The new magistrate of Hukou County is named Shen Zhengxin.
He was originally an officer in the army.
He was temporarily appointed as the county magistrate because of his proficiency in writing and his cleverness.
Hukou experienced a strong attack by the Western Bandits.
Except for the people in the county town who still survived, many people outside the city died in the war.
Especially in those days when the bandit army ran out of food, all villages within a hundred miles outside the city were attacked.
The food was robbed and a large number of people were killed or starved to death.
After the post-war statistics, the government was shocked to find that there were not even one out of ten people in the county.
Encountered by the war, the people naturally had no intention of growing food, and no one took care of the crops they planted.
They barely harvested a little food in the autumn harvest.
Fortunately, the number of people was small and there was less food.
There was a lot of fishing next to Poyang Lake, so life was barely enough.
Get by.
Under the auspices of King Chen Yue of Qi, grain purchased from other places was continuously transported into Jiangxi.
There was no shortage of grain, which was the main factor for Jiangxi's rapid stabilization.
The biggest problem facing Hukou now is the lack of population.
A large amount of land outside the city is uncultivated.
The attack by the Western Bandits emptied the gentry in the countryside outside the city, and a lot of land was already ownerless.
Shen Zhengxin followed the instructions of the Prince of Qi and issued an order on behalf of the government that all the ownerless land would be confiscated, and part of it would be used as military land and distributed to soldiers in the army. , with Tian Di, this newly reorganized army composed of prisoners and Jiangxi refugees could quickly settle down and serve the King of Qi.
Food is the most important thing for the people.
In the eyes of all Ming people, land is the foundation of life, and owning your own land is the most important thing.
According to the order issued by the Prince of Qi, ordinary soldiers will be rewarded with twenty acres of land, and officers will be rewarded in ascending order.
Soldiers with families can cultivate the land with their families, while those without families can be managed by the local government.
Refugees are recruited to cultivate the land, and part of the harvested food goes to the army.
Some of the soldiers returned to the refugees who farmed the land, and some were paid to the government as taxes and grain.
All of a sudden, all the soldiers under King Qi became landlords.
Some officials with thousands of households owned more than a hundred acres of land, and the deputy generals and soldiers even owned thousands of acres of land.
This kind of treatment also made prisoners of the Western Army and local people in Jiangxi enthusiastically join the army, even if they had to undergo harsh military training and fight hard.
Relying on this method, the Prince of Qi quickly recruited as many as 150,000 soldiers and launched vigorous military training.
Recruiting so many new troops did not cost Chen Yue too much money, and even rewards for meritorious service after the war were given to Chen Yue.
Land, which made the huge amount of money seized from Zhang Xianzhong in Chen Yue's hands useless, and also gave him money to continuously purchase grain and other materials from other provinces.
Of course, it also caused food prices to rise in Jiangdong, Jianghuai and other places.
This is another story.
The soldiers became landlords, and the refugees were responsible for cultivating the land for the soldiers. 60% of the harvested food went to the refugees who farmed the land, 30% went to the soldiers, and 10% was paid to the government as taxes.
This was the distribution ratio established by the Qi Palace after careful consideration.
Although the refugees do not have land, they can get 60% of the harvest, which is much better than working as tenant farmers for the gentry.
And if the young people in the family are lucky enough to be recruited into the army, they can have their own land.
This is also consistent with Jiangxi.
The reason why people from neighboring Chizhou left their homes and came to Hukou.
As for the soldiers, although they could only get 30% of the land income, they already had a generous military salary.
Coupled with the land income, they became rich in an instant.
Of course, there are also restrictions on them.
Anyone who disobeys military orders and violates military discipline and is expelled from the army will have everything they own will be reduced to zero in an instant.
When everything was first started, although the Prince of Qi's Mansion had formulated detailed and strict rules to distribute land to resettle the refugees and organize farming, there were so many things to do.
According to the original government establishment, the few officials who were close to the county magistrate and county magistrate would not be able to handle it.
Free novels bring you joy and joy ---> storyskyline.net
But now the Prince of Qi's Mansion has changed Jiangxi's official system and established two rural-level government agencies at the county level.
The chief official of a township is called Xiangzheng, an official of the eighth rank.
He has several ninth-rank deputies to help him and is responsible for the affairs of a township.
The village has a village chief, a ninth-rank official, who is the lowest-ranking but also a serious official. , responsible for organizing the production affairs of a village.
Officials at both the rural and rural levels are directly under the leadership of the county.
Most of the officials are injured and retired soldiers.
In order to supervise these local officials, supervisory envoys are set up below the county magistrate.
From seventh-grade officials, there are several supervisors under them, who are responsible for inspecting official discipline and investigating illegal activities by officials.
Supervisors are appointed directly from above and are not subject to the control of county magistrates.
When Shen Zhengxin heard that his officers came to report that a person had arrived in Hukou, Shen Zhengxin met Zhang Huangyan specially.
After some interrogation, he confirmed Zhang Huangyan's identity and thought it was harmless to Hukou, so he ordered him to go down and let him do what he wanted.
Zhang Huangyan was able to have his own activities in Hukou.
After several days of understanding, the more he looked at it, the more frightened he became.
Because Hukou is completely different from other Ming Dynasties.
It was a characteristic of the Ming Dynasty that the imperial power did not go to the countryside.
Except for the establishment of government offices in county towns, the imperial court in the vast countryside was completely laissez-faire.
The main force in the countryside is the gentry, so the countryside is the world of the gentry.
In many cases, the government has to rely on the gentry.
The implementation of court orders must also obtain the consent of the gentry, otherwise it will not be implemented at all, and officials They were originally in the same group as the gentry.
When they became officials, they became officials, and when they became officials, they were country gentry.
Since they are a family, they will naturally not embarrass each other.
Therefore, in most places in the Ming Dynasty, the government and the gentry worked together, and only the common people were oppressed, and there was nowhere to redress their grievances.
However, Hukou is completely different from most places in the Ming Dynasty.
Here the government is directly set up at the village level, which allows the government to directly manage the people in each household, and the government can be informed of any status below in time.
With strong control, the efficiency of the government will be high, government orders can be conveyed in a timely manner, and the possibility of deceiving the government is greatly reduced.
Of course, this situation requires many more officials than before, but the extra officials are all subordinates and retired officers and soldiers.
Many things can be done well without reading too many books.
The village chief and Xiangzheng are just any retired officials.
Soldiers can do very well, and there is no need to be a Jinshi.
Zhang Huangyan can imagine that if this situation can continue for two or three years, King Qi's rule over Jiangxi will penetrate into every remote mountain village, and it is impossible for a situation like a refugee riot to happen again.
And if the whole country has such a system, then the majesty of the imperial court will penetrate into every corner.
The government and the imperial court will know in time what happens anywhere, and then nip the hidden dangers in the bud.
How can there be such a large-scale robber in the West?
rebellion Of course, this system was a complete subversion of the previous imperial examinations, because there were too many officials needed, and the imperial examinations held every three years could not select enough Jinshi.
This may be the main reason why the King of Qi used retired soldiers and officers as subordinate officials.
And if all kinds of people can be officials, the status of scholars will be greatly reduced.
Therefore, it may be difficult to implement the Jiangxi system nationwide, because it will be completely resisted by all scholars.
Therefore, even though Jiangxi Governor Yan Yingyuan's memorial was approved by Princess Kunxing, it was refuted by Liu Ke.
Therefore, Shen Zhengxin and other officials appointed by King Qi whom he knew were not recognized by the court at all.
However, after the imperial examination, when the Jinshi officers appointed by the imperial court arrived in Jiangxi, it would be at least until the next year.
These officials appointed by King Qi had been in office for nearly a year, and the rule had long been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
It could no longer be changed by a few Jinshi officers.
I'm afraid it will be another game then.
Compared with Jiangxi's current system, Ming's original system was too crude.
Zhang Huangyan admired Qi King Chen Yue even more for being able to come up with such a method and system.
Free novels bring you joy and joy ---> storyskyline.net
Of course, Zhang Huangyan, who is familiar with history books, also knows that the system implemented in Jiangxi clearly draws on the old system of the Qin and Han Dynasties.
In the Qin and Han Dynasties, there were rank Qiangfu in the countryside, tours in the countryside, lengths in the interior, and lengths in the pavilions.
The jurisdiction penetrated into every village, and this was how the Qin and Han Dynasties became strong and prosperous.
However, the imperial power of the Ming Dynasty did not go to the countryside and completely left the vast countryside to the gentry.
In the hearts of the people, the gentry was greater than the government.
This resulted in a weak foundation for the rule of the court.
In addition, the gentry relied on their fame to annex land wantonly without paying taxes.
Any taxes, the court There is absolutely nothing that can be done to prevent this situation, because the government is a member of the gentry.
Over a long period of time, most of the land has been concentrated in the hands of the gentry.
The income of the court has been declining year after year.
The court is poor and the people are poor, and the gentry are the only ones who are rich.
This strange sight has never happened before As a member of the gentry, Zhang Huangyan knows this situation best, because both his father and his son are Juren, and are well-known in Yin County.
Although his family's farmland is not large, it has thousands of acres, all of which are nearby.
The villagers donated their money and it would not work unless they received it.
There is a fixed amount of taxes in a county, and there are many people who do not pay taxes.
These evaded taxes can only be imposed on the powerless people, causing the poor to become even poorer.
Even in the wealthy Jiangdong, there are countless people Waiting for food, Yin County, where Zhang Huangyan is located, belongs to Ningbo Prefecture.
It has many mountains and flat land, and the land is barren.
There are many people who can't survive either going to sea in violation of the law, or taking refuge in the Siming Mountains to become bandits.
According to this system in Jiangxi, there will no longer be great squires who connect counties across states, because even the surviving squires in Jiangxi must provide proof of previous land deeds if they want to continue to own their past fields.
According to the imperial system, , a juren can have up to 400 acres of tax-free land, and a Jinshi can have up to 2,000 acres.
Exceeding this amount is illegal.
In the past, even if too many fields were dedicated to the gentry's name, the officials would choose to turn a blind eye, because they themselves were the ones with vested interests and would not embarrass the gentry at all.
But it is different now.
In Jiangxi, which has gone through war, the power of the gentry has dropped to the lowest level, while the power of the Qi Palace has reached its peak.
You say these fields are yours, even if you have the land deeds, but according to the court system, you can only own 400 acres of tax-free fields per person.
For fields beyond these 400 acres, you must first make up for the field taxes from previous years.
This is tax evasion.
He must be punished, and punished two or three times more.
Just paying the penalty is enough to make a gentry bankrupt.
In the beginning, there were squires relying on their own fame and family members who were high-ranking officials in the court to support them, but now the officials in prefectures and counties are not Jinshi.
The subordinates are naturally afraid of the squires, but the Qiuba people are not.
The difference was that they only listened to the orders from Prince Qi's Mansion and ransacked their homes without any ambiguity.
After the first batch of squires were confiscated, the other squires also became honest, and each one endured the heartache and vomited out the fields they had occupied.
Without the land, it would naturally not be able to support too many servants and maids, and it would only take a year or two for the country to decline.
Therefore, as long as Jiangxi's current policies can continue, within a few years, the presence of the gentry in Jiangxi will be weakened to the limit.
The government suddenly added tens of millions of acres of cultivated land subject to field tax, which meant that each mu only collected one bucket of grain, and millions of tons of tax grain were added every year.
Of course, the government's tax revenue was more than one bucket.
Some of the extra fields were awarded to soldiers who had made meritorious service, and the rest were recruited from landless people to farm.
The tax and grain taxes were all 30%, plus the head tax, which was 40%.
This was already a greater burden than in the past.
Gradually it was reduced by half, so people from neighboring provinces came to vote one after another.
Of course, Jiangxi's New Deal seriously damaged the interests of the gentry and led to intensified fighting in the court.
Regarding their land being seized by the government, officials from Jiangxi could not find any reason to put it on the table, so they could only attack the King of Qi and the governor of Jiangxi for violating the ancestral system and not allowing Qiu Ba, a subordinate official, to become an official.
Other officials were also afraid that Chen Yue would implement this system in other provinces, and began to jointly boycott it, which led to the refutation incident.
Free novels bring you joy and joy ---> storyskyline.net
After understanding the ins and outs of the matter, Zhang Huangyan could only sigh.
The superiority of Jiangxi's system was obvious.
The government's control was not only greatly strengthened, but the court's tax revenue was also bound to be greatly increased.
However, such a system was criticized by the collective efforts of the civil servants.
Boycott, there is no need to say more about who is serving the public good and who is seeking personal gain.
Of course, this system is too difficult to implement.
It is acceptable in war-torn Jiangxi, but it cannot be implemented in other places because the resistance in other places is much greater than in Jiangxi.
Even though the King of Qi is gaining power now, just as the sun is rising The imperial examination system of more than two hundred years has created the deep-rooted power of the gentry in the Ming Dynasty.
It cannot be easily set off by one person, unless that person really has earth-shaking power and can uproot all the gentry.
The current King of Qi, Chen Yue, does not have this ability, otherwise he would not compromise in the face of the rejection of the ministers.
After traveling around Jiangxi for a long time, Zhang Huangyan had a deep understanding of the situation in Jiangxi, and then he got up and left Jiangxi.
He took a boat down the river and rushed to Nanjing.
There was not much time before the imperial examination started.
At this time, another major event happened in the court, which directly affected Zhang Huangyan's scientific examination, and in turn affected his life's destiny. s: A four thousand word chapter: