Dashun Yongchang

After Min Shizhang and several companions went down the mountain and got into the boat, he watched the crowd walking towards the city on the bank, and said to his companions on the boat: "This Yangzhou City, it seems that the surname will be Li from now on."

Some people also said unwillingly: "I'm afraid it's not known yet, we have to look at the outcome of the battle between Beibing and Dashun. I'm afraid it's not a good thing for him to offend the gentry like this. If he can suppress a Yangzhou government, the entire world will Gentleman, can he hold it back?"

Several other people also echoed a few times. Li Zicheng's ruthless approach this time really annoyed many congressmen.Although this kind of annoyance is not enough to make them resist Li Zicheng, they still have the courage to slander behind their backs.

Min Shizhang listened to the opinions of his companions, but just smiled and said nothing.He actually despises these companions a little in his heart, because he thinks these companions are too short-sighted.What Emperor Yongchang said today has actually bought the hearts of the people in Yangzhou. Therefore, as long as the food policy he issued can solve the food problem of the citizens of Yangzhou, it is unlikely that the citizens of Yangzhou will continue to support the gentry in the past.

What's more, Li Zicheng also directly proposed recruitment to the citizens of Yangzhou, allowing these citizens to directly participate in the procurement of grain. On the side of the Marshal's Mansion, because the gentry has become their enemy.

It's already reached this level, and I still want to wait for the Beibing to come back. Isn't this not clear?What's more, if the Shun army really lost to the Beibing, would the Beibing defend the interests of these gentry?Min Shizhang didn't quite believe it.

On the other boat, Cheng Quanrui was persuading his uncle Cheng Dagong, "...Actually, we should further support the Marshal's Mansion. Uncle, you are still too cautious today."

Cheng Dagong asked in surprise, "How?"

Cheng Liangru looked at Uncle Tang and said, "Whether it is urban construction or canal repairs, a lot of materials are needed. If we can get one or two projects, we can recover a lot of losses and win His Majesty's favor." ..."

Chapter 199 New Deal Fourteen

The advisers of the Marshal's Mansion who were busy with civil affairs in Daming Temple soon received the news from Meihualing.Now many officials couldn't sit still, they all stopped their work, gathered around Zhang Fengxiang, Lu Zhenfei, and Zuo Maotai, and asked them what happened thing.

Zhang Fengxiang was a little confused when he heard the news, because Emperor Yongchang was quite tolerant to the gentry in Huai'an and Yangzhou before, and even the few madmen who insulted Emperor Yongchang in person were lightly let go.Therefore, it is really puzzling that Emperor Yongchang took such severe measures against Yangzhou gentry on Meihualing today.

Although Yangzhou Prefecture cannot compare education with several prefectures in the south of the Yangtze River, it can still take the lead in Jiangbei, which means that most of the land in Yangzhou is in the hands of the gentry.Therefore, Emperor Yongchang's promotion of the surplus grain collection system will inevitably arouse the dissatisfaction of these gentry and gentry, let alone those outsiders, there are several people from Yangzhou famous families here alone.

But those who can sit in this room are not short-sighted people, so after the initial panic when they heard the news, everyone immediately calmed down and thought about Emperor Yongchang's intentions.

Hearing the voices in his ears calmed down a bit, Zhang Fengxiang was able to think for a while, and turned to Lu Zhenfei and Zuo Maotai who were beside him and asked uncertainly: "Do you think your majesty is doing this?" What?"

Zuo Maotai said slightly displeased: "It's quite intentional to kill with a knife. But even if those Yangzhou people are incited to do it, will people in the world think that this is not what Dashun did? This is deception."

After Lu Zhenfei pondered for a moment, he still defended Emperor Yongchang a few words: "You can't push all the responsibility on His Majesty, not counting the front line, there are tens of thousands of soldiers in Yangzhou alone who need to be supported. Guazhou and Yizheng are occupied, and the river is blocked by the Zhenjiang Navy. Your Majesty cannot conjure food out of thin air, and prevent the citizens of Yangzhou from going to the countryside to collect food. Do you want to watch them starve to death? "

Zuo Maotai was even more dissatisfied and said: "Since the food and grass are not enough, why should we procrastinate in Yangzhou? Isn't Gao Jie's people already distracted? Your Majesty should lead the army to attack the Gao Department together with Huang Zhen. As long as the Gao Department is defeated, this enter Isn’t Jiangkou just opened up? What’s more, Nandu has already sent people over to negotiate, so the Zhenjiang navy can stop us from going upstream to buy grain?”

Lu Zhenfei sighed inwardly, these colleagues were as shrewd as monkeys in terms of personnel struggle, but they seemed so naive when talking about military affairs, he really didn't know what to say.

He sternly said to Zuo Maotai, and also to his colleagues around him: "Zuo's participation in politics is a bad word. If Huang Zhen is really willing to attack the high department, then our army should launch a general offensive at that time, but Huang Zhen kept shouting loudly, but he never intended to send out troops.

Not to mention, since His Majesty arrived in Yangzhou, Huang Zhen had been invited several times to come to Daming Temple to discuss matters, but he refused to come. He didn't even send one of the generals around him to meet His Majesty. Obviously, Huang Zhen's mind was still fluctuating.

Let's talk about Gaobu's side, although Gaobu's people are currently in a state of slump, and some soldiers even secretly ran over to surrender, but as long as Gao Jie and the core around him are not willing to surrender, this army will still have the strength to fight.

Then let’s talk about our army. Although the strength of our army going south is almost the same as that of the high-level troops, [-]% of this army are officers and soldiers who surrendered when they went south. It's okay to let them fight with the wind, but if they really want to fight Gao Jie's army, the outcome is still unknown.

Therefore, although our army seems to have an advantage now, internal and external troubles are actually not much better than the high department.Under the watchful eyes of Huangzhen, Nandu, and Zuozhen on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, if our army cannot win this battle, the other three parties may not be so polite to our army.Nandu sent people over to negotiate, but they were afraid of the past achievements of the Dashun Army. If they felt that the Dashun Army was nothing more than that, how could they make concessions to us?

If this battle is fought badly, I think Huang Zhen and Zuo Zhen will feel contempt for our army. If our army wants to ensure the safety of Yangzhou, we need to keep more troops. Bringing a large number of troops back to the north for support has become a fantasy. "

Zuo Maotai and the surrounding officials were silent for a moment. Of the many people here, Lu Zhenfei was the only one who really had the experience of commanding the army and blocked the attack of the peasant army.Now that Lu Zhenfei made such a judgment, they could no longer question it.

However, after realizing that their own safety did not seem to be so secure, some people immediately began to shrink back, saying: "Since our army is not completely sure of defeating the high department, why did His Majesty send Madam Gao back? If Mrs. Gao lives, Gao Jie's department may not surrender at this point."

While shaking his head in his heart, Lu Zhenfei explained to his colleagues: "Mrs. Gao came here last time to solve the problem of Gao's army's instability. Whether it is killing or imprisoning, Gao Jie will be able to let Gao Jie go. The army was angry with the enemy. His Majesty let Madam Gao go back, not out of mercy, but to express to Gao Jie that our army can defeat him in an open and honest manner. Therefore, after Madam Gao goes back, the morale of Gao's army will only become more chaotic."

Zuo Maotai asked curiously: "Didn't you just say that it is difficult for our army to defeat Gaobu? Why do you say that our army can defeat Gaobu openly? Isn't this contradictory?"

Lu Zhenfei glanced at him, and then corrected him: "I mean, His Majesty told Gao Jie that he would defeat him openly, but I can't guess how His Majesty will defeat him openly."

Others couldn't help but said in disbelief: "Why is Senator Lu so modest? If it's about military aircraft, who else here is more familiar with you than you. Or, you can't talk about it right now?"

After pondering for a few breaths, Lu Zhenfei shook his head and said, "I can roughly guess the intentions of His Majesty's actions before he conquered Shanhaiguan, but after he returned to Beijing from Shanhaiguan, I am at a loss for His Majesty's actions. Just like the Meihualing meeting this time, I didn't expect His Majesty to come up with a surplus grain collection system and a Yangzhou new city construction plan. Is this the time for construction?"

Although Lu Zhenfei didn't say a word, the surrounding officials also heard the implication. Could it be that now is the time to offend the local gentry?If Emperor Yongchang can't deal with Gao Jie's army cleanly in the future, I'm afraid the big gentry in the local area will vote for Gao Jie.Although Gao Jie's actions are very bad, but in order to keep his own property, it is hard to say that no one will take the risk.

While these advisers were discussing Li Zicheng's intentions, Li Zicheng was also returning to Daming Temple by boat.Li Laiheng, who followed Li Zicheng back to Daming Temple, took advantage of the fact that there were no idlers on board, and went to Li Zicheng's side to ask him for advice, "Didn't Your Majesty say before that the council is a democratic meeting place?

Why these people couldn't come to a conclusion these days, but they accepted His Majesty's suggestion under the coercion of those Yangzhou citizens?That being the case, why should His Majesty waste such time, there is no need to convene any meeting before, and we directly put forward today's proposal, didn't we already have the approval of the people of Yangzhou? "

Li Zicheng glanced at him, then turned his head to look at the water of Baohu Lake that was emitting a little golden light in the setting sun, and then said quietly: "In that case, wouldn't the gentry in Yangzhou gather their resentment on me? And those who have benefited The citizens of Yangzhou may not stand on my side against them, because they will not want to be the enemy of the local gentry.

But it’s different now, I just made a suggestion, the members of the council are in favor, and the citizens of Yangzhou are in charge. If those gentry dare to stand up against this resolution, they are against the people of the entire Yangzhou city. .In order not to be retaliated by the gentry, the citizens of Yangzhou will only ask for help from the Marshal's Mansion, and we can justifiably suppress these gentry.

There are actually three kinds of so-called democracy, being the master of the people and being the master for the people.These congressmen misunderstood it from the beginning, so they always wanted to be the masters of the people, so they were naturally abandoned by the people.And I just responded to the call of the people and acted as a master for them.

The council is a place where democracy is talked about, but it is also the place where democracy is least talked about.Only through various debates in the council can the people truly understand what democracy is and what democracy is.Without going through this step, they will never understand what politics is. "

Li Laiheng thought for a while, and then said softly: "Your Majesty, you just said that there are three kinds of democracy, but you only said two."

Li Zicheng stretched out his hand to support the railing, looked at the occasional fish swimming under the lake, and then replied casually: "Is there a third kind of democracy? It won't appear now, maybe it won't appear in a few hundred years, that's not what we need to care about." democracy."

Although Li Laiheng didn't continue to ask, he remembered this conversation in his heart.The painting boat that Li Zicheng was on drew ripples on the water, and drove towards the wharf at the foot of the Daming Temple, leaving only a little bit of broken golden light behind him, like a colorful oil painting.

When the sky was getting dark, Li Zicheng finally entered the main gate of Daming Temple. He immediately stopped and said to Li Laiheng: "Go and invite Mr. Zhang Fengxiang and Lu Zhenfei to come over. I want to have dinner with them and talk about something. matter."

In the past, Li Zicheng didn't pay much attention to food, but after entering Beijing, the royal chef left behind in the palace still prepared extremely delicate food for him. After a certain person traveled through time, he really couldn't stand cold food, so he got Chen Yuanyuan After that, they simply let Chen Yuanyuan take care of her own diet.

As a woman from the south of the Yangtze River, Chen Yuanyuan is good at eating. Of course, she also knows that Li Zicheng's diet is mainly about safety rather than deliciousness. Therefore, she tried to use simple ingredients to avoid the chance of people finding poison.

As a result, Li Zicheng's diet became lighter.But for Zhang Fengxiang and Lu Zhenfei, this kind of bland diet suits their appetites very well. In addition, the inner courtyard cooks their own food, and the food is also hot, so the two of them had a pleasant meal.

Chapter 200 New Deal Fifteen

In places where they are not chatting about romance, scholar-officials all pay attention to not talking, especially when eating with Li Zicheng, old people like Zhang Fengxiang and Lu Zhenfei are more strict about these rules.

Therefore, although Li Zicheng is happy to talk about things during meals, he can only talk about them with peasant army generals, or with young people. Maintain the style they can accept.

As the tableware was removed from the dining table, Chen Yuanyuan personally made a pot of tea and let the three of them drink a cup of after-dinner tea. Only then did Li Zicheng express his intention to invite the two of them to dinner, "I plan to settle the matter within three days." Gao Jiejun’s question, um, counting from tomorrow.”

Although Zhang Fengxiang was a little surprised, he said immediately: "This is a good thing. If Gao Jiejun can be dealt with as soon as possible, Yangzhou's trade with the upper reaches of the Yangtze River will be restored."

Lu Zhenfei asked suspiciously: "I don't know how His Majesty plans to solve Gao Jiejun's problem within three days?"

Li Zicheng took a sip of hot tea carefully before opening his mouth and said, "Ah Yuan, take out that calculation book and show it to Mr. Zhang and Mr. Lu."

Chen Yuanyuan got up and walked into the inner room, and soon came out holding a booklet, and then handed the booklet to Zhang Fengxiang, who was on Li Zicheng's right hand.Zhang Fengxiang automatically ignored Chen Yuanyuan who was standing aside. Although in his opinion a woman should not be allowed to appear on such an occasion, Li Zicheng is not the real lord in his mind after all. The two parties are more like a cooperative relationship than a allegiance relationship.

Therefore, in some respects, he will not stick to his values ​​so much, because it is not worthwhile.Here, he reached out and took the booklet in front of him, opened it carefully, and Li Zicheng explained to Lu Zhenfei from the side: "I plan to issue an order for the entire army on the basis of the previous service and pension orders for soldiers." The land grant order.

Earlier, I announced that soldiers who have served for ten years will be given 200 mu of land; those who retire due to disability will be given 400 mu of land;I feel that this decree is not perfect enough, because we have to take into account the inability to cultivate and the lack of land in our hometown.

Therefore, I decided to make a little change. If the families of disabled soldiers and martyrs are unable to farm or the local government is unable to distribute their land, then an allowance will be given at the rate of 2 buckets of rice per mu per year.

As for those retired soldiers who are healthy, they should obey the foreign land allocated by the state. If they really don't want to leave their hometown, they can sell their own land certificates. I plan to open a bond exchange in Yangzhou to allow public bonds and land certificates to be listed and circulated.

In addition, I plan to release an additional batch of land to the officers and soldiers who followed my uprising.Among them, the old brothers who followed the uprising in the Chongzhen three years were granted 3000 mu of soil each; the brothers who joined the uprising team in the Chongzhen four years were granted 2800 mu of soil each; the brothers who joined the uprising team in the Chongzhen five years were granted 2600 mu of soil each... Until this year, that is, the brothers who joined Chongzhen before the end of 17, granted 200 acres of land.

In addition to the brothers who followed our uprising, those officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty or the uprising troops belonging to the non-shun army, who have not harmed the common people, can also enjoy the land grant treatment, but the land grant area is halved for equal seniority.And after 17 years of Chongzhen, the armed forces that still refuse to surrender to Dashun or are still hostile to Dashun will no longer enjoy the land granting treatment..."

"This is an ambitious plan." While listening to Li Zicheng's narration, Zhang Fengxiang looked at the brochure in front of him, and such an idea came to his mind.He directly turned the booklet to the end, and after reading the final estimated total number of land grants, he silently closed the booklet and handed it to Lu Zhenfei beside him.

Lu Zhenfei opened the booklet and flipped through it for a while, and finally asked Li Zicheng in surprise: "The amount of land allocated is as much as 330 million hectares, how can there be so much unowned land in the world that can be divided? This plan is too much. Hasty."

However, Li Zicheng put down his teacup and replied calmly: "My Ming Dynasty is a country that relies on agriculture to feed [-]% of its population. In such an agricultural country, all wealth is rooted in the land. That is to say, whoever Whoever owns the land is the master of the country, and those without land are actually the slaves of the country.

It is possible for a rich family to raise some servants to suppress those unarmed tenants, but it is undoubtedly overthinking to expect these servants to fight the robbers desperately.Therefore, those who can deal with robbers are generally militias formed by self-cultivating farmers. In order to defend the output on their land, they are still willing to fight the robbers desperately.

At present, we are fighting against the slaves. Although the scale is different, the problem is still the same in essence.That is, are we going to send a group of servants to defend the landowner's property, or to make them masters of the land first, and then let them fight for their land?In my opinion, only the latter can build an army with a sense of responsibility and patriotism.Otherwise, we can only create robbers and thieves. "

Both Lu Zhenfei and Zhang Fengxiang were stunned, but they are not people who do not read history, they both come from official families, and the collection of books at home far exceeds what those poor scholars can read in their lifetime, so they will not I only read textbooks about imperial examinations in my life.Li Zicheng mentioned the connection between the land and the army, and the two quickly thought of the military system in the Tang Dynasty. Naturally, they would not think that Li Zicheng's idea was wrong.

However, it is not a good thing to associate the land granting order with the current Ming Dynasty, because the population in the Tang Dynasty was much smaller than it is now, and even Shaanxi still had a lot of places to be developed at that time.However, even so, after the mid-Tang Dynasty, because of the annexation of the world's land, the Fubing system also collapsed.

After tossing and turning in his mind a few times, Zhang Fengxiang couldn't help asking Li Zicheng his own question: "So, on Meihua Ridge today, His Majesty issued a surplus grain collection system for the gentry, is it to force the gentry to hand over their land? "

Li Zicheng glanced at him, then at Lu Zhenfei, whose face was sinking like water, and then said slowly: "These are two things. I read history these days, and I happened to see several incidents caused by the Taizu in the early Ming Dynasty. It is a big case, I wonder if the two gentlemen can give me some pointers, and tell me what the motive of Taizu is?"

Although Lu Zhenfei and Zhang Fengxiang don't mind being Li Zicheng's teachers, correcting Li Zicheng's values ​​is also a good thing in the long run.Therefore, what the ministers of Ming Dynasty like most is to give lessons to the emperor, so as to input their own values ​​into the emperor's mind.

However, after getting along with Li Zicheng for a long time, both of them have realized that Li Zicheng's values ​​have actually solidified. His so-called lectures are actually to find your loopholes and overthrow your value system.When meeting such a person, they would not be able to summon up much energy to teach Li Zicheng a lesson.

But since Li Zicheng raised such a difficult question, Lu Zhenfei could only reply vaguely: "Although Taizu's method was a bit harsher, it was just to punish corrupt officials and protect the people of the world. Of course, At the beginning of the founding of the country, the nobles of Huaixi flaunted their power and violated the law, which angered Emperor Gao, the great ancestor."

Zhang Fengxiang nodded slightly and said yes, obviously agreeing with Lu Zhenfei's statement.Li Zicheng didn't take it seriously. He knew that the two were just perfunctory himself, and he was unwilling to discuss this issue with him in depth. After all, these cases in the early Ming Dynasty were inseparable from the struggle between the gentry and the imperial power. These cases undoubtedly gave him an excuse to suppress the gentry.

However, he never thought of asking the two of them for advice, but just took this opportunity to express his own opinions, so he quickly followed up with the two of them and said: "What the two gentlemen said is indeed reasonable, but I think there are other ways to look at these cases.

For example, from an economic point of view, the Statistics Department has also investigated a lot of rural data these days. According to these data, the per capita arable land in our country is about 5.5 mu, which is converted according to the rice output per mu and one stone, that is, the per capita rice output Out of 5.5 stone.According to the usual practice, one liter of rice per person per day is the ration, which is 3.6 shi of rice per year, which means that the per capita can leave 1.9 shi of rice.

This 1.9 shi rice leaves less than 0.9 shi rice after removing clothes, spices and other necessary living expenses.A low-level miscellaneous official needs 36 shi for a year's salary, which is equivalent to the surplus food of 40 people.The annual salary of Zhengyipin is 1044 shi, which is the surplus food of 1160 people.Of course, what we calculate here is only their income on the surface, and other income is not included.

Based on a comprehensive assessment, about every 100 people can support one out-of-work population.Daming’s cultivated land is 7.35 million mu on the books, but based on actual estimates, it should be more than 8 million mu.Therefore, the total population of Ming Dynasty should be about 1.5 million. According to the ratio of 100 people supporting one person, the population out of labor should not exceed 150 million.

The Ming clan had a population of 20 million, the world's gentry population was 200 million, and the army numbered millions. The total number of these out-of-work people was at least 2 to 3 times more than the full-time population that the Ming people could support.

I thought about it for a while in the early days of the country. The population of China under the jurisdiction of the Taizu was not as large as today, but the population of nobles and gentry in the world may not be much smaller than it is today. Therefore, a big case was raised to eliminate those useless people who are out of production, and to rest and live with the people. It is an inevitability.

I also don't want to talk about big reasons. I, Li Zicheng, did not rebel to defend these full-time people who are not beneficial to the country.If they are unable to support me and are unwilling to work, then choosing to perish is also a way out.

A new dynasty must eliminate a group of old rentiers and replace it with a new group of rentiers. Otherwise, how can the new dynasty survive?The two gentlemen asked me whether I wanted the gentry to hand over their land. I felt that there was really nothing to answer this question.

Daming defended their land and property, but they were unwilling to pay anything. Could it be that they still have to rely on me now?I won't spoil them. If you can't contribute to Dashun, then you should support yourself. Don't think about continuing the dream of only enjoying the benefits and not giving anything.I, Dashun, do not raise trash, this is my proposition. "

Zhang Fengxiang and Lu Zhenfei wanted to say something, but felt that it seemed inappropriate to say anything now.

Chapter 201 New Deal Sixteen

Although Chen Yuanyuan stood aside, she would still pick up the scissors from time to time to cut off candles from the candles placed around the hall, so as to make the fire brighter.Although this kind of tallow candle is much brighter than ordinary candles, the area it can illuminate is actually not large, so it is still dark in the corner far away from the conversation of the three of them.

However, where the candlelight shines on, there is a warm orange light. If the three of them hadn't talked about such a tense topic, the atmosphere would actually be quite warm.Although her heart was a little confused, Chen Yuanyuan's hand was still very steady.Hearing the rustling sound coming from outside the window, she was still in the mood to pay attention to the size of the rain that suddenly fell outside.

It's just that the three people sitting in the room were hardly in the mood to care about whether it was raining outside, and they even forgot that Chen Yuanyuan was still in the room.Li Zicheng's showdown with Zhang Fengxiang and Lu Zhenfei made them both shocked and angry, because Li Zicheng's words pushed them to the edge of a cliff, making them feel in a dilemma.

When Li Zicheng entered Beijing, there were indeed a large number of officials who stayed in Beijing to try to serve the new dynasty. I feel that Daming's vigor has been exhausted, and the world needs a new master to take care of it.

Li Zicheng broke into Beijing easily, making everyone feel that he was the one who was destined to take care of the world, so they all turned to Dashun, and they were even unwilling to pay attention to the funeral of the Chongzhen emperor who died for his country.

However, Li Zicheng’s behavior of torturing and plundering in the capital disappointed the gentry. They needed a new emperor who would clean up the world. First of all, he had to be able to restore the social environment before the war broke out, that is to say, to be able to continue their prosperous life. The imperial court must be able to suppress the endless riots of hungry people and bandits on the move.

What Li Zicheng and General Dashun did was obviously not on their side, but on the side of the rioting hungry people, which made it difficult for them to be loyal to Li Zicheng.

Afterwards, Wu Sangui asked Jiannu for help, which once made those gentry who were dissatisfied with the Dashun policy pin their hopes on Wu Sangui.But Li Zicheng carried out the remains of the prince and Emperor Daxing again, which forced some officials and gentry to follow Li Zicheng's army southward.No matter what Wu Sangui did, it was impossible for him to replace the crown prince as the new emperor. Therefore, apart from those underworld officials who had escaped the control of the Shun army, the Ming officials and gentry under the Shun army still had to show their respect for the crown prince. allegiance.

However, these Ming officials and the gentry and Li Zicheng can only be regarded as limited cooperation, rather than a real loyalty relationship between the monarch and his ministers.Of course, this is enough for Li Zicheng, because what he needs these officials to do is to manage the immigrants going south, and handle various affairs for the Marshal's Mansion and the handover of local civil affairs.

Although these Ming officials and gentry had little effect on the battlefield, they were very familiar with the handling of local affairs.Although Marshal Du's Mansion went all the way south, it relied on its superior military force to force the counties and cities on both sides of the canal to obey him, and called on the prince and Emperor Daxing to invite officials and people from Shandong, Henan and other places to come to worship.

However, this relationship is actually very fragile, because if you cannot accept local personnel, financial and judicial powers, you cannot say that you rule this place.As for the government affairs of one or two counties, the Marshal's Mansion can probably still supervise them, but if the local government affairs in Shandong, Henan, Hebei and the Huaihe River in Jiangbei are also taken over, then without the help of these Ming officials and gentry, the Marshal's Mansion It is also difficult to deal with so many trivial things.

For example, Zhang Fengxiang is a gentry living in the village of Dongchangfu, but he has served as a minister of the Ming Dynasty, and he can at least support a provincial and ministerial department.Even if he didn't pay much attention on weekdays, at least he was able to complete the tasks that Li Ziqing entrusted to him to a good degree.

And even with such a delay, Zhang Fengxiang's work efficiency is much higher than when he was a minister.Because when Daming was the minister, not to mention that the emperor restrained him, even the assistant officials and small officials in the ministry could trip him up.

Because the bureaucratic system of the Ming Dynasty is too mature, these assistant officials and small officials have their own personnel networks behind them, and their interests lie. Even the chief official Shangshu in the ministry cannot interfere, because their tenure is more stable than that of the Shangshu. In fact, every profit in the ministry has already been allocated.

Shangshu is the head of a department, but the emperor is not at ease that Shangshu will take root in the department to avoid threatening the imperial power, so he often needs to be replaced in one or two years.In this way, every minister can only play the tricks of Xiao Gui and Cao Sui.

Moreover, the ministers are still under the leadership of the cabinet, and the interference of these cabinet scholars in the affairs of various ministries makes the ministers feel that they are being emptied, so when Zhang Fengxiang was the minister, he actually did a few serious things, and then Because of the party dispute, I went home to rest.

But in the Marshal's Mansion, there are not so many entangled personnel networks and interest groups.Li Zicheng generally only looks at the results after explaining the tasks, and doesn't mind the person in charge managing personnel affairs. Even if people like Zhang Fengxiang don't devote all their energy to doing things, under the management system of the special person in charge of the Marshal's Mansion, Zhang Fengxiang and the others will do it. A lot of things.

In the system of the Marshal's Mansion, Zhang Fengxiang and other gentry officials are actually quite contradictory. They obviously don't want to do their best for Li Zicheng, but because the Marshal's Mansion has removed the rotten shackles in the Ming system, they made them do it again. A lot of grades.From a certain point of view, they at least found a little joy in doing things in the Marshal's Mansion.And when they desperately wanted to do something for Daming in the past, they couldn't move because of Daming's corrupt system. This is really ironic.

And just when they got used to the current situation, they were hit hard by Li Zicheng again, making them realize once again that there is still a gap between themselves and Dashun led by Li Zicheng.Objecting to Li Zicheng's proposition at this time will undoubtedly put him in opposition to Dashun again, but this is not a few months ago.

When they followed Li Zicheng to the south, they had to sell their fields and houses in the north to the prince, and then Li Zicheng distributed these fields and houses to those retired Ming officers and soldiers and tenants in the name of Dashun.Now they are holding land bonds signed by the prince. According to Li Zicheng, these land bonds will be realized after the prince ascends the throne.

In other words, if the prince does not inherit the position of emperor, their fields and houses will be in vain.Or they went to join Jiannu in the north, but if Jiannu had not beaten Li Zicheng, then not only would they not be able to get their land back, but they would also be charged with treason. This is obviously a road that cannot be chosen at the moment.

But if the prince wants to inherit the position of emperor, it is impossible without Li Zicheng's support.But now Li Zicheng said that he would eliminate some of the gentry and distribute the land to the officers and soldiers of Dashun. This was forcing them to make a choice.Although both Zhang Fengxiang and Lu Zhenfei thought that Li Zicheng's calculation just now made sense, from the perspective of the world, it is true that some gentry should be eliminated, but it is a big problem to let that part of the gentry be eliminated.

Although at the last moment, there is no choice but to choose between a dead fellow Taoist and a poor Taoist, but at this time Zhang Fengxiang still had a trace of unbearable and hopeful, and said to Li Zicheng: "Is there no other way for your Majesty to choose for them? Although There are indeed bad sheep among the gentry, but they are still a minority after all, and most people are still good, how can we generalize? We must give them a way out."

Li Zicheng slowly turned the teacup in his hand, looked at the two of them for a long time, and then said: "I don't think the numbers are deceiving. With the population of our country, it is the limit to support 150 million full-time people. This is still the beginning of Chongzhen." After more than ten years of natural disasters and wars, I feel that the land cultivated in a year may not even reach 7 million mu.

If one year's agricultural production and materials produced by other handicrafts are combined into one year's production capacity of our country, then the number of people to be fed is determined by this production capacity, not by morality or law.

I heard that when the old slave was in the Northeast, one stone of rice was as high as 12 taels. In order to reduce the demand for food, the old slave directly took measures to kill the grainless people.I don't want to talk about the insanity of this policy, but this policy did allow Jiannu to survive the food shortage.

Now there are so many gentry, clansmen, officers and soldiers out of labor in the world, plus the slaves who entered the customs from the northeast, how can there be enough food in this world?If we don't come up with countermeasures now, then I am worried that the tyranny of the old slaves killing the grainless people outside the pass may be repeated inside the pass.Compared with the tens of millions of people in the north, is the family property of the southern gentry more important? "

Zhang Fengxiang was silent, and Lu Zhenfei, who was sitting beside him, finally said: "Just eliminating some local tyrants and evil gentry, I'm afraid it will be difficult to satisfy Your Majesty's land-granting plan. What else does Your Majesty have in mind, it's better to say it all at once, otherwise How can we help His Majesty to achieve this goal?"

Li Zicheng finally put down the teacup in his hand, half of his body was immersed in the darkness with his back to the candlelight, which made Lu Zhenfei somewhat unable to see the expression on his face, but Li Zicheng said in a very calm tone: "Indeed , I do have an idea, but I need your cooperation to carry it out.

I thought that compared with the land in the north, there are actually quite a lot of undeveloped land overseas.Such as Jeju Island, Ryukyu Islands, Taiwan, Luzon, and even further south.Dafo Langji can occupy Luzon with only a few thousand people, and the Dutch can occupy Taiwan with hundreds of people. Are we not as good as these barbarians who came from thousands of miles away?