In the almanac, Wang Qingyi and the other two chose a suitable day for travel, and the emperor resigned. As the real disciples of the emperor, Chongzhen would personally call each other on the platform for each student to ask about the political plans of each student in the local area. If he was satisfied, he would give him encouragement. If he was not satisfied, he would give him comments. Chongzhen was full of expectations for this group of students.

After saying goodbye to Zhao Xing, Zhao Xing had nothing to say. The only reminder is that although everyone is in various places, they are all real classmates and classmates. They must respond and help each other and be loyal to the emperor. Don’t Donglin form a party? Then we also form a party, but Donglin has a party to harm the country, and we form a party to serve the country. If we have to give our group of people a name, okay, bring Jinhua with us, we will call the Jinhua Royal Party. If we teach this so hard, we must openly build a small circle education.

When Chongzhen knew about it, he not only did not have suspicion, but he believed it deeply. The royalist party is a good name. After all, this small circle is the leader. According to later generations, the royalist party has formed and a situation of fighting against Donglin has formed. If the three-legged situation is initially realized, Chongzhen feels that he will have a good balance in everything he does in the future.

The Sanyi San troop carriage left the capital and said reluctantly to the farewell at the ten-mile long pavilion. Then, Li Shouyi Xiangxiangxiang went west to Shanxi to take a boat, and Gong Shouyi went to Tianjin east to take a boat and went to Peak Island to work. Wang Qingyi took the coachman and the old man in the housekeeper, and Xiao Si's nephew who also served as a bodyguard to Tongzhou, and then took a canal boat to the south and headed to Chuxiong, Yunnan.

Chuxiong Prefecture is located in the hinterland of central Yunnan and is located in the geographical center of Yunnan Province. It is known as the "gateway of the province, the throat of the west, and the Sichuan-Yunnan passage". Putting Wang Qingyi, the top scholar, here is also the good intention of Zhang Shenxing, the governor of Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan, to comprehensively consider it after reading Wang Qingyi's policy paper.

Wang Qing and his party walked for a month before they arrived in Chuxiong Prefecture. Fortunately, they had enough money on the road, but they were not struggling. When the three of them entered Chuxiong, they saw a desolate and desolate situation.

The rebels in the She'an Rebellion occupied Chuxiong four times and ruined the four-way key land that was originally a prosperous and prosperous provincial capital. The politics at that time was not optimistic. There were many Yi people in the mountains and did not accept the royal transformation. The basins in various places were also controlled by Hakka or Han people, and they did not obey the government's orders. There were three harmful effects here: "Tashi, wealthy families, and scholars."

The chieftains are easy to explain, why did there be another scholar? This really puzzled Wang Qingyi. But it is not the opportunity to understand these things at this time, so settle down first before talking about it.

Fortunately, although the yamen was dilapidated, most of the officials in the yamen were still there, but only ten people received their salary. They refused everyone's reception banquet and paid for it out of their own pocket to invite everyone to have a drink. After the meeting, everyone cleaned up and finally settled down.

In the evening, Wang Qingyi ignored his fatigue and asked the old Tongzhi to ask about the situation of Chuxiong.

The old Tongzhishen was moved by the humble request for advice from this young boss, and he said everything for a moment.

"Sir, our Chuxiong Prefecture has 350 miles north and south, 400 miles east and west, and has eleven chieftains in eight counties and nine mountains and one branch of fields."

Wang Qingyi was surprised at the time: "It's so big, but there are so few fields."

Old Tongzhi smiled and explained: "We are different from the mainland in the southwest of the Ming Dynasty. We are really vast and sparsely populated, so we are only large in area. But because of the large area, although we are nominally Jiushan, there are many fields."

In the minds of scholars and officials, the fields were the only source of taxation in this era and the basis for everything. When I heard that there were a lot of fields, Wang Qingyi's eyes lit up at that time: "How many fields are there?"

The old Tongzhi smiled and said, "Except for the land that the Mu family has not been registered, the total dam (small plain) in the hands of our Han people is 140, with a total of 61,300 mu of land." Then he gave Wang Qing a huge hope: "If people are brothers and sisters, there is no problem to reclaim 10 million mu."

Wang Qingyi was so excited that he lost his reserve and walked back with his hands: "The land registered in the Ming Dynasty is 540 million mu, and the average population is 5 mu according to the current population. However, Chuxiong is vast and sparsely populated, and the current population is 600,000. Based on the current land, the average per capita land is almost ten mu, which is quite a lot. If four or five million mu of acres are reclaimed, and the per capita land is close to twenty mu, Chuxiong will be a prosperous place. OK, this is really a place with great potential." Then he waved his fist excitedly: "In this way, I can provide Governor Zhang with a steady stream of military money and food, and achieve the goal of Lord Zhao's complete resolution of the She'an Rebellion."

When the old man saw this young boss so optimistic, he shook his head: "Sir, you are too optimistic. In fact, there are not so many fields for the people."

Qianliang Lao Tongzhi explained: "We have all ethnic groups living here, and the land held by the chieftains is not actually under our control."

Wang Qing nodded, which was also the purpose of the imperial court's repeated promotion of land reform and return to the current situation. However, once it moved, it inspires rebellion, and it failed repeatedly. Now he is still focused on stability. The new official takes office for three fires, but it is definitely to burn others, so he cannot burn himself first.

"Secondly, the southwest has not been valued by the Central Plains, so the war of changing dynasties has almost never happened here. So, it was a big family that had been around for hundreds of years in the Wei and Jin Dynasties. They kept scattering and annexing the land. So they had more and more land in their hands. During the dynasties, there were rules that gentry did not pay food and did not serve as the duty, so this part of the land was only nominal. For our government and court, it was just a number and had no practical use."

This old Tongzhi really has a deep experience and told the essence of the matter. The land annexation in the Central Plains is serious. Once it reaches a critical point, a large-scale melee of dynasty changes will break out. Every melee is the first to be affected by those wealthy families, so it is equivalent to another land distribution.

But in this place where the emperor is far away, as long as he nominally surrenders to the Central Plains court, there will be almost no wars, so the problem of land annexation here is actually far higher than that in the Central Plains.

"There is another point. Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the Emperor Hongwu of the country established rules to support scholars throughout the country. Anyone who achieved fame and fortune would not receive a single tax on the land under their name. Therefore, in order to evade corvee, the people directly devoted the land under their name to the names of famous people."

“How many are there?”

The old Tongzhi smiled: "Take the Yang family outside our city. Although there is no juren or above, the 20 scholars in the clan occupy almost all the fertile land outside the city."

"There are so many scholars in the clan? This is a strange story in the world."

The old Tongzhi shook his head: "It's no wonder that his family has more than 2,000 people, and there are few people here, so the competition is not fierce at all. At the same time, the exam for scholars is in the province, with a big family and a wealthy family, rich and powerful, and it's not like playing with a scholar."

Wang Qingyi deeply felt that in the last Beijing talent ceremony, there were still so many unqualified candidates entering the competition, not to mention that they were from local areas, which seems not surprising now. But there are more scholars in a family of twenty, which is quite surprising. And a scholar nominally owns 20 acres of land exempt from labor taxes, so how much is his family? It is scary.

"So, how much land share do they occupy?" Wang Qingyi asked.

The old Tongzhi returned in pain: "40%."

Wang Qingyi was completely shocked. According to this calculation, it was only three million acres of land that were controlled by them. He swallowed his saliva without any saliva: "How many people actually paid taxes to the government?"

The old Tongzhi said word by word: "Not 10%.

There are only 500,000 mu of land that pay taxes for 6 million mu. This tax is not enough to pay the salary of officials from eight counties and officials from the government offices in one prefecture and eight counties. How can you talk about spending on Governor Zhang Ping's judgment? The land annexation of the Ming Dynasty has reached this level.

Taking a deep breath, Wang Qingyi decided: "Since the fourth year of Chongzhen, the chieftains were not allowed to move for the time being, but the land of the gentry and scholars must be checked. In Chuxiong Prefecture, my plan will be implemented - the gentry will work as a whole and pay the food together."

As soon as these words were said, the old Tongzhi suddenly changed his mind. "Sir, don't be reckless. Once you implement this policy, even if you stab a huge hole, you will die without a place to bury yourself."

Wang Qingyi said firmly: "I have no intention of serving the country and the people."
Chapter completed!