As early as the Hongwu period when Zhu Yuanzhang founded the country, because of the need to clear the country's land, the imperial court officially implemented the fish scale system that existed in the Song Dynasty throughout the world.

The fish scale book is the land register.

After arranging and connecting houses, mountains, forests, ponds, and fields in order, and then marking the corresponding area, soil quality, barrenness and other properties, the land was fixed and became a folk field register. Because the fields are shaped like fish scales, there is

this name.

In the twenty-sixth year of Hongwu, the total number of acres in the world after verification was more than 1.5 million hectares. In this process, the emergence of the fish scale book enabled the court to clarify land rights to a considerable extent and clear up the hidden land.

In terms of the management level at that time, the Fish Scale Book was a huge progress in the history of land administration.

However, this is what feudal society is like. You are at your peak when you debut, but you are no longer as good as you are after that.

As time went by, by the middle of the Ming Dynasty, due to heavy taxes, people fled one after another, coupled with the land changing hands and hiding over the years, etc., the fish scale book was actually chaotic and inaccurate.

So by the 15th year of Hongzhi, there were only about 4.2 million hectares of registered land left in the country. In just one hundred years, the land used by the state to pay taxes was reduced by half. This is really a ridiculous thing in the world.

The fields actually have legs, and they are probably equipped with propellers and headed to Jupiter.

From here we can clearly see how the landlord class uses hidden fields to hollow out the country. In theory, as the population grows, more and more fields should be opened, which can shrink by half in a hundred years.

So by this time, the fish scale system had completely collapsed, and instead became a tool for the gentry and subordinate officials to join forces to embezzle national assets.

Several decades later, during the Wanli period, the assistant Zhang Juzheng saw that he could no longer survive, so in order to reverse the economic crisis of the imperial court, he decided to reform taxes and servitude, and finally implemented the "One Whip Law" throughout the country.

In order to clear up taxes, we must first clear out the basic unit of land taxation. Therefore, after Zhang Juzheng petitioned Shenzong for approval, the Ming Dynasty launched the second national land census after the Hongwu Year.

Generally speaking, the results of this census were good. While strictly investigating hidden land and tax evasion, the court also recovered the arrears of taxes, completed land measurement and registration, and compiled a new fish scale book.

Of course, the funny side still exists. The country's taxable land was restored to 7 million hectares during this Qing Dynasty. Although it increased by nearly 3 million hectares from the Hongzhi year, it still cannot keep up with the total amount of land at the time of the founding of the People's Republic of China, let alone hundreds of years later.

Here comes the newly cultivated fields of the people.

So after a short trip, when Zhang Juzheng was dead and in power, life continued to go on like this.

During the Chongzhen period when the time traveler appeared, as expected, the fish scale book once again became a tool for subordinate officials to deceive the court. The content inside was once again full of false information. There were many short-term taxpayers who lived to be a hundred years old.

Various land data from decades ago have been copied by subordinates into the latest version year after year, completely losing their reference value.

The data that records the true information of the local farmland has become a personal heirloom of a household secretary like Yu Bende. In other words, the original version of the fish scale book that is compiled every year and submitted to the county for archiving is actually a fake.

Only the copies secretly hidden by Yu Bende and others are the real basis for tax collection.

All land conditions in a county, including various deeds, contributions, hidden fields, etc., as well as the real information of taxpayers, are recorded on the copy. This kind of copy under private control is the household house responsible for paying taxes on money and grain.

The core competitiveness that book offices rely on to thrive in county government offices.

Therefore, Yu Bende was able to obtain the workshop business from Xiong Dao, not because he was good-looking or cunning, but simply because he had control of the land and tax information in Jiading County, and he was a person who could not be bypassed when opening the port for land acquisition.

This kind of investment in Yu Bende has finally paid off today. Yu Bende knows very well which piece of land in Zuojia Village is hidden land and which people owe taxes all year round.

So when he pointed to the field at his feet, the Zuo family was speechless. You said taxes have been paid on this land, so please show me the land deed and tax payment certificate? But where did these things come from in Hidden Field?

"In the 40th year of Wanli, this place was flooded. After the flood, they cut down the woods, dug ditches, and turned this place into a paddy field. Is Yu right?"

Not only did Yu Bende know this land,

The land is hidden land, and you even know who opened it and when. In fact, in the densely populated Jiangnan area, the so-called hidden land and hidden households cannot be concealed at all. This is not a big ravine in Guangxi, so the landlord can still

Hide one or two.

These hidden things were originally used by the landlord class to evade taxes openly and openly based on their privileges, so hidden fields are actually not difficult to find. It is rare to have the courage to challenge interest groups.

Simply this time, someone gave the cunning old official Yu Bende the courage to use his power and interests.

It will be very difficult for the Zuo family who have had their windows broken. No matter how much tacit understanding the two parties had before, today's fall out has made it difficult for the Zuo family to deal with it. All the legal basis is not good for them.

So when Zuo Hongwu got both the stolen goods and the stolen goods, he couldn't think of any clever plan in his hurry, so he could only bite the bullet and use a set of untenable excuses to fool him: "Master Yu, you remember it wrong.

This piece of land was passed down from our ancestors in the early years, and we have always been paid for it. However, the land deed did not match the day before yesterday and we lost it, so we have not yet replaced it."

"Well, it's good if you pay for the food." Yu Bende nodded, then stretched out his hand, "Bring the food string and take a look."

Liangchuan is a tax payment certificate. Where can this Zuo family get it?

Seeing that Zuo Hongwu remained silent, Yu Bende chuckled sinisterly, "Maybe the string of grains was also lost?"

"Master Yu, don't go too far!" Zuo Hongwu saw that he couldn't be fooled, so he also turned against him.

"It's a joke, Mr. Yu is collecting lessons for the imperial court, why are you trying to deceive others?" Mr. Yu exuded a holy aura at this moment, as if he was really serving the people.

"Forget it, let's go." He stretched out his arm to stop Zuo Hongwu who was still trying to distinguish him. Zuo Hongtang, the leader of the clan, glanced at Yu Bende with murderous eyes and said, "Give him the land and the people. Let's go back."

explain."

As the leader of the clan, Zuo Hongtang will naturally look at the problem from a macro perspective. Today's incident is obviously a premeditated trap. The opponent has prepared everything, just waiting for them to jump into it.

So he cut his losses in time and went back to hold a mobilization meeting. Zuo Hongtang had clearly realized that his opponent was determined to kill the Zuo family. Now it was time to abandon his illusions, mobilize the entire clan, take advantage of traditional advantages, and fight the enemy to the death.

And what are the traditional advantages of rural clans? Being at a legal disadvantage, they can only use the last and most powerful means to fight against the vicious officials by using force to cause trouble.

This craft that has been passed down for thousands of years has not been abandoned until later generations. Crowds gather to rob passing trucks, crowds block roads to set up cards to collect fees, crowds block roads SNN, etc.

For the villagers in the 17th century, once a crowd gathered to cause trouble, the county government would definitely have a big problem. You must know that the total strength of a county government is only two to three hundred people, and there are still a large number of gangsters in it.

Their combat effectiveness is worrisome, and they have no force to go to the countryside to subdue the troublemakers.

As for dispatching troops to alert the governor over this matter, the local magistrate's reputation is definitely at risk. "Causing civil unrest" is a serious crime in itself.

Therefore, as long as these country people can't afford the troops and control the water temperature, even if they kill a few tax collectors and other bad guys, the government will definitely "listen to the people's wishes" in the end. It's not just the officials of later generations who will

To maintain stability, the same was true in the seventeenth century.

Of course, this kind of double-edged sword will definitely lead to long-term hidden retaliation from the local government afterwards. But now that the Zuo family is about to be finished, who will care about what happens in the future?

So later that day, the Zuo family landlords who understood the situation quickly unified their thinking and began intense mobilization work. For example, they told the tenants that the government would take away all the hidden fields, and the taxes owed by the Zuo family over the years would also be taken away this time.

Collect them together and spread them out so that no one can escape.

To a certain extent, these rumors fabricated for mobilization are actually quite accurate. Land acquisition and tax arrears are backup means in the land acquisition plan.

However, these methods are no longer useful. As things unfold now, the Land Acquisition Office's plan has been successfully carried out to the final step to deal with the big landowners.

Prior to this, the Land Acquisition Office had spent money to drive away the more troublesome rich peasants and self-cultivators. These people were the backbone of the traditional struggle. They were willing to fight for their family property at any cost and had a strong will to fight. They were easily defeated by the big landowners.

Instigate confrontation.

And deal with the remaining big landowners and tenant farmers in Zuojia Village

It's much easier.

Needless to say, the number of big landowners and accomplices is very small. The largest number of tenant farmers also has a philosophical question. Who are they fighting for? It is not about fighting against the local tyrants to divide their land. Are they trying their best to defend the property of the landlord? So this group of proletarians has the will to fight.

Not strong, easy to deal with.

So in the next two days, the atmosphere in Zuojia Village became tense in vain. The clan first gathered the elite men who could fight, and the thousands of tenant farmers finally put on a fighting posture, which was worthy of their surnames.

Already.

As for the Land Acquisition Office, a total of about a hundred people gathered in several courtyards. It was night, and from the darkness, ten reinforcements quietly came to the Land Acquisition Office.

Don't underestimate these ten people. These are new types of explosion control personnel specially transferred from senior officers. They carry sophisticated secret weapons and are the latest professionals trained by the army.

When everything was ready, the Land Acquisition Office started to take the initiative. They all went out the next day and dug out a hidden field at the entrance of the village, and also arrested a few tenants.

Then the Zuo family, who had been prepared for a long time, immediately gathered together, and a team of thousands of people soon confronted more than a hundred people. I wanted to chat with more like-minded people about traveling in Ming Dynasty, "", chatting about life, and looking for
Chapter completed!