Chapter 278: The Second Generation of the Eunuch Party was devoted to the outstanding people in Nanzhili. Since the Tang Dynasty, a large number of intellectuals from the north moved to live around Nanzhili in order to avoid the wars in the north, and many great gentry were produced, such as the Chen surname.

There were many high-ranking officials from the southern Zhili area in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, including Chen Zilong in front of him, and Chen Mingxia, who served as an official in the Qing court in the north. He was from Liyang County, Zhenjiang Prefecture, and Chen Qia, the Minister of War during the Xuande period, who was a member of Changzhou Prefecture in the Southern Zhili. Others include the Chen family in Haining and the Chen family in Hangzhou, which are both amazing families.

As for the Chen family in Huating, Songjiang Prefecture, where Chen Zilong is located, he also had several ministers and ministers of the Shang Dynasty. Chen Zilong's old man Chen So-heard was the minister of the Ministry of Works during the Chongzhen period, so it was not surprising that there was an uncle from Chen Zilong here in Suzhou.

After listening to Chen Zilong's explanation, Ma Cheng asked the old man: "Old man, how much is the land rent? Is it enough for daily life?"

When the old man heard the middle-aged man say that Chen Juren was his uncle, he didn't dare to say bad things about Chen Juren, and quickly said: "Chun is called Chen Dali, and the land rent is 50% of the time. You can also reduce the exemption in the famine. You are a real good person!"

"The land rent is 50%? It's high enough. Why didn't the old man want to save some money and buy some land by himself? The court's taxes are less than this one, right?"

The old man sighed and said, "To be honest, the old man had more than ten acres of land ten years ago, but the court had too heavy taxes. There was no way for the old man to have to ask someone to serve under the sect of Chen Juren, so that he would be enough for the family to use. If Chen Juren had not taken in, the old man's family would probably have died in the prison of the county government!"

"The court has heavy taxes? Isn't it the court's fifty taxes set by one?"

In the early Ming Dynasty, because the wars in the country had just ended, Zhu Yuanzhang set the agricultural tax to one-thirty in order to promote production. In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the agricultural tax rate was even lower than one-fifty. Of course, this was not the emperor's compassion, which reduced the agricultural tax for the whole world. In fact, in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, a large amount of land was concentrated in the hands of the great gentry and landlords. These landlords attracted intellectuals from the court and reduced the agricultural tax to one-fifty in the Wanli period under the name of reducing the burden on the people.

The old man chatted with Ma Cheng for a long time, relaxed his vigilance. After hearing Ma Cheng say, he laughed and said, "Fifty tax one? That's the old man. I heard from the old man in his family that there were fifty tax one in the Wanli period, but that was just a regular tax, and there were other miscellaneous things, which cost about three cents of silver per mu."

The productivity in the Ming Dynasty was low. Because Jiangnan could plant rice for two seasons a year, the yield per mu was about two stones. In the average year, the rice was one tael of rice for one tael of five cents. Remove artificial seeds and other raw materials, and the net profit per mu was about one tael of silver. Therefore, it was probably 30% of silver per mu, which was considered good.

"The days before were difficult, but they could still be maintained. However, during the Tianqi period, tax collectors from the county said that the court would collect Liao pay. They went to Liaodong to fight wars and collected one more cent of silver per mu of land. But this was nothing more than just eating a few months of dry meals at home!"

"But in the Chongzhen year, the court had to start collecting salary and suppression wages again. A total of four cents of silver per mu were charged. If this continues, I really couldn't survive. There was no way for the old man to take the land to serve Chen Juren. After all, Chen Juren didn't have to do anything except 50% of the land rent. During the holidays, he could also give us tenants some wine and meat, which was easier than before.

There are too many!"

After saying that, the old man looked at Chen Zilong behind Ma Cheng with the corner of his eyes. He knew that this person was Chen Juren's nephew, and he felt that he would say a few good things to his boss.

"At that time, the old man was lucky enough to be the one who worked as a Chen Juren. I heard that the Xu family in the city was very unfaithful and the land rent was received 70% of the time. This was no longer a way for us tenants to survive!"

No matter how several other landlords in the city collected land rent, the purpose of his visit today was not this. He pointed to the surrounding land and asked, "Old man, are the surrounding land belonging to Chen Juren?"

"Yes, there are all around here, with a total of more than 1,000 acres outside Suzhou City. I heard that there are still some in Wujiang County!"

"Where is the Xu family and the Zeng family?"

"That's too much. I heard that the Xu family has tens of thousands of acres of land, and the Zeng family is almost the same. I don't know the specific number!"

Hearing the useless news of this old man, Ma Cheng smiled and said, "Okay, thank you for the old man today. Go and do your business, I wish you a good harvest next year!"

Seeing that Ma Cheng had no problem, the old man timidly took his two sons away and continued to plant their land.

Ma Cheng waited for the old man to walk away before asking in a deep voice: "Mr. Chen, you have been the county magistrate. Do you think what the old man said is true?"

Chen Zilong pondered for a while before saying, "Sir, what the old man said is not only true, but the situation is not only that. In fact, the fact is far from what he said. The land in Southern Zhili is fertile, with two seasons a year. Although the land rent is as high as 70%, the rest is enough for the people to live. But the north is different. The land output in one quarter of a year cannot pay enough taxes from the court. I heard that some prefectures and counties in Shandong have collected taxes for ten years, and they are called "the head tax!"

Ma Cheng turned around and stared at Chen Zilong's eyes and asked, "Mr. Chen, the court has already sucked bones and marrow. The tax has been received for ten years. But why did the annual tax in the Chongzhen period only cost seven or eight million taels of silver? Where did the money go?"

The Chen Zilong family was a landlord, so he naturally knew where the money went, and it was nothing more than the big families who did not pay taxes.

"Mr. Chen, how much land does your family have?"

"I don't know the specific number of jobs, but there are still five or six thousand acres!"

Chen Zilong's grandfather was a Juren, and Lao Tzu was a Jinshi. He was also a Jinshi. Three generations of talents saved up 5,000 acres of land, which was already considered poor. The Xu family in Songjiang, which was the home of Xu Jie, a famous minister during the Jiajing period, obtained more than 200,000 acres of land with one service. There were also Qian Qianyi's family in Changshu, which also had 70,000 to 80,000 acres of land, and the Wang family in Taicang. It is recorded in history that in the southern Zhili area, there were 104 large landlords who owned more than 70,000 acres of land, most of which were Jinshi, and Juren, or were nobles in Nanjing.

Ma Cheng looked at the farmers working in the fields and asked in a low voice: "What does the editorial of Huangming Jingshiwen by you mean by Mr. Chen?"

This 504-volume Huangming Jingshiwen was edited by Chen Zilong, and was compiled by some of his friends from several clubs, such as Xu Fuyuan, Li Wen, Peng Bin, He Gang and others. The purpose of compiling this book is just like Song Zhengbi wrote in the preface for this book, "This book is not a favorable source of famous teachings, that is, governance and chaos." This book is not a reference book for rulers like Zizhi Tongjian, but rather a search for the foundation of the operation of this world. Why must China pass the third and fourth level of life?

There will be chaos every hundred years? Why can we deal with it only after chaos? What are the methods and means to solve these problems?

Chen Zilong thought of the more than 500 volumes of the emperor's masterpieces edited by him, but it was not as profound as Ma Cheng's words. In order to find a fundamental solution to the transformation from governance to chaos in China in the past dynasties, Chen Zilong found a large number of historical documents. However, he did not expect that Ma Cheng's simple words, officials and gentry were working together to pay food, and the fire was consumed by the public, so he explained the problem so thoroughly. Chen Zilong is really impressed by Ma Cheng now.

"My lord, I passed the imperial examination at the age of 20 and passed the Jinshi at the age of 28. Now I learned that my talent is not inferior to others. It is really admirable!"

When Ma Cheng heard Chen Zilong admire him, he was secretly proud of himself. If Chen Zilong, a great writer, could say something admirable, he would have a result of his show of pretentiousness. However, today Ma Cheng did not come to show off. His fundamental purpose was to win Chen Zilong's heart and make Chen Zilong willingly work for him.

Ma Cheng held Chen Zilong's hand emotionally and said, "Brother Chen, this world is so dirty, only Brother Chen attracts me like a stream in this troubled world! Brother Chen, you are deeply educated by Confucianism and know the suffering of the people. Now I want to ask Brother Chen to abandon his family and his identity as a Jinshi, and only want to do something for this country and for these suffering people!"

After Ma Cheng said that, he knelt in front of Chen Zilong with a gurgle, which scared Chen Zilong. Chen Zilong quickly helped Ma Cheng and shouted: "Why are you like this, please get up quickly!"

"Brother Chen, Mr. Chen, if you don't agree to Ma Cheng today, Ma Cheng will kneel down and die here!"

Ma Cheng's doing this made Chen Zilong embarrassed. When he compiled the Huangming Jingshiwen compiled, he just wanted to remind those in power to carry out gradual reforms, rather than killing all scholars and officials with one stick like Ma Cheng. Chen Zilong's family is a big landlord and aristocratic family, and he could not betray his family and his own class. At the same time, after several months of contact with Ma Cheng, Chen Zilong knew that Ma Cheng would definitely not be willing to be a supervisor, and it is very likely that he would be ruined by helping him. Although Chen Zilong was not afraid of death, it did not mean that he was willing to see himself ruined and recorded on the pillar of shame in history.

Ma Cheng knelt on the ground for a long time, but found that Chen Zilong did not move, but lowered his head and said nothing. More than ten minutes passed, and Ma Cheng knew what Chen Zilong was thinking, and it turned out that this guy was reluctant to defect to him.

Ma Cheng performed very well just now, and even knelt down to Chen Zilong. But Chen Zilong didn't know how to politely. Ma Cheng jumped up and cursed: "Chen Zilong, Chen Zilong, I used to have a deep friendship with you in Nandu. I thought you were a good official who was worried about serving the country. I didn't expect that you would talk big with those officials, and when they didn't involve their own interests, they would really touch their own interests. It would immediately turn cloudy! I've admitted you wrong and got you a friend!"

Ma Cheng jumped and cursed, comparing Chen Zilong to the traitor Yan Song. Logically speaking, even if Chen Zilong has a good temper, he should be furious. However, Chen Zilong was not angry, but looked up and smiled: "Brother, you are so anxious, how can you accomplish great things?"
Chapter completed!