Save the Bachelor of Heaven

 Chapter 3383 3385 [Forceful push]

 The policy of reducing rents and interest rates was immediately rolled out across the Central Plains.

Inspection teams sent by the imperial court have identified many typical cases. For example, some landlords refused to reduce rents and even sent servants to people's homes to steal food.

There are also landowners who openly reduce rents, but require people to pay rent in cash. And he colluded with local grain merchants to lower grain prices, causing the people to have to sell grain at low prices in order to pay rent, which was equivalent to a disguised rent increase.

There are also businessmen who support interest rate cuts on the surface, but actually use daily interest and monthly interest instead of annual interest. After calculation, the daily and monthly interest rates were much higher than the annual interest rate of 1.5 cents.

Some businessmen clearly have collected enough interest, but do not admit it and still press for debts from borrowers. There are also merchants who borrow money in kind and then ask the borrower to repay the loan with cash, which also increases the burden on the borrower.

 In this regard, Xiang Nan also used severe punishment.

Those landlords who refused to reduce rents had all their properties confiscated and the land was distributed to tenants so that they could try renting other people's land. Landowners who cleverly used their names and plundered were punished with fines and slaps. Rice shops that suppressed grain prices were punished. It was shut down, and the boss was not allowed to return to his old business for five years. All the grain in the grain store was seized and sent to the official warehouse...

Those loan shark businessmen who play tricks and refuse to reduce interest rates will be punished by having their property confiscated, giving them a taste of bankruptcy. Businessmen who clearly collect enough interest and continue to press for debts will be punished in reverse. How much money he forces the borrower to pay back, let him compensate the borrower as much as he wants...

 …

These typical cases were all published in the newspapers, and the people clapped their hands and praised the emperor for his wisdom and compassion for the people. He was more successful than the three emperors and surpassed Yao and Shun.

 The landlords and Gao Lidai were filled with grief and anger, and their eyes were split with anger. Xiang Nan's move was like peeling off their skin and beating their muscles. It was even more unbearable for them and made them wish they could fight back.

It’s just that in the end, they only dared to complain, and how could they dare to actually rebel.

After all, this is not the past. In the past, when the world was in chaos and the people were in dire straits, they could still encourage the people who couldn't survive to rebel with them with swords, guns, shovels and hoes.

 With the strength of their numbers, they can rush forward and capture several county towns. If the court fails to suppress the rebellion, the situation may be opened up soon.

Just like the Song Jiang, Fang La, Tian Hu, and Wang Qing uprisings at the end of the Song Dynasty; the Red Scarf Army uprising at the end of the Yuan Dynasty; and the Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong uprisings at the end of the Ming Dynasty.

 But things are different now.

Xiang Nan’s reforms are beneficial to the people, and only when the people are crazy will they rebel with them. And they can't coerce the people. With just a few people, let alone attacking the county town, they may not be able to control them in the village.

 Furthermore, the weapons of the officials and the people are also different now. The best gun they have now is an old-fashioned blunderbuss fired with black powder, which is good for shooting rabbits. If we really want to attack the county town, the officers and soldiers stationed there will all be knocked down with a burst of bullets.

Moreover, they knew Xiang Nan’s divine martial arts. The whole world was conquered by him, and there was no opponent who could stop him. Even if these landlords and businessmen have some money and a little power, what can they do? Can they still compare with those emperors, kings, and nobles from foreign lands?

So they had no choice but to do as they were told and under strong pressure.

 …

 The policy of reducing rents and interest rates was finally successfully implemented under Xiang Nan's pressure.

 The benefits of this policy to the common people are obvious. If you pay less, you can eat more at home. It is the best thing that people can eat. Food is the most important thing for the people. The sky is big and the earth is big. If the food is the largest, and the people can have enough to eat, then he is the wisest emperor.

 With less interest paid, people will have living money in their hands. And with living money, it can promote consumption, which is good for the court's tax revenue.

The key point is that when buying land to collect rents and lending loans are no longer as profitable as before, those landlords, gentry, and businessmen will naturally put their money elsewhere.

 It just so happens that doing business is the most profitable right now. Whether it is setting up a factory or doing trading business, it is very profitable. For example, cotton yarn factory, textile factory, glass factory, soap factory, flour mill, lime factory, ceramics factory, etc., all have high profits.

 Sell the goods from the south to the north, and sell the goods from the north to the south. Selling goods from the Central Plains to the West, and selling goods from the West to the Central Plains, can also yield very high profits.

 Therefore, under such stimulation, landowners, gentry, and businessmen set up factories one after another and devoted themselves to the field of commerce. As a result, a large amount of funds flowed into industry and trade, which greatly stimulated the economic development of the Central Plains.

 In fact, all dynasties favored focusing on agriculture and suppressing business, and the gentry and celebrities also advocated "farming, reading, and passing on family inheritance." Therefore, even if businessmen made a lot of money, they would often choose to buy houses and land.

 As a result, land annexation has become increasingly serious. At the end of each dynasty, a large amount of land has been annexed. As a result, the poor people have no roof to cover their heads and no ground to stand on, so they have to fight back.

For example, in the late Ming Dynasty, King Fu Zhu Changxun alone occupied two million acres of land. Because he was the most beloved son of Emperor Wanli, he almost made him a prince, but unfortunately he couldn't win over the officials and finally made him a king.

In order not to wrong him, Wanli specially placed his fiefdom in the Heluo area to be closer to the capital. He also granted him 40,000 hectares of fertile land, but was finally persuaded by the officials to change it to 20,000 hectares.

However, there is not that much fertile land in the Heluo area, so we have to get it from Qilu and Huguang provinces. Eventually, Zhu Changxun became the largest landowner in Heluo area.

 At the end of the Ming Dynasty, when the people lost their land, they had no food and clothing, and finally had to rise up and resist. Zhu Changxun also did not end well. According to folklore, he was captured alive by Li Zicheng, and was cooked into a "Fu Lu Banquet" and given to the people to eat.

 In order to curb land annexation, various dynasties and generations have also taken actions.

For example, Emperor Taizong Li Shimin of the Tang Dynasty issued the "Land Restriction Order", which stipulated that "after the land is divided, the rich will take over the land and the poor will lose their jobs, so the buyers will be ordered to return the land and punished."

Zhang Juzheng in the Ming Dynasty implemented the "One Whip Law" to inventory land nationwide and allocate land into acres. This was also to avoid land annexation.

Yongzheng of the Qing Dynasty continued to implement the "dividing every ding into an acre" system, whereby the amount of tax paid was determined based on the number of acres of land. Those with more land will receive more, those with less land will receive less, and those without land will not. This also inhibits land annexation to a certain extent.

 However, these laws and policies only address the symptoms rather than the root cause. As long as those businessmen, landowners, and gentry have no better investment channels for their money, they will still find ways to hoard land and rent it out, or make loan sharks.

 So the fundamental solution is to develop industry, improve the economy, expand trade, let capital come out of the land, and let people come out of the land.

 Merchants, landowners, and gentry earn more money by opening factories and doing business, so naturally they will not use the money to buy land. Industry needs workers. If workers can make money, they can get rid of their dependence on land.

Just like now, young people are working in the city to make money, and no one stays in the countryside to farm. No one is willing to farm when the land is abandoned.

 (End of this chapter)