The struggle of the reborn prince

After taking a bath and eating, the small study that Zhao Tong came to, Osmanthus added two lamps in the room, making the study brightly lit.He sat down at the desk, spread out a large sheet of paper, and pressed the four corners with paperweights. This was the combined geographical map after he annexed the Chentang Manor, and it was re-transcribed by Zhao Tong who had the steward in the manor.

This picture is obviously drawn using the primitive pictographic drawing method, without scale, symbols represent, if there is a mountain, draw a mountain, and when there is a river, draw a river. All he has to do tonight is draw a new map.

As soon as Zhao Tun stretched out his hand, Jianxi hurriedly opened the wooden box he had brought. Inside was a set of drawing tools such as a ruler, compasses and a set square. The top-quality brass is finely carved and plated with a thin layer of gold leaf, which looks shiny.He picked it up, looked at it and couldn't help but shook his head. For such a simple thing, craftsmen have to spend a lot of effort to carve flower decorations on it, which shows that the whole society pays attention to luxury.

Zhao Tong picked up a ruler and drew a frame on the paper, marking the direction. After a few days of investigation and patrolling, he had already mastered the geography and hydrology of the entire "territory". Basic skills, these things will not trouble him.Half an hour later, a topographic map drawn in charcoal appeared on the white paper, with rivers, villages, ditches, woods, roads, and even paths taken by rural farmers all marked on the map.

"Jianxi, can you understand?" Zhao Tang wiped his hands with a towel and asked Jianxi who was standing by.

"I can get a rough idea. I don't quite understand what the paintings are about?" Jianxi said with an embarrassed smile.

"You trace this on the parchment, I'll take a rest, my tired wrists are sore!" Zhao Tang said, taking the teacup handed by Osmanthus osmanthus.

"Second Master, I'm afraid I won't be able to do such a delicate job with my hands and feet. Why don't I let the housekeeper do it tomorrow!" Jian Xi grinned and said in embarrassment. You can't use a ruler and a compass to draw a picture, it all depends on your hand It is not easy to draw well without losing shape with the smallest brush.

"What's so difficult about it? It's easier than our drawing flowers. Let me do it!" Osmanthus fragrans looked at it and volunteered to take on the job.

"Jianxi, are you ashamed? The cowhide is blowing loudly, as if you are omnipotent. Today, if you let Sister Osmanthus lose the competition, you will be fined to grind ink for her!" Zhao Tang scratched his face twice with his fingers Said teasingly.

"How can I compare with the second master, you know everything, and I can't catch up with you!" Jian Xi pouted and said, but he was also puzzled, who did the prince learn from, why did he have so much money in his stomach? Things, it seems that the prince must be a god who descended to the world, and he went to study ink obediently while complaining.

Zhao Tuo drank some water, opened the notebook, which recorded the results of his 'research' in the past few days, and looked at the above text, Zhao Tuo's heart became heavy. Not that happy.

According to the system, the Song Dynasty divided the national residents into two categories: main households and customers. Residents living in urban areas were Fangguo households, and households living in rural areas were rural households.Rural households are further divided into main households and customers: main households in rural areas refer to those peasant households who own land and pay summer and autumn taxes to the state; Tenant farmers on the landlord’s land, also known as tenants and floating guests, are also registered as household registers and become official registered households of the state. They also pay personal tax, summer and autumn taxes, and husband’s labor.This system changed the identity of the tenants and freed them from the status of slaves. It can be said that it is a kind of progress, but the land policy of the Song Dynasty is not against mergers. Officials can buy land at will and become landlords. level officials.The combination of officials and landlords occupied most of the land in the country, and the royal family, nobles, bureaucrats, and landlords annexed more and more land.

Zhao Tun originally wanted to use the free time years ago to inspect his 'territory', investigate the water and soil conditions, and make some preparations for next year's spring plowing, but he was shocked to see the situation. There was not a single landlord in his territory, or even a landowner. There are no first-class households or middle-class households, and the lower-class households with self-cultivated fields of ten or eight mu are all considered to be phoenix horns, that is to say, almost all those who work on their own [-] hectares of land are tenants.

What surprised him even more was the method of the former owner of the land, Chen Tang. It only took three or four years to complete the annexation of the tens of thousands of acres of land. Turn them all into the proletariat, and turn these exploiting classes into poor and hired peasants.

Chen Tang's method of dealing with these landlords and wealthy households, if modern people think that you would never think of it anyway-the method is to let these people become officials and errands.The law of the Song Dynasty stipulated that the first-class landlords with assets of more than [-] guan should act as errands in the yamen. They enjoyed the privilege of being exempted from professional assignments and conversions, and could be awarded official titles, promoted every three years, and the highest could be promoted to We all know soldiers and horses.In addition, Lizheng, household heads, township scribes, and even some powerful grassroots cadres such as elders, archers, and young men in the villages must be from second-class households, or at least third-class households to be eligible.This system is actually a privilege granted by the government to the landlords, who want to rely on the landlords and gentry to expand the foundation of the feudal rule of the Song Dynasty.

In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, landlords competed to be Yaqian and Lizheng. At that time, they could use the opportunity of servants to plunder property and get promoted and make a fortune.But by this time, their good days had come to an end, and the law of labor was becoming more and more chaotic, and if there was any loss of escorting official belongings, they would have to pay for it.Lizheng and the head of the household did not collect taxes, so they had to pay for it on their behalf.Chen Tang used this to make all the landlords go bankrupt.

The way to deal with those self-cultivators with only a small amount of land is more direct and simple, that is, to collect taxes and lend usury, so that they lose their fortune and have to sell the land to him, or when the harvest is not large enough to pay taxes in a bad year, they can use the money in two Three times the interest was loaned to them, and God was very cooperative. After three years of locust plagues, they gave all the land to Chen Tang.

Their fate is also the most tragic, because after selling the land to the landlord and becoming tenant farmers, they cannot immediately cancel the land property, change the household registration, and have to continue to borrow money, and even ask their children to be "servants" as collateral. , the final outcome is that the family is unable to pay their debts and becomes a 'white-haired girl'.The tenants were oppressed by both the government and the employers. Many people chose the helpless way. One was to escape the tenants, and the other was to become a 'hero'.

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Zhao Tong watched and thought, and now he is facing two serious problems. One is that the officials are busy searching and enshrining to the palace, and they have no energy and no "extra" money to build water conservancy facilities. The ditches are blocked, and the big family People also refused to pay for repairs, which turned the paddy fields into dry land, and two crops of wheat and rice could only be planted for one season, greatly reducing the land utilization rate.

Another problem is more serious, that is, the shortage of labor force, and there is no one to grow the land.It turned out that there were more than 800 tenants in Chen Tang's Zhuangzi, and more than 1000 tenants in Chengding. After several years of "management" by him, the number of tenants has been reduced by nearly half, and now it is less than [-].Even the people who stay here are also fluctuating. They don’t have overnight food at home. I’m afraid it’s the end of the year. Now some tenants want to take advantage of the opportunity of changing owners to leave, and they don’t want to re-sign the lease, and there is a possibility of losing them.

"If this problem is not solved well, no matter how much land there is, it can only be left uncultivated. But it is not an easy task to find so many tenants again." Zhao Tang got up anxiously and walked around, "Can we solve the two problems at the same time?" Zhao Tang thought for a while, but there was still no good way. He couldn't rely on himself as the prince to force them to stay. This kind of bullying, especially bullying those who have nothing to eat Poor people, Zhao Tang felt that he couldn't do it no matter what.

"Second Master, the drawing is ready!" Osmanthus fragrans said suddenly.

"Oh, that's right, you guys rest first!" Zhao Tang said absent-mindedly after looking at it.

"Second Master, how can we sleep if you don't sleep, isn't that too unruly!" Jian Xi said.

"No, you've all been tired for a day. It's enough to have the little yellow door on duty at night. I also want to be alone for a while. You all need to rest early, so you don't have to suffer with so many people!" Zhao Tang said with a wave of his hand.

"Yes, the second master also rested earlier, don't be tired!" Seeing that Zhao Tun was not in a good mood, Jianxi didn't dare to say any more, took the sweet-scented osmanthus out, and then ordered the little Huangmen who was on duty at night to be more vigilant before returning to him residence.

"The dam should be built first, then the main canal should be dredged, and the water can be introduced to every field... With the dam, the water potential will increase, and the water power can also be used. Move the mill and the winery to the river, and you can also use it in the river. Jian..." Zhao Tong looked at the picture and said to himself, pointing his fingers on the picture and thinking about it, forming ideas one by one in his mind, planning this piece of land that belongs to him, maybe this is his starting point, But he's going to take a solid step from here!

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In the early morning, when Osmanthus fragrans walked into the small study lightly, the prince fell asleep on the desk, snoring softly, but there was a smile on the corner of his mouth, as if he had dreamed of something happy!The candle on his desk exploded and finally burned out. Many new marks were added to the map placed beside the prince. The brazier under his feet was only dark red, and only a few sparks were still struggling tenaciously. keep refusing to extinguish...