Xia Wanchun bowed and came to Xia Yunyi and explained in a low voice.
Things are not as complicated as imagined, but they are not simple either.
The place where Wang Zhixin, the governor of the East Factory, opened a mine was called Dadong Village. Some villagers in Dadong Village voluntarily donated their land to Xu Yifan's Xu Mansion.
After the land was donated to the Xu family, it was a win-win situation for the Xu family and the people.
The Xu family owned the land and could collect rent.
The people have the right to manage the land and can harvest more than if they had their own land.
You read that right, it is more profitable to farm other people’s land than to farm your own land!
This is also the fundamental reason why the people donated their land.
Why did the people donate their land?
In order to avoid being subject to additional taxation and corvee labor.
Especially for corvee labor, there were neither standards nor upper limits when local officials levied corvee labor.
When they were short of money, they would impose corvee labor on the people.
Also known as random apportionment!
but...
When local officials levied taxes, they adhered to one principle: they only levied taxes on ordinary people, and not on official households (those with officials in their family).
First, there was a policy of exemption of official households from corvée labor; second, if the official households were angered, officials would write letters to impeach them, leading to the exposure of the crime.
In order to avoid unnecessary trouble, local officials would automatically ignore official households and tenants who rented official households' land when allocating corvée labor.
(This is also the reason why the common people donated their land to the princes and nobles.)
There is a sentence in "On Scholars and People" that explains the situation at that time: if the common people had 20 mu of land but could not even afford a single piece of clothing, then the labor service in the village would be immediately cut off.
This means that without the background of an official household, ordinary people can easily go bankrupt.
For example.
Commoner A has 50 mu of land, and the annual harvest is 30 taels of silver. However, due to various heavy taxes, the final harvest is only 2 taels of silver or even less.
After donating the land to the government, the annual harvest was still thirty taels.
but...
He only had to pay fifteen taels of silver as rent to the official households and one tael of silver as tax to the court, and the rest was all harvest.
Officials could collect rent without doing anything, and although the common people lost the property rights of the land, they got more harvests.
It’s a win-win deal!
Xia Yunyi frowned and asked, "So did the Xu family occupy the people's land?"
"Yes!" Xia Wanchun nodded vigorously. "After tasting the sweetness of land rent, the Xu family bought a lot of land. Regardless of whether the other party was willing to contribute or not, they forced the other party to buy the land at a low price."
"That's not right!" Xia Yunyi was very confused: "Since it's a win-win situation, why did the people sue him for occupying the people's land?"
Xia Wanchun glanced across the wall to the north and said respectfully, "If it were before, the people would definitely not report it."
"But...your Majesty's reforms in the administration of officials have worked. In particular, he hired scholars who had repeatedly failed the imperial examinations as inspectors. Under their supervision, local officials dared not easily assign corvée labor, let alone favor one over another."
"Under the influence of various factors, the court's taxes and local corvée labor returned to normal. The people found that the harvest of being a tenant was not as high as the harvest of growing their own land, so the people who donated their land wanted to redeem the land, and the people whose land was occupied also wanted to take the land back."
"The Xu family refused to agree, so the mining project was proposed."
So that's how it is—
After listening to Xia Wanchun's explanation, Xia Yunyi's thoughts finally became clear.
After figuring out the reason, he suddenly shuddered.
There have always been contradictions in the Ming Dynasty.
Previously, the two parties in conflict were the government and the people.
The government imposed heavy taxes and levies, and the people suffered terribly. In order to increase their income, they chose to seek refuge with the gentry.
It's changed now.
The subjects of the contradiction became the gentry and the common people.
The gentry wanted to continue collecting rent from the land, while the common people wanted to take back the land that originally belonged to them in order to increase their income.
The two sides started fighting!
Thinking of this, he couldn't help but look to the north across the wall.
Divert the conflict!
The emperor of the Ming Dynasty actually used this method to divert conflicts.
Why were the gentry able to resist the imperial court?
Because there were conflicts between the people and the imperial court, the gentry took advantage of these conflicts and used them to rally the people against the imperial court.
Now things have changed.
Those who have conflicts with the people are gentry!
In the future, it will become difficult for the gentry to coerce the people to oppose the court, unless they are willing to give up their vested interests.
Will they give up?
Obviously not!
As time goes by, there will be more and more similar things.
It goes without saying that people are leaning towards that side...
I admire you. I really admire you.
Chongzhen, who was far away in Beijing, sneezed several times in succession.
He couldn't tell whether he was being thought of or scolded.
But he didn't care.
Dealing with the gentry is not an easy task. He has to close the loop strategically and catch them by surprise tactically.
The strategy is to divert conflicts, and inspection is one of the links.
Tactics are to create opportunities to provoke conflicts, and Wang Zhixin's mining is one of the tactics.
In the next few years or even decades, he will frequently use tactics to provoke conflicts in order to win over the hearts and minds of the people.
When the people's hearts turned to him, the good days of the gentry were over.
"Father, is the progress on your side going smoothly?" Seeing Xia Yunyi in a daze, Xia Wanchun asked softly.
"My side..." Xia Yunyi kept sucking his teeth, "My side is more difficult. There are currently two suspects. Although they have been exposed, they just refuse to confess."
"Did you use torture?"
"I used it, and I kept my mouth shut."
"Hmm..." Xia Wanchun thought for a moment and said, "I have another idea."
"Speak!" Xia Yunyi looked up.
"Give them both a chance to survive." Xia Wanchun said seriously.
Xia Yunyi slapped his forehead and laughed at himself: "Oh, I actually forgot this method. It's really confusing because of the situation! Brother Duan, Brother Duan (Xia Wanchun's nickname is Brother Duan), you are really my good son!"
My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It’s even more exciting later!
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