A thousand-year-old family that began with the Battle of Makino

Chapter 291 The King of ZTE
With the death of Marquis Li, the trial against the Li family began. In order not to be associated with the Li family, the Qinghe family and powerful people cooperated with the court's inventory of land and population.

Even in the face of Bai Cang's proposal that Qinghe County come forward to redeem part of the land owned by powerful families, they pinched their noses and accepted it, because the facts told them that they could not help but disobey.

Those disobedient powerful people and wealthy families were all arrested by Bai Cang for colluding with Li Hou and causing trouble in Qinghe. This also let the people of Qinghe know that their prince was really not a good gentleman.

Soon, the punishment against Li and his related personnel was reported to the court, and Liu Xiu agreed.

Almost all the men in the direct line of the Li family were beheaded, except for the general surnamed Li who took the lead in taking off the head of Marquis Li in Xindu. Because he had served in the encirclement and suppression of Marquis Li, and because he was a collateral line of the Li family, he escaped. The imperial court purges the Li family.

He was deprived of all military and official positions and demoted to a commoner. Although those officers who surrendered did not escape death, their wives, children, and children escaped. They were released from prison and became ordinary people to make a living on their own.

Those die-hard loyalists to the Li family were beheaded, and their children were exiled to the frontiers to fill the local population.

Those who were only attached to the Li family and their families were released after being ordered by Liu Xiu to pay a portion of the atonement, and the amount of the atonement was often the entire family property.

Some wealthy powerful men who were accused of colluding with Li Ni because of their resistance to the White Cang policy had their families moved to Guanzhong on the basis of retaining part of their money, cutting off their influence in the local area and filling in the gaps in Guanzhong due to the Xinmang period. Resulting in a population that is completely decimated.

Qinghe County was completely under the control of the court, and then Bai Li used the general situation of Xindu and Qinghe counties to oppress the remaining counties and urge them to complete the tasks issued by the court as soon as possible.

Prefectural magistrates who failed to complete their tasks would be demoted and dismissed, or punished with the same crime as powerful families who violated the law.

During this period, there were many powerful families who could not see the situation clearly, trying to conceal Bai Li's investigation, and even secretly sabotaged the implementation of the policy.

Among them, Hua Clan from Guangyang County is the leader.

So Bai Li used thunderous means to send troops to arrest Hua and his gang members in one fell swoop, and the whole family moved to Guanzhong.

The powerful people and wealthy families in Jizhou knew that the investigation policy promoted by Bai Li had become a general trend, and there was no point in resisting anymore, so they chose to cooperate, hoping that Bai Li would be merciful.

Bai Li naturally knew not to push these wealthy families too hard, lest they hit bottom and rebound. Therefore, in this inventory operation in Jizhou, only two-thirds of the people who had the background and strength were cleared. Those who had no backers or weak backing, the entire hidden fields and population were cleared by the court.

As a result, Jizhou's account books showed that the population originally had only more than one million, but now there are nearly three million, and the cultivated fields have doubled out of thin air.

In addition to those who were plucked from the powerful families, these extra people also include refugees and fugitives who have returned from other places and mountains.

They fled the war and the high taxes in the past. In order to survive, most of these people fled and became refugees hiding in the mountains and refugees seeking a living in other places.

It is precisely because of this that the number of talents in the imperial household registration suddenly dropped from more than 50 million during the Ming Dynasty to more than 10 million today. Except for those who died due to war, disease, and hunger, most of these disappeared people fled into the mountains and forests. .

Now that the country has generally settled down, and the Han Emperor has re-established reasonable taxes, these people, at the call of local governments, have come out of the mountains and forests to become farmers again.

The 16th year of Jianwu

June
The inventory work in Jizhou has been completed. Bai Li wrote all the results and process into a memorial and submitted it to Liu Xiu.

"Okay, great. Bai Aiqing is worthy of being Bai Situ's son. A tiger father has no son. In just one year, he has completed the investigation of the richest state in the world.

Now that Jizhou plus Bingzhou, the two most important places in Hebei, have been cleared, there are no problems in Hebei. Next, it depends on the completion status of Henan provinces and counties. "

Liu Xiu was extremely excited after receiving Bai Li's letter. This meant that Hebei had become his solid rear. As for what Bai Li said in his letter, there was no thorough investigation, so Liu Xiu didn't care.

Because Liu Xiu understands very well that this situation is the best result. The current inventory operation is purely to grab the population and land from the rich and powerful, but there is no way. Who said that Liu Xiu has too little population and land in his hands? ?

If we slowly wait for the natural recovery of the population, or wait until the end of the year of the monkey, then there is only one way, which is to compete with local powerful families for population and land.

But we cannot send out central troops to force them to do so. This will only cause local uprisings, and the world will fall into chaos again. Wang Mang is the best example.

Therefore, Liu Xiu used a blunt knife to cut his flesh, one at a time, using political means to make the local wealthy family feel a little painful, but not to rebel. Finally, he instilled the idea that the court needed to concentrate on guarding against foreign invasion.

If these sets of boxing techniques continue, the wealthy families will have no choice but to accept their fate, and Liu Xiu did all this because he really wanted to resist foreigners.

Because at this time, the Xiongnu in the north had been divided into two parts due to weather conditions and less and less grassland. One was far away in the desert, which Liu Xiu called the Northern Xiongnu, intending to ask for peace with the Han Dynasty again; the other was far away in the desert. Close to the border of the Han Dynasty, they were called Southern Xiongnu, with the intention of directly relying on the Han Dynasty.

The Northern Huns' request for peace was obviously based on putting themselves on the same footing as the Han Dynasty. This was a part that Liu Xiu wanted to resolutely eliminate. The Southern Xiongnu repeatedly requested the governor of Hexi and asked for annexation. This obviously regarded the Han Dynasty as the suzerain state, which was part of Liu Xiu's support. However, due to the current establishment of the Han Dynasty, it has just moved from turmoil to stability, and its strength is insufficient. If it rashly turns against the Northern Huns, it will definitely interrupt the Han Dynasty's major policy of rest and recuperation.

As for accepting the Southern Xiongnu, due to strength reasons, he could not completely suppress the Southern Xiongnu's ambitions. Therefore, Liu Xiu never responded to the requests from both parties.

Even the countries in the Western Regions sent envoys to Luoyang many times to request the Han Dynasty to reset the Western Region Protector, but Liu Xiu did not agree. It was true that the Han Dynasty could not spare any effort to expand at this time.

But now the Han Dynasty was able to defend the core territory without losing it, and at the same time subdue the surrounding foreign tribes such as the Qiang, Wuhuan, Goguryeo, southwestern barbarians, etc., and even take back Jiaozhi. All of this was thanks to Bai's help in saving more than half of Hebei's power, and in the end, it was directly and smoothly handed over to him without any cost.

And all he paid was a medium-sized throne and a small piece of land in Hanoi, which was equivalent to a white wolf with nothing. Not to mention that when he was at his lowest, the Bai family funded his soldiers, horses, food, and talents.

As for the white horse oath made by Emperor Gaozu that no one would be named Liu and would not be a king, it had long since disappeared with Wang Mang's usurpation of the Han Dynasty, and it had no binding force.

He has even thought about it. If in the future there is a powerful minister with a non-Liu surname who wants the title of king, then the Liu family will have an excuse: Oh, what kind of class are you? Dare to compete with the royal family who have contributed to the founding of the dynasty, and the ancient royal family? Known as the Bai family who has made great contributions to protecting the world, you share the same rank and are not afraid of people in the world spitting on you?

It's perfect. Not only will this not break the oath of not being the king but the Liu family, it will even set up a huge obstacle for future usurpers.

As long as future generations of kings do not offend the Bai family and do not envy Bai's royal title, the Bai family will always be Liu's best talisman. If anyone not named Liu wants to be king in the future, the Bai family will be a gap they cannot cross.

And what's even better is that because Bai became the king, King Bai must abide by the regulations of the princes and kings. He must not leave the fiefdom without an imperial edict, and he cannot serve as an official in the court. Officials in the court are not allowed to collude with the Bai Kingdom, otherwise they will collude with the princes. As soon as the country's hat is put down, it will be accurate.

This will also test how the future heads of the Bai family will continue the Bai family's influence in the court.

September
The censor of Henan Province wrote to the court, revealing that Henan Yin Zhangji and his governors had collaborated with the local wealthy families to commit fraud when measuring land.

Henan Yin was the highest official in charge of the counties around Luoyang. He was similar to Jingzhao Yin in Guanzhong, but because Liu Xiu set his capital in Luoyang, Henan Yin was set up here.

When such a scandal broke out at the feet of the emperor, Liu Xiu was furious and ordered a strict investigation, and all relevant persons were imprisoned.
For a time, there was a tremor inside and outside Luoyang City, and no fewer than thousands of people were implicated by Zhang Ji.

At the same time, in addition to the three prefectures of Hebei such as Qingzhou, Xuzhou, Yuzhou, Yangzhou, Jingzhou, and Yizhou, the entire Guandong region suddenly fell into chaos. The commanders, commanders, and bandits of the county were causing chaos everywhere, looting government offices, and killing officials.

Counties and counties from all over the country immediately mobilized soldiers and horses to attack them, but these people were very cunning, because they were all locals, so whenever the army of counties and counties went to attack them, they would disband and integrate into the local people. Once the county soldiers left, they would start again Gather together to cause chaos.

The Kanto region is in turmoil, as if the next troubled times are coming.

Liu Xiu knew very well that this was the reaction of local wealthy families to oppose his policy of subduing the Qing people. If he compromised like this, not only would this policy be in vain, but even the previously successful states and counties would be in turmoil.

Moreover, the prestige of the central court will plummet due to this turmoil, and the court will no longer be able to influence local counties, because as long as the central government intervenes in the local areas, this disaster will happen again.

Therefore, he had no choice but to move forward. This was an opportunity to show the prestige of the central government and to test whether the emerging big man was qualified to continue to prosper.

Fortunately, Hebei has succeeded with the help of the Bai family. With the support of Hebei, I believe he will be able to survive this time.

So in October, Liu Xiu got inspiration after asking Su Jin, who had retired, for advice, and sent a large number of envoys to various states and counties to convey the edict for groups of thieves in various places to report each other:

"Any five people who join forces to kill one person will be exempted from the crime of murder. Officials who avoided or indulged in the past will not be held accountable. They only look at the results of their final arrests and crusade.

The prefectural magistrates of Mu Shou who are guilty of not collecting and capturing bandits within their territory, and who are afraid of weakness and abandon the territory they guard, are not guilty of dereliction of duty, but only how many bandits are eliminated in the end. Only those who hide thieves will be punished. "

At the same time, the governors of each state were forced to supervise the suppression of bandits in various counties and counties, and at the same time do a good job of supervision and recording. So the governors of each state started their work with a big stick in one hand and sweet dates in the other.

November

With the issuance of the edict, soldiers from various counties and counties stepped up their encirclement and suppression, and various regions coordinated to hunt each other. The group of thieves were disintegrated from within by the imperial court.

Liu Xiu moved their leaders to other counties and gave them farmland and grain for their old age, so that they could live and work in peace and contentment. All the wealthy families involved moved to Guanzhong and the border areas to fill the local vacancies.

In the end, the large-scale local unrest lasted for more than two months and spread across several states, and was successfully resolved by the imperial court.

The big man became more stable because of this.

(End of this chapter)