Brother Song Taizu

Chapter 114: Fighting poison with poison, King Qin is a ruthless man
So, what is Zhao Guangmei doing in Huainan?

In fact, he was not confused. Although the general direction of the development of the matter was indeed within his control, the progress of the matter was so rapid that even he was really shocked.

He really didn't intend to be so radical. His purpose was quite simple at the beginning. He really just wanted to acquire cheap land after the disaster, and then open a factory to provide relief with work.

What he wants is to buy as much land as possible in Huainan, and then plant a crop of rapeseed quickly.

The temperature in the Northern Song Dynasty was slightly higher than that in later generations. The temperature in the Huaihe River Basin was similar to that in the later Yangtze River Basin. At this time, growing rapeseed could produce three crops a year, that is, one crop of rapeseed, one crop of beans, and finally one crop of rice. Stubble.

The staple food is still mainly rice, while rapeseed and beans can be used as side jobs for the people, and commercial banks carry out oil extraction business on a large scale here.

The company has sold a lot of iron pans recently. The demand for vegetable oil is bound to rise sharply in the next few years. The cost and investment of this thing are not low, and it also has a certain technical threshold. , at least much higher than the previous soaps and others. In Zhao Guangmei's view, although it is not a heavy industry, it is by no means a light industry. At least it may not be easy for ordinary rural rich people to build it.

The key is that the Central Plains region generally has one crop a year. It is impossible for the people to plant rapeseed instead of wheat. Therefore, this thing is suitable for planting in areas with two or three crops a year, rotation, land cultivation, and transportation is also required. Get convenience.In other words, the most suitable area for growing rapeseed in the entire Song Dynasty is the Huainan area, or even only the Jiangnan area.

If his business can monopolize a large area of ​​rapeseed cultivation in Huainan, then private factories will not be able to compete with him in the future even if they want to. At least within ten years, he will have a firm grip on the pricing power of vegetable oil.

Necessities that every household must use. Once a monopoly is achieved, the profits will be astonishing, and the business bank will naturally withdraw from this field much later.

And since there are astonishing huge profits, he will naturally have enough money to "incidentally" help the people in the Huainan area, such as land rent. He has no interest in food at all. If he is given a sharecropper, he can just pay a little bit of rape, soybeans, and rice. No, you can even be exempted from agricultural taxes on this part of the land in the name of a business bank.

In fact, he doesn't feel that this is plundering people's land. After all, farming has to pay taxes. Besides, the trading house does not belong to him. If it belongs to the trading house, doesn't it belong to the country?If you spend your own money to buy the land from them, isn't that just nationalizing the land?
As for the current major disaster, whether it is building a new city or a new factory in Suzhou, or dredging rivers, or further improving transportation, it will require labor. In the future, if an oil pressing plant is built, labor will also be employed. With the background of the trading company, , and the convenient transportation in Huainan, and relying on such a large oil pressing plant, there must be many related upstream and downstream supporting facilities. With a little bit of investment promotion, wouldn't the economy of Huainan area be boosted?Those victims who have lost their land can at least be guaranteed to find jobs. There is a high probability that their lives in the future will be better than before.

Isn't this much better than simple disaster relief? After all, disaster relief will definitely involve corruption. In the 21st century, Internet live broadcasts cannot solve the problems. When he returned to the Northern Song Dynasty, he didn't solve the problem. He simply stopped providing relief at all and tried this kind of business behavior instead. He also specially found a bunch of wealthy businessmen from other places to let them join his plan.

This is completely a bargain-hunting business practice, a real win-win-win situation.

Naturally, he violated the interests of the powerful locals in Huainan.

As soon as they came, they had already set their sights on the land of the victims. Zhao Guangmei wanted to buy it, but naturally he couldn't.

Secondly, these powerful people do not live on land rent. Powerful squires live on land rent. This is as unreasonable as officials living on salary.

The source of the power and wealth lies in their control over tenant farmers and even poor peasants. They have the power to set prices, how to sell the things grown on the land, to whom, and for how much. How much do poor peasants, tenant farmers, and long-term workers need to buy daily necessities? Money and how to buy these things are all decided by them, not counting the taxes and corvees sent by the government, which often pass through their hands.

To put it bluntly, they make money by controlling the land and then controlling the food, clothing, housing and transportation of the people in ten miles and eight villages, controlling everything about the people, and then wantonly exploiting the people. How much money can they collect from the land rent?

Zhao Guangmei directly built the trading company here, and then asked everyone to grow rapeseed, and he harvested the rapeseed, and also asked people to work in the trading company. Wouldn't they be unable to control the poor people in Guizhou?
Of course Zhao Guangmei had thought of these things beforehand, but he didn't take these landlords seriously at all. According to his plan, the next step should be to gradually encroach on the land of the landlords through the land that he had bought. , through economic means, forced them to grow rapeseed with him, and then gradually assimilated them bit by bit, and also divided them into shares, tied them to the chariot of the trading company, and over a few years, they were It was transformed into a new citizen class and became the foundational pillar of the Song Dynasty.

It didn't matter if it was a conspiracy or a conspiracy. He didn't bother to care about their thoughts. He didn't believe it. How dare a few landlords dare to quarrel with him?
In the end, these fucking guys actually dared to do it.

As the saying goes, a strong dragon cannot suppress a local snake. After all, Zhao Guangmei does not have enough manpower. The government ministers cannot even talk about a team. And Huainan, after all, used to be the territory of the Southern Tang Dynasty. It is far less chaotic than the Central Plains. The landlord class They are relatively more powerful, and there are almost inextricable relationships between each county government and these powerful people.

After all, Chai Rong's Hou Zhou was gone not long after he occupied this place. He had been very busy in the past two years after the establishment of the Song Dynasty, and had no energy to digest and absorb Huainan. His limited energy was also All was spent on the military, with no regard for people's livelihood, and grassroots governance capabilities were almost zero.

Then this group of people started to create small obstacles for themselves, such as colluding with the government to prevent businessmen from other places from buying land, and even inciting mobs to drive, beat, and evict people.

Some people who sell their land to commercial banks will be bullied, suppressed, and mistreated by local powerful people. They may even disappear for no reason the next day. The local grassroots officials are also uncooperative.

Zhao Guangmei seemed to see countless unfamiliar faces taunting him, telling him that strong dragons could not overwhelm local cowards.

Then Zhao Guangmei naturally became angry. This is a military area. How can I scare you?Directly mobilize the army and go directly to smash doors and grab food.

Then, some people began to incite troublesome people and even rebel.

So far, these powerful men in the Huainan region are already making big moves.

Under normal circumstances, when angels are on mission, wouldn't they panic if there is even the slightest sign of civil unrest down there?No matter how many reasons there are, as long as it provokes a civil uprising, it will definitely be a serious crime. Therefore, as long as there is a slight hint of it, no matter how high-ranking a frontier official you are, you will inevitably show a soft attitude.

If you really encounter a strong one, then you might as well make a bigger fuss. In the year of famine, the common people are easy to fool, and these powerful gentry also have the ability to control and fool the common people into making trouble and rebelling.

These powerful landlords wanted to let Zhao Guangmei know who the real owner of Huainan was.

Zhao Guangmei was so angry and happy.

Three days later, a person who was said to be very famous in the local area handed him a greeting card. He kept nagging for a long time before finally saying: "The Huainan generation has always had simple folk customs. As long as His Highness can implement good governance, Don't let commercial firms compete with the people for profit. When the people understand the painstaking efforts of the court and His Highness, and are inspired by His Highness's virtue, they will naturally disperse, and the so-called civil unrest will naturally be solved."

It really made Zhao Guangmei laugh out loud.

"I am a person who has always been toasting and not being fined with wine. Moreover, I have never been afraid of things getting serious. I have never understood what it means to settle the matter and tell the person who sent you. Since you smashed the bowl first, then Don't blame me for flipping the table. By the way, my eldest brother loved gambling when he was young. He was a big gambler. You know this, right? In fact, I am the same. We in the Zhao family all like to gamble. I will bet my life with you this time. Look Who among us will die?" "Here, I'm here to see you off, but before I see this gentleman off, I'll throw his two arms into a frying pan and fry them, leaving only a tongue to spread the message."

"Your Highness! Your Highness, do you really want to send out the army and the imperial army? Your Highness, you will make the entire Huainan devastated and blood will flow everywhere!"

Zhao Guangmei waved her hand and signaled her men to explode quickly, without paying any attention to him.

Of course, whether they were landlords or gentry, it was indeed impossible for Zhao Guangmei to rely on the army to kill them one by one. It was easy to say, but it was not easy to hear. Although Zhao Guangmei didn't care about reputation, he was also afraid that the army would kill them and get out of control.

As for the military discipline of the Northern Song Dynasty, it is really hard to describe. It is not impossible for them to kill the powerful landlords and finally massacre the entire Huainan.

Then Zhao Guangmei thought about it for a long time and decided to fight fire with fire.

Playing with himself and making big things out of small things, huh, just in time, he also thought that the Huainan area, as a new land, had too many landlords, which was too much trouble, so he simply took this opportunity to clean up. If he wanted to play big, he would simply It really broke the sky.

So on the one hand, he issued a prospectus to recruit military envoys and defense envoys from all over the country to become shareholders. He also summoned merchants from all over the country and asked them to raise money, grain, and people.

On the other hand, he directly sent people to spread the rumor: "One eye of the stone man could instigate rebellion in the Huaihe River."

Then he ordered people to carve stone statues and throw them into the Huaihe River.

He, Zhao Guangmei, the younger brother of the founding emperor Zhao Kuangyin, simply supported the rebel army in the rebellion.

In just half a month, eight groups of rebels emerged in the Huainan area, and the leaders of six of them were all arranged by him.

In a year of great calamity, it is easy to instigate an uprising. In addition, he did not care or even deliberately let it go. A single spark quickly turned into a prairie fire.

Then he would attack the prefecture, attack local tyrants, seize granaries, and raise rebel flags. Sometimes the peasant armed forces could not defeat the landlords' armed forces, or they could not conquer the county seat. He would secretly support some weapons, or even airborne to give them an understanding Military strategists came to give guidance.

You still want to coerce the mob into rebellion and scare me. Why am I so afraid of you?Come on, let's see which one of us is the most violent.

So much so that the whole Huainan was dumbfounded when faced with Zhao Guangmei's crazy move. Some things Zhao Guangmei did were not secretive. After all, time was urgent. He was not a professional after all, and even what he did in some places was quite blatant. Well, everyone can naturally guess that he is supporting the so-called rebels.

Then everyone felt like they were about to vomit blood.

Others tried every possible means to suppress the civil uprising, fearing that it would get too big and get out of hand. This was the only way they, the country gentry, could threaten the imperial court.

Never seen anything like this.

The emperor's biological brother, His Majesty the King of Qin, actually went to support the rebels.

Does this country belong to your family or ours?

Of course, it is impossible for Zhao Guangmei to really let the peasant uprising army develop unchecked. After the team has almost developed, killed all the local tycoons, and even captured all the county offices, Zhao Guangmei will recruit them.

As long as the rebels are willing to surrender, they are promised to be given land, enter factories, and ensure that they have food and drink in the future.

To be honest, if they had not rebelled, this group of disaster victims and villagers would have no organization among themselves. Zhao Guangmei would have a hard time conveying information to them. He might have had many tricks in the way, and he could not trust the county officials in each county. , you may not know what it will look like if you pass it down.

How great it is now. They have organized themselves. The army, even if it is a newly formed peasant uprising army, is still an army. It is still the most efficient organizational form in human history. He can just tell him what policies he has and it will be done. .

In short, if you are willing to mess with me, you should put down your weapons and hand over your grain reserves to be uniformly distributed by commercial banks and implement wartime management. If you don't agree, then we will fight.

Huainan is a military region, and Zhao Guangmei has mobilized tens of thousands of troops in advance. They are all the elite tiger and wolf divisions of the Song Dynasty. A mere peasant uprising army is nothing.

The peasant uprising army is not stupid. At the beginning, everyone may have been confused. Later, who would have guessed that His Highness the King of Qin was behind them, and the purpose of the King of Qin was to use their hands to defeat the local tyrants?

We, the poor people in Guizhou, have long had enough of the anger of these powerful men.

Then, this group of rebels became more and more courageous and sensible. They were absolutely unambiguous when they should take action and never moved when they shouldn't. Most of them, they immediately recruited people when they should. Recruitment.

Then, Huainan's reform took off like a mad cow. Even Zhao Guangmei had to tighten the reins and control it with all his strength. Naturally, he gradually stopped caring about many things.

So far, in fact, Zhao Guangmei has mainly been toiling in Suzhou and Bozhou, but if this evil trend does not spread to Yangzhou, he will be in trouble.

(End of this chapter)