It is now June of the third year of Wanli.

The scorching sun is high in the sky, and it's time for Wang and Sun to shake their fans.

After Zhu Yijun came back from lectures in the Wenhua Hall, he could only stay in the Summer Palace where there was ice to remove the heat and read.

When he threw the book away with tired hands and was about to feel sleepy, Zhu Yijun saw Zhang Jing directing people to bring in new ice cubes, so he asked: "Can there be new chapters sent from the north to the south?"

Zhu Yijun knew very well that if he wanted the Ming Dynasty to be strong in military virtue, he had to have sufficient financial resources.

Therefore, what Zhu Yijun is most concerned about is the matter of clearing his father's land.

This is related to whether he will continue to find one or two high-ranking officials to confiscate their homes next year, and whether he will further test the bottom line of the world's bureaucracy.

You must know that although Jiajing lived deep in the harem, delegated power to the cabinet, and began to expand the Wenyuan Pavilion in the inner court for cabinet bachelors, and even equipped subordinate officials, including starting a recruitment system, allowing generals to recruit troops on their own, and then the Qi family army appeared, but

But it has never relaxed its supervision of the Ministry of Revenue and the supervision of the world's finances.

Even though Wanli was lazy in politics later in his history, he never relaxed about grabbing money.

Zhang Juzheng told him that soldiers and money should not be faked by others, but he still listened.

The same goes for Zhu Yijun now. He must put making money first.

It is the same in any era. It is difficult to gather troops without money.

"Back to the Emperor, there is a new report from Haibu Hall, saying that more than three million shi of tax grain and more than one million taels of gold and silver that were supposed to be sent to Beijing last year have been recovered through Qingzhang."

Zhang Jing said.

The so-called Jinhuayin refers to a kind of tax silver title that was formed during the Xuande period and was quasi-converting tax grain into silver.

This system was mainly set up to facilitate the people from lower-class households cultivating official land in the south of the Yangtze River to pay taxes through the silver they earned from their hard-working side jobs, so as to avoid being exploited by heavy taxes and to avoid abandoning farming due to heavy taxes on official land.

Gold flowers and silver were mainly used for rewards from the emperor and for disbursing military officers' salaries.

Zhu Yijun laughed after hearing this: "Sure enough, the results are beginning to show. It seems that the ministers of Nanzhi are still very conscientious, and the implementation of the examination method has not been in vain."

Zhang Jing also laughed and said: "The emperor said that the recovered grain arrears are worth the total amount of grain and gold flowers and silver paid in a year."

"The imperial court has benefited."

"Where are the people?"

"I asked Dongchang to send people to the south of the Yangtze River to secretly investigate the impact of Qingzhang's land on the people. Is there any response?"

Zhu Yijun asked.

Zhang Jing replied: "There is no response yet."

Zhu Yijun nodded: "If there is any situation, please inform me in time."

Zhang Jing raised his hands and said yes.

Although the new policy of measuring government and civilian land was designed from the outset so that it would not affect the common people and give officials an opportunity to harass the common people, in order to prevent the government order from going astray after being passed down, Zhu Yijun still had to go through Dongchang to have a look.

We don’t just place our hopes on foreign civil servants.

He does not trust those he employs and does not trust those he doubts. However, the attitude he expressed towards the rulers of foreign dynasties does not mean that he, as an emperor, really does not have any tricks up his sleeve, but that he really only trusts civil servants.

At the end of June this year, in the ward of Yingtianfu Yamen in Nanzhi.

“My family really doesn’t have that many fields!”

Liu Quexian, a commoner, sat feebly on the floor in his room and muttered to himself.

Just after Liu Quexian said this, a group of government officials came and stopped outside the cell where he was detained.

The so-called ban room is equivalent to a place where people are temporarily detained. If they have not been convicted of a crime, such as failure to pay taxes, being suspected of being guilty, etc., they will be locked up in the ban room first.

A common way for subordinate officials in ancient times to abuse their power was to accuse a villager of being guilty, and then lock him or her in a prison cell, waiting for his family to redeem him with money, or to wait for the superior to judge him not guilty before letting him go.

If the family has no money or the superior officer is lazy and does not care about political affairs, he will often be locked up for several years.

Liu Quexian has been imprisoned here for almost a year.

Because he no longer has a family, his parents are dead, and many of his clansmen have no money to redeem him. Moreover, his clansmen have no power. Even if they want to raise money to redeem him, they are afraid that they will not be able to withstand the continued blackmail of subordinates.

Therefore, Liu Quexian was locked in the cell all the time and forgot what day it was outside.

Liu Quexian was imprisoned because his family was told last year that they owed taxes on 500 acres of civilian farmland, so even the confiscation of 20 acres of his family's farmland was not enough, which led to him being imprisoned.

The opportunity to study in a private school set up by a wealthy family in the same town was thus ruined.

But just when Liu Quexian was so desperate that he didn't know when he would be able to go out, he saw a yamen officer parked outside his squad room, opened his squad room, and said to him: "Liu Quexian, the master of the Futai wants to see you, come with us."

Let’s go.”

So, not long after, Liu Quexian was brought to the court of Yingtian Prefecture and knelt down.

When Liu Quexian was kneeling in the court, he saw Chang Gui, the household official who had led people to ransack his house in the past, being pinned to the ground by the government soldiers and wearing a prison uniform.

At the same time, Mr. Gong, who was well-known in Shangyuan County and had served as the chief minister, was also stripped of his silk gauze and was detained.

Magistrate Wang Zongyi, who was sitting behind the case in the center of the court, said to Liu Quexian at this time: "Is this Liu Quexian, a villager from Shangyuan County?"

"Xiao Minzheng."

Liu Quexian replied.

Wang Zongyi said: "It has been found out that you do not have 500 acres of land under your household. In fact, Gong Zhongxiang and the official Chang Gui used the land to evade taxes and deceived it into your name."

"Chang Gui knew that you had no parents, only three generations, and no powerful member of the clan, so he deliberately used Gong Zhongxiang's power to prey on you, a weakling."

"So, you don't owe taxes. Twenty acres of your land will be collected and refunded to you in cash. Since your land has been sold to others by Chang Gui, it cannot be returned to you directly. Do you understand?"

"Xiaomin understands!"

"I thank you, Mr. Qingtian."

Liu Quexian started crying and then kowtowed.

At that time, Wang Zongyi ordered: "Give him the money and let him return home."

So the wealthy grain master gave the money to Liu Quexian.

Liu Quexian had already taken the heavy amount of money and walked out.

At this time, Wang Zongyi threw down his sign and said: "According to the law, the stick is often worth a hundred! Gong Zhongxiang is imprisoned, and his family will be released as soon as they finish paying their taxes!"

"Master, please spare my life!"

Then the official Chang Gui started crying.

Gong Zhongxiang also shouted: "Wang Ziheng, you flatter powerful officials and ignore the friendship between scholars. Aren't you afraid of being called a cruel official?!"

Wang Zongyi ignored Gong Zhongxiang.

Clearing the land of one's father-in-law is something that the bureaucrats all over the world take the initiative to do. Coupled with the entrance examination system, it also forces them bureaucrats to dare to offend the local gentry. Therefore, Wang Zongyi is not afraid of Gong Zhongxiang's threat, and believes that as long as he takes the new policy

If it is done well and there is no public resentment when the emperor is cleared, he will be seen by the court and promoted like Wang Yongji.

After all, based on last year's exam results, he had to admit that despite the drastic restructuring and strict administration of the country in Jiangling, it was still very fair in administration, and those who worked hard could be promoted quickly.

What's more, there is a famous minister like Hai Rui in Nanzhi. Wang Zongyi hopes to let Hai Rui see his image of not being afraid of the powerful and serious about serving the people and the country, and then get a compliment from him.

You know, a word of affirmation from a governor like Hai Rui is more effective than giving tens of thousands of taels of silver to the officials in the capital.

Snap!

At this time, Chang Gui had already picked up the board and kept howling because of it.

Before the beating was over, Chang Gui was killed with a stick.

Liu Quexian felt very happy when he saw this, so he quickly left the office and came to Nanjing Street.

Nandu has always been prosperous.

When Liu Quexian was brought here, he had no intention of looking around at the bustling city of Nandu, but now he was in the mood to look around when he returned.

While looking around, Liu Quexian saw a row of young girls standing at a T-junction.

These young girls all lowered their heads.

A middle-aged man in silk clothes was showing his belly, wiping the sweat on his head, and shouted next to these young girls: "Come and take a look, they are all fine girls from the palace, they are all shameless, buy them home."

She can be a mother-in-law

I will serve as a maid. I also ask all the neighbors to give me a favor and buy a few to help the Gong family. The Gong family thanks you for your great kindness, otherwise the Gong family will have their homes confiscated to make up for the tax. I beg you.

La!"

The middle-aged man bowed directly as he spoke.

This middle-aged man is actually Gong Zhongxiang's butler Qin Rui.

Moreover, it is obvious that the Gong family was also forced by Ying Tianfu and had to sell off its servants to pay the tax.

The reason why I choose to sell people instead of selling land is naturally to reduce expenses while selling people in exchange for money.

The Gong family knew that after being exonerated, their income would be greatly reduced and they would no longer be able to use as many slaves as before.
Chapter completed!