Chapter 838
Party A and Party B
Chapter 838 Party A and Party B
After a brief meeting, a meeting with an intermediary as the representative of Party A was held in Xinzheng's palace amidst the sound of gunfire.
Many people present had ugly faces, just like what Zheng Jun’s close servant said that day, the Mo family is loyal to the people of the world, and they obey the orders of the giants. They guard the city not for Zheng Jun and Si’s, but Stand up for the morality in their hearts.
In terms of real etiquette, it is a political system and military system in line with the previous productivity, and the nobles do not have much power near the capital.
The monarch has direct jurisdiction over the capital city, and the fiefdoms of the nobles are outside the capital city. As a kind of colonizer, the people of the capital city have certain political rights.
After the reform of Zichan, the difference between the country and the country began to disappear. After doing Qiufu, the savages were given the same service obligations and rights as the Chinese, which made the political power of the Chinese gradually disappear, and they were reduced to the bottom of the people in the true sense.
When there is a difference between the country and the country, the people of the country are more like the people of the "country", and it is easier to have the concept of the nation, but as the scale of the war expands, the savages who serve as soldiers lose their original privileges, which is the best choice. .
After this change, the aristocrats gradually gained influence in the capital. After the land could be bought and sold, the aristocrats quickly occupied the upper economic status in the capital by virtue of their power, wealth, and previous violent gains.
After a series of coups, Siziyang's clan cleared out the rest of the nobles, and also inherited the wealth and fiefdoms of the rest of the nobles.
This makes it impossible to solve all the problems with Zheng Jun if you want to change in Zheng State. You must make compromises from these nobles.
Wei and Han besieged the city, and the people did not give up their lives to resist, but took advantage of this opportunity to ask for land and reduce taxes. In the eyes of some nobles, it was really wolf ambitions to take advantage of the fire.
But the Mo family put their ambitions of taking advantage of the fire and wolf ambitions on the bright side, and there was a look on their faces that should be like this at this time, and these nobles had no choice but to do nothing.
At this time, it is useless to talk about those great principles, and it is useless to curse the people for being ignorant, patriotic and loyal to the emperor. The only useful thing is to think about how to make the people stick to the city.
The fugitives of the Liumu family who were killed are about to return. Once they come back, they will kill the whole family. Zheng Jun can also say that he was forced to become the monarch by the remaining party of Si Ziyang, but the remaining party of Si Ziyang cannot say the same However, political enemies who have genocide hatred will not give them a chance to speak.
Now the conditions of the negotiation are in front of these nobles. The Mohists are not as radical as Sishang, and have adopted a compromise method of boiling toads in warm water.
There are actually so many solutions.
Allowing the people in the capital to organize and elect sages, and the increased taxes need to be collected with their consent, this is the condition for the industrial and commercial people in the city to be able to defend the city.
The interest rate of the usury owed by the people will be reduced. If the interest has been repaid in excess of the principal, there is no need to repay the interest, but the principal will be repaid directly.
The private land sold to nobles due to usury and other reasons, the nobles will return it, and the redeemed farmers will only need to pay the principal of the usury borrowed that year.
These two items are mainly for the conditions that the self-cultivating farmers and former self-cultivating farmers in the city are willing to defend the city.
All fief farmers who participated in the defense of the city will cancel the obligation of public land and grant their share of land to them personally. They will not be allowed to buy or sell or take it back for 20 years, and the tax will be paid to the original land owner: the public or nobles.
This item is for the farmers who belong to the fief in the city to be willing to defend the city, and it is also to avoid intensifying the conflict with the monarch - if all the land granting system is adopted and the public land obligation is cancelled, then all farmers become farmers of the country , this is impossible for the nobles to accept, so the land rent has to be handed over to the nobles so that it is possible for the nobles to accept it.
All slaves who participated in the defense of the city will be exempted from the status of slaves, including all kinds of people such as son-in-law, child servants, and subordinates, as well as some slaves under the small family slavery system unique to Zhuxia under the enfeoffment system.
To reduce the time of labor, people are only allowed to be recruited for ten days of labor every year, and they are not allowed to work during farming hours. The government of Zheng State will pay a certain amount of money for the excess time; nobles, wealthy businessmen, and rich people can be exempted from labor by paying wealth.
All these should be quite compromised conditions, and it is also the best choice to quickly transfer Zheng Guo to a state of defense without arguing and falling into a stalemate in the short term.
But even so, after seeing these conditions, the nobles still expressed quite a lot of dissatisfaction.
Compared with Sishang, these reform conditions have been quite compromised. In the eyes of the nobles, this is a more serious and unacceptable change than the Zichan reform back then.
Back then, Zichan's reform did not touch the foundation of the entire Zheng State's old system. It was only repaired, and the nobles opposed it.
At that time, Zichan's policy was Qing Tianjiu, which was actually to properly gather state power without violating the old rules.
The nobles had only military obligations to the monarch, and the land of the nobles did not need to pay taxes. The more land the nobles occupied, the weaker the power of the center of the state of Zheng would be. Qing Tianxi means that the nobles own a considerable amount of land according to their respective ranks, exceeding the regulations is extremely arrogant.
According to Zhou etiquette, if it is strictly implemented, the amount of land that nobility can actually own is not much. How many people did Zhou have at the beginning?
Under the colonial system of enfeoffment, the land was not the problem, but the population was the problem, and the binding of the population to the land was the foundation of the enfeoffment system.
There were too few people at the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty, so it was impossible to have too many people belonging to them based on the actual etiquette and laws formulated at that time.
Therefore, even a doctor owns only so little land.
A corporal has the same benefits as a farmer. Under the well field system, it is equivalent to eight taxes and one tax. While a farmer owns [-] acres of land, a corporal can only earn the same income as a farmer if he owns [-] acres of land. So the upper farmer cultivates one hundred acres, and the corporal needs eight hundred acres of land, or three hundred acres of land and three slaves to earn the same income as the upper farmer.
This mu is a weekly small mu, which is replaced by the current large mu, which is more than 200 mu.
Sergeant Beizhi, Senior Sergeant Beizhi, Xia Dafu Bei Shang Sergeant... By analogy, in fact, the land of Xia Dafu is only about a thousand mu.
This rule has long been over, because according to this rule, it may not be easy for a corporal to surpass it, but a doctor can even surpass it.
Back then, Zichan took back the "usurped" lands of various aristocratic families by strictly adhering to the old rules, and distributed them to those Chinese who did not have land.
After Zichan's death, his policy was immediately liquidated. Coupled with the problem of land annexation caused by the continuous development of productivity in these years, the problem of the nobles' overreach became even more serious.
Therefore, this kind of change strategy after combining Zichan's policy made it difficult for the nobles to accept, especially many policies obviously made the people more powerful.
Some openings cannot be opened, and the nobles are not unaware. If the people are no longer subordinate to the land and the nobles who own the land, then the serfs on the noble fiefs will be more inclined to flee; on the contrary, if everyone is the same, they all need to be bound. On the land, there is not much contrast, and the old means of governance can continue to be maintained.
However, what the Mo family choked was when some nobles were at their weakest.
Some nobles are unwilling, but some nobles who know that their entire family will be killed if the city is broken have no choice but to.
Mo used a very simple method, first tearing the inside of the noble.
Even so, when these opinions were put forward, some nobles objected: "Wei and Han are besieging the city, and the country is in danger, but the common people are still thinking about their own interests. At this time, we should first guard the capital with our comrades, and wait for the city." Let's talk after we're done."
"Demand these changes while Wei and Han are besieging the city. This is all out of self-interest. Self-interest spoils public affairs. These people are all villains!"
Xu Ruo stood up with his sword, and said with a sneer, "When the Wei and Han troops retreat, why should the people ask you to agree?"
The nobleman scolded: "Then you can't take advantage of the enemy's siege to fight for your own interests. If this is not treason, what is it? If this is not abolishing public affairs, what is it?"
Xu Ruo said: "King Wen ruled the government, and the people believed what he said; Dayu ruled the waters, and he ordered the world to follow. Why can't you guard the city and the people can't support it? Isn't this your problem? You don't reflect on yourself, but ask questions. People, then I will tell you for the people, because the people don't trust you!"
The noble said angrily: "A gentleman is for righteousness! A villain is for profit! You Mohists are just like those ordinary people, you are all villains! Defending the city is for righteousness, not for profit!"
"If you can defend the city for profit today, can't you open the city gate and surrender for profit tomorrow? If you let the people seek profit today, even if you defend the city, the state of Zheng will perish in the future."
"Don't you know that when Mi Zijian ruled Shanfu, the Qi army attacked Lu, and the wheat was just outside the city. Mi Zijian would rather let the Qi people cut the wheat for army rations than allow the people to take advantage of the Qi army's future. Mike, why?"
"It's because once the people are allowed to reap the wheat, the people will not know propriety, justice and shame in the future, but will only know profit. Such a state of Lu will eventually perish..."
The nobleman was refusing the Mohists' incitement to take advantage of the siege to gain benefits by citing scriptures, and the more he talked, the more excited he was, and he was from a cultural class, so he talked about allusions endlessly.
But as soon as he finished talking about Mi Zijian, one of Si Ziyang's remnant party suddenly stood up, pulled out the bronze sword from his waist, and stabbed the nobleman's chest with his sword.
Pulling out the sword, blood sprayed all around, and Xu Ruo's face was also covered with blood, but Xu Ruo had seen it a lot, so he was unmoved, just stretched out his tongue to lick the blood on his lips and spit it out.
Regardless of Zheng Jun being in front, the leader of Si Ziyang's remnant party drew out his sword and cut off the nobleman's head, holding it in his hand, glaring at the rest of the stunned nobles, and said sharply: "Wei and Han are besieging the city, the country is at stake, but still If you are saying these pedantic words, you should be killed!"
"Zi Chan said, Gou benefits the country, life and death! I kill this person for the country, who will not accept it?"
Those aristocrats who were quite opposed were silent and bowed their heads. The leader of Si Ziyang's remnant party held up his head, knelt down to Zheng Jun and said: "I am guilty, but for the sake of the country!"
Zheng Jun hurriedly laughed and said: "But for the country, what is the crime?"
The rest of the nobles who dared not speak out looked at the blood and cursed secretly: "Why are you making such a high profile? You will die if the city breaks, so you can give up those benefits. After all, life is the most important thing. Besides, even if you give up Your Majesty is already your puppet for these benefits, and sooner or later you will control the state of Zheng, so naturally you can't look down on these small benefits. If you really want to do it for the country, what would you do sooner?"
Cursing like this in my heart, but my mouth said: "This is the country, it is indeed innocent, we all obey!"
(End of this chapter)
After a brief meeting, a meeting with an intermediary as the representative of Party A was held in Xinzheng's palace amidst the sound of gunfire.
Many people present had ugly faces, just like what Zheng Jun’s close servant said that day, the Mo family is loyal to the people of the world, and they obey the orders of the giants. They guard the city not for Zheng Jun and Si’s, but Stand up for the morality in their hearts.
In terms of real etiquette, it is a political system and military system in line with the previous productivity, and the nobles do not have much power near the capital.
The monarch has direct jurisdiction over the capital city, and the fiefdoms of the nobles are outside the capital city. As a kind of colonizer, the people of the capital city have certain political rights.
After the reform of Zichan, the difference between the country and the country began to disappear. After doing Qiufu, the savages were given the same service obligations and rights as the Chinese, which made the political power of the Chinese gradually disappear, and they were reduced to the bottom of the people in the true sense.
When there is a difference between the country and the country, the people of the country are more like the people of the "country", and it is easier to have the concept of the nation, but as the scale of the war expands, the savages who serve as soldiers lose their original privileges, which is the best choice. .
After this change, the aristocrats gradually gained influence in the capital. After the land could be bought and sold, the aristocrats quickly occupied the upper economic status in the capital by virtue of their power, wealth, and previous violent gains.
After a series of coups, Siziyang's clan cleared out the rest of the nobles, and also inherited the wealth and fiefdoms of the rest of the nobles.
This makes it impossible to solve all the problems with Zheng Jun if you want to change in Zheng State. You must make compromises from these nobles.
Wei and Han besieged the city, and the people did not give up their lives to resist, but took advantage of this opportunity to ask for land and reduce taxes. In the eyes of some nobles, it was really wolf ambitions to take advantage of the fire.
But the Mo family put their ambitions of taking advantage of the fire and wolf ambitions on the bright side, and there was a look on their faces that should be like this at this time, and these nobles had no choice but to do nothing.
At this time, it is useless to talk about those great principles, and it is useless to curse the people for being ignorant, patriotic and loyal to the emperor. The only useful thing is to think about how to make the people stick to the city.
The fugitives of the Liumu family who were killed are about to return. Once they come back, they will kill the whole family. Zheng Jun can also say that he was forced to become the monarch by the remaining party of Si Ziyang, but the remaining party of Si Ziyang cannot say the same However, political enemies who have genocide hatred will not give them a chance to speak.
Now the conditions of the negotiation are in front of these nobles. The Mohists are not as radical as Sishang, and have adopted a compromise method of boiling toads in warm water.
There are actually so many solutions.
Allowing the people in the capital to organize and elect sages, and the increased taxes need to be collected with their consent, this is the condition for the industrial and commercial people in the city to be able to defend the city.
The interest rate of the usury owed by the people will be reduced. If the interest has been repaid in excess of the principal, there is no need to repay the interest, but the principal will be repaid directly.
The private land sold to nobles due to usury and other reasons, the nobles will return it, and the redeemed farmers will only need to pay the principal of the usury borrowed that year.
These two items are mainly for the conditions that the self-cultivating farmers and former self-cultivating farmers in the city are willing to defend the city.
All fief farmers who participated in the defense of the city will cancel the obligation of public land and grant their share of land to them personally. They will not be allowed to buy or sell or take it back for 20 years, and the tax will be paid to the original land owner: the public or nobles.
This item is for the farmers who belong to the fief in the city to be willing to defend the city, and it is also to avoid intensifying the conflict with the monarch - if all the land granting system is adopted and the public land obligation is cancelled, then all farmers become farmers of the country , this is impossible for the nobles to accept, so the land rent has to be handed over to the nobles so that it is possible for the nobles to accept it.
All slaves who participated in the defense of the city will be exempted from the status of slaves, including all kinds of people such as son-in-law, child servants, and subordinates, as well as some slaves under the small family slavery system unique to Zhuxia under the enfeoffment system.
To reduce the time of labor, people are only allowed to be recruited for ten days of labor every year, and they are not allowed to work during farming hours. The government of Zheng State will pay a certain amount of money for the excess time; nobles, wealthy businessmen, and rich people can be exempted from labor by paying wealth.
All these should be quite compromised conditions, and it is also the best choice to quickly transfer Zheng Guo to a state of defense without arguing and falling into a stalemate in the short term.
But even so, after seeing these conditions, the nobles still expressed quite a lot of dissatisfaction.
Compared with Sishang, these reform conditions have been quite compromised. In the eyes of the nobles, this is a more serious and unacceptable change than the Zichan reform back then.
Back then, Zichan's reform did not touch the foundation of the entire Zheng State's old system. It was only repaired, and the nobles opposed it.
At that time, Zichan's policy was Qing Tianjiu, which was actually to properly gather state power without violating the old rules.
The nobles had only military obligations to the monarch, and the land of the nobles did not need to pay taxes. The more land the nobles occupied, the weaker the power of the center of the state of Zheng would be. Qing Tianxi means that the nobles own a considerable amount of land according to their respective ranks, exceeding the regulations is extremely arrogant.
According to Zhou etiquette, if it is strictly implemented, the amount of land that nobility can actually own is not much. How many people did Zhou have at the beginning?
Under the colonial system of enfeoffment, the land was not the problem, but the population was the problem, and the binding of the population to the land was the foundation of the enfeoffment system.
There were too few people at the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty, so it was impossible to have too many people belonging to them based on the actual etiquette and laws formulated at that time.
Therefore, even a doctor owns only so little land.
A corporal has the same benefits as a farmer. Under the well field system, it is equivalent to eight taxes and one tax. While a farmer owns [-] acres of land, a corporal can only earn the same income as a farmer if he owns [-] acres of land. So the upper farmer cultivates one hundred acres, and the corporal needs eight hundred acres of land, or three hundred acres of land and three slaves to earn the same income as the upper farmer.
This mu is a weekly small mu, which is replaced by the current large mu, which is more than 200 mu.
Sergeant Beizhi, Senior Sergeant Beizhi, Xia Dafu Bei Shang Sergeant... By analogy, in fact, the land of Xia Dafu is only about a thousand mu.
This rule has long been over, because according to this rule, it may not be easy for a corporal to surpass it, but a doctor can even surpass it.
Back then, Zichan took back the "usurped" lands of various aristocratic families by strictly adhering to the old rules, and distributed them to those Chinese who did not have land.
After Zichan's death, his policy was immediately liquidated. Coupled with the problem of land annexation caused by the continuous development of productivity in these years, the problem of the nobles' overreach became even more serious.
Therefore, this kind of change strategy after combining Zichan's policy made it difficult for the nobles to accept, especially many policies obviously made the people more powerful.
Some openings cannot be opened, and the nobles are not unaware. If the people are no longer subordinate to the land and the nobles who own the land, then the serfs on the noble fiefs will be more inclined to flee; on the contrary, if everyone is the same, they all need to be bound. On the land, there is not much contrast, and the old means of governance can continue to be maintained.
However, what the Mo family choked was when some nobles were at their weakest.
Some nobles are unwilling, but some nobles who know that their entire family will be killed if the city is broken have no choice but to.
Mo used a very simple method, first tearing the inside of the noble.
Even so, when these opinions were put forward, some nobles objected: "Wei and Han are besieging the city, and the country is in danger, but the common people are still thinking about their own interests. At this time, we should first guard the capital with our comrades, and wait for the city." Let's talk after we're done."
"Demand these changes while Wei and Han are besieging the city. This is all out of self-interest. Self-interest spoils public affairs. These people are all villains!"
Xu Ruo stood up with his sword, and said with a sneer, "When the Wei and Han troops retreat, why should the people ask you to agree?"
The nobleman scolded: "Then you can't take advantage of the enemy's siege to fight for your own interests. If this is not treason, what is it? If this is not abolishing public affairs, what is it?"
Xu Ruo said: "King Wen ruled the government, and the people believed what he said; Dayu ruled the waters, and he ordered the world to follow. Why can't you guard the city and the people can't support it? Isn't this your problem? You don't reflect on yourself, but ask questions. People, then I will tell you for the people, because the people don't trust you!"
The noble said angrily: "A gentleman is for righteousness! A villain is for profit! You Mohists are just like those ordinary people, you are all villains! Defending the city is for righteousness, not for profit!"
"If you can defend the city for profit today, can't you open the city gate and surrender for profit tomorrow? If you let the people seek profit today, even if you defend the city, the state of Zheng will perish in the future."
"Don't you know that when Mi Zijian ruled Shanfu, the Qi army attacked Lu, and the wheat was just outside the city. Mi Zijian would rather let the Qi people cut the wheat for army rations than allow the people to take advantage of the Qi army's future. Mike, why?"
"It's because once the people are allowed to reap the wheat, the people will not know propriety, justice and shame in the future, but will only know profit. Such a state of Lu will eventually perish..."
The nobleman was refusing the Mohists' incitement to take advantage of the siege to gain benefits by citing scriptures, and the more he talked, the more excited he was, and he was from a cultural class, so he talked about allusions endlessly.
But as soon as he finished talking about Mi Zijian, one of Si Ziyang's remnant party suddenly stood up, pulled out the bronze sword from his waist, and stabbed the nobleman's chest with his sword.
Pulling out the sword, blood sprayed all around, and Xu Ruo's face was also covered with blood, but Xu Ruo had seen it a lot, so he was unmoved, just stretched out his tongue to lick the blood on his lips and spit it out.
Regardless of Zheng Jun being in front, the leader of Si Ziyang's remnant party drew out his sword and cut off the nobleman's head, holding it in his hand, glaring at the rest of the stunned nobles, and said sharply: "Wei and Han are besieging the city, the country is at stake, but still If you are saying these pedantic words, you should be killed!"
"Zi Chan said, Gou benefits the country, life and death! I kill this person for the country, who will not accept it?"
Those aristocrats who were quite opposed were silent and bowed their heads. The leader of Si Ziyang's remnant party held up his head, knelt down to Zheng Jun and said: "I am guilty, but for the sake of the country!"
Zheng Jun hurriedly laughed and said: "But for the country, what is the crime?"
The rest of the nobles who dared not speak out looked at the blood and cursed secretly: "Why are you making such a high profile? You will die if the city breaks, so you can give up those benefits. After all, life is the most important thing. Besides, even if you give up Your Majesty is already your puppet for these benefits, and sooner or later you will control the state of Zheng, so naturally you can't look down on these small benefits. If you really want to do it for the country, what would you do sooner?"
Cursing like this in my heart, but my mouth said: "This is the country, it is indeed innocent, we all obey!"
(End of this chapter)