Whether it was these tenant peasants who participated in the rebellion who were taken by the state teachers to do hard labor or military exploits, and they had nothing to do with half a dime, the gentry basically got rid of this crisis.

With the plaque of the "law-abiding gentry", unless the court is completely shameless, there is a high probability that they will not be moved.

Although there are other details and terms of the whole transaction, the core content is nothing more than a few thousand stones of grain for each family in exchange for peace.

This was by no means an unacceptable condition for the gentry.

However, there are also subtle people who are aware of the problem.

In the past, the national teacher said "work for relief".

It is to be said here that in ancient China, there were three main ways of thinking about disaster relief.

The first is to open a warehouse to release grain relief, food for free, that is, a mouthful of porridge hangs on the life, starvation does not die and has no strength to make trouble, only applicable to small-scale (single prefecture and county level) famine, once the scale of the famine across the state and government, it is not good, because the disaster victims will flow to the state capital with food on a large scale, and go to the next place after eating, and make trouble without food to eat, so disaster relief is incomplete.

The second is the laissez-faire freedom advocated by many Song Dynasty scholars, and in Jiang Xinghuo's previous life, it is the prototype of neoliberal economics, that is, the path of Huang Zhifu's "sleeping in difficulty", the essence is that the imperial court must not care, only need to promulgate policies to give relevant rewards to local disaster relief workers, and then wait for other regions to take the initiative to transport and sell grain in order to seek the benefits of high grain prices in the disaster area, and then stabilize food prices.

Compared with the first type of disaster relief thinking, once faced with a medium-scale famine, although this trick seems quite unreliable, it must be admitted that under the natural control of prices that seek benefits and avoid disadvantages, it is generally really easy to use, of course, the price is that many victims will starve to death.

The third kind is to work for relief, the famine year to work for relief is not a rare thing, the earliest began in the Spring and Autumn Period of Qi Jinggong, "Yanzi Spring and Autumn" has a story that "Qi hunger Yanzi because of the battle of the road to help the people", that is to say, there was a famine at that time, the doctor Yan Ying admonished Lun Su relief, but Qi Jinggong did not agree, at that time Qi Jingcheng planned to build a "road bed", Yan Ying pretended to build a platform in the name of disaster relief, he ordered his subordinate officials to hire disaster victims with high salaries, and lengthened the road to deliberately delay the completion date, The road was built tall and magnificent, so that the victims survived the famine.

Coincidentally, in addition to letting it go, I also tried this kind of disaster relief thinking, for example, when the Song Dynasty Shenzong Xining was eight years old, there was also a disaster in the south of the Yangtze River, and Zhao Mo, the governor of Yuezhou, was ordered to go to the disaster relief, in addition to disaster relief, he also recruited 30,000 migrant workers to build the city wall, and paid both wages and food to the migrant workers in the disaster area, which is equivalent to twice the wages Of course, although the iron-blooded Song Dynasty was rich, but the wages of so many people, the local government could not make up for a while, so it was a local scholar who went to borrow, In addition, in order to make the wealthy willing to borrow, it was stipulated that the government would be responsible for repaying the disaster after the disaster relief was over.

The gentry present were all full of the subset of scriptures and histories, and there were indeed many Song Dynasty scholars and doctors who passed down the family, so they quickly thought of the disaster relief cases that occurred in Jiangnan in the past during the Song Dynasty.

"Could it be that the national teacher still has to borrow extra money and food from us to feed these people?"

A lot of people started exchanging glances with each other.

Donating a few thousand stone of grain in exchange for a "law-abiding gentry" plaque is a cost-effective deal.

But if they lend out food and money as a payroll, they will lose a lot.

In fact, this is not only an economic account, but also the reason why cash-for-work has never been implemented on a large scale before the Qing Dynasty.

That is to say, in the past, the government was directly conscripted, but now that you work, the government still has to borrow money to support you? So why doesn't the government take the road of "laissez-faire"? You can't live, what's the matter with the black heart prefect?

There are three options for disaster relief, and local officials who engage in cash-for-work relief are choosing the most troublesome path for themselves, except for good officials who are really for the country and the people and are not afraid of ruining their careers, no one will choose to do so.

Because in ancient times, it was very, very difficult to organize large-scale cash-for-work.

In the face of disasters, the ancient government was very understaffed, and it was usually the responsibility to defend the land, and it was too late to protect itself, how to organize? Even if it is organized, there will always be people in the green forest, followers of sects such as the White Lotus Sect, idle people in the market, etc., these people will not work honestly, not only will they not work, but they will also rise up to make trouble, and even take the opportunity to "raise big things".

At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, hundreds of thousands of people repaired the Yellow River, and there was a "Mo Dao stone man with one eye, instigating the Yellow River to rebel in the world", to put it bluntly, isn't that what it is? There are many people, but who does not? In the troubled times of disaster years, is there still a lack of heroes who want to take the lead?

Therefore, in order to carry out cash-for-work, two indispensable conditions are required: one is that the government has sufficient manpower and organizational and management capabilities, and the other is that it is sufficient to suppress any army that instigates the victims of the disaster to make trouble.

The gentry glanced at each other, and soon someone asked tentatively: "What the national teacher said is to work for relief. What does that mean exactly? Is it to take these White Lotus rebels to work as coolies? ”

"That's right, national teacher, we can understand that 'relief' is disaster relief, what is 'work'?"

"Workers are naturally the people in charge of water conservancy projects." Jiang Xinghuo explained lightly, "The national division plans to form a relatively large team of people, which is specially responsible for repairing dams, rivers, ditches, flood lakes and other water conservancy projects. ”

"This is a big scale, you mean?"

"It's tens of thousands." Jiang Xinghuo gave a conservative figure, in fact, when it comes to cash-for-work, it must be far more than the scale of tens of thousands of people, but hundreds of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands!

But even so, this figure frightened the gentry of Songjiang Prefecture.

"Tens of thousands?!" The gentry gasped again.

After all, on weekdays, building bridges and paving roads to make a name for themselves requires only a few dozen or more than a hundred people.

Who ever imagined such a large-scale water control project, what a magnificent scene?

Of course, how big the scene is, the little ninety-nine in the hearts of the gentry is paid to the victims in the form of work, or the food of the White Lotus Sect rebels who were surrendered, from whom?

Of course, the gentry didn't think that the national teacher would be as kind as Zhao Mo, the governor of Yuezhou in the Song Dynasty, and he would pay people, but the necessary food should always be provided.

But this grain can never come out of them.

The best result that the gentry hoped for was that the national teacher would help them repair the water conservancy facilities, and they would not be required to pay a penny or a grain of grain.

"Is there enough food for the food you need in Changzhou?"

The old man in the lead asked tentatively, in fact, he was asking if he needed them to produce food, and if he did, it was estimated that the conversation would have to collapse.

"Enough."

Jiang Xinghuo glanced at them, tapped his fingers on the dining table regularly, and said, "Don't worry, after signing the deed, you don't need to give out any more food for work." ”

Seeing that the national teacher seemed to be easy to speak, someone soon had to bargain inch by inch.

"Then these thousands of stones of grain, can you still negotiate?"

Jiang Xinghuo raised his eyebrows and swept his gaze.

The gentry who were swept by his gaze were suddenly silenced.

As if they were being targeted by a wild beast, they were afraid.

"You, pay more than 2,000 stones."

"National teacher, there should always be a rule in the imperial court." He said stubbornly.

"Rules?"

Jiang Xinghuo shook his head and smiled, and said sarcastically: "The world is so big, it is not the king's land, the coast of the land, it is not the king's minister, Your Majesty ordered me to be responsible for the flood control and disaster relief in the south of the Yangtze River, then the rules here will be determined by me, if you are not satisfied, you can go to Nanjing to find Your Majesty to comment." ”

The crowd was dumbfounded.

Jiang Xinghuo continued: "Of course, if you think you have the ability, you can also choose to oppose me. But you have to think about it, such an outcome"

He paused, his smile growing more and more indifferent: "You can't afford it." ”

The gentry fell silent.

They knew that Jiang Xinghuo was not trying to scare people, and he could really do it.

After all, people who can't even fight Ding Meixia, which onion are they? The gentry were powerful in the all-round influence of the entire class, not in their family name.

For a while, the entire hall was silent, and the pins could be heard.

After a long time, someone finally spoke: "Okay, my Bai clan is willing to pay grain." ”

"I'm willing to pay it too."

The gentry agreed, lest they would miss the opportunity if they were half a step slower.

Eventually, in a moment of silence, only the leading old man remained.

He looked around and saw that no one paid attention to him, and he sighed in his heart.

When I came to the banquet, I agreed on an offensive and defensive alliance, but now in front of the opportunity to "atone for my sins" given by the national teacher, everyone rushed to flatter.

"I, I do."

At this moment, Huang Ziwei stood stunned, with an unconcealable stunned look in his eyes.

Is this still the Songjiang gentry he knew?

When, so easy to compromise?

It must be known that the Huang Governor's Mansion wanted to do something before, whether it was infrastructure construction or judicial rulings, anything, even if it was a big thing, as long as it involved the local powerful and influential gentry, then it would inevitably be difficult.

invited someone to a restaurant to set up a banquet, and he had to invite three or four meals next to each other to settle one thing, which made him, the prefect of Songjiang, a grandson.

So then Huang Ziwei simply began to mess up, what is the love.

Hearing that the national teacher Jiang Xinghuo was coming, Huang Zhifu did not have any illusions about the national teacher, he felt that even if the national teacher was unscrupulous and held a butcher's knife, it would be impossible to slaughter all the gentry of Songjiang Mansion for no reason, right? Even the crime of colluding with the rebels of the White Lotus Sect is not enough, because the gentry here, the children of the court, not one hundred but eighty, have too many forces, and unless the court is crazy, it is impossible to do this kind of thing that pouts the foundation of its own rule.

After all, to put it bluntly, the emperor is the biggest landlord, so why should the landlord be embarrassed?

If all the gentry in an important mansion are slaughtered, then the landlords and scholars in the world will be in danger, and the dynasty will lose its "morale".

Huang Ziwei never thought that someone could force the gentry to pay for it obediently, let alone that the gentry would cooperate so obediently?

This is simply a reversal of his previous perception.

"Alright, let's sign it."

Jiang Xinghuo said lightly.

The gentry present hesitated for a moment, gritted their teeth and wrote their names, and pressed the bright red handprint.

When all the gentry signed the deed and wanted to leave, Jiang Xinghuofu knocked on the table again and said, "Drink the porridge before leaving." ”

"A porridge and a meal, when thinking about where to come from, it is not easy; Half a thread and half a thread, the constant thought of material resources is difficult. Don't you understand this truth? ”

As soon as this remark came out, the gentry were stunned, and it was naturally impossible for them to have heard of the "Zhu Zi's Family Motto" written by Zhu Bailu in the future.

I just think that the national teacher, the real export is a proverb.

So, I pinched my nose and drank it.

The gentry dispersed, Jiang Xinghuo waved his hand, and the armor soldiers behind him also walked out of the screen, and Cao Song stood beside him respectfully.

Jiang Xinghuo looked at the few pieces of paper in his hand and smiled with relief.

The gentry thought it was a house and a window?

In fact, this piece of paper was signed, and the foundation of their actual rule over the people was cut off.

More than 100,000 tenant farmers will henceforth become part of the handicraft workshop area, and will never return to the fields to accept their personal rule and ideological bondage.

Moreover, these people who have seen the new mode of life have their own social relations, and they will surely spread the fire of the first industrial transformation throughout the whole Jiangnan and even the world!

By that time, it would be too late for the gentry to realize what they had given up.

(End of chapter)