"Give you half an hour of time."

After shouting this last sentence, Zhao Hongrun walked off the high platform by himself, and stood with Baili Ba, Zongwei Shen Yu, Wuwei Chen Shi and others, looking at the 50,000 Chu army captives like a sea of people, waiting for them to make a choice.

In fact, for those Chu soldiers, there is nothing to consider at all, the field tax of Wei State's 'tithe', and their Chu State has to extract a layer of interests because of the ruling fiefdom, so that the field tax is as high as 'tithe', what does this mean?

This means that the farmers of Chu have worked hard for a year, but they can only harvest half of the harvest. And the other half of the interests, the Chu State with taxes to collect thirty percent, this is understandable, although the "tithe" national tax, compared with other countries so much higher, but it is not unacceptable, but the terrible thing is that the ruler of the fiefdom of the Yi has to collect additional taxes on the basis of this "tithe" tax, that is, the Yi tax, which is the fundamental reason for the general poverty of the lower peasants of the Chu State.

In the final analysis, it is a difference in the national system.

For example, in the Wei State, although the Ji royal family also has many clan children with their own territories, it is at best a small city built with their own money, covering an area of not a few miles, and can only be said to be a luxurious and luxurious manor.

The princes and nobles of the Ji clan are just eating and drinking, dogs and horses in this one-third of their own acre, and no one will care about them.

Moreover, these princes and nobles of the Ji clan did not have the right to levy additional taxes on nearby counties or villages, and their expenses were allocated by the clan, which was regarded as a normal state consumption to support the people of these royal families.

This amount of money is not too much, but it is enough to cope with the consumption of the government. But not enough to be too extravagant. As for those Ji royal families who are rich and can often spend a lot of money, most of them have their own industries in various places, and they use the help of their people to run them.

Therefore, although the Ji royal family of Wei controlled the money-making industries of Wei, it did not directly harm the interests of most of the Wei farmers. Because there is no direct connection between the two.

However, the Xiong royal family of Chu is different, and Chu adopts a fiefdom system, which means that the king of Chu rewards a piece of land to the sons and nephews of his Xiong clan, such as Xiong Tuo, the king of Xuancheng. Every year, Xiong Tuo should pay the national tax of "tithe" to the king of Chu, and in addition, how much additional benefits can be obtained depends on his ability.

Because of this system, the royal family of the Xiong clan of Chu State. spared no effort to collect the Chu people in the fiefdom, in comparison, the children of the Ji clan of the Wei State still have their own livelihood, and these Chu Xiong clan royal family are simply blood-sucking maggots, trying to squeeze out the people in the fief at all costs for their own luxurious enjoyment.

Of course, not all Xiong clans are like this, such as Xiong Tuo, the king of Xuancheng. This is a more ambitious Yi Jun, who not only took only 10% of the Yi tax. He also used this tax to build an army, which was used in the wars with Wei in the past years, and in addition, he also bought horses from the neighboring country of Ba in the west.

Don't look at the Xuancheng Jun Xiong Tuo, there are only one hundred or two war horses on hand, which are used to reward the generals and personal guards to ride, looking at the entire Chu State. In fact, there is no Yi Jun holding hundreds of war horses.

First, the Chu State does not produce good horses, and the second is that it is expensive to buy good horses from the Ba State, and thirdly, for most of the Xiong nobles in the Chu State, how can riding a horse be more stylish than riding a sedan chair carried by more than a dozen people?

But even if the king of Xuancheng Xiong Tuo set the total national tax and the Yi tax at "tithe". This is also a full double the national tax of Wei's "tithes".

Twice as much!

This means that those farmers in Chu have more grain in store to survive the cold winter, so that they will not starve in the winter, and they do not have to enlist in the army in exchange for a "settling-in allowance" in order to get the winter rations of the year earlier.

Take Wu Ji as an example, he used to have a father and two brothers, but now, he is the only adult male in the family, but how many people does he have to support? An old mother who is sick in bed, two widowed sisters-in-law, a pair of younger brothers and sisters, and younger nephews and nieces, he alone has to support seven or eight people.

This is also the reason why the people of Chu are particularly keen on investment, because if they don't join the army, their family will really not be able to survive.

Of course, the "settling-in fee" given by Xiong Tuo, the king of Xuancheng, was at most enough to support the family through the winter of that year, and when they waited for the next year, they would still have to starve, and at this time, they would need an additional source of money.

If you can tenaciously survive in one battle after another, and rob the property in the hands of the people of Wei as much as possible, it is naturally the best, if not, unfortunately die in battle, then you can only be the same as Wu Ji's family, the old father died in the eldest brother, the eldest brother died in the second brother, and the second brother died in Wu Ji, until all the men in the family died.

At that time, in order to make a living, Wu Ji's two sisters-in-law may have to sell themselves cheaply, including Wu Ji's pair of younger brothers and younger sisters, and they may also be sold to rich families, and their status is even more unbearable than that of domestic slaves.

This is not a joke, this is the common portrayal of the poor people of Chu State.

Therefore, compared with the heavy taxes of the Chu State, the treatment proposed by Zhao Hongrun is simply very attractive to those Chu soldiers: arbitrary reclamation of wasteland, tax exemption for the first three years, and national tax "tithe" after three years, no Yi tax, and no other messy taxes, and what makes them even more excited is that even if they can't pay taxes, they can be replaced by forced labor, and repay taxes to the local government by doing coolies, which means that no family will starve to death because of taxes.

This is simply a benevolent government!

"You...... How so? ”

A heart-pounding Chu soldier secretly and privately discussed with his companion next to him.

I saw that the companion was also a chicken thief looking at him, and asked in a low voice, "You speak first." ”

"You speak first."

"You speak first."

In fact, they are all excited, but it is not good to be the first to speak, after all, if you say so, the surrender of Wei is also a matter of surrendering to the enemy, which is not very glorious.

Finally, after staring at each other for a long time, one of the Chu soldiers couldn't help but whisper: "The tax of 'tithe'...... Even if it's ten acres of land, you can have a lot of money left over in a year, right? ”

"Why?" Another Chu soldier lowered his voice and said, "Didn't that King of Wei say it. As long as you have the strength, the wasteland is at your disposal, twenty or thirty acres are yours...... And it's tax-free for the first three years. ”

The whispered conversation between the two also attracted the attention of several Chu soldiers nearby.

No, another Chu soldier complained in a low voice: "Why is it that the taxes of our Chu State are as high as 'tithe' and 'tithe', and the Wei State only has 'tithe'?" ”

"Why else?" Another Chu soldier sneered disdainfully: "The city where Xiang Chengjun lived back then. You haven't seen it before, have you? Hey! ”

The surrounding Chu soldiers were silent when they heard this, in fact, they were not stupid, how could they not understand the root cause.

"The problem is, that Xiaoyi-kun's words can't be trusted." An older soldier reminded with some concern.

As soon as the words fell, a soldier of the former Xiong Hu Army defended Zhao Hongrun in a low voice: "People in Wei don't practice Yi Jun, they are all crowned kings, and the one who is Fang Cai is the king of Wei." ”

"King, can you seal it casually?" A Chu soldier who didn't know the state of Wei interjected in confusion. After all, in their Chu country, the king of Chu is the only king.

"Of course it's not casually sealed, haven't you heard that King Su is the son of King Wei? It is equivalent to our Xuancheng Jun...... Such a noble person, shouldn't be able to speak? ”

Similar small group discussions generally occurred in every place where the 50,000 Chu soldiers were captured, and almost all the Chu soldiers were seriously thinking about this matter, after all, it was about their lives. It is also related to the living situation of the elderly children in their families in the future.

Think about it, too, if you just rely on farming the land to support your family. Who wants to pin their head to the waistband of their pants and risk their lives to go to war for a little money?

Half an hour passed quickly, and seeing this, Zhao Hongrun walked on the high platform again and cleared his voice. shouted loudly: "Okay, I believe you have thought about it carefully, then...... Those who intend to submit to my Great Wei will follow the edge of this pit in order. Let's go around to the clearing over there. ”

Hearing Zhao Hongrun's voice, the whispering of the fifty thousand Chu soldiers soon stopped.

I saw that the Chu soldiers closest to the giant pit, under the signal of the nearby Wei soldiers, stood up from the ground, and according to Zhao Hongrun's words, along the edge of the giant pit, slowly walked to the outer open space.

It can be seen that the psychological pressure of those Chu soldiers who are walking at the forefront is estimated to be not small, they lowered their heads, hesitated, and looked a little ashamed, but when they made a decision, the psychological pressure of those Chu soldiers behind them was much smaller.

It's no wonder, after all, that when most people make the same decision, even if there is anything controversial about the decision, their psychological burden will be much smaller, and even gradually turn into peace of mind: Look, it's not just me who thinks so, everyone thinks so.

One by one, the Chu soldiers walked along the edge of the giant pit to another open space, so that more than 5,000 Chu soldiers walked through the motions, and none of the Chu soldiers were willing to die in the huge pit.

In fact, this is not difficult to understand, after all, these Chu soldiers are all soldiers who were "bought" by Xiong Tuo, the Jun of Xuancheng before the war, and most of them were just peasants of the Chu State, and they did not have the heart to follow the death of Xiong Tuo, the Jun of Xuancheng, in the past, they did not dare to abscond due to military discipline, but now Xiong Tuo, the Jun of Xuancheng, has already escaped without a trace, and it is the turn of Zhao Hongrun, the king of Wei, to be the king, where will they take the set that they once had in the Chu State seriously.

Even some Chu soldiers are still thinking: When this battle is over, let's also mix the identity of the people of Great Wei, and when the time comes, we will completely bow down to the Chu State and the Junxiong of Xuancheng, what about being deserters? What about defecting to the enemy? The light tax of Wei's "tithe", a fool only returned to Chu!

Zhao Hongrun was not surprised by the decision of these Chu soldiers who were at the bottom of the army, after all, not all armies had a strong sense of cohesion and military honor like the Junshui Battalion and the Dangshan Battalion.

Soldiers, commanders, commanders, and 100 generals, these are not problems, the problem lies in those 500 generals, 1,000 generals, or even 2,000 generals and 3,000 generals.

As for whether these people were willing to surrender to Great Wei, Zhao Hongrun was not sure.

Even, even if these people were willing to surrender to Great Wei, Zhao Hongrun didn't dare to believe it easily.

"It seems that we still have to ask for the peace of the king Xiong Hu......

Zhao Hongrun grinned.

Although Xiong Hu's injuries have not healed yet, there is no way, isn't it time to use him again. (To be continued.) )