Johime Three Kingdoms

Chapter 120

On the fourteenth day of the first lunar month of the second year of Jian'an, although there were endless wars in the Central Plains, natural and man-made disasters in Guanzhong, and war in Hebei, the situation in Jiangdong was still relatively stable. Baitu's "deep well disease" had been greatly alleviated after the number of deep wells in various places reached the standard.

However, the rumors about "deep well disease" have never dissipated. Even in the middle of Wu County, there are several dug deep wells that have been deliberately destroyed. Although the Ministry of Justice did not find out the results in the end and attributed it to accidents, there are rumors everywhere. It was said that the Xu family, who did not want to be named, could not bear to see Bai Tu harming the people, so he made the protest!

Anyway, that's what the rumors said, and Xu didn't refute it...

Recently, there is a great rumor in Jinling City, that is, Gan Ning, who came back to report on his duties, wanted to leave Jinling City overnight last night and return to his station. However, the city guards stopped him, and he was stopped on the spot by Zhou Mu's Su Wei. , escorted back!
If this is true, the general of one side actually kept changing his orders to leave the state pastoral office privately and return to the base, and was stopped from going back... The meaning of this is really disturbing.

However, although this rumor is true, the strange thing is that there is no chaos in the state pastoral office...

The city of Jinling is quite peaceful at this time, and you can see the big dogs from Jiangdong everywhere, delivering some wine and meat from door to door.

Bai Tu even saw Yu and his wife personally carrying a bamboo basket, and together with the maids and servants, bringing warmth, cold food, wine and meat to the neighbors, old people, orphans and widows, and even a drop of money to those in special need.

"You can really pretend to be a good person... In the future, when we have money, we will also give wine and meat to the people every New Year!" Lu Lingqi said to Bai Tu in a somewhat unhappy voice.

"That means... you also have to pretend to be a good person?" Bai Tu asked in surprise.

"Bah! How can I say it's just a pretense about my business?" Lu Lingqi retorted.

At this time, Bai Tu and Lu Lingqi were walking in Jinling City in casual clothes. Bai Tu took advantage of the first month and wanted to look around and get a deeper understanding of the people's livelihood.

Of course, Bai Tu was not like Sun Ce. Although he was walking in casual clothes, he could see Zhou Tai, who looked like an iron tower, secretly protecting himself from dozens of meters away...

In terms of "secret protection", Zhou Tai is really not as good as Tai Shici!
With Zhou Tai's body, it is really difficult to "secretly".

There are also some strong men who are obviously well-trained, and they are all in the crowd around Baitu. In addition, this is still within the city, so there is no need to worry about being assassinated.

Regarding Lu Lingqi's statement that they were "pretending to be good people", Bai Tu was noncommittal, but it was true that the wealthy families at this time, especially the aristocratic families, still arranged their appearances very carefully. During the Chinese New Year, everyone would bleed, instead of going door to door to attract Xi'er. Pay off debts.

This is not a white picture, but a show for the common people. The most important thing for aristocratic families is popularity. Maybe some emerging wealthy families will occasionally show their "trendy" side, but no aristocratic family will do this in the countryside. He brought himself into disrepute.

As people of later generations, we all know the "law of dynasty cycle", and when it comes to the end of the dynasty, "land annexation" will definitely come to mind.

However, after looking at the white map of the Jiangdong archives, one thing becomes clear - there is a big difference between the land annexation at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty and the land annexation at the end of the Tang, Song, Ming and Qing Dynasties.

First of all, the most important point is that with the population of the Han Dynasty at this time, the cultivated land area can fully reach the working limit of "one hundred acres per household". This is an advantage that cannot be matched by the Tang, Song, Ming and Qing Dynasties after the population explosion!
Since the time of Emperor Huan, the problem of cultivated land in the Eastern Han Dynasty has been "cultivated land abandoned" rather than "no land to cultivate"...

Behind the "land annexation" is the "population annexation". For the dynasties with population expansion in later generations, the average cultivated land of a household was only [-] to [-] mu, or even lower.

For the landowner at that time, if there were enough tenants dependent on him, he could cultivate intensively and increase yields, and he could cultivate extensively even if no one relied on him - the demand for manpower was very elastic!
As a result, farmers who lost their farmland had to depend on the landlord.

But nowadays, there is no such thing as "intensive farming". Anyway, the land is enough, and everyone mainly engages in extensive farming. In other words... the use of land cannot restrict farmers.

Although private reclamation is against Han law, given the current situation, even if the court is rigid, the princes from all over the country cannot rigidly prohibit reclamation, but instead strongly encourage it.

From the late Eastern Han Dynasty to the Three Kingdoms period, it was not land annexation that brought about population annexation, but population annexation that brought about land annexation!
The population is concentrated under the names of major wealthy families, not because of the land, but because of exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes. During the Three Kingdoms period, the tax rates of the three families were around [-] to [-] taxes. This was already a number that challenged the limits of survival. After all, the farming technology at this time determined It limits the production capacity of each household.

Instead, by joining forces with the wealthy and avoiding part of the tax, the common people can feel more comfortable...

However, Lu Lingqi has always been familiar with it, and she also understands some of the reasons. She understands that if the imperial court cannot touch the wealthy families in various places after further loss of population, it will have no choice but to continue to increase taxes, creating a negative cycle.

So in Lu Lingqi's eyes, these people are just "pretending to be nice".

To break this cycle, it is impossible to explain to the common people that I collect so many taxes because they are pretending to be good people. You should break away from the aristocratic families and tide over the difficulties together with the court...

Believe in you!

Even with Bai Tu's popularity, it is impossible for the people to reverse this logic.

Either the imperial court will attack forcefully and forcibly return the population to its own accounts, or it will establish a reputation among the people that exceeds that of the local prominent families...

Both are difficult.

Sending some wine and meat to the people during the Chinese New Year, isn’t that just because the wool comes from the sheep?
As for the state pastoral office...

I really can’t afford Bai Tu as a gift. After all, the Prefecture and Mufu family has a big business. There are so many troops to support and food to prepare for disasters. We can’t add another [-]% tax as a reward during the Chinese New Year, right?
Seeing Lu Lingqi's angry look, Bai Tu said with relief: "We don't need to give away wine, pineapple, and meat. We want to make the people affordable to eat meat."

"Both are difficult" for others, but Bai Tu can easily do things that others cannot.

For example, the third method is to quickly increase productivity, directly release the population from the cultivated land, and violently break the cycle of death!
It just takes time. In recent years, Baitu will still be regarded as the "shame of time travellers" and "exorbitant taxation" will be imposed on farmers who dig food in the fields. There is no hope of commercial taxes or anything like that.

On the other hand, Lu Lingqi couldn't help shrinking her neck after hearing the word "meat", "Today...do we really want to eat pork?"

"Don't worry, it's definitely different from the pork you've eaten before!" Bai Tu said confidently.

"How about we be kinder and stop dragging Mr. Lu and the others along? Mr. Lu is getting older..." Lu Lingqi is very kind.

Tonight, Bai Tu invited officials from the Six Ministry of Medicine and above to come to the Prefectural Mufu... to eat pigs and meat!

Friends from major aristocratic families were already stunned, as if Bai Tu was going to treat them to shit.

During the Chinese New Year, the Prefecture Mufu and his staff held a banquet, which was as expected, but... was the pork too much?
If Bai Tu had not been known as "The Reincarnation of Shennong" and could have turned the matter around to "understand the sufferings of the people's livelihood", it would not be an exaggeration to say that he was "humiliating" his subordinates!
After Gan Ning heard the news, he wanted to "escape" back to Chaisang overnight, but he was forced to stop by Bai Tu, and now he is being forcibly supervised in the mansion...

(End of this chapter)