Chapter 558: Creating households and granting farmland

Chapter 558: Creating households and granting farmland

Southerners are good at defense and water battles, but they are not as good at other forms of fighting. Although it is not ruled out that they are aggressive in field battles, they are often exceptions and require famous generals to lead them, and they should adapt to local conditions.

The Du brothers are probably not the best choices for famous generals, and the battles in Xinxing and Nanyang counties ended very quickly. Not long after Linghu Yanbao led his army away, Zhao Jingzhi, who went on the expedition with the army, returned with a fast horse to report victory.

The elite cavalry of Jingzhou arrived first on the north bank of the Han River opposite Xinxing County, making the defenders in the city alert and alert, and urgently drawing troops from the nearby Wushu to help defend the city.

When the troops and horses escorting supplies from Xiangyang arrived, the defenders did not take precautions, but instead took them as reinforcements and put them in the city to plan for joint defense. The result was naturally that the city was broken and people died.

After the Xiangyang troops captured Xinxing County, they immediately used boats to ferry the Jingzhou troops to the south. After the two sides joined forces, they rushed to Nanyang County upstream and captured the city after a few battles.

When Zhao Jingzhi returned to report the victory, the situation in the two counties had basically stabilized. They only needed to wait for a few more days of careful cleaning in the territory before the troops could return.

Because the attack was sudden and the battle ended very quickly, most of the people in the two cities were preserved, and not many were lost due to the war.

According to the records found in the county government of the two cities, there were about 3,000 households in the two counties. Even if there were some scattered people, the population collected in the end would definitely be more than the registered number. Because the population of the Southern Liang nobles was no less than that of the North, many nobles were not registered.

When Li Tai heard the news, he couldn't help but smile. Now his Jingzhou is in ruins, and the most lacking thing is population!

Although he lost to Xiao Zhao, the third generation of the emperor, in the previous competition of wealth, Li Tai was not poor.

The resources he can control and dispatch are far beyond what Xiao Zhao can compare, especially the production bases and trade networks that he has been operating in Guanzhong, northern Shaanxi, Longyou and other places in recent years. The value of each of them is far greater than the floating wealth accumulated by Xiao Zhao.

Although the Nanyang Basin is now depressed, its natural resources and geographical location have not disappeared because of this, and it still has huge potential value. If you want to tap this value as soon as possible, you must have someone.

As the year draws to a close, some smaller-scale water conservancy projects have been completed and will be accepted after the flood season arrives in the spring of next year. By then, large tracts of unowned wasteland will emerge, and the sooner they are reclaimed, the faster they will benefit.

Although Li Tai has a series of decrees targeting local powerful tribes to be implemented, the phased results are still unknown. Of course, he still hopes to have a definite increase in population.

During this period, as county officials were eliminated and the administrative capacity within the country was gradually improved, Li Tai even wanted to register the barbarians and grant them land.

But it is not that he is discriminating against any group. Whether it is production skills, social organization or living customs, the barbarians are very limited in their ability to meet the household registration standards.

It should be noted that household registration means granting land, and you need to bear the corresponding rent, taxes, and corvée, etc. Only if you can meet these requirements can you be called a qualified equal-land household.

The barbarians are not familiar with farming and weaving skills. If they are given land, they may not even be able to support themselves. They are highly dependent on the people above and below. Even if they have something to harvest, they must present it to the chieftain instead of paying taxes to the government. Moreover, they are scattered in the mountains and fields and are not easy to go. They are granted land and registered one moment, and they are scattered the next moment. It's all a joke.

Barbarian groups often need to migrate to the plains for several generations to cultivate and adapt before they meet the conditions for household registration and land. Even if they are registered for temporary political achievements, they will often flee in the event of natural disasters and man-made disasters.

Therefore, the barbarians are basically recruited and used as a group. The value of individuals is not high. Even if there are any, they are only used as slaves and cannot bear more complex social division of labor and production.

Of course, if the social environment is stable for a long time, the production and living resources in the region are sufficient, and the government's supporting education and guidance policies can greatly shorten the civilization period of the barbarians, and they will soon become the same as the Han people.

However, under the governance of Li Tai, Jingzhou does not have the foundation for large-scale recruitment and incorporation of barbarians in terms of people's livelihood or other aspects.

Therefore, if you want to increase the registered population directly under the jurisdiction of the prefecture and county government, it is more reliable to obtain it from the south, through war capture, policy attraction, etc.

Of course, the latter requires a longer period, but it is not impossible. Many people between Jianghan have fled to the Mianbei area, and they may not miss their hometown.

Although there has been no large-scale military disasters in the territory of Nanliang for a long time, and the society is stable and prosperous, this is for the upper class.

But in fact, the sharpness of internal contradictions may be better than that of the Southern Song and Qi dynasties. After all, the upper class of the Song and Qi dynasties continued to compete, and the ruling class was constantly eliminated and changed.

With the old Bodhisattva in Nanliang, the political environment at the upper level tended to be stable, and filial sons and grandchildren were growing up. Although social productivity was also developing and the total amount of wealth was increasing, the distribution method was becoming increasingly corrupt. The people's interests were squeezed through a series of financial means such as coinage and taxation, and the monk group grew stronger year by year, which also became a heavy social burden.

Hou Jing was able to call for a hundred responses in Nanliang because it was an obvious manifestation that the internal contradictions had become extremely sharp. A large number of middle and lower-level soldiers and civilians would rather follow a wolf-ambitious garrison soldier who fled south than let the Xiao family's grandparents and grandchildren draw blood.

As a leader of the Guanlong Army who accompanied the rise of the military system, Li Tai may not be considered a progressive class, but as a time traveler, he always maintains the concept of progress.

Therefore, for the people captured from the Southern Dynasties, he did not use the captured people as slaves and slaves as usual practice before, but treated them as civilians and directly assigned them to households.

Perhaps among the concepts of the military and civilians of the Southern Dynasties, the Western Wei regime represented barbarism and backwardness. The formation and transformation of concepts did not happen overnight, but it always needed to be done. There are many turbulent stories about princes and generals in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, but no matter whether they rise or fall, the common people are the most innocent.

Shortly after Zhao Jingzhi returned, Linghu Yanbao and others also escorted the prisoners from the two counties back one after another. And Li Tai had already arranged for state and county officials to prepare households for these prisoners. Although he gave these people preferential treatment, it was not given in vain.

Although the people are innocent, they also love blind obedience. At least they must know that this preferential treatment is hard-won, and then they will know how to cherish the life they have obtained.

Therefore, when registering these prisoners, they must be allowed to describe their miserable lives in Nanliang and accuse the officials who abused them. This step may seem simple, but it actually destroys the old authority in their hearts. If you think your life in Nanliang was pretty good before, you don’t need to create households and grant farmland anymore. Come here and continue to have fun in hardship.

Naturalized households were organized into li and neighbourhoods, and people selected from the previous batch of Fancheng soldiers and civilians served as li and neighborhood chiefs. They were responsible for leading these newly registered households to stabilize as soon as possible and prepare for land equalization and production. In addition, the previous complaint meetings must continue, with one neighborhood for five days and one mile for ten days. Only by attending enough times can the land be granted and agricultural tools, grains, seeds, etc. be distributed.

Li Tai also dispatched state officials to randomly attend these neighborhood mutual complaint meetings and record down the deeds of Nanliang's mismanagement as told by the residents. He planned to wait until the land transfer was completed and the villages were demarcated, and then these deeds would be recounted in the villages, so that they could be recorded. All villagers can deeply feel the political gloom and miserable life in Nanliang. Comparing it with the current situation where cultivators have fields and live a stable life, one will naturally feel even more emotional that the good life was created by Governor Li!

Jingzhou is busy with rural construction and ideological reform, but Xiangyang seems relatively calm.

After the war between the two cities ended, Xiangyang sent the Jingzhou troops out of the country with gifts. Li Tai thought that Xiao Jin would send another envoy soon to discuss the next step. However, until the New Year came, there was no news from Xiangyang, which made people even more confused. .

What also puzzled Li Tai was Nan Liang's Northern Expedition in Huaibei. According to historical calculations, the result should have been achieved. He had previously sent people to Wang Sizheng's office to inquire about the news, but Wang Sizheng was not clear about it and only responded vaguely that the two sides seemed to be still in a confrontation.

Even though Li Tai is resourceful and resourceful, he is still short of ears and eyes. Something important was happening somewhere he couldn't see.

In the city of Jiankang, which is far away on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the winter is warm and although it is slightly cool, it is not overwhelming. Today, Prince Xiao Gang hosted a banquet for scholars from Wende Province in the Xuanyou Hall of the East Palace.

The crowd in the hall was already intoxicated with wine and became more and more open-minded. All kinds of diction, songs, and profound talks could be heard endlessly. Literature and metaphysics were prominent schools in the Southern Dynasties, and the prince was also a master of them. He also loved the open atmosphere in the hall and was not angry because the scholars were slightly disrespectful.

At this time, an old man strode into the hall, causing the atmosphere in the hall to suddenly become cold. Even those who were drunk and pretending to be open-minded were sitting upright and did not dare to act impudently anymore.

The old man's name is Liu Jin, and he is the chief of the East Palace, Prince Zhan Shi. He has a strong character, and even the prince treats him with courtesy and does not dare to be rude.

The prince was waiting for the servants to set up a new seat for Liu Jin, but Liu Jin made a courtesy and said: "There is urgent news from Jiangling. Please move to the farewell hall."

After hearing this, the prince did not dare to neglect. When he entered the other hall, he received the letter from King Xiangdong from Jiangling and hurriedly read it. It said that King Xiao Jin of Yueyang used power and was suspected of killing famous people in the area. Du family, the King of Eastern Hunan begged the prince to support him in leading an army to Xiangyang for a thorough investigation.

After reading the letter, the prince's face suddenly changed, and he immediately said angrily: "Since the matter is so evil, I should report it to the Western Province! The seven officials rashly sue me, how can I respond?"

He complained here that the King of Xiangdong made it difficult for him. Before he could think of how to respond, another eunuch from the inner garden walked in quickly and kowtowed: "The official body is not stable, please go to the Wende Hall quickly, Your Highness." "