There is no such thing as the Kangxi and Qianlong eras

Chapter 22: Tenants, Landlords, and Self-employed Farmers
In fact, these wealthy families in the county were lucky, because Nie Yu only divided their land and asked them to send people to work for the General's Mansion. He didn't even rush them to cut their braids.

The county town has too many people. If everyone cuts off their braids, it might cause a riot.

He had to win a battle first so that the people would no longer be afraid of the Qing court and the gentry and landlords would give up on the Qing court.

The gentry and landlords in those towns and villages were in a miserable state. Nie Yu's thinking was too simple. He thought that the land reform and land distribution would encounter resistance, so he recruited soldiers from the refugees to expand the army by 2,000 people as a military preparation so that he could suppress possible gentry riots at any time.

But the gentry did not riot, but the tenants and common people started to riot first.

Because Nie Yu took the initiative to take the lead and distributed the Nie family's land to refugees and tenants, allowing refugees and tenants to obtain land.

What is land?
This is the most important asset for people in the agricultural era, no doubt about it.

They saw that the General's Mansion actually distributed land to them, and even the General (Nie Yu) took the initiative to distribute his own land, and encouraged and ordered other gentry to distribute land as well.

Now, those tenants who had been oppressed and exploited by the gentry and landlords and could only endure it helplessly seemed to have liberated the beasts in their hearts.

For the first time since Nie Yu traveled through time, he finally saw what a mob was.

A mob in the most literal sense!

It’s not that these tenants don’t dare to resist, but that no one supports them and leads them in the resistance. Once someone supports them, they would want to kill all the landlords who own the land.

In the first few days, the tenants in these towns only rebelled against the big landlords. Often, before the officials and volunteers sent by the General's Office to divide the land and build the towns arrived, the tenants had already revolted in large groups, confiscated the property of the big landlords, and handed over the land to the General's Office for distribution.

But soon, the tenants lost control and became a mob, indiscriminately ransacking the properties of all landowners, large and small landlords, and self-cultivating farmers in retaliation.

There was no other way. Nie Yu, who had originally deliberately refused to get involved, had to intervene urgently and guide and reconcile these tenants. It took a lot of effort to finally bring the out-of-control tenants under control again.

After a few tries, the most difficult problem at the beginning was solved.

All the big landlords were frightened by the out-of-control and rioting tenants. Nie Yu, the rebel general, at least tried to reason with them and left them hundreds of acres of land, which they could hand over tax-free if they voluntarily handed over.

These crazy tenants would really kill people, and they would wipe out the entire family, including men, women, young and old, and their servants, leaving no one alive.

Yidu County, General’s Mansion.

"Well, there's no problem with handling it this way." Nie Yu carefully read the briefing handed over by his cousin Nie Lin and nodded.

Although he is called my cousin, the actual blood relationship is quite distant. I guess by the next generation, they will almost become distant relatives who will never have any contact with each other until they die.

Nie Lin, also a member of the Nie family, had previously been in charge of a portion of the Nie family's market town assets in Baoluceng. Everything was going well until he was suddenly summoned back by a letter from his cousin, Nie Jieren. He then learned that his cousin and his son had rebelled. The rumors he had heard were true; the county seat had been taken by his nephew. He had gone from being an honest landlord to a rebel, unbeknownst to him.

It would be a lie to say he wasn't terrified when he first heard the news, but no matter how terrified he was, he was already a traitor. Unless he immediately fled to the mountains and hid for the rest of his life, if he was caught by the government, he and his entire family would be beheaded.

Nie Yu continued, "The General's Mansion's distribution of land to the common people caused the tenants to lose control and riot. Therefore, the solution should be based on appeasement. The General's Mansion can protect those large landowners who are willing to share land, but the original conditions will have to be reduced. Tax exemptions are no longer possible."

Nie Lin nodded, then asked doubtfully, "If this can be done for the big landlords, what about the small landlords and self-cultivating farmers?"

Small landlords and self-cultivating farmers also have land, but they own very little land, far less than the big landlords and gentry. Many of them are relatives of the big landlords and have the same surname as the big landlords.

During festivals and holidays, some landlords who know how to behave would give some help to the small landlords and self-cultivating farmers who had divided their property from them.

Therefore, these small landlords and self-cultivating farmers naturally looked down on the tenants. The tenants had no land and were despised by them. The general's mansion, which distributed land to the tenants and refugees, was also hated by these groups.

Because in their view, the landlord treated them well and was considered their own family, but the general's mansion instigated the tenants to wipe out their relatives and gave all their land to outsiders.

Nie Yu didn't think much about it and said, "These are all fools. They think they share the same surname and blood relationship with the landlords, and since the landlords often help them, they think they are family and we are bad people. They don't even think about the fact that in the next generation, their children will no longer have a blood relationship with the landlords' children. Will the landlords still treat them as family then?"

These words made Nie Lin not know how to respond, because what Nie Yu said should be a common occurrence in their small Nie family clan.

He now has some relationship with his cousin Nie Jieren and can be responsible for a share of the family property outside. However, it is unknown whether his son and nephew can still be so harmonious and continue to be a family in the next generation.

Nie Yu knew he had said too much, so he said, "Try to avoid conflict between the two sides! Self-cultivating farmers are farmers who own land, so if tenants are also given land, they will all be self-cultivating farmers. When distributing land to tenants and refugees, try to minimize the difference in land ownership between the two. As for those small landowners, if they are willing to cooperate with the General's Mansion to register and hand over their hidden land, the General's Mansion can ensure their safety."

To put it bluntly, these words are just attempts to smooth things over. The conflicts among the self-cultivating farmers, small landlords, tenants and refugees certainly cannot be eased with just a few words.

But Nie Yu had no other choice at the moment. He had to make do with it for the time being. At worst, he could give them more land so that the people could have land to farm, and then exempt the people from the heavy taxes.

In this way, the people will have food in their hands, and naturally they will not have any hatred towards the General's Mansion, but will only support the General's Mansion and the rebel army more.

Nie Yu gave a brief explanation and left the General's Mansion. Without even eating, he returned to the new recruits' camp on the outskirts of the county.

Father Nie Jieren was responsible for handling the specific matters of smoothing things over. This had been decided from the beginning. Father Nie Jieren was the "county magistrate" in charge of the civil affairs of Yidu County, while Nie Yu was the general in charge of training troops, expanding the army and preparing for war.

If there is something that cannot be handled, such as the tenant riot this time, Nie Yu will come back to solve the problem.

　I'm working overtime tonight, so the second update will be a little later.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)