Warring States Survival Guide-Chapter 360 - 249: Simple Tasks 2

Fortunately, Matsuyama Manor isn’t, there’s definitely believers of various deities, but they believe in all sorts, not coming together, unable to cause major chaos.

The Wanjin government, or rather Harano, still values rural work heavily, because the Japan Middle Ages is a standard and pure agricultural society, farmers are the main force of social production. If farmers aren’t well settled, the society cannot stabilize, and no discussion can be had about developing industry and commerce.

If the primary industry isn’t well-handled, then there’s no talk about the secondary or tertiary industries. Harano has at least been to university, he understands this well, and as a transmigrator, he can extensively use the "Borrowism," directly modify and copy modern ready-made experiences, it’s hard not to succeed.

Only copying works, rural work is difficult, you can encounter all sorts of bizarre situations, it’s fundamentally not something that can be solved by one person’s wisdom.

Without exaggeration or bias, a certain unnamed organization doing rural work is absolutely number one in history. Harano directly copied it, how to reduce rent, how to redistribute land, how to manage state-run farms, how to collect farm taxes, how to prevent slacking, how to prevent policies from being exploited by interested parties, all copied, still from the fully matured version, eliminating the intermediate detours.

Historically, rent was reduced, land redistributed, yet grain couldn’t be collected, or taxes were generally considered unfair, triggering resistance, or taxes gradually accumulated onto a few individuals, or it started fostering laziness, these have all occurred. Resolving these seemingly inconspicuous but life-threatening issues truly requires numerous people’s flashes of insight, and is very challenging.

In modern times, few people delve into this, Harano resolved it through desperately recalling and slowly experimenting until it was sorted out, also incidentally trained a large batch of grassroots cadres like Guotai Lang.

In a certain sense, Guotai Lang’s group are similar to the Wanjin Army, vital pillars of Wanjin, even if they seem inconspicuous, unnoticed daily, yet they are actually Wanjin’s most valuable asset.

Now, it’s time for the asset to be realized.

The bell rang quickly in Matsuyama Manor, coupled with the "work group" shouting along the road, villagers hesitantly left their homes, gathering at the open space at the village entrance.

The crowd was uneasy, particularly fewer women, especially young women, even those who came out were all dowdy, wishing to smear pot soot on their faces. But Guotai Lang didn’t care, stood on the earthen platform, first did a simple self-introduction, then directly said: "Fellow villagers, please don’t worry, this time gathering everyone, I have only three things to say.

First, from now on, you are all Wanjin people. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

Second, for convenience in future work, you will be registered for household registration, and then based on the registration, each person will receive a monthly ration of one tou and two gous of grain, children’s portion halved. Of course, this little grain is certainly not enough to eat, but there’s no need for concern, winter is just right for water conservancy repairs, the front lines need grain transported for fort building, as long as you work hard, I guarantee no one will starve... We’ll discuss these matters in detail later.

Third, about the land long occupied by the Hokitate Family, it will also be redistributed for everyone’s use according to the household registration, specific rules..."

Guotai Lang forcibly altered the nationality of Matsuyama Manor’s villagers regardless of their agreement, and planned to organize these villagers as transport teams and laborers, essentially worker relief, as transporting technical workers from the Chita Peninsula is acceptable, purely transporting labor is too foolish, better to exchange with grain—Kantou, Northeast regions had good harvests this year, Wanjin can use industrial and commercial products to exchange and directly transport grain.

As for redistributing land, it’s logical, what can just these dozen or so people of Guotai Lang farm? The land must be divided, Wanjin only needs tax grain, even if more grain is needed, it can be done through other means, like exchanging industrial and commercial products with farmers, no need for forced seizure.

But before Guotai Lang finished, Matsuyama Manor’s villagers exploded, surprise, discussion, inquiries from those unable to hear behind blended into a buzz, even if no one dared to loud talk, the combined sound from over a thousand was enough to completely cover Guotai Lang’s voice, even with a tin loudspeaker to amplify, it couldn’t surpass so many people, he had to stop talking, repeatedly calling out "Quiet down! Quiet down!"

But these villagers were utterly undisciplined, Guotai Lang’s calls were in vain, in the end, it was several elders and strong men who stepped forward to help calm the commotion down with difficulty, yet everyone still had disbelieving faces—would samurai give grain to commoners, provide food for labor service, and distribute state-run fields for commoners to farm, such things hadn’t been heard before, is there a conspiracy?

Several "prominent figures" in the village dared not believe it either, initially they thought Guotai Lang’s group intended to collect tribute again, but unexpectedly, they said such astonishing words...

One elder hesitated, seeing Guotai Lang was fully armed, but hadn’t drawn a sword to hack anyone during the villagers’ uproar, his temperament seemed quite benevolent, daringly asked: "Sir, are you really giving us grain? Interest... how much is it?"

He didn’t care about the first point, whether Wanjin people or Jizutsu people, it was all the same to him, previously he had no idea which country he belonged to, but extending grain was a lifesaver, after all, the village truly had few grains left.

But he suspected the other party intended to establish a new type of loan, to collect more rice the following year.