Chapter 930: Disguised Inspection for the Emperor

In March, the Emperor issued an edict to expand the scope of maritime trade, ordering Lingshan Wei, Suzhou, and Guangzhou to build seaports for merchant ships to dock.

As soon as the imperial decree arrived, Zhejiang resisted strongly; the Zhejiang Provincial Administration Commissioner immediately submitted a memorial requesting the opening of a seaport in Hangzhou Prefecture.

In his memorial, he listed ten reasons why Hangzhou Prefecture must open a seaport.

One of them was that, due to last year's storm disaster, there were many refugees within Zhejiang, while arable land was scarce and unable to settle them; building a seaport could anchor these refugees and prevent them from roaming and causing unrest.

The court was in fierce debate over this matter.

Most court officials believed that Zhejiang already had Suzhou Port to the north and Quanzhou Port to the south, making another seaport truly unnecessary.

Even Yu Qian asked: "Your Majesty, does the Great Ming really have this many merchant ships arriving at shore?"

Cao Nai also said: "One cannot eat a fat man in a single bite. We understand Your Majesty's eagerness to collect commercial taxes, but this matter cannot be rushed; otherwise, neither customs nor commercial taxes will be collected, and instead, the people will be exhausted and the treasury drained."

The Emperor found their arguments reasonable, yet he felt deep down this was not the optimal solution, so that night, accompanied by Empress Wang, he wrote to Pan Yun.

Soon, characters began appearing on their yellow talisman scrolls; the couple immediately leaned in to read.

Pan Yun: "Ask Sun Yuanzhen: before the disaster, the people lived peacefully on their land—why can they not return to it now? Where did their land go? Ask him further: Zhejiang's official land taxes are heavy, yet instead of reducing them, you want to spread the burden onto the lightly taxed private lands—what kind of thinking is this? Your family used to pay only one dan of grain annually; now officials tell you that because official land taxes are high, you must shoulder part of the burden for official land tenants—starting this year, your family must pay two dan of grain. Year after year, farmers and tenants on private land brawl with tenants on official land over water—do they never think about where this enmity comes from? Do they make decisions with their toes?"

The Emperor's face flushed red, for this order had been issued by him not long ago, assigning Sun Yuanzhen to oversee it.

Empress Wang saw his flushed face and could not help asking: "Who gave His Majesty this suggestion?"

"It was Yang Zan, the Right Provincial Administration Commissioner of Zhejiang," the Emperor whispered: "This method… is acceptable. Equalizing taxes cannot mean truly exempting official land taxes—the treasury has no money."

So they could only redistribute and balance the burden, so that official land tenants would not suffer too much.

Zhu Qiyu was not foolish; Pan Yun's words were not aimed at Yang Zan or Sun Yuanzhen, but at him directly.

Though ashamed, Zhu Qiyu had no intention of changing course; he whispered to Empress Wang: "This is the best solution for now. If one day the treasury is full, we can reduce taxes overall and ease the people's burden—but if we reduce them now, where will the treasury get its money?"

After taking charge of the household, Empress Wang understood the cost of rice, oil, and salt.

Ever since she resolved to help the Emperor increase revenue and achieve great accomplishments, she had been meticulously budgeting—she could no longer spend all the inner treasury's funds; she had already begun using her dowry.

But she was merely an ordinary official's daughter; her father and brothers were still relatively upright and had not prepared her with much of a dowry, so she understood the Emperor.

She reached out and pressed his shoulder gently, saying softly: "Then let us record this matter—we will reduce some taxes when we have money."

The Emperor nodded vigorously.

Empress Wang muttered: "The State Preceptor only told you to question Sun Yuanzhen—why didn't he suggest a solution?"

Zhu Qiyu grew troubled, hesitating, when suddenly more characters appeared at the edges of the talisman scroll: "Have Sun Yuanzhen buy back some land to settle the people—he must have a way. If he doesn't, ask Yang Zan. Also ask Zhejiang's scholar-gentry landowners: do they want a seaport, or do they want land?"

Zhu Qiyu's eyes lit up; he leapt to his feet: "I understand—the State Preceptor wants those scholar-gentry landowners who seized farmland during the disaster to pay a price!"

Do you truly believe all landowners in the realm became wealthy through hard work?

Those who truly became great landowners were either officials, or else ruthless and cunning.

During last year's storm disaster, certain landowners in Jiang-Zhe and the Southern Directly Governed Region colluded with local officials, seizing the farmland of displaced refugees and labeling it as abandoned land—countless such cases occurred; in just these few months of his southern inspection, Xue Shao had already investigated and punished numerous officials and landowners, returning a total of eight hundred and sixty-eight mu of farmland to the people.

This was possible because the people filed complaints, allowing Xue Shao to access official case records and locate the victims one by one to restore justice.

How many others dared not complain—or had no chance to complain?

Naturally, how many remain unremoved?

These "illegal" practices can still be reversed—but there are also "legal" ones.

For example, during last year's great disaster, lending one dou of grain demanded repayment of one shi; with compound interest, by this year, repayment required about ten shi. When farmers harvested their crops, paid their taxes, and tried to repay the debt, what remained was likely insufficient to settle even that single dou of grain—so the land was inevitably seized by the landowners.

"Then, they lease it back to them at fifty or sixty percent of the harvest," Xue Shao handed Pan Yun a Yijuanan Sect case scroll, saying: "Last year, a rebellion broke out in Wenzhou; Grand Secretary Sun led troops to suppress it and pacified over three thousand six hundred men—these bandits were once landowning commoners."

Pan Yun took the scroll, flipped through it, and asked: "This Grand Secretary Sun is quite capable—he has them reclaim wasteland and establish garrisons, effectively settling them."

Xue Shao nodded: "The greed of great landowners cannot be controlled by one man alone."

Pan Yun tapped her fingers lightly on the table: "I've arrived in Hangzhou; Sun Yuanzhen and Yang Zan must know by now. Tomorrow, I will stay at Hangzhou's most luxurious inn."

Xue Shao smiled and asked: "What are you planning to do?"

"My people love the land—but they also love money. If there were something whose value was ten or a hundred times greater than land, would great landowners be willing to trade for it?"

Xue Shao: "Maritime trade? It might work temporarily, but not as a lasting solution."

Pan Yun smiled: "A lasting solution would be too bloody—and the greatest landowner in the realm sits above us; he would never do such a thing. But 'buyback' is both reasonable and emotionally compelling."

Xue Shao had nothing to say.

So the next day, Pan Yun appeared openly on Hangzhou's streets, escorted by Xue Shao into the city's most luxurious inn.

As Jiangnan Inspection Censor, Xue Shao had always been under close watch.

And Pan Yun—two days ago, two villages outside the city clashed over water; over three hundred people charged each other with sickles, kitchen knives, hoes, shovels, and clubs—when the government office runners sent to mediate were first knocked into the fields, just as bloodshed was about to erupt, a giant pot fell from the sky, crashing down with a boom right between them; the two groups were thrown backward into the fields, and from inside the pot crawled out a little Daoist Priest… (End of Chapter)