Call of the Heroes of Chaos in Another World

Chapter 1852: The divided Hebei, Guan Zhong's equal distribution of land

Regarding the reform, Wang Yu had urged Guan Zhong several times last year.

Although Guan Zhong issued many practical plans over the past year, he always avoided some core issues and tended to use the method of boiling a frog in warm water.

Guan Zhong's opinion was that the situation was not stable at the moment and it was not appropriate to take drastic action, as this might lead to internal strife, even if it took a longer time.

However, we must also try to walk steadily.

The military reform has offended many interest groups and caused many movements behind the scenes, of which Wang Dangzhi's assassination is only one of them. The interest groups can do anything for their own interests.

However, the specific progress still needs to be understood.

Therefore, after Wang Yu arranged Zhulong's affairs, he personally found a time for Guan Zhong to make a detailed progress report. At the same time, Luo Wang examined the authenticity of Guan Zhong's report.

The situation reported by Guan Zhong made Wang Yu extremely angry and frightened at the same time.

Although he had noticed some situations in the past, on the one hand, he was fighting all year round at that time and some problems had to be put aside for the time being.

Secondly, although these problems were noticed at that time, no one had actually conducted statistics. The data was not directly placed in front of him, so it was not so shocking.

Three times...

The situation in Hebei can actually be summed up in one word: completely divided up.

Regardless of whether they are the new nobles of the current dynasty, the old ministers of the previous dynasty, or the high-ranking officials from other places, as well as the local aristocratic families, big and small, basically all of them have industries in Hebei.

Especially when troubled times come, people's lives become more difficult, which gives those who enclose land more convenience!
In troubled times, the amount of land enclosed in one year is more than the amount enclosed in ten years in peaceful times. Moreover, the cost is also lower.

Take Han Xin as an example. In the past few years in Hebei, he sent a group of family servants to enclose land and occupy houses. In the past year, there were five Han residences in Yecheng and more than ten manors around Yecheng, each controlling dozens of hectares of land belonging to Han Xin.
This was just Han Xin's family. Civil and military officials in Hebei all learned this to some extent. Even Yu Qian, who was always known for his integrity, had two houses in Hedong Road. He also had a piece of land in Hebei Road, but it was only a few hectares. It was said that it was bought by people sent by Yu Qian's brothers.

Wang Yu understood this kind of thing.

In every dynasty, officials of any dynasty did not "purchase" large amounts of land. In the small peasant economy of the feudal era, land was hard currency passed down from generation to generation.

Put your head on the belt to fight, follow you to build achievements, what is the reason for most people? Isn't it for these?

If you still make those who have been with you through thick and thin live a miserable life, who would be willing to work for you?
As for an honest official like Yu Qian, he may be honest himself, but it does not mean that his relatives will not use his status to do things. In fact, many times, Yu Qian himself did not know it.

Brother Yu Qian, if you want to give convenience to the officials under you, unless it is something that violates sexual principles, do the officials under you need to inform Yu Qian about it?

These are the new officials who have risen up with Wang Yu in recent years. Like the old ministers of the previous dynasty, they also occupied a lot of land before Wang Yu arrived.

Not to mention the local aristocratic families in Hebei Province, who own the majority of the land.

Hebei Province is one of the four river areas, where powerful aristocratic families are present and officials from all over the country are willing to extend their help. The situation here is definitely more serious than that in other provinces.

However, judging from the small and the big, even if the situation in other places is better, it may not be much better.

At least, as far as the situation in Yanbei Road is concerned, Wang Yu learned that it was common for any old minister with some seniority in Yanbei Road to have dozens of hectares of land at home.

According to information from various sources, it can be roughly estimated that, excluding the military farm established by Zhuge Liang, about 80% of the land around Yecheng is occupied by officials of all ranks or surrounding families.

Hey……

In fact, no matter which dynasty, stage, or even world, it is nothing but a cycle after another. In the end, it is actually only 3% of the population, but they own more than 90% of the wealth of the society.

Throughout the dynasties, whether it was Blue Star or the Apocalypse in another world, the issue of land annexation was always a headache for the rulers.

Another issue that arises from this is the problem of hidden households. It is not enough to just have land, they have to find people to cultivate the land. As a result, a large number of ownerless farmers became their tenant farmers, and most likely they were "forced to do so voluntarily".

After all, the court's policy is that as long as you register, you can get your own land. However, the policy also needs people to implement it, and the people who implement it are basically the bureaucratic class and the aristocratic class who occupy the land.

It seems to be a vicious cycle.

The refugees from all over the country were supposed to be self-cultivating farmers who were allocated land by the imperial court and who paid taxes and grain to the imperial court! In the feudal era, self-cultivating farmers were the main source of the imperial court's finances and taxes.

No wonder, there is no dynasty that lasts for a thousand years. At the end of every dynasty, even if the emperor is not incompetent, social contradictions like this will continue to accumulate until they explode in an uncontrollable manner.

Just looking at the situation around Yecheng, Wang Yu seemed to see a scene where the rich had fields as far as the eye could see, while the poor had no place to put their heads.

If this situation is not suppressed, once it spreads, the country will inevitably be unstable. If we think further ahead, as long as the world is restored to peace and the population enters a stage of rapid growth, it will not take decades for the entire country to quickly fall into the vicious circle of land conflicts.

There was an impulse in his heart, and he issued an edict to deal with all the evil spirits in Yecheng and Hebei Province, but it was only an impulse for a moment.

Although he was angry, Wang Yu was not so angry that he lost his mind.

After all, most of his capable men are also among them.

Furthermore, given the current situation in the world, it is not possible to say that these officials have made any serious mistakes.

When the country was in chaos, wars were going on for years, and the population was declining, the officials "led by example" by actively recruiting people, reclaiming land for farming, restoring production, and creating tax revenue for the country. This should be worthy of "encouragement."

It’s just that some people make normal purchases, while others use the power in their hands to seize things by force.

However, the continuous accumulation of such enclosure problems has brought not only land conflicts, but also the tax issues behind them.

According to the old system, except for a portion of the designated land that was exempt from tax according to their official rank, the rest of the land occupied by these officials should be subject to summer and autumn taxes as usual.

However, there is too much room for maneuver here. If bureaucrats are allowed to collect taxes for the country on their own land, one can imagine what will happen.

Moreover, among these land-owning bureaucrats, there are many powerful figures like Han Xin. "Many of the civil and military officials of the Han Dynasty have built houses and occupied land in Hebei Province. Yiwu, what about your family?" Wang Yu suddenly asked curiously, watching Guan Zhong explaining the situation bit by bit.

"I have three manors, ten hectares of land, and employ about a hundred farmers." Guan Zhong answered calmly.

These were all earned through legitimate transactions, and were legal income. No one could say anything about it, so he could naturally answer frankly.

After all, I can't work under you and not allow you to do even basic business, right?

In fact, as one of the six high-ranking officials, he was very conscientious to have such a small piece of land. Compared with others, he did not even have a fraction of what they had.

Many officials who held lower positions than him might have owned much more land than him.

"Yiwu, the issue of land annexation must not be tolerated!"

"We still have to find a way to alleviate it!"

Wang Yu silently calculated in his mind that in fact, most of the land annexation was still a historical issue. The large and small aristocratic families in Hebei Province and the relics of the previous dynasty accounted for the majority of them.

After all, except for Zhang Xuan, who had great achievements in Taoism in Hebei, the other civil and military officials under his command had only been here for a few years. How much territory could they have taken over?

However, let’s not talk about these for now. Now the problem is before Wang Yu. How should he deal with it?

Issuing an imperial edict to seize their land and houses is the simplest and crudest approach, and is also the most likely to cause unrest. And the effect is likely to be counterproductive.

Moreover, the land of these people was not all illegally occupied. For example, Han Xin bought it with real gold and silver.

Or some of the more reputable families, they basically buy them. At most, they just lower the price.

Among them, people like the Beiming family who are not short of money have no need to affect their reputation because of such things. If they want a house or land, they can just pay the money.

There are some people who maliciously grab land and act in an extremely ugly way, and there are quite a few of them, but they cannot represent all of them.

A one-size-fits-all approach may lose support.

Increasing taxes is a slightly milder approach, but the final result may not be satisfactory.

What is more likely is that these "rich producers" will pass the pressure on to the tenants who farm for them.

Even if he issued an edict at this moment, strictly prohibiting all officials and noble families from privately enclosing land and occupying people, however, touching class interests would inevitably lead to public resistance.

There is actually a certain struggle between the monarch and his subjects. After all, in many cases, the interests of the monarch and the subjects are not the same. The struggle between the imperial power and the prime minister's power is a manifestation of the struggle between the monarch and his subjects.

"In my opinion, we can make an example of them and re-issue the land equalization order, abolish the head tax, and implement the land tax and land service policy! After that, we can add a land purchase tax!"

Guan Zhong had been planning the relevant solutions for a long time, and had even discussed them privately with several court ministers. Therefore, he already had some practical measures in mind.

It's just that he needs to implement it bit by bit.

It just so happened that Wang Yu asked about the situation today, so Guan Zhong simply stated all that he had prepared before.

Undoubtedly, Guan Zhong's intention was to find a few cruel officials and let them serve as an example to Wang Yu.

Among the officials and noble families who enclosed the land, some obtained it through normal trading methods, while there were naturally some who engaged in ugly practices, such as forced buying and selling, or even seizing it by improper means.

Among those people behind, we can pick out some typical examples and use them as the chicken to scare the monkeys.

Anyway, if those people want to catch them, there is certainly a way to do it.

"The Equal Field System is to distribute unowned land to small farmers according to the population for cultivation. The land is state-owned and becomes theirs after a certain number of years of cultivation. Farmers pay rent and taxes to the court and undertake corresponding corvée and military service." Guan Zhong began to explain what he called the Equal Field System.

The content of the Equal Field Distribution Order was extremely complicated, and the classification of fields was also extremely complicated. As for the various regulations in the equal field distribution process, they were even more complicated.

"There are indeed many unowned lands in the world nowadays!" Wang Yu nodded.

Now is a time of chaos, people die every day, and with these people's death, their fields naturally become ownerless.

Especially in the process of foreign wars, the cruelty involved, such as Su Dingfang's mass killing between Dasheng and Dallan, and the unowned wasteland that was eventually produced in the middle process, can naturally provide a basis for the equal-field system.

Moreover, in times of chaos, some people will develop into new families, while old families will decline or even perish. The demise of these old families will also leave a large amount of unowned land.

"In the past, taxes were based on the number of persons in each household. The head tax was abolished, and the land tax and land service policy was implemented. That is, taxes were collected based on the number of fields, not the number of persons. All corvée and military service were also based on the number of fields, not the number of persons!" Guan Zhong was somewhat hesitant when he talked about this.

In his vision, the Equal Field System was the first step.

When this step is almost implemented, the entire Da Cang will basically fall into the hands of the Han people, and then the second step will be carried out step by step.

The land distributed under the Equal Field System was also unowned land. It even protected private land ownership and the existing land legitimacy of the aristocratic and bureaucratic classes. It can be said that this is indeed a mixed blessing for the aristocratic and bureaucratic classes today.

Therefore, when it comes to implementation, the resistance is within a controllable range.

But if the second step is to be implemented, the resistance will soar!
The tax was paid based on the number of fields, not the number of people. This meant that the more land one enclosed, the more tax one had to pay. Moreover, in Guan Zhong's idea, the tax was a tiered system. The more land one had, the more tax one had to pay per acre.

Moreover, even corvée and military service were determined by the amount of land in hand. No matter whether it was officials or noble families, how could they spare so many people from their own families to serve in the army? Even if they could, would they be willing to go?
Therefore, what was finally taken out naturally belonged to the tenants under their command.

Now that they have taken these people out, there is naturally no reason for them to go back.

Therefore, those hidden populations will be liberated step by step.