Zhang Sunzhen and Chen Zilong were shocked when they heard Ma Cheng say that officials and gentry were working together to pay food, and the fire was consumed. Although they didn't know the specific meaning of these two nouns, they were both officials who had accumulated years of age, so they could naturally understand what they meant from a literal way.

Chen Zilong stepped forward and covered Ma Cheng's mouth and whispered: "My Lord Supervisor, are you crazy? You must not say such words randomly. If it is spread a little bit, not only you, but even Yuan Fu will be ruined!"

Chen Zilong’s concerns are not unreasonable. These two things have touched the core interests of officials. Whether they are actually implemented or not, as long as the wind comes out, the officials who discuss this matter will be in great trouble, no matter whether you are a eunuch or a Donglin Party.

Zhang Sunzhen was also scared to death by Ma Cheng's words. Although he wanted to implement the one-whip method, he was talking about two things with Ma Cheng. The one-whip method was just a fur, while Ma Cheng said that he was preparing to break up the ancestral graves of all officials in the world.

"Zhong and nephew, who did you hear these two new methods? Is it Yuanfu or which scholar?"

It is true that Zhang Sunzhen is a gangster of Ma Shiying, but he is not a close confidant. Now he is shocked to hear Ma Cheng say this, so he quickly asked who Ma Cheng said it? Zhang Sunzhen thought in his heart that if these two measures were what Ma Shiying thought, then he seemed to be staying away from Ma Shiying to avoid the leak of news that he was a little fish.

But Zhang Sunzhen was wrong. Not to mention Ma Shiying, no one in the Ming Dynasty could think of it or dared to think of it. This was all learned by Ma Cheng in later generations. But Ma Cheng could not say that he learned it by watching TV series, he could only say: "These are all thought of by the kid himself!"

Both Zhang Sunzhen and Chen Zilong knew what kind of virtue Ma Cheng was. Although they didn't know one of them, they only knew a lot at most. How could such a national plan be thought of by an illiterate person? So after hearing Ma Cheng's words, they both looked at Ma Cheng with strange eyes.

Seeing these two people looking at him like this, Ma Cheng knew that the two people didn't believe him, so he quickly said loudly: "This is really what the boy thinks about. Although the boy doesn't know much, he is smart. He thinks hard every day just to share his worries for his father! One day, suddenly the wisdom light flashed, and then he thought of these two good recipes!"

Although Ma Cheng tried hard to explain, Zhang and Chen obviously did not believe what he said. Zhang Sunzhen was not in the mood to care about Ma Cheng's nonsense at this time. He lowered his head and thought for a while and said, "Zhonghe, among the people, this matter must be kept secret today. If we miss a little, we three will be in trouble!"

Chen Zilong also knew that the matter was serious and quickly promised: "Please rest assured, Lord Fantai, I know what to do!"

Seeing the two of them talking on their own, Ma Cheng excluded him and asked from the side: "Uncle Zhang, the officials and gentry that the young nephew just said were all working together to pay food. When will the fire consumption be implemented?"

Zhang Sunzhen saw that Ma Cheng didn't understand the importance of the matter, and was so angry that he said angrily: "Sir, you don't have to worry about these things!" After that, Zhang Sunzhen picked up the tea and said: "I am tired, so I won't leave you two for dinner and see you off!"

Seeing that Zhang Sunzhen had already sent off the guests, Ma Cheng stood up unhappily and took Chen Zilong out. Ma Chen and the others left, but Zhang Sunzhen couldn't calm down. What Ma Cheng said just now was too conciliatory.

He was shocked, but now he thought about it, the two new laws Ma Cheng mentioned were very suitable for the current situation.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, land annexation had reached its peak. Large areas of land in Nanzhili belonged to the aristocratic families, and because of various privileges, they did not have to pay a penny to the country. However, the country needed money to exercise the power of the country, domestic rebellions required money, disaster relief in the north, and wars with the Qing Dynasty required money, and it was really hard to move without money. Therefore, at the end of Chongzhen, the three major pays had risen to the standard of levying one taels and four cents per acre of land, but in the end the tax collected by the imperial court was only more than 7 million taels, which means that there were less than 10 million acres of land in the country to pay taxes.

Of course, a country cannot have only 10 million acres of land, so where have the other land gone? One is that a large number of royal families occupy the land, and the other is that the land occupied by countless Juren, Jinshi, and officials across the country.

Needless to say, just here in Nanzhili, the Xu Jie family in Songjiang Prefecture occupied more than 200,000 acres of land, and the Xu Taishi family in Suzhou also had nearly 100,000 acres of land. The remaining Qian Qianyi family in Changshu, Wang Shizhen family in Taicang, Chen Zilong and Xia Yunyi family in Huating, which one is not a big landlord with tens of thousands of acres of land?

These landlords relied on the accumulation of several generations of officials in their families to collude with local tyrants. In addition to not paying taxes, they also had to get involved in commercial taxes, customs and salt taxes that were originally from the country. During the Tianqi period, they could have collected millions of taels of silver from salt taxes and commercial taxes, but Chongzhen came to power and got Wei Zhongxian and handed over all the government affairs to the Donglin Party and other righteous people. The court could no longer collect money for these three taxes. In the sixth year of Tianqi, they could still collect 640,000 taels of tea taxes. By the second year of Chongzhen, they only collected only ten taels of silver.

Zhang Sunzhen was originally a censor and knew very well about these tax changes in the court, but he was dismissed from office in the early years of Chongzhen and had no say in the government.

This time, Zhang Sunzhen became a rank-in official again, so he naturally had to practice his ideals planned at home in recent years. However, Zhang Sunzhen's personal level was limited, so it was impossible for him to invent any new method, so Zhang Sunzhen had to pick up Zhang Juzheng Yahui and implement the one-whip method in Nanzhili.

The one-whip method was not the first to be created by Zhang Juzheng, but it was indeed promoted by Zhang Juzheng across the country, so Zhang Juzheng left the name of a capable official in history. Although Zhang Sunzhen was not very good, he also wanted to learn from Zhang Juzheng's name in history, so after listening to the two new laws mentioned by Ma Cheng, he quickly wrote a letter to Ma Shiying, explaining the new laws mentioned by Ma Cheng, and then asked Ma Shiying what his opinions were.

Zhang Sunzhen wrote a letter to Ma Shiying in the mansion. Ma Cheng and Chen Zilong went out of the house. Ma Cheng did not talk to Chen Zilong, but rode on a horse and took his personal soldiers to the city. Chen Zilong originally wanted to go back to the yamen, but was coerced by Ma Cheng's personal soldiers, so he had no choice but to follow Ma Cheng out of the city.

The street in front of the yamen of the governor is called Qian Street, which is connected to Suzhou Xumen to the west. Taihu Lake is more than 40 miles away from Xumen. There are good fertile fields between Suzhou City and Taihu Lake. At this time, the summer grain in Nanzhili had been harvested, and it is logical that autumn grain should be planted. However, in recent years, due to the influence of the small ice river, the cold current will go south before the autumn grain matures, and the rice seedlings all over the ground will be frozen to death. Therefore, the autumn grain in Nanzhili has been converted to planting early-mature crops, such as cabbage and other green vegetables.

Ma Cheng took the team out of the city without saying a word, and happened to see a piece of farmland on the side of the road, an old man and two middle-aged men were farming. Ma Cheng stopped, came to the edge of the farmland, and shouted to the old man: "Old man, come here!"

The old man was farming with his two sons. Suddenly he heard someone calling him. He looked up and found that there was a group of people standing not far away. The leader was a young man wearing gorgeous clothes and was obviously not an ordinary person. Behind the young man stood more than a hundred burly men, all wearing the bright red military uniforms of the Ming army.

The old man knew when he saw this attitude that the young man in front of him must be a big shot. Maybe he would be a yamen or something. He quickly knelt on the ground with his two sons and shouted to see the yamen.

Seeing that the father and son were scared to this, Ma Cheng quickly said with a smile: "Old man, come here, I have something to ask you!"

Seeing Ma Cheng being kind, the old man came to Ma Cheng tremblingly, and knelt down and said, "I wonder what's wrong with this yamen calling the little old man?"

When Ma Cheng saw the old man's face full of wrinkles, he was 60 or 70 years old, and his two sons were 40 years old.

"Old man, are you Gui Geng this year?"

The old man didn't know what Gui Geng meant, but Gu Yong behind Ma Cheng said, "I ask how old you are!"

Gu Yong's tone became a little heavy, and the old man was so scared that he didn't dare to speak for a long time. Ma Cheng glared at Gu Yong, waved his hand to let him stay away, and then asked, "Old man, how old are you? Are those two your sons?"

Seeing Ma Cheng's appearance, the old man said, "The little old man is forty-three, those two are my sons. Ah Da is twenty-six and Ah Da is twenty-four."

It turned out to be a father and son, but they are much worse at this age. Ma Cheng is 22 years old. Although he has experienced a lot of battle, he is much younger than that Er. As for this old man, he is similar to Chen Zilong behind him, how can he look like Chen Zilong's grandfather?

Ma Cheng turned around and asked Chen Zilong: "Mr. Chen, are you Gui Geng this year?"

"My Lord Hui, I was born in the 36th year of Wanli, and I am forty-one years old this year!"

Ma Cheng looked at Chen Zilong and then looked at the old man. He was only two years apart, but how could he be like two generations? Chen Zilong was in the wind, and with the short beard hanging down to his chest, he looked like a good young man. Anyone believed that he was in his early thirties. But the old man in front of him was weathered and looked like a sixty-year-old.

Chen Zilong was embarrassed by Ma Cheng's sight, so he had to whisper: "Sir, it's normal for the people to work hard in the fields every day, and it's normal for the wind and sun to look older!"

Seeing Chen Zilong feel embarrassed, Ma Cheng stopped looking at him, but turned around and asked, "Old man, is this your field? How is the harvest every year?"

The old man saw Ma Cheng ask him and replied in a cramped manner: "When I say this, this is not the little old man's field, this is the Chen Juren in the city, and the little old man is the Chen family's tenant!"
Chapter completed!