What is the essence of sustaining human society?

Is it a law?

Is it a system?

Is it productivity?

Is it technology?

Or morality?

It's a story!

From the moment humans begin to think, they learn to tell stories.

Just think about it, what did the first humans rely on to unite groups and govern tribes?

By jointly imagining a god, the core members of the tribe will tell this god to everyone in the tribe.

As long as you do bad things, you will be punished by the gods.

As for whether this is good or bad, there are standards. If it is beneficial to the overall stability of the tribe, it is good. If it is harmful to the tribe as a whole, it is bad.

So, everyone believed the story, and those who didn't believed it were eliminated.

Until the advent of writing, stories spread even further.

This story has another name, called Order.

If we want to put it more formally, we call it system, belief, and culture.

And with the advent of human tribal wars, the defeated were forced to believe the stories made up by the victors.

For example, the defeated must accept the system, beliefs, and culture of the victor.

Later, the country appeared, and the king also told everyone a story: slaves are inherently humble, and nobles should be loyal to the king. If they dare to betray, they will be punished.

And the king invited scholars to compile a more complete and systematic theory for this set of stories.

As a result, civilizations in various places, based on their original stories, began to evolve continuously with changes in productivity and population, forming cultures and habits, and evolving into different kingdoms and empires.

And because of the different stories they believe in, they fight against each other.

In the slave era, the superiors told slaves that they could not betray their masters.

In the feudal era, the king told his ministers that they must be loyal to the king.

Until the breakthrough of productivity and the emergence of new organizations broke the foundation of the original story, some people said: Give them freedom and let them buy and sell freely. Only in this way can we prosper and make more money.

Whether it is secular laws or religious provisions, the essence is to maintain a stable order, a story that most people believe.

Just think about it, one day, people no longer hear any stories, what will human society look like?

So, let’s get back to the essence of Zhao Ning’s restructuring.

The New Deal is nothing more than the destruction of an old order, which was continuously imprinted on this land by the nobles and literati in the past.

They tell the common people: If we have money and status, we can control more fields, enjoy a better life, and have a nobler status. No matter how much we annex more fields or monopolize more businesses, we all deserve it.

They also told the people: We provide fields for you to plant and food for you to eat. You must be grateful!

They also hired a bunch of literati who could write and improved their status. Those literati who wore silk kept telling the people how noble they were, that they should enjoy it, and that everything they did was reasonable.

The common people then acquiesced that they could only get a very small part of the land they had worked hard to cultivate for a year to ensure that they would not starve to death, and it seemed that the rest should be given to them.

What is this called?

This is called exploitation.

Exploitation never relies on brute force, but on inertia rooted in thinking. Once this kind of thinking inertia is formed among the general public, it will evolve into order.

The incident in which Yang Bing instigated dozens of officials to besiege the Secretary of Agriculture occurred on the second day after the promulgation of the "Gyeonggi-Road New Agricultural Policy Regulations."

In just one day, dozens of officials dared to take certain risks to besiege the Imperial New Deal Yamen.

What is the underlying reason behind this?

It was the promulgation of the "Gyeonggi Road New Agricultural Policy Regulations" that had a strong impact on the original order.

Its appearance is like a sharp knife, directly piercing the vested interest groups, causing strong resistance behavior within the vested interest groups.

In this matter, Zhao Ning was keenly aware of a very important point: officials acted in unison within a short period of time.

This behavior is a microcosm.

Coincidentally, these four words are extraordinary and can help the author to clarify... Oh no, it indicates that groups with vested interests may quickly come to the same front.

The siege of the Agricultural Affairs Bureau was only the beginning of this resistance.

Just as the city of Tokyo was being decimated by massacres, four newspapers published it one after another.

For a time, the voice of the Jin people conspiring to sabotage the new policy of the imperial court spread among the people, and even became more and more evil as it spread.

On June 13, Fan Tower was packed with guests as usual.

At this time, Fanlou became more and more lively. After the storyteller finished speaking, there was thunderous applause.

Just because the storyteller was talking about the new agricultural policy that has been widely discussed in Tokyo recently.

After the storyteller finished, we entered the next session, where someone began to debate and analyze the benefits of the "Gyeonggi Road New Agricultural Policy Regulations".

A man stood up and said: "Liu Chang, please give me some ideas. The benefit of this new agricultural policy is to increase taxes on the rich. Rich families will pay more taxes, and the national treasury will be fuller. The frontline military rations and military pay will naturally be guaranteed. On the surface it is related to agriculture, but in fact it is a strategy to resist gold!”

As soon as he said these words, everyone around him shouted out, which shows that public opinion in Tokyo currently supports the new agricultural policy.

There is another point that proves it even more.

In the past few days, the number of people going to the Agricultural Affairs Department to collect rented land has increased dramatically, and the Agricultural Affairs Department's office staff has directly increased by 100 people to deal with these people.

Zhao Ning was dressed in casual clothes and looked ordinary. He was hiding in the crowd and drinking tea.

Unless I came out to see it in person, I really wouldn’t have known that the reversal of this incident would have such a strong public opinion effect.

It seems that support for the New Agricultural Policy among the people in Tokyo has become mainstream.

But this does not mean that the Gyeonggi Road New Agricultural Policy Regulations have been successful.

There are sixteen counties in Kaifeng Prefecture alone. The new policy has been notified. It is also June, the time for collecting summer taxes. I don't know what the situation is like there.

At this time, another person stood up and said: "The "Gyeonggi Road New Agricultural Policy Regulations" may not be as simple as raising taxes and fighting a war."

Everyone's attention was immediately attracted.

But it was a woman. This woman was dressed in red. She was beautiful and had an indescribable heroic spirit.

"Oh, what does this girl have to say?"

"The New Deal is about land equalization, and land equalization is about grain prices. Grain prices are related to people's livelihood. This is the real benefit of the New Deal."

As soon as she said this, everyone around her became confused.

Liu Chang asked: "How does it matter about food prices?"

The woman said: "Have you ever forgotten that someone in Tokyo maliciously hoarded food last year, which caused the price of food in the city to rise, making it difficult for the people to make a living?"

Everyone looked shocked.

“How does that relate to the New Agricultural Policy?”

"Those who maliciously hoard food are those who have a lot of land. With the land in their hands, they can naturally increase the price of food. Equalizing land is the key to people's livelihood and must be observed. Today's officials are deeply aware of the hardships of people's livelihood, so you can see The new agricultural policy has arrived.”

Liu Chang pondered for a moment, then bowed and said, "I've learned a lesson from you!"

The woman's remarks immediately attracted Zhao Ning's attention.

He didn't expect that a woman would actually understand the true meaning behind the New Deal.

This is the battle for food bargaining power.
Chapter completed!