Since the Xia Dynasty, there have been five levels of titles: Duke, Husband, Uncle, Son and Man. After the founding of Great Qin, the same system of titles was adopted. The titles were hereditary, and the fiefdoms were all called states, thus forming various kinds of large and small vassal states, and within the vassal states, there were titles such as marquis, uncle, grandmaster, scholar, and so on, and the marquis, uncle, grandmaster had fiefdoms, and they could exercise the right of rule over the fiefdoms, and were only subject to the orders of the vassals. This kind of feudal system, over time, had the consequence of being too big to fail. The wise vassal rulers realized that this system would cause them to lose control of their localities, just as the Qin Emperor lost control of his vassal states.
Not wanting to end up in the same situation as the Qin Emperor, eight years earlier, the king of Zhao had taken the lead in reforming the system in his country by converting the fiefs of the feudal lords into cognacs, where the peasants on the fiefs of the feudal lords labored and paid rents for them, but could not exercise administrative power there, which the king of Zhao had brought back to the central government.
As the state of Wu was close to the state of Zhao, the king of Wu also wanted to reform the system as Zhao did, but she was persuaded by Yi Ji, who was about to develop her own power through the fiefs of Jiang Dafu, and she did not want the king of Wu to make drastic reforms to the fiefs. Yi Ji's reasoning was that since Zhao had tried the reforms first and did not know the consequences yet, Wu could have waited to see the changes in Zhao before making a decision.
After being persuaded by Yi Ji, the King of Wu's reform plan was delayed. After Zhao reformed the title system, the state became stronger and stronger day by day, but the King of Wu no longer had the energy to make drastic changes to the status quo of Wu because of his health.
With Zhao's successful reform column in front of them, the rulers of Yan, Chu, Qi, and Lu had already carried out or were preparing to carry out title reforms one after another.
By abolishing the rewarding fiefs and canceling the private soldiers in the fiefs, the Western Marquis was following nothing more than the path that King Zhao had taken first. With half of the great families within Wu already having been reduced in the turmoil, and with Chu Chaohui's de facto control over the entire army, the Western Marquis' reforms encountered even less resistance than King Zhao's original change from fiefs to eunuchs.
The villain of the reform to the nobles was done by the Western Marquis, so Zheng Yuming had to step in and be the good guy to stabilize people's hearts. The ones who were hurt the most by the reform system of abolishing the fiefs, in the eyes of the Wu nobles, were actually Zheng Yuming and Chu Chaohui.
Zheng Chu two people's merits, according to the routine, Chu Chao Hui can at least get the fiefdom of the level of the doctor, Zheng Yuming such a status of the duke, the fiefdom of the level of the marquis can not be escaped. Now Zheng Chu two people do not speak out against, the crowd will look at Zheng Yuming how to reward the meritorious ministers, Zheng Yuming's reward if not in place, the two will lose the support of many nobles.
Zheng Yuming first proposed to the Western Marquis that the titles of the Hussar General and the Eastern and Southern Secretaries of Deputies be raised by one rank, the Hussar General was promoted from Earl to Marquis, and the two Secretaries of Deputies in the South East were raised from Scholar to Burr, and the Ulsan meritorious nobles who had local titles only in the region of Ulsan, and had no royal court titles in the royal capital were this time proposed to be sealed and divided into titles of varying sizes by Zheng Yuming. Wei Shen and Wei Ren were proposed to be given the highest titles, the title of Bo, Wei Ci was the title of Dafu, Guo Si, Chen Meng and Yu Kui were the titles of Shi. The first bannermen to defect to Ulsan were also promoted one rank up from their original titles, and also proposed to be given the title of dafu were Wenzai of the Western Marquis' fiefdom.
Zheng Yuming's proposed list of nobles to be knighted was expected, only Zhou Cheng and Wei Qing, Zeng You's proposal to be knighted, causing the nobles to look sideways, Wei Qing is fine, is adopted by Zheng Yuming and Chu Chaohui commoners, Zhou Cheng and Zeng You is the status of slaves (Zeng You's actual bandits, in order to cover up the identity of the bandits, can only be claimed to be the slaves purchased). Although the nobles are discussing, but no one step forward to advise, because these three people have a lot of credit, if they are nobles, can be appointed to the title of doctor.
In addition to the honorary rewards, the next step was the material rewards. In order to compensate for the meritorious officials not being able to get a fiefdom, Zheng Yuming used a large amount of gold and jewels and jades as rewards, and even took out a set of twelve crystal wine glasses from the villa as a reward item.
The crystal glasses in the villa are lead-free crystal highball wine glasses, which cost Zheng Yuming's sister more than 1,000 RMB purchased from Taobao. The appearance is very beautiful, and in the sunlight, it will refract the sunlight into a colorful rainbow, and the glasses will be as translucent and shiny as diamonds.
If this set of cups were to be sold on the market of Great Qin, the price set, except for the vassal at the level of the king who could ask for it, the great nobles would not be able to afford to buy one of this set of cups. Zheng Yuming did not go to realize this set of cups, the main thing is that the buyer is too difficult to find, if sold cheaply, it will make the valley production of glass goods followed by the price drop, this is not what Zheng Yuming would like to see. So the villa kitchen has a lot of modern fine tableware, Zheng Yuming and Chu Chaohui would rather pack them into a storage room to mold, but also do not want to let these fine products flow into the luxury market to impact the price of glass factory and porcelain factory products.
While you can't cash in on these gems, you can buy your way in with these beautiful to the core items.
Twelve cups were distributed to the twelve most meritorious officials who had contributed most to the quelling of the rebellion, and each cup was wrapped in silk and placed in an exquisitely scented wooden box.
The nobles who got the cups as rewards were satisfied after seeing the cups, such beautiful cups could definitely be exchanged for several cities. Every nobleman made up his mind to pass on the cup as a family treasure.
Ripple Ji with the self-immolation of the gold, solidified and re-tested to impurities, along with most of the inner library of jade and silk, was the Western Marquis to Zheng Yuming to do the reward for merit and reconstruction. Zheng Yuming used these gold, jewelry and silk to do the reward.
The meritorious nobles who were not qualified to get the cups were rewarded with many gold jewels and brocade, which wiped out the unfairness of the nobles who did not get the fiefdom. A fiefdom is fortunate to manage half a lifetime to harvest the wealth to equal the reward, the money in front of the eyes, always than the tax collected every year to have an impact effect, there are material compensation of the nobles, the little dissatisfaction with the Western Marquis disappeared.
After the nobles were rewarded for their achievements, the next step was to reward the meritorious Huben and Ulsan soldiers.
Chu Chao Hui didn't want the Wu army to keep 30,000 Huben, he didn't want the future standing army of Wu to be of noble origin, he wanted the army soldiers to be composed of civilians and slaves. Giving benefits to noble soldiers to get their support is not as easy and convenient as giving benefits to civilian and slave soldiers.
Since we want to reduce the number of Huben soldiers, we have to think about letting them leave, can make Huben happy to leave without causing protests, no better than to give them benefits. Most of the Huben who were soldiers were from families that had fallen into disrepair and wanted to revitalize their families by gaining war merit from the military.
Huben wanted to get money and land after working for the king. Zheng Yuming's idea of letting Huben leave the army fulfilled this desire. Anyone in the Huben army who was twenty-five years old or older and had been in the army for five years could get a generous discharge fee to go home, and at the same time would be rewarded with good land ranging from thirty to fifty acres.
The source of good land allocated to the Huben comes from the fiefdom manor without a feudal lord, there are three kinds of these unowned fiefdoms, one is exterminated by Ripple Ji without a close heir, one is cooperating with Ripple Ji don't exterminate, and one is the swing faction, which is deprived of fiefdoms under the pretext of Zheng Yuming and Chu Chaohui. These three types of people's manor land are to be redistributed, in addition to being allocated to civilians and slaves to farm, it is to be allocated to the Huben who have retired and returned home. The land allocated to the Huben is private property, paying 10% tax per mu every year, tax exemption for two years, and can be freely traded. The land allocated to civilians and slaves was also taxed at 10% per year, and the land was state-owned and could only be transferred for cultivation, and could not be bought or sold privately.
When this measure was announced, half of the Huben requested to be discharged from the army and return home, after all, having fields and land had already achieved their intended purpose of being Huben. Chu Zhaohui approved all of them. Left more than 10,000 Huben, Chu Zhaohui still do not want to stay in the army, he is ready to one-third of the people to set up the stagecoach, one-third of the people to the counties and counties to maintain law and order.
Where there are no feudal lords in Wu, counties will be set up, and the counties will need vigilantes. These measures administrative measures are still on paper now and will be implemented step by step later.
While Chu Chao Hui settled the Huben, he recruited soldiers for the civilian population, and the age limit of the soldiers was between seventeen and twenty years old. Soldiers after the test enlistment, a monthly allowance, after five years the same can be discharged, future discharge will enjoy the Huben half of the treatment.
Most of the soldiers in Ulsan did not have five years of military service, they were not ready to be discharged, and the only economic reward for them was money, and politically it was the abolition of the lowly status of slaves.
"Chaohui, after the war, I realized that your army construction is still the big head of expenses." Zheng Yuming held the ledger in one hand and chopped and punched on the abacus with the other.
"When the army expenditure is not a big head, your country will be strong and peaceful." Chu Chao Hui put down his pen and smiled, he was also working on the army budget.
"I haven't even started rebuilding here yet, and the money is going out like running water." Zheng Yuming patted his account book and lamented. Pacifying the nobles and disbanding the Huben had used up the gold, jewels, and brocade that Western Marquis had given him. If he didn't have Wei Qing's wealth smuggled out of the palace's inner treasury and Zhou Cheng's money copied from all over the place as a backbone, Zheng Yuming really didn't dare to be so generous.
"Money can only live if it flows." Chu Chao Hui walked behind Zheng Yuming and helped him massage his shoulders.
Yesterday night the two just successfully tasted a deep exchange, although there is a military healer's medication to help reduce physical injuries, but the first time will always make Zheng Yuming intercourse parts of the discomfort. Chu Chao Hui morning can also sleep a little more, Zheng Yuming but have to get up and work, to the afternoon is to help Prince Sheng presided over the reward army, Chu Chao Hui has been paying attention to Zheng Yuming's physical condition, see Zheng Yuming while counting the accounts, the side of one hand to knock the back, we know that Zheng Yuming's body is still sore back pain.
"Not bad, it's better to keep it in the inner treasury than circulate it in the society." Zheng Yuming closed his eyes and enjoyed Chu Chao Hui's massage. Chu Chao Hui's massage level was no less than a professional masseur.
The Huben took their retirement money back and did not put it in a box and not use it; they were newly allocated land, and those with more land would hire people to farm it, to buy farming tools, to buy plowing oxen, and the factories that produced the tools, and the workshops that raised the oxen, benefited from the farmers.
"It's not early today, let's rest early." Chu Chao Hui massaged and massaged, and with one hand, he massaged into places that shouldn't be massaged.
"I do want to rest early!" Zheng Yuming 'snapped' off Chu Chao Hui's unruly hand, Chu Chao Hui's intention he understood very well, tomorrow was the day of Gongzi Guang's burial, Zheng Yuming didn't want to drag his unsteady body to send off his farewell, so Chu Chao Hui's idea was vetoed out by Zheng Yuming.
Just as Chu Chaohui and Zheng Yuming were crookedly entangled, the Western Marquis and his own Manzai, were discussing the two Zheng Chu.