Looking at Guo Yunhou, who was sweating slightly, Zhu Youzhen thought for a while before continuing: "Mr. Guo, the data we have collected now is based on the data of the household department.

After deducting several disaster-stricken areas, is there a county in the world that has no money and grain arrears? In some areas, such as Su and Song, the accumulated arrears over the years have exceeded the local one-year positive endowment.

Now the arrears in Jiangnan are higher than those in the southern provinces, and the arrears in the southern provinces are higher than those in the northern provinces. Except for some gentry who deliberately defaulted and did not want to pay the imperial taxes.

Isn't the reason for most of the arrears being that the local tycoons have become a trend of annexing land, which has led to a decrease in the number of yeoman farmers in the county, so that the taxes that these people should pay are apportioned to the remaining tax-paying households, resulting in the remaining households being unable to collect?

In the final analysis, the land of the Ming Dynasty is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a small number of people, and the number of yeoman farmers who bear the national taxes of the Ming Dynasty is getting smaller and smaller, and the number of people who have no land or less land is increasing.

The two gentlemen are both knowledgeable people, it is better to teach me, whether the imperial court should take care of this merger, and how should it be managed? ”

Huang Liji was still silent, although Guo Yunhou understood the intention of Chongzhen's question, but he was really reluctant to say it from his mouth, and agreed with the emperor's idea of abandoning some of the gentry.

Abandoning some of the gentry sounded very elegant, but he understood the smell of blood behind these faint words. The gentry who were selected and abandoned could not have been so willingly abandoned by the court and took away their land and wealth.

At that time, Zhang Jiangling just asked the gentry to take out a little benefit, so that the court could turn around, and he didn't dare to touch the land of the gentry, but after his death, he was retaliated against by those officials and gentry.

Now Chongzhen's proposal is obviously proposed by Huang Liji in the cabinet, it seems that Huang Liji is very risky, but the real implementation of this policy must be him, the head of the household, and he really doesn't want to top this black pot for Huang Liji.

Seeing that Guo Yunhou never said a word, Huang Liji finally spoke: "Starting from the two Han Dynasty, suppressing mergers and suppressing the powerful are all policies that have been implemented by promising kings in all dynasties.

The minister thought that His Majesty's words were feasible. However, if we go too far in everything, suppress local tyrants and powers, and inhibit mergers, we must not cause panic in the hearts of the people and cause chaos in the world.

The minister thinks that before doing things, he must always set a degree, so that the ministers can have a bottom line. We have to abandon those people, how many and to what extent, to be considered complete..."

After listening to Huang Liji's speech, Zhu Youzhen turned his head to look at Guo Yunhou and said, "Does Mr. Guo also agree with Mr. Huang's opinion?" ”

Guo Yunhou, who couldn't dodge, had to say softly: "What Huang Shoufu said is quite reasonable, and the minister seconded it." ”

Zhu Youzhen watched the two of them say this, and said openly: "I think it's quite simple to abandon the standards of some gentry, depending on whether he supports the policies of the imperial court.

We can suppress the powerful and suppress the mergers, and we may be able to achieve some results in one place and one place. But it is obviously impossible to get the gentry of the Ming Dynasty to never annex the land again, and hand over all their land.

In addition, the reclamation of wasteland in the Ming Dynasty is close to the limit, while the population of the Ming Dynasty is growing faster and faster. Therefore, arable land cannot meet the growing population of the Ming Dynasty, and it may become a reality in a few decades.

Therefore, suppressing the powerful and suppressing mergers is just to alleviate the current social contradictions, and it is only a palliative measure. If you want to cure the root cause, it is obviously no longer enough to rely on the methods left by the ancestors. ”

Guo Yunhou thought for a while, and then agreed and said: "Your Majesty is right, today's Daming only relies on inhibiting mergers to ensure that every person has land to cultivate, which is obviously unrealistic.

At the beginning of the kingdom, there were few people on land, so even if someone took possession of a large amount of land, the people could move elsewhere and reclaim a field for their own living. But now it can't be done, most of the land in the world already has owners, if the land in the hands of the people is annexed by the local big households, they have no choice but to be tenants of large households, if they don't even have to do tenants, they can only become homeless people.

I wonder what your majesty has to solve the problem of the survival of these landless people? ”

Zhu Youzhen glanced at the expressions of the two of them before saying: "I think that if you want to cure the root cause, there are only two ways, one is to set up an industrial mine; The second is overseas colonization. ”

When Guo Yunhou lowered his head and pondered, Huang Liji said with some doubts: "This overseas colonization, the minister has no objections. But is the establishment of industrial and mining industries delayed for a while? ”

Zhu Youzhen looked at Huang Liji with some surprise and said, "Why did Mr. Huang say that? ”

Huang Liji frowned and said: "To set up an industrial mine, you need a large number of displaced people to gather in one place, the local government is already sparsely staffed, so many miners and workers are gathered in one place, dragons and snakes are mixed, there will definitely be trouble within them, and then the ministers are afraid that the local government will not be able to supervise it."

In addition, if there are unscrupulous people who take the opportunity to incite the miners to make trouble, these mining areas will be a source of trouble. And now many officials below are talking in private, saying that mining not only pollutes the local water and soil, but also destroys feng shui.

The minister thought that it was better to do a good job of the mines in Gyeonggi, Shanxi, Shandong, Yunnan and other places first, and then slowly plan them. ”

Zhu Youzhen shook his head and said, "I also want to do it slowly, but he won't let this God." If we do not build industries and mines on a large scale, how will the victims of the disaster be resettled in various places?

This year, Shaanxi, Gyeonggi, and Zhejiang were affected, but what about next year? Our current agriculture depends on the sky for food, and if God does not give face, the people will have nothing to eat.

But the construction of industrial mines is different, there is little interference from the weather, as long as we can ensure that the ore mined in the mine and the products manufactured in the factory can be sold, then the workers employed by the factory and the mine will have food.

As long as the workers have something to eat, how many more will rebel with those ill-intentioned careerists? Throughout the ages, there are examples in the history books of people who could not survive. But there is not much record of the well-fed people rising up in rebellion.

In addition, factories and mines are naturally crowded with large numbers of people. Thousands of people live together, and if there is no friction, then there is a problem. Even if you live together as a family, you have to have a quarrel, don't you?

I think what matters is whether the local government is managing it. In this township and one mile, there must also be village elders and chiefs. There are thousands of people in a mining area, which is more than the population of some small counties and counties, and you only have one or two small officials to manage it, obviously you can't manage it?

Therefore, the solution to the problem is to separate the mining areas and factory assembly areas and set up townships and towns that are one level smaller than the county, and to set up management institutions according to the yamen of the county seat.

As for the so-called miners' revolt or something, I have asked the local governors set up by the General Staff to have enough force to suppress them, so there is no need to worry about it anymore.

And if the mine pollutes the water and soil, destroys feng shui, or something, it should be compensated, and it should be restored, so there is no need to be so nervous. This mining did not start from my Ming Dynasty, there have been dynasties in all dynasties, and that dynasty died in the mining and broke the feng shui? ”

Huang Liji understood in his heart, Chongzhen had made up his mind. His original will to oppose was not resolute, but now that he understood the emperor's thoughts, he naturally fell silent.

Guo Yunhou on the other side was also persuaded by Chongzhen, and he was more receptive to the establishment of industrial mines than overseas colonization. Although it is said that overseas colonization can move away a large number of displaced people, the sequelae of this are also small.

However, with the exception of a few southern coastal provinces, the people of the other provinces never had the custom of migrating overseas. First, the people of the Ming Dynasty basically belong to the mainland people, and it is their nature to relocate to the land; Second, according to the mainstream concept of the Ming Dynasty, leaving the mainland is equivalent to abandoning the ancestral tomb, which is really unfilial.

Therefore, when the Hangjiahu area of Zhejiang Province was hit by floods, and the imperial court wanted to relocate some of the victims to Taiwan, there were very few responders. Basically, some landless people are not willing to move to Taiwan to obtain 20 acres of land free of charge.

However, this is not the case with the establishment of industrial and mining industries, and the people in the north already have a tradition of mining coal, especially in Shanxi, Shandong, Henan and Hebei. Because these areas were developed earlier, there were no forests on the plains for a long time, and in order to obtain cheap fuel, mining was the only option.

Guo Yunhou thought for a while and said, "Since Your Majesty has this strategy to cure the symptoms and cure the root cause, then we can decide some things." All the gentry who supported the imperial court's policy of suppressing annexation, setting up industrial and mining industries, and overseas colonization were naturally the objects of the imperial court's reliance. So the official gentry on the contrary is obviously the target of the imperial court's attack? ”

Zhu Youzhen applauded lightly and said: "What Mr. Guo said is right, in addition, in order to cooperate with the reform of this local health center, I hope that the cabinet will propose a supporting reform of the local government system." ”

Huang Liji looked at Zhu Youzhen with some surprise and said, "What does Your Majesty mean by this?" ”

Zhu Youzhen replied seriously: "Since the local guard system has been changed to the local governor's office, and a three-level armed force system has been established. Correspondingly, in order to supply the material supply of the local governorate, it is equal to the political status.

I felt that ten governorates should be established within the limits of the ten local prefectures. The governor's district is divided into a number of governors' districts, and under the governor's districts are the prefecture and county administrative districts.

The Governor administers the civil administration and the armed forces in the Governor's district, and the Governor heads the local governor's offices and the governor's offices. In this way, the local government can deal with some emergencies and small matters in a timely manner, and the imperial court can focus more on the consideration of the entire national policy. ”

Huang Liji and Guo Yunhou glanced at each other, and said helplessly: "Your Majesty, in this case, is the power of the local government too great?" The governor holds the local military and political power, which is not the same as the envoy of the feudal town in the Tang Dynasty, isn't it the same? ”