Before the birth of iron tools, farming was not easy, and a "coupled farming" farming method was formed. People often worked together in hundreds or thousands of people to farm fields, and "public fields were planted by the public." This is the so-called well field system.
There is a well in the square, and the well has nine hundred acres, of which it is public land. Each of the eight families has a hundred acres of private land. They raise the public land together, and after the public affairs are completed, they dare to deal with private affairs.
This means that under the well-field system, one-ninth of the land belongs to public land and must be offered to the emperor.
In the case of insufficient productivity, people can only rely on collaborative work and "coupled farming." Under collective labor, people naturally farm public land together.
But with iron tools, a family can reclaim wasteland and cultivate food. In this case, no one is willing to work more for the public fields. Even if they contribute, it is only perfunctory to free up time to cultivate their own private fields.
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This is not only the case for ordinary people, but also for the princes. Even if the "well fields" are fertile, they are still more willing to send slaves to cultivate private fields. They also collect rent taxes on the private fields cultivated by the common people.
After all, there is no need to pay tribute to the emperor in private fields, and the food grown is owned by oneself. Doesn’t the rice taste delicious? Who is willing to give it away?
This trend is extremely obvious. At the beginning, it was just a few remote princes who secretly cultivated private fields without reporting it to the emperor. However, with the popularity of iron tools, this trend became more and more obvious.
Although the emperor's reputation was at its peak, few people dared to abandon the public fields and not cultivate them. However, the public fields were overgrown with weeds, and a reduction in grain production was inevitable.
The Xia Dynasties became rich as a whole, but the Emperor Mu became poor.
Among other things, food is the top priority. The nine cloud divisions under the emperor's command are nine elite divisions of the fifth grade. Each army is a food-devouring giant. This has led to a food crisis for Emperor Mu.
, the cause of the financial crisis.
After listening to Yao Yun and Sun Muyue's explanation, the bald dragon suddenly understood. His face was quite strange, and he turned to the second elder Wu Tong: "Second elder Wu, it seems that the emperor has no meaning. If nothing else, so does Di Mu.
In order to protect the Celestial Empire, he fought in all directions, but the result was good. No one was left to cultivate the land and grow food for him."
The bald dragon generally despised the tone of the people in the world. Although he disliked Emperor Mu, he stood on his side this time. In this expedition to Xirong, the emperor led Yunshi to fight with the Western Wilderness countries for more than a month.
Victory was right in front of me, but it was quite ironic to say that I encountered this bad thing.
The bald dragon shook his head and said to Yao Yun: "It's boring, it's boring. Your Majesty, I am no longer the emperor. I can't bear this grievance!"
Everyone laughed when they heard this, and even Sun Muyue, who was known as the Iron Lady, pursed her lips and snickered, saying: "Uncle Long, the king is not the emperor yet, what kind of arrogance are you having."
"There's no argument, Your Majesty. If you were the Emperor, it wouldn't be a loss if you saw these guys working hard. No wonder the Emperor's hair had grown so early back then. It wasn't worth it, it wasn't worth it!" The bald dragon seemed to understand at this moment.
The true meaning of life is that I have looked down upon the past ambition of "supporting the crown prince to ascend to the throne of God".
Yao Yun couldn't help but feel happy. He had to say that what the bald dragon said made sense. It sounded wonderful to be the ruler of the world, but only after he actually sat on the throne of God did he realize that it was not easy to be the emperor.
However, Yao Yun was not surprised that the collapse of the well-field system was expected. This was an objective law.
"Uncle Long, in fact, this is not to blame for the common people and the princes. Most living beings seek advantages and avoid disadvantages. This is nature. The common people don't have enough to eat. Who has time to worry about the overall situation of the heaven?"
"That's true. People all over the world live in poverty. With iron tools, they can cultivate more food. Naturally, they have to meet their own survival needs." The bald dragon nodded slightly and agreed with Yao Yun's statement.
The second elder smiled and said: "I am afraid that the problems exposed by this expedition to Xirong have attracted the attention of the emperor, Di Mu. I am afraid that the emperor will soon make some movement and warn the princes in the world not to waste public lands. Then some princes will inevitably be punished.
.”
When the second elder said this, his expression was relaxed, as if he was watching the excitement and didn't think it was a big deal.
Due to the land reform in the Xi Kingdom, the well-field system existed in name only. All land was distributed to the common people for cultivation. There was no such thing as public land. However, in order not to "fall off the tongue" and give people power, the Xi Kingdom cultivated the fields and paid tribute according to the "well-field system".
, take one of the nine and provide it to the emperor.
Not to mention other rare tributes, in terms of food alone, the food provided by Xi Kingdom is definitely among the best, and no one can point out any faults.
No matter how angry the emperor is now, his anger cannot be spread on Xi Guo.
No one was worried that the emperor would hold Xi Guo accountable for changing the well field system without authorization. Paying tribute was the last word. Xi Guo paid a lot, so the emperor naturally had nothing to say.
Under this current situation, the emperor wished that all the princes in the world could pay tribute like Xi Guo.
.......
In the Imperial Capital Yunshi, the Emperor's Golden Palace, the Emperor Mu was furious when his troops returned to the court, and shouted to the officials.
“In recent years, the grain output of various summer dynasties has increased year by year. Why is it that only public fields have not seen an increase in grain production?
The food tribute paid by various countries decreases year by year. What is the reason for this?
With the help of iron tools and oxen, the cultivated land cultivated by various countries is doubling day by day, but why are there so few new well fields reported to the Celestial Empire?
Gentlemen, tell me, what is happening in the world...do they want to rebel?"
At the end of the sentence, Emperor Mu's tone became colder. Although his voice was not loud, it gave endless pressure to the ministers. All the ministers were silent and did not dare to speak. The atmosphere in the Golden Palace suddenly became cold.
The ministers in the main hall naturally understood in their hearts, but no one dared to say it out. Do they want to tell the emperor that the princes and common people secretly cultivated private fields and had no intention of cultivating public fields?
Isn’t this seeking death?
Let the matter be spread out, few princes in the world have clean butts.
Once this layer of window paper is punctured, it will be a torrential flood that will spread thousands of miles.
In the main hall, the ministers all looked at their ears and noses, and their noses looked at their hearts. They could not even hear the sound of breathing, but could hear the drop of a needle.
Emperor Mu, the emperor, looked around and saw that no one answered, so he pointed at the chief minister, Marquis Xixing, and asked: "Marquis Xixing, as a chief minister, tell me, what is the reason for this?"
When Marquis Xixing saw the emperor's name, his face turned uglier than crying. He stood up and hesitated for a long time, and then he choked out one sentence: "I would like to report to Your Majesty that the well field system has collapsed."
"Why did the well-field system collapse?" Emperor Mu continued to ask.
"This..." The Marquis of Xixing broke into a cold sweat: "I think it's because people in the world can cultivate private fields alone with the help of iron tools, so they don't want to cultivate the royal fields."
The emperor, Emperor Mu, naturally knew this very well, so he continued to ask:
"Since you know this well, why are public fields abandoned, private fields concealed and not repaid, and the well-field system collapsed?"
Facing the emperor's questioning, the officials turned pale and felt frightened. The emperor was furious!
At this moment, Mr. Jiang stood up and said: "Your Majesty, the well-field system collapsed because someone had a bad leader."