Chapter 350: What? You Want Equal-Field Distribution?

When Zuo Guangxian spoke, he looked deeply worried, as if a great calamity were about to descend.

Yet Zhu Cilang, listening to him, wore a faint smile and an air of complete indifference.

Even the mutinies in Jiangnan were beneath his notice, so what was there to fear from popular uprisings? At least Zhu Cilang was not afraid of uprisings by Jiangnan's serfs and tenant farmers. If it were something like an armed uprising of Shanghai workers, that would give him a bit of a headache.

But the port of Shanghai had not yet opened, and it was unlikely that a massive industrial working class could form within the next one or two hundred years.

Zuo Guangxian glanced at the young Crown Prince, and a feeling of helplessness welled up in him. How could a Crown Prince not fear popular uprisings? Popular uprisings were terrifying! Were the roving bandits not the result of popular uprisings growing out of control? If Jiangnan also fell into chaos, the Great Ming would be finished!

At that thought, Zuo Guangxian decided to raise the stakes. He said to Zhu Cilang, "Your Highness, during the Xu Bandit rebellion in Zhejiang last year, the Zhejiang rebels proclaimed the Yongchang reign title. In Hangzhou, Ningbo, and other places, rioters posted notices welcoming the Roving King, throwing the people into panic. The reason the situation was stabilized was that the scholar-officials of the southeast still stood united with the court. If the court strips them of their tax-exempt privileges, I fear many scholar-officials will be powerless to suppress unrest in their localities on the court's behalf.

Moreover, the corrupt practices of land commendation and fraudulent registration have filled the estates of southeastern gentry and great houses with bondservants. These bondservants attach themselves to great houses precisely to evade the court's taxes and corvée. Now the court is on one hand implementing uniform taxation of officials and gentry, and on the other remitting taxes and corvée. This will inevitably unsettle those who have already commended themselves into servitude or tenancy! I fear the day the uniform taxation policy is promulgated will be the day the Jiangnan bondservant uprising erupts!"

"Regional Inspector Zuo," Zhu Cilang said with a smile, "if there are lawless elements in Jiangnan colluding with the roving bandits, that would indeed be a mortal threat."

Zuo Guangxian let out a soft sigh of relief and cast a somewhat smug glance at Qian Qianyi and Hou Xun, who sat upright and solemn — though he was not a jinshi and could never be one of the Three Donglin Worthies, when it came to alarming the Crown Prince with dire warnings, he was far better than the two of them!

But Qian Qianyi and Hou Xun merely shook their heads slightly. The matter was not so simple.

Sure enough, Zhu Cilang's next words immediately left Zuo Guangxian somewhat dumbfounded.

"That is precisely why We intend to audit the military colonies and the fields. Only by completing the audit of colonies and fields can the court gain control of enough land, and only with land can it carry out equal-field distribution. And equal-field distribution will allow the court to firmly control a vast population! With sufficient land and population, the court need not fear roving bandits, popular uprisings, or the Tartar caitiffs!"

What? You want equal-field distribution? Zuo Guangxian was stunned again and again. He thought to himself: is your father the Chongzhen Emperor or Li Zicheng?

Even Li Zicheng never actually carried out equal-field distribution — he only made noise about remitting taxes for three years. You've gone even further: not only remitting taxes for five years, but equal-field distribution too!

Hmm, so you're not afraid of the roving bandits anymore — you're a damn roving bandit yourself!

At this point, Wei Zaode, who was about to be elected one of the Three Donglin Worthies, interjected: "According to estimates by the Ministry of Revenue and the military colony guards, in the southeastern provinces of South Zhili, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, and Fujian alone, the total of military colony lands, official lands, and concealed lands amounts to no less than one hundred million mu! These lands are all property of the court and can perfectly well be used for equal-field distribution, granted to common households to cultivate in return for land rent. Calculated at one hundred million mu, with an average rent of five dou per mu, of which one dou goes to rent collection and grain transport and the rest enters the treasury, the court's annual revenue could reach forty million shi of rice and wheat.

Furthermore, one household working twenty or thirty mu with all its strength is already the limit. One hundred million mu can be granted to at least four million households, roughly twenty million people. These households will all be administered by the court's military colony guards and become tenant households of the Son of Heaven. The state can recruit soldiers and laborers from among them, without needing to draw on the strength of ordinary commoner households.

Four million households — even if only one soldier is raised from every ten households, that is four hundred thousand usable troops! With four hundred thousand troops, what need is there to fear roving bandits, popular uprisings, or Tartar caitiffs?"

The dagger is revealed at last! This is the court contending with the people for profit!

Zuo Guangxian drew a sharp breath. So Zhu Cilang was even worse than Li Zicheng. No wonder Li Zicheng had suffered nothing but losses since Zhu Cilang took power.

"Your Highness, the hundred million mu of military colony lands, official lands, and concealed lands in the southeast all have owners! If the court forcibly reclaims them, does it not fear driving the gentry to revolt?"

The one raising the objection was an elderly man of about sixty, somewhat portly, speaking with a Minnan accent, dressed in a blue cotton scholar's robe.

Zhu Cilang knew this man was a great Confucian scholar of Fujian, Huang Daozhou, who was ranked alongside Liu Zongzhou — the master of the School of the Mind and founder of the Jishan school — as one of the "Two Zhous."

"Master Shizhai," — toward Huang Daozhou, Zhu Cilang was still very courteous, honoring him with the title "Master Shizhai," though he would not retreat one inch from the position he had to uphold — "in Our view, the greatest maladministrations of this dynasty are three: first, the imperial clan is too bloated; second, the hereditary military offices of the guard stations; third, the gentry's power is too great.

The court is now vigorously rectifying the imperial clan and the guard stations, and who knows how many people have lost their hereditary offices and status. Are the southeastern gentry more exalted than the imperial clan, more skilled in war than the hereditary military officers? If the imperial clan and military officers can be rectified and pruned, if clan stipends can be drastically reduced, if guard-station lands can be reclaimed and redistributed — then when it comes to the gentry, are they untouchable and immovable?

Moreover, We have remitted the land tax for five years and are preparing to remit the corvée of the southeastern commoners. For the next five years, private fields need not pay grain tax, the common people need not serve in corvée or as runners, and need not pay the exemption-from-service fee. Is such a policy benefiting the people not enough to pacify the commoners of the southeast?"

Huang Daozhou shook his head and sighed. "Today this subject will not speak of right and wrong, but only of whether popular uprisings and bondservant uprisings will occur. As for the merits of the matter, the court indeed has reason on its side. But now, with roving bandits and Tartar caitiffs attacking from without, and the wicked gentry and unruly people of the southeast rebelling from within, I fear the southeast's revival will be destroyed in an instant!"

Zhu Cilang nodded and smiled. "We do indeed worry about enemies attacking from without and the gentry rebelling from within. That is precisely why We convened this Donglin Assembly — in the hope that the Donglin Faction, at this moment of national peril, when the divine land is about to topple, can step forward to defend the state and protect the people. Master Shizhai, you are a great Confucian scholar of Fujian, held in the highest esteem throughout the Eight Min. Tell Us, how can we both pacify the gentry of the Eight Min, reclaim the official lands and military lands, and strictly levy commercial taxes?"

"This..." This truly stumped Huang Daozhou.

A great Confucian scholar like him did not study such matters!

Zhu Cilang's gaze swept across the great hall, taking in every expression on the faces of the key figures attending the Donglin Assembly, and finally settled on the deeply frowning Huang Zongxi and Luo Dagong.

A great Confucian scholar like Huang Daozhou studied the Book of Changes, whereas these two scholars studied society and politics — one did not become a great Confucian scholar merely by having lofty moral character or writing fine eight-legged essays. A great Confucian scholar had to make outstanding contributions to Confucian thought!

And Confucian thought was a comprehensive system encompassing both natural philosophy and social philosophy. To put it more plainly, it was the set of answers Confucianism gave to questions of worldview, outlook on life, and values. In later ages, because the Confucian worldview collapsed, people mistakenly believed Confucianism had no worldview and no natural philosophy, and some even mistakenly believed a great Confucian scholar was simply a Confucian of lofty virtue. In truth, that was never the case! It was only that Confucianism's natural philosophy had taken a wrong path — and error is not without value, because exploring the unknown is itself a process of trial and error.

The abilities of Huang Zongxi and Luo Dagong, however, lay in sociology and political science, and they could advise and plan for Zhu Cilang!

(End of Chapter)