Zhu Youxiao conducted a thorough inventory of the Tusi residents of various ethnic groups and regions. He first re-numbered their households and confirmed how many households there were.
He also disrupted and reorganized the original order and household registration. People of the same ethnic group could not live in the same place.
Especially those who originally lived together, but they have to be separated from each other so that they can't get in touch.
Like other provinces, a system of prefectures and counties is established, and then officials are assigned to carry out jurisdiction and governance.
Then, the fertile land that was inventoried was distributed reasonably according to the population of each household.
However, these fertile fields did not belong to them, nor did they belong to the local government. Instead, they belonged to the imperial court and were directly under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Household Affairs.
The biggest problem in the late Ming Dynasty, in fact in all late feudal dynasties, was the reason why people were filled with resentment and rebellions and uprisings continued.
The fundamental reason for all this was that the problem of population and land could not be effectively solved. This was a common problem that could not be avoided until the Republic of China.
In an era when industry and commerce had not yet developed, land was everything. Land was not only the lifeblood of the people, but also the lifeblood of a dynasty. It was the key factor and resource for the emperor to stabilize his position.
There is only so much land that can be cultivated. It will not continue to give birth to new ones like humans, unless the country opens up the territory and then spends money to organize a large number of people to migrate, and then helps them settle down and open up wasteland.
This is the case in Liaodong. When the Ming Dynasty was founded, Emperor Taizu has been developing Liaodong.
He also asked the King of Liao to lead heavy troops and station them in Guangning to pacify the barbarians and savage tribes that were entrenched in the northeastern region at that time, between the white mountains and black waters.
Create a safe and stable environment for land reclamation and prepare to build Liaodong into an important town in the north.
After everything is settled and the army can be self-sufficient, it can directly send troops to cooperate with the Ming army in the pass to attack Mongolia.
It is a pity that the strategy was strangled in the cradle while it was still being implemented.
But reclaiming these wastelands that have never been planted requires not only enough manpower, but also time to fertilize the land.
This is also the reason why the Han Dynasty stopped making progress after conquering the eighteen provinces of the Han Dynasty. All the good land that could be cultivated was already available.
For a dynasty that relies on land and food for development, it will naturally not waste money and food on population.
The land cannot grow, but the population will not stop growing. With more and more people, there will be less and less toast to distribute, and the people will not have enough to eat or wear, and it will naturally start to decline.
Before the fifteenth year of Wanli, why is it called the Zhengtong Year? The Ming Dynasty was the richest and the people lived the best era.
It was because of Zhang Juzheng's reforms and a whipping law that the land in the country was remeasured and then distributed rationally. Resources were temporarily balanced, and people's lives naturally improved.
Why is it that after a new, vibrant, and stable unified dynasty is established, the country's economy will rise sharply in the early stages of this dynasty.
It is also because of the balanced distribution of resources that the people who have just experienced the turmoil of war are in urgent need of recuperation, and at this time there are fewer people and more land.
What makes farmers happiest in their lives is having fertile fields to cultivate, having surplus food at home, and having enough food and clothing.
But no dynasty realizes the dangers of privatization and the importance of nationalization.
It is really stupid that such important social resources are completely in the hands of the scholar-bureaucrats and powerful landlords who are opposite to the emperor.
Even if officials knew about the disadvantages, they would not inform the emperor of the dangers at all, because they are the ones who get the greatest benefits, so how could anyone cut off their own money.
As for the emperors, there were more than 400 emperors in the past dynasties. Except for Zhu Yuanzhang who really cared about the people at the bottom, the other emperors did not regard them as human beings at all.
Even if an emperor realizes it, it is still the period of decline of the dynasty and has long passed its peak. At this time, even the emperor cannot control it and can only watch it get worse.
Especially in the environment of the late Ming Dynasty, the Little Ice Age, coupled with internal dangers, powerful enemies outside, and unfavorable circumstances, the already extremely harmful land annexation doubled its impact on the imperial court.
How can such a country's basic resources be deprived of privatization, and how can it become an official and gentry clan that can resist the capital of the imperial court?
Therefore, Zhu Youxiao must change. The fertile land must not be privatized or become their private property.
The nationalization of land was inevitable for the feudal dynasty, but if he really wanted to announce this policy, he would have disturbed this already weak balance.
It is equivalent to declaring war on all the powerful landlords, officials and noble families in the world. They will be very excited and even organize a so-called popular uprising to resist openly. In this way, they will force the court and the emperor to give up this idea and surrender.
During the Wanli period, his grandfather only went to collect a small amount of mining tax from them, but they dared to beat the tax supervisor to death in public and instruct their own slaves to spread rumors and incite people to rebel.
If collecting mining taxes is to compete with them for profit, then nationalizing this land is like digging up their ancestral graves, which will completely break their foundation.
Therefore, he only dared to pilot it in the southwest, which is relatively closed and has even more backward information transportation, and he also had to find a name to deceive others.
He thought about it and finally decided to temporarily classify these lands as state-owned for a period of five years, citing many reasons such as the current turmoil, the instability of the world, and the assimilation of the nation into China.
During these five years, these lands were owned by the state, and people cultivated them and needed to pay lease fees to the court.
These fees did not go through the hands of local officials and prefecture and county yamen. If they were to be collected, Zhu Youxiao would naturally appoint a group of officials and imperial envoys to go south and collect them face to face.
In this way, the officials and gentry may become suspicious and attract their attention, but it is much better than making a direct and blatant announcement. At least they will not take risks and go to war just because of a little suspicion.
He issued another decree that all places affected by the war would be exempt from taxes for one year.
This time the land was distributed, and the people who were reorganized into households were exempted from taxes for two years and the rental fees were reduced for three years.
If there is a lack of agricultural tools for farming and reclamation, the court will provide appropriate assistance according to the actual situation and provide them with agricultural tools and seeds.
In fact, Zhu Youxiao wants to directly reduce the tax for five years, which is limited to the date of state-owned land.
But his current strength is really limited, and he doesn't want to completely offend those people and formally declare war with them, so he doesn't dare to go too far.
Five years is enough time for him to do a lot of things. As long as he can pacify the people and pacify the old slaves outside the customs, he will be free to deal with them specifically.