My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 619 The Difficult Process

To be honest, Liu Rong had been brewing this idea for a long time.

Moreover, even when this idea was still in its early stages, Liu Rong already had a strong urge to put it into practice.

—By taking advantage of the feudal emperors’ theoretical authority to “naturally possess all things in heaven and earth”, they used land sales as a medium to buy back the land from the people of the world bit by bit.

We buy land from farmers when they decide to sell it.

Those who know what's good for them will sell the land belonging to dukes, marquises, and nobles to Liu Rong.

Those who are ungrateful will either have their lineage cut off, be stripped of their country, have their family property confiscated, and then be bought back by Liu Rong from the Prime Minister's treasury.

They could either be imprisoned, have their property confiscated to cover up their crimes, or let Liu Rong experience the thrill of "no one gets rich without windfall" and "the most ruthless form of wealth is confiscating property."

The lands of powerful landlords and tycoons were even more formidable—their control of imperial mausoleums and cities allowed them to forcibly relocate heroes from all over the land to Guanzhong, forcing them to sell their property.

As long as it's available, Liu Rong can afford to buy and eat it.

Buying all the land in the world and then lending it to the people to cultivate can actually be considered another form of public land ownership.

—As the supreme ruler of the Han dynasty, how could Liu Rong not be considered 'public'? And what belongs to Liu Rong, how could it not be considered 'publicly owned'?

All of these are lands that are not privately owned, and all of these are lands that cannot be bought or sold privately.

Compared to the rigid application of the public ownership of land, Liu Rong's "imperial land ownership system" was even more in line with the historical context and more easily accepted by the era.

Moreover, doing so can do more than just curb land annexation;

It played a very significant and positive role in the Han dynasty's ruling position, its prestige and positive image among the people.

Just imagine;
Your ancestors were extremely poor and never even dared to dream of owning their own land.

As a result, Emperor Taizu Gaozu simply wrote a stroke of his pen and gave you a hundred acres of land for free!
This kindness, your family should remember it for at least three to five generations, if not for generations.
it is good.

Three or five generations later, your family, unsurprisingly, sold off those hundred acres of land and became penniless tenant farmers again.

As a result, Emperor Liu Rong once again wielded his pen and "returned" the land you had sold to you intact.

Although it's not really being returned to you, it's just being lent to you for seed;

But for you, as long as Liu Rong doesn't collect rent or taxes, whether he lends you the land to cultivate or gives it to you for free, it's essentially the same thing.

Owning land is equivalent to farming without paying rent or taxes.
Liu Rong lends you land for free, and you can still farm it without paying rent or taxes.

The only difference is that you can't sell the land Liu Rong lent you.

Apart from that, there is no difference.

You can plant it the same way;
What can be passed down to future generations, you can also pass down to your descendants.

The only difference is that they "cannot sell them for money," isn't that a good thing for farmers?
As the saying goes: A man is innocent unless he possesses a treasure.

There is also a saying: "A child carrying gold walks through a bustling market"—even sages cannot resist the urge to seize by trickery and force.

For farmers, especially those in feudal times, land ownership was often not a right, but rather a crime of "possessing a treasure".

For peasants in feudal times, the core meaning of land was not to sell it for emergency use when money was needed, but to use it as a means of production, exchanging labor for agricultural harvests to ensure survival.

This means that farmers care more about whether the land can be cultivated—especially whether they can cultivate it without paying rent or taxes—than whether they can sell the land for money.

The argument that land ownership gives farmers an extra option to "sell their land in emergencies" and enhances their ability to withstand risks is logically untenable.

—Most of the time, the reason why farmers need to sell their land to make ends meet is because landlords, powerful families, and corrupt officials artificially create an "emergency" in order to force farmers to sell their land.

This urgent matter could be debt, fluctuations in food prices, or even a negligible fine or an ordinary relationship.

Since they were being set up, and by landlords and officials who controlled social resources and power, the peasants naturally had no way to resist and could only accept their fate.

Forced into a corner, the land had no choice but to be sold, especially since it was land that landlords and officials had their eyes on—they were using you as a pretext to make trouble.
In the end, even if this land is sold, how much money can it fetch?

The most likely scenario is: an emergency requires 10,000 coins, the land can be sold for 8,000, and a large portion of the autumn harvest needs to be used to make up for the 10,000 coin shortfall.

As a result, half of the grain was taken, and they won't be able to make ends meet next year, so they'll have to sell land again...

In an endless vicious cycle, the originally self-reliant farmers will sooner or later be forced to become tenant farmers, or even sell their children, and ultimately have to sell their own slaves.

Such situations are by no means isolated cases, but rather a recurring phenomenon that has been constantly occurring since the beginning of the feudal era in Chinese civilization.

This was also the most common operating logic and method of land annexation in the feudal era of ancient China.

However, if Liu Rong's idea were to make all the land in the world belong to the emperor, and the "land ownership system by the emperor" were implemented, then the logic of land annexation would be destroyed from its very foundation.

Farmers no longer own land;
The land in the hands of farmers can only be used for farming.

Farmers who do not own land can no longer rely on selling land as a means of emergency relief, and landlords and officials are naturally unable to force farmers to sell their land to them at low prices.

To put it bluntly: how could a poor person with no credit card, a terrible credit history, and unable to borrow a single penny be targeted by a scammer?

Same thing.

When farmers no longer own the land, then naturally no one will be watching the land that farmers are cultivating.

Land is no longer circulated and can no longer serve as a medium for landlords, powerful figures, and corrupt officials to amass wealth. Land can then return to its most core social function: means of production.

While ordinary people theoretically do not own the land, they in fact permanently possess the right to use the land, and this right is unshakeable and unchangeable.

People can farm with peace of mind, and no matter what difficulties they encounter, there is only one way to solve the problem.

—Work harder to cultivate the land, exchange the harvest for money, and then use the money to solve difficulties, instead of directly selling the land.

This is just like an old hen.

In the past, farmers owned hens and relied on the eggs laid by them to make a living.

But there are always landlords, powerful figures, and corrupt officials who want to eat chickens, so they use tricks and force farmers to give them their old hens.

They feasted on the river's bounty, while the common people lost their laying hens and were driven to despair. Now, Liu Rong plans to buy up all the hens in the world, thus creating the objective reality that 'only the emperor can own hens, and anyone else who owns a hen can be directly judged as stealing the emperor's property.'

Then, the old hen was lent to the people free of charge.

The people are never required to return the hen, but they are not allowed to dispose of it either. They are only allowed to borrow the hen to lay eggs and live off the eggs.

So, how do ordinary people feel?
Specifically regarding the current situation of the Han dynasty—sixty years ago, Emperor Gaozu gave each farmer in the entire country one hundred mu of land for free.

In the future, when all the farmers in the world have squandered the blessings bestowed by Emperor Taizu Gao, Emperor Liu Rong will step forward again and give the land he bought with his own money back to the farmers.

At the same time, Emperor Liu Rong thoughtfully said: "I'm afraid that if the land is left in your hands, it will be snatched away again, so I won't give you the land deeds."
I hold the land deed; no one dares to snatch it. I hand it over to you to cultivate, to cultivate for generations to come. I will never ask for it back.

I ask you, is it not enough for all the farmers in the world to remember the kindness of the Liu family for ten or eight generations?
The "ten or eight generations" mentioned here are what later historians referred to as those who continued the Han Dynasty's national fortune for a hundred years.

Crucially, the land was under imperial control, making it virtually impossible for the regime to cease functioning due to dynastic changes or the 300-year dynastic cycle.

From the day it was first established, the imperial system of land ownership became the core national policy and the unquestionable foundation of the country for every feudal dynasty in China.

Any individual or group that attempts to shake this system will be swept into the dustbin of history.

When land can no longer serve as a medium for the privileged class to amass wealth, the privileged class will collapse and focus its energy on other areas.

—What will the nobles do when they can no longer get food from the peasants?

Of course, it's not about giving up greed or accumulating wealth, but about finding another direction.

Historical experience tells Liu Rong that in the new era, when farmers are protected by the state in all aspects, the privileged class can only set its sights on the fields of commerce and technology.

In this era, Liu Rong was absolutely certain that landlords, powerful figures, and corrupt officials who could not force farmers to sell their land or annex land would inevitably turn their wealth accumulation to industry and commerce.

Of course, it was not the kind of large-scale, high-tech commerce and light and heavy industry that existed in later generations;

Rather, it was trade that was unique to this era, regardless of scale, and handicrafts that required low investment and low technical difficulty.

For Liu Rong and for Chinese civilization, this is undoubtedly another great benefit.

On the one hand, the privileged class no longer harassed the peasants, allowing them to farm with peace of mind, and the country's stability naturally improved significantly.

Even the lifespan of a dynasty would be greatly extended—even if it couldn't match the eight-hundred-year Zhou dynasty, it would certainly break the curse of the three-hundred-year dynasty cycle.

On the other hand, the greed of the privileged class will not destroy the existing industry and commerce of the Han people, but will instead stimulate the rapid development of industry and commerce.

The reason is simple;
The privileged class harasses the peasants, specifically targeting their land;

They always think about taking farmers' land for themselves and then renting it out to farmers to cultivate. All things considered, this is equivalent to making farmers give up a portion of their harvest each year as rent for the land.

However, the logic behind privileged classes investing in industry and commerce is different.

—The privileged class bullies farmers who only focus on the land because farming doesn't make them a lot of money, especially not in a short period of time.

Grain is worthless; land is valuable!

In industry and commerce, what is valuable is neither the workshops nor the artisans, but the goods produced.

Therefore, the privileged class's exploitation of the peasantry is all about controlling the means of production; they are always thinking about how to take control of them.

However, in industry and commerce, the privileged class only pursues profits, and in the process, they unconsciously promote the development of industry and commerce.

In pursuit of higher profits, these unscrupulous scoundrels will inevitably find production methods that are more cost-effective, efficient, low-cost, and profitable.

At the same time, they will develop even more sophisticated business tactics to maximize their profits.

As for the merchants who were taken advantage of—who cares whether they live or die?

The Han dynasty only needed the existence of merchants to ensure the smooth flow of goods and trade throughout the land.

As for who becomes a merchant, the Han people don't care at all.

The principle of survival of the fittest, when applied to the privileged class and peasants, is undoubtedly undermining the foundation of the Han Chinese state.
But when applied to industry and commerce, it is used on the privileged class and merchants.
All Liu Rong wanted to say was: Stop bothering me!
When will you obediently pay your commercial taxes before you come to me with your complaints!
From all of the above, Liu Rong's blueprint for "imperial land ownership" was undoubtedly quite feasible.

However, this is not without problems, hidden dangers, or obstacles.

The simplest example: Liu Rong, as the emperor, was acquiring land across the land on a large scale, which was also another form of land annexation.

The only difference was that the one who annexed the land changed from the landlords, powerful clansmen, and corrupt officials of the past to the emperor himself, who had an even more powerful background.

Liu Rong certainly meant well, wanting to establish a 'land imperial system' to eliminate future problems related to land annexation.

But how many people can understand Liu Rong's good intentions?
Liu Rong was certain: the farmers at the bottom of society couldn't understand it.

In the eyes of the farmers, Liu Rong, who was buying up land all over the country, was an epic-level evil gentry and corrupt official who inspired despair!
Liu Rong, as the emperor, was an epic-level tyrant on par with Jie of Xia and Zhou of Shang!

Admittedly, once Liu Rong had dealt with the infamy and finally established a system of land ownership for the emperor, the common people would indeed belatedly say: Oh~
So that's what Your Majesty was thinking.

We have misunderstood His Majesty.
But all of this is predicated on the premise that Liu Rong can ultimately bring about a system of land ownership by the emperor.

Despite being universally condemned as a tyrant and a foolish ruler, and despite strong opposition from the court, he remained firmly seated on the throne and ultimately achieved his goal.

Once the mission was accomplished and the results were revealed, the people of the world finally realized that they had misunderstood Liu Rong.

Before that, no one knew that they had misunderstood Liu Rong's concept of the world—every single person would become a stumbling block in Liu Rong's way and an important part of the surging public resentment.

This is no different from a battle.

A war initiated by Liu Rong for the sake of his people, but which resulted in his people standing against him.

The consequences of standing against one's own people are self-evident.

Regardless of the purpose or reason, as long as a feudal emperor stands against his people, he will immediately lose the very foundation upon which he became an 'emperor'.

An emperor who has lost his subjects and is no longer followed by them is even less likely to gain the support of the bureaucracy.

The better ones are sidelined by the bureaucracy and are often made scapegoats.
If you're unlucky enough to run into a "ambitious person," you might be dethroned and die—this isn't a rare occurrence in history.

(End of this chapter)