"This...this..." Zuo Guangdou was still a little hesitant, his face looking a little ugly.

The Ming Dynasty was short of workers, and as the Minister of Revenue, he was certainly aware of it. Every household was hiring, but there was still a shortage, so much so that an organization called an intermediary emerged.

The job of the intermediary is very simple, which is to recruit people for various workshops. To put it bluntly, they go to various places to recruit these poor tenants or vagrants and ask them to work.

In the past, these tasks were handled by government officials, but now intermediaries are very active in this area, as they receive referral fees for bringing someone over.

The government now strictly prohibits the signing of slave contracts, which means that without a contract of sale, the buying and selling of human beings is not allowed.

Therefore, employment contracts are now very popular, and the contract of each workshop must be notarized by the government.

Your family's contract must be this one. If you want to change it to another contract, you need the approval of the government. This is a standard contract to some extent, and it cannot be changed at will.

This policy was not difficult to implement in the Ming Dynasty. After all, those who engaged in business were wealthy and had huge stock and could find connections. The laws of the Ming Dynasty were different from those of later generations. If you fooled the court, the consequences would not be good.

Now everyone can accept this strict management system.

But even in this situation, Zuo Guangdou was still a little worried.

If the people were forced to leave their land, who would farm it? What would happen if there was a food shortage?

Food is the foundation of a country, and the concept of "agriculture-based" means that food is the foundation. This has been the case since ancient times; without food, there is no stability.

As for the idea of ​​putting agriculture first, they never considered farmers as the foundation, but rather agricultural work as the foundation. To put it bluntly, it means honestly farming, honestly producing grain, and honestly paying taxes, without any extravagant expectations.

Although there have been many new ideas in the past two years, this traditional idea cannot be changed for the time being.

Zhu Youxiao looked at Zuo Guangdou and said, "Why, is there anything else you don't understand?"

"There's nothing I don't understand." Zuo Guangdou nodded and said, "I'm just a little worried. If this thing really goes through, will it cause the people to flock to the city, leaving the fields uncultivated? If that happens, there will be no one to farm the fields, and there will be a food famine."

Zhu Youxiao had actually thought about this kind of thing. For example, the wages in the city were high and the benefits were good. The salary for one month's work was equivalent to that of farming in the countryside for a year. Many people would flock to the city.

That would create a wave of migrant workers and the land would be left uncultivated.

You know, this kind of thing has happened in later generations. If no one cultivates the land, the country needs to use money to subsidize farmers so that they can cultivate the land. This kind of thing is not absurd at all.

The only way to solve this problem is through agricultural workers. To put it bluntly, the land belongs to the landlord, and the farmers work for the landlord.

If it's a small peasant economy, where each family has only a small piece of land, that won't work. Large landowners and large estates are the foundation.

"Don't worry about that. The landlords will pay more money when the time comes." Zhu Youxiao said with a smile: "As for the barren land, it is still barren land. The court can reclaim it."

After hearing this, Zuo Guangdou shuddered.

The emperor's move was quite cruel.

In short, if you dare to leave your land uncultivated, the imperial court has the power to reclaim it. To put it bluntly, if your land becomes uncultivated, it is no longer yours.

As long as we do this, who would dare to leave the land barren?

Unless the land is worthless.

"Then I understand." Zuo Guangdou said quickly, "I will come up with a plan after I return."

"Then do it well." Zhu Youxiao nodded and said.

Zuo Guangdou stood up and said respectfully, "Then I will take my leave."

After saying that, Zuo Guangdou turned around and walked outside.

After looking at him, Zhu Youxiao said nothing.

Many things cannot be predicted in advance and can only be solved after they begin.

Furthermore, this is a long-term issue and cannot be resolved in a short period of time. Industrial upgrading, foreign wars, and foreign colonization all require a gradual approach.

The only thing that can be done as soon as possible now is to inventory the land and require officials and gentry to pay taxes together.

Glancing at Wei Chao standing beside him, Zhu Youxiao said, "Call Chen Hong and Wei Zhongxian."

"Yes, Your Majesty." Wei Chao quickly agreed and went out to find someone.

Not long after, Wei Zhongxian and Chen Hong walked in from outside.

Although both of them had smiles on their faces, their eyes were a little cold when they looked at each other.

These two guys now want to kill each other, but there is nothing they can do.

The fight between the two was really too intense, and Zhu Youxiao was too lazy to care and let them fight. As long as they didn't do anything too extreme, it didn't matter.

After the two knelt down, Zhu Youxiao waved his hand and said, "Stand up."

When the two men got up from the ground, Zhu Youxiao looked at them and said, "The news should have spread by now. You two should know about it, right?"

In fact, Wei Zhongxian knew it earlier, after all, it was he who arranged the matter with Cui Chengxiu.

Wei Zhongxian and Chen Hong hurriedly said, "Your Majesty, we already know."

Zhu Youxiao nodded and said, "That's good. In that case, there's no need for me to say anything more. This time, I'll give you an errand. Go down there and check to see if anyone is playing tricks with the land inventory."

"The Jinyiwei and the Dongchang people are investigating in secret, while the Tongzhengsi and the Metropolitan Censorate will investigate publicly. In short, I want to know the exact amount of land in this world, and I won't allow anyone to hide it anymore!"

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