Ji Han Grand Commander

Chapter 434 428. Dirty Trick
Feng Xi smiled, a cunning smile. Li Yan had a traditional mindset, and he had not dealt with Feng Xi much before, so he was a little confused.

"General Feng, these noble families have been like this for generations. Their wealth is unimaginable to ordinary people. How can we deal with them with money?"

In Li Yan's opinion, these people have been entrenched in the local area for several generations. By exploiting the local people, the wealth they have accumulated is not enough to rival a country, but at least it is enough for them to live a carefree life for several generations.

"Master Li, you can't think like that. Look at Jingzhou. There are schools everywhere now. Ordinary people can recognize hundreds of common characters, and all kinds of advanced mechanical workshops are also replacing human labor. How do you think these aristocratic families can exploit us in the future?"

Feng Xi chuckled and said that this was a problem in the Qing Dynasty in later generations, that is, the traditional small peasant economy was confronted with the booming capital market, and then was defeated by dumped goods.

How else can this feudal landlord class make money? First, those in their families who work in local government offices can accept bribes and make some black money when they have time. These are small amounts of money, but they can make a lot of money by acting as a bridge and doing something for the rich businessmen.

The second is the traditional land acquisition. They buy or merge land at low prices, take in refugees who have nowhere to go and cultivate the land for them, and as a landlord they take most of the harvest. This is the most traditional and effective method.

In Jingzhou, with people teaching and books being widely available, it was not difficult for even an ordinary person to recognize some common words in life. As the number of people who could read increased, the number of private schools and public colleges also increased.

Feng Xi even personally opened an academy in Jiangling to recruit people who were willing to serve the country but were short of money. The academy was divided into two departments, civil and military, each with its own assessment method.

After obtaining books, many talented students from poor families became talented. At least compared to the small pond of the "gentry", the probability of geniuses appearing in the sea of ​​"the masses" was much higher. A large number of positions were immediately filled by these poor students with simple thoughts and a strong desire to serve the country. In addition, most of the great families in Jingzhou had died or fled, so there was naturally no resistance.

As for land, as Feng Xi promoted new farming methods, new inventions such as the curved plow increased the efficiency of farming. In addition, government-run farms provided a large number of animals such as horses and oxen, which greatly improved the farming efficiency of ordinary people.

This is why Jingzhou now has sufficient weapons and armor, and every household has surplus food and spare money. It is not an exaggeration to say that Jingzhou does not lock its doors at night.

By analogy to Jiangdong, Feng Xi also has a solution. First of all, as for the problem of literacy, the promotion of books can be carried out jointly by merchants and government officials, and it can also be used as an opportunity to crack down on those dishonest families. When selling books becomes the norm, it is time to gradually open private schools.

Private schools were also simple, with teachers hired by the government, paid salaries, and taught and educated students, similar to the rural primary schools of later generations. The local state government could afford several private schools in a county.

These two steps are also part of Feng Xi's "sausage slicing" strategy. First, the printing technology that the gentry was most likely to oppose had already been popularized. They missed the best opportunity to oppose it and could only accept it with a pinch of their noses.

The first step is, is it okay for me to sell some books? What? You want to oppose the sale of books at the cost of your entire family being executed? Of course, not many fools dare to do that. The second step is, is it okay for me to open some private schools? You can't just rebel if I open some private schools, right?
Step by step, when the nobles could no longer tolerate it, it was estimated that the power of the nobles would be completely diluted from the local government. However, what would they be at that time?

As for the land, there are no violent means for the time being, but Feng Xi has also thought about it. What is good about aristocratic families? The good thing is nothing more than face, isn't it?

Every family has some dude, and the breakthrough lies in them. Feng Xi's plan is to let Li Yan target these people and start the industrial machine with all his strength. Only these people can afford luxury goods and decorations, so naturally he has to catch these stupid and rich people and plunder them.

Will they not be able to afford it and stop buying it in the future? There will be an allusion in the future called Shi Chong's competition for wealth. At that time, Li Yan only needs to secretly instigate them and spread a few rumors to hold them back. If they do not continue to maintain their wealthy image, they will inevitably lose face. For some people, losing face is more painful than killing them. Aren't there people in the future who want to ride in luxury cars and buy luxury goods even if they have to borrow money?
As for if they are really scared and don't want to be bled like this, and become cowards, then their influence will plummet. After all, when these families lose their money and power, those "people" seem to become a burden.

The servants need to be paid, right? The food, clothing and daily expenses of the masters and ladies also need money, right? As the living standards in Jiangdong are getting higher and higher, the income of the noble families will be getting less and less, while the expenses will be increasing. If the income is not enough to cover the expenses, the land will have to be sold and the illegal households will have to be dismissed.

In the long course of time, many aristocratic families in the feudal period declined in this way, and the sprouts of capitalism brought by Feng Xi would accelerate this process.

Your aristocratic family can train ten talents, weave a thousand pieces of cloth a year, and grow dozens of stones of food. Now my government can train tens of thousands of talents, have several warehouses of cloth, and countless grains. You even have to ask me to buy things. Who of us can't bear it first?
Li Yan obviously did not understand this kind of method used during the change of times, but after listening to Feng Xi's words, he understood a little.

"But Xiu Yuan, are there some tricks involved, some...?"

Li Yan was a little hesitant. After all, Feng Xi had just blatantly suggested that Li Yan target those playboys and deliberately let them develop bad habits of extravagance and luxury, which inevitably made him look like he was deliberately harming others.

"These people are from aristocratic families. Lord Li has long known about the bullying of men and women by aristocratic families. Our method does not harm the common people. If there are really families with good family traditions, there is no need to harm them. Just let them be."

Feng Xi shrugged his shoulders. If there really were upright gentlemen, there would be no need to harm others. As the saying goes, flies don't bite cracked eggs. Feng Xi believed that not every noble family in the world was so clean and noble, and there would always be people who would fall into the trap.

"And Lord Li, you can also deliberately find some 'actors', have them pretend to be rich, and then deliberately compete with some evil young men, so that they will find ways to spend money. These actors are backed by the government, so they will naturally not feel sorry for it, but those evil young men can't afford it..."

Feng Xi smiled sinisterly and proposed another dirty trick.

(End of this chapter)