A war without blood also requires an army. Wei Xuan looked at the information and understood that the army of the court (the emperor) was a trading company; weapons were food and cloth; the combat method was large-scale dumping, and weapons...

One is cloth, from Hebei Road and Henan Road Weaving Department; the other is grain, from Henan, Jingxiang Han Mian area, Shannan, and even rice transported from Southeast Asia.

Now it seems that what is happening in the Hebei (Yongji Canal) area is similar to what has happened in Henan and the Lianghuai area: starting with lowering grain prices.

With the restoration and expansion of water conservancy facilities in Hebei, unless a rare natural disaster occurs, there will be a bumper harvest year after year. In addition, long-term large-scale dumping of foreign grain will reduce the grain prices in Hebei to an unbelievable level.

This situation continues for several years, and more and more farmers will not be able to hold on. They may either appropriately change to plant economic crops such as rapeseed, orchids, and purpura to increase their income.

Either like the farmers in Henan and Lianghuai, they sign contracts with powerful trading companies, rent out land, or plant various crops in their own fields as required by the other party.

This is a self-cultivated farmer with land at home. As for those wealthy and powerful families, even if their families have tens of thousands of hectares of fertile land, their income will decrease year by year as the prices of grain and cloth prices continue to fall.

For the owner of the manor, growing grain has become unprofitable. Even if the output increases, it cannot be sold at a good price. If you want to buy various handicraft products, such as sugar, fragrant medicine, etc. from the market, and buy them with physical goods (grain cloth), it is far less affordable than buying them with copper coins.

A wealthy family has big business and big expenses. If this continues, it will be difficult to make ends meet. If you don’t find a way to resolve it in time, you will go bankrupt.

Of course, this situation will not happen yet. The aristocratic families and wealthy families may be able to last for many years, but ordinary farmers can no longer hold on.

Judging from the situation since ancient times, when farmers cannot hold on, they will never pay off their debts due to usury, and eventually become tenant farmers of wealthy families, and even sell themselves as slaves.

Therefore, what big families expect most is natural disasters and man-made disasters. This is the best time to annex the land.

Most of the land that was annexed by aristocratic families was hidden land and would not pay the slightest rent to the court; most of the tenants and people enslaved by aristocratic families were hidden households, and would not pay the slightest rent to the court, and would not bear labor.

The great families of aristocratic families are getting stronger and stronger, but the court has no choice but to do anything about this.

But now it is different. The grain price is low and the distribution price is low. Farmers in Hebei (the coast of Yongji Canal) cannot hold on. They can borrow low-interest "qingmiao loan" from Xinxingfangs such as Rixingchang, or sublease the land to a large trading company, and then work in the Yongji Canal area, relying on the work income to subsidize their household income.

The court gave ordinary farmers a new choice. This choice did not require them to sell land or body, nor did they need to make cattle and horses for the aristocratic families. They just needed to rely on work to support themselves.

When Wei Xuan thought of this, he was shocked and moved. The emperor’s layout over the past few years has finally revealed his true face. A Yongji Canal is not just a canal.

With the full opening of Yongji Canal, a bloodless war has begun. The emperor himself is the one who started this war.

The first battle was to compete for farmers and labor.

......

At night, Zhang Dingfa, who had been busy for a day, chatted with his wife Liu Caiyun, who had been busy for a day. In the blink of an eye, twenty years have passed, and the couple in distress have become old couples.

Time left traces on the faces of the two, but the relationship between them could not be cut off.

While pinching Zhang Dingfa's shoulders, Liu Caiyun talked about the family's industry. The full opening of Yongji Channel means that a trade route is opened and merchants who are already ready will soon show their skills.

Of course, Liu Caiyun, a female hero, is also among them, but now she is no longer needed to go into battle personally, and the shopkeepers can give the code. So the battle is imminent, and Liu Caiyun is extremely busy and busy, and she is a little haggard.

This made "Zhang Jun", who was always trying to persuade farmers and sericultures, cut off lawsuits, and chatted with Yingyan of the prefecture and county, feel a little sad, but it is hard to say anything, because now is indeed a critical moment.

But you still have to say what you should say. Zhang Ding said earnestly: "The master has been planning for many years, and now he has finally come to see the picture... Well, when it comes to seeing the real chapter, those local snakes are desperate, and they are afraid they will be anxious to jump over the wall. You should be careful when you are out."

"I am a woman, what should I be careful about?"

"That's not the case, you know. I am an official in Beizhou and attacking the powerful. I don't know how many people I have offended. They dare not do anything on the surface, but they will play tricks on the inside."

"I know, I've always been careful, but you haven't offended anyone yet, right?" Liu Caiyun paused and smiled, "We are afraid there are many more helpers on our side than the other party."

The lady was right, Zhang Dingfa did not continue to talk about this topic. Seeing that the emperor had already taken action, he was full of confidence and saw the court deal with the local snakes in Hebei.

Now there are some undercurrents in Hebei. In order to prevent accidents, the court mobilized troops to set up defenses along the Yongji Canal. The King of Yan went to Youzhou to take office. Once there was any chaos in Hebei, he could directly lead his troops south along the Yongji Canal and sweep away all the ghosts and monsters.

The official army equipped with artillery is not something that those private soldiers can fight against. Zhang Dingfa is not afraid of the powerful under his command causing trouble. On the contrary, he is also prepared. If someone really wants to be honest, he will make the other party look good.

The emperor asked him to be the governor of Beizhou to prepare for the arrival of this day. This bloodless war has begun. The first confrontation between the two sides was to compete for the peasants.

But the court relied on economic means.

Low grain prices make farming unprofitable. Of course, ordinary farmers are the ones who are hit first, but the imperial court used the method of "work-for-relief" to give farmers a good way out, at least in the areas along the Yongji Canal.

Then, the aristocratic families and powerful families who own a large number of farmland and manors are in trouble.

The other party is rich and powerful, and will not hurt the foundation for a while, but the trend is there. Farmers who are short of money have better choices. Under normal circumstances, they will not give large households the opportunity to merge land.

The rich and wealthy farmers, who see that going to work is more cost-effective than making cattle and horses for the owner, will naturally escape.

The people may not know a word, but they have the instinct to seek profit and avoid harm. What they see and hear will make them make the right choice.

But in this way, many fleeing farmers and tenants became fugitives, and the master's family would definitely not give up.

But we cannot sue the official because most of these farmers and tenants are hidden households, which means that in the open, there are no such people under the name of the master's family.

A family with thousands of hectares of fertile land and thousands of children and servants is often an ordinary family with "nearly a thousand acres of thin land and more than a hundred weak slaves" in the official booklets. Over the years, they have paid rent and mediocre orders according to this amount.

Now, there are suddenly many "escapers" in their names. These fugitive contracts have never been registered with the government. If you dare to file a complaint at the government, you will first explain the issue of the hidden household clearly.

Therefore, many wealthy families chose to send private soldiers to capture the fugitives, which was exactly what Zhang Ding thought.

To be precise, the governors and county magistrates of various states cannot sit idly by the act of "bullying kidnapping good people". A cannot say that B is a fugitive, B is a fugitive, and there must be evidence, and the evidence is a contract.

If there is no contract, it means that Party A is a bully and his behavior is to plunder the population. The government must strictly punish him.

If you have a contract, but find that you are not registered with the government and do not pay taxes every year, that means...

No matter what kind of rhetoric is, it means that the so-called master's family has broken the law. Since it has broken the law, the handle is in the hands of the government...

Even if you don't die, you have to peel off a layer of skin.

Such a method is much more clever than forcibly measuring the land and cleaning hidden houses. Zhang Dingfa knew that although the court really wanted to be tough, the emperor thought that the world was finally peaceful, so he didn't want to use a knife, so he would move a soft knife if he wanted to.

If you cut your flesh with a soft knife, you can't tell the pain of the person being cut, but you will definitely have resentment, so you must be careful of the tricks.

Zhang Dingfa was thinking about official business, but Liu Caiyun did not disturb him. His husband went to Beizhou to take office, and she and her son stayed in Chang'an. This was not because the couple had a gap, but because they couldn't leave.

As the "insider leader" of the Zhang family, Liu Caiyun is in charge of the large and small industries in the family. Although the shopkeepers share the burden, she is in charge of the accounts. She still has to make decisions on some major issues, so she will not be able to leave Beijing for a while.

By the end of last year, Liu Caiyun finally got busy and came to Beizhou to reunite with Zhang Dingfa.

By the way, I will work hard for my own career.

Yongji Canal is not a simple canal, but a commercial road. The wealthy families in Shannan and Henan have united and together with partners from all over Hebei, they want to make a big fuss on Yongji Canal. As one of them, she cannot leave.
Chapter completed!