Lu Bu: My wife comes from two thousand years later

No matter how good the policy is, it can only delay or reduce land annexation. As society develops and changes, policies will become outdated. Coupled with the problem of local enforcement, the annexation problem will still exist in feudal society. This is unavoidable and cannot be prevented by human power.

As for the aristocratic families, when you suppress a group of old ones, a group of new ones will emerge. The poor are also a declining aristocratic families. Liu Bei, who sold straw mats, was born into the royal family. No matter who you use, this group of people will inevitably continue on their previous path after becoming the ruling class.

Instead of adopting radical methods like Cao Cao's massacre of Xuzhou, it is better to divide and win over, suppress some of the disobedient ones, reuse some of the obedient ones, and then slowly cultivate new talents.

In a feudal society with low productivity, when production relations could not adapt to productivity, one or two natural disasters would lead to major social unrest. The society could only be in chaos every few hundred years, and then reshuffle and establish new social norms.

What Zhang Mo can do now is to do her best to maintain peace and stability for the next few hundred years, give the people hope of survival, and avoid the Five Barbarians Invasion of China.

Du Ji was extremely impressed by Zhang Mo's proposal to distribute the tax rate based on the amount of land he had lived on. He had heard Jia Wenhe say that the lord's wife was extremely intelligent and resourceful. In the past, he thought that Jia Wenhe was just flattering the lord, but after learning about it over the past few days, he realized that what Jia Wenhe said was true.

Du Ji's original idea was to ask the big families to return part of their land and captives, so that these people could return to being self-cultivating farmers, and the government would distribute land to them, which would also increase some tax revenue. However, doing so would really offend the big families to death. Amo proposed the "taxation per mu" policy, which only required the big families to pay taxes according to regulations, and the government did not touch a penny of their land or population.

Du Ji then asked, "If we set a limit on the amount of meritorious land, those families will have a lot of land that will be taken out of the meritorious land. Will this cause dissatisfaction among them?"

Measuring the land is just a way to check the taxes and fees that were evaded in the past, but setting the upper limit of merit land is actually to deduct money from the big families.

"There will certainly be dissatisfaction, but this one point must be decided. Otherwise, our tax reform will be in vain. Within ten years, both old and new powerful families will be occupied with land and property."

Zhang Mo pondered and said, "Now that the Lord is about to take over Henei County, we must also properly eliminate these people's dissatisfaction. This requires giving them a slap in the face and then giving them a sweet treat."

"Give me a sweet date?"

Du Ji nodded. "In my opinion, my lord, you could select a group of young men from aristocratic families as your subordinates. This would allow you to become one with Bingzhou and provide you with more people to work for you. The key is to appease the anxious hearts of these families."

In fact, Du Ji had previously mentioned the idea of ​​selecting children from aristocratic families to serve as officials. Lu Bu also wanted to do so, but Jia Xu stopped him at that time and only said to wait until A Mo came back before doing this.

Now Lu Bu can be said to be the local emperor of Bingzhou, and the officials under the governor are equivalent to the emperor's close ministers. Their future is much brighter than being a minor official in a prefecture or county. If Lu Bu reaps the final fruit in the future, these people may be able to become central officials.

After Lu Bu raised funds for food from various families on the pretext of suppressing the Baibo Rebellion last year, many families wanted to join Lu Bu's team. However, except for the Wang family, Lu Bu did not express his opinion to anyone else.

Lu Bu's attitude made those people feel uneasy. They didn't understand what the governor was trying to do. Many people even suspected that Lu Bu wanted to kill them all and they became secretly on guard. However, after waiting for a year, Lu Bu didn't make any move. These people felt relieved and lost their expectations of Lu Bu.

Lu Bu did not give them any benefits, and this time he also investigated the land reform and tax policies, which would definitely make these people dissatisfied. Jia Xu had long expected that A Mo would carry out drastic reforms when she came back, so he would rather let them work themselves to death than let these officials remain in their positions, so that he could give them some sweet rewards at this time to balance their dissatisfaction.

Only then did Lu Bu understand Jia Xu's intentions, and he admired Jia Wenhe's long-term vision even more.

"Just follow the advice of the Marquis Bo and select some talented young men from families with good reputation and who are obedient. Let Madam assess them and then assign positions to them according to their strengths. If there are those who oppose the new policy, frame them with a crime and confiscate their property." Lu Bu ordered.

Du Ji bowed in agreement and continued, "The land rent, tax, and head tax have been decided for now. What about the additional tax? Does the mistress have any ideas?"

Gengfu is the money that needs to be paid if one does not want to perform corvee labor or military service.

Zhang Mo said, "Military service is definitely not exempt, but corvée service can be exempted."

There were two types of military service in the Han Dynasty. One was regular service, which was compulsory military service. The service period was generally two years, which would be extended in case of war.

There is also another type of person called the night watchman. All men between the ages of 23 and 56 have to serve as night watchmen for three days every year, or pay coins to hire someone to serve.

Civilians must serve in the military in peacetime, let alone in times of chaos. Not to mention exemption, Zhang Mo even wants to strengthen the intensity of military service. However, Bingzhou is currently short of labor, and if the people serve in the military for too long, it will inevitably affect farming.

At present, Lu Bu's regular army has about 20,000 people. These people do not have to do any farming at all. They train in peacetime and fight in wartime. In this era where war may break out at any time, it is necessary to have such an army.

Another group was half-soldier and half-farmer, which were some county soldiers who had been disbanded in the past. Du Ji allocated public land to them, and asked them to work in peacetime and help defend the city when the enemy attacked. The harvest was divided proportionally between the state and the soldiers who farmed.

This military composition is very suitable for Bingzhou at present. There is no need to make major adjustments to the requirement that young and strong people must serve in the military for two years. After the tax reform, we will see the government's fiscal revenue situation. If it is good, we can give some subsidies to the people who serve in the military.

As for corvee labor, each able-bodied man had to work for the country for free for one month every year. Building roads, repairing city walls, digging ditches, etc. were all done by the laborers. Those who did not want to serve could pay money instead.

Hearing Zhang Mo's proposal to exempt corvée labor, Du Ji wondered, "Didn't the mistress want to build ditches and reservoirs? If corvée labor is exempted, who will do these jobs? The money and grain in the treasury can't cover such a huge expense."

If corvée labor is exempted, then the government will have to pay people to build these infrastructure projects.

"I'll let the big families provide the labor for digging ditches and building reservoirs this time. As for other future projects..."

Zhang Mo paused for a moment and said, "This time, Bingzhou has implemented a new tax policy and exempted corvée labor. This will surely attract many refugees in the future. It will cost a lot to resettle the endless influx of refugees. It would be better to use work-for-relief to achieve multiple goals at once."

Zhang Mo’s philosophy is that if the government wants money, it must find ways to promote economic development instead of just thinking about taking money from the people. It would be enough to collect land taxes, and forget about increasing taxes!

Du Ji nodded. "My mistress is right. Once these new policies spread, Bingzhou's population shortage will be gradually resolved. What we lack now is people. Only with people can we make money. But... how are you going to get those noble families to provide the labor to build the ditches this time?"

Zhang Mo asked, "I wonder if the Marquis Bo has ever been to my farm to see the waterwheel?"

"Waterwheel?" Du Ji shook his head. "What is a waterwheel?"

Zhang Mo stood up and said, "It's still early now. I'll take you there and you'll know."

Lu Bu then stood up and whispered, "I, your husband, would also like to hear what your wife intends to do."

"If you have nothing to do right now, come along!"

Lu Bu immediately ordered his guards to prepare the horses.

The three of them left the conference room. Zhang Mo said to Du Ji, "The general plan for tax reform has been finalized today. As for the new tax standards, we need to complete the land registration and calculate them based on factors such as previous years' harvests and the amount of land. I'll trouble you, Bo Hou, with this tedious and brain-intensive task."

Du Ji said, "It's my duty!"

"I'll arrange for a few young men and women who are good at arithmetic to help you calculate, so that you don't waste too much brain cells."

"What are brain cells?"

Lu Bu helped explain, "It's the brain!"