At the beginning of the Eastern Han Dynasty, it favored big landowners and gradually gave birth to gentry. Then came the land annexation and common people began to lose their land.
At this time, natural disasters and man-made disasters continued for many years, causing the already poor common people to go bankrupt and lose their livelihood. They were either reduced to tenant farmers, slaves, or abandoned farming to do business, and many were even forced to flee and become refugees.
In order to survive, the refugees held many uprisings, and the Yellow Turban Rebellion was the pinnacle of them.
This is called the refugees becoming angry and the whole country rebels. However, the uprising has led to years of war and chaos in society, which in turn has produced more refugees, becoming a cycle that no one in the world can escape.
The main reasons why refugees arise are natural disasters and man-made disasters. Natural disasters create conflicts, and man-made disasters intensify conflicts. The two feed into each other, and the world is in chaos.
Natural disasters are natural disasters and are the direct cause of refugees.
The Eastern Han Dynasty was a period in the history of our country when the climate changed from warm to cold. The climate gradually became colder and natural disasters occurred frequently.
The Eastern Han Dynasty lasted for a total of 195 years, and there were as many as 119 disaster years recorded in clear historical records. The natural disasters at this stage were typically characterized by the simultaneous occurrence of multiple disasters, among which floods, wind and hail, early disasters, and locust plagues were more common.
And often two or three disasters occur simultaneously in the same year.
Especially during the 19 years Emperor An of the Han Dynasty reigned, there was only one year where no famine was recorded. Several disasters occurred almost every year, the most severe of which was the first year of Yanguang. In this year, floods, droughts, earthquakes, and winds occurred.
The six disasters of hail and locusts have made the whole world miserable.
This is why Yuan Xi made up his mind to build farmland water conservancy facilities as much as possible when he read this period of history.
The so-called good weather depends entirely on the weather. Only man's transformation of nature is the fundamental solution to save himself, benefit future generations, and benefit the future.
Nature is beautiful, and so are the people. The sublimated beauty produced by the combination of the two is the process of working people transforming nature and obtaining rewards from nature.
For natural disasters, the Han court could provide disaster relief, but when the court did not act or was unable to do anything, it became the last straw that broke the people's minds. This is called a man-made disaster.
All dynasties and dynasties have attached great importance to the number of people. In the "Zhonglun·Minshu" chapter: "The number of people is the foundation of a country."
In the early days of the Eastern Han Dynasty, many wastes were waiting for improvement. The Han court attached great importance to increasing the population, so it vigorously encouraged childbirth. "Book of the Later Han·Zhang Diji" records: "When a person gives birth to a child, he will not be counted as three years old."
Coupled with factors such as encouraging early marriage, the population grew rapidly. In the middle and late period, there was a situation of less land and more people.
But on the other hand, the Han court did not take measures to prevent big landowners and noble families from annexing land. In addition, the Eastern Han Dynasty had very heavy taxes, which were characterized by light land taxes and heavy head taxes. This was obviously biased in favor of big landowners and drove farmers to a dead end.
If a major change occurs and farmers are overwhelmed and go bankrupt and go into exile, a situation will arise where "people are displaced, half without reason" and "the household registration in the world is reduced by half", which will cause a large number of self-cultivating farmers to go bankrupt and become landless poor.
If there is no food to eat, it is natural to revolt. Regardless of whether there are shadows of big landowners and nobles fishing in troubled waters in the Yellow Turban Uprising, the initiator is the policy of the Han court that deviated, leading to the negative consequences of backlash.
The powerful landowners "violated public laws, pursued private interests, traveled across mountains and rivers, and were good at officialdom and market affairs", becoming large and small forces that dominated one area and coveted the pinnacle of power at the same time.
Yuan Xi knew that this problem had not been solved since the transition from feudal society to capitalist society. It was just that the vested interests had changed from big landowners to capitalists, and the rentier class had controlled the formulation of policies from beginning to end.
In this kind of society, the main people who pay taxes are the middle class of society, but the upper class people with the highest incomes find ways to avoid taxes and even have negative incomes. It is really ironic.
This is why Yuan Xi hates the gentry landlords so much. They may not be the last straw that brought down the dynasty, but the previous bundles of straw must have been pressed by them.
Yuan Xi is a very awkward person. He hates capitalism even more. In his view, in addition to being much more productive than feudal society, capitalist society also has social morality in many places that is inferior to the latter.
For example, it is more covert and exploits the lower class people.
For example, a human relationship that appears to be equal but is actually more dissolute.
For example, a chain that is stronger and cannot be resisted.
The sprouting of capitalism not only stimulated the power of social progress, but also nakedly squeezed out more blood, sweat and lives.
If two social forms have the same productivity and technical capabilities, Yuan Xi actually doesn't know which one is better.
Therefore, Yuan Xi does not intend to engage in the budding of capitalism. This is likely to be a detour, and like a circle of fate, it goes round and round and returns to the starting point.
If the reincarnation of history is really like this, then he would rather give it a try. If he doesn't follow this cycle, can he break this vicious circle?
Yuan Xi never denied that there were two sides to the matter. The ruling class under the emperor, which was above the common people, ranged from the earliest slave owners in ancient times, to the aristocrats in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, to the gentry in the late Han, Wei, Jin and Tang dynasties, and then to
The gentry and capitalists in capital society during the Song and Ming Dynasties certainly exploited and oppressed the common people, but it is undeniable that they also had positive factors for self-innovation and promoting social progress.
Compared with later generations who all blamed the so-called capital, Yuan Xi couldn't understand that capital, isn't it just capital?
Capital is dead, and the people who control it are the key. Good people are called entrepreneurs, and bad people are called...reactionaries.
Of course, reactionaries may be rich people, or they may be spiritual slaves who are willing to serve as pawns of the rich.
Looking back, the same is true today. It is impossible for Yuan Xi to wipe out all the gentry in the world. Depending on the degree of reaction, he can only win over a group of people, attack a group of people, convert a group of people, and eliminate a group of people.
Refugees have led to uneven regional development, with a large influx of people into wealthy areas, while war-torn areas have become deserted.
If Yuan Xi wants to seize the world, he will face similar problems in the future.
Just like he saw in advance that the Wei and Jin Dynasties moved the population inland and foreigners took the opportunity to occupy the frontiers and cause chaos, he could do the opposite.
If the population increases and there is not enough land to plant crops, then it is better to go outside.
The world is so big, why do we have to stick to one corner?
This trend of opening up frontiers and looking overseas should be started by him in Youzhou and spread throughout the world.
When the refugees saw Yuan Xi's soldiers passing by in formation, they hid on the roadside in panic, trying to stay as far away from the troops as possible.
After all, in these troubled times, in order to boost the morale of the soldiers, the princes tacitly agreed to rob the people at will. Therefore, for the people in the troubled times, their life was not even as good as that of a dog.
After all, if you are a dog, your owner still has to give you meat.
However, after they hid for a long time, they were surprised to hear that this team had the same destination as theirs, and they were also going to Jicheng!
These refugees began to murmur in their hearts. There had been news that Jicheng was recruiting soldiers and civilians, as well as craftsmen and farmers. Those who registered their household registration would be granted land rights, so they dragged their families and headed for Jicheng.
But what an accident, we met the soldiers!
You must know that in the world today, there are few armies of princes that do not harass the people!
Although they might be able to save their lives, it was common for their property to be robbed and their wives and daughters to be kidnapped, so no one wanted to get close to the soldiers for fear of getting into trouble.
Many people began to hesitate whether to just disperse, but some people could not bear the temptation of being allocated land when they arrived in Jicheng, so they trudged far away in the woods and weeds beside the road.
The reason why they are still persisting is because today's Youzhou has experienced several wars and is very different from when Liu Yu was here.
When Liu Yu was alive ten years ago, he adopted a recuperation policy for Youzhou, which was suffering from the Yellow Turban Rebellion. Within a few years, production was restored, and the people lived and worked in peace and contentment. There were millions of refugees from other states who came to Youzhou to settle down. many.
However, after Liu Yu was killed by Gongsun Zan, Gongsun Zan's lax governance led to military disasters and misery for the people.
Especially after falling out with Yuan Shao, Youzhou was fully involved in the war, including the Han people, Wuhuan, and Xianbei, and no one was spared.
The war was devastating to production, and people became refugees one after another, either fleeing into the mountains to make a living, becoming slaves of noble landlords, or simply becoming bandits.
Before Yuan Xi went to Guangling, he told Zhao Yun that after taking Jicheng, he would recruit more refugees and resume production. What Yuan Xi saw from the car window now was a scene of people like ants, hesitantly trying to survive.
He thought that Zhao Yun had done a good job. For the refugees to do this, those who arrived earlier must have settled down. If word of mouth spreads, people will rush to defect.
Yuan Xi lowered the curtain and saw Zhen Mi beside her hugging Axiang and playing with her. Opposite her was Mrs. Wu who looked embarrassed and uneasy.
Mrs. Wu felt that Yuan Xizhen Mi's eyes were always looking towards her abdomen intentionally or unintentionally, making her feel like she had nowhere to put her hands and feet.
She originally wanted to avoid meeting Yuan Xi as much as possible, but as a result, Yuan Xi's family only had two carriages with four seats in each carriage.
In one car, Huan's mother and daughter were seated with Cai Zhaoji, leaving Mrs. Wu to share the car with Yuan Xizhenmi.
When she got in the car, she saw Zhen Mi's malicious smile and thought that this must be intentional!
Zhen Mi teased Axiang in her arms and smiled at Mrs. Wu.
She felt very proud now.
Under Zhen Mi's repeated questioning about Mrs. Wu's origins, Yuan Xi reluctantly told Zhen Mi the truth and told her not to leak it to others.
Zhen Mi thought to herself that her husband was really unusual. He was specifically targeting widows.
The identity is not ordinary!
Needless to say, Cai Zhaoji, it seems that before he married Yuan Xi, he brought Gongsun Zan's widow back to the palace, right?
What surprised Zhen Mi even more was that Mrs. Wu turned out to be Sun Jian's widow. Wasn't her husband at odds with the princes of the world?
And this time it was even more extreme, and I even had a child!
Zhen Mi understood that Yuan Xi was drunk at the time and had no intention of inserting the willow tree into the shade, but she still felt a little sour in her heart.
Why did Mrs. Wu get pregnant so easily, but her belly has not moved yet?
How many medicines should Hua Tuo take?
From the corner of her eye, Mrs. Wu caught sight of Zhen Mi smiling at her, thinking that it was great to be young. She had been so carefree twenty years ago.
But does Mrs. Zhen really understand what impact it will have on herself if the eldest son of a concubine appears?
Yuan Xi stared at the two women guiltily, feeling that the atmosphere in the car was getting more and more awkward. Just as he was about to speak, he heard chaos outside the car.