After casually giving an order regarding winter preparations, the Empress expected her court to disperse and return to her palace.
Unexpectedly, Chu Chen bowed again, saying, "Your Majesty, I have one more matter."
"What is it? Could it be about the harvest again?"
The Empress was clearly in a good mood and felt like joking with Chu Chen.
However, Chu Chen shook his head with a serious face and said, "Your Majesty, it is not good news, but rather news that is neither entirely good nor entirely bad."
The Empress and her ministers were stunned. In this era, wasn't it customary to report good news and conceal bad news?
"Speak!"
"I obey your decree."
Chu Chen cupped his hands in a bow, then turned to look at the Minister of Revenue, Qian Jieren, with a smile and asked, "Lord Qian, this matter concerns you. Would you prefer to speak, or shall I proceed?"
"It concerns me?"
Qian Jieren's heart skipped a beat. Had some trouble occurred in his ministry that he, the Minister of Revenue, was unaware of? It shouldn't be.
Puzzled, he stepped out from the ranks and asked, bowing, "Prime Minister Chu, I am a little confused. When did this matter become related to my Ministry of Revenue?"
"Population."
"Population?"
Qian Jieren was initially bewildered, but his expression quickly changed to one of extreme shock.
"You, you..."
Qian Jieren pointed at Chu Chen with a trembling finger, his heart filled with despair.
This matter should only be known to the Ministry of Revenue, and perhaps not even many officials within it. How could this Chu Chen possibly know?
Even among the court officials, the vast majority, unless they held high positions for many years, would not have heard a whisper of it.
It was over. Such a major issue was about to be exposed! His position as Minister of Revenue was likely at an end!
"My two esteemed ministers, what riddle are you playing? What about the population?"
The Empress frowned slightly, asking with a mixture of displeasure and curiosity.
"Your Majesty, Lord Qian's Ministry of Revenue has indeed had significant problems in the past with population statistics!"
Chu Chen glanced at Qian Jieren with a half-smile and then asked the Empress, "Your Majesty, how many people do you believe our Yun Yue Kingdom should have?"
The Empress paused, thinking for a moment, and replied, "Based on the population tax collected in previous years, it should be over twenty-five million one hundred thousand. What is the problem? A deviation of ten thousand or so is within reason."
A deviation of ten thousand was indeed normal for a country. Not to mention noble families and gentry concealing their population, but even if you counted today, someone might die tomorrow.
Chu Chen smiled and said, "Your Majesty, but what if I told you the deviation is not ten thousand, but over ten million?"
"What!"
The Empress was shocked again, but this time it was not by good news, but by such a shocking scandal.
All the civil and military officials were dumbfounded.
The Ministry of Revenue had a ten-million-person discrepancy in its population count? This was impossible! How could it be so outrageous?
"Your Majesty and esteemed colleagues, you have not misheard, nor have I spoken incorrectly. The Yun Yue Kingdom's population has a deviation of ten million!"
Chu Chen reiterated, then continued, "What Your Majesty and everyone else is accustomed to is over twenty-five million people. However, according to the population registered for land distribution by the Royal Chamber of Commerce, the situation is entirely different."
"What is going on? Exactly how many people does the Yun Yue Kingdom have?"
The Empress recalled the tricks of noble families concealing their population and her heart filled with anger.
Among the court officials, many turned pale. Their families had not been stingy with concealing population, but fortunately, they themselves had not engaged in such activities, which could be considered good news amidst the bad.
Chu Chen did not intend to let this issue remain hidden and directly lifted the lid. "Your Majesty, the Royal Chamber of Commerce owns three hundred thousand mu of land in each county, with farms established in each county. Each farm consists of five thousand mu, totaling sixty farms per county, with 250 households per farm, which equates to 1,250 people. The country has thirteen prefectures, each with six commanderies, and each commandery with six counties, for a total of four hundred and sixty-eight counties."
"So the question is, calculating this way, how many tenant households are included in the farms of the Royal Chamber of Commerce alone?"
The Empress and the officials frowned and quickly calculated in their minds.
A moment later, everyone was horrified.
35,100,000! Thirty-five million one hundred thousand! The tenant farmers of the Royal Chamber of Commerce alone numbered this many, while the government's statistics showed only twenty-five million. How large was the gap? A gap of a full ten million people!
However, what was even more terrifying was that the Royal Chamber of Commerce's farms did not incorporate everyone. There were still independent farmers, tenants renting from landlords, servants of noble families, powerful clans, gentry, and influential families, and other such populations.
As expected, Chu Chen dropped another bombshell, "According to land surveys, the estimated arable land in our country should be three hundred million mu, with 641,026 mu of arable land per county! Among these, noble families, powerful clans, and gentry occupy seventy percent of a county's arable land, which is 448,718 mu!"
"And of this arable land, noble families occupy half, leaving twenty thousand mu. Powerful clans occupy half of the remainder, leaving ten thousand mu. Gentry average two thousand mu per person, with about fifty gentry per county, roughly one gentry in every two villages or every village."
"The Royal Chamber of Commerce, through various means, has acquired three hundred thousand mu per county in one year, occupying less than half of the county's arable land. Noble families, powerful clans, and gentry still hold at least one hundred thousand mu of land per county. Including land belonging to independent farmers and the court, all this land requires people to cultivate it."
"Simply calculating based on three hundred million mu of arable land, with four mu allocated per person, the population engaged in agriculture in the entire Yun Yue Kingdom should be seventy-five million people, yet the court's registered population is only twenty-five million!"
"..."
The Empress fell silent, and the civil and military officials also fell silent.
Even if these figures were rough estimates, in reality, three hundred million mu of land could not all be allocated for cultivation. Or rather, not all arable land was suitable for growing grain; there were also economic crops, orchards, and the like that did not require as much labor, which would not result in seventy-five million people.
However! Even with some deviation, it should not be as outrageously different as the population statistics from the Ministry of Revenue, a government department.
This meant that the Ministry of Revenue had underestimated the population by at least half! Twenty-five million people!
Fifty-five million people was the estimated actual population count by the Empress and the officials, and they remained silent.
Even though they knew that noble families, powerful clans, and gentry would all conceal their population, a little here and a little there, no one could have imagined it would reach such a terrifying extent.
No wonder they could previously collect sixteen million taels of tax silver. It turned out there was only a difference of five million people from the Chen Kingdom.
They wondered how severe the situation of concealed population was in the Chen Kingdom, which had a population of fifty-five million. It should not be more severe than the Yun Yue Kingdom, right?
The Empress's thoughts suddenly drifted.