Establishing a thousand-year family from the nobles of the Western Han Dynasty

Chapter 165: Officials should be appointed as the Prefect of the Guards, and marry Xu Shiyun

This time Wang Mang thought he could change the country. From then on, he officially got rid of the core problem of uneven classification of the rich and the poor, and then used the lordship system as the core to stimulate the people's enterprising spirit.

To realize his long-cherished wish and save this country!

Unfortunately, reality and imagination are two different things after all, and he listened to Chen Ning's advice to win over the rich and powerful.

But the small tyrants in this world are not so stupid as to allow the imperial court to manipulate them. They also know the principle of "the lips and teeth are cold when one is gone". Once the big tyrants are eliminated, it will be their turn!

The court's attitude was quite firm. It was determined to implement the royal land system thoroughly and concentrate all the land in the hands of the court.

In order to protect their own interests, they will never give in! How can there be no other way? These powerful forces are naturally wise men who know the times. It is better to lose land than to lose their lives.

But this is not the case. Wang Mang acted on his own! He abolished the ancestral system that had been in place for many years, and there would be no harm without comparison.

The Han emperor next door, Liu Xiang, never did anything rash. At most, he forced the powerful to donate money and reduce rent.

They were also resentful, after all, they were asked to make concessions! How could they remain indifferent?

But if you compare it with the He Bi Xin Dynasty... you suddenly find that the court is quite benevolent, and donating money and reducing rent are not so difficult to accept. At least the land is still there and you can earn it back in the future.

As long as the land is not lost, it is not a big deal, so whenever the imperial court issues an order, the powerful people all gather to respond.

The big man took advantage of a loophole.

Under the strong sense of imbalance, the powerful people and officials who originally supported Wang Mang also began to think of surrendering to the enemy, and the so-called saint in their own minds did not seem so good after all.

Emperors like Emperor Yuan and even Emperor Li are not completely undesirable.

The powerful began to rebel, and the ordinary people, as the "vested interests", did not get any benefits either, because the court did distribute the land, but the taxes were extremely heavy!

The powerful forces who lost their land colluded with corrupt officials to massively increase taxes and levies. Originally, Wang Mang's taxes were not heavy, but it was completely different when they reached the local level.

Other policies also made the people miserable. The chaotic currency system directly caused the economy of the new dynasty to collapse completely! The currency depreciated, the chaos was extremely chaotic, and the disaster year made the situation worse.

In response, the people blamed their misfortune on Wang Mang, the "saint" in their hearts.

If he hadn't messed around, how could this have happened? The so-called "land to the tiller" was just a cover-up, and all kinds of miscellaneous taxes piled up together, making it even worse than before!
And you have to plant. You have to work hard all year round, going out early and coming back late, but you can only keep a small portion of the food you grow!
The complaints in the new dynasty have reached a threshold. Just a little spark will start a prairie fire!
However, the "culprit" Wang Mang took advantage of the joy of the successful reform. Local officials deceived their superiors and subordinates, and the emperor could only know the situation in Chang'an and its surroundings. He also believed that the reform was quite effective.

The main reason was that there had been people who had reported the reform truthfully before, but Wang Mang did not believe them at all. He thought that the other party was deliberately misleading him and trying to prevent the implementation of the reform. In a rage, he ignored the opposition of court officials and directly executed the ministers who had reported the reform truthfully.

At this point, no one dared to tell the truth. They were already holding a grudge, and now you're killing them like this, who would still be willing to work for them?

In this way, wealth was concentrated again in the hands of the original powerful officials. The people of the new dynasty could not bear the heavy taxes and were quite angry, but they could do nothing and could only flee to the neighboring country as a way of resistance.

The generals at the border reported all of this to the emperor truthfully, and Wang Mang was quite angry.

A group of unruly people had clearly solved the land problem themselves, and the taxes were not high, which greatly weakened the power of the powerful.

You guys totally forget my kindness and even want to defect?
In the end, he directly ordered the killing of all those who left the Daxin territory without permission. The people's dissatisfaction became even stronger.

The pace of escape did not stop because where there is oppression there is resistance!
In the short term, the only way for the people to defeat this self-defeating monarch is to leave! Because of the threat of the battle of Wangyi Ruyin, no one has the courage to directly rebel and resist.

But that was only a matter of time. Back then, the Qin Dynasty conquered the six kingdoms and unified the world. Its military power reached its peak and the imperial court had millions of soldiers!

However, not long after the death of Qin Shi Huang, Chen Sheng and Wu Guang rose up with 800 people. The spark gradually spread like wildfire, sounding the death knell of this unified dynasty.

The current situation of the Xinmang Dynasty is actually similar. Public grievances are accumulating. Because the powerful have lost their land, they have doubled down on exploiting the people in other places.

Although the main source of income for the wealthy families is land, it does not mean that they have no influence in other places. They join forces with local officials to make a lot of money crazily and deceive their superiors and subordinates!
Moreover, the ministers tacitly concealed the truth from the emperor. After all, no one wanted his head to be hung on the city gate tower.

Having lost the support of the people, the powerful were also disappointed with the Xin Mang Dynasty. Wang Mang's main target was them! Always ready to welcome the king's army, surrender to the Han Dynasty, and restore the Liu Dynasty.

After making a comparison, people from all classes found that the Han people were too damn good. Although they also exploited the people, they did not leave them without any chance to make a living.

Under the advocacy of the Xu family, they were also actively providing disaster relief, which was a complete mistake compared to the Xin Dynasty later!
.........

Nanyang, Wandu.

"Your Majesty, the number of refugees fleeing from Runan and Guanzhong this year has reached over 100,000, and the officials in charge of providing relief said that there is not enough food and fodder."

"Should our Han Dynasty continue to accept the people of the New Dynasty?"

Inside the palace hall, the Grand Chancellor reported to the emperor that because the Han Dynasty had accepted all their demands before, a large number of people of the Xin Dynasty who could not survive had fled to the Han Dynasty.

Even if Wang Mang came down to defend it strictly, it would still be useless.

People's desire to survive is infinite.

Before, there were only a few thousand to tens of thousands of people every year, which the court could still afford. Hebei and Jingxiang were wealthy, and there was a surplus after the disaster relief, which could be provided to the refugees who fled.

But starting this year, the number has skyrocketed to over 100,000, and it is still rising. I'm afraid it will reach 200,000 or 300,000 next year.

The Xinmang court could no longer sit still. Population was the greatest wealth for a dynasty. Once the population was lost, it would mean the loss of tax sources and war potential. As one gained, the other lost, and the Xin Dynasty was no longer a rival to the Han Dynasty.
I believe that the efforts will definitely be intensified, and the attitude of the Han court is also crucial.

Reducing the enemy's population and increasing one's own population is definitely a good thing, but there is only so much food each year, so the original people must be protected first.

Otherwise it would be putting the cart before the horse.

"Hmm...what you said makes sense. We should have a serious discussion about it." Liu Xiang, who was in the host seat, also thought it made sense.

This is a good way to weaken the Xin Dynasty, which can be regarded as cutting off the source of the fire. Without the population, it will not be far from defeat. Now the Xinmang Dynasty has nearly 600,000 standing troops. If mobilized in wartime, it would not be difficult to mobilize a million troops.

But the premise of all this is to maintain the peak national strength. In the next five years, Xinmang will have at least one million fewer people, and most of them will be young and middle-aged people.

Without these one million laborers, it would be impossible to support so many troops, and military defeat would be inevitable.

Now this problem must have been suppressed by force, otherwise Wang Mang would not have been able to sleep well. He would have imposed martial law across the country long ago and would not have allowed anyone to leave the country without permission.

The people of Xinmang were so powerful that the imperial court could not show weakness and had to increase its efforts to accept refugees.

But there was another problem with food. The food these people consumed every day could be piled up into a mountain!
We can't let them starve, because when they are hungry, they will do anything.

"Your Majesty, I think we can give them the ownerless wasteland to cultivate. The four counties of southern Jing and Jiangdong are also mostly undeveloped. We can settle the refugees there!"

Someone gave a solid suggestion.

After a lot of wars, the population in Yuzhou, Yanzhou, Xuzhou and other states dropped sharply, and a lot of land became barren.

So it’s better to recycle the waste and let them go there.

This is one of the few benefits of war. Many people die in wars, and with fewer people, resources become more abundant.

Before the Xu family rebelled and established a new king, there were 5.5 million registered households in the world and the population was probably over 34 million.

But after the peace talks in Yanzhou, the number of registered households dropped sharply to 2.7 million, with a population of less than 20 million. Many fields were naturally vacant and fell into a state of no one cultivating them.

The population of the Han Dynasty was smaller than that of the Xinmang Dynasty. Jingzhou was indeed rich, but only the Nanyang Nanjun area was rich. Other places were still sparsely populated.

Yangzhou is similar, only Huainan is a wealthy place, Jiangdong is still very barren and has not developed much. In fact, before the Song Dynasty, China as a whole was richer in the north.

The situation was even worse in the Han Dynasty. This could be seen from the division of prefectures and counties. Kuaiji County was larger than the entire Jizhou Province, but its population was probably even smaller than that of a wealthy county in Jizhou.

Although the climate is humid and it is difficult for northerners to adapt to it, it is at least much better than starving to death.

"Your Majesty, I think this is a good idea. I think we can also buy the land from the local tyrants at a suitable price, and then rent it to the refugees at a low price."

As the most powerful person in the entire Han Dynasty, Xu Hua stood up and agreed to this idea, which is the best solution at present.

Although many people were unwilling to go to the relatively barren Jiangdong, in the face of life, anything can be put aside. I believe they left Xinmang because they could not survive and there was no place for them to become bandits.

Even thieves have become introverted these days.

As for the land of Yanzhou in Hebei, it is of course reserved for refugees from the Han Dynasty. Who says that the basic base still needs to be clearly divided? Although they are all Han people, for the time being they can only be divided according to who gets it first and who gets it later.

As for the so-called "appropriate" redemption price, it is actually a low price and it is useless even if you are unwilling.

Wang Mang forcibly confiscated all the land, but the Han court only asked you to give up a little bit and paid you money.

In comparison, it is very humane. Xu Hua dared to take action against the powerful only because he had the Xinmang as a reference.

Seeing his chancellor speaking, Liu Xiang, who was moved, immediately made the decision: "Okay, let's do as chancellor Xu said and let the Grand Marshal do it. Remember, even the refugees fleeing from the Xinmang Dynasty cannot be neglected."

"They are also Han people. I don't want to do anything that would split the country!"

"Yes, sir." Da Sikong agreed readily.

At this time, Xu Hua also said: "I am willing to give up the land to resettle the victims."

"I am willing to do so too." Xu Zhong said.

"I feel the same way..."

Other officials with the surname Xu took the lead in donating, and Xu's disciples followed suit.

After all, even this powerful Han official has spoken, if you are stingy, you will be ignorant! How can you survive in this court?

And the donation cannot be too small, as Xu Hua knows the wealth of these ministers very well.

He can tell who is just pretending and who is sincere.

.........

After that meeting, Liu Xiu successfully gained the appreciation of former Left General Li Yang. After some testing, the other party found that these people all had great potential.

Especially Liu Xiu, he understood everything at once!
Li Yang was overjoyed and raised the priority of several people to a higher level, truly planning to reuse them in the future.

Xu Zaizhi has always been his biggest backer. Even if he suffered a crushing defeat this time and was dismissed from his official position, as long as Xu Zaizhi did not give up on him, he would be able to make a comeback sooner or later.

In addition, Wang Mang's control over the Xin Dynasty was gradually weakening. As long as he waited, until the imperial court launched a large-scale northern expedition, it would be an opportunity to show his strength!

Among these, generals are crucial.

After class, Liu Xiu went out for a trip with his good friend Deng Yu.

At the moment, he was not yet the future Emperor Guangwu of Han who would restore the Han Dynasty, nor did he have that ambition. At this time, Liu Xiu only wanted to assist Emperor Liu Xiang.

People's ambitions grow gradually over time. Emperor Guangwu of Han is a typical example of someone who was changed by the environment. At the beginning, he just wanted to survive and not be abandoned by the court.

Perhaps he was born extraordinary and destined to achieve great things.

"Uncle Wen, it will soon be time for us to realize our ambitions. Do you know that Wang Mang has carried out reforms in the country?" Deng Yu said.

"Reform? What kind of reform?" Liu Xiu didn't really care. He was farming and studying during this period.

"I only know one, to restore the well-field system of the Zhou Dynasty."

"Restore the well-field system? Wang Mang was a great hero, but he is so naive. It seems the rumors are false." Liu Xiu said contemptuously.

In fact, he was indeed qualified to look down on Wang Mang.

"Humph, that's right. Now many people from the Xin Dynasty have fled to our Han Dynasty. I think they will be defeated sooner or later."

Deng Yu also joked: "Uncle Wen, you are a relative of the Han Dynasty. If you are granted a title of nobility or king in the future, don't forget me."

"You think too highly of me." Liu Xiu smiled bitterly.

Just then, the sound of horse hooves was heard and the warning of the officers was heard.

Pedestrians on the roadside all give way, and when high-ranking officials go out, ordinary people are required to consciously give way, and there is no punishment for stepping on people to death.

The two of them also moved aside.

The majestic horse passed by, guarded by the Royal Guards on both sides, looking very majestic.

Inside the window, a beautiful figure flashed by, leaving a deep impression on people, like a fairy in the sky.

Exquisite facial features were looming, her skin was fair, and she had a pair of alluring peach blossom eyes. Although it was only a glance, the future Emperor Guangwu of Han felt that he was in love.

She had a gentle and dignified temperament, which really touched him.

"Whose bicycle frame is this?" Liu Xiu swallowed.

"Xu Zhao, the Prefect of the Imperial Guards." Deng Yu said with emotion, "How majestic and awe-inspiring."

"Then, what about that woman?"

"Xu Zhao's sister, Xu Shiyun, is very famous, don't you know?"

"Xu Shiyun..." No wonder it felt familiar.

Xu Shiyun was a kind and compassionate person. She once personally distributed food to the victims. She was proficient in music, chess, calligraphy and painting. She was a famous talented woman in the Han Dynasty and was known as the first of the four great talented women.

Her father was Xu Bo's fourth son, who died early. She was raised by Xu Zhong since she was a child. Xu Zhong was an open-minded person and did not mind his adopted daughter being in the limelight.
Recalling that beautiful figure, Liu Xiu couldn't help but say: "If I were to be an official, I would be the Prefect of the Guards, and if I were to marry, I would marry Xu Shiyun."

(End of this chapter)