The land issue has been the foundation of the country in all dynasties.
For the cabinet ministers here, it is also closely related to their personal or family interests, because until now, most of the important ministers of the Ming Dynasty are still northerners.
The first assistant, Zhang Shenyan, was from Zezhou, Shanxi.
The second assistant, Meng Zhaoxiang, was from Zezhou, Shanxi.
Liu Lishun, the fourth assistant, was from Qixian County, Henan Province.
Five of the six ministers are from the north.
Among the twelve ministers, eleven were from the north.
How the imperial court handles the land in several northern provinces will directly affect the interests of these important ministers and families here.
According to common sense, after the liberation of several northern provinces, the land of whichever family belongs will still belong to that family. There is nothing to say about this. After all, this is the family property accumulated by their ancestors through hard work.
But the trouble is that several provinces in the north have fallen into the hands of bandits and slaves.
And their family also once had thieves first and then slaves, so now things are complicated.
This is like a woman being defiled by a thief. Although she has no choice but to do so, her chastity is indeed gone.
Therefore, if the Ming court really pursues the case seriously, not only will their family not be able to escape the involvement, but they themselves will also suffer consequences, so this matter is very sensitive and complicated.
So Chongzhen didn't mention it before, so no one dared to mention it.
But what is coming will eventually come, and you definitely can’t avoid it.
The carriage suddenly became silent, and only the click of the steel wheels as they rolled over the rails could be clearly heard.
After giving the officials a few seconds to buffer, Chongzhen continued: "Some time ago, the Inspection Section of the Ministry of Internal Affairs has been investigating the fact that the gentry in several northern provinces are aiding the tyranny and working as a provocateur. You must be aware of this."
As the chief minister, Zhang Shenyan felt that he could no longer remain silent at this time: "Does the Holy One want to create a prison?"
Zhang Shenyan didn't have any selfish motives. He simply didn't want Chongzhen to go to war and raise prisons, because several provinces in the north had finally recovered with great difficulty. What they needed most now was to recuperate and recuperate, not to settle scores and seek trouble for the Jin gentry in the future.
Because Zhang Shenyan felt that offending the Jin gentry in several northern provinces would shake the foundation of Ming Dynasty's rule in the north.
"Xing Da Jie?" Chongzhen said, "Why did the elder say that? Shouldn't we investigate the collaboration between the Jin gentry in several northern provinces? We should not be punished for doing wrong things. Isn't this contrary to reason and intolerable to law?"
Zhang Shenyan was speechless, because there was nothing wrong with what Chongzhen said, and if he made a mistake, he must be punished.
But Meng Zhaoxiang stood up and said: "May I ask Your Majesty, what is collaboration with the enemy? Does falling under the iron heel of bandits or slaves be considered collaboration with the enemy? If so, the country's abandonment of the land and people in several northern provinces is also considered abandonment of land."
As soon as these words came out, the expressions of the cabinet ministers present immediately changed.
The crime of abandoning land is a serious crime. You must know that seventeen years ago, Chongzhen killed many important court officials and even two chief ministers because of the crime of abandoning land.
Among the many crimes committed by Xue Guoguan and Zhou Yanru was the crime of abandoning land.
In another time and space, Chongzhen also did not dare to bear the crime of abandoning his land, so he was unable to make up his mind to move the capital to Nanjing. As a result, he missed the opportunity and the country was destroyed.
Meng Zhaoxiang finally took off this fig leaf.
If you really want to discuss the crime, then let’s discuss the crime together.
We cannot only discuss the sins of the northern Jin gentry but ignore the sins of the emperor.
Chongzhen was also a little surprised. Did Jiu Qing turn against him so soon?
Sure enough, there are no eternal allies in the world, but only eternal interests.
Meng Zhaoxiang, Wu Linzheng, and Liu Lishun were loyal to the Ming Dynasty, not to Chongzhen.
Chongzhen was not angry, but smiled and asked: "Meng Ge always said that if I abandon the land, I should be punished for my crime?"
"No, I have no such intention." Meng Zhaoxiang said categorically, "I just want to say that everything cannot be generalized. From a national level, the country of the Ming Dynasty is greater than the sky. When the country of the Ming Dynasty is in conflict with the national law,
Chong, the country should be the most important thing. If abandoning the land can continue the Ming Dynasty, is it okay to abandon the land? Yes!"
This is true, Meng Zhaoxiang said it categorically.
After a pause, Meng Zhaoxiang continued: "Therefore, the Ming Dynasty could abandon its land for the continuation of the country, and the Jin gentry people in several northern provinces could also surrender to bandits or slaves for the sake of blood inheritance. The imperial court abandoned it.
The first one should not be blamed later. After all, when the mountains and rivers are overturned, what can a mere common man or a family do?"
Of course Chongzhen recognized the logic mentioned by Meng Zhaoxiang. Wang Jingwei deserved to die, and Wu Sangui also deserved to die. However, the people in the occupied areas were innocent, and the Liao people in western Liaoning were equally innocent. You cannot pay food to slaves because of the Liao people.
Just because the people in the enemy-occupied areas paid taxes to the Japanese, they cannot be accused of collaborating with the enemy.
Of course, Chongzhen had no intention of liquidating the people in the north.
What Chongzhen really wanted to liquidate were the wealthy gentry families in several northern provinces.
Chongzhen's original plan was to liquidate the wealthy gentry families after recovering several provinces in the north, seize their land, and then distribute the land to the landless poor and refugees, so that the situation in the north would be stabilized.
After all, the wealthy gentry family has only a small number of people, so it only needs to win the support of the majority of the poor.
But now two unexpected situations have appeared, disrupting Chongzhen's plan.
The first is that the population of several northern provinces dropped sharply, and a large number of poor refugees went to the south of the Yangtze River to work. After the poor refugees fled, the wealthy families who stayed in the local areas became the majority, and these wealthy families were attached to the gentry.
In other words, Chongzhen could no longer rely on the poor to defeat the Jin gentry.
The second unexpected thing is that the development of Jiangnan's industry and commerce far exceeded Chongzhen's expectations.
At the beginning, the reason why Chongzhen focused on the land in several northern provinces was to expand his financial resources. Even at five liang per mu, the cultivated land in several northern provinces could be sold for at least 1.5 billion.
But now, with the development of industry and commerce in Jiangnan, the Ming court is no longer short of money.
Oh, no, the Ming court is still short of money, but the Ministry of Internal Affairs is no longer short of money.
Therefore, Chongzhen was no longer as eager to sell land to raise money as he was in the 17th year of Chongzhen's reign.
Based on the above two points, Chongzhen also changed his mind and felt that it was not impossible to return the land that originally belonged to the northern Jin gentry and wealthy families to them. This would at least give the Jin gentry and wealthy families in Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces a reassurance and prevent them from being controlled by the pseudo-shun in the future.
It will also be easier to restore the two provinces of Shanxi and Shaanxi.
However, it is impossible to return the land just like this.
Again, if you make a mistake, you should be punished. There is no good thing that can be done without paying the price. The northern Jin gentry must pay the price for their surrender to the enemy.
So the question is, how should it be punished?
It's very simple, just share the land and the officials and gentry will pay for it!
Take advantage of this opportunity to completely resolve the dangers of land annexation.
It should be noted that what Chongzhen wanted to solve was the harm of land annexation, not the land annexation itself.
First of all, for industrial civilization, land annexation is actually a good thing. Only with the existence of a large number of landless farmers can factories and workshops recruit a sufficient number of workers.
The reason why the industry in eight prefectures and one state in the south of the Yangtze River developed so quickly is because
In addition to the strong promotion of Chongzhen, it is also inseparable from the refugees who fled to Jiangnan in the early stage.
Secondly, it is impossible to solve land annexation, because it goes against human nature. As long as humans still exist, it is impossible to prevent land annexation. Even if it is temporarily eliminated, it will come back soon.
However, the harm of land annexation can be solved. The main reason why land annexation has caused harm throughout the ages is that the privileged class of officials and gentry do not have to pay taxes. Therefore, the more land is annexed, the more the country’s tax sources are lost. Eventually, the common people who occupy the smallest share of land have to pay taxes.
Bear the largest share of taxes, and then the national finances will completely collapse.
If the privileges of officials and gentry are abolished, land annexation will not cause a loss of tax sources.
As long as tax sources are not lost, the country's finances will not collapse and the state machinery will not shut down.
Of course, this is the logic of agricultural civilization, but it also applies to industrial civilization. The land annexation of agricultural civilization corresponds to the monopoly of industrial civilization.
Land annexation will lead to the concentration of wealth and the loss of tax sources.
Monopoly will also cause a large concentration of wealth, which will lead to a large loss of tax sources, because the monopoly class has special privileges and has many ways to circumvent regulation and avoid taxes.
Land annexation is unavoidable, and monopoly is equally unavoidable.
Therefore, it is impossible to completely eliminate monopoly. The state can only eliminate the harm of monopoly as much as possible.
The harm of land annexation can be eliminated by apportioning land into acres, while the harm of monopoly can only be countered through state monopoly, that is, letting state capital replace private capital in monopoly.
Chongzhen had already designed this from the beginning.
The government supervised the business and the Ministry of Internal Affairs held shares, which was Chongzhen's top-level design.
Now it is the turn to divide the land into acres and completely solve the harm of land annexation.
"Can I understand what Mr. Meng Ge said so well?" Chongzhen said.
"As the emperor, I am excusable for committing the crime of abandoning the land, so it is equally excusable for the northern Jin gentry to commit the crime of collaborating with the enemy? I will not be punished, so the northern Jin gentry will also not be punished. Is this what you mean?"
"What I mean is to choose the lesser of two evils. If there are reasons, we can treat them differently."
Meng Zhaoxiang sighed softly and said helplessly: "But His Majesty's interpretation is correct."
"I understand." Chongzhen smiled and said, "That is to say, if we want to punish the northern Jin gentry, we must punish myself first, otherwise it will be difficult to stop the public from all directions in Jiuzhou."
Meng Zhaoxiang responded silently, this is the truth.
Chongzhen suddenly straightened his face and said solemnly: "In that case, then punish myself first."
After speaking, he pointed to the wasteland on both sides of the canal outside the window, and then said: "The royal family originally owned 5 million acres of imperial estates in Gyeonggi Province. From now on, all of them will be taken over by the state and used as official land of the Ministry of Household Affairs!"
"Ah?" Zhang Shenyan, Meng Zhaoxiang and others all changed their expressions.
In fact, they had long heard that Chongzhen intended to use the 5 million acres of fertile land in the imperial village of Gyeonggi as official land of the Ministry of Household Affairs, but they did not take it seriously. The 5 million acres of imperial village were calculated at 10 yuan per mu.
All are 50 million yuan!
What's more, the land that Huangzhuang occupies is all high-quality fertile land, and it costs more than 10 yuan per acre? How much money is this?
