"So what the court hopes most is to persuade the landlords with both emotion and reason, and get them to take out their money and invest it in projects that will benefit national construction and promote industrial development. Otherwise, even if they kill them and nationalize their property, there will still be a lot less capital."
"Furthermore, many landlords are clan leaders of large clans. If we deal with them all, the tribes will face disintegration. The agricultural system may also be greatly unstable, which is not a good thing for the Song Dynasty court, which needs to maintain national stability."
"But doing so would also harm the interests of the peasants and the court. So, unless it's absolutely necessary, we shouldn't do this. What other methods are there? With industrialization, productivity will rise again. With maritime trade, we can easily transport grain and fodder from Jiaozhi, so agriculture is bound to decline."
"But this also creates a paradox: if industry isn't subsidized by agriculture first, then industry can't develop. And if industry can't develop, then it can't be used to subsidize agriculture. So before industrialization is implemented, the interests of the landlords can't be shaken."
But this does not mean that all landlords should be eliminated.
There are many reasons for this.
The current Zhao Jun is no longer the young man who only knew how to criticize the Song Dynasty.
Although the Song Dynasty did need to eliminate the serious problem of land annexation in the country in order to reduce the number of landlords as much as possible.
Secondly, many landlords, especially those in the south, are often the patriarch of a large clan, a close relative of an official, or the person in charge of a large ethnic group.
Their power often determined the life and death of a clan member. While clans may be a trait, many things should be viewed with a lopsided eye. At least in terms of productivity, clans still possessed cohesion. They often shared farm tools, provided mutual support, and promoted agricultural development.
First of all, the big landlords have rich properties. Even though this has harmed their interests, the real estate plus the stored funds mean that many big landlords own tens of thousands of acres of land. Although they cannot be said to be as rich as a country, they can still be said to have a fortune.
If the imperial court guided them to invest their money in industrial construction, it would obviously be much better than killing them directly, which would be like killing the chicken that lays the eggs.
Our country had this kind of trouble in the early days of its founding, so after learning from the lesson, Zhao Jun did not completely deny the meaning of the large clans. He just slowly resolved them and transitioned to the industrial age step by step, allowing them to die out naturally.
In this way, we can not only maintain the current situation, but also wait for productivity to increase in the future without having to worry about the clan, a cancer that hinders social progress, still existing.
If everything is destroyed at once and all members of the ethnic group are turned into self-employed farmers, there will be a big difference in both cohesion and individual initiative.
Moreover, ancient farmers often lacked production tools. After being disbanded, without the support of clans, it was difficult for low-level self-cultivating farmers to borrow agricultural tools.
Second, if they did not accept a reduction in profits, the court would also help them with industrialization and support them in building steel mills, cement plants, spinning mills, and brick factories.
This two-pronged approach not only preserves the basic agricultural foundation but also promotes industrial revitalization, killing two birds with one stone.
Therefore, he had two main points when it came to the resettlement of landlords.
One point is that the court hopes that the landlords will be obedient and make concessions, and allow them to continue to be large landlords, but the profits will be less than before.
Now that the opportunity has been given, we can only blame the big landlords for not cherishing it.
"Then why did it take so long?"
But if both of these points are unacceptable.
Then it's no wonder he's here.
Zhao Jun said, "So the court's tactic is to delay as much as possible until next year, when new policies are issued and merchants from all walks of life will flock to the big pie of industry. The landlords will see someone vying for a piece of the pie and see how lucrative this piece is. Then they will no longer hesitate. By then, national capital will pour into industry, and the progress of the entire industrial system will be greatly accelerated."
"No wonder you said earlier that delaying it would cause nationwide unrest. Are you planning to delay it for a year or two?"
Lu Yijian was puzzled.
"Because this matter itself needs to be done step by step. We need to explain it to the landowners and let them see the results."
By the time the news gets out to the landlords in Liangzhe Road, and they see that the court has not taken any major action against their protests, it will easily trigger large-scale protests from many landlords in Liangzhe Road within a few months.
If that happens, the imperial court will suddenly take action with thunderous force, and the Imperial City Administration, local troops and local government offices will act together, and those who should be killed will be beheaded, and those who should be exiled will be exiled.
Everyone suddenly woke up.
If you just want to play the long game and catch a big fish, you only need to add fuel to the fire for a few months.
However, this is also a tightrope walk. If the landlords do not agree and the situation continues to escalate, it will become a nationwide issue.
Although there is no large-scale famine now due to the improvement of productivity, and the landlords and the people do not have much soil for rebellion, it will obviously be detrimental to the country and its stable development if it continues like that.
After a series of operations, the matter was resolved quickly, like cutting leeks, killing a chicken to scare the monkeys and deterring landlords across the country.
But Zhao Jun obviously wanted to delay it a little longer, hoping to mobilize landlords across the country, let them get out of the land, invest their wealth in industry, and accelerate the process of industrialization.
So this approach is a double-edged sword. If done well, it can solve many problems. But if done poorly, many people across the country will die.
Whether it is a large-scale construction or a massacre, it basically only happens this time.
(End of this chapter)
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