The Prosperous Era of Longwan

Emperor Jiajing divided the Yan family's wealth and silver into two parts, with half going to the border areas as military pay, and the remaining half going to the internal treasury. Naturally, the emperor wanted it.

Just leaving the land and real estate to the local mediators can be regarded as giving the local officials a little sweetness. After all, he has already taken the bulk of it.

However, the major government offices, civil and military officials in the court did not receive any benefit at all. Is this okay?

Huang Jin was a little frightened. He didn't know how the government and the public would be shocked after this decree was spread.

At this time, Wei Guangde had already left Prince Yu's Mansion, and the carriage had arrived in front of the gate of Wei Mansion.

After the carriage stopped, Wei Guangde got out of the car, held the slightly crooked Wusha, and stepped into his yard.

He and Zhang Juzheng had gone to great lengths to finally get Prince Yu to calm down, but Zhang Juzheng was bold enough to encourage Prince Yu to go back to the backyard to find a beauty to vent his anger without fearing that Prince Yu would die on his bed.

"Master, there is a letter from home."

Wei Guangde was about to walk to the backyard when housekeeper Zhang Ji came over and delivered a letter to him.

"When did you arrive?"

Wei Guangde took it casually and asked.

"The messenger will arrive at noon."

Zhang Ji replied.

Wei Guangde took the letter and went back to the backyard first, visited his mother, and then his wife and children. He changed his clothes and then went to the study. He tore open the envelope and took out the letter paper and read it.

"Hey, they have such a big appetite."

Wei Guangde had to marvel.

He had read the copy of Cheng Shouxie's memorial, and he naturally remembered that the memorial mentioned that the Yan family's farmland was more than 20,000 acres. However, in this family letter, Wei's father told him that the Yan family's farmland was at least 100,000 acres, and most of it was hidden land. Not paying taxes.

There is no doubt that Cheng Shoujie and the others have divided these things privately.

The reported land of more than 20,000 acres is registered under the name of the Yan family and has been registered with the government.

All the officials in the capital knew about Hidden Field, but they all had a tacit understanding and never made it clear.

Naturally, Cheng Shoujie dared to share the Yan family's hidden land with others, because he knew very well that if the truth was exposed, the officials in the capital would try their best to cover it up for him.

What's more, perhaps some of the officials in the capital also participated in the feast, just like himself.

Wei Guangde is not greedy. He is satisfied if he can get the land near Jiujiang, not to mention a few more houses and shops. He also understands the ins and outs of the Yan family's two million taels of silver.

It was different from what he originally expected, or Zhang Juzheng didn't understand the actual situation.

It is true that the Yan family found more than 30,000 taels of gold, but only a few hundred thousand taels of silver. The extra million taels were all in the account.

The Yan family is not only a heirloom of poems and books, but also has extensive land accumulation. It also has businesses all over the south of the Yangtze River. It not only collects various resources, but also participates in trade, including maritime trade, which Luo Longwen is responsible for.

There are more than one million taels of silver, which is the money recorded in the accounts of various shops. Now Cheng Shoujie is recovering the dirty silver from various places, but it seems that the progress is not going well.

The stalemate this time was also related to this matter.

For local officials, it was a good thing that fell from the sky. When they inspected the Yan family's property, they confiscated the money and the goods in the warehouse.

However, after Cheng Shoujie issued the official document, he found various reasons to avoid the delay, just because he did not want to hand over the confiscated money and goods.

Two million taels of silver seem to be just flowers in the mirror and moon in the water.

Wei Guangde had to lament that today's civil servants are really ruthless, and they are not afraid of the butcher's knife in the emperor's hand.

After holding his chin and thinking for a long time, Wei Guangde felt that he finally figured out what was going on.

Cheng Shoujie naturally never thought about becoming an upright official, but after all, he had only been in office for a short time and spent most of his time in the capital, so he still underestimated the dangers of officialdom.

When the land was divided, I guess everyone made a good point, but when it came time to pay the money, they were tempted again when faced with the money.

However, Cheng Shoujie was more conservative, and he was unwilling to touch the things in the Yan family's accounts, because the account books would eventually be sent to the capital, and he could not guarantee a good death if he dealt with these things.

In fact, in the eyes of those people, Cheng Shoujie was just the final scapegoat.

As long as Cheng Shoujie couldn't insist on dividing the money, he would only blame him if anything happened in the future, and he would be completely cut off from the matter.

Cheng Shoujie must have noticed their sinister intentions, so he took action first and reported the contents of the account to the capital.

As for the end, whether the money can be recovered is one thing, but it also leaves oneself clean.

"Cheng Shoujie is also a smart person."

Wei Guangde sighed again.

He remembered the words in the memorial clearly, and there was no mention of the situation of the silver in the whole article. It was in the Yan family's shops in various places.

The advantage of doing this is that you can get rid of yourself without offending other officials.

What would happen if Cheng Shoujie said in the memorial that the money was in the hands of local officials and had been confiscated, but he could not recover it and the memorial fell into the hands of Emperor Jiajing?

The emperor would never let go easily. For the sake of more than one million taels of silver, he would definitely raise the butcher knife and order the local governments to hand over every penny of the money.

And he didn't mention this in the memorial, which was to save everyone's face and use the tactic of procrastination.

If you delay it for a while, if you can finally get through it, that's your ability. If you can't resist it, just spit out the money yourself.

Although he was offended, at least he was not cruel and gave them a chance to manipulate him.

There is no doubt that Wei Guangde does not think that all the two million taels of silver can reach the treasury. The one million taels that the court can really get is considered a conscience of the officials below.

As for Emperor Jiajing and subsequent emperors, when they asked about this matter, it was like squeezing out toothpaste. They just told the truth bit by bit, and everyone's money was also handed over bit by bit.

Thinking of this, Wei Guangde suddenly realized that his father didn't seem to tell him the truth, and this letter seemed to be a nod to him.

I have also taken over several shops owned by the Yan family in Jiujiang, and there must be money and goods in them.

The situation of these shops was not mentioned in Dad's previous letters.

I guess it was because the situation was developing out of control and I was worried that I was still in the dark, so I told myself the truth in Jiangxi in this letter.

Thinking of this, Wei Guangde couldn't sit still. He got up and walked back and forth in the study, rubbing his hands constantly.

Being tricked.

This is what Wei Guangde can think of at this time.

When I wrote a letter to my family, I only wanted the fields that were not owned by the Yan family, and I also wanted the fields in Jiujiang Prefecture. But in the end, Mr. Wei took all the Yan family's house and shop in Jiujiang without any instigation. How could dad know this?

That Mr. Lin is really nothing.

Wei Guangde had murderous intentions at this time, so he immediately sat back down, spread out the paper and started to write a letter to his family. Naturally, what he said was that after taking over all the assets of the Yan family, Wei Guangde must not be merciful to Lin Zhenren, leaving him with trouble in the future.

The murderous spirit is unconsciously revealed on the paper.

The next day, news came out from the palace that Emperor Jiajing's decree was sent to the cabinet, which immediately caused an uproar in the government and the public.

Naturally, all the yamen continued to write memorials, describing their own difficulties. Only the Ministry of War took advantage of it and wrote a memorial to thank the emperor for his grace on behalf of the border officers and soldiers.

Xu Jie, Yan Na and other cabinet ministers were summoned to Xiyuan. After they left the palace, they naturally dispersed to various places to appease the officials.

This is the test that Emperor Jiajing puts to his cabinet ministers. What he wants will naturally be obtained, and then the cabinet will deal with the next mess. If it is handled well, it will be considered a pass. If it is not handled well, it will be replaced.

At the beginning, Yan Song used various means to suppress yamen at all levels, just to fulfill the orders of Emperor Jiajing, but now the executor has become Xu Jie.

Zhang Juzheng seems to have not taken much advantage from the Yan family's land. After all, most of the Yan family's assets are distributed in Jiangxi, South Zhili and Zhejiang. The fields, houses, and shops are all concentrated here.

Zhang Juzheng is from Huguang, and even if he has ideas, he is beyond his reach. What's more, Wei Guangde found that Zhang Juzheng seemed to be somewhat upright and might not take the initiative to participate.

Of course, there were some words that Wei Guangde would not ask.

When he tested himself, dug a hole for himself, and asked him to participate in carving up the Yan family's property in Jiangxi, Wei Guangde had already been separated from him.

The Yan family's money had been allocated by Emperor Jiajing. Seeing hopelessness, the officials in the capital gradually lost interest in the money and stopped paying attention.

This change made Wei Guangde feel a little relieved.

What he fears most is actually the fact that the officials in the capital keep remembering the matter and insisting on it.

It can only be said that Xu Jie's methods have learned a bit from Yan Song's real skills, and he handled it very well this time.

In a few days, everything was calm in the capital. Even if there were still people who kept thinking about this, they were all humble officials and could not cause any trouble. However, Princess Jing came to the capital and was placed in the suburbs of the capital.

Immediately afterwards, Xu Jie, a bachelor of the cabinet, petitioned to return tens of thousands of hectares of King Jing's fiefdom to the people of Chu, which was praised by both the government and the public.

Regarding these tricks, Wei Guangde just shook his head, they were just tricks to fool people.

In the eyes of most people in later generations, Zhu Yuanzhang began to grant land to his sons in the Ming Dynasty, all of which were to seize private property and turn it into royal property. This was actually a huge mistake.

The main reason for this is years of propaganda. Everyone regards the past land system as a landowner with supreme rights. It seems that he can completely control a piece of land and the tenants who live on this land.

The land system of the Ming Dynasty actually originated from the Song and Yuan Dynasties, and was slightly modified, but most of the changes were not significant.

Land is mainly divided into two categories: official land and private land. There are also many subdivisions, but it mainly falls into these two categories.

The fiefdoms and properties granted by the emperor of the Ming Dynasty to vassals did not actually involve civilian lands. After all, the Ming Dynasty protected private property, but what was actually granted was official land.

The land granted by the princes of the Ming Dynasty increased from a few thousand hectares in the early Ming Dynasty to ten thousand hectares or more in the middle and late Ming Dynasty. In fact, there were no major changes in the ownership and use rights of the land.

Because it is impossible for the prince to farm anyway, the fields still need to be taken care of by farmers, and farmers can only get so much.

The prince owns a huge amount of land, which is actually divided into many categories, but it mainly falls into two categories, one is the fief, and the other is the royal estate.

Fief is the right granted by the emperor to his son to collect land rent. In the past, the taxes on the output of these fields were collected by the court, but now they are transferred to the prince's palace.

Wangfu Zhuangtian is the land owned by the prince, which can be understood as a kind of "civilian land". The prince has all the rights. These fields are firstly official land given by the emperor, and secondly, they are land acquired through various means after being canonized.

For example, for the land rent in the prince's fiefdom, the prince can force the people to sell their land to the prince by raising taxes, or directly ask the emperor for the land on the grounds that there is a large amount of wasteland in a certain place, and then ask the emperor for the land. Hire people to clear up wasteland.

It's just that most of this land has actually been reclaimed by others. The emperor's relatives used this as an excuse to seize the ownership of this land.

Of course, there is indeed a problem with these lands, that is, they are not recorded in the official field registers. In fact, they can be understood as "hidden fields."

Therefore, in addition to returning the fief rights to the imperial court, many of the original official lands had to be returned to the land acquired by King Jing.

But for the people of Chu Land, everything actually has no big impact at all, because the talents that need to be paid cannot be reduced, it is just a change of owners.

It used to be handed over to Prince Jing's Mansion, but now it is back to the government. What Xu Jie said about returning the land to the people is actually a joke.

By this time, the number of official fields in the Ming Dynasty had actually been decreasing.

The rewards from the emperors in the past dynasties had been reduced by more than half by the time Guantian arrived in the Jiajing Dynasty.

During the Yongle period, nearly 40% of the Ming Dynasty's land tax came from official land, but by the Jiajing Dynasty it was less than 20%. The shortfall was awarded to the emperor's relatives and even the emperor's own imperial estate.

Therefore, later generations said that in the Ming Dynasty, the largest landowner was the royal family, and there is still basis for it.

It can be seen from the land tax alone that the land awarded by the emperor to his son accounted for 20% of the paper data, but privately the land obtained by the prince was even more.

The Ming Dynasty's tax and service system stipulated that gentry were exempted from service. In fact, they could only be exempted from service. However, the Ming Dynasty's service law was to use the people as service and farmland to manage service.

Both farmland and Dingkou can be targeted for conscription. If one obtains "worry-free land" and "no worry-free grain", then tax evasion is actually carried out in the name of exemption from conscription.

Due to the weakening of the legal system, officials and gentry colluded with each other and ignored court regulations themselves, resulting in their private property not being taxed.

The root cause is actually because they were envious of the privilege of not paying taxes on the Yongye fields of the royal relatives and nobles, so they also tried their best to package their own fields into tax-free fields.

As a result, the amount of taxed land decreased, and the remaining taxation could only be increased until the landowners could no longer afford it and chose to sell their land to escape.

The basis of taxation in the Ming Dynasty was land and population. As the saying goes, "If there is land, there will be rent, and if there is land, there will be servitude." Since all tax collection is based on land, there is no need to pay heavy taxes if the land is sold.

Therefore, many farmers sold their land to tax-free families, joined the wealthy and powerful, and then rented the land back for cultivation.

Although the rent is also high, it is still acceptable compared to the increasingly heavy taxes.

This kind of avoiding the important and taking the easy approach can be regarded as the last resort of ancient Chinese farmers to survive.

Naturally, only the Wangfu family can sell the fields within the Wangfu fief. Who else would dare to take over?

Therefore, the prices of the land sold to the princes were often kept very low, allowing them to annex land on a large scale, and the Zhu family became a large landowner in the north.

Wei Guangde didn't care whether there was something fishy behind the returned fields of Prince Jing's Mansion, but he knew that Zhang Juzheng seemed very happy.