royal family, rather than to the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

In this regard, Zhu Youzhen has no reason to refuse, and it is more in line with the interests of the Ming Dynasty to let Europe continue to have a monarchy than to let them establish a constitutional system.

Therefore, Zhu Youzhen did not take the lead in answering Hong Chengchou's words, but looked at Cao Huachun and said:

"Let the Southern Kunlun Inspectorate send officials to the Four Nations and Portugal to promote an alliance of the Five Nations against Francois (Spain)."

"If the Five-Power Alliance can be established, then the Ming Dynasty promises the royal families of all countries to pay the taxes of the royal stores of all countries to the royal families, and provides the royal families with low-interest loans of 200,000 taels of Qitongbao per country for the purchase of Ming goods."

The time is getting closer and closer, Zhu Youzhen left this time, and he doesn't plan to come back in the future.

Therefore, the matter of Spain in the American colonies had to be resolved as soon as possible.

The paradox is that this war of religion must end in victory between Spain and the Holy Roman Empire, or it will not lead to a second war of religion.

But if Spain is to win, it will have to support Spain to contain the other countries.

Once Spain is supported, it will be difficult for Qi to succeed in its plan to recover Spain's colonies in the United States, which is the contradiction between the Ming and Qi countries.

Zhu Youzhen's thinking is very simple, that is, Da Ming sings black face, and Qi Guo sings white face.

The Ming side interrupted the trade between Spain and the countries, but the Qi state supported Spain to defeat the countries, but on the condition that the American colonies were ceded.

How to do it is actually quite simple.

Qi could buy a large number of flintlock pistols and arquebuses eliminated by the Ming army at a low price as a vassal state, and then sell guns, artillery, and gunpowder to support Spain.

For this reason, Qi can be in debt of tens of millions of taels, after all, there are still hundreds of thousands of stocks of retired arms in the Ming Dynasty, and a few trades can reduce Qi Guo's debt to several million taels.

Anyway, in the future, the Qi State will also rely on selling grain to earn the gold and silver plundered by them from Europe, and the problem of debt will soon be solved.

However, even if Zhu Youzhen had made such a big concession, Felipe IV of Spain was still reluctant to give up the colonies in the Americas.

Since this is the case, Zhu Youzhen can only use force to recover Central America.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youzhen also opened his mouth and asked Wang Chengen, who was sitting on a chair in the distance:

"Cheng'en, how many people have migrated to the Qi country?"

As soon as Zhu Youzhen spoke, Wang Chengen immediately rummaged through the migration document handed to Qi Guo by the Migration Division.

He looked at the contents of the booklet, and then raised his head and said to Zhu Youzhen:

"Your Highness, since the beginning of last year, a total of more than 586,000 people have migrated in the seventeen months before the seventh month of this year, and it should be able to break through to 700,000 by the end of this year."

The immigrants of Qi are about to break through to 700,000, and this speed is something that Zhu Youzhen himself did not expect.

"It seems that the drought in Jiangnan is even more serious than I thought......

frowned slightly, then Zhu Youzhen looked at Hong Chengchou again, and continued his topic:

"The ...... behind you Have you migrated? ”

Zhu Youzhen asked about the Nan'an Hong clan behind Hong Chengchou, but Hong Chengchou shook his head, and said, "The lower officials didn't pay attention to their ......."

In order to save his life, Hong Chengchou cut off contact with the Hong family early, and Hong Qiyin, who supported him to study, was arranged by him to enter Luchuan to serve, which can be regarded as repaying his kindness.

In this regard, Zhu Youzhen was not surprised, but asked about Hong Chengchou.

"Do you think that the servants of the gentry are sincerely loyal to them at the present time?"

With the words "......", Hong Chengchou instantly fell silent.

Loyalty?

Who would want their children and grandchildren to be slaves to their family for generations?

They just didn't dare to resist, after all, the Ming Dynasty recognized the relationship between master and servant. 、

"I know......" Seeing Hong Chengchou's appearance, a smile appeared on the corner of Zhu Youzhen's mouth.

He wanted to deal with the gentry, but not by himself, let alone by sending troops to suppress it, but by mobilizing the power of the people to punish the gentry.

The Jiangnan of the Ming Dynasty is very complicated, and after Zhu Youzhen came to this world, his understanding of the contradictions in Jiangnan gradually deepened over time.

Coupled with the "Jiangnan Slave Mutiny" that he knew in his previous life, Zhu Youzhen already had a way to deal with the gentry without using troops.

When he was the main emigrant gentry before, Zhu Youzhen said that the gentry should not be afraid of strength, because he knew history.

In the peasant wars at the end of the Ming Dynasty in history, it was not uncommon for the slaves of wealthy families to take advantage of the situation to riot.

In Yongxin, Jiangxi, and other places, slaves occupied the master's property, distributed the master's grain, and tied up his master, asking "Why do you call me as a slave?" The scene is happening all over Jiangnan.

In the previous life, some people said that Chongzhen could open up the folk group training to maintain the life of the Ming Dynasty, but the result was that even if Chongzhen did not issue an order, the local gentry had already organized the folk league training.

The reason why they did such a bold thing in spite of the imperial court was because of the outline put forward by the slaves of the Jiangnan Uprising.

They put forward the slogan of "shoveling the masters and servants, the noble and the low, the rich and the poor and equal", and pointed directly at the rich and landlords, and officials who have oppressed them for hundreds of years.

After the news of Chongzhen's self-hanging and Hongguang's southern crossing reached Jiangnan, the rolling tide of peasant uprisings in the north began to stimulate the nerves of the southern slaves.

As the turmoil intensified, domestic slaves across the South were ready to revolt and change their fate.

On the eve of the Qing army's southward march, the slaves in Suzhou, Songjiang, Jiading, Wuxi and other places in the south of the Yangtze River operated the Gosochi (deed of sale), and there were more than tens of thousands of slaves sitting on the deed of deed, and the momentum was huge.

】

Slaves or tenant farmers bound up their former masters, and they had to pay back the punishments inflicted on their former masters, causing panic among the gentry in the south.

When the Qing army began to move south, most of the gentry who wanted to save their lives began to take the initiative to join the Qing army and donate silver and grain to show their loyalty.

In order to stabilize the situation in the south of the Yangtze River and pursue the remnants of the Ming Dynasty, the Qing court began to exterminate the slaves and tenants in various places one after another.

At that time, among the slave teams in the Jiangnan region, the "nose shaving class" and the "oolong society" were the most powerful, especially the "nose shaving class" that arose in Jintan and Liyang areas was the most prominent.

These people typed "Why should my generation grow up to be slaves?" I hope to be able to escape the fate of eternal slavery.

They call themselves "nose shaving class", and the so-called nose shaving does not mean that they want to retaliate by cutting off other people's noses, but because in the late Ming Dynasty, Jiangnan usually used their noses to refer to domestic slaves in order to avoid denial.

Therefore, the so-called nose cutting of the rebel slaves is to cut off the identity and lineage of their slaves.

Ironically, however, they tried to get rid of their lowly status in the name of shaving their noses, but were eventually defeated by the Qing army, whose punishment for them literally cut off their noses.

The Qing army captured several of the people who were the leaders, and the history recorded that 'cut off their noses, hung them in the city, and said: The name of the class is cut off, and the nose is cut to show the public, and then they are beheaded. ’

In the end, this decades-long Jiangnan slave rebellion was quelled after Kangxi succeeded to the throne, but its influence continued until Yongzheng's succession.

From this incident, what Zhu Youzhen could grasp was the power of the slaves and the class contradictions between the slaves and the landlords.

The slaves were not afraid of the landlords, they were afraid of the imperial court, because the imperial court recognized the master-servant relationship.

But if the court doesn't recognize this relationship, what will be the consequences?

"I want to abolish the law of master and servant in the "Da Ming Law", and from tomorrow, there will be no more slaves in Da Ming!"

Zhu Youzhen is not a hit, and it is a blockbuster.

As soon as he said this, Hong Chengchou, who knew very well the contradictions between the slaves and the landlords and gentry, knew that the gentry in Jiangnan were doomed to death this time!

The gentry were not afraid that Zhu Youzhen would send troops to suppress it, because this would damage the national prestige of the Ming Dynasty and the majesty of the emperor, and even affect the future governance of the Ming Dynasty.

They were not afraid that Zhu Youzhen would urge them to pay taxes, because they knew that Zhu Youzhen would not be able to discharge hundreds of thousands of people who were proficient in arithmetic to settle accounts.

They are not afraid of anything from external problems, but what they are afraid of is internal problems.

When the millions of slaves no longer serve the hundreds of thousands of gentry and landlords, and even draw swords against them, the gentry will kneel down and beg for enlightenment.

However, the mere abolition of the law of master and servant was not enough to arouse the wrath of millions of slaves.

"From now on, the magistrate's government will redeem the slaves of each family at the price of the deed, and the gentry shall not hinder it."

"The redeemed slaves emigrated to Sichuan, Yunnan, Guangxi, and Anxi provinces, and each person was given ten acres of arable land and six stones of grain."

"For migrants, there is a team for every ten households, ten teams for one village, and ten tractors for each village."

Zhu Youzhen continued to speak, and compared to the words that gave them freedom before, the current words are to give them freedom at the same time, and give them an extra sum of money and food and land to live on.

Hong Chengchou heard his words and also knew that the Jiangnan gentry were not far from falling.

The government sent troops to urge taxes, which was a contradiction between the gentry and the government.

But the slave ran away, this is the contradiction between the gentry and the slave.

In the case that the gentry had already lost a large number of tenants, if the slaves chose to flee again, the gentry would be completely empty.

Even if the gentry had millions of acres of land, so what? Without enough tenants to help with the cultivation and skilled servants to collect taxes for them, the gentry could only watch the fields overgrown with weeds.

Thinking of this, Hong Chengchou sighed:

"Your Highness, you really know the people......"

Thinking so, Hong Chengchou also stood up and said: "I'm afraid that many officials will oppose this matter." ”

"Their opposition is invalid, and if they oppose it, they will directly issue a decree!" Zhu Youzhen snorted lightly, and he didn't look down on the group of insects in the court at all.

Seeing this, Hong Chengchou didn't say much, but suggested: "Even so, you still have to prepare for both. ”

"One is that it is necessary to send troops and strengthen patrols in the cities, so that some of the slaves will not have bad intentions and maliciously rob and kill."

"The second is that the slaves must be supervised and brought to Sochi by regular means."

"The third is to supplement the treasury silver of the local government, especially the treasury silver of the three provinces south of the Yangtze River, so that when the gentry hand over the deed, the local yamen will not have silver."

Hong Chengchou put forward three points, all of which are to guard against uneasy factors that may arise after the issuance of this policy.

Regarding these three points, Zhu Youzhen deeply agreed.

If he remembers it well, in history, Xu Xiake's family was implicated in his family because of the Jiangnan slave change, which led to the death of his heirs and injuries.

"In addition......" Hong Chengchou glanced at Zhu Youzhen and continued:

"Your Highness, if the slaves are abolished, what should the officials do?"

"It's okay to say that there are no domestic servants in the mansion, but if there are no servants in the yamen to drive, then we need to recruit another group of officials......

"October is just around the corner, and it is not difficult to recruit more officials." Zhu Youzhen interrupted:

"As for the servants in the mansion, don't worry, the common people and rich peasants can hire some old women, but you can't?"

Zhu Youzhen's words showed his attitude, and Hong Chengchou didn't dare to ask more.

But he knew that Zhu Youzhen's words were likely to make a large number of Yanshan officials oppose him.

The reason is very simple, after enjoying the service of young and beautiful maids, as well as the slaves who are driven casually, once the slave system is abolished, many officials in the Ming Dynasty will lose these.

In the past, it was a year of disaster, and there were many children and daughters, and there was no shortage of slaves.

But now that the imperial court is constantly moving the population outward, and it is not allowed to keep slaves, the supply and demand in the future will change.

In the hinterland, where the population has become smaller and the land has increased, many people can live a good life, and naturally there is no need to sell their children and daughters.

Without these people, it would not be so easy for officials to hire some people to help out in the mansion.

Not to mention others, even Hong Chengchou himself is a little distressed.

Although his distress was not written on his face, it was still noticed by Zhu Youzhen.

In this regard, Zhu Youzhen also added after a moment of silence before Hong Chengchou left:

"Huangdian will organize Yingzhou women and Nanyang women to come to the mainland to do housework, but the salary will not be less, you let the officials prepare."

"The lower official receives the order......" Hearing that Zhu Youzhen was willing to let Yingzhou women and Nanyang women come to the mainland to do housework, Hong Chengchou breathed a sigh of relief in his heart.

What he is most afraid of is that Zhu Youzhen pays attention to equality for everyone, which will make the life of officials worse after losing their slaves.

As a result, it is inevitable that officials will complain.

Fortunately, Yingzhou Girl and Nanyang Girl have filled this vacancy, so that even if the officials have grievances, I am afraid it will not be too big.

Yingzhou women and Nanyang women often do some sundries in some people's homes to earn money, and Hong Chengchou naturally knows about this.

Their wages are basically ten wen a day, even if they are introduced into the Central Plains, at most fifteen wen or twenty wen, which is cheaper than hiring slaves before.

Officials will definitely not refuse such a thing.

With this thought, Hong Chengchou slowly withdrew from the Carrier Hall.

Soon after he withdrew from the carrier hall, the news that King Qi wanted to free the slaves was completely spread.

On that day, there was an endless stream of fast horses out of the city to deliver news, and the officials knew that the king of Qi had seized the death of the gentry this time......