"This is what happened." At the expanded meeting of the Qinghe County leadership team held that evening, Lin Hai detailed the information he had received from Xin Yuetu.
"So far, the Khmer Kingdom is fully preparing for war. Soldiers who have just returned home from military service have been mobilized again, and the mobilization order has been further expanded. According to Xin Yuetu, although only one in ten soldiers are being drafted now, this will soon reach one in five. The Khmer royal family has prepared for a maximum mobilization of one in three soldiers, and this is no longer a plan for the future."
Lin Hai looked around the scene. As the leaders among his sworn brothers, Wang Liang, Lu You, Yin San, Sun Deyou, Jia Da, Jiang Jucai, and Zhang Zaijiang were all present. Lin Hai's twelve direct disciples were also present. Even Shi Zhener became the secretary of the meeting. However, Yang Xiong, who was in charge of agriculture, was transferred to prepare the collective farm because of the slow development of the composting project and was unable to attend the meeting.
Everyone looked solemn.
"Principal, I have a question." Wang Zhen, the new head of agriculture, raised his hand and asked, "The Khmer Kingdom can harvest four crops a year and has abundant grain reserves, but with such a large-scale mobilization, their food reserves won't last long. I just roughly calculated using the method you taught me, and the Khmer grain revenue can only support one in seven men. Even if there are still grain stocks in the short term, one in five men is the limit, and it can't last more than half a year."
"Yes," Lin Hai replied, "This is something I haven't figured out. The Khmer Kingdom plans to announce new land rent and head tax policies at the same time as the mobilization order. Simply put, it's a three-for-four plan. For every four dou of grain a farmer harvests, they have to pay three dou, and this doesn't include other miscellaneous taxes. If you add it all up, it's almost like a full four dou tax. If you also add in the fact that those who aren't conscripted still have to perform corvée labor, then regardless of whether the Khmer Kingdom has four or eight crops a year, the grain they grow won't be enough for the farmers to eat, or even enough to pay the taxes. So I don't understand why the Khmer royal family would use this devastating mobilization method."
Lin Hai said so, but he knew deep down that this was not called killing the chicken to get the eggs, this was called suicide, which was simply insane. Not to mention an agricultural society, even in an industrial society, an industrial country with the support of a huge industrial system would not be able to formulate a mobilization plan of selecting one out of every three adults and raise the tax rate to more than 100%.
This is simply encouraging the people to rebel.
Although the agriculture in this world is not normal, and although there are no high-yield foods such as potatoes, corn, and sweet potatoes that are specially used by time travelers, the output of ordinary rice and wheat is far higher than that of ancient China in Lin Hai's memory. In addition, due to Cambodia's unique geographical location, the Khmer Kingdom has never had famine in its history, and there has never been a time when people could not eat. However, Cambodia is still an agricultural country after all, with a mainly agricultural population. Such a large-scale conscription of agricultural population will inevitably lead to food shortages.
"I asked Xin Yuetu about the specific reasons, but he didn't know. The details are that when Xin Yuetu met with the Khmer King the day before, he was told to rest and recuperate and stockpile weapons for emergency situations. The next day, he received an order to purchase large quantities of iron ingots and finished weapons to support the military expansion. According to Xin Yuetu's inquiries, everything changed overnight. Even the entire royal family, including the Khmer King, the Crown Prince, several princes with real military power, the Prime Minister, and the various ministers, all agreed to this plan. Regardless of whether their attitudes the day before were pro-war or pro-peace, they all became die-hard pro-war overnight."
Lin Hai couldn't believe it as he spoke. Every country with a long history would have its share of incompetent emperors, and those who were ambitious and fond of military affairs were among them. But it was hard to imagine that a country's entire ruling class could suddenly become incompetent, like an infectious disease. But if there really was a virus that turned people into warmongering bastards, then why hadn't Xin Yuetu been infected?
and...
"And it's not just Cambodia that has such war plans." Lin Hai once again dropped a bombshell.
"All four countries must have gone mad. I wonder if there's a virus that only spreads among the ruling class, and that can drive people into a warlike frenzy while maintaining basic sanity. But according to reports from the Jinguancheng and Zhaoyang strongholds, the Daliang Empire and the Chen Dynasty are also preparing for war. We don't know the details yet, but rumors have leaked that new policies on conscription, taxation, and the trade of food and other controlled materials will be announced soon."
"So, the four nations have agreed to die together?" Wang Liang found it somewhat unbelievable. "How long has the ceasefire been in effect? How long will it take to travel back and forth between the four capitals? Could it be that they've been planning a new war since the last one ended?"
"What are the reasons for the wars?" Lu You found a key issue. This society still values a legitimate reason for war. Wars must have a justifiable reason. It can't be said that "because the boss has gone crazy and needs us to die together, so let's go to war."
"You should be the one handling the intelligence matters." Lin Hai pointed at Wang Zuo, who stood up from the crowd. It was only then that many people realized Wang Zuo was also present. It was no wonder the other eleven students disliked Wang Zuo. Sometimes, he could stand next to you for ages without you noticing. If there were any secrets, he must have overheard them. This was said to be the reason Lin Hai had chosen him as the head of intelligence.
"Principal, uncles, and classmates, the intelligence department has not been operating for a long time, and the information we have obtained is not much, but to summarize it, there are roughly the following points." Wang Zuo's reports are the most comfortable to listen to, and he always summarizes and analyzes them very well. In fact, this is the reason why Lin Hai chose him to be the head of intelligence. After all, Lin Hai himself did not want to summarize all this mess of information.
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