A Millennium Aristocratic Family Starting from the Shang Dynasty

Chapter 478: Another hard time for noble officials

Wang Che did not hesitate to attack noble, powerful, and official families.

"The Zhao family, the Cao family, the Zhang family, the Chen family and the Han family were the first nobles and officials to come to me," Wang Yun said.

"These families have occupied a large number of acres in various places, and their family power is also intertwined. They need to find some way to divide it up!"

Wang Che knew the situation of these families very well. The Zhao family was divided by the public clan, but it was separated during the Huai Kingdom. It has been more than three hundred years ago, and basically there has been no contact with them for a long time.

The Zhang family is the descendant of Prime Minister Zhang Liang. Zhang Liang was very measured. Even though he was in a high and powerful position, he never acted arbitrarily. However, when his grandchildren came to the generation, they began to lose their sense of proportion. Nowadays, the Zhang family in the Gyeonggi region occupies a lot of land and manors, and even dares to take over lawsuits because someone in the family is an official and has a title left by his ancestors.

The Chen family and the Han family were very famous in the local area and used various methods to occupy land. The land was not officially in their names, but was actually controlled by them.

Wang Che planned to split up these families, kill the master family and exile the rest. It just happens to solve some land annexation problems and resettle some people.

"Your Majesty, there are many nobles who are unable to obtain land deeds. What will happen in the end?" Wang Zong next to him asked.

"It's simple. If you can't get the land deed, the land will be handed over to the common people or homeless tenants who are farming." Wang Che said with a smile.

"There is a lot of room for manipulation in this way. Once someone colludes to turn the land of ordinary people into the land of nobles and powerful people, they will actually do bad things with good intentions!" Wang Zong said with some worry.

Wang Yun stood silently beside him. As a feudal vassal king, he could not express any opinions on the government affairs.

"It will definitely cause chaos for a period of time." Wang Che is very aware of the impact of these things, but these things must be done. Daqian has been stable for hundreds of years and has an overpopulation. He needs to try his best to alleviate the contradiction between population and land.

Regarding the choice between suffering for the common people in the world or suffering for a noble family, Wang Che thinks it is better to suffer for the noble family. After all, the people are already suffering enough. After all, the suffering of noble families is nothing more than to produce less meat and wear less silk and satin, while the suffering of the common people is to sell their sons and daughters.

"The censor station will be reorganized, and then the patrol censors will be sent to patrol the capital. They will select young, non-sectarian, and clean scholars from the academy, and at the same time let the embroidered clothes envoys secretly search for them. If these patrol censors are selfless, If they are loyal to their duties, after they have gained experience, they can be given higher official positions or take charge of the government."

"Or we can train more censors and distribute them across the country. We can also take the opportunity to clean up some places and rectify the administration. Those officials are becoming more and more outrageous. The more remote the areas, the more serious it is. By the way, we should take the opportunity to bring down some big families in various places. It was broken up and broken up.”

"I heard that there are rumors about county commanders in many places now, such as the Langya Xu family, Kuaiji Xiao family, etc., what a big name! These county commanders were dismantled and divided into Hehuang, Cangwu, Lelang, and Liuqiu go."

Wang Che spoke very gently, but if those nobles, powerful people, and officials from aristocratic families heard it, they would be chilled to the bone.

"After such an operation, it is estimated that after my death I will not be able to escape the reputation of tyranny. If a few hundred years pass, I will be known as Jie Li!"

"Your Majesty, don't worry. Taishi Ling will write it impartially and will never let those people do whatever they want!" Wang Zong said solemnly.

Wang Che waved his hands and said nonchalantly: "They really didn't dare when Da Qian was here. When Da Qian's destiny ends, they will definitely have something to say. By then, the Taishi lineage may not be able to control the power of compiling history."

"But I don't care!"

"Your Majesty is kind! These clowns are nothing to be afraid of." Wang Yun said respectfully. "Speaking of which, the land annexation here in the capital is not serious." Wang Zong said.

Wang Che and Wang Yun looked at Wang Zong one after another, and Wang Zong immediately said: "Your Majesty, Luoyang is at the foot of the emperor. Most of my Wang family live here. In addition, the royal family likes white dragon fish clothes and visits in private. Once the capital comes out, You will know what happened soon."

"The noble officials in the DPRK simply don't dare to annex land."

"Once those common people get into trouble and go to the city to complain, or if the news spreads in the capital, Your Majesty will soon know about it, and they will not be able to reap the benefits!"

"My brother has explored various places in the past few years. There are other places in the capital and five capitals. These nobles, officials, and powerful people have all made a tacit understanding and deliberately avoided this place."

"That's it!" Wang Che nodded.

"But after dozens of miles outside the city, land annexation becomes very serious!" Wang Zong continued: "Land in the capital is much more expensive than in other places."

"The land around Luoyang, the sacred capital, has been basically indivisible since Emperor Wen. After that, the people continued to have children and the court did not divide the land, so it had to be divided by the father. After two or three generations, the people almost only had a few acres of land. ”

"How do you live in the capital with a few acres of land? If you encounter some weddings or funerals, you have to sell the land. Those nobles and officials can easily complete the land annexation without resorting to plundering. Even the common people have to thank them. .”

Wang Zong said with a sigh.

This is the most unexplainable thing. These nobles, powerful officials and officials did not illegally annex land. Instead, they offered a price slightly higher than the market price. They did not force people to plunder the land. On the contrary, the common people were still willing to sell.

If the court takes back these fields indiscriminately and then distributes them to the people. First of all, this is against the law of the country. The country is governed by law. If the emperor tramples on the law wantonly, then what dignity does the law have? Secondly, in a few years, many people will go bankrupt due to various reasons, and they will need to sell their land.

But because of the previous record of land acquisition by the imperial court, it is estimated that no noble, powerful, or official family will take over the purchase again. When the time comes when the people are in urgent need of money but cannot sell their land, the court will do something bad out of good intentions.

Wang Zong and Wang Che wanted to clean up the wealthy and powerful officials, but over the years, it became increasingly difficult to deal with them. But things have to be done.

Within two days, the inspection censor appointed by Wang Che wrote a letter saying that Zhang Cheng was lax in his discipline, allowed his relatives to disrupt local justice, and hid his land secretly, so he was dismissed from his official position.

The internal minister Wang Zong personally interrogated the case, and the evidence was conclusive and there was no false accusation. So the Zhang family was ordered to inspect their fields, and then they were exiled to the Western Regions, Liaodong, and Ryukyu. The direct descendants of the Zhang family were also moved to Hehuang. With the emergence of Prime Minister Zhang Liang and the imperial concubine, the Zhang family, which was prosperous for a while, disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Immediately afterwards, there are the Zhao family, the Cao family, the Chen family and the Han family. If the crime they committed is too big, they will be killed directly, and the rest will be moved to the border. If the crime they committed is not big, then they will be divided into exiles. , for a time in Luoyang City, the nobles were frightened. After all, if the court wanted to deal with them, there would always be a way.

When he couldn't help it, he took advantage of the banquet and forcibly summoned the emperor, and then dismissed him for his misconduct, dishevelment and other crimes. Wang Zong doesn't believe that you, an honorable person, don't drink or hold banquets. If you can really hold it back, then you can change the crime to another crime, such as running horses in the city, living a luxurious life, behaving indecently, etc. There are too many ways.

If you choose from the "Book of Rites" compiled by Confucianism, there will always be one that suits you.

(End of this chapter)