Chapter 420

The land policy in Liaodong is based on limited private ownership, and the only people who own their own personal land in Liaodong are the officers and men of the Ning Navy, including the civil and military officials of the Ning Navy system, as well as factory technicians and factory managers, and their land is divided into two areas, one is the post field, and the other is the merit field.

However, Shandong, Henan, and Huaibei adopted private ownership, and adopted the method of dividing the land equally, of course, the policy here is actually similar to the policy of Liaodong, Song Xiance in order to expand the army, the land taken back from the gentry, also distributed to the soldiers of the Dashun army, as well as the civil and military officials and skilled workers of the Dashun army at that time.

It's just that the measures taken are more radical and extreme than those in Liaodong. As for the prefectures and counties of the Northern Zhili, they adopted the original system of the Ming Dynasty.

Although it is said that the area originally controlled by Song Xiance is somewhat similar to Liaodong, where the Ning Navy is located, the problem is that the difference is still quite large, which is about the same as the difference between the Western Han Dynasty and the Eastern Han Dynasty, that is to say, the area controlled by Cheng Shijie now has three sets of land policies, and no matter which one is adopted, it can be completely one-size-fits-all.

Cheng Shijie fell into a dilemma, so he decided to convene a meeting in the capital, of course, this meeting belonged to the edict of the people, and the participants were cabinet members plus the left and right servants of various ministries.

This is the first enlarged meeting since Cheng Shijie became the regent, although it is not like the big court meeting during the Chongzhen Dynasty, but the number of participants directly exceeded 100 people.

The officials who came to the main hall found that a long table appeared in front of them, with chairs placed in front of each table, and a name tag placed on each table, which was the position and name.

They exchanged heads and talked a lot, which was different from the previous dynasty, at that time everyone was standing, and only the elderly cabinet chief assistant or the prince and the prince and the like could be given a special seat, which was just a small round pier.

Now the officials attending the court meeting have not only name tags, but also paper and pens, as well as biscuits, pastries, dried fruits, and dried meat. Tea, and of course a row of clerks, attended the meeting minutes.

The cabinet ministers had long been accustomed to it, but those officials who attended this court meeting for the first time were very surprised, and the court meeting of the Dingxin Dynasty was completely different from the court meeting of the Chongzhen Dynasty.

"Meet the regent and the country, long live the country."

"Ministers, excuse me, sit down!"

Cheng Shijie looked at Prime Minister Sun Zhili and said, "How many topics are there in today's meeting?" ”

"Back to the king, there are seven topics in today's meeting, the first is that the year is approaching, and it is necessary to carry out Jingcha, the second topic is the coming year, that is, the first year of Dingxin, Enke, the third topic is land reform, and the fourth topic is ......."

Cheng Shijie nodded and said, "Okay, add a topic for the time being, and this king will issue an order." ”

"Please show me the king!"

"This king wants to issue a spring ploughing no war order, the Spring Festival is about to be celebrated, after the Spring Festival is spring ploughing, in the past two years, both the Central Plains and the outside have experienced many disasters, therefore, this king wants to issue this order. From now until the end of spring ploughing, the Central Plains will have a complete end to war. Let the people of the world live a good year and complete next year's spring ploughing, who dares to use swords and soldiers. No matter what the reason is, after the spring ploughing is over, this king will be the first to crusade against him! All the armies under the control of the king must do their best to protect the spring ploughing. Those who dare to encroach on farmland will be killed! ”

Cheng Shijie did not take a single blow, and directly led the army south to take the small court of the Southern Ming Dynasty, or to go west to destroy the Western Qin, the most important reason was the food problem, of course, the land reform problem was also eased.

Hearing this, Lu Xiangsheng was moved, and bent his knees and said: "The prison country is really the king of benevolence, and the king of the world is like this, how fortunate it is!" ”

Cheng Shijie smiled and said, "I didn't expect Lu Jiandou to be quite good at sycophancy." ”

Lu Xiangsheng was a little stunned at first, and then looked at Cheng Shijie's smile as if there was no malice, but there was a burst of relief and joy in his heart, and he was willing to joke with himself, which was a good start for himself.

Cheng Shijie continued: "In addition, there is another thing, this king wants to spread the word to the world, from the east of Taihang, all the prefectures and counties under my control, if the taxes collected this year are all refunded, and the agricultural taxes will be exempted next year!" The world has been weakened, and now it must find a way to recuperate its subjects. ”

Sun Zhili was originally a son of Confucianism and had always advocated benevolent government, but the problem is that now he is the prime minister of the empire and the person in charge of the house, so he naturally understands what the result of this is!

Sun Zhili cried and laughed and said: "The minister has objections!" ”

"But it doesn't hurt to say it!"

"There is no war in Liaodong, and it is also decided in Liaoxi, and there are no soldiers in Shandong, Henan, and Jianghuai last year, if the king is exempt from taxes, only Yongping Mansion, Shuntian Mansion, Baoding Mansion, Zhending Mansion, and Hejian Mansion that have been most affected by the disaster can be exempted, and there is no need to exempt all agricultural taxes!"

Cheng Shijie said: "What do you think? ”

"I think it's a good move!"

"The minister is against!"

After some disputes, in the end, Cheng Shijie directly vetoed Sun Zhili's meaning, although Liaodong did not experience the war, but the problem is that they have paid too much, and their efforts are not less than those of Beizhili, and they have to admit that the entire Beizhili is self-inflicted.

Inevitably, I can't actually get anything.

Although Cheng Shijie attended the meeting, the presiding officer was Prime Minister Sun Zhixi.

Cheng Shijie knew very well that the ancient dynasty was a country with an economic development model dominated by the small peasant economy, and in the economic system dominated by the small peasant economy, one of the biggest constraints was land annexation, which can be said to be an important internal factor for the change of ancient dynasties.

If there is no land annexation, there is a high probability that the ancient dynasty will not be replaced, and the so-called prosperous era is just a period when the number of population and land bearing capacity reach equilibrium, as long as the population growth rate does not exceed the limit of land bearing capacity, even if it is a pig, it can create a prosperous dynasty.

Conversely, once the population exceeds the limit of the land's bearing capacity, and the limited land can no longer support so many people, there will be a man-made mass extinction, forcibly reducing the population to a relatively low level, which is equivalent to clearing the system and starting over.

For thousands of years, not only in China, but also in the whole world, this process has been repeated, the difference is that we can always rule after the chaos, and in some places the chaos is followed by endless chaos, which will not stop for thousands of years.

When the Cabinet was discussing land reform, because the issue involved all aspects, all the participants joined in the discussion, and although they were red-faced, they did not produce results.

Fortunately, Cheng Shijie asked people to prepare tea and snacks for the officials attending the meeting, biscuits, which can replenish energy, and during the meeting, there will also be a recess, every other hour, a break of 15 minutes, you can go to the toilet to go to the toilet, you should rest and rest, which is more humane.

However, the meeting was temporarily interrupted.

Of course, although Cheng Shijie left, the meeting continued, but the military left one after another, which also caused many speculations.

In fact, the problem did not happen at home, but abroad.

The Yamen of the Military Department, which came to the capital, has now been changed to the General Staff.

Zhou Ning took the intelligence report that had just been sent: "The Spaniards came over to urge, asking the king to agree to release the captives!" ”

Lu Xiangsheng asked suspiciously: "Captive? What captive? ”

Cheng Shijie said lightly: "The prisoners captured when recovering Luzon and the big officials, the Spaniards alone captured thousands of them, and they are still locked up in Luzon." Those foreign devils were so anxious that they jumped to their feet, and they did not hesitate to cut the land in order to redeem these captives! ”

Lu Xiangsheng was even more confused: "For the sake of thousands of people, you have to cut the land?" ”

"Lord Lu doesn't know that this Spanish Empire has a small population, and the entire Spanish Empire has a population of just over eight million, but they control about five or six Ming Dynasty in their heyday!"

Lu Xiangsheng was dumbfounded: "So much territory? How can you be this person? ”

"Because they never count the natives and slaves as adults, if you count their natives and slaves, the population may be slightly lower than the Ming Dynasty!"

According to later generations, at this time, the most populous country in Europa was not Spain but the Holy Roman Empire, where about 35 million people lived, but the problem was that the Holy Roman Empire was neither sacred, nor in Rome, nor an empire. This area is actually located in Central Europe, Germany and some of the surrounding areas.

France has a population of more than 15 million, Italy has a population of more than 13 million, and England and Wales have a combined population of only 4.5 million, which is only the same as the population of Philadelphia in the 90s of the 20th century.

Cheng Shijie didn't have time to read the information, and said lightly: "Although they have a lot of territory, if the desolate king doesn't agree, which piece of land did they cut in exchange for prisoners?" If the land is not good, I won't want it, those miscellaneous people have invaded my Ming territory for decades, and they will pay a price for everything! Whether to exchange Australia for it, I advise them to die, because Australia is already in the king's pocket, and it is not their turn to be the master! ”

"This one, this is it!"

Zhou Ning found the map on the huge map.

Cheng Shijie actually doesn't know Spanish, looking at the area where the territory is in South America, combined with the maps of later generations, he finally understands that this is the plain of La Plata.

"Count them into practice!"

Cheng Shijie said with a smile: "The land they cut is definitely good land, and I am afraid it will be difficult to find a better land in the world!" Rio de la Plata, the most habitable area on the planet! ”

Lu Xiangsheng looked at the map suspiciously, instinctively feeling that this land was really small, but the word "plain" still caught his attention, the plain means that it is easy to develop, suitable for cultivation and settlement, a good place: "Plain de la Plata? How big is this one?

"How big is more than a million square kilometers?"

"More than a million square kilometers? It is equivalent to nine Henan, about eight Shaanxi, and three Sichuan! ”

Lu Xiangsheng instantly became interested: "Where?" ”

"It's so far away that even the fastest sailing ship has to run for months to get there, sailing day and night. Of course, the speed of the sailboat could be increased, and if we can build a steamship powered by a steam turbine, it will no longer be a problem to arrive in two months. ”

Lu Xiangsheng was dumbfounded: "So far!" Then you want this land to have a ghost use! It's polite to say that it's far away, it's just another world! ”

Cheng Shijie: "This land is good! According to the information provided by Xiyi, the plain of La Plata is so big, do you think about it, does our country have such a vast plain? Didn't you? ”

Lu Xiangsheng thought about it seriously, but he really didn't. The most vast plain in the whole of China is the Great Plain of North China, but the area is only 300,000 square kilometers, which is only one-fifth of the plain of La Plata.

"Is it wrong to say that the plain of La Plata has hundreds of great rivers, extremely rich in water resources, and sparsely populated, the whole plain is almost uncultivated, the fertility of the soil is incomparable, and the climatic conditions are superior, the summer is not too hot, the winter is not too cold, it is suitable for agriculture and pasture, is it wrong to say that it is the most suitable area for settlement?"

"The most important thing is that there is not a decent country or nation around it at all! What kind of wandering people, what mountain barbarians, there is no such thing, even if there is a little, let a hundred and ten Spanish expedition members be driven to a very remote area, you all think, is there a more comfortable and comfortable place than this? ”

Until now, Lu Xiangsheng looked shocked: "They, they ......"

"What's wrong with them?"

"They actually exchanged such a large territory for thousands of captives, can't these captives be made of gold?"

Cheng Shijie said with a smile: "Those fools in the West know how to rob gold and silver, but they don't know that the value of that piece of land is a thousand, ten thousand times the sum of gold and silver in the world!" Of course, I don't care if I know them, because they are not good at farming, so I promised to exchange the thousands of prisoners of war with them for the plains of La Plata, they don't want it, we want it! ”

Lu Xiangsheng still said: "I can't figure it out? ”

"There is a way to lack what is needed most, we are more people and less land!"

When Cheng Shijie said this, he instantly understood that the whole of China in the Ming Dynasty had fallen into a strange circle, from prosperity and strength, to the twilight of the empire, internal rebellion, years of war, population decline, and finally, overthrowing and starting over.

As written at the beginning of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms": "The general trend of the world, if you divide for a long time, you will be together, and you will be divided for a long time!" ”

The problem of the Ming Dynasty, the problem of China, in the final analysis, is still the problem of land, and there is no way to solve this problem, increase the yield of crops, and feed more people with less land; Let the rich pay taxes the same as the poor, and even make the rich pay more taxes; Or......

We have been opening up the territory, so that the land grows with the growth of the population, and ensuring that the cultivators have their own fields, and every household has surplus grain and meat to eat, then ......

Cheng Shijie suddenly became enlightened, as long as the pattern is open, all problems do not exist.

(End of chapter)