Volume 2: Soaring! The Overlord of the Region Chapter 198 The World Becomes Transparent Again (Part 7)
"I, your subordinate (minister) Zhang Wenhua (Ma Ran), report to Your Highness that we, in accordance with Your Highness's order, began to conduct a population census in Guangtong Township, Gaochun County, the corresponding Tianfu, on May 21, the 40th year of Wanli. After two months and seven days of investigation, it is now clear that Guangtong Township actually has a permanent population of 3,325 people, including men... Among the permanent population, there are 2,635 people with local household registration, and 432 people with non-local household registration who have lived here for a long time due to business and other reasons. There are also 258 people without household registration. According to their own confession, there are military households who have fled, and there are people who have gone bankrupt and fled to this place... In addition, there are 215 people in the township who have household registration in this place but have been making a living, serving as officials, or studying elsewhere for a long time. According to Your Highness's order, this population census only counts the permanent population to avoid double counting. Therefore, in the report below, the above 215 people will not be included in the calculation.
When Guangtong Township reported the household registration of Gaochun County in the 39th year of Wanli, it reported a population of 2,035, with a difference of 1,290. In accordance with the order of His Highness, this time the investigation will only be carried out without punishment, and we have ordered Gaochun County to re-register the population.
In addition, after investigation, Guangtong Township actually has three households of officials and gentry above the level of Juren, 46 households of upper households, 258 households of middle households, 601 households of lower households, and 13 households of odd households under management. Among them, there are 305 cases of upper households changing to middle households and lower households changing to upper households. In accordance with the instructions of His Highness, such acts must be severely punished. We have successively killed three village heads and two Jia heads, replaced seven village heads and 135 Jia heads. For the village elders who failed to perform their duties, they were severely warned and fined. The total fines collected were 125 taels and 4 coins of silver. All new Jia heads, village heads, and village elders were nominated by local villagers. After the work team used the seal, it was submitted to the Gaochun County Government for confirmation and filing.
According to His Majesty's order, we have re-made household registration books for each household and assigned ID numbers to each person. All refugees without household registration will be re-registered and naturalized locally...
After two months of investigation, Guangtong Township was generally in a stable order. Except for the disturbances by the families of the village head and the head of the village who were killed, which were quickly suppressed, there was no civil unrest. The people were very enthusiastic in their support, and they paid homage to the Nanhua Palace from afar, and many people celebrated the birthday of the grandson. Now I have completed the instructions of His Highness, and hereby report and surrender the order.
The 235th Team of the Population Census Working Team, led by Zhang Wenhua and deputy team leader Ma Ran.
July 29th, the 40th year of the Wanli reign of the Ming Dynasty.
Zhu Youdong began to receive reports from various teams starting in late July of 1612. By early September of that year, all 400 teams had completed their work.
During the three months, although the eight counties of Yingtian Prefecture remained generally stable, there were still many resistances.
Some called on their family slaves and neighbors to besiege the work team members, causing casualties among the work team members. This naturally quickly attracted the suppression of the troops of Henghaiwei and Chongmingshasuo.
Some organized the family and other gentry to implement soft resistance, such as strikes and school strikes. For those who strike, the Ming Dynasty's maritime trade immediately impacts the local market with a huge amount of goods. For those who strike, the Ming Dynasty Yingtian Education Censor rushes to the scene and removes the teacher's reputation on the spot.
There were also those who were sad, kneeling and crying at the county government office, the prefectural government office, and even the Nanhua Palace. For these people, Zhu Youdong's order was: First persuade, second drive, and third kill! Your man used the little power in his hands to destroy the families of so many honest people who farmed and paid taxes for the Ming Dynasty. I am very merciful to kill him now! You family members don't know how to be grateful and are complaining? Then all of you die!
People are profit-seeking, and there are inevitably fools who are blinded by profit. Facing Zhu Youdong's ruthlessness in giving up his position as the crown prince, they dare to confront him. Zhu Youdong will certainly not be soft-hearted to such people. However, when His Royal Highness the Crown Prince showed a little bit of his madness, no one came to make trouble anymore.
In short, after more than three months, six people died and two to three hundred were injured in the work team. More than three hundred people were killed in the civilian population due to various suppressions. The entire population census process in Yingtian Prefecture was definitely not perfect, but it was acceptable.
"Your Highness, according to statistics from our subjects, the eight counties of Yingtian Prefecture now have a permanent population of 2,350,833 people, including 197,300 military households and 639,750 unregistered residents."
"Hehe, Mr. Yang, when you took over as the prefect of Yingtian Prefecture, what was the population recorded in the white book?"
"One million and thirty thousand."
"Then do you know how many people there are in Yingtian Prefecture according to the Yellow Book of the 30th year of the Wanli reign?"
"I also followed Your Highness to the Yellow Book Library that year, but it has been more than five years, and I can't remember it."
"Haha, it's not bad, 630,000."
"Hiss~~ Your Highness, this means that the eight counties of Yingtian Prefecture have concealed nearly 70% of their population? If so, the population of the Ming Dynasty listed in the Yellow Book is over 55 million. If we really want to check it out, wouldn't it be more than 200 million?"
"I don't think there are that many. After all, places like Jiangnan are fertile lands with a lot of hidden households and refugees. The proportion in other places is definitely not that exaggerated. But if we really check everything, I estimate that the actual population of our Ming Dynasty is at least over 130 million."
Of course, there is a basis for Zhu Youdong to say this.
In the 26th year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty, after the empire had completely unified the traditional Han settlements, it completed the second, and truly the first, revision of the Yellow Book. At that time, thanks to Zhu's high pressure, no one in the Ming Empire dared to make trouble. Therefore, the population statistics at that time were the most realistic: 60.54 million.
At that time, the most populous prefecture was Suzhou: 2.35 million people. The eight counties of Yingtian Prefecture had only 1.2 million people, 10,000 less than Songjiang Prefecture, ranking only third in the country.
But who would have expected that 1.2 million was the highest population record of Yingtian Prefecture in the more than 200 years ?
This is true for Yingtian Prefecture, and it is also true for the whole country. Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, except for the harassment of Japanese pirates on the southeast coast and the frequent invasion of Mongolia in the northern border areas, there have been no major wars, unrest, or plagues in the entire heartland for more than 200 years. However, after more than 200 years, the Yellow Book of the 30th year of Wanli showed that the country had only 55 million people, which was more than 5 million less than the early days of the founding of the country.
On October 1, 1612, Zhu Youdong held a summary meeting in Nanhua Palace, and all members of his shogunate and team leaders attended the meeting.
"…Thanks to your loyalty and dedication, the population census of Yingtian Prefecture was successfully completed…The results of the census are shocking. This shows that our work is extremely meaningful and extremely important to this country and this nation! Next, we need to enrich and adjust the personnel of the work team. Each team should train more team members with the old ones, and take turns to carry out the population census in other prefectures and governors. Everyone, this is a hard and long-term job. As the census progresses, the unruly people in various places will become more and more cunning and more and more adept at confronting you. However, our work will be farther and farther away from our base camp, and the support and protection from the army will be less and less. However, even so, we must firmly continue this work! I plan to use three to five years to effectively complete the national population census and make the whole world transparent again in front of the court! Everyone, please tell me, do you have confidence?"
"I am willing to die for your Highness! The world of the Ming Dynasty will be transparent again!"
…
After the meeting, Zhu Youdong just walked down from the main seat when he saw Wang Chengen waving at him desperately.
"What's the hurry?"
"Young Master, Eunuch Wei just arrived. The Thousand Year Old Master has passed away!"
