In addition to buying real money at a high price, what other way can make the local tyrants willingly hand over the grain?

If you want to talk about money, Zhao Mengqi still has a little bit on hand, the Sun family gave 500,000 guan for Sun Hengjun's life, and the Liu family had more than 3 million guan in cash, and Gu Qing also confiscated 450,000 copper coins from the Japanese maritime merchant Kusano, but these were originally intended to be used as start-up funds for water conservancy projects, and they could not be used easily.

And the fact that King Yan wants to re-enter the realm is already known to everyone, and these big landlords are itching their teeth with hatred, at this time, Zhao Mengqi asked them to buy grain, wouldn't it be sent to the door for them to slaughter.

As an advocate of water conservancy, Wu Qian was naturally reluctant to use this money, and after thinking carefully, he looked at Zhao Mengqi earnestly, "Your Highness, it seems that you can only sell the 160,000 mu of land that was confiscated from the Liu family......

"Duke Wu, the lower officials think this is inappropriate!"

Before Wu Qian's words were finished, Jiang Wanli objected, "At present, the two taxes are shrinking day by day, all because the Haoqiang family is leaking the land tax, so it is necessary to pass through the boundary to clear the property, if the land is sold, then the vast majority will be bought by the Haoqiang family, doesn't this fuel its power?"

The Song Dynasty was established after five dynasties of turmoil, and the reason why it did not suppress land annexation was due to historical reasons, but it also had a fresh understanding of the harm of the powerful forces that swelled up through land annexation.

While land was allowed to trade freely, the imperial court also tried to restrain powerful forces through institutions and policies.

In principle, except for the emperor's occasional special decree, the land in the whole world needs to pay regular taxes, not as in the Ming Dynasty, and the original intention of the tax system is that those who have more land pay more taxes, and those who have more property pay more taxes, that is, the household system.

Of course, in reality, the structure of the Song Dynasty's government revenue was very complicated, and the two taxes, which were agricultural taxes, were declining year by year in the overall proportion, and at this time it was even less than one-fifth.

The two taxes in the Song Dynasty were not high, and "one stone per mu, one bucket for losing officials" was actually a tithe, but in addition to this, there were many tax increases and forced labor, which were the bulk of the burden on the people.

To put it simply, a farmer rents one acre of land and harvests three stones of rice a year, one of which is given to the government, one stone is paid for rent, and the remaining stone is his own.

The official households, that is, the families with official status, are not exempt from tax exemption but are exempt from forced labor, and some have ways to evade tax increases, so that wealth swells like a snowball, using wealth to increase power, using power to seek wealth, oppressing the small people at the same time, but also embezzling national interests.

"The annexation of the ancients was the benefit of the people, and the annexation of the present is also the merger of public taxes."

"What is it like to pay taxes now? There are two disadvantages of inequality: there are the disadvantages of annexation and there are disadvantages of displacement. What are the disadvantages of mergers? The land of the rich is not more than it is beneficial; The land of the poor is reduced day by day. The female cadres wanted to be exempted from servitude, cut a few acres of land, and added several times the endowment, and collected less than half of it, so the rich people were even more than a stranger, and the fertile soil was dying. The poor have no land to support their feet, and they are trapped in heavy labor, and they are forced to pursue them, and the disadvantages of this so-called annexation are also."

"The poor people's property is not taxed and saved, and it is unbearable to be disturbed by the call, and the rich have more businesses and less taxes, which is conducive to the trend of mergers and acquisitions."

"The annexation of the house, encroaching on the small people, stealing official profits, female cadres and cunning officials, cheating at night, going in and out, cannot be audited."

In the Song Dynasty, people of insight from both the government and the opposition attached great importance to this issue, and the public opinion calling for the suppression of the annexation forces was much higher than the voice of protecting the interests of the rich.

This also shows that annexation has become a common phenomenon in the Great Song Dynasty, and the harm caused to the country is becoming more and more serious.

More and more land was concentrated in the hands of Haoqiang, and the tax revenue of the imperial court naturally became less and less.

After five or six years in history, the imperial court's finances could no longer sustain it, so after taking power, Jia Rudao had to implement the "Public Land Law", that is, the land in the hands of Haoqiang that exceeded the regulations was forcibly redeemed by the imperial court.

At that time, the price of land had risen to 1,000 guan banknotes per mu, but where did the imperial court still have money, it could only be redeemed at the price of 40 guan per mu, or paid with overprinted banknotes and official notices that were already worthless.

The original intention of the Gongtian Law was to curb the annexation of powerful people, but in practice, local officials did not dare to offend the powerful and powerful families too much, and turned their goals in order to complete the task

small and medium-sized landlords and kulaks.

This practice is close to plunder, although it objectively extended the life of the Song Dynasty for more than ten years, but it greatly damaged the interests of the landlord class, and Jia Yidao, who was in charge, naturally became a "big female cadre".

Jiang Wanli has no intention of plundering the people's property, but he definitely does not want to see the Haoqiang family increase their land.

Wu Qian saw that Jiang Wanli opposed his proposal, but he was not angry, because he also wanted to restrain Haoqiang.

"Ziyuan, I understand what you said, but the food crisis is imminent, and we must first think of a solution, otherwise at least hundreds of thousands of people will starve to death!"

"This ......" Jiang Wanli's face was blank, and he felt a dilemma, "Xia Guan thinks that it is best to think of other methods, not to mention, even if the land is sold, the surplus grain in the hands of those gentry may not be enough to make up for the shortage."

No matter who owns the grain, it is a reality that the total amount of local grain stocks is lower than the total demand, but if the government has grain in its hands, it can stabilize grain prices to a certain extent and prevent the people from being cut too badly.

Everyone discussed for a long time and proposed many methods, but most of them were palliative.

Zhao Mengqi listened and thought at the same time, he had a little idea in his heart, and his expression became relaxed, "As long as the mind does not slip, there are always more ways than difficulties."

"Your Highness, do you want to use that money? Or do you want to bring money from Lin'an?" Wu Qian wondered.

He knew that King Yan had a sum of "private money", and he wanted King Yan to take it out for water conservancy projects, but King Yan was obviously reluctant.

Everyone also looked at Zhao Mengqi, curious about what good way he had come up with.

Zhao Mengqi shook his head, "The money for water conservancy can't be moved, and I have other uses for Lin'an's money, so let's sell the land."

"Huh!? Do you want to sell the land?"

Everyone was disappointed and helpless.

"I am also well aware of the harm of annexation, so my method of selling is a bit special, if it is successful, it can not only raise money, but still effectively control these lands, and maybe ease the resentment of some gentry."

"Oh? What is the recipe for this miracle?" Jiang Wanli's spirits lifted.

"Don't worry, I just have a vague idea, and I still need to think about the specific plan." Zhao Mengqi smiled and didn't say it.

Wu Qian and the others thought that Zhao Mengqi's method needed to be kept secret, so they didn't ask again.

Zhao Mengqi continued, "Put aside the problem of money, if my method doesn't work, it's a big deal to use the money in Lin'an, and now the problem is how to fill the food shortage in Pingjiang and Jiaxing."

Wu Qian pondered for a while, "This is not difficult, due to the timely discharge of the flood in Taihu Lake this time, Anji Prefecture, Changzhou and other places have not been greatly affected, and under the condition of maintaining local grain prices, six or seven hundred thousand stone of grain should be able to be bought."

"We must not only ensure that no one starves to death, but also ensure that everyone can be fed, so that they can have the strength to work, so that an adult needs five buckets of food per month, plus the need to stabilize food prices, then at least three million stones, minus the food that can be bought locally and in the surrounding areas, there is still a gap of nearly one million stones."

In the Song Dynasty, one stone was about 77 kilograms in later generations, and one million stones was less than 80,000 tons, but in this era, transportation alone was a big problem, which meant that even if food could be bought from a distance, it was difficult to transport it back.

How to solve it?

Zhao Mengqi pinched his chin and thought about it, then his eyes swept to Chen Xiaokun, and he suddenly had an idea.