Two-in-one~ I will be the king of a fallen country for (a 100 million yuan bonus)...
Maybe to some inhumane guys, slaves are not much better than leeks.
Slaves are very good at giving birth to children, one after another. Some die and some survive, and the little slaves can then give birth to slaves, so there is an endless supply of slaves.
But Gui Yang had also been involved in several transactions, and he had also seen how those originally numb slaves became more energetic day by day after arriving at the king's farm.
It was obvious that farming was more tiring than serving others, but those slaves looked more and more like human beings day by day.
When Gui Yang saw those slaves, she realized that slaves were also human beings, people with self-respect.
Moreover, the king was not a bloodthirsty and cruel monarch. In order to prevent slaves from being buried alive with the dead, she even managed to summon thunder from the sky to strike the tomb of Marquis Taisheng.
Such an astonishing act was done by the king for his slaves.
Only in this matter could Gui Yang feel the king's kindness as a monarch, the kind of kindness that was as warm and gentle as the sun.
"Just treat them like other farmers in Zhuangzi, exempt them from the cloth tax, and give them private plots."
Shen Zhiwei thought to himself that he had to release his productivity.
When there is a shortage of manpower, the importance of machines is reflected. If there are enough machines, they can completely replace part of the manual labor.
People can be much more relaxed and their work efficiency will increase several times.
The population cannot increase in a short period of time. If the war continues, the population will continue to decline. Instead of always focusing on slaves, it is better to develop industry.
This idea is a bit too advanced. Shen Zhiwei didn't intend to do anything. If she was allowed to do everything, what would future generations do? She was the king of a fallen country. How could she lead the industrial revolution?
"Taisheng rescued so many slaves before. We'll take some of them and bring them to Jingchang. They'll all be settled according to the farm's rules. The unowned land near Jingchang and Taiisheng can be provided to the common people. Common people are not eligible to own land, only the right to use it. The land cannot be resold or transferred to others. If no one in the family survives, the land will be reclaimed. The land use rights will be temporarily set at 70 years."
According to the current average age of ordinary people, 70 years of land use rights is about two generations, and for those who are a little anxious, it can reach a time span of three generations.
As for what to do when the right of use expires, Shen Zhiwei said that he could ask the officials to renew it when it expires, and he only needed to pay a pound of grain as a fee to renew it.
Gui Yang had no dissatisfaction with Shen Zhiwei's way of handling the matter, nor did she feel that there was anything wrong with it.
First of all, the unowned land nominally belongs entirely to the emperor Shen Zhiwei. It is the emperor's land, and the emperor can do whatever he wants with it.
Not to mention giving it to the common people to cultivate, even if it is given directly to the common people, as long as the common people do not own much land, it is reasonable and legal.
In fact, directly giving land to common people is what most nobles do now. What distinguishes common people from slaves is that common people have permanent land and houses.
Giving common people the right to use land but not allowing them to buy and sell it, in Gui Yang's opinion, is actually putting the common people at a disadvantage. Isn't land worthless if it can't be bought and sold?
But considering that those common people were essentially slaves, Shen Zhiwei was truly a benevolent monarch by letting them farm the land and giving them the right to use it instead of just enslaving them to farm.
As long as Shen Zhiwei did not give the land of other nobles to the common people to cultivate, it didn't matter what policies she used. For other nobles, these policies had no effect at all.
Just like when Shen Zhiwei used the private plot system on his own farm, no nobles were affected.
However, this policy only applies to Shen Zhiwei's own land. If she dares to use the same demands to divide the land of the nobles, then the nobles will rebel. The nobles will shout that she is a tyrant and overthrow her rule.
This is why Shen Zhiwei wanted to abolish the practice of burying people alive with the dead and also wanted to find a way to attract thunder from the sky.
In the current era, the royal power cannot compete with the power of the aristocracy.
After receiving the order, Gui Yang immediately wrote a letter to Tai Sheng, asking Wen Tao to give him some of the slaves he had rescued before.
It certainly cannot be divided up completely. There are also many unowned lands in Taisheng. The lands that previously belonged to the Marquis of Taisheng are now all under the name of the emperor.
Wen Tao went to Taisheng to be the county magistrate, but Shen Zhiwei did not grant the land to Wen Tao.
Although the county system and the feudal system can coexist, it is obvious that the two are not very compatible. The county system is more advanced than the feudal system. If you can use the county system directly, don't use the feudal system to make things difficult for yourself.
Shen Zhiwei did not give Wen Tao any fiefdom, and Wen Tao had no intention of asking for it. The Wen family had few members and already had land near Jingchang given by the previous king. There was no need for them to covet Tai Sheng's land.
Wen Tao was not dissatisfied with not having a fiefdom, but she was very dissatisfied with Gui Yang's desire for slaves.
Those slaves are not enough!
"The news from the capital is that the king intends to continue distributing land to commoners and slaves so they can grow crops. The Prime Minister wants to send 2,000 men first. You need 2,000 vanguards for your expedition, and the remaining men are not enough to fill the gap at Taisheng."
Wen Tao put down the bamboo slips covered with words with a headache, looked at Hu Youan, who had been in Taisheng for two days, and said worriedly: "Besides, there is not enough money."
Whether it is to settle the population or go on an expedition, food is needed. When there is not enough food, you have to spend money to buy it.
The money is mainly spent on the wealthy families, so that they can have a lot of surplus grain to sell. How can ordinary people have surplus grain?
Those people can't be fooled at will, and the price of food won't go down.
Tai Sheng is in a state of disrepair. Even if all of the Tai Sheng Hou's property is plundered, it will not be enough to cover the entire reconstruction of Tai Sheng. Wen Tao has been really worried recently.
Money is needed everywhere, but it can't just fall from the sky.
Selling salt is very profitable, but the salt field has just started, and the amount of salt produced is limited, and the sales channels are not open. Merchant Zheng took his wife to the north, saying that he would persuade the nobles in the north to buy East China Sea salt. Now, not only did he not get the money back, but he also lost a lot of money in order to build relationships and connections.
Wen Tao knew that this was a necessary investment in the early stages. Selling salt was indeed profitable, but if one wanted to make a lot of money, one had to make the nobles recognize that Donghai salt was the best.
In addition to the high quality of the Donghai salt itself, it also needs to be recognized by more nobles. It is hard to say how much effort it will take to convince the nobles who produce and sell their own salt to recognize other people's salt.
Anyway, don't expect to get rich overnight, it's too difficult.
Hu Youan saw Wen Tao frowning and sighing, and suddenly remembered something. She looked around and saw that there was still a clerk in the room, so she came up to Wen Tao and whispered, "Do you want to go out and relax?"
Wen Tao had no intention of relaxing at all. She wished she could immediately deal with the tall mountain of bamboo slips so that they wouldn't bother her.
But as soon as she looked up and met Hu Youan's meaningful gaze, she immediately changed her shaking head to a nod.
The two men left the house and headed for a secluded corner. After confirming that no one was around, Hu Youan spoke up, "Does the prefect know how many people were buried with the deceased in the tomb of Marquis Taisheng?"
Wen Tao didn't expect Hu Youan to ask her this.
The custom of burying deceased with the dead is not something that has only arisen recently, but has existed since ancient times. The more powerful a person is, the more afraid they are of death. They are afraid that after death, there will be no one to serve them in the underworld and no gold or silver to use. Therefore, over the years, the burial objects of princes and nobles have become more and more abundant.
"I don't know. Doctor Hu must have witnessed the burial of Marquis Taisheng with his own eyes, right?"
Wen Tao said this, her mouth felt dry and she swallowed.
Hu Youan nodded silently. She raised her eyes and looked at Wen Tao for a moment, and then a broken look appeared in Wen Tao's eyes.
At that moment, Wen Tao seemed like a fragile piece of glass covered with cracks, which would break at the slightest movement without any wind.
"It seems that County Magistrate Wen knows what You'an is going to say. The king once said, 'In extraordinary times, extraordinary measures should be taken.' His body has been turned to ash by lightning, so why should we fear anything else?"
That’s right, Hu Youan was planning to take the burial objects of Marquis Taisheng.
So much gold and silver would be enough for Tai Sheng to rebuild.
As the Marquis of Taisheng, he took away countless gold and silver from Taisheng when he was alive. Now that he is dead, he should make some contribution to Taisheng.
He also did some of the duties of a minister for the emperor and shared his worries.
Wen Tao was really devastated.
She has been holding herself to the standards of a gentleman since she was young. Now that she is still young, her understanding of the word "gentleman" is not yet deep, so sometimes she acts in a rigid manner, which makes her senior sister unhappy.
But she really wants to be a gentleman!
What gentleman would dig up graves and steal burial objects?
Wen Tao was feeling unwell. Could the burial objects still be used? Would Tai Shenghou come looking for her?
After all, Marquis Taisheng is also her elder. All the nobles in the world are one family, so one can always find some blood relationship between them no matter how twisted or crooked they are.
What's the difference between this and asking her to dig up her own ancestral graves!
When Hu Youan saw that Wen Tao's face was even uglier than before, he knew that this matter probably wouldn't work out. Wen Tao was not cut out for this kind of thing.
"Perhaps I should discuss this matter with the county magistrate."
Hu Youan had not been in Taisheng for long, and had met Bianxiao only a few times, but Hu Youan had already seen that Bianxiao was not a serious person.
It's very suitable to do such improper things with her.
Little gentlemen should stay out of it. Just turn a blind eye and use the money to build Taisheng.
When Wen Tao heard that Hu Youan was going to tell Bian Xiao, her heart skipped a beat.
Wen Tao was worried that if this unreliable idea met another unreliable person, Bian Xiao would take Hu Youan and dig up all the graves of the nearby princes and dignitaries.
Marquis Taisheng was struck by lightning. His burial objects no longer included slaves, and the remaining burial objects were taken away. It was not a big deal. If the graves of other princes and nobles were also dug up, once they were discovered, Wen Tao couldn't imagine how people all over the world would talk about the emperor.
"This is no small matter. A group of people acting together will definitely attract the attention of outsiders. If this matter really gets out, no matter who else is involved, the Emperor..."
Wen Tao knew that Hu Youan cared most about the king's opinion, so she hoped to use the king to stop Hu Youan's crazy behavior.
Unexpectedly, when Hu Youan heard the word "Son of Heaven", his determination to dig graves became even stronger.
How could the deceased Tai Shenghou compare to the king? The king is short of money and people, and Tai Shenghou has them, so let's use them!
Just like the previous attack on Taisheng, because Taisheng's water transportation was needed, Taisheng had to be captured and presented to the emperor.
"Does County Magistrate Wen have a better idea? Or could he provide money and food to rebuild Tai Sheng, just as he did with the military training?"
Wen Tao was helpless. Of course it wasn't possible. The Wen family wasn't a wealthy family that could rival a country. The Wen family was demoted and returned to Jingchang. They had long been separated from their original family and had no branches to rely on.
The money and food used to support military training is the upper limit of what Wen Tao can mobilize.
"Gentlemen are certainly admirable, but this world cannot only have gentlemen, there must always be villains."
Tomb robbing is a very immoral act, but Hu Youan is not afraid. Hu has lost her surname. She was once a slave and she has no plans to get pregnant and have children.
She just wanted to shed her last drop of blood for the king on the battlefield.
She will eventually be without descendants, so why should she be afraid of losing her good karma? She doesn't have much good karma left.
In order to dig up the grave, Hu Youan even considered himself a villain. What could Wen Tao do but let him do it.
The only requirement is that this matter must be kept secret from Bianxiao.
Hu Youan is the only one left in the family, so she is not afraid of anything. She is loyal to the king in her heart. Wen Tao believes that Hu Youan knows her limits.
If Bian Xiao gets involved in this matter, it will be unstoppable. Bian Xiao wishes that her parents would be punished by God, and it would be best if all her relatives of the same lineage died out. Only then would she be happy. In order to achieve her goal, she might do something that is against the will of heaven.
Wen Tao's concerns were necessary, because after Bian Xiao knew about this, he really wanted to bring people to dig up the ancestral tombs of all the princes and nobles in the vicinity.
Fortunately, Hu Youan had already plundered the tomb of Marquis Taisheng, so Taisheng would not be short of money in the short term.
Bian Xiao expressed disappointment about this.
Wen Tao breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that Bian Xiao had behaved himself after being disappointed, and then spent a large sum of money to buy a group of slaves from the Bian Kingdom.
This group of slaves almost all came from Yunguo and Ningguo. It was almost late autumn, and with the arrival of winter, the melee finally showed signs of pausing.
Even though Yun and Ning had a large number of princes as allies, they were still no match for the alliance of the other five countries, especially An. The army of An seemed to have taken the wrong medicine, and it chased the armies of the two countries on the battlefield.
The enemy showed an attitude of wanting to destroy the two countries, which made the Yunning and Ning countries, which had originally intended to make peace, very angry. They decided to suspend the war after winter and resume the fighting after the spring plowing next year.
Fight to the death, but you can't lose.
During this period, Hu Youan also led her small army from Bian State and went to the front line to fight two battles. The results were pretty good. She suffered a few minor defeats and won two big victories. She brought back a lot of slaves and spoils of war. The consumption and benefits were equal, so she didn't lose anything.
Wen Tao was very satisfied with this. After all, the number of burial objects of Taisheng Hou was limited. If they wanted to make Taisheng City better, they had to be frugal. Wen Tao was really afraid that the money would be spent and Hu Youan would turn around and go back to digging graves.
Shen Zhiwei, who was far away in Jingchang, didn't know what happened in Taisheng. She was now thinking about how to help her limited people survive the winter safely.
When talking about winter, most people will think of modern kangs and warm products such as cotton.
But these two things have two fatal shortcomings when used today.
The disadvantage of kang is that there is not enough firewood.
In the past, Shen Zhiwei would think, with such great greening in ancient times, with mountains, trees and grass everywhere, how could there be a shortage of firewood?
Now she understood. First of all, not all trees and grasses can be used as firewood. Firewood that is too wet cannot be burned. In the winter, the house is closed, and burning wet firewood is simply seeking death.
Secondly, chopping wood requires strength and sharp tools, but where can we find so much strength and sharp tools nowadays?
Everyone is as thin as a bamboo pole, without any flesh on their body. In this situation, they are still asked to work hard to chop wood. They are like exchanging their lives for firewood.
Not to mention sharp weapons, an axe can be a family heirloom. You use the axe on the battlefield, in the fields, and for chopping wood. The axe is not made of iron, but copper. Many families don't have one.
So most people burn dead branches and leaves they pick up in the mountains. How long can those things continue to burn?
And you can't pick up too big pieces of wood. First, the mountain roads are dangerous and difficult to walk on, and it is easy to get into trouble if you carry heavy objects. Second, the mountains belong to the nobles, and it is good enough that the nobles allow common people to pick up firewood. If you carry large and small pieces of wood home and the servants in the nobles' homes find out, you will definitely be beaten.
In this case, if you want good firewood, you have to buy it from the woodcutter. Having said that, all the answers can be attributed to having no money.
The weakness of cotton products is even more fatal, and there is no cotton at present.
Shen Zhiwei learned that in the past, most common people relied on their righteousness to keep warm in the winter, while a small number relied on braziers.
It's not that they're not afraid of the cold, but how much firewood does it take to make a brazier? Sometimes a piece of wood can burn for a whole day.
The kang does save firewood and can be connected to the cooking stove, but the problem lies here. Common people sometimes do not light a fire in winter, and the fire they use is not a large iron pot, but a ceramic pot. Due to the material of the ceramic pot, it cannot be burned for a long time.
The main reason for not lighting a fire, in the words of common people, is that there is nothing to do outside in winter, and people are warmer just lying down and hugging each other every day. They don't need thick clothes and can save food.
If you are really hungry and cold, just heat up a pancake and drink some warm water by the fire in the brazier.
Faced with this situation, Shen Zhiwei really had no hope for the survival rate of the common people in winter.
She used to think that since all the workshops could smelt iron, the society's industrial technology should be developing rapidly, and getting some coal as heating fuel should not be a big problem.
After a deeper understanding, I realized that industrial technology is the privilege of the nobles. Common people? It’s good enough that they don’t have to eat raw meat and drink blood.
In a divided society with severe class divisions, the words in these books are so real in the face of the cold wind of nature.
Reality is devastating, but we can't give up completely.
Shen Zhiwei couldn't control people from other places, but she could still control the people in front of her.
First, solve the problem of people having no strength.
This year, the grain output from the private plots is not low, enough to feed the common people on the farm.
Shen Zhiwei also collected a lot of grain from the public fields, but she couldn't eat it all by herself. Moreover, she didn't like eating coarse grains like millet, so she had no intention of eating it herself.
Just take it out, use some as seeds, and distribute some to Lai Jingchang's two thousand slaves.
These were all borrowed by the slaves. After they finish planting the land next year, they will need to provide extra supplies to Shen Zhiwei. Shen Zhiwei will not do a good deed and give out food for free. At most, she will not charge interest.
With food, people have strength.
Then, it was about renting farm tools. Shen Zhiwei asked Baigongfang to make a batch of iron farm tools, including hatchets. Starting this year, common people could rent farm tools from the government based on their household registration.
Don't worry about things breaking, iron is difficult to damage, the most likely problem is the wooden handle, which is easy to repair.
And if it is broken, it can be melted and recast. In short, there is a solution to every problem.
The lease period is limited, but it is no problem for one person to use it for one or two days. In addition to using the iron hatchet to chop wood, you can also use the iron farm tools to open up wasteland.
This will prevent the work from being delayed before planting next year and delaying spring plowing.
Iron tools would greatly increase people's efficiency. Shen Zhiwei also allowed common people to freely enter and exit the nearby mountains and forests, whether for hunting or cutting trees for fuel.
Now we don’t need to worry about forest coverage or animal protection. The population is so small, there are green belts everywhere, and there is no need to protect any animals. There are probably more animals than people.
After solving these two problems, Shen Zhiwei asked someone to build the kang.
Shen Zhiwei does not allow anyone to question the authority of the kang. In ancient times when there was no central heating, the kang was the only god!
The kang is usually integrated with the stove. The clay pot is not suitable for the stoves of later generations. Shen Zhiwei has no other choice. She is not a designer, so she lets the common people figure it out themselves. If it really doesn't work, then don't build a stove. Just dig a hole in the wall and lay a flue.
It is similar in style to the kangs in some rural areas in later generations after the stoves were removed.
After reaching this point, Shen Zhiwei was basically relieved, and then ordered people to visit each household to check the condition of the house, and repair any problems that occurred, hoping that the snow would not bury the people inside.
Then you can just wait quietly for winter to pass.
Before winter came, Shen Zhiwei was still thinking that if the common people still died, she could only leave it to fate. She had already reached her limit.
This infrastructure game is about to enter the stage of verifying results.
Shen Zhiwei was still a little nervous. She had never been so serious when playing games. Although she said she was playing games, she knew in her heart that this was not a game, but a living life.
As the king of a fallen country, she has really taken on too much.
Shen Zhiwei lay flat on the bed, like a salty fish. There was nothing she could do. Who made her just like that? She said she was lying flat, but in fact she wasn't lying completely flat.
She should do her job and as long as she is the emperor, she cannot just watch her people suffer.
In fact, there is no point in getting through this winter peacefully. Once the rebels reach Jingchang and take her life, everything will probably regress to its previous state, or even get worse.
But we can’t stop living a good life just because we will die one day.
One day at a time, Shen Zhiwei held this mentality and convinced herself that everything she did was not to deviate from the main line and not to become a king who lost the country. She just took one step at a time!
Who could possibly prevent her from dying anytime soon? So, it wouldn't be a big deal if she struggled a bit and had some fun.
She is loyal to the 100 million bonus... No! It is the ending of the king who lost his country!
When Shen Zhiwei poked the panel, the human-computer system mechanically popped out messages one after another, and Shen Zhiwei felt bored.
The intelligence of this system seems to be getting worse and worse. Before, it would occasionally pop up a few sentences to answer her questions about the weather, today's horoscope, time, etc.
Now, all I can do is repeat “I don’t understand…” every day.
Fortunately, there is nothing wrong with the system intelligence of the special event section, and it will give Shen Zhiwei a reminder when nothing happens.
The special event that was triggered before will reach the March deadline in a month. This major event has not been completely over, and Shen Zhiwei does not know how the system will settle the outcome.
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