On 20 July, at the county government of Changshe County, Wang Rui, the newly arrived county magistrate, Ma Hong, the county lieutenant, and the two generals Ju Sheng and Cao Wu, who were temporarily stationed there, had a discussion.

In view of the fact that Ma Hong had not yet recruited enough county officials to maintain order in the county, Wang Rui made a plea to Ju Sheng and Cao Wu: "This time, the government will confiscate the illegal land, and ask the two officials to take more care." ”

As he spoke, he glanced at Ma Gai and added: "If you can, tell the soldiers not to be too intense, so as not to cause resentment among the people." ”

On the side, Ma Hong also nodded again and again.

He and Wang Rui are both new officials who have just taken office, and they have no prestige in the local area, and they have no merits in the county guard's mansion.

Especially Ma Hong, who went from a bandit to a county lieutenant, he didn't want to waste this great opportunity.

Faced with the pleas of Wang Rui and Ma Hong, Ju Sheng and Cao Wu naturally agreed, only to see Ju Sheng patting Ma Hong's arm and saying with a smile: "It's all myself, I won't ask the soldiers to cause trouble for the two." ”

"That's good, that's good."

Unlike Ma Hong, who just laughed, Wang Rui breathed a sigh of relief.

On the same day, the Changshe County Government posted notices throughout the county town to announce the decision of the county guard.

First, the government did not approve of the land distributed by the rebels to civilians in various counties, but all households who received illegal land were ordered to go to the county government office within 10 days to register and record. Those who have been deprived of their land by the rebels can also report to the county government within 10 days, and the county government will do its best to return the old land.

Second, for households who are willing to hand over their illegal land, the government will give rewards at the standard of '10 mu and 1 stone of rice'.

Third, households are allowed to apply for land from the county government, but the newly applied land needs to be handed over to an additional 30% of the land harvest according to the merits of the land, and after paying it for seven years, the government will default to the ownership of the field. During this period, it is not allowed to be transferred, bought or sold, and agricultural affairs must not be neglected, otherwise the government will have the right to take it back.

Fourth, concealing and not reporting and concealing each other will be punished as fornication and anti-military.

At the same time, the county government also sent county officials to beat gongs and drums to patrol the streets and shout, and inform the people in the city of the above decrees in the form of shouting.

For a while, the surviving clans and wealthy families in Changshe City were greatly overjoyed, and they waited for a long time, and finally waited for the government to come forward to recover their losses for them, while the civilians in the city were greatly panicked.

Reward with the standard of 'ten acres and one stone of rice'?

To be sure, few civilians look up to such meager generals.

Mo underestimated their market wisdom, even if most of them were illiterate, they also knew that ten acres of land could basically grow eight stone rice in a year, even if they had to pay half of the heavy field tax to the government, they could still have four stone rice left.

What's more, this land is still owned by them, which is more cost-effective than the 'reward' of a one-shot sale.

Immediately, all the households in the county town who got the illegal land complained about the government, and even some people began to gather on the streets to denounce the government.

For this kind of behavior, the newly appointed county lieutenant Ma Hong naturally would not tolerate it, and immediately took dozens of newly recruited county soldiers to the streets to arrest the leader, and the two generals Ju Sheng and Cao Wu also immediately led the garrison to maintain order in the city and support the government.

I have to say that more than 4,000 soldiers of the second battalion of the brigade, plus the two generals Ju Sheng and Cao Wu, even if they capture this county seat, it is enough to maintain law and order.

Under the suppression of these 4,000 soldiers, the resentment in Changshe County was suppressed before it could brew.

Of course, the government did not blindly suppress it, and it also left a slight opportunity for the households who wanted to keep those fields, that is, to 'rent' a piece of land at a whopping 80% rent.

In all fairness, compared with the 'thirty taxes and one' of the Han Dynasty, the Jin State's 'tithe' tax is already terrifying, even if it is a good year, it can only make the farmer's family can survive, and the land rent as high as 'tithe' is almost contributing to the country's grain production.

Because of this, the vast majority of the people of Changshe returned their fields to receive the reward of 'ten acres of land and one stone of rice', and almost no one applied to the county government for additional fields.

In this regard, Cao Wu shook his head and said to Ju Sheng: "This will not work at all, the land rent of 'Shiba' is better than opening up a new piece of private land." ”

You must know that there are actually things in all parts of the world that conceal private land, whether it is a large family or an ordinary person, especially for ordinary people, they would rather spend more effort to cultivate a new field, even if the location is remote and the soil is poor, it is better to earn more land than cultivating 'official land' with 'land rent as high as 80%'.

As for if the government finds out afterwards, it will be a big deal not to plant it, or plant it in another place, anyway, cultivating private land is not a felony to kill their heads, as long as they make up the land rent, the government will generally not embarrass them again.

"yes."

Ju Sheng nodded thoughtfully, and then sighed with emotion: "But the current identity of you and me, it's not appropriate to accuse anything......

Cao Wu frowned and said: "I don't mean to blame anything, I just think that the backlog of those fields in the hands of the government is meaningless, and those civilians will not apply for fields with land rent of up to eighty percent. ”

"......" Ju Sheng was silent.

Seeing that Ju Sheng didn't say a word, Cao Wu said, "I'll go to see Leader Zhou and explain this matter to him in person." ”

Ju Sheng was slightly startled, and hurriedly wanted to stop it, but saw Cao Wu Zhengse and said: "I surrendered to the leader of Zhou, just because he treated me sincerely, not because the righteous teacher lost the 'great righteousness', if the leader of Zhou refuses to listen to my advice, then he is not worthy of my follow!" ”

Speaking of this, he suddenly smiled and said, "Ha, look at you. …… I just wanted to tell Chief Zhou what I saw. ”918

"You guy......" Ju Sheng shook his head with a wry smile.

On the same day, Cao Wu immediately rode to Xuchang, and finally arrived in Xuchang after a journey of nearly two hours.

Immediately, he went straight to the Governor's Office and asked to see Zhao Yu.

Knowing that Cao Wu came to ask for a meeting, Zhao Yu naturally would not refuse, and immediately ordered someone to invite him to the party's room.

"Cao Wu, why are you here? Didn't you assist Ma Hong, Wang Rui and others in the long club? ”

After seeing Cao Wu, Zhao Yu asked in surprise.

"Yes."

Cao Wu nodded, and then clenched his fists and said, "The last general is here because of this ......"

As he spoke, he talked about the current situation in Changshe County, and then frowned and put forward his own opinion: "As far as the last general is concerned, the county guard government rents too much land for the 'official field', even if you can own this field after seven years of cultivation, almost no one will apply to the government, and ordinary people would rather spend more effort to find an inconspicuous place to open up private land, and in the end, it must be that the Changshe County government has more than 100,000 or 200,000 fields in their hands that are uncultivated and wasted. ”

Hearing Cao Wu's words, Zhao Yu's expression was solemn.

To tell the truth, he knew that the county guard government had set a 'guantian tax' as high as 'tieight'.

He once thought that if a family originally had 100 acres of land, and then applied for 50 acres of 'official land', and after seven years of cultivation, it would be used as their own land, and this matter would not seem to be bad for the family. - Although it is definitely a loss to apply for the cultivation of 'official land', as long as he survives for seven years, won't this field belong to his own family?

But Cao Wu's words made Zhao Yu realize that his previous considerations were too arbitrary, or that he thought the people of this era were 'too honest'.

Yes, private fields.

The problem of private land, which has crushed the well field system, has been an ineradicate problem since ancient times.

But......

"Chen Lang has been the county warden for so many years, he must know about this, right? It's not a ridiculous idea he came up with in the first stroke."

After pondering along with this line of thought, Zhao Yu faintly understood.

Chen Lang, perhaps wanting to take advantage of this incident to expand the official land, did not intend to lease those 'ownerless fields' to the people of the counties—the ownerless fields here refer to the fields of the big families who were slaughtered by the rebels.

After thinking for a while, Zhao Yu instructed Cao Wu: "You rest here for a while, and I'll go to the county guard's mansion." ”

With that, he took Niu Heng to the county guard's mansion and asked the county Cheng Chen Lang about it in person.

In the face of Zhao Yu's inquiry, Chen Lang did not hide it, nodded and said truthfully: "Yes, Duwei, I know that most of the people in the three counties would rather cultivate private land in private than apply to the government, and in the end, the county government of the three counties may have more than ten or two hundred thousand acres of land left...... The reason why the county guard government proposed that decree was actually to appease public opinion and avoid falling into the pretext of 'encroaching on the people'. ”

Zhao Yu thought for a moment, then his heart moved slightly, and he asked in surprise: "Do you want to use these official fields to settle the people of Henan?" ”

"Huh?"

Chen Lang looked up at Zhao Yu in shock, and immediately realized his faux pas, and hurriedly confessed.

After confessing, he complimented: "It is worthy of being a captain, and at a glance, he can see through the intention of our waiting." ”

As he spoke, he straightened his expression, nodded and said, "Yes, these official fields, I plan to use them to settle the displaced people in Henan County...... Henan County was originally a large grain-producing county of my Great Jin, which can produce millions of stones of grain every year, but this year, the rebels destroyed at least eighty percent of the fields in Henan County, and the remaining field harvest was simply not enough to feed its millions of county residents, my Yingchuan County was next to Henan County, and repelled the rebels, once it came to September and October, Henan County could not collect grain, and the people of the county fell into a panic, when the time came, not to mention that my Yingchuan County was unable to reinforce the grain to Henan County, even if the grain was transported, I am afraid that there would be tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of refugees pouring into my Yingchuan. …… Since you can't avoid it, why not take this opportunity to get more official land, and wait for him to rein in the homeless people? In this way, the county can also collect more grain. ”

can foresee the crisis, and even find a way to turn it into an opportunity, even Zhao Yu feels that this Chen Lang is really a capable person.

A moment later, Zhao Yu returned to the Governor's Office and told Cao Wu the truth.

Knowing that the county guard was deliberately expanding the official land in order to accommodate the refugees who fled to his Yingchuan County, Cao Wu suddenly realized.

Suddenly realized, he said ashamedly: "It seems that the last general is prejudiced and mistakenly thinks that the bureaucrats in the world are all the same dogs, and now it seems that there are still good officials in this Jin Kingdom." …… The last general was reckless and disturbed the captain, so please punish the captain. ”

"Huh."

Zhao Yu patted Cao Wu's arm, smiled and said with relief: "You came for official business, how can I punish you?" ”

Immediately, he said with a straight face: "I have also considered the problem of displaced people in Henan County, the Changshe is the closest to Henan, and I am afraid that I will bear the first risk at that time, in order to prevent accidents, you and Ju Sheng will garrison the army in the Changshe for a while, and if you have any ideas within the time limit, inform me immediately." ”

"Yes!" Cao Wu was in good spirits and immediately responded with his fists.

Facts have proved that Juncheng Chen Lang is still too optimistic, and by the beginning of August, refugees from Henan County have already begun to flee to Yingchuan and arrive in Changshe County first.

Upon learning of this, Xuchang was on the verge of a great enemy, after all, it meant that a larger number of hungry people would continue to pour in.