The elite did not migrate south

Chapter 498 Undoubted Belief
During the reign of Sima Yan, the military farming system was abolished.

Because the ministers at that time wrote to the emperor, saying that the people's lives were too hard under the military farming system, and that the expenditures were increasing due to corruption. It would be better to abolish the military farming system directly and let the people become self-cultivating farmers.

Anshi followed this advice and abolished Wei's military farming system, turning all the people who farmed in the military farms into self-cultivating farmers in the prefectures and counties.

Then this decision brought an even bigger problem to the Western Jin Dynasty.

In the past, the big families had to annex the farmland secretly, after all, the public land belonged to the government. But now that the farmland has fallen into the hands of the self-cultivating farmers, why should they be polite?

The land annexation by the big families has reached a very crazy level.

At that time, there was a general named Pang Zong, who had annexed hundreds of hectares of fertile land, and he was not even considered a member of a large family.

It is really difficult to calculate how much fertile land those top families have.

After realizing this problem, the wise men at that time immediately wrote to Sima Anshi, informing him of a series of feasible solutions.

The first thing they thought of was to restrict the big families from recruiting tenants, hoping to protect the self-cultivating farmers in this way.

Unfortunately, this policy has too many loopholes. The wealthy families have plenty of ways to make the self-cultivating farmers bankrupt, and after the bankruptcy, the self-cultivating farmers will beg to become tenants or simply become refugees in order to support themselves.

And we are not allowed to recruit tenants. This is easy to deal with. These are not tenants, but my family’s slaves!
You can't stop us from recruiting slaves, can you?
After the first attempt failed, the eunuch agency at the time quickly came up with a second feasible solution.

They made great reforms to agriculture and taxation at that time.

The purpose is to restrict the unscrupulous merger behavior of large families and protect self-cultivating farmers from going bankrupt easily.

There are four items in total.

The first one is called the land occupation system. Simply put, it is to group the population. Those aged 12 to 66 are called "zhengding", minors and the elderly are called "ciding", and those who are too young or too old are not counted. The standards are and years old respectively.

The decree stipulated that a male adult must own 70 mu of arable land, and a female adult must own 30 mu of arable land, and also stipulated the taxes they had to pay.

This was a mandatory requirement. Arable land was a must, and if there was none, it had to be reclaimed. It can be seen that the government at that time had a good idea and wanted everyone to have arable land.

After the implementation of this decree, every farmer could legally own arable land. Many tenants also broke away and went to the government to ask for their own arable land, which made the wealthy families extremely angry.

To ensure these self-cultivating farmers wouldn't quickly go bankrupt, a second policy was enacted: the household tax system. This system levied taxes directly on the head of the household, rather than on the individual. For example, "Households with adult males were required to pay three pieces of silk and three catties of cotton annually; households with females and males under the age of adult males were required to pay half that."

This included all people, even the Hu people on the border, and it was the first time that they were included in the tax system.

Then there is the system of officials from the big families occupying land and providing tenants with benefits. This is to divide the big families into different levels, just like the levels in novels. The amount of arable land and the number of tenants that big families of different levels can own are different.

The government has very strict requirements on this, trying to lock them up as much as possible to prevent them from continuing to expand.

Finally, of course, the Changping Warehouse was established to maintain the prices of agricultural products and grain and ensure the interests of self-cultivating farmers.

Cao Mao looked at Zhang Hua at this moment, and Zhang Hua was obviously thinking about something.

Cao Mao knew better than anyone how serious the problem of annexation was.

But now is really not the time to take action.

That is the foundation of the big family. Touching it is equivalent to declaring war on everyone. Just look at the implementation of these policies during the time of Sima Yan.

Almost every minister who wanted to do this was dismissed, exiled, or simply banned from participating in government affairs.

The counterattack of the great families made the dynasty stagger and the local areas turbulent. The great families continued to study conspiracies to break the deadlock, distorting the policies that were used to restrict them, causing the four policies to come to nothing.

If we want to solve this problem, we must first achieve unification.

Cao Mao knew very well that although the existence of these termites had always been disgusting, it was not the time to deal with them yet.

"Maoxian, don't think about it anymore."

"The house has just been cleaned, but there are still two walls missing."

"We have to patch up this wall and then catch the rats."

"What do you think?"

Zhang Hua looked at Cao Mao standing beside him. For a moment, Zhang Hua felt that what he had just thought was exactly the same as what the emperor was thinking.

It was difficult for Zhang Hua to describe this feeling, as Cao Mao understood him very well.

I felt that no matter what I said, the emperor would completely believe in me and support me with all his strength.

Zhang Hua really didn't know what he had done to deserve such love and meet such a king.
The two looked at each other.

Both of them had firm looks in their eyes.

Zhang Hua thought to himself that even if he was torn to pieces, he would create this prosperous era for His Majesty.

But Cao Mao was thinking, this time, you can finally give it your all and will never suffer the same injustice as in history.

"His Majesty!!"

A shout came from outside the door, interrupting their thoughts.

The man who came was Cheng Ji. He walked to Cao Mao's side, glanced at Zhang Hua, and said in a deliberately low voice: "Your Majesty, Ji Kang is here."

Cao Mao looked at him in surprise.

"They're here, so why are you saying this? I would have thought it was Liu Chan and Sun Liang!"

Cheng Ji explained: "He said there was something important that he didn't want others to know." "Then you can't be on guard against Mao Xian, how could he not know?!"

Cao Mao sighed and waved his hand, "Let him in!"

Cheng Ji walked out, and soon he came to the East Hall with someone.

The person who came was Ji Kang.

"Greetings to Your Majesty!"

After seeing Ji Kang, Zhang Hua stood up and pulled Cheng Ji out of the East Hall.

Cao Mao asked Ji Kang to sit next to him. "Isn't Ji Kang having fun at home? How could he have time to come to my place?"

"Ahem, I haven't seen Your Majesty for a long time, so I came here."

"That's not what you said when you came to see me last time."

A trace of guilt flashed across Ji Kang's face. He explained, "Your Majesty, I used to immerse myself in metaphysics and neglected the classics. Recently, I have had many conversations with the prince and have apologized to him. Your Majesty is right. Empty talk and inaction are indeed not suitable for the present."

Cao Mao looked at him in surprise.

In his opinion, even if the scholars regained their faith, these people in the bamboo forest would probably not change.

The temporary shelters that the scholars built for themselves were just thatched grass, which could be blown away by a gust of wind from Wang Su. However, the shelters of the people in Zhulin were made of bricks and stones, which could not be blown down by the wind.

But it seems that Ji Kang is also an outlier among those seven people.

Ji Kang was a person who easily trusted others. Apart from his literary talent and poetry, he did not even have any other talents. However, there was one thing about him: he was a person who did not like to pretend.

Ji Kang did not deliberately act like a celebrity.

Like Guanqiu Jian, he was a born celebrity.

There is still some difference between a pretentious celebrity and a real celebrity. A real celebrity is genuine in nature. He drinks because he wants to drink, and he is unruly because he ignores etiquette.

As for the fake celebrities, they drink to become famous and live a dissolute life to become famous. Everything they do is done with a purpose.

This is probably why Zhong Hui worshipped him so crazily.

Facts have proved that these true celebrities are often the first to die.

After Ji Kang learned about Wang Su's Confucian classics, he began to doubt his own knowledge of Confucian classics. In fact, many of Ji Kang's Confucian classics came from famous scholars such as He Yan, who were influenced by Wang Su's Confucian classics.
The two sides are completely unequal in terms of classics.

After meeting Wang Su, Ji Kang repeatedly discussed with him issues about metaphysics, and finally, Ji Kang was successfully convinced.

Facing Cao Mao's suspicious gaze, Ji Kang whispered, "Your Majesty, I came here today because of a very important matter."

"You go ahead and tell me."

"Yesterday, General Pingbei sent someone to look for me. I was reluctant to go, but I was worried that this matter was related to something bigger."

"He wants us to help him build momentum."

"Rehabilitate Wang Rong."

The General Pingbei that Ji Kang mentioned was Wang Rong's uncle Wang Yi.

When Cao Mao heard this, he narrowed his eyes.

This person has been at the border for a long time, that is, in Youzhou, and is mainly responsible for the local defense against the Xianbei.

Cao Mao asked cautiously, "Did he see him in person?"

"No, he sent this person."

If General Pingbei came without notice, it would be tantamount to treason, but if he sent someone to redress the injustice of his own children,
Cao Mao hesitated for a moment, "I know about this matter"

Cao Mao looked at Ji Kang again. Ji Kang had always been sincere to his friends, and Wang Rong was one of them. This was probably the reason why the other party's relatives came to him.

"No wonder Ji Gong didn't want outsiders to see it. He didn't want to be branded as a traitor to his friend."

"That's not the case. It's just that General Pingbei summoned more people than just me, so I came here."

Cao Mao asked curiously, "You have always valued your friends. Why did you choose to tell me this time?"

Ji Kang said calmly, "If General Pingbei were to collude with foreign enemies, it would be detrimental to the unification of the country. Peace would not come, and benevolent governance would be difficult."

Cao Mao once again felt Wang Su's power.

Ji Kang then said, "Your Majesty, General Pingbei and his son have served in You for many years and have made great contributions. If he is not guilty of treason, please forgive his mistakes for the sake of his father."

Cao Mao pursed his lips. He couldn't give Ji Kang an accurate answer.

It mainly depends on Wang Yi’s own ideas and practices.

Wang Rong's death penalty had been pardoned and he was exiled to Bingzhou, which was already a great mercy. If his clansmen insisted on seeking redress, they would have gathered everyone to oppose Cao Mao.

Then I can't blame myself for letting Wang Xiong cover the rear.
Cao Mao calmly replied, "This matter is not my fault, but Wang Yi's."

(End of this chapter)