In October, the State of Qin had just celebrated the New Year and entered the tenth year of the Qin Dynasty.
Ying Zheng promulgated a new law to reduce the country's oral taxes. As soon as this came out, the whole country was excited.
The wealthy landowners felt that they did not have to pay a large sum of money for the servants they supported, while the common people in Guizhou were glad that they did not have to bear another layer of heavy taxes. Everyone in Qin praised the virtues of King Qin.
However, this decree was also opposed by some people, especially Tingwei Li Si.
On this day, Li Si went into the palace alone to meet with Ying Zheng and admonished him: "Your Majesty, in the past, in order to restrict the nobility and wealthy families from raising their own disciples and dead soldiers, the Lord Shang set up heavy oral regulations in the laws of the Qin Dynasty. Now he has rashly untied them.
This is a long-term plan, but it may be detrimental to the country. Please think carefully about this, Your Majesty."
"Li Si, I know what you are worried about. It is nothing more than the powerful and powerful people expanding their own strength unscrupulously, and the people follow the powerful and do not obey the king's orders."
Li Si bowed deeply towards King Qin and raised his hands, "Your Majesty, you are aware of this."
Ying Zheng was very satisfied with his attitude, and personally helped him up, holding Li Si and letting him sit on his hand, "Haha, Li Si, you have learned from Master Xun, and you understand the essentials of Legalism. You must also know that I, Da Qin
The foundation lies in thousands of households of small farmers.
According to Qin law, every male member of a household must divide the family into a new household when they reach adulthood. In addition to the land tax collected on a per-field basis, they must also pay an oral tax per capita.
If an ordinary family encounters some unfavorable weather conditions or some setbacks in human affairs, their survival will be in danger. As a last resort, they can only defect to powerful families and become humble slaves. The number of good people in our Qin Dynasty will be reduced. In the long run, our Qin country will be in danger.
Where is the foundation? How big should a powerful company grow?"
"But with such a reduction in oral tax, the powerful wealthy people will definitely want to support their scholars. This will encourage their arrogance and is not beneficial to the country."
"In the laws of the Qin Dynasty, the status of domestic slaves is even lower than that of civilians. War and hard labor take precedence. If the people of the Qin Dynasty can live a stable life, who would be willing to be a slave?"
"Human nature is evil. People love profit and hate hard work. If big households want to recruit people, many people will follow. Your Majesty, you must not take it lightly."
"As Tingwei said, those who love profit and hate hard work will defect to powerful families no matter what. What does it have to do with oral fortune?"
"But oral gifts can restrain the tyrants and prevent them from being unscrupulous."
"Oral taxation is nothing more than a temporary measure, and does more harm than good. We are reducing oral taxation to completely solve this problem."
When Li Si heard his king say this, he was stunned and stared, "Is there a way for your king to eradicate this evil?"
Ying Zheng chuckled and said: "Only a few people can do it. Do you still remember that Mr. once said productivity?"
"Productivity?" Li Si reacted and became excited instantly, "Could he have a way to increase the yield per acre?!"
In the final analysis, these problems are still due to the current insufficient yield per acre, and every household is struggling to feed themselves.
At the same time, there is a ruling ideology that believes that human nature is inherently bad, and the people must be controlled to prevent them from living a good life. When people are full, they have nothing to do, which can easily create chaos.
As the saying goes, being warm and full makes you think about sex, while being hungry and cold makes you want to steal. It is necessary to ensure that the people can neither be "fed and warm" nor "hungry and cold". The common people in Guizhou who can survive in this era are generally in this intermediate stage.
If there is a slight natural disaster or man-made disaster, many people will be reduced to the point where they can no longer survive and can only become slaves.
Lu Yan didn't know anything about farming, and he only knew about farm implements, such as a curved shaft plow, but he only had a partial understanding of what it was. If he wanted to make agriculture progress, he had to rely on the amazing farmers in this world.
This is why he insists on staying in Daze Mountain and trying every means to acquire farm knowledge.
At this time, Lu Yan had already handed over all his farm knowledge to the land officials of the Qin State. Various new farm tools designed by Gongshu Qiu were being put into trials, and large canals were being built in full swing every day. All of these were aimed at increasing grain production.
, in the hope that small-scale farmers can support themselves and lay the foundation for the next reform.
Li Si quickly figured out the various actions taken by the Qin State to develop people's livelihood, and sighed deeply: "That's why the king decided to implement the policy of reducing oral taxes. The state master has far-reaching plans for our Qin Dynasty, and Li Si can't catch up."
Ying Zheng patted him on the shoulder and encouraged: "A ruler is short, but an inch is long. Sir, I consider the long-term plans of our country, but you are too kind. You are good at the law, and you and Sir are the two wings of each other, so there is no need to belittle yourself.
Legalism emphasizes that time has changed, and the law must also change with the times. The calculation of the new Qin law is ultimately controlled by you, the court official."
Hearing that he could control the revision of the Qin Code, Li Si was so excited that he solemnly saluted, "I will definitely live up to your Majesty's high expectations."
"Go ahead."
"I excuse myself."
…
The Qin State is vigorously developing agriculture, and there is a prosperous scene.
Time has quietly come to winter, with cold wind and snow in the north. The harsh natural environment has finally brought the War of Yanzhao to an end.
After all, Yan State was no match for Zhao State, and the land on the south bank of Yishui River was still destroyed. However, in the war, the people of Yan State shared the same hatred of the enemy and regarded death as home. Zhao State took over a large area of land, but it was like a dead land with ten houses and nine empty houses.
The military strength of the two countries also suffered losses. The Yan State was severely damaged and lost 70,000 to 80,000 elite men. It originally wanted to regain the lost territory and spent countless money and food, but it was not successful. Although the Zhao State won, it rebelled against the Yan people everywhere.
Despite the fierce resistance, the losses were equally heavy, and more than half of Lecheng's 100,000-strong army suffered casualties.
Zhao Wangyan looked at the large area of land on his map and fell into a long silence.
How should I send people to reclaim this land? If I capture this land, but the population is almost depleted, what is the use of capturing it? If I want to make this land a tax for the treasury, I will not succeed until three to five years.
There is also that abominable Ying Zheng. Han Wei was so useless that he actually allowed him to capture Yuan Puyan and cut off the connection between Zhao and Chu. You Ying Zheng has always wanted to take revenge on Zhao. Do you think I can't do it?
Know?!
However, a great victory is a great victory after all. Zhao's territory is expanding and its power is increasing day by day. This is an irrefutable fact. This can also be regarded as a comfort to Zhao Yan.
Yan Yi, the general of the Yan State who advocated recovering the lost territory, lost tens of thousands of Yan State's men, and finally returned empty-handed and fled back to the country in embarrassment.
Miraculously, his fate was as tough as Xiaoqiang's. Yan Chunjun was in a good mood because Yan Yi had completed the task of dragging Zhao Guo down for him, and he saved Yan Chun amidst calls from Yan State to kill Yan Yi and apologize.
's little life.
In this process, Prince Dan of Yan finally saw clearly that his uncle Yan Chunjun and his general Yan Yi had the shadow of Qin's snare behind them.
In order to get rid of this kind of worm in the country, Yan Dan could not think of any way in the court, so he actively sought his position in the Mohist family and tried to get rid of the national traitors through Jianghu means.
It happened that the Mohist family, which had suffered heavy losses, also needed people's support, and Yan Dan's status among the leaders of the Mohist family was steadily improving.
All kinds of wars have ended one after another, and now only the Shadow Tiger Army of Chu State is left to threaten Xinzheng, and the war has not yet ended.