Chapter 991: A Traitor for the Ages

Little Wei Yuan observed the situation of the county and township commoners slightly on the way, then flew into the Southern Military Command Camp.

The Southern Military Command Camp was originally set up at the border between Huang Ping County and Xiang Rong County. Since Little Wei Yuan severely beat the five-county gentry last time and then repelled the Zhao Army, he moved the camp into the hinterland of Xiang Rong County, eight hundred miles away from the county city.

Little Wei Yuan liked to set up camps across the main road, with mountains on the left and right, emphasizing that no one should have an easy time. The location of the camp controlled the traffic arteries in many directions; no matter if it was east, west, south, or north, the large forces of the surrounding counties wanting to pass through Xiang Rong County could not bypass the camp.

At this time, there were only twenty thousand troops stationed in the Southern Military Command Camp, but the material reserves were ten times higher. Stationed in the camp were the General of the East and four deputy generals. The General of the East was one of the sixteen young masters and misses from back then, and the four deputy generals were all cultivated by the Qingming Military Academy itself.

Little Wei Yuan entered the camp and asked for the current military intelligence data, as well as the execution of various previous arrangements, reading carefully while listening to the generals' reports.

Little Wei Yuan was now the Minister of the Southern Military Command; with the addition of the word "General," he actually held both military and political power, and the jurisdiction had expanded from five counties to eight. Among the three newly added counties, two were peripheral forces of the Lu clan, and one was a peripheral force of the Xu clan.

The measures Little Wei Yuan implemented in the eight counties included five items: poverty relief, land reclamation, land distribution, enlightenment, and clearing of grievances. To be specific, poverty relief was providing food to the most impoverished people who had no place to live, so they would not freeze or starve to death, and then they would work for Little Wei Yuan as repayment. The work was mainly land reclamation; after reclamation, they would be distributed a small piece to cultivate themselves, paying land rent annually.

Land reclamation was opening up wasteland, which was the responsibility of the Qiankun Earth-Moving Warriors under Chuhe. Land reclamation was of great significance; the newly reclaimed land would be distributed to landless people to cultivate. Land distribution was combined with the clearing of grievances, returning land that had been seized by powerful families from poor people for various reasons in the past.

Enlightenment need not be mentioned.

Combined, these five measures were far more powerful than those in the Zhao Kingdom. The money and grain invested in poverty relief alone were about the same as the entire Zhao Kingdom. Land distribution and clearing of grievances were two items that the Zhao Kingdom had not implemented at all. These two items were actually mainly aimed at the gentry who had large amounts of land and were still desperately buying land and annexing it during the war.

Little Wei Yuan's initial concept was to take back the land annexed in the eight counties after the start of the Jin-Zhao War and redistribute it to the most impoverished people. Little Wei Yuan had calculated that if the gentry spat out this bit of interest, it would only be one-tenth of their total family wealth, but this bit could settle almost all the poor people. Then these poor people would definitely contribute human luck.

Clearing grievances could also harvest a lot of popular support, but it was not certain how much. So Little Wei Yuan still valued land distribution the most.

Little Wei Yuan expected that within one month, with the five measures implemented in parallel, he could end the phenomenon of all freezing and starvation in the eight counties at once; although he could not achieve "every cultivator has land," he could at least achieve "everyone who wants to cultivate has land to plant."

And land distribution required clearing the land acreage. After clearing the land acreage, he could also collect the taxes that had not been collected in the past, which would be used for the poverty relief system and the construction of academies, completely eliminating freezing and starvation and opening the wisdom of the people.

The eight counties had a total of 97 million people. Little Wei Yuan originally expected that after the full month of reform implementation, he could harvest 20 million human luck, but until now, with only seven days left until the full month, there were still only 4 million in the account.

So when Little Wei Yuan was reviewing the situation and listening to the reports, his mood was as calm as water.

The General of the East was named Li Zheng, a peripheral member of the Li clan of the Southern Qi, and had been in Qingming for more than ten years now. After multiple rounds of human luck blessings from Little Wei Yuan, he finally broke through to the Dharma Form realm and was now also an important talent.

Li Zheng reported one by one, occasionally supplemented by deputy generals.

"Poverty relief is going smoothly; money, grain, oil, and rice can all be distributed. But after distribution, they are snatched away by local ruffians and rogues. I sent people to arrest them, and I have arrested many batches of ruffians totaling more than three thousand people. As a result, they were sent to the government office, and they were all released. Some ruffians have already been arrested by me four times."

"Because letting the starving people eat their fill is the first priority, I had to withdraw the precious oil and rice later and only distribute coarse grain buns mixed with sand, stones, and bran, which no one would even want to sell. Only then did it truly enter the stomachs of the starving people. I have already investigated clearly; most of these ruffians are instigated by the local gentry and government offices."

"Enlightenment is not going well; only more than ten academies have managed to open, but the total number of students recruited is less than a hundred, not as many as the teachers."

Little Wei Yuan's face remained unchanged and said, "Aren't our academies free? Why is no one coming?"

A Assistant Regional Commander presented a video.

In the video, it was an academy, and the gate was surrounded by a group of scholars leading people, not letting a single student enter. Several teachers in the academy were splashed with filth and knelt on the ground to be lectured. A scholar said, "My teacher is the closed-door disciple of Qian Shiqian! You guys are all goods that cannot enter my teacher's classroom; who allowed you to open an academy here? The Wei Wang? What is the Wei Wang? That is a traitor for the ages!"

The video ended, and Little Wei Yuan was noncommittal.

Then land distribution and clearing grievances were the focus, and Li Zheng reported personally. Because this moved the interests of the gentry, Little Wei Yuan naturally knew it was difficult, so he had given Li Zheng great power early on.

Li Zheng was also swift and decisive in execution; as a result, in less than twenty days, there were more than three hundred conflicts with the servants, guards, and even private armies of the gentry families. Several Qingming soldiers were injured, while the gentry side had nearly a thousand casualties.

Because Little Wei Yuan strictly ordered the time limit, whenever the gentry obstructed, Li Zheng used force to open the way, finally successfully clearing the situation of land annexation in many places, and also visited many poor tenant farmers, collecting clues of seizure, basically completing the work of clearing land acreage.

But the subsequent changing of land deeds and returning of land was difficult; first, the government office dragged its feet, and then the poor people who returned the land were beaten to death on their own land in the middle of the night, and many poor people dared not receive the returned land anymore.

"There should be nine million mu of land that should be cleared and returned. How many mu have been returned so far?" Little Wei Yuan did not see this number.

Li Zheng said, "It cannot be counted, but the end general estimates it is about... two thousand mu."

Little Wei Yuan suddenly laughed.

These gentry scholars were really opposing him everywhere, and every measure had targeted countermeasures, leaving no dead ends; they really didn't waste their reading.

He moved the silver in their pockets, and they were indeed not worth pitying, and they would be infamous for ten thousand years.

And even if the measures were executed like this, almost no benefits fell into the hands of the poor, and he was cursed as a "traitor for the ages" everywhere, Little Wei Yuan still harvested 4 million human luck. This shows that justice is in the hearts of the people, and it also shows how poor the people of the Western Jin have become; a mouthful of food can harvest sincerity.

Li Zheng had indeed done his best, with several hundred lives in his hands, but the gentry families retreated openly while secretly hindering him from the side. Li Zheng had no way; he couldn't just slaughter their entire families.

Little Wei Yuan asked, "Didn't they carry the corpses of the dead to the camp gate?"

Li Zheng said, "They did. Then the leading Dharma Form was shot to death by the end general with an arrow, and they haven't come again since. But in the busy streets of major county cities, there are corpses everywhere. Someone even compiled storytelling, spreading it everywhere."

"The storytelling must be cursing me, right?"

Li Zheng did not answer, making a default. The storytelling was not only ugly to curse but also lewd, involving many people around Little Wei Yuan.

Little Wei Yuan stopped asking about the details of the execution, tapped the table lightly, and after a moment of thought, said, "Draft a document, send it to all the gentry and government offices involved in the eight counties, and limit them to implement all five measures within one day." ===== CHAPTER 992 =====