A son who doesn't resemble his father? Love you, old man, see you at Xuanwu Gate!

Chapter 125 Land
A wise ruler accumulates virtue and brings peace to the people; what makes them think they should broaden their horizons?

A: The ruler treats them as his own people.

The principles of public and private matters have been explained by Prime Minister Gongsun Hong. If you don't understand, the general sitting on the embroidered stool next to you is somewhat skilled in martial arts.

Almost all the high-ranking officials, marquises, and members of the imperial family of the two dynasties felt a deep sense of crisis.

The old prime minister's words implied that the people should be the foundation, the livelihood of the people should be restored, and the emperor and his ministers should be of one mind to overcome the difficulties together.

To put it simply, the upcoming new policies should benefit the people.

What could be the new policy that made the old prime minister go through such a long and complicated process to include everyone?

It couldn't be... The clever courtiers looked into the Xuan Room Hall, where sunlight streamed through the doors and windows, casting a shadow on the old prime minister's face.

"Our dynasty inherited the Qin system, and the 'Discourse on Land' in the 'Nine Discourses on Governing Qin' is one of them. It established laws to abolish the well-field system, open up the fields, and allow the buying and selling of land. However, times have changed, and it is time to make changes." Gongsun Hong's voice was solemn and magnificent.

An uproar immediately broke out inside and outside the Xuan Shi Hall.

What is the well-field system?

It was the feudal system that began in the Xia Dynasty, in which the emperor owned all the land in the world and enfeoffed the land to the feudal lords. The feudal lords controlled the land and then distributed it to the high officials. The high officials then allowed the farmers to cultivate it. In addition to their own land, the farmers also had to give the court an extra piece of land, which was the public land. The output of this land belonged entirely to the feudal lord.

However, the well-field system was too idealistic. The standard "well-field system" divided the land into square blocks of 900 mu each, and then drew two horizontal and two vertical lines in each block, like the character "井" (well), dividing the land into nine equal blocks. The eight outer blocks were allocated to eight households, and the middle block was the public field, whose harvest belonged to the feudal lord.

Where in the world can you find such square plots of land, each 900 acres in size?

Even if they exist, there are huge problems in distribution and redistribution. What if a family has few laborers and can't manage to farm all the land, or a family has a lot of sons and not enough land to farm?
When the sons grow up and their household registrations are separated, how to arrange the new land and how to resolve the old land issues are all drawbacks of this system.

The well-field system once wove together the scattered and disorganized farmers across the land of China into a framework, enabling them to work together to cultivate the land, resist disasters, live in harmony, and reap ever greater harvests—a truly remarkable achievement.

Yu the Great, one of the wise rulers of China, who was a model of virtue among Yao, Shun, Yu, and Tang, also resolutely defended the well-field system. When he convened the feudal lords at Mount Kuaiji, he openly killed Fangfeng, who had not abided by the well-field system and was late for the meeting. He also announced the establishment of an army that would never be disbanded, specifically to punish tribes that disrupted the well-field order.

The Book of Songs says, "Under the whole heaven, all land belongs to the king; on the shores of the whole land, all people are subjects of the king," which describes the relationship between people and land in the era of the well-field system.

The well fields allocated to all commoner farmers can only be cultivated; they cannot be bought, sold, or disposed of arbitrarily.

Three generations later, the Zhou emperor lost the Nine Tripods, and the era of great contention arrived, leading to long-term turmoil and continuous warfare. The newly emerging kings, nobles, generals, and aristocrats gradually realized the importance of military force, and old ideas were broken down. The private land ownership system, where "the people can buy and sell," officially came into being.

However, before Shang Yang's reforms completely abolished the well-field system, the only system that truly implemented a new field system was the "five-field system," a hybrid of old and new, promoted by Li Kui's reforms in the State of Wei.

As the first to implement this practice, the Qin state saw its farmers move out of the fields and live in concentrated communities, with roads, boundaries, farmyards, and abandoned canals all being reclaimed and restored to fertile land, increasing the area by tens of thousands of hectares. The fields were interconnected, and the Qin state became prosperous and powerful.

However, the "opening" in "opening up the fields" meant lifting the ban on buying and selling. Once the land was allowed to be disposed of and bought and sold at will by the people, a bigger and more stubborn problem arose.

Land consolidation! The common people are vulnerable. Whenever there is a natural disaster or man-made calamity, life becomes difficult. In order to survive, they are willing to sell their land and become tenant farmers.

In life-or-death situations, large landowners can often acquire more land at extremely low prices.

If we say that the weather is favorable and the country is well-governed, like during the reigns of Emperor Xiaowen and Emperor Xiaojing, the people's lives are relatively prosperous, their ability to withstand risks is strong, and the problem of land annexation is not yet serious.

However, since Your Majesty ascended the throne, especially since you have taken personal control of the government, natural disasters and man-made calamities have been frequent, and countless people have been displaced and forced to leave their homes. Local powerful families can acquire large amounts of land without spending much money or grain.

Over the past decade or so, local powers have risen one after another, with the Li family of Longxi being one of the representatives. And which of the high-ranking officials in the imperial court has not used power and money to acquire large amounts of land in their hometown and beyond?

The new Grand Master of Ceremonies, Marquis of Pingqu of the Great Han Dynasty, and grandson of the founding general Zhou Bo, made Zhou Jiande anxious. He asked, "May I ask what the Prime Minister's intention is?"

Among all the forces of the imperial court, the group of founding heroes had the deepest foundation, without exception. For decades, they had been working hard to develop their own power. Although their overall decline was inevitable, they still maintained a life of debauchery by relying on their fiefs and the land they "secretly acquired".

If the land changes, many nobles may lose even their current dignity and pretense of modesty.

"Restore the well-field system," Gongsun Hong immediately said.

Ending the system of private land ownership, taking all land back to the imperial court, and prohibiting the free sale of land would instantly solve many current problems. Incidentally, it would also address the root causes of the growing power of local magnates and the issue of land annexation.

The hall fell silent like never before.

If the empire is to change course and the emperor wants new policies, it is acceptable to concede some benefits to one's own clan and power. This is also a fair exchange of words from the old prime minister.

Restoring the well-field system would not only bring some benefits, but would mean swallowing them all whole.

You old scoundrel, you've gone too far!

“That is my intention, but the Lord has not agreed,” Gongsun Hong continued.

Who can understand the feeling of making a desperate gamble, only to have all defenses shattered in the blink of an eye by a single sentence? It's a very similar experience to escaping death.

The courtiers, both inside and outside the capital, gazed at the throne. The young emperor was so benevolent.
The ruler said, "We should clear the wasteland."

Gongsun Hong turned around to face the assembled officials and slowly said, "Those who cultivate wasteland will be exempt from taxes for five years. Those who are slaves will be freed from slavery and become free once they cultivate ten acres of wasteland for their masters."

If there is insufficient wasteland in the local area, those who voluntarily go to the border counties such as Shuofang to reclaim wasteland for the country, whether commoners or slaves, shall not be obstructed. Commoners shall be exempt from taxes on the land they reclaim in the border counties. If a slave reclaims more than ten mu of land in the border counties, the court shall compensate his master with 20,000 coins, remove him from slavery, and restore him to his free status.

This decree, issued by the Crown Prince of the Great Han Dynasty, stipulates that anyone who obstructs it shall be executed in the marketplace!

The expressions of the dukes, marquises, and members of the royal family all changed. It turned out that what the old prime minister wanted to change was not the field system, but the slave system!
(End of this chapter)