Chapter 288: Cycle of Order and Chaos
Traveling northward from Jiankang, the capital of Southern Liang, Bodhidharma finally saw clearly what the Middle-earth that Faxian had once longed for was like.
Unlike the prosperous Jiankang City, all the counties and prefectures we passed through were in a dilapidated state.
While the slaves were shackled and toiled day and night in the southern estates, these nobles donated to Buddhist temples, hoping to accumulate merit so that they could enjoy such a life in their next life.
After entering the north, the situation did not change much, except that the people who enslaved the people changed from the southern landowners to the wealthy families of the Northern Wei Dynasty.
Bodhidharma entered Henan, which should have been the richest region in the Central Plains, but he could still see a large number of poor people who were half-naked.
A strange phenomenon appeared in the Northern Wei Dynasty. On the one hand, there was overgrowth of grass and sparse bean sprouts in the farmland. The land was not cultivated well, and even some of the best land was left idle.
Bodhidharma really couldn't understand why a large-scale famine still occurred even though there was land and people farming.
If the most prosperous areas of the Wei Dynasty were like this, then where would he find a place to spread Buddhism?
With such doubts in mind, Bodhidharma came to Luoyang.
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In fact, the place where Su Ze built the city belongs to the Hetao area, which is suitable for farming.
Later, during the Song Dynasty, borders were opened up in Xihe, although the area developed was mainly the Hehuang area.
However, in order to support the war on the Western Xia front, the Northern Song Dynasty also vigorously developed Yan'an Prefecture (now Yan'an) to support the war against the Western Xia.
However, Xiazhou is still a semi-agricultural and semi-nomadic area, and a lot of land is still used for grazing, which is not very efficient.
There is no other way. Farming simply makes better use of land than grazing, and only farming can feed such a large population as Chinese civilization.
In order to attend Su Ze's wedding, most of Su Ze's subordinates in the shogunate rushed to Yongle City.
Wei Xiaokuan did a good job in setting up the Zhechofu in Liangzhou. After the demise of the Yang family in Liangzhou, Wei Xiaokuan took back the occupied public land from the powerful people in Liangzhou based on the Yang family's land, and successfully set up ten Zhechofu and more than sixty Sanchang villages.
Although these people were still small compared to the population occupied by the wealthy families in Liangzhou, Wei Xiaokuan knew that these were Su Ze's own people placed in Liangzhou and were nails driven into Liangzhou.
With these Zhechoufu and Sanchang Village, the wealthy families in Liangzhou will remember the fate of the Yang family even more.
In comparison, Su Cho, who was in charge of the affairs of Hezhou and Liangzhou in Jincheng, achieved more remarkable results.
By the time of the Song Dynasty, the Song Dynasty was able to reclaim a large amount of land in Hehuang. Of course, there is more potential to be tapped in this era.
Su Chao sent officials to survey the mountains and rivers in each county and determine the land to be reclaimed.
The Ganliangxi Army that surrendered from the Western Regions, the hidden population discovered by Su Ze when he registered the people, and the Qinzhou refugees gathered in Longxi were all granted land by Su Chao and resettled, and Sanchang Village and Zhechong Mansion were established to manage them.
Since last year, more than 200 Sanchang villages and nearly 50 Zhechoufu have been established in the entire Liangzhou and Hezhou areas.
In the Hezhou area, the population of Sanchang Village even crushed the population of the wealthy families. Many slaves kept by the wealthy families fled to the government and requested to be freed from slavery and granted land.
Although Wei Xiaokuan was precocious, he had never dealt with local affairs before, and many difficult problems had accumulated over time.
But in the huge Liangzhou, Yang Kan was busy recruiting the Shanyue and Shudi peoples every day, and he didn't even have time to attend this wedding.
Feng Shu, who stayed in Nanzheng City to compile laws? If it was a legal matter, Feng Shu could discuss it with Wei Xiaokuan for a whole day and night, but when it came to the issue of governing civil affairs, Feng Shu could only ask him to find someone else.
As for Hou Jing who stayed behind to guard the Nanjiang Fortress?
He is like a boor who has no idea how to govern the people.
Most of Wei Xiaokuan's clansmen are mediocre people, so there is no need to expect to get answers to these questions from them.
Wei Xiaokuan had a lot of questions in his mind, and this time when he met Su Chao, he finally had the opportunity to ask them.
He had long known that Su Chao was the chief steward of Su Zejun's mansion.
Su Ze has been winning battles all these years. In addition to his own ability to fight well, Su Chao, who was able to use the barren land of five states and one county to support Su Ze's wars, also made an indelible contribution.
Su Cho is the chief secretary of the General's Mansion. Apart from Su Liang, the military advisor who has a special status, Su Cho is the head of the civil servants under Su Ze.
In this case, Wei Xiaokuan did not hesitate to meet Su Chao in the name of reporting work.
Originally, Wei Xiaokuan thought that Su Cho was very busy with official duties and it would take a long time before he could see him.
However, he did not expect that as soon as he handed in the visiting card, Su Cho's clerk took him into Su Cho's study.
The general's steward, who was busy with all kinds of affairs, actually read a book for a rare time. His desk was empty, without even a single official document.
Wei Xiaokuan was a little surprised. He had heard that Su Chao was very busy in Hezhou. He had to review hundreds of official documents every day. In addition, he also had to do complicated administrative work such as registering the people and evaluating officials. Sometimes he even had to judge cases himself.
How can such a person have free time?
When Su Cho saw Wei Xiaokuan, he smiled bitterly and said:
"The general knew that I was busy in Hezhou. After tricking me into coming to Yongle City, he ordered his subordinates to only send me ten official documents a day for approval, so that I could rest well during this period of time."
If it was another lord, Wei Xiaokuan would suspect that Su Ze was suspicious of Su Chao.
But Wei Xiaokuan was very good at judging people. He immediately understood Su Ze's intention and said:
"My lord, you are using Wang Jinglue's previous experience to warn Su Changshi to have a good rest."
Su Chuo sighed and said:
"Everyone says Xiao Kuan is smart, if that's true, that's what the general said."
Wei Xiaokuan felt something was strange.
Wang Jinglue is Wang Meng, the famous prime minister of Fu Jian, and Fu Jian is the ruler of the Former Qin Dynasty. Isn't it a bit presumptuous for Su Ze to say this?
It is said that when Wang Meng was in power, Fu Jian truly achieved "the holy emperor ruling with ease". Wang Meng handled everything well and quickly completed various reforms of the Former Qin Dynasty, making it a great power that unified the north.
But it was also because Wang Meng worked too hard that he died at the age of 51 and was unable to assist Fu Jian in completing the great cause of unifying the north and the south. Looking at Wei Xiaokuan, Su Chao smiled and said:
"The general has already said that Xiao Kuan has done a good job in Liangzhou. In order to reduce my burden, the general plans to let Xiao Kuan come to the executive office to assist me."
Su Ze was really afraid that Su Chao would die of exhaustion.
In history, Su Cho only lived to be forty-nine years old, two years younger than Wang Meng.
The reason why Su Cho died so early was also because Yuwen Tai treated him too harshly.
Su Ze looked around and found that among his subordinates who could handle government affairs, Wei Xiaokuan was the oldest, so he decided to let Wei Xiaokuan help Su Chao share the burden.
When Wei Xiaokuan heard the transfer order, he showed no expression.
He had completed his work in Liangzhou, and another appointment was a normal personnel transfer. He didn't expect that Su Ze valued him so much and let him be Su Chao's deputy.
After talking about personal matters, Su Cho asked Wei Xiaokuan why he came.
Wei Xiaokuan said:
"Su Changshi, I am in charge of civil affairs in Liangzhou. I have some doubts and would like to ask Su Changshi to help me solve them."
Su Chuo asked:
"Tell me about it and see."
Wei Xiaokuan said:
"When I was in Liangzhou, I looked through the yellow books and land registers of the prefectures and counties. The number of acres of land was increasing, and the population of Liangzhou should have increased as well. But why is the tax revenue received by Liangzhou decreasing year by year?"
"I thought it was a problem with local officials, but after visiting, I found that the per-acre yield of those manors in Liangzhou was indeed very low."
Su Chao immediately said:
"I understand. What Xiaokuan meant is that these Liangzhou nobles pay taxes based on their land, so why are they paying less and less tax?"
"Or maybe Xiao Kuan discovered that the same land cultivated in Sanchang Village would yield higher yields than in the hands of powerful people?"
Wei Xiaokuan nodded. He himself was a descendant of a noble family, but he had never been exposed to farming. Instead, he traveled all over the countryside under Su Ze's command.
In the first dozen years of his life, Wei Xiaokuan felt the warmth of his clan.
To be fair, the Jingzhao Wei family is now considered a noble family with a good reputation, and they are relatively lenient towards their own farmers.
Su Cho said:
"With stable property comes perseverance. These farmers will naturally work harder to cultivate their own land."
Wei Xiaokuan said:
"There was a severe drought in Guanzhong a few years ago, and our Wei family accepted many farmhands who brought their land to our family. Why did they do this?"
Su Chao suddenly asked a question:
"Xiao Kuan, what do you think the people are?"
Wei Xiaokuan was stunned for a moment, and then gave a classic Confucian answer:
“The people are the foundation of the country.”
Su Chao said:
"General Su once said, 'The people are neither good nor evil.' After I took charge of the military and civil affairs, I felt that this statement was the truth."
"A body without good or evil?"
Su Chao nodded and said:
"This is not to say that the common people have no distinction between good and evil, but that the common people as a whole cannot be considered good or evil."
Wei Xiaokuan frowned. This statement was completely contrary to the Confucian idea of respecting the people.
No matter how Confucianism changes, respecting the people is at least a verbal slogan.
Could it be that General Su is practicing the Legalist method?
Su Cho said:
“People do not distinguish between good and evil, so the actions of the people are all based on their own interests and are natural choices.”
"Xiao Kuan said that a few days ago, when they saw the great disaster in Guanzhong, the people brought their land to your Wei family. That was because Guanzhong suffered a severe drought and the court did not reduce or exempt taxes in Guanzhong. These ordinary people would be forced to go bankrupt by the government, or even be imprisoned. It would be better for them to take their land and come to your Wei family. Even if they lose the ownership of the land in name, they can still survive. The government can no longer collect taxes, and they dare not force your Wei family to pay more, right?"
"Now that the general has granted land, in fact, including the service in the Zhechongfu and various corvée labor during the slack season, the burden on the common people may be more than being tenants under the protection of the wealthy families. However, the common people know that the grain they grow will be taken away by the government, and the remaining part is theirs, so they will naturally be more careful about the land."
Su Cho said:
"When I was studying under Li Gong, the general talked about a cycle."
"In the early years of the dynasty, the government was clean and honest, and most people cultivated their own land, so the grain yield was high and the population grew."
"In the middle of the dynasty, the administration began to become corrupt, and it was difficult to collect taxes from the powerful. The government had to levy taxes on ordinary self-cultivating farmers. Farmers went bankrupt or donated their land for shelter, and the government received less grain."
"In the last years of the dynasty, the government could not collect taxes, the administration became even more corrupt, and even the wealthy families were unwilling to continue to take in tenants. The people without land became refugees, and the country collapsed."
Wei Xiaokuan's young heart was shocked.
(End of this chapter)