In the fourth year of Taichu in the Qi Dynasty, thanks to sufficient rainfall and not so many locusts, the autumn grain harvest in the Liaohe Plain was bumper. Fist-sized potatoes, yellow-orange corn, and heavy rice were piled high in various prefectures and counties in Liaodong. In the warehouse, the clerk in charge of grain grinned widely. On the grassland pastures bordering Liaodong, the cows and horses were growing fat and healthy. According to statistics from civil affairs officials, the number of large livestock had more than doubled compared to last year... The whole of Liaodong can be said to be Good weather.
It was as if God favored the time travellers, favored the troubled Daqi, and gave the Supreme Emperor a surprise.
However, just when everyone thought that things were going well and everything in the empire was slowly getting better, something unexpected happened again.
In early September, at the core of Daqi's rule, in Tieling Qinghe and other places, rebellions broke out among farmers against the peasant associations.
Those farmers who used to be honest and resolutely supported Daqi hid the harvested potatoes and rice in their own cabinets and buried them in the backyard cellars, refusing to hand them over to the farmers' association. According to the farmers' association's surplus grain requisition system, ordinary farmers need to hand over 70% of the harvest of that year. Around 10% will be handed over to the farmers' association free of charge.
The Peasant Association sent people into each household to forcefully requisition grain, but many farmers resisted resolutely, and some veterans also joined the resistance.
Eventually, it led to large-scale peasant rebellions in Tieling and other places.
The reason why the empire exploits the people in the old areas so heavily is because the several wars that have occurred in recent years have been in the north, such as the war with North Korea, the war with the Rakshasa ghosts, and the military operations to retaliate against the Japanese country.
The three armies went ahead without using food and grass.
Food and grass are the decisive factor supporting the eastward and westward expeditions.
In fact, in order to maintain the intensity of the imperial war - that is, to meet the ability to launch three local wars at the same time - the people in Liaodong and the pass need to tighten their belts and save every grain of food to supply the frontline troops.
In addition to the protracted war, the people also had to bear the agricultural consumption caused by industrial accumulation and the construction of Tianxin City in Huguang.
The huge consumption of manpower and material resources was ultimately passed on to ordinary farmers.
When Emperor Wu Ding was in power, he repeatedly reduced the burden on farmers and implemented a policy of light corvee and low taxes. Sun Chuanting and others, forced by logistical pressure, continued to increase taxes until the people could no longer sustain themselves.
The State of Qi only existed for fifteen years. In these short ten years, at least five large-scale peasant riots broke out against the empire, and there were countless small-scale rebellions.
The closer we get to the time traveler's imperial hegemony, the heavier the burden on the people becomes, until it completely collapses.
Fortunately, Liu Zhaosun adapted to the collapse from the beginning. For him, it was just another test.
The suffering of the people is not just a matter of dreams and lines from movies and TV dramas, but some urgent political and economic reality.
Whenever the night was quiet and the romance with the concubines was over, Liu Zhaosun asked himself, and always comforted himself by saying that throughout the ages, all empires have gone through this process, Britain is like this, France is like this, Russia is like this, Daqi is no exception.
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It was not until the Renzong era more than a hundred years later that the empire declassified archives, providing the world with an understanding of the main causes of peasant riots during Taizu's reign.
This top-secret file mentioned that in May of the fourth year of Taichu (1636), Deng Changxiong, the commander of the Second Corps, who was ordered to go to Tieling to quell the peasant riots, wrote in a memorial to the Emperor about the peasant riots in the province:
“The main reason for this riot (i.e. Tieling Riot) is the same as the situation in other prefectures and counties in Guanhai. It was caused by dissatisfaction with the surplus grain collection system and the peasant association’s excessive expropriation and brutal implementation of surplus grain.”
The "surplus grain collection system" was a military policy implemented by Da Qi in the early years of Wuding. Later generations also called it the "grain apportionment system."
Although Emperor Wu Ding described an ideal world of unevenness and food and warmth to the people at the beginning of his succession, in fact, such a utopian world was impossible to complete, at least in Liu Zhaosun's lifetime (within two hundred years). ) is impossible to see.
Once theory and reality conflict, reality will use powerful force to distort theory, thereby making theory adapt to reality.
This is an irrefutable truth.
The grain collection teams sent by the Daqi Dynasty to various farmers' associations to collect grains usually used violent methods to collect the so-called "surplus grains from farmers", including the grains they needed to survive and the grains they needed for sowing in the coming year. of seed grain.
The war in the empire never stops, so the collection cannot be slowed down. Although North Korea and Nanming pay huge amounts of silver, grain and various materials to Daqi every year, for such an ever-expanding war machine, that point Yearly coins and supplies are just a drop in the bucket.
Moreover, the troops sent by the empire to the four roads of Korea basically have negative returns. The cost of occupying Korean territory is much higher than the local people can pay for the Qi army's instructions. Therefore, to be precise, before harvesting Southeast Asia and Japan, the empire will We have to harvest the domestic people for a long time, and this harvest is not limited to wealthy households.
Insufficient state supplies would harm the people, and the surplus grain collection system naturally aroused strong dissatisfaction and resistance from farmers everywhere, triggering numerous riots.
In short, the collectivization of agriculture (that is, the establishment of peasant associations) and the surplus grain collection system in the Daqi Empire was a ruling movement. In essence, it was nothing more than domestic colonization of farmers.
Through the "Qi Dynasty Land and Acre System", agricultural production across the country was ensured and continued to flow into the country's granaries and farms, providing material support for the empire's military campaign and laying a material foundation for the industrial revolution led by workshops and schools.
In layman's terms, it means sacrificing tens of millions of farmers in exchange for the so-called royal hegemony of the time travellers.
The farmers of Daqi are not stupid. Since the food they have worked so hard to grow belongs to Daqi and the empire, then what is the meaning of our existence, to serve as cannon fodder on the battlefield?
Those few bites of steamed buns distributed by Tu, or the iron medal issued by Tu’s army?
More and more farmers are killing their cattle, horses, and livestock, smashing their shovels and farm tools, burning their seeds and crops, and breaking their pots and jars, all in the hope of death.
Of course, Sun Chuanting's approach to dealing with these "lazy people" was also very rough. He directly sent them to Sakhalin Island to cultivate wasteland and to dig potatoes in Siberia.
In just a few years, after Sun Chuanting's operation was implemented, farmers in the empire lost their enthusiasm for production, and there were not enough farming tools and crop seeds.
The consequences were a great famine in the third year of Taichu and a great riot in the fourth year of Taichu.
The grand plan envisioned by the imperial court to gather farmers together to cultivate the land and use steam engines to irrigate farming and increase production was all in vain.
The cruel reality was a slap in the face to the Ministry of Household Affairs, especially Sun Chuanting. Could it be that the "Qi Dynasty Land Acquisition System" was wrong?
Could it be said that the foundation of imperial rule is not strong enough?
Could it be said that Emperor Wu Ding’s rule had no legitimacy?
Sun Chuanting knew very well that no one should be hit in the face but the Supreme Emperor's face. If he hit the Supreme Emperor in the face, he didn't know how many people would die.
Ma Shiying said that surplus grain collection and production play a huge role and cannot be cancelled.
As a result, more food collection teams were sent out.
The farmers were forced to hand over their last bite of rice.
As a result, larger-scale riots occurred.
Lewen
