Chapter 462: This Is Bad — the Great Qing Is Equalizing the Fields!

Hearing Dodo say "few people," Dorgon burst out laughing. "What's there to fear from having few people? Few people have their own solutions, many people have their own troubles! We've all read Romance of the Three Kingdoms — do you know how many people Wei, Shu, and Wu had back in the Three Kingdoms era? Cao Wei, the most populous, had barely over ten million at most. Our Manchu ancestors in those days were still hiding in the mountains and forests — never mind Cao Mengde, they couldn't even beat Gongsun Du!

And do you know how many people the whole country had in the early years of the Great Tang? According to the records, in the Wude era of Emperor Gaozu of Tang, the empire had only a little over two million households, with a population of at most ten million or so. And didn't those ten million or so people still sustain the golden age of the Zhenguan reign?

So we shouldn't fear having few people. However few, we still have ten million! That's no less than in the early Tang or the Cao Wei period. The key is how we manage them!"

"The Prince is absolutely right," Mandahai said with a face full of smiles, chiming in with Dorgon. "Back in our Liaodong days, the late Taizu Emperor even slaughtered the Nikan population for lack of grain. With too many people, the grain might not be enough to feed them!"

Dorgon smiled but did not pick up that thread. After a pause, he continued: "In Our view, the southern court's self-inflicted chaos is precisely the result of having too many people! Many people and little land naturally mean grain shortages and food scarcity. When the common people have nothing to eat, how can they not rebel? Now that the north has fewer people, there is relatively more land. We need only put the abandoned land in Henan, Shandong, and Northern Zhili to use. The soil of the Central Plain will sooner or later all serve the Great Qing!"

His words made sense! The cycle of order and chaos in Chinese history is, to a great extent, the accumulation and release of the contradiction between people and land — in the early years of a dynasty, because the preceding chaos has consumed the population, there are necessarily few people and much land. The land's output is enough to feed the small population; everyone has food and clothing, and naturally there are no rebels.

But once the economy develops and the population multiplies, land becomes tight and precious. On one hand, the land's output is no longer enough to feed the growing population; on the other, the enormous wealth gap produced by economic development causes land to concentrate, and landless poor people struggle to survive.

Then the age of chaos is near!

On the northern Qing territory now, because of years of war, the population has fallen by at least eighty percent, so the contradiction between people and land has already been well resolved. Therefore it is not so difficult for the Manchu Qing to govern the Central Plain. Once the common people are fed and clothed, who cares about "every man bears responsibility for the fate of the realm"?

But on the Southern Ming's territory, because it has not suffered much warfare and has also received many refugees from the north, the contradiction between people and land is quite acute. Making sure everyone has a full belly is no easy task!

Dodo asked, "Fourteenth Brother, how are we to make use of the wasteland in Shandong and Henan?"

"Two methods," Dorgon said, holding up two fingers. "First, enclosure and military settlement. Enclose a portion of the wasteland and distribute it to the Nikan Green Banners for military farming. Roughly twenty million mu should be enclosed in Henan and Shandong. That way we can establish two hundred niru, each niru receiving one hundred thousand mu of land.

Second, land survey and inspection. We don't care about all those messy old title deeds. Whoever pays taxes and serves the Great Qing — the land is his, and the Great Qing's title deed goes to him!"

The matter of establishing the two Green Banners was already known to the Eight Banners high command present, and they all approved of it. The Green Standard troops now in Henan, Shandong, and Shanxi number at least a hundred thousand. Their monthly pay alone runs above three hundred thousand taels of silver — three to four million taels a year. On top of that, several hundred thousand shi of military grain are needed every year.

If the Green Standard is not converted into Green Banners, the Great Qing court will sooner or later be unable to afford them!

But "land survey and inspection" and "land to those who pay taxes" were being heard for the first time. And the thing sounded a bit off!

Everyone felt it was absolutely not proper, but none dared say so, and all turned their eyes to Dodo.

Dodo was not afraid of Dorgon — Dorgon's son Dorbo had, after all, been sired with his help!

"Fourteenth Brother," Dodo said, "doesn't 'land to those who pay taxes' sound a bit like equal-field redistribution?"

"Equal-field? Is it?" Dorgon thought it over — it did seem a bit like that — and waved a hand. "Then let it be equal!"

Dodo was stunned again and again. How had his fourteenth brother come to imitate Li Zicheng?

Dodo reminded him: "Fourteenth Brother, equal-field is the roving bandits' way."

"What do you mean, the roving bandits' way?" Dorgon glared at his brother. "When did the roving bandits ever equalize fields? Besides, when the roving bandits were in Beijing, the Central Plain had more people than now — equal-field might not even have been enough! Now it's fine: the dead are dead, the runaways have run. Once you leave the capital region, you hardly see anyone along the road. Everywhere is untilled wasteland. If we don't distribute it, what then? Leave it to grow weeds?

Gentlemen, land is not what's valuable now — people are! Distributing it out is a gain, understand?"

The Eight Banners nobles present looked at one another, and all felt the Prince Regent's words made good sense.

When Li Zicheng occupied Beijing, the population of Northern Zhili, Shanxi, Henan, and Shandong was far larger than now!

Since the Qing army entered the pass, there had been city massacres, land enclosures, house seizures, voluntary bondage, that tormenting Fugitive Law, slanderous accusations of tomb-robbing, and back-and-forth fighting in many places. The population had died or fled, and fallen by at least another half!

Dorgon counted on his fingers: "According to the Ming Ministry of Revenue archives, Shandong has 61.74 million mu of arable land. The two prefectures of the Eastern Depot and Yanzhou that we hold, plus half of Jinan Prefecture (the northern half), are all flatland — at least 20 million mu of arable land.

Henan has 74.15 million mu of arable land. Now all of Henan except the two prefectures of Nanyang and Runing is in our hands — at least 50 million mu of arable land on our territory.

Shanxi has less arable land, only a bit over 36.8 million mu. On our territory there are roughly 25 million mu.

Northern Zhili has close to 50 million mu, of which 20 million mu of banner land has already been enclosed, leaving 30 million mu.

Adding it all up, excluding banner land, there are altogether some 120-odd million mu of arable land. After taking out twenty-odd million mu for the hundred thousand soldiers of the Regular Green Banners to reclaim and farm, nearly a hundred million mu remain! Collect four sheng of flour per mu, and that's four million shi. Four sheng per mu — not asking much, is it? Whoever can pay this four-sheng-per-mu imperial grain tax, We will grant him the land. As for those stale old eight-legged title deeds, We don't care about them."

You could do that?

The Eight Banners nobles present were all a bit dumbfounded. War was their specialty; politics, well, they still couldn't quite work it.

Dodo frowned. "All hundred million mu are to be granted out?"

"All of it. What use is keeping it in hand?" Dorgon thought for a moment. "We can grant land by headcount! To keep it simple, divide it equally — ten mu per mouth. If someone can produce a Ming title deed and is willing to pay the taxes for the first and second years of Shunzhi, we'll recognize it. If there's no title deed or they won't pay the tax, then forget it!"

Well, this Dorgon actually wanted to do what even Li Zicheng had failed to accomplish!

But the matter was only natural. The land question is always milder in a dynasty's early years and more acute in its final years. The root cause, in the end, is the intensification of the contradiction between people and land!

On the Central Plain territory now ruled by the Great Qing, the population has fallen by a full eighty percent compared with the Wanli era of the Ming. With so few people left, naturally there is no contradiction between people and land.

Excluding the Eight Banners lords, the booi bondservants, and the Green Banner running dogs, on the land directly controlled by the Great Qing court in Northern Zhili, Shanxi, Henan, and Shandong, there are at most ten million mouths, two million households. Granting land by headcount, each household would get at least fifty mu. Collecting only four sheng of imperial grain per mu, one household would owe two shi of imperial grain a year. And fifty mu of land, no matter how bad the "Little Ice Age," should still yield a dozen-odd shi a year, right? After paying two shi in imperial grain, the rest is enough to feed a family of five.

And at two shi per household in imperial grain, two million households make four million shi! Salt tax, customs duties, and commercial taxes should bring in over a million taels no matter what.

With those two revenues, plus the savings from granting land to the Green Banner soldiers, the Great Qing court's finances will by no means be unsustainable.

The only problem is that once the scholars of the southeast hear of this, I fear no one will ever again surrender to the Great Qing and become a traitor — the Great Qing is far harsher than Zhu Cilang, not only digging up graves and robbing tombs, but also equalizing the fields!

(End of Chapter)