Chapter 1341: Land Is Actually This Precious

The first county-level "imperial examination" of Shizhu County (officially called the Official Selection Examination) finally concluded successfully under the supervision of the Crown Prince Zhu Hexing, who was using the alias Zhu Yun.

Of course, the process was a bit chaotic!

During the examination there was an incident with a jiangshi, but fortunately it was a false alarm — after investigation it was discovered that the jiangshi was not a real jiangshi, just a misunderstanding. In the end, the examinee Li Jinxue, who had been mistaken for a jiangshi, even placed first in the Shizhu examination (first place in the county exam is called "case head") and was appointed to an official post of the ninth rank, lower grade.

Also, more than a dozen examinees living in the eastern part of Shizhu County went missing either on their way to the examination or on their way home. Because they were traveling in groups, the likelihood of them being taken by tigers or other wild beasts was small — most likely they were killed by the roving bandits up at Dafeng Fort!

In addition, four elderly scholars fainted from weeping at the examination site because they failed the martial arts portion. After emergency treatment, three survived, but one could not be saved — he became a martyr of the examination hall!

Li Jinxue's coffin and burial clothes did come in handy after all — they were purchased by Zhu Hexing and used for the old scholar who died in the examination, and he was given a grand funeral — truly a grand funeral!

The Crown Princess wrote the eulogy, and the Crown Prince personally read it. He was also buried beside the soon-to-be-constructed Confucian Temple (Loyal Worthies Shrine) of Shizhu County, with a rather handsome grave mound built for him.

After suffering the losses of over a dozen missing and one dead, the Shizhu County examination finally produced thirty-seven court-appointed officials of the ninth rank, lower grade!

It may seem like a lot, but they were actually needed.

Because Ma Wanchun had brought very few subordinates from Zunyi — just one county vice magistrate, one registrar, plus two county lieutenants for military affairs and judicial affairs, four officials in total. The remaining officials had to be selected through this examination. According to the current local official system of the Great Ming, Shizhu County still needed at least four more county lieutenants for personnel, revenue, education, and public works, as well as two town chiefs and eleven township chiefs — seventeen officials in all.

Furthermore, Shizhu also needed to organize local militia on a large scale, which inevitably required appointing another batch of officials.

Local militia, by regulation, falls under the jurisdiction of the county lieutenant for military affairs. There is no fixed number of officials that can be placed under the county lieutenant for military affairs — only a rough ratio of officials to militiamen. Approximately every 200 militiamen may have one squad leader. Militia squad leaders are not given military rank, but are instead granted civil rank of the ninth grade, lower grade. They can be selected through examination or specially appointed by the county magistrate. However, militia squad leaders specially appointed by the county magistrate may only serve in the militia and may not be transferred to other posts.

This time Ma Wanchun planned to recruit 4,000 militiamen, so he established 20 militia squad leader positions and filled them all through the examination.

Besides the militia squad leaders, each militia squad (200 men) could also have one deputy squad leader, without official rank, but paid according to the standard of the ninth rank, lower grade, with the possibility of promotion to squad leader (by special appointment) in the future.

And these 20 men were not selected by examination, but were local worthies recommended by the thirty-seven ninth-rank, lower-grade officials who had passed the examination — this was another of Ma Wanchun's ideas!

Ma Wanchun was, after all, a county magistrate of more than ten years' experience, and his ancestors had been hereditary local officials for several hundred years. He might not understand other matters, but when it came to governing a poor, remote little county, he was an absolute expert.

He knew that relying on the imperial examination alone could not identify all the most capable troublemakers in a county, because many capable troublemakers did not necessarily know how to read.

At a time like this, it was necessary to have the officials selected by examination make recommendations! Have the leaders from all quarters put forward, let them help organize the militia training, and a force of 4,000 could still be assembled.

But to make these 4,000 truly risk their lives, having leaders to keep them in line was not enough — there had to be one more thing that ordinary common folk coveted most — land!

Speaking of land, the Shun dynasty had truly shot itself in the foot on this matter — the land problem in Sichuan was originally an enormous muddled account. Back when Zhang Juzheng was so capable, he had only managed to survey a bit over 13.4 million mu.

And the ownership of the land on those account books was in complete chaos. If the Shun dynasty had not simply flipped the table over, sorting it out would have been nearly impossible.

Moreover, even if it were sorted out, it could not easily be changed, and even if it could be changed, the conflicts of interest involved would be far too great!

But the Shun dynasty not only had Zhu Cilang thoroughly investigate Sichuan's land situation, it also turned all Sichuanese into tenant farmers! Now that Emperor Zhu wanted to redistribute Sichuan's land, he could gain the support of all Sichuanese — no matter how it was divided, the Sichuanese would always get a little something, right?

Precisely because of this, Zhu Cilang had no choice but to divide the land, even though he knew that most of the small farming households who received land would ultimately lose it again!

But now, in order to defeat the Shun state, he still had to distribute the land!

So just as Zhu Hexing and Ding Yuying were busy selecting officials through examination, Zhu Cilang, having arrived at Yong'an Palace, formally issued the great edict "Sichuanese Shall Have Sichuan Fields," announcing the redistribution of land throughout Sichuan so that Sichuan's farmers would all possess land of their own.

"This is wonderful! His Majesty has issued the 'Sichuanese Shall Have Sichuan Fields Edict' — we can now distribute the fields without restraint!"

Inside the Shizhu county office, Ma Wanchun held the dispatch just received from the East Sichuan Circuit and said with a smile to Zhu Hexing, Ding Yuying, and three or four other officials: "Gentlemen, this time we must make good use of this rare opportunity to distribute land — use the land distribution to mobilize the militia and raise all 4,000 militiamen for our Shizhu County!"

Although Shizhu was a lower county (classified as a lower county based on tax grain quotas), its population was not small and its area was very large, so raising 4,000 militiamen was more than enough. If they pushed hard, even 10,000 could be mobilized.

But Ma Wanchun knew that the campaign against Dafeng Fort would be a protracted war — a contest of endurance, not explosive force. So he was unwilling to recruit too many people at once, lest Shizhu County be burdened too heavily.

He paused, then continued: "This official's view is that every family of these 4,000 militiamen shall be allotted paddy fields along both banks of the Sanjiang Stream — a family of five shall receive at least 20 mu!"

As soon as Ma Wanchun finished speaking, Zhu Hexing interjected: "Only 20 mu? Isn't that a bit little?"

This remark was again somewhat startling!

Twenty mu of paddy field was little? The paddy fields here in Shizhu were quite fertile. With favorable weather, one mu could produce 3 shi of rice per year, and 20 mu could produce 60 shi of rice! If rented out, at Sichuan's tenant rates, the landlord could receive at least 30 shi of rice, and after deducting land tax, that would still be an income of at least 20 shi!

If divided among a family of five, each person would receive a full 4 shi of white rice!

"Assistant Prefect," Ma Wanchun said with a smile, "Sichuan is not like the southeast or the central plains — it has never been short of land, but densely populated. Shizhu still counts as a spacious county. If you consider those narrow counties on the plains, an average of 4 mu of land per person in central Sichuan is simply impossible — even 2 mu is not guaranteed."

"Not even 2 mu?" Zhu Hexing was somewhat surprised. "How do they eat their fill?"

The Great Ming homeland excluding Sichuan (including the Northeast, Jin'ou, and the Western Ocean) had a population of roughly 180 to 200 million, while registered arable land was about 1.5 billion mu, making the per capita arable land around seven or eight mu. Even so, considerable grain still had to be imported from Siam and Annam every year.

Here in Sichuan, the per capita amount might not even be 2 mu — how could that be enough to eat!

Ma Wanchun said with a smile: "Precisely because there wasn't quite enough to eat, the roving bandits couldn't hold the situation steady! Back when they first arrived, central Sichuan's population was not as large as it is now, and the roving bandits' fubing troops had not yet swollen to 600,000 households. The Sichuanese enjoyed quite a few years of ease!"

As he spoke, his gaze swept coldly across the county office hall. Many of the twenty- or thirty-something "ninth-rank, lower-grade" officials present unconsciously lowered their heads — they, or their fathers' generation, had all welcomed the Roving King, never expecting such an outcome.

Ma Wanchun continued: "There are only so many paddy fields here in Shizhu. Give them all to the militia families — at most 20 mu per family. Even if a family has more than five members, no more will be given; instead, sloping land will be provided as a supplement. That's how it shall be done. All of you, go and tell those below: those willing to work with us should come join the militia. The militia will recruit at most 4,000 men, so those who want in had better hurry.

As for everyone else, they shall all be allotted sloping terraced fields, at four mu per person, distributed to each household! Don't complain it's too little — those who don't join the militia to kill roving bandits get only this much!

Furthermore, whether one is allotted paddy fields, terraced fields, or sloping land, grain must be paid as tax!"

The old group is booming again — welcome, everyone, to join the book's new group. Group number: 635667889

(End of Chapter)