Chapter 2568 Leading by Example
To ensure that a good thing can continue for a long time, it must be institutionalized and the system must be continuously improved during the development process.
This was the first thing Wei Zhi taught the two of them when he lived in the villa in Putian Village.
Bai Shan thought about this for two days and said to Man Bao, "Yes, the human heart is unpredictable. Even I cannot trust my own heart, let alone others. Therefore, we should establish rules to prevent people from breaking them easily."
Manbao asked, "Just like the law?"
"As for official land, it's definitely not possible to do that at the moment, but we can formulate rules and regulations, and when the system is perfected in the future, we can incorporate them into the law."
Manbao asked, "What rules are you and Lord Wei planning to establish?"
"Lord Wei wants to establish a new department within the Ministry of Revenue to specifically manage and administer official farmland."
"Isn't the Ministry of Revenue currently managing the official land?"
"That's different," Bai Shan said. "The current management is extensive. They've completely delegated it to the local county magistrate, who in turn hands it over to his subordinates. They forcibly assign tenants and compulsorily collect rent every year. This is then transferred back to the Ministry of Revenue, which then returns it to the various officials. Lord Wei means that the newly established department will no longer be delegated to local officials, but will be managed by them personally. However, the local officials to whom the official land belongs will have the responsibility of supervision."
Manbao: "Protecting the interests of tenant farmers?"
Bai Shan nodded. "This change is particularly significant and will cost a lot of money. It also has significant implications. The Ministry of Revenue and other officials in the court may not agree. So, Lord Wei asked me to write a report using your official land as an example."
In addition, this time the voluntary principle will be adopted first, that is, officials can choose to entrust the management in the same way as before and only collect a fixed rent every year; or take over and manage it themselves; the third option is to choose their way.
Bai Shan said: "The scope is fixed on the officials in the capital. Due to the special nature of local official land, local official land is not included in this exception for the time being."
Bai Shan paused and whispered, "Actually, I had a serious talk with Lord Wei last night, and he wanted to abolish the official land system."
Manbao was startled and asked, "Is it Lord Wei who wants this, or is it His Majesty?"
Bai Shan glanced at her approvingly and whispered, "Your Majesty also wishes so."
This time, Bai Shan truly came into contact with high-level secrets and the game of power. He whispered, "Don't underestimate the peace and prosperity of the country. In fact, the court loses a large amount of official land every year. The capital area is also losing land, but it is still under control."
After all, you are under the feet of the emperor, so even those with ulterior motives have to be cautious.
"But at the local level, officials are colluding with local powerful families to seize government farmland, a practice that continues despite repeated bans," Bai Shan said. "Lord Wei said that with so much theft of government farmland, local officials' official land is no longer guaranteed, and so they're seizing large amounts of wasteland for reclamation, which is tantamount to occupying private farmland."
The land system of the Jin Dynasty was that every adult could be allocated 100 mu of land, including 20 mu of permanent land and 80 mu of land allocated to each person.
Of course, this system will be discounted due to the amount of land in different places, but the minimum of five acres of permanent land must be guaranteed because it is the capital for survival.
But Lord Wei and his men had calculated privately that if the current pace continued, the equal-field system would soon be untenable.
Therefore, Wei Zhi wanted to abolish the official land, directly increase the salaries of officials, allocate funds from the Ministry of Revenue, and no longer allocate official land.
The official land was taken over by the imperial court and managed jointly by the Ministry of Revenue and local governments. No one was allowed to use the public land except for new recruits and rewards from the imperial court.
What Wei Zhi didn't tell them was that the emperor not only wanted to abolish the official fields, he also wanted to take back some of the official fields that had been occupied.
There are many ways to do this. The most direct one is to send people to collect people's criminal records. Any record of their crimes can be used to raid their homes.
How clean can the hands of someone who can occupy official land be?
But the emperor didn't want to use this method. He didn't like killing people or seeing blood, so he wanted to redeem the land with money.
Buy back the occupied land.
Of course, it’s impossible to calculate it based on the market price. Don’t you know where these fields came from?
The emperor and Wei Zhi discussed the matter privately, and he was willing to pay a maximum of 60% of the market price.
Then they calculated the amount of land lost in the past two years, just for two years. After calculating the money that would be spent, the emperor almost had a heart attack. Because there was no spare money in the treasury, the emperor could only suppress the matter temporarily and just secretly make plans with Wei Zhi.
He could only discuss this matter with Wei Zhi. He didn't dare tell anyone else, including his brother-in-law, Duke Zhao.
Because Duke Zhao's hands are not so clean, and there are many people involved behind the scenes. Except for Wei Zhi, I am afraid no one in the court will stand on the side of the emperor.
Although he was the emperor, he could not do whatever he wanted. He repeatedly ordered the aristocratic families not to build forts again. However, they did demolish the watchtowers, but built houses around the forts, still stacking them up layer by layer.
People of the same clan live together in one place, with countless tenants and farmhands, it's just a tribe with a different name.
The world has only been at peace for thirty years, and the emperor does not have the courage to provoke those who will bring him chaos. Therefore, the emperor has to be as gentle as possible towards these aristocratic families, as well as the wealthy families, local gentry, officials, etc. pushed to the front by these aristocratic families.
He even taught the prince in the same way.
He told the Crown Prince about his plans and then taught him, "You must control your temper. When you become emperor in the future, you must not be as irritable as you are now. You must know when to advance and when to retreat, and be tolerant."
He said: "When you need to endure, endure; when you need to advance, advance."
The prince agreed.
The emperor nodded with satisfaction.
Then the next day, the emperor was furious in the palace and urgently summoned Wei Zhi, who was enjoying himself in the Putian villa, to return to the capital.
The guard who came looking for someone had come in the rain, his face still pale. He didn't even bother to greet Zhou Man, who was standing in the yard with a bunch of cherries. He rushed directly to Wei Zhi and said, "Sir Wei, please go to the palace quickly. His Majesty wants to kill the Prince of Hejian."
Wei Zhi was shocked. The Prince of Hejian was the Minister of Rites. Why would the emperor kill him for no reason?
Wei Zhi hurried back to Beijing.
Bai Shan and Man Bao exchanged a glance, then quickly told Old Zhou and the others, grabbed their horses, and were about to follow. When Old Madam Liu heard this, she chased them out and said, "Find out what's going on first before deciding whether to intervene or not. Don't get involved."
Then he said, "Go ask Erlang."
Bai Shan thought it made sense, so he did not chase Lord Wei, but took Manbao to the imperial farm.
As a result, Bai Jilang and Princess Mingda were called back early.
The two looked at each other and then followed each other back to Beijing.
After returning to the capital, they went straight to find Yin Huo.
Yin Huo was in his own county seat. Seeing them, he said, "I know why you've come. Don't worry, His Majesty won't actually kill the Prince of Hejian."
Manbao asked, "What did the Prince of Hejian do?"
The next chapter will be around 7pm
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
