Chapter 132: Nobles Fail, Zhang Liang Offers a Plan

After these days of tax collection, all the nobles have become obedient.

Anyone who was not obedient has already had their entire Manmen family beheaded, and the Qian Cai seized from their households has all been transported to the treasury.

No one dares to embezzle this Qian Cai or the land deeds; the ministers have all been very obedient in handing this Qian Cai over.

If someone were to be discovered by a schemer for the sake of such meager gains, given the current trend of having one's entire Manmen family beheaded at the slightest provocation, the whole family would likely be executed as well.

This reform storm has left people in a state of perpetual dread.

However, the anxious and uneasy crowd consists entirely of nobles.

More than half of the nobles in the entire Xianyang City have been purged!

At the beginning, many nobles did not believe the ministers would dare to act recklessly and refused to pay taxes.

But the ministers were anxious; they saw others handing over their tax revenues.

Only they had failed to collect taxes, and when other ministers saw taxes could not be collected, they directly activated their violent mode!

With violent tax collection, naturally, more and more people began to imitate it.

This is how the bloody incidents in Xianyang City came about!

In the entire Xianyang City, anyone who refused to pay taxes was slaughtered!

The nobles and merchants in Xianyang City were terrified; in just over half a month, more than a dozen noble families suffered Mie Sect, and several thousand people were slaughtered to the last man!

The nobles were afraid and all began to pay their taxes, daring not to owe a single bit.

In contrast, the common people clapped and cheered!

Across the various regions of Great Qin, those without fertile land to farm were each allocated at least a hundred mu of fertile land.

This also allowed them to see the Court's decision's determination regarding this noble tax reform.

Any noble unwilling to pay taxes would be sentenced to have their entire Manmen family beheaded!

Every household of common people received over a hundred mu of fertile land.

The people of Great Qin are deeply grateful to the Court.

Over these days, the people of the entire Great Qin have all benefited, and naturally, they support the Court's decision even more.

The people of the entire Great Qin are immersed in joy, celebrating under the same sky!

Meanwhile, the nobles are filled with endless complaints and grievances.

Kuaiji Commandery.

Inside a manor, many nobles from the Six States had gathered.

Leading them were Xiang Liang, Seeing Xiang Yu, and Zhang Liang.

All were famous anti-Qin forces.

"Ying Zheng is tyrannical; in these twenty-plus days, the tax reform has reduced the number of new and old nobles in Great Qin by sixty percent!"

"Anyone unwilling to pay taxes has had their entire Manmen family beheaded!"

"Our Kuaiji Commandery has also fallen victim; if we had not cooperated in paying taxes, we likely would have been slaughtered as well!"

"It is simply the height of tyranny! I truly cannot stand this Qin regime any longer!"

Seeing Xiang Yu's hair stood on end in rage, and he slapped the table in front of him, shattering it.

The others were also extremely angry, as their Kuaiji Commandery, which they had cultivated for years, had been brutally attacked.

They had secretly maintained several thousand private soldiers of the Xiang family in Kuaiji Commandery, originally planning to fight to the death.

But at the last moment, Xiang Liang stopped them; if Ying Zheng learned they were harboring private soldiers, he would certainly send troops immediately to destroy them.

Fortunately, they restrained this impulse; otherwise, the consequences would have been unimaginable.

"Sigh, now our strength is severely depleted; we do not know what to do."

"Who can deny it? The wealth of the various manors has been stripped by half, and half of their land has also been confiscated."

"We have to support so many soldiers; I estimate it will be even harder for us in the future!"

"If I had known this would happen, I should have fought them to the death!"

"With what would you fight? Once it is discovered that we harbor private soldiers here, Ying Zheng will certainly dispatch a massive army to suppress us, and then everyone will die!"

Everyone was sighing and lamenting the impact of the tax reform on them.

"Uncle, you must say something!"

"When exactly will Ying Zheng die?"

"If we continue like this, I fear we will not last long."

"Uncle should not have stopped Shaoyu; otherwise, those ministers would surely have come and never returned!"

Seeing Xiang Liang remain silent, Seeing Xiang Yu, unconvinced, continued to speak.

Xiang Liang shook his head and sighed; he also wanted to act, but he knew that acting now would have only one outcome: everyone present would die.

Ying Zheng has not yet died, and he dares not gamble with the lives of so many people.

"Shaoyu, calm down; now that Brother Zhang Liang has visited, everyone can discuss the next plan together."

"Whether to rise up against Qin now or what else to do, we will decide after deliberation."

Xiang Liang bowed to Zhang Liang.

"Brother Zhang, what is your view on this matter?"

Everyone turned their gaze to Zhang Liang's position.

Zhang Liang stood up and returned the bow.

"Brother Xiang, this matter is difficult to handle."

"Great Qin's tax reform; this strategy can be described as extremely poisonous."

"Distributing the nobles' land to the people and reducing the people's taxes."

"The greatest beneficiaries of this move are the people of the world."