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Chapter 898 Ultimatum

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    The next day, when I went to deliver the notice, the papers came flying like snow flakes.

    Hai Rui also kept his promise and only asked Tian Tongpan and others to register the petition and did not immediately go to court for questioning.

    However, he was not idle. He used these few days to lead Niu Qianshi and other high-ranking officials, as well as officials from Songjiang Prefecture and Huating County, to go to the countryside to preach a whip method and the method of equalizing land and grain in each village.  benefit.  It is important to let the common people understand that no matter whether they have contributed or deceived them before, they will not count now.

    And the government will give them a chance to make corrections. This time they must truthfully declare the number of their real acres. After the government registers it, they will be taxed according to this in the future.

    This is not just to deal with the Xu family, but the only way to implement the Yingtian New Deal.

    There are more than 3.6 million acres of cultivated land in eight townships in Huating County. The number of acres is equal to that of three counties in Suzhou. It is also the county with the most land in the entire Jiangnan.  The more land there is, the more landlords there will be, and the more trouble there will be, so Hai Rui made up his mind to use Huating as the first stop for reform.

    As long as Huating can successfully complete the reform, Songjiang Prefecture and Suzhou Prefecture will be solved.  Su Song's problem is solved, and the other eight prefectures and one state are naturally not a problem.

    Hai Rui's efforts were not in vain. With the officials' dedicated propaganda, the common people in Huating townships were agitated. They reported the situation to the government one after another, complaining about how their fields were usurped by large households and how they were reduced to tenants.

    In response to this, Hai Rui ordered officials to write pleadings on the spot, accept reports from the public, and announced that they would be heard after returning to the Yamen.

    ??~~

    Three days later, Hai Rui returned to Fucheng and asked Tian Baiguang to count and found that eight to nine thousand confessions had been received.

    At this time, Xu Jie¡¯s reply also arrived.

    Hai Rui opened the letter in front of Niu Qianshi and others, and saw that the plan given by Mr. Xu Ge was: 1. Let all the slaves go on their own, give them documents, and never retain them.  Second, all the property in the name of the Xu family can be taken by the original owner. The Xu family will cooperate with the transfer and will not obstruct it.  Third, I am willing to dedicate all the land purchased in the past five years, totaling 40,000 acres, to the government as a school field to benefit my family.

    After reading it, Hai Rui calmly handed the letter to Niu Qianshi and others for circulation.

    Niu Qianshi and others were very happy to see it and felt that the Xu family was still very sincere.  Zhong Zhenji, in particular, was obviously greatly relieved.

    They were talking excitedly, but when they saw that Hai Rui still looked hesitant, the officials quickly silenced themselves.

    "Zhongcheng, what's wrong with the plan?" Niu Qianshi asked in a low voice.

    "The first two are fine, but the third" Hai Rui rummaged around on the table. After a while, he found a pamphlet, opened one page, and read:

    "As of October last year, there were 273 households in the Xu family, with a total of 1.37 million acres of land under their name. Excluding those who donated, deceived, and relatives, the four brothers of Xu Ge  He has a total of 460,000 acres of land under his name, of which a total of 240,000 acres is under the name of Mr. Xu Ge and his son."

    As he spoke, he glanced at Zhong Zhenji and said, "Prefect Zhong, is this court right?"

    "O-almost" Zhong Zhenji nodded and secretly wiped his sweat.  He had done some digging before, and found out that the entire Xu family's land holdings probably amounted to this amount.

    "Hai Gong didn't retrieve the field records of Songjiang Prefecture, so how did he come up with this number?"

    Niu Qianshi remembered that Hai Rui had been calculating the tax accounts of various governments every day since last year, but he didn't expect that he could still find out the secrets from it.

    He just wanted to flatter him and praise Hai Gong for his clever calculation and subtlety.  However, Hai Rui suddenly changed his expression, slapped the booklet on the case, and shouted:

    "Even if we exclude the first two items, the Xu family still has 460,000 acres of land! That's a total of 460,000 acres. What's the point of these 40,000 acres?!"

    The more Hai Rui talked, the angrier he became. He slapped the table and said, "If squires from all over the country follow the same example and only clear out one-tenth or two-tenths of them, not only will retreating from the fields become just a show, but even the whipping method will become a bad method!"  "

    Hai Rui is an experienced and capable official, not a nerd who doesn't know anything. He knows that any reform will inevitably go wrong when implemented.

    No matter how we reform, we can¡¯t avoid the fact that it is most difficult to receive taxes from officials.  Even if those powerful families do not collude with the government to evade taxes, if they have an official in their family, they can be exempted from taxation.  Moreover, his relatives can also benefit from it, and the final tax exemption amount far exceeds the prescribed limit.  But this had been the tacit approval of the government for many years, and Hai Rui was unable to change it for a while.

    The result of the high concentration of land is that even a whip cannot transfer most of the labor to large landowners.  On the contrary, it will increase the burden on most taxpayers.

    The reason is very simple. If you cannot collect taxes and money from big landowners, you will naturally have to collect taxes from small landowners and farmers.?I came back with additional levies on my body.

    That¡¯s why Hai Rui placed the suppression of mergers at a higher level than the whip method.  Because he had already seen clearly that all land-related reforms were annexation without any other obstacle.

    ??~~

    After thinking about it, Hai Rui wrote a reply to Xu Jie, then handed it to Niu Qianshi and others, asking them if they had anything to add.

    Niu Qianshi and others were stunned and speechless.

    "If you don't say anything, does that mean you have no opinion?" Hai Rui folded the letter paper, put it into an envelope, sealed it with paste, and prepared to let the Xu family who delivered the letter take it back.

    "Slow down!" Niu Qianshi finally came to his senses and stopped him: "Zhongcheng, think twice!"

    "Yes, Mr. Du, Mr. Xu Ge will definitely not agree." Zhong Zhenji also wiped his sweat and said: "That is a total of 460,000 acres of land. You can't buy it with ten million taels of silver. The Xu family  How could we all give up!"

    ¡°As soon as this letter came out, both parties were completely at odds with each other, and there was no room for change!¡± Commissioner Wang and others also advised him to calm down and not to be carried away by anger.

    "Did this hospital ask them all to give up?" Hai Rui looked at the frightened subordinates with a strange look on his face and said, "We clearly agreed that his family would leave 6,000 acres, and it was tax-free land. It's not enough to support him.  Everyone?"

    "Uh" the officials said to themselves, six thousand acres is just a drop in the bucket.  And the humiliation is too heavy, right?

    "Furthermore, the Xu family also has Zhinang worth 20,000 yuan, six mansions, four gardens, and more than 200 shops in Beijing and South Beijing, Songjiang, Suzhou and other places. The value of these shops, businesses and residences exceeds 1,000 yuan.  Wan Liang! I¡¯m afraid its origins can¡¯t be investigated in detail, right? I don¡¯t plan to pursue it this time, isn¡¯t it enough to be lenient to the Xu family?¡±

    "When Mr. Xu Ge became an official, his family could only be considered well-off. In just over 20 years, he actually saved a family fortune of more than 20 million taels. Can we put all the responsibilities on his children and grandchildren?"  Hai Rui burst into flames again:

    "Mr. Yan Ge and Yan Shifan are known as the world's most corrupt people, but they only have a quarter of the Xu family's fortune. If we don't help the Xu family quickly, how will Mr. Xu Ge be evaluated in future history books?!"

    Hearing what Hai Gong said, the officials thought it was quite reasonable.  But how could Mr. Xu Ge agree?

    There was something Hai Rui didn't say clearly, asking Mr. Xu Ge to take 460,000 acres of land in exchange for the peace of the whole family and putting things past the past. He felt that he was being extremely benevolent and even felt a little sorry for Lin Run.

    If Lin Run hadn¡¯t asked Zhao Hao to say that, he wouldn¡¯t have been able to make the decision to let the Xu family go.

    ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? Through this, should not be blamed for the ruthlessness of Hai.

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