The elite did not migrate south

Chapter 585: Farming First
Just as the officials of the Ministry of Works considered, in fact, the economic and other benefits of developing those areas in Jingnan and Jiaozhou would not be great.

Even Lu Kang, who was not a good person, might send troops to cause sabotage from time to time and delay the construction project.

However, if this place could really be built, it would make a huge difference between the rule of Wei and the rule of Wu.

That would be fun.

Wang Ji has already submitted a petition to the imperial court, hoping to exempt local taxes and use farmland to appease the people. In short, he wants to throw all the good policies here.

The main theme is to show benevolence to the people of Wu.

When those forcibly relocated people began to flee back to their original places in large numbers, it was time for the Wu Kingdom to perish.

Cao Mao thought for a moment and agreed with Du Yu's idea.

Some of the temple's construction projects may not get any corresponding returns at all and will consume a lot of manpower and material resources. However, this does not matter. The temple is not a profit-making organization, and Cao Mao is not a businessman.

There are some things that you still have to do even if you know you will lose money.

Cao Mao discussed many matters concerning the construction there with Du Yu. After Cao Mao ascended the throne, the construction of the temple was relatively restrained.

It is completely incomparable to the time of Emperor Ming.

Emperor Ming was fond of undertaking engineering projects. During the reigns of several powerful ministers, they did not value the people's strength and carried out projects on a large scale. During the reign of Cao Mao, they finally restrained themselves a little. Up to now, Cao Mao has hardly carried out any engineering projects or imposed heavy labor service except for some necessary road construction and city repairs.

Despite the size of the Wei State, it had no intention of launching corvee labor, while the Wu State was constantly imposing corvee labor.

Cao Mao was quite interested in the lake farmland of Wu State. He even wondered if he should wait until it was completed before attacking.
There are still many good people in the Wu Kingdom, such as Sun Chen and Puyang Xing. These people are so good, unlike that hateful Lu Kang!

After discussing the construction of Jingnan with Du Yu, Cao Mao hurriedly left.

He still has a lot to do.

The issue at the Ministry of Industry has been resolved.

The next big thing is the recovery in Shu.

Shu is a land of abundance. It has existed as a granary since the Qin Dynasty. Just think about it, during Zhuge Liang's time, the population of Shu was able to support so many soldiers and horses without feeling exhausted.

Even during the reign of Jiang Wei, Shu was able to maintain an army of about 100,000 men.

There are many places in Shu that are suitable for farming, but they were exploited too much in the past.

There was also the parasite of the powerful families, who embezzled large amounts of land, greatly reducing the tax revenue for the temple.

After acquiring a large amount of arable land, they usually chose to conceal the land and tenants, and then only pay very little tax to the temple.

This led to large-scale population extinctions and population explosions in ancient history.

After the chaotic times, the population increased several times in just a few years. This was partly due to the greatly increased birth rate caused by social stability, but more importantly, it was because the big families were too competitive to hide their land.

On the other hand, before Cao Cao, the world practiced head tax, which is often called calculated tax or mouth tax. However, at the end of the Han Dynasty, the world was in chaos and currency was no longer important. Naturally, the tax system of paying currency was no longer feasible. So, Cao Cao began to implement the household tax system, that is, paying taxes according to households.

The rent of land under rent adjustment is relatively low, and it has two characteristics: the first is that the rent does not increase with increased production, and the second is that the tax does not increase with increased population.

According to the original tax rate, as your property increased, you had to pay more taxes, and if you had children, you had to pay taxes on the children. This led to the people being unwilling to cultivate the land and preferring to be tenants, and they did not dare to have children.

Each additional child meant an additional tax burden, so why would ordinary people have children? There was even a large number of abandoned and stillborn babies.
Cao Wei was the first to change this situation, increasing production without increasing rent and increasing population without increasing taxes.

Soon after, the states of Shu and Wu also began to follow suit.

This led to a large increase in the country's population and arable land.

However, this also created excellent conditions for the big families, because the tax under the new system was a fixed value, so they could expand their farmland unscrupulously, and the number of people paying taxes outside was decreasing, and the income of the temple was getting lower and lower.

All I can say is that no matter what we do, it will still be this group of people who benefit.

However, Shu has unique advantages in farming. If we can farm well here, we can make Shu the number one grain-producing area in the entire Wei Dynasty in the future.

Therefore, Cao Mao needed someone who was good at farming.

"His Majesty!!"

When Cao Mao's carriage broke into the mansion, Deng Ai hurriedly bowed to greet him.

Deng Ai's expression at this moment was really embarrassing.

Because he was not alone in the mansion, there was someone beside him, and that person was Shi Bao, who had been dismissed from his official position.

Shi Bao came this time to have a friendly chat with Deng Ai.

Deng Ai gave him a lot of instructions at the beginning, telling him not to be afraid and to attack bravely. He also said that he would definitely deal with these people. Then, Shi Bao was dealt with first.

Shi Bao was not so discouraged by this that he would ask Deng Ai for an explanation.

When the emperor asked me to go to the frontier, wasn't it also to let me do something?

He actually just wanted to talk to Deng Ai about their future and see if there was any chance for them to make a comeback.

Shi Bao wasn't old, and his abilities were quite good compared to many other generals. He was originally scheduled to lead four expeditions and four garrisons, but now he was just a nobody, which made him feel a little bit unhappy. Sure enough, Cao Mao was surprised to see the two men standing together.

Deng Ai hurriedly stood up and explained, "Your Majesty, Ai, Ai, Ai is definitely not secretly plotting with my colleagues. We are just discussing politics, politics, politics."

Shi Bao felt a darkness before his eyes.

There was nothing going on originally, but after you said that, the atmosphere suddenly became tense!

Sure enough, talking to this person about your future is just like talking to Zhong Hui about your marriage!
It's complete nonsense!

I shouldn't have come here.

When Cao Mao heard Deng Ai's words, he couldn't help laughing.

"Okay, I understand."

He looked at Shi Bao and said, "Since you're here, don't leave so quickly. I have something to tell you later!"

Shi Bao was overjoyed and bowed quickly.

He was not worried about the emperor coming to settle accounts with him, but he was worried about the emperor not coming to settle accounts with him.

Cao Mao took Deng Ai into the study. Shi Bao didn't dare to go in and had to wait at the door.

Deng Ai is now helping out in the Ministry of War. Although the Shangshu has a lot of opinions about him, the rest of the people in the Ministry of War still like Deng Ai quite a bit.

Deng Ai taught them a lot and also helped to reduce their workload.

Deng Ai was a man who could not sit still. In the Ministry of War, he participated in the work of these people everywhere and gave them orders.

Deng Ai's behavior seemed annoying to Chen Qian and others, but in the eyes of these officials, Deng Ai was a famous general who destroyed an entire country, and it was a great honor to be told what to do by him.

Besides, you can learn a lot from Deng Ai.

When Cao Mao followed him into the study, he found that his study was extremely messy and there was almost no place to stand.

There were many documents placed around the room. These were not military strategies, but looked like they were written by Deng Ai himself. Cao Mao picked up one out of curiosity.

This is not a military strategy written by Deng Ai himself, but some records.

It records the situation in various places, enemy and friendly analysis, etc.

Cao Mao looked at it carefully for a long time before he sighed, "General Deng really can't let go of this important matter."

Upon hearing this, Deng Ai immediately knelt down and saluted Cao Mao.

"Your Majesty, I, Ai, I have admitted my mistakes. Please allow me to go to the frontier and serve as a cavalry commander."

Deng Ai's life in Luoyang seemed very lively, much better than staying in the frontier, but like Wen Yang, he was also a man with his own ideas.

Deng Ai enjoyed the pleasure of leading troops to fight in the frontier and making great achievements.

However, Cao Mao had no intention of letting him lead troops in the short term. Wei was in a crushing situation against Wu, and he did not need to use someone like Deng Ai who was easily out of control, even if he was indeed a famous general.

After the Wu Kingdom is pacified, perhaps he can fight against the Hu people who are unwilling to be civilized, but wanting to fight the Wu Kingdom is a dream!

Cao Mao looked at Deng Ai kneeling before him with a stern face. "I understand your thoughts, General. I came here to ask you about something important."

"However, the Wu Kingdom has many generals who are familiar with the Wu territory, so there is no need to trouble General Deng to come forward."

Deng Ai raised his head hastily, "If the imperial court deploys troops against Tuoba, I will be the vanguard!"

Cao Mao was stunned. "When will the imperial court use military force against Tuoba?"

Deng Ai said confidently: "The war between Wei and Tuoba will happen within these five years."

"Oh? How do you know?"

Deng Ai said seriously, "If Your Majesty pacifies the Wu Kingdom, the next step will definitely be to take action against the Tuoba people, either to educate them or to destroy their country."

"I have already met with Desert Khan. Judging from his words and actions, I'm afraid Tuoba will not easily accept it. I think Your Majesty already knows this, which is why he allowed Zhong Hui to participate in their affairs. In fact, it is to prepare for future wars!"

"I'm not entirely clear on the Tuoba situation, but they sent a hostage but didn't ask for a title. This is different from the past, indicating they're not willing to submit, but are simply stalling for time, hoping to find an opportunity in the future."

"If Your Majesty agrees"

When Deng Ai talked about these things, he didn't even stutter and spoke very fluently.

Cao Mao had no choice but to interrupt him, "We can talk about these things later. This time I came to you to discuss the affairs of Shu."

When he heard about Shu, Deng Ai suddenly dared not speak.

Shu should have been Deng Ai's proudest work, but unfortunately his arrogance ruined it all. When talking about Shu, Deng Ai's heart seemed to be shrouded in a shadow, with inexplicable unwillingness and regret. No one in the mansion dared to mention these two words again.

If he had restrained himself at that time, perhaps he should have been appointed General of the Western Expedition now, preparing to conquer the State of Wu and become the Grand General.

(End of this chapter)