Chapter 179: Surveying the Land

After returning to the Fengyang imperial city, Zhu Cilang summoned Zhu Dadian.

Zhu Dadian held the posts of Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue and Right Censor-in-Chief, Governor-General of Grain Transport, and Governor of Fengyang with concurrent responsibility for coastal defense. His authority was vast and his burdens heavy. Since taking office in the eighth year of Chongzhen, he had been eager to achieve something noteworthy and hoped to advance further, but with the current situation—it was difficult!

Zhu Cilang inquired, "Minister Zhu, can the eight guards and one station of Fengyang deliver the grain according to regulations this year?"

Zhu Dadian's face showed difficulty: "Your Highness, with the current droughts and natural disasters, farmland lying waste, and hereditary military households fleeing... Your minister truly cannot collect that much grain."

Zhu Dadian was under tremendous pressure now. Others saw his authority and prestige before others, but not the bitterness and hardship behind it. Every day he was pressed for grain from all directions, his head swollen from the nagging.

Zhu Cilang frowned and said, "In the fourteenth year of Hongwu, the court established the Central Capital Garrison Command in Fengyang Prefecture, governing eight guards and one station, with a fixed strength of forty-six thousand soldiers. In the eighth year of Chongzhen, when the roving bandits breached Fengyang, Zhu Xiangguo, the commander of the Central Capital Garrison Command, led troops to resist but could only muster three thousand men. With so many hereditary military households gone, where is their land?"

Although Zhu Dadian knew the answer, he stammered and dared not speak—saying it would offend far too many people.

Zhu Cilang snorted coldly, "The hereditary military households may have been squeezed away, but the land is all still there. Setting aside the wasteland, there's still plenty of land for growing grain. So why can't the grain be collected? Why is the ratio so far off?"

Zhu Dadian naturally would not tell him that the military officers in the guard stations, in order to evade rent, had registered much of their land under the names of gentry, and some had even already sold it off.

Zhu Dadian softened his words and could only report, "Your Highness, most of the land here belongs to tax-exempt fields from which no tax grain can be collected."

Of the vast military farmland of the hereditary military households in Fengyang Prefecture, more than half had been seized by military officers at all levels of the guard stations. Even among civilian land, more than half had been taken by local literati gentry and powerful landlords. Of the common soldiers and people who could still own their own military or civilian fields, less than three in ten remained.

The officials and gentry of the Great Ming were not entirely tax-exempt. Strictly speaking, both officials and gentry of the Ming were required to pay grain taxes, though their land taxes enjoyed certain exemptions, and those exemptions were limited to a set number of mu.

With such exemptions in place, officials and gentry could register the military and civilian fields they had seized under their exempt quotas. Even if they held several thousand mu of land, the tax-exempt registry might show only a few dozen mu. This was a common practice in every dynasty.

Some powerful officials and gentry held too much land and lacked the connections to register it under exempt quotas, so they would go to every length to evade tax grain collection, shifting all the taxes onto their tenant farmers and increasing the tenants' rents.

It was precisely for this reason that land surveys had always been extremely difficult in every dynasty, and those who initiated them could even face mortal danger—the interests involved were too many and too great.

"A fine 'tax-exempt field' indeed!" Zhu Cilang said coldly and sternly. "Zhu Dadian, I order you to conduct a complete survey of all tax-exempt land in Fengyang Prefecture before spring plowing! The eight guards and one station shall follow the distribution system set by the court in the past—military officers get exactly the land they are entitled to, and all excess land shall be confiscated! The land of fled hereditary military households shall also be fully confiscated! No matter how wasted the land is, it must all be surveyed! The survey task is to be delegated down to the five prefectures, thirteen counties, and the eight guards and one station. If the survey is not completed by the end of spring plowing, all principal officials at every level shall be dismissed and beheaded!"

What Zhu Cilang wanted now was to take back all the military farmland and convert its yields into military provisions. Only when soldiers ate their fill could they become elite troops and fierce warriors.

The surplus military farmland could also be used to recruit new soldiers and distribute land to them. One soldier represented one family. As long as there was enough land, Zhu Cilang could not only raise a massive army but also support a large population.

As for the hidden lands of the officials and gentry, once discovered, the back taxes paid could fill the granaries of local governments for use in disaster relief.

Cold sweat beaded on Zhu Dadian's forehead. He was not afraid of being dismissed or beheaded—though the land survey was a massive workload, with his authority he could complete it within the allotted time. What he feared was that the Crown Prince's actions would provoke the entire gentry and guard station officers into revolt.

Cutting off a man's livelihood was like killing his parents. By doing this, the Crown Prince would offend many people—the civil and military magnates and powerful families of all five prefectures and thirteen counties of Fengyang Prefecture would all be offended.

Zhu Dadian was thoroughly moved by the Crown Prince's great sentiment of serving the state and the people, even feeling a bit teary-eyed. But in his heart he was bitterly lamenting, thinking that although this Crown Prince was extremely clever, he had too little experience of the world—still a hot-headed youth—and could actually come up with such a method of courting his own death.

Zhu Dadian said in a low voice, "Your Highness, do you know about the matter of Hou Dingguo, the Guard Commander of the Fengyang Guard in the seventh year of Chongzhen?"

Zhu Cilang let out a cold laugh. How could he not know of this affair? On the road to Fengyang he had already learned everything about the prefecture. In the seventh year of Chongzhen, Hou Dingguo, the Guard Commander of the Fengyang Guard, relying on the power of Yang Ze, the eunuch garrison supervisor, had oppressed the hereditary military households. The soldiers of those households killed Hou Dingguo at Xiguan Village in Linhuai, then defected to the roving bandits. A month later they turned around and helped the bandits capture Fengyang.

Zhu Dadian was using the affair of Hou Dingguo to warn him—not to push the people in the guard stations too hard, lest they defect to the enemy.

Zhu Cilang said in a frigid voice, "Whoever dares to prance before me had better see whether his neck is hard enough!"

Zhu Dadian drew in a quiet breath, thinking to himself that this Crown Prince was dead set on cleaning up the eight guards and one station of Fengyang. Recalling the great deeds this young master had done in the capital, he was probably not one to suffer losses.

Zhu Dadian was even beginning to speculate that the two major incidents the Crown Prince had engineered in the Eastern Depot and Suzhou on his way south might have been deliberately done to kill the chicken to warn the monkeys—to give the officialdom of Jiangnan a show of force.

After Zhu Dadian left, he immediately began arranging for survey officials and yamen runners. At the same time, he wrote letters to Zhang Guowei in Nanjing and Shi Kefa in Anqing, telling them to be prepared to pacify the situation and not let the Crown Prince be killed in Fengyang—otherwise, when the court handed down punishment, none of them would escape.

Zhu Cilang was very clear about what he was doing. To make his strength great, he had to have a powerful foundation. His foundation was not the court, but territory he actually controlled with his own hands—and how many guns he held in them.

At present, the Jiangnan region was the most perfect territory, only this platter was a little hot to handle, not easy to take. Especially with two hundred thousand roving bandits lurking around—once he moved against the officials, gentry, and meritorious nobles of all Jiangnan, it would inevitably provoke fierce counterattacks, and the bandits would take the opportunity to pour in.

Zhu Cilang could well imagine that the moment his decree to survey the lands of all Jiangnan provinces was issued, the gentry of every locality would turn around and invest their millions in family wealth into the roving bandits, funding their uprising.

Therefore, Zhu Cilang could only start with Fengyang Prefecture first. After establishing a stable foundation, he would gradually push toward the Southern Capital region and the entire Jiangnan area—developing while suppressing the bandits, boiling the frog in warm water, and taking complete control of Jiangnan.

First solve the food problem, then solve the tax problem. Things like soap and glass—set them all aside. When the people's basic needs of food and clothing were not even solved, he had no mind for such trifles.

Zhu Cilang knew that things had to be done step by step—take too big a stride and you might tear something.

Thanks to the book friends for their tips! Wushu Wuwo, Mo Chu Shanshui Jian, Feng Chui Yi Cha Liang, BUCK, Xingxing He Shanhu, Jianjian A Biaobiao, Yi Lan Feng, Huomei Fengkuang, Ru Zhi Xin, Shuyou 20180422205011970