A Millennium Aristocratic Family Starting from the Shang Dynasty

Chapter 562: Empire’s Reform at Dusk and Qianning’s Reform

Now that the reform has been decided, how to choose the person to preside over the reform has moved up the agenda.

Two years after Wang Yan succeeded to the throne and the second year of Daqian Qianning, action was officially taken.

The imperial court successively selected several capable ministers to start trying the reform. In order to prevent problems with the reform, the imperial court specially selected a county to conduct the experiment. Only after the experiment was carried out in this county, it was decided whether to promote it nationwide based on the results. .

The advantage of this is that even if a problem occurs, it will only be a problem in one county and cannot be extended to the whole country. At the same time, it is easy to correct.

But which county to implement it in is another question, but in the end it was the royal family who personally made the decision, and finally Lujiang County was used as a pilot.

Lujiang County is south of Jiujiang County and west of Kuaiji County. During the Huai Kingdom period, this place was the territory of Chao Kingdom. After being annexed by Huai State, counties and counties were established.

Daqian now has a vast territory. Thirty-six counties were established during the founding of the People's Republic of China. However, it was continuously expanded later and the states and counties in the south that were originally briefly divided were re-divided.

Because the southern states and counties used to have a small population and a large geographical area. After continuous immigration and population reproduction, although the population of the south is still not as good as that of the north and the Central Plains, it has undergone earth-shaking changes compared with the early years of the founding of the People's Republic of China. It is no longer appropriate to use the previous administrative model.

Therefore, during the reign of Emperor Zhongzong Xiaohui and Wang Yi of Daqian Dynasty, the major southern counties were split. For example, Cangwu County was split into Jiangxia, Lingling, Changsha, Guiyang, Wuling, etc.

Now there are 125 counties in Daqian including overseas, western regions and Liaodong.

The reason for choosing Lujiang County is that it has convenient transportation and is very close to Nanjing Jinling. If there is a problem, the court can send troops to rush there as soon as possible. At the same time, this is the hometown of Huai State, and the royal family is very powerful here.

The power of noble, powerful, and official families here is much weaker than in the Central Plains and the North, and the intensity of reform is also much smaller.

After the imperial court decided, it soon began to send a large number of Confucian disciples to Lujiang County to start implementing reforms. At the same time, the eyes of the whole country also gathered here, wanting to know the situation of the reforms.

In order to ensure the smooth implementation of the reform, the imperial court dispatched a large number of reformist scholars and also invited the children of the royal family to come.

The reason for such a big fanfare is to implement the policy accurately, and at the same time, it is also to prevent the cunning old officials below from making any small moves.

The most important thing in the reform was government administration. The royal family knew this very well, so they sent a large number of royal children to come. At the same time, there were also a large number of enthusiastic scholars from the reform sect who came to promote it.

After all, how many members of the royal family are there? Reform requires too many people.

In the past, the court's management method meant that the total number of officials in a county could only be a hundred. Now, there are almost more than 300 royal descendants and reformist officials sent by the court, which is more than enough to manage a county.

Even the towns below were managed by the imperial court. It can be said that Lujiang County was completely controlled by the imperial court.

Under such circumstances, the imperial court implemented reforms at a very fast pace. In addition, there was no official pushback or corruption. In Lujiang County, the political clarity here can be said to have reached its peak in history, even the highest in human history.

Under this situation, the reforms implemented by the Daqian court in Lujiang County were very smooth. The court re-inspected the land area and population, and also identified the hidden fields. punish. At the same time, he ordered the ministers and officials to be frugal. During the time of the First Emperor, the trend in Daqian was far less extravagant than it is today. Nowadays, extravagance among nobles, officials, and wealthy businessmen is prevalent. The cost of one meal is as much as a commoner's year.

Since ancient times, people have not worried about scarcity but inequality. People work all day long but have no food and clothing. However, dogs from powerful families have a better life than they do.

This situation is not normal and must change. Such extravagance and waste must be punished. The court will increase taxes on it, and then invest the collected taxes into relieving the poor.

The royal family does not agree with equality, because average is a kind of unfairness. Some people have made great contributions to the court, so they naturally deserve preferential treatment. Some people are lazy and lazy, so why should they be given equal treatment?

The imperial court now wants to reduce the excessive gap between rich and poor and at the same time compensate ordinary people.

In addition to these, the imperial court also abolished slaves and maidservants. Although the imperial court ordered the abolition of slaves and maidservants in the past, because the law enforcement was not strong enough and officials from various places did not want to offend nobles and noble families, they mostly turned a blind eye.

Naturally, these officials in Lujiang County would not be like this now. Under such circumstances, the restructuring of the imperial court was carried out very seriously. As for those noble and powerful people, they dare not refuse to agree.

In fact, there are many problems that hinder the abolition of the slave system, and even many slaves will oppose this law. Because many times, the slaves and maids in the noble and powerful official families lived many times better than ordinary people.

After a series of reforms such as land inventory, abolition of slaves, tax system reform, land redistribution, etc., the changes in Lujiang County can be seen with the naked eye.

The imperial court's restructuring in Lujiang County has been implemented for three years. During these three years, the reformist scholars of the imperial court have been going to Lujiang County. There are almost four to five hundred scholars in the entire Lujiang County. They have great influence on the politics, economy, etc. of Lujiang County. Undertaken earth-shaking changes.

Nobles, noble families, and powerful men no longer occupy the land. There are no slaves. The common people either have fields or can work in workshops, and everyone can have food and clothing without worries.

The dignitaries dare not act recklessly. The officials in Lujiang County are in charge of the rule of law. The people live and work in peace and contentment. Ordinary people can eat a meal of meat in three days.

The roads in the county are smooth, the circulation of goods is convenient, the water conservancy facilities are also complete, and farming is more convenient. It can be said that the entire Lujiang County is almost completely different from before. It is almost like a Datong society advocated by Confucianism.

Everyone in the court was shocked when they saw such dazzling results produced by the reformists. Although the interests of powerful, distinguished, and official families have suffered some losses, if the entire Daqian can be made like Lujiang County, the court will be able to accept it.

After several discussions, the imperial court originally decided to promote restructuring nationwide according to the method of Lujiang County, but the royal family felt that Lujiang County alone could not explain the problem. It is still necessary to select two more counties for experiments.

Many reformist officials thought about it and felt that this was indeed the case. What if this set of reforms and restructuring left Lujiang County and became unaccustomed to the local environment?

So the imperial court transferred half of the people from Lujiang County, together with the royal family's children, and selected one county in the north, the Central Plains, and Guanzhong to implement the reform.

The success of the restructuring of Lujiang County gave a large number of scholars in the academy hope, and they joined it one after another and went to other places to participate.

For a time, the promotion of reform in several pilot counties selected by the imperial court was in full swing.

(End of this chapter)