Chapter 474

For this clever and nimble grandson, Lu Kang had always treated him like a treasure.

Therefore,

do not look at Lu Xun as being young,

but within the family, he possessed quite a bit of speaking power.

At this moment,

Lu Kang took out all the indenture contracts of these retainers and hidden households, precisely following Lu Xun's suggestion.

Facing Lu Kang's inquiry, Lu Xun sighed:

"Grandfather, chaotic times require heavy codes; extraordinary times must use extraordinary methods!"

"The riot in Wu Jun, the mastermind behind the scenes must be Gu Linzhi."

"In other words, since Gu Linzhi could arrange the riot in Wu Jun, why couldn't he arrange riots in the other commanderies?"

"Retainers and hidden households are not fools."

"If we still treat them like slaves as we did before, I fear most people will rebel against us!"

"Rather than waiting for them to rebel,"

"why don't we kill all this in the cradle in advance?"

"The reason retainers and hidden households want to rebel against us"

"is fundamentally because they want to obtain normal household registration and identity."

"Since that is the case, Grandfather, you should take the initiative to give out all the indenture contracts, letting the retainers and hidden households obtain normal status."

"After achieving the purpose they wanted, why bother to go through the trouble and thankless task of rebelling against us?"

"Furthermore, these retainers and hidden households will be even more grateful to us!"

"But Grandfather, you are only giving them the indenture contracts; the land deeds still remain in your hands."

"When Jiangdong returns to peace, if these retainers and hidden households want to obtain land to farm, they can only purchase it from you again."

"At that time, how high the price of land is, isn't that up to you to decide?"

"These retainers are no longer slaves,"

"but for the rest of their lives, they will be heavily in debt to purchase land!"

"Our Lu family will still be one of the top great aristocratic families in Jiangdong!"

"It is not impossible that we will even far surpass the Zhu, Zhang, and Gu families."

Lu Xun's words were neither humble nor arrogant, generous and powerful.

Although the expression on Lu Kang's face was full of heartache,

after being persuaded by his own grandson Lu Xun,

Lu Kang also understood that under Gu Yi's behind-the-scenes promotion, the retainers and hidden households obtaining "free status" was a major trend.

No matter what, he could not block this torrent.

If he were to block it by force,

the "Wu Jun rebellion" matter would erupt again and again!

And the strategy Lu Xun proposed

actually had the same effect as the "Russian serfdom reform" in original history.

During the era of Tsar Nicholas II, because domestic contradictions intensified, coupled with frequent failures in wars with Western powers,

the calls for the independence of the serf class rose accordingly.

Accompanied by frequent rebellions,

Nicholas II realized that rather than waiting for this group of serfs to overthrow his rule through violent means, it would be better to actively carry out reforms.

However,

Nicholas II and the great landlords behind him

would not do a losing business for no reason.

Although they liberated the serf class from top to bottom,

they did not carry out a thorough liberation.

Yes, they only gave the serfs normal commoner status; other things were not given at all.

For example, the farmland the serfs needed most.

Under the malicious price-hiking of Nicholas II and the great landlords behind him, the price increased by more than thirty times!

This was equivalent to saying

that although the serfs obtained personal freedom,

because they could not afford the farmland,

they still had to farm for Nicholas II and the great landlords behind him.

Exploitation and oppression still existed; they just changed their form.

And now,

the suggestion Lu Xun proposed had the same effect as Nicholas II's methods.

It was just a pity that

because the retainers and hidden households had not received any education,

they could not realize the exploitation and oppression hidden behind this in the short term.

On the contrary,

they would only be grateful to Lu Xun and the Lu family, thinking that the Lu family were great benevolent people.

Following Lu Xun's suggestion,

Lu Kang returned all the indenture contracts to the retainers and hidden households under his command without missing a single one.

Regarding this, the retainers and hidden households were extremely excited, one after another singing the praises of Lu Kang and Lu Xun's merits!

As for the Zhu, Gu, and Zhang families, they adopted methods completely different from the Lu family.

As a result,

besides Wu Jun, rebellions also broke out one after another in the other commanderies.

Helpless, they had no choice but to follow the pattern and copy Lu Xun.

But even so,

the strength of the four great Jiangdong aristocratic families had already suffered too much damage compared to before.

Although they obtained a breathing space through this method of Lu Xun's,

this was merely the final "surgical operation" before death!

Compared to the riots of the retainers and hidden households,

a more terrifying crisis was about to descend upon the heads of the Jiangdong aristocratic families!

In the six commanderies of Jiangdong, the southernmost Yuzhang Commandery.

Gu Yi led the army and had already completed the blockade of this place.

Although Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei followed Zhuge Liang's suggestion and led thirty thousand troops south,

in terms of speed, they still could not be faster than Gu Yi.

Helpless,

in order to escape from this "desperate land" of Jiangdong,

Liu Bei could only be forced to take thirty thousand troops and prepare to forcibly break through Gu Yi's encirclement.

However,

the battle that was about to erupt between Gu Yi and Liu Bei was destined to be unjust and unequal.

Gu Yi gathered eighty thousand people in Yuzhang.

Among them, he possessed elites like the Jiangxia Naval Forces, the Brocade Sail Thieves, and the Trapping Battalion.

Looking at Liu Bei,

he only had thirty thousand troops.

Eighty thousand against thirty thousand.

And the eighty thousand troops were mostly elites.

Facing this disparity,