The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

After watching Yang Qiu leave, Heifu and Zhang Han put down their hands and looked at each other with complicated eyes.

"Shao Rong, what do you think is the reason for the king's decree?" On the way back, Heifu asked Zhang Han.

"It's because of the land. There are not enough unowned fields in the inner counties."

Zhang Han came from Guanzhong, and as the Sikong in charge of civil engineering, he had more or less come into contact with some land and household registration information when he was in Jiujiang County, so he could see it more clearly.

"Since the eleventh year of the reign of King Wang, when he ordered General Wang to attack Yanyu, Qin has not sent troops to the east every year. For fourteen years now, there have been battles every year, and every year soldiers have beheaded and captured cities, and have been rewarded for their meritorious service. The unowned fields in Guanzhong were all divided up a few years ago, and even the forests and marshes in the corners have been opened up to accommodate the nobles who migrated from the Five Kingdoms. Since the war to destroy Wei, the land awarded to the soldiers in Guanzhong has begun to be distributed to the border counties. For example, I am from Xiayang, the internal historian, but my land was distributed to Ji County, Longxi."

"The counties in Shandong are even worse. Yingchuan, Sanchuan, Hedong, Henei, Nanyang and other counties have a large population and little land. Now the soldiers from those places have to open up new land from Taiyuan, Yanmen and Shanggu."

Nanjun was not much better. The whole county had a population of one million, but the farmland was only a little over 10 million mu. Jiangling, Ying, and Yan counties, which had the largest population and accounted for one-third of Nanjun, had no extra farmland and could only find ways to get land from Yiling and other counties farther away.

Heifu secretly calculated that China's population was about 30 million these days, and the national cultivated land area was about 300 million mu (Qin mu). It stands to reason that five people in one household, one hundred mu per household, was enough to share. But don't forget that most of the land was concentrated in the hands of a few nobles and officials.

Moreover, the military merit system of Qin State, while devouring the six countries, was also devouring Qin's own land, creating an endless gap!

Although new land was opened up every year, there were more new military merit landlords, and the demand far exceeded the supply. As a result, the Central Plains, which was originally somewhat tight on land, became even more stretched, and even many counties had no land to reward meritorious soldiers.

Trust is the treasure of the country, and the government's credit is more important than the nine tripods. The government must not break its promise of land, otherwise, the two foundations of a strong country, military merit and title, and famous fields and houses, will collapse overnight.

In this case, King Zheng of Qin had three choices.

The first was to increase the development of the inner counties, turn all the gardens, forests, and hunting grounds into arable land, and let the meritorious soldiers open up wasteland in their hometowns.

In the past ten years, the King of Qin also did this, repeatedly reiterating Shang Yang's order to open up grass and wasteland, and ordering the counties to continue to open up land. Unfortunately, productivity is limited these days, and wasteland reclamation is concentrated in the plains. A large amount of land in the mountains and forests cannot be used for the time being, and can only barely maintain the balance of supply and demand of acres of land.

This situation was completely broken with the victory of the second war to destroy Chu.

Not counting the military officers like Hei Fu who increased several hectares and dozens of hectares of land in one breath. Just the 600,000 people who participated in the war, each with an average of one level of title reward, will be issued 60 million acres of land!

It was not enough to just open up the wasteland. In order to appease the meritorious soldiers who were crying for food, the King of Qin could only think of other places.

The second way was to seize the fields of the people of the five countries in the counties of the former five countries, or to strike the nobles and seize their land, and let the Qin army soldiers immigrate and occupy it.

It sounds like a very tempting choice. Conquerors like to impose tyranny on the conquered, such as the enclosure order of the Qing Dynasty.

But what surprised Hei Fu was that the King of Qin did not take this step!

Although Qin Wang Zheng moved some nobles to Guanzhong for nearby monitoring, he did not take away their land, but tacitly accepted the land occupation situation before the Qin army entered.

Zhang Han also said: "When I was in Shouchun, the county governor ordered the people in various places to report their land to the county magistrate and the governor, which was called self-owned land. Except for the land of the rich and powerful who resisted the army, the rest of the people's land was not seized by the government..."

It was wise not to add fuel to the fire in the five countries where the contradictions were sharp. Most people can sit back and watch the country perish and the kings fall, but if you want to touch their land, you will be their enemy, and the honest farmers will also carry farm tools and fight you!

Therefore, the King of Qin had only one last option left: to expand the territory, open up new counties and fields on the land of the barbarians, and regard this as a reward for the soldiers, so that they could become the production and construction corps of the Qin Dynasty...

"But the soldiers did not regard this as a reward, but as a demotion and a betrayal."

Hei Fu shook his head. From the perspective of the King of Qin, this choice was undoubtedly right. It could not only solve the urgent problem, but also leave a legacy for generations. Just like Duke Zhou who drove all his relatives to remote areas to become princes thousands of years ago, future generations would only praise him for his foresight.

But everything has sacrifices, and the three thousand soldiers who marched south became the victims. They had fought hard and only hoped to have more fields at home and be respected by their fellow villagers. Unexpectedly, they were sent to a wild land far away from their homeland.

If you don't return home when you are rich and powerful, it's like walking in the night in brocade clothes. In history, Xiang Yu and Liu Bang had the idea of abandoning Guanzhong and returning home when they were successful, let alone the soldiers in Nanchang.

When they are resentful and dissatisfied, they will think about a question: "Is it worth it to work so hard to make merit?"

When they walked to the military camp, Hei Fu could feel that the usual joy was gone here. The soldiers were full of disappointment and saluted him weakly.

When they returned to Nanchang City and were about to say goodbye, Zhang Han asked: "When Hei Fu comforted the soldiers, he said that he would write a letter to the king to ask for clarification?"

Hei Fu smiled bitterly and said: "Thunder and rain, is it God's grace? I am a small left minister, how dare I do such a thing. I just report the situation of the soldiers to the king and let the king know how the people below view this matter, that's all..."

But at that time, Hei Fu had to say this, he had to make the soldiers feel that he was on their side, and they would suffer together. In this way, their dissatisfaction and anger can be suppressed to avoid causing bigger trouble.

He did not think that his feedback could change the king of Qin's mind, because even Heifu himself believed that the king of Qin's measure was right in the overall situation!

"Without the hard work of the ancestors of the Qin people in the western frontier, it would still be a place of Rongdi."

"Without the ancestors of the Chu people, Jianghan would probably be a wilderness now."

When Wu Qi reformed, he asked the nobles of Chu to move to the border areas, but the nobles were unwilling. After the death of King Dao of Chu, they all rose up to kill Wu Qi. Although most of them were tricked by Wu Qi and died together, the reform of Chu was abandoned halfway. More nobles happily ran back to Jiangling to continue their good life, so more than a hundred years later, the southern part of Chu is still like this.

In which era, there were no sacrifices? If everyone stayed in their hometown, the current area of China would still be just a small part of the Central Plains...

As a ruler, the King of Qin did not need to consider personal sacrifices. He only needed to have a profound vision and great courage that transcended the times!

In this regard, Heifu stood on the side of Qin Shihuang. The three thousand soldiers who went south to fight stayed here, which could not only develop Jiangxi but also consolidate the border defense. I think a larger-scale immigration was still to come.

"Let them be upset. People with families will settle down when their wives migrate here. Bachelors will also marry Chu and Yue women locally. By then, Nanchang will be almost developed and constructed. Even if they are driven back to Nanjun, they may not be bothered to move!"

Having said that, Heifu returned to the tent and asked his personal soldiers to light the ointment, etc., and wrote a letter to the governor of Jiujiang with a pen. He decided to do one last thing for his men before he left...

...

In the first month of the 26th year of Qin Wangzheng (October), Heifu's subordinates stationed in various places, one before or one after, all received a letter of appointment, which was about the establishment of new county seats in various places in Jiangxi, and the appointment of officials in each county...

Zhao Tuo was pleasantly surprised to find that he would become the "Jiujiang Wei". In addition to being responsible for the public security of "Jiujiang County" located in Xunyang, he also took charge of the defense of the entire Pengli Lake.

Li Xian was also excited to learn that his fake Wei had come to an end. He was appointed as Fanyang County Magistrate by Jiujiang County and became the second in command of this county.

Dongmen Bao and Xiao Tao also received the official seals of Luling County Wei and Gan County Wei.

These appointments all stemmed from Heifu's advice to the governor of Jiujiang:

"The governor wants everyone to stay in the local area for garrison. He should make everyone do their best. If the officers and officials are at peace, the soldiers will also be at peace."

Since everyone in Nanjun is to stay here, then it is necessary to respect their positions and power, so that the military officials can abandon their dissatisfaction, properly discipline their soldiers, and stop them from fleeing back to their hometowns in a moment of confusion.

After everyone was surprised, they were grateful to Heifu.

Dongmen Bao, Xiao Tao, and Li Xian all regretted that they could not see Heifu in person for the last time, and could only bow to the north and west to say goodbye.

"We know that Sima did not abandon everyone!"

In Nanchang City, Nanchang County was also officially established. Xu Shu, who had just been promoted to the chief clerk of Nanchang, Gong Ao, the lieutenant of Nanchang County, and Ji Ying, the postal official of Nanchang County, and Ling Shi Jing, the four of them saw Heifu off in Zhanglin, north of the city.

Xu Shu promised that he would manage the promotion of local officials and recommend Heifu's meritorious old subordinates to the Nanchang County Magistrate after he arrived.

Ji Ying was in tears. He and Heifu had known each other for the longest time. Now Heifu was leaving him to go north, so he was inevitably a little sad.

Heifu's younger brother Jing was also like that, but he also knew that he would definitely not be able to keep up with his brother's destination...

Only Gong Ao, although he got the job of a county lieutenant, was still a little resentful of the King of Qin for forcing them to stay in Nanchang. He bowed to Heifu and said, "Sima, when you go to Xianyang, I hope you can say a word for the soldiers. Even if you can't let them return home, at least let their families and wives move here as soon as possible."

Heifu looked at the place where he had fought for a year, and the bank of the Gan River, where thousands of old subordinates were reluctant to leave him. This farewell was really too spectacular. Fortunately, the new Nanchang County Magistrate had not arrived yet, otherwise he would probably be extremely jealous.

He nodded, got on the carriage, turned around and bowed to everyone, and said loudly:

"Although I am in the north, Heifu's heart will still be with the three thousand soldiers! Heifu will also treat everything related to Ersanzi as his own business and argue with reason in the court!"

More than a thousand fellow villagers stationed in Nanchang bowed to Heifu and said in unison: "Respectfully send Sima to the capital!"

When Langguan Yang Qiu left, he also gave Heifu an order different from other soldiers.

The King of Qin agreed to the political planning of Jiangxi, but ordered Heifu to resign as the magistrate of Fanyang and to meet him in Xianyang before the middle of spring!

Zhang Han analyzed that he should be retained as an official this time.

After six years of struggle, this little fish from Nanjun finally jumped into the dragon gate with his own efforts...

The carriage slowly went north, and what was waiting for Heifu was the center of this world, where there was a more turbulent wave of the times!