New Shun 1730

Lin Min certainly had no ability to solve the Yellow River problem, so he could only accept the matter.

So the highest administrative body of Dashun in Jiangsu Province presented a very strange state.

The legitimate highest official was Lin Min, the governor of Jiangsu.

But the one who actually managed things was Liu Yu.

Liu Yu was not legitimate. But he represented the extended power of imperial power.

He was responsible for the policy management of Jiangsu, not because he was the Duke of Xingguo of Dashun, but because he was the emperor's favorite.

In other words, this person could be Liu Yu, Zhang San, or Zhao Si, as long as the emperor trusted him.

Liu Yu had his own shogunate team, but none of his shogunate team had a formal official position.

The governor of Jiangsu could only follow behind, legitimately issuing orders and managing subordinate bureaucrats.

This situation has not been going on for a day or two, but the secret conversation between the emperor and Lin Min left Lin Min with no choice but to listen to Liu Yu on major issues.

This time when the two returned to Jiangsu, they also brought a team of soldiers and assigned them to Liu Yu for direct jurisdiction.

Liu Yu was frank about the emperor's arrangement.

"These soldiers are used to suppress the civil unrest."

When the two of them were patrolling the Huainan beach along Fangong Dike, looking at the reclamation company that was busy building houses and transporting people in the wasteland area, Liu Yu told Lin Min frankly what these soldiers were used for.

"Who to suppress?"

Liu Yu smiled and said nothing, and led the team to the office of Tongzhou Reclamation Company in Nantong Prefecture.

The manager responsible for organizing a series of reclamation matters and a group of board members were waiting here, waiting for the official approval of the reclamation permit.

After the grand welcoming ceremony, Liu Yu did not shy away and told them directly.

"This time, the salt reclamation is a land enclosure movement."

"For the salt farmers, those marshes are not theirs at all."

"If they are willing to accept the decision of paying money and making a living on their own, that's the best. It doesn't matter how you treat these lands in the future."

"If they don't want to, but want to get some land."

"That's easy. You can use the method of one acre for two acres, and after you reclaim the beach, give it to them."

"I calculated that with their planting methods, they will go bankrupt in three years at most. At that time, we can buy back the land at a low price."

"If you reclaim all the marshes into fields, it means that they will cut off their way of making a living by boiling salt. . "

"They don't have the capital to build a salt field, and you have occupied all the grass marshes where they boil salt. Even if they want to make a living by boiling salt and smuggling, it's impossible. "

"I guess there will definitely be people who make trouble. The court is on your side. If you make a small fuss, you will be arrested and sent to the Nanyang plantation; if someone dies, then they are not ordinary people, and we must strike hard. "

"I don't want to hear how hard these salt households are, and I don't want to hear those tragic stories at all. Anyway, they will change their careers sooner or later, and large salt fields will force them to death sooner or later. Let's die early and be reborn."

When he said this, everyone present was overjoyed and praised the court's policy.

It should be said that this is the most suitable place for enclosure movement within the basic base of the Ming Dynasty inherited by Dashun at this time.

And enclosure movement has never been so glamorous.

Progress is sometimes very bloody.

In fact, even if Liu Yu didn't say it, these large reclamation companies also thought of how to "reasonably" concentrate the land.

As Liu Yu said, if it is not a big capital model, small farmers cannot reclaim the salt land here.

With this in mind, the strategy of these reclamation companies is very simple.

For example, if salt farmers do not want the land, they do not even want to change their careers, especially some owners with channels.

The capitalists of these reclamation companies finally waited for the policy brought by Liu Yu.

That's very simple.

According to the court's regulations, if salt farmers reclaim land and waste salt, one mu of grassland will be compensated to salt farmers with 100 coins.

They have to sell it even if they don't want to.

After forcibly occupying it, take the money and leave.

If they don't leave, just demolish the house and smash the pot.

If they are willing to accept the land, it will be even simpler.

Give them a very generous condition, on average each household can lease 25 mu of land, which is already a lot.

And these 25 mu of land have been reclaimed by the reclamation company in the early stage.

If they accept it, then as Liu Yu said, the land will be taken back in three years at most.

Because, if you grow grain, this is basically a low-yield area, and it will go bankrupt in less than three years.

And if they plant cotton...

First, will these salt farmers plant cotton?

Second, even if they can plant cotton, can they afford the model of the big reclamation company of one acre of cotton field and two acres of grass covering anti-salinity?

In three years at most, these lands allocated to small farmers and not maintained by the company will be almost useless.

The land will be depleted again and the land will be exhausted.

At that time, it is up to them to sell or not.

Now that Liu Yu is on their side, they will be more unscrupulous when enclosing land.

Which land can be enclosed and which land cannot be enclosed is of course determined.

It is not that these capitalists are kind-hearted and kind-hearted people who take the initiative to enclose the large wasteland east of Fangong Dike.

They want to enclose the cultivated land that has been reclaimed, but the question is, do they dare to go?

If they dare to enclose land in the village, they may be beaten to death directly, and a large-scale uprising will break out, and this money will not be enough to compensate.

The first reclamation company that gave Liu Yu a headache before, beating people to death, is very typical.

The reclamation company enclosed land, and a large number of unowned grass marshes were also enclosed. At that time, several salt households, led by the owners of the field, opposed their enclosing of the grass marshes.

Because they wanted to make salt, to make private salt for a living.

This is not a question of whether it is legal or not, or even a question of whether they are good or bad people.

The situation is here. Normal salt boiling cannot sustain their livelihoods. The grass in these unowned grass marshes is the basis for their salt boiling. They also make private salt for a living.

And this salt boiling model can basically determine that the truly so-called "independent" small salt households must rely on salt merchants.

Basically, it is the salt market merchants and powerful people who occupy large areas of unowned grass marshes. Whoever owns these grass marshes, whoever is strong, owns them.

Under the protection of these field merchants and salt merchants, the salt households produce both official salt and private salt.

The unowned wastelands enclosed by the land have owners in folk law. And the reclamation of those wastelands and grass marshes after they are enclosed is equivalent to cutting off their livelihood of making private salt.

The number of grass marshes used to make official salt was limited. In order to facilitate control, the imperial court had a rough idea of ​​how much grass marshes you had and how much salt you should produce.

But living on official salt alone was miserable. After joining the market merchants and making private salt, you could still make a living.

It was obvious that small producers were unwilling to be agricultural workers.

The conflict between the two sides broke out.

The two sides who fought and fought were salt households and agricultural workers who could grow cotton and were recruited from Haimen at high prices.

The forces behind the scenes were emerging capital and the original market merchants and grass marsh landlords.

The conflict was simple at the beginning. The salt households pulled down the boundary wooden signs of the enclosure company, and then the two sides started fighting.

After the fight.

The salt households burned down the agricultural workers' sheds.

The workers smashed the houses of the salt households and the salt-making utensils.

Then they fought, and people died.

Then Liu Yu informed the local county magistrate with one sentence, and then the local county magistrate asked the salt merchants for evidence: Do you have evidence to prove that those wild grass marshes are yours? Have you paid taxes?

The grass marshes for cooking official salt are subject to taxes, although the taxes are low, but they are also subject to taxes. Only after paying taxes can you say that you have the right to use the grass marshes, which are bound to the "stove".

This iron pot for cooking salt is bound to a certain range of grassland. The owner of the iron pot may change, but the grass marshes bound to the iron pot will not change.

In fact, the salt market merchants are also local tyrants, and they also have friendships with the county magistrate.

But the higher the official, the more powerful he is. Liu Yu delivered the message, which was obviously biased towards these reclamation companies. What can the county magistrate do?

In the end, the fight was sentenced, and the reclamation company compensated the other side for some silver for burning and burying, and the matter was settled.

After this storm passed, the problem here essentially became a dispute over "Is Huainan reclaiming wasteland or cooking salt?"

This needs to be finally decided by the court.

Once it was decided, Huainan would reclaim wasteland and stop boiling salt, so the scope of enclosure would be larger, and all the grasslands of salt households would be enclosed to plant cotton.

Given the national conditions of Dashun, the final decision was made by the emperor.

To put it bluntly, millions of canal workers and the canal were abandoned, so it was so glamorous? There were no uprisings or resistance?

So many were killed, so it didn't matter if there were only a few salt households.

Moreover, most salt households accepted the reclamation, and most of them had a very difficult life.

Lin Min said that Liu Yu's methods were rough, and that was what he meant. Liu Yu was too lazy to make a distinction and just cut it off.

He did not have enough grassroots governance ability to distinguish one by one, nor did he have enough time to get enough cotton fields for southern Jiangsu before the outbreak of the "First World War".

This time he came directly with the army, which was even simpler and more brutal.

Of course, Huainan's salt abolition should be done step by step, and it should be enclosed bit by bit.

The land most suitable for growing cotton should be enclosed first.

The rest, relying on the low-priced salt from the large salt fields in Haizhou, directly forced all the salt-making households into bankruptcy.

As long as Haizhou salt can obtain a license to sell in Huainan District, even if Haizhou salt is taxed, the private salt made in Huainan will surely die.

But although it has to be enclosed bit by bit, the overall strategy remains unchanged. Liu Yu firmly supports these reclamation companies.

The cultivated land is not enclosed, and it is not dared to be enclosed. It is not worthy of being provoked.

All grasslands are enclosed.

The price is clearly marked, and you have to accept it even if you don’t want to.

Either you take the money and leave to go to the factory, the salt field, the anti-contract, or the Nanyang; or you work as a hired worker here; or you are allocated a small piece of land and go bankrupt after three years.

There is no other choice.

If you resist, you will directly join the army with the name of the executioner in the future.

Since it has been decided to expand the salt field in Haizhou this time and put the Hubei salt area under the responsibility of Huaibei Salt, the scope of the enclosure this time is much larger.

This is equivalent to occupying the entire grassland needed to supply Hubei salt.

Involving more than 100,000 people and tens of thousands of households, it would be a miracle if nothing went wrong. Not every salt household is willing to give up their small industry and actively embrace this so-called "progress". Moreover, there are a large number of salt market owners behind it.

Lin Min, a small governor of Jiangsu, really can't control it. If he dares to do this, he will be directly sued to death.