At the end of Qin, I became a son of the plane

Chapter 297: Reduce the Rentier Class and Useless Nobles of the Six Nations

The words were divided into two parts. Xiang Yu and others were worried about the strength of the Han army, but it was an unexpected surprise for Xu Fan. He did not expect that Song Liu could withstand Xiang Yu's attack.

So much so that he sighed: "Song Liu also has the qualifications to be a famous general. Why didn't I see it before? History has delayed him."

This was Xiang Yu. With tens of thousands of troops, he defeated the most elite northern Xinjiang army of Qin Dynasty and kicked Da Qin into the dust of history. Chu Overlord, during the four years of Chu-Han struggle for hegemony, there was no general in the world. To withstand Xiang Yu's attack head-on, Peng Yue couldn't, Ying Bu couldn't, and even Han Xin didn't dare. Liu Bang defeated the Overlord of Chu with only one domain in the world.

Xu Fan never expected that Song Liu, whose name was not even recorded in history, could actually do this. There was really a crouching tiger, hidden dragon within the Han army.

Chen Ping and Zhang Liang were not surprised. The Han army was superior to the Qi army in terms of military equipment, training intensity, logistical support, and officer training. In addition, the Qi army had never been a strong army. It should not be able to withstand Xiang Yu. Did the emperor attach too much importance to Xiang Yu?

It can only be said that Xu Fan was deeply influenced by history. After all, his record against Xiang Yu was too strong. He fought twice with less to win more, and defeated hundreds of thousands of enemies with tens of thousands of people. Don't you say this? It is a history book, but people read it as a fantasy novel.

But Xu Fan never thought that the Han army in his hands had far exceeded the army in the feudal era.

He has been teasing his own army. It has the charm of the army of later generations, which is enough to sweep the world. But the army of later generations can have such a strong combat effectiveness. The first is fairness, the second is respect, the third is equalization of land, and the fourth is decades. accumulation of war.

Xu Fan's Han army did well except for the fourth point. The Han army did not say three points of charm, but five points. A modern army with five points of charm, even someone like Xiang Yu. Even the divine generals could not break through the Han army.

Zhang Liang sometimes couldn't understand his majesty. Call him merciful. He was indeed merciful. He deleted a large number of corporal punishments, punishments of execution, and punishments of association in the Han Code. The Han Code was ten times more merciful than the Qin Code. Not only that, he himself killed anyone because he did not express his anger. Among the monarchs in the world, he is regarded as the emperor. His temper is as good as that of ordinary people. For this alone, he can be called the emperor of benevolence.

Chen Ping frowned and said: "Now the county guards and county magistrates from all over the Central Plains can no longer control the situation. They can implicate powerful people at will in the name of unity. If they continue like this, those powerful nobles who don't want to rebel will probably also rebel."

Zhang Liang looked at the war reports sent by county guards from all over the Central Plains, frowned and said: "Your Majesty, now in any county in the Central Plains, hundreds of millions of money and hundreds of thousands of acres of land can be seized. This is equivalent to more than a dozen companies in every county in the Central Plains." It is impossible for the powerful to unite. If Xiang Yu really had such ability, the Central Plains would have been captured by him long ago. "

Zhang Liang immediately persuaded: "Your Majesty, although many nobles from the Six Kingdoms have taken refuge with Xiang Yu, they are only a small number after all. You cannot purge them all just because a small number of people rebelled. Even the Zhujiu Clan did not do this. It is not in line with your benevolent and righteous governance philosophy.”

Xu Fan said: "I know that there must be a large number of innocent people among them, but considering the nobles of the Six Nations as a class, they cannot be regarded as innocent people.

So it is no exaggeration that Song Liu could do this. Even if Han Xin was in Xue County, he would probably be able to defeat Xiang Yu. It can only be said that Xu Fan's knowledge barrier is too deep.

Xu Fan said calmly: "I don't look at individuals. It's enough that they are not innocent as a whole. I have given them a chance, but they are just unwilling to join this new era. Since they can't keep up with the times, don't blame the times for eliminating them. , This is not only responsible for the people of the world, but also responsible for the great Han Dynasty. "

Chen Ping thought for a while and said: "Your Majesty, you should be careful not to hurt your own people. If there are children from your family who join the army in our country to protect the people of the world, but their family is purged, it will not chill the loyalty of the world."

The remnants of the nobles from the Six Kingdoms were still lying on the big man's body and sucking the flesh and blood of the big man. This was something Xu Fan didn't want to see. He wanted a clean world that was easy to sweep and a blank piece of paper that was easy to draw on.

Otherwise, someone wants to open a factory, but a rich man suddenly appears and says that this land belongs to their family, this river also belongs to their family, and these roads belong to their family. If they open a factory, 70% of the profit will be obtained by this rich man. , and then the rich man used the money to buy more land.

Zhang Liang was shocked. The emotional emperor did not regard Xiang Yu as his opponent, but wanted to lure the snake out of its hole and attract the powerful nobles from the Central Plains and Hebei to cleanse them.

Twenty-year-old Xu Fan may pursue the so-called absolute justice and will definitely prevent such things from developing. But after staying on the Internet for ten more years, Xu Fan has already understood that there are not so many things in the world that are 100 points. Most of the time, they fail. It is very rare to achieve 60 points.

Zhang Liang advised: "Creating a large number of unjust, false and wrong cases is harmful to His Majesty's reputation."

But to say that he was cruel, he was no different than the First Emperor. Hundreds of thousands of people said they were implicated, and he still knew that there were a large number of innocent people. He was so cold that he couldn't believe it. Zhang Liang always felt that the emperor was an extremely contradictory person, and he could not guess what the emperor was thinking.

So when will the industrialization he expected to bear fruit? Could it be that there was a budding period 2000 years in advance?

Now that Song Liu has resisted Xiang Yu, Xu Fan is not in a hurry to go to Xue County.

Xu Fan looked at the war reports from various county guards: "The Central Plains is the front line of this war, and the Qi battlefield is a secondary battlefield."

Regarding the current situation in the Central Plains and Hebei, Xu Fan is happy to see it. The pace of unifying the world was too fast at the beginning. The Han Dynasty almost annihilated the Northern Xinjiang Army and unified the world. This kind of thing has good and bad consequences. The troubled times will end quickly. , few people died, and most of the world’s population survived. But the disadvantage is that the old aristocratic tyrants are not clean enough.

As long as he saw the amount of money, he could already imagine what kind of chaos it was. Although he also had the idea of ​​​​purging the powerful nobles of the six countries, he did not want to expand it so much. After all, the Qi State and the Han Dynasty were still there. War and internal instability are also extremely detrimental to the Han Dynasty.

Those people have been suffering for a few years, and they keep talking about how miserable they are, and how miserable they are. The people in the world have suffered for thousands of years, and they don’t talk about it. The years you suffered are all other people’s lives. Bullying others has no right to speak. Now Xu Fan understands that many things are a matter of stance.

Because this class does not create wealth, but relies on the people to absorb their wealth, so they naturally carry original sin. From this point of view, each of them deserves their sins. The more they are cleaned up, the more merciful they will be to the people. "

Xu Fan thought for a while and said: "Prime Minister Chen issued an order. Firstly, the local county guards should not kill people, and violators should be severely punished. Secondly, they should pay attention to screening. As long as there is a family that has taken refuge in my big man, they should not be disturbed. After all, if you let them go, you can catch them again, but if you catch the wrong person, your loyalty will be shattered."

This great purge of the Han Dynasty was not random. Officer families who were willing to join the Han Dynasty and become petty officials and start working hard, or marry the Han Dynasty, or join the army to fight for the Han Dynasty, naturally cannot purge them. Those who are really purged , are those nobles from the Six Kingdoms who have not yet integrated into the Han Dynasty.

After all, this is a handover ceremony of wealth and power, and Xu Fan can only use the majority to attack a small group, the most corrupt and greedy part of the world. Reducing the number of rentiers in the world and hurting one's own foundation will be harmful to the big man.

Zhang Liang continued to persuade: "After all, there are hundreds of thousands of people."

Zhang Liang was a wise man. After knowing the emperor's thoughts, he should not have persuaded him like this. But he was also one of the nobles of the Six Kingdoms, and the fate of these people made him feel sad.

Xu Fan said calmly: "Politics should look at gains and losses for the world, not for a small group of people. This class is beneficial to the world, and I can keep them. If their existence does harm to the world but no benefit, even if they are Individuals are not guilty, but they are harmful to the Han people as a whole, and I will clean them up without mercy."

Chen Ping asked curiously: "Your Majesty, how can you tell whether they are beneficial to the world or harmful to the world?" Chen Ping didn't care. He was not an aristocrat from the Six Kingdoms. His family used to be a commoner. They were so poor that they could hardly read. rise. He naturally despises these nobles of the Six Nations, let alone has any so-called sympathy for these people. Most of his sufferings back then were caused by these people. He had seen too many powerful, greedy and shameless faces of these nobles at the bottom.

Xu Fan said: "The powerful aristocrats of the Six Kingdoms are already a legacy of the previous era. If they had been capable, the Six Kingdoms would not have been wiped out by the Qin Dynasty. This is a sign of their incompetence."

"Each of the nobles of the six countries has a huge family property, with vast hectares of fertile land. Their huge property cannot be earned by their own hard work, nor by suppressing ordinary people.

But even though they have earned so much, they still want to evade taxes. There are so many nobles and powerful men in the Central Plains who are rebelling. Isn't it because they are unwilling to accept the 30% land tax of my great Han Dynasty? These noble powerful men are useless to me, a great Han man. If they are harmful, eliminating these people will be harmful to the tens of millions of people in the entire world. "

"Although Shang Yang has caused harm for thousands of years, some of what he said still makes sense. The upper-level rulers of a country must be restricted. The more interests they occupy, the less the country will occupy. In the troubled times of the Warring States Period, the interests controlled by the country If there are too few, a weak country will be annexed by other powerful countries, so the ratio of officials, scholars, merchants, workers and farmers in a country is 1:1:1:3:95.

"Although the standard he set is simple and crude, and is somewhat outdated, for example, workers and farmers are both producers, food is wealth, and various tools are also wealth. The two are complementary to each other.

Just like there are curved shaft plows, waterwheels, and blast furnaces to manufacture a large number of low-priced agricultural tools, etc. Because of these tools, the grain output of our Han Dynasty is increasing every year, and the wealth of the world is also increasing rapidly. There are also various kinds of cloth, various agricultural tools, tools, etc. All items in the world that make people's lives better are wealth.

Because of my strong handicraft industry, the imperial court received more wealth than the Qin Dynasty, so I, the Han Dynasty, could reduce taxes by half and be exempted from corvee.

The strength of the handicraft industry is the reason why our Han Dynasty is stronger than the Qin Dynasty, because our Han Dynasty has found a new point of wealth growth, which can greatly reduce the burden on the people of the world.

But Shang Jun's ratio of the first two is reasonable. The first two are not producers, and they cannot create wealth. To describe the first two in one word, they are rentiers.

If there are more of these people, the oppression of the latter three will be heavier, making a country weaker, conflicts within the country will become fierce, and the country will be defeated or even conquered by nations weaker than itself.

Zhang Liang and Chen Ping nodded. Although this was a new word created by the emperor, they quickly understood its meaning. Using rentiers to describe officials and scholars was really appropriate.

"If a country wants to develop healthily, it must regularly clean up those classes that cannot generate benefits. If these people expand too much, they will absorb a huge amount of wealth and eventually lead to chaos. Now you two look at these remnants of the Six Nations, are they What kind of benefit do they have to me, the great man, and the people of the world?"

Zhang Liang could only smile bitterly. The greatest role of the powerful nobles was to maintain the stability of the world and make up for the shortcomings of the government.

But the Han Dynasty had a complete system of Han officials down to the grassroots level, as well as its own aristocratic system. This system was also extremely complete. From the princes and kings to the low-level men and nobles, these people were spread throughout the Han Dynasty. From this point of view, the nobles of the Six Kingdoms are powerful, and the Han Dynasty really does not need them.

Xu Fan said sternly: "They are not even as powerful as the powerful nobles of Chu. Because of the oppression of the Han Dynasty, these people have begun to increase their investment in land. In the past, the land could only produce one stone of grain, but the powerful nobles of Chu." , they bought waterwheels, curved shaft plows, sickles, shovels, and even hired people to build canals. Now the three-stone-per-acre farmland in Chudi has increased by more than 20%, and the number of cultivated fields has reached 50%.

Because of the powerful investment of the nobles of the Chu State, the food supply in Chen County and other six counties increased by tens of millions of dan, which truly increased the wealth of the world. In this case, I can accept even if the nobles of the land take more and occupy more. "

"And what did the nobles and powerful people in Hebei and the Central Plains do? Because the land was tenanted, they negotiated with the tenants about the share of the land. They didn't care about the land at all. The tenants benefited less, so they couldn't suffer. The tenants had a good harvest, so they wanted to increase the land rent. They didn't care about anything. Without doing anything, you can get about 30% to 40% of the tenant's income for free, or you can use usury to trick the people, turn them into their serfs, and suck the blood of countless people.

They have not created wealth for the world, but they are also trying to steal money from the court. Even the most basic tax payment responsibilities are unwilling to be borne. The existence of these people is harmful to my Khan. In this case, it is the right decision of the court to clean them up. "

Zhang Liang and Chen Ping were shocked when they heard Xu Fan's words. According to the emperor's class classification method, the nobles of the Six Kingdoms really did not benefit the Han Dynasty. They even lost their last resort of force. The pavilion chief of the Han Dynasty, The county captain can suppress them. According to this logic, the emperor did the right thing.

When Zhang Liang and Chen Ping communicated privately, they believed that it was precisely because the emperor had this way of thinking that he could repeatedly find the best path for the Han Dynasty. Therefore, the Han Dynasty encountered almost no obstacles from the founding of the country to the destruction of Qin.

However, Zhang Liang said helplessly: "It's just that such a way is too unhuman."

Chen Ping said: "As long as the emperor can always remain so rational, this will be the greatest good thing for the man."

Zhang Liang nodded, discovering problems and solving them are the world's top abilities.

The reason why Bao Qin was destroyed when they were at their most powerful was not because they had lost the ability to discover and solve problems, so that the world was so hard to come back that they were destroyed by the emperor leading 800 prisoners.

The purge of the Han Dynasty was not without its consequences. From September to October, the powerful nobles in the Central Plains and Hebei Province found it difficult to defeat the tyrants head-on. These people joined forces with their former black gloves and became bandits. , wandering in the mountains, rivers and woods of Hebei in the Central Plains, they gathered into teams and attacked the counties and villages of the Han Dynasty, killing Han officials, plundering the people, and making the entire Central Plains unrestful.

Faced with this situation, Xu Fan continued to form armies in Sanchuan County, Dong County, and Handan County. The number of troops throughout the Central Plains continued to increase, with hundreds of thousands of troops stationed in Hebei, the Central Plains.

Each city had sufficient troops to make it difficult for bandits to conquer the Han Dynasty's cities. At the same time, forts were built on the main transportation routes to prevent the flow of bandits.

After guarding the territory, Xu Fan then led the elite Han army to suppress bandits throughout Hebei and the Central Plains.

Moreover, the attitude was extremely harsh. In addition to surrendering unconditionally, the bandits would have their leaders exiled. Ordinary bandits could still stay in the Central Plains to farm. However, as long as they dared to resist, the leaders would be beheaded and all ordinary bandits would be exiled to Liaodong and other places.

However, these powerful nobles had their families destroyed. They did not choose to surrender at all, but carried out fierce resistance. Unfortunately, the absolute strength of the Han army was too strong, and Xu Fan had learned too much about this kind of bandit suppression war. Take a look at "The Suppression of Bandits in Western Hunan" and "The Suppression of Bandits in Wulongshan". As long as they have the support of local people, these so-called bandits are just a joke. Guerrilla warfare also needs a civilian base, but these bandits are a coalition of powerful forces and have no such foundation at all.

Therefore, it would be okay if these powerful bandits did not show up. As long as they did show up, they would be hunted down by the Han army. They would have no way to go to heaven and no way to enter the earth. The bandits in the Central Plains were quickly wiped out. Only a few bandits fled to Qi State and were accepted by Xiang Yu.

In just over a month, the Han army captured more than 800 real and fake bandits, and beheaded more than bandit leaders. All the remaining bandits were exiled to Liaodong. They will go to Liaodong to open up wasteland and pay for their sins.

After the Central Plains was determined to be clean, Xu Fan began to lead the Han army to attack Qi.

(End of this chapter)