At the end of Qin, I became a son of the plane

Chapter 668: New Enfeoffment and Provincial Inspectorate System
The next day, Xu Aimin summoned Gongsun Hong to ask, "Is the gambling problem in the Han villages really as serious as you said?"

Gongsun Hong suppressed his excitement and said seriously: "I have been in the countryside for 20 years and have seen more than a hundred families destroyed and people killed because of gambling. Moreover, part of the data I have given above was provided by my classmate Zhao Yu. The situation in the south is more serious than in the north."

So Xu Aimin found Zhao Yu again. Because Zhao Yu was a legal officer, he knew more about this kind of thing and had more cases to talk about.

Xu Aimin asked: "Why don't the local Han officials take care of these things?"

Zhao Yu said helplessly: "There is no way to control this matter. It is difficult for the court to distinguish whether the villagers are having fun or gambling. A few dozen coins are not considered gambling, but do tens of thousands of coins count as gambling? Do millions of coins count as gambling? It is difficult for us to distinguish these things. If we ban them all, it is impossible. Now there are teahouses in the villages of the Han Dynasty, and the power of the court is concentrated in the cities. There are not enough people to manage these things."

"The second is interference from local tyrants. The rangers are just the black gloves of these tyrants. Even if the court arrests these rangers, the local area will only be quiet for a few days at most, and after a few days, everything will return to normal."

"Three years ago, a group of rangers forced villagers to death. I raided a teahouse in a village and arrested the rangers who harmed the people, but within half a month, a new teahouse opened. These rangers will only be quiet for a few days after someone dies."

Xu Aimin understood and said, "So those local tyrants are the key."

It is impossible for the ranger forces alone to become a force to be reckoned with. The powerful people behind them are the real backers.

Gongsun Hong said helplessly: "In recent years, the agricultural taxes collected by the court have become less and less. The villages of the Han Dynasty can still operate with workshops, but those without workshops are difficult to sustain. These teahouses are the largest source of tax revenue for many villages of the Han Dynasty. There are many participants in the grassroots Han officials of the Han Dynasty. The tax revenue created by the industry chain of stakeholders is so large that other workshops can hardly match it. It is because the interests are too closely related, which increases the difficulty of governance."

Xu Aimin said coldly: "I am not afraid of corruption among the grassroots Han officials. If they dare to take action, I will arrest them."

"But the court does want to help the villagers of Dahan build a healthy spiritual and civilized life. As long as the villagers' time is arranged by the court, it will be the most effective way to combat these unhealthy tendencies of eating, drinking, whoring and gambling."

"You mentioned setting up a rural football league and basketball league. I think this is a healthy spiritual and civilized life. I plan to set up a Culture and Sports Department, with Lord Gongsun as the left director and Lord Zhao as the right director. You two will set up and promote rural football leagues and basketball leagues, and promote healthy new culture and new customs in the Han Dynasty's villages. If you do a good job, I will promote you two to 2000 shi."

Gongsun Hong and Zhao Yu said, "We obey your orders!"

April 52, 4nd year of the Han calendar, Han Palace.

Xu Aimin summoned Prime Minister Chen Lei and Imperial Censor Zheng Qi, and showed them the policy paper jointly written by Gongsun Hong and Zhao Yu.

After the two finished reading, Xu Aimin said seriously, "The Han Dynasty has not had a severe crackdown for more than 30 years. Those idle knights have risen again, and even colluded with corrupt Han officials. The Han Dynasty will not allow those who seek profit to harm the people. The two ministers should discuss and launch a new severe crackdown, mainly targeting these knights who run casinos and the local tyrants behind them, in preparation for the next step of launching a new rural cultural movement."

Then Xu Aimin ordered people to spread out a map of the Han Dynasty, which recorded the native counties and vassal states of the Han Dynasty. The fifty years since the founding of the Han Dynasty were also fifty years of great development, especially the development of Jiangnan, Longxi Plateau, Hetao, and Liaodong. Relying on the improvement of productivity brought about by the first scientific and technological revolution, the fifty years of development of the Han Dynasty were better than the thousands of years of feudal era. The Han Dynasty added almost one county every year. Now there are 87 counties and states in the native territory of the Han Dynasty, and the native population is close to million.

Xu Aimin said: "The court directly governs more and more counties and kingdoms. In order to enhance the efficiency of this crackdown and the long-term mechanism, I plan to divide the Han Dynasty into thirteen provinces, namely Sili, Youzhou, Bingzhou, Jizhou, Qingzhou, Yanzhou, Xuzhou, Yangzhou, Jingzhou, Yuzhou, Yizhou, Liangzhou, and Jiaozhou. The Imperial Censorate will send thirteen governors with a salary of 2000 stones. They will set up governors' offices in the local areas to supervise the local nobles and powerful people."

The Imperial Censor Zheng Qi looked at the map of thirteen states divided by the emperor and said, "Your Majesty, I obey your order." This was to expand the power of the Imperial Censorate, so Zheng Qi naturally would not object.

Chen Lei had no objection, after all, the supervision of Han officials was not under the jurisdiction of the Prime Minister's Office. He was even more supportive of the crackdown. As for the attitude towards the knights-errant and local tyrants, the Han Dynasty inherited the Qin system and had always arrested the wrong ones, but never reversed them. In the past few years, the knights-errant forces were still honest and did not dare to make big mistakes. The main reason was that the Han Dynasty still had a reclamation system at that time. At that time, the local governors and county magistrates liked to arrest these black sheep knights to make up the numbers. Only when there were not enough in these years would they arrange some craftsmen and farmers to settle in the south or exile them overseas.

The Imperial Censor Zheng Qi even proposed: "Your Majesty, our Great Han has been established for more than 50 years. The rapid development of industry has brought more rise of local tyrants. Obviously, these local tyrants have become one of the five evils of our Great Han. I think the court should clean them up."

Obviously, just capturing rangers could not satisfy Zheng Qi's appetite. For the Legalists, only by capturing nobles and powerful people could they prove their effectiveness.

Hearing Zheng Qi's proposal, Xu Aimin was obviously in deep thought. The Han Dynasty did not lack such execution ability, and there was no such thing as a tail that could not be shaken off.

But the biggest difference between Xu Han and Liu Han is that most of the powerful people in the Han Dynasty were industrial tycoons, while Liu Han was a landlord. Liu Han's Peiling system was to move local tycoons to Chang'an City and redistribute their land. Even if it was taken away by smaller landlords, it objectively played a role in curbing land annexation.

But Xu Han was different. The nobles and powerful people in the Han Dynasty were all industrial tycoons. If they left, the factories they owned would most likely go bankrupt or close, which would disrupt the economic development of the Han Dynasty.

Chen Lei, who had been in the Shaofu for many years, obviously understood the seriousness of this problem. He said seriously: "Zheng Yushi, you are artificially creating an economic crisis. The operation of a factory is not like farming. As long as the seeds are planted and a little care is taken, you can wait for the harvest. The operation of a factory is an extremely precise process and no problems can occur. It doesn't matter if the court arrests one or two factory owners, but cleaning them out on a large scale is creating a disaster. I don't want to allow you to do this."

Xu Aimin thought for a moment and said, "Prime Minister, my prince has come of age and it is time for him to go to a fiefdom. I ask the Prime Minister to arrange a fiefdom for my prince."

Then he looked at the Imperial Censor Zheng Qi and said, "Let your Excellency arrange the ministers for my prince."

Xu Aimin thought about it and decided that he should learn from his father's method and continue to divide the country into vassal states, using these vassal states to expel the poison of the Han Dynasty to places outside the Han Dynasty.

Xu Aimin took two more concubines in recent years, and his descendants have reached 2, including 17 princes, 15 princesses, and 10 adult princes. Xu Aimin arranged these princes to study government affairs at the grassroots level in Guanzhong. Now it seems that the best arrangement for the Han Dynasty is to let these princes go to the vassal states. Although the Han officials and powerful people who follow the princes to the vassal states have a hard life, they also have hope. As long as one of the princes they follow becomes the emperor of the Han Dynasty, their hard work will be rewarded.

Prime Minister Chen Lei was surprised and asked, "Your Majesty, there is no good fiefdom in our Han Dynasty now?"

Now the Han Dynasty has exhausted its development of Southeast Asia, and the good territories in the New World have been occupied by the previous princes. It can even be said that the New World is not a good place. It has a similar latitude to the Central Plains, but its climate is comparable to that of the desert. The latitude of the Tang Kingdom is in the Jianghuai area, but the snow depth in winter can be 3-4 feet high, which is even more exaggerated than the desert. As a result, the Tang Kingdom has far more pastures than fields, and the development progress is extremely slow, with only a few cities and villages along the railways.

As for Nanzhou and Yanzhou, which are still in the development stage of the Han Dynasty, most of the land in one is in desert state, and the other is infested with poisonous insects. Every year, a large number of people die at the hands of poisonous insects. Therefore, no princes are willing to go to these two continents. The Han Dynasty can only rule them by colonization. However, after decades, the Han Dynasty barely has only a few strongholds in these two continents.

Xu Aimin said calmly, "That vassal state was a good place before it was developed. Even the wealthy Jianghuai region of our Han Dynasty was not full of swamps. It took hundreds of years of development by our ancestors of the Han Dynasty to create the prosperous Central Plains and Jianghuai. If the prince cannot endure this hardship, how can our Han Dynasty become stronger from generation to generation and lead the people of the Han Dynasty to build a world of great harmony?"

Prime Minister Chen Lei and Imperial Censor Zheng Qi said in unison: "Your Majesty, I obey your order!"

On April 52, the 4nd year of the Han calendar, a grand court meeting was held in Zhangtai Palace.

Emperor Xu Aimin used the policy papers of Gongsun Hong and Zhao Yu as an introduction to announce the start of a new round of severe crackdowns in the Han Dynasty at the court meeting. At the same time, the court established a new position of Inspector, whose main purpose was to monitor whether local nobles and powerful people had violated laws and regulations.

The civil and military officials of the Han Dynasty found that although the governor had only a salary of 2000 dan, they could supervise 6-7 counties and kingdoms of the Han Dynasty. The emperor even directly established a new department, the Inspectorate. The people present were all experienced Han officials, and they naturally understood that the emperor was dissatisfied with the officialdom and was going to start a new round of purges. This made many high-ranking officials of the Han Dynasty wail in their hearts, and the good days of the past ten years were over. Everyone had to be more obedient in the next few years.

April 52, 4nd year of the Han calendar, Yangzhou, Lujiang County.

After a spring rain that lasted for more than half a month, the sky finally cleared up, and farmers in Kuaiji County drove their own seed drills to plant rows of rice seedlings. Most of the rice fields in Yixing Township had been planted, and the sparse rice was growing slowly in the breeze.

A teahouse in Yixing Township gathered a large number of farmers who shouted excitedly: "Big, small."

Every time a bet is over, some people cheer and some curse. The scene is extremely lively, and with many smokers, it looks like a casino in the future. This casino is opened by Ren Hao, a village husband. The Ren family is a big family in Yixing Township. The village husbands of the Han Dynasty for thirty years have been served by Ren Hao.

Therefore, the Ren family can be said to be a tyrant in Yixing Township. The Ren family runs a sand field, a brick kiln factory, and operates some infrastructure businesses. They make a lot of money by relying on the dividends from large-scale infrastructure.

At the same time, some gray industries such as teahouses and casinos have been opened in Yixing Township. There are dozens of teahouses in Yixing Township, and the teahouses are also running casino businesses. Of course, most of the gambling in the teahouses is only for one or two dollars, which is just a daily pastime for the older villagers. The villagers also think so. In their minds, only those who gamble thousands or tens of thousands are real casinos. Therefore, in the minds of Yixing villagers, only Ren's is considered a casino, and half of the villagers dare not enter.

The casino industry is generally associated with usury. If the family does not have the strength, it is very difficult to recover the principal and interest of the usury, because the Han people do not recognize usury. Only powerful people in the local area can make the debtor villagers repay their debts and the high usury interest.

Of course, the Han Dynasty was a society ruled by law after all. Sometimes the knights would beat up creditors in order to collect debts, which eventually led to their deaths. If things got out of hand, even a Qiangfu would get into trouble.

The Ren family asked the village headman to mediate and the village to provide a sum of money to suppress the matter. At the same time, all the teahouses in the village would be closed for a few days and would not reopen until the matter was over. After this happened many times, the villagers of Yixing were no longer surprised.

"Yu yu yu!" One day, the sound of many war horses neighing suddenly came from the road, arousing the curiosity of the villagers in the town.

Soon the villagers saw Han soldiers wearing breastplates and carrying spears quickly enter the town and then directly surround the largest teahouse or casino in Yixing.

This immediately attracted the attention of the surrounding villagers, and the imperial court even sent out the army. It was obvious that the Ren family had committed a serious crime this time.

At the same time, the people in the casino noticed this situation and wanted to escape because they saw that the situation was not good.

But the soldiers surrounding the casino forced the men back with bayonets.

At this time, the casino manager came over carefully and said, "My father, Ren Hao, is a local villager. Brothers, have you come to the wrong place?"

The inspector in charge sneered at the casino, "Are you Ren Qiang?"

"The villain is Ren Qiang!"

"This is the Ren Family Casino. You are Ren Qiang, so you have come to the right place." The inspector immediately ordered the soldiers to take out a pair of handcuffs, handcuffed him and said, "Ren Qiang, you are in trouble. There are five murder cases involving you. Come with me now."

When he saw other people while inspecting the bathroom, he said, "You guys can't escape either. You are gambling in a group and violating the law of public order. You will all be detained for three days."

When the gamblers heard such harsh words, they felt relieved in their hearts, because the three days of the New Year holiday were obviously not aimed at them, but at the Ren family.

Ren Qiang also realized that something was wrong and yelled, "I am innocent, I am innocent. If you do this, my father will not let you go."

The inspector sneered and said, "Your father can't escape either."

In this way, Ren Qiang and other casino managers and all the gamblers were taken away.

The people around were excited when they saw this scene and said, "The sky in Yixin Township is finally going to clear up."

At this time, a young man rushed out and said, "Angel, I have a grievance. Ren Qiang killed my son. I hope the angel will do justice for us."

The censor said, "Follow me to the government office first and tell me your grievances one by one."

After this example, five more villagers cried out for justice, and the censor took them all back.

The Ren family is also a bully in the local area. Not only do they monopolize the local profitable industries, but their disciples are also doing evil and running rampant. The local people dare not speak out. Now that they see the Ren family has been arrested, the bullied villagers have begun to speak out about the persecution they have suffered.

Tuzhi County, county office.

The county magistrate Zhuoran summoned all the Han officials with an official salary of more than 400 shi in the county to discuss the matter.

However, when these Han officials entered the county office, they found that the person sitting in the first seat was not the county magistrate, but an unfamiliar official.

The official smiled calmly and said, "My name is Zhang Ou, and I am the newly appointed governor of Yangzhou. From now on, we are all colleagues."

The other Han officials were shocked when they heard this. They had also heard that the 13 provincial governors' offices were set up by the imperial court to monitor the illegal activities of the nobles and powerful people in the 13 states of the Han Dynasty. But these Han officials understood that this was the imperial court institutionalizing the inspection of the imperial censors. From now on, they would have an axe hanging over their heads that could fall at any time.

But even if they knew, they could only accept it helplessly. The Han official at the scene stood up and saluted, saying, "Greetings, Governor Zhang."

Zhang Ou said: "But this first meeting is not very friendly."

Zhang Ou looked at them as if calling out their names and said, "Ren Hao, Fang Yi, He Qiang~~~~you all come with me. I have something I need you to explain clearly."

At this time, dozens of soldiers came in, and they formed groups of two and grabbed the hands of Ren Hao and his men.

Ren Hao wanted to struggle but couldn't, so he immediately said: "I am a court official, not a criminal. You can't do this to me."

Zhang Ou sneered, "You are involved in at least five murder cases, and you still have the nerve to say that you are an official of the court. The reputation of the Han officials has been ruined by corrupt officials like you."

The people captured by Zhang Ou were all local tyrants in Tuzhi County. Kuaiji County had brought in enormous wealth thanks to the great voyages. Although the local tyrants in Tuzhi County were not as wealthy as those in Kuaiji County, they also benefited from this wave of dividends. Most of the profits from the hundreds of millions of dollars of infrastructure funds each year were occupied by these local tyrants.

At the same time, they also used their power to occupy the villages, such as Ren Hao in Yixing Township, where the Ren family members were the Qiangfu, Youjiao, and other small officials such as the head of the pavilion, almost all of whom were their relatives. The Ren family was the local emperor in Yixing. It was because of this power that they could suppress these murder cases.

Ren Hao said, "This was all done by the servants. This has nothing to do with me. If you don't have solid evidence, Governor Zhang, I will also sue you for lynching."

Zhang Ou heard this as if he had heard something funny and said, "You insects are funny. You violate laws and disciplines and infringe upon the interests of the people on a daily basis, but now you want to use Han laws to protect yourselves. Don't worry, given the public outrage you have caused in the local area, your chances of survival are slim, and even your entire family may not be able to escape. Telling the truth is your best way out."

(End of this chapter)