A Millennium Aristocratic Family Starting from the Shang Dynasty

Chapter 558 The Afterglow of the Empire’s Scorching Sun

This time, the border troops were in turmoil and involved so much that the whole court was shocked.

Then came the fury. It was not impossible for local powerful people, aristocratic families, and frontier generals to marry into alliances, but it was a serious crime to have liaisons with the barbarians and sell prohibited materials to the barbarians.

What these officials wanted to restrict was the emperor's power, not to overthrow the entire Dagan. Therefore, officials in the DPRK and the Central Government deeply hated having liaisons with barbarians and selling contraband.

They didn't want to wake up one day and find those barbarians breaking through the border fortress, marching straight in, and drinking from the Yellow River.

If these powerful and aristocratic people from the frontier dare to do this, don't blame them for being cruel. Hundreds of powerful and aristocratic families in Beidi County, Yunzhong County, Shang County, Shuofang, Jiuyuan, Taiyuan, Yanmen and other counties were implicated by the imperial court.

The orders of the three Wang Zhuoyi clans were quickly implemented. More than 30,000 men from these noble families and powerful men were killed, and more than 100,000 were demoted as slaves. It can be said that 70% of the nobles, powerful people and wealthy families in the border areas were killed because of this incident.

The remaining 30% who were not involved were also horrified and did not dare to go any further.

Not only the nobles in the North, but also the nobles, powerful and aristocratic families in other places were secretly frightened after hearing about it. They quickly told their families not to break the law and act with caution.

Although His Majesty used to impose severe punishments, he has never killed so many people. This time, it can be said that these people were frightened.

At the same time, Wang Zhuo confiscated all the property of these people, half of which went to the Taifu of the treasury, and half to the Shaofu. In addition to these, the imperial court re-checked the number of border troops. This time no one dared to resist, and all the generals acted honestly.

Many people even secretly called Wang Zhuo a tyrannical king.

After verifying the number of troops, Wang Zhuo ordered that the border troops be supplemented with military pay and food for three years. This money does not need to be paid by the court, it can be directly transferred from the confiscated property.

More than a hundred noble and powerful families were killed. These people occupied millions of acres of farmland. There were mountains of food in each family, which could not be used up by the border troops.

The imperial court did not transport these grains away, but directly built granaries on the main transportation routes in the North. The grain is stored here to be used as food for the frontier army in the future.

This time, more than a hundred noble and powerful families were cleared out, and the imperial court suddenly took control of a large area of ​​land. Except for part of this land, it was distributed to the local government, allowing the government to find people to cultivate it as official land, and the rest was changed to official land. To Huangzhuang.

In Daqian, whether it is official land or imperial village, you need to pay taxes, but the purpose of making official land and imperial village is to prevent the land from being occupied by wealthy nobles and wealthy families.

With this protective umbrella, these farming people can have enough to eat and live a better life. The tenant rent in Huangzhuang is not high, only 20%. At the same time, all the water conservancy facilities in Huangzhuang are good, and the acres of land are also good land. After all, when setting up a royal village, it is natural to choose a good place.

In addition, Huangzhuang can also borrow money with very low interest rates, so there is no need to worry about being exploited by other powerful people and nobles. Coupled with their status as a royal village, the petty tax collectors did not dare to bully them. Generally speaking, their lives were pretty good.

After clearing out a large number of distinguished, powerful, and wealthy families, the large tracts of land that were freed up could accommodate hundreds of thousands of people for farming. In this way, it also alleviates the population problem of Daqian on the other hand.

This is similar to the previous reform. At least on the surface, the conflict between man and land has been temporarily resolved.

This time there was such a big problem in the border army, and everyone in the court became wary of the border area. At the same time, the imperial court decided not to hand over money and food to the border army generals for distribution.

However, there was a debate in the court about how to distribute money and food to the soldiers on the border.

The power of money and food can be said to be second only to the military power. Many officials in the court want to send special officials to distribute money and food. The military nobles have objected. If these officials are allowed to control money and food, they will be able to extend their hands into the army. . Neither the nobles nor the emperor wanted court officials to put their hands into the army.

But if we continue to let nobles and generals control money and food, there will definitely be problems in the future. Wang Zhuo is sure of this. But if the money and food are not handed over to the distinguished generals, then they can only be handed over to the court officials for distribution.

Wang Zhuo thought about it and couldn't find a good way.

There were endless debates in the court, and finally, a rule was reluctantly formulated.

Wang Zhuo ordered the establishment of a Food Supervision Bureau. The Food Supervision Bureau assigned some embroidery envoys, some noble generals, and some court officials to supervise each other. If there was any knowledge and failure to report it, the three of them would be guilty of the same crime.

Every time food and salary are distributed, three people must sign and deposit together.

It seems that this design is very good, but the destruction of the system requires little changes. How long this system can last depends on the ability of future generations. After all, even the various systems left by King Wen are changing little by little.

Although the Food Supervision Office was established, the noble generals were still a little dissatisfied with it, and the court officials were also a little dissatisfied. However, they had a hand in the border army. Although this hand was not deep, as long as one was broken, The hole will gradually deepen in the future.

The royal family was also somewhat dissatisfied with this result, and was also dissatisfied with some distinguished generals. After all, it was these people who were dissatisfied and greedy for money, which caused such consequences.

In addition to these, the grain produced in Guantian and Huangzhuang in the north was used as food for the border troops after paying taxes, while the imperial court transported grain and grass from other places to supply Huangzhuang.

This method can save the consumption of grain and grass transportation and save the court's expenses. The royal family did not lose anything.

At the same time, after a major purge of the northern frontier army, the imperial court began to recruit soldiers to speed up the replenishment of the frontier army's strength.

This time the turmoil of the border troops did not cause a major chaos because of the timely action, but it still caused a considerable impact. The turmoil in the border town made both the Huns and Xianbei a little strange. Fortunately, Da Qian was so prestigious that these people did not dare to act rashly.

This also gave the court time to replenish its troops, and in addition to the border troops, there were many pioneering nobles on the border. These pioneering nobles also had elites in their hands. With their cooperation, the Huns and Xianbei people would not be able to gain favor at all.

Since the strength of the Northern Protectorate of Daqian Town has been greatly reduced, it has been unable to restrain the Huns and Xianbei people. Now the Huns and Xianbei people have begun to compete for the position of grassland hegemony.

The Xianbei people already knew some iron smelting techniques because they acquired some Jizi craftsmen from Korea. Able to forge some simple weapons, although there are not as many people as the Huns, their overall strength has exceeded that of the Huns.

The northeastern part of the grassland is now completely occupied by the Xianbei people.

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Although Emperor Xiaowei did not continue to implement the reform, he took a series of measures to alleviate the conflicts in Daqian at that time and allowed Daqian to continue to be glorious. Even Daqian became more prestigious during this period. However, after his death, Daqian It will inevitably continue to slide down.

The incomplete reform and the emergence of new problems at the same time pushed Daqian step by step into the abyss - "The Rise and Fall of the Daqian Empire"

(End of this chapter)