Ming Dynasty: My Brother-in-law is Zhu Youxiao - Chapter 466

  Chapter 466 Permanently abolish corvee and reduce land tax!

   “The Emperor!”

   Zhang Gui was stunned for a while after seeing Tian Qi, and then bowed first.

  Tian Qi nodded with a smile at this time: “When you go outside the customs, you must remember to write to me. When I finish the telegram, I will first set up a telegraph line to Lushun, and then I can contact you at any time.”

   “Remember, the Supreme Emperor is at ease.”

   Zhang Gui replied.

   Tian Qi nodded with a smile.

  Zhang Gui took his family on the steam train to Jizhou.

   Not long after, the train started to move under the gaze of Tianqi and a group of ministers and ministers, and headed north all the way.

  Zhang Gui looked back.

  He found that leaving a familiar place was not only a difficult thing for others, but also a difficult thing for him.

  But Zhang Gui knew that he had to leave, if he didn’t leave, it would only make the world inside the pass more uneasy.

  And looking at the entire history of China, this is already one of the best endings for him who is in a high position.

  Therefore, Zhang Gui still decided to calm down and shifted his gaze to the snowfield ahead.

  The train began to pass through the snow field, pushing everything in the pass to the back of the head little by little.

  Zhang Gui knows that his new world is coming.

  Ruling a Lushun is definitely much easier than ruling a Ming Dynasty.

  He can spend more time with his wife and children and enjoy all kinds of happiness.

  However, Zhang Gui also knows that he can’t just seek comfort.

   There is no absolute ease in this world.

  He must still maintain the strength to defend his homeland at any time.

   After all, there is a saying that the side of the couch cannot allow others to sleep soundly.

  He can’t be completely assured that the top ruler of Ming Dynasty will always allow him to live freely in Lushun.

   Therefore, Zhang Gui plans to spend as much of his tariff and trade income as possible on scientific and technological research and development after he goes to Lushun, especially steam ships.

  He must have the ability to go further to other places at any time, must also have the ability to go to any piece of land to establish a colony at any time, and must also have the ability to dominate the ocean.

   For this reason, he left Beijing this time and took away many skilled craftsmen who worked on steam locomotives for him.

   These craftsmen were originally employed by him after he bought out the steam technology from Tianqi.

  Because Zhang Gui treated them with more respect, rather than the false respect of the bureaucrats in the DPRK and China, these craftsmen were willing to go to Lushun with Zhang Gui.

   What’s more, Zhang Gui’s treatment for them is not low.

  Zhang Gui had already had people build a new city in Lushun, rebuilt the palace, expanded the dock, and relocated some people in his system in advance.

  Therefore, when Zhang Gui came to Lushun, Lushun was not a desolate place with few people, but was quite prosperous with people coming and going.

  As soon as Zhang Gui arrived in Lushun, he ordered Liu Zongmin to immediately organize man-made ships and develop steam ships, and personally went to inspect the universities built in Lushun.

  After Zhang Gui left the capital, on the side of the Ming court, the new emperor, Wen Tiren and other courtiers didn’t have much thought to care about a little Lushun and the sea affairs. They are now worried about the lack of labor.

   That’s right, the first problem the new emperor encountered after assuming the throne turned out to be the shortage of labor force.

Because a series of government-run railway construction projects are coming soon, the Ministry of Household Affairs has already sent the corresponding funds to the Department of Construction and the Ministry of Industry. Set up a railway office.

  Even the issue of land for the construction of railways to cross the border has been resolved. Under the power, the landlords dare not prevent the railways from passing through their land.

   Not to mention compensation.

   But the problem is that there is not enough labor to build railroads.

  After all, the current Daming is no longer the Daming that was full of exiles.

  There are no refugees in the entire Ming Dynasty.

  The original refugees either went to Xishan and became skilled craftsmen now, or went overseas and became self-cultivated farmers, or joined the army, became officers and soldiers, or went to work outside the customs as miners.

   Nowadays, in addition to self-cultivating farmers and landlords, those who need to build railways are a large number of landlords’ tenants and hired workers, as well as barbarians who can be directly regarded as slaves.

   However, the Yi people are still a minority, compared to the large number of Han tenant farmers and hired labor.

  After all, this land is not a new land, not a place where a large number of foreign immigrants settled, but a continent where the Han people have lived here for thousands of years.

   Therefore, if the imperial court wants to build railways and increase income, it still needs to further liberate the Han people. It is not enough to just ban slavery in name, and a large number of tenant farmers and hired workers from landlord families must be willing to come out and work on the railway.

  And this requires the imperial court to encourage Han people to come out of the landlord’s manor, encourage Han people to leave their hometowns, and at the same time increase the wages of Han people working.

In fact, in the north, especially in the capital area, because there is already such an industrial base as Xishan, many new factories are concentrated in the capital area, which has attracted many Han people from all over the country to leave their hometowns to work in the capital area. In turn, higher income can be obtained, and the prosperity of Gyeonggi can be further promoted.

  However, today’s Ming Dynasty is naturally not the era when a large number of landlords were wiped out in later generations.

  In today’s Ming Dynasty, there are a large number of landlords and gentry.

  A large number of landlords and gentry occupy thousands of hectares of land, what do they rely on to make a living? It relies on letting a large number of Han people work as tenant farmers for them, so that they can eat and rent; at the same time, they also use the rent they get to raise a large number of domestic servants and provide them with life services that are superior to human beings.

  So, although the Ming court had banned slavery, a large number of landless Han people were still controlled by landlords in the form of tenant farmers or house slaves.

   It’s just that they are no longer slaves on the surface, but in fact they are still squeezed by landlords.

If these tenant farmers or household slaves want to leave their hometown and go to work in the north to earn higher income, it will affect the interests of the landlord class, and no one will rent the land of the landlord class, and no one will Serve him again.

  Therefore, the landlords and gentry in many places will restrict their tenant farmers and domestic servants to go to the north. Those who are more civilized will reduce rent and interest or improve treatment.

  But no matter which way it is, not many Han Chinese will come to work in major factories in the north.

   As a result, the imperial court does not even have enough labor force to build railways.

  The court cannot directly recruit civilian husbands, because civilian husbands have already paid corvee silver, and more importantly, compulsory recruitment of husbands will also aggravate social conflicts.

   Therefore, the question before the new emperor and courtiers was how to attract more Han Chinese who were controlled by landlords to the national cause of railway construction.

“Uncle said that we should do our best to let the benefits of the world benefit the laborers. How about this, simply issue an imperial edict to directly exempt the world from corvee! Starting this year, no corvee money will be collected. In addition, the number of acres of land is less than Land tax will be exempted for 50 mu. Let more people have less burden and have more energy to earn their own wealth.”

  Under such circumstances, the new emperor made a bold decision to directly exempt corvee labor and the land tax of the owner farmers who occupy a small number of fields.

  (end of this chapter)