New Shun 1730

At noon on the second day, Liu Yu came to the hill just across the river from Kochi Castle, where the Marines had already built a simple position.

Hundreds of copied articles were being loaded onto hot air balloons and lifted to high altitudes. They were going to take advantage of the wind blowing from the sea at noon to throw these leaflets into the castle town of Kochi Castle.

That was where the proportion of literate people was the highest.

While the leaflets on the snowflake board were fluttering in the wind, in the villages and towns around Urado Castle, with the help of interpreters who spread the manifesto everywhere, four literate and ambitious people had risked their lives to join Liu Yu's propaganda.

They really believed in benevolence and justice, and they really wanted to save the people from danger.

But there were still too few people.

The warships floating on the sea also recruited a large number of high-quality military cadets, and a large number of trainee captains and trainee officers all went ashore, leaving only the standard fleet crew.

According to the process, they are burning some tribute forms in various villages and punishing those village heads who have deducted money. This is one of the three contradictions.

The lord, the village head connecting the lord and the peasants, and another contradiction point in the castle town of Kochi Castle, which is the real fuse that may ignite the peasants' emotions.

Under the one-country-one-castle system, Tosa Domain has only one Kochi Castle. Kochi Castle is not big, it is just a castle. The city is the city and the town is the city. The city is on a hill and the city is near the city.

The samurai nominally have ownership of the land, but they have no right to use it, and they are not allowed to live in the village. They can only gather in the castle town.

Merchants rarely live in the village. Occasionally, there are some merchants in the village, all of whom are small vendors. They are not very angry and can unite.

What can really ignite the peasants' emotions are some usurers living in the castle town.

According to Dashun, it is more appropriate to call them landlords and gentry.

Pure feudalism, there are no gentry.

Land cannot be bought and sold. The lord distributes the land to the farmers, and the farmers pay tribute to the lord according to the land. This is a theoretical model.

If it is just like this, in theory, the farmers can only hate the lord for squeezing too hard and hate the village head who is responsible for collecting taxes.

However, with the development of the commodity economy, the implementation of the sankankotai system, and the separation of farmers and soldiers, a pure consumer class has emerged, resulting in a deformed unified market in Japan, and the pure feudal system has slowly disintegrated.

Some of the previous policies of the shogunate have exacerbated this disintegration.

Before the great famine when Liu Yu sent sweet potatoes for smuggling, the shogunate's finances had already encountered difficulties.

For this reason, the shogunate even stopped the sankankotai system, in exchange for 10,000 koku of rice to the shogunate to overcome the serious financial crisis.

However, the sankankotai system is an important policy to weaken the outer daimyo, and the shogunate knows that doing so is like drinking poison to quench thirst, so it has to think of other ways.

When the feudal lords were in financial difficulties, the merchants would laugh, no matter in the East or the West.

In order to survive the financial crisis, the shogunate had to agree to develop new fields and encourage merchants to invest in reclamation.

Capital is needed to develop new fields.

Merchants with capital would not cultivate fields if it was not profitable, so the shogunate allowed the leasing system and turned a blind eye to the sale of land, thus undermining the land-sharing system, the basis of its own rule.

Liu Yu was not very familiar with how to rebel against the pure feudal system - this was a variant of the well-field system that some people in Dashun had always imagined in order to prevent land annexation. Land could not be bought and sold, and tributes were collected to support the scholar class.

But thanks to the shogunate's reforms, he finally found the feeling of Dashun's rural areas in the rural areas of Japan, especially the routine of annexing land, which was very familiar.

Merchants lent money at high interest rates, and farmers were so poor that they had to eat radishes all day long. They could only borrow money by mortgaging land. In theory, land trading is not allowed, but it is difficult to regulate in reality.

In the great famine a few years ago, many people could not pay back the high-interest loans, so they pledged their land to merchants at a very low price.

Under the shogunate system, in theory, gentry landlords were not allowed, but these moneylenders were just landlords in the guise of merchants.

Originally, it was a binary relationship between lords and farmers, and the middlemen were the leading figures in the village, who would collect a little more and take a little more when passing the money.

Now it has become a ternary relationship between lords, merchant landlords, and farmers.

In addition to the theoretical public 4 and private 6, since the shogunate recognized that merchants could rent land, it also made regulations in the law that merchant landlords could collect 15% of the rent, which was legal.

But just like the Dashun stipulated the maximum interest rate for usury, the law is the law, and the reality is the reality. The emerging merchant landlords will not only collect 15% of the rent.

With a little effort, the tribute of public 4 and private 6 plus the rent of merchant landlords, especially in Tosa, where the Kyoho famine was the most severe, land annexation has been very serious, and the overall rent of tenants has been 60% to 70%, which is almost the same as some of the worst places in Dashun.

The permanent tenancy system with 50% land rent could be considered a "benevolent policy" in Dashun. Liu Yu shouted the slogan of "30% tax, equal distribution of land", and the temptation can be imagined.

Farmers hate merchants and lords.

But the hatred for the lords is very deep, because the tribute system has long been accustomed to it. Farmers have been institutionalized and think that tribute is a matter of course, so they hope that the lords will show mercy and collect less.

But in recent years, with the development of commodity economy, the newly emerged usurers, or new landlords, are the most direct and direct hatred of farmers.

In feudal society, scholars, farmers, industry and commerce had a certain basis of public opinion. Businessmen amassed wealth too quickly, and they did not engage in industry but only engaged in lending finance and hoarding land. It was inevitable that they would attract hatred.

Those businessmen who lend money and annex land are what Liu Yu believes to be the trigger for farmers' emotions.

The shogunate’s recognition of the tenancy system in the Land Tenancy Act promulgated fifteen years ago and the land annexation during the great famine a few years ago are the gunpowder that can ignite this fuse.

These merchants live in the castle town. The castle town is not a mountain town. It has no walls and no decent defense. It is just a residential area close to Kochi Castle.

Liu Yu could easily capture the place, then find them, light a fire in front of the peasants, and burn the pawned documents and land deeds.

And this fire is enough to ignite the trust of farmers.

Now, what we have to wait for is propaganda and agitation in the rural communities in the south.

I spent an afternoon observing on the hill, and one day later, a few people from behind came over and reported the situation in the south.

When these people arrived, they looked excited.

"My lord! My lord! According to what you said, it is indeed useful. We first chatted with a few of the poorest people and asked about the great famine a few years ago. Many families had starved to death. That year's Gongmi It didn’t cut it, so it brought up the topic.”

"That year, businessmen made usury loans and occupied a lot of land. The more they obeyed, the more the farmers hated them, and some of them cried bitterly. Many of them had been growing rice all their lives, but they didn't even eat it. . When lords collect tribute, they can only borrow money or use land as a pledge.”

"We called the villagers together again, and the story that one person cried resonated with many people. Some of the poorest people even wanted to follow us to capture Kochi City. We just said that although they can't hold a sword, they can At least you can build a bridge and paddle a boat.”

"We have also read their mortgage documents and asked them to collect them together. We are all waiting for us to seek justice for them."

Liu Yu stared at the castle town of Kochi City, raised the corner of his mouth, and said with a smile: "Of course I have to help to get this justice back. But don't be in a hurry. Tell them to continue to increase our efforts. Let those who join us follow the preaching and make it better." The land documents that were pledged due to loan sharking in each village were collected and the names were recorded. "

"If there are people living in the countryside, we will deal with them directly. They will confiscate their homes, divide the rice, and burn the pledge documents. Tell the brothers, don't use the little rice and the little money without any profit. Anyone who commits robbery will directly cut off the dividend and annuity benefits after retirement. "

"Tell the officers how important this matter is to the navy. If you want to be a real captain and have your own warship, don't be greedy for small profits."

He has made the interests very clear. A large number of officer cadets are allocated. What they hope is that the Navy will receive more funding so that the trainee captain who has been in charge for several years can become a formal captain.

Enough officers mean enough organizational power to prevent soldiers from robbing without control.

After the arrangements were made, Liu Yu waved his hand and said: "Let's do it. Don't be anxious. I estimate that if the weather stays good, we will see the result in three to five days at most."

The staff officer didn't think much other than tactics and asked, "How can we be considered to have seen the outcome?"

"When the Japanese people dare to watch the excitement, they have seen the truth."

Another day of handing out leaflets and building positions.

Liu Yu didn't care about the commotion later. He knew that most of the real moneylenders lived in the castle town. After waiting for two days until the farmers' emotions were aroused, they could invade the castle town of Kochi.

Five days later, the scene Liu Yu had been looking forward to finally appeared.

Although there are still only a few farmers willing to follow them to attack Kochi City, more farmers are no longer afraid of these foreign Tang people, but stand by the river and in the fields, watching the excitement.

They said they were watching the excitement, but in fact they were waiting for the Tang army to defeat their lord's army.

A large number of documents for pledging land were collected, and the specific names and surnames of the people were also clearly registered. After those loan sharks living in the countryside had their land deeds burned, more farmers began to tell each other that the Tang Dynasty was going to capture Kochi City and burn usury and land deed documents.

Most people don't dare to confront the lord directly, but as Liu Yu planned, once they choose to watch the excitement from the side, it means that the people's support is at stake.

All that's left is to let these people see how vulnerable the arrogant warriors in their eyes are.

The Marine Corps has begun to assemble the entire team. The military's reformed tactical system makes every normal march feel like a military parade.

With exciting music and neat steps, the Marines formed a team by the river.

Across a small river less than a hundred meters wide, the remaining samurai of the Tosa Domain also stationed many people on the other side of the river.

But Liu Yu believed that these warriors had been frightened out of fear, and as soon as the artillery fire was fired, these people would flee back to Kochi City.

Looking back at the farmers watching the excitement on both sides, Liu Yu waved his hand to the officer, signaling that the attack could begin.

Before attacking, they first found a local who was determined to follow the Tang people in resisting the lord, and shouted loudly to the other side of the river.

"The army of benevolence and righteousness will begin the attack soon. If you dare to set fire to the residences in the castle town, you will be regarded as cruel. Once the participants are captured in Kochi Castle, all of them will be hanged."

There was no shouting for them to surrender, but they were not allowed to burn the city and acted like a benevolent teacher.

After shouting several times, the artillery began firing.

The defenses set up on the shore were quickly destroyed, and the few remaining arquebusiers once again felt the power of the shrapnel shells, and without waiting for the marines to cross the river, they all fled backwards.

When the samurai of the Tosa domain fled, the farmers watching the battle from a distance cheered in unison.

"Hehehe!"