"By the way, do you recognize this?" Zhao Kuo pointed at the cotton not far away and said.
"There are many such Baidianzi in the far west." Huai said.
"The king needs a large amount of this kind of thing, or seeds." Zhao Kuo said.
"King Qu Yan may have seeds left behind by the caravan," Huai said.
"As long as you can find cotton seeds, I will reward each of you with a wife." Zhao Kuo waved his hand and said.
"Thank you, Your Majesty. You guys will definitely find it." The three of them said excitedly.
The next day, the three of them brought a small half bag of cotton seeds. It was said that the horse merchant gave it to King Quyan. King Quyan heard that it looked good when opened and could change colors, so he kept it.
"Send the seeds to the farmers and tell them to cultivate them as quickly as possible." Zhao Kuo ordered.
"No." Dozens of cavalrymen escorted the cotton seeds towards the Hetao.
"Based on your merits, I will bury you in a place with mountains and water." Zhao Kuo said to the body of King Qu Yan, and finally decided to bury him at the foot of Helan Mountain.
Come and try it quickly. 】
Zhao Kuo originally planned to return to Hetao in a few days. Because of the cotton issue, he stayed in Helan Mountain for more than half a month. He did not leave until he searched the area and determined that there was only a small piece of cotton in total.
After he rushed back to the Loop, everyone finally formulated a complete immigration policy.
"Just issue it according to this." After Zhao Kuo read it, he handed it to Liu Ping.
Soon, an immigration process involving most parts of the country began with great fanfare.
In addition to Helan County, Zhao Kuo established Shuofang and Jiuyuan counties in Hetao, parallel to the original Yunzhong County, and established Monan County to the north of Yinshan Mountain, the former homeland of the Huns.
Zhao Guo planned and established ten large ranches in Hetao and Monan County, and immigrated 100,000 households from the Central Plains to develop Hetao. Each household was given 150 acres of land and was exempted from agricultural taxes and oral taxes for five years. The government distributed an ox and a sheep free of charge. In the first year, the government provided seeds and agricultural tools.
And starting next year, Zhao will give priority to building schools in the Hetao area, with one school in each township for everyone's children to study and study.
These people originally lived in the Central Plains, so they would definitely not be willing to go to the frontier. As for the national justice, it was very feeble to them, so Zhao Kuo chose to give them sufficient compensation for their interests.
For ordinary people, nothing is more important than their children, and the most important thing for children is education. Therefore, Zhao Kuo did not popularize education in the Central Plains first, but spread it in Hetao.
In addition, when singles go to Hetao, the government will give out wives for free, not limited to Zhao State.
These measures caused a large number of slaves to escape into the Loop. Nobles from all over the country reported to the government one after another, but the government did not care at all, because this was Zhao Kuo's tacit approval.
As soon as you arrive in the Loop, the government will provide you with a household registration. It doesn't care where you come from, and it won't check your previous identity. Even if someone reports a crime, as long as it is not a serious crime, the government will ignore it. As long as you don't continue to commit crimes in the future.
The nobles in the country were in trouble. They had made a lot of money following Zhao Kuo, but this time they were directly deceived.
But in the future, you can make a lot of money by developing the Loop, building pastures, and processing milk and goat milk. If they openly oppose it, these good things will have nothing to do with them in the future. If you choose to default, those slaves will never come back.
Finally, seeing that the government really didn't intend to care about them, everyone could only pretend that this incident never happened. They are not qualified to fall out with Zhao Kuo, and they actually don't want to fall out with Zhao Kuo.
Because Zhao Kuo did give them a lot, the strength of each of their families has been improved. However, this improvement is much smaller than that of Zhao Kuo. As a result, they are now even smaller compared to the country. But overall, their Their strength has indeed increased, and they are now living in a tangled state every day.
"What do you think of the land in Hetao?" Zhao Kuo suddenly asked.
"If it is developed well, it will be no less than the Central Plains." Le Yi didn't know why, but he still said it.
"I wonder if you would like to change your fiefdom here?" Zhao Kuo asked.
Now Le Yi understood it, and together he wanted to take my fiefdom back and turn it into a place where birds don't poop. Although everyone says that the Hetao is no less than the Central Plains, everyone knows that the gap between the two is still quite large, not to mention that the Hetao has not been developed at all.
Le Yi suddenly felt chilled. Sure enough, this step was inevitable in the end!
However, thinking of Zhao Kuo's kindness, Le Yi planned to do his last to help Zhao Kuo. After that, it had nothing to do with him: "As long as the king needs it, I will be available at any time."
"The general has misunderstood. I am not a person who crosses rivers and burns bridges. Doesn't the general want to leave a piece of land for future generations?" Zhao Kuo said.
"The king is saying..." Le Yi suddenly became uneasy.
"Yes, I can promise the general that this fief is hereditary." Zhao Kuo nodded.
The fiefdoms granted to ministers by the State of Zhao can theoretically be inherited, but... this is only theoretical. In fact, in order to avoid the situation of enfeoffing less and less land in the country and running out of land in the country, Zhao State would always try to find ways to take back the fiefdoms from the hands of its ministers.
Zuo Shichulong once asked the Queen Mother Zhao, "Counting three generations from now to the time when the Zhao family establishes the Zhao Kingdom, if the descendants of the monarchs of the Zhao Kingdom are ennobled, will any of their descendants be able to inherit the title?"
The Queen Mother said: "No."
It can be seen that all these lands were taken back by Zhao State. In history, Zhao Sheng was the only one who clearly passed down the fiefdoms and titles to Zhao State when the country was destroyed.
If Zhao Kuo changes the fiefdom of his ministers from the rich Central Plains to Hetao, all the ministers will have opinions and may even unite to oppose it. But if a hereditary clause is added, then, except for a very small number of people, most people will not have any objection.
On the one hand, if the Hetao is developed, its richness will not be much worse than that of the Central Plains.
On the other hand, there is a huge difference between being able to pass it on to future generations and being taken back after one's death, and everyone would choose the first.
To put it bluntly, is it called a fiefdom if it cannot be passed down to future generations? That's Hu Nongren.
"Wherever the king is appointed, the general will be there." Le Yi said excitedly, clasping his fists. It turned out that he had misunderstood Zhao Kuo. He was not here to kill the donkey, but to give him benefits.
"The same goes for the last general." Lian Po said.
"As long as the two generals agree, I just have a rough idea of this matter now. I have to wait until I return to Handan and discuss it with everyone before making a decision. By the way, the two generals who are closer to the water and the towers will get the moon first. Send someone to investigate, choose a place and tell me the king. As long as the city has not been built, I will agree. If you two are not afraid of the cold wind and want to be sealed in Monan, I can also agree." Zhao Kuo said.
This was something he had thought about long ago.
Fiefdom was a reward and an incentive given by the monarch to his ministers in this era. The social system is like this and it cannot be avoided no matter what. This thing is beneficial and can greatly stimulate the fighting spirit of the courtiers. But there is also a disadvantage, that is, the land will become less and less as the land is closed... and it is easy to lose the tail.
For example, the Zhou Dynasty, such as the Chu State.
Even Shang Yang's reforms could not solve this problem. Shang Yang even bought himself a large fiefdom. After being falsely accused of treason, he actually went to the fiefdom to rebel, and was defeated by Qin.
