Lu Ming

From here, we can clearly see how the landlord class uses hidden fields to hollow out the country: theoretically, as the population grows, more and more fields should be opened, but within a hundred years, they can shrink by half.

So by this time, the fish scale book system had completely collapsed, and instead became a tool for gentry and subordinate staff to unite to embezzle state assets.

Decades later, in the Wanli period, Zhang Juzheng, the first assistant, saw that he couldn't get along anymore, so in order to reverse the economic crisis of the court, he decided to reform taxes and labor, and finally implemented the "one whip method" throughout the country.

To clear up taxation, we must first clear up the basic unit of taxation: the field mu.Therefore, after Zhang Juzheng asked Shenzong for approval, the Ming court carried out the second national land census after the year of Hongwu.

Overall, the results of this census were good.While strictly investigating hidden land and tax evasion, the imperial court recovered the tax owed by the way, completed the land measurement and registration book, and compiled a new fish scale book.

Of course, the funny side still exists: the national tax-paying land has recovered to 700 million hectares in this clearing... Although it has increased by nearly 300 million hectares compared with the year of Hongzhi, it still cannot catch up with the total amount of land at the time of the founding of the country, let alone a few hundred Over the years, the people have newly reclaimed fields.

So after a little turmoil, when Zhang Juzheng passed away, life continued to go on like this.

In the reign of Chongzhen when the cross-travelers appeared, as expected, the Fish Scale Book was once again reduced to a tool for the subordinates to fool the court. In fact, all kinds of land data decades ago were copied by the subordinate staff year after year on the latest version, completely losing their reference value.

The materials that record the real information of the local fields have become the private heirlooms of household book offices like Yu Bende.That is to say, the original copies of the Fish Scale Books, which are collected and handed over to the prefectures and counties for archives every year, are actually fakes, and only the copies hidden by Yu Bende and his like are the real basis for tax collection.

All land conditions in a county, including all kinds of treachery, donations, hidden land, etc., and even the real information of taxpayers are recorded on the copy.This kind of private copy is the core competitiveness of the household book office, which is responsible for money, grain and taxation, in the county government.

So Yu Bende was able to get the workshop business from Xiong Dao, not because of his good looks, nor because of his cunning, but simply because he has the land and tax information in Jiading County, and he is a person who cannot be bypassed by the land expropriation.

……

This kind of investment in Yu Bende has finally paid off today.Yu Bende is very clear about which piece of land in Zuojia Village is hidden land and who owes taxes all the year round.

So when he pointed to the field under his feet, the Zuo family was speechless: You said that this land has been taxed, so please show the land deed and tax payment certificate?But where did Hidden get these things?

"In the 40th year of Wanli, this place was flooded. After the flood, you cut down the forest, built ditches and ridges, and turned this place into a paddy field... Is Yu right?"

Not only did Yu Bende know that this land was a hidden field, he even knew when and who opened it up.In fact, in the densely populated Jiangnan area, the so-called hidden fields and hidden households cannot be concealed at all. This is not a big mountain valley in Guangxi, and the landlord can still hide a thing or two.

These hidden things were originally used by the landlord class to evade taxes by relying on their privileges to evade taxes, so Yintian is actually not difficult to find, it is rare to challenge the courage of interest groups.

Simply this time, someone gave courage to the treacherous old official Yu Bende-using power and interests.

It will be very difficult for the Zuo family whose window paper was pierced.No matter how much tacit understanding there was between the two parties before, today's turn of events will immediately make it difficult for the Zuo family to deal with: all legal basis is not good for them.

So Zuo Hongwu couldn't come up with any clever schemes in such a hurry when he got all the stolen goods, so he could only bite the bullet and use a set of untenable arguments to fool him: "Master Yu, you have misremembered." .This piece of land was handed down from the ancestors in the early years, and there has always been food, but the land deed was lost the day before yesterday, and it has not been reissued."

"Well, it's good to have food." Yu Bende nodded, and then stretched out his hand: "Take a look at the grain skewers."

The grain string is the tax payment certificate. Where does the Zuo family have it?

Seeing that Zuo Hongwu kept silent, Yu Bende smiled sinisterly: "Maybe the grain skewers are also lost?"

"Master Yu, don't bully people too much!" Seeing that he couldn't be fooled, Zuo Hongwu also turned his face.

"It's a joke, Mr. Yu is collecting lessons for the imperial court, why are you lying?" Old official Yu exuded a halo of holiness at this moment, as if he was really serving the people.

"Forget it, let's go." Stretched out his arm to stop Zuo Hongwu who still wanted to distinguish, Zuo Hongtang, the suzerain, looked at Yu Bende with murderous eyes and said: "Give him the land, and give him the people. We Go back and talk."

As the patriarch, Zuo Hongtang naturally looked at things from a more macro perspective.Today's incident is obviously a premeditated trap: the opponent has everything prepared, just waiting for them to jump in.

So he stopped the loss in time and went back to the mobilization meeting - Zuo Hongtang had clearly realized his opponent's determination to go to Zuo's family to die, and now it was time to throw away his illusions, mobilize the whole clan, give full play to the traditional advantages, and fight the enemy to the death.

And what are the traditional advantages of the rural clans?Being at a disadvantage at the legal level, they can only take up the last and most powerful means to fight against the vicious government: mobilizing crowds by force to make trouble.

This kind of craftsmanship, which has been passed down for thousands of years, has not been discarded until later generations: gathering crowds to rob passing trucks, gathering crowds to block roads and set up card tolls, gathering crowds to block road visits and so on.

For the villagers in the 17th century, once a crowd gathered to make trouble, the prefectural and county yamen would definitely have a big head.You must know that the entire strength of a county government is only two or three hundred people, and there are still a large number of bastards in it. The combat effectiveness is worrying, and there is no force to go to the countryside to subdue the troublemakers.

As for the deployment of troops... alarming the governor over such a matter, the magistrate's status will definitely be lost, and "causing civil unrest" is a serious crime in itself.

Therefore, as long as these country people don't rebel and control the water temperature, even if they kill a few tax collectors and other villains, the government will definitely "listen to the wishes of the people" and make things worse in the end.It is not only the officials of later generations who will maintain stability, the same is true in the seventeenth century.

Of course, this kind of double-edged sword will inevitably lead to long-term hidden revenge from the local government... However, the Zuo family is about to die now, who cares about the future?

So later in the day, the landlords of the Zuo family who recognized the situation quickly unified their thinking and began intense mobilization work: for example, telling the tenants that the government would take away all the hidden land, and the taxes owed by the Zuo family over the years would also be taken away this time. They were confiscated together, and no one could escape when they were spread out.

To a certain extent, these rumors fabricated for the purpose of mobilization are actually quite accurate: land requisition and tax arrears are both backup means in the plan of the Land Acquisition Office.

But now these methods are no longer available.Things have developed to the present, and the plan of the Land Acquisition Office has progressed smoothly to the final step: to deal with the big landlords.

Prior to this, the Land Acquisition Office had sent away the more troublesome rich peasants and self-cultivating peasants by throwing money at them.This group of people belonged to the backbone of the traditional struggle. They could do anything for their family business. They had a strong will to fight and were easily incited by the big landlords to fight.

It is much easier to deal with the remaining big landlords and tenant farmers in Zuojia Village.

Needless to say, the number of big landlords and accomplices is rare, and the largest number of tenant farmers also has a philosophical problem: who are they fighting for?It's not that the local tyrants are being divided to divide the land. Could it be that the family is desperately defending the master's property?Therefore, this group of proletarians does not have a strong will to fight and is easy to deal with.

So in the next two days, the atmosphere in Zuojia Village became tense in vain.The clan first gathered the elite people who could fight, and the thousands of tenant farmers in the periphery also put on the posture of fighting with weapons, which was worthy of their surname.

As for the Land Acquisition Office... a total of a hundred or so people first shrank into a few courtyards.It was night, and ten reinforcements quietly came to the Land Acquisition Office from the darkness where you could not see your fingers.

Don't underestimate these ten people.This is a new type of explosion suppression personnel specially transferred from the senior staff.They carry sophisticated secret weapons and are the latest professionals trained by the army.

When everything was ready, the Land Acquisition Office began to strike preemptively: they dispatched all the next day, and turned over a hidden field at the entrance of the village, and arrested several tenants by the way.

Then the Zuo family, who had already been prepared, immediately assembled, and the team of thousands of people soon confronted more than 100 people.

Chapter 350 Opening of Port ([-])

Zuo Baoliu stood in front of the crowd, leaning on a hoe.While pointing at the tolerance on the opposite side and cursing, he was thinking about the benefits of this "starring" in his heart.

Originally he didn't want to come.

Zuo Baoliu is a tenant of the mulberry garden in the west of the village.He and his mother-in-law are not only good at manipulating mulberry trees, but also raise silkworms by themselves when the season comes.Although the life with three children is tiring, it is still passable.

I don't want the weather to be bad last year, the weather was unbelievably cold, and there was a rain and snow in March.As a result, the mulberry trees in the garden did not grow well during the budding stage, and when the leaves were picked, the harvest was much worse than in previous years.

Misfortunes never come singly, last year's cocoon harvest was not good, and some cocoon seedlings were infected with disease, which made him worse.What Zuo Baoliu didn't know was that temperature and air humidity all have an impact on the development of silkworm eggs.

The price of reduced production is dangerous. Zuo Baoliu's family, who failed to complete the expected contract, immediately took on heavy debts.Over the past year, he not only owed rent to the owner of the mulberry garden, but also owed money from the Zuo family.

Zuo Baoliu, who was overwhelmed by the heavy burden, had no choice but to silently pray for the blessings of various bodhisattvas, hoping that the year would be better this year.

However, the reality quickly made him anxious: After the new year, from the beginning of spring to the present, there has not been a single drop of rain.The same abnormal weather as last year... This terrible omen made Zuo Baoliu, who had been farming all his life, panic.

What followed was even more breaking news: the owner's family sold the mulberry garden and the fields in the village, together with tenants such as Zuo Baoliu and their debts, to the renter.

Zuo Baoliu, who learned that he had changed his master, was naturally calm.As a result, when he went to the Land Acquisition Office, he did not expect that his first impression was pretty good.

This group of outsiders is not only backed by officials, but also quite generous.When a shopkeeper in the rental store learned that Zuo Baoliu was a tenant of the mulberry garden, he threw a few cents of silver over and told him: go back to Ansheng to farm.

Zuo Bao Liu Insurance, who was originally nervous, put his heart back into his stomach - he was already on the verge of bankruptcy, and his fragile family could no longer withstand any twists and turns.Fortunately, the new owner's house doesn't look too bad, probably a big family with no shortage of money... Maybe last year's arrears can be counted less this year?

Zuo Baoliu went back to work full of longing.There is a lot of work in the field in spring, and he doesn't have the time in the United States to spend on land acquisition.

During the days when he was immersed in his work, news from the outside continued to reach his ears: Zuo Shiqi sold the land... Zuo Shiqi was expelled from the clan... The renter took over the land from someone else... ...Officials have to clear up the debts accumulated over the years...

"What? Pay off the debt!?"

Just after the conflict between the two sides and the Zuo family clan decided to resist with all their strength, within half a day, the news that the officials wanted to clear up the arrears spread from the elder meeting to the entire clan.

Now everyone, including Zuo Baoliu, was not calm.

In the Ming Dynasty, tax arrears had become a norm.

The grain households and landlords in various places owed the local government, and the local government owed the imperial court.The imperial court is basically helpless against this kind of old bad debts. The only way to deal with it is to find a reason to reduce all the outstanding debts after a period of time.For example, when Emperor Tianqi came to the throne, he decreed to exempt a considerable amount of tax arrears from various places.

So when the news came out, it was inevitable that everyone in the Zuo family would panic: if the outstanding debts were paid, although the big landlords owed a lot, the amount distributed to each family was also astronomical.You must know that these arrears have been accumulated over the years, how can you pay them back all at once?What's more, everyone is waiting for the court's grace to reduce the exemption. What the hell is this payment?

Taking advantage of the conflict in the hidden field, the big landlords distorted the facts a little, and easily incited the clansmen.

Zuo Baoliu is also unavoidable in this matter: he will be finished if he is just a little bit of arrears.So he consciously came to the big house of Zuo's family, and lined up to beg to see the speaker of his room: the old scholar Zuo Ping.

In a skillful tone, he once again confirmed that the officials wanted to chase after the debts and all the hidden fields. After cleaning up the tenants, Zuo Ping told Zuo Baoliu angrily: This time it will be impossible to stop making trouble.If the officials and the tenants behind them run amok, then everyone in the Zuo family will be finished.

Zuo Baoliu, a middle-age farmer who has absolutely no ability to collect and discriminate external information, can only trust the judgment of the clan scholars at this time.After all, scholars have been responsible for the strategic level for thousands of years. What kind of insight can he have with a muddy leg?

Of course, intimidation alone is not enough to make people work hard.Zuo Laoxiucai then told Zuo Baoliu in a pleasant manner: After everyone drives away the officials and renters together, half of the money he owed to this house last year can be exempted.If he redoubles his efforts on this matter, it is unknown that all the debts will be forgiven by then.

In addition, when the Zuo family gains the upper hand in the future, and the renter finds that they cannot receive rent from the mulberry garden, they may sell the mulberry garden back to the clan.At that time, Zuo Laoxiu immediately promised that all the debts Zuo Baoliu owed to the garden owner before will be canceled together.

Zuo Baoliu, who was originally timid and didn't want to step into the muddy water at all, immediately turned into a majestic macho after he came out of the Zuo family's big house... Isn't it just fighting with weapons?The country people have experienced a lot, and I was a good man when I was young.

So after the face was completely torn apart, both sides of the conflict quickly made preparations.

……

Three days later, Zuo Baoliu was standing at the front of the crowd, holding a hoe and yelling.

The country people can't swear any grades, it's nothing more than some foul language.These words spread through the air to the village entrance 200 meters away.

Under the big willow tree at the entrance of the village, more than 100 thugs from the Land Acquisition Office were standing on the slope, confronting thousands of members of the Zuo family on the opposite side.

Among the more than 100 people, Yu Bende's staff accounted for one-third of the food shortage.These gangsters were all pale-skinned, their legs were trembling, and they couldn't even hold the iron ruler and sticks in their hands steadily, as if they were about to run away at any time.

In fact, if it weren't for the road out of the village behind it, which can be turned in at any time, it is estimated that this group of people would have run away long ago.And standing in front of the food police, the ones who really faced the villagers were naturally Xiong Dao's action team members.

Standing at the forefront is another person from the government: Yu Bende.Yu Shuban, who was dressed in black official uniform, felt his heart beat at the moment, but he really had no choice.Up to this day, he has been completely trapped in this matter, and he has put all the old people in the family on it, so he can't retreat even if he wants to.

After glancing left and right at the thugs in variegated short robes who seemed calm and were still joking quietly, Yu Bende became more and more anxious.

During clan fights and tax resistance, it is not uncommon for a few officials to be killed or maimed.And according to what his old man has done in Zuojia Village recently, if he loses here today, he will have to be beaten to death by these rioters with a hoe.

Yu Bende, who really couldn't hold back his panic, couldn't help but turned his head and smiled apologetically and asked a black and thin man beside him, "Guye, there are too many opponents, can you brothers hold on?"

"Master Yu, don't ask any more questions. These gangsters are not opponents, you can watch the show with peace of mind."

After the middle-aged man named Gu Le comforted Yu Shuban again, he raised the Leica high-definition mini-scope in his hand and looked towards the opposite side.

At this time, the village brigade has already started the final mobilization: in the camera, the leading figures of each house are leading the elite with knives and guns, standing in the crowd and agitating loudly.Not long after, when the emotions of the villagers were mobilized to the highest point, they slowly raised the forks and hoes in their hands, and it seemed that they were ready to move forward.

Just as the villagers took their first step, Gu Le lowered his arms, turned his head and said to a strong and unattractive man beside him, "It's time to start, Squad Leader Wu."

The man named Squad Leader Wu nodded, turned around and waved his hand.When the crowd dispersed on the slope, ten men in short gray jackets stood up conveniently at the front.

Soon, the ten people squatted down, two by two, forming five groups.Then they inserted a black and bright iron pipe obliquely on the ground in their hands, aiming at the crowd 200 meters away.

……

With the deepening of the cross-travel forces' understanding of the Ming Dynasty, both the army and the intelligence agencies have noticed a problem that cannot be ignored in their daily operations: the gathering of villagers.

In this medieval era where bandits were rampant and the government was weak, gathering crowds was arguably the most common daily routine of the people.Otherwise, it is not enough to fight against various natural disasters and man-made disasters. Of course, fighting with neighbors for water and land is also a major purpose of gathering people.

For example, Zuojia Village this time is a typical gathering behavior.It is obvious that there will be countless more of the same scenes to be dealt with in the future.However, in this situation, the cross-traversing crowd will definitely not be able to kill thousands of tenants.

This situation is very troublesome, can't we consume the imported shock bombs every time?Therefore, at the general meeting at the end of last year, the only "localized" high-tech project jointly proposed by the Army and the Intelligence Agency was approved by the cabinet: self-made tear gas bombs.

Speaking of tear gas bombs, it is actually not difficult to do.After excluding those chemical tear gas bombs such as phenyl chloroacetophenone in later generations, anti-wolf spray and tear gas, which use capsaicin and piperine as the main raw materials, are also widely used.

For kiln district chemical factories, it is not difficult to obtain capsaicin, a simple chemical extract. The difficulty lies in how to obtain the approval to invest resources, not the production process.

There is no shortage of hot peppers and peppercorns to have on hand.The process of extracting capsaicin with alcohol or some other organic solvents is not complicated. It is nothing more than some common methods of distillation and decompression-it can be produced in the laboratory, and the demand for this thing is not too large.

After obtaining capsaicin, and adding some magnesium powder and nitrates for burning, such as barium nitrate, the materials for making tear gas bombs will be fully activated.

After having the ammunition, the next step is naturally to release it.

For the villagers whose main weapons are dung forks and hoes, the most economical and cheapest weapon to throw is the scum buster grenade.This kind of crude stuff with a range of only 200 meters was specially used by the book during World War II to bully the poor Chinese troops who lacked machine guns and artillery.

Then, after encountering the U.S. military in the Pacific Islands, Benzi immediately understood the true meaning of "Daosi"—the summoned naval guns and land artillery were used to wash the ground at any time, and he never used the grenadier with a range of only 200 meters.

Chapter 351 Opening of Port (Seventeen)

The grenadier, to put it bluntly, is the poor version of the mortar.

The biggest difference between the two is the range: the mortar is a smoothbore, and the range can reach more than 800 meters.The grenade is rifled, and the accurate range is only 200 meters. If it is farther, the ammunition will float.

Anyone with a bicycle can easily understand the construction of a grenadier, because the appearance of the portable pump and the grenade are almost identical.

The appearance is the same, but the function is different.The cylinder in the first half of the grenade is used to charge the powder, and the screw in the second half is used to adjust the length of the barrel.Because the ammunition fired is very miscellaneous, even grenades, so the grenade can't change the range by adjusting the ammunition.

At this time, the length of the launch tube can only be changed by adjusting the screw: the launch tube becomes longer, hits far, shortens, and hits closer.

In short, this simple mortar weighing only 5 catties, or primitive grenade, is a very simple portable weapon; soldiers must be very skilled in "hand feel" if they want to use it to hit the target.

Fortunately, today are all professionals: the army has also specially organized personnel training for this hard-won high-tech surface destruction weapon.The reason why as many as five teams were sent this time was for actual combat testing.

So under the command of Squad Leader Wu, the five teams quickly fired the first round of tear gas.

It is different from the standard mortar shells with tail fins that rely on sliding down to fire the primer.The ammunition used by the short, 50mm grenadier is also very crude.

This combination of ancient and modern cylindrical tear gas bombs is unique to a certain force, and it is full of the simple style of the kiln area.

Since no lethality is required, the ammunition case is just a thick layer of iron.The head of this stick does not have a high-grade impact fuze. After being stuffed into the gun barrel by the assistant shooter, the main shooter only needs to point the gun barrel at the enemy with his left hand, and then pull down the launch belt at the tail. up.

The primer struck by the firing pin is quickly detonated, and the shell is pushed out of the barrel.At the same time, the fuse hidden in the shell casing, similar to the wooden handle grenade, was also ignited.Simple ammunition without a touch fuze was not designed to control the detonation time, so the length of the fuse is fixed: 3 seconds to detonate.

In this way, when the shell flies to the top of the target, it is sometimes detonated in advance.But it doesn't matter: after the tear gas bomb is detonated, it will not produce steel balls and prefabricated fragments, but will only continue to emit a large amount of smoke under the action of oxidizers and combustion accelerants such as magnesium carbonate.

……

Five rounds of tear gas accurately hit the opposite target—a target as large as 5 people, and it was impossible not to hit it.