I

Wang Mingran sat in the living room, waiting with a cup of tea.

The tax he evaded has been paid, and the fine money has also been paid. He even took the initiative to tell his friends the news, so that other salt merchants would rush to pay taxes and surrender themselves.

In the officialdom in Jiangsu, there is a lot of turmoil, and people are taken away for investigation from time to time.

Early in the morning, Wang Mingran was summoned by Xu Ying. He crawled and crawled here, and had been waiting for half the morning.

Suddenly, Wang Mingran heard footsteps.

He stood up quickly, but it wasn't Xu Ying herself, but Xu Ying's entourage.

Wang Mingran cupped his hands and bowed: "I pay my respects to Mr. Huang."

Huang San held out a letter with an extremely respectful attitude. This kind of respect is not for Wang Mingran, but for that letter: "Master Wang, this is His Majesty's imperial letter, I will take it back after reading it."

"Imperial letter? Can I read it too?"

Surprised and delighted, Wang Mingran quickly straightened his sleeves, bowed down to the letter, and then bowed to hold the letter with both hands.

The content of the letter, in plain language throughout, is summarized as follows:

"Everything will be dealt with as requested by you, with both leniency and strictness, and no chaos..."

"However, Tianzheng is the foundation of the country, and there must be no compromise..."

"First, although the occupied farmland can no longer grow food, it can only be forced to be a salt field in the future. But it must not be left alone, and it must not be handed over to the occupier for management. This is like marrying a humiliated woman to The perpetrators are generally assholes and funny."

"Secondly, if more than 20 mu of farmland is invaded, the holders of the saltworks license will be beheaded without any second interpretation. If more than 10 mu and less than 20 mu of farmland are invaded, the license holder will be exiled to the Heilongjiang capital."

"Thirdly, in order to ensure the production of salt in Huaihe River, we should also be lenient and strict. Severely punished: the ten companies that invaded the most farmland, the salt field license will be revoked, and new investment will be issued. The salt industry shall not be operated again within three generations, and relatives shall not be officials within three generations. Those who are lenient: the license holders of salt farms other than these ten may be beheaded, or they may be transferred to relatives to continue to operate. But the license must If you get popular, the tax rate will be increased by 10%, and if there is any illegal behavior in the future, the license will be revoked immediately!"

"The above-mentioned merchants, regardless of whether their heads are beheaded or not, and regardless of whether their licenses remain or not, shall be heavily fined."

"Wang Mingran, a wealthy Anhui merchant, has made great contributions to the Datong community. His life can be spared, and his salt merchant's license will be red. You can give this letter to Wang Mingran to read."

Before Wang Mingran finished reading the letter, he slumped on the chair.

The farmland occupied by his family must have exceeded 20 mu. According to the "Law of Datong", he would be beheaded. Although he was pardoned by the emperor to survive, the future of his descendants was ruined, his cousin and nephew's black hats were gone, and all the five-fu relatives of the next three generations could no longer be officials.

how so?

Wang Mingran felt very wronged, he had made great contributions to the new dynasty of Datong!

When Xu Ying first arrived in Yangzhou, she only brought a few people with her, and the development of the intelligence network was extremely difficult. It was him, Wang Mingran, who took the risk of beheading to help Xu Ying develop her power with people and money. When Xu Ying was in Jiangnan later, Wang Mingran paid for it and helped to print and distribute the pamphlet "The Collection of Great Harmony".

The great scholar Zhang Pu was recommended by Wang Mingran to Xu Ying. The eldest princess and the consort's family were also escorted to Jiangxi by Wang Mingran. Even the imperial concubine Liu Rushi went to Jiangxi to meet the emperor because of Wang Mingran.

In addition, the Datong Army recovered the Jianghuai area, and Wang Mingran contacted several cities anyway.

After the establishment of the Datong New Dynasty, Wang Mingran often donated money. He donated 30,000 taels of silver to the preparations of Jiangsu University and Anhui University.

With so much hard work, he almost moved his head because of the occupation of farmland, and he had to rely on the emperor's amnesty to save his life.

If it is bribery of officials, tax evasion, or manipulation of salt prices, Wang Mingran can barely understand the consequences of these crimes. What is the right to encroach on farmland? Those are saline-alkali lands, and they can't grow much food at all. After changing to salt fields, they can play a greater role.

It's just over 200 mu of Susukida. If the imperial court allows the transaction, Wang Mingran can buy it. When compensating farmers, he is even willing to pay farmers ten years of grain income in one lump sum according to the actual grain production.

Wang Mingran felt that it was too nonsense, he was really wronged, the imperial court's policy was too rigid and unreasonable.

He did occupy the people's fields, but those Susukina fields that cannot grow food can provide more tax revenue to the government after they are turned into salt fields. He also recruited the farmers whose fields had been invaded to work in the saltworks.

In this way, the loss of the farmers is not large, the government's tax revenue is greatly increased, and the businessmen can also benefit from it. Everything is covered, why not do it?

What is the reason why people can't be traded and can't be invaded unless they pick people's land?

Wang Mingran really wanted to rush to Nanjing and argue with the emperor face to face. He felt that he was indeed at fault for encroaching on the people's land, but it was definitely not a big mistake of beheading. He refuses to accept it!

Huang San took out a copy of "The Collection of Great Harmony": "Master Wang, if you have any doubts, you can read this book carefully, and please return the imperial letter."

This is what Xu Ying explained.

Wang Mingran took the "Collection of Datong" and left in a daze, not knowing when he would return home.

Lie in a daze until evening, feeling hungry, so I ate something whole.

He held the lamp and flipped through "The Collection of Great Harmony", which he had read countless times. The first batch of "The Collection of Great Harmony" in the Jiangnan area were all printed at his own expense.

That night, I was so upset after looking through it, I threw it aside and went to sleep.

On the second day, Wang Mingran was not in the mood to go out, and sitting at home was terribly boring. He opened "The Collection of Datong" again, forced himself to read it carefully, and while reading it, he suddenly had a different feeling.

The article about Tian Zheng was written by Zhao Han himself.

Wang Mingran approves of the content of the article, but that's all. He thinks that as long as it is not fertile and good land, the rest of the Susukida will be occupied, and more taxes will be beneficial to the government but not harmful.

This kind of thinking is not only shared by merchants, but also by officials in salt-producing areas.

Both officials and merchants agree that encroaching on farmers' saline land is nothing. Therefore, even if the "Datong Law" has the Tianzheng clause for decapitation, the collusion between government and businessmen is also unscrupulous. It didn't force the peasants to death, and raised the government's tax revenue. Who the hell would be serious about being full? Even if the emperor knew about it, he would probably turn a blind eye.

But what we are facing now is that the emperor is serious!

After copying the Tianzheng articles in "Datong Collection" several times in a row, Wang Mingran threw away the brush and smiled sadly: "So, he is the emperor, and I am a merchant. I think tax evasion and bribery of officials are the big things, but he took the money that invaded the peasants. The saline-alkali land is regarded as a real big event. This "Datong Collection" has been read in vain before."

News came one after another, and Wang Mingran fully understood the importance the emperor attached to Tian Zheng.

Many officials who accepted bribes could choose to be exiled to Heilongjiang to save their own lives. Only the officials who helped the salt merchants occupy the farmland counted as one, and all were executed after the fall, without the option of exile to atone for their crimes.

The officialdom in Jiangsu was horrified.

Tianzheng is the cornerstone of the country. Everyone knows this, and now they understand it more clearly.

In fact, those farmlands in salt-producing areas have more or less salinization problems, and the grain output has not been high, and farmers have to rely on part-time jobs to subsidize their families.

The imperial court was not completely stuck on this, and local officials could apply to change the saline-alkali land with particularly low yields to salt fields. However, the procedure is relatively complicated. It has to be applied level by level by the county and state government, approved by the household department in the province, and then handed over to the chief envoy for signature and confirmation, and then sent to the household department to report to the central government.

After a set of procedures, one or two years passed.

Not to mention that it takes a long time, there are still quota regulations every year, and a large amount of farmland cannot be occupied, and the approval is almost like squeezing toothpaste.

The magistrates and salt merchants couldn't wait, so they simply cut the land first and then played it. They occupied the farmland and then submitted the application slowly.

This kind of land policy is not conducive to the rapid development of industry.

This is the case in the salt field, and the same is true for other factories. Applying for industrial land, the approval speed is frighteningly slow. The nature of barren wasteland is better. Once farming land is involved, the provincial household office must send a commissioner to conduct on-the-spot inspections and write a detailed report to the household department.

As for the approved industrial land, the inspectors sent by the inspectorate to the local area every year will randomly conduct spot checks with the reported materials. If the actual situation is found to be inconsistent with the reported materials, it will be held accountable level by level.

In general, the tighter the provinces with arable land, the tighter the shortage of industrial land. The north is much more relaxed!

Another half month passed, and there was a copied official notice in front of Wang Mingran.

Xu Ying ordered the whole province of Jiangsu to check the land, one is to thoroughly investigate the situation of industrial land, and the other is to thoroughly investigate the ownership of farmland. And once again reiterated that the contract of buying and selling field skin and bone is invalid. The seller is not guilty, the buyer is punished heavily, and the seller can report to the official to get back the property. If the local officials don't care, they can go to the chief secretary to beat the drums and cry for injustice!

In addition, this notice was posted in every town, calling on the peasant associations in all villages and towns to become active. When the county yahuke went to the countryside to clear the fields, the peasant association was responsible for assisting and supervising. Mayors of towns and villages must not obstruct the work of peasant associations, and those who retaliate afterwards will be dealt with severely.

Looking at the content of the notice in front of him, Wang Mingran gloated a little: "Many people are going to lose their heads."

It's boring for me to be unlucky alone, but it's comfortable for everyone to be unlucky together.

From Xu Ying to Yangzhou to take office, in the next six months, a large number of officials in Jiangsu Province were dismissed. 27 people were beheaded, 42 people were exiled to Heilongjiang for capital crimes, 65 people were exiled to Liaoning, Taiwan, Ryukyu, and Luzon, 93 people were imprisoned, and as many as 166 people were dismissed from office but not sentenced. More than 300 people.

Because of this, Xu Ying got another nickname: Guan Tu!

Some families are happy and some are sad, and a large number of vacancies for official positions have given countless people the opportunity to be promoted. Many officials from remote and impoverished areas were transferred to Jiangsu to serve as officials due to their excellent performance evaluations. There are still many officials, and it is difficult to be promoted to a first-rank official. This time, dozens of officials were transferred and thrown to Jiangsu to be promoted to a first-rank official.

Zhao Han said to Song Yingxing: "Publish the situation in Jiangsu in the newspaper and let the officials and people all over the world read it. Order the chief secretaries of all provinces to follow Xu Ying's method to thoroughly investigate and clean up. Officials at all levels in the provinces, if they find serious cases, The local officials also concealed the truth and did not report it, so they can write to the Procuratorate to report. They must report with their real names, and they will be held accountable for false accusations!"

"Follow the order."

Song Yingxing thought it would be good to clean up the officialdom, but he was afraid that good things would turn bad. During the local self-inspection, for the sake of political achievements, they would take the opportunity to avenge themselves and make a mess. Or they may invite credit and fawn on them, and engage in random biting, resulting in a bunch of unjust, false and wrongly decided cases.