The officers and soldiers of the Southern Song Dynasty burned, killed, looted and committed all kinds of crimes. They were more ruthless than bandits. They could not resist. Once they resisted, they rebelled and killed even more ruthlessly. Therefore, military disasters were far more terrifying than bandits.
No villager objected to this.
Have you never seen or heard of it?
No matter who he is, there is no one who does not have family, relatives and friends who have not suffered the sins of the government.
Those officials were more cruel than the bandits. They demanded, kicked and insulted the peasants. The peasants dared to be angry but dared not speak out. They could only lower their heads and let them bully them, and then they took away their precious rations.
There are even times when it is clear that there is no fault, maybe the official is in a bad mood, and he is beaten without any reason.
Some people can be cured later, and some people just die, silently and meaninglessly.
This is a sad memory that is commonly held in everyone's mind.
So when Xu Tong said this, some villagers who were ready to go home and have a look immediately did not dare to run away. Everyone was afraid that they would be caught and killed by the army after returning home.
You must know that the officers and soldiers kill people regardless of whether you are guilty or not. If they see it, as long as they are unhappy or have a whim, they will stab you on the spot.
Since ancient times, are there few people who have died under the sword of an official?
"It is unreasonable for the officers and soldiers to kill people. It doesn't matter whether you are innocent or not. Back then, Zhao Guan's family wanted to kill all the people in Ganzhou because the Ganzhou people disturbed his mother. Whenever the officers and soldiers cross the border, not to mention the ordinary people, even the officials. Afraid.
Generally, when officers and soldiers cross the border, the officers will place the supplies needed by the officers and soldiers outside the city, then close the city gate and keep it tightly closed, just to prevent the officers and soldiers from entering the city until the officers and soldiers have gone far away. Only then did they dare to open the city gate.
Why? Afraid! Officials are well-informed, right? Why didn't they even dare to let the officers and soldiers into the city? Obviously, there have been incidents in the past where officials let officers and soldiers into the city and the officers and soldiers made a big fuss. Maybe the officials themselves were killed. What reason can the officers and soldiers tell you? The knife in your hand is the reason! "
Xu Tong told the villagers a lot of related things, which made the villagers feel very sad and frightened one or two of them.
They remembered what they had done during their previous fanaticism, the Jizhou magistrate and the Luling County magistrate who were beaten to death by them, as well as the countless corrupt officials who died at their hands. They couldn't help but feel frightened and did not dare to go anywhere. .
Explaining this truth can temporarily stabilize people's hearts and prevent the harsh conditions in the mountains from causing large-scale escapes. Then, there will be a basis for political and ideological education.
"Having said that, I don't think we need to be afraid of them."
Xu Tong first said that the villagers were frightened, but suddenly he said there was no need to be afraid, which aroused confusion among some villagers.
"President, what do you mean by this? One moment you say that the army is scary, and the other moment you say there is no need to be afraid. Why?"
Looking at the puzzled expressions of the villagers, Xu Tong smiled.
"It's very simple. Didn't we attack four counties in a row and kill hundreds of corrupt officials? Although the official army was fierce, weren't we defeated?"
The villagers were all stunned, then looked at each other, and nodded in agreement to each other involuntarily.
Xu Tong pulled out his sword and looked at the bright blade.
"So although the officers and soldiers are fierce, they are also human beings. When people are killed, they will die. As long as we have knives in our hands, aren't the officers and soldiers afraid? They are afraid, more afraid than we are afraid of them, because there are many of us and they are many. Few, we have tens of millions, but they only have hundreds of thousands at most!"
"Tens of millions?"
The villagers raised their fingers and plucked them here and there, looking left and right, not knowing how to do arithmetic on the scale of tens of millions.
And this involves some relatively profound content. For such content, it needs to be done step by step.
Xu Tong led them to build their own homes while telling them from the beginning what cattle and horses were, what the upper class people were, and how the upper class people gained their own fatness for nothing by sucking the flesh and blood of cows and horses.
In the process, he also creatively added content from the Ming Dynasty to the political propaganda, and compared the current policies of the Ming Dynasty with the policies of the Southern Song Dynasty, making the facts more bloody.
"Do you know how much farmers had to pay for land rent in the Ming Dynasty?"
"have no idea."
"Farmers who still rent land for farming only need to pay a maximum of 40% of the land rent, while farmers who do not rent land for farming and have their own land only need to pay an agricultural tax to the court. The tax is paid on a per-acre basis. Two liters, without any other exorbitant taxes.”
Upon hearing this, the villagers were surprised.
"impossible?"
"Is there such a good thing?"
"President, please stop lying to us."
"How can there be such a kind court in the world?"
Xu Tong shook his head, feeling sad about this.
He studied history and knew that the agricultural policies of many ancient dynasties were originally light on corvee and low on taxes. However, with the changes of time and the corruption of the ruling class, the pressure on farmers increased.
But in terms of agricultural policy alone, the pressure on farmers was not great in the early dynasty. The policies of one tax per ten and one tax per fifteen were often implemented for decades.
But that may not be the case with Song.
"I came from the Ming Dynasty in the north. How could I not know about this kind of thing? His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty in the north issued an edict requiring landowners not to collect more than 40% of the land rent from tenants who rent land. If you violate the order, Those who have to pay a heavy price.
There is no such thing as land rent for farmers who own their own land. They only need to pay an agricultural tax to the court during the tax season every year, and all other taxes that should be paid are gone. By the way, even if they are required to pay for labor service, they will be paid. . "
The villagers were even more surprised.
"real or fake?"
"Pay for hard labor?"
"Aren't they all just looking for food but not paying for it?"
"I've also heard that some places don't even care about food. They only provide one meal every two or three days, and many people starve to death."
"Yes, my cousin ran back from the construction site where no food was provided. He hid in the mountains for more than a year to avoid the limelight, but now he has changed his name."
The villagers talked about their experiences and what they saw and heard. Xu Tong listened. When they finished talking, Xu Tong began to promote the affairs of the Ming Dynasty.
For example, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty led the army to seize land and distributed it to farmers, and then established peasant associations to let farmers manage their own affairs.
The peasant associations in the Ming Dynasty had considerable power. County governments could not go to the countryside to collect taxes at will. According to regulations, the taxation department could only contact the peasant associations during the tax season to complete tax collection. Nothing else could be done. They went to the countryside to collect taxes. Don't even think about taxes.
All kinds of exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes imposed on farmers by governments at all levels in the Southern Song Dynasty were all abolished by the peasant associations. Even the landlords and gentry in the countryside were eradicated, and the land belonged to the farmers.
For farmers, nothing is as real as land and tax exemptions. What they care about most, at least at the moment, is land and tax exemptions.
How great would it be if most of what you collect belongs to you?
Every farmer has thought this way.
"In the Ming Dynasty, most of the grain harvested by farmers belonged to them."
Many villagers did not believe Xu Tong's words.
"When there was a disaster in the past, we begged the host to reduce the rent. The host complained to us that he had no food left, and he had to take care of everything. There was no food at all. If the Ming Emperor was really that good, he would probably You can’t even eat enough, can you?”
Xu Tong laughed for a while.
"Do you believe this kind of nonsense? Let me ask you, how much rent do you pay to the landlord every year?"
One villager raised his hand.
"Our place is open at 40 or 6, our home is at 4, and the main house is at 6, which is pretty good. Many places around here are at 37, and there are also 28, which is too dark."
"How many tenants do you have there?"
"About four hundred households."
"You only survived on these four crops, so why do you think that the master's family, which harvested 60% of the grain harvest from more than 400 households, will not have enough to eat? How many people are there in the master's family? There shouldn't be a thousand people, right? Then I guess It’s a little hard to eat enough.”
The villager who said this felt a little embarrassed.
"This...I don't know..."
Of course he didn't know. If he had cleared it up, he wouldn't have raised such a question and wouldn't have had such doubts.
From this we can see how deceptive the lies told by the landlords and gentry are.
Lies need to be exposed and the truth needs to be stated!
