The army has been dispatched to quickly put down the rebellion. After issuing the order, Zhao Pu did not pay too much attention to the counter-insurgency. These refugee rebels lack discipline and have poor combat effectiveness. They can bully the local army, but when they encounter elite troops, they will be wiped out quickly under a strong attack. As long as you act quickly and eliminate the root causes, victory is close at hand. There are just some things that must be dealt with thoroughly, otherwise there will be consequences. The next day, it was morning again. The ministers presented memorials one after another and talked about the matter. Zhao Pu responded one by one, and the discussion was very enjoyable. When the main things were almost finished, Yu Yunwen stood up and said loudly: "Your Majesty, Hubei is in turmoil and Prime Minister Zhong is disrupting the country. This is treason. However, this civil uprising was also man-made. Some officials did not know how to show consideration for the people and acted wantonly. Exploiting, harming the people, causing public resentment to boil, is what caused this disaster!" "As he said, Yu Yunwen began to impeach some officials in Hubei, and submitted a booklet, which stated that over the years, some officials in Hubei had been corrupt, perverted the law, and oppressed good people. things. Zhao Pu flipped through the pages and saw that the records were very detailed. According to the contents of the book, senior officials above the seventh level in Hubei would be implicated and either be dismissed from their posts, exiled, or stripped of their titles, and another. Big blood change. The more he looked through it, the gloomier Zhao Pu¡¯s face became. Sure enough, since he became the emperor, he has been too kind, and he has gone too far. In the Song Dynasty, corruption was the most serious. Zhao Pu didn¡¯t even think about killing all the corrupt officials and making the whole world clear. This is impossible. But corrupt officials should at least understand. What kind of money can be difficult and what kind of money cannot be taken. "And these corrupt officials obviously went too far, pushing the people to death and had no choice but to fight back. If nothing happens, everything is easy to say. Turn a blind eye and close one eye, but something happens. There always needs to be someone to take the blame. "Li Gang, you have full authority to deal with this matter. Kill those who deserve to be killed, exile those who deserve it, expel those whose honors should be revoked, exile those who deserve it, and confiscate their homes if they should. Our dynasty will rule the world with the scholar-bureaucrats. We are not cooperating with corrupt officials. Officials rule the world together; our government treats scholar-bureaucrats favorably, but not corrupt officials!" Zhao Pu said with murderous intent in his tone. The ministers present all bowed their heads and remained silent, as if they were deaf. Everyone knows that the emperor is trying to scare the monkeys! "Thousands of miles to become an official." Just for wealth, it is absolutely no exaggeration to clear the prefecture in three years and earn one hundred thousand snowflakes of silver. Can anyone present guarantee that the back of the butt ditch is clean? The emperor¡¯s meaning is very clear. Corruption is okay, but it's best not to cause trouble. Otherwise, no one in heaven or on earth can save you. Li Gang said: "I am a humble minister, I will definitely fulfill my mission!" Zhao Pu said: "I can rest assured that you are doing the work!" The court meeting ended just like that. Only Li Gang, Zhao Ding and other cabinet members stayed, mainly to discuss some important matters. "I don't care about the Hubei uprising. Once the army arrives, it will soon be wiped out. It's just that I'm tired of sending troops every year to suppress the rebellion. I just want to solve it once and for all. There will be no uprising for at least ten years to buy time for the Northern Expedition. !" Zhao Pu said. Zhao Pu was tired of the refugees rebelling every year and sending troops to quell the rebellion every year. People¡¯s energy is limited, and a country¡¯s strength is also limited. Although these refugee rebellions could not shake the foundation, there were too many of them, and Zhao Pu couldn't bear it. It was not worthwhile to waste limited national power on counterinsurgency. Moreover, the refugee uprising caused too much damage, burning and looting everywhere it touched, just like locusts; while the seemingly less threatening refugee uprising will turn into a devastating fire if it is not extinguished quickly. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the rebels such as Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong were defeated by the Ming army many times. However, due to some reasons, it was difficult to extinguish the rebel army. In the end, the Ming Dynasty was destroyed by the rebel army. Years of experience have taught Zhao Pu not to despise any enemy. Contempt and indulgence of enemies will only leave troubles and eventually trap oneself to death. "Your Majesty, the only way to reduce taxes and reduce taxes is to reduce the burden on the people!" Li Gang said, "After this rebellion is suppressed, it is better to reduce taxes in the rebel areas for three years!" Zhao Pu nodded, then shook his head, this The strategy is to treat the symptoms rather than the root cause, and look ahead to Zhao Ding. Zhao Ding said: "The only way is to recruit refugees, join the army, and farm on the front lines and borders to provide military resources!" Zhao Pu nodded, this is still treating the symptoms but not the root cause. Recruiting refugees to join the army made the army larger, diluted its combat effectiveness, and increased the financial burden. The most worrying thing is that the farming system is high consumption and low energy, and the gains outweigh the losses. I asked several more ministers and the answers were almost the same. It may be to rectify the fields and check land taxes; or to rectify official administration and combat corruption; or to suppress land annexation; or to recruit refugees into the army. The back and forth, those three axes, are mostly strategies to treat the symptoms rather than the root cause. Most strategies can only have a slight effect and are misguided in the long run; some policies may seem wise, but are actually very difficult to implement. ??For example, easing corvee and reducing taxes is simply impossible. Now is the eve of the decisive battle between the Song Army. The Song Dynasty must maintain high taxes and sufficient treasury so that it can have money to fight against the Jin Dynasty. Otherwise, it will be beneficial to the people but not beneficial to the country. And it is even more impossible to rectify the fields and check taxes. There are policies from above and countermeasures from below. The local grassroots political power is controlled by clans and gentry forces. They have many ways to conceal the number of acres of fields, describe the upper-class fields as lower-class fields, and label the fields of some poor people as lower-class fields. Turn the land into high-quality land and transfer the land tax to the poor. And rectifying corruption is even more unfeasible. In the 21st century, corruption is still serious. At this time, in the Song Dynasty alone, the literacy rate was low and the awareness of the rule of law was weak. All local and central governments were controlled by the gentry. Nine out of ten people were corrupt, making it impossible to govern. The only thing you can do is to straighten it out, it will be better for a while, and then it will be back to the same state. And suppressing land annexation is even more nonsense. When the country was founded, after wars and a large number of people died, the land could be better distributed; however, as the population increased, land annexation also expanded. Land annexation is in line with the laws of commodity economy. Violation of the laws will inevitably lead to punishment. The only way to suppress land annexation is to launch a large-scale war. In the end, the population will be reduced to less than one in ten, and land annexation will naturally be suppressed. And Zhao Pu never wanted to suppress land annexation. He was able to single-handedly challenge the entire landlord class without realizing it. Zhao Pu¡¯s expression turned gloomy, and the courtiers present also felt uneasy. Obviously, their words could not satisfy His Majesty the Emperor. "There are many reasons for the refugee turmoil. Let's say one thousand to ten thousand, because the land is not enough to support enough people. Therefore, the people have to rise up in order to survive!" Zhao Pu said calmly, "The method of your family is very good. It¡¯s a pity that we can only treat the symptoms but not the root cause. I have a permanent solution!¡± The ministers present immediately pricked up their ears, and Li Gang couldn¡¯t help but ask: ¡°Colonialization!¡± Zhao Pu picked up his pen and wrote on the rice paper. I wrote two big characters. ¡°Breeding, breeding, and herding; people, common people, people. It should be like herding cattle and sheep, and herding the people!¡± Zhao Pu expressed his understanding of ¡°colonization¡±. "The problem of eating is the first problem. Only when the problem of food is solved can we talk about education. Even if you don't have enough to eat, talking about propriety, justice and shame, talking about loyalty to the emperor and patriotism, talking about the great cause of the Northern Expedition, talking about the achievements of the ages, and talking about the cultivation of military ethics are all water. "The moon is a flower in the mirror." "However, manpower is sometimes exhausted, and the number of fertile fields is limited. Even some wise kings cannot create land. However, some mountainous areas, sandy lands, etc. have limited land fertility and are not suitable for farming, so they are forced to develop it. , It will only destroy the water and soil!" "As a king, the first priority is to open up the land. In the Shang Dynasty, the land was only part of Henan; but in the Qin Dynasty, it reached Hetao in the north, the sea in the south, Sichuan in the west, and the sea in the east; During the Han and Tang dynasties, it expanded to the Western Regions and the Northeast; while our dynasty's territory shrunk, now it is just dividing rivers to rule and lingering on!" , Just to fight for living space for their descendants!¡± ¡°The grassland peoples also frequently go south to fight for living space, but they mainly focus on killing and destruction; while our government fights for living space based on promoting the way of saints. Farming is the main purpose, with the purpose of alleviating population pressure, and construction and creation are the fundamentals!¡±