Although he wanted to make a fortune in silence, Zhao's growing national power was inevitably discovered by other countries.
However, the first one to notice the abnormality was not the Qin State, which had been fighting against the Zhao State, but the Wei State, which was almost sandwiched between Zhao State.
The reason is also very simple. The wind that fled Zhao State eventually blew into the beams.
After receiving the news, Lord Xinling did not dare to neglect. After requesting an order from King Wei, he quietly took people to several cities near Dongjun to check the situation.
It doesn't matter if you don't check it. After checking it, Lord Xinling's heart dropped.
In less than two years, the population of several cities near Zhao Guodong County, especially the farming population, dropped by nearly 30%.
What makes Lord Xinling even more frightened is that, without exception, serious land annexation has occurred in these places, and large amounts of land have been hoarded into the hands of wealthy families.
Obviously, when these original farmers fled the Wei State, they disposed of all the land in their hands to the local wealthy families.
After controlling more and more land, the local wealthy families gradually discovered that they had the ability to manipulate local grain leave.
So in order to get more land and completely separate the people from the land, the wealthy families immediately began to collude with the government. On the one hand, they cut off the way to pay taxes and donations with grain, and on the other hand, they severely lowered the price of grain.
In this way, in order to repay the taxes and donations from the government, the people could only exchange more grain for brocade and sword coins recognized by the government.
As a result, "low grain prices hurt farmers" immediately occurred in these places.
People who could not make ends meet had no choice but to sell their last acres of land and then die or run away.
The simple thing is that Lord Xinling came quite early, and the land annexation has not yet reached the final stage of cannibalism, nor has it caused the tragic situation of ten houses and nine empty houses. If we wait until the autumn harvest is over this year, I am afraid that the people of several cities will have to Escape at least 50%.
Even so, the missing 30% of the people was enough to make Lord Xinling wary.
Without any hesitation, Lord Xinling figured out the problem, and with his extremely strong political skills, he forced the government to issue a decree to restore the use of grain to offset taxes and donations. At the same time, he did not hesitate to use his own financial resources to transfer several cities. Food prices were forcibly raised.
Soon, food prices in several cities were stabilized, and public dissatisfaction was finally contained.
However, Lord Xinling knew very well that this was just a temporary solution and could not cure the root cause at all.
And this one, among others, is in Zhao Guodong County next door. Almost most of the lost 30% of the people went to Zhao Guodong County not far away.
From the perspective of Lord Xinling: If Zhao Guodong County hadn’t put out the slogan “When you come, you will be a native of Zhao”, and even made land and cattle, the people of Liang County would not have left their homes and property to go to Dong County. .
If our own people had not given up their homes and businesses to give too much land to the local tycoons, allowing them to control food prices, this crisis would not have resulted.
Lord Xinling's logic is of course based on "a wise man is suspicious of his neighbours".
Obviously, from the perspective of later generations, the emergence of this crisis is obviously a manifestation of Wei's "harsh rule that is fiercer than a tiger". Zhao's attraction to refugees is at best a catalyst.
After all, who would be willing to abandon their home and career and leave the homeland they are already familiar with if they can have a living?
It can be said that even without the emergence of Zhao Guodong County, under the harsh rule of Wei State, drastic land annexation will be a matter of course sooner or later, and the people of Wei State will still live in water and fire sooner or later.
But it is a pity that whether it is due to historical limitations, or the confusion of the authorities, or even because Lord Xinling did not dare to touch the core of the tyranny, in short, Lord Xinling attributed the root cause of this crisis to It came to Zhao Guo's head.
Especially after Lord Xinling learned from many sources that the originally poor Dongjun had actually become richer than his own Liangjun in just two years.
Lord Xinling was even more certain of his thoughts.
Although Lord Xinling didn't know how Zhao Guo did it, almost as soon as he received the exact news, Lord Xinling knew that no matter
I can continue like this.
A small Dongjun has been transformed in two years, but what about the hometown of Yan State? And what about the land ceded by Chu State?
Lord Xinling almost didn't dare to think any more. Fortunately, his body still made an honest choice, and teams of scouts and spies were sent out to various cities in the Zhao Kingdom.
Soon, Lord Xinling got the answer.
The good news is that because the Zhao State implemented a loose population policy of "when you come, you will be a Zhao citizen", Lord Xinling's spies were able to pass through the territory of the Zhao State almost without any hindrance, and they got first-hand information immediately. data of;
The bad news is that the answer they came up with is almost the same as what Lord Xinling imagined.
There were no surprises. The land of Zhao State where the spies visited was full of vitality. It was a vitality that had never been seen in the land of Wei.
If it weren't for the fact that all the scouts and spies sent were close followers of Lord Xinling, there might be some who stayed in Zhao and refused to come back.
There is no way, if the people of any family don't pay 70% of taxes and contributions, if they can keep 30% of their taxes, it is already a favor from the officials;
But Zhao State is not the case. Even for old fields (redistributed acres), the highest tax is only 50%. As for newly opened fields, the tax is only 10% in the first year, and only 30% in the second year.
With such a low tax, the people can even apply for cattle from the government to plow the newly opened land with less than 10% of the tax next year.
On the faces of the people of Zhao State, what the scouts and spies saw was not sallowness and thinness, but a glow of redness, and even better expectations for the future.
It can be said that these scouts and spies have tried their best to describe the beauty of Zhao State, but they still cannot fully express the prosperity of Zhao State.
How could they have known that iron tools had quietly become popular in farming?
They are not integrated into society, and they don’t even know that ditches are quietly dug one after another in winter, and in the hot summer, they nourish the barren soil of the North;
They who have never actually worked in the fields do not know how labor-saving the Quyuan plow is compared to the two-person plow;
There are also water trucks, agricultural fertilizers, and the farming system...
But just what they saw and heard back to Lord Xinling was enough to make Lord Xinling make up his mind.
We must fight to defeat Zhao! If this continues, no country in the world will be Zhao's opponent. Even in a few years, even if all countries are tied together, they may not be Zhao's opponent.
Immediately, without any time to hesitate, Lord Xinling returned to Daliang City with Zhao Guo's report.
After another long conversation all night long, King Wei was not surprised to be persuaded again by Lord Xinling.
Since the Changping War, King Wei has obviously been persuaded more and more often.
Only on the second day, King Wei issued a royal order and sent several groups of envoys to secretly go to Qin, Chu and Qi.
Yes, King Wei, or Lord Xinling, included Chu, Zhao Guoming's biggest ally.
Of course, Lord Xinling did not ask that the Chu State would really send troops to rebel against Zhao. As long as he had some scruples and did not hold back the Qin army at a critical moment, Lord Xinling would have achieved his goal.
As for Lord Xinling, he also went deep into the military camp on the second day. He had to carefully start to assemble the army.
Just when Lord Xinling finally discovered that the development of Zhao State could no longer be contained, Wang Lu, who had been fighting with the Zhao army on the front line, finally discovered one.
After two years of fighting, the Zhao army seemed to be at a loss, as if they only wanted to control the front line at the original border between Han and Chu.
Such doubts became particularly obvious when Qin Jun made an obvious mistake.
The Zhao army clearly had the opportunity to take advantage of the Qin army's support failure to tear through the defense line in front of them and develop in depth, but they did not.
He didn't even try to rush into the front line.
Is this still the same Zhao army that is famous for taking the initiative to attack, mobilize opponents, and eliminate opponents? Wang Lu is very
Suspect.
Immediately, Wang Lu, who had already become suspicious, began to further observe Zhao Jun on the opposite side.
Sure enough, Wang Hao soon got evidence that Zhao Jun was conducting a large-scale rotation.
A bad judgment instantly struck Wang Lu's mind. Could it be that Zhao Jun has been rotating for two years? How many troops does Zhao Jun have now?
Three hundred thousand, four hundred thousand or more?
Three to four hundred thousand, veterans with rich combat experience, God knows what kind of powerful army this is?
Thinking of this, even Wang Lu couldn't help but feel nervous.
Immediately, Wang Lu also eliminated the scouts and spies, wanting to find out how many troops Zhao Jun still had at this time.
It's a pity that the army is not a civilian.
Especially under the leadership of Zhao Kuo, the control of each army can be said to be extremely strict.
Soon, most of the scouts and spies returned to the military camp in disgrace.
Fortunately, the power in Wang Hao's hands is not only the right to mobilize the army. Since being appointed as the auxiliary minister, Wang Hao has already had the right to mobilize Heibingtai.
But Hei Bingtai did not live up to Wang Lu's trust.
Almost at the same time that group of useless scouts returned to the camp, Black Ice Platform also collected the information Wang Lu needed from various channels.
However, when Wang Hao really opened the silk book with the numbers on it, Wang Hao couldn't help but secretly take a breath.
There was no way, Zhao Guo's attack was too fast.
Obviously two years ago, the Qin Army's military strength still had a certain advantage over the Zhao Army. But as two years passed, the main force of the Zhao army was no less than that of the Qin army.
Obviously, if this continues, Zhao will overtake Qin in terms of military strength.
This is really not good news for Wang Lu and Qin.
Wang Lu, who had always been calm, felt a little anxious for the first time. He knew that he could not wait any longer...
