Another year is approaching, and in all parts of Jiangnan, which have just experienced war, the old order has been broken, and the new order is still being established in a hurry, and there is uneasiness and confusion everywhere.

On the shore of the river, a group of farmers gathered to chat after plowing the winter idle fields. Naturally, it's all whining and complaining.

"This saint's heart doesn't seem to have us as a small people, it's still good before, with the protection of Yimen Fang and Yimendu, everyone always has a way to live."

"Yes, now those military households and gentlemen are all rough people, they know how to fight and kill, and they don't care about us small people at all."

"The current officials are not good, they don't pay attention to the deaths of all the people, they only know how to make money, and recently sent people to the countryside to check the household registration and land, I don't know why?"

"What else? You have to pay more taxes! This tax is collected according to the field and per person, and in the end, it is always borne by customers like us...... Who can expect those gentlemen and military families to help us now? ”

"Counting on them? Hmph, you think they are righteous people! ”

Of course, the righteous side will not bear the taxes for the common people, but they will help their customers hide the population.

The population of the Southern Song Dynasty was only about 10 million on the books in the last years of the Emperor Lizong Dynasty, but in the census conducted about 10 years after the Yuan Dynasty pacified Jiangnan, the population of the whole country was as high as 70 or 80 million -- the vast majority of which was in the homeland of the Southern Song Dynasty. Considering the massacres in the course of the Mongol extermination of the Song Dynasty, the population of the Southern Song Dynasty in the last years of the Lizong Dynasty was at least 70 or 80 million!

It can be seen that the problem of concealment of household registration in the late Southern Song Dynasty was extremely serious. This is also the reason why the Chen Ming court is now starting to investigate the national household registration - the account books of the household department of the Southern Song Dynasty are really impossible to read, there are only more than 10 million people in the whole country, who will believe it? Lin'an Province alone has a population of more than one million!

At the same time, this household registration check is also in preparation for "spreading the land into the mu". At present, Chen Ming's types of taxes in the countryside generally follow the Xi Song system. It is roughly divided into land tax and service tax, of which field tax is a variety of taxes linked to land. The service tax is a tax linked to the population. This kind of taxation was originally "errand labor", that is, ordinary people were allowed to work for the country as free labor. Theoretically, most of the officials in the Song Dynasty were also "errand servants" and should not be paid. However, in the process of implementation, this kind of "errand service" began to gradually evolve into taxes such as "exempt money" and "free husband money".

However, the collection of this type of tax is very troublesome, and it is necessary to classify households first. Taxes are levied according to different ranks, and this division of the household level is a work of conscience, and how to divide it depends on the conscience of the magistrates and officials.

And those magistrates and officials were particularly conscientious when they faced the Jiangnan Yimen. Therefore, the tenants who took refuge in the righteous gate were basically a hidden population -- these tenants did not have to pay "free money" or "free husband money", and naturally they could afford heavier land rents and repay more usury.

But now, Jiangnan Yimen has been smashed and smashed, and it can no longer shelter the tenants below.

The thought of paying "free money" and "free husband money" soon, the simple faces with dishes on their faces were full of resentment.

"We can't afford to pay just one rent. If there is one more exemption money, I'm afraid we will all have to jump to the Haijiang River! ”

"It's useless to jump into the Haijiang River, isn't Liu Laosan dying in vain? When a man dies, the rent must be paid, and the fields can no longer be planted. The day before yesterday, he also took more than a dozen soldiers to Liu's house, took away eighteen stone grains, and left sixteen stones of grain for Liu's family......"

"Sixteen stone millet...... After sending it, Liu Laosan doesn't know how much is left? How will the Liu family live in the future! ”

"It's not just the Liu family that can't live, it's older than the head. Wang Lao crutched, Ding took a bite. Zhang Da, Zhou Agen, and the five of them have also been retired! ”

Speaking of quitting, everyone sighed that the rent was high, the labor money was heavy, and the usury had nowhere to borrow, and these difficulties could still be overcome. But quit ...... But it's really a dead farmer.

"It's really not good, let's move somewhere." Someone suggested. "I went to the north to try my luck, and I heard that there are few people in the north, and the rent is very light, even if you use the landlord's farm tools and ploughing horses, the land rent is only 30% of the harvest."

"But it costs money to get to the north! A family of young and old. Traveling thousands of miles, why do you have to do dozens of times, right? ”

"yes, what if you can't rent a field in the north? Isn't that starving to death? ”

"Then become a military household, go to Linhai County to report a name, have your own government to pay for the road, and there is free land to get to the north, and it is tax-free for five years."

"I'm afraid that I won't have a field to plant ......"

"But if you don't go, you'll only starve!"

Tenants also have to go with the market, and there are many people in Jiangnan and little land, that is, there are more tenants and less land, and of course the rent is heavy. When you go to the north, there are fewer people and more land, and it is difficult to recruit tenants, so the rent is naturally lighter. If you go to Liaoxi and Liaodong, it is enough to pay 20% of the land rent. If you go further north, you don't have to be a tenant, you can share 150 acres of land directly with a military household, and you can get hundreds of yuan in travel and equipment fees.

But Chen Shengren's land and money are not easy to get, so he has to fight with his life. Now in the rural areas of Jiangnan, those who dare to risk their lives for wealth and nobility are already military households. There are thousands in every county. The rest of the peasants are naturally more conservative and timid. If it weren't for the fact that there was no way, they would not leave their homeland.

When everyone was feeling cornered, Fang Sixiu had just walked over, and when he heard this, he said loudly: "When the military household is going to go into battle to kill the enemy?" You still have to fight the Tartars, can you have this ability? ”

Fang Sixiu looked like a dusty servant, with a burden on his shoulders and a wooden stick in his hand, obviously just coming back from going out.

"Si Xiucai, how is it in Qingyuan Mansion? Can you hand it over? ”

It turned out that Fang Sixiu was the one who went to Qingyuan Mansion, the capital of eastern Zhejiang Province, to file a complaint. There is a judge hall in western Zhejiang Province in Qingyuan Mansion, which is one level larger than the Taizhou judge hall, and the Taizhou judge can't handle things, you can go to the judge in western Zhejiang.

"Alas!" Fang Sixiu just shook his head and didn't say anything.

"Or not? The province doesn't care about anything, is there really no way for us poor people to live? ”

"This government is not reasonable at all!"

"Yes, the landlord quit the tenant and forced people to die, and the government didn't ask, what are these officials going to do?"

The tenants were even more disgruntled, and complained in groups, and their words were out of line, but before this outrageous word came out, everyone was already frightened by themselves, like frightened rabbits, and looked around, and found no military family nearby, so they breathed a sigh of relief.

Today, there are more than 3,000 military households, more than 100 noble families, and hundreds of merchants with gentry cards.

If you really want to make trouble, the elite of the first brigade can be gathered at any time. Even if there are tens of thousands of tenants on the seaside side, people can easily bulldoze it. Moreover, the Ming Dynasty has a lot of garrisons in the south of the Yangtze River, and it is not only Linhai that has troops, and there will be a steady stream of troops coming from other places.

Fang Sixiucai also sighed, and talked about what he had seen and heard in Qingyuan Mansion, "Today's Jiangnan is not only our retreat here, but also the same everywhere else. Ninghai, Tiantai, Xianju, Huangyan, Xiangshan, Fenghua, Xinchang, Dinghai...... There was trouble everywhere, people died everywhere, the officials everywhere didn't care, and the bitter masters all went to Qingyuan Mansion to complain. The entrance of the Provincial Judge's Hall was as lively as a vegetable market, and many people carried the corpses over! ”

The matter of quitting tenants is actually a very common phenomenon in today's Jiangnan! The cause was the collapse of the Yimen and the emergence of military landlords -- different from the Yimen, who were obsessed with the imperial examination and sought greater economic benefits after obtaining political privileges. The emerging class of military landlords did not have such ambitions, nor did they have a path to climb the ladder. And most of them were farmers. When they were given a large amount of land and were able to obtain low-interest loans by mortgaging the land, they naturally chose to operate the land.

In addition, Chen Ming's national policy is very conducive to business operations.

First of all, Chen Ming's imperial court had New World gold and controlled the sea trade routes, so it had strong financial resources, and there was no need to engage in a large state-owned economy like the Song Dynasty, meddling in commercial activities everywhere, and amassing money at the cost of disrupting the normal commercial order.

Secondly, with the backing of New World Gold, Tiandaozhuang, as a super bank with central bank functions, is also growing rapidly. It made Daming have a strong financial heart, which further promoted the prosperity of commerce.

Thirdly, Tiandaozhuang issued a large number of banknotes guaranteed by gold and silver in the New World. Although the guarantee is sufficient, it still causes inflation to a certain extent.

Finally, the basis of Chen's regime was the military merit, the landlords, the merchant gentry. As a result, the political status of merchants was higher, and their private property was more secure.

The combination of these reasons made Chen Ming's domestic business activities suddenly active after the end of the war, and all kinds of business were relatively easy to do. Some of the rich peasants in the military who treated agriculture as a business have mostly made huge profits in the past year. Many people want to expand their operations, which also leads to the concentration of land use rights, and a large number of small farmers become victims.

"So what do we do?" When everyone heard that there were a lot of troublemakers, they immediately felt that there were some opportunities. There is a lot of power in numbers! Maybe the officials of eastern Zhejiang Province will come out to make decisions for the people.

Fang Sixiu smiled, "Naturally, I want to make trouble!" The bigger the fuss, the better! It's a big deal...... Only then can we live! ”

"Yes, it must be big!" Someone next to him immediately chimed in, "It's a big trouble, and the officials in eastern Zhejiang are also afraid of losing their black gauze hats, and they will be angry with the head of Pi Li!" ”

"It doesn't matter if Splash Lee's head is cut off or not," another human, "The important thing is that you can't quit casually!" (To be continued......)