"What's this? It's really a headache." Li Jun patted his forehead and said self-deprecatingly: "Previously, the Mongolian army was at the city and the court was in danger, and it didn't make people so troubled. At that time, I just wanted to fight and win. Now it's better. After winning, the situation has improved, but this economic problem has come again. Really, what kind of dynasty is this? When I wanted the army, there was no army, there was no money, and there was no good economic system to support it." He paused and sighed: "I really can't understand how the emperor of the Song Dynasty survived?"

It's no wonder, who said that the Song Dynasty was the weakest dynasty in Chinese history? Moreover, Li Jun came to the last period of this weakest dynasty. The accumulated problems of more than two hundred years were extremely serious. If you really want to explain it clearly, three days and three nights may not be enough.

It’s not a big blame for Li Jun’s complaints. He really encountered a difficult problem again, because the treasury is now short of silver, and the large amount of military expenditure is originally a considerable amount. With the reconstruction plan, after calculating the expenses, the income will be quite long, but what should I do if this period of time passes? Li Jun is a far-sighted person and has to plan for the pre-planning.

A good way to achieve immediate results is to increase taxes. As long as Li Jun is willing, as long as he continues to do so, the tax rate will be adjusted and the current silver will be put into the warehouse immediately. However, Li Jun also knew that the current economic system of the Southern Song Dynasty could not support a long-term war. Increased taxes is tantamount to fishing in the pond and killing chickens to get eggs. Li Jun would never do such a thing.

Just when Li Jun was screaming for a headache, Wen Tianxiang, Li Tingzhi, Chen Yizhong and Liao Shenggong walked in and saluted Li Jun and said, "See the Emperor."

Li Jun has always been polite to these four people and said enthusiastically: "I'm fine, I'm fine, don't be detained in these common rituals. You all sit down."

Li Tingzhi and the others were not polite, and sat down around the table. Li Tingzhi asked on behalf of the four of them: "The emperor summoned me and others, don't you know what's important?"

"Is there something important? I just want to discuss it with you." Li Jun smiled and said, "This is really a headache. Before you come, I kept calling me a headache."

Chen Yizhong said: "I will work for the court and share my worries for the emperor. I am the minister and the others. I will ask the emperor to show me the responsibility."

"Yizhong, you said this well, I love to listen to you." Li Jun said jokingly: "I have been thinking about this for a long time, that is, how to deal with the economic problems of the Song Dynasty. After thinking about it, there is only one way, that is, to carry out drastic reforms to the existing economic system. If there is no reform, the existing economic system will not be able to support the war we are about to go on. War is a bloody wound. If there is no perfect economic system to support it, not to mention anything else, the military expenditure alone will drag down the court. Only by reforming and improving our economic strength can we continue this war and achieve the goals we want to achieve."

Although Li Jun did not explicitly say what the goal was to achieve, Li Tingzhi and the others would not know that it would be the northern expedition to the Central Plains and restore the land of Yanyun, and it would be more likely to march into the northeast, northwest, western regions and Tibet, which originally belonged to China.

If this is true, the military expenditure will be really huge if this war continues, and it can be said to be an astronomical number, which is unimaginable. As Li Jun said, the current economic system of the Southern Song Dynasty could not support the upcoming war at all, and reforming the existing economic system is an inevitable trend.

"Reform is the best, and the reform is good. With the money, I don't have to worry about the money every day. I think the money is crazy and I'm almost lost in money." Li Tingzhi, a pragmatic politician, naturally raised his hands to agree, thinking in his heart, saying, "What the emperor said is a far-sighted measure. I also think that the current economy of our dynasty cannot support the war. The court must find a source of endless wealth and need a large amount of money."

Wen Tianxiang deeply agreed and said, "What the emperor said is also true. I have been responsible for inspecting all officials these days and rectifying the rules and regulations. Although I have investigated and dealt with many corrupt officials and recovered a lot of money for the court, it is not a long-term solution. The fundamental solution is to give the court a stable fiscal and tax revenue. I think the land can be distributed to the people and measure the land across the country to allow the farmer to have the land, so that the landlords can prevent the landlord from passing on the burden."

Since supervising all officials, Wen Tianxiang's team has worked hard, and has actually investigated and dealt with many corrupt officials, recovered a lot of money for the court. Li Jun once laughed at his work results and said, "Lu Shan is digging gold mines." Although Li Jun was laughing at it, it also shows Wen Tianxiang's work achievements during this period, and also shows how serious the corruption of the Southern Song government was.

The Song Dynasty was a well-known dynasty with the lowest administrative efficiency in Chinese history. There were countless redundant officials and people were overdoing their affairs. There were often many officials but no one came to manage the affairs. The people didn’t know who to solve the problem. In today’s terms, it was: going to work, getting money, and not doing things.

It can be imagined that there will be many corrupt officials and borers in such a government, which is really unimaginable. If Li Jun had not adopted the strategy of "catching big fish and putting small shrimps", Wen Tianxiang's investigation will not be in all places, and many local governments will have been stuck.

The degree of corruption is shocking. What is recovered is not only the money embezzled in recent years, but also the old accounts. The most common place has been tracked down until twenty years ago. With these money, Li Jun, who is in urgent need of silver, solved the urgent need for Li Jun. Otherwise, even if he sold all ten ships of diamonds and sold all the technology, he would not be able to raise the money he needs now.

Chen Yizhong thought for a while and expressed his opinion: "The emperor, what Lu Shan said is very reasonable. When I resettled refugees in Guangzhou, I took a similar approach to distribute the land to the people. The court directly collected taxes from the people. Without having to collect cash from those landlords, they could not pass on the burden."

In ancient times, measures were taken to prevent land annexation and the transfer of burdens, but the result was no effect. Because the landlord and old wealthy mastered the land, they could transfer the burden to the tenant farmers at will, so that those who farmed had no food to eat, but those who had food to eat did not farm.

How eager the people to own a piece of land? If Li Jun takes this measure, it can be imagined that it will definitely be a great thing that will be very popular with the people.

"What Lu Shan said makes sense, but I think we should not practice the best way for ploughing people to have their own fields." Li Jun smiled and rejected Wen Tianxiang's suggestion, and then explained the reasons: "It is a good thing for ploughing people to have their own fields, but it also has its own disadvantages. It is right in some cases, but it is a bad thing in some cases, which will restrict our agricultural development."

Those who practice farming have their own land, so that the people can have their own land to cultivate. It takes less time to get rich in the Southern Song Dynasty. This is the consensus of Wen Tianxiang and others. Unexpectedly, the wise Li Jun actually rejected it. It was very strange. Wen Tianxiang blurted out: "Your Majesty, why is this?"

Li Jun explained: "I understand your mood and the mood of the people. However, this is a huge project, not a year or two, nor three years, but it will take a long time to complete. Not to mention this, land annexation may not be a bad thing, it depends on how to deal with and utilize it. Now, if we really implement the land that tillers have their own land, one day in the future, we will overturn the current measures and at least allow the land annexation."

Li Jun's words were a bit confusing. Li Tingzhi hesitated and asked: "Prince, in which situation is favorable and under which situation is not favorable?"

Li Tingzhi and the others had this reaction, and as expected, Li Jun understood it very much and then explained: "Xiangfu asked well. In a pure agricultural society, it is right for those who ploughed have their own fields. Not only should ploughed have their own fields, but also to protect the land of the people and explicitly prohibit annexation.

"If you are not in a simple agricultural society, then you will not only not have to practice land that tillagers have their own land, but also take measures to promote land annexation. Because land that tillagers have their own land will fall into the vicious circle of small peasant economy and limit agricultural production. We can imagine that if you want to build a canal, if there is no investment from the court, you have to rely on the people to raise funds to repair it, it will definitely not be repaired. If a large piece of land is in the hands of a person, he will have money to build the canal, and the farmland can be well irrigated."

As Li Jun said, a very serious consequence of the farmer having his own fields is that the small peasant economy is not conducive to the development of agriculture. It is better to promote land mergers and give birth to a number of large farms and farms, which can better promote the development of agriculture.

As we all know, China's agricultural problems are very serious now. Due to our weak foundation, high costs and low yields, we are far from competing with advanced agriculture abroad. This is the reason why China has not made concessions to foreign countries in the past few years on agricultural issues. If we make concessions to foreign countries at this stage, the blow to our agriculture will be quite heavy.

The large farms in the United States have high technological content, low costs, and very competitive food. How can we compete? At this stage, China's agriculture not only cannot make concessions to foreign countries, but also must continue to hold its position until its competitiveness improves.

When it comes to land issues, the words are gone. All dynasties have tried to prevent land annexation, but the result is a large number of annexation. This has formed a vicious circle to prevent annexation and divide some land to the people. Soon, the people have no land again and return to the hands of the rich man.

This has caused new problems. People without land had to rent to the landlord. Whether the landlord rents it to you depends on whether the rent you paid can satisfy him. In ancient times, without much technological content, agriculture was famous for "relying on the heavens to make a living". Whether it can achieve a good harvest depends on whether God likes to help and give you a good weather.

When a good year is over, the landlord may rent more, which makes the people unhelpful. When a bad year is over, don’t mention it. If the grains are not over, the landlords will not collect less grains of food. The people are busy all year round, not only will they not have a harvest, but they will also owe a lot of debts.

This unjust debt is unpaid. Once you owe it, you will be unlucky and will perform countless tragedies. It may be possible to sell children, daughters, wifes, and fathers, and mothers. The only purpose is to pay off the debt.

There is a very famous saying, "Divine division will lead to unity, and long-div division will lead to division", which summarizes the strange phenomena in Chinese history well. It is to unify for hundreds of years, then split, war will occur, unify, split again, and war will continue, and then cycle through this. The reason is that the land issue is making a monster, and the people can't afford to eat, and if they don't take the risk to rebel, what else can he do?

Since Qin Shihuang unified China for more than two thousand years, China has been the center of the world, both in science and technology, economy, and civilization development. A very important measure to cause this result is to "focus on agriculture and suppress the end of the world", which is China's traditional policy, which has been continuing for more than two thousand years.

The contribution of this policy to the development of China's history is immeasurable. It is conceivable that if all dynasties did not pay attention to agricultural production, what would be like in an agricultural power like China. For a long time, China has been an agricultural power. If the rulers do not pay attention to agriculture, it is certain that China will not have a brilliant civilization.

Shang Yang's reforms implemented the "self-cultivation and war", which means that if you want to make contributions, you either plant crops well, fight well in battles, and make military achievements. It was under the promotion of Shang Yang's policy that the people of Qin were excellent soldiers when they set up horses, and they would be excellent farmers when they picked up a hoe. Therefore, Qin would win the battle, and would be rich when they were in a truce, and they would eventually unify China.

I have always believed that perhaps it was the success of Qin that led to the policy of "focusing on agriculture and suppressing the end of the world" that has continued and become a traditional policy.

However, the consequences of this policy are extremely serious, that is, the lack of attention to business and the status of merchants is very low. Among the four industries of scholars, farmers, industry and commerce, business is the last one, and is looked down upon by people, thinking that merchants are full of money. Indeed, merchants are "no business, no business, no business," they cannot afford to get up early, and they are determined to be money-oriented, but business is an indispensable and important industry for a country.

The famous economist Adam Smith had a wonderful conclusion about this kind of thing that was originally for profit but brought positive consequences, which was the "invisible hand principle". It was the magical effect of this invisible hand that caused the business that was originally for profit-seeking but brought positive consequences. All Chinese dynasties knew that merchants were rich, but did not pay enough attention to and guide them. Instead, they adopted a policy of suppression, which triggered a series of serious consequences. For example, the Ming Dynasty killed the germination of capitalism, and Emperor Qianlong closed the last door to China's opening, causing the Shangfu, which had already flourished in Guangzhou, to die.

The direct consequence of the success of the British Industrial Revolution was the prosperity of business. You can imagine where the products produced by the British industrialization would be sold without developed commerce? In today's terms, it was precisely because of the developed commerce that found a market for the British Industrial Revolution products.

The reason why the Opium War, which made the Chinese people suffer, was that British rulers wanted to occupy China, regard China as their largest market, and sell their products. At that time, the British Parliament had great pressure to oppose whether to start a war against China. The Prime Minister at that time wanted to occupy the Chinese market and gained the support of Queen Victoria. The final vote was passed in Parliament, which brought disaster to China and the history that the Chinese people could never forget began.

I gave this example just to illustrate the importance of business to a country. Like my friends, I was very indignant about the failure of the Opium War. If I had the chance, I might as well make another fuse and fight to the British Isles.

If the land can be merged, it is necessary to find a way for the people to have a source of livelihood. This involves one problem, that is, employment. In ancient times, because farmers had no land to plant, they had to go to the landlord's house to do short-term work and receive pitifully small wages. If there was a new way out, farmers without land would not go to the landlord's house to do short-term work, and earn that little wage that was not enough to support their family.

Li Jun continued to explain: "You also know that we have now insufficient manpower. The army needs equipment and manpower. If the army wants to expand, it also needs manpower. If the people are bound to the land, where will the equipment we need come from? Who will make it and where will our soldiers be found?"

Liao Shenggong immediately said: "What the emperor said is very reasonable, and I feel the same way. I also think that our army urgently needs to eliminate a group of soldiers who are not suitable for the new war, but our manpower is tight, and this matter has been delayed and cannot be carried out."

"This matter must be resolved." Li Jun said firmly: "The existing land is not necessary to be moved. It is in the hands of anyone. The people now have a way out and don't have to go to the landlord's house to earn that little wage."

As Li Jun said, since the court began to expand its military equipment, the manpower has become tight and supply and demand has reversed. In today's words, wages have increased a lot, and the people can make money and have no worries about not being able to find anything to do. Li Tingzhi praised: "This is all the wise emperor and has found a way out for the people."

"Xiangfu should not flatter you." Li Jun said humbly as if he joked: "For the existing land, the court can sign a contract with the owner, recognize their ownership and allow them to transfer freely. At the same time, if the common people want to farm, they can let them reclaim the wasteland, and the court must also sign a contract with them, admit that it is owned by them and provide them with protection. In this way, we can achieve the purpose of developing agriculture without restricting the development of agriculture."
Chapter completed!