In order to prevent the landlords from rebelling, he did not openly rob them. Instead, he spent money to take back most of the idle land from the landlords. Then these tenants would become official tenants, and the problem of land annexation would be greatly alleviated.

The main reason for using this method is that the Song Dynasty has real money, especially in recent years, foreign trade has been booming, with millions of taels of silver flowing into Japan every year.

The Liao Dynasty was even more exaggerated.

In order to make firearms, millions of kilograms of sulfur were purchased every year. This item alone could bring tens of thousands of strings of fiscal revenue to the Song Dynasty.

In addition, with the popularity of many trade routes such as the Maritime Silk Road, the Silk Road, and the Ancient Tea-Horse Road, people gradually began to use silver when conducting medium-value trade, instead of carrying several strings of coins or thousands of copper coins when going out as before.

Therefore, Zhao Jun also gave the landlords of the Song Dynasty the last bit of dignity, which was to force them to sell the land in their hands to local governments at a fair price, freeing their tenants, and at least exchanging them for some currency.

otherwise.

If they don't want to be decent, the court will probably have to help them be decent.

"What about the last one?"

Fan Zhongyan asked again.

“The last one is to just let it be.”

Zhao Jun shrugged and said, "Once the industry officially opens, a large number of young and strong people will move to the city to work, leaving the landlords with no one to farm. They will be forced to either sell their land or transform themselves into factory owners or businessmen, and the land will naturally be reclaimed slowly."

Fan Zhongyan thought for a moment and said, "This seems to be the method you originally mentioned."

"yes."

Zhao Jun said, "This was also a common approach taken by developed nations in the early stages of the industrial revolution. After all, they certainly couldn't see the future and couldn't make accurate judgments. While this approach certainly still had diehards, it was relatively mild and wouldn't cause widespread opposition. The only drawback is that it would take too long, and wouldn't necessarily allow the demographic dividend to catch up with the era of rapid development."

The last method is typified by the sheep-eating-people incident in Britain. After the Industrial Revolution, there was a shortage of wool raw materials. The noble landlords saw that it was profitable and immediately converted the land into pastures for sheep. The result was the enclosure movement. A large number of farmers lost their land and were forced to go to the city to work, which in turn promoted industrial growth.

This is the case with the Song Dynasty. Once the Industrial Revolution arrives, although Song's size won't lead to a large-scale conversion of land to pasture, the income from working in the city is higher than farming, which will inevitably attract people to the city, leaving no one to farm in the countryside.

The result was that the landlords of the Song Dynasty either voluntarily or were forced to sell their land, introduce machines, and become capitalists or businessmen, which to a certain extent alleviated the problem of land annexation.

However, doing so would take too long and would not eradicate the problem.

Zhao Jun's real purpose was to reclaim a large amount of private land, so as to avoid a situation like India in later generations, where a high-speed railway was built but the landlords along the route opposed it, and it could not be built for more than ten years, which seriously hindered the country's development.

We should complete the reform while the Song Dynasty is not particularly large, with a territory of less than three million square kilometers and a population of less than one billion. Then, whether it is building trains or roads, it will be smooth sailing.