Chapter 245 Finally Someone Dare to Kill Officials
Chapter 245 Someone finally dares to kill an official
Winter turned to spring, and the Ming Dynasty ushered in the fourth year of Shenwu. Although the world was settled last year and there were no more wars south of the Great Wall, instead of calming down, the Ming Dynasty's territory ushered in unprecedented changes.
At the beginning of the new year, the southwest region began to implement ground-breaking land reforms, truly realizing that everyone had land, and for the first time ensuring the interests of the masses at the bottom.
The new land policy stipulates that from now on all land in the Ming Dynasty will be divided into official land and private land.
Each household can own up to two hundred acres of private land, which can be bought, sold, rented, or even abandoned. Each mu of land is divided into paddy fields and dry fields. In addition to a fixed land tax of one to two coins per year, there are no other taxes or corvees.
Official land was distributed on a per capita basis, and land ownership belonged to the court, but the right to use it was clearly stipulated to belong to the individual to whom it was allocated. Official land was prohibited from being bought, sold, rented, mortgaged, and abandoned for more than three years, and the use rights were revoked.
It can be said that it has completely cut off all loopholes in land annexation, which means that people who will be allocated government land in the future will not be allowed to sell their land to landlords, or even mortgage or rent it.
In addition to paying the same land tax for official land, each mu of land also had to pay an annual land rent of one penny to the court.
Even though the combined tax and rent of official land is higher than that of private land, it is undoubtedly a huge difference compared to before when 60 to 70% of a year's harvest income must be handed over to the landlord. Therefore, after the new year, the entire southwest
The people were caught up in the carnival.
This in turn caused the people in the south and the north to become agitated, typically worrying not about scarcity but about inequality, which put great pressure on the big landowners in the north and south.
It also made Zhu Cixiang sweat a lot, and he had to lift the lid completely, saying that he would treat everyone equally. The north would follow up on the new land policy in three years at the latest and the south in five years at the latest.
This temporarily suppressed the numerous rioting people in the north and south.
Countless landowners and gentry are also trying their best to find new ways out, causing the price of land in various places to plummet, and countless large families to separate their families.
Although the northwest region is also promoting the New Deal, and the people in Guanzhong and Hanzhong are also cheering, other regions are resisting the imperial court's policy of relocation, making the entire northwest region unstable.
This put Li Banghua under tremendous pressure during the northwest patrol. Fortunately, Wu Sangui's Fourth Army Corps was on hand to intimidate, so that all parties did not dare to openly boycott.
At the same time, the subsequent implementation of the New Deal in the seven southern provinces also encountered huge obstacles.
Mainly in Fujian and Jiangxi, especially in Fujian, where there are less fields and more mountains, there are tea mountains everywhere. Everyone has no objection to tea mountains being counted as orchards for tax collection, but for those officials who come to measure, they just take a look and start talking nonsense.
Reporting the number of acres is really intolerable.
In addition, some tea mountains are rich in famous and fine tea, while others are just ordinary tea, but they have to pay the same tax, which makes countless people feel unfair.
In addition, in Fujian, both Han and Hakka people have long formed the tradition of holding together for warmth, and private fights became common, causing frequent conflicts between the local people and the civil servants who came to measure things.
Fortunately, the power of the imperial court was terrifying, and there were garrisons in various places, so that the local people and families were very restrained. Otherwise, if another dynasty emperor had acted like this, it would have triggered a civil uprising long ago.
As for the whole Fujian, which family has the most power, it is undoubtedly the Zheng family who came from pirates.
In recent years, the Zheng family has relied on the sky to be high and the emperor to be far away, and the Central Plains has been in chaos. After being recruited, they relied on their strong strength to collect protection fees from merchant ships traveling at sea, while running rampant throughout Fujian.
The Zheng brothers and their subordinates have used various means to rob a large number of mansions, fertile fields, mines, and tea mountains over the years, and almost all of them have become wealthy.
During this period, under the oppression of the Zheng family, countless families were broken up and killed, and many entire villages and villages were massacred. Regarding the Zheng family's cruelty and arrogance, officials from various places and wealthy families dared not speak out. The Zheng family has become a
The native emperor of Fujian.
But in recent years, as the imperial court has won one victory after another, and the Red Lady and Zhang Yan are in Nanjing, the Zheng family and their subordinates have also begun to restrain themselves and become low-key.
Last year, Zheng Zhilong even dared not collect protection fees from merchant ships and actively cooperated with the court's new policies.
Obviously Zheng Zhilong also understood that some of the Zheng family's influence was attracting attention, especially when Qian Yiqian, the Zheng family's patron in the court, became a traitor, which made Zheng Zhilong very nervous for a time.
However, the strength of the Zheng family is already very huge, so big that it is difficult for Zheng Zhilong to restrain them.
At this moment, on a tea mountain in the north of Fuzhou City, a big man with a rough face, a fierce face, and smell of alcohol was twisting the collar of a civil servant and yelling and cursing.
And all the officials and minor officials behind the civil servants felt as if they were facing a formidable enemy, and they were so timid that they even sweated.
Because they were surrounded by hundreds of servants and guards armed with sharp blades who stared at them and spoke evil words to each other.
Faced with such a situation, the civil servant showed no fear on his face. Instead, he threatened him righteously: "Zheng Zhihu, what do you want to do? Do you still want to kill officials and rebel?"
"Bah, you are a shitty official. Don't put garlic in a fucking pig's nose to pretend to be an elephant here. I am not scared. If you don't measure me again today, I will recognize you. The knife in my hand will not be the same.
Got it."
The big man was Zheng Zhilong's second brother Zheng Zhihu, and it was said that he still had the title of guerrilla general. In the past, such a big-ass civil servant was like a dog in front of him, and he would kill him like an ant.
But now, this guy who was transferred from who knows where, the blackmail is actually on him. He is so desperate that he wants to chop this piece of shit into pieces with a knife.
Faced with Zheng Zhihu's cannibalistic look, the clerk said calmly: "Whether I am an official or not is not up to you. It is up to the court to decide. Whether this tea mountain needs to be re-measured is not up to you."
I have the final say, but I have the final say, and I think there is no need to re-measure.”
"Fuck your mother, your grandson's eyes have grown into his crotch. How can I get 2,000 acres in this big tea mountain? You are a little official, you want to sincerely agree with me.
You can’t get through home, right?”
Zheng Zhihu was almost going crazy, and the veins on his forehead were bulging. His tea mountain could only support five hundred acres, but this guy just walked around and opened his mouth to two thousand acres.
"I am only following orders and measuring according to the regulations. I am not having any quarrel with anyone. If General Zheng has any objections to my measurement, he can report it to the prefect, or directly request a new measurement from the governor."
"The measurement was done according to the regulations. I didn't see you pulling the rope. You were just talking nonsense. I'm going to ask you again, do you want to measure again?"
"General Zheng is unaware of this. The imperial court has already stipulated that due to the inconvenience of measuring mines, orchards, woodlands, and barren mountains, statistical officials can judge their areas based on experience. If General Zheng is causing trouble, don't blame me for impeaching you for obstructing official duties."
This civil servant moved his family from Nanzhili, and faced the threat of a mere guerrilla general from Zheng Zhihu, he did not take it seriously at all.
"I'll kill you..."
Zheng Zhihu was so angry that his blood boiled. After drinking a lot of wine, he couldn't bear it any longer. He punched the clerk in the head, causing his skull to be dented and he died.
"Ah! The official was killed!"
All the officials and minor officials were frightened by this scene, and they immediately screamed and fled. Zheng Zhihu's servants, seeing that their general had killed the civil servants with one punch, also raised their swords and slashed at the fleeing officials.
The clerk was wailing and screaming for a while.
It was not until more than a dozen petty officials and senior officials were killed by his men that Zheng Zhihu realized what he was doing. The wine was frightened and he woke up. Obviously, he did not expect that he would beat the civil servants to death with one punch.