My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 620 Oh ho
Even the beneficiaries of this plan—the ordinary people—would stand against Liu Rong because they couldn't see through his intentions;
Not to mention those "smarter" ones who were more likely to see through Liu Rong's intentions and understand that "land imperial ownership" would harm their own interests—the powerful landlords, dukes, nobles, and even high-ranking officials.

The fundamental logic of the land imperial system is actually similar to what many parents say to their children in later generations: "You're likely to lose your New Year's money if you keep it. I'll keep it with me and give it to you when you grow up."

Or perhaps I'll give you a little bit each time, so you can spend it slowly.

Although the parents will most likely not return this savings to their children in the end;

But there is no doubt that young children are indeed unable to properly preserve a 'huge sum of money' that is disproportionate to their age.

Parents take money under the guise of "saving it for you," and even if they spend it, at least they've spent it;
But if you let your children hold this money, the end result will either be that they lose it or they get scammed.

Liu Rong devised this system of "land imperial ownership" based on similar logic, using market means to take over the land that farmers were unable to protect or stably own, and then keep it for the benefit of the people.

But this deposit has no future, no return.

Just like in later generations, when children ask what happened to their New Year's money, parents will most likely say: "It was spent on you."

The land that Liu Rong saved for the people was also lent to them.

So, just imagine it;
How do toy stores, convenience stores, and online game companies of later generations view parents' practice of 'saving up New Year's money for their children'?
They must hate each other to the core, yet they can't vent their anger.

Left with no other choice, I can only indirectly "appeal" to this: do not deprive children of their childhood, and do not use your own greed as a pretext to benefit children.

In reality, what they truly want is neither to give their children a happy and fulfilling childhood, nor to correct the parents' greed.

A weasel offering New Year's greetings to a chicken is obviously not a good deed.

These people are the same—they spout morals and righteousness, but in the end, all they care about is their own business.

The same principle applies to Liu Rong's plan for 'imperial land ownership'.

Even though this idea is still just an 'idea', with no nascent form yet and Liu Rong hasn't even uttered a word about it, Liu Rong can easily imagine the attitudes that different social classes would show towards this new thing.

The first to be affected were naturally the landlords who quickly saw through Liu Rong's true intentions and realized his 'malicious intent'.

Of course, the landlords here are not the stereotypical landlords and rich people of later generations, but rather include, but are not limited to, wealthy farmers, powerful people, nobles, and even feudal lords and kings.

Upon realizing Liu Rong's malicious intentions, their first reaction was undoubtedly to strongly oppose him!

But soon they will realize that they seem to have no reason to oppose Liu Rong's acquisition and hoarding of land from farmers.

The greatest landlord in the world was undoubtedly the emperors of the Han Dynasty throughout history!

Why should a small landlord like you not allow a large landlord—especially the biggest landlord in the world—to buy land?

What if Liu Rong is pushed to the limit and decides to give up entirely, refusing to buy land himself and preventing anyone else from doing so?
Therefore, the only thing the landlords could do in response to Liu Rong's proactive and large-scale land acquisition was to bid against him.

They offered higher prices and, through auction-style transactions, intercepted the land sold by the farmers, preventing Liu Rong from buying any land.

But this was clearly not in the interests of the landlords.

The reason why farmers have to sell their land is precisely because these landlords use irresponsible means and invent various pretexts to force farmers to sell their land.

And it can't just be a simple sale; it has to be a fire sale!
The result was actually quite good;

The landlords entertained guests, bribed officials, pulled strings, and devised schemes.

After much effort, the farmers were finally guided to the bureau's side, and a massive amount of investment was poured in. Finally, the farmers were forced to sell their land at rock-bottom prices.

As a result, Emperor Rong popped out of the crack in the rock, saying that he wanted to auction off the land and the highest bidder would win.

Who could stand this...?

What's even more crucial is that in this world, who can compare to the Han emperor, who controls the imperial treasury, in terms of financial resources?
One minute they're saying this person is richer than a country, the next they're saying that person is richer than a country, but when you look at their assets, they're just a million dollars.

—The current imperial treasury of the Imperial Household Department has hundreds of millions of copper coins lying around!

Not to mention the gold, silver and other precious metals, whose total value is no less than that, as well as a vast amount of various resources.

With such a huge cash flow—and it's 'spare money' that can be used at will—if the landlords can offer high prices, why can't Liu Rong offer even higher prices?

For example, in the Weibei region, a top-quality field would cost no more than ten thousand coins.

The local landlords colluded with officials to set a trap, forcing the farmers to sell their land at a low price of five thousand coins.
Without saying a word, Liu Rong immediately offered ten thousand!
The landlords raised the price to 12,000, but Liu Rong immediately countered with 15,000!

The landlords offered 17,000, but Liu Rong got really angry and immediately offered 50,000!

What did the landlords say?
To buy or not to buy?
If they don't buy, Liu Rong will evolve from monopolizing the grain market in the past few years to monopolizing all agricultural land in the world!

Moreover, Liu Rong is the emperor!
The emperors of the feudal era!

Who dares to steal from the emperor?

Does anyone really believe that it's fair competition and the highest bidder wins?
Even if, hypothetically, the landlords ultimately managed to snatch the land from Liu Rong for over 50,000 coins, it wouldn't be a matter of spending a little more money.

Originally, the landlords could have acquired this land for 5,000 coins per mu.

Once you've bought the land, even if you're short on funds, you can resell it immediately for a market price of ten thousand coins.

The profit margin is 100% in the process of buying and selling.
Such a good business opportunity—even if the landlords didn't have the money, they would borrow money to do it!

But with Liu Rong interfering, things took a completely different turn.

The price of 50,000 coins is five times higher than the market price!
With land purchased at such a high price, it would take more than three to five years, or even eight to ten years, to recoup the costs through land rental.

—Even in the most fertile and productive farmland in the Weibei region during the Han Dynasty, the yield per mu is only slightly over four shi.

As for landlords—even the most unscrupulous and unscrupulous landlords in Guandong—they only dared to collect 50% of the taxes from the landlords, plus the farmers had to pay their own taxes.

In Guanzhong, most areas have a land rent of 40%, which includes agricultural tax but not poll tax;
Or it could be 30% land rent, excluding taxes.

Even if we calculate based on the highest rent of 50%, excluding taxes, a mu of fertile land bought at the exorbitant price of 50,000 coins would only contribute two shi of grain as rent to the landlord per year.

Two bushels of millet would only cost a little over fifty coins in the market.
With only fifty-odd coins of land rent per year, it would take a full thousand years to recoup the fifty thousand coins spent on the land purchase! Even the Zhou royal family didn't live for a thousand years!

Even the current Han Dynasty, if we go back a thousand years, would still be in the Yin and Shang Dynasties...

If this land is bought for five thousand coins, it can earn fifty coins in rent every year, and it will take a hundred years to break even on the cost of the land.
The landlords were actually quite happy about it!

After all, in Chinese history, the vast majority of powerful families accumulated land resources and wealth that could be called "family families" by relying on this vision that often lasted for hundreds of years.

But a thousand years is undoubtedly beyond the limit that the landlords can accept.

The main difference is that these two accounts give completely different impressions.

A piece of land worth 10,000 coins was bought back for 5,000 coins, so you've already made a profit of 5,000 coins.
If you rent out this land again, you can earn fifty coins in rent every year. After a hundred years, you can even earn back the five thousand coins you spent on buying the land.

It's like getting a piece of land worth 10,000 coins for free, and also providing a stable annual income of 50 coins for future generations.

Although a hundred years is a long time, requiring four to five generations, for the Chinese people who are obsessed with "doing something for their descendants" and "leaving something for their descendants," this is definitely a very worthwhile deal.

That is, spend five thousand coins to leave your descendants a piece of land worth ten thousand coins, which will generate a stable income of fifty coins every year.

No matter how you look at it, this deal is definitely a 'good deal'.

But if it's fifty thousand coins, that's a completely different story.

—A piece of land worth 10,000 coins was bought for 50,000 coins, and the moment the transaction was completed, a net loss of 40,000 coins was incurred!
Let alone the 50,000 coins spent on the land—even the 40,000 coins lost would take 800 years to earn back!
Eight hundred years later, it's still just a case of losses being recovered.

It would take another two hundred years to recover all the principal and start making a profit.

Let alone a thousand years or eight hundred years—two hundred years is enough to make people of this era lose the slightest desire to 'predict the future' or 'envision the future'.

This is especially true for the people of the Han Dynasty today.

—You should know that it was only seventy years ago that the First Emperor unified the world!

As a result, more than 60 years ago, the once invincible Qin Dynasty perished after only two generations!
As for the current Han dynasty, although it is better than the Qin dynasty which perished after only two generations, it is likely to enjoy a reign of more than a hundred years, or even one hundred and fifty years.

But for most others, no one dares to make a guarantee.

After all, the Zhou dynasty lasted for eight hundred years, but that was built on the premise that the Zhou royal family existed in name only during the five hundred and fifty years of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods.

The Zhou dynasty truly controlled the world and ruled over all its people for a total of only 250 years.

In this sense, the calculation is as follows: spend 50,000 coins to leave your descendants a piece of land worth 10,000 coins, which can generate 50 coins per year. It is almost impossible to recover the principal before the family line ends. It is merely a trust fund-like entity that spreads the initial capital of 50,000 coins over a thousand years and slowly distributes it to future generations.

Moreover, this trust fund offers no guarantees whatsoever.

Who knows, one day, the world will descend into chaos, and this land will be gone.

Especially when comparing the two, the former seems more appealing, while the latter seems more unacceptable.

Besides the feelings these two prices evoke in landowners, from a practical perspective, they also cause land transactions to fall into two completely different categories.

— Buying land worth 10,000 coins with 5,000 coins is an investment, a bargain;
To put it bluntly, even if you don't have any money on hand, as long as you can find a way to borrow money, you can still get something for nothing.

It's very simple: borrow 5,000 coins, buy the land, resell it for 10,000 coins, and then pay back the borrowed 5,000 coins.

If I have five thousand yuan left, I won't need to borrow money again next time I encounter such a good opportunity—I can buy it directly with my own money.

The first time I borrowed five thousand coins, I made a net profit of five thousand coins by flipping them.

The second time, he paid out of his own pocket, and the five thousand coins doubled to ten thousand.
The third time it became 20,000, the fourth time it became 40,000, then 80,000, 160,000, 320,000, 640,000...

There is no easier, faster, and least technically demanding way to accumulate wealth.

If someone with no money can achieve this, then it goes without saying that someone with money can do it even better.

Even idle, cockfighting, and dog-racing playboys can throw out their money without any psychological burden to make this sure-fire money-making deal.

The price of 50,000 coins was enough to keep all such speculators out of the land transaction market.

—A piece of land worth 50,000 coins is only worth 10,000 coins. Only someone who's lost their mind would borrow money to buy it!
Why did you buy it?

Borrow 50,000 yuan, buy this land, and resell it for 10,000 yuan—after doing this one thing, you inexplicably end up with a debt of 40,000 yuan.

Those who don't have money won't borrow to buy it, but those who do have money?
It can be bought with money; money doesn't grow on trees!

Such an obviously unprofitable deal would be something that anyone with the financial strength would be unwilling to take.

Even if everyone saw through Liu Rong's actions—that he was trying to monopolize the land and cut off everyone's path to exploiting the people—few people would dare to be the first to do so.

Why should I buy a piece of land that's worth 10,000 but is being sold for 50,000?
I have no interest in monopolies or anything like that!
I'll just mind my own business and protect my small estate!
Let someone else do the brave thing of going against the emperor...

In other words, it was difficult for the landlords to form a united front, to work together to "encircle and suppress Liu Rong" in the land transaction market, and even more difficult for them to have the consensus and awareness to encircle and suppress Liu Rong.

Even if they had seen through Liu Rong's sinister intentions in establishing an "imperial land system," they would still pretend not to hear or see anything for their own benefit.

Even when I can no longer play the ostrich, I still comfort myself with the thought: It's alright, His Majesty may not necessarily have this in mind.

Perhaps His Majesty also thinks buying land is a good deal?
Perhaps His Majesty is also a 'good gentry' like us...

Finally, let's discuss the most fundamental impact and differences caused by these two prices.

—Five thousand, fifty thousand, ten times the price;

This would result in a landlord who could originally afford 100 acres of land being able to buy only 10 acres with the same amount of money;

Half-price flash sale, five times the bidding, ten times the return on investment—especially considering the huge difference between making a profit of 100% and losing 80%.

This further filters out over 99% of the landowners who can afford and are willing to buy land from ordinary people.

(End of this chapter)