Volume 1: Birth! Seven time travelers Chapter 013: The old routine of time travel (I)
The imperial farms in the Ming Dynasty were basically concentrated in the southern and northern Zhili regions. Over the past two hundred years, the number and land area of the imperial farms have fluctuated, reaching their peak during the reign of Emperor Wuzong, with an area of about 37,000 hectares. In the early days of Jiajing's reign, in order to create the image of a wise ruler, some imperial farms were returned to local prefectures and counties. However, such a return was more symbolic than practical, so by the time of the Wanli Dynasty, the total land area of all the imperial farms was more than 30,000 hectares.
According to the ancient calculation that one hectare equals one hundred mu, the area of the imperial farm is about three million mu. Wasn't it too stingy that Emperor Wanli only allocated two thousand mu to Zhu Youdong?
Actually, it’s not like that.
The royal family is large and has a large population. If so many people in the palace really relied on the deficit in the treasury for funding, they would have starved to death long ago. Therefore, the income from the imperial farm is stable and reliable income that can be converted into cash at a certain time.
Therefore, now in addition to the emperor, there are many other people named on the more than 30,000 hectares of imperial farms, including the empress, the crown prince, the imperial concubine, some favored concubines, and powerful eunuchs. This is one of the main sources of private money for many prominent figures in the palace. In this environment, the fact that Emperor Wanli was able to give Zhu Youdong a 2,000-acre farm can really be regarded as a great favor.
Of course, this is what Zhu Youdong asked Wanli for. Wanli initially thought that Zhu Youdong was still young, so he would just give the money to Ciqing Palace every month according to the salary of a prince. But Zhu Youdong was unwilling to do so: "Give me a farm and some start-up capital at one time. I won't ask the royal family for money after that. If I don't run the business well, I deserve to starve to death!"
"Zhongxian?"
"My lord, please give me your orders."
"The manor that Grandfather Emperor gave me is located in Honghe Village, Changping Prefecture. The manor is irrigated by the Yu River, and the land is extremely fertile. But I looked at the account books of the Imperial Palace last year, and the manor only paid more than 100 taels of silver to the Imperial Palace last year, and only five bolts of silk each... Humph, it seems that the head of the manor and the head of the village are also extremely rampant. You go and take a good inventory of the account books of that manor over the years for me, and actually visit the people in the manor. If necessary, I will allow you to arrest people directly!"
"Please rest assured, I will get this done as soon as possible!"
"Well, you can't do anything by yourself. Shizhong."
"Your Highness, your servant Li Shizhong is waiting for your orders."
"Grandpa Emperor gave me 40 Jinyiwei as guards. You will be in charge of them from now on. I am usually in Huangji Palace and Yangxin Palace in the morning, and in Ciqing Palace in the afternoon. I have never left the Forbidden City. Therefore, I don't need too many guards around me. You can arrange some people to follow Zhongxian to Honghe to do business."
"I obey your command."
"Well..." Zhu Youdong stood up, and then patted Wei Zhongxian's shoulder who was still kneeling on the ground: "Zhongxian, I am young and cannot ride a horse, but this imperial farm is only more than 40 miles away from the Forbidden City. Even if I take a sedan chair, it is a bit tiring, but I can go back and forth once a day. So, I will give you ten days. After ten days, it will be the Lantern Festival, plus the rotation, so I will have two days off. At that time, I will come to the imperial farm in person. If you don't do your job well, hehe, you know the consequences, right?"
"I understand! If I don't do my job well, I will cut off my head myself without your telling me!"
"Very good, go and do your work."
There is no doubt that a guy like Wei Zhongxian, who was ruthless to his own relatives and himself, could definitely get things done. But such a guy must be constantly punished. Otherwise, he would become self-inflated and eventually harm himself and everyone around him.
The Ming Empire had been established for more than 200 years, and many problems had arisen. The internal management of the royal family was also full of loopholes, and it could only be maintained without any effort.
Take the imperial farm as an example. This is land directly under the name of the royal family. The emperor sent eunuchs to manage it and recruited nearby farmers to cultivate it. The output was divided between the emperor and the farmers.
This kind of thing was very common in every dynasty, and the most famous one was the Shanglin Garden in the Han Dynasty.
Unfortunately, in the Shanglin Garden of the Han Dynasty, nearby farmers rushed to farm for the royal family: they did not have to pay taxes, were not bullied by the aristocratic families, and the royal family had a lot of income and did not care too much about the output of this piece of arable land. During the autumn harvest, a little left or right did not matter... Who doesn't like to farm for the royal family?
But the imperial farms of the Ming Dynasty were a very evil policy.
The reason was that there were too many people who took bribes and the management was seriously poor, which made the nearby farmers unwilling to farm for the imperial farm: the share they could get was too little.
The peasants got little, and the emperor got little, so where did the output go? Of course, the eunuchs and their minions who managed the imperial farm on behalf of the royal family took too much.
Some people may ask: Why didn’t the imperial farms in the Han Dynasty have such problems? Were the people of that era more moral?
Well... maybe there are reasons in this regard. But the most fundamental reason is: the princes of the Han Dynasty had to manage and operate part of the land in Shanglin Garden from a very young age. If you can't manage a small manor well, how can you manage your fiefdom or the entire Han Empire in the future? And the princes of the Ming Dynasty... Tsk tsk tsk, our Ming Dynasty is a country ruled by morality. How can a gentleman do such a lowly thing as asking for land and houses?
During the Ming Dynasty, the owners of various imperial manors kept changing. The emperor, the crown prince, the queen mother, the empress, the imperial concubine, etc. all had manors under their names. But without exception, none of the manors was managed by the owner himself. This is the biggest difference between the imperial manors of the Ming Dynasty and the Shanglin Garden of the Han Dynasty.
Besides, since the middle of the Ming Dynasty, it has become increasingly difficult for the royal family to have children, and the mortality rate of princes is extremely high. Even if the emperor wants to train the princes, there are no princes with healthy bodies and complete minds to take the job.
Therefore, when Emperor Wanli allocated a 2,000-mu imperial farm to the Crown Prince, no matter the crown prince, concubines, eunuchs in the Forbidden City or ministers outside the imperial city, most of them just said "oh" and left it at that. In their opinion, even if the Crown Prince was born smart at such a young age, how much could he understand? It was just entrusted to the farm owners to manage. It was nothing more than the small income from this piece of land was transferred from the name of Emperor Wanli to the name of the Crown Prince.
However, as a time traveler, isn’t this the situation that you want most?
"Cao Huachun!"
"The servant is here."
"This is one thousand taels of silver, which can be redeemed at the Ministry of Revenue in the two capitals . In addition, I have also asked Lord Ju to give you a new identity."
"... A captain of the Eastern Depot? This, young master, I cannot bear such a heavy responsibility right now."
"Humph, wishful thinking. You are only a teenager, and you really want to be a senior executive of the East Factory? This is just a status that makes it easier for you to do things outside."
"Oh... then what does my young master need me to do outside?"
"Yeah." Zhu Youdong turned around and took out a few pictures from the bookcase behind his chair.
Alas, although he drew a lot of pictures when he was studying local anatomy, his body was still too small and his strength was not enough. Therefore, he spent a long time to complete these pictures.
"Look, this is potato, some people also call it potato, or yam. It is said that some people have planted it in Shaanxi and Shanxi, but I am not sure whether this news is true or not. But there is no doubt that some people are planting it in Fujian and Guangdong. This is called corn. This is called sweet potato or red potato. You should be able to find people planting it in Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong. Your mission is to leave Beijing and head south immediately to find these three items and bring back as many seeds and plants as possible to me."
"I've made note of this. I will definitely handle this matter for you."
"Well, along the way, you can collect rice plants or seeds from various provinces and bring them all back to me. In addition, there is one person. When you arrive in Jiangnan, you can arrange for the Jinyiwei there to send him to Beijing as soon as possible. I will be of great use to you!"
"Yes, I obey your command."
"You don't have much time. It's already the first month of the lunar year. Except for that gentleman who sent someone to deliver them immediately after finding them, I want you to bring all these things back by May this year at the latest! You are still young, and this is your first time out of the capital, and time is so tight. That's why I asked Lord Ju to get you such a high status. This status is given to you to make it easier for you to do things. If you use this status to cheat and show off outside, humph, you know what I will do!"
It was a bit funny for a four-year-old child to say to a fifteen-year-old boy that he was still young, but Cao Huachun didn't feel it was wrong at all: "Please rest assured, young master, I will work hard outside. I will come back within four months."
"Well." A little warning would suffice for Cao Huachun. After all, he was not a scumbag like Wei Zhongxian: "Do it well. You are my best friend. If you do well, why should I be stingy with my generous reward?"
