The Qin State granted land for its military merits. Aren’t you worried that the land will not be enough in the future?

Because when Shang Yang carried out the reform at that time, he had already considered that the Qin State might not be able to allocate enough land according to military merit. Shang Yang had two additional explanations for this, namely, the inheritance system of demotion and status. Death field to seize control.

What he means is that if you want to inherit the title of your elders, then you have to downgrade the title by two levels. For example, if his father obtained the fourth-class title of Qin by killing enemies in war, Then his son can only enjoy the treatment of second-class title. In this case, the land inherited by his son will be greatly reduced.

The land-grabbing system of life and death means that the state recognizes that land is privately owned by individuals, but when the person who made military exploits dies and his descendants inherit his portion of the land, the state will take back the land. return. In this case, no matter how much merit a soldier has, a large part of the land will still return to the hands of the country after his death. This is equivalent to recycling, so there is no need to worry about not having land to reward new soldiers for their meritorious service.

This is the shrewdness of Shang Yang, because at that time Qin’s social economy and military strength were far behind the other six countries such as Han, Zhao, and Wei. However, after Shang Yang’s reforms, Qin's economy took off, its combat effectiveness continued to increase, and it finally became a country that unified the Central Plains.

Why did Shang Yang think of this method? It is because the Qin Dynasty has always implemented a hereditary system before Shang Yang's reform, that is, sons inherit their father's inheritance. Even if the earl's son is a loser, he will enjoy endless glory and wealth in his life. In this case, who can If you are willing to fight desperately on the front line, no matter how many achievements you make, you will only be a small soldier in the end. This resulted in the soldiers at that time being old-fashioned and unwilling to contribute. Therefore, Shang Yang's reforms directly provided the most practical material rewards to give these soldiers the motivation to move forward.

In addition, the Qin State also relied on Shang Yang's reform to abolish well fields, vigorously encouraged farmers to plant, and rewarded high-yielding farmers, so the economy began to take off. It is precisely because of the influence of these atmospheres that ordinary farmers in Qin are willing to work hard to produce, and soldiers are willing to fight the enemy in front of the battle line, making Qin better and better.