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Chapter 608

Chapter 608

Accompanied by Zhou Mancang, Lin Xuan inspected the fields around Zhouzhuang, and found that both corn and potatoes were growing well.

"Yes, you did a good job." Lin Xuan praised.

"You can't deserve Lord Hou's praise, it's all thanks to Lord Hou." A smile appeared on Zhou Mancang's dark face.

Although he is Li Zheng, let alone an official, he is not even an official.

Usually, it is just to cooperate with the court to collect taxes, or to arrange corvee service.

And more than half of the land in Zhouzhuang belongs to the Lin family, and his family also planted part of the Lin family's land.

The words of the Lin family are even more effective to them than the words of the emperor.

This is not an exaggeration at all. Why do you say that land annexation is a problem that all dynasties have to face.

The aristocratic family has acquired so much land, it is impossible for them to grow it themselves, and eventually they will rent it out to the common people.

In this way, land annexation is not that harmful.

After all, whether it is a family or a landlord, the land still has to pay taxes.

However, when the common people become tenants of aristocratic families or landlords, they are exploited by them, and most of the hard-earned harvests are taken away by the landlords and aristocratic families. If the rest of them can barely register as a family, it is considered that the landlords and aristocratic families are kind. Most of the tenants can't even make ends meet.

And the people have no food and can only borrow from them, but the people can't afford it at all.

And those landlords and aristocratic families didn't expect them to pay back, they just used this method to control those tenants.

However, those tenants had no land and owed debts, so they could only depend on the family and the landlord.

Otherwise, where did the family's private soldiers come from?

And those people who are exploited have no surplus food at all, and they have no ability to resist natural and man-made disasters.

We can only rely on the imperial court for disaster relief, which puts great pressure on the imperial court.

The people have their own land, and even if there is a natural disaster, there will be some surplus food, and the pressure on the court will be much less.

It's okay when a dynasty is strong, but how can a dynasty remain strong forever.

Land annexation is tantamount to sucking the flesh and blood of the imperial court to strengthen itself.

The emperors of all dynasties naturally knew this problem, and thought of many ways, but they couldn't solve this problem.

Many people believe that land annexation is due to problems with the ancient system.

If it is caused by the system, why continue such a system and repeat such unsolvable problems for thousands of years?

The system is determined by the interests of the emperor.The well field system in the Zhou Dynasty forced the people to cultivate the king’s fields, and the people kept the rations that could keep them alive, and everything else produced went to the royal family and nobles. As a result, the people used laziness as a weapon to resist, resulting in shrinking production.As a result, the emperor adopted land private ownership, allowing the owner of the land to pay the tax, and the rest was his own, which increased the enthusiasm of the people for production.But private ownership of land means that land can be freely transferred and sold, so there will be land mergers.

Is there a solution to this problem?

Any problem has a solution, but the solution will definitely bring other problems.

The solution is very simple, if the land is nationalized, the common people only have the right to use it, but not the right to trade it.

But this kind of method couldn't be played in ancient times. Wang Mang did it like this, but he couldn't stand the pressure and had to stop.

Lin Xuan read some novels in his previous life. Many people traveled to ancient times and tried various methods to solve the problem of land annexation.

But that's just a novel. Qin Huang Han Wu, Tang Zong Song Zu didn't solve the problem, so many famous ministers in history couldn't solve the problem, how can you solve it?

With Li Shimin's intelligence, he must understand the history of Wang Mang's restructuring and the benefits of state-owned land, but does he plan to do so?

What are rights?

Lin Xuan thinks that power means recognition, and if you have more people who agree with you, you naturally have rights.

This is the so-called human heart.

The reason why Yang Jian was able to replace Zhou Li Sui was because there were many people who agreed with him, and the emperor became a puppet without support.

Zhao Kuangyin is the same.

Li Shimin naturally understood that if he affected the interests of the majority, he would not be stable as an emperor, so he could only suppress the family to contain this situation.

But he also understands that this situation cannot be contained, even if the five surnames and Qiwang disappear, there will be a new family to replace them.

It is said that the aristocratic family disappeared after the Tang Dynasty, but is that really the case?

It's just that the aristocratic families at that time were not as influential as the aristocratic families before the Tang Dynasty.

Lin Xuan didn't think he could change, and he wouldn't even touch this aspect.

How many reforms have ended well in history?

But he will try his best to do something for this era.

He develops overseas, isn't it just to make the upper class focus on overseas, not on that little land.

He doesn't know if it's useful, but at least it's done, isn't it?

Lin Xuan nodded. Farmers in ancient times were very cautious about crops. Champa rice was introduced to the Central Plains in the Song Dynasty, but it took many years to spread it.

For the common people, the harvest of the field is related to whether their family can feed their only child. What if the harvest of other crops is not good?

However, because of the lessons learned from potatoes, the people in Zhouzhuang did not have much resistance to Lin Xuan letting them grow corn and potatoes.

"Where's the cotton?" Lin Xuan asked.

Cotton can't be eaten. As for what to tell the people to keep warm, I can't even eat enough, so I can think of something to keep warm.

Don't think that during the Zhenguan period, the lives of the people were so good.

Even in those very famous heyday periods in history, many people still couldn't get enough to eat.

Just imagine the later generations in the 80s and [-]s. No matter how difficult the conditions were at that time, it was better than the ancient times, right?

But it's not that many people don't have enough to eat.

Zhou Mancang said with some hesitation: "There are not many cotton planters. It's not that they don't listen to Lord Hou, but that each family has a lot of fields, and they can't be busy at all."

If you are too busy, you don't pay attention to it at all.

Cotton planting does not require arable land. It only needs to dig holes and plant the well-raised seedlings. There is nothing too busy.

"How much did you plant in total?" Lin Xuan asked.

"Only 20 acres."

Lin Xuan was speechless. There were hundreds of households in Zhuangzi, with an average of more than 20 mu, each household was less than one mu.

It seems that we have to find a way to increase their enthusiasm.

Cotton had already been used in the Song Dynasty, but it was not planted on a large scale in the Ming Dynasty, so Zhu Yuanzhang had to issue an order to force the people to plant it.

Not to mention that the people nowadays don't even know the specific effect of cotton. Can you expect them to pay more attention?

"In this way, you tell the people in the village that as long as they take good care of it, I will harvest all the cotton that is planted, and guarantee that the income from one acre of land will not be less than their income from growing grain."

Relying on self-consciousness is not enough, so you can only rely on temptation.

Just like raising silkworms, everyone knows that they can be sold, and the income is not low. In many places, people make a living by raising silkworms.

People have shallow eyesight, as long as it is profitable, they are not afraid that they will not care.

As for what he wants so much cotton for.

Haven't seen the loom for sign-in rewards yet?

That loom is not for weaving ordinary cloth at all, but for weaving cotton. How can we do without cotton.

Cotton cloth is much better at keeping warm than the coarse cloth and silk on the market today.

At that time, there is no need to worry about selling.

(End of this chapter)