After Han Jinxin captured the Shandong gentry who conspired to "overthrow Li", control of Shandong returned to Li Zhi's hands.
Previously, because Li Zhi had evacuated all relevant personnel to six prefectural cities, when the gentry in Shandong rebelled, they could not find valuable targets to counterattack. The gentry burned Li Zhi's tax revenue in several counties such as Qixia County.
Other than that, no major damage was done.
Those tax offices were also empty yards that Li Zhi bought temporarily, and they were burned if they were burned. They were not worth much. The gentry burned them to the ground, which only had the effect of venting their anger.
After regaining control of Shandong, Li Zhi's reporters, judges, police and tax collectors re-entered Shandong and restored local order. The court began to carefully examine the rebellious behavior of the gentry during this period, and punished those who participated in the "anti-Li" movement.
The gentry were severely punished.
The people in Shandong supported Li Zhi very much and actively reported the rebellious gentry. The gentry in Shandong were all in danger for a while.
On September 18, Li Zhi brought more than 600,000 refugees from western Liaoning to Jinan, Shandong.
Refugees built dens along Jinan's city wall, making the outside of Jinan's city wall look very chaotic.
These more than 600,000 people really cost Li Zhi a lot of money. Just eating and drinking every day consumes 5,000 shi of food. It is already mid-September, and when winter comes, the refugees will freeze to death in the simple underground shelters.
, the refugees must be dispersed to various prefectures, states, and counties to rent houses, but these refugees from western Liaoning are extremely poor, and few have the money to rent a house. It seems that Li Zhi has to pay for this money. Winter is coming, and there are still
We need to make winter clothes and bedding for these refugees.
Each item, based on a population of more than 600,000, is a huge expense. For example, this ration will cost Li Zhi four million taels of silver in a year. Plus other expenses, I am afraid that Li Zhi will attack
All the ten million taels of silver received from Japan must be folded in.
Li Zhi rode on horseback to patrol the refugee camp outside Jinan City. Wherever the official's guard of honor went, the people in western Liaoning knelt down one after another. The people all knew that this was the arrival of their savior, and kowtowed with great piety.
But no matter how sensible these refugees were, they could not alleviate Li Zhi's heartache for Yin Zi. Li Zhi regretted accepting these refugees.
However, this hot potato has been taken, and no one wants to throw it out, so the refugees in western Liaoning cannot be allowed to starve to death.
Next to Li Zhi, Jing Yishan, a senior water conservancy officer in the Water Conservancy Department of the Jin Guogong Shogunate, was dancing for joy and said to Li Zhi: "Tin Guogong, with these labor forces, Shandong's water conservancy development will reach a big level this year. We can
We are planning several major projects! Developing tens of thousands of hectares of fields is not a problem.”
Li Zhi looked at Jing Yishan, smiled, and said nothing.
This Jing Yishan's emotional intelligence is indeed relatively low, and he didn't see that Li Zhi was worried about Qianzi. Li Zhi asked him to be a water conservancy member in planning and design, but did not let him be the person in charge of the water conservancy project to take authority. This Jing Yishan never understood the difference.
But there is some truth in what Jing Yishan said. Although it costs a lot to hire refugees to develop water conservancy projects, as long as these refugees are settled and become tenant farmers, the future land rent income will also be huge. In fact, it can be done with a low-level monthly salary of one or two taels of silver.
Hiring strong labor is also one of the benefits of hosting these refugees.
Although the investment is huge, the future returns are also considerable.
Li Zhi looked around, exchanged a few words with the person responsible for managing the refugees, and then rode into Jinan City.
Today we will behead the rebellious gentry and officials in Caishikou.
There were 311 Shandong gentry who participated in this rebellion, and they were all wealthy gentry. Li Zhi was very angry with these gentry, and this time he attacked very harshly.
Basically, Li Zhi's punishment was to slap the board once for every ten taels of silver he paid out in this counter-tide of "defeating Li". For every five hundred taels of silver, he would be slapped with the board fifty times. Li Zhi's bailiff could not slap the board with the board.
If you are too soft-handed, you will basically be beaten to death if you hit him fifty times.
Anyone who invests more than five hundred taels will be beheaded. Those who invest more than one thousand taels will be beheaded and their homes will be ransacked.
Zhong Feng and Han Jinxin were jointly responsible for the property confiscation. This time, they confiscated the properties of one hundred and eighty-two gentry households. It can be said that Li Zhi gained a lot. The specific number has not been calculated yet, but it is definitely a ten-digit sum.
Pleasing numbers.
Li Zhi rode into Jinan City. Halfway there, he saw Zhong Feng who was looking for him.
"Commander, I'm waiting for you to take command at the execution ground."
Li Zhi took Zhong Feng to Caishikou and saw Shi Hanzhang, the governor of Denglai, and Chen Wanxin, the governor of Guizhou, kneeling there, as well as dozens of other gentry from Jinan Prefecture.
Those who were executed in Jinan were the leaders and important figures of the rebellion, and the rebellious gentry in other prefectures and counties were executed at the same time. Execution of the gentry in the place where the gentry belonged could also serve as a greater warning.
The people of Jinan have already understood the whole story from reading newspapers in the past few days. They know that these beheaded gentry were rebels who rebelled against the Duke of Jin and tried to use conspiracy to keep their tax evasion privileges. At this time, the people crowded together.
Under the execution platform, looking at these condemned prisoners, they were all filled with righteous indignation.
Most of the people who came to see the execution were farmers near Jinan City.
It's not that the citizens in the city were not interested in watching the execution, but that the farmers who plowed the fields were more hateful to these gentry and came early to reserve their positions. The citizens who came late were blocked in the back.
In recent years, small farmers have been forced to pay several times the land tax by the government, and their lives have become harder and harder year by year. Even if they bring their land to the gentry, they will be charged 20% or 30% of the land rent. The common people are exploited by these gentry at every level, and they are really suffering.
enough.
The official land tax of the Ming Dynasty was actually very low, with only a few liters per acre of land. However, due to tax evasion by the gentry, the land tax of the owner-cultivators often became a few bushels, which directly deprived them of several percent of their harvest. If it were not for these gentry and civil servants
After all, how could Li Zicheng's slogan of "eat his mother and drink his mother, and not pay for his food when the King of Chuang comes" so deeply rooted in the hearts of the people?
More and more peasants donated land to the gentry who did not pay taxes, and the land taxes paid by the peasants became heavier and heavier. The higher the land taxes of the peasants, the higher the rent the gentry collected from the unruly people who donated the land. No matter what, the peasants
All were severely exploited.
For example, Qian Qianyi from Suzhou was extremely wealthy. In fact, his official position was just that of the Minister of Rites in Qingshui Yamen, but he amassed more than 100,000 acres of fertile land in more than ten years by relying on tax-free privileges. The seriousness of land donation in the late Ming Dynasty can be seen.
If it weren't for the despicableness of these gentry, how could the Ming Dynasty in history collapse under the impact of the peasant uprising army?
Now that Li Zhi has come clean, the farmers' gratitude and support for Li Zhi comes from the bottom of their hearts.
As soon as Li Zhi stepped onto the execution platform, he heard deafening shouts of death from the audience.
