There is no such thing as the Kangxi and Qianlong eras

Chapter 122 Tian Zheng’s Bug
Wang Xingyao stayed in Jingzhou Prefecture for more than half a month, during which time he was introduced to meet Nie Jieren.

Nie Jieren took Wang Xingyao's hand and said with a smile, "With your help, why should we worry about not being able to drive out the barbarians and restore China?"

This set of rhetoric was taught to him by his son. It has no other use except to imitate Liu Bei in the Three Kingdoms and use the lord's rhetoric to make his subjects feel good.

Was Wang Xingyao not a Han army official? That didn't matter; flattering the lord wouldn't be a bad idea.

When Wang Xingyao heard this at first, he was a little frightened, because this was equivalent to roasting him on the fire, but after the fear subsided, he was secretly happy and really happy, and even felt a little grateful for the recognition.

I never thought that a side branch manager like me who has been traveling all over the country and doing business for the family would receive such high praise one day.

The key point is that most of the people who make such evaluations are qualified to do so. How can a businessman like me be capable of doing so?

The subsequent matters were very simple. Wang Xingyao came here mainly to discuss the salt business, which was nothing more than replacing Huai salt with "Han salt".

He also knew that the Han army on the opposite side was only temporarily helpless because there were too few trade routes to choose from. In addition, the Hui merchants were a lean camel that was bigger than a horse, so they were given monopoly privileges.

Wang Xingyao must seize the opportunity to maximize the benefits for himself and his family's business.

Well, my own interests come first, and the interests of the family business come second.

So what if they are wealthy and powerful families?
Even if they are really top-tier wealthy families, they are not a monolithic group.

Wang Xingyao had no choice before. Born in this cannibalistic era, he had to rely on a huge family to survive, and he had to work hard for the family to avoid being abandoned.

Now that the Han army has arrived, it is only natural for them to consider the needs of the bandits and seek personal gain.

The discussion lasted a whole day, and Wang Xingyao was invited to have a quick meal at the general's residence. The matter was finally settled in the evening.

Similar to Chen Xinghuai's agreement, the Huizhou merchants could monopolize "Han salt," but only within the Qing court's territory. However, colorless and transparent glassware was not a monopoly commodity, and the Huizhou merchants could not prevent the Han army from expanding its sales.

In return, the Han army would give priority to selling and supplying luxury goods, including colorless and transparent glassware, as well as other luxury goods such as spices and MSG, to Hui merchants.

What is MSG? Wang Xingyao had never tasted it, but the Han army replied that it was more delicious than the non-bitter "Han salt". It was a special top-grade spice that could enhance the flavor of food. It was an absolute luxury that could turn decay into something magical.

Before, Wang Xingyao would definitely not believe it, but with "Han Salt" in front and the colorless transparent glass cup behind, this MSG does not seem impossible.

Even if it is fake, it will not affect the current "Han Salt" business.

After staying in Jingzhou for more than half a month, Wang Xingyao finally set off to return.

When he came, he traveled light, and when he left, he took more than 20 people with him, all of whom were merchants' servants forced into the army by the Han army.

Of course, this is just a superficial statement. In fact, these guys are all from the army. They are all qualified soldiers who have practiced the Mandarin Duck Battle Formation and can form a battle formation with just a sword.

These soldiers would follow Wang Xingyao to the territory of Huizhou merchants, where they would expand commercial sales for the Han army, while secretly conducting underground activities to gather and transmit intelligence.

The Huizhou merchants are such a large group, and they were once the richest people in the country. Even if they are not doing well now, they are still powerful. How can we not make good use of them?

"Oh, this braid is getting uglier and uglier the more I look at it. I might as well just shave it off completely."

"Haha, if you really want to shave it all off, Lao Liu, you'll probably be caught and beheaded by the officials the moment you get off the boat."

"I'm just saying this, but this braid is really ugly! It's not as good as the monks' shaved heads."

"Ahem! Old Liu, stop talking. Shopkeeper Wang, I'm sorry, my son, Lao Liu, was just joking. When we get to Huizhou, I need your continued care!"

"Where."

"..."

Of course Wang Xingyao had to take care of them. These people said they were businessmen who came with him to expand sales channels and do business, but except for the leader, the others were almost all full of military spirit, which obviously looked abnormal.

Oh, if it’s abnormal, then it’s abnormal!

He is just here to make money. There are just so many people crammed into the team. What does it have to do with him?

However, what Lao Liu said was not wrong. I had never thought about it before. This time I only stayed in Jingzhou for half a month. Whether it was the maids or the servants, they all smiled secretly when they saw the braid on his head.

This braid...

……

But let’s talk about Yuezhou Prefecture.

Not long after Nie Yu's return, Changsha and Hengzhou had already handed over the distribution of land and freed slaves to the new prefects. Officials from the Secretariat and the Army Department were also retained, respectively, to recruit and expand the army. Hengzhou Prefecture recruited 10,000 soldiers, Changsha 15,000, and a new branch of the Firearms Workshop was established, now under the Army Department.

"Meet the General!"

Liu Jun, the head of the Civil Affairs Office, and Li Chen, the prefect of Yuezhou, came together to report on their work.

It was still early in the morning, and Nie Yu was eating breakfast. Seeing someone coming, he picked up his chopsticks and said, "Please sit down! Have you eaten yet? If not, I'll ask the kitchen to add two more pairs of bowls and chopsticks."

Liu Jun bowed and said, "Thank you, General. Magistrate Li and I have already used it."

"Hmm," Nie Yu nodded, taking a bite of pickled vegetables and drinking a mouthful of porridge. "I've read the documents you handed over regarding Tian Zheng. Tell me how you plan to resolve this issue."

You can talk while eating. The saying "Don't talk while eating and don't talk while sleeping" is true, but what people mean is that it is impolite to talk without thinking while eating before swallowing.

Nie Yu is asking Tian Zheng how to solve the problem?

This is not a casual question, because Tian Zhengcai of the Han army had only been in office for less than a year when he encountered extremely serious problems and mistakes.

A year ago, the newly-formed Han army distributed land readily, winning the hearts and minds of refugees and tenant farmers. Even many small and medium-sized landlords and self-cultivating farmers sided with the Han army. Under the Han army's land policy, small landlords and self-cultivating farmers could also receive land, while middle-level landlords could not receive land, but they also lost a lot of "land" on paper.

Flying and scattering!
Why did only the big landlords become extremely wealthy, while the small and medium-sized landlords had to endure hardship? It was because the big landlords distributed all the taxes they were supposed to pay to the common people and the small and medium-sized landlords. This way, the big landlords didn't have to pay taxes, while the small and medium-sized landlords and the common people bore the heavy burden.

The Han army was able to quickly recruit a large number of talents after the introduction of the new tax law. On the one hand, it was because the new tax law benefited small and medium-sized landlords. On the other hand, it was because the Han army completely eliminated the Feisha.

Those small and medium-sized landlords originally thought that they still had to pay the scattered taxes, but they found that the Han army was serious about it. Not only were the harsh taxes and levies removed from the new year's regular taxes, but the regular taxes were also restored to normal amounts.

At this point, everything seems to be fine, but there is an unexpected bug!

Because the Han army's land policy had undergone several reforms, it changed from distributing land based on household registration to distributing land based on the number of people, which means that men, women, young and old all had land to share.

The benefit of this is that each household can get more land, which is definitely good for the people.

So what are the downsides?
The downside is that men, women, young and old can all get land. Men, the elderly and children are all under the name of the same household. But it is different for women, as they have to get married.

What should a woman do after getting married?
The land is not distributed to each household, but to each person. When a woman gets married and forms a new household with someone else, will the land go with her?
If a farmer has several daughters and all of them get married, wouldn't the farmland of this farmer's family shrink by half?
Land is the lifeblood of the people. As happy as they are when the land is divided, they will be heartbroken when their daughters have to take the land to their husband's family.

It would be fine if the couple had only daughters, as their parents wouldn’t mind their daughters taking the land away. But if the couple already has a son and a daughter, how could the couple’s family agree to this?
Li Chen said: "When I first came to Yuezhou, I hadn't discovered this problem, because the people already had a solution to this problem. That is, if there are sons and daughters, they can marry each other. In this way, the land will not be damaged, and the two families can become in-laws."

Nie Yu immediately understood the crux of the matter: "What about those who don't have daughters?"

Liu Jun shook his head. "There's no other way. Those without daughters can only remain single in the village. This problem was exposed because of a farmer's son. His parents only had him as a son. Finding a wife was difficult, so he came to the provincial capital hoping to join the army. However, the new round of recruitment orders had not yet been issued, so after much deliberation, the farmer felt frustrated and sued the village chief..."

Well! A man who couldn't get a wife and wanted to join the army found out that he couldn't be a soldier, so he sued the village in anger.

It's no wonder that it alarmed Li Chen, the prefect of Yuezhou, and Liu Jun, the head of the Civil Affairs Office.

At first, the two of them even thought that the village chief was corrupt and had become a village bully, and they were ready to take big action to clean up the bureaucracy in the Han army garrison.

After all this commotion, the people can no longer get married normally. The key problem was caused by the Han army!
The Han army could not follow suit because they distributed land directly rather than contracted it out. Once legislation was passed to force women to take land away, it would inevitably lead to collective resentment from all the people.

Change to land contracting?

That's even more nonsense. With the productivity in ancient times, even if Nie Yu was given another 30 years, he would not be able to change the land into a contract system, and the land administration at the grassroots level would definitely become corrupt.

Directly distributing the land is now the limit of the Han army. The land will be directly turned into the private property of the people, and the buying and selling of land will not be allowed. Even if problems arise in the future and the land administration becomes corrupt, it will not be too corrupt. There are laws to follow, and regulation and restoration can be carried out.

If there is not enough land to be distributed in the end, the worst that can happen is that it will be transferred overseas. Foreign colonization will divert conflicts, stimulate national and economic development, and at the same time plunder the world's silver.

However, now, in the first step of the Han army's land distribution, which was also the first year, the problem of difficult marriage among the common people appeared, which almost made Nie Yu think he had returned to the modern world...

Liu Jun and Li Chen reported the problem, but also said they were helpless.

Nie Yu thought about it and immediately summoned all his officials to brainstorm and work together to find a solution.

After several days of continuous discussion, they finally came up with a solution, which was... to let it go and let the people solve it themselves.

The land has been divided, the benefits have been taken, and as for the remaining problems, let the people find a way to solve them themselves. Exchanging daughters for marriage is a feasible method, so let’s do it!

As long as there are no major problems, let's just get by!

If you don’t have a daughter, your son cannot get married, so you either have to endure it or promise not to take the woman’s land.

You want land, you want to get married, you want all the benefits, how can such a beautiful thing be possible?
(End of this chapter)