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

Chapter 439: The collapse of the small peasant economy and the riots
That night, Shangnong returned to Yulin Township and summoned all the farmers' children to discuss the matter.

Shang Nong looked at everyone and said, "Today, I have signed a contract with twelve restaurants in Fushi County. From now on, we will provide 6000 chickens, 1000 slaughtered chickens and ducks, and 60 pigs every month."

Tian Yan smiled and said, "This amount is less than one-third of our farm's production capacity. Why didn't you ask them to order more?"

The merchant shook his head and said, "Fushi County cannot compare with Guanzhong. The current production capacity is due to the railway connection. Merchants from the desert and Guanzhong gather here. Otherwise, even if we raise so many poultry, it will be difficult to sell them. After leaving Guanzhong, I understand the emperor a little bit. The emperor has always emphasized the market for a reason. The self-sufficient small peasant economy produces for its own use without worrying about overcapacity. The industrialized model not only reduces production costs, but also finds ways to find markets. Any mistake in any link may cause a complete collapse. It is not an exaggeration to say that selling goods is a dangerous path."

Wu Yue smiled and said, "The emperor's words always make sense. Practice makes perfect. If my family had not come to Yulin, how would we know that there are so many twists and turns in selling goods."

In fact, Shang Nong was not a good salesman, but his status was high. When he entered Fushi County, even Cao Sheng, the governor of Shangjun, had to be careful with him, not to mention the merchants in Fushi County. When they learned that Shang Nong was here to sell poultry, these people were almost shocked. The prime minister of the Han Dynasty actually wanted to do business with them. For a moment, they didn't know whether they should be scared or excited. Anyway, they all gave Shang Nong the highest price.

Shang Nong looked at Wu Yue and asked, "Will the villagers in Baiyang agree to raise poultry with us?"

Wu Yue said, "As soon as the braised chicken and duck appeared, the villagers in Baiyang had this idea. Tomorrow I will bring some people to help them build earthworm fields and hatcheries, and strive to allow the villagers in Baiyang to eat meat every few days within half a year."

Now breeding farms have become a magic weapon in the hands of farmers, because it takes more than half a year to see results from farming, but by building an incubator, you can see hatched poultry seedlings in less than a month, and these chickens and ducks can lay eggs in three months, which significantly improves the lives of the villagers.

As the lives of the villagers improve, the prestige of the farmers will be established. There will not be too many obstacles in teaching them to make compost, repair canals, and grow cash crops. As long as the villagers are willing to learn new technologies, their lives will develop in the right direction.

Shang Nong said, "According to the emperor, the Han Dynasty has already begun industrialization. Anyone who has not caught up with industrialization will be left far behind. The reason why my hometown in the Han Dynasty has not developed much in recent years is because the Han Dynasty has not joined the industrialization. The increase in wealth in the Han Dynasty in recent years is mainly due to the development of industry. Although agriculture has also grown, it is far less than industry."

"If my farming family doesn't want to become a declining school, we must link our farming family's technology with the development of industrialization. If farmers want to become prosperous, they must also find ways to enter industrialization."

Ding Yue hesitated and said, "Big Brother, what exactly is this industrialization that the emperor is talking about? Why is industrialization so important?"

When Ding Yue joined the farming family, he originally wanted to use the farming family as a springboard to enter the Han Dynasty. However, due to fate, he has stayed in the farming family to engage in agricultural technology work. Now he has become a master in breeding. Now he has lost interest in becoming a Han official. So when Shang Nong came to Yulin, he followed him.

The merchant thought for a while and shook his head, saying, "In fact, I don't know much about industrialization. I only vaguely grasped two things. One is what the emperor said about improving productivity. Just like before, women could weave one bolt of cloth a month, but now they can weave dozens of bolts a month with the steam loom. This should be a kind of industrialization. The hatchery and breeding farm that my farm has built are also a kind of industrialization. In the past, farmers raised at most a dozen poultry, but now we raise tens of thousands. This is a manifestation of improved productivity and a kind of industrialization."

"Another point is that the goods produced can only be industrialized if they are used for exchange. For example, my self-sufficient farming family in the past was not industrialized, but now we need to sell poultry to others, which is industrialized."

Shang Nong explained why industrialization was important. Thinking of what he had seen in Hu County, he said solemnly, “As for why we should attach importance to industrialization, it is because those who cannot keep up with the industrial age will be crushed by industrialization itself.”

Then he sighed and said, "In fact, this has already been reflected in the farmers. In recent years, the Han Dynasty has built water conservancy projects and promoted agricultural technology. The yield per mu of land has increased from one stone to two stones. This is a very large number, which is equivalent to the Han Dynasty's additional grain production of several hundred million stones. However, the farmers in the Han Dynasty have not increased their income. Why did this happen?"

"First, the rapid development of the textile industry has destroyed the practice of women weaving in the Han Dynasty. I have not seen women weaving in Yulin, because with the time to weave, farmers can make more money by doing other things. But without the textile industry, farmers' income has been reduced by half."

"The second reason is because of the overcapacity of grain. In a poor place like Shangjun, the price of grain is only more than 30 coins. This is still affected by Guanzhong. The Han Dynasty has produced too much grain in recent years. The court has never been able to solve this problem. Farmers can only increase production but not income."

Wu Yue hesitated and asked, "According to what Senior Brother said, what my family does in Yulin is industrialized breeding. Then won't the farmers in other areas of Fushi be crushed by my family's breeding farms?"

This question shocked all the farmers' sons. They did not come to Yulin to help farmers. According to Senior Brother Wu Yue, their current practices were harming the local farmers.

The merchant farmer said helplessly: "The general trend of the world will not be changed by human will. After the emperor started industrialization, the people of the entire Han Dynasty were involved in this wave. The benefits of industrialization are very obvious. The wealth of the world has increased rapidly. The prosperity of our Han Dynasty is far beyond the past. It has realized the wish of the wise men of the world for hundreds of years that those who till the land have their own land. There are no more people starving to death in the world. The lives of citizens living in the city generally surpass those of the low-level nobles during the Qin Dynasty. Millions of children can get basic education. The reason why the Han Dynasty can do so many things is because industrialization has made the wealth produced by the Han Dynasty more than ten times that of the past. But there are pros and cons to everything in the world. The complexity of industrialization is far greater than that of previous countries. The capacity crisis in the past two years is also the backlash of industrialization."

Wu Yue asked: "Since industrialization can also backfire, why should the Han Dynasty continue to promote industrialization?"

Shang Nongdao said: "This process is irreversible. At this point, even if the Han Dynasty does not promote industrialization, industrialization will transform the entire Han Dynasty. This is not subject to human will. Second, the bottom line of industrialization is high. Although industrialization seems cruel, even during the economic crisis of the past two years, the people of the world could not make money at most, and it was not a problem for farmers to return to their homes and have enough food."

"If such a crisis occurred in an agricultural country, there would definitely be starving people everywhere. The emperor mentioned to me that although industrialization may seem cruel, it is still a force for progress. The small peasant society may seem warm and affectionate at ordinary times, but once it encounters a natural disaster, it will reveal its hideous face and devour the people at the bottom. Therefore, the emperor believes that in order to achieve a harmonious world, it is necessary to promote industrialization and let industrialization create more wealth for the whole world."

Therefore, the industrialization of the entire Han Dynasty will be unstoppable, and the situation in Shangjun is just like this. The county town near the track has been affected by industrialization, and the process is still very slow. The arrival of my family has accelerated industrialization. Even if my family does not start industrialization in Shangjun, others will start it. But my family wants to pull the local people into industrialization and enjoy the benefits of industrialization. "

Yuan Wei hesitated and said, "This industrialization is really as powerful as you said. Although Guanzhong has changed a lot, judging from the situation in Shangjun, it still retains the stable order that has existed for hundreds of years."

Shang Nong said: "We can wait and see the changes in Shangjun."

Then he looked at the other farm children and said, "You should carefully observe the changes in the next year. A thorough understanding of industrialization will be very helpful for your life path. If the farm family wants to develop in the future, it must rely on industrialization."

"Yes!" said all the farm boys.

In the following period, the farmer expanded his territory step by step, and almost every month he would absorb a village into his breeding industry chain. When the first batch of poultry seedlings were hatched, the villagers enjoyed the benefits of the farmer, and the farmer established prestige. The farmer's disciples led the villagers to build roads, build canals, and promote health knowledge, medical knowledge, agricultural farming knowledge, and breeding techniques, changing the poverty of the township.

The changes that the merchants and farmers mentioned happened very quickly. Fushi County was not a major transportation route. The Battle of the Desert brought opportunities to Fushi County. The Han Dynasty built a 1500-mile wooden track on the original Qin Straight Road, so Shangjun became the main road for desert caravans to enter Guanzhong. Every year, a large number of merchants entered Guanzhong from Shangjun. The gathering of merchants meant prosperous consumption. A large number of caravans had to rely on the county town and villages near the wooden track to complete logistics supplies. The grain that was previously unsalable was made into noodles, flatbreads, steamed buns, and dumplings, and the price could double or triple. The people of Shangjun started their own small businesses around the wooden track, and many of them became rich and became local tyrants.

Most of these businesses are snacks, so there are a lot of inns and restaurants in Fushi County, and the consumption of poultry and livestock is extremely strong. Therefore, Shangnong can get such a large order. If there is no prosperous catering industry, even if it is the prime minister of Shangnong, the merchants in Fushi will not be able to lose money on such a large order.

However, the catering industry in Fushi County originally had its own supply channels. When the great white shark of Nongjia suddenly emerged from such a small pond, many people in this industry felt the crisis. At first, the suppliers around Chidao in Shangjun just felt that the prices of poultry and other goods had dropped, and business had become difficult.

But they just thought that this was a normal rise and fall in prices, and that prices would rise again after a period of decline, and they would still make money. But the reality was obviously completely different from what they imagined. Prices continued to fall, and soon broke their cost line, but the farmers' caravans still provided household goods to major restaurants. At this time, they were shocked to find that this was no longer a question of whether the business was difficult or not, but a question of whether they could survive.

The farmers' supply was too large. They not only monopolized the local high-end restaurants, but also the shops of ordinary people, the East Market of the County City, and the Grass Market in the countryside, which were all filled with the farmers' eggs, poultry, livestock and other goods. The local breeding tyrants squeezed the ordinary farmers and had no living space at all. The merchants and farmers were in high positions and had great power. The local land tyrants did not dare to use many external means, but in fair competition, they could not compete with the farmers' breeding farms.

The farmers have special breeding feed factories, and the proportion of earthworms in the feed is very high, which means that sufficient protein can reduce a lot of food consumption. Combined with large-scale breeding technology, the poultry and livestock supplied by the farmers are not only high-quality, but also generally more than 30% cheaper than those of local people.

These local tyrants have been holding on for three months, but finally they can no longer hold on. If they continue to hold on, they will go bankrupt. The farmers close to the farmhouse are also very miserable. They originally raised a dozen or even dozens of poultry, but the price of their family's food has dropped by half, which is even lower than the price of the grain feed they spend. The free-range poultry business is now a loss-making business. Local farmers who have not joined the farmhouse are generally experiencing declining incomes.

It is said that cutting off someone's financial resources is like killing his parents. Now, not only have the local tyrants' financial resources been cut off, but even the lives of ordinary farmers have been affected. They can't even survive. Who cares whether you are a prime minister or not!
Once the two forces combined, after the farmers had taken root in Yulin for more than half a year, someone finally came knocking on their door.

August 8, the 15th day of the eighth month of the th year of the Han calendar, Yulin Township, Fushi County.

Zhang De and other powerful people in Fushi County led hundreds of farmers to surround the breeding farm of a farmer in Yulin Township.

Of course, Zhang De and his men did not dare to take the initiative to beat people, but they sent dozens of women to wail and throw tantrums at the entrance of the farm. "You outsiders are bullying people."

"You unscrupulous merchants are doing all kinds of evil things. You are trying to drive the prices of chickens and ducks so low. You want to drive ordinary people like us to death."

"We can't survive any longer. Let's die here today so that the world can see the ugly faces of you outsiders."

This made the farmers very embarrassed. Yulin was the farmers' base camp, so there was naturally no shortage of farmers who wanted to protect the farms. More than 200 farmers had already brought their own farm tools to protect the farms.

But now there were dozens of women and children rolling around in front of them, and the young and strong men from Yulin couldn't rush forward, so the scene was awkward for a while.

At this time, Shang Nong came out and said, "Everyone, making a fuss like this won't solve the problem. Who of you is in charge? Come out and discuss with us how to solve the problem."

The farmers who came to cause trouble looked at Zhang De and his friends. Zhang De and his friends cursed inwardly, but they had to come out.

Zhang De bowed and said, "Prime Minister Shang, you are a god in the world, why do you have to embarrass us peasants? If we really couldn't survive, we wouldn't dare to appear in front of you."

Shang Nong Nong bowed and said, "May I know your names?"

"Villains Zhang De, Guo Yun, and Yu Cheng."

Shang Nong said, "Yuan Wei, these elders have traveled a long way to come to Yulin, and I think they must be hungry. You should take them to have a meal first, and that will be like Yulin hosting a banquet for the elders of our hometown."

"promise"

Yuan Wei said to the farmers: "Please follow me."

When the farmers saw Zhang De and his two companions, they realized that this unexpected change was beyond their expectations and they didn't know what to do.

Zhang De had not expected that the farmers would use this trick, but he did not dare to offend the merchants and farmers, so he could only say, "The Prime Minister invited you to dinner, why don't you thank him?"

"Thank you, Prime Minister!" With Zhang De's consent, the villagers simply bowed to the merchants and farmers and followed Yuan Wei away.

Then Shang Nong brought Zhang De and the other two into the meeting room of the farmhouse and ordered someone to serve them a cup of tea.

Shang Nong took a sip of tea and said calmly: "If you three have any dissatisfaction with my farm, you can tell me now."

Zhang Deyou said in fear: "I naturally don't dare to be dissatisfied with the farmers. I just have to come here because I can't survive."

Guo Yun said, "Prime Minister, you have lowered the price of eggs to one coin each, duck eggs to two and three coins each, and salted duck eggs to five and ten coins each. At this price, we lose money for every egg we sell. I have been holding on for three months and have lost three hundred thousand coins. We can't survive any longer."

Yu Cheng was even more aggrieved and said, "Before you came to Yulin, the price of pork was 20 coins per catty, and sometimes the price was higher, but now the price of pork is only 12 coins per catty. At this price, I will lose coins per catty. All the money I earned in the past few years has been lost in the past few months. My family is almost ruined. Even if you are the prime minister of the Han Dynasty, you can't destroy my job like this.

Originally, the poultry and livestock industries in Shangjun maintained a stable balance, but the entry of the giant farmer directly brought about fundamental changes in the Shangjun market. Farmers' large-scale breeding overwhelmed these individual farmers in terms of quality, quantity and price. The market was taken away by farmers, and people who were originally in this industry chain naturally found it difficult to survive.

Zhang De knelt down and kowtowed to the farmers, saying, "Prime Minister Shang, please give us a way out. If you continue to lower the price, thousands of us will starve to death. You are a great farmer and the Prime Minister of the Han Dynasty, why do you want to embarrass farmers like us?"

Shang Nong lifted up Zhang De's hand and said, "My family is based on farmers. How could we do anything to embarrass farmers? But I want to make it clear to you that my family did not deliberately lower the prices of poultry and livestock. Even at the current prices, my family still has a 30% profit. The reason why your poultry and livestock cannot be sold is because the breeding costs are too high and there is no scale effect."

Zhang De said helplessly: "We are ordinary people, so we are naturally not as good as farmers, but please consider that these are our livelihoods, so please let us go, Prime Minister."

The merchant shook his head and said, "It's easy for my family to quit the breeding industry, but there are more than just my family that engages in large-scale breeding in the world. There are more than a dozen large-scale breeding farms in Guanzhong. If merchants from Guanzhong come to Shangjun to open breeding farms, what will you do? Only by strengthening yourself can you continue to thrive. The key at this time is that you must strengthen yourself."

After that, Shang Nong took out three books from the bookshelf in the meeting room and gave them to Zhang De and the others, saying, "These are the books on breeding in my farm. You can read and learn from them, and you can also breed poultry and livestock at a low cost like my farm."

Zhang De and the other two looked at each other in bewilderment as they looked at the book. Yu Cheng asked, "Is it too late for us to learn now?"

The merchant thought for a moment and said, "We came to Yulin not to compete with you for business, but to help local farmers get rich, so that people can make more money and live a good life. We have set up a farmer's mutual aid association. If you join us, we will send disciples to help you learn technology. If you lack funds, we will also find a way to lend you money."

Zhang De immediately bowed and said, "I am willing to join the Farmer Family. Disciple Zhang De greets the teacher."

Zhang De knew that he had to take advantage of the situation. After all, it would be a great thing if he could combine his family business with business and agriculture.

Guo Yun and Yu Cheng also reacted and bowed to Shang Nong, saying, "Guo Yun, Yu Cheng, greetings, teacher."

Shang Nong said: "If you want to become a disciple of my family, you have to take an assessment. You are temporarily external disciples. After half a year, if your philosophy is consistent with my family, you can become a formal disciple of my family."

"Yes!" The three of them were no longer thinking about their family's property, but how to become Shangnong's disciples.

This conflict ended when Zhang De, Guo Yun and Yu Cheng joined the farmers' family. Hundreds of farmers also had a sumptuous banquet at the farmers' family and then joined the farmers' mutual aid society.

At night, Shang Nong wrote a letter to Xu Fan, telling him about the situation in Shangjun. He said that the infrastructure construction in Shangjun's rural areas was extremely poor, and it was difficult to transport agricultural and sideline products from the countryside. The court should increase investment in infrastructure in remote counties, especially road construction between villages. The rural road facilities were poor. Because the court had no corvée and did not have enough manpower to maintain the construction of rural roads, the rural roads in Shangjun had been abandoned for ten years. The difficulty in transporting agricultural products from rural areas was the biggest culprit hindering the prosperity of farmers.

The imperial court cannot throw the baby out with the bathwater. It must allow grassroots villages the power to organize the people to build roads and canals, rather than just collecting taxes from farmers. Only when roads are accessible can villages rely on local advantages and farmers can set up non-staple food processing workshops and increase their income.

At the same time, the problem of rural medical care was also mentioned. There was not a single clinic in the entire Yulin. Even in Fushi County, there was only one clinic built by the imperial court and three private clinics. Hundreds of thousands of people in the entire Fushi County relied on these dozen doctors for treatment, while farmers in the countryside had to endure minor illnesses and wait to die for serious illnesses. Now disease has become the biggest culprit killing people in the Han countryside.

The court should find ways to train more doctors and promote medical care in rural areas. At the same time, it should strengthen the promotion of health knowledge in rural areas. Many diseases in rural areas are caused by unhealthy living habits. Although the Han Dynasty has drama troupes for publicity, they are superficial and it is difficult for farmers to accept these health knowledge. The court should find ways to improve it. It would be best if doctors stayed in the village to promote healthy health knowledge to the villagers.

(End of this chapter)