Father can be an enemy to the country

In the letter, Liu Lian first told Zhu Zhen about the difficulties he encountered in promoting the yellow book - Qing Zhang's landowners encountered great obstacles.

The officials he sent to the countryside to clean up their abbots were often expelled, reviled and even beaten by the common people. In more than a year, more than a dozen police officers died, so much so that they were unwilling to go to the countryside anymore even if they were paid double wages.

In order to solve this problem, Liu Lian also spent great efforts. He organized people to preach to the people, and the purpose of clearing land and compiling yellow records was to give the court a basis for collecting taxes. So that those with more land should pay more taxes, and those with less land should pay less taxes!

In the past, the local gentry who owned a large amount of land bribed the government and used various methods to hide their land and pass on the tax burden, allowing the poor to bear most of the taxes for them.

The poor people could not afford the overloaded taxes, so they could only sell their land to big households at low prices to cope with the government's pressing pressure.

Therefore, ‘the rich have endless land, but the poor have no place to stand. ’ ‘Although the Yuan and Ming dynasties changed, there was absolutely no improvement’…

Therefore, for the vast number of poor people, re-clearing land and compiling yellow records is a great thing to reduce their burden. The common people should give strong support and should not try their best to obstruct it!

However, the obvious truth does not make sense to ordinary people.

Liu Lian investigated the reason and believed that since ancient times, the imperial power did not extend to counties, and the vast rural areas were ruled by gentry and clan elders.

These people relied on the power of clan and ethics to rule the countryside and farmers for thousands of years. Although the change of dynasties is not easy.

These country gentry clan elders relied on their privileges to seize land and become large landlords. Then, relying on the wealth produced by the land, they monopolized culture, ethics, justice, and opportunities to deal with the government, and continued to consolidate their position by making the people unable to see, hear, and think.

As a result, over time and deep-rooted, the poor people have become marionettes who cannot think, and every move is manipulated by the gentry and elders hidden behind the scenes.

Let me ask you, what is the effect of speaking to a puppet? Even talking about it will not help.

Therefore, Liu Lian understood that only by cutting off the ties held by the elders of the Squire Sect could this situation be changed.

Only then did he realize that before he left Beijing, when the emperor was giving the opportunity, why he emphasized that if he wanted to succeed in the Yellow Register, he needed to clear his land, which went hand in hand with the implementation of the Lijia system.

Only by using the lijia system, which is an artifact that fragments the inherent power structure in rural areas, to break the control of the gentry and elders over the poor people, can it be possible to successfully clear the land and implement the yellow book!

However, when he implemented the Lijia system, he also encountered huge resistance. The clan did not agree to be divided and reorganized, and the squire objected to letting ordinary people serve as village chiefs and armor chiefs, because that would dilute the power in their hands.

They gathered together to complain to the government, accusing Liu Lian of "splitting clans, breaking rural covenants, inciting disobedience to the people, and destroying the gentry", and called him "the source of trouble." It is predicted that before long, the Jiangxi countryside will have bad customs, lose all conscience, and cause chaos!

What Liu Lian didn't expect was that even the bull-nosed people in Zhengyi started to oppose him.

When they opened the forum to teach the Dharma, they slandered the believers, saying that he was a black dragon who came to the world, causing trouble, confusing people's hearts, and doing evil in Jiangxi. Anyone who cooperates with him and signs the 'Lijia Township Agreement' is a demon that has been bewitched by the black dragon, and will be killed sooner or later...

Zhengyi has been passed down for more than 1,200 years, and its influence in Jiangxi is beyond imagination. They stood up to oppose, which put great pressure on Liu Lian, making him 'difficult to move forward and unable to succeed'...

~~

Seeing this, Zhu Zhen had to stop and calm down.

This was the first time that he learned from Liu Lian's letter how difficult it was for his senior brother to implement the Yellow Book in Jiangxi and how intense the hostility he encountered was.

Zhu Zhen had read several letters from Liu Lian's family before, and the senior brother was always full of confidence. Even if some difficulties are mentioned, it still means that "despite all the twists and turns, the same thing remains the same" and "I will definitely be able to overcome the thorns and overcome difficulties and achieve success."

But he never expected that the senior brother would encounter such a malicious situation.

"Alas, the wealthy gentry in Jiangxi, like those in Jiangnan, were spoiled by the tax farming system of the Yuan Dynasty." Shen Liben sighed and whispered:

"For nearly a hundred years, the imperial court has been in name only. The local governments have been maintained solely by the autonomy of the gentry. I am definitely not used to the sudden separation of power from them..."

"It's the Ming Dynasty now!" Zhu Zhen suddenly raised his voice and said: "If you miss the Yuan Dynasty so much, then all of them will go to Mobei to find their emperor of the Yuan Dynasty!"

"Yes, yes." Seeing His Highness getting angry, Shen Liben quickly changed his words: "In fact, during the Song Dynasty, the government accurately controlled the land and property of large households, and the rich households paid the bulk of the taxes. Didn't they just accept it obediently..."

"These scoundrels need to be dealt with!" Lao Liu scolded and continued to turn the pages and read the letter.

~~

After turning the page, Liu Lian's tone changed from depression to excitement - he told Zhu Zhen that things had taken a huge turn for the better!

A chief secretary named Pang Yi secretly gave him a copy of "No Account Book", which helped him uncover the reason why the implementation of the New Deal always resulted in twice the result with half the effort; it also solved the mystery that had always shrouded his mind.

He carefully studied the account books and found that Jiangxi actually had a huge amount of land and population, which were not included in the government books at all!

The starting point for the government to clear out the land was the census conducted in the third year of Hongwu. According to Boss Zhu's top-level design, as long as the household stickers are compiled properly, the family information of each household can be mastered.

If I know where your home is, how many people there are, and how many hidden fields you have, I can dig it out for you!

But Boss Zhu did not expect that there are policies from above and countermeasures from below. In the census conducted in the third year of Hongwu, the Jiangxi government actually hid one-third of the population and did not report it! Naturally, we didn’t compile household stickers either!

The land occupied by these people was naturally omitted when the land was cleared!

In particular, Jiangxi is not as flat as Susong. Except for the plains in the north, most of its areas are dominated by hills and mountains, with basins and valleys scattered throughout.

If there are no locals to guide you, you won’t be able to find the villages dotted in the mountain basins and valley bottoms.

As a result, these people and land scattered in the mountainous areas of Jiangxi Province disappeared from the sight of the imperial court...

If that's all, it can be said that local officials are lazy and incompetent in their work.

But there happens to be such a book, which records in detail the existence of that part of Hidden Hidden's "Non-Account Book"! The nature of the problem suddenly changed!

It's not that they are slacking off and doing their jobs poorly, but that they are colluding up and down, internally and externally, deliberately concealing a large amount of household registration and land in order to evade the court's taxes!

As for why we need to establish this "No Account Book"? Isn't this nonsense? Are the Gonggun gentlemen who helped hide it all working for those big dogs in vain?

There will definitely be a protection fee!

This account book is the basis for local governments to collect protection fees from big dog owners!

Ps. My favorite chapter. It’s the end of the month, please give me a monthly pass~~~