The elite did not migrate south

Chapter 662 There is one person!
Du Yu has been very busy these days.

Shu and Wu were simultaneously incorporated into Wei's construction list.

This undoubtedly increased Du Yu's workload, especially since the situations in these two places were not very optimistic. Hanzhong and other places in Shu were almost reduced to ruins, but Chengdu was relatively better.

As for the Wu Kingdom, Jingnan, Jiaozhou, Lujiang, and Wuchang
There are so many places that have been reduced to ruins and destroyed by war.

As the head of the Ministry of Works, Du Yu felt a buzzing in his ears every time he saw the memorials from various places requesting construction and repairs.

All places in the Wei Dynasty were also busy, submitting petitions requesting various types of construction.

But Du Yu didn't dare to pass it.

He had a lot of errands to do, and besides that, he also had to visit Ma Jun from time to time.

Because of His Majesty's attention, Ma Jun's mansion has undergone tremendous changes. The scale of his mansion is getting bigger and bigger, almost reaching the scale of the mansions of some ministers at the level of the Three Dukes.

And more and more people are active in his mansion.

Cao Mao intended to send those who were engaged in scientific research to Ma Jun, and asked Du Yu to select some smart young people to follow them to study and help them do their work.

Ma Jun was quite happy.

He had never received such attention in his life. He spent the whole day doing his favorite things. There were many people around him. No matter what ideas he had, the Ministry of Industry fully supported him and did not dare to neglect them at all.

Du Yu frowned and stood aside, watching Ma Jun showing off his new invention.

When the old man talked about his invention, he didn't stutter at all.

He speaks very fluently.

With people coming and going around, Cao Mao almost turned his place into a large laboratory.

Today, the best inventors in all of Wei gather here. Led by Ma Jun, they conduct scientific experiments in this huge mansion.

Cao Mao also gave their mansion a very impressive name, called Shanshi Mansion.

The name is taken from the saying "If you want to do your work well, you must first sharpen your tools."

As for why it is not called Liqi Mansion, it is probably because the name sounds unlucky.

As Ma Jun was speaking, he suddenly noticed that Du Yu, who was standing next to him, was in a daze.

Ma Jun suddenly stopped talking.

Du Yu suddenly woke up and bowed to Ma Jun. "Please don't blame me. I didn't mean to belittle you."

"No, no, no hindrance."

Ma Jun looked at him with a gentle expression. He said seriously, "It's all thanks to Minister Du that we have achieved the results we have today."

"The entire Charity House has prospered because of you."

"I know that Minister Du is considering important matters. Is there anything I can do to help?"

Du Yu smiled bitterly, "Ma Gong, it's not a big deal. It's just that the Southern Kingdom has just been pacified, and there are so many things to do that I don't know what to do for the time being."

Ma Jun pondered for a moment, then said thoughtfully, "These past few days, I've noticed that Minister Du has been very tired. It turns out it's because of this incident."

Du Yu felt even more ashamed, "Mr. Ma, I will never do such rude things again."

"Alas, Shang, why does the Shangshu say that? How could this old man ever blame you? Who in this palace hasn't received the Shangshu's kindness?"

Ma Jun didn't say anything more. After Du Yu left, he summoned everyone in the mansion.

Ma Jun sat in the upper seat, looking at the skilled craftsmen around him.

"Everyone, although I have become the master of this palace due to your majesty's grace, I have never given you any instructions and have always allowed you to do as you please."

"But today, when Minister Du spoke about the Southern Kingdom, his eyes were filled with worry. Over the years, Minister Du has been very supportive of us and has never been negligent. Today, he has something important to worry about, and we should also provide him with all our support."

"We don't understand the issues of distributing money and food and recruiting laborers."

"But we might be able to help with the tools, materials, transportation, and so on used in this construction. What do you think?"

These famous people exchanged glances before resolutely saying, "We were originally unknown people. It was because of your majesty's kindness that we were able to come here and receive such courtesy from Minister Du. If we can't repay him now, how can we remain here with dignity?"

Everyone hit it off and prepared to give Du Yu a big surprise.

At this moment, Du Yu was sitting in the carriage, his mind still filled with the "construction lists" of various places. When he got off the carriage with his head down, the servant beside him hurriedly pulled him, and Du Yu then noticed Lu Zhi standing in front of him.

Du Yu hurriedly bowed to greet him.

Because of his childhood experiences, Lu Zhi was not very optimistic about these children of wealthy families who had the disease of a famous scholar.

The only exception was Du Yu.

Although Du Yu also came from a wealthy family, he possessed none of the trappings of aristocracy. He was pragmatic, devoid of quirks, and possessed a gentle personality, completely unlike the son of a powerful family. Lu Zhi helped him up, stroking his long beard. "I've been waiting here for Mr. Du for two whole hours!"

Du Yu was shocked. "Why don't you go into the mansion?"

Lu Zhi replied, "I came here to visit the wise man. If he is not here, what difference does it make whether I am inside or outside the palace?"

Even Du Yu felt a little embarrassed by what he said, and he quickly invited the person in.

The two sat in the study. Du Yu's study seemed a little messy, with a lot of documents piled up here, all of which were work from the Ministry of Works. When Lu Zhi saw these, instead of blaming him, she looked up to Du Yu a little more.

The two exchanged greetings for a moment before Lu Zhi explained the purpose of his visit.

"Mr. Du probably knows this, too."

"Duke Lu might as well just call him Yuan Kai."

"Well, Yuan Kai probably knows that in the past two years, the government's taxes haven't increased as much as before. Speaking of which, after the military farming system was completely abolished, all the arable land in the world began to flow into the hands of the big families."

"If they had looted, the imperial court could have intervened. However, what they acquired was not public land, and the formalities were complete. Even if Your Majesty wanted to blame them, there is no reason to punish them."

Hearing Lu Zhi's words, Du Yu immediately frowned.

Of course he understood what Lu Zhi meant.

A large number of farmers who paid taxes had their farmland bought out and became tenants who did not pay taxes. However, if the tax was paid per person, no matter how much farmland a person occupied, he would still pay the same tax.
This will lead to a serious reduction in the government's income, while the wealthy families will become extremely wealthy.

In the past two years, the increase in Wei's grain income has become less obvious because of the crazy land annexation.

This was also a situation that Cao Mao and others had anticipated a long time ago.

If the military farming system continues and the arable land is firmly controlled by the government, the military farming officials composed of aristocratic families will continue to intensify their efforts to suck blood. If the military farming system is abolished, it will be a blatant annexation.

It was because Cao Mao turned a large amount of public land into rented land that the looting by the big families was prevented from becoming more rampant.

Historically, after Sima Anshi abolished the military farming system, the speed at which the powerful families and nobles merged into other families was considered outrageous by the powerful families and nobles in the court!
A small general dared to occupy thousands of hectares of arable land, and the crazy annexation almost bankrupted the treasury of the Jin Dynasty.

Finally, these big families had to come forward to discuss countermeasures to solve the problem of land annexation.
Now this group of people has become very restrained and has not started to madly enter into a state of annexation, all because of their respect for Cao Mao.

But even so, it cannot change the fact that the financial revenue of the Wei Dynasty is declining.

They are bleeding with a soft knife. If we do nothing, one day, the entire Wei Dynasty will be drained of blood.

Lu Zhi said seriously, "I reported to His Majesty that I had planned to reclaim over 5,000 hectares of land in Ji County, and had also established plans for reclaiming wasteland in other areas, as well as repairing some important canals."

"But Your Majesty told me that the problem with the current decline in grain production is not a lack of arable land, but rather that arable land is too concentrated. Many farmers have no arable land at all."

"What does Du Shangshu think?"

Lu Zhi did not go to find others because he knew that those people came from big families and it would be difficult for them to betray their own clans and stand on Lu Zhi's side. He was afraid that as soon as Lu Zhi opened his mouth, they would have to persuade him that these things were not important and that he just needed to open up more land.

But Lu Zhi believed that Du Yu would not be such a person.

Du Yu said, "Duke Lu, what you said makes perfect sense!"

"I've been thinking about this for a while now. Over the years, land has been reclaimed and canals have been built across the country. Logically, the grain production in these areas should have skyrocketed. However, I've discovered that the counties that received the most investment haven't seen much success in the end."

"That's why I hesitate now when faced with so many petitions for construction."

"Now that you put it this way, I finally understand."

"Of course the local government wants us to do more construction. More construction will give local officials political achievements, and the powerful families will have profits to appropriate without them having to do anything themselves. Those common people will participate in corvée labor, but in the end they won't get any benefits!!!"

“That won’t do!”

Du Yu stood up and said, "If all the arable land in the world is concentrated in the hands of a group of people, then does the world belong to your Majesty or to them?"

"Although the current renting of crops is effective, there are too many loopholes that can be exploited. Not to mention the big clans, even the strong ones can easily deal with these things."

"Duke Lu, what solution do you have?"

Looking at the indignant Du Yu in front of him, Lu Zhi couldn't help but praise him: "I knew that Du Gong was such a talented person!"

"In this entire temple, besides you, who else would have such an idea?"

Du Yu was stunned and blurted out.

"Zhong Hui!"

At this moment, Lu Zhi's face turned a little ugly.

"I think there's no need to let Minister Zhong know about these things."

Du Yu hurriedly said, "Duke Lu, I know that Minister Zhong is difficult to get along with, but he will definitely not stand by and watch those people wantonly annex the country, and he must have a way to resolve these issues!"

(End of this chapter)