On this day, Jinling City was very lively. Fa Zheng followed Jia Xu's instructions to conduct research in Jinling City to see what dissatisfaction the people had with their current lives and what was wrong with the current policies and laws.

Practice brings true knowledge!

This is the iron rule that Yuan Shu's advisers believe in.

Although some of the policies promulgated by Yuan Shu are somewhat shocking, they are all excellent policies that have been implemented in history. However, due to different times, it is still necessary to consider whether there will be any problems in the specific implementation and whether improvements need to be made according to the situation.

You can't think of these things just by dreaming. The best way is to come down and investigate to see what dissatisfaction the common people and scholars have with the current policies, or what needs they have.

Of course, these matters cannot be left to big men like Jia Xu and Tian Feng to do it themselves; they are usually handled by their subordinates.

However, it happened that Fazheng had been relatively free recently, and Jia Xu also wanted to train his ability to understand human nature, so he was sent over to help and see all kinds of people clearly.

"Husband, how is your life lately?"

I randomly found an old man with gray beard and hair, and Fazheng started chatting.

People mature with age. In this war-torn era when the average age was only over 20 years old, anyone who lived to be forty or fifty years old was considered a long-lived person. If you want to investigate the living conditions of the people under Yuan Shu's command, you are right to look for these old people.

In this era where filial piety governs the world, the people responsible for managing the remote villages are clan elders. Therefore, the elders have the broadest say and knowledge among the common people.

"It's great! My son went out to work, my daughter-in-law and I farmed at home, and my grandson went to study in a small academy in the city. Life is getting better and better these days."

Fazheng, who had changed into ordinary people's clothes, looked like a teenager who had not yet reached his prime, so the old man didn't pay too much attention to it and said casually like chatter.

That's not what Fazheng wanted to hear. He had heard this kind of words countless times. He felt relieved at first, but now he is tired of hearing it. He asked directly: "Are you dissatisfied with anything in your life recently?"

The old man was not wary of Fazheng, so he opened his mouth and said: "Now I don't have to worry about food and clothing, but the price of food is too low. This year's food price is 30% lower than before. My daughter-in-law plans to stay with my son now."

I’m working in the city.”

Fazheng secretly made a note in his mind. Many people have reported this problem, but due to the large number of cattle, the widespread use of advanced agricultural tools, and the reclamation of a large amount of wasteland, Jiangdong's grain output this year is a little too much. Every household has a surplus of grain.

Not to mention, the extra grain in Yangzhou's treasury alone is enough to feed the entire Jiangdong for more than a year.

After all, Jiangdong is vast and sparsely populated. Once the land, cattle, and farm tools are in place, water conservancy projects plus fertilizers and some farming skills, one person could not get ten acres of land. But now as long as you want to plant it, you can get thirty acres of land.

We can rent out acres of land to you.

This 30% drop in grain prices is the result of Yuan Shu's continuous purchase at high prices to control grain prices. Otherwise, this year's grain prices would have dropped to less than 20%.

The price of food fell wildly, and the people in Jiangdong were the victims. Yuan Shu tried his best and could only do this. Fortunately, there were still some big enemies like Cao Cao, Lu Bu, Gongsun Zan, etc. Yuan Shu could sell the extra food to them at a high price.

In fact, the amount of food obtained from farming in ancient times was not that small. It was still possible for one person to farm to feed three people.

But why is food always so scarce? In addition to natural disasters, it is also due to man-made factors, mainly local unscrupulous nobles and tycoons.

They all obtained profits by exploiting the people. Although the tax rate in the Han Dynasty was very low, it would be good if 30 to 40% of the food earned by the people could be in their own hands.

For the sake of their superior status, these unscrupulous gentry would rather throw the land aside than give it to the people for cultivation. They exploited the people through natural disasters and diseases, and retarded the development of society.

Now under Yuan Shu's iron-blooded methods and various tolerant policies, it is impossible for these worms to continue to exploit the people.

The village merging that Tian Feng had been pursuing and the land policy stipulated by Yuan Shu made it impossible for them to become the original emperors. Therefore, a group of wealthy gentry now began to engage in business, intending to continue to maintain their superior status by manipulating food prices.

This year, Yuan Shu originally thought that he could keep the price of grain from falling. After all, he purchased so much grain at a high price, which was enough to sustain the consumption of the entire Jiangdong for a year. But he did not expect that so much grain would emerge.

Without even thinking about it, this must have been caused by some unwilling small aristocratic families and local tycoons together with some unscrupulous businessmen. After Guo Jiayi's investigation, it turned out to be so.

There is more food this year, and lowering food prices will cause many people to switch to other industries. Wait until next year when there is less food, and then raise food prices. As a result, the wealth in the hands of the people will shrink. These bad thoughts are

This is what people want to play with.

"Old man, Jiangdong has produced so much grain this year, it is normal for grain prices to fall. It is only a 20% decrease, so it should be acceptable." This problem cannot be solved at all, Fazheng could only comfort him.

Macroeconomic control also has a certain limit. Yuan Shu cannot always buy excess grain! With the current grain production in Jiangdong, Yuan Shu will not be able to spend the grain if he continues, and can only wait for the grain to go moldy.

The south has always been a place short of food, but of population. Originally, before Yuan Shu came, the people in Jiangdong lived a pretty good life, at least they could survive. The food in the hands of the wealthy gentry was piled up like a mountain, and there was no way to use it up.

, all moldy.

The wine and meat smelled bad, and bones froze to death on the road. Such things happened endlessly in ancient times. It was not that there was a shortage of food, but that the food was in the hands of a few people. If you really meet an emperor with tough tactics and clever methods, there will be no shortage of food at all.

Like Yang Jian, the founding emperor of the Sui Dynasty, the grain he left behind was not used up until the Tang Dynasty, and the Tang Dynasty still used it for more than twenty years.

You must know that when the Sui Dynasty was first established, there were so many people dying of hunger that even Yang Jian took the lead and went to Luoyang to find food. However, in just more than ten years, the Sui Dynasty became so wealthy, which is simply a miracle!

How did Yang Jian do it? He only used a small trick, Yicang.

During harvest festivals, people voluntarily donated their food to charity warehouses, and in disaster years, the food would be distributed to people for free. Later, people were even forced to raise donations.

Such a broken plan full of loopholes directly caused the Sui Dynasty's more than ten years of development to catch up with China's most prosperous period before the Sui Dynasty, the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.

It took the Han Dynasty 70 years to achieve such wealth. However, the Sui Dynasty has only been in a short period of ten years from its founding to the present, and its accumulation rate is seven times that of the Han Dynasty. What a terrifying speed!
Chapter completed!