Next, the implementation of the official gentry of the Guide Mansion to pay grain and errand was quite smooth.Although the resentment of the officials and gentry was great, they did not dare to fight fiercely because of the strict authority of the emperor.From beginning to end, just a few students lost their heads, and then Hou Fangyu, the son of the Hou Mansion, became the ghost of the Xichang Banner School because he was young and didn't know the benefits.As a matter of fact, for the officials and gentry, they only paid an extra amount of conscription silver and preferential and exempt grain than before, and the loss was not large.Because the land endowment of the Ming Dynasty is not high, the gentry with many acres of land will not affect the life of the rich and noble because there is no preferential exemption.But the benefits to the imperial court were not just more land revenues.More importantly, as there were more and more scholars in the Ming Dynasty, there were more and more gentry, but the imperial court no longer had to reduce the income from land because of the increase in gentry and preferential exemptions.Because the number of acres of land in the Ming Dynasty is basically fixed, even if someone is cultivating the land, the speed of reclamation is not the rate of population growth and the growth rate of the number of gentry.Therefore, if the preferential exemption has always existed, then waiting for more and more gentry in the future, and increasing the number of gentry in a certain amount of land, will undoubtedly lead to the imperial court collecting a lot less land endowment.Besides.The integration of the gentry into the grain and errand also inhibited land annexation.Because the officials and gentry did not have the privilege of exempting the land, the officials and gentry were no longer willing to accept the contribution of the common landlords, after all, if the common landlords contributed, they still paid the land endowment of the land, which was equivalent to just helping the court collect taxes, and the officials and gentry were naturally unwilling.Therefore, in the future, it was impossible for the officials and gentry to make the common landlords take the initiative to surrender the land without annexing the land by means of cunning and plundering.However, it is difficult for those who have already contributed to be disconnected from their dependency, so these officials and gentry now have to pay the land tax for them because they accepted the contributions of some villagers.In this way, the government was saved the trouble of collecting taxes.After all, it is really scattered into small households, and it is very troublesome to collect taxes, and the officials have to increase a few.Naturally, when the officials and gentry handed over the rent collected by the donated land to the imperial court as a field endowment, and even had to pay some back, after all, the common landlords were willing to contribute, it must be because the rent collected by the officials and gentry was lower than that paid by the imperial court, and they would also increase the rent to make up for their losses.The common landlords, who had originally donated their land to the families of the officials and gentry and were willing to become tenants to avoid taxes and servitude, were naturally unwilling, and the contradictions with the officials and gentry increased.However, the laws of the Ming Dynasty protected the landlords, not the tenant farmers.Not to mention that the officials and gentry who were landlords were all powerful.Naturally, therefore, the tenant farmers could not resist the demands of the officials and gentry for rent increases.For a time, the former tenant farmers of the officials and gentry who wanted to avoid paying taxes and surrender their land were now the ones who lost the most profits."
We originally wanted to leave more money and food, why do you suddenly want to increase the land rent now, why, didn't you say that the Yuan family is a tenant farmer, and you are richer than the households, but now according to this rent, what is the difference between not paying and not contributing, and if you don't don't contribute, you can still let your children study and study and quxing."
Zhong Junshan, the tenant of the Yuan family, protested against the Yuan family's steward because of this.Yuan Keli's son Yuan Shu came over at this time: "If you don't accept the rent increase, then return the land, you take your respective land deeds and go to the county government to reorganize the household!"
Now the imperial court wants the officials and gentry to pay grain and errands, and there is no preferential exemption for the gentry like us, even if you donate the land to our Yuan Mansion, we still have to pay the same land tax for the donation of the field, didn't the steward tell you?!
”"It's said that this is a rent increase that is too sudden, and how can this court do this!
Shouldn't you treat an official eunuch like the Yuan Mansion with courtesy, why is it not preferential, what kind of court is this!
”Zhong Junshan said."
Don't talk about the court!
Now it's either a rent increase, or a return to the land, giving you two choices. ”Yuan Shu taught this Zhong Junshan a lesson, and then said.......
"The officials and gentry paid grain in one and the errand was implemented smoothly in Guide Mansion, and then it was being implemented in other provinces in Henan, and the main problem at present was that the officials and gentry raised the rent of the tenants, which caused a lot of disputes, and the voices of the court of resentment were more and more, not only limited to the gentry, but also tenant farmers, and the common landlords did not complain, mainly because they had little to do with them. ”Fang Congzhe reported to Zhu Youxiao about the specific situation of the official gentry's integrated payment of grain."
It is still related, and when the official gentry is successfully implemented in the integration of grain and errands, in the future, when agricultural progress and output increase, and at the same time, in order to enhance the enthusiasm of the peasants, it is possible to directly pay a small amount of money, after all, once the privileges of the official gentry are abolished, and then the small amount of money can be lightly paid, it will benefit the common landlords."
Zhu Youxiao replied."
Your Majesty said yes."
Fang Congzhe replied, but his heart couldn't help sinking, so he guessed that the emperor Zhu Youxiao still attaches great importance to agriculture, and to promote the development of agriculture, it is necessary to reduce or exempt the land tax, in this way, the main source of treasury income of the Ming Dynasty in the future will inevitably turn to commercial taxes.Although Fang Congzhe didn't care who was the main source of taxes, the people under him were mainly officials of the merchant gentry class, so he naturally hoped that the commercial tax would not be raised.Zhu Youxiao really attaches great importance to agriculture, because he knows that agriculture is the foundation of industry.But because of this, agriculture had to be controlled by the imperial court, and mainly grain had to be controlled by the imperial court.From the previous Qing Zhang's acres, the confiscation and redemption of the fields of the vassal kings and nobles, and the current officials and gentry who paid grain as a single errand, his purpose was to make the cultivated land of the Ming Dynasty as much as possible in the hands of the common landlords, that is, in the hands of the yeoman farmers, so as to ensure that the imperial court controlled the grain in the hands of the imperial court through the expropriation of fields.Therefore, Zhu Youxiao instructed at this time: "After the implementation of the integrated grain payment for the officials and gentry in Henan is over, the North Zhili will begin." ”"Yes!"
Fang Congzhe replied.Although the matter of the gentry paying grain and working as errands in one place had many benefits to the imperial court, it did harm the interests of the gentry and many tenants.Moreover, these gentry and donating tenants are actually relatives, friends and neighbors, after all, when the gentry have the privilege of being exempted from service, they must have relatives and friends and neighbors who are related to the gentry to be tenants, otherwise, other people will not have this opportunity.Therefore, it was easy for these gentry and the tenants who joined the pitch to unite.And these tenants are generally called village warriors.Next, because the matter of the gentry paying grain for one was in full swing in Henan, it soon spread to Beizhili.Many gentry and townsmen in North Zhili also smelled the rumors.Naturally, these gentry did not dare to oppose it openly, but there were quite a few who secretly instigated the villagers to go to the government to demonstrate.At this time, Wanping County Ya, a large group of villagers, no less than 10,000 people, surrounded the county Ya, and began to demonstrate and shout slogans.However, the slogans shouted by these villagers were particularly surprising.Because, they turned out to be asking the emperor to salute the scholars."
Be kind to the gentlemen of Wenqu stars!
Don't treat them like commoners!
”"Stop the implementation of the official gentry to pay food as an errand, the scholar is a star in the sky, and he is the one who came down to assist the emperor and control the people, not the one who does hard work and pays taxes like us!""
If you don't treat Master Wenqu Xing well, God will punish you!
You can't treat Wenqu stars like this!
”Many villagers outside the Ya of Wanping County shouted like this, and began to fight for the scholars.