On February 4, the sixth year of Qingli, in the Gong family manor in Wu County, Suzhou, Gong Xu, Pan Zhi, Wang Wei and Zhang Ruohai gathered together.

This time, in addition to the four major families, more than a dozen family heads were added.

They are all big families in Suzhou, and almost all of them own more than 30,000 acres of land.

The village sages of feudal society were the landlords, who held the main wealth.

Different from the wealth of capitalism, the concept of wealth of the landlord class is land and officials, so they pay attention to farming and heirlooms.

Farming to make money, having money to study, studying to become an official, being an official greedy for money, greedy for money to buy land, buying land to grow grain.

In this way, an endless cycle is formed, so that the more land you hold, the more social wealth and "money" you have.

Later "money" is a general equivalent, an exchange. But in ancient societies, money was not just an exchange, it was also a commodity in itself.

Because money is a type of precious metal, there is a value in it. The bureaucracy and capital core of feudal society are actually playing with land, and the more precious metals and land, the more money.

Therefore, in essence, the biggest capitalists in the feudal period were these landlord classes.

But their existence is different from that of the capitalists.

Although capital breeds evil, and every pore is dripping with blood and filth, it also promotes social progress, and many new technologies and industrial revolutions are promoted and invented by capitalists.

For example, Edison was a capitalist through and through, but this did not prevent his invention from influencing and changing the whole world.

Thus, the presence of the capitalists will increase the productivity and expand the cake, and even if most of the cake is eaten by the capitalists, there will still be some soup left for the people below to drink.

The landlord class is different, there is only so much land, and the cake is so big. Once the land was annexed by the landlord class, the landless poor became the main force of the rebellion, causing social instability.

So in the final analysis, the capitalists are hateful, but they can make society progress. The landlords are only hateful, even if they are conscientious landlords, but in the process they indirectly cause land annexation and harm the poor.

After all, for the poor who have lost their land, it is not that they do not work hard, but that natural and man-made disasters, such as a major drought, a flood, or the collusion between the government and the landlords, can make them destitute.

This is where the vulnerability of the smallholder economy lies.

If Zhao Jun wants to change the Great Song Dynasty, he must destroy the landlord class, even if it cannot be completely eliminated like later generations, it must be greatly damaged and can no longer shake the foundation of the country.

Therefore, since the beginning of the fifth year of Qingli, the policy has been promoted, and the landlords have been constantly suppressed and their interests have been harmed from several aspects, both explicit and implicit.

At this moment, the four major families of Gong Xu, Pan Zhi, Wang Wei and Zhang Ruohai gathered in the house, and the rest of the more than ten landlords in Suzhou were also there.

There was a faint smell of tea wafting in the room, but it was also full of silence.

After a long time, Zhang Ruohai suddenly spoke: "In the past year, half of the tenants of my grange have left, and they have all been requisitioned by the government to repair the river. ”

As soon as he said this, it seemed to open the conversation, and the rest of the people also complained.

"You're only half younger, my grange used to have more than 600 households, and now there are less than 300 households left, and I still stayed after lowering the rent."

"Who isn't? Which of our families doesn't have hundreds of acres of land and thousands of floating guests? How much is left now? ”

"If this continues, our fields will soon become wasteland, and the land will become wasteland."

Everyone, you and I are talking word by word.

Everyone's faces showed extremely helpless expressions.

In the Song Dynasty, the protection of tenants was still relatively in place, except for some remote areas, such as Sichuan, Guizhou, Guangxi, and Fujian.

These places are like the Sichuan Gorge Zhulu with Kuizhou Road as the center, the population is sparse, the production is backward, and many places still practice slash-and-burn farming.

As a result, customers account for a high proportion of the total number of households, and the "side households" and "local customers" often reach hundreds or even thousands of households.

These "side-households" and "landlords" not only had to pay rent in kind, but also had to provide forced labor. They were "passed down from generation to generation" and were "regarded as slaves."

During the Southern Song Dynasty, the landlords of Kuizhou Road not only enslaved the tenants themselves, but also enslaved their families, and even interfered with the marriage of their wives and daughters, so that these tenants were actually in the status of serfs.

However, the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions are different, as the agricultural and economic center of the Song Dynasty, the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions have been firmly controlled by the imperial court, and the control of the government is greater, and the legal aspects are naturally more sound and perfect.

The tenants here are not attached to the landlord, they are not appendages of the landlord, and the relationship between the tenant and the landlord is only a simple tenancy relationship.

In addition to this, the ruling class also recognized the legal status of the tenants, and the landlord did not legally have much privilege over the tenant, and the landlord did not allow or could interfere with the tenants' own actions.

Therefore, under the blow of the imperial court in both explicit and implicit aspects, the landlords in Jiangsu and Zhejiang suffered very large losses.

Needless to say, under the apportionment of the acre, they have to bear much higher taxes than ordinary peasants. The hidden aspect is that the imperial court has taken away all their tenants and left them uncultivated land.

Under such circumstances, the landlords in Jiangsu and Zhejiang can be said to be miserable, and now they are very uncomfortable.

"The court is only happy if it wants to force us to death."

Gong Xu said with a sigh.

"Brother Gong, you have to think of a way, it's not a matter if it goes on like this."

Everyone looked helpless.

It's not that they didn't think about it, and they once went to the gate of the transfer envoy to protest.

I also went to know officials and stakeholders well.

They even wanted to plan mass riots.

But when protesting, Du Qi was polite at first, and then ignored it directly.

Find familiar officials, and even those in the court who can speak.

Early in the court, several officials righteously raised the danger of spreading into the mu, and the next day they were ordered by Zhao Zhen to be dismissed and investigated because their right foot first entered the vertical arch hall.

Then the Constitutional Yuan passed the edict at the speed of light, and the Zhongshu Province had no intention of rejecting it, so he lost his official position in a daze.

Naturally, there was no one to speak for them.

Finally, there is the planning of riots.

As a result, it happened that Zhao Jun was sweeping away the underworld and eliminating evil, and the local underworld forces in Suzhou City and Hangzhou City were caught and killed.

Even a few of their friends were taken away and cut down, and all the property and land under their names were confiscated.

After all, for the ancient landlords, it was definitely unrealistic not to be involved in the black, and it was natural for them to raise thugs under their hands, and it was not impossible to even have a few outlaws.

As soon as they were still organizing manpower and planning riots, they were arresting people everywhere and making them jump.

Seeing that some landlords who originally called themselves brothers and sisters were dragged to the execution ground under the guise of the leaders of the underworld forces and beheaded with a knife, the riots that were originally planned naturally died down.

Doing things at this juncture, isn't that purely giving people heads?

They want to protect their interests from being harmed, and they are not stupid enough to send their entire family directly to the guillotine.

"Alas, what can I think of, I have thought of everything I should think."

Gong Xu said helplessly: "I don't even dare to hide the rent and pay less taxes now, and the tax collectors in the township are staring at it." ”

"Didn't you make a dot or two?"

"It used to be fine, just take care of their leaders, and those tax collectors below are nothing in front of me. Can now? Hit their leaders, and they can report to the county and even the state government in the blink of an eye. ”

"Yes, it's not a family staring at us now, if you want to make a point, the county government, the county tax bureau, the imperial city department, the imperial history platform and even the state capital, it is better to pay taxes."

Everyone hung their heads and sighed.

In the past, they only paid taxes under the management of the county government, so as long as they had a good relationship with a few officials of the county government, the county order, the chief bookkeeper, and the county lieutenant, they would send some money to those officials who were responsible for collecting taxes, and the cost was not large.

What now?

Although the tax has been allocated from the county government and is now under the management of the local taxation bureau and the State Taxation Bureau, paying taxes is also a political achievement of the county government, and if there is tax evasion, the county government will also keep an eye on it.

At the same time, the Imperial City Division and the Imperial Historical Observatory also monitored many local departments, and once any member of the tax department found out that the boss had helped people conceal taxes, and sued the Imperial City Division and the Imperial Historical Observatory, it would be a matter of approval.

In the final analysis, local officials are now paid, and local fiscal revenues greatly affect their wage income. And if such a report is meritorious and recorded, it is allowed to be recommended to become a magistrate.

Although there is no privilege to become an official, this is just like becoming a person in the township examination, and you are eligible to participate in the official examination.

Therefore, officials all over the world dream of being recommended to become officials, not only work hard, but also immediately report and expose corruption when they find corruption, which greatly improves their enthusiasm.

In this case, it is difficult for them to pay bribes even if they want to.

"Ladies and gentlemen."

Pan Shi suddenly said to everyone: "Now the imperial court only gives us two roads, one is to sell the land to the government, and we ourselves are rich men, but we sit on empty mountains and have no land, how can we have any income?" ”

"I can still do business, I have a year, we participated in the Jiaxu imperial examination together, although they didn't win, but the friendship is still quite deep."

Someone said: "After he failed several times, he ran a business at home with peace of mind, and now there are more than ten shops in Yangzhou, with a net worth of hundreds of thousands, and he is no worse than us." ”

"Huh."

Wang Wei sneered: "Businessmen are cheap after all, not to mention how dangerous it is to do business, you also know that if you are not careful, you will go bankrupt." ”

"But the imperial court is still promoting commerce, supporting industry and commerce, and there are a lot of preferential government policies."

"So what? Let's think about it, we have land in our hands, as long as someone cultivates it, it is a profitable business without losing money, so why bother to take care of cheap business? ”

"That's just as well."

"That's true, I don't want to take risks in business without me."

"If Brother Liu wants to go into business, even if he goes, I won't go anyway, what do you say?"

"Yes, when a merchant is in danger, how can anyone be as comfortable as us?"

"Well, I didn't say that."

The landlord who proposed that he could go into business was attacked by a group of people, and he was speechless.

In the final analysis, although the Great Song Dynasty banned the lowly and slave status, the class still existed, and the status of the peasants and merchants was the lowest.

In particular, since ancient times, they have always emphasized agriculture and suppressed commerce, and their landlord class is mainly engaged in agriculture, which naturally discriminates against commerce.

What's more, as the saying goes, money is hard to earn, and is hard to eat.

It is very risky to do business, and it is not uncommon for you to lose money when the market is bad.

And they are the landlords, although there are natural disasters, but as long as the land is still there, it is drought and flood to ensure income, nothing more than to make more and less money.

"But now the second way for the imperial court is to let us become businessmen, saying that we are allowed to invest in steel mills and cement factories."

Pan Shi spread his hands and said, "Isn't it ridiculous? ”

"Anyway, I don't want to choose either path, so you might as well take a charter and think of a way."

Someone said.

"In my opinion, it's not impossible."

Gong Xu glanced at Pan Shi, Wang Wei, and Zhang Ruohai, this was a plan that the four of them had already discussed.

"Oh?"

The rest of the family heads all looked over, and someone hurriedly said, "Brother Gong, if there is a countermeasure, it is better in the morning." ”

"I think that this matter has continued to the present, in the final analysis, because our requirements have not been taken seriously by the government and the imperial court."

Gong Xu said in a deep voice: "We also went to protest before, but what was the result? They didn't pay attention to it, and even sent people to drive them away and arrest them, so that we had to stop fighting. ”

"But at that time, our strength was not strong, and many wealthy families were not connected together, so that the government underestimated our strength."

He looked around and continued: "Now that stall has been promoted throughout Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and the government is still trying its best to take away our tenants and landlords. If we continue like this, we will be left with nothing but wasteland. I believe that we can see that so many wealthy surnames in Jiangsu and Zhejiang will not be unaware. ”

"What does Brother Gong mean?"

Someone was surprised: "Unite many wealthy families and put pressure on the government and the court together?" ”

"Exactly."

Gong Xu nodded: "Only by letting the imperial court see how many of us are and seeing our strength, will we really consider how harmful it is to us." ”

"This"

Someone hesitated: "What if the imperial court charges us with rebellion?" ”

"It doesn't matter."

Zhang Ruohai said with a smile: "One is not responsible for the public, and the other is that we did not raise troops, but only went to Hangzhou to protest and demonstrate." The imperial court also has to be reasonable, otherwise wouldn't everyone in the world be in danger? ”

"Yes, and it should be so, if we just stand in the streets and protest, and they just arrest people, then what is the legal reason? Where is the axiom? ”

"I don't believe that there are thousands of people in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and so many people in Jianghuai, they will really kill them all. I also agree with Brother Gong's opinion, now let's contact people everywhere? ”

"You don't have to panic, I have actually contacted a lot of people, everyone will go back, bring their tenants next month, and go to Hangzhou to gather, and then it will be a big deal."

"Okay, it would be great to have Brother Gong to uphold justice."

Everyone agreed.

First, they actually protested, but the court didn't do anything to them, making them feel that the court was still reasonable.

Second, someone takes the lead, and if the court turns its face, it's a big deal to push the leader out.

Anyway, dead friends don't die poor.

What's more, there are thousands of landlords in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, is it true that the imperial court wants to kill so many people?

Unrealistic.

At that moment, everyone no longer hesitated.

Listening to Gong Zhi's words, he agreed again and again, and decided to go back to gather people and go to Hangzhou Fucheng to make a big trouble.

(End of chapter)