Rebirth: Overthrow Song Dynasty

In the first half of the seventh year of Xuanwu, from the first month to May, the weather was smooth.

Even in the arid northwest, it rained several times in the spring and summer of this year, and the crops in the northwest were able to thrive.

Seeing the crops continue to grow and mature, tens of millions of people all over the world are excited, and they look forward to the early harvest season.

By the end of the fifth month of the lunar calendar, in Henan, the wheat here has matured. The hundreds of thousands of volunteer men who have taken off their military uniforms and returned to their hometowns to work in farming have begun to harvest crops! Qin Hui has urgently sent the good news of Henan's great harvest to Yanjing!

In Yanjing, because of its proximity to the north, the wheat here is still immature, but the wheat has turned yellow.

On May 29th, Zhao Chen left Yanjing City with more than a hundred guards to inspect the farmland around Yanjing.

They went all the way to the west, constantly observing and inquiring, and in the afternoon of this day, they came to the village that they had visited last winter.

There is an endless field of wheat in front of us, and the sun shines on the wheat field, and the golden light is emitted!

The weather was hot and the soldiers were all sweaty, but they were all excited.

There is a wide canal on the side of the road, which can almost be called a small river. The clear river flows inside, and there are small ditch beside it to lead the river water to the fields.

Zhao Chen squatted down, scooped water with his hands, and then washed the dust on his face.

The river was cool, and Zhao Chen felt refreshed.

The soldiers also squatted down one after another. Some people filled their skins with water. After resting here for a while, they left here.

After walking for a while, several old farmers were working in the farmland ahead.

In the hot weather, the two old farmers are wearing hats.

Soon, they heard footsteps coming from a distance, and immediately looked forward.

After seeing Zhao Chen, one of the old farmers showed a surprised expression on his face. After a while, he said in surprise: "Look, is that man your Majesty?"

Another old farmer by the side identified it carefully, nodded fiercely, and said, "Yes! It's your Majesty! The one we saw your Majesty last winter is him! Nothing wrong!"

The two old farmers were overjoyed, they immediately left the farmland and came towards the road!

It didn't take long before they arrived in front of Zhao Chen and others!

"Your Majesty! It's you? It turned out to be you!" The two old farmers were overjoyed and fell to the ground one after another.

"Are you Qian Shirong?" Zhao Chen helped up the two old farmers, looked at one of them, and said with a smile.

"It's the grassroots!" The old farmer smiled.

It turns out that he is the village chief Qian Shirong that Zhao Chen met last year!

"Your Majesty, you really kept your promise and came here again!" Qian Shirong said excitedly.

"The wheat harvesting season is coming soon, let me see how the wheat grows in Yanyun Sixteen Prefecture!" Zhao Chen said.

"Your Majesty, the wheat is growing very well! This year, we can have a bumper harvest!" Qian Shirong said.

"Oh? How much wheat can one mu of land produce?" Zhao Chen said.

"One mu of land can have at least two hundred catties of wheat!" Qian Shirong said.

"Two hundred catties? Very good!" Zhao Chen nodded.

For the modern society of later generations, two hundred catties is considered to be extremely poor! In the later North, the yield of one mu of wheat was normal, but in this era, agricultural technology is backward, and 200 jin is already a good harvest year! Two hundred catties are certainly not enough to feed the family, but the population of this era is far less than that of later generations, and the per capita land area is more than ten times that of later generations. Therefore, although the average yield is low, the amount of land is large enough to feed the world. !

"Your Majesty, we have been doing farm work with the landlord for decades, and we have never seen such a big harvest! In the past, the yield of one mu of land was only a hundred catties at most! This year is almost twice as much as before! Previously, the crops belonged to others. Now the crops are our own! Since last winter, we have often stayed in the fields, and we started hoeing the fields before spring began! After planting the wheat, we were afraid that we could not take good care of the crops. Some people even slept in the fields at night. , Get up in the middle of the night and continue to work! Now there are no cattle in the village, no cow dung, we go to pick up bird droppings! Sometimes a few people are fighting there to fight for bird droppings! The children in our family are all driven there On the mountain, let them go to the mountain to pick up bird droppings! Who could be so careful when working for the landlord before? It is precisely because of this that we can get a good harvest this year!" Qian Shirong said with a smile on his face.

Zhao Chen nodded.

Now the land belongs to the farmers themselves, and the farmers’ enthusiasm for farming is several times higher than before. It is normal for the crops to be harvested more than before.

"Thanks to your majesty, my family has allocated more than 20 acres of land. If this is counted, our family will be able to harvest four thousand catties of wheat this year. Moreover, after harvesting the wheat, we can still grow sorghum and beans. I can harvest something! This year, I don’t have to worry about not having food! Your Majesty, last year the court gave us a lot of food for disaster relief. The people in our village have already negotiated it. The court treats us so kindly, and we can’t take the court’s things for nothing. , We are going to return this grain!" Qian Shirong kept laughing and said.

"The imperial court serves the people, and the people can't eat. The imperial court should provide disaster relief! This year, the imperial court has no agricultural tax, but starting next year, many places may have to collect agricultural tax again!" Zhao Chen said.

"Your Majesty, don't know how much agricultural tax is there?" Qian Shirong asked hurriedly.

"No more than 10%!" Zhao Chen said.

"So little, then we can afford it." Qian Shirong laughed again.

"Do you know why the imperial court collects taxes?" Zhao Chen said.

"This...the grassroots are dull, I don't know." Qian Shirong said.

"The imperial court has a million army to guard the north. It is precisely because of the army that Jurchen cannot invade. We Han Chinese can live and work in Yanyun and Central Plains so that we can have our own land and be able to eat. However, this Millions of armies are fighting with the enemy. They also need military rations. Soldiers die in battle, and they also need pensions. These military rations and pensions come from taxes from the world. In addition, governments everywhere need to build water conservancy and roads, which also cost money. This money also comes from taxation. Also, the court built roads, and some places were affected by disasters. The court needed to provide disaster relief, and all kinds of places needed money. The state also had to collect taxes. I hope you can understand!" Zhao Chen said.

"So that's it! After the tax goes up, it's for ourselves. Of course we have to pay for it!" Qian Shirong said.

"In any dynasty, it is impossible not to collect taxes! But we are different from previous dynasties. Our tax collection will not be used for the pleasure of officials, but for the people! From now on we will let the people come. Supervise the use of taxes." Zhao Chen said.

"Let the people supervise?" Qian Shirong was taken aback, not understanding what it meant.

"In the future, we will select highly respected people from the people to supervise state affairs and the state's tax usage, and every transaction will be reported to these people!" Zhao Chen said.

"This..." Qian Shirong felt unbelievable, and asked the people to supervise the government. This was something he had never heard of before!

He is just an ordinary farmer of this era, with limited knowledge, and he only finds it unbelievable. He doesn't know whether this is good or bad. He even thinks that this is a kind of blasphemy against the imperial power and the court. .

Zhao Chen just mentioned it casually, without saying much, and continued to move forward.

"When will the wheat be harvested?" Zhao Chen said.

"We have to wait for half a month." Qian Shirong said.

"Are your granaries ready?" Zhao Chen said.

"All are ready! Every household has prepared a big granary!" Qian Shirong grinned.

"When harvesting wheat, I am most afraid of rain. When that time comes, I will come here and I will help the villagers harvest wheat together!" Zhao Chen said.

"Ah!" Qian Shirong's face showed an expression of ecstasy! For the ancient people, the arrival of the emperor was a great happy event! Qian Shirong never thought that his village could be so much favored by the emperor!

"By the way, those Khitan people in the village, how are their farms planted?" Zhao Chen said.

"They also grow a lot of farmland! We are all poor people. Now we have land and our minds are on the land. They are no exception! However, Your Majesty, we have been supervising the Khitan people and will never let them rebel. !" Qian Shirong patted his chest, said.

"There is no need to supervise them! When the country becomes rich, schools must be established in various places. The children of the villagers can go to school, even the children of the Khitan people can go to school! They all learn our Han culture, wear our Han clothes, and time When they are long, there is not much difference between them and our Han people! It's better to think of a way to change the surname of the Khitan people to the Han surname, so that all the Khitan people will marry our Han people!" Zhao Chen said.

Qian Shirong nodded, seemingly understanding.

They have been walking towards the front for a full hour. The number of villagers beside Zhao Chen has increased. Almost all the villagers have bright smiles that can only be seen in the harvest season.

"Your Majesty, you can live in our village tonight, and we will prepare a feast for you!" Qian Shirong said.

"Okay, rest here with you today! But don't prepare a feast, I just want to eat the farmer's food here!" Zhao Chen said.

"Good!" Qian Shirong laughed.

That night, Zhao Chen stopped in this village.

In fact, the wheat is not mature now, and the people in the village are also very bitterly cold. They can't prepare a "feast", just some simple meals! Zhao Chen and the guards carried dry food with them, and they even had to take out their dry food and let the villagers cook.

Early the next morning, Zhao Chen left here and moved on.

For the current Yanjing court, the most important thing is to harvest wheat. The officials from Zhao Chen and all over Yanyun have gone to inspect the situation, ask the people if they have any difficulties, and help them prepare for the harvest. ! If it rains when the wheat is harvesting, it would be terrible. The garrisons everywhere are even ready to enter the place to help harvest the wheat!

It was not until the fifth day of June that Zhao Chen returned to the palace.

He first went to the Taiji Palace to greet Zhao Ji, and then he went to the small courtyard where Zheyueru was.

Summer is scorching, and there are many trees in the yard, which is cool. At this moment, Zheyue is embroidering in the shade under the trees.

Zhao Chen didn't disturb her. He came behind her and found that she was embroidering a pair of mandarin ducks.