Fan Ning was slightly stunned, it turned out to be Cai Jing, when he was serving as an overseas economic envoy in Quanzhou, he had sent someone to find Cai Jing, but he learned that he went to Beijing to study, but he didn't expect to meet him at an unexpected moment here.

Fan Ning smiled: "Then what does County Lieutenant Cai think about himself, will the Qingmiao Law be implemented?" ”

"We were discussing this issue just now, each with its own opinions, I personally think that the Nail Protection Law is the basis of the Seedlings Law, and if the Armor Protection Law is not implemented, it will be difficult to promote the Seedlings Law, but everyone does not understand, why is the Armor Protection Law the basis of the Seedlings Law?"

Fan Ning nodded, "The role of the Baojia Law is to organize the people, ten households for the first, ten for the protection, as early as the Shang Dynasty Reform Law, the Shang Dynasty Reform Law is five households for one army, ten households for one tithe, more emphasis on military warfare, and we are biased towards farming, each guarantee must have a middle peasant, each A must have a rich peasant, why such an arrangement, this has found a guarantor for the implementation of the Qingmiao Law." ”

Fan Ning saw that everyone was very attentive to what he heard, and continued: "The original intention of the Qingmiao Law is that farmers have no money to buy seeds when they are ploughing in the spring, so they have to borrow usury, and finally they can't afford to repay the usury, lose their land, and become a red people, to be honest, this problem has been hundreds of years, and it has not been solved properly, the middle of the Tang Dynasty is the most serious, and finally caused the outbreak of the Anshi Rebellion, so Wang Xianggong wants to solve this problem by changing the law, when spring ploughing, the government lends money to the farmers, but the farmers can't afford to do it?" At this time, the law of protecting the armor came into play, and the rich peasants in the same insurance guaranteed that the peasants could not pay back the money, and the rich peasants repaid it on their behalf, and then the rich peasants demanded the money owed to the peasants, and the government had no risk, and the risk was passed on to the rich peasants. ”

"What if this peasant who owes money refuses to pay back the rich peasants?" Cai Jing asked.

"The problem is here, when Wang Xianggong formulated the Qingmiao Law, he thought that since he was a fellow villager, everyone would not borrow money and not pay it back, at most it would be delayed, and the rich would not care about this money, and it was really impossible to pay it back, so even if the rich helped the poor, it was also a good moral thing, but during the pilot operation, there was a situation where a household mainly guaranteed for fifty or sixty households.

Everyone thinks that no one else will pay it back, so why should I pay it back? In the end, none of them were willing to pay back, and the landlord did not have the money, and finally the family went bankrupt.

In just 10 counties, there have been more than 300 cases of this situation, and more than 300 small landlords have gone bankrupt and become impoverished overnight. Or flee with their families and disappear, which is why the Seedlings Law has been strongly criticized. ”

There was a whisper in the lobby, and Fanning's frank and straightforward description made everyone finally understand the essence of the Qingmiao Law: 'equal wealth and poverty', bankrupting a large number of small and medium-sized landlords, shaking the social foundation at least and triggering rebellion, is indeed very dangerous.

Cai Jing asked again: "May I ask Fan Xianggong, since the peasants' hardship has existed for hundreds of years during spring ploughing, if the green seedling method does not work, is there any other way to solve this problem?" ”

Fanning smiled slightly, "In fact, there is a way to solve it now, the great development of industry and commerce requires a large amount of labor, and overseas reclamation and mining also need a large amount of labor, they absorb the labor force of the countryside, and feed the countryside by earning money, every household has more money in their hands, as long as they are a little thrifty, they will definitely have money to buy seeds in the spring ploughing season."

For example, in my hometown of Wu County, rural girls have to find a way to become maids in large families until they are eleven or twelve years old, which is almost their only way to earn money.

But now they go to the city to work in large textile workshops, spinning, weaving, silk cutting, etc., and can earn three to four yuan a month, which is twice as much as they are maids. ”

At this time, another scholar said: "Now we are talking about a problem, saying that there is too much grain overseas, resulting in the fact that the grain in the market is very cheap now, and the rice is 20 yuan, and the farmers do not make as much money as before when they grow grain, what should we do about this problem?" ”

Fanning nodded, "This is indeed a big problem, the imperial court is also paying attention, there are also methods, such as the implementation of the government to sell grain, the government collects grain from farmers at a high price, and the government sells it at a reasonable price, and the major grain merchants can only buy grain from the government, this is a way, followed by expanding the planting of corn, encouraging farmers to feed pigs with cheap corn, farmers raise pigs than growing grain to make money, in short, so that every household has as many channels as possible to make money, and can not just make a living by growing grain." ”

The atmosphere in the lobby was very lively, everyone rushed to ask questions, and Cai Jing once again grabbed the qualification to ask questions.

"Young people all support the change of the law, but I heard that Fan Xianggong is resolutely opposed to the change of the law, and he is still-for-tat with Wang Xianggong in the newspaper, does this show that Fan Xianggong belongs to the conservatives?"

"Cai Countywei's sentence is wrong, what I am facing in the newspaper is not Wang Xiangguo of the law changer, but Sima Xianggong of the conservative faction, but I am indeed not a law changer, but I am not a conservative either."

"Xiao Fan Xianggong is a reformist, we all know it." Someone grabbed the conversation, and everyone in the lobby laughed.

Fan Ning smiled and waved his hand, "You can have a misunderstanding, you always think that it is good to change the law, and always think that now the Great Song Dynasty is conservative and rigid everywhere, dragging down the court and the people, and it must be completely broken and changed, so young people support changing the law, but I tell you that many times changing the law is not necessarily a good thing." ”

"Can Xiao Fan Xianggong give an example?" A young gentleman next to him asked.

Fanning nodded, "Let's take the armor just now!" Ten households are A, 100 households are guaranteed, 300 households or 500 households are a big guarantee, and all of them are set up to protect the right, and after the experiment of ten counties, a new yamen has appeared in almost every township, and there are dozens of baoding below.

The financial expenditure of the imperial court only goes to the county, so where is the income of the Baoya? Facts have proved that all the expenses of the Baoya are apportioned to every household, and if they don't give it, Baoding will go to lead the sheep and cattle, and the people will sue the county, but the county will not accept it, but denounce it as a heavy blow to the people, why? Do you know why? ”

There was silence in the hall, and Fan Ning said slowly: "Since the founding of the Great Song Dynasty, the financial control has been very strict, and there is almost no money left in the counties, the county government is dilapidated, and there is no money to repair, and the county officials can only live on the money and are forced to be honest, but after having the Bao Ya, the county officials have a source of wealth, Bao Ya pays tribute, Bao Ya spreads ten taels of silver to the peasants, and the county government draws four taels, so that the county officials are fat, all of them are smiling, raising their hands to support the change, so the officials who resolutely oppose the Qingmiao Law are basically in the imperial court, But there is not much opposition in the county below, do you know the reason now? Can it still be said that changing the law is a good thing, and being conservative is a bad thing? ”

There was silence in the lobby, everyone was pondering, Fanning had taught them a profound lesson today.

The scholars all knew that the teacher was going to invite their son-in-law to dinner, and everyone also said goodbye.

Cai Jing stepped forward and bowed and said, "May I ask Fan Xianggong, is there any preferential treatment in the past when going overseas to be an official now?" ”

"What kind of preferential treatment does County Lieutenant Cai refer to?"

"Is it the positive aspect?"

Fan Ning smiled and said: "Now the new system of the imperial court stipulates that officials in the imperial examination can be turned into regular officials in five years, but overseas officials do have preferential treatment, and if they go overseas as officials, they can be turned regular in three years, could it be that Cai County Lieutenant is interested?" ”

Cai Jing nodded, "The humble position is this year's Jinshi, and it will take nearly five years to be an official before he can become a regular, if he can go overseas as an official, he can become a regular as soon as possible." ”

Fanning said with a smile: "Even if your application is approved now, you will not be able to go to sea until the spring, and stay overseas for three years, in fact, you will only become a regular one year in advance, and the minimum overseas tenure is five years, you have to consider the advantages and disadvantages here." ”

Cai Jing hesitated for a moment and said: "I think that going overseas as an official can better exercise my ability. ”

Fan Ning nodded secretly, this Cai Jing does have vision and courage, knowing that the qualifications of overseas officials will be better, Fan Ning smiled and said: "Now the main thing is that the Southern Continent needs officials, if you want to go overseas as an official, you can only go to the Southern Continent, if you want, I can help you mention it in the Ministry of Officials, so that you can be approved as soon as possible after applying!" ”

"The lowly is willing, the lowly job is going to Beijing this time for this matter, and I will submit an application as soon as possible, thank Fan Xianggong for helping!"

Cai Jing bowed deeply, and then said goodbye and left.