Anti-Qing: Starting from the Reincarnation of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 118 The mystery of pulling

Zhu Jing'an wanted to lift the maritime ban, expand foreign exchanges, increase maritime trade profits, and even use the power of foreigners to help him fight against the Qing Dynasty. The importance of these talents who understand foreign languages ​​is self-evident.

After all, when the Japanese invaded China, they needed translators, right?
Therefore, Thirteen Lines cannot let him run away.

"Grand Governor, what should we do with the wealthy gentry families in and outside Guangzhou who have family members serving as officials in the Manchu Qing Dynasty?"

Zhang Jin came to Zhu Jing'an and asked.

These days, the wealthy gentry and officials are, to put it bluntly, the same group of people.

After all, if you don’t have an important official in your family, what qualifications do you have to call yourself a gentleman?

The truth is this!

Therefore, Ming Dynasty is now in a dilemma as to how to deal with the gentry in Guangzhou.

Kill them all. That is pushing the gentry class against themselves.

If we really do this, if the Ming Dynasty continues to expand, its biggest enemy will not be the Manchu and Qing court, but the wealthy gentry.

Li Chuang's precedent and the aftermath of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom are still before our eyes!
But if you don't kill them, these wealthy gentry families will not cooperate with the Ming Dynasty because they care about their clansmen who are officials abroad.

It caused a lot of trouble to Ming Dynasty's governance in Guangzhou.

Therefore, Zhang Jin asked this question.

When Zhu Jing'an heard this, he also fell into deep thought. He frowned and thought about how he should deal with the wealthy gentry who refused to cooperate with Ming Dynasty's work.

After a while, Zhu Jing'an made a decision and said through gritted teeth.

"We still have to be ruthless and kill a bunch of them!"

"Otherwise, it will be difficult to deter those dishonest wealthy gentry households."

In fact, what really prompted Zhu Jing'an to be cruel to the gentry and deal with a group of them was to kill chickens and scare monkeys.

In fact, it was not the lack of cooperation of the Guangzhou gentry, but the rebellion of the Xunzhou Prefecture gentry after the Ming Dynasty sent troops to the east.

You know, when the Ming Dynasty was in Xunzhou Prefecture, it did not touch the interests of the gentry in Xunzhou Prefecture.

Except for the extra braid tax, basically everything is business as usual, and things are still done according to the rules of the Manchu Dynasty.

But even so, the wealthy gentry in Xunzhou Prefecture still voted with their feet and made the decision to rebel against the Ming Dynasty and surrender to the Qing Dynasty.

It was Zhu Jing’an’s awakening!
After this, he realized that if he wanted to win over the gentry, it was useless to blindly show kindness.

Just like chasing girls, blindly showing kindness will only be regarded as an ATM machine and a dog licker.

Only by constantly pulling her emotions can she finally succeed.

Zhu Jing'an wanted to win over the gentry for the same reason. It was useless to show kindness to them.

Blindly showing kindness will only be regarded as weak and can be bullied.

You have to use carrots and sticks at the same time. First, kill the chickens to scare the monkeys, and then ruthlessly deal with some of the people who are too crazy, confiscate the homes of those who deserve it, and exterminate the clans that deserve to be exterminated.

Then he would give small punishments and big warnings to the remaining gentry.

And after giving them small punishments and big warnings, give them some sweet treats.

In this case, they will be grateful for your kindness.

People, they are all bitches!

Sometimes it really is impossible not to beat.

Zhang Jin heard this and asked.

"What does the governor mean?"

Zhu Jing'an pondered for a while, and then uttered four words.

"Public trial meeting!"

"Send personnel to organize local people to hold public trials against the local gentry with a bad reputation. Those who should have their homes confiscated will be ransacked, and those who should be exterminated will be exterminated."

"Cleaning out a group of local gentry with bad deeds, firstly, we can obtain the money, food and land that our Ming Dynasty is in urgent need of from those gentry."

"Secondly, it can effectively deter the wealthy gentry households near Guangzhou!"

"Third, it can win over the people for our Ming Dynasty!"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Jin nodded with approval, and then continued to ask.

"what's next?"

Zhu Jing'an put down the brush in his hand and continued.

"Then, there is the treatment of gentry whose clansmen served as officials under the Manchu rule."

“There is no need to confiscate their homes and exterminate their clans, but rather punish them by confiscating their land.”

"According to the different ranks of their clansmen who served as officials in the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the corresponding amount of land was confiscated."

"For example, if a ninth-rank official is born in a family, one hundred acres of fertile land will be confiscated, an eighth-rank official will have three hundred acres, and a seventh-rank official will have one thousand acres confiscated."

"Two thousand acres of farmland will be confiscated for the sixth grade, three thousand acres for the fifth grade, and five thousand acres for the fourth grade."

"The third grade is ten thousand acres, the second grade is twenty thousand acres, and the first grade is fifty thousand acres!"

"Just implement it according to this standard!"

"Of course, if there are Manchu officials willing to join the Ming Dynasty, there will be no need to confiscate their land."

If Zhu Jing'an directly implements this standard and confiscates the land of the gentry's family, then the gentry will definitely cause trouble.

After all, land is their lifeblood to them. If anyone wants to use their lifeblood, they will definitely fight with their lives.

However, if Zhu Jing'an had publicly tried the misdeeds of the gentry and carried out confiscation of their homes and extermination of a group of thorns, he would have followed this standard.

The gentleman will most likely accept it honestly.

On the one hand, it was because he was frightened by being killed as a warning to the monkeys, so he naturally became honest.

Although the lifeblood of land is important, compared with life, it can actually be discarded.

On the other hand, it was because of Zhu Jing'an's psychological pull on them.

First, they used public trials and heads to raise the threshold of the gentry, making them think that Ming Dynasty wanted their lives.

But in the end, the Ming Dynasty ended up confiscating the land. The gentry might still be grateful for Zhu Jing'an's "kindness".

Zhu Jing'an thought for a while, and then spoke again.

"Then, I ordered people to start counting the number of people living near Guangzhou and the corresponding amount of land."

"After the gentry's land confiscated by the imperial court is obtained, the governor plans to use these lands to promote the implementation of the public land leasing policy."

"We must make preparations before implementing the policy to ensure that the court's policies to benefit the people can be truly implemented."

Hearing this, Zhang Jin nodded to express his understanding.

As a person close to Zhu Jing'an, he naturally knew what the public lease land policy Zhu Jing'an mentioned was.

To put it bluntly, in the name of the government, government land is leased to landless peasants at a lower rent.

Provide certain benefits to the people at the bottom to ensure that people will not starve to death.

In this way, we can alleviate the social conflicts that are constantly brewing due to the population growth and land annexation under the Ming Dynasty.

Of course, the Ming Dynasty's public land leasing policy only had a temporary effect on alleviating social conflicts.

As time goes by, as the population increases, sooner or later there will be insufficient public land.

If we want to truly alleviate social conflicts, we still have to rely on land equalization, or simply promote the development of the industrial revolution while conducting colonial expansion.

Zhu Jing'an would not do it, because with China's current population density, if he tried to equalize land, he would really be driving the gentry to death.

Once all the gentry sided with the Manchus, the possibility of his eventual success in overthrowing the Qing Dynasty and restoring the Ming Dynasty would be extremely slim.

Zhu Jing'an's idea was to first use policies such as public land leasing to alleviate social conflicts. After he overthrew the Manchus and unified China, colonial expansion would go hand in hand with the Industrial Revolution.

Rely on external rolls to completely solve China’s land problem!
……

On the outskirts of Guangzhou, there are several large-scale manor-style buildings.The owners behind the building are the heads of the Thirteenth Group.

The ancestral houses and ancestral halls of the four major families of Pan, Wu, Lu and Ye are all located here.

However, in the past, it was bustling with people, wealthy businessmen, and noble families, but now it is in a state of depression and bleakness.

Several houses were surrounded by heavy Ming army soldiers wrapped in red turbans, and no one was allowed to enter or leave.

From the perspective of people who don't know Zhu Jing'an's plan, the Ming army is probably going to take action on Thirteen Lines!
Many gentry families who had a close relationship with the Thirteenth Line in the past have chosen to cut off contact with the Thirteenth Line.

I was afraid that if Da Ming took action against Thirteen, they would be implicated as well.

Pan Zhenchen, the head of the Pan family, Wu Guoying, the head of the Wu family, and others gathered together and discussed countermeasures with sad faces.

"These thieves have surrounded our mansion layer by layer, and we are strictly prohibited from entering or exiting. We are afraid that those who come here are not good-natured."

Pan Zhenchen sighed and said helplessly.

Now the Pan family is the head of the Thirteen Banks. If the Ming army wants to take action against the Thirteen Banks, the Pan family will be the first to bear the brunt.

Wu Guoying on the side also took a sip of herbal tea and spoke with sadness in her words.

"I'm not afraid that the thieves will want money. At worst, it will only cost me money to eliminate the disaster. But I am afraid that the thieves will not only want money, but also my life!"

Wu Guoying is the father of Wu Bingjian, the famous richest man in the world in history.

Now he is also a prominent figure in the Thirteen Lines.

The heads of the Lu family and the Ye family on the side also sighed.

The Thirteen Banks have monopolized China's foreign trade for so many years, and what they don't lack most is money.

Adding up the thirteen lines, it would be a piece of cake to make up two to thirty million taels.

If you can sell Ping An with money, no one will refuse.

It is a pity that after the Ming Dynasty sent troops to surround their residence, they never sent anyone to negotiate with them.

Otherwise, they are really willing to pay any amount of money!

Even if they have to lose all their wealth, they are willing to do so as long as they can survive.

"How about we take the initiative to send someone to negotiate with the chief governor of the Ming army?"

Pan Zhenchen suggested.

Wu Guoying said.

"I can see it!"

"At the worst, I can give you some more greeting gifts, as long as I can get in touch with the Grand Governor."

Wu Guoying still has a clear understanding of herself and others.

He was confident that after meeting Zhu Jing'an, he could convince Zhu Jing'an not to move them.

Because, their thirteen lines are useful.

You know, the Thirteen Lines were known as "Jinshan in Zhuhai, South Treasury of the Emperor" in the Manchu and Qing dynasties.

The small Thirteen Banks bear 40.00% of the imperial court's customs revenue every year, amounting to millions.

Absolute gold and silver!
Wu Guoying did not believe that Ming Dynasty could refuse the temptation of gold mountains and silver seas.

In this world, we are not afraid that you will make mistakes, but that you will be useless.

As long as you are useful, you have value.

The head of the Ye family said.

"Our family pooled together a million taels of silver just for a chance to meet with the Governor to express our feelings. I think it shouldn't be a problem."

One million taels is not a small number!
In exchange for food, it would be almost 50 dan. If you save a little, it would be enough to feed 10 people for half a year.

This is really a big deal.

Not to mention that they spent a million taels, and all they wanted was a chance to meet Zhu Jing'an.

This shows how wealthy Thirteenth Line is!

When Pan Zhenchen heard this, he just picked up the tea cup and took a sip of the bitter herbal tea, and then spoke.

"not enough!"

"Since I want to meet with the Grand Governor to express my love, I might as well be more generous and raise 500 million to make the Grand Governor realize our value."

"We are all in business, so we should understand that the shock that a big one can bring is definitely more effective than the accumulation of many times."

Hearing this, everyone nodded in agreement.

……

At noon, Zhu Jing'an and Huang Yingying were having lunch together.

Huang Yingying is the daughter that Huang Quan wants to give to Zhu Jing'an as his concubine. She has a charming and delicate appearance, which can greatly stimulate a man's desire to conquer.

On the table in front of the two of them were four dishes and one soup, a portion of shredded potatoes, a plate of braised pork ribs, a portion of pine nuts and corn, a portion of roast goose, and a cup of crucian carp soup.

They are all very homely dishes!
Although Zhu Jing'an would not treat himself badly in terms of food, he would not do anything extravagant or wasteful.

Four dishes and one soup were enough in his opinion.

If it were just Zhu Jing'an himself, he would usually eat two dishes and one soup, or simply go to the army and share the joys and sorrows with the soldiers.

It was because there were more people around these days, so Zhu Jing'an added two more dishes to himself.

"Dadudu, please try this. I made the crucian carp soup myself. I added matsutake mushrooms and dried shrimps. It's very fresh."

Huang Yingying personally served a bowl of milky white crucian carp soup for Zhu Jing'an.

The charming and affectionate big eyes above were staring at Zhu Jing'an's side face full of expectation.

When Zhu Jing'an heard this, he said with a look of surprise on his face.

"Really?"

"I can't believe Yingying that you can still cook?"

Huang Yingying heard the words, smiled softly, and explained.

"My mother is my father's concubine. She has been learning to cook for herself since she was ten years old."

"Grand Governor, please try the soup I stewed and see if it tastes good!"

What Huang Yingying said didn't mean that her father, Huang Quan, treated their mother and daughter badly.

After all, Huang Quan was a wealthy businessman in Foshan, so he would not be short of money for his wives and concubines.

The reason why Huang Yingying wanted to cook since she was in elementary school was because she was born in a concubine's concubine. She was trained to be both talented and beautiful when she was born, and she was able to work in the hall and in the kitchen.

To put it bluntly, her daughter from a concubine was used by Huang Quan to win over powerful people through marriage.

Naturally, Huang Yingying's craftsmanship is quite good.

The crucian carp soup is very delicious. After entering the mouth, there is only a slow umami taste of the fish and a slight sweetness.

Not a lot of messy spices!
It can be said that it is the best fish soup that Zhu Jing'an has ever tasted.

"Well, Yingying, your craftsmanship is very good!"

Zhu Jing'an's eyes lit up and he said with an expression full of surprise.

He looked at Huang Yingying with even more fondness.

If you want to capture a man's heart, you must first capture his stomach. This is true.

Huang Yingying heard this and smiled generously.

"If the Governor likes it, Yingying will make it for him to drink every day!"

(End of this chapter)