Chapter 606: Legacy Issues of the Farming System
"What? The banner of the Han Dynasty has already flown above the city of Luoyang? Is there anyone in Sizhou who dares to do this?" Prince Liu Xuan was the first to be shocked, his brows suddenly furrowed deeper than Ma Su's.
Over the years, he also had great Confucians teach him Confucianism and Confucian classics, and Zhuge Liang also specially taught him the key to local governance. Therefore, Liu Xuan did not have a good impression of these wealthy families who were dissatisfied with the imperial court and liked to bully the peasants.
In Kansai, under the auspices of Zhuge Liang, the Han Dynasty collected household registration and land deeds and severely punished a wave of local tyrants. This caused the Kansai clan to give up a lot of land and population, and also provided a strong boost to Ji Han's tax collection.
Liu Xuan strongly agreed with this measure, so he was very surprised that this happened in Luoyang.
Ma Su was not that surprised after hearing this. The Luoyang bureaucracy has not yet understood it, and chaos is normal. If this group of wealthy families didn't take the opportunity to seize the population and land, they wouldn't be called wealthy families.
"Let Chen Zhi go check it out. Luoyang is newly occupied and is not yet stable. It is normal for the local wealthy families not to be so polite." Ma Di waved his hand and said calmly.
"But now that they have all surrendered to the big man, they have to be beaten hard. All these will be used to shock and beat them, and the prince will just come forward when the time comes."
"It all depends on the arrangements of the prime minister." Liu Xuan nodded.
But soon, news came back from Chen Zhi, and things seemed a little complicated.
Because the household registration and population stored in Luoyang did not find anything wrong. It was as if the fields and people that had been usurped did not exist in Sizhou at all.
This is very intriguing, especially since Chen Zhi said that the household registration did not show any signs of being destroyed. If it weren't for the hands and eyes of these wealthy families, it meant that there was something else going on.
"Your Highness, I'm afraid there is something hidden in this matter. The government affairs in Guandong are so complicated that it will be difficult to sort them out in a short time." Chen Zhi finally concluded helplessly.
"Especially Sizhou is a mess. Many officials have connections with local powerful people."
"Although they don't dare to go against us, they still hide many things from themselves..."
This is Luoyang after all, a place where all the super wealthy families in Guandong have been cultivating for many years since the founding of Cao Wei. Although the Han Dynasty was intimidated by tens of thousands of troops and officials from Guanxi were handling government affairs, this was Luoyang!
"This... Xiangfu, what do you think?"
"It's okay. This matter can be investigated by the Military Council for the time being, and Fengzong will cooperate." Ma Di understood Chen Zhi's dilemma very well. He had seen this kind of situation in Longxi.
Dealing with a few local snakes almost cost him his life, let alone in Luoyang.
Therefore, Ma Su began to entrust the Military Council to intervene in the matter and find out what went wrong. After all, there was really a soldier under me who was bullied, so he couldn't just make it up.
Soon, the Military Council also gave the answer. It was normal for Chen Zhi not to be able to find his household registration, because the land and population that had been misappropriated came from a very familiar group.
Tuntianhu!
As mentioned before, the farming system of Cao Wei was established during the Cao Cao era. At that time, in order to improve the efficiency of farming, all the population and land in farming were additionally recorded, and the officials in charge of farming were also additionally established, without following formal official channels.
Therefore, the person in charge of this matter is generally Da Si Nong, and the person in charge of recording the population and fields in the field is Dian Nong Xiaowei.
They have a mutually exclusive relationship with the governor of Zhoumu County, so naturally there is no way to obtain the files from Luoyang. And basically all the files in the hands of Captain Diannong have been transported to Yecheng...
In other words, Ji Han is actually blind to how many fields and farming households there are in Luoyang.
The local wealthy families had obviously known about this for a long time, so they took advantage of this moment to start unscrupulously appropriating land and people. Anyway, without records, these farm households can only be regarded as black households. Without evidence, the big man doesn't even know that he has embezzled the money.
In fact, the embezzlement of Tuntianzhuang by aristocratic families began in the early years of Cao Rui. Because the establishment of the village and the officialdom were not in communication with each other, it was difficult for the government to stop this matter.
It's just that now that the Han Dynasty has regained Luoyang, they have accelerated the pace of embezzlement...
"Crazy! It's so crazy!" At this time, Liu Xuan couldn't help it anymore and started shooting the case directly.
"Xiangfu! These Guandong clans are so rampant! They really don't take the big man seriously at all when they act like this!"
"They are naturally confident in doing this..." Ma Su also frowned. This matter is indeed very difficult.
With his many years of experience in attacking wealthy families, he naturally knows that information is the top priority. If you lack a clear understanding of the local population with household registration and land titles, it will be difficult to even maintain tax collection.
And these big Luoyang clans are so rampant, so naturally you can't figure out which territories belong to the former farming villages and whose population belongs to the farming households. Fishing in troubled waters like this, even if Ma Di forcibly stopped some of them, they could take advantage of the chaos and eat up many of the fields.
However, Ma Su also has a very complete set of countermeasures for this. After pondering for a while, Ma Su made a decision.
"First call Sima Wang over and ask the prominent families in Hanoi if they know anything about this."
"What if they don't understand, or are in the same group as the Luoyang clan?" Liu Xuan asked subconsciously.
"If that's the case..." Ma Su snorted coldly and said slowly,
"Then we don't mind launching a large-scale land clearing operation in Luoyang. After all, I really don't know those places belong to tuntianzhuang... but I know those places don't belong to tuntianzhuang!"
"If we can't find out, then we will clear out the acres of farmland, and all the cultivated land that is not recorded in the records will be divided according to the land equalization law!"
"If anyone is dissatisfied, you can come to the General's Mansion to find me!"
If you are not afraid of being hacked to death...
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Obviously, Ma Di did not intend to give in to these powerful Guandong families.
When I was in Longyou, I refused to give in to the powerful. Now that I have the upper hand, can I still pamper you?
The main reason is that clearing the land is time-consuming and laborious, and may slow down the process of the Eastern Expedition, so Ma Su does not want to use this method at the first time. However, if the wealthy families in Luoyang refused to give up enough benefits, Ma Di would have no choice but to make this move.
Soon, Sima Wang called Luoyang and asked what the noble families in Hanoi meant.
Several families over there quickly gave the answer. They have records on this, but they may not be so complete.
Later, the Sima family took the lead and gave Ma Su a general scope and population of the villages in the Luoyang Basin.
According to the information given by the Sima family, there are more than hundreds of thousands of people stationed in the Luoyang Basin, most of whom are military villages. And they are mostly distributed in the southern part of the basin, occupying more than hundreds of thousands of acres of cultivated land.
This is a big fat piece of meat, no wonder the nobles in Sizhou want to seize it from the tiger's mouth.