Chapter 97 Alliance of the Aristocratic Families

He couldn't help but be angry.

Liu Fu is not a saint, nor can he do what Buddha did by cutting off his own flesh to feed an eagle. He cannot remain indifferent to these vampires clinging to him and sucking his blood.

He couldn't stand it!

When Xiao He finished compiling and reporting the accumulated household land tax records for the entire Liaodong region, Liu Fu saw the total data for his fiefdom, encompassing the entire Liaodong region.

The population is 1.26 million, of which only about 200,000 are able-bodied men.

Of the 23.6 million hectares of land, 18 million hectares were controlled by powerful families who were exempt from taxes because their ancestors had achieved official rank and received tax reductions. The vast majority of these families still had members serving as officials in the imperial court, making them even more exempt from taxes.

Not only that, this time the powerful families did not have to pay taxes, but instead leased their land to the common people to cultivate, while the common people continued to pay taxes to the imperial court. Naturally, all the taxes paid went into their own pockets.

The court had already suffered a huge loss by exempting them from taxes, but they actually went around collecting taxes from the people on behalf of the court.

This is truly intolerable!

Liu Fu quickly came up with a plan. He ordered his men to search for handwritten letters from prominent families in Liaodong, and then summoned Du Ruhui to forge the letters by copying their handwriting.

Liu Fu's reasoning is very simple.

If you act in accordance with the law, I will deal with you in accordance with the law.

But if you exploit loopholes in the law to gain benefits, don't blame me for exploiting loopholes in the law to destroy you!

Since it's not easy to take you down from the front, let's try a different approach!

In fact, ever since Liu Fu took control of Liaodong, the leaders of the local aristocratic families and clans in Liaodong have been gathering together to discuss matters.

The four largest powerful clans in Liaodong were the Huang family, the Bai family, the Guo family, and the Xu family.

The Huang and Xu families each have a high-ranking official of the first rank stationed in the capital. The Bai and Guo families are also deeply rooted in the court, and some even hold military power. They truly wield great power!

In the past few days, because Liu Fu sent people to conduct an in-depth investigation into the fields, and potatoes and sweet potatoes were distributed, it immediately caused a huge sensation.

The leaders of the four major clans gathered together and began to discuss things privately again.

"I believe that the cultivation of potatoes and sweet potatoes is ultimately not a good thing for us. What do you all think?"

As soon as the Bai family head spoke, the Huang family head immediately voiced his concerns as well:

"Now all the grain in Liaodong is in our hands. Not to mention Liaodong, Jiangnan is known as the most prosperous land, but Liaodong is known as half of the granary of the world. Our grain business in Liaodong is spread all over the Central Plains. If it is really as Your Majesty says, that potatoes and sweet potatoes can yield thousands of catties per mu, then with more production, our grain prices will inevitably drop. Grain prices will drop drastically. Are you asking us to sell our grain at a low price?"

The words of the Huang family head were exactly what the other family heads were thinking.

One mu (unit of land area) yields 120 jin (unit of weight) of millet. People need to keep cultivating the land and sell their labor in their spare time. They have to do this 365 days a year just to barely have enough to eat.

However, the yield of potatoes and sweet potatoes per mu can reach two to three thousand jin, which is nearly twenty times the yield of millet per mu!

If people don't lack food, who will buy their own grain at high prices?

When they stop struggling to make a living, where will we find such cheap labor to do things?

If we convert that to another calculation, if grain production really did increase twentyfold, wouldn't grain prices drop twentyfold as well?

At that point, doing business won't just be a matter of reduced profits, it will be a complete collapse in profits!

What's that saying again? Merchants are like misers; trying to get even a feather out of them is like taking their life.

Is it possible to get them to reduce their profits by so much and wholeheartedly support Liu Fu's promotion of potatoes and sweet potatoes?

This is simply a dream!

As the Bai family patriarch spoke, he began to grit his teeth in anger:

"Everyone, everyone!"

"Now we must unite as one. We must not use the land we have to grow potatoes and sweet potatoes. Not only can we not grow them, we must not let the people grow them either. We must find a way to take back all the land that the people have. If they don't sell, we will force them to sell!"

"right!"

"While Prince Liu Fu is currently without troops and unable to manage so many affairs, when is a better time for us to strike? If we miss this opportunity, and Liu Fu recovers and recruits a large number of soldiers and gathers talented people from all over the country to govern his fiefdom, the supervision will become even stricter, and it will be impossible for us to do these things."

At this moment, the head of the Xu family also stepped forward and firmly agreed:

"What the older brothers said is all correct."

"We must unite as one and go back to discipline our own subordinates and those small families. Only by grasping as much land as possible in our own hands can we be sure of victory. The Later Han Dynasty has only been established for less than a year. Now is the time to win over the hearts of the people. Everything we do is within the law, so they can't do anything to us. I don't believe that Liu Fu would dare to ignore the law and take unreasonable action against us. As long as he doesn't dare, there will be absolutely no problem with what we do. Don't think that just because he is a prince, he will have to come and beg us in the end."

After the group discussed and reached an agreement, the head of the Guo family added:

"I think after we go back, we can call for the grain shops to close starting tomorrow!"

“As soon as we go on strike, those people will have no food to eat. Didn’t Liu Fu get some potato and sweet potato seeds from somewhere? When the people are starving and have nothing to eat, they will definitely have to eat these seeds to avoid starving to death. In this way, we can take two approaches at the same time: both consolidate the land and force them to give up planting potatoes and sweet potatoes by going on strike. Liu Fu is a smart man. Every year, fortunes change, emperors come and go, but the emperor remains and the powerful families come and go. As long as we are determined, are we afraid that he won’t come begging to us?”

"Great idea!"

"Excellent, the market will close tomorrow. I'll get back and do it!"

After the four family heads reached an agreement, they immediately went back and sent word to all their relatives, subordinates, and smaller families.

Liu Fu hadn't expected this.

These aristocratic families are really bold!

I was trying to figure out how to pin the blame on them since I couldn't find any evidence against them, and I was trying to find a way to frame them, but these people actually came to me on their own initiative.

Isn't that a coincidence?

At the same time, Liu Fu picked up the letter of appeal for help sent by his elder brother and immediately wrote a reply:

"Brother, I have recently encountered the same problem you are facing. I have attached a letter, and you will understand after reading it."

After saying this, Liu Fu gave his elder brother Liu Shan a handwritten letter from the young master of the Huang family and a forged letter from the young master of the Huang family, which was allegedly a treasonous letter, together with a forgery by Du Ruhui.

Are you not trying to exploit loopholes in the law? Can't the imperial court's laws bring you to justice?

Then I'll say you're treasonous and rebellious, and we'll see who can outmaneuver whom.