Chapter 148 It’s not appropriate to leave your nephew to my command.
Eight million, this is a quite dangerous number.
And such a number is based on the premise that all officials and powerful private landlords conscientiously abide by the regulations of the court.
If some people do not abide by the official slave restriction order stipulated by the court and expand the number of slaves arbitrarily without the government knowing about it, then this number may rise at any time.
This shows how common slaves are in this society. It can even be said bluntly that everyone in the Han Empire is enjoying the convenience brought by this slave economy.
In areas with a prosperous economy, the number of slaves may be slightly smaller. In areas with a poor economy, or in war-torn areas, the number of slaves will be more, not less.
Not to mention others, among the Han and Hu prisoners captured by Liu Bei for several years in northern Xinjiang, about one million were included in the "official slaves" group controlled by the Luoyang court. They were in Liangzhou, You
Prefectures and Bingzhou are throwing their arms around construction.
In addition to these prisoners of war, the number of various types of official slaves currently under the direct control of the Luoyang court is no less than 100,000. The sources of these official slaves are mainly various criminals, including normal crimes and those who were fined and confiscated after official crimes.
's family members.
Therefore, a considerable number of the official slaves controlled by the Luoyang court were from good backgrounds.
But looking at the world, most of the slaves owned by families in the Eastern Han Empire that could raise slaves were bankrupt and landless farmers.
Peasants who lost their land and livelihood due to natural and man-made disasters had to either rebel or sell themselves as slaves. There was no other way to go. Therefore, among the slave groups in the entire Eastern Han Empire, bankrupt and landless farmers and their descendants accounted for 100% of the total number of slaves.
Ninety.
Such numbers are quite scary.
So when Man Chong came up with this number, Liu Bei dared to pat his chest and guarantee that, given the current social situation where private slaves are rampant, as long as he orders a census, 99% of Luoyang official families will be counted.
He was at fault on the issue of private slaves.
The number of slaves they own is by no means as simple as it seems on the surface. Do those powerful officials really only have dozens or hundreds of slaves to serve them?
And those local princes who are extravagant and lewd, do they really have only 200 slaves to serve them?
The King of Hejian who had offended Liu Bei and others was examined and found to have more than 1,200 slaves in his house, which was more than six times the upper limit stipulated by the court.
Is this an example?
Therefore, Liu Bei strongly suspects that the current total slave population of the entire Han Empire is not even ten million, and the number of this population will naturally not be included in the total population of the Han Empire, so the total population of the Han Empire has probably exceeded six
Ten million.
The productivity of this part of the population has been seized by the huge wealthy class of society. All the wealth they produce is used to support their masters, allowing their masters to enjoy endlessly, but not a single bit is leaked out to promote social progress and development.
Liu Bei was deeply disturbed by this, and felt that the blood in his body began to stir.
There are so many slaves, so much productivity that can be liberated, and so many areas that need to be developed without the population to develop them. Isn't this... just right?
He felt that he had to do something to reverse the social situation, otherwise all his years of hard work would be in vain.
So Liu Bei agreed in principle to Man Chong's plan, but in terms of specific operations, he still felt that it needed to be a little gentler, because the powerful families in these places had provided considerable help to the Han army in previous military operations.
If you directly target them, not only will it sound unpleasant, but it will also easily be strongly opposed by them, thus triggering another war in the Bingzhou area.
Although he was not afraid of losing the battle, he would be at a disadvantage in terms of public opinion, so Liu Bei decided to give a relatively mild way of dealing with it.
At the same time as the new slave restriction order was promulgated, Liu Bei was planning to add a redemption policy to Bingzhou. The government would pay for all the slaves of each family that exceeded the prescribed limit. The money would not be free of charge. As long as they cooperate, the benefits would be great.
Moreover, the new version of the slave restriction order is also an official regulation. It doesn’t matter how long it has been promulgated. There are laws to follow. I act according to the regulations, and no one can say anything wrong about me.
In this way, it will be defensible in terms of public opinion.
On this basis, if there is a family that is unwilling to abide by this rule, it will be fined for not eating the toast.
Without you, I would still be able to win Bingzhou. This policy is to give you face, and if I give you face, I don’t want it, so don’t blame me for being ruthless.
Manchong is willing to support this approach and says that if this strategy is implemented well in Bingzhou, it can be extended to other states and counties to solve the problem of the increasingly scarce registered population in those places.
Liu Bei wrote back to Man Chong, telling him that there was no rush to complete these matters in Bingzhou first, and the agricultural production and border defense matters in Bingzhou would be restored in the shortest time. If there were areas that needed repair, manpower and material resources would be mobilized to repair them. There was not enough money.
Just tell him and he will try to help.
Anyway, after so many wars, both Luoyang's treasury and Liu Bei's own private treasury are quite rich.
After discussing with Man Chong the solution to the issue of merging the states, Zhang Yan and Yu Fuluo, the two "heroes" of the annexation campaign, also arrived in Luoyang.
After the victory of the great battle, Liu Bei announced that he would summon Zhang Yan, Yu Fuluo and a series of "meritorious officials" in Luoyang to commend and reward their achievements. Zhang Yan and Yu Fuluo did not dare to neglect this.
So he hurried to Luoyang.
At the end of April, the two arrived in Luoyang together and met with Liu Bei. Liu Bei hosted a banquet for them, drank and chatted with them, and the next day introduced them to the emperor, promoted them to positions and titles, and increased their rewards.
Yu Fuluo was appointed as Guiyi Zhonglang General and was granted the title of Marquis of Duxiang. Zhang Yan was appointed as Zhongyi Zhonglang General and was granted the title of Liting Marquis.
Of course, meeting the emperor and accepting the emperor's banquet were just a formality. Everyone knew that the person who had the final say in the Han Empire was Liu Bei, not the little emperor.
So the final interview with Liu Bei is the most important thing.
Liu Bei admired Zhang Yan and Yu Fuluo. At a moment when the fate of any group was decided, it was not easy to make the right choice that was not in the interests of some people or even oneself.
But Zhang Yan did it, and so did Yu Fuluo.
They used practical actions to show that they had no intention of going against the Han Empire. They paid enough certificates of surrender to prove their intentions. In other words, they did not dare to go against the Han Empire led by Liu Bei.
Liu Bei has successfully established a terror deterrent to the world. For the people of the world, Liu Bei may not be able to decide everything in the world, but if someone objects to the things Liu Bei decides, then Liu Bei can make the opposition disappear.
Once this kind of terrorist deterrence is established, basic order will be restored. Those who have a certain amount of military power and the ability to cause chaos will begin to consider their own options.
Because the mighty man descended from the sky will not allow this empire to have an army that does not obey orders.
"You have done a good job in this battle. You have assisted the imperial army in achieving military exploits. The imperial court will not be stingy with your rewards and will receive them soon."
Liu Bei said with a smile.
Zhang Yan and Yu Fuluo expressed their gratitude to Liu Bei together.
Afterwards, Liu Bei chatted with them about some daily life in Bingzhou as if they were having a conversation. It seemed that he had no specific purpose and was just asking casually. However, Zhang Yan and Yu Fuluo did not dare to let go of their guard.
Sure enough, the gossip didn't last long before Liu Bei changed the topic and talked about their "future issue."
"Life in the mountains is not that easy. Although the saying goes that you rely on the mountains to eat mountains and the water to eat water, but what can really last for a long time is the land. You still have to cultivate the land and pay attention to food to truly be based on the local area. General Zhang Zhonglang,
I heard that your entire Black Mountain Army headquarters has millions of people, is it true?"
Zhang Yan was extremely energetic.
"Back to the general, the number of millions is just an imaginary number. The real number is about 400,000, including men, women, old and young. It is not as many as the rumors from the outside world."
"Oh, four hundred thousand, that's not a small amount."
Liu Bei sighed: "Mountains and forests are not like flat land, where food can be grown. There are not many places where food can be grown in mountains and forests, and the harvest is even less. Even if there are some wild vegetables, fruits, and game, they cannot be used as food."
In the long run, if there is no other income, so many people will not be able to eat enough even if they eat up the mountain. Am I right?"
Zhang Yan didn't dare to hide it and nodded in agreement.
"What the general said is true. We mountain people do open up cultivated land among the mountains and forests to grow food, but the quantity is not large. Therefore, every autumn, in order to obtain food for the winter, they have to go down the mountain to plunder and loot their homes in order to survive the winter.
capital.”
"Well, it's pretty much what I thought."
Liu Bei nodded and said with emotion: "But this is not a good thing. We are robbing families and homes, and if you eat some of them, some people will starve, freeze, or even starve to death. Is this kind of thing right?"