Chapter 1533: Measuring Fields and Checking Households

"Move nimbly."

"Staring? Come here, beat him for me! Damn it, you're rebelling!"

Outside the East Gate of the capital, a scene that made people sad and tearful was being staged.

The soldiers of the Capital Battalion, wearing armor, some holding whips, some with hands on long knives, and some grooming their horses not far away.

In front of these soldiers was a group of men wearing coarse hemp clothes with holes, generally strong in build. They were using tools, either digging holes, or pushing carts to transport sand and stone, or leveling land, and so on, repairing roads.

The soldiers were just watching these people, not letting them run away, not letting them gather to make trouble. But if they were not honest, they would be whipped. If anyone dared to incite people to make trouble and use the tools for work to resist, then it would be miserable; they might be beaten until their bones were broken. If the matter was big, wanting to die a good death would be difficult. As for those who wanted to run away, the cavalry who were idle and washing and grooming horses on the side were not just staying idle; who could run away?

And when resting at night, these people were kept under simple sheds temporarily built on the side, and low walls were built, which could be considered as sheltering from wind and rain. In short, treating these people was no different from treating livestock.

Around these people working were a group of commoners pointing and gesturing, merchants passing by, and all kinds of people with or without power, all watching the fun.

But Wang Yan believed that only the commoners were truly happy. It was unknown what others thought, but it was known that after they finished thinking, they all had to curse Wang Yan for not being a thing...

"Look, Old Ma, how well these people work? In a month, this road is about to be finished. I heard from the Ministry of Works that the work is very useful."

Wang Yan sat on a folding stool, with a small red clay stove on a small table boiling tea, eating dry food and meat jerky with Ma Defu.

"More than a hundred people died in a month..."

Ma Defu shook his head, "These military soldiers are too ruthless; they were all beaten too heavily and died of their injuries."

"Those who seek death are only fools; it's no one's fault if they die. If they don't die, how can the rest be honest? And how can the work be done so well?"

Wang Yan didn't care at all, and turned to ask, "The date is coming soon; the Ministry of Works should have come up with a plan, right?"

"I went to see it yesterday. Our Daxing's roads are not bad, so there is no need to plan new roads; just repair and patch them. According to the wages for commoners set by the Magistrate, together with the materials, it will cost 500,000 taels of silver. It will be finished this year."

"For water conservancy, we need to dredge river channels, build new river embankments, dig wells to divert water, and so on. Counting the wages, it will cost 1.5 million taels of silver in three years. Magistrate, should we still repair it?"

"Silver is used for spending; if we don't spend the silver, the people who come later will scrape the silver into their pockets. Damn it, the money I earned with my life, can it be cheap for them? The silver to be taken out this year is only 85 taels; we still have more than one million taels of silver in hand, not to mention the tax retention, and the monthly cleaning fee is also a big sum of silver. There is no end to spending, so what can't be repaired?"

"Old Ma, you keep a close watch for me. The silver I exchanged with my life, whoever dares to eat until they are fat, grab them for me, and I will definitely make them unable to live or die, and regret coming to this world for a walk."

"Yes, even if the Magistrate didn't say it, I have to watch them to death."

"In addition, ask the county instructor to take a chapter on county school education; we want to expand the county school, not only in this capital, but we also have to take care of the commoners outside the city. There are so many scholars who failed the exam; we must use them all, let them go to teach, count them in the county's establishment, issue silver and benefits monthly, let them be teachers, and teach for a lifetime. Collect less tuition from students, enough for the school to operate and pay the teachers' salaries. Old Ma, you take the lead in this matter."

"Yes, Magistrate. The merit of education is the first priority of our dynasty. The Magistrate is willing to spend silver to educate the commoners; it is truly the blessing of our Daxing commoners."

"This silver belongs to the Emperor, and the commoners are the Emperor's commoners. It is the Emperor spending silver to educate the commoners, cultivate talents for our Great Ming, and contribute to our Great Ming in the future. This official is a running dog running errands for the Emperor; how dare I falsely occupy the merit of heaven?"

Wang Yan glanced at Old Ma, "Always think of the Emperor, don't put gold on your own face."

"It's my fault." Old Ma admitted his mistake simply and admired Wang Yan's perseverance in licking the Jiajing Emperor at all times...

"In addition, there is one more thing. Recently, find more scholars who can write and calculate. You also know that after checking the accounts of the shops this month, we will start measuring fields and checking households, which will require a lot of people."

"Magistrate, are you not considering it anymore? When we take action, the Magistrate will be restless again."

"It is precisely to fight them to the end, precisely to scrape their silver. Why is it that they can kill me if they want to? I just want to make them hate me to the bone, yet be helpless, and deal with them to death. Go, find the manpower. After the construction of the whole county starts, we will take action."

"Yes, Magistrate." Ma Defu responded, sighing at his own hard life...

In fact, he was also very embarrassed. Currently, he was valued by Wang Yan, and he didn't know how many people contacted him behind him. He wanted to know Wang Yan's arrangements from him, or begged him to raise his hand high and hide it from Wang Yan.

But he didn't dare.

He was very clear that without Wang Yan's power, these people wouldn't look at him, this County Assistant, straight in the eye. On the contrary, it was because of Wang Yan now that those people didn't dare to harm his family.

Without him, because Wang Yan was still alive.

People saw clearly how Wang Yan expanded things; if he truly grabbed their tails, he didn't know how many people would die...

So the more he was hunted, the more determined Ma Defu was to implement Wang Yan's orders. Otherwise, if Wang Yan didn't protect him, he would truly be miserable. Being two-faced, the outcome is usually not very good.

Thus, various policies and projects were set, and in early March, Wang Yan posted a notice, announcing the road and water conservancy projects, and at the same time had people spread the news in the countryside that the project would not conscript corvée labor, would not provide food, would only provide simple accommodation, and would all be settled in silver, and began to recruit manpower to carry out various construction projects during the slack farming season.

As soon as this news came out, it immediately caused a huge uproar.

Even if "work-for-relief" was a policy that had long existed, including when Wang Yan was in Chun'an, he also used work-for-relief to clear the silt on the roads and restore Chun'an's basic construction. For many subsequent constructions, Wang Yan also used the excuse of distributing silver to commoners to survive the flood to hire commoners to work.

But it was not as bright and clear as it is now, directly saying that corvée labor is not issued, and the government spends money to hire commoners.

The impact of this matter is very large. Not to mention the distance, just say Wanping; Daxing spends money to hire, but Wanping still issues corvée labor? How could the commoners have no complaints? Looking at the world, this precedent has been opened; how should other places handle it?

Going a step further, in the future, should all kinds of servants, tenant farmers, etc., working also be clearly priced? Should all kinds of workshops using people also have a standard salary? This is not a good start, and the impact is bad.

Thus, there was another wave of attacks, and memorials impeaching Wang Yan flooded into the palace again. The Jiajing Emperor, who had only been out of seclusion for half a month, announced seclusion again...

Still the same sentence, the Jiajing Emperor is sitting on the Diaoyutai steadily.

The overall situation of the country is generally stable, and there will be no collapse. Many problems can be shared by Great Ming's huge volume, making them look not so prominent.

As long as it is not said that the country will perish all of a sudden, then there is room for maneuver for any problem. No matter how fiercely Wang Yan makes trouble, he can't really turn the sky over.

With such a realization, the Jiajing Emperor's little life was very happy.

Every morning, he would practice the health-preserving skills taught by Wang Yan twice with Huang Jin, then eat porridge and side dishes, study alchemy with Daoists, and study the various layouts in and out of the palace on the sand table made by Lü Fang according to Wang Yan's suggestion, studying what to build.

Coupled with the two million taels of silver given by Wang Yan, the Ministry of Revenue should not be short of silver, so the Jiajing Emperor didn't worry about silver at all, and various projects could be accelerated. At the same time, he could distribute silver to the craftsmen and commoners who worked, letting them all live a good life, to fulfill his great virtue like heaven. Every time he inspected the construction site, he could feel the gratitude from the commoners' hearts; they were truly hoping for his ten thousand years.

All kinds of things, on one hand, his body was adjusted, and on the other hand, his mood was beautiful; the Jiajing Emperor only felt that his spirit was cultivated and successful.

As for state affairs, to be honest, ever since the power of the Grand Secretariat continued to expand, and the power was further delegated to the Jiajing Emperor's period, there was no need for the Jiajing Emperor to do anything. The Grand Secretariat could solve all big and small things. The Directorate of Ceremonial was also supervising; if there was any dissatisfaction, he would naturally say it.

At other times, he grasped personnel and understood finance, which could ensure the stable operation of this empire.

To be honest, it seems that the things Wang Yan came up with are the biggest things at present, but in fact? The biggest thing is to clean up the current political ecology.

Under the cover of Wang Yan's light, there was a series of personnel adjustments, and a small number of people were investigated and dealt with.

Even if the Jiajing Emperor said he would not liquidate the Yan party, the middle-strength forces of the Yan party who jumped happily in the past would not be able to get any good in any case. After all, these people occupied key positions; if they were not dealt with and their high-level ideological understanding was not unified, how could Xu Jie, the new Chief Grand Secretary, speak?

People fight each other; it's nothing more than personnel and finance. Everyone wants more of their own people, more silver for themselves, and wants to seize greater power and profit.

In such a situation, Wang Yan's closeness is even more apparent. After all, only Wang Yan is working for the Jiajing Emperor with his life, grabbing silver for the Jiajing Emperor, and striving for greater right to speak for the Jiajing Emperor.

So much so that the Jiajing Emperor has to ask what Wang Yan is doing every day; otherwise, he doesn't feel at ease.

He still can't see Wang Yan; the matter hasn't settled, so he can't meet, otherwise it would become him instructing Wang Yan. Look, ever since Wang Yan started making trouble, Lü Fang hasn't appeared again, and no one in the palace has come to convey any instructions to him.

Whether the Jiajing Emperor instructed or not, this point is very important. The Jiajing Emperor can not instruct and reap the benefits. But if he instructed, then the problem would be big...

Of course, regardless of whether the Jiajing Emperor met Wang Yan or had a mouthpiece, people are willing to believe that it was instructed by the Jiajing Emperor.

But the problem now is that the Jiajing Emperor is hiding in the deep palace and not coming out. Wang Yan is challenging a group of them alone, and they can't do anything. Whether it is the Jiajing Emperor or the Grand Secretariat, none of them helped or expressed their stance.

It is just Wang Yan using the rules to play with his life on the surface to suppress the powerful families and scrape silver from the powerful families. And the powerful families are playing with their lives in the dark to want to kill Wang Yan, but they can't succeed. They hate him to the bone, yet they are helpless.

This is the biggest problem now.

They can't kill Wang Yan, and they can't kill the Jiajing Emperor, and because the overall situation is stable now, they can't rebel; they are just incompetent and furious, watching Wang Yan dig their roots step by step, giving them a chronic death.

No, actually it's not slow at all. 【1533-

They couldn't take down Wang Yan, nor could they take down Jiajing, and because the overall situation was stable, they couldn't rebel. They were just impotent with rage, watching helplessly as Wang Yan dug up their roots step by step, giving them a chronic death.

No, actually, it wasn't slow at all.

After announcing various projects and the decision to spend money on hiring in early March, and after half a month of fermentation to ensure the orders reached every commoner in Daxing.

Wang Yan finally revealed his true intentions and issued another notice. It stated that because the Yamen had caught fire and all documents were lost, it was necessary to re-measure the land and register the population.

Unlike hiring commoners to work, the announcement of measuring fields and household registration didn't draw any curses.

After all, Wang Yan's reason was absolutely impeccable: the Yamen caught fire, the documents were all burned, and re-registering was only natural; no one could say anything against it.

However, it was clear that Wang Yan's land measurement would leave absolutely no room for error; every single fraction had to be measured clearly.

As the news spread, the number of carriages and horses leaving the city clearly increased.

The lack of documents was Wang Yan's excuse for re-registration, but it was also a good opportunity for the wealthy families to escape trouble. They weren't sure what methods Wang Yan would use to deal with them if he caught them in a weak spot.

After all, they had burned down the county Yamen and attempted to assassinate Wang Yan several times; they were already in a life-or-death struggle, and Wang Yan was specifically targeting them. If he really caught them in a trap, unless Jiajing intervened, Wang Yan would definitely see it through to the end. At the same time, he would expand the scope of his attacks; whoever he deemed an enemy would be included, and that was what was truly fatal.

This point became perfectly clear when Wang Yan branded Wang Chonggu a rebel.

Moreover, the damage caused was enormous. After Wang Yan pulled such a stunt, although it seemed Wang Chonggu was fine, it was equivalent to breaking his upward path; he no longer had a broader future and couldn't advance any further.

And that was with minimal impact; if he hadn't yielded at the time and had really been branded a rebel by Wang Yan, Wang Chonggu's entire clan would have been wiped out. He was truly ruthless...

So, regardless of how they planned to retaliate against Wang Yan, cleaning up their messes first and not giving Wang Yan any leverage was the consensus. Even the Imperial Estates were taking emergency action; Wang Yan had tipped off Lu Fang—if he really found problems in the Imperial Estates, the palace wouldn't be peaceful, and Lu Fang would inevitably be implicated.

It was as if Yan Song being the Senior Grand Secretary meant everyone was part of the Yan Faction. As the head of the Directorate of Ceremonial and the leader of the inner palace, Lu Fang had his "sons," "grandsons," and even "great-grandsons" everywhere there were eunuchs. Otherwise, how could he maintain power? Swearing to a godfather was the bond that maintained power and formed interest alliances within the palace.

Wang Yan didn't care about the actions of the powerful and wealthy; he couldn't manage them anyway, as he was short-handed.

Of course, what he really wanted wasn't leverage over the wealthy; he wanted the real, additional land and population. On one hand, it struck at the gentry and undermined their power; on the other, it generated more tax revenue, improving the fiscal situation.

At the same time, Wang Yan would continuously launch various projects for the commoners to work on during the slack farming season, covering their tax obligations while allowing them to earn more. This way, the commoners would no longer need to donate land or hide people.

Of course, the main goal was still to strike at the wealthy and the gentry, to unearth all the land they had seized through trickery and force over the years, and bankrupt them in one fell swoop...

The burden of the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Great Ming was not light, and Wang Yan was doing his utmost...

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