warring states careerist

Chapter 448 Gradient
The tall man couldn't help sighing at Wu Qi's doubts, thinking that the land on Sishang was no better than Qin.If Qin can have such a situation, why implement those harsh laws?
He once had doubts about the definition of the sum of wealth, but it was only to make Qin's policies reasonable, and he had never forgotten to read and study after rebelling against Mo in these years. He knew about Tao Qiu. There are quite a few of them, and Sheng Chuo sighed a lot, but the helpless thing is that Tao Qiu's method doesn't work at all in Qin.

There are situations in different places, and Sishang has been the place where these rebels have learned experience in these years. There is also a special booklet introducing Taoqiu's situation, which is used to assist the "summation of wealth" of the Mohists. theory.

Those books are inevitably a bit obscure to ordinary people, but they know a lot about these people who have been closely related to the Mohists and have been paying attention.

Taoqiu itself was rich, and after Fuchai dug canals and Tao Zhuyi became rich, this place is in the world.

After the reform of the Ji family, the Lu State had already implemented the initial tax mu system, and the Taoqiu area was rich in products before the appearance of the Mohist school, and the concept of private ownership of property rights appeared early.

After the coup of the Song Dynasty, the influence of the Mohists increased in the vicinity of Taoqiu.

However, the Mohists' policies in Sishang are too radical, and they have unique conditions. Some policies are basically implemented without any pressure.

Countries such as Teng, Zan, and Tan were originally occupied by the State of Yue, and the State of Yue had a large amount of royal land here.

After the first battle of Lushui, the forces of Yue State withdrew from the Sishang area.The liquidation of some nobles who were pro-Vietnamese, coupled with the large amount of royal land after the retreat of the Yue Kingdom, did not hinder the Mohists' land reform here.

Qin Guo could not learn this.

Having said that, the tall man let out some helpless sighs.

If Qin wants to make such a change, it must touch the interests of the old nobles.The Mohists seized the favorable opportunity of Sishang, defeated Yue State, and carried out reforms in a more moderate way.

Qin State lost Xihe, and the interests of the nobles themselves were greatly damaged. They could only carve up the land within Qin State. Behind the contradictions between each other, a slight touch would trigger a huge backlash.If it weren't for the fact that Young Master Lian used the name of a coup to clean up some of the nobles, change the land and move the capital, it would be even more difficult to carry out changes like those in Qin.

The policies implemented by the Mohists in Sishang affected many cities along the Sishui River in the Song Dynasty in another way.

With the development of the handicraft industry in Sishang, it has become the world's iron smelting center, academic center, textile, glass gunpowder military industry and military equipment production center; with the completion of land reform in Sishang, a large number of farmers have surplus grain for commodity exchange and market. Internal development; with the development of river ships... Taoqiu, the cities along the Surabaya and Heshui Rivers, took the lead in launching a series of "profit-seeking reforms".

It is precisely "the good man benefits the way, secondly teaches it, secondly organizes it, and the bottom one fights with it", this external influence Mohism has always adhered to the method of "benefiting the way".

In particular, they defeated the State of Yue and signed a series of treaties with the State of Yue; after the State of Chu obtained tax exemption rights and right of passage, Sishang's handicraft industry developed a period of explosion.

After the outbreak, things such as wine making and textiles can be profitable, and the prices of raw materials have risen. A large number of new commodities and luxury goods produced by Mohist workshops require a lot of money to buy, which has also prompted many people to seek profit.

In the past hundred years of slow changes, some small nobles in the Song Dynasty had already rented and planted land for profit.

The land rent in kind per mu is collected every year, and seven catties of corn is collected per mu of land a year. It is considered a good life, especially when the yield per mu was only a few tens of catties before the emergence of the Mohist family, the land rent of seven catties of corn was considered a heavy rent. up.

However, with the development of Sishang's economy, these little aristocrats of the Song Kingdom were surprised to find that...their money and food were not enough to spend.

We are all nobles, and we still need to be decent at the very least.Install a glass window in someone else's house and show off with a glass cup, can you buy it yourself?
But, no money.

Small nobles with [-] mu of land or private land are considered sergeants, but their annual land rent income is only [-] catties of grain.

In the past, this was enough to "pay enough to farm for him", to practice martial arts, chariot battles and archery, enough to become a full-time military nobleman.

But now...Looking at the dazzling array of commodities, looking at my annual land rent of [-] catties of grain, watching the warriors who challenged me in the battle of Lushui being bombarded into sieves by the guns of the Mo family, looking at Sishang Merchants made hundreds of times of profits and became the king of "Sufeng"...

Of course, there are also those real "gentlemen" who abide by the etiquette system. Every spring, they take the lead in farming and encourage farmers in the old way, collecting land rent and living a life of gentlemen who are free from production.

However, most of the people are looking for profit. After hearing that the battle of Lishui caused the master warriors to be beaten into sieves, the mentality of each young nobleman changed drastically; The eyes of the pioneers who planted indigo for profit are red, and the etiquette system is really not worth mentioning in front of the profit.

Therefore, when the Mohists did not govern Taoqiu, Taoqiu, a place where merchants gathered, spontaneously underwent many changes.

The ritual land rent of seven catties per mu and the new commodities every day make it easy for these little nobles who own the land to make a choice: take back the land and rent it to a small businessman who has learned farming from the Mohist school, or own business.

Originally, [-] acres of land had to be leased to others, and it took [-] households to do so.But now, with the emergence of iron ox farming and ridge farming, less than sixty households are needed.

Taking back the land and managing it on their own, more than half of the renters could not survive, so they could only go to Taoqiu for a living, or be shipped by the Mo family and transported to Sishang.

At this time, the population was insufficient, there was too much wasteland, and the appearance of ironware also turned a lot of land that was not suitable for farming into fertile soil for farming. The Mohists organized to attract people to reclaim land or develop handicrafts. The conflict was not serious.

Under the sparsely populated land, there is a large amount of wasteland as the catharsis for this change, and the Mohist organization far surpasses the times to complete the catharsis. The reform in the Taoqiu area has been completed in the past ten years without much bloodshed.

These little aristocrats suddenly changed, and began to stand on high ground and laugh at those of the same kind who still guarded the "noble spiritual etiquette system", and became richer and richer.They are not great nobles, and the benefits brought by the ritual system are far less than the income from the land.

Speculation, operation, making money, and getting rich have become things that the little nobles in Song Dynasty are discussing every day.The land originally leased to farmers has been turned into an estate for planting potatoes to make wine; the originally scattered land has been taken back and has become a farm for indigo, cotton, and beans in rotation.

The transformation of the land also brought more commodity raw materials and important free labor to Taoqiu.Even though the Mohists continued to ship people to Sishang, there were still many farmers in Taoqiu who did not leave, but sold their land and went to the city to survive.

It is precisely "seeking wealth from the poor, farming is not as good as industry, industry is not as good as commerce, and embroidery is not as good as leaning on the city gate." Taoqiu, a commercial city in the world, has completed its transformation in a deformed way.

Every step of development on Sishang, every new commodity appeared, every time the market in Chuyue and other barbaric people's settlements was expanded, there would be more merchants and hired workers on Taoqiu's side.

Those handicraft industries that no longer monopolize huge profits and were abandoned by the Mohists quickly developed in Taoqiu.The textile industry, cloth dyeing industry, shipbuilding industry, woodworking industry, and pottery industry have developed rapidly in recent years.

The power of businessmen is growing, but they have money but no power. Because of their status, they have no political rights, so they start to want their own political rights. The idea of ​​"just move".

People like Suo Lucan may have seen the inequality hidden behind the equality, but the social development has not yet reached that level, and it is difficult to achieve it overnight, so Tao Qiu's development is on the rise.

Handicraftsmen and small businessmen gathered every day and listened to the lectures of the Mohists. With a kind of pursuit of equality by the bourgeoisie, they became the main force of the bourgeoisie.

Big businessmen are busy joining some workshops and special "companies" led by the Mohists. For example, after the Battle of Lishui, the Mohists asked the King of Yue to ask for many "Xi Liu" sailors and shipbuilders. According to the treaty, the merchant ships along the Sishui River, through the Hangou of the Huaihe River, and then to Chudi and Baiyue have made huge profits every time. Many businessmen have already joined them, and their interests are connected.

The sugar industry and tea industry developed in Haiyang area; iron smelting, arms, glass, coal in Sishang; grain and cotton in Song Dynasty; A city full of money.

In this case, what the merchants fear most is that there is no "statute law", and the monarch and nobles can deprive them of many things. They need to control their own power, and the Mohist policy is more beneficial to them, and their interests are connected. They naturally choose Mohism as a backer.

The monarchy of the Song Dynasty itself declined, and after the coup, the Mohists instigated internally and tried their best to curb power.

After fighting for several times, Shangqiu was finally able to pay a certain amount of taxes every year in exchange for the city's semi-autonomy, becoming the same existence as the people of Shangqiu.

However, the policy expansion of Wei and Qi made them deeply panic, so they contributed money, local hired workers and a large number of idle people, and the Mohist provided technology. It took three years to rebuild Taoqiu City, and became a city that controlled Qi and Lu. , An important military fortress and an industrial and commercial city in the Three Kingdoms of Wei and Wei.

And funded the establishment of a volunteer teacher, but this volunteer teacher is in the hands of the Mohists, because the Mohist policies are more favorable to them than the nobles and monarchy, and the organized release of reform contradictions has also eased the contradictions of this change a lot .

The lectures of the Mohists flourished in Taoqiu, and the handicraftsmen and the burghers themselves were the main supporters of the Mohists.

However, all of this cannot be replicated elsewhere.

The Mohists have technological advantages and can use various novel commodities to impact the original handicraft industry and aristocratic agriculture in various countries.

The Mohists relied on the Vietnam War to obtain a large number of "king lands" to carry out land reforms, which alleviated conflicts and expanded the Sishang market.The purchasing power of a self-cultivated farmer is more than ten times that of a common farmer.

The minor nobles were able to benefit from the changes, and were driven by their interests to spontaneously change their identities and become operating landlords and farmers.

"Do not sell firewood for a hundred miles, and do not sell millet for a thousand miles." There are two canals built by Fucha, Heshui and Hangou, which make the cost of river transportation much lower than that of land transportation. The water systems of Goulian, Yellow River and Yangtze River allow the business here to expand to the outside world.

The war against the Yue State obtained various commercial benefits, and while it became a place for dumping goods, it also made the internal conflicts of the Yue State more serious.After the civil strife in Chu, the penetration of the Mohists in the state of Chu also made the cities of the state of Chu along the Yangtze River a market; the barbarians such as Baiyue could also dump a large amount of goods in places close to the water transportation, in exchange for various commodities urgently needed in the north...

All these are conditions that the Qin State does not have, so the Qin State can only implement the "land grant system", because land is the largest income of the Qin State. The people are all complaining," and they all want to go back to the time when at least there was still land to cultivate.

The reforms carried out by Sheng Chuo and others in Qin were so tailored to local conditions.The same is true of the transformation of Shang Yang in Qin State on the original historical line: Qin State is not private ownership of land. Looking at Qin bamboo slips, there are records of everything sold, but there is no land; Five generations".

If these people hadn't been born as rebels and studied Mohist books more, perhaps they would have difficulty understanding the development of Sishang, just like Wu Qi's emotion when he saw Taoqiu's city.

Technological change can bring wealth and power, but a system adapted to technological change can stimulate this power even more. In the distant Qin Dynasty, even iron tools have not yet been popularized.

So before arriving at Pengcheng, Peiyi, when he arrived at Taoqiu, he could only look at everything he saw and sigh with inexplicable emotion.

(End of this chapter)