After traveling through time, I became Han Zhang’s grandson?

Chapter 202 Opinion

As dinner was approaching, Han Ming specially asked Yong Zeng to go to the Wang family and the Sima family to report the news.

Listening to their master's instructions, the two ladies both had helpless and bitter smiles on their faces.

After all, apart from Han Ming and the reform movement, there was no other person or thing in the court who could make Wang Jiefu and Sima Junshi so concerned.

That night, neither Wang Jiefu nor Sima Junshi went home, but stayed in Han Ming's Anyang Marquis Mansion all night.

Taking advantage of the fact that there was no court meeting tomorrow, Han Ming and the other two gathered around a table outside the study, lit the charcoal, and prepared a small hot pot.

While eating and drinking, they took the various reform methods written by Han Ming and discussed their revisions.

"Han Hou, your 'One Whip Law' and 'Equalizing the Land Tax' are a bit harsh!"

After all, Sima Junshi came from a family of scholars and civil servants. Seeing something like digging up the roots of his ancestors, he was really a little scared.

"So we have to be careful about these things and not let anyone know. Once they get out, I think our future will be difficult."

Han Ming took a sip of wine, picked up a piece of mutton with chopsticks, dipped it in the sauce, and put it into his mouth. The taste came up quickly, relieving much of his fatigue from the day.

"But do you really have to be so cruel?"

Wang Jiefu said with some concern.

After all, as a bureaucrat of the ancient ruling class, even if Wang Jiefu had the ambition to "reform and advance", it was also a way to consolidate the rule of feudal society.

"I'm sure you two have witnessed a lot of the severity of land annexation in the Song Dynasty."

"Why are rebellions so frequent in the South? And why can't they be suppressed despite repeated efforts to suppress them?"

"In the final analysis, it comes down to one word - food!"

Although Han Ming is a person who traveled from the present world, he enjoys all the privileges of the ancient landlord ruling class.

In the eyes of discerning people, these reform methods make Han Ming a model of eating with the bowl in hand and smashing the pot after putting it down.

They are the so-called "traitors to the landlord class" and "whores who pretend to be virtuous".

But at the same time, he was deeply affected by the hardships of modern life and understood even more clearly how difficult it was for an ordinary person to survive in ancient society.

Not everyone is as lucky as Han Ming to be able to marry into the family of the prime minister of the current dynasty.

"The principle that food is the most important thing for the people has been passed down for thousands of years, starting from Sima Qian's 'Records of the Grand Historian: Biographies of Li Si and Lu Jia' in the Han Dynasty."

"We, them, everyone understands the simple truth behind this, but why haven't we solved it yet?"

“Ordinary people are simple and content.”

"Their most basic need is to fill their stomachs. On top of that, if they can have a wife, children, and a warm bed, that's the perfect life."

"But why can't we give them that?"

"It all comes down to one word: greed!"

Han Ming simply expressed his views on the ruling class and the common people.

"The Chinese people have a passion for land since ancient times, which is deeply rooted in their bones."

"If anyone wants to take away their land and the food grown on it, they will fight to the death with all kinds of weapons."

"The same applies to the gentry class in the Song Dynasty today. They won't let us implement these things so easily."

Han Ming took a sip of wine and smiled bitterly while holding the paper he had written on.

"But if we don't resolve these problems today, how long can the Song Dynasty survive under such internal and external troubles in the future..."

“Honestly speaking, I can’t see such a future!”

Han Ming's insightful explanation left Wang Jiefu and Sima Junshi speechless.

They could not imagine that in Han Ming's eyes, the future of the Song Dynasty was already in jeopardy.

Because they could never have imagined that sixty-four years after Renzong's death, the Song Dynasty's capital, Bianjing, would be captured by the Jin people, thus cutting the history of the Song Dynasty in two.

One part is called the Northern Song Dynasty, and the other part is called the Southern Song Dynasty!

Han Ming didn't know whether such a thing would happen again in the future, but he had to fight for a stable and prosperous life for this dynasty and his future children and family.

"If this continues, we may have to spend our whole lives in abuse."

Sima Junshi felt a little sad, but at the same time, he also felt an inexplicable courage.

"The saying 'I will go forward even if there are thousands of people against me' probably means this!"

Wang Jiefu shook his head and smiled bitterly, then raised his glass to drink.

He thought of his former ambitions, which now seemed nothing more than patching up the old society.

Although there may be some results, it may still be forgotten by the world due to one thing or another, and end up being labeled a failure!

"Don't be so pessimistic! I have a few plans to prevent this from happening."

Han Ming smiled slyly, took out a few sheets of paper from a thick stack, and handed them to the two of them.

"Expanding territory?!"

“Transforming agriculture into commerce?!”

"this?"

Wang Jiefu and Sima Junshi were both a little stunned and didn't understand Han Ming's intentions.

"The so-called contradiction is ultimately caused by irrational resource allocation."

"The territory of the Great Song Dynasty is now small, and after more than 40 years of development during the previous emperor's reign, the population is now approaching saturation."

"If we want to better limit and resolve such conflicts in the future, we can only redirect these conflicts abroad."

"I believe that in the future we will definitely recover the Hexi Corridor and other Liangzhou territories that were occupied by the Western Xia, as well as the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun that were taken away by the Liao Kingdom."

"Of course, if we look at the inheritance of the Chinese dynasties, the areas of Liaoxi and Liaodong after Yanyun must also be recovered."

"The southwest was once the Rongzhou Governorate of the Tang Dynasty, and it is also Chinese territory."

"There's a lot of land in these places waiting to be cultivated."

"As long as our court is responsible for selling seeds and farm tools for free and declares that these newly reclaimed lands will not be taxed for a few years, all the proceeds will belong to the individuals."

"In this way, we can effectively expand the utilization of land resources and ease the conflicts between landlords and tenants."

"Of course, we can also encourage large landowners to explore all the lands outside of China, whether it's the East China Sea, the Southern Frontier, the Northern Frontier, or the Western Regions. These are all vast worlds."

"All the imperial court needs to do is send troops to protect them."

Han Ming became more and more excited as he spoke, and he couldn't wait to lead his elite troops to march north, west, and south to expand the territory!

"Ah this..."

"Σ(⊙▽⊙"a"

"(⊙_⊙)?"

Wang Jiefu and Sima Junshi were completely shocked by Han Ming's idea. This guy is a complete militarist leader!

"But expanding the territory will also bring about administrative costs!"

Wang Jiefu was worthy of being the future prime minister, and he saw the crux of the problem in an instant.

Although Han Ming's method was to let the Song people leave their homeland of China and open up external lands, the resulting pressure on the court's management would increase dramatically.

"Seal the king!"

Han Ming waved his hand and directly stated his intention.

"What does Han Hou mean?!"

"The royal family members were divided into fiefdoms. Apart from the necessary tribute, any place that the Song court could not directly govern would become their personal fiefdom."

The blazing fire in Han Ming's eyes made people feel scared.

After a while, Wang Jiefu and Sima Junshi came back to their senses from this topic.

"But at present, these solutions are too far-fetched. If we focus on the present, apart from expanding our territory, our only option is to 'transform agriculture into commerce!'"

Wang Jiefu finally agreed with Han Ming's idea and told him the current situation.

The commodity economy of the Song Dynasty was the best in all dynasties. It was mainly due to the small territory and the court's promotion of it in order to expand financial expenditure after land annexation.

The former shipwreck of "Nanhai No. 1" can give us a glimpse into the prosperity of the commodity economy of the Song Dynasty.

"The imperial court needs to increase revenue, not just by exploiting the common people, but also by exploiting the wealthy gentry."

"The imperial court could take the lead in establishing an official commercial organization to expand Song's domestic and international commodity economic transactions."

"We provide very low-interest loans to landless people, allowing them to enter the commercial market and start small family-run businesses."

"Provide high-interest loans to the wealthy landowners, allowing them to enter the market and use their land as collateral for loans."

"In short, it's about getting the peasants who have lost their land, and the wealthy and powerful who control the most land, to change their mindsets and expand from land transactions to commercial markets in all walks of life."

"Liberate the rate of land occupation and concealment, so that land no longer constrains social and population resources."

"In this way, we can temporarily maintain social contradictions and ease social conflicts."

Han Ming's words made Wang Jiefu and Sima Junshi suddenly enlightened, and they couldn't help but applaud.