Chapter 192 Everything returns to the land
"General, what do you mean?" Liu Yin was a little hard to understand and could only ask cautiously.
"Ahem... Xiuran, why do you think those local wealthy families keep private soldiers?" Ma Su waved his hand, pulled Liu Yin outside and said with a smile.
"Because you're on guard against thieves?" Liu Yin scratched his head and asked tentatively.
"No, no, no, we have to look at their source." Ma Di shook his head gently and said.
"The key reason why the rich families in Shu can raise private soldiers is something that many people can't think of."
"That means they can afford private soldiers!"
"The local wealthy families in central Sichuan often have thousands of acres of land, and their local power is frightening. Many people in Sichuan have lost their household registrations, and they often become domestic servants and tenant farmers of the wealthy families."
"If you have land, a population, and local authority, you can naturally afford to raise private soldiers!"
"So let's start right from the source and make the big clans unable to raise private soldiers. Wouldn't it be done once and for all?"
For a moment, Ma Su was almost amazed by his intelligence.
However, Liu Yin's expression became more and more doubtful about life.
Let the general solve the problem of private soldiers, and then the general take the initiative to increase the difficulty and prepare to directly attack the rich people?
From becoming a political enemy with a wealthy family, to a direct upgrade to a fight to the death?
What is this idea?
Obviously Liu Yin was frightened by Ma Su's idea and couldn't react at all for a while.
However, Ma Su said that the problem is not big, and if the reaction is not overdue, you can react slowly.
In fact, it was only then that Ma Su finally remembered the real key pain point of the family.
It is still the source of all problems, which is the land issue!
The rich families in Shu can support thousands of private soldiers and followers. The main reason is that they own a large number of farms in the local area. With a large amount of land, they can absorb the refugee population to serve them.
Once there are people and fields, the big clans basically have enough productivity. In this way, there will be no shortage of money or food to support the clan population, support family political struggles, and support private soldiers.
After all, only wealthy families with fields stretching for dozens of miles could send their slaves out at will. A normal small landowner does not have the capital to support a maid.
You must know that in this era, the requirements for maids are also very high. They need to be proficient in all kinds of music, chess, calligraphy and painting. Sending this pair of girls to the Zhou family obviously means that the training resources are not a small amount.
Without money, you can only be like Ma Su. Even if you do have the idea of what you want, you should stop thinking about your salary.
Of course, the main reason is that Ma Su doesn't want it, and it's definitely not because he is poor!
In general, land is the root of everything. Simply promulgating laws to prohibit private soldiers is obviously treating the symptoms but not the root cause. At most, this will increase the cost of raising private soldiers for the wealthy families, but it will not prevent them from continuing to raise private soldiers.
So Ma Su's idea has become simpler. Can't it be enough if I don't let you have enough land to support private soldiers?
This makes things extremely simple and not difficult to handle. Moreover, the conflict between Ma Su and the powerful local families will completely escalate into a fight to the death.
It’s a win-win!
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In the end, the Zhou family's beauty trap failed, and Ma Di sent someone to take them out.
Literally, fork it out!
Seeing that the honey trap was useless, the local wealthy people felt unprecedented pressure.
"Is it true that the Jingzhou faction really intends to fight us to death? To think that Ma Youchang is so disrespectful!" Zhou Shu felt extremely troubled, and his face turned ugly.
"It shouldn't be. I have an old relationship with Dong Yun, and I have asked him about it. According to Dong Yun, the Jingzhou faction does not seem to support Ma Su's approach. This..." At this time, even Du Wei felt that something was wrong, and his expression It's cloudy or sunny.
"This is definitely a delaying tactic used by the Jingzhou faction to paralyze us!" Zhou Shu waved his hand and made a quick judgment.
"You guys, don't even think about finding a way to give Ma Su some meritorious service and then send him away. If this is really the Jingzhou faction's intention to fight us to the death, they will not let Ma Su leave Chengdu!"
"Perhaps, Ma Su will take full advantage of us soon!"
Dong Shu's words also made the faces of other local leaders darken, and a trace of panic flashed in their eyes.
This guess is indeed very possible. The Jingzhou faction generally implemented a delaying strategy to paralyze them, leaving only Ma Su as a killing move. In this way, the Jingzhou faction needs to add fuel to the fire at the most critical moment, so that they can easily harvest their local faction.
These outsiders from Jingzhou are really despicable!
Just when a group of local bosses were hesitant, a servant suddenly came in and sent a letter to Zhou Shu. Zhou Shu took it apart and took a look, and his face turned ugly for a moment.
"Uncle, what happened?" Seeing this situation, Du Wei was a little surprised and asked softly.
"Ma Su is taking people to Bazhong!" Zhou Shu's face was ugly, and his tone was more gritted.
"He has left Chengdu for Bazhong this morning with more than a hundred of his followers. It is said that he went to Bazhong as Dongcao of the Prime Minister's Mansion to inspect the fields!"
This sentence made everyone present change their expressions, especially the last four words "inventory of acres".
Since the implementation of land equalization and farming in Longyou, the hearts of all the powerful families in Yizhou have been tense. As soon as they heard about the land inventory, everyone present thought of Ma Su and his land equalization method.
Take the excess land from the big families in the county and divide it equally among the Guizhou heads to support the people. From then on, the treasury was full, the soldiers were full, and the court was no longer short of food!
This is the exact words Li Yan reported to the court after investigating the land equalization law in Yongzhou before he died. From then on, regardless of whether the local faction looked at the Dongzhou faction or the Jingzhou faction, they all doubted whether they wanted to equalize the land of their local factions.
Ma Su's action obviously really touched their heartstrings.
"Look, look! Let me just say this is the Jingzhou faction's delaying strategy, right?" Zhou Shu waved his hand, his expression extremely ugly.
"Think about it, with this great victory over Wu, Wei and Wu are unable to threaten Shuzhong. Moreover, the Jingzhou faction took the opportunity to replenish their strength, which is when they are at their most powerful."
"It would be a shame if they have no idea about our local clan at this time!"
"I have to write a letter back to my family as soon as possible. The people in my family have already made preparations. If you have any ideas, think of it!"
Then Zhou Shu turned around and left. After all, Ma Di went to Bazhong, and at first glance, he was going for him.
As soon as Zhou Shu left, the remaining people all looked uncertain and didn't know what to do for a while.
"Yunnan, why are you..."
"I just wanted to persuade you to be like a doctor. This matter is not within the scope of my responsibility." However, Qiao Zhou rarely chose to pretend to be dead, said a few words casually, and then turned around and left.
"Forget it! Let's do it! We can't let the Jingzhou faction continue to be proud!" Qiao Zhou and Zhou Shu both left, and Du Wei's face turned completely gloomy, and he immediately started to protest.
"Since the Jingzhou faction is so arrogant, there is nothing we can do. Even if Zhuge Liang is unreasonable, he can't let us be bullied and not resist, right?"
"Done!"
The plot of these two days was just for transition. Finally, Shuzhong finished it. It was a torment.