A Millennium Aristocratic Family Starting from the Shang Dynasty

Chapter 33
After Ji Lie came to the throne, Duke Ai of Qi was cooked and killed because of the advice of Marquis Ji. In addition, the military strength of the Zhou family was weak during the reign of King Yi.

When Ji Lie took over Bangzhou, Bangzhou had become weak, his financial resources were exhausted, and his armaments were slack, which had reached a dangerous point.

There are many reasons for the depletion of the royal family's financial resources, some of which are caused by the division of land, another part is the reduction of tribute from the princes, some are caused by unfavorable battles, and some are natural disasters.

Since the time of King Yi, King Ji of Bangzhou has encountered many natural disasters, such as drought, hail, earthquakes, and river diversions.At the beginning, King Yi died of fear because of the frequent occurrence of natural disasters, thinking that he had been blamed by the sky.

The enfeoffment system implemented by King Wu and Zhou Gongdan was the best way.According to the technology and productivity of this era, it is impossible to control such a large empire, only the system of enfeoffment can be used.The hidden danger of the enfeoffment system is that the vassal states become bigger, which is unavoidable.

In order to obtain money, Ji Lie began to increase taxes on Wang Ji, and confiscated the land of the nobles for farming, focusing on agriculture. Because of Ji Lie's prestige as the emperor of Zhou, although the nobles were dissatisfied, the reform was still carried out.

On the other hand, since King Wu, the nobles in Wang Jinei have been entrusted. In the period of Ji Lie, Wang Jinei was already overcrowded, and the land finance could no longer supply so many nobles. Ji Lie wanted to cancel the practice of "the world is the nobles".

Such an approach has already touched the bottom line of these royal nobles.It's just that Ji Lie didn't abolish all of them, but selectively abolished them. He adopted some nobles and attacked some nobles. In addition, his mother Sihou was born in Qi State, and this was successful.

This not only increased Wang Ji's financial revenue and suppressed Wang Jin's officials, but also stabilized his power.

By attacking a small number of nobles and wooing most of the nobles, coupled with the support of Ji Lie's mother family, Ji Lie's reform was temporarily successful.With money and food, the Sixth Army of the Son of Heaven can continue to sustain itself.

Every emperor of the Zhou family will marry the princes. In addition to attracting the princes, another reason is to use the power of the mother clan and wife clan to suppress the nobles in Wangji. All the successive emperors of Zhou have not violated the rules of the game.

Of course, the vassal states obtained greater benefits by marrying their prostitutes into the royal family and taking advantage of their daughters' status as queens. This is an act of joint efforts, and it is also a tacit understanding between the Zhou royal family and the princes.

In fact, this system is beneficial to the emperor of Zhou. As long as the emperor of Zhou is not stupid, he can use high-ranking officials to show his position to bestow those prominent nobles outside the king.Use their strength to balance the officials in Wang Jinei.

Even if the power of the princes outside Wang Ji has greatly increased in Wang Jizhong, it is only one generation. When the next emperor ascends the throne, other princes will take his place.In general, power is always in the hands of Zhou Tianzi.

Ji Lie's reforms have been implemented, but Ji Lie is not satisfied with the current situation, he wants to gain more power.

When the Zhou royal family was in decline, Chu State in the far south began to rise.Because Chu was enfeoffed in the barbarian land in the south, it was not seen by the vassal states of the Central Plains, and they were regarded as barbarians.

In the beginning, Chu State was the same as Wu State, all enfeoffed were viscounts, and they were also regarded as barbarians.After more than a hundred years of development, the state of Chu should be named a marquis according to its merits, but until now, the state of Chu has been a viscount.And when the princes went to pay homage to Zhou Tianzi, Chu Zi didn't even let him enter the main hall.

Such humiliation caused the state of Chu to leave in anger, no longer court Zhou, and even began to attack the Hanshui states continuously.

At the beginning, Emperor Zhou enfeoffed Chu State in the south, which actually had the meaning of distribution. After all, at that time, Chu State belonged to the southern barbarians, an uncivilized land, and the south was full of miasma and poisonous insects, and the death rate was very high.

But what Zhou Tianzi didn't expect was that Chu State developed so fast in this place full of smog and poisonous insects.However, in a mere hundred years, Chu State has become the leading power in the south.

Chu has thousands of miles of land and millions of people, but he is still a viscount, which makes Chu Jun very dissatisfied. Just as the Zhou royal family is declining, Chu Jun wants to take this opportunity to annex the Jianghan Plain, go straight to Nanyang, and force Zhou Tianzi to give him a A title in line with status.

The struggle between the Chu State and the Hanshui Five Kingdoms also began.

Time passed quickly, and in the blink of an eye, it had been three years since Wang Lin succeeded Duke Huai.Since he inherited the position of Lord Huai, Huai State has begun to deploy in Han State.

Three years have passed, and at this time, in the whole country of Han, less than [-]% of the total land is planted with grain.In addition to jute, the remaining [-]% of the land is planted with mulberry.

It takes at least three years after the mulberry tree is planted before silkworms can be raised. If a large area of ​​grain is converted to mulberry, it will be troublesome if you want to change to grain again.

Especially the land of the nobles, in order to pursue a luxurious life, they replanted a lot of farmland into mulberry trees and raised silkworms for sale.After Huaiguo had had enough of silkworm cocoons, he spun silk to make silk.At the beginning, Zijue improved the silk technology, making Huaiguo silk not only beautiful in color, but also comfortable to wear, which was very popular among the nobles.

After three years of subtle development, the fact that food prices are low in Han has been accepted by people, and the number of people who grow food has decreased significantly.The nobles of Han Kingdom were also intoxicated with extravagant enjoyment.

Seeing this situation, Wang Lin was not in a hurry to act, but prepared to let the country of Han continue to develop. The deeper it fell, the more difficult it would be to turn back.

It will take at least three years to see the benefits of changing grain to mulberry. If it is launched at this time, as long as the nobles are ruthless, they can still cut down the mulberry trees and replant grain.However, once a large amount of income has been obtained from mulberry tree sericulture, it is almost impossible to change mulberry to grow grain.

At the same time, after three years of development, Huaiguo's shipyard on the banks of the Yangtze River has also been established. Wang Lin still attaches great importance to the Yangtze River Navy.

After investing a lot of manpower and material resources to form the Yangtze River Navy, the navy has also developed rapidly. Now there are more than [-] large and small ships and more than [-] sailors.It's just that because of the short time, there are not many large ships, and several large ships are under construction.

Huai country sells grain at low prices and buys silkworm cocoons, weapons, and cloth at high prices. Even if it makes money with those silks, fine wines, and delicacies, it still loses a lot every year.Even many aristocrats in the country objected, but under Wang Lin's strong promotion, the transaction was still like this.

After all, the caravans of the Huai country are basically controlled by the royal family, and the Huai country has been passed down for five generations, and has accumulated a very high reputation.At the same time, Huai country has accumulated a lot of money over the years, which is enough for him to continue to promote the whole plan.

But in Wang Lin's opinion, this is just a trivial matter. As long as the Han country is annexed, the money will come back soon. Not to mention the money, even the land and population will belong to the Huai country.Han Guo seems to have made money, but in fact it is only temporarily kept.

(End of this chapter)