Southern Ming Rebel Army

Chapter 515: The National Register

Huang Cheng annihilated all the Qing troops that escaped from Jinzhou City, and then the army arrived in Jinzhou and joined Zhao Yongping's troops. For a time, outside Jinzhou City, there was a lot of noise, the neighing of war horses, and the sound of soldiers' training, resounding through the sky.

After Zhao Yongping stationed his troops in Jinzhou City for two days, he led his army northward with 100,000 cavalry and infantry, heading straight for Shengjing.

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In Beijing, although the Battle of Liaodong was important, Meng Jun was already preparing for another major event, and this event seemed to be more important than the Battle of Liaodong, that is, reform!

In the era of absolute monarchy, the most important factor affecting the amount of military force a country can mobilize is how much taxes it can collect.

With sufficient money and grain, a lot of things can be done, whether it is disaster relief or sending troops to conquer enemy countries, there is no need to worry about the treasury not being able to come up with money. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, there were natural disasters everywhere. It would be a lie to say that the Ming court did not want disaster relief. It was just that the Ministry of Revenue had no money, and the court had no money. There were so many places from top to bottom that needed money and grain, so naturally, the relief for the victims would be put off.

Although there are many reasons, one of the most important reasons is that the Ming court’s financial revenue has collapsed. The old machine that had been running for more than two hundred years could no longer be maintained.

It was an empire with a vast territory, but taxes were gradually reduced, so that the fiscal revenue was only more than 10 million taels, which could not make full use of the advantages of a vast territory and a large population.

Especially in the south of the Yangtze River, the local economy is developed, local forces are getting stronger and stronger, and many of these people do not pay taxes, so that the imperial court is getting weaker and weaker. Many people know this problem, but if they are asked to give up their own interests, it would be as difficult as cutting flesh with a knife.

However, the Ming Dynasty was already corrupt, and the local governments, the imperial court, and the central government were already intertwined. Without external forces, there would be no talk of reform.

Since Meng Jun started his rebellion and was in control of Jiangnan, he did not dare to make reforms easily because the Qing court was still eyeing him covetously. Even though he knew that the resistance to reform would increase after the Northern Expedition was successful, Meng Jun still focused all his attention on the Qing court after weighing the two evils. He did not dare to make drastic reforms to the system and only made modifications in some minor aspects.

Because the enemy was still very strong, and he was not strong enough to survive the siege from all sides, he could only hide his intentions, but now it was different.

Now that the Northern Expedition has been successfully completed, all the traditional Han territories in the south have been recovered. Zheng and Wu Sangui have all surrendered. In Liaodong, Zhao Yongping has also broken through the Ningjin defense line. Emperor Shunzhi has fled to Hetuala, and the war is about to be won. So reform, which has been brewing in Meng Jun's mind for a long time, should also be put on the agenda.

Meng Jun was somewhat worried that if he did not make changes while he was still young and strong, it might be more difficult for his descendants to make changes in the future. Now was the time when the new dynasty was just established, and almost all the generals were promoted by Meng Jun. He held military power and his prestige was unmatched.

Meng Jun's plan was to start with the easy and then move on to the difficult, centralizing power, monopolizing salt and iron, then dividing the land tax, and finally developing technology to improve productivity.

Meng Jun and Yang En made some subtle hints about this major event in private, but Meng Jun keenly felt from Yang En's reaction that Yang En was not willing to carry out reforms.

Today's Yang En is no longer an unknown scholar. He is now the leader and role model of officials from Jiangnan. This kind of reform will inevitably greatly affect the interests of officials and gentry in Jiangnan. Take the salt and iron monopoly as an example. Those are the businesses of local gentry and salt merchants. Changes will inevitably cause chaos.

Meng Jun searched his pocket carefully and finally found a candidate he thought was more suitable, that was Wu Jinkun.

Wu Jinkun, a native of Suzhou, was in prison when Meng Jun conquered Suzhou. Meng Jun entered the city and saved his life, and he then defected to Meng Jun.

Wu Jinkun is a rigid, eccentric, and stubborn person. He has served as the Director of Military Law, the Secretary for Justice, and now the Minister of Justice. Although he is from Jiangnan, he has no connections with local nobles and does not have much interaction with officials in the court. He rarely even attends gatherings of colleagues.

This man was loyal and had followed Meng Jun for many years. He was stubborn and had reformed the salt and iron monopolies and distributed the tax rate based on the amount of land. Meng Jun thought that he was very suitable for local supervision.

However, the reform was not implemented all at once. Meng Jun, on the grounds that the world had just been established, conducted a population census throughout the country and implemented the Yellow Book system, compiling all the people into the Yellow Book so that the court could have a deeper understanding of the local areas.

As early as the Warring States Period, Shang Yang once said that if a country wants to be strong, it must know the number of granaries, treasuries, men, women, old and young, merchants, craftsmen and livestock. Only by knowing all this can the king know how much tax to collect and how many soldiers to recruit, so as to exert the greatest strength without overburdening the people.

This system was inherited from the Qin Dynasty to the Han Dynasty and then to all dynasties. During the reign of Zhu Yuanzhang, the Yellow Book System was formed.

Zhu Yuanzhang established the Yellow Book system, with one copy in the county, one copy in the province, and another copy kept in the Yellow Book Library on Xuanwu Lake in Nanjing. The Yellow Book was reviewed every ten years to allow the court to control local information.

This system was also extremely good for the common people. If a wealthy family or an official occupied land, the local government could bribe the officials, but they could not change the yellow book. The common people only had to submit a petition, and the court would know the ownership of the land after checking the documents.

Although the Yellow Book system was very good, it could not function for long. By the late Ming Dynasty, the Yellow Book system had long been defunct in name only.

First, population screening is time-consuming and laborious. Second, the Xuanwu Lake Yellow Book Library was poorly managed, resulting in a lot of damage. Third, local officials colluded with wealthy gentry to conceal household registration and land. Various means such as fleeing famine, extinction of households, and tampering were used one after another. The Yellow Book turned into a false account book with no credibility at all.

For example, in the eight counties of Nanjing Yingtian Prefecture, the population at the end of the Jiajing period was only half of that during the Zhengde period, and in the Wanli period, it was only one-fifth of that in the Zhengde period. In fact, there was no war or major natural disasters or man-made disasters in Yingtian Prefecture, but the Ming court could not collect much taxes.

Local wealthy people colluded with officials. Most people thought that they might hide twenty or thirty acres out of a hundred acres of land. But in fact, some people might only have ten acres registered on the book, even if they had a thousand acres of land. Some people were even directly listed as illegal residents without even their names on the yellow book, so they did not have to pay taxes or labor service.

Therefore, on the ninth day of the eleventh month in the second year of Zhaowu, Meng Jun formally issued an edict to conduct a population census and compile a population register.

"I have heard that among all matters concerning people's livelihood, population registration is of primary importance, and the collection of taxes and labor service is particularly important to the foundation of the country. Now that the world is peaceful and the people are prosperous, it is appropriate to have a detailed household registration to reassure the people and strengthen the foundation of the country.

From now on, all parts of the country must conduct a thorough investigation of the population and compile a population register, registering all male and female population, and the whole country must follow this without error. "