People like Lao Du who started from the bottom and worked hard all the way have a very deep understanding of the government and officials.
They are well aware of the unreasonable privileges and mentality of the government and officials. They know very well that the government is a donkey and must follow their wishes and flatter them. Otherwise, even a small county magistrate can make them bankrupt.
So all along, everyone has been getting along with each other in a friendly and reciprocal manner, and the life has been quite pleasant.
As a result, suddenly the new county magistrate no longer wants money.
It is not a good thing for an official to ask for no money.
If he doesn't want money, he might be doing it for everyone's lives.
However, Guan Jing didn't say anything important at that time, and just let everyone stick to their duties, do their own things well, pay taxes according to regulations, and nothing else.
But this seemingly normal behavior made Lao Du, who started from the bottom, wary. During this period of time, Lao Du kept sending people to Luoyang to inquire about information and wanted to know what happened in Luoyang.
Through this constant inquiry, I really found out a lot of things.
For example, General Liu Bei constantly arranged for his disciples and former officials to serve in the areas around Luoyang, and Guan Jing was one of them.
A large number of Liangzhou people parachuted into Sanfu and Sanhe to take up official positions. Including local chief officials, some official positions with real power below the county level were occupied by people related to Liu Bei.
Those in charge of punishment, taxation, and public security were all occupied by Liu Bei before and after the Luoyang Incident.
The original local families in the Sili area either cooperated with Liu Bei or were defeated and annexed by Liu Bei. He also used the pretext of purging the Jinwen School to destroy more than a hundred famous families in the Sili area.
Then the interests and power held by these families were swallowed up by Liu Bei, and various positions were occupied by his people, who controlled a lot of power.
I don’t know where Liu Bei got so many disciples and former officials.
Currently, only a small number of positions are still under the control of local families. The political situation in the entire Sili region is basically dominated by Liu Bei's family, so some local families are talking about it and feel that this is not a good thing.
If the grassroots power is controlled by Liu Bei, then the entire Sili area will also be controlled by Liu Bei. By then, will Liu Bei, who is all-powerful, be able to do whatever he wants?
But for them, it is not easy for them to have some influence on the local area with their land wealth and some slaves. If they want to influence Luoyang, they have absolutely no such ability.
That is to say, all three religions and nine streams are included in Luoyang City, the population is large, and there are many mouths to eat. This gives small local families like them the opportunity to pick up some leftovers. Without Luoyang City, how can they stand up and make the decision?
Moreover, at that time, Liu Bei's army was killing people all over the world. He Jin, Yuan Wei's party members, and families related to the Jinwen School were killed one after another by Liu Bei. Many of the influential local families that they were familiar with were killed.
Exterminated.
They were afraid of being targeted by Liu Bei, afraid of being regarded as party members of He Jin and Yuan Wei, or people related to the Modern Literature School, so they did not dare to speak out at all.
Fortunately, Liu Bei took no further action. As time went by, Lao Du slowly let down his guard and felt that he should be able to live a stable life in the future.
Two years after Jian'an, I heard that General Liu Bei was going to Bingzhou to make an effort. Lao Du felt even more relieved. He felt that the General was so busy and couldn't take care of us small fish and shrimps, right?
Unexpectedly, less than three months after Lao Du felt relieved, the "Slavery Restriction Order" was issued.
Lao Du got the news immediately, but didn't know the specific content. When he learned the specific content, it was also when the official notice from Xincheng County Government was delivered to him.
Seeing the requirements for local families like them in the "Slavery Restriction Order", Lao Du's eyes darkened and he almost lost his balance. Fortunately, his son Xiao Du stood beside him and supported him.
"Father, what is this... what is this "Slave Restriction Order" about? We can only keep three slaves? All the others have to be sent out?"
Xiao Du looked very unhappy, and of course Old Du looked even worse.
He carefully studied the "Slave Restriction Order" again, and with his keen sixth sense, he found that the Slave Restriction Order was slightly tolerant of the officials, but very unfriendly to them without official status.
The previous policy was that even if they had no official status, they could have thirty legal slaves. As long as they could afford it and hide it, it didn't matter whether you bought more or less. The government turned a blind eye and didn't care at all.
I don't want to care either.
There are more refugees and people dying of hunger on the streets, but they can’t help it, and they are happy if there are fewer homeless people dying of hunger.
But who would have thought that the general in the Luoyang court went crazy and cut off nine-tenths of the quota with one knife.
A person without official status could only have a maximum of three slaves, and they had to report to the government. All the remaining family members could not be slaves, and had to be sent away or become free laborers. They also had to report to the government, and the government had to control them.
life safety...
this……
This is obviously a cruel attack on them!
For local families like these, the number of slaves has a lot to do with the momentum of the family.
The larger the number of slaves, the more manpower can be used for family arming, family services and expanding family industry, which is very beneficial to the development of family industry.
Because these people bought them at the lowest price during the famine years, and then exploited them as they pleased for the rest of their lives. There were no other subsequent expenses, such as illness, and the masters would not care at all, leaving the slaves to fend for themselves.
There is no expenditure, only income, so the more slaves there are, the richer the master's family will be.
And once so much free labor is lost, if you want to maintain a family business of this size, you have to hire people to do it, and the hirers have to pay to take care of the food.
At that time, expenses will increase and income will decrease. A family's industry will inevitably face a huge impact. Some rising families will also have their upward momentum interrupted, and even face the decline of the family industry.
And there is a huge hidden danger here.
Although the same scale of manpower can be obtained through employment, the nature is different.
The slave has the power of life and death in his hands. The master has absolute power over the slave. The slave does not dare to resist, for fear that the master will discover the slightest sign of resistance and be killed.
The government will not care about the life and death of a slave, so slaves who know this well will have a significantly higher level of obedience in order to survive. They will be beaten, scolded, and work without complaint. They simply do not look like human beings.
But if it were a person of another nature, how could he be as obedient as a slave and still make his master feel at ease?
And more importantly, slaves don’t need to pay, but free people will lose face if they don’t pay. If they don’t pay, they really can’t do anything. If I can’t beat you, why can’t I do some small damage and make a profit?
Why don't you ask the slave to show off and do some small damage?
If he wasn't beaten to death on the spot, it would be regarded as smoke rising from his ancestral grave.
No matter from which angle you look at it, there is a huge gap between buying slaves and hiring free people. A mature family helmsman can distinguish the pros and cons, so more and more families choose to keep slaves.
But with the "Slavery Restriction Order", the situation is different.
They instantly lost the qualification to keep a large number of slaves. If they strictly followed the order, there would be only eighteen members of the Du family, including old and young. Even if each of the eighteen people were bound to three slaves, they would only be able to keep
Fifty-four slaves.
Compared with the more than 300 slaves currently owned by the entire Du family, they are only one-sixth.
You must know that at present, not only the daily life of the entire Du family is managed by slaves, but there are also slaves driving ships and transporting people, there are also slaves serving as armed guards, and there are also slaves cultivating the land in the fields.
In order to cut costs and increase profits, slaves were used wherever they could, so slaves penetrated into the Du family's daily operations and every aspect of life.
If these four-fifths of the slaves are taken away, the Du family's entire industry and daily life will have problems. It will be chaotic for a while, and various expenses will rise sharply. It is really unclear whether the current status can be maintained in the end.
must.
So of course the Du family is unwilling to respond to this policy.
So, including members of the Du family, many local families who had experienced the same thing began to rush to the county government to seek an explanation from the county magistrate.
They thought, if there is no explanation, they don't mind showing off their muscles to the Luoyang court. Don't think that we are afraid of you under the emperor's feet!