After bidding farewell to Wang Yan, Wang Xiao returned with his army. Not far away, Wang Ruohai on the side couldn't help but ask: "Jie Shuai, are we going back to Xiangyang like this? Are we really going to hand over Junzhou's emergency to Wang Yan? Including the military rations we worked so hard to transport here?"
Wang Xiaolie said: "What do you want? It is not cost-effective for us to have to work hard to transport the military rations back."
Wang Ruohai was stunned for a moment. After a while, he sighed and said: "Jie Shuai has a generous character, which I have never seen before. As the saying goes, good people are rewarded. I hope that one day, God will repay you."
Wang Xiaolie said: "When you do good deeds, you shouldn't ask what kind of reward you will get. Just do it if you need to do it. Think of the benefits in everything, just like burning incense in the temple and spending a few pennies on it. Gong Bodhisattva will bless you. , bless that one, as if a Bodhisattva is worth just a few pennies. When we do things, we should only do things with a clear conscience, and don’t think too much about other things.”
Wang Ruohai nodded, unable to say anything more.
Thousands of stones of food and grass are of little use to the current Wang Xiaolie. For Wang Yan, if it could solve his current big problem, why not do Wang Xiaolie a favor? It’s so tiring to worry about everything.
In this attack on Junzhou, Wang Xiaolie did not gain nothing. In addition to training the army, there were also captured Li Zhong troops. Li Zhong's combatable soldiers were selected from the common people, and most of them could be incorporated into the army. Those who cannot join the army are also a population that is in urgent need now.
After several years of development, Dengzhou and Tangzhou areas are still sparsely populated. Arranging for these people to go over and open up idle fields will be a great help to him. In this era, population is wealth.
In a normal year in the Song Dynasty, rural customers accounted for more than 30%, first- and second-class households accounted for less than 10%, and the rest were homesteaders. Among the owner-cultivators, those with 70 to 100 acres or more are considered wealthy, those with 40 to 70 acres are relatively wealthy, those with 20 to 40 acres are average, and those with less than 20 acres are considered poor. Under Wang Xiaolie's rule, the average farmer's land was based on thirty acres of land, which was based on this. However, in addition to the thirty acres of land, Wang Xiaolie was also allocated ten acres of mulberry fields and vegetable fields per household. Most of the homesteaders lived a relatively comfortable life.
In the past three years, Wang Xiaolie has been insisting on cracking down on local powerful people, resulting in a large number of customers and a large increase in farmers. Because although the proportion of upper-class households is small, most of the customers work for them. By cracking down on upper-class households, many customers have become homesteaders.
The fact that the Song Dynasty did not establish a land system and did not suppress mergers does not mean that the land in the Song Dynasty was highly concentrated. Due to various constraints, land concentration in the Song Dynasty was far less serious than that in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Coupled with the fact that there are no restrictions on people's migration, the lives of the people at the bottom are relatively better. Starting from the fact that land annexation was not established and annexation was not suppressed, it would be unrealistic to conclude that land annexation was serious in the Song Dynasty and rural land conflicts were acute.
Wang Xiaolie said to Wang Ruohai: "In addition to the soldiers who killed Li Zhong this time, there were also nearly 30,000 people who were held hostage by him. Those 30,000 people who could survive with Li Zhong were not old, weak, sick or disabled. If arranged properly, it will be equivalent to adding several more people to the county."
Wang Ruohai said: "It costs money to arrange these people. Commander Jie is right, but money is like water. How difficult-"
Wang Xiaolie smiled and said: "In the past three years, although we have been short of money from time to time, we have not delayed anything. The Huizi printed in Xiangyang is of excellent quality and is now spread all over the world. This is a huge amount of income. We cannot save this money. Once you get down, you should spend it in time."
Wang Ruohai said: "Huizi is doing well now, who knows in the future? When Cai Jing was in power, he changed the money laws and brought in a lot of money for the court. But a few years later, the people suffered and the court could no longer collect money. .”
Wang Xiaolie said: "Senior, it is true to remember the past and learn from the future. However, specific problems must be analyzed concretely and we cannot copy previous experiences. As long as we know how Huizi came to be, we have Whatever the role, you can continue to do it if you are careful and careful.”
Wang Xiaolie's Huizi is strong not because of its beautiful printing, but because of banks and, more importantly, the rapid economic development. As the economy develops and business prospers, more meetings are needed. Controlling the printing scale of Huizi, not only has the value not depreciated in the past two years, but the price has also dropped. Ultimately, if the government wants to collect more money, it still needs to rely on economic development.
However, with Huizi and banks, economic development will have an amplifying effect. By collecting an extra thousand guan in taxes, Wang Xiaolie could issue thousands of guan huizi. Wang Ruohai and others always believed that Huizi was issuing debt and wanted to pay off the debt as soon as possible. In fact, why pay it back? That debt is just a number, and the government controls the issuance scale of Huizi. As long as the economy continues to develop, more and more people will be printed.
It is precisely with the support of Huizi, coupled with the expansion of economic scale and increase in tax sources, Xiangyang's finances began to become more abundant this year. In addition to the government and military expenditures, Wang Xiaolie had spare money to spend on government affairs. Even if the cost is high and the payback is slow, Xiangyang now dares to invest in projects. Government-run field services, coupled with the expansion of industrial and commercial taxes, have provided solid financial resources.
In the economy, there must be both government-run and private-run ones. The ownership debate is a product of ideology. Who does Wang Xiaolie need to argue with? Those with large investments, large scales, and some with slow returns must of course be invested by the government. Including some industries with mature and stable technologies and stable profits, the government can boldly enter. For some projects with high risks and rapid progress, the government can support private operations.
The government-run economy not only provides the government with income other than finance and taxation, ensures social stability, and gives the government a hand in directly managing the economy, it also has a role in narrowing the gap between the rich and the poor.
In industries that have stable profits, such as house rent, land rent, roads, bridges, etc., the government will of course take the lion's share. It can not only reduce taxes and alleviate the burden on the people, but also prevent this wealth from flowing into private hands and create a large number of landlords and rentiers. And a large number of industries related to people's livelihood can be controlled by the government. The more money the government makes, the less taxes it collects. Of course, if there is a problem with the government, no one can save it.
When they arrived at Tutaiyi, they set up camp and had a dinner with Wang Xiaolie, Li Yanxian and Wang Ruohai.
Dinners were a system of the Song Dynasty, especially in the military. There are regulations on how often several important generals should eat together. There will be a penalty for not attending the dinner without any reason. This system was set up to familiarize generals and exchange information at the same time.
Had a glass of wine. Wang Xiaolie said: "There is nothing important on the way back to Xiangyang this time. We can't be idle all day. Let's choose the most ordinary city in the army and we will stay there for a few days. We will eat and live with the soldiers and listen to them. What to say, what to think.”
Li Yanxian said: "That's fine. When I was in Shaanzhou, I ate and lived with the soldiers without distinction. Now that everything has a system, generals and soldiers are just different, which makes me not used to it."
Wang Ruohai couldn't help frowning after hearing this: "After all, there are few things to do when we return to the army, but there are still many things that we need to make decisions about. What should we do if there is an emergency in the army after we leave? The so-called leaderless group is prone to trouble."
Wang Xiaolie said: "It doesn't matter, there are three of us working in shifts, and one of us can be on duty every day. If it's really a big deal, it won't take much time to go report it on Pegasus. A general can't be completely separated from his soldiers, and he doesn't know what's going on below. If it's possible , you should live among the soldiers and understand them. This way you can be clear when managing and not be deceived by the people below."
