Liu Mang said again "Oh yes, 2000 jin that I said it is for non-fertile lands. If the land is very fertile, the output shouold be 4000 jin!!!" Liu Mang told Liu Neng all of the possible results. Because in the manual, it said that the minimum output is 2000 kg. And in fertile farmland, it could produce 4000 kg. But then, in this time of age, there is no fertilizer and no intensive farming, therefore he dropped the amount to twice of its supposed to be.
"Milord, this, this….!!!" Liu Neng said stutteredly. He really cannot say anything at all. If all goes well, then this is a seed from gods themselves and this will really turn Yang Province into a granary for the whole nation. Liu Mang then ordered "Go then. Issue my policies. I want to know how they will block this generous offer!!!" Liu Mang waved to Liu Neng and Liu Neng quickly excused himself. Liu Mang needs to resolve other issues now. Population is a big problem but there are a lot of major issues in Lu Bu army that he needs to tackle such as Lu Bu army is 100% foundation-less and had no industrial infrastructure. A warlord needs to be self-sufficient in order to become warlords. Li Jue and Guo Si don’t know how to do management and finally died full of regrets, that goes to Dong Zhuo who left 70,000 Xiliang cavalry and 100,000 infantries. They are all missing without any notice at all and Zhang Xiu of Fort Wan who wield 20,000 Xiliang cavalries suffered the same fate with all of them. They all perish by the ravages of time
Liu Mang send out his orders to obtain commoners along with his job advertisement, all spreaded with Yang Hong’s intelligence network to all cities held by all warlords.
We now go to Jiangdong Wuhu County. In the midst of crowd, suddenly there is a butler-attired middle-aged man saying "Everyone!!! I heard His Highness Prince of Shu in Shouchun Yang Province, is recruiting commoners people there!!!"
Some people replied to that butler-attired man "Recruiting commoners?! What good is recruiting commoner for?!" With that conversation, many people stopped their steps in order to hear more. They are all in the same thinking with that people who speaks profit of recruiting commoners. What is the good recruiting commoners? The butler-attired man smiled and responded "His Highness Prince of Shu, is looking for commoners to farm for him. In order for him to govern as well!!!"
A middle-aged man replied "Shouchun, Yang Province. That is several hundred-li from here. That place is far from Yangtze River. Who in their right mind wants to go there? And you say Shouchun, didn’t you? We came from Shouchun. That place is a terrible place to live!!! It is desolate and unhabitable and the taxes is ridiculously high!!!" Hearing that response, the butler-attired man just took a deep breath and said "What do you know? Shouchun is far from here, yes. But His Highness Prince of Shu said, as long as you are willing to emigrate, you will be given 2-mu fertile farmlands!!!" The middle-aged man said in disdainful tone "Only 2-mu? My family had at least 10-mu now!!!" They are a family with four children and had 10-mu farmland, but they still cannot make ends meet. So the father needs to go fishing and the mother needs to weave cloth. The butler-attired man replied "How can your fertile farmland be compared to His Highness Prince of Shu’s farmland?!"
The middle-aged man replied "It is incomparable!!! How can fertile farmland of Shouchun be compared to our Jiangdong’s?!" Geographically speaking, Shouchun is located in Jiangsu, Anhui Province while Jiangdong is locating in Zhejiang, Anhui Province. The place had no difference at all, but the middle-aged man just said it to save his face. The butler-attired man did not debate anymore, instead asked "How much taxes your family should pay?!"
The middle-aged man said it proudly "We are indebted to the General Sun Ce for freeing us from miserable life in Shouchun. We gladly pay Marquis of Wu, 60% grain tax!!!" This middle-aged man’s son died while being in Sun Ce’s employ. Sun Ce, in order to appease their families, reduce 10% of their taxes. Sun Ce actually did what Liu Mang planned to do first. However, with harvest 200 - 300 jin / year, how many reduction can it have effects? However, when listening to the middle-aged man, the crowd were awe-struck and it made middle-aged man very prideful. He then said to butler-attired man and said in disdain tone "So, how much taxes your family pay?!" [TN: At this time, Sun Ce already given title as Marquis of Wu, it is not told anywhere in this story. So all of you readers can read it in either kongming.net or other sites)
The butler-attired just show three fingers while smiling. The middle-aged man then enraged "70%, eh? You don’t have any base to laugh at my family!!!" The butler-attired said "No no no, my tax is only 30%. His Highness Prince of Shu dictates that as long as any people reach Shouchun, they will have 2-mu farmlands and their tax is only 30% forever with no more additional tax." The middle-aged man screamed while pointing to the butler-attired man "IMPOSSIBLE!!! YOU ARE A LIAR AND A CHEAT!!!!! THERE IS NO WARLORDS IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD ONLY TAKE 30% GRAIN TAX!!! HOW CAN HE BUILD HIS ARMY??? HOW CAN HE SUPPORT HIS PEOPLE??? HOW CAN HE PAY SALARY???" In this times of chaos, any warlord who only take 50% of grain tax is already said to love his people. Now there is a person who only take 30%, is there anyone alive who would believe this kind of talk? The nearby people also nodding and said "Yes, 30% is impossible. Even if the sky fall, that is impossible!!!" The crowd then said "Yes, we should not go!!!"
The butler-attired man just kept listening to people’s words, then he gestured his arm to be silent and said "His Highness Prince of Shu, is impossible to deceive people. Do you all still remember when His Highness issued job advertisement? Everyone who came to answer the job was given position. None was rejected!!!" They are all silenced with the mention of job advertisement. It is true that job advertisement offended nobles. Therefore Sun Ce, in a collusion with all nobles to kill Liu Mang, he did not stop the job advertisement. Therefore all of commoners around know all about it.
The commoners around said "Yes, His Highness Prince of Shu did that and I heard the fourth-son of Zhao family, he went to Shouchun and was received warmly!!!" They all trusted that Liu Mang did not threw any person out, but their heart is still full of doubts. The middle-aged man, not fully convinced and was made uncomfortable with people praising Prince of Shu, said again "Now, you haven’t explained about the 30%. How it is not deceiving people?!" The butler-attired man then said "Hahaha, I believe you had said before that you are a native of Shouchun right? Do you still remember how big Shouchun’s lands is?!" The middle-aged man said "Yes, it have a lot and vast land!!!" But this man is only a commoner, how can he possibly understand the vastness of Shouchun. "Haha, yes. Shouchun’s land is vast. But you said it is desolate and uninhabited now. You think it is wise to just leave those fertile unattended, while you yourself selling cloth?!" The butler-attired man said that while pointing toward the homemade cloth the middle-aged man is holding.
"What are you doing, pointing to my cloth?!" Said the middle-aged man while holding tightly to his cloth. The butler-attired man asked "You, how much is this cloth?!" "This is 20 cents!" The middle-aged man answered and asked "You want to buy?!" He goes out to the market to sell this cloth and due to the argument, he had forgotten.
The butler-attired said "20 cents? If I give you 10 cents, you sell?!" While saying that, he pulls out 10 coins from his pocket. The middle-aged man said "No way, no sell to you. This is my wife’s handmade, she weaved it using top-grade hemp. 20 cents or no sell!!!" The butler-attired man then gestured as if he is going to snatch the cloth and said "Oh, no sell? How about if I snatch this from you? Like you can retaliate at all!!!" The middle-aged man then tightly held the cloth to his chest and said "You dare to snatch it? If you dare to snatch this cloth, I will fight you to the death!!!"
The butler-attired man said "No, I am just saying IF!!! Now, if the government who want to fine you with your cloth? What are you going to do?!" The middle-aged man stunned "Fine?!" In this ancient times, it meant to rob you of your possessions in exchange of grain tax. At that time, the cloth was worthless. The middle-aged man then muttered "It…Is…Impossible!!! Marquis of Wu is not possible to fine me!!!" His mouth said that but his expression said otherwise. The Marquis of Wu had fined him and robbed him off his possessions.
The butler-attired man then asked "So, if you are in danger of being fined, which one is better. Sell the cloth to me for 10 cents or being fined?!" The middle-aged man quickly answered "Better sell to you!!" Those of commoners understand the very basic things like being fined meant their possessions doesn’t worth anything. Better sell the cloth for money, than being fined. The butler-attired man said "So you understand that simple truth, let alone His Highness Prince of Shu!!! That illustration with your cloth, is the same with the land in Shouchun. If nobody cultivates it, similar with your cloth, yours will be fined by government, worthless. If got people to plough the land, His Highness Prince of Shu promised that everyone got 2-mu of fertile farmlands and although got tax, but the tax only 30%. That analogy can be compared to this cloth. Although you suffered loss at first, but the opportunity is already on your grasp! Also His Highness Prince of Shu said that if you have a son, you will be granted additional 1-mu and if you have a daughter, ½-mu. Also you will be given a capital of 100 coins!!!" This is the repopulation incentive plan that Liu Mang creates. As long as you are married and had kids, boy will be granted 1-mu and girl will be granted ½-mu. With this incentive, commoners can become human again. Liu Mang wanted to make earth populated again, with Yang Province as its example.
With that simple analogy explained by that butler-attired man, all of commoners understood completely what is Prince of Shu’s scheme. An adult person got 2-mu, and a family of four with two adult sons got 8-mu and the tax is only 30%. therefore those 5-mu is for their own families consumption. In Sun Ce’s region, although they received 10-mu but the tax is 60%. Only four-mu left for their own consumption. The key that butler-attired man told was His Highness Prince of Shu will never raise his taxes also those who open up wasteland will receive the farmland as their own after 5 years. The butler-attired man then asked "Could not you have go with this kind of incentive and analogy?!" The middle-aged man then said "Yes, I want to go!!!" Also the nearby people also said in same voice. The butler-attired man had crushed their last doubts with that simple analogy.
The butler-attired man then said "Let me tell you first, you need to hurry pack up and emigrate as soon as possible. Although Shouchun has a lot of fertile farmland. Only 50,000 commoners would receive the incentive of 2-mu fertile farmlands. Those who arrived late, will not received the 2-mu fertile farmlands!" Currently Liu Mang’s population from 3 regions Shouchun, Hefei and Lujiang totaled 500,000 people. Liu Mang estimated that Yang Province can receive more citizens, after all, Yang Province is not less magnificent compared to Xu Province and Ji Province. Ji Province currently has population of 4 million (1 million were snatched by Heishan Bandits Zhang Yan). Liu Mang estimated that even half of Yang Province is able to provide for 5 - 7 million people. With that amount of people, food production is no longer a problem. Liu Mang doesn’t count on his own subordinates to attract people a lot, however 50,000 people will certainly have, because of the incentive he sent out is truly good and right now commoners are hastening themselves in order to get that farmlands. If late, they will not get it at all. When they are under Sun Ce, they live in constant fear of dead by starvation for there is not enough food to consume as most of the food were prioritized for war. Also they are in fear of being a soldier to supplement Sun Ce’s loss, at any time due to incessant war between Jing Province and Jiangdong. Therefore, when one saw such good opportunity, how can anyone pass this one up?