Zhuge Gui has been in charge of Taishan County for many years and has a deep understanding of the local conditions, especially the farm conditions.
Afterwards, he sent people to Taishan County to investigate and updated the situation in the past two years.
Today's Taishan County divided the land relatively early, and a considerable number of people in the area had already been allocated land when Zhang Chong established Taishan County.
After that, Zhang Chong led the Taishan Army to march forward and officially began to attack central and southern Shandong. With several victories over the Han army, the Taishan Army successively captured the Laiwu Valley and the Liangfu Valley in the fifth and sixth years of Guanghe.
And the fields in the Shandong Plain were divided.
And allocate it to various places in Guizhou based on the level of 100 acres per household.
At that time, the land equalization policy greatly stimulated the enthusiasm of the people in Guizhou for production. They worked hard from dawn to dusk, hoping to obtain good harvests on their own fields.
Therefore, after two years of hard work, the lives of the residents in central and southern Shandong and Guizhou have been greatly improved.
First of all, the vast majority of those who were previously extremely poor have lived the life of homesteaders in the past, and their living standards are comparable to those of Zhang Chong's family back then, and even better.
After all, when the land was divided, a large number of families split up and lived alone in order to allocate more land. Unlike Zhang Chong's family, there were six people in each family and their lives were tight.
Nowadays, these farmers who are divided into fields drink millet porridge in the morning, rice is served on the field stems at noon, and they can have another meal of millet porridge in the evening. What a good day it is to have three meals a day?
These poor people dare not even think about it.
Even farming is easier than before. In the past, wooden rakes were used, and no one could plow much with all their strength. But now? There are iron rakes in the commune, and they are equipped with large animals, so the land can be plowed very quickly.
Of course, there are problems here, because these things are loaned to them by the cooperative, and they have to collect food from the harvest later.
However, people are strong and weak, virtuous and foolish, and there are still some landowners who sell and lease their land to others because they lack enough labor, due to illness, or simply because they are too lazy to work.
And there was another change that was beyond Zhang Chong's original expectation. At least, he didn't expect it to happen so quickly.
That is to say, these farmers who became rich began to hire farm customers and kept servants. Their business style was no different from that of the past.
Why does this happen?
It turns out that with the chaos in the world, magistrates and county magistrates in various places, either to fight for hegemony or to protect themselves, began to use their resources to organize troops.
This trend cannot be stopped by a few moral local officials, because this is the process of bad money driving out good money.
Yes, you have high moral standards, you love your people like your own children, and you cannot bear to impose taxes on them.
But that's not the case with the county magistrate next door to you. He is cruel and ruthless, turning the enemy into a soldier. He doesn't even think about living a good life, so he sends troops to occupy you.
Then the good rulers died or died, and all that remained were the tyrannical ones.
Nowadays, Yanzhou, Yuzhou, Jingzhou, Qingzhou and other places have almost the same situation. Each is called a captain, and there are even more people who are called captains.
At this time, Central and South Shandong, which still maintained a stable order, naturally became a paradise for the leaders of Guizhou in surrounding areas. Therefore, in the past three years, a large number of people began to migrate to this area. How many people are there specifically? Although no one has statistics, but from various sources
As families began to hire field customers, their numbers became indispensable.
Because most of the land in central and southern Shandong has been divided, the foreigners who fled to central and southern Shandong almost only had one way out: working as tenants.
In this way, in just three or four years, the farmers in central and southern Shandong were transformed into a land with houses, fields and servants.
This speed was beyond the expectations of everyone who formulated this strategy.
Originally, when Zhang Chong was planning land management, he also considered that the actual conditions of each family were different, so he encouraged the community to implement mutual assistance to help needy households in the community get out of poverty.
But as life conditions improved, this idea changed.
Zhuge Gui learned from his old officials that this kind of mutual assistance was almost in name only in the lower communities.
This old official gave Zhuge Gui two reasons. One was that there was poor cohesion among the local communities, and the other was that everyone's minds had changed.
Originally, local communities were based on clans. Although households were constantly separated, clans still lived together.
But before, when the Taishan Army was dividing the land, in order to break the foundation of the local tycoons, they broke up the households and set them up into cooperatives.
Although this kind of resettlement has eliminated the foundation of the local tyrants, it has also eliminated the ability of rural communities to provide relief. Those who are lonely, poor and weak have no one to help them, so they can only fight against poverty.
And this change in the grassroots structure has naturally changed everyone's mentality.
Some people who were talented, hard-working and had some connections quickly developed from this starting point of equal land.
They are preoccupied with occupying more land and hiring more tenants. They only regard this period of equal development opportunities as the best period for their family to make a leap. They have no time and thought to help those who are lagging behind.
In their eyes, those people are just lazy and unruly, and they will take advantage of them no matter what.
It is true that many people here were just drifters in the countryside and did not engage in production. After the land was allocated, they were not willing to work on it, so they just borrowed it here and there to make ends meet.
Moreover, these people had some connections. They knew that some communities in the eastern foothills of Mount Tai had begun to divide their fields again because some households had returned to poverty.
These people estimate that this policy will soon be rolled out in the central and southern Shandong areas. After all, it is said that the person who implemented this policy is the second leader of the Taishan Army. Isn’t that still stable?
Therefore, these people were so confident that they borrowed food from others without ever thinking about paying it back. After all, didn't their debts disappear just because the Taishan Army came?
Zhuge Gui learned all the above from many Taishan County officials, and they were all reliable and down-to-earth officials.
It was the comprehensive understanding that made Zhuge Gui undecided.
Because he understands that if we decide based on the morality of good and evil in the Spring and Autumn Period, there are good people on both sides and bad people on both sides.
For example, those farmers who have worked hard to live a good life will have to take away their land and give it back to them?
For another example, if those who are in Taishan County are the first of Guizhou, then those who are fleeing from surrounding counties are not the first of Guizhou? Just because they arrived late, they have to live with others as tenants?
For another example, those who are weak, orphaned, sick and disabled, don’t they want to farm well, but the reality is that they have to sell their land and return to poverty?
Therefore, Zhuge Gui, a traditional Han scholar, could not solve this problem. He also knew that this matter related to the land, so he was too sensitive and did not dare to express his position.
But in his heart, based on the instinct of a follow-up official, he did not want to continue to divide the land. Because that would be too much trouble, and every time it was made, it would be of no benefit to both the top and the bottom.
The upper side means that you have the opportunity to exploit the people, and the lower side means that you may become someone else's prey.
Therefore, at this time in the front hall, Zhuge Gui was twisting this thin piece of writing and could not concentrate for a long time.
But fortunately, Zhuge Gui didn't need to continue to struggle, someone spoke up.
But it was our Zhang Chong's father-in-law, the conscience of the Han Dynasty, Cai Yong who spoke.
As soon as the old man slapped the table, he started spraying:
"I originally thought that Yun Chang was a perfect man, even inferior to the famous generals in ancient times, but I didn't expect that he would prey on the people the first time he took office. It's shameful."
After saying that, he stood up from the mat and said to Zhang Chong:
"Your Majesty, these generals are the pillars of our Taishan Army, and we need to enforce the law more strictly. Please, Your Majesty, seize their ribbons, escort them back to Yecheng in a carriage, and deliver them to the Secretary."
After hearing Cai Yong's words, Zhang Chong's face darkened at that moment.
Good guy, Cai Yong wanted to deal with the second most powerful person in the military as soon as he came up. If the people present didn't know that the old man was such a person, they might have felt that there was some special meaning in it.
And if this really has to be done according to Cai Yong, the generals outside may wonder if you, the disciples of the Political Hall, are already going to deal with them.
So Zhang Chong hurriedly stopped Cai Yong's performance and said:
"Mr. Cai, please sit down first and speak slowly, don't be in a hurry."
Zhang Chong opened his mouth, and Cai Yong sat down, but even as he sat down, he still said:
"Guan Yunchang must be dealt with strictly. The people have finally lived a good life for several years. They hate such violent officials. Our Taishan Army understands the people best and should be the biggest backer of the Guizhou leaders. If Guan Yu is not dealt with strictly, we will lose our hearts."
ah."
What Cai Yong said finally provoked a rebuttal from one person.
The one who spoke was the chief disciple, Duman.
Duman and Cai Yong have been friends for many years, but they still couldn't help but sarcastically say:
"Mr. Cai, some people are called Qianshou, but we don't really think of them as Qianshou. Which Qianshou family has disciples like Tian Ke?"
Cai Yong wanted to talk more, but Duman blocked him with words:
"Alright Mr. Cai, your suggestion is very good, but let's wait for everyone to discuss it together before mentioning whether to handle it strictly or not. After all, I don't want to unjustly accuse Mr. Yunchang."
Cai Yong's face turned red, but he also knew that his political knowledge was not as good as Duman's. Seeing Duman say this, his firm belief just now was a little loosened.
Seeing that the topic returned to normal, Zhang Chong clicked on Zhuge Gui:
"Zhuge Qing, you have served in the Yitai area before, and you have always understood the situation there. First, please tell me what you think about this impeachment letter."
Here, Zhang Chong did not ask Duman to express his position first just because he had spoken. This was a smarter approach.
Because Duman is the chief of the Menxia Province and almost the head of all the ministers, his statement has a huge impact and it is not suitable to speak at the beginning.
Over there, Zhuge Gui felt bitter when his name was called, but he still expressed his opinion calmly.
This is Zhuge Gui. I have thought about it in every aspect, but I still haven’t changed my original intention.
So he bowed his head and said:
"Your Majesty, because it is related to the conflict between the Marshal of the Zuo Army and the Central and Southern Shandong Province. These two parties are the key pillars of our army in the Central Plains. Our army's subsequent southward attack on the Central Plains must rely on the cooperation of the Taishan area. During this critical period, the Taishan area is the best
Keep it quiet. Your Majesty can let Commander Guan and Chen Shu confess first, and then we can make a decision."
Zhang Chong nodded, agreeing with Zhuge Gui's view.
Although Zhuge Gui said it tactfully and gave Guan Yu a chance to make a statement, in fact his position was very clear, that is, Mount Tai must be stable now, and other problems, even if they arise, must be put aside.
When Zhuge Gui spoke, Tian Feng, who was under him, also considered and expressed his opinion:
"Your Majesty, the top priority of our Taishan Army is to quickly pacify the mountains and rivers, and the army first relies on food and grass for large-scale movements. In this case, it is even more important to care about the common people and allow them to stabilize production. Although our army divides the fields for relief
Poverty. But with the development up to now, whoever can stably provide food will support our army. From this point of view, even if there is a tendency of local tyrants in the Taishan area today, it is acceptable. And this actually shows that the Taishan area
The development is very rapid.”
Tian Feng is from the north, so he naturally has a sense of detachment from things in the Taishan area, but his words are not aimless, but intentional.
He was actually testing how the king viewed the powerful people in Hebei now.
In the past, the Taishan Army implemented a policy of confiscating all land and dividing it equally, which included both the powerful and the small landowners.
However, in order to quickly pacify Hebei, the Taishan Army adjusted this policy and instead asked the landlords to hand over half of their land, and the rest was mixed with public land from various places and distributed to the head of Guizhou.
It was under the adjustment of this policy that Hebei quickly stabilized, and small and medium-sized powerful people began to regard the Taishan Army as an existence that they could cooperate with.
But these people, or all of them, have a suspicion, and that is whether this policy is temporary, and whether it is just to temporarily stabilize the powerful.
So Tian Feng tried to express an opinion.
That is, regardless of whether you are rich or poor, whoever can pay food to the Taishan Army will support us. And those powerful people can also pay food and support, even more than those in Guizhou Province.
Then do you think people like Tian Feng are the mouthpieces of the big families in Hebei, and do they want to speak for those people? Yes, but not many. Tian Feng himself values more the way of the sage. He wants to assist Zhang Chong in completing the great task of rebuilding the mountains and rivers.
merit.
To regard Tian Feng as Hao's right mouthpiece would be to underestimate him.
In fact, Tian Feng is not alone in having this idea. Many people in China agree with this statement.
This group of people felt that the top priority was to quickly stabilize the order of the world, rather than simply relieving the poor. They also knew that the strength of the Han Dynasty lay in the annexation of land, so they also agreed with the redistribution of land to a certain extent.
For example, for the powerful people in Hebei, it would be painful for them to share half of their land, but they generally believe that it is worth it as long as it is recognized by the Taishan Army.
Why?
Because these people have no doubt that the most powerful force to dominate the world now is the Taishan Army. Once the Taishan Army becomes the master of the world, then they will be ministers of the Yuan Dynasty. They can continue to be like Guangwu in the past and make the Hebei aristocratic families earn money for another twelve generations.
of wealth.
Isn’t it just half of the field? Here it is!
These are all what Tian Feng meant. Did Zhang Chong hear the words? Of course he did.
It's nothing more than that, no matter it's a powerful person or a Guizhou leader, those who can pay food are good people.
But is this what Zhang Chong wants?
He just snorted in his heart and did not express his position.
Not long after Tian Feng finished speaking, He Kui, who was second in line, spoke. He was from a noble family and worked as a farmer. He could understand both sides, but he supported Qian Shou more.
So he still refuted a few words about what Tian Feng said:
"We, the Taishan Army, act on behalf of Heaven with the ambition of Huang Tian, just to eliminate this injustice. If according to what Mr. Tian said, whoever can hand over food is good, then how can the leaders of Guizhou compare with the powerful ones? According to this reason, we
Does the Taishan Army want to make decisions for the powerful? If so, it is a betrayal of the leader of Guizhou who trusts us, and a betrayal of those who sacrificed for our great cause. By then, what foundation will our Taishan Army have to build an army?"
After hearing this, Tian Feng did not dare to refute, but just sighed and accepted the statement.
Sure enough, we still have to take the most difficult road.
After criticizing Tian Feng a few words, He Kui said something else to Zhang Chong:
"Your Majesty, I have said that fast means slow, and slow means fast. Sometimes you have to speak fast, and sometimes you speak slowly. But now that the Han Dynasty has collapsed and all the heroes in the world are vying for the throne, there is no time to be slow. Because once it grows, the world will
The battle will be difficult to fight if the hearts of the people are their own masters. This is why Guangwu competes with the world quickly, but Qin has to fight for the rest of the six generations."
Zhang Chong is listening.
"So in order to conquer the world quickly, we need to unite as much as possible with everyone who can be united, such as the new leaders in the Taishan area, and the powerful people in Hebei. These people are on our side and can be relied upon.
.After our army has conquered the world, we will simmer it slowly and carefully. This is called slow work."
So He Kui’s suggestion is just one sentence:
"You can't be too slow to bring peace to the world, and you can't be quick to govern the world."
It's true what you say.
But some people don't agree with this principle.
He is Yan Zhuang, the Minister of Finance who has always remained silent.
Yan Zhuang pointed out one point very keenly:
"How can the rich peasants of Taishan be confused with the powerful men of Hebei?"
He said to He Kui:
"The yeoman farmers of Taishan were greatly favored by our army and regarded our army as their parents for food and clothing, so they donated their children and discarded their clothes and silks, all of which were lost to the army. The relationship between our army and them is just like that of fish and water. But Hebei
What about the tyrants? They have committed the crime of resisting our army in the past, and they also have the reality of arrogating local customs. If they are not completely eradicated, there will be no peace in Hebei."
Yan Zhuang's words made Tian Feng in the back row change his face slightly, but the latter still did not speak.
Later, Yan Zhuang started talking about his job:
"After six months of investigation by various field groups in Jiyou Prefecture, we can roughly draw this conclusion. That is, only two percent of the population of powerful people occupy six percent of the land, plus eight percent of the small land.
It can reach 80%. The remaining 90% are Guizhou farmers and tenant farmers, who work on the remaining 20% of the land and contribute 70% of the harvest to the local powerful every year. As for the rest, they are just peasants without any land.
Slaves and serfs, whose life and death depend on their masters, can only work in the fields all day long without even getting a single meal."
After Yan Zhuang said this data, he said firmly:
"If we don't deal with these silverfish now, how about we wait until all the children of these people have blended into the place?"
For a moment, all the disciples present were silent.
At this time, the chief Duman spoke. He slapped the table and agreed with Yan Zhuang, completely ignoring that this person had just refuted a disciple and said:
"Okay, what Yan Shangshu said is good. We should talk more about this reality and less about opinions. Otherwise, no one can convince anyone in the quarrel."
When he saw Zhang Chong looking at him, he smiled and said:
"Your Majesty, I think the suggestions of all the princes are very good. Personally, I am in favor of not moving away from the wealthy farmers in Taishan County first, because these people have contributed to our army and are staunch supporters of our army in the local area.
, we cannot chill their hearts. Moreover, even if we harvest the extra land from these people, it will not really solve this problem of differentiation. So my personal view on the self-cultivated farmers is that the political affairs hall should give the order to Guan Yu on the front line.
, let him slow down on this aspect and spend more energy on consolidating the military on the front line. According to the recent military reports sent from various places, the forces surrounding central and southern Shandong are intensifying their troops. At this time, the military is still the priority."
Zhang Chong was suspicious. Unexpectedly, Duman, who had told him privately the year before that he wanted to equalize the land, would now start to object.
But he didn't speak either.
Then Duman said:
"As for the treatment of the Hebei aristocratic families, everyone's opinion is relatively consistent, that is, they are lying on their side couches and cannot allow others to sleep soundly. Regarding those people, our army should also close the net."
These two words simply spoke to Zhang Chong's heart. But regarding Du Man's change, Zhang Chong's heart was a little complicated, and he didn't know whether it was good or bad.
Seeing that no one had objections, Zhang Chong said the last words:
"Now we are in an intermediate period. Due to the rapid expansion in the past two years, we are temporarily unable to go south to the Central Plains. This will inevitably be taken advantage of by the various princes in the Central Plains. They may form alliances, merge with each other, or even encircle and annihilate
Our army is based in the Heji area in central and southern Shandong. If we redistribute the rich peasants under our rule at this time, it will inevitably cause local chaos, and the armies will also hesitate. When the time comes, there will be internal and external difficulties, and Hebei will not be able to provide support.
Then the base areas in the Central Plains will be in danger."
"Another point is strategic. The most important task of our army at present is to clean up the powerful people under the rule, complete the internal land distribution, stabilize production, establish and reorganize local institutions at the commune, township and county levels. In this
During this stage, the wealthy self-cultivating households, especially our own landowners in the old areas, must protect them to prevent others from being deceived by the powerful."
"But even so, there are still restrictions on the wealthy self-cultivators. After a while, the chief minister of the front palace prepared an edict to Feng Gao Yunchang, asking him to take back the rented land under his rule that exceeded the original allotment to the counties.
These fields will then be distributed to the refugees. If there is not enough land, the refugees will be moved to Hebei, and the counties in Hebei will allocate the fields."
Looking at the people below, Zhang Chong said meaningfully:
"In short, those who don't work don't get food. We just pulled the one who was riding on the head off, so we can't sit on the other person's head again."
And this sentence naturally determined the way to deal with the farmers in Mount Tai.
That is, one hundred acres per household is a baseline. If it exceeds this number, one household will not be able to cultivate the land, and it will definitely have to be farmed by others.
Zhang Chong did not allow this kind of thing, such as relying on other people's labor to earn interest from the land. Therefore, if the land exceeds a hundred acres, it must be taken back and redistributed to those who have no land.
The following seven ministers listened carefully to Zhang Chong's words. It was obvious that these words would serve as the implementation method of Taishan Army's land affairs for a long time.
As for how long this time will last, no one knows, maybe Zhang Chong doesn't know either.
But at least, the problem of homesteaders and rich farmers in Taishan and the powerful people in Hebei have been solved because of this front hall discussion.
The reform of the upper-level structure allowed this decision to be quickly distributed to all counties and counties, and a major operation was about to begin in Hebei.
I support a monthly pass, but the monthly pass is still a little over 1,000.