The Nameless of the Common Clans

Ni Heng's lobbying had been completed in all counties of Jizhou in mid-June, but Ni Heng was not very satisfied with the results of this trip, so after a quick meeting with Chen Mo, he set out on the journey again.

Looking at Ni Heng's back, Chen Mo opened his mouth and finally smiled helplessly. It was rare that Ni Heng wanted to do it, so let him do it.

In fact, the autumn harvest is approaching, and Chen Mo has been allocating and sorting out the administration of officials for more than half a year. At least this year, the administration of Jizhou must be clear and bright, so that the people can feel the real benefits. By then, Chen Mo's roots in Jizhou will be established.

In addition, the colleges of various counties have been built, and some famous teachers have been transferred from Guanzhong, Heluo, and Bingzhou. Although there are not too many, there is no problem in establishing the three-school framework.

At the same time, Chen Mo also set up the General of Agriculture and the General of Craftsmanship in Jizhou, who were specifically responsible for sorting out the waterways in Jizhou and building water conservancy projects, especially along the Yellow River, where there would be floods every few years. These waters had to be brought in to make the bad water nourish the land.

In July, grain taxes were collected in various places.

Shen Pei was right. The tax rate of three taxes and one tax was indeed much higher than that of the Han Dynasty when there was no war. When Emperor Ling was in power, Chen Mo remembered that the grain tax was five taxes and one tax. It was considered a heavy tax at the time, but as long as you were not a tenant farmer of a noble family, you could still have hope for life.

But the tax law at that time is not applicable now. After all, before the rise of the Taiping Sect, the entire Han army could not fight against 100,000 people. Now, Chen Mo's army alone has the Western Regions Protectorate stationed in the Western Regions, the garrisons in Guanzhong, the standing army in Bingzhou to defend against the Hu people, the army at various checkpoints in Heluo, and the army to defend against Cao Cao. These alone have 150,000 people, not to mention the army ready to fight at any time. After the capture of Jizhou, Chen Mo's defense army and the troops ready to fight at any time add up to 200,000 people.

If taxes were collected at the time, half of Chen Mo's soldiers would starve to death.

In fact, it is not just Chen Mo. Yuan Shao, Cao Cao, Lu Bu, Liu Zhang in Shu, Liu Biao in Jingzhou, and Sun Ce in Jiangdong all paid taxes no less than Chen Mo, and some even paid two taxes for one. Shen Pei's accusation is simply a joke. It was only because he saw that the biggest harm under Chen Mo's new tax law was still the noble families with a large amount of land, so Shen Pei couldn't sit still and came to Chen Mo to ask for an explanation.

Taxes did not change much for ordinary people, but before Chen Mo entered Jizhou, the power of the nobles had almost spread throughout Jizhou. There were no ordinary people, and almost all of them were tenants from aristocratic families.

Chen Mo took advantage of the Jizhou massacre and the Anding massacre to make a lot of land fall into Chen Mo's hands. Those tenants who originally belonged to these families became tenants of the government. They still had no land of their own, but they could keep more than 60% of the grain they grew. As tenants of aristocratic families, it was good to keep 10%. To survive, they had to rely on the charity of aristocratic families.

No one is a fool. The difference between the new policy and the old law is obvious at a glance. Coupled with the public opinion guidance that Chen Mo has been doing for the past six months, this will be established by then.

In fact, there is no need to wait until the autumn harvest. The new tax law has now been passed down to the villages. This is Chen Mo's rule. Although most people do not believe it, there is some expectation in their hearts. When the final result comes out, it will be the time when Chen Mo will completely gain a foothold in Jizhou.

That is why Chen Mo has been staying in Jizhou and not returning to Luoyang. As long as this year goes smoothly, it will be much easier next year. At that time, the three studies will be promoted in Jizhou, and then spread from Jizhou to Guanzhong and other places where a good foundation has been laid. The people's hearts and military hearts will be there.

The grain tax is being collected. With Chen Mo's instigation, the gap between them has become the most heated topic of discussion among the people.

Unlike the criticism of the new policy at the beginning of the year, the people who get the benefits don't care about your family. The benefits in hand are far more touching than the benevolence and morality.

In such a situation, the noble families had to pay taxes to the court. In order to appease the dissatisfaction of the tenants in their families, they had to pay more. They had to pay more than 30% to the court. It was impossible for the remaining 60% to be given to the tenants, but at least half of it had to be given, otherwise the gap would be too big.

Even so, Chen Mo won the hearts of the people in Jizhou for a while, and there were even folk songs praising Chen Mo. There were even many tenants who went to the government office to sue the officials, exposing some of their employers' past evil deeds, hoping that the court would take back the land.

Of course, this is an exception. Except for those who really angered the heaven and the people, most of them were not accepted.

Just as Chen Mo and Zhao Yun said, the world cannot be without people, but in order to stabilize the country, there must be enough scholars to govern.

Yecheng, the general's mansion, Shen Pei came again.

But compared with the last time, Shen Pei was not as righteous as last time.

"It seems I am right." Chen Mo looked at Shen Pei and smiled.

Shen Pei was silent. He didn't want to come, but the Shen family was also a prominent family in Jizhou. Even if he didn't want to, his family and friends came to ask him. What could he do? People living in this world can't live alone. The last time he came, it was for the scholars of Jizhou. This time, he came for himself, but Chen Mo asked this question, and Shen Pei didn't know how to answer.

Is the new policy good?

It's good for the people, but it hurts the foundation of the scholars in Jizhou. It can be foreseen that under this system, the ceiling of the family under Chen Mo was pressed down by Chen Mo.

In these days, financial resources are a very important part of the foundation of the family. Without this, it is difficult to hold the court. More importantly, Chen Mo's new policy is not limited to this.

The judge sighed and said, "The general is also a queen from a famous family, so why bother to embarrass the scholars like this now?"

Before Chen Mo became successful, he was actually expelled from the direct lineage and belonged to the common people. However, as Chen Mo's status gradually became more prominent, the Chen family brought Chen Mo back to the direct lineage. In this way, Chen Mo was indeed a scholar.

"Zheng Nan is also a well-educated scholar. Don't you think this world is like a disease?" Chen Mo looked at the judge and did not refute. He did spend a lot of thought on his birth background and became a scholar. Chen Mo was the Something to long for.

"That's why we need knowledgeable people to bring order to the chaos. Although the general's approach can make the people rich for a while, it will also offend the knowledgeable people in the world. In the future, I'm afraid..." Shen Pei shook his head and said, "You need to know how ignorant the people are. , it is in need of enlightenment from knowledgeable people. Although the general used this partial method to win the hearts of the people in a short period of time, it was just to lure them. The people are often ungrateful. As time goes by, they will only get used to it and become more wanton. This is not the right way. ”

"But what if the crux is the knowledgeable people mentioned by Zhengnan?" Chen Mo looked at Shen Pei and asked with a smile: "Under the old law, I didn't see how simple the people were, but people who are crazy from hunger will "Rebellious, Mr. Zhengnan comes from a famous family, so he probably has never experienced hunger, right?"

"What does the general mean by this?" Shen Pei's heart sank and he looked at Chen Mo and asked.

"The world does need scholars to govern, but not every scholar is a sage." Chen Mo knocked on the table, looked at the judge and said: "Human nature is selfish, otherwise Mr. Zhengnan would not be able to do anything today." Stand here."

Shen Pei wanted to refute, but he couldn't. He came today because his family, relatives and friends were harmed, otherwise the talks had collapsed last time. Given his character, he would never have come.

"I don't deny the importance of scholars, but if there are no restrictions on the power of scholars, it will continue to expand as before. In the end, all the fields will belong to the scholars, and the people will have nowhere to farm, and it will be difficult for the court to issue decrees. Then the world will be in chaos. Zhengnan Sir, see if this has been the case since Ling Emperor?" Chen Mo asked with a smile.

The Han Dynasty is what it is today. There are many reasons. Many nodes have gone astray, causing the Han Dynasty that was still saved step by step to the current situation where the princes are divided. Emperor Ling died too early, and He Jin failed to seize the opportunity to stabilize the situation of the court. Dong Zhuo and Wang Yun actually had opportunities, but unfortunately, they were denied by one reason or another.

But what is undeniable is that the expansion of intellectual power to the point where the court can no longer fully control it is the root of all this. Without this environment, the world would not be in such chaos.

It is undeniable that Chen Mo's rise is also related to this, but it is precisely because of this that Chen Mo continued to restrict the power of scholars from the beginning.

Shen Pei sighed. Chen Mo was right. In fact, compared with ordinary people, those nobles with large amounts of land could still live without worries about food and clothing even if they lived on rent.

But human nature is greedy. It is easy to go from frugality to luxury, but it is difficult to go from luxury to frugality. At least this is the case for most people. They are used to making money every day, but now it takes three, five or even ten days to make money. How many people Acceptable?

But as Chen Mo said, the unrestricted expansion of military power has become the crux of the problem. If we can't bear the pain of cutting off our flesh, even if the world is unified, it will just fall into the reincarnation of one big man after another.

But Shen Pei is a scholar, and what Chen Mo stands on is that of the overlord of one party, from the perspective of the entire world, but Shen Pei looks at things from the perspective of the scholar class, so what they see and what they consider are naturally different.

Even if he knew it was poison, Shen Pei still believed that there were better ways, such as stipulating that the gentry give the tenant farmers enough food to live on, such as using moral restraint instead of drastic cuts based entirely on the law like Chen Mo. This must be very painful.

Looking at the look on the judge's face, Chen Mo knew that he could not be persuaded, even if the other party knew that he was unreasonable. Not all people from aristocratic families were like Zhao Yun, and they were willing to stand on the side of justice even if their own interests were harmed.

And Zhao Yun is just powerful. Compared with a big family like Shenpei, the Zhao family's background is not even worthy of carrying shoes. Naturally, Zhao Yun can be free and easy, but Shenpei cannot. Chen Mo is cutting their flesh, which is good for the world. But it was achieved at the expense of them, so naturally he didn't want to.

"That's it. Mr. Zhengnan has come to see me when he has figured it out." Chen Mo stood up to see off the guests. Since both parties insisted, it would just be an unhappy reunion, so it would be better to save some energy.

"Farewell." Shen Pei nodded and stood up, bowed to Chen Mo, and turned to leave.