Jiajing emerged from seclusion, of course, because all sorts of matters had more or less been settled.
After the armored soldiers' assassination attempt failed, the land-clearing and census operation had succeeded. No one could stop it or resist it.
And with Hu Zongxian having been impeached and escorted to Jingcheng, Jiajing could no longer remain in seclusion. He had to come out and discuss state affairs with the ministers of the Grand Secretariat...
Over the past three months, Wang Yan had mobilized vast amounts of manpower and resources to thoroughly clear land and conduct a census throughout Great Prosperity's jurisdiction. From eighty-year-old elders to newborn infants, from tenants and servants of wealthy households to legally registered Daoist priests, Buddhist monks, and even unsold slaves at brokerages—all were registered in the records.
The household registers at the Great Prosperity yamen could identify every person within its jurisdiction. The land records could identify every acre of land within it.
Wang Yan directly issued a proclamation and had the land-clearing and census teams spread the word: the buying and selling of land was prohibited within Great Prosperity. Private transactions were illegal and would be dealt with by the authorities. At the same time, he announced that Great Prosperity's miscellaneous local taxes would gradually be reduced until they were eliminated. Even land rents would be reduced in the future.
After all, in Great Ming, the land tax was nominally one-thirtieth. One-tenth was considered a genuinely heavy tax. Yet though it appeared to be one-thirtieth, there was no shortage of all manner of miscellaneous levies. This was how things generally were in ancient times.
Wang Yan had already abolished a considerable portion of Great Prosperity's miscellaneous local taxes, collecting only the land tax. Back and forth, the people's actual burdens had been reduced, allowing them