Chapter 55: The Prime Minister's favor can never be fully repaid!

[In August of the 76th Year of Chongzhen, you thoroughly swept away all the remnants of the Ming Dynasty across the two capitals and thirteen provinces, establishing a new court that answered solely to you. You accomplished a 'dynastic transition' without actually changing the dynasty!]

[As the saying goes, the Han Dynasty was divided into East and West, and the Song into North and South; seemingly one dynasty, they were actually two eras... Today, through your efforts, although the Ming Dynasty has kept its dynastic title and even its emperor, it has already become a completely new dynasty, vastly different from the past.]

[This year is 1703 AD. This dynastic transition, which originally should have taken place in 1644, was delayed by a full 59 years... However, delayed as it was, it happened in the end. And the most magical part is that, just like Li Zicheng who was originally meant to overthrow the dynasty, you are also from Mizhi County in northern Shaanxi...]

[Therefore, busybodies among the common people whispered privately: 'People from Mizhi County are truly the bane of the Great Ming. Last time the rebel Li could not destroy the Ming, but this time Prime Minister Zifang has helped destroy it for him... This must be the Mandate of Heaven!']

[Others said with paranoid seriousness: 'I reckon Prime Minister Zifang might just be the reincarnation of the rebel Li! Some old folks have seen the rebel Li, and his facial features are identical to Prime Minister Zifang!']

[',Right, right! Back then, the rebel Li interrogated the officials in the capital under torture and squeezed out seventy million taels of silver! And Prime Minister Zifang also confiscated the properties of officials in the capital, unearthing seven hundred million taels of silver...']

[',How could there be such a coincidence? The Prime Minister must be the reincarnation of the rebel Li!']

[',...']

[Naturally, you heard these wild rumors circulating among the people, but you never took them seriously and simply laughed them off. As long as the Divine Emperor trusted you, that was quite enough!]

[However, speaking of the rebel Li, you indeed needed to perform a few actions identical to his...]

[Seeing the vibrant and thriving realm of the Great Ming, where all things were competing for growth, your grand and swelling heart told you that it was time to truly wield the knife against the major ailments plaguing the Ming Dynasty!]

[Back when you engaged in a Q&A before the emperor in the Baohe Hall, you mentioned the primary problems facing the Great Ming: first, corrupt officials; second, consecutive years of natural disasters; third, imperial kinsmen and hereditary nobles; fourth, powerful aristocratic clans; fifth, the gap between the rich and the poor; and sixth, the taxation system.]

[Now that you had swept away corrupt officials across the realm, as long as supervision was maintained moving forward, the first point could be considered resolved.]

[As for the second point, stemming from the natural climate changes of the Little Ice Age, there was nothing you could do except try your best with disaster relief and emergency management to sustain basic agricultural production.]

[Thus, only the remaining four points—imperial kinsmen and hereditary nobles, powerful aristocratic clans, the wealth gap, and the taxation system—were subject to your direct intervention.]

[So, now was the time to get to work...]

[In the 76th Year of Chongzhen, you issued an order in the name of the Prime Minister's Office to all prefectures and counties across the empire: 'Starting from this day forth, all land under heaven shall be surveyed and registered, and henceforth completely reclaimed as state property, forbidden from private transaction! Furthermore, large estates shall be broken up and distributed to the landless and land-poor peasants, ensuring that those who till the land shall have their own fields!']

[The moment this decree was issued, the realm instantly split into two factions: the impoverished peasants and the landlords!]

[Though the poor peasants could not understand what 'land belonging to the state' meant, the sight of finally receiving fields of their own naturally filled them with cheers and jubilation, warmly welcoming the Prime Minister's new policies!]

[',The Prime Minister's kindness can never be fully repaid!']

[Meanwhile, the landlords were nearly fainted with rage: a new policy was fine and well, but why carve up their lands?!]

[Therefore, even though they knew you, Zhou Zifang, were no pushover, they still fiercely voiced their opposition!]

[Faced with these objections, you had long been prepared and published one theoretical article after another...]

[',All things in nature arise spontaneously; how can there be any talk of ownership? All possession and belonging are mere delusions of humankind. People always wishfully desire to possess something, never realizing that they are actually not its masters, and that those things never had a master to begin with!']

[In the 76th Year of Chongzhen (Part 1 of 3)]

[In the 76th Year of Chongzhen (Part 2 of 3)]

[',Just like land, gold, and silver, whom they belong to has always been determined purely by the size of one's fist!']

[',If I am stronger than you, I can naturally beat you until you surrender your wealth. And if you are stronger than me, you can naturally seize what belongs to me. Armed force is the sole foundational power that determines the ownership of wealth!']

[The crowd was in an uproar, with some staring in dumbfounded shock: 'Prime Minister, do you mean that whatever I can grab becomes mine? If you put it that way, wouldn't everyone be fighting and robbing each other every day? Wouldn't that plunge the world into total chaos?!']

[People found it hard to accept your theory and logic!]

[Yet you remained well-prepared: 'The foundation is indeed as such, but precisely because unbridled force would plunge the world into chaos, we need to artificially establish a universally recognized attribution for the ownership of wealth. That attribution is the state—the Great Ming.']

[',All things under heaven must first belong to the Great Ming, and only then is their use apportioned. If the Great Ming says something belongs to someone, then it belongs to them; if the Great Ming says it does not belong to someone, then it does not!']

[People scratched their heads: 'Then what if someone steals or robs another person's property?']

[You said with a solemn expression: 'That is subverting the authority of the Great Ming and violating the Great Ming Code. The Great Ming will recover the stolen goods and administer punishment... Whoever dares to do so will first have to test themselves against the iron fist of the Great Ming, and I guarantee they will get a bellyful of bruised eggs!']

[Through your earnest preachings, everyone gradually came to understand: there was nothing overly complex about it; private property was simply not recognized, only public ownership. The master of everything under heaven was the Great Ming, and whatever anyone possessed was merely temporarily lent to them by the Great Ming...]

[Yet this overbearing logic still made many feel deeply uncomfortable: 'Then what if someone appears whom even the Great Ming cannot defeat, and claims the entire world is his private property?']

[You smiled: 'Then, of course, whatever he says goes... But we believe the Great Ming can defeat any enemy, not to mention His Majesty is still with us!']

[Hearing these half-explanatory, half-threatening words, those who had previously felt deeply aggrieved instantly felt a chill run down their spines: Ah, right, besides the Ming army, there was still His Majesty!]

[If anyone dared to oppose the new policy, they would likely first have to receive an intravenous infusion of Western purple egg panacea, followed by a bellyful of His Majesty's iron fists...]

[And so, most landlords had to swallow their bitterness along with their shattered teeth, accepting the land redistribution... But there were also profoundly confident individuals who stubbornly refused to yield to superstition and insisted on opposing the land split!]

[Soon, memorial after memorial from the two capitals and thirteen provinces flew like snowflakes into the Prime Minister's Office, and were even covertly delivered directly to the imperial palace!]

[Some were imperial princes and kinsmen, some were scions of nobility, others were heads of powerful clans, and some carried even heavier weight...]

[',The Prince of Qin, the Prince of Jin, the Prince of Dai, the Prince of Su, the Prince of Fu, the Prince of Zhao... Prince Ding, Prince Yong... Wait, why are the Crown Prince and the Grand Princess in here too?!']

[Looking at the roster of these imperial kinsmen and princes, your eyes nearly blurred; they were as numerous as immortals lined in a row!]

[These dragon-seed progeny of the Zhu imperial family had all sent letters, leveraging their status as imperial princes to meddle in the new policies: their message boiled down to a single sentence—no one was allowed to touch their land!]

[In particular, the letters from the Divine Emperor's own children, while not overly harsh in wording, carried an unquestionable tone: You are merely a subject; we are the masters.]

[These letters from imperial relatives made you hesitate for the very first time. No matter how you reformed, you ultimately remained under the authority of the Divine Emperor... Just as the common folk had previously questioned: If someone existed whom even you could not handle, what would you do?]

[At the time, you hadn't paid it much mind, thinking: behind you stood the Divine Emperor, and who in this world could the Divine Emperor fail to handle? Thinking back now, such figures did indeed exist, and it was none other than the Divine Emperor Himself...]

[Other distant imperial princes didn't matter; since they weren't close blood relatives of the Divine Emperor, they could be pruned away! But the Crown Prince, the Grand Princess, Prince Yong, and Prince Ding were different. Their biological father was the Divine Emperor. Once you went to war with them, the Divine Emperor was an unavoidable reality you had to face.]

[They always said that when the Son of Heaven broke the law, he was to be punished the same as a commoner, but that was pure empty talk—anyone who believed it was a complete fool! After all, even your power was granted by Him; how could you use what He gave you to move against Him? Did you really want to stop working!]

[In the 76th Year of Chongzhen (Part 2 of 3)]

[In the 76th Year of Chongzhen (Part 3 of 3)]

[Now, what should you do?]

[You felt rather troubled...]

[After turning it over in your mind, you decided to temporarily chop away only the fiefs of the distant princes, while leaving the Crown Prince, the Grand Princess, and other direct blood relatives of the Divine Emperor untouched for the time being!]

[As the actual supreme executive of the Great Ming, you had this confidence and this power!]

[......]

[In the 77th Year of Chongzhen, before the echoes of New Year firecrackers and the scent of gunpowder had fully dissipated, the vigorous work of land surveying and redistribution was already underway across the two capitals and thirteen provinces!]

[Wherever the Prime Minister's grand hands reached, officials specializing in land division flooded the area!]

[In a single stroke, you broke up sixty percent of all land in the Great Ming, and amidst the bleeding gazes of the landlords, distributed it to the tearful, landless peasants...]

[',The Prime Minister's kindness can never be fully repaid!']

[Across the two capitals and thirteen provinces, all those reduced to tenant farmers or refugees due to natural disasters and poverty cried out in such a manner... Just like Li Zicheng, who once distributed the land and property of landlords to the impoverished masses, you were stepping by step winning the recognition of the public, becoming a truly memorable figure in history...]

[Yet, you would not stop here.]

[In the 78th Year of Chongzhen, you mobilized commoners with land across the empire to dredge river channels and build water conservancy projects, with the imperial court providing corresponding provisions and grain.]

[In the 79th Year of Chongzhen, you introduced high-yielding crops such as sweet potatoes and maize from the Nanyang region, ordering harsh regions unsuitable for rice or wheat to extensively cultivate these high-yield crops as a safeguard against famine.]

[In the 80th Year of Chongzhen, a severe drought struck the north! While organizing disaster relief, you simultaneously relocated hundreds of thousands of refugees from the interior to Liaodong to reclaim wasteland, repopulating the fertile soils of Liaodong that had been virtually depopulated by the Divine Emperor's massacres.]

[That same year, you solemnly proclaimed: 'A prosperous era multiplies the population, yet taxes shall never be increased!']

[In the 81st Year of Chongzhen, you began ordering craftsmen to independently research steam engines, aiming to step into industrialization in the future...]

[Under the regulation of your visible hand, the stagnant realm of the Great Ming began to gradually revive. The entire populace engaged in fiery construction, and nearly everyone saw hope for the future amidst this chain of transformations!]

[Our Great Ming was growing increasingly prosperous!]

[And at this very moment, only the robed figure within the Forbidden City furrowed his brows ever deeper...]

[......]

[In the 76th Year of Chongzhen (Part 3 of 3)]