The difficulty of land reform was beyond Su Tiancheng's imagination, and many gentry and wealthy households united to oppose the government and the return of land to the imperial court, and some gentry and wealthy households were unwilling to hand over the title deed and sell the land at a low price determined by the imperial court.

After the basic unification of the south, Su Tiancheng's idea is still to strive for stability, and it is necessary to stabilize people in all aspects, including the common people and gentlemen and wealthy households, and cannot be biased towards one aspect, if it is completely for the interests of the people, and does not take into account other levels, there will still be big problems in the end, after all, the people of this era basically have no own demands. Therefore, the methods adopted by Su Tiancheng are relatively soft, and the imperial court's requirements for officials at all levels are also very strict.

It's a pity that Su Tiancheng's idea has a problem, and it is too wishful thinking.

The difficulty of reform exists after hundreds of years, and every major reform of the feudal dynasty is a revolution to change the dynasty, which can only be achieved by bloody means, requiring vested interests to give up their own interests, which is tantamount to asking for their lives, and they will naturally fight with you.

The thing that made Su Tiancheng angry and made up his mind came from Lishui County, which is under the jurisdiction of Ying Tianfu, as Gyeonggi County, all places are looking at Ying Tianfu to see if the land policy here can be implemented, and the officials of Lishui County encountered the opposition of the gentry and rich households in the implementation of the work of land recovery to the imperial court, and three officials were killed, and the bodies were hung up to show the public, and many gentry and rich households were concerned about such a thing. They were all in favor of it, and they were also preached everywhere, which led to the almost complete stagnation of the work of recovering the land of Lishui County to the imperial court.

Su Tiancheng decided to make a move, as a traverser, he knew very well how to use the power of the common people. Let these gentry and rich families live worse than death, but they were unwilling to do this at the beginning, and now these gentry and rich families have begun to work against the court for their own interests, and it is useless to reason with them, think about Zhu Youzhen was once forced to sell the ginseng in the palace, how could it not be forced by the gentry and rich families, Su Tiancheng does not have so many scruples, and the new deal needs to shed blood.

The Imperial Palace in Nanjing. Whether it is in terms of scale, or in terms of momentum and feng shui, it cannot be compared with the imperial palace in Beijing, Su Tiancheng's office is in the Qianqing Palace, which is also the place where Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, worked.

The imperial palace in Nanjing, the terrain of the palace is high in front and low in the back, and when it rains, the waterlogging is serious. Behind the palace is the core of the palace. Zhu Xianxuan, Yang Sichang and others all suggested renovating the palace, but Su Tiancheng refused, although he said that the household department had a lot of silver, but good steel was used on the blade, and there were many places where silver was needed. Besides, Su Tiancheng felt that the place occupied by the palace was already very large, and there was no need for so many places at all, and it was even more unnecessary to renovate it. Being able to live and work is fine.

Zhu Xianxuan, Yang Sichang, Fan Jingwen, Zhang Pu, Hong Chengchou, Qu Qingze, Lu Xiangsheng, Xu Eryi, Su Jun, Xu Jili and others were concentrated in the Qianqing Palace, and all the prime ministers of the imperial court were all there, Lu Xiangsheng was the secretary of the military department, Xu Eryi was the imperial envoy of the right capital of the Imperial Procuratorate, and Su Jun was in charge of Dali Temple.

Su Tiancheng's expression was very serious, and he reported what happened in Lishui County at the request of Yin Xu Jili of Tianfu Mansion, and after careful investigation, the case has been solved, it was a gangster hired by a large household in Lishui County, who brutally killed the officials of the county government, and stripped off the officials' clothes, gouged out their eyes, cut off their noses, tore their lips, and cut off the genitals of three people, and hung them in a conspicuous place in the county seat.

The impact of this incident was very bad, and the officials of Lishui County were filled with righteous indignation and were ready to start fighting against the gentry and wealthy families in the county, that is, they would adopt violent means.

After Xu Jili finished speaking, the expressions on everyone's faces were angry, even unbelievable, you can kill people, this is a conflict of interests, but you can't insult other people's bodies, in this era, everyone's views are clear, and the parents of the body will be considered unfilial if they are incomplete.

As the head of the hundred officials, Zhu Xianxuan must be the first to speak.

"Your Majesty, the minister thinks that the nature of this matter is too bad, it must be severely punished, and it must not be soft, for the two murderers, the minister thinks that it must be cut with a thousand knives, so as to be able to calm the anger in the hearts of the officials, although the court does not approve of the severe punishment of the officials, but in special periods, special things can be done, as for the gentry and wealthy households in Lishui County, they should also be severely warned, and even take necessary punishments for some stubborn people, so as to ensure that the matter of land repossession to the imperial court can be fully implemented......"

During Zhu Xianxuan's speech, everyone kept nodding their heads, obviously agreeing with Zhu Xianxuan's opinion.

Su Tiancheng heard the taste from it, he has always believed that the officials in the court, according to their identity, are a part of the gentry and wealthy households, no matter from what point of view, the ruling class needs to protect their own interests, the gentry and rich households in Lishui County, in the face of the officials, this violates the taboo, a class of people do each other, the punishment must be very strict, but if the people are treated like this, the attitude of everyone is probably different.

Although he has received a lot of advanced education, in Su Tiancheng's heart, he still insists on some things, such as the concept of elite politics, some people believe that elite politics is not good, and often the decisions made by elite politics, regardless of success or not, are ultimately responsible for the people, and those so-called elites will not have much loss, so in the end they still have to rely on the people, Su Tiancheng disagrees with this understanding, no matter when, people who are engaged in political careers will be called politicians, or politiciansThis is originally a group, that is, an elite group, and to deny the existence of an elite group is to deceive oneself.

There is also a point of view, Su Tiancheng believes that it is impossible to demand complete equality between officials and ordinary people, even after hundreds of years, it is impossible for people to be completely equal, no matter how those political elites preach, this is actually impossible, a person's status and wealth can fully demonstrate their identity, and they are reluctant to make people completely equal between people, and in the end they will go to a chaotic situation.

Based on this understanding, Su Tiancheng acquiesced to the privileges of officials and gentry and wealthy households, as long as they did things according to the requirements and safeguarded the interests of the imperial court, let them live a superior life, and let them accept the worship and admiration of the common people.

But there is one of the most basic conditions, that is, you must safeguard the decisions and interests of the imperial court, and you can't act against the imperial court, otherwise your privileges can be deprived by the imperial court.

In Zhu Xianxuan's words, although he was in favor of taking drastic measures, he still contained a trace of protection for the gentry and wealthy households, and put forward a stern warning, which was actually a situation that Su Tiancheng did not want to see.

"I understand your opinions, but my thoughts are not like this, it should be said that at the beginning of the implementation of the imperial court policy, I still considered all aspects, and I need to respect those so-called gentry and wealthy families, and I need to protect their interests, but the development of facts proves that these ideas of mine are wrong, and it will be difficult to reform the land policy without adopting iron-blooded means."

"You all know that I don't want to make waves, or even kill people, I'm afraid that some people think that this is my weakness, and some people are even secretly glad that I am just an unprincipled and confused king, and what I like is superficial prosperity, and it is easy to be fooled, but unfortunately, I don't think so."

"I remember a long time ago, I discussed with some of your courtiers, I am not against enjoying glory and wealth, I am not against officials and gentry and rich families living a good life, I will not be like a rogue, under the banner of equal wealth and poverty, to carry out large-scale plundering of gentry and rich households, these things are my bottom line, and now some people misunderstand my bottom line, they don't know that the order issued by the court is my biggest bottom line, and anyone who touches this bottom line, no matter what his identity is, I won't spare it. ”

"What happened in Lishui County, Lord Xu dealt with it according to today's discussion, the perpetrator compensated for his life, the instigator was beheaded together, and he also had to take out money to compensate the officials who were killed.

"Today, I ask you to discuss a decision, the policy of recovering the land to the imperial court must be adhered to, and it must not be shaken, I used to think that it could be smoothly repossessed by the imperial court, it seems that it is impossible, then I will discuss a way, forcibly repossess the land, the criminal department and the Dali Temple have drawn up the law, my opinion, anyone who forcibly violates this decision, the government will directly investigate the responsibility, the detention of the detainees, the severe punishment of the severe, if it is because in the process of recovering the land, there is a homicide, The beheadings of all the persons concerned, the confiscation of most of their family property, and the small part of which is left for the family to live on, I would like to remind you that this law must be clearly understood and easily enforced. ”

"The cabinet must check the gates, and the criminal department and Dali Temple will finally supervise the implementation."

This was an epoch-making discussion, after the introduction of the law, the gentry and wealthy families were greatly shocked, they knew that the court had done it, and if they continued to work against the court, or concealed the land, the punishment they suffered was tragic, especially the confiscation of property, which can be said to have hit most of the soft underbelly.

Since then, the matter of clearing and recovering the land has been quickly rolled out, laying a solid foundation for the prosperity of the Great Jin Dynasty. (To be continued......)