The imperial court's household registration system in Guanzhong, as well as the reform of the official system, have all been completed, and the effect is very good, so that a large amount of land in the hands of officials and magnates has returned to the hands of farmers, so that farmers who have enjoyed the rights of second-class citizens are no longer so easy to be oppressed, and then there is agricultural technical support from Happy Village, so that these people who have returned to self-cultivation have a full harvest this year, and have contributed a lot of resources to the imperial court to promote the construction of a new countryside. Guanzhong's economy and people's livelihood will reach a new level.

The next step for Sun Xiangfu to consider is how to promote this new household registration model, the official system, to more regions of Datang. and liberate all the private slaves who are still in the hands of the powerful of the family, so that they too can become yeoman farmers, providing impetus for the development of the country and creating benefits.

If this idea is to be implemented, it will undoubtedly touch the interests of everyone, including Sun Xiangfu himself, who will also suffer huge losses because the tenant slaves were released and the citizen household registration policy was implemented in the north.

However, without taking this step, we will not be able to completely pull the people at the bottom out of the exploited class.

Because, as long as there is a slave, a class that is controlled by the family elites and exploited at will, they will constantly think about turning ordinary people into their slaves and seeking benefits for them.

If you want to liberate the slaves, the area with the greatest difficulty and backlash may be the Metropolitan Protectorate of Anbei, because there are more than half of the serf tenants of the five surnames and seven families gathered here, and the fields they planted are not official fields, but private fields obtained by five surnames and seven families through bidding.

Sun Xiangfu used various projects such as planting spices, bidding for land, and other projects as paving or bait to make these families agree to let their private slaves register in the yamen of the Duhu Mansion.

If, now, it is announced that these people, who were originally just private slaves of the family, will be given the same rights as the people of Guanzhong, this will undoubtedly deeply touch the interests of the family.

First of all, these private slaves were bought by several major families for a lot of money, and they couldn't let the imperial court let their money go down the drain with a policy of the imperial court.

At present, although they have registered those serfs, the actual control is still in their hands, and it is nothing more than to pay the court a poll tax in the future.

In fact, the Anbei Metropolitan Protectorate did not collect the poll tax of the people in the jurisdiction, that is to say, they did not have any actual losses, but sometimes when dealing with fugitive slaves, it was easier to rip off because they had household registration, but this was all the trouble caused by the five surnames and seven families digging into each other's corners, and it was not about the imperial court.

Moreover, if these serfs are free, then they will definitely not be willing to continue to farm for the sons of the family, because they have all seen how rich the yeoman farmers are, and now, their biggest dream is to be free and become yeoman farmers.

Then, if Sun Xiangfu wants to implement this policy, all the money that the family spent and bought so much land in the north will be scrapped.

The loss here is not a little bit, because the sons of the family bought land outside the Guan, and they were ready to grow high-yield cash crops and make a lot of money, and now that so much money has been invested in it, you have destroyed all the projects, they will not agree, and the imperial court has no credibility at all.

Not only that, this is also in conflict with Sun Xiangfu's big plan to engage in agricultural development in the north and advance to the depths of the grassland, without the investment of the family, Sun Xiangfu will only rely on his own money to promote, it may take ten or twenty years of effort, which is too cost-effective.

Therefore, when Sun Xiangfu said this request, he already had a draft in his heart, and said, "Actually, Brother Wang doesn't have to worry, Bendu, I just want each family to change the way to control the farmers under him." ”

Hearing this, Wang Xu's face softened slightly, and he asked, "In what way?" ”

"The way of hiring."

After answering Wang Xu, Sun Xiangfu added, "It is imperative for the imperial court to fully implement the new household registration policy and define the rights and interests of citizens, because it can bring benefits to the whole country.

However, it is not the intention of the Imperial Court to damage your interests and disrupt the development plans of the Northland, so I would suggest that the Imperial Court adopt a gentle approach when implementing this new policy.

In the place where the new citizenship policy is promoted, the imperial court will give each common people the status of a citizen, so that they can enjoy the rights and interests of citizens, after that, the imperial court will not allow anyone other than the official court official, or family forces, to enslave the people of the Tang Dynasty, all the people of the Tang Dynasty, especially the Han people, as long as they are not criminals, will at least be defined as second-class citizens, and the second-class citizens of the Tang Dynasty, in addition to not being enslaved, have many basic rights and interests, at least, all the deeds of sale in the future, in the place where the citizenship system is implemented, It will no longer have legal effect, and if you want to continue to let them work for you, earn profits, and serve you, you can only use the method of employment.

In order to maintain the development situation in the Northland, I will suggest to the imperial court that the contract of sale in your hands be converted into a contract of employment, and the length of the contract of employment will be determined according to the value of the contract of sale, and the maximum length will be for life, so that you will not suffer losses in vain in this round of reform.

After the reform, the employees were theoretically free, they just signed a labor agreement with you for a limited time, and if they did not work for you according to the contract, they would be in breach of contract and they would have to compensate you money.

When the time comes, the government will work with you to agree on a higher standard of compensation, so that they will not be able to breach the contract, so that you do not have to worry that these employees will flee from their jobs, because there will be the laws of the court to bind them and ensure that they will continue to work for you until the agreed time is completed. ”

After Sun Xiangfu explained, his mouth was dry, and he drank the tea on the desk, and at the same time, he needed to give some time Wang Xu to understand what he said.

After a long time, Wang Xu said, "Even so, my family's loss is not small!" You know, these slaves were originally in our family, they were slaves for generations, and the court did this, didn't it give these serfs the possibility of freedom, and besides, what kind of civil rights and interests do you have, I also know that even if they become our lifelong employees at that time, we can't beat them or scold them, aren't we just raising a group of masters at home? ”

When Sun Xiangfu heard this, he smiled and said, "The employment system is not rigid. You can set up some incentive systems, after completing the specified amount of work, employees who exceed the quota can deduct the length of the employment agreement, so that they will do their best to work and strive for early freedom when they are usually working.

You must know that a serf who has worked for you for more than ten years will enter the old age, and an old and weak serf will not only not be able to do much work, but also have to pay some grain to feed them, because only by supporting them can you let their descendants, those young and strong serfs, work hard for you.

But why do you have to spend money on supporting the old and weak? Wouldn't it be good to hire only young and strong laborers to save the cost of supporting these elderly and weak? You can use the money you save to hire more young and strong laborers, improve work efficiency, and earn more benefits, why not? ”

"You mean to say that we can make a fuss about the employment system, as long as there are productive young and strong, not old and weak?" Wang Xu seemed to understand what Sun Xiangfu meant and asked.

"It is precisely by abandoning those burdens that your productivity can be improved, and you can also save a lot of costs to feed them, so the time limit for the sale contract to be converted into an employment contract should not be too long, just when they reach their thirties, they are overwhelmed, and the employment contract has expired, which is the best, and you do not need to bear the burden of supporting them, it is the most cost-effective.

No matter how the world changes, working to earn money, this truth will not change, young and strong laborers, always need to work to earn money to support the family, just like my major workshops in Shanyang, isn't there tens of thousands of employees, as long as you adopt this employment model like Shanyang Workshop, your industry will not lack labor.

On the contrary, the one you used in the past is actually outdated, because under your management model, the competitiveness of production cannot be greater than that of these ever-changing free laborers.

For example, planting trees and farming, your serfs, if they plant well, they will eat two meals a day, and if they do not plant well, they will also eat two meals a day, and perhaps under the whip of your domestic soldiers, they will work diligently, but they will definitely not have any creativity.

If I'm not bad, using your serfs to grow cauliflower will basically not succeed, let alone planting a new crop like blueberries, which my peasant disciples are prone to growing.

Because the cultivation of these new and better crops requires not only physical strength, but technology, and the learning of technology requires understanding, what understanding do you expect these serfs to live under the whip of your soldiers? ”

Sun Xiangfu's words made Wang Xu enter contemplation again, the development model of the family is outdated and unusable?

In fact, the family's think tank has been reflecting on this problem, because, before Shanyang's investment promotion meeting, they wanted to recruit more tenants, erected a lot of signs in the city, and offered quite favorable conditions, but no one chose them, but devoted themselves to various workshops in Shanyang, or accepted the employment of those small merchants in the city.

Because most of the people know that the land of the family is not good for tenants, and if they are tenants, they will become serfs of their families.

However, like the Wang family, due to the development of the north, the industry is expanding, but there are no more people to help them maximize their benefits, which has entered a development bottleneck.

If their Wang family, like many industries under Sun Xiangfu's name, adopts the employment system and gives those hired workers relative freedom, will they also gather a large number of workers like Sun Xiangfu's many industries, so as to achieve rapid development?

Sun Xiangfu's rhetoric, in the final analysis, is to use a step-by-step way to fool landlords like Wang Xu, the exploitation of the class, and the transformation into a family business.

From the beginning of asking Wang Xu to register his serfs, Sun Xiangfu was to pave the way for today's step.

I still remember that night, he jokingly said to Yu Xiu'er, 'I want to smash this evil old society'.

At that time, it was just a joke.

But later, through the general incident, he saw the evil face of the family and the living state of the people at the bottom, and he felt that the world was too imperfect, even dark, which made him finally make up his mind.

If you smash it, you will smash it hard, and if you don't smash it to pieces, you won't see the day when the sun is shining.

As a high-level intellectual in later generations, he has seen too many examples of social development in later generations, and he will not recklessly want to do it in one step, give advice to the emperor, and let him do what he wants.

With a step-by-step way, in order to give him the possibility of completing the goal, it is a wise man's doing, all the foreshadowing has been perfected so far, then, it is time to go one step further, Wang Xu agreed to his proposal, then, everyone in a softer way, to solve this problem, if you don't agree, he can also use iron-fisted means to promote this matter, but the whole process and progress may be slower, more complicated, and more uncertain.