Daqin: When I return from sea, I will offer you a map of the world

Chapter 522 Employment System Replaces Slavery
"Since it is a good thing, there is no reason why it should not be done just because of difficulties. All the ministers in the court are talented in helping the world and governing the country. Taking advantage of the court meeting, I will come up with a charter today...

How should the law be revised and how should household registration be handled?

How to get the corvee transfer from local counties?

How to free the slaves without damaging the private interests of each family as much as possible..." Zhao Si said.

When the ministers heard this, their eyes darkened...

Once the tone is set that freeing slaves is a good thing, it will be difficult to reverse the verdict.

His Highness Taisun said everything clearly. Since it is a good thing, it must be done.

Apart from feeling a headache, I'm afraid it's familiar, yes...familiar...

"Your Highness... This may not be a good thing..." Some ministers made a final struggle for it.

"Hey, don't talk nonsense. If there is resistance, there will be resistance. If there are difficulties, there will be difficulties. But the good and bad can be clearly distinguished..." Zhao Si said seriously.

In short, Zhao Si only used one answer in the whole article when faced with various doubts.

So after nearly an hour of questioning and raising various follow-up hidden dangers that could not shake His Highness the Grand Sun's plan, the ministers were finally forced to start discussing the feasibility of freeing the slaves in a decent manner.

Then there is the next problem. Local counties and counties lack the labor manpower of their own disposal. Basically, if they want to do something, they have to launch corvees. It is bound to be necessary to relax the rights of local counties to collect and mobilize corvees, and at the same time launch corvees accordingly. The dynamic review system also needs to be reformulated.

Well, that is to say, Great Qin will not completely reject the existence of slavery for the time being, but the Central Plains people, as the dominant ethnic group, will no longer allow private slaves to be raised.

In the same way, the following public opinion propaganda can also start from this point, rather than striving for perfection.

In the same way, the influence of large private slave-owning households such as the nobles and wealthy families is not that great in the court meeting. Although there is not a serious proletarian present, and they all own slaves more or less, but this It was not a place for selfish pursuits, and the incident happened suddenly, and the big nobles' urinary nature meant that it would be difficult for them to reach an agreement in such a hasty situation.

Once things are settled, many problems become simpler accordingly.

Anyway, they won't gain much. On the contrary, after the abolition of official slaves, the mobilization ability of local governments has further declined. The central government has control over the review of launching corvee labor, and its power has further increased. Correspondingly, the overall value of officials in Xianyang has been improved, and their influence on This group of officials in Xianyang is actually a good thing.

What else can I do? I don’t feel bad for selling my father’s land.

For example, some people raised questions regarding the issue of slave liberation.

This issue has been going on for quite some time...

Zhao Si grasped the tone of the matter and refuted one question after another. The officials were almost helpless. Zhao Si's identity determined that he was invincible.

Anyway, the official slaves were the property of the Qin Dynasty. On the other hand, local officials were no longer in the ranks of the Great Court Meeting. This association had no voice channel at all, so the Manchu ministers who participated in the Great Court Meeting in Xianyang very thoughtfully helped them plan everything.

This is a good thing, if you can do it alone.

If there are difficulties, you overcome them.

The next question is, how should the punishment of being demoted to a slave in the Qin laws and regulations be modified?

Mainly because the minister present here really has a private slave in his home.

Zhao Si once again threw the issue to Li Si with a wave of his hand, asking Li Si to try his best to draw up a charter.

The discussion on official slaves went quite smoothly. After all, official slaves were mostly concentrated in local areas and were considered private property of counties. To put it bluntly, whether there were official slaves or not made no difference to this group of officials in the central government.

He didn't have much to do today. He just decided that freeing slaves was a good thing and died, and then urged the ministers to come up with a plan.

Secondly, it is still a relatively important issue. Most of these slaves are guilty, especially the official slaves. How should their culpability be calculated?

There are two sides to the matter, and naturally there are opponents and supporters.

Will Great Qin ban slavery in the future?
The answer given by Zhao Si was that only Qin people were banned, not vassal people.

Facts have proved that when the ministers set their minds to work, the efficiency is quite impressive...

Of course, in order to impose punishment, these slaves were uniformly distributed to areas in urgent need of manpower.

Most of the ministers of the Manchu Dynasty only talked about it, but once the slaves were released, the local counties actually wanted to cut off the flesh. For local officials, it was obvious that this was a high degree of weakening of rights and property.

Well, the local counties that suffered the most are no longer among the ranks of the imperial meeting, so the resistance is not as great as imagined.

Xian Gong's reminder also opened up Zhao Si's thinking.

He is a monarch, a superior, and a ruler. Many times what he has to do is not how to do things well, but to define a thing.

The newly expanded areas in Lingnan and Longxi are short of people, so one million people will be filled first.

It just so happened that there was a shortage of people in the remote areas of Da Qin. Since no one was willing to go, it would be better to punish them instead.

Don’t make a mistake. If you make a mistake, move your family to a large-scale development...

Fortunately... the Dachaohui mainly targets officials in Xianyang, and local county officials are not among the ranks of the Dachaohui.

It is a good thing, then no matter how difficult it is, if you have difficulties, find a way to overcome them. If you cannot overcome them, then reflect on your own problems. Have you done your best to be loyal to the country over the years, and are you worthy of the salary you received?

Once the issue of official slaves has been sorted out, it becomes the issue of private slaves.

Just tell me if this is a good thing!

As long as personal interests are not involved, the ability of this group of officials is actually quite impressive.

Facts have proved that the world is a huge grass-roots team.

Zhao Si waved his hand and said that according to the previous amnesty decree, these slaves should also be included in the amnesty of their crimes.

Not to mention, some of them have no selfish motives and are truly worthy ministers who are willing to serve the country.

Zhao Si waved his hand and said that his countrymen would not be allowed to be slaves in the future, so he thoughtfully changed the punishment of being relegated to slavery to exile.

The number of slaves raised by some animals is quite considerable. If they expect them to be freed for nothing, they must be unhappy.

Being loyal to the country is a slogan, but actually donating money is not acceptable.

Secondly, all the gentlemen present here are all decent people. If there are no more slaves in the future, how can we live a decent life? You can’t do everything yourself, right?
It would be legal to replace all the slaves with feudal lords, but the problem is how could there be so many lords?

All in all, when it comes to personal interests, the problem arises for the gentlemen.

One, men don’t want to donate money.

Second, men need to be decent. Because the personal interests of everyone present were involved, the subjective initiative of the courtiers was visibly reduced.

Except for some people who sincerely serve the country, most of them started to complain...

They really don't mind abolishing official slaves, but they really don't want to abolish private slaves.

If you don’t have enough enthusiasm for work, or even resist and show off your emotions, you can imagine how efficient your work will be.

Zhao Si was also unambiguous and made a public perversion on these two key issues.

"Official slaves are domestically produced, and since the eldest father has asked Gu to supervise the country, Gu can still be the master.

After all, this private slave is private property. It is really not easy for an orphan to make decisions for the princes... Although all the princes are loyal to the emperor and the country, it is not easy for an orphan to make the princes suffer, right? "Zhao Si said with a smile.

Naturally, the ministers said they did not dare, and said that everyone was willing to share the worries for the country. The main reason was that this matter had too much resistance in the world. We are sensible, but not everyone is sensible.

Seeing through but not telling off, Zhao Si didn't mind what the princes said, but seriously stated his proposal.

"I never like to beat around the bush. There is no need to guess too much about what I say. At the same time, it is what I say. Today, I might as well make it clear to all the ministers that I must do this matter of freeing slaves, and I must do it." Must keep doing it.

As for the two issues raised by the ministers, I do have a suggestion that you might as well listen to.

First of all, private slaves are the private property of each family. If the people of the world are asked to hand over their property without any reason, the people of the world will definitely be unwilling to touch it. Such behavior does have the appearance of robbery and robbery, which is really inappropriate.

It's better to do this... Private slaves are calculated according to the market price. The princes will discuss it today. How much is a healthy slave worth? How much is an old slave worth? How much is a slave girl worth?

After the decision is made, the private slave will redeem himself...

Of course, the premise is to register and distribute the land first. As for the money, it will be owed first. The private slaves will be levied an extra tax, whether it is five years or ten years. In short, after the private slaves are released, the tax will be as much as the extra tax. How many years ago, everyone also negotiated a charter, and then the government would pay to each family uniformly. In this way, both money and goods were paid. Although each family still suffered some losses, the losses were not huge at all. This is a state matter... Dear Lords, please be loyal. country, it’s understandable when you think about it. "Zhao Si said.

To put it bluntly, private slavery can be regarded as redemption.

It was said that it was self-redemption, but in fact it was purchased from them by the Qin government.

The debt relationship is that the self-redeemed slaves - the Qin government - the private slave owners.

Freed private slaves were levied extra taxes. For example, other common people were charged 11 taxes, but they were charged 15 taxes. Based on calculations, it was calculated how many years they needed to collect taxes and how many years later they would return to normal tax levels.

They had all the rights, status and duties enjoyed by yeoman farmers, except for additional taxes.

As for the government, it assumed the debt relationship of the private slave owners and used the extra taxes collected to repay the losses of subsidizing the private slave owners.

It was said to be self-redemption, but in reality it was actually purchased by the Qin government on their own initiative, adding a middleman.

It seems troublesome, but it's actually simple.

Zhao Si couldn't even think of anything that would allow these freed slaves to directly establish a debt relationship with their private slave owners.

How can it be so easy to bear the debt of a big dog?
Also once these debts fall on individuals, many problems become troublesome.

Because after all, the land must be divided among private slaves after they are released. If the land is not divided, they will not be able to become self-cultivation farmers. If they cannot become self-cultivation farmers, then freeing them will not make much sense...

The reason why the slaves were freed was to establish individual units based on individual families, so that the lower class groups could be more fragmented and easier to control, and at the same time, they could make the best use of their resources to carry out in-depth development of the Qin Dynasty, which had just unified and expanded its territory.

Carrying debt means that they are not free, and it means that they, as a group of homesteaders, are not pure enough.

Even if Da Qin later wants to recruit manpower to reclaim wasteland, it will get into trouble.

It is true that they are no longer slaves, but they owe money. If you have been relocated, where can you get the money?
Therefore, it is better to have one more middleman.

Let this group of private slaves not owe money to these big dogs, but only owe money to the Qin government.

Anyway, taxes are collected uniformly, and it is just an extra portion for them.

They have all the rights of natural persons except for additional taxes.

In the same way, after the Qin government assumed the debt, private slave owners, as a vulnerable group, had no qualifications to interfere with the new self-cultivators.

Zhao Si's solution was from the perspective of these private slaves and the Qin government. Correspondingly, it naturally damaged certain rights of private slave owners.

For example...the money is paid in installments.

For example, in this transaction, the private slave owners, as creditors, were actually in a weak position. If the Great Qin government really failed to repay its debts, what could they do?

Moreover, this money can be loaned out to others and the interest will be compounded. They will return nine times out of ten. Do they dare to play this trick with the Qin government?

Secondly, the Daqin government has no choice but to give them the money. So what if they really don’t give it to them? Sue the Qin government? Who in the hall is suing me?
To put it bluntly, Zhao Sizhen was determined to refuse to pay, and there was no way they could do it.

Such unequal behavior naturally aroused doubts, but Zhao Si ignored it and continued to talk about the solution to the second problem.

"As for the release of the slaves, I can understand that there are indeed many things that require help from people. One person cannot do it. Nuoda's house needs to be cleaned and the extra fields need to be cultivated. Although the vassal people can be slaves, , but presumably it is not enough.

However, in this regard, everyone can sign a contract and hire people. Correspondingly, Daqin will also issue corresponding laws and regulations to ensure the legality of the contract so that both parties can make reasonable agreements in accordance with the content of the contract. It is a win-win situation for everyone! "Zhao Si said seriously.

Actually... after the abolition of slavery, a large part of the people still did the work of slaves.

It sounds like they have noble freedom of choice and human rights.

But in fact, due to various pressures, most people are not qualified to choose.

Filled with righteous indignation and passion, the last choice he could make was probably to change places and become a slave to his boss.

Well... from this point of view, I am indeed more free than before.

But Zhao Si didn't care about this. As a ruler, what he cared about was that Da Qin had reasonable and legal strong interference in personal relationships and vassalage.

In the era of private slave property, slaves were regarded as private property and they did not enjoy human rights legally.

Therefore, the government's interference with slaves can be almost zero.

But now, after the slave relationship has been transformed into an employment relationship, they have legally changed from slaves to Chinese citizens who enjoy a series of rights and obligations.

Then the government will have strong interference with this group of people, and the rights of the corresponding aristocratic families and nobles will be further weakened.

This was the key point for Zhao Si to convince the First Emperor.

(End of this chapter)