Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 607: The Celestial Empire
The scale of the King of Wu's palace was not very large. Although there were many officials with various difficult-to-understand Chinese titles, there were only a few people who followed him.

He claimed that he had a large number of vacancies and had been waiting for heroes to come and take up the positions. Until now, it seemed that it was still too early and far from being filled. Moreover, most of the people recruited were not well educated and often did not even know what the official positions they were granted meant. Some people therefore suspected that he was deliberately exaggerating and fabricating many positions to win over ignorant people.

However, most people still welcomed him and were eager to get official positions from him. In particular, after they had been here for a while, the number of people accepting the King of Wu's court increased rapidly.

In addition to using force directly to crack down on local evil tyrants, they also do a lot of other work. For some reason, the King of Wu seems to have a grudge against these lords, and he is often very firm and merciless in doing things. Not only in name, he wants to abolish all feudal nobles, but also start from various specific affairs and carry out various reforms.

After announcing the establishment of rule here, the court of King Wu organized the villagers of several villages in the territory. In addition to sending people everywhere to preach every day, abolishing all previous laws and informing everyone of the new laws, they also expelled the tax collectors sent by the previous lord, re-selected prestigious old men as village heads, and appointed their subordinates as village officials to be responsible for conscripting corvée and military service.

The military service of the King of Wu was very heavy, and the men in the village had to gather for training every few days. In addition, they had to repair the river and dig canals according to their instructions. However, since all the previous messy taxes were abolished, and there were no tax collectors and nobles at all levels to exploit them, the taxes collected by the King of Wu's court became very small. Moreover, the canals they dug and the mills they rebuilt were indeed useful. Therefore, although there were more messy things, the villagers generally welcomed him.

It is said that over the years, the King of Wu and others have established such territories in many places in the west. Although each territory is not large, the total population is still quite large. The nearby villagers are all amazed and think this man is amazing.

However, some people also say that the King of Wu was not so glorious at the beginning.

I heard from some people who knew the King of Wu in his early years that the King of Wu had cooperated with the king and the nobles in the hope of gaining their support to establish a kingdom and achieve his goals to show his family. But in the end, he did not get any actual fiefdom and did not know how to interact with the nobles. As a result, he became poorer and poorer and had to beg for food.

Fortunately, he was really a royal family in the East, so he sold his reputation to others and wandered around the palaces of various countries in exchange for a bowl of rice. Unfortunately, he had another bad temper, which was that he liked to reduce the power of the vassal states. After sitting for only a few days, he offended the great nobles and was attacked by the crowd. He could not survive, and even he and his followers fled and disappeared. After several times, no one invited him to the palace to be a guest and eat for free.

Without laws, the King of Wu inevitably committed some illegal acts, robbing lords everywhere and occupying the mountains as kings. But in the eyes of the people, his character was better than that of other nobles, that is, he never collected too much tax; although sometimes he had no cash and temporarily borrowed from merchants, he would definitely pay it back within a year, so most merchants liked him.

After the reputation spread, people outside the controlled area would sometimes come to ask for help, or like this time, hope to use the reputation of the Ming Dynasty to make a ruling and resolve the conflict between the two villages.

The two groups of people who came to complain this time were not all from the territory. One of them was from a village on the edge of the Wu King's territory, by the river. The other was from a village across the river, which theoretically should belong to another territory.

So, after everyone was seated, the master of ceremonies, Old George, announced the start of the trial, and their representative gave a special explanation.

"Our village is far from here, and has never been managed by His Majesty before. We came here to disturb them because no one is managing there either." The representative said a little stiffly, "We have discussed this with them several times before, but there is no solution that satisfies everyone. The young people on both sides are very excited and have fought twice. If this continues, it will get out of hand sooner or later, so we hurried here, hoping that the king can give us a fair ruling and help us divide the water and fields."

"Yes. Everyone here is also very excited." In front of the crowd, the representative of Mueller Village also said: "In fact, the relationship between our two villages has always been good. But recently, due to the problem of the new water conservancy project, the villagers living by the river have had some disputes. We want to mediate on our own, but the situation of the river is not something we can change. Therefore, we also think that it is better to come here to appeal. I hope that Your Majesty and the adults can give us a solution."

"The Spring and Autumn Annals says, 'The king has no outsiders.' The current territorial boundaries are only the areas that the court can temporarily protect due to our limited capabilities. As long as people outside the territory are loyal to the Ming Dynasty, they are still our own people." The civil servant holding a pen said, "All the elders and villagers who are willing to accept us are the people of the Ming Dynasty. You don't have to worry about us favoring one side or the other."

After they finished speaking, the King of Wu nodded and immediately added: "That's what I mean. However, as you can see, our Wu clan is still in its infancy. Both the military strength and the number of civilians are pitifully small. Even if we work hard, we can't achieve everything."

"So, I have to ask specifically." He specifically asked the representatives of the other villages: "Before you came, did you ask the nobles who manage you? What is their attitude? If there is a conflict with them because of my interference in this matter, you must be prepared in advance. But now, most of the soldiers are helping to repair water conservancy projects everywhere and have not been recalled. So, if you really want to intervene, you must ask first."

"Don't worry, my king. Our lord won't care about this matter at all. He will just find it annoying." The representative of the other village answered without hesitation this time: "There are often conflicts between villages, but we rarely tell the lord. Because if you go to him to file a complaint, let him make a judgment, or help, you have to pay him money, otherwise he won't care."

"Yes, our previous earl was the same." The representative of Muller Village also agreed: "Whether you go to him to petition, to eliminate bandits, or to go to the city to sue, you have to pay him to make a ruling. Moreover, his ability is not good enough, and his rulings are messy and can't solve any problems. No one is convinced, and after a while, there is another commotion. The money is wasted..."

"What about the other lords? What about the knights and barons directly under your village? What does the church say?" asked the civil servant.

"The knight of our village is a loyal man," said the representative of another village. "He said that as long as we can solve this problem and deal with the water issue, we can do anything."

"Of course, he really doesn't have time to take care of it. He is a skilled bricklayer. A few months ago, he went to Prague to work with a construction team. I heard that the business is quite big and it will take at least a year for him to come back. During this period, the villagers can discuss things among themselves."

"I see..." The civil servant immediately wrote it down.

In short, since the Earl didn't care about the affairs and the Knight went to make money, the village was now in a state of no one. Even if a judgment was made and an order was given to them, no one would feel that their jurisdiction would be violated - because no one would pay attention.

Of course, the Wu Palace had been wandering in the West for many years, and was no longer surprised by such things. Therefore, after registering these, they entered the next stage and began to question both parties and other witnesses to understand the cause of the conflict and the specific points of dispute. According to everyone, several villages here have always gone to the river to get water. The river sometimes floods or lacks water, but that is a natural phenomenon, and everyone has accepted it.

However, recently, the villages upstream have been building a lot of ditches, which have diverted a lot of water from the river. When planning the irrigation canal, the villages under the King of Wu participated in the excavation, so they were all allocated water canals, but the villages next to them did not. Although some people were jealous, they did not participate, so they could not say anything.

The real trigger was at the beginning of this month, when the Wu Wang Mansion began to organize manpower and accumulate materials to prepare for a thorough upgrade of the previous water mill. The original mill was too small to be used by everyone, so the craftsmen planned to build a dam directly on the river to block the water and drive the waterwheel. In this way, the water power provided would be enough for more people to use.

Although the river was not very wide, it was a huge project that the locals had never seen before. The various organizations and transportation operations were so grand and everyone was so excited that it was impossible to hide it, and it was soon known to other villages.

Mueller Village is in a good location, as it was originally the location of a mill. The new dam will also be built next to their village, so they are of course happy about it. However, the villages on the other side are deeply worried about this, fearing that they will intercept too much water and leave themselves without water.

Mueller Village explained this, but they themselves didn't really understand these things. They just did whatever the people sent by the palace told them to do. In the end, not only did they fail to explain clearly, but they became even more angry. The neighboring villages thought they were trying to stall for time and grab water; they felt that they were sincere and the other party was being unreasonable.

After that, even other villages joined in the debate. Villages that were preparing to participate in the construction of water conservancy projects had people come to help argue, saying that they could do whatever they wanted on their own territory and no one else could interfere. However, villages upstream and downstream that did not accept management and dig canals believed that water belonged to everyone along the river and could not be intercepted or abused unless everyone agreed.

As the matter became more and more serious and could not be resolved, even the village on the other side finally felt that they might have to formally appeal and request a ruling. However, the villagers were very afraid to even go to the earl in the past, and now this sudden appearance of the king with unknown origins was even more frightening.

While they were hesitating, some young people from the two villages got angry and started fighting again. The village on the other side suffered a great loss this time, and everyone was scattered, and several people were injured. The villagers were very angry and felt that they had to sue the authorities. Other villages outside the jurisdiction also came to add fuel to the fire, saying that the downstream villages were waiting for them to take action, and whether the water source would be blocked in the future depended on them. They must be more alert and not let down their fellow villagers.

Just like that, under the instigation of everyone, both sides really ran over.

After everyone had talked their minds out, they quieted down and waited for the King of Wu's opinion.

"This is not a complicated matter." After listening, the King of Wu thought for a moment and said, "Aren't you just worried about running out of water? Aren't you afraid that everyone will share it all and not leave you a share? Then you should also participate in our water conservancy project. I will give orders to the people below to go to your place to investigate and plan the canal for you. Of course, you also need talents, and you can't just let people from other villages dig for you."

After hearing this, everyone agreed and felt that it was all true.

"Didn't they say there were several villages?" King Wu looked around again and said, "If you are afraid that this kind of thing will happen again in the future, call everyone over and tell them what happened."

"Will the surrounding chieftains see this as a signal for expansion?" The civil servant turned around and advised: "Now they tacitly allow Your Highness to govern this area because they are afraid of our military strength and think that we will not expand to their heads, so they don't want to take the lead in managing others. If you extend your hands to more distant places, it may arouse suspicion. We are not ready yet, and the construction period is not a suitable time for war. It is better to try to avoid conflicts as much as possible."

"It shouldn't matter." King Wu thought about it again, but shook his head and said, "For us, this is an opportunity to show the broad-mindedness of the Celestial Empire. For the people here, it is also an opportunity to join us."

"I heard from Wen Kui that the imperial court has sent envoys to the Great Qin Kingdom to establish contact. They said that the imperial court has recently repeatedly used military force against the remnants of the Yuan Dynasty, and the princes have performed well in their respective duties. I am far away in the West, so I have also sent people to comfort them. I hope that I can inherit the virtues of my grandfather, work diligently, and let the locals here also see the virtues of the Celestial Empire."

"I have always wanted to do something, but unfortunately, there has been no progress in the reduction of feudal lords over the years. The kings of the frontiers have military merits, and they really have armies. And the positions I have have not been filled yet, there is really no way. For now, I can only quickly expand my manpower. No matter what their background is, no matter where they come from, as long as they are willing to help me do great things, they can be granted official positions and entrusted with important tasks, not to mention helping to dig a canal."

"Listen to me, too." He turned to the villagers and said, "When you go back, explain clearly to all the villages along the river - oh, it doesn't matter if it's a little far away, as long as the canal can be dug through. Take water conservancy for example. It really requires the whole river to be planned together, and the people in the entire basin to work together and use it together, only then can these trivial problems be avoided. We tried it some time ago, and the effect is really good. The people in these villages can testify to this. If more people join in, the effect will definitely be better."

"Although you are under the jurisdiction of different chieftains, you all live at the head and tail of the river, so it is inevitable that you will interact with each other. I will not compete with them for the people now, but just negotiate to solve the problem of fighting for water. They don't want to have insufficient water on their side, and their people will fight with others every day and can't farm, right? After the discussion, we will unify the construction and the allocation of water channels. As for other matters, you can discuss them among yourselves, I am too lazy to intervene."

"You don't have to hide this from your leader - the leader can join us if he wants." He added, "Just like your knight, you can tell him that he doesn't have to go to faraway places to work in the future. I'm short of a lot of manpower here. If he can really fight, why not join me? As long as he has military merits, he can be a commander in the future. We're not short of officials here, we're short of people, and we're waiting for them to do the job."

"So this matter is not that troublesome. Just explain it clearly." He waved his hand for the last time and concluded: "Write down my words and send them to them. We can talk about it later if there is anything else."

Seeing this, everyone agreed and said that it was no problem at all. In the future, everyone would come to support the king. Old George quickly ordered everyone to lie down again and thanked King Wu for his help. After another commotion, the representatives and villagers of each village dispersed.

(End of this chapter)