"I don't know. Li Xu responded.

In fact, as a traverser, Li Xu knows very well that land annexation seems to be a common problem faced by any feudal dynasty. The landed peasants lost their land and became tenants, and at the same time, the state lost its tax revenues and was unable to maintain its rule, and eventually became a mess.

The system at the beginning of the Yu Dynasty could actually slightly restrain annexation. Under the premise of acquiescing to the economic independence of Haoqiang Manor and enjoying tax-free status, the original rent adjustment system defaulted to all land as state-owned, and ensured that every family retained a part of the land through government distribution.

However, with the increase in the expenditure of the imperial court and the severe tax pressure, a large number of farmers chose to abandon their land and flee. The land belongs to the state, and when the taxes are too heavy, it is also a way to survive and flee to the protection of the powerful that the state cannot control.

In order to cope with this situation, the imperial court implemented the two-tax law instead, giving the land to the people free of charge, and then using it as a bondage. When peasants have their own land, they will naturally not easily give up their land and flee to slavery.

The essence of the two tax laws is to expand taxation and solve the financial problems faced by the imperial court, but with the implementation of the two tax laws, new problems have arisen.

Taxation twice a year, once for grain and once for silk and copper coins, has not essentially changed the burden on peasant households. Because the financial needs of the imperial court will still be passed on to the peasant households, the original phenomenon of peasant households fleeing will not improve.

The new monetary income will force the peasants to sell their products in the market to obtain monetary taxes, which makes the peasants invisibly subject to another layer of exploitation.

The flight of peasants led to a reduction in the tax base, and in order to ensure fiscal revenue, the imperial court would intensify its exploitation, and heavier tax pressure would further lead to the flight of peasants. The fugitive land and peasants were controlled by the powerful and powerful, and the tax base of the imperial court became even weaker.

Under such a cycle, the end result was the financial collapse of the imperial court, which eventually led to the collapse of the regime.

"Jiangnan is now a place where poor households have no place to stand, and there are thousands of acres of fertile land. Liu Ziyue said: "In the long run, Chen Sheng and Wu Guang's generation will hide in the army, and Zhang Jiao and Sun En will walk in the world." ”

"The grass people can go to the northern capital and strongly persuade the Yufu country to put the country first. But the displaced people of the world and the deserted land cannot be changed by force or words. ”

Liu Ziyue's words are not wrong, practicing martial arts can't open up the valley, and practicing any true qi can't make more grain grow in the ground. The hungry people don't care if you are the emperor Lao Tzu or the first sword in the world, when there are more and more angry people, Haoqiang and the gang can take the opportunity to start things, and the Dayu Dynasty will naturally come to an end.

"What do you think you should do now?" asked Li Xu.

"To solve the root cause, it is a no-brainer. Liu Ziyue spread out his hands. "The imperial court wants to open up sources and reduce expenditure, but there is no source to open, and the same use cannot be stopped. They also persuaded the landlords to reduce rents and interest rates, but they would not listen after all. All we can do now is to work piecemeal and control the speed of the merger. ”

Li Xu nodded, and he also had some thoughts on the merger issue. If you analyze it carefully, land annexation is not really one problem, but multiple problems.

First, there is the issue of finance. The imperial court was unable to balance its expenditures at present, partly because of the decline in fiscal revenues, and partly because of the increasing military expenditures caused by foreign enemies and feudal towns.

The income of the imperial court included many parts, including grain, silk cloth and local products in kind, as well as a considerable part of monetary income. Since the establishment of the salt and iron transshipment system by Han Gang, the income of the imperial court has changed from relying solely on agricultural taxes to actively acquiring wealth through business operations.

At present, the annual income of the Yu Dynasty is about 6 million yuan, half of which comes from the income from salt and iron transshipment. It can be said that just because of Han Gang alone and the system he set up, the burden on the peasants of the Yu Dynasty was reduced by half.

But this is not enough. Because the land annexation also created an employment problem, the peasant who lost his land had to survive, and he had to become a tenant farmer in order to survive. It is necessary to accept the harsh exploitation of the landlords, because this is a unilateral and strong market. The landlord could choose the tenant farmers at will, because there were landless peasants everywhere, and the landless peasants were in a completely disadvantaged position in front of the landlords, and could only be left to their own devices.

There was no difference between the landlord and the emperor, and the tax allowed the peasant to flee, as did the landlord's rent. The emperor can consciously adjust by lightly dispensing with the meager endowment, and the landlord who only cares about the one-third of an acre of land at his door does not care about this. When the sky falls, there is an emperor and an old man on top, and the thieves will naturally have officers and soldiers to fight, if those mountain kings are too powerful, then praise him to be the emperor.

The fleeing peasants naturally gave rise to a third problem, and that was the movement of population.

In order to reduce the cost of rule, the imperial court generally did not want the population to move, because all management was based on the model of tying people to the land. By tying people to the land, the imperial court could receive taxes and servitude, and once the population began to move, a series of problems arose that could not be solved by the clumsy government.

The vast majority of the fugitive peasants eventually became thieves, and the proliferation of thieves would increase the cost of the imperial court's rule, leading to a more serious financial crisis.

For this model, traditional Confucian scholars such as Liu Ziyue, they are at a loss.

However, there is a group of people who have a way to deal with this kind of problem, but they are not common in history, Sang Hongyang of the Han Dynasty and Liu Yan of the Tang Dynasty.

Li Xu ordered Yuan Zhi to buy silk in Jiangnan, and then ordered Niu monks and children to buy and build warehouses in Beijing, in preparation to follow the example of sages like Sang Hongyang and Liu Yan.

If Li Erzhi is a big country, if he cooks Xiaoxian, it is actually wrong, and the imperial court must do something.

"Light and meager endowment is the foundation of farming. Li Xu pointed out to Liu Ziyue: "If the imperial court can only rely on agricultural taxes, it will naturally only lead to the intensification of annexation." ”

Wen Yuanheng said that His Majesty admires Sang Hongyang, but his set is to compete with the people for profit, and the gentleman does not take it. ”

"A house of five acres can be covered with mulberry trees, and fifty people can be clothed; chickens, guineas, dogs, and animals can eat meat if they do not lose time; and a hundred acres of land, do not take away the time, and a few families can be free from hunger. Li Xu shook his head and said something that Liu Ziyue couldn't accept: "According to Meng Fuzi's set, it is destined to be ruined and the family to ruin." ”

"Your Majesty is right. Liu Ziyue didn't think it was wrong. "The two saints of Confucius and Mencius, born a thousand years ago, using their reasoning at that time to solve our problems after a thousand years is indeed a fate of wood and fish, but Your Majesty, isn't it very good that the people have property and are self-sufficient?"

"It's so inefficient. Li Xu said. I don't think that the agricultural problem can be solved without land annexation, because the productivity of the smallholder economy is too poor. Just like Mencius said about a hundred acres of land, in fact, a person plus a cow plus supporting agricultural tools can be completed, if it is a small farmer with the family as the production unit to cultivate, that is the use of manpower and simple agricultural tools for farming, because relying on manpower can be done work, there is no need to add cattle and other agricultural tools.

"Now the weavers in their weaving yard in Hangang, because the loom is good, can weave twice as much silk in a day than at home. In several counties near Beijing, I heard Niu monks and children say that some landlords planted wheat fields as mulberry trees, because the wealth produced by one mu of mulberry far exceeded that of farmland, and the same is true for those who want to come to Jiangsu and Zhejiang. ”

"Definitely. Liu Ziyue nodded: "People's hearts are profit-seeking, there is more mulberry and less food, once something happens, it will be a big chaos." ”

"So we must compete with the people for profit, and we can't let them go unchecked. Li Xu said: "If there is no imperial court, just take a few counties around the capital as an example, if it is by their own temperament, it will definitely lead to the price of grain, and it will be expensive, once there is a famine, the imperial court will also give relief, and the relief grain is transported by Jianghuai Jingchu thousands of miles away." ”

"Then what is Your Majesty going to do?"

"The Minister of Commerce and Commerce. Li Xu said.

And Liu Ziyue immediately shook his head.

From the Spring and Autumn Period to the Han Dynasty, artisans and merchants were part of the state administration, with artisans and merchants working in handicraft workshops under the control of the government, while merchants were responsible for selling, and their money was paid for by the state.

This system is known today as a state-owned enterprise. Although the system has problems such as inefficiency and corruption, it is a good medicine at this time.

"There will be people who will take advantage of the power of the court to enrich their own pockets, and the people will be miserable. ”

"All the housekeepers in the house steal things, and this is inevitable, and you can't watch them starve themselves to death because of corruption. Li Xu explained to Liu Ziyue: "I confiscated a large batch of silk from Hu Shang some time ago, and Yuan Zhen collected another batch of silk from Jiangnan. Now the Uighurs are in turmoil, trade routes are blocked, and the price of silk has been falling. ”

"Now that Your Majesty has beheaded Cheng Qili, the movement in the north is even more unclear, the trade routes on the grassland are blocked, and the price of silk is estimated to keep falling. Liu Ziyue frowned, he seemed to have figured out the emperor's train of thought.

"The price of silk is low, and when the cattle monks and children finish checking the land, I will let him collect taxes, and I will pick a few counties to collect mulberry taxes, and I will collect taxes on every mulberry tree. Li Xu's current appearance made Liu Ziyue even more convinced that the emperor in front of him was a living man.

This cow monk and child will die. Liu Ziyue sighed in his heart, he was checking the land and collecting mulberry taxes, and he offended so many people, and this official surnamed Niu would definitely die a miserable death.

"When they cut down the trees and change them into wheat fields again, there will be more wheat fields around Bai Yujing. ”

"What about the other counties?"

"Whatever they want, I'll only choose counties with fertile land. Li Xu said: "This is called ensuring the area of cultivated land and ensuring grain production." I wouldn't have been able to do this without a food officer. ”