Mr. Zhu and his son arrived as scheduled after morning class.

Zhao Ce was not as casual as usual this time. He took Su Cai'er directly and had his daughter held in his arms, and went to greet them together.

Just as he was about to take Su Cai'er along for the grand ceremony, Emperor Hongzhi took the lead and said with a smile: "No need to be too polite, just keep everything simple."

When Zhao Ce saw this, he pulled Su Cai'er to stand up.

Zhu Houzhao, who was standing next to him, greeted him a little sheepishly: "Uncle Yongxi, Mrs. Yongxibo."

Zhao Ce smiled, and the situation seemed to be a bit embarrassing for a moment.

Fortunately, Su Cai'er next to her said enthusiastically: "Master Zhu hasn't been here for a long time."

"Last time Mr. Zhu sent my husband home, he didn't even have time to come in for a cup of tea."

"Please come in quickly."

Zhao Ce also echoed this opening: "Go inside first."

Emperor Hongzhi nodded and led the people inside.

Su Cai'er came over and asked Zhao Ce in a low voice: "Husband, is there anything strange?"

The little girl's senses have always been sharp, and she immediately caught this possible embarrassment.

But now is not the time to talk about this.

Zhao Ce held her hand and walked inside, saying softly: "It's okay, I'll tell you in the evening."

"Prepare some delicious food to entertain them."

Su Cai'er didn't ask any more questions and led the people halfway into the kitchen.

After entering the room, the father and son had already sat down familiarly.

Seeing Zhao Ce following closely behind him, Zhu Houzhao, who couldn't hold back his words, couldn't help but said: "Uncle Yong Xi, I didn't mean to hide your identity before."

Although the identity of the prince was exposed, Zhu Houzhao still called himself "I" when facing Zhao Ce.

Doesn't seem to be affected too much by the identity change.

Zhao Ce smiled and said, "Your Highness naturally has your reasons for concealing his identity."

"I was just a little surprised when I learned about His Highness's identity."

After saying that, Emperor Hongzhi glanced at Zhao Ce.

Looking at his calm look, I almost believed him.

When Zhu Houzhao heard this, he felt even more guilty.

He scratched his head: "This, this is my fault..."

Emperor Hongzhi coughed slightly, interrupting the conversation between the two.

"Since Yong Xibo has said this, my son should not be entangled anymore."

Zhu Houzhao said "Oh" and then stopped the topic.

Under his father's instruction, he turned to say: "The content of Yong Xibo's lecture yesterday was very exciting, but there are a few questions that I haven't had time to talk about yet."

"So I came here today to ask for advice."

Zhu Houzhao took the sermon handed to him by the person behind him, opened it and pointed to the question.

"In this case, why has nearly half of the land been lost in just ten years?"

"I can count, but I can't quite understand the words."

Zhao Ce looked at this example and thought that this was exactly what the two father and son came for.

When I give sermons, in order to make Zhu Houzhao listen, I basically use real-life examples.

Although this example of land loss has been modified, the data are also realistic.

Zhao Ce looked at Zhu Houzhao's humbly asking for advice and asked: "Your Highness, do you have any ideas about the rapid loss of land?"

Zhu Houzhao glanced at his father who was sitting at the top and drinking tea, and told him some of the reasons that Emperor Hongzhi analyzed for him yesterday.

"After natural disasters, man-made disasters and wars, a lot of land will be lost."

"After the disaster, part of the newly reclaimed land will be replenished."

"So although this data is decreasing year by year, I think the rate of land loss in this example is abnormally fast."

Zhao Ce nodded: "In general, except for the part that was lost previously, the territory of our Ming Dynasty has not changed."

"In addition, the number of people has not changed much since the establishment of our dynasty."

"Therefore, the land cultivated should not be too different."

"yes!"

Zhu Houzhao echoed: "But do you know?"

"At the beginning of the founding of our dynasty, Taizu cleared the land, and what was recorded at that time was 8.4 million hectares."

"However, the land surveyed by His Majesty in the past two years found only 4.6 million hectares left."

"This corresponds to the data mentioned in your example."

"If natural disasters and man-made disasters did not cause the country to lose so much land, then how did nearly half of the land disappear from the records of the Ming Dynasty?"

Zhao Ce smiled and asked: "Master Zhu, do you still remember the redistribution of resources?"

"Of course I remember this!" Zhu Houzhao's eyes lit up and he read out without pausing: "It is to redistribute the world's property!"

"Redistribution..."

Zhu Houzhao suddenly frowned as he read these three words.

The Emperor Hongzhi on the side also moved his fingers lightly on the armrest.

But he didn't bother his son.

He just watched quietly.

Looking at his son, discussing with this young man who is very likely to become the future successor of the empire.

Zhu Houzhao is really smart.

After he read these three words, an idea suddenly came to his mind.

"So what you're saying is that most of these disappearing lands may have been privately redistributed?"

"After they privately occupied the land, they took advantage of the disaster to hide this large area of ​​land."

"If things continue like this, will this land disappear so quickly?"

Zhao Ce was also shocked by his conclusion.

I just mentioned it a little bit, but I didn't expect that His Highness the Prince would be able to hit the nail on the head.

Sure enough, he is a person who has received authentic imperial education since childhood?

Zhao Ce said with appreciation: "Master Zhu is right."

"After every disaster or war, there will be countless land redistributions."

"We all know that this phenomenon has a unified term, and that is - land annexation."

"Land annexation has been impossible to stop in all dynasties."

"What's more, when a disaster occurs and ordinary people don't have enough to eat, land annexation will become more and more serious."

"There is another reason."

"That is, the Ming Dynasty has developed peacefully for so many years, and its population has continued to grow."

"When the people who worked hard to cultivate the land could not afford the taxes and corvee labor, they would voluntarily give up their land and be willing to sell it to the gentry and become tenant farmers."

"In this way, we can at least avoid paying grain taxes."

"And those people who have lost their land will find that one day they will not be able to feed themselves even if they become tenant farmers."

"Then what do you think, Your Highness?"

Zhu Houzhao's mind has been running according to Zhao Ce's ideas.

After hearing this question, I answered it without thinking.

"In this case, some people will start to rebel!"

"They lost their land and their home, so they rebelled and relied on their own abilities to redistribute resources!"
Chapter completed!