warring states careerist

Chapter 160 Yu Sheng's old law Sishui Qing ([-])
There is a cloud in later generations, the Prophet of Spring River Plumbing Duck.

What the Mohists are going to do, the first thing they can perceive is some of the smarter people among the old nobles.

As early as when "businessmen" like Jiao He were learning the art of farming in the village school, some of the minor nobles who were originally opposed to the Mohist had already started to contact the Mohist.

Especially some minor aristocrats with a lot of private land, in fact, they do not object to the Mohist policy of destroying well fields, confiscating private land, and sharing public land and army to pay private mu tax.

Former enemies may become friends in the face of interests.

For example, during the Wu Zhu incident, after Xia Qi, who wanted to use blood revenge to deal with Mo Zhe, he saw the methods and strength of Mo Zhe with his own eyes, and after hearing some ideas about the future, he consciously kept secret Get in touch with Mohist.

At the time of the Wu Zhu incident, he had given advice to those little nobles. If Mo Zhe wants to change his private parents, don't try to fight, but find a way to get the most benefits from this irreversible trend.

It's a pity that other people may not understand it, nor may they be willing to listen.

Xia Qi didn't care about those people any more, and took the initiative to meet Mo Zhe as early as this fall when the beans were harvested.

When cast-iron farm tools stirred up excitement in Pei County, Xia Qi's family came into contact with the Mohists again.

In fact, Mohist and this kind of people can really cooperate.

Old aristocrats like the Xia Qi family with more private acres but insufficient power can easily be transformed into new aristocrats.

They have money and can buy ironware.

They have land, and what the Mohists want is to break the wells and recognize private acres, not to divide the land when the land is small and there are many people.

Once ironware began to spread, their land did not need so many people to plant it. If they wanted to get the most benefits, they would take the initiative to drive away some of the renters who had already appeared, and turn to manage the land by themselves, planting crops such as cotton and oil.

With the spread of agricultural technological innovation beyond Pei County, and even the Mohists’ initiative to help it spread beyond Pei County, a more developed exchange economy based on agriculture will allow the development of handicrafts and cash crops.

The key lies in the policies of the Mozhe. If the Mozhe wins over the farm laborers and well-field serfs, and provides loans, ironware, and a five-year tax-free policy for the newly reclaimed land, these people who originally lived on the land will soon flee to the Mozhe side. .

And if the Mohist did not provide these people with loans, ironware, etc., and a slight policy change, those who were originally attached to the land could easily become "assisting farming", that is, agricultural laborers.

A slight policy swing, the difference is support and firm opposition.

Considering the development of the handicraft industry in the near future, he actually does not hope that Pei County will be full of rich self-cultivating farmers, he even... hopes that there will be a group of extremely poor landless people.

So in fact, the Mohists have room for cooperation with those old nobles who have more private acres and do not rely on a large amount of public land, as long as they are willing to give up personal attachment, an exploitative method that has hindered the increase in productivity after the emergence of iron ox farming.

They can be operational landlords, they own cattle, horses and land money, and they can grow some new crops to gain wealth.

And those old aristocrats who were still counting on the personal attachment of serfs in the well field system to profit, they were unwilling to go into the garbage dump by themselves, and they were unwilling to change their identities spontaneously.

At this time, I feel that it is almost the same time.

After explaining these truths to the Mohists present, Mozi said: "There is news from Chu that the King of Chu has dispatched Wang Shi, Yang Xia's Master, and Chen Zhishi. According to the news from Meng Sheng and Qu Jiang It is calculated that the King of Chu should be going to Anling now."

I recalled it a bit, and the time was about the same.

King Chu Sheng will either die this year or next year. This time sending troops to encircle the Song Dynasty is an unchangeable necessity.

Immediately, the three kingdoms of Zhao, Han, and Qin will all die their monarchs. In addition, King Chu Sheng died about a year earlier than them. It can be said that all countries will be in chaos for a while.

If I don't take advantage of such favorable external conditions to make a big noise, I feel really ashamed of the memories of the early years of the Warring States Period in my mind.

What the Mohists want to do in Peixian County is actually mostly the ideas provided by Shi.

But now, this matter may cause some controversy, so these words cannot be said by Shi, Mozi chooses to speak by himself in order to suppress internal disputes.

Mozi agreed with Shi's opinion, but he also knew that Shi was still young after all, and after the internal reorganization of Mozi, many things had to be negotiated to reach a synonym.

In the same way, for Mozi and Shilai, the support they get among Mozi will not be exactly the same.

When Mozi uttered those opinions that had been discussed at the high level, many Mozi who had just learned about it were secretly surprised.

At the end of April and the beginning of May, when the wheat is harvested, the backbone of the Mohists and the volunteers from Pei County will go to Shangqiu at the end of March.

Before going to Shangqiu, first recognize private acres in the six townships, abolish Jingtian public land, and divide the military tax, Qiujia tax, and cattle and horse tax in Jingtian public land into the mu tax.

Before the wheat harvest, according to the principle of one out of ten households, several canals in Liuxiang that can be completed before the end of summer were excavated in advance.

This requires the full cooperation of iron smelting workshops to produce iron tools for digging ditches.

It is best to mobilize and recruit ditches to complete before February. If everything goes well, just dig ditches; if not, divide weapons and prepare to fight those little nobles.

In the past, the Mohists did not fully control the officials in Peixian County. In Peixian County, there were only Mohist craftsmen associations and some peasant households who joined Peiguo Township, and there was no real effective rule.

Therefore, before March, the Mohists need to clean up the officials in Peixian County at one time, and replace them with their own people based on the Mohist standard of "respecting the virtuous", so as to completely control Peixian County.

Under the premise of not disturbing the original landed people in Peixian County, the military tax system was forcibly changed, the fiefdoms and public lands of small nobles were abolished, and they were forced to pay mu tax.

Once the private mu tax is paid and the officials in Peixian County are replaced by Mozhe, the rent of these small nobles' private land will definitely increase, and the farmers who lease the land will face a choice at that time.

If they cooperate, they will not be rough and recognize the private acres of the small nobles, and at the same time provide loans and iron support to the farmers who lease the land, so that the small nobles are forced to sell the land that no one cultivates.

If they don't cooperate, get rough.

Anyway, after making a rough move, there will be no power to touch Peidi within a few years—even if Mo Zhe has conflicts with Chu State during the defense of the city, as long as an alliance can be reached to ensure that Song State is absolutely neutral in the Jin-Chu struggle for hegemony, then if The power of the Three Jins can go deep into Pei County to attack the Mohists, and the Chu people will abandon their previous suspicions and come to help.

To sum up, the general process is very clear.

Concentrate the strength of the Mohists and volunteers to ensure absolute military and political superiority over the old nobles in Pei County.

In early February, in the name of building water conservancy, farmers in Peixian County were recruited, weapons were distributed, and training was concentrated.

At the end of February, the deep-rooted local officials in Peixian County were eliminated, and those who replaced them with ink became grassroots officials.

At the beginning of March, the reform of private acres was carried out, the well fields were abolished, and the military tax, Qiujia tax, and chariot tax were included in the private acres tax, but it was not collected temporarily, but was collected in autumn.

In mid-March, in response to a possible counterattack, the local iron smelters and water canals were left to recruit farmers, as well as some Mohists, the main force of Mohists and volunteers went to Shangqiu.

The wheat is harvested at the end of April, and the land deed measurement is carried out at the beginning of May, which lasts until the autumn harvest. After the autumn harvest, the taxation is formally carried out according to the new tax system.

If the tax efficiency can be maintained and penetrated into the land of the local old nobles, then before next year, these old nobles will definitely pass the tax on to the renters who lease their land.

The Mohists provided ironware, loans, and acknowledgment of private land, encouraged those renters whose land rent had been increased in kind to flee, organized them to open up wasteland, and actively intensified conflicts.

All goes well, next spring the main force of the Mohists will return, and they will get the status of a vassal state recognized by Duke Song. When the conflicts intensify to the worst, they will kill another group to completely eliminate the old nobles in Peixian County and completely control Peixian County.

This is interlocking. If the officials in Peixian County were not Mohists, then there would be loopholes in many things.

Mozhe is not a local, and has nothing to do with the locals. They temporarily serve as officials in Pei County, coupled with their professional capabilities and the support of the military behind them, can completely control the situation.

Regarding this whole set of plans, several Mohists had doubts in their hearts. Even if Mozi said it, the doubts in their hearts were still asked.

"Sir, the selection of officials in Pei County...how can we be regarded as meritorious? And how can we guarantee that we can be Mohists? After all, this is related to meritoriousness, and it is also related to the integrity of Mohists..."

Mozi smiled and said, "Shi, can you answer it?"

Shi laughed loudly and said: "It's easy! We have grass and silk, which governs mu tax and other matters. You need to know how to count, right? Do you need to be literate? Then take the exam, those who can go up and those who can't go down."

The Mohist who asked the question thought for a while, and said: "Although those subordinate officials colluded with Wu Zhu back then, they still understand a little bit after all. I'm afraid that when the time comes to pass the exam, the Mohist will have to promise again. Easy to do."

Pointing to some cursive characters on the wall and a few clearly hearted Arabic numerals, he said with a smile, "What if the exam questions on the grass are all written with such characters and numbers?"

For a while, many people who already knew couldn't help laughing, while some who didn't know were dumbfounded at this "shameless".

Shi spread his hands and said: "We respect the virtuous, we keep our promises, and we honor our promises. However, they can't write or write numbers. They are obviously not virtuous. What can we do? I estimate that Pei County needs 20 people in total. There are 20 people. Discuss internally who will go, and whoever will go. After the children in the township school learn it, that is another matter."

Someone asked again: "Will there be fewer than 20 people?"

Shi shook his head and said: "Not a lot. Many farmers in Peixian County are from Peiguo Township. The craftsmen's affairs are led by the craftsman association, and everything in the market is as usual. These 20 people are just making Peiyi a township. The government is still those people in Peiguo Township."

The man asked again: "Those officials...have nothing to do, don't they feel resentful? What if they make trouble before we go to Shangqiu?"

Hearing this, Shi raised his head and laughed loudly: "At the beginning of Wu Zhu's incident, we left three survivors. Did those officials also collect money with Wu Zhu? They didn't say it at the time, but it doesn't mean we forgot. , it doesn’t mean that this matter doesn’t exist.”

"Since you have participated, you should take it back. If you calculate the interest, it will be calculated according to the interest of the big households in Peiyi. It has to be repaid after so many years."

"Can't pay back? Then do hard labor and arrest them all. Isn't there a shortage of people in the iron mine? If they can escape from there and make trouble, I think they have the ability!"

Those few people thought of the three witches left behind during the Golden Crow Qi incident two years ago, and they suddenly understood... Why did they survive only because their functions were overwhelmed? This is clearly reserved for when Mo Zhe's fists are hard enough as an excuse.

　Usury...it was already very popular then.

　　Mr. Meng Chang earned [-] yuan in interest every year when he lent money. Feng Xuan went to Xuedi to buy righteousness, which actually abolished "interest".Lord Mengchang has a fief, but his income from the fief is not enough to support his diners, but money can make money, so he lends usury in Xuedi.If the profits of the handicraft industry are higher than the interest income of usury, if there is another Mr. Mengchang, he may invest money in handicraft production to obtain income.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)