“This palace knows that, because of the cement affair a few days ago, Mister still bears some resentment toward this palace. Now this palace promises Mister that my admiration for you is utterly sincere. I will never use my status as princess to force you to do anything.”
Through these past few days together, Ninth Princess had come to understand Jin Feng. Knowing he preferred straightforward talk, she spoke directly. “Mister may say whatever he wishes without any restraint!”
“Yes, Mister. In the letters Wuyang sent me before, she mentioned many times how greatly she admires you.”
Qing Munlan added, “Did Mister truly think she came to Xihe Bay just to see me? She actually came to visit you!”
“Very well, then I shall speak plainly.”
Seeing the complete sincerity on Ninth Princess’s face, Jin Feng continued frankly. “Before the old gentleman spoke to me about farming, he first explained the main reason why the common people cannot fill their bellies.”
“He said that, apart from backward farming methods, the greatest reason today is the crushing weight of taxes and levies. The court demands grain, local officials demand grain, bandits and gentry squeeze the people dry. How much surplus can ordinary folk have to withstand such layer upon layer of plunder?”
Jin Feng went on, “Therefore the old gentleman said that if the landlords and gentry could be dealt with and the land returned to the people, the people would naturally have enough to eat.”
Great Kang had far too many redundant officials. The combined salaries of civil and military officials across the realm amounted to an enormous sum.
Several decades earlier, when the state treasury first began to run dry, the court stopped paying local officials their full salaries. Instead it issued a policy allowing local governments to impose additional taxes according to local conditions to cover administrative costs.
The moment this policy appeared, it unleashed a beast that devoured the fortunes of the nation.
Local officials began inventing endless pretexts to levy taxes.
Corruption flourished, and all manner of exorbitant imposts sprang up without cease.
When the people could no longer survive, they fled to the hills and became bandits.
Bandits produced nothing and lived by robbing the common folk, piling yet another mountain onto their backs.
In the counties around Jinchuan, where mulberry and hemp were mainly grown for spinning and weaving, landlords and gentry extorted the people through bandit tribute. Land annexation was not yet severe.
In the Central Plains, however, many farmers had already lost their land to landlords through various schemes and could only become tenants, living on what remained after rent.
Every year the grain they toiled to produce was mostly handed over as rent. Then they still had to pay taxes and perform corvée labour.
Even in years of good weather, they could barely scrape by.
In years of disaster, they might be unable to pay rent at all and would have to send sons and daughters into servitude in the landlord’s house to offset the debt.
Those without children could only starve.
In truth, very little of the plundered grain ever reached the court. Almost all of it ended up in the mouths of landlords and gentry.
Although Great Kang’s farming methods were backward, its population was also small, and per-capita land was not scarce. If there were no exploitation by landlords, people would naturally have enough to eat.
“What the old gentleman said is very reasonable. Yet many of these landlords and gentry belong to great clans and powerful families whose lineages predate Great Kang itself. They are deeply rooted in their localities, and some even have sons or brothers serving as officials at court or in the provinces. Dealing with them is far easier said than done.”
Ninth Princess sighed.
“Yes, dealing with them is difficult, but they have already formed a tumour. If we do not steel ourselves to cut it out, it will surely drag the entire realm down with it.”
Jin Feng continued, “If Your Highness doubts me, just wait and see. If the court does not rescind its order and continues raising taxes, next year the disaster-stricken areas will surely see thieves rising everywhere and rebellions breaking out across the land!”
“Rebellions everywhere? That sounds too extreme.”
Ninth Princess frowned slightly, feeling Jin Feng was somewhat exaggerating to make his point. “Since Father ascended the throne, there has been only one rebellion, in Jin this year.
That was caused by Prince Jin’s obsession with military adventures. Other places would never reach such a point.”
Prince Jin had been deeply influenced by the previous emperor and harboured the grand ambition of recovering the lost Sixteen Prefectures of Yan and Yun.
War, whenever it came, was a matter of money.
Though Prince Jin had great aspirations, he lacked the means to fund them. To support his huge armies he could only squeeze the people mercilessly.
Coupled with last year’s severe drought in Jin, the people finally rose in revolt.
“Wuyang, Mister once told me a story…”
Seeing that Ninth Princess’s attitude was the same as her own had once been, Qing Munlan recounted to her the story of the camel and the straw that Jin Feng had told her.
With Ninth Princess’s intelligence, she instantly grasped the meaning behind the tale and asked, “Mister means that this latest tax increase will be the final straw that breaks the camel’s back?”
“And now this endless rain has been added.”
Jin Feng’s face grew even graver. “I still do not know how widespread the rain has been, but from what I have learned so far, at least several counties in Guangyuan Commandery are affected.
If heavy snow falls this winter, many people may not even survive until next year.”
“Then what should be done?”
Although Ninth Princess still felt some resistance inside, Jin Feng’s analysis was logical and highly likely to come true.
“The solution is simple. The court should send people to survey the disaster area at once, move grain early from unaffected regions, and prepare relief.
At the same time, the court should promise to reduce next year’s taxes or allow the people to postpone payment for a year, then lend them seed for spring planting. That way the crisis can be weathered.”
“What Mister says sounds simple, but every single measure would be exceedingly difficult to carry out!”
Ninth Princess sighed, sat down, and rubbed her brow.
“I know full well how difficult it is. Yet apart from this, can Your Highness think of any better way?” Jin Feng asked.
“I…” Ninth Princess opened her mouth, then closed it again in helplessness.
A flash of disappointment crossed Jin Feng’s eyes.
It was still only autumn, yet the temperature was already very low. The chances of a severe winter were high.
Winter was always a great calamity for the common people. Every year the largest number of deaths occurred then.
The combination of disaster and bitter cold made it far worse.
The reason he had said so much to Ninth Princess was precisely in the hope that she might find a way to bring in some grain to prepare for what seemed an almost certain famine.
That might save tens of thousands of lives.
Now it appeared he had overestimated her.
She might genuinely wish to help and possess ability, but this matter involved too many interests. Even Ninth Princess was powerless.
“Oh dear, Mister Jin, weren’t you going to talk about farming? How did we end up discussing politics again?”
Although Wei Wuya devoted himself entirely to medicine, he had lived several decades and knew perfectly well this was an insoluble situation. Further discussion would serve no purpose.
So he deliberately pulled the topic back. “Mister Jin, you still haven’t told us what the old gentleman said about how to farm.”
“Mister is also interested in farming?”
Seeing that Ninth Princess truly had no solution, Jin Feng gave up hope and turned to chat with Wei Wuya.
“To be honest with Mister Jin, I did not begin studying medicine until I was twenty. Before that I was a farmer.”
Wei Wuya said, “And my skill at tending crops is no less than my skill at healing. I have never let it lapse these past years. Last year my wife and I harvested nearly five hundred jin of wheat from two mu.”
“That high?” Jin Feng asked in surprise.
He had only followed Wei Wuya’s lead to change the subject, never expecting the doctor actually understood farming.
Then, could they perhaps work together on a few experimental fields?
