A Millennium Aristocratic Family Starting from the Shang Dynasty

Chapter 492 Daqian’s Loving Father Salt Reform

I had heard of things like fire dragons burning warehouses and Yin soldiers borrowing food before. Wang Che had only seen it in the royal family's information, but he didn't expect that this time it would be used by those people on the salt field.

The Jiezhou Salt Farm only burned down the accounting warehouse, and the salt farm was not seriously damaged. It can resume production soon after repairs, but Bashu Well Salt is different. He also didn't expect those people to be so crazy that they destroyed the salt well.

Well salt is different from sea salt and pool salt. Well salt is extracted from underground brine by drilling wells and then boiled. Those people destroyed the well and it will take at least a month or two to repair it.

The imperial army was dispatched, and Yanchi and Salt Well were soon recaptured. The rebellious barbarians wanted to defend the city, but they overestimated their own strength and sent out a large army. It only took one day to successfully capture the city.

The imperial army was stationed in Jiezhou and began to liquidate the time of Jiezhou Yanchi. All officials in Jiezhou were taken down, and all the nobles and powerful people were locked up.

Since these people don't play by the rules, don't blame the court for not playing by the rules.

All the officials in Jiezhou were captured, and then the investigation began. No evidence? Let’s search the house first, and then we’ll find it. As for some of the really innocent people, that's easy to deal with, just let them go. But based on the temperament of those officials, nobles, and powerful men, how many of them are innocent?

These people dared to use fire dragons to burn the warehouse to destroy evidence, so don't blame Ku Lie for the court's subsequent settlement of accounts.

The officials themselves won't say anything, but the servants at home will not resist to the death. Someone will always say it, not to mention the unscrupulous behavior of these people, leaving too much evidence.

Wang Che directly captured all these people in the name of suppressing the rebellion. After trial, those who should be killed were directly killed, and those who should be exiled were exiled. A large number of officials in Jiezhou County were beheaded.

Then the heads were hung on the top of Jiezhou City for public display. When the breeze blew, dozens of gourd-like heads lined up in a row and swayed on the city wall. The soldiers guarding the city gate were loudly preaching about the sins committed by these people.

All the people passing by the gate felt frightened when they saw the dozens of hideous and terrifying heads. Moreover, these dozens of heads are still the first batch, followed by the second batch and the third batch.

Wang Che specifically issued an order this time. After these beheadings, they would be sent to various states and counties to hang them in public. Since the law cannot deter those noble officials from being powerful, then they can use human heads to deter them.

The strength of the current royal family is simply not something that those nobles, powerful men, and officials can contend with. Since you dare to come here without following the rules, don't blame the court for not following the rules.

The Jiezhou Salt Pond was solved as quickly as possible, and the whole Jiezhou area was thoroughly cleaned. The imperial court then began sending officials to fill official positions and reform the saltworks.

But at this time, Wang Che suddenly discovered that the number of officials was somewhat insufficient. It was not that those people were unwilling to be officials, but that there were not enough officials in the true sense.

Since Wang Che came to the throne, there has been a major Guanzhong case involving hundreds of officials, followed by the Yancheng Yanchi case, and now the Jiezhou Yanchi case. These cases involve at least dozens of people, and the total number is four to five hundred Officials were under investigation, and there were also Bashu cases that had not yet been concluded. The imperial court could only pass a hundred people in each academy examination.

With so many people missing all of a sudden, even if the court had reserve officials, it would be difficult to make up for it all at once.

Seeing this situation, Wang Che had no choice but to order various academies to start examinations in advance and ask the academies from various regions to send outstanding scholars to Luoyang Academy for an assessment in advance. After receiving the edict, the various prefecture and county academies were overjoyed one by one. They quickly gathered the scholars in the academy and conducted assessments. Even many private academies from various places also went to various prefecture and county academies to take assessments, and then after passing the assessment Let’s go to Luoyang Academy together.

Wang Che had already sent out an encore, and most of the scholars from the academy had been removed. This time, he could only transfer the scholars from the prefectures and counties. It's just that Wang Che didn't realize that this act of recruiting a large number of scholars from all over the country to serve as officials would also make the officials' families and powerful people from all over the country quickly become stronger.

However, even if Wang Che realized this, he could not change anything.

Even though the imperial court has many ways to help ordinary people study, until now, there are only a handful of scholars who really come from the bottom. After all, there are too few ordinary people who have money to study.

Moreover, those local tycoons, official families, and nobles can study without distraction, can afford teachers to teach, have enough books at home, and even have seniors to guide them in assessments, but what do ordinary people have? What can they compare with?

In real history, the imperial examination system was promoted in the Tang Dynasty, but how many civilians could really stand out? It was not until a few hundred years later that printing and papermaking became popular and the price of books dropped significantly.

Only ordinary people can go further in the imperial examinations, which also allows more and more civilians to enter the political stage.

It's a pity that as time goes by, a large number of imperial examination families will appear even if they are in the imperial examination. Jiangxi in the middle and late Ming Dynasty is a typical example.

Although there was a shortage of officials in the court, Wang Che did not stop reviewing and reforming the salt field. Qidi Salt Farm and Hexi Salt Pond are also advancing under this situation.

Of course, although there were problems with Changlu Salt Field in Qidi and Hexi Salt Pond, these people immediately became intimidated after seeing the court's ruthless solution to the problems of Jiezhou Salt Pond and Bazhong Well Salt.

If you don't resist, you will die, but the rest of the family will still have a chance to survive. Although they will be exiled, they can settle down with the help of old relatives and friends, but if you resist, the whole family will die.

Unless they are those who are selfish and don't care about their family or family, they will not commit suicide again. Moreover, the cruelty of the imperial court also frightened the three tribes of those people. These people were afraid that someone from their own family would insist on going against the imperial court, and then after angering the imperial court, the three tribes would be directly implicated by the imperial court.

By then they would have been wronged, so even if those people wanted to do something, they would be stopped by their own three tribes.

So Wang Che discovered that although there were also cases in Changlu Salt Field in Qidi and Qingyan Salt Pond in Hexi, they were not as serious as those in Jiezhou and Bazhong.

The imperial court did not go on a killing spree. It still conducted trials in accordance with the "Daqian Law", killed the main culprits, and exiled the rest. At the same time, after cleaning up the large salt ponds in various places, other small salt fields will be easier to deal with.

After the salt fields in various places were cleaned up, the imperial court also began to implement the salt introduction system. On the other side, the imperial court began to settle accounts regarding the Bazhong Salt Well.

(End of this chapter)