Chapter 1261: No Rents, No Corvée, No Levies, Open Examinations—Welcome the Great Ming

"Your Majesty, the people of Sichuan have suffered under the bandits and looked eastward for the royal army for twenty years. Now that they have finally awaited the great arrival of the royal army, surely they deserve some benefit? If they gain nothing, how will the people of Sichuan welcome the royal army with baskets of food and pots of drink?"

The one speaking up for the laboring people of Sichuan was old Ma Shiying. Old Ma was now advanced in years—seventy-six years old, still not retired, still continuing to serve the court and the people, and now holding the post of Minister of Justice.

Before entering the Grand Secretariat as a minister, he had twice served as Governor-General of Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan, responsible for attacking and blockading the roving bandits from the southern route. The task of attacking had not been completed, but he had still blockaded the roving bandits—though in truth the roving bandits had long since become sedentary bandits, so blockading them was naturally very easy. Still, Ma Shiying could be counted as having rendered service, and had now been enfeoffed as the Duke of Kenan, making him a grand noble indeed. Such a feudal aristocrat and feudal bureaucrat would of course not truly sympathize with the laboring people of Sichuan. His present proposal to give the Sichuan people a little sweetness was nothing more than an attempt to stir up ill feeling between the Sichuan laboring people in the lower ranks of the Shun state and the Shaanxi military households in the middle and upper ranks.

Wu Sanfu, who had by now served as Minister of War more times than anyone could count, snorted. "When the roving bandits marched into Sichuan back then, these Sichuan people were delighted. They sang that ballad 'Welcoming the Roving King' and welcomed that pack of rebels into Sichuan. And now they still want benefits from the court?"

Wu Sanfu was speaking the plain truth. The people of Sichuan had found the mass-murdering Zhang Xianzhong a terrible headache, but they had been quite welcoming toward the strictly disciplined Shun army. Especially in the first ten years of Shun rule over Sichuan, because the second generation of military households had not yet grown up and the demand for land had not yet arisen, most Sichuan people still retained the land they had received in the first land equalization. In those days, high and low alike were full of joy, and only a tiny handful of intellectuals from the former landlord class who dreamed of rising to prominence were unhappy—because the Shun regime was founded on military households, and without that status one could only honestly farm or labor, with no opportunity whatsoever to rise.

But those unwilling to settle down peacefully as farmers or artisans, still dreaming of climbing upward, were after all an extreme minority. Thus for more than ten long years, the Shun dynasty had enjoyed genuine popular support in Sichuan.

Ma Shiying shot a glance at Wu Sanfu, who had grown so fat he was nearly a ball, and said with a wheezing laugh, "The Sichuan people rejoiced too soon. Ever since the great war in Shaanxi began, their lot has worsened year by year, growing ever more miserable. And they are kept firmly pressed down by a gang of Shaanxi military households—no matter how great your abilities, you can never rise!"

Wu Sanfu shook his head and laughed. "Here in our domain, common folk also find it hard to rise. Studying for advancement and getting into university is not easy, doing business and making money is not easy, serving as a soldier and winning merit in battle is not easy, and even farming can end in losses! Even going overseas to the America Prefecture or California Prefecture to hunt sable and pan for gold—few ever truly strike it rich."

These words came from personal feeling. The sons and nephews of their old Wu family, and of that Zu family as well, could not pass the examinations for university and could only barely get into a military academy. They were certain to lose money in business, and could only live off rent from a dozen or so streets in Shanghai, Tianjin, and Tianhe. They had set up many farms back in their old home of Liaodong, and in the end all of them were barely scraping by. Still, they had not fallen so low as to go dig for gold in the Americas. The children of the Wu and Zu families were all big, clumsy, rough fellows, and by taking the route of army elementary school, army middle school, and army military academy, they could still manage to become cavalry officers who charged into battle.

Zhu Cilang glanced at "Fatty Wu," knowing that this fat man lost money in everything he touched, and that his household was full of profligate sons who knew only how to ride, shoot, hunt, and play ball—polo. A real headache!

But Emperor Zhu could do nothing to help. What he had been promoting was in the first place "capitalism born of losses." Because of the lack of far-sighted planning, losses were everywhere. Behind every glittering success story stood several failures who had lost so badly they could not even find their way home. And Emperor Zhu provided no minimum guarantee whatsoever, so failures who could not make it in the Great Ming often had only one way out: to go to the United States of the New Continent, or to the Kingdom of Luzon, the Twelve Duchies of Malacca, or the Free City of Temasek as indentured laborers.

That meant doing hard labor to pay off the ship fare—more or less a final desperate gamble. Though some did turn their fortunes around, there were also not a few who staked everything, even their lives.

But then again, if there were no "capitalism born of losses" constantly producing unwilling failures, who would be willing to risk life and limb to venture to the New World and the Southern Seas?

Shi Kefa, the Minister of Rites—a "lucky man" who had risen through the examinations and then somehow inexplicably become a great military strategist—shook his head, clearly disagreeing with the words of Wu Sanfu, Fatty Wu.

"Rising in the world is not easy anywhere, but here with us, everyone relies on their own abilities and luck. Among the roving bandits, ordinary people are not allowed to rise—the paths upward all belong to the Shaanxi military households." Shi Kefa smiled. "When you strive relying on your own abilities and luck, if you fail to rise you cannot blame anyone else. But when people are not allowed to rise, that is a different matter! If you do not make an attempt, how will you know you are not capable? If others say you are not capable, can you be content?"

Hearing this, Wu Sanfu could not help but sigh, and then shot a glance at his brother-in-law, the Great Emperor Zhu.

The Great Emperor Zhu had long ago said that the men of the Wu family could not do business—not only were they careless and inattentive, they were also loyal to their friends and full of feudal thinking. But who would listen! Apart from Wu Sanmei, who was kept in line by Zhu Cilang, which of the Wu family had not lost their entire capital?

At this moment, Zhu Cilang spoke with a genial smile. "We should indeed give the Sichuan people a little fruit. We do not expect them to welcome the royal army—it is enough if they simply do not help the roving bandits. What benefits should be promised? Let us all hear your views."

Ma Shiying said, "The Sichuan people now suffer five great hardships: heavy rents, burdensome corvée, heavy household levies, fierce military households, and no hope.

When the roving bandits first entered Sichuan, they carried out land equalization for a time, confiscating the landlords' land, distributing the greater part to farming households and a smaller part to military households, which the farmers then rented and cultivated. At that time, the rents pressing on the Sichuan people—whether the rent paid to the bandit puppet court or the rent paid to the military households—were not heavy. But ever since the great war in Shaanxi began seven years ago, the rents borne by the Sichuan people have grown heavier and heavier!

First, the bandit puppet court, in order to raise merit rewards and settle the sons of military households, repeatedly used the method of re-equalizing land to seize the Sichuan people's land. Afterward, to make up for the loss of rent revenue from the reduced public fields, the bandit puppet court kept raising rents, while the military households, burdened by heavy military service and enormous expenses, also kept raising land rents. By this year, the bandit puppet court had even introduced a 'Dual Rent Law'—one piece of land must pay two rents, one to the puppet court and one to the military household!"

Ma Shiying paused, then continued, "Because of the bandit puppet court's southward campaigns, northward advances, and development of Yunnan and Burma, the corvée labor dispatched by the bandit puppet court has also grown heavier and heavier. Sichuan farmers, apart from tilling the land, are constantly transporting and hauling supplies, without a moment's rest. Moreover, the household levy—that is, the collection of cloth and the like—has now also been increased considerably, and it has been detached from the land and tied instead to household registration. Even those who rent land from military households must pay the full amount of household cloth!

As for the ferocity of the military households, there is no need to elaborate. On the one hand, the Shaanxi people oppress the Sichuan people; on the other, the military households oppress the civilian households. There is fundamentally no bond of goodwill between them. And what most distresses the Sichuan people is the lack of hope. In earlier years, Sichuan people still had the chance to enter the military households, but now the sons of the military households have all grown up, while many old soldiers have still not retired. They cannot even arrange positions for their own people—how could there be any share for the Sichuan people? And being pressed down by the military households, they have no opportunity to test themselves against others, and so they cannot know whether they are capable or not. But no one ever thinks they themselves are incapable. Everyone believes they cannot rise because they are being pressed down by the military households. Add to that heavy rents, burdensome corvée, heavy household levies, and fierce military households—over time, the Sichuan people's resentment toward the Shaanxi military households deepens day by day. If the court could go and set a spark, ha, it would be dry tinder meeting a fierce blaze—perhaps it would become a conflagration sweeping the land!"

Ma Shiying said thoughtfully, "This old subject's idea is that the court should strike at the abuses of the bandit puppet court by proclaiming: no rents, no corvée, no levies, open examinations—welcome the Great Ming!"

"Excellent!" Zhu Cilang slapped the table and laughed. "Minister Ma of Justice is indeed Our right-hand man. 'No rents, no corvée, no levies, open examinations—welcome the Great Ming' is truly wonderful. Without even needing to distribute Sichuan's land, we can stir up the Sichuan people. It seems the unification of all under Heaven is only a matter of ten years."

(End of Chapter)