Prince Li You of the Great Tang Dynasty begs the noble families to their deaths!

Thanks to the "large-scale" "copying factory" of the Cui family of Boling, Li You had a great opportunity to collect all kinds of books, and naturally he made the most of it.

In Li You's view, the two books stolen by the thief Liu San'er from Cui Chong, namely "Qiming Yaoshu" and "Lunheng", were of greater significance and value than the Confucian classics that Chao Yang was working hard to compile.

In the book "Qiming Yaoshu", Li You discovered various techniques for brewing wine, making vinegar, boiling glue, dyeing, and making ink. More importantly, the author, Mr. Jia Sixie, focused on recording more than 60 kinds of edible plants, including a grain crop that Li You had previously overlooked: sorghum.

Sorghum doesn't taste good, but it has one advantage: it's resilient.

It is drought-resistant, flood-resistant, saline-alkali resistant, and tolerant of poor soil, and can be planted in both the south and the north.

It doesn't taste good, but it's not inedible either.

For rebels like Li You, the importance of grain reserves is self-evident.

Another book, "Lunheng," also greatly impressed Li You.

The author of this book, Mr. Wang Chong, was a man from the Eastern Han Dynasty. At that time, the study of prophecies and apocryphal texts was very popular, and the rulers promoted it even more, causing the people to become extremely superstitious. Natural phenomena such as solar eclipses and earthquakes were forcibly interpreted as "omens of national ruin." Court officials competed to use prophecies and apocryphal texts to attack their political enemies, resulting in chaos in the court and panic among the people.

Later, the study of prophecies and apocryphal texts became the primary focus when assessing a person's talent and learning. This led scholars to devote themselves to studying prophecies and apocryphal texts in order to obtain official positions, rather than studying knowledge that could govern the country and benefit the people, resulting in a dark intellectual climate.

Wang Chong abhorred this phenomenon and wrote "Lunheng" to refute the apocryphal and prophetic teachings.

The Lunheng argues that heaven and earth, all things, and humans are all formed from the same qi that fills the universe, and that they are formed in the process of movement. Therefore, heaven and earth and all things are not intentionally created by heaven, but are "natural transformations".

Since "Heaven has no intention," then the so-called "interaction between Heaven and man" is nonsense, and the apocryphal and prophetic theories cannot withstand scrutiny.

Wang Chong's ideas were undoubtedly progressive, but such doctrines angered the rulers, leading to his impoverished life and eventual death in depression. Meanwhile, apocryphal and prophetic doctrines continued to flourish, causing considerable harm.

The prophecy "The Yellow Heaven shall rise," which ultimately led to the downfall of the Eastern Han Dynasty, was related to apocryphal texts and prophecies.

That's truly their own fault; they shot themselves in the foot.

……

Li You was busy reading, Chao Yang and Dou Jun were busy printing books, and the soldiers were busy stealing books.

October of the nineteenth year of the Zhenguan era thus came to an end.

In the last few days of October, government officials came to visit.

However, he was a tax collector sent down from above to collect land taxes.

As mentioned earlier, Li You bought three estates.

Two of the properties belonged to the Cui family of Boling, while the other belonged to a wealthy private household.

The Cui family's two manors were exempt from taxes, so the tax collectors naturally dared not disturb them.

So the tax collectors came to another manor, where Li You happened to be staying temporarily, and that's how they met.

"Your family owns 800 mu of land. Each mu shall pay five liters of millet, totaling four shi. You may also pay in silk or copper coins to offset the tax."

Li You asked, "If I use money to offset taxes, how much do I need to pay?"

The leading tax collector thought for a moment and said, "This year is a poor year, and the price of grain is high, thirty coins per shi of millet. You've had a hard time too, so I'll calculate it as twenty-five coins per shi of millet, for a total of one hundred coins."

Upon hearing this, Li You chuckled inwardly: This fellow is trying to fool me.

According to the information I've gathered these past few days, Dingzhou's harvest this year was indeed average, but it wasn't a poor year; it was considered a normal year. The price of grain was 20 coins per shi (a unit of dry measure), not 30 coins as the tax collectors had stated.

However, Li You didn't want to argue with them about such a small amount of money, so he simply handed it over without hesitation.

The tax collector, having received the money, beamed with delight, thinking: "What a fool this young man is! He actually believes such nonsense. He might as well have just handed over the grain. This extra twenty coins, I'll use them for drinks later, find a woman to keep me company, and have a good time."

The tax collector continued, "The imperial court is sending troops to attack Goguryeo. Twenty men from your tenant households are required to perform corvée labor to help transport military supplies. You don't need to provide your own food on the road; the government will cover it. There isn't much work there, and you should be back by the end of the year."

"The government is going to attack Goguryeo? I've never heard of that!"

"Originally, the imperial court planned a large-scale war, but later only sent a few thousand men to harass the area, so fewer people needed to perform corvée labor, understand?"

"Send ten men to the city gate tomorrow. The guards will escort them there. Do not delay!"

"Yes, my sir, I understand."

After the tax collector left, Li You seemed to be deep in thought.

It seems that although he had ruined the court's plans, the Tang Empire had not given up its vigilance against Goguryeo.

"Hongliang, take nineteen soldiers, disguise them as conscripts, and go with them to see what's going on."

"promise!"

The next day, Yan Hongliang gathered nineteen elite soldiers, exchanged clothes with the tenants in the village, and then went to do corvée labor.

The original tenants, seeing that the new master had reduced their land rent and waived their corvée labor, felt like they were living in a dream: "We've simply met a living Buddha!" ​​As a result, they respected Li You and the others even more.

In his spare time, Li You would also seek out experienced farmers in the village who knew how to farm, and learn from them about farming, thus verifying the knowledge mentioned in "Tiangong Kaiwu" (The Exploitation of the Works of Nature).

When these old farmers saw the "living Buddha" come to communicate with them, they naturally spoke freely and without reservation. As for simple skills such as charcoal making and salt production, Li You also had his soldiers teach them to the tenant farmers, so that they could learn to do them as well.

What Li You is more concerned about now is the kind of "unpalatable" but "hardy" crop that he discovered in "Tiangong Kaiwu": sorghum.

He wasn't sure if this thing still existed in the Central Plains, so he went to find an old farmer to confirm.

"Fellow villagers, there's a type of grain that grows very tall, with red ears of grain when ripe. The ears are quite large, and the stalks are very hard. Have you ever seen it?"

"Hey, what the master is talking about is just water chestnuts. That stuff is only good for feeding livestock, it doesn't count as grain."

"Water chestnuts? Do you have any on hand right now?"

"We don't have it here, but the next county grows it. It's said that it can be used to fill an empty stomach during famine years, but it's usually fed to livestock. Sometimes even the livestock don't like it."

Li You smiled and nodded. As long as there is something, that's fine. As for whether they are animals or not, during certain periods, people are not even as good as animals!

He then ordered his soldiers to go to the neighboring counties to inquire, hoping to bring back sorghum seeds.

Although sorghum has a poor taste and can easily upset your stomach, it can be eaten if you cook it long enough to remove the tannins. It can also be eaten with other staple foods to slow down the consumption of those foods.

Of course, its biggest advantage is that it is not picky about the location; it can be planted even on sloping land with poor conditions, making it extremely adaptable.

Just then, Chao Yang and Dou Jun arrived, looking rather worried.