Longzang

Chapter 447 Limited Harsh Words
Upon receiving the interrogation results, Wei Yuan immediately dispatched men to capture all the leaders of the caravan and then personally interrogated them.

The caravan leader who made contact with the officers was a steward, while the caravan manager was an unremarkable middle-aged man with late-stage Dao Foundation cultivation and mediocre talent.

Upon seeing Wei Yuan, he cried out that he was wronged.

Wei Yuan remained seated, flipping through the files in his hand. Only after Wei Yuan had exhausted himself with his words did he ask, "You want to buy land in Qingming?"

A flicker of shock crossed the manager's eyes, but his face remained blank as he said, "I'm just doing business between the two places, trading grain, cloth, armor, and ore. These are all legally permitted! I've never considered buying land. Does Qingming have any land for sale?"

Wei Yuan said calmly, "The fact that I, the military governor, have come to interrogate you personally should tell you what's what. With your meager skills, you think you can hide anything from me? I'll give you one last chance. If you don't tell the truth, you'll be executed. I, the military governor, don't need to explain myself to anyone when I want to execute someone. Tell me, who ordered you to do this?"

The supervisor's expression shifted, but under the aura of Wei Yuan's Dharma form, his whole body trembled, his sea of ​​consciousness froze, and he was almost unable to move.

He suddenly kowtowed repeatedly, saying, "I am willing to speak! I am willing to speak!"

At this moment, the door opened, and a jailer came in, handing over a confession. He said, "Sir, the steward has confessed everything. They were entrusted by Wang Kui, the nephew of the Duke of Xiang of Zhao, to come to Qingming to buy land. He said he had already selected several plots of land, the locations of which are as follows."

Wei Yuan glanced at the statements and knew that those fields were close to the core area of ​​Qingming, basically meeting the standards of spirit fields, belonging to the category of quasi-spirit fields. Currently, because the spirit fields are far from being fully developed, they are still growing ordinary rice, which can produce 600 catties per mu.

Spirit fields and ordinary fields have completely different prices. In the human realm, ordinary fields are usually priced at a few taels of silver per mu, and even top-quality fields like these are only worth one or two taels of immortal silver. Spirit fields, on the other hand, start at a hundred taels of immortal silver. After these seemingly ordinary fields in Qingming are converted into spirit fields, even if they barely meet the threshold, they will still be worth at least eighty or ninety taels of immortal silver. This difference in price is nearly a hundred times.

These fields total more than 3,000 mu, but the profits after conversion are hundreds of thousands of taels of silver!
Liu Fei's proposed compensation was five mu per household, which seemed modest. Even if it was top-quality farmland, five mu would still be significantly less than the compensation for elite border troops. Furthermore, Liu Fei offered to forgo military merit rewards for all surviving soldiers in the battalion, which appeared to be a display of great righteousness.

If Wei Yuan agrees to his demands, the more than two hundred men who died in the first battalion alone could be divided up to more than a thousand acres. If the other battalions make similar demands, all three thousand acres of potential spiritual fields will be taken away.

However, Wei Yuan knew every inch of land within Qingming like the back of his hand, so this trick couldn't be hidden at all.

The spirit fields, planted with ordinary rice, consume only a small amount of fertilizer but can nurture spiritual energy. This is why Wei Yuan is not using them for the time being; he intends to cultivate them for a few years until there are no more spirit fields available before using these plots. He never expected that they would be targeted by someone.

Clearly, this war broke out suddenly, and the decision to exchange land for compensation was made on a whim.

It must be said that this plan was quite ingenious. The total amount of compensation that all the captured officers could claim was about 10,000 mu, which was only a drop in the ocean compared to Qingming's current more than 5 million mu of land. If it were in another place, or if the person in charge of this matter was Cui Yu, Xu Yi, Yu Zhizhuo, or others, it might have already been approved.

Once the families of the fallen soldiers receive the land, the caravan will secretly buy it from them, which will put Wei Yuan in a difficult position. Forcibly taking it back would damage Qingming's reputation, offend the powerful figures of Zhao, and leave him in the wrong.

Before arriving, Wei Yuan had already figured out the whole story. The steward's testimony confirmed his suspicions. He immediately addressed the caravan leader: "Colluding with a military officer and secretly investigating the land and fields within my jurisdiction—either is a capital offense. Guards, take him away and execute him! Hang his head at the gates of Yong'an City as a warning to all." The caravan leader, utterly shocked by the sudden turn of events, turned ashen-faced and repeatedly kowtowed, shouting, "If you kill me, you will discourage all caravans! Young Master Wang will not let you off, nor will the Duke of Xiangguo!"

There should have been a cold laugh and some harsh words at this point, such as, "Do you believe I can do this or that with just one word..."

However, Wei Yuan felt that harsh words were limited and it was not worth wasting them on a caravan manager. It would be a waste to use them on that young master Wang. Only the Duke of Xiang deserved such treatment.

Wei Yuan waved his hand, and the cultivator dragged the supervisor out. In the blink of an eye, a scream rang out. The scream was short and shrill, and Wei Yuan knew from it that these jailers were still following the rules.

If it were an executioner from the Western Jin Dynasty, the methods would be much more varied. Whether or not money was given at the time of execution made a complete difference. If no money was given, the executioner would use a dull blade to cut the head off, and even after several cuts, it wouldn't be clean.

Besides the supervisor, the deacon who contacted the officer was also beheaded. All the other senior managers of the caravan were imprisoned and forced into hard labor, with their families not allowed to ransom them. Half of the caravan's property was confiscated as compensation, and the other half could only be retrieved if the caravan owner personally came to Qingming to confess his crimes.

After dealing with the caravan, it was the officers' turn.

Liu Fei was convicted of crimes including exceeding authority, forming cliques for personal gain, illegally scouting terrain, inciting mutiny, and plotting rebellion. Although his past merits were used to offset his crimes, he was still beheaded, but the public display of his head was spared. All the soldiers of the Third Battalion were pardoned, but their merits were wiped out.

The captain who colluded with foreign enemies was beheaded, and his head was displayed for three months. The remaining commanders were stripped of their military ranks and merits, and were treated as criminals to be used again, to accumulate merits once more. The soldiers in their respective units were pardoned, but their accumulated merits were halved.

After dealing with the troublemakers, Wei Yuan also announced the regulations for compensation for the fallen.

First, depending on the deceased's status and cultivation level, the status of orphans will automatically be upgraded according to the corresponding military merits; second, the monthly rations for orphans will be increased by one grade; third, orphans will have one opportunity to advance to the Foundation Establishment stage, and if they do not have the talent for advancement, they can exchange it for a certain amount of Immortal Silver; fourth, a one-time compensation of a certain amount of Immortal Silver.

At the same time, Wei Yuan also revised the previously established systems for criminals, soldiers, civilians, and registered officials, and after refining the details, reissued them.

Promotion still relies on merit, with only twenty military merits required to rise from criminal to soldier. According to Qingming's current laws, killing one enemy in battle earns ten military merits, meaning that killing two enemies on the battlefield is enough to shed criminal status. However, accumulating military merits through other means besides battlefield combat is much slower.

One hundred military merits are needed to rise from a soldier to a commoner, while five hundred military merits are needed to rise from a commoner to a registered official. Within the registered official rank, the highest possible promotion is to a registered adjutant general. However, from the rank of commander onwards, a foundation in Daoist cultivation is required.

The lowest level of compensation for fallen soldiers includes orphans within two generations of their direct descendants, who can be promoted in rank based on twenty military merits. This means that if one family member dies in battle, the entire family can escape criminal status. The higher the fallen soldier's rank and status, the greater the improvement in their family's status, up to a maximum of civilian.

(End of this chapter)