…

Jeju Prefecture, Xiaoyao Tower.

A 50-year-old man and two young men in their thirties and twenty were sitting by the window.

The old man absent-mindedly savored the tea, as if thinking about something.

The older young man kept looking at the government office opposite.

The younger young man, who was holding on to it again and again, couldn't help but say, "Dad, why didn't you go to work, but took me and my brother here to sit here?"

The old man, Zhang Shuye, the new prefect of Jeju Prefecture, retracted his thoughts and did not answer his younger son's words. Instead, he asked his elder son: "Bofen, do you know what this means to be a father?"

Bofen, the eldest son of Zhang Shuye, said: "Since we entered the territory of Jeju Prefecture, most of the people we met have said the good things about Li Yan, and some of them want to go and go there. Dad, you must be trying to figure out why this situation happened?"

Zhang Shuye nodded, then shook his head and said, "Yes, not right."

Zhang Bofen asked: "What's wrong?"

Zhang Shuye said: "What you said has already made some judgments for your father. It is nothing more than land annexation that makes the poor lose their way to survive, and the thieves have given them some bubble hope, so they are close to the thieves."

Zhang Shuye’s youngest son Zhang Zhongxiong looked at Zhang Shuye with anticipation and asked, “Dad, do you have a way to completely solve this problem?”

The "unrestrained annexation" land policy implemented by the Song Dynasty promoted social development to a certain extent, but also led to sharp contradictions between the landlord class and the peasants.

The so-called land annexation is actually a powerful class that accounts for a minority of the population. It uses its own dominant position to acquire a large amount of land in the hands of farmers through purchases, coaxing, coercion and other means, resulting in a high degree of land concentration.

The consequence of this phenomenon is that farmers who have lost their land have to rely on the land owners and are exploited and oppressed by them.

The long-term accumulation of contradictions often leads to civil unrest and even uprisings, and in severe cases, it will also lead to the demise of existing regimes.

The land contradictions in the Song Dynasty were the most acute among all dynasties.

This has its own unique historical background:

First, after Zhao Kuangyin came to power, he summarized the lessons of the fall of the Tang Dynasty and believed that the strength of local military chiefs should be weakened. Therefore, through the famous "release of military power with wine" and other means, he deprived Shi Shouxin and other founding generals. As compensation, Zhao Kuangyin always held a laissez-faire attitude towards these senior officials' large-scale possession of land.

Secondly, the Song Dynasty followed the two-tax system adopted in the mid-Tang Dynasty and collected taxes based on land rather than population. In this way, land annexation not only did not affect the government's income, but instead reduced the difficulty of collecting taxes. Therefore, suppressing mergers will not bring too much benefits to the government in the short term. Moreover, Zhao Kuangyin, who formulated this policy, believed that no matter how rich the annexercises were, as long as they were within the territory of the Song Dynasty, they would eventually belong to the state.

Again, agricultural productivity developed rapidly in the Song Dynasty and the commodity economy was unprecedentedly prosperous. Under this economically developed situation, land naturally had to be involved in the market as a commodity.

The powerful class in the Song Dynasty mainly achieved the possession of land through the following ways:

1. Legal land transactions;

2. Deception - such as promising to the land owner that taxes can be exempted;

3. Illegal lending and coercion - Ultimate lending has led to bankruptcy of farmers, and they have taken the opportunity to force farmers to hand over their land ownership.

The rich have wealth to occupy the land, the noble have strength to occupy the land, and the poor can only work for the wealthy with their family.

The Song Dynasty government divided farmers into "main households" and "customers". The main households owned a small amount of land and needed to pay taxes and maintain public order; while customers did not have land, they did not need to pay taxes. However, the large landlord class was actually not divided by this level and was exempt from labor and tax payments. All the above obligations were borne by small farmers.

In short, the Song Dynasty implemented a land policy of "not suppressing annexation" and allowed land to flow freely in the market, resulting in a high concentration of land in the hands of the privileged class.

During the reign of Emperor Shenzong of Song Dynasty, Wang Anshi tried to change this situation through reforms, but was opposed by conservatives and the reform ended in failure.

This is an extremely sharp contradiction and a contradiction that has not been resolved for thousands of years. No matter who it is, if this contradiction can be resolved, it will definitely be famous for all ages.

Zhang Zhongxiong, who admires his father Xin very much, hopes that his father Zhang Shuye is this person!

Zhang Shuye smiled bitterly and said, "Sectar of God..."

Zhang Shuye wanted to say: Song Shenzong was so wise and supported Wang Anshi so much, but he eventually failed. With the current stupid guy, how could I do such a big thing?

But when the words came to his mouth, Zhang Shuye swallowed them back, and then changed the topic: "Did you find out that we have entered the city, and the people we met are very different from those we met all the way from Haizhou?"

Zhang Zhongxiong looked around and said, "Do you have it? Don't think they are different."

Zhang Bofen hesitated for a moment and said, "Dad, are you saying that there are so many smiles on their faces?"

Zhang Shuye did not answer Zhang Bofen, but rushed to the hall who happened to come over and said, "Little brother, sit down and chat for a while."

Zhang Bofen took out two cents of silver and pushed it to the pawn hall.

The waiter said cleverly: "What do you want to ask for by the guests? Even if you ask, the villain must know everything."

While saying this, the waiter put away the two cents of silver and put it into his waist.

Zhang Shuye asked, "I heard that you were looted by the Liangshan bandits some time ago, but we seem to have never happened along the way..."

The waiter took out the two cents of silver that he had just collected and put it on the table, and then said, "If the guest official calls the heroes of Liangshan a thief, then the villain cannot accept your rewards, and he cannot tell you a word."

When Zhang Zhongxiong heard this, he was furious and immediately jumped up to scold this unexplained hall!

However, as soon as Zhang Zhongxiong's butt left the bench, Zhang Shuye kicked Zhang Zhongxiong from below without any trace.

After looking at Zhang Shuye, Zhang Zhongxiong sat back obediently.

At the same time, Zhang Bofen picked up the two cents of silver, then took out the two cents of silver and stuffed them to the hall, and then said: "We just want to ask you about the bandits of Liangshan... The heroes of Liangshan came to our residence to borrow grain. The father and son came from Haizhou and wanted to settle down in our residence. I just want to ask you about the security situation in our residence, and it is also easy to decide whether to settle down in our residence."

The waiter looked at Zhang Shuye and his son with some doubts, and did not receive the money he received.

At this moment, someone suddenly said, "What's going on?"

The runner-off said quickly: "Shopkeeper, I... they said that the heroes of Liangshan are thieves..."

The visitor scolded the hall and said, "If you argue with the guests about whether the group of people in Liangshanbo is a hero or a thief, go home. I don't need someone like you here."

The waiter opened his mouth and finally said unwillingly: "Yes, the shopkeeper!"

The person who came said, "You go down, I'll greet this table of guests." Then he bowed to Zhang Shuye and his son, and said, "Hello, the three guests, the villain is Han Bolong, the shopkeeper of our store..."
Chapter completed!