Eight million, that's a pretty dangerous number.

And such a figure is still under the premise that all officials and powerful landlords of the people conscientiously abide by the regulations of the imperial court.

If there are a few people who do not comply with the official version of the slave restriction decree stipulated by the imperial court, and wantonly expand the number of slaves without the government knowing, then this number may run up at any time.

This shows the prevalence of slaves in this society, and it can even be said politely that the whole Han Empire is enjoying the convenience brought by this slave economy.

In economically prosperous areas, the number of slaves may be slightly less, and in economically poor areas, or war-torn areas, the number of slaves will only be higher, not less.

Not to mention others, among the Han and Hu prisoners of war captured by Liu Bei in the northern Xinjiang for several years, about one million people were included in the "official slave" group controlled by the Luoyang imperial court, and they were throwing off their arms to carry out construction in Liangzhou, Youzhou, and Bingzhou.

In addition to these prisoners of war, the number of various types of official slaves directly controlled by the Luoyang Imperial Court is not less than 100,000, and the sources of these official slaves are mainly from various criminals, including their families who have been confiscated after normal crimes and official crimes.

Therefore, a considerable number of the official slaves in the hands of the Luoyang Imperial Court are still from good backgrounds.

But looking at the world, most of the slaves owned by the families who could raise slaves in the entire Eastern Han Empire were bankrupt and landless peasants.

The peasants who lost their land and lost their livelihood due to natural and man-made disasters either rebelled or sold themselves as slaves, and there was no other way out, so in the entire slave group of the Eastern Han Empire, bankrupt and landless peasants and their descendants could account for 90 percent of the total number of slaves.

Such a number is still quite scary.

So when Man Zhong put forward this number, Liu Bei dared to pat his chest and make a guarantee, as far as the current social situation of the proliferation of private slaves is concerned, as long as he orders a census, there is one official family in Luoyang, and 99% of them are at fault on the issue of private slaves.

The number of slaves they own is by no means as simple as it seems, those officials are powerful, are there really only dozens or hundreds of slaves serving?

And those arrogant and lascivious local kings, are there really only two hundred slaves to serve them?

The king of Hejian, who had offended Liu Bei and others, was examined and found that the number of slaves in his family was more than 1,200, more than six times the upper limit set by the imperial court.

Is this an isolated case?

Therefore, Liu Bei strongly suspects that the total number of slave population in the entire Han Empire is not even less than 10 million, and the number of this part of the population will naturally not be counted in the total population of the Han Empire, so the total population of the Han Empire is likely to have exceeded 60 million.

The productive forces of this part of the population are seized by the huge affluent strata of society, and all the wealth they produce is supporting their masters, so that their masters can enjoy them inexhaustibly, but not the slightest leak is leaked out to promote the progress and development of society.

In this regard, Liu Bei was deeply disturbed, and he also felt that the blood in his body began to be restless.

There are so many slaves, so many productive forces that can be liberated, so many areas that need to be developed without the population to exploit, this ...... Isn't it just the right fit?

He felt that he had to do something to turn the situation around, otherwise he would be blind to all his years of hard work.

So Liu Bei agreed to Man's plan in principle, but in terms of specific operations, he still felt that he needed to be a little more gentle, because these local powerful clans had provided a lot of help to the Han army in previous military operations.

If it is directly aimed at them, not only will it not sound good, but it will also be easily strongly opposed by them, thus setting off a war in the annexed region again.

Although he is not afraid that he will not win, he will fall into disadvantage in public opinion, so Liu Bei still decided to give a relatively gentle way to deal with it.

At the same time as the new slave restriction order was promulgated, Liu Bei was ready to add a redemption policy to the state, and the official paid to buy all the slaves of their various families beyond the prescribed limit.

Moreover, the new version of the slave restriction order is also an official regulation, and it has been promulgated for a long time, there is a law to follow, and I act according to the regulations, and no one can say that mine is not.

In this way, public opinion will be tenable.

On this basis, if there is a family that is unwilling to abide by this rule, it is a toast and not a penalty.

Without you, I can still take it down, this policy is to give you face, don't give face, then don't blame me for being ruthless.

Full Favor is willing to support this approach, and said that if this strategy is implemented well in the merged states, it can be extended to other states and counties to solve the problem of the increasingly scarce household registration population in those places.

Liu Bei replied to Manzhong, telling him that these things should not be in a hurry, and that he would first complete them in Bingzhou, restore agricultural production and border defense matters in Bingzhou in the shortest possible time, and mobilize manpower and material resources to repair places that need to be repaired, and tell him if he is not in a hurry if he has enough money, and he will help out.

Anyway, after so many wars, whether it is the Luoyang treasury or Liu Bei's own private treasury, it is quite abundant.

After discussing the solution to the problem of merging the states with Manchu, Zhang Yan and Yu Fuluo, the two "heroes" of the merger war, also arrived in Luoyang.

After the victory of the battle, Liu Bei announced that he would summon Zhang Yan and Yu Fuluo and a series of "meritorious heroes" in Luoyang to commend and reward their merits.

At the end of April, the two arrived in Luoyang together, met Liu Bei, Liu Bei hosted a banquet to entertain them, drank wine with them, and introduced them to the Son of Heaven the next day, and gave them an official rank and a reward.

Yu Fuluo was appointed as the general of Guiyi Zhonglang and the marquis of the capital, and Zhang Yan was reappointed as the general of Zhongyi Zhonglang and the marquis of Liting.

Of course, meeting the Son of Heaven and accepting the banquet from the Son of Heaven is just a formality, and everyone knows that the person who counts in the Han Empire at the moment is Liu Bei, not the little Son of Heaven.

So the final interview with Liu Bei is the most important thing.

For Zhang Yan and Yu Fuluo, Liu Bei is appreciative, and at the moment of deciding the fate of any group, he made the right choice that was not affected by some people or even his own interests, which is not an easy thing.

But Zhang Yan did it, and Yu Fuluo also did it.

They showed with practical actions that they did not have the intention of going against the Han Empire, and they paid enough votes to prove their intentions, or rather, they did not dare to go against the Han Empire led by Liu Bei.

Liu Bei's terrorist deterrence for the world has been successfully established, for the people of the world, Liu Bei may not be able to decide everything in the world, but if someone opposes what Liu Bei decides, then Liu Bei can make the voice of opposition disappear.

Once this kind of terrorist deterrence has been established, the basic order has been restored, and those who have a certain amount of troops and the ability to cause chaos will begin to think about the way forward for themselves.

Because the macho man from the sky will not allow this empire to have an army that does not obey orders.

"In this battle, you have done a good job, you have assisted the imperial army to make war achievements, and the imperial court will not be stingy with your reward, and it will be in place soon."

Liu Bei said with a smile.

Zhang Yan and Yu Fuluo expressed their gratitude to Liu Bei together.

Afterwards, Liu Bei chatted with them about some daily life in Bingzhou as if he was at home, and it seemed that he had no specific purpose, just a casual question, but Zhang Yan and Yu Fuluo did not dare to let go of their guards.

Sure enough, after gossiping for a long time, Liu Bei changed his conversation and talked about their "future problem".

"Life in the mountains is not so good, although the saying is that relying on the mountains to eat the mountains, relying on the water to eat water, but what can really eat for a long time is the land, or to cultivate the land, pay attention to food, in order to really gain a foothold in the local area, General Zhang Zhonglang, I heard that your entire Black Mountain Army Department, there are millions of people, is it true?"

Zhang Yan cheered up the spirit of 120,000 points.

"Back to the general, the number of millions is just an imaginary number, the real number of people, about 400,000, men, women and children, not as many as rumored by the outside world."

"Oh, four hundred thousand, that's not a small number."

Liu Bei sighed: "Mountains and forests are not like flat land, flat land can grow food, there are not many places where mountains and forests can grow food, and the harvest is less, even if there are wild vegetables and fruits, and some game and the like, it can't be regarded as a long-term way, if there is no other input, so many people can't eat enough even if the mountains are emptied, am I right?" ”

Zhang Yan didn't dare to hide it, and nodded yes.

"What the general said is very true, our mountain people do open up arable land between the mountains and forests to grow grain, but the number is not much, so every autumn, in order to obtain food for the winter, they have to go down the mountain to loot, rob the house, and think that it is the capital to survive the winter."

"Well, that's pretty much what I thought."

Liu Bei nodded, and said with emotion: "But this is not a good thing, robbing the house, if some of you eat, some people will starve and freeze, or even starve to death, is this kind of thing right?" ”

(End of chapter)