Chapter 437: Guanzhong's Shocking Discovery
Luo Sheng embarked on the journey to the Western Regions. To reach the Western Regions from Chang'an, one had to pass through the four Hexi counties and the Guanzhong counties west of Chang'an. Luo had been in Guandong for a long time and gradually lost sight of the situation in Guanzhong. He took this opportunity to investigate.
What Luo Sheng saw was beyond his expectations, because he actually found quite a few refugees in Guanzhong.
And it seems like it has been quite a while, and these refugees include people of all ages.
His steward was also shocked when he saw this. If there were refugees in Guandong, it would be normal. After all, there were many powerful people in Guandong. Even with the mausoleum system, land annexation could not be controlled.
But in Guanzhong, which is the land directly controlled by the royal family and the royal base, even the marquisates did not grant fiefs here. How could refugees appear here as well?
The housekeeper quickly found out the origins of these people and said in a deep voice: "Sir, these people were the result of a flood in Guanzhong in the 12th year of Yuancheng. In order to release the flood, the court had to open the dam on the north side, which flooded their farmland and houses. Because the supplies issued by the court were insufficient, no new land was allocated, and they had no choice but to become refugees."
Yuancheng was the reign title of Emperor Ding of Han.
Luo Sheng frowned slightly and said: "In the twelfth year of Yuancheng, the Han court, which has not experienced defeat in the southwest, is it possible that it is incapable of disaster relief?
Although Emperor Xiaoding made mistakes in his later years, he was not a cruel monarch. How could he not provide disaster relief? "
Starting from Emperor Xiaowu, the world gradually began to suffer from disasters. By the time of Emperor Xiaoding, there were some floods. There were several major floods in Guanzhong, and the river almost broke this time. Fortunately, the court still had the ability to provide disaster relief, and there was no major chaos.
I didn't expect that after a quick check, I found that there were still big problems in the follow-up of disaster relief.
As he spoke, Luo Sheng took another look at the surrounding terrain and said in surprise, "Besides, the tributaries of the Wei River are flooding, but the water flows to lower places. It is obvious that the south side is easier to discharge floodwaters, so why would the dam on the north side be opened?"
Something must be wrong when things are out of the ordinary. Luo Sheng's face darkened and he said, "Go ask the people, who owns the land on the south side?"
The housekeeper was startled, of course he understood what Luo Sheng meant, and quickly turned around, his face heavy and said: "Sir, as you expected, half of the land belongs to the eldest princess's family, and the other half belongs to other royal nobles. The officials did not dare to open the dam and destroy the fertile fields of these powerful people, so they opened the dam on the north side and destroyed the people's land.
Luo Sheng closed his eyes slightly when he heard this, with infinite anger lingering in his heart, and even veins popping out. Seeing this, the housekeeper asked: "Sir, do you want to tell the emperor about these things?
These people are truly pitiful. They had such little property, and yet they lost everything due to a flood.
Should we secretly punish these powerful people?"
Luo Sheng slowly opened his eyes, looked at the housekeeper, shook his head, and said through gritted teeth: "This is a royal matter, just tell the emperor, there is no need to take action.
Send people to check whether there are any people who resist among the people, whether there are any people who plead for the people, and whether there are any heroes who are not afraid of power and dare to take action against the powerful and officials. Take these people away and resettle them.
Those who carry firewood for the public should not be allowed to freeze to death in the ice and snow!
Those who are submissive can stay here.
Those who can tolerate injustice will experience countless more injustices in their lifetime."
The housekeeper couldn't bear to hear this and asked, "Sir, is this too cruel?"
Luo Sheng said seriously: "What if I take him away?
Can you give them houses to live in?
Can you provide them with food and clothing?
Can they live and work in peace and contentment?
Besides, even the Suwang's heaven will not accept cowardly souls.
If there is no Su Wang in this world, there will never be a savior, and you have to rely on yourself to achieve happiness.
This is the reason why fate is determined by life.
Now the King of Su blesses the brave and gives their souls the opportunity to ascend to heaven.
And the Luo family has been striving to be the best generation after generation, which is already a blessing for the people of China.
The weak spirit will be eliminated, and the strong spirit will be passed on. As the elimination goes on from generation to generation, the spirit of the people of Zhuxia will become more full and correct.
Besides, the Luo family has no ability to save them. The family has done its best to maintain its current scale. If the Western Regions had not been opened up, Zhaocheng would have exploded.
The family motto is not to do good deeds beyond your ability, don't you understand?"
The butler said with cold sweat: "Sir, I am wrong."
Luo Sheng said with emotion: "Don't underestimate the people of the world. The Qin Dynasty was so powerful, but it was still defeated by farmers. People think that Emperor Gao, King Xiang, and King Zhaosheng were the great contributors to the demise of the Qin Dynasty, but the family praised King Chen for his rise. How great is that? There is more than one King Chen in this world.
Don't look too highly of the people of the world. There are many who accept everything that happens to them, and there are also many who become even more aggressive once they become rich and powerful.
The family has promoted the spark of thought, and now it preserves the spark of the brave. One day, maybe this will be the fire that starts a prairie fire?"
The housekeeper nodded in agreement, then suddenly thought of something and said in shock: "Sir, if Guanzhong is unstable, then the previous defeat in the southwest, plus the emperor's tax increase this time, Guanzhong..."
Luo Sheng's face changed.
Each of the things the housekeeper mentioned is insignificant if taken individually, but when taken together they are no small matter.
As mentioned before, the ruling basis of the Han court was small landlords who were able to perform military service and pay taxes. In fact, merchants were also one of the ruling bases, because most merchants were small merchants, or in the words of later generations, they were called self-employed individuals.
Sang Hongyang personally supervised the collection of taxes, and it was true that he was able to collect taxes from big merchants, but he couldn't do everything. If he didn't pay attention and relied on local officials, how could he collect taxes from big merchants?
Behind every big businessman are powerful people.
In the end, ordinary merchants could only suffer. In real history, the Gao Min Order caused large-scale business bankruptcies, which were actually the bankruptcies of small and medium-sized merchants. The real powerful people took advantage of the bankruptcy of small and medium-sized merchants to make large-scale acquisitions. This was a major reason for the local tyrants to become powerful.
The most terrifying thing about this matter is that even if we know the cause and effect, we cannot solve it.
For example, in the case of the Grand Princess, the officials destroyed the people's farmland on their own initiative. Even if the matter was brought to the emperor, except for a few emperors who truly loved their people like their own children, most of them would only give a symbolic punishment.
This was the case with the famous strong order in history, and in the end the princess did not receive any punishment.
After all, one side is one's own relatives, and the other side is the abstract people. What they will choose has actually been determined from the beginning.
Luo has always been strict with himself and lenient with others.
If only one person does something, it may be that person's fault, but if everyone does this after they become rich, that's human nature.
Luo only set an example, but did not strictly require others to do the same. Just like the nobles of Bang Zhou eventually fell, Luo did not care.
Because the fallen nobles will eventually be swept into the garbage dump of history, Luo will not persuade them, but will only be the one to sweep away the garbage.
In Luo Sheng's eyes, although the Han court had been established for a hundred years, it was still in its heyday.
This is even more powerful than the Zhou Dynasty. After 70 years of establishment, the Zhou Dynasty began to decline. It was only with the help of the ancestor Luo Wengong that the dynasty's life was greatly extended.
But now he suddenly discovered that the situation in the Han Dynasty was not as good as he had imagined, and signs of various problems were gradually emerging.
Moreover, we don’t even know when these problems appeared. Everything was so good during the reign of Emperor Xiaowu. Could it be just some natural disasters?
You have to know that the natural disasters in Guanzhong today are nothing. When Bang Zhou occupied Guanzhong a thousand years ago, three rivers dried up and the entire Guanzhong's ecological environment changed drastically, making it impossible to accommodate the capital of a dynasty.
In addition to political reasons, the Zhou royal family had to withdraw from that land and move to Luoyang between the Yellow River and Luo River to establish its capital again.
There were no continuous droughts, no overwhelming locust plagues, no continuous earthquakes, and most importantly, no major rivers bursting and changing their courses. For a dynasty, a flood that only affected tens of thousands of hectares of farmland was nothing at all.
"Liu Dan."
Luo Sheng muttered the name, "Is it a good thing for an emperor who is good at martial arts to appear in this period?"
Luo Sheng didn't know the answer to this question. He was not like those wise ancestors, and none of his skills in governing the country had reached 90. The only reason he could become the heir of Duke Zhao was because he was the eldest son. The other descendants were equally mediocre.
There has never been a shortage of people who have had sudden enlightenment in this world, and there has never been a shortage of people who have turned over a new leaf. Likewise, it is also not uncommon for once outstanding people to become foolish because of certain blows.
Emperor Liu Dan likes military affairs now, but who can guarantee that he will always be like this?
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Severe land annexation was one of the main reasons for the decline and demise of ancient dynasties. Land annexation led to a reduction in the number of free farmers paying taxes and serving the country, or the royal family, causing financial difficulties. Ultimately, the country could not invest in the maintenance of large public works and could not raise military funds in wars. The country's military and political power gradually declined, but this was not the reason for the decline of the Han Dynasty.
The Han Dynasty had a good foundation for nation building. In the first hundred years after its founding, the problem of land annexation was not serious. Moreover, due to the existence of the feudal system, the emperor would be replaced by the princes in one dynasty, and the kingdom could be replaced at any time. A country would be abolished within three generations. Although the marquisates had existed for a long time, they would also be changed on a large scale according to the needs of military deployment, and the princes did not have much demand for land annexation.
Moreover, the Han Dynasty had strict regulations on the size of fiefdoms of kings and princes, and the collection of taxes and corvee labor would be adjusted according to the size of the fiefdoms. Therefore, the annexation of land within the kingdoms and princes did not affect the country's mobilization capabilities and the dynasty's tax revenue.
However, in this favorable situation, the royal family actually attacked its own base in Guanzhong. This incredible man-made disaster, coupled with the frequent visits of natural disasters, ultimately led to irreversible consequences. - "The Rise and Fall of the Han Dynasty"
(End of this chapter)
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