Kaifeng is an important town in Henan and a famous historical city. It was called Bianjing in ancient times and was the ancient capital of the Eight Dynasties.

It is located in the eastern part of the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River plain, located in the central and eastern Henan, connected to Shangqiu in the east, Zhengzhou in the west, Xuchang and Zhoukou in the south, and Xinxiang in the north, across the Yellow River in the north.

There are many rivers in the territory, and it is called the Northern Water City.

Kaifeng has a flat terrain, abundant water sources and fertile fields. It is a wealthy hometown in the Central Plains and a large grain-producing area.

However, although Kaifeng has sufficient land and abundant land, Kaifeng has produced a large number of refugees in recent years. The fundamental reason is that Kaifeng's land has been the most severely annexed, and a large number of land has been annexed to the hands of a few large landlords. Among them, the ones that occupy the most land are the royal families of the former Zhou King and the Zhou King.

The royal family members of the Ming Dynasty have always been treated well, and in addition to their generous salaries, there are also excellent rewards and a large amount of land grants.

After the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the trend of land offering prevailed. The so-called contribution is to offer one side, including "disclosure" and "self-disclosure"; in the "disclosure" side, there are royal families, Qi Wan, heroes and officials.

"Dedication" means that the common people's land is deemed to be "own business" or "ownerless idle land" by "crawling people"; "dedication" means that the common people devote their own land to the official and powerful families for free, and become a farmer, tenant or slave.

After the middle of the Ming Dynasty, it was very common.

The reason is that the military service was heavy in the Ming Dynasty.

Many self-dedication sound hard to believe. The people actually devoted their own land to those powerful families for free and became slaves to them. But this is a fact, and it was not only found in the Ming Dynasty, but in fact there were things that have been found in all dynasties.

The reason was that in the feudal era, land tied up the people and population was also tax service. The country's tax service was distributed to every citizen, and the burden was extremely heavy. However, the Zong family's honors enjoyed various privileges.

In the Ming Dynasty, the public land granted by the honorary relatives was kept in the "Gold Book". They were not reported to officials for naturalization and enjoyed the privilege of exempting taxes, grain and servants.

Although the legal provisions also stipulate that land other than land granted land is generally called self-owned private property and should be "inherited as one of the people". However, due to the power of the nobles, the law is difficult to enforce. The bad habit of "unwilling to work together with the people" appeared as early as the Hongwu period. After the middle of the year, the law was abolished. The powerful and nobles became more unscrupulous, "to collect the land of the people for their own private business, and the power was used to control the system, so that the officials could not organize the taxes." Therefore, in fact, all land of the royal palace and nobles enjoyed the privilege of exempting all grain distribution.

When the people who are self-cultivated farmers have to pay taxes to the state and even have to bear errand labors that are heavier than land taxes. In order to avoid these heavy taxes and labors, many people began to actively contribute to the privileged honorary relatives.

Giving your own fields to Xunqi and taking the initiative to be slaves to Xunqi and his relatives. In this way, they are no longer taxpayers of the Ming Dynasty, but just slaves to Xunqi and his relatives.

The honorary relatives were more land than they could have, so they were naturally happy to succeed. In order to attract more people to contribute, they even took the initiative to return the land they had given to the slaves who had given them to their subordinates, that is, they still gave the land to the original owners' tenant plantings, and even the tenant rent they collected was voluntarily lower than the taxes levied by the state.

In this way, the Xunqin and his relatives were able to get land for nothing and many slaves. Although the people who offered to sell themselves as servants in name only became servants and lost their own fields, their taxes and servitude were much lighter, and they paid less rent to Xun and his relatives. They did not have to bear the heavy servitude.

Both the honorary and relatives and the people enjoyed actual benefits, but the losses were only the interests of the court.

Generally speaking, offering is not so casual, there will be a form. The contributor proposes offering, and the recipient must file a complaint with the court, and then the emperor allows the grant. In this way, the original common people's fields will be transformed into the land of imperial gifts.

Without any payment, the recipients not only gain ownership of the land, but also exempt from the payment of food. This good thing of reaping endless benefits is ultimately because they enjoy the privilege of receiving and exemption.

Even in the late Ming Dynasty, not only did the royal family members enjoy this privilege of being granted and exempted, but even those scholars and officials with fame also enjoyed this privilege benefit.

Once some poor people pass the imperial examination, as long as they enter the imperial examination, the people will come to offer land and sell themselves as slaves. Once they pass the imperial examination, it will be even more amazing. Many businessmen with considerable business will take the initiative to be slaves.

It was under this situation that in the late Ming Dynasty, although there were more than one billion mu of land and over one billion people in the world, the court actually could not collect taxes or collect food. In the end, the court's expenses only hit a very small number of people, and they were all poor people, which eventually led to various civil chaos and social collapse. Just look??

Just like Kaifeng, a large grain-producing area, most of the land was annexed to these powerful families who were named King Zhou.

The importance of corvee service in the Ming Dynasty was even taxed and grain.

However, the royal mansion and the land of the noble mansion enjoy the privilege of exemption. Once they become their lords, they can be exempted from being a national servant under their guise. In order to avoid the "hard work and labor", farmers, even small and medium-sized landlords often "put their own land into the palace, give their children and act as slaves.

Officials and gentry outside the nobles also have privileged levels.

On the stairs of rank, although they were lower than the nobles, they were above the common people.

In terms of political identity, they are "officials" and "gentlemen", so they are called "officials", "official households", and "official armor" in household registration, which is completely different from common people without status. The Ming Dynasty's laws and regulations strictly stipulated that "wealth, wealth, poverty and humbleness" must not "override the division" between "rich, noble, poor and humble"; common people are not allowed to call officials without authorization, "the one who calls them will be punished for crimes." Officials and gentry rely on their noble status and powerful forces to "see the minority as the weak" and "betrayed the tyrants." In that era, when scholars entered the village, they were always offered to be rich.

In economic status, they also enjoy privileges and exemptions.

Unlike the nobles, they were exempted from the quota. The system of exemption for officials and gentry in the Ming Dynasty became increasingly complete. During the Hongwu period, it was stipulated that the current officials' families were "free of all corvee labor"; officials who retired "restore their families and have nothing to do for life"; students were exempted from two children in the household except for their own exemption. After the middle of the year, they were exhibited as "free of grain for discourse" or "free of land for discourse". Taking the 38th year of Wanli as an example, the current Beijing official's first-rank official's first-rank official's land was exempted from 10,000 mu, and the following was reduced to 2,700 mu of land for the eighth rank, and the external officials were reduced by half, and the resignation of the township officials was exempted from 60,000 mu of land for the first-rank official. The maximum exemption for the land for the gentry was 3,350 mu, and the student was supervised by 80 mu.

Although "excellent grain" and "excellent field" have actually become more tax-free, they still refer to "exempt service" in the legal sense. The Ming Dynasty's service law said, "people are the service and land is used to control service". There are two objects of service: one is the population and the other is the land. The battle from land is called "with taxes and service" in law. That is, the battle sent by all people is the service. The battle from the population is called "no taxes and service" in law, that is, it is not from land and food but from personal life. The note of the Daming Laws: "The taxes and food are the land and food are the service. The taxes and service are the service. If there is taxes and service, it means that there is land and food as the service, and if there is no taxes and service, it means that there is no land and food as the service itself is the service."

Not only are officials and gentry themselves and their families privileged to be exempted from service, but their land also privileged to be exempted from service in part or in total.

Legally, the "Yutian" outside of the limit exemption required exemption should be handled by the people.

However, the ranks of officials and gentry are the same as those of nobles. They ignore national laws and mostly break through the boundaries of legal rights and act according to customary rights. Therefore, the actual implementation of full exemption is to "the fields are connected to the fields and the fields are not allowed to be divided into tiny labor." Not only does the official households do this, but they also rely on their "tenants, tenants, and servants are distant from distant relatives, and they are responsible for the public's quest, and no one is worthy of the labor of the service."

The King of Zhou was the oldest among the princes of the Ming Dynasty. He had been in Kaifeng for a long time. The Zhou kings received land grants from the court and their complaints, offerings, and robbery over the past dynasties, and now it has reached more than 50,000 hectares. Among them, King Gong of Zhou succeeded to the throne and gave more than 5,200 hectares of land at one time.

The King of Zhou not only annexed a large amount of land, but also used his privileges to do business, occupied Guanjin and set up taxes, and even enjoyed privileges such as salt and tea monopoly.

Henan is the province with the largest number of vassals in the Ming Dynasty, and is full of royal family members, the Fu King of Luoyang, the Zhou King of Kaifeng, etc.

The only group of King Zhou in Kaifeng, in addition to King Zhou, there are thirty-six princes, as well as countless generals in the state, generals in the state, etc.

More than half of the fields in Kaifeng were from each family of the King of Zhou.

However, now, in the Zhou palace, the Zhou king and his family gathered together in the name of celebrating the 60th birthday of the Zhou king.

The princes, generals and lieutenants from all families gathered together and sighed.

The old birthday star, Zhu Gongyi, was the eleventh generation grandson of Zhu Yuanzhang and the tenth generation grandson of the first Zhou king. He was appointed as the King of Zhou in the first year of the founding period, and it has been more than 20 years since then.

Zhu Gongzi sat on it, his eyes swept over his nine sons one by one, and finally fell on the remaining twenty princes of the King of Zhou below.

After a long time, he closed his eyes and sighed.

The King of Zhou had many descendants, but he could not find anyone who could make him hope.

The descendants of the King of Zhou enjoyed peace and wealth for too long, so that no one could revive the Ming Dynasty at this time.

"Boss, you go to the military camp in person tomorrow and give them some money to reward them."

The prince Zhu Shaoying quickly stood up, his fat body seemed to be overwhelmed. "Father, just call me to take care of this matter, why bother me to go there?"

"I'm confused, you have to come forward in person. And we can't give away less money." Zhu Gongzi was old and had several dynasties and knew very well what situation they were in.

"Send 500,000 silver dollars to Kaifeng Town, and give 500,000 to the general and those officers."

"Father, I'll give so much?"

Zhu Gongye ignored his son, "Third brother, please prepare. In two days, follow me to Beijing to exchange for some silver notes at Sihai Silver House, which is a big deal." He said to his third son Zhu Shaoxuan.

"How much preparation?" Zhu Shaoxuan asked.

"Let's exchange two million silver notes first." After thinking about it, Zhu Gongzi shook his head again, "Forget it, change more, prepare for five million yuan."

The second son Ren and the prince were shocked, "Father, you can't go to Beijing. Now you go to Beijing. Isn't that going to fall into the trap and a sheep enters the tiger's mouth?"

"If I don't take this trip, I'm afraid that our King of Zhou will be uprooted." Zhu Gongye said.

"Father, I'm afraid the mansion will not be able to raise six million silver dollars for a while." The prince wiping the sweat on his forehead. Six million is not a small number, but it is actually nothing for the Zhou royal palace. If you want to raise it, you can still get it. However, the prince Zhu Shaojiong obviously didn't want the money to be paid by the Zhou royal palace.

"The father wants it so urgently, otherwise the county and princes' mansions, the general's mansions of the states and the states of Zhenguo, etc. will join together. Each county and prince's mansion will pay 100,000 yuan, and the general's mansion will pay 10,000 yuan" (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!