On this day, Jinling City is very lively. In accordance with Jia Xu's instructions, Fa Zheng conducted research in Jinling City to see what the people were still dissatisfied with their current life and what was wrong with the current policies and laws.

Practice makes sense!

This is the iron rule believed by Yuan Shu's advisers.

Although some of the policies promulgated by Yuan Shu are somewhat shocking, they are all excellent policies that have been practiced in history. However, due to the different times, it is still necessary to consider whether there will be problems in the specific implementation, and whether it needs to be improved according to the situation.

The best way to do this is to come down and investigate and see what the people and scholars are dissatisfied with the current policy, or what needs they still have.

Of course, these things must not be done by the bigwigs like Jia Xu Tianfeng in person, and they are usually handled by the officials under their command.

However, it just so happened that Fa Zheng had been relatively idle recently, and Jia Xu also intended to exercise his ability to penetrate human nature, so he sent him over to help, and by the way, he saw all kinds of people clearly.

"Uncle, how is your life lately?"

randomly found an old man with gray hair, and Fa Zheng began to chat.

People grow old and become fine. In this war-torn era when the average age was only in their twenties, it was considered a long life to live to the age of forty or fifty. If you want to investigate the living conditions of the people under Yuan Shu's command, it is not wrong to find these old people.

In this era of ruling the world with filial piety, the people who are responsible for the management in the remote small villages are the elders. Therefore, the old man's right to speak and knowledge are the broadest among the people.

"That's good! My son went out to work, my daughter-in-law and I farmed at home, and my grandson went to study in a small academy in the city. ”

Fa Zheng, who had changed into ordinary people's clothes, looked like a young man who had not yet reached the crown, so the old man didn't pay too much attention to it, and said casually as if chattering.

That's not what Fa Zheng wanted to hear, he had heard this kind of thing countless times, and he was relieved at first, but now he was tired of hearing it. Ask bluntly, "Is there anything you don't like about your life lately?" ”

The old man was not wary of Fazheng, so he opened his mouth and said: "I don't have to worry about food and clothing now, but the price of grain is too low, and this year's grain price is thirty percent lower than before." My daughter-in-law is now planning to work in the city with my son. ”

Fa Zheng secretly wrote it down in his heart. This problem has been reported by many people, but due to the large number of cultivated cattle, the widespread use of advanced agricultural tools, and the reclamation of a large amount of wasteland, Jiangdong has produced too much grain this year. Not to mention that every household has surplus grain, the extra grain in Yangzhou Mansion alone is enough for the entire Jiangdong to eat for more than a year.

After all, Jiangdong is vast and sparsely populated, and the land, ploughing cattle, and farm tools are in place, and the water conservancy project is coupled with fertilizer and some farming skills. Originally, one person couldn't get ten acres of land, but now as long as you want to plant, thirty acres of land can be rented to you.

This three-percent reduction in grain prices is already the result of Yuan Shu's continuous high-priced purchases and control of grain prices. Otherwise, this year's grain prices will fall to less than 20 percent.

Grain prices have fallen wildly, and it is the people of Jiangdong who have suffered. Yuan Shu tried his best, but he could only do this. But fortunately, there are still Cao Cao, Lu Bu, Gongsun Zhan, and other big men, and the excess grain in Yuan Shu's hands can be sold to them at a high price.

In fact, the grain obtained from cultivation in ancient times was not so small, and it was still possible for one person to cultivate and supply three people.

But why is food so scarce? In addition to the causes of natural disasters, it is more because of man-made, mainly the local unscrupulous people and gentry.

They all profit from the exploitation of the people. Don't look at the twenty taxes of the Han Dynasty, the tax rate is very low, but it would be good if the grain obtained by the people from cultivation could reach their own hands.

For the sake of their high position, these unscrupulous gentry would rather throw the land aside than give it to the people for cultivation, exploiting the people through natural disasters and diseases, and retarding the development of society.

Now, under Yuan Shu's iron-blooded methods and various gentle policies, it is unlikely that this group of moths will continue to exploit the people.

Tian Feng's ongoing merger of villages and Yuan Shu's land policy made them no longer able to become the original emperor of the soil, so a group of gentry now began to do business. Trying to maintain his high position by manipulating food prices.

This year, Yuan Shu originally thought that he would be able to maintain the price of grain from falling, after all, he purchased so much grain at a high price, which was enough to maintain the consumption of the entire Jiangdong for a year. But I didn't expect so much food to emerge.

Don't think about it, this must be the work of some reluctant small families and local gentry and some unscrupulous businessmen. Later, Guo Jiayi investigated and this was indeed the case.

There is more grain this year, and lowering grain prices will cause many people to turn to other industries. Wait until next year when there is less food, and then raise food prices. As soon as it was stretched, the wealth in the hands of the people shrank. This is what these ill-minded people want to play.

"Uncle, Jiangdong has produced so much grain this year, and it is normal for grain prices to fall. It's just a two-percent shortage, so it should be acceptable. This problem cannot be solved at all, and Fa Zheng can only comfort.

Macroeconomic control is also moderate, and Yuan Shu can't always buy excess grain! With Jiangdong's current grain production, Yuan Shu will not be able to spend the grain if he continues, so he can only sit and wait for the grain to become moldy.

The South has never been a place where there is a shortage of food, but a lack of population. Originally, before Yuan Shu came, the people of Jiangdong were doing well, at least they could survive. The grain in the hands of the wealthy gentry of the family is even more piled up, and it can't be used up at all, and it is all moldy.

Zhumen wine and meat stink, there are frozen bones on the road, and this kind of thing appeared in an endless stream in ancient times. It's not that there is little food, it's that food is in the hands of a small number of people. If you really meet an emperor with strong wrists and clever means, there will be no shortage of food at all.

Like Yang Jian, the founding emperor of the Sui Dynasty, the grain he left behind was not used up until the Tang Dynasty, that is, the Tang Dynasty still used it for more than 20 years.

You must know that when the Sui Dynasty was first established, it was really hungry, and even Yang Jian took the lead in going to Luoyang to find food to eat. However, in just over ten years, the Sui Dynasty has become so rich, it is a miracle!

How did Yang Jian do it? He only used a small trick, Yoshikura.

During the harvest year, the people voluntarily donated the grain in their hands into the righteous warehouse, and when the disaster year came, the grain was distributed to the people for free. Later, it even directly forced the people to collect donations.

Just such a broken plan full of loopholes directly led to the development of the Sui Dynasty for more than ten years, and the national strength caught up with the richest period in China before the Sui Dynasty, the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.

And it took seventy years for the Han Dynasty to reach such wealth. From the founding of the Sui Dynasty to the present, it has only been a decade, and the accumulation rate is equivalent to seven times that of the Han Dynasty. What a terrifying speed!

Therefore, the reason for starvation is not the low production of food, nor the frequent natural disasters, but the greed and selfishness of the upper classes.