Money and grain were the foundation of a nation.
And the current undertaking of hiring commoners was, in effect, "playing with" money and grain.
The risks involved were actually quite considerable.
Take Sili as an example. The number of tenant farmers in Sili Province who had left their masters now exceeded two hundred thousand. Of these, some hundred and forty thousand could obtain no farmland and had no means of supporting themselves. How much grain would those hundred and forty thousand people consume in a year?
And this was only one province. With Great Wei's territory so vast, how great would that consumption become in places like Yan, Xu, and Yu, where the Great Clans were exceptionally powerful?
As for why the emperor insisted on separating the tenant farmers from their masters rather than letting them continue farming for the great clans?
It was because taxes at this time included not only land rent, but also poll taxes, property taxes, levies in kind, labor service, and more.
If they only restricted the amount of farmland without restricting the concealment of households, the effect on land rent might be small, but the other areas would suffer. Once those people were hidden away, they could no longer serve as labor for the Imperial Court.
In the end, this was still a struggle between feudal imperial power and feudal aristocratic houses over material to exploit.
The opinions of the tenant farmers themselves might not actually matter all that much to either side.
The Imperial Court would have to pay an enormous price to support so many people and ensure that construction projects across the country took shape.
This would almost empty the State Treasury and create a serious fiscal deficit. Temporary tax increases might even be necessary.
This, too, was standard practice for