Nan Ming Sun Never Sets

Chapter 140 Country and People

When they first arrived at Anlongsuo, many local people were so scared that they fled into the mountains. Bai Mingxiu specially sent people into the mountains to tell them that the army would not collect food from Latin, so that they could go home with peace of mind.Most of the local people are Buyi. Naturally, Buyi is not their official name at this time, and Han people call them Yi people.

Like most ethnic minorities in the Southwest, they are also under the chieftain system.What made Bai Mingxiu a little funny was that when the local chieftain heard that the army was coming, he left his Zhuangzi and ran away.According to local sources, the Ming army and the Qing army had raided these chieftains before, turning them from wealthy slave owners into as hard-pressed as ordinary people.This time when they heard that the Ming army was coming again, the frightened chieftains simply ran away with their families.

"It also saves me from taking their hereditary position again, which happens to be a change of land."

Bai Mingxiu waited for his follow-up troops to be in place, and built more camps in Anlong, but he was not idle, so he went down to carry out land reform.

Anyway, it's okay if you don't have anything to do, just beat some local tyrants and share some land.

As soon as the large number of people who were handed over from the mountain returned to their homes, they saw a group of Ming troops coming.

Wei Shanyuan, a Buyi youth, said bitterly: "The Ming army tricked us into coming out of the mountains, but they ran into our village!"

Wei Shanyuan is an ordinary farmer, and the Buyi people are good at farming, but their production system still has strong characteristics of the slave era.The fields on the chieftain's territory are divided into Yintian, labor field, labor field and grain field, etc. Yintian is cultivated by the natives for free, and all harvests belong to the chieftain; labor field is part of the land that the chieftain handed over to the natives for cultivation, and these The land comes with labor requirements. If the natives want to cultivate these fields, they need to perform some kind of labor for the chieftain; the land is the land that the chieftain handed over to his subordinates and soldiers. This kind of land does not need to pay taxes to the chieftain, but it is not After doing work for the chieftain, the fields were returned to the chieftain; the grain fields were more of a feudal society, and the natives cultivated the chieftain's fields and paid rent to the chieftain.

Wei Shanyuan not only cultivated the Indian land for the chieftain, but also cultivated the grain field, and the whole family could barely eat.

But the elder on Zhuangzi said: "The commander-in-chief of the Ming army is the crown prince. I have heard many people say that he is a virtuous king. He should not embarrass us."

With that said, Bai Mingxiu, followed by several Jinyi guards, came in front of everyone.Bai Mingxiu brought a Han citizen who understood the language, and it was a bit of policy advocacy.

"Hello everyone, our Ming army has finally returned to Guizhou, and soon we will drive away all the Qing troops, and everyone will be able to live a good life in peace."

Even so, all the people on Zhuangzi seemed very nervous and dull, and there was no obvious response.

Bai Mingxiu smiled and said: "What? Are you still not happy to live a peaceful life without war? There must be something that bothers you. Come and tell me. I am the Prince of Ming Dynasty, and I can make decisions for you. "

Everyone, you look at me and I look at you, but you don't know what to say, and you are more timid.

Wei Shanyuan also felt that this prince who looked too young should not have come to Latin to collect grain. The Ming army did not search Zhuangzi, but just called everyone to lecture.

He boldly ran out and said: "Even if there is no war, everyone is having a hard time! We have fought wars here for many years, and the chieftains are afraid, and the soldiers have taken away all their property. In the past two years, the chieftains have asked us to pay higher rents and do more labor for him, and every family is almost unable to feed their children."

Bai Mingxiu nodded, looked around at the Buyi people around him, and asked, "Do you all think so?"

Everyone was not sure what the prince meant. The biggest official they had ever met was their Chieftain. They never thought that they would be lucky enough to meet the prince.On the contrary, everyone doesn't have much idea about the prince and the emperor, because they are too far away, and they can't control them.But now that the chieftain is gone, but the prince is here, everyone's thoughts start to move.

"Yes, please ask the prince to talk to the chieftain to reduce the rent for everyone."

"Cultivating less Indian land can give everyone a little more grace and let everyone save more rations."

"Too much labor!"

Everyone talked in a hurry, and once they started, there was no end.

Bai Mingxiu stood there, listening carefully, and asked the interpreter to tell him every sentence that the common people said.

Finally, Bai Mingxiu said: "Anyway, your chieftain has already run away, and he probably wants to be a native official of the Qing Dynasty more, and he doesn't like me, the prince of the Ming Dynasty. If this is the case, then I don't need any chieftains in Anlong. In the future, the imperial court will appoint officials to be your parents' officials. As for the land of the chieftain, it is good to distribute it to everyone according to the head. How to divide it is up to the big guys to discuss. .As for farm tools, cattle and so on, they are all distributed to everyone.”

When everyone heard that the fields were going to be divided, they couldn't believe their ears.Wei Shanyuan was even more excited, but he was still a little rational, so he hurriedly asked, "How much tax should I pay to the court? Do you want to do hard labor?"

Bai Mingxiu smiled and said: "All over the country, the land tax is the same standard, one tax for thirty, and there is no such thing as labor. I know that you used to pay the chieftain for fireworks and other messy and miscellaneous taxes. In my Ming Dynasty Under the new system, all these things will be abolished, and you will receive land tax for farming, and you will not want Ding Yin or anything."

When Bai Mingxiu carried out reforms in agriculture and the tax system early on, he never intended to use agriculture as the country's main source of income.Gein is really unnecessary. Not only does he have a lot of gold and silver from the system, but he has already started overseas trade, and his income in this area is even more impressive.

What he needs to do is to simply reduce the survival pressure of farmers and liberate farmers from the land, regardless of ethnicity, gender, age or age.

When Wei Shanyuan and other common people heard Bai Mingxiu's promise, they were so happy that they burst into tears. They knelt down and kowtowed to Bai Mingxiu to thank him for his kindness.

Bai Mingxiu also personally went up to help Wei Shanyuan and some common people up, and said kindly: "If you are a citizen of my Ming Dynasty, you should be able to live and work in peace and contentment, have enough food and clothing. In this world, there is nothing more important than common people. Ordinary people, there is no country. We don’t distinguish whether you are Han or barbarians, we consider ourselves Ming people, this country must protect you to survive, and you also have to protect Ming Dynasty to prosper and prosper.”

Wei Shanyuan hurriedly said: "Your Highness, I have no other skills, I have two arms, His Highness has given us the grace of barbarians, so that we can live a good life, and we will also fight for His Highness and protect Daming!"

A little bit of the relative obligations and responsibilities of the simplest country and citizens are sown in their hearts like seeds.This is also one of the things that Bai Mingxiu most hopes to enlighten the people of this country.

(End of this chapter)