Chapter 210 Testing
In early May, Zhao Xing enjoyed the gentle countryside for more than a month. The palace continued to send zhazi to the East Palace, and he resumed his previous life.
During this period, Qi Heng and Sheng Changbai also got married one after another.
Both of them are now county magistrates. They returned to Bianjing a few days before their wedding. After returning home, they took their newlywed wives back to their respective posts.
In the study room of the East Palace, Zhao Xing met Wang Anshi, whom he had not seen for some days.
"Jiefu, thank you for your hard work during this time." Zhao Xing said looking at Wang Anshi, who had darkened a lot.
After the inventory of land acres was completed last year, Zhao Xing asked Wang Anshi to be responsible for supervising the leasing of land acres in each county.
After the completion of this matter, Zhao Xing ordered the counties to collect corvee orders, build water conservancy projects, and sent Wang Anshi to inspect and supervise various places.
The common people are quite repulsive to corvee service.
However, the government's enthusiasm for the government's warning of corvee construction and water conservancy construction was high.
After all, they are the ones who benefit from water conservancy projects.
Starting from the first two months of last year to now, it has taken more than half a year to repair and dredge all the rivers and ditches in Kaifeng Prefecture. In addition, some water storage reservoirs have been built.
First, he rented a large number of acres of land to the people at low prices, and then built water conservancy projects. For a time, Zhao Xing's prestige greatly increased.
"This is what I should do."
Wang Anshi not only became a lot darker, but also lost a lot of weight.
However, his eyes were very bright, and his energy seemed to be sublimated.
Although he had been working locally before, there were too many constraints when it came to doing things, and he could not do things according to his wishes.
Quantifying the acres of land and building water conservancy projects was within his original reform plan, and he was very motivated.
"Your Highness, this time we built water conservancy projects and dredged ditches and rivers, we have gained more than 10,000 acres of farmland. Within five years, as long as there is no severe drought without rain for several months, almost all the acres of farmland in Kaifeng Prefecture will be lost due to Production is reduced due to water shortage!" Wang Anshi explained the results of this period in detail.
The extra fields are caused by collapsed rivers and ditches, including flooded and abandoned fields.
"Yes." After hearing this, Zhao Xing nodded slightly and said, "Jiefu, you have worked hard these days. Take a good rest when you go back."
"Your Highness, I don't need to rest. Now it's time to mention the Green Miao Law. It’s on the schedule,” Wang Anshi said.
Zhao Xing tapped the table, pondered for a while, and said, "Have you thought about it clearly?"
Whether it is to clear the land or build water conservancy projects, including the previous thorough investigation of salt affairs, In essence, it is not actually a reform.
The so-called reform refers to changing the original legal provisions, improving the original system, or implementing some new systems.
Hidden fields and corrupt salt services can only be regarded as accumulated shortcomings.
The court wants to investigate, and the officials involved in the interests want to stop it, but there is no reasonable excuse.
But the Green Crops Law is different. It is a new law, and it encounters greater resistance than inspecting salt affairs or measuring acres of land.
This is also the reason why Zhao Xing has never implemented the idea of dividing the land into acres.
To put it simply, the Green Seed Law means that the government lends money to the people at low interest rates to buy seeds and agricultural tools.
Landlords and gentry annexed land and rarely took it by force. In most cases, two methods were used.
One is to purchase people's acres of land at very low prices when natural disasters occur.
In order to survive, the people had no choice but to sell.
The second way is to borrow money.
Even if the people have their own land, most of them can barely maintain food and clothing, and it is difficult to have any savings.
Once something goes wrong at home, the only option is to borrow money from the landlords and squires.
However, the interest rates charged by landlords and gentry for borrowing money are very high, and the interest rate is compounded, making it difficult for ordinary people to repay the debt. In the end, they can only sell their children, daughters, and land to pay off their debts.
If measuring the acres of land is to take food from the mouths of the landlords and squires, the green crop method is to cut off the roots.
Although there is still a root, it is intolerable to those landlords and gentry who are accustomed to exploiting the people. The most important thing is that the Green Seeds Law is a new law, which is equivalent to releasing a signal for reform.
Regardless of whether it affects interests or not, most officials will jump out and oppose it.
Otherwise if we use the Green Seeding Method this time, we won’t know what method we will use next time.
"I have been constantly improving during this period and have already thought it through!" Wang Anshi said firmly.
Zhao Xing was silent for a while and said, "Does the government still have money?"
Most of the tax revenue received by the local government must be handed over to the court, and there is not much left. .
It is obviously easy to build water conservancy projects to win the hearts of the people and achieve political achievements. If you look at the records of famous officials in local affairs in history, you will find that almost all of them have done similar things.
But why didn’t their ex do it?
Few people who can become officials are stupid and greedy. However, if they can achieve political achievements at a small price and gain fame, even corrupt officials are willing to do it.
The reason why I don’t do it is because I have no money.
People can sign off on corvee, but the food, drink, and utensils required by the corvee all cost money.
Those capable officials manage the local area well and can collect enough money to build water conservancy projects. Those mediocre officials are incompetent and corrupt officials find it troublesome.
This is why no one does it.
Zhao Xing did not spend any money from the court on building water conservancy this time.
In the past, the acres of land were measured, and some of the uncooperative ones were also confiscated. This was used to kill chickens and scare monkeys.
It has to be said that the money is obtained quickly by confiscating houses. In more than a dozen counties, only eight houses were used to kill chickens to scare monkeys, but a large amount of money and food were confiscated.
Zhao Xing withheld part of the money and food because he was the prince, and no one said anything.
However, part of the money and grain was used to make some farm tools and lent them to the people, and the rest was used to build water conservancy projects. Zhao Xing did not know how much was left.
If the Young Crops Law is to be implemented, it is unrealistic to ask for money from the court.
Didn’t you see that the Grand Prime Minister was planning on him?
The court is already short of money, and the Green Seed Law is a new law. Those who want to stop it for such a good reason will definitely not give up.
"The government still has some surplus, and the autumn harvest is not far away. This time it has rented out millions of acres of land. When the autumn harvest comes, the people still need to pay a rent. What is taken from the people and used by the people can be lent to the people. People. And this year should be a good harvest year, so there are not many people who need to borrow money, which is enough to cope with it," Wang Anshi said.
"Then let's implement it." Zhao Xing was silent for a while and made a decision: "Let's introduce it first without revealing it, and there is no need to report it. Then we can directly implement it."
If we report it or reveal the news early, It will give those who want to stop it time to prepare.
“But if this happens, His Highness will definitely be under great pressure.” Wang Anshi said worriedly.
Zhao Xing is just the prince, not the emperor.
Even if you are an official, you must discuss with your officials what you want to do.
"It doesn't matter!" Zhao Xing waved his hand and said: "These orphans can be dealt with, you just need to do a good job in the Green Seeding Method. Remember, during the implementation process, it must be reviewed clearly and no major mistakes can occur. However, We can’t let the review process take too long because of this, so that if the people see such trouble and the pass rate is not high, they may not be able to borrow.”
Implementing the green crop law is also a trial, and Zhao Xing will not think that he has to measure the acres of land. When I encountered little resistance, I felt that reform was very easy.
However, the green seedling method still has many disadvantages.
The first point is auditing. In ancient times, there was no big data or anything like that, so we could only rely on people to audit.
This makes it easy to fail to borrow what you want, but you can borrow what you don't need.
This will cause people to lose confidence in the Green Seedlings Law.
But you have to review it, otherwise it will be troublesome if you can’t get the money you lent back.
Historically, when Wang Anshi carried out his political reform, he encountered similar problems when implementing the Green Seed Law.
(End of this chapter)