Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties

Chapter 493 Arriving at Jiangling at Dusk
Jiangling is an important city in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and the capital of Jingzhou, a strategic location between the north and the south.

From the land, Jiangling can go north to Xiangyang to enter the Henan area. Huan Wen launched the Northern Expedition from here. Xiangyang is the gateway to the entire southern China. The Mongols also fought a fierce battle in Xiangyang to compete for the Yangtze River system.

In terms of water transportation, Jiangling controls the Yangtze River. From here, one can take a boat to quickly approach the important towns in the middle and lower reaches. The powerful officials in the history of the Eastern Jin Dynasty all used Jiangling as their base and were ready to interfere with Jiankang at any time.

It is no exaggeration to describe this place as an important river defense town and a hub of the world.

Therefore, Xiao Yan attached great importance to Jiangling and arranged his most beloved son, Xiao Yi, to guard Jiangling.

To be fair, Xiao Yi did a good job in Jiangling before.

He opened a literary institute and appointed generals such as Wang Sengbian. Although Xiao Yi did not achieve any merit in Jingzhou, he did not cause any major disaster either.

In this era, this is already a very good political achievement.

In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, there was a saying that "When Huguang is prosperous, the world is well-fed." At that time, Hubei was already the most important grain-producing area in the world. But in this era, Jingzhou is a completely different picture.

Sitting on the boat, Su Tingquan [a Western Region merchant with a discerning eye for pearls], looking at the short-haired Baiyue people on the Jingzhou wharf, Su Tingquan had a feeling that he had traveled to the Western Regions.

In fact, the large-scale development of Jingzhou area only began in the Jin Dynasty. Before the Jin Dynasty, this area, which was not far from the capital Luoyang, was a daunting forbidden zone for life, just like the Lingnan area.

Because in that era, the Jingzhou area was still under the cover of Yunmengze.

During the late Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period, Liu Biao, who occupied Jingzhou, carried out a development, making Jingzhou a local power that could barely be considered presentable.

During the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the Jingzhou area experienced its second major development when people moved south.

These two major developments, coupled with climate change, led to the gradual disappearance of Yunmengze.

By the Tang Dynasty, the Yunmeng Lake had completely disappeared, and Jingzhou, also known as the Huguang region, began to prosper and develop, gradually becoming the heart of the empire.

But at this time, there were still a large number of Baiyue people living in Yunmengze in Jingzhou, and the entire Jingzhou was still in a vigorous state of pioneering.

Su Tingquan could see a large number of pioneers carrying bows and arrows, who boarded boats and entered the Yunmengze, fighting with the Baiyue tribe living in the Yunmengze while reclaiming and cultivating the land.

You can also see a large number of Baiyue people being strung together as slaves and openly sold in the slave market.

This is also the reason why Jingzhou is full of martial virtue.

Su Tingquan looked at the bustling dock and felt the extraordinary prosperity of Nanliang.

But beneath this prosperous appearance were porters waiting to work at the dock and skinny slaves held in the slave market; all of this presented a very divisive picture.

On one hand, there is boiling fire and rich people are feasting and drinking, while on the other hand, it is freezing cold and people are freezing to death on the road.

Merchant ships waiting to enter the dock were lined up, and tax collectors boarded the ships one by one, opening the cargo holds for inspection in a brutal manner.

Fortunately, Su Tingquan was a distinguished guest of the Dongxiang Palace. After he showed the palace's token, the tax collectors did not dare to make things difficult for their merchant ship and directly allowed them to enter the dock.

As soon as they entered the dock, a large number of porters surrounded them. Su Tingquan knew that they were all bankrupt farmers from the surrounding area who could only rely on selling their labor at the dock for a living. They were the lower-class people who could only make a living by working.

He selected several young and strong porters and asked them to recruit some fellow villagers to unload the cargo from the ship.

Su Tingquan listened to the servants chatting with the porters.

"Thank you Master Su for giving us this job. May the Buddha bless Master Su to make a fortune!"

The waiter waved his sleeves and said, "Stop talking nonsense. These are top-grade glassware from the Western Regions. Move them carefully. If you break them, I won't be able to pay for it even if I sell you!"

The leading man bowed and nodded hurriedly, and told his men to carry the goods carefully. Half an hour later, the cargo was finally unloaded from the cabin.

These glasswares are heavy in themselves and are fixed with wooden racks. Several porters who were carrying them were so tired that they were gasping for breath on the dock.

Seeing that they were working quite efficiently, Su Tingquan ordered his servants to take out a few Hu bings from the cabin and distribute them to everyone, which again drew voices of gratitude from everyone.

Su Tingquan sighed. There were many more porters at the dock than the last time he came. However, there were obviously vast tracts of farmland outside Jiangling City. Some of the land was even abandoned because there were not enough people to cultivate it.

If such prime farmland were left idle in Guanzhong, the county magistrate would be reported to the court and questioned by the Censor-in-Chief.

However, this kind of abandonment of land was a very normal phenomenon in Nanliang.

The root cause is land annexation.

Su Tingquan once heard Su Ze tell everyone about the disastrous consequences of land annexation.

If there were 100 mu of land, there were originally 10 households, each with 10 mu of land, and each household would cultivate the land diligently. After the state collected taxes according to the rent, the remaining food would be the surplus grain for the people. This is of course the most ideal situation. In fact, in the Southern Liang Dynasty, even if the powerful nobles did not plunder, there were natural disasters every now and then, and if the government did not provide disaster relief or tax relief, the farmers could go bankrupt at any time.

If after land merger, these 100 acres of land become the land of one family, then the remaining nine families will have no land of their own to cultivate, and they will rent land from the landlord to cultivate.

But for those tenants, they only needed to pay rent to the court, and the rest was their own income.

However, if they leased land from landlords, they would have to pay land rent in addition to the rent and labor service paid to the court.

In order to survive, these nine families have to compete with each other.

They need to lease more land and pay more rent in order to survive this internal competition.

Leasing more land means more land output, which means that after deducting the exploitation by the government and landlords, there will still be enough food left for survival.

Only by paying a higher proportion of rent can the landlord rent the land to them.

The result is that the 100 acres of land that was originally carefully cultivated had fewer people cultivating it after the merger, and the quality of cultivation declined.

As the wealthy concealed their land and population, the court actually received less taxes.

It can be said that apart from creating a rentier class of landlords, no one benefited from land annexation.

The abandoned land outside Jiangling City that Su Tingquan saw was the land that was annexed by some landlords. They would rather leave the land idle than rent it to tenant farmers at a low price.

The most terrible problem is the people who have been squeezed out of their land.

Some of them would become tenant farmers and serfs, while others would enter the cities and become dock porters, serving the wealthy in the Nanliang cities.

The last part will really not be able to survive, and will eventually become a force that destroys everything, just like the survivors of the Six Towns.

Su Tingquan also understood why Duke Su spared no effort to crack down on land annexation. If he did not crack down on it, Southern Liang would be the future fate.

However, the people of Southern Liang were still intoxicated with the illusion of a highly prosperous commodity economy, and Su Tingquan was invited to Xiao Yi's Xiangdong Palace.

On the last Buddha's birthday, Xiao Yi presented Buddhist scriptures and robes, and was rewarded with tens of millions of coins by Xiao Yan.

However, the Ministry of Revenue did not have so much money to reward Xiao Yi. Fortunately, Zhu Yi, who controlled the government, had magical powers. If there was not enough money in the Ministry of Revenue's treasury, then Xiao Yi could cast it himself!
Zhu Yi asked the Ministry of Revenue to send five more sets of coin molds to Xiao Yi, allowing him to mint iron coins on his own in Jingzhou, which was considered a reward of tens of millions of coins to him.

In fact, Xiao Yi didn't care about the reward of tens of millions of coins. The last time Xiao Yan rewarded him with two Qian Fan for the war in Shu, he also confiscated iron tools and cast coins during this period, which led to the prosperous trade in Jingzhou.

No matter how much money you want, you just have to use a money mold to cast it. Xiao Yi finally understood why his father relied on Zhu Yi so much. This Zhu Yi really has magical powers!

The only thing that made Xiao Yi a little unhappy was that merchants from Guanzhong and the Western Regions often refused to accept iron coins. However, this did not bother Xiao Yi. He had long since declared the circulation of gold, silver and copper coins illegal, and forced the people to exchange copper coins for iron coins. Once anyone was found to have privately hidden copper coins at home, their coins would be confiscated and the person would be exiled to the army. By using this method, he also accumulated a lot of wealth, which he could use to buy these treasures.

Xiao Yi couldn't wait to ask Su Tingquan to take out the goods to see what new things he had brought this time.

Su Tingquan had traveled to Jingzhou many times and had already prepared the goods that Xiao Yi was interested in.

He first took out a set of glassware, which are actually called colored glaze in the Central Plains, but Duke Su called them glass.

The glass brought from the Silk Road is more transparent and more colorful than the colored glaze from the Central Plains, and has always been used in the palace.

In fact, these glasses are not produced in Central Asia. The glass industry is a characteristic industry of ancient Rome. These glassware were probably transported from Europe by merchants on the Silk Road.

Seeing these intact glassware, Xiao Yi's eyes lit up. These treasures made people want to possess them as soon as they saw them. His father would definitely like them too.

But this was not the highlight. Su Tingquan carefully took out a pure gold Buddhist shrine and asked Xiao Yi mysteriously:

"My lord, do you know what this is?"

Xiao Yi took the Buddhist shrine and saw a lot of Sanskrit and auspicious Buddhist symbols carved on it.

Xiao Yi had a good literary accomplishment and had learned Sanskrit. He quickly read the Sanskrit on the small shrine. He said with trembling body:
"This is, this is the Buddha's tooth relic?"

Su Tingquan nodded and said:
"That's right. After the Buddha passed away, his disciples took the relics to various countries. The Lion Country obtained the most Buddha tooth relics. This relic was brought to Tuyuhun by a monk who traveled over the mountains. Later, it was presented to Lord Su by the ruler of Tuyuhun."

Xiao Yi trembled. He had long suspected that Su Tingquan was related to Su Ze, but he didn't expect the other party to admit it so generously.

The other party took out such a precious thing as the Buddha's tooth relic, I'm afraid he has a big plan.

However, Xiao Yi clenched the Buddha's tooth relic in his hand. This gift would surely satisfy his father, so he must get it!

(End of this chapter)