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

Chapter 686: First Honorary Citizen and Settlement of Accounts

September 54, 9th year of the Han Dynasty, Seleucia, Allied camp.

Zhou Yafu called in Zhou Jianyi, Peng Hai, Mei Shao and other exiled princes. After more than a year of war, the decadence of these exiled princes was gone. Although they still looked a little down and out, their eyes were full of determination, which was obviously tempered by the cruel war.

He said: "Your merits have already been reported to the emperor. The emperor has not only exempted you from exile, but also allowed you to become Han officials according to your merits."

"Long live the Emperor!" Zhou Jianyi and others said excitedly. Some people even shed tears with excitement. They could finally return to the Han Dynasty.

As the commander of the allied forces, Zhou Yafu spent all his energy on dealing with the Huns and had no time to look after these princes' children. They were truly tempered in the war, and 20% of them remained on the battlefield forever. Thirty percent were seriously wounded, and 15% of them were disabled. They really fought for their lives to avoid the punishment of exile.

Then Zhou Yafu said: "This war is your best qualification, but you have wasted several years after all. If you want to have a promising career, you must go to the most difficult place."

"Go to the most difficult place?" Zhou Jianyi and others hesitated.

"Uncle, where do you want us to go?" Zhou Jianyi asked.

Zhou Yafu said: "After this battle, the rebel army will officially establish a country. Your uncle Ruyi could have returned to Chang'an City for his contribution this time, but the leader of the rebel army reported to the emperor and begged for Ruyi to stay and guide them in building the country. He also wanted to stay. At the same time, the leader of the rebel army, Qilun, requested the court to send more consultants to guide the Seleucid Empire in national construction and industrialization. The court has already drawn up 1000 consultant quotas. You have been in Seleucid for a year and have some understanding of these situations. At the same time, you are also students in the academy, qualified to become consultants of the Seleucid Empire. It is a good choice to stay in the Seleucid Empire to accumulate qualifications."

"Stay in Seleucus?" Some people looked embarrassed. They were fighting so hard just to escape from here and return to the Han Dynasty, but if they stayed here, it would be impossible to return to the Han Dynasty in a short time.

Zhou Jianyi said: "Uncle, can we consider this for a few days?"

Zhou Yafu said: "Of course, I will give you half a month. If you don't want to stay in Daqinzhou after half a month, you can follow the army back to Dahan." Everyone has their own aspirations, so he doesn't force them.

After leaving the central army tent, Zhou Jianyi and others found a secluded place and asked, "What do you think?"

A prince's son said: "I want to go back to the Han Dynasty. I don't want to stay here for even one more day."

Mei Shao frowned and said, "You are useless. Don't forget that we have cut off contact with our family when we were exiled. Even if we return to the rich days before the Han Dynasty, we can't go back. It's better to stay here and fight. If you can become 2000 shi, you will not lose to your brothers at home."

"You know what Seleucus is like. Originally, only Antioch and Damascus were acceptable. Now Antioch has been destroyed, and only Damascus is left. Other places are not even as good as San Francisco."

Zhou Jianyi said: "What Mei Shao said is right. We can only rely on ourselves now. Staying in Seleucid Kingdom is not a bad choice. After working as a consultant here for a few years and gaining this qualification, it will not be bad to return to the Han Dynasty for a career. Even if you can't return to the Han Dynasty, it is not bad to stay in Seleucid Kingdom and be an official. You don't really want to be a merchant or a landlord, right?"

Peng Hai said: "What else is there to think about? A real man cannot live without power for a day. Staying in Seleucus is our best choice."

But even with the persuasion of Zhou Jianyi and others, 30% of the princes' sons still wanted to return to the Han Dynasty.

On the other side of the military camp, Liu Ruyi was also sending members of the Datong Society and soldiers from other countries back to their country.

"You must keep this passbook safe. It contains the severance pay you have earned for your hard work over the past few years. You can withdraw money from the Han banks in major cities in Daqinzhou." Liu Ruyi said as he threw a soldier's backpack onto the carriage.

The soldier patted his chest and said, "Don't worry, instructor. I keep the passbook close to me. It won't get lost."

Each demobilized allied soldier received a demobilization fee of 10 yuan, which was almost years' income for the citizens of a large country, so these soldiers would naturally not neglect it.

These soldiers had a very good relationship with Liu Ruyi. They had all fought in Antioch and could be said to be friends for life and death. Therefore, Liu Ruyi strongly pushed the Allies to use the remaining military funds to give these soldiers severance pay. He also pushed the Allies to sell the Allied horses, baggage carts, and even cloth and uniforms used for logistics to these demobilized soldiers at 30% of the price.

Therefore, many of these soldiers bought horse-drawn carriages and a large amount of low-priced cloth, military uniforms, rubber shoes, white sugar, compressed biscuits, canned food and other military supplies. Among them, the Carthaginians had the highest business talent. These soldiers not only spent all their severance pay and salaries, but also asked their families to send money to buy these cheap military supplies from the Allies. They even bought shovels and pestles for digging trenches, barbed wire for arranging the battle lines, tractors for digging trenches and other machines. They planned to return to their own country and resell them.

Liu Ruyi continued to instruct: "When you return to your hometown, if you have any difficulties, send me a telegram. If you can't send a telegram, write a letter. If the local officials and nobles dare to bully you, tell me and I will vent your anger for you. Don't swallow your anger. If you dare to take a step back, those corrupt officials and nobles will dare to take advantage of you. The Ptolemaic Dynasty introduced a property tax. Those bastards can't stand you being rich. When you go to the local area, you must unite to protect your property."

He never dared to overestimate the bottom line of the nobles of the Great Qin Continent. He had already regretted what happened back then, and he didn't want his comrades to encounter the same thing as Sobek again.

Thales said: "General, rest assured, I will form a veterans association when I return to Greece, and I will not let those corrupt officials bully the soldiers."

Liu Ruyi patted Thales on the shoulder and said, "You are the most capable one among them. You must take good care of them. Don't be afraid of any officials or nobles. Even if it is your Greek king, if he dares to bully you, I will lead troops to support you."

The Greek soldiers heard this and said gratefully: "Thank you, General."

Then the soldiers drove their own carriages and set out for Antioch, where they would take a ship back to their homeland.

Starting from October, soldiers from the allied countries began to be disbanded, and Zhou Yafu also took the Han soldiers back to the Yanzhou Governor's Office, and then took the Han Dynasty's meritorious officials back to the Han Dynasty on a cruise ship. Before leaving the Seleucid Empire, Zhou Yafu handed his nephew to Liu Ruyi for care.

The Seleucid rebels also began their steps to build their country, but the first thing they did was to nominate Liu Ruyi as the archon of the Seleucid Empire.

Liu Ruyi was surprised and said, "I am a Han Chinese. How can I become the archon of the Seleucid Empire?"

Qilun said: "Brother Liu, you have the highest prestige in the Seleucid Empire. Everyone obeys you, and the soldiers also admire you. No one will obey if someone else comes to power. This position of consul belongs to you." "Yes, instructor, you distributed land in the Seleucid Empire, established the military system, and the political system. We can say that our rebel army was established by you. When we were in the most dangerous time, it was you who led us to stop the brutal Huns in Antioch. Your contribution is unparalleled. Only you are qualified to be a consul. As for you not being a Seleucid, that's easy to deal with. You saved the Seleucid Empire. We, the Seleucid rebels, jointly nominated you as the first honorary citizen of the Seleucid Empire. Now let's have a democratic vote. Please raise your hands if you agree that Instructor Liu Ruyi is the first honorary citizen of the Seleucid Empire."

All the Seleucid leaders present raised their hands.

This was actually a joint decision made by the top leaders of the rebel army. The Huns were defeated and they wanted to establish a country, but they did not want to establish a kingdom, let alone a king who would tyrannize over them. So the monarchy was rejected by them. They decided to learn from the Han Dynasty, establish the Sages Association, and establish a republic, but who would become the consul became a problem.

There was no high-prestige core among the rebel leaders. Even Qilun's prestige was only slightly higher than that of other leaders, but he was also hit by the defeat to the Huns. He became the archon, and the other six rebel leaders were not convinced. At the same time, the Seleucid Empire was now destroyed and had tens of billions of debts. Being an archon was like sitting on the fire. The Seleucid archon was not very tempting. After three days of discussion, the seven people thought it would be best to let Liu Ruyi become the first archon.

Although Liu Ruyi declined several times, he was still popular. Finally, he asked the Han court for permission. Naturally, the Han court could not refuse such a good thing. On the same day, a telegram from the court arrived, agreeing to let him become the first archon of the Seleucid Empire as the first honorary citizen of Seleucus.

Three days later, Liu Ruyi became the first archon of the Seleucids, and then Liu Ruyi convened the first general meeting of the Seleucid Empire.

Liu Ruyi looked at everyone and said seriously: "At this conference we are going to discuss the two most important issues at present. One is the demobilization of the army, and the other is the current land system."

"The only place where we Seleucids can effectively collect taxes is the northern region, but we have tens of billions of dollars in debt and an army of more than 20. This number of troops has far exceeded our financial capacity. Letting the soldiers retire and return home can not only reduce our fiscal expenditure, but also enrich the local areas."

Qi Lun sighed and said, "It's about reducing the number of soldiers. We can't feed them without the support of the Han people."

Liu Ruyi said: "Fortunately, after the Xiongnu split, our external environment is relatively good, and there are no powerful enemies. I propose to retain only 1 standing troops, stationed in Damascus, and stationed near the border."

Qilun hesitated and said, "Leaving only 2 people is too few. The Xiongnu have hundreds of thousands of troops."

After experiencing the invasion of the Huns, Qilin and his men attached great importance to military construction. Even though there was great financial pressure, they believed that they had to retain an army that could resist the Huns.

Liu Ruyi said, "To build a strong army, we don't necessarily need a large standing army. If we can distribute land equally and build a good militia system, we can quickly mobilize hundreds of thousands of troops to resist the enemy. Therefore, the land system and demobilization are equally important. If we can't distribute land equally, the country's military strength will not be strong, and it will be difficult to resist a powerful enemy like the Huns."

"Given the current financial situation and debt of the Seleucid Empire, we cannot afford to build a standing army of 200,000, let alone 100,000 or 50,000. We can only recruit enough soldiers with land."

"Moreover, after this war, a large number of young and strong men in the Seleucid Empire died in battle, and the civilian labor force is extremely scarce. If we don't send these soldiers back to the civilian population, the Seleucid Empire's recovery will be slow. In this case, let alone repaying the debt, we may even have to continue to borrow money."

"Moreover, most importantly, the rebel soldiers have been taught by us for many years and are our own people. They are also the ones who agree with our policies the most. These soldiers are our foundation. Only by filling the local areas with these soldiers can our rule penetrate the entire Seleucid Empire."

People like Qilin, looking at their own pitifully small financial revenue and extremely huge financial expenditure, as well as the benefits Liu Ruyi mentioned, had no choice but to agree to Liu Ruyi's policy. They only retained 2 standing troops and demobilized all other soldiers.

Liu Ruyi continued, "Then our most important thing is to repay the debt. Although the compensation from the Huns has reduced our debt by 90 billion, we still have a debt of 110 billion. The interest on this debt alone is nearly 5 million yuan per year. The sooner this debt is repaid, the less pressure we will have."

"And our Seleucid Empire is not an industrial country. The industrial system originally established by Antiochus IV was also destroyed by this war. If we want to repay our debts, we can only rely on agriculture, and agriculture is related to equal distribution of land."

"Why do I make equal distribution of land the top priority of the Seleucid Empire? Because the land is in the hands of the citizens, they will pay taxes to you, while the nobles will not pay taxes. Self-cultivating farmers are also more motivated than serfs and produce more crops. In the past, the Seleucid Empire produced less than one stone per mu, which was almost a total crop failure in the Han Dynasty. The Han Dynasty has thoroughly equalized the distribution of land. Now the per capita yield per mu is 6 stones, which is about 7 times that of the Seleucid farmers. This is the gap caused by the change in production relations."

"Everyone thinks 100 billion is a lot, and some even think it's impossible to repay. But in my opinion, 2 billion is really not a lot. My Seleucid Kingdom has more than 1000 million acres of land. We only need to plant 1 million acres of cotton. If we can achieve the efficiency of the Han Dynasty, we can get 600 stone of cotton per acre, and 1000 stone of cotton is 60 coins. 20 million acres will bring us billion coins. Excluding some planting costs, we can make billion coins a year. We can repay this debt in seven years at most."

"Even if all of it is planted with grain, 2 million mu will yield 2 million dan of grain. According to the 6000% tax, that's 100 million dan of grain. According to the current Seleucid Empire's price of 30 coins per dan of grain, that's 4 billion coins. As long as we reduce the administrative cost to less than billion coins, the billion debt can be repaid in years at most."

The whole audience was shocked by Liu Ruyi's calculation. Then they also started to calculate excitedly and found that Liu Ruyi's calculation was correct. Although the price of grain would fluctuate, it made them see the possibility of repaying this huge debt. They no longer had to carry a huge mountain on their backs to build a country.

"If making money is so easy, why did Antiochus IV force us to rebel? Even if he had collected 30% tax, we would not have revolted." Chiron asked curiously.

Liu Ruyi casually calculated that the tax revenue of the Seleucid Empire could reach 30 or billion, but they knew that the tax revenue of the Seleucid Empire had never exceeded billion coins, so the tax they paid was not % but %. It was because the tax was too high that they rebelled in order to survive.

The other rebel leaders had similar ideas. The Seleucid revolution was very thorough. There were no nobles among them. All of them were civilians who were forced to survive. At that time, Antiochus IV exploited farmers for industrialization. A 30% tax was out of the question. 50% or 60% was the norm.

At that time, Antiochus IV freed a group of slaves in order to reform agriculture, and the state also lent them money to open up wasteland. Everyone thought that Antiochus IV was a wise ruler who would bring prosperity to the Seleucid Empire.

But they soon discovered that this wise ruler was really cruel in exploiting people. They had to pay for the release of the slaves, and all of it was included in the agricultural tax. The money borrowed to buy farm tools was all usury. The slaves and farmers who were reclaiming the wasteland soon discovered that the cost of reclaiming the wasteland was higher than they had imagined. After working hard for a year, they not only did not make any money, but they even lost money. The land they reclaimed was also taken away, and after owing a lot of debts, they once again became slaves.

Liu Ruyi snorted coldly, "We killed all the noble rentiers and took agricultural taxes as our profit. Everyone paid 50% to 60%, but the nobles didn't have to pay taxes, or only had to pay very little. Take Dmitri, who presided over the reform, for example. His family had 300,000 acres of land in Antioch. These lands were not used to develop production in the hands of Dmitri's family, but to accumulate wealth for their family to enjoy.

How did they get all this land? Part of it was granted by the royal family, and part of it was plundered from the people of Seleucid. Demetrius did not have to pay taxes on his 300,000 acres of land, so the tax they didn't pay had to fall on us. This was just one noble. There were tens of thousands of nobles in the entire Seleucid Empire, and they occupied more than half of the country's land. Hundreds of millions of acres of land were tax-free, so the taxes on the remaining land would naturally double. The pressure on everyone was naturally high."

"And this is why our rebel army wants to purge the nobles. As individuals, there may be one or two good nobles, but as a whole, they wantonly annex the country's land, but they don't pay taxes and don't take responsibility. Without enough taxes, the country can't support the army. If the taxes on farmers are too high, social contradictions will accumulate, cohesion will decline, and the country will become weaker. The Huns will invade, and the Seleucid Empire will be defeated. Especially those nobles who obtained the country's rights and interests but wantonly sold out the country were these nobles who caused the destruction of the Antiochus Dynasty."

"This is also the reason why we must eliminate the nobility, implement the policy of nationalizing land and distributing land equally to households. If we cannot replace the support of the people and implement a fair land policy, the country we establish will only be the second Antiochus Dynasty."

(End of this chapter)