Chapter 152 In the final analysis, I am just a hypocrite
Lu Zhi has also thought about making meat-eaters bleed.
When he first became aware of the land annexation problem in Jizhou, he immediately thought of a solution to the problem.
The problem can be solved by questioning and killing those who occupy the land, returning their land to the public ownership of the court, and then distributing it to the landless.
It's a very simple set of operations. This was also done when the Han Dynasty was founded.
But then he thought of the difficulty of this approach.
If it was so easy to do this, how could Liu Xiu, with his talent, fail halfway?
"Let the flesh-eaters bleed..."
Lu Zhi sighed very much and said slowly: "It's not easy to make meat-eaters bleed. They are all very powerful people. Even if they don't farm for the time being and just attack slaves, many people will resist."
"Those who will resist me for this will definitely resist me when I get to the fields. So kill them now. When I get to the fields, the power to oppose me will be much smaller."
Liu Bei smiled and said: "The teacher and I will be less stressed by then, right?"
"Ah, if you take one step and two steps, I, the teacher, am no match for you."
Lu Zhi smiled bitterly and said: "What else can I say? I can only say that you must be careful in everything. Even if the army you raised is really strong, you must be careful. Things in the world that cannot be decided by military are still
There are many.”
"This road is not easy to walk, but teacher, I don't want to take any other road."
Liu Bei is well aware of the limitations of this era, but since he has reached the point where he is the only one in the world, how can he rest on his laurels and rest peacefully?
If he is just an ordinary person, then he will be lying flat if he lies flat. The world is not his, and it is not his turn to point fingers. He has the confidence to lie flat.
But now he is a general, a general who is under one man and more than ten thousand people. He is a general who is responsible for the entire Han Empire. If he falls flat, the entire Han Empire will be almost finished.
So he couldn't lie down, he had to stir up and try his best to do something.
After communicating with Lu Zhi, Liu Bei sent people to summon the subordinates of the General's Mansion and openly discussed with them the seriousness of the slave issue.
He decided to start solving the slave problem in Han Empire society, and use this as a fulcrum to leverage the foundation of the Han Empire and start his own path of in-depth reform.
"According to the latest calculations, it is certain that the total number of official slaves and private slaves in the entire Han Kingdom has exceeded eight million, accounting for more than 10% of the total population of the Han Kingdom, and among them, absolutely
Most of them were private slaves.
It is conceivable that if so many people become slaves instead of farming and producing on the land, this will cause great damage to the national tax revenue. More importantly, a considerable number of these slaves do not comply with regulations.
of.
According to the regulations of the imperial court, there are 200 slaves for the princes, 100 princes and princesses, and 30 officials and civilians for the princes of Guannei. However, in the previous investigation of the case of King Hejian, one king had more than 1,200 slaves.
Serving him exceeded the upper limit set by the court six times.
I can confirm that this is not an isolated case. This must be widespread in the entire Han Dynasty. Almost all families with a little power have such problems, more or less, and if this situation cannot be curbed
, it will only get worse.”
After Liu Bei said this, the officials in the general's palace had different expressions and whispered among themselves. It was obvious that they had a relatively big reaction to this matter.
Cheng Yu clearly realized the purpose of Liu Bei's speech.
"Is what the general said dissatisfied with the current trend of slavery?"
"It's not that I'm dissatisfied, I'm very dissatisfied."
Liu Bei said slowly: "Once a commoner becomes a slave, he no longer has the nationality of the Han Dynasty, and the products he produces no longer need to pay taxes for the Han Dynasty, but can be given directly to the slave owner. The more slaves there are, the richer the slave owner will be.
Imperial taxation went from bad to worse.
Isn't this the actual situation for more than a hundred years? Of course, it would be fine to say that these slaves were prisoners of war and criminals, as they deserved their punishment. But in fact, the largest number of slaves were households that had lost their land and went bankrupt.
Due to natural and man-made disasters, they lost their land and property and sold themselves into slavery. Their land, along with it, became owned by their slave owners. The slave owners then used various methods to conceal their land income and plunder them. This left only a small amount of taxes that should have belonged to the court.
A little bit was taken away.
Without taxes, how could the Han court function? Where did your salaries come from? Where did the army's military expenses come from? Where did the money come from to repair the city walls and rivers? If one day the court cannot afford your salaries, wouldn't it be a desolate world?
absurd?"
The general Teng Maojie raised his hand to speak.
"In that case, what does the general plan to do?"
"Of course, it was the Emperor above who followed the example of Emperor Guangwu and issued an edict to release those who were bankrupt and voluntarily sold themselves into slavery."
It is not surprising that Liu Bei said this. Emperor Guangwu Liu Xiu issued edicts seven times to restore civil citizenship to those who sold themselves into slavery due to bankruptcy, and tried every means to limit the number of slaves.
But the fundamental reason for the large number of slaves cannot be solved with a slave restriction order. Everyone knows this.
So Mao Jie spoke boldly.
"General, the reason for the high number of slaves is not whether the imperial court issued a slave restriction order, but that a large number of common people had no livelihood and were forced to sell themselves into slavery. If this problem is not solved, the freed slaves will have no food to eat.
If you restore your citizenship temporarily, you will eventually go back and continue to be a slave."
Liu Bei nodded and pointed at Mao Jie to praise him.
"Xiao Xian said it very well. The reason for the large number of slaves is not whether the court has issued a slave restriction order, but because there is no food to eat. There is no way to stop people without food from selling themselves into slavery, so what we really have to do is
If these slaves are to have food to eat, they will not become slaves.
So this time, in conjunction with the recovery of Bingzhou, we have to restore production and construction in Bingzhou. However, the number of local households in Bingzhou is extremely rare and cannot bear the restoration and construction work. Therefore, I decided to start the work in Bingzhou itself, Sanhe, Sanfu and Hongnong counties.
A slave-freeing operation used slaves released from these areas to fill the gaps in Bingzhou households.
These freed slaves will be reorganized into Bingzhou households, and they will be given land to live in Bingzhou again. This can be regarded as a real immigration policy in a sense. It achieves multiple goals with one stone. What do you think?
ah?"
Liu Bei told his true purpose and asked everyone to help him evaluate the feasibility of this matter.
In terms of feasibility, it is actually possible. With Liu Bei's current military and political prestige, isn't it a trivial matter to acquire a group of slaves?
Moreover, putting it in Bingzhou to live again is equivalent to recycling waste, which will help rejuvenate Bingzhou, which is of course a good thing.
But the question is, if we really have to follow the number stipulated by the court, will it cause some loss of interests to people from all walks of life and even themselves?
Everyone knows that few people are clean when it comes to slaves.
Even if there is no problem in their own family, if it is extended to the entire family, will there be no problem?
If we really want to investigate, even if there are problems in the families and clans of these subordinate officials in the General's Palace, what will they do when Liu Bei asks them to make a choice?
You can't cut down your own people with a knife, right?
Therefore, even the officials in the general's palace were worried about Liu Bei's decree.