The only problem is money.
It's the same principle as a game. Once the game is made and your character account is created, there are only two ways to become stronger.
One is to slowly grind, and the other is to spend money.
Therefore, in order to speed up the progress, it is time for Zhao Jun to start taking action against the landlords and wealthy families.
After the new policy was implemented, the imperial court sent out inspecting censors many times, and worked with local censors and the Imperial City Administration to urge local governments to quickly complete the target task of allocating land tax to each resident.
For a time, the poor people across the Song Dynasty were rejoicing.
The landlords and wealthy families were complaining so much that many of them planned to sell their land to reduce costs.
Normally, the greater the output, the thinner the cost will be.
But this refers to industrial products.
The costs of non-industrialized traditional agriculture are there.
Even though the court only doubled the tax rate this time, bringing it to 20%, combined with the commercial tax sold, it basically fluctuated between 20% and 25%.
However, the remaining 75%-80% does not mean pure profit, there are also costs such as rent, transportation, labor, etc.
In addition, the continued decline in food prices is also a huge harm to them.
The land rent alone may cost 30% to 50%, plus you have to sell the harvested grain and hire long-term and short-term workers to transport it. In the end, let alone making money, it's considered good if you don't lose money.
Therefore, those conscientious landlords who collected lower rent from their tenants could not bear it and had to sell their land.
The government took the opportunity to purchase them and turned them into official farmland.
Those unscrupulous landlords who charge higher rents may be able to bear it for a while, but the tenants will soon give up.
After the government took over the government-owned land, it lowered the rent again, for example, to 30% to 40%, which was much lower than the 50% to 70% collected from the landlords.
In addition, the government will also provide certain means of production, such as seeds, agricultural tools, etc., to attract a large number of young and strong laborers to work for the government.
Local governments would then, in accordance with the court's instructions, hire these young and strong laborers to cultivate the land during the busy farming season, and to repair water conservancy projects, open rivers and canals, and build water resource regulation facilities such as ponds, dams, and reservoirs during the slack season.
Under the national macro-control, by October, less than four months after the new policy was introduced, a large number of landlords and tenants left and threw themselves into the arms of the government.
If it were during the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, when the aristocratic families were in power, these tenants would be slaves of the aristocratic families and would have no way of escaping.
However, the Song Dynasty cracked down on slavery, did not allow restrictions on personal freedom, and even did not allow the word "slave" to be mentioned. As a result, if a tenant wanted to leave, the landlord was not only unable to stop him, but even dared not to stop him.
Because the government used to stand on the side of the landlords, if the tenants wanted to escape, the government would send people to catch them. In addition, the landlords also had lackeys under their command who would physically harm, imprison, and even torture the tenants.
But in the Song Dynasty, after four generations of Zhao Kuangyin, Zhao Guangyi, Zhao Heng and Zhao Zhen, the labor system was abolished. Not to mention beating the tenants, even if you imprisoned them, you would be sentenced by the government.
Especially in recent years, Zhao Jun has placed greater emphasis on the right to personal freedom and has strictly urged local authorities to investigate similar incidents.
If someone knows something but fails to report it, helps landlords and wealthy people to conceal it, or if a serious accident occurs in the jurisdiction, losing the official hat is considered the least of the punishment.
This led to local officials not daring to be careless about this matter. They no longer protected the interests of landlords and wealthy households, but instead began to protect the interests of tenants.
If a tenant encountered such a thing, he only needed to report it to the authorities. The landlord would lose everything at best and be imprisoned or exiled at worst. Each of these things could be counted as the official's political achievement.
Therefore, under the new policy, faced with the large-scale loss of tenants, many landlords suffered serious losses.
They could either transfer the land under their name to their descendants to reduce the tax on land use, or be forced to sell the land, causing their land holdings to dwindle day by day.
In early October, in Mudu Town, Wu County, Suzhou, Gusu Mountain is visible in the northwest of the town, and the southwest of the town is surrounded by the eastern bank of Taihu Lake. There are thousands of miles of fertile fields. When the late rice is harvested, the golden ears of wheat sway gently in the autumn breeze.
There is a huge manor in the north of the town, which is the residence of Gong Xu, a wealthy landlord from the Gong family, a major family in Wu County.
The Gong family of Wu County was a prominent local family. During the Northern Song Dynasty, they produced seven Jinshi (imperial examinations) and many officials in the Southern Song Dynasty. For example, Gong Ming, an official of the Southern Song Dynasty whose grandfather moved to Kunshan, Suzhou, had ancestors from Wu County.
However, just because the local family is a prominent family does not mean that every member of the family lives a good life. The fields within the Gong family are occupied by the elders of the family and the patriarch of the main lineage.
The rest of the branches and illegitimate children had a hard time. For example, Gong Mingzhi's grandfather was forced to leave his hometown and set up his own family.
Many members of the lower-class tribe became serfs, tenants, servants, etc. of the master's family.
Gong Xu was about fifty years old, wealthy and dressed in silk and satin. He had just returned from the city today and had just gotten off the carriage when he heard another piece of bad news.
Several more tenants left their family and ran to the government recruitment office in the city to choose to become tenants of the government.
This made Gong Xu's face look very ugly.
When he returned home and took a short rest to drink a cup of tea, he suddenly heard a servant coming to report that the patriarchs of the three big families, Pan, Wang and Zhang, came to ask for a meeting.
Gong Xu had no choice but to invite them in.
"Brother Gong!"
The three of them entered the room and bowed to him.
"Brother Pan, Brother Wang, Brother Zhang, why are you here?"
Gong Xu stood up and returned the greeting.
"What else could it be?"
The head of the Pan family is Pan Shi, and he looks helpless.
"Sit down and talk."
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