The Sui Dynasty's chess game

Chapter 828 Deep-rooted problems are hard to change
Although the imperial court has decided to implement stricter trade measures against Tibet, including prohibiting Tibetan merchants from entering the interior of the Sui Dynasty and only allowing them to trade in designated border markets, strengthening border checkpoints, increasing inspections of Tibetans who may be impersonating Qiang merchants, and strictly inspecting the goods purchased by Qiang merchants, and prohibiting any contraband from flowing into Tibet through the Qiang people.

At the same time, military strength must be increased, especially in the southern part of Dafeichuan and Heyuan County, to increase the number of garrison forts and the number of garrison troops to guard against sudden attacks from the Tubo.

Defensive tactics against the Tibetans were a major headache. Unlike the nomadic tribes of the north, who could launch counterattacks and advance all the way to the grasslands, the Tibetan Plateau was a no-go zone for most Sui soldiers. They couldn't get up there, couldn't hold their ground, and could only defend passively.

Of course, the best way is to bridge the gap in weaponry and accelerate the development of high-tech weapons, such as artillery and flintlock muskets, skipping the musket and going straight to flintlock muskets. If possible, he also wants to go straight to developing a breech-loading flintlock musket with rifling.

Xiao Xia sighed. All of this is based on steel production, and population is the foundation of all industries.

A distant solution cannot quench an immediate thirst; there is only one way to rapidly increase the population: abolish slavery.

Unfortunately, the abolition order has been slow to be implemented in the two years since its implementation. Local governments have been making loud pronouncements but taking little actual action. Even the task of clearing out government slaves has been very difficult.

But no matter how difficult it is, it must be done. Abolishing slavery is an inevitable trend, and the first priority is to eliminate obstacles in local officialdom.

Must I make an example of him to warn others?
At this moment, Chu Suiliang directed his attendants to push forward a small cart; it was lunchtime.

Xiao Xia smiled and asked, "Dengshan, I have a question for you!"

Chu Suiliang stood with his hands at his sides, "Please give your orders, Your Majesty!"

Xiao Xia asked slowly, "It has been two years since I issued the abolition decree. How do you think the progress is?"

"Your Majesty, I was discussing this matter with my father and brothers just yesterday."

Xiao Xia immediately became interested and asked, "What did you and your son say?"

Chu Suiliang thought for a moment and said, "My brother is rather pessimistic. He said that it has been more than two years since the abolition of slavery, but there are no new slaves or slaves from small and medium-sized households. However, the slaves of wealthy and powerful families have basically not been affected. He believes that the abolition of slavery has not been successful."

But my father believed that slavery was a system formed over hundreds of years and could not be resolved in a year or two. Moreover, the masters were eager to get rid of the very old slaves, and the abolition decree was exactly what they wanted.

My father thought things were going very well; at least government-owned slaves had disappeared. As for private slaves, it would take a generation to gradually integrate them before the slavery problem was truly solved.

Xiao Xia nodded. "And what's your opinion?"

"Your Majesty believes that to achieve something, one can compromise, but one must also take action while compromising."

"Tell me more specifically!"

"First, no new slaves can be added, and children born to slaves must be commoners. This is unambiguous and must be restricted with an iron fist. Second, if slaves escape, the government must grant them their freedom and not return them to their masters. I believe that as long as these two points are grasped, there will be no increase in the number of slaves, and the existing number of slaves will decrease. This problem will be completely solved in a dozen years."

Xiao Xia nodded, "I understand, go!"

"Please have a meal, Your Majesty!"

While eating lunch, Xiao Xia flipped through the memorials. The reason he mentioned slaves was because he saw two memorials. One was from the governor of Jiangdu, who said that the Dugu family had organized 1,100 household slaves to go to sea. Under the abolition of slavery, this number was very glaring. Although these more than 1,000 people had already boarded the ship and left, it revealed a bloody fact: powerful families still hid a large number of slaves.

Another memorial was submitted by Censor Hou Liang, who impeached Wang Younan, the governor of Wei Commandery, for resisting the abolition of slavery. Hou Liang was severely criticized for arbitrarily repatriating all 320 escaped slaves to their masters. The abolition of slavery touched the very soul of powerful and aristocratic families, so various forms of outward compliance and inward resistance were to be expected. Prior to this, a scandal had been uncovered in Hanchuan Commandery for concealing the fact that the slaves were being held by the government. This was just the tip of the iceberg; in fact, every county would have some degree of concealment. Even Luoyang County, right under the emperor's nose, only released Han Chinese government slaves, while Kunlun slaves and Silla slaves were considered outside the scope of the release.

However, the fact that Wei County openly repatriated fleeing slaves to their original owners was a blatant act of defiance against the abolition of slavery.

If this matter is not thoroughly investigated, more counties and prefectures will inevitably follow suit.

Thinking of this, Xiao Xia immediately ordered, "Quickly bring Commander Shi to see me!"

Before long, Shi Xiaozhen rushed over, knelt on one knee and bowed, "Greetings, Your Majesty!"

Xiao Xia slowly said, "The censor impeached Wang Younan, the governor of Wei Commandery, for arbitrarily sending more than 300 runaway slaves back to their masters, which seriously violated the edict to abolish slavery issued by me two years ago and is an act of defiance against me. You can personally lead a large number of imperial guards to Wei Commandery to investigate this case thoroughly. If it is true, arrest all the relevant criminals and bring them to the capital. All the slaves should be found and handed over to the county government for re-disposal. Their masters should also be escorted to the capital. This is a Class A case!"

"The minister obeys the order!"

Shi Xiaozhen bowed and left, and Xiao Xia immediately wrote "Approved" on the impeachment document.

Why did the Imperial Censorate impeach the governor, and why was the Imperial Guard also involved? These are actually two separate matters. The Imperial Censorate was only impeaching the governor of Wei Commandery, without being involved in the case itself, while the Imperial Guard was responsible for investigating the case itself.

That afternoon, Shi Xiaozhen personally led a thousand officers to Wei County.

Xiao Xia then called Chu Suiliang up and said, "Go back and tell your father to pay attention to the Wei County slave-sending case and to do continuous reporting on it."

Xiao Xia planned to make this a public spectacle, to serve as a warning to others, and he intended to make full use of the media's influence.

As evening fell, Chu Liang returned home. He had been extremely busy lately. The daily circulation of the Kyoto Morning Post was close to 20,000 copies, and typesetting and printing had become major problems. Since the only news available for the day was the market information, in order not to affect the daily circulation, they printed half a sheet of the market information separately and inserted it into the newspaper so that the newspaper could be printed in advance. Even so, the daily circulation of 20,000 copies was still overwhelming.

But Chu Liang felt very satisfied and accomplished. Perhaps this is what they call experiencing pain and pleasure at the same time!
As soon as he got home, his son Chu Suiliang invited him to the study.

"The Emperor has a few words he wants me to tell you!"

"Oh--"

Chu Liang nodded, sat down, and said, "Speak! What is it?"

“Recently, there has been a case involving the repatriation of slaves in Wei Commandery. The governor of Wei Commandery, Wang Younan, arbitrarily sent more than 300 runaway slaves back to their masters. The censor has already impeached him, and the emperor is furious. He has sent the imperial guards to investigate the case, and they may be going to kill someone. The emperor has ordered my father to immediately send a capable person to Wei Commandery to participate in the case and to report on it continuously so that the whole world knows about this case.”

Chu Liang's eyes lit up, and he asked urgently, "Is the Emperor recently paying attention to abolishing slavery?"

"I've been keeping an eye on it. The emperor needs to increase the population. Although there are various tax reduction measures, they are unlikely to be effective in the short term. The only way to achieve short-term results is to tap into the hidden population, which is slaves."

Is His Majesty planning a large-scale abolition of slavery?

Chu Suiliang shook his head. “Large-scale abolition of slavery is impossible, but rules must be established. No new slaves will be allowed, and slaves will not be prevented from seeking their freedom. The government must take a clear stance on abolishing slavery. If these three points are violated, they will probably be exiled to Lingnan or the Western Regions. I estimate that the governor of Wei County will be killed this time. Therefore, the Kyoto Morning Post should report on this as a major case and make it a sensation throughout the country.”

(End of this chapter)