NOVEL NEXT Page 316
Li Dakai is really a good official, he never hears about things he doesn't understand.
Zhu Youjian nodded approvingly:
"Well, Aiqing is right. What I want is to seek truth from facts. There must be a reason why my reforms cannot be carried out smoothly here."
……
After Zhu Dakai told Zhu Youjian what he knew, Zhu Youjian fell into deep thought for a while.
As a time traveler, Zhu Youjian still has some understanding of the Daming Guard system.
I have also seen officials and gentry in Fengyang, relying on their status as fellow villagers of the Taizu, to violate the imperial court.
There are many rivers such as the Huaihe River in Fengyang Prefecture, as well as many large and small lakes, and the soil quality of the land is not bad.
It's a pity that the water conservancy is in disrepair, irrigation is inconvenient, and in addition to the drought in recent years, these originally good fields are now barren.
According to the records in the Yellow Book, Fengyang Mansion originally had at least 1000 million mu of arable land, but now it is estimated that millions of mu have been abandoned.
After famines and wars, many places were deserted, even thousands of miles away.
Now there are too many barren lands in Ming Dynasty. The gentry and landowners took advantage of the opportunity to buy land at a low price, but now they are too lazy to buy it, and they only buy good land.
The Ming Dynasty absorbed the experience of Chinese history in farming, and implemented a guard system combining soldiers with farmers and guards, and set up more than 300 guards across the country.
In fact, it is to distribute land to the army and let them be stationed in various parts of the country. An average military household has [-] acres of land, and there are more officers.
Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang once said: "I raise millions of soldiers without spending a grain of rice on the common people."
The imperial court not only divided the fields in the various guards, but also sent cattle and seeds, etc., so that the military households could cultivate them and concentrate on watching them. They had to pay two buckets of rent per mu of land.
Although the rent is twice as heavy as that of ordinary households, fortunately, they can live a good life.
This system was originally quite good, but over time, all the drawbacks emerged.
Where there are people, there are rivers and lakes. Over the years, the military fields of ordinary military households have been almost occupied by military officers.
Military households gradually became the tenants of various military officers.
Military households not only have to work for the officials and generals who invaded the land every year.
In addition, according to the size of the official position, each general was given a certain amount of land to raise, but it was a pity that meat buns beat dogs.
Now it has been 270 years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, and there are countless military households who have fled, and the Weisuo system has long been ineffective.
The land of most military households became the private land of the guard officers, and these officers became local tyrants.
Most of the land occupied by military households in Fengyang Mansion is occupied by military officers at all levels in the guards.
Even more than half of the land in private households is occupied by local gentry and powerful landlords.
Only less than [-]% of the soldiers and civilians can own their own military and civilian fields.
Officials and gentry in Ming Dynasty were not completely tax-free. Strictly speaking, both officials and gentry in Ming Dynasty needed to pay food.
However, there are preferential exemptions for officials and gentry in land tax, and the preferential exemption is also a certain number of acres.
It is with this kind of preferential exemption that the officials and gentry can include the occupied military and civilian fields into the preferential exemption.
Even if it is thousands of acres of land, in the tax-free registration book, there may be only tens of acres of land. This is a common practice in all dynasties.
Some powerful officials and gentry have too much land and not enough connections to register it in the preferential land.
They will do everything possible to avoid the collection of taxes and grains, and pass all the taxes on to the tenants, increasing the rent of the tenants.
Because of this, it has been very difficult for all dynasties to clear the land.
The promoter's life may even be in danger, and there are too many interests involved.
After a while, Zhu Youjian said:
"Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong were all put down by me, and the Eastern Captives will be destroyed by Ming Dynasty sooner or later, so a few guards are nothing.
Since they don't know what to do, then I will abolish the Fengyang Guard, and this system will be completely abolished in the future.
Yuhuatian, go to Gao Jie immediately and let him lead the headquarters to station in the five counties of Fengyang within two days to wait for my order. "
"obey"
Yu Huatian agreed, and immediately left the handsome tent to adjust Gao Jie.
Li Dakai was shocked by Zhu Youjian's words, and hurriedly clasped his fists and said:
"Your Majesty, this is a bit risky. What if the eight guards rise up and rebel?"
Zhu Youjian's eyes suddenly became cold:
"Li Dakai, the [-] soldiers you brought are not vegetarians, are they? I will renew your equipment immediately, and you must become familiar with the use of weapons as soon as possible. All rebels will be killed."
Li Dakai had known for a long time that the Dongzheng Ming army had very advanced equipment.
In order to protect the peace of Daming, his army has been training.
Not only are the soldiers highly qualified to fight, but the military rules and disciplines are also very strict, and they have never committed any crime to the common people.
The only flaw is the lack of good equipment. Hearing that the emperor wanted to give them glowing equipment, he hurriedly received an order to thank them:
"Your Majesty is wise, I thank Lord Long En."
Chapter 253
"Ma'am, please excuse me!"
In a village outside Fengyang City, an old lady was washing clothes by the pond. The old lady was dressed in ragged clothes, completely ignoring the cold water.
At this time, four people walked into the village. They all looked at the aunt with a smile, and one of the middle-aged people asked.
The aunt looked up at the people who came, and saw that these people were well dressed, not like poor people, she looked around vigilantly, then continued to wash clothes, ignoring them.
It was Zhu Youjian, Li Dakai, Qinglong and Ah Qing who came. In order not to attract the attention of some people, they did not bring more people.
Seeing that the aunt was ignoring them, Zhu You made a wink at Ah Qing, who immediately understood, walked up to the aunt, and smiled sweetly:
"Mother, don't be afraid, we are not bad people."
Ah Qing took out an ingot of silver and put it in the aunt's wooden basin.
The aunt looked down and saw that the ingot was worth three taels of silver. She smiled at the time, and the three taels of silver could keep their family from starving for two months.