Chapter 1804: Keep Your Seat Steady, Keep Your Attitude Proper

"You keep bringing up Huazhou and your hometown Xiagui County, how things are there. Clearly, you have a deep understanding of the local situation, and you've done careful investigation and visits!" After steadying his emotions and regaining his composure, Emperor Liu looked at Kou Zhun and asked, "Tell me, in your Huazhou, who are the most aggressive in land annexation?"

This was asking Kou Zhun to name names and continue selling out his hometown's "elders," but on such matters, Kou Zhun clearly had no great moral burden—otherwise he wouldn't have used Huazhou as an example to point things out to Emperor Liu.

After deliberating for a moment, Kou Zhun reported, "In reply to Your Majesty, the local powerful clans and prominent families in Huazhou, some officials at various levels with a bit of authority, merchants who have succeeded in business, and also retired veterans with honorary ranks returning to their hometowns. In addition, the official fields managed by the prefectural and county governments are also gradually expanding."

Hearing Kou Zhun say this, Emperor Liu was not particularly surprised, and even clicked his tongue in lament: "Officials, merchants, and powerful clans—indeed, one can't escape these three!"

He quickly realized something belatedly, and stared at Kou Zhun, saying, "When you speak of retired veterans with honorary ranks, do you mean the retired military officers and soldiers that the court has arranged to serve in local governments and villages?"

"Yes!" Kou Zhun nodded.

Emperor Liu was stunned for a moment upon hearing this, then burst into a few laughs, his words tinged with sarcasm: "Futile effort! Futile effort! Too presumptuous! Overestimating oneself!"

Emperor Liu was muttering nonsense there, leaving Kou Zhun and Yan Tuo, who was attending at his side, exchanging bewildered glances, but both raised their caution to the highest level—although Emperor Liu was smiling, judging by his expression, he didn't look happy.

One must understand that when Emperor Liu originally placed those retired low-ranking military officers and meritorious soldiers from the army into the villages, it was precisely to use these people to balance the original clan and powerful family forces.

In the early period, these retired military personnel, who had a certain capacity for management, felt gratitude toward the Emperor and the army, and held a high degree of identification with the court and the state, did indeed play a significant positive role in maintaining the rule of the Great Han.

During that period, precisely because these people existed, the court's ability to control the villages was greatly strengthened—whether it was collecting taxes or conscripting corvée labor and soldiers, everything went very smoothly.

However, time passed, and people kept changing. The clever move that Emperor Liu had once considered himself to have made gradually revealed its drawbacks.

Most of those retired soldiers placed as petty officials at the grassroots level in the villages were assimilated, colluding with the old clans and powerful families, acting in collusion with them, or even directly replacing them to become local tyrants in the countryside.

They had seen the wider world. Those who could be arranged to serve as officials basically all had military merit, bearing honorary ranks, and moreover, due to their military background, their style tended to be tough and rough, with strong controlling tendencies.

When the energy of these people erupted, the impact on the local grassroots level was predictable. It was only natural that some of them ran amok, and could the local governments control them? Clearly very difficult. Military men are also a group that sticks together, and with such an identity, they were shrouded in a halo of prestige—not easy to bully.

In fact, regarding retired military officers and soldiers acting tyrannically and violently in the localities, committing crimes, and breaking laws and discipline, signs had already appeared as early as the Qianyou era. At that time, Emperor Liu had been very angry and had dealt with a batch of people with severe measures. However, his appointment of and reliance on them had not changed in the slightest.

At the very least, these grassroots officials with a high degree of identification with the state did indeed help Emperor Liu's centralization of power and benefited the government's control over the localities. At the very least, they made the collection of taxes and corvée labor much more convenient. And whether for the central court or the local governments, these two points were the most important.

In the past, the court relied on local powerful families and prominent clans—besides being truly unable to control them, this aspect was also an important factor.

Regarding the development trend of those grassroots officials of retired soldier origin, Emperor Liu had in fact long been aware of it. He was no fool; even if he hadn't reacted at first, over these decades, how could he have no understanding? He was merely pretending not to know.

However, when Kou Zhun punctured these things that Emperor Liu had somewhat deliberately ignored, right in front of him, Emperor Liu's heart naturally churned with mixed emotions.

How much did Emperor Liu actually detest the powerful clans? In fact, this depended on the needs of rule, according to the national situation. When the Great Han was first established, there were various states carving up territory externally, while internally military provinces stood everywhere, and central authority was weak. Under such circumstances, how could Emperor Liu have any fondness for those local powerful families? He wished he could eliminate them all and take back all the lost governing power into the hands of the court and government.

But the development of things is dynamic. By today, the twenty-third year of Kaibao, when mentioning powerful clans again, Emperor Liu's mouth was still as stern, but in his heart, he had long compromised.

If viewed from the perspective of his Liu family's dynasty, these powerful clans had a necessity to exist. For rulers, those common folk were best forever bound to the land, contentedly being obedient subjects of the empire, honestly being exploited.

Even the migration to border regions that Emperor Liu had always insisted on was merely to make those commoners move somewhere else to reclaim land, incidentally strengthening the frontiers, consolidating national defense, and maintaining the rule of the Great Han. As for the common rabble, if restraints and controls were completely loosened, then the realm would probably not be stable, and social order would descend into chaos.

To be realistic, local land annexation, the control of ordinary people, did have certain benefits for the court's rule. Many things the court could not accomplish were precisely done with their help.

Was two-tenths of landless peasants a lot? Given the Great Han's current population of nearly a hundred million, the number was quite large. But without these people, who would farm the land of all those noble families and bureaucratic landlords of the Great Han? Who would satisfy their interests? After all, their role in maintaining the rule of the Great Han Empire was the greatest.

Moreover, not all of these many people ended up as tenant farmers, retainers, or servants—some went into business, went overseas, or migrated to garrison the frontiers. And looking at the Great Han as a whole, after all, there were still so many self-cultivating peasants remaining. Even if the situation showed a trend of deterioration, as of now, how severe it was still needed to be viewed rationally.

Having thought through all this, Emperor Liu began to consider the purpose of Kou Zhun's remonstrance—it probably was not about the issue of migration to border regions.

After his chaotic thoughts drifted for a long while, Emperor Liu regained his calm once more, glanced at Kou Zhun, and said, "You have pointed out these problems to me, and I have accepted them. But as for how to solve them, do you have any ideas?"

Upon being asked, Kou Zhun replied with some reserve: "Your subject is shallow and ignorant; I dare not speak recklessly!"

"Before me, there's no need for such posturing!" Emperor Liu said with some impatience. "You've said so much already—if you don't finish, how could you be satisfied?"

Seeing this, Kou Zhun thought for a moment, then cupped his hands and said, "Your Majesty, your subject believes the primary measures are to purify official governance, restrain the powerful clans, and prohibit them from colluding with each other, seizing by force and cunning, and running amok! The court should prohibit local powerful families from restricting the personal freedom of the common people, and those who violate laws and discipline should be severely punished according to the law."

The moment Kou Zhun said this, it proved what class he belonged to—this was the representative of the commoner landlord class. The measures he proposed also carried a strong character of compromise, seeking reform rather than revolution.

Emperor Liu was a highly centralized autocratic monarch; the position where his ass sat had long "corrected" his thinking. A ruler is a ruler, an exploiting class is an exploiting class. Everything beneficial to his rule, he was willing to do, and everything detrimental to his rule, he had to stop and ban.

However, when facing Kou Zhun's words, Emperor Liu couldn't help but chuckle lightly: "What you speak of is nothing but platitudes! Hasn't the court been doing this all along? But why is it still difficult to curb?"

Not waiting for Kou Zhun to respond, Emperor Liu said coldly: "At the root of it all, it's still that the court's work hasn't been done properly—there are those who supervise and enforce the law laxly, or even know the law and break it, colluding with those who share their interests, acting in complicity with them!"

As for Emperor Liu's harsh words now, all his thoughts and considerations were merely for the continuation of his empire's rule. As long as the policy on land transactions remained unchanged, annexation was inevitable, and changing the policy was easier said than done—besides, it would easily bring new problems.

Therefore, all along, the method Emperor Liu had adopted was also restriction plus improvement, treating the symptoms rather than the root cause. Given the Great Han's current productive forces and social development, seeking a fundamental cure was inherently unrealistic. Emperor Liu was equally clear on this point in his heart—revolution would be revolution against himself.

Land annexation could be done, but if you went too far, your table manners couldn't be too ugly. Those ordinary common people, even if they depended on you, you still had to let them survive—you couldn't drive people to the brink of death.

However, most of the exploiting classes under heaven seemed to lack this awareness, being insatiably greedy instead, habitually taking things to the extreme. And this kind of situation was what Emperor Liu truly needed to strike against—these were also enemies that shook the foundations of the Great Han's rule.

Therefore, while expressing approval of Kou Zhun's proposal, Emperor Liu also said: "It seems that from the government to the localities, the Great Han needs another cleansing! Tell me, can I let those treacherous villains who seize by force and cunning, bully the good and honest, knowingly break the law, and undermine the foundations of my Great Han have an easy time?"

Emperor Liu spoke very lightly, even gently, but the chill emanating from his tone made people involuntarily shiver.

Turning to look at Kou Zhun again, Emperor Liu thought for a moment and said: "Kou Zhun has rendered meritorious service in remonstrance, speaking with substance. I appoint you Censor of the Guannei Circuit!"

Kou Zhun was somewhat surprised—was this a promotion just like that? But he kept his expression calm and said respectfully: "Thank you, Your Majesty!"

In fact, this wasn't really a promotion—it was just converting his provisional status to a regular one, granting him an actual post. For a jinshi who had only just entered officialdom through the imperial examination, being converted to a regular post in less than a month was a rather legendary matter—at least in the current Great Han, it was quite rare. One must know that even among the previous cohort of jinshi, there were still those who hadn't been assigned positions and were still observing and apprenticing.