Chapter 238 Far ahead
Su Ze was naturally very dissatisfied with the attitude of the Hanzhong Yang family.
The place of Liangzhou is different from other places in the Northern Wei Dynasty.
This was the territory that the Northern Wei had just conquered. The powerful lords in the Hanzhong area were very powerful and had been jumping back and forth between the north and the south for a long time.
Moreover, because Hanzhong is a relatively closed geographical area compared to other areas in the north, the local powerful families are very powerful.
Yang Kan said:
"This county is all the manor of the Yang family in Hanzhong."
Su Ze asked in surprise:
"The whole county?"
Yang Kan nodded and said:
"It's not just this county. The Yang family in Hanzhong has three counties. There are more than 10,000 slaves listed in the official register alone. As for the hidden population, no one knows how many there are."
Su Ze's face became serious. It seemed that the powerful people in Hanzhong were not ordinary powerful people in the north.
The powerful people in the north, like the Sikong Zhang Yi who was beaten to death, had tens of thousands of farmhands in his family, which made him a first-class powerful family in Jizhou.
But this kind of powerful family is totally insignificant in the south.
The aristocratic manors in the south are the complete embodiment of the aristocratic economy.
These manors often occupied the land of an entire county, and the people of the entire county were all slaves of this family, distributed in different fields and workshops, producing various supplies for these wealthy families.
Liangzhou is located at the junction of the north and the south, and the powerful families here are more similar to the powerful manor owners in the south.
The northern nobles, after being ravaged by the Five Barbarians' Invasion and the wars in the north, had their claws and teeth cut off compared to their counterparts in the south.
Emperor Xiaowen's Sinicization reforms and the establishment of clan systems actually suppressed the power of the northern nobles.
When Su Ze was studying before, he didn’t understand this passage. Now Su Ze understands it. Emperor Xiaowen’s move was indeed a brilliant one.
Establishing clans and absorbing powerful families to serve as officials in the court is a tactic called "centralization of the powerful."
The wealthy families were attracted by the positions in Luoyang. Every major family wanted to seek official positions in Luoyang, so they had to send their most outstanding sons and daughters to Luoyang to serve as officials.
This is the political correctness of almost all gentry. Since you are a gentry, shouldn’t your children become officials?
No big family would be willing to stay in the countryside and live like bumpkins, not to mention the attraction of the super city of Luoyang to the young people in the family.
Even if I don't work as an official in Luoyang, it's better to enjoy life in Luoyang than in my hometown in the countryside!
This trick was later used by Tokugawa Ieyasu and Louis XIV.
The Tokugawa shogunate used the Sankinkotai system to trick local daimyo into coming to Edo to enjoy the luxury of wealth, causing them to lose control over the local areas.
Louis XIV used the court aristocracy system to concentrate all the nobles in the Palace of Versailles to enjoy themselves, thus undermining their influence in the local areas.
When Emperor Xiaowen established the four-class aristocratic families, the Longxi Li family heard the news only late, so they sent their family members on camels to Luoyang overnight. The camels entering Luoyang stretched for miles, and the nobles in Luoyang at that time all called the Longxi Li family the Camel Li.
Although this name may make fun of the Guanxi gentry such as Longxi Li family as country bumpkins, on the other hand it also illustrates the powerful strength of the Longxi Li family at that time.
But now, only twenty years have passed, and the Longxi Li family can no longer control Longxi County.
People always strive for higher positions, and talents should strive for higher positions even more.
As long as there are channels for upward mobility in the imperial court, no matter how united a family is, it will be impossible for them to keep their outstanding children in their hometowns. If the children stay in their hometowns, they will not be able to do so, and it will be good enough if they can maintain the family business, but it will be difficult to expand it.
The two brothers of the Su family who are most outstanding in martial arts, Su Liang and Su Chao, both serve under Su Ze.
Su Ze looked at the farmlands around him. The people busy in the fields had numb expressions, and each of them looked like a walking corpse.
Su Ze asked:
"How did the Hanzhong Yang family get so many people?"
This question left Yang Kan and Su Liang silent. They had never thought about how the Yang family of Hanzhong had absorbed so many people.
Compared with land, Su Ze pays more attention to population issues.
There are many ways to deal with the issue of land. Moreover, even if there is land, it still requires people to plant and graze to generate wealth.
Any government has countless ways to weaken the land of the powerful.
Population is the big problem.
An organization with more than 10,000 people, no matter whether the leader of the organization is a wealthy family, a landlord, a military governor, or a militia commander, is an issue that any government must treat with caution.
If it is not handled with care, it will cause unrest.
Moreover, compared with tribal leaders with tens of thousands of men, local tyrants like the Yang family in Hanzhong, who were based on farming, were more destructive.
Nomadic peoples are all refugees, and their wars are also about robbery. It is difficult for them to occupy one place for a long time, and they can also surrender for economic benefits.
However, once the farming nobles take root, they will control local farming, economy and grassroots management, and it will not be easy to eliminate their influence.
Moreover, they can build forts and strongholds to defend each other, and it takes a lot of effort for the regular army to take them down.
At this time, Feng Shu, who was accompanying him, said:
"General, I have checked the criminal cases in Liangzhou. Most of these slaves were confiscated by the government and made slaves."
"what?"
Su Ze looked at Feng Shu with some confusion.
Feng Shu explained:
"Although the Hanzhong Yang family did not serve in the provincial government, they controlled the positions at the county level. When the governor Fu was in power, he was unable to replace these people."
"Especially in this county where the Yang family is located, all the county magistrates and county officials have been descendants of the Hanzhong Yang family."
"I have checked and found that the punishments in these counties are extremely severe. If the common people are involved, they will be bankrupt, fined and enslaved. Even merchants from other places dare not come here to do business, for fear of getting into trouble and being fined and enslaved."
This time even Su Liang and Yang Kan were surprised that the Yang family in Hanzhong actually used this method to "create" slaves for themselves.
Su Ze couldn't help but shout "Wow!" He thought of that country on the other side of the ocean thousands of years later, that "lighthouse" country that privatized prisons and bribed judges to impose longer sentences to increase prison revenue.
It turns out that our ancestors have been playing like this for a long time?
Feng Shu said:
"In fact, we also have slaves in our dynasty, but most of our slaves are people captured during the wars."
"The situation in Liangzhou is somewhat similar to that of the Southern Dynasty. The criminal laws in the Southern Dynasty were strict, and most slaves were confiscated by the government."
Su Ze sneered and said:
"So this Yang family learned from the Southern Bandits?"
Feng Shu said:
"However, in recent years, there have been more and more cases of government officials confiscating slaves in our dynasty, so I have the idea of correcting the criminal law."
Su Ze looked at the people working numbly in the fields. Now the southern countryside was filled with a large number of such slaves.
This is also the scene behind Xiao Yan’s so-called prosperous times.
The political indulgence made the entire Southern Liang officialdom filled with the culture of making money. Officials colluded with the powerful and exploited the people with harsh laws and harsh punishments, but were very lenient towards corrupt and derelict officials.
Xiao Yan allegedly learned the lesson from the infighting among royal family members of the Southern Qi Dynasty and was extremely indulgent towards his own royal family members. However, the price he paid behind this was that the people were harmed by corrupt officials and cruel bureaucrats, and their families were destroyed.
In the historical timeline before Su Ze traveled through time, Hou Jing fled to Southern Liang and started his army with only a few thousand remnants, but he shouted the slogan of liberating slaves, and the army quickly expanded to more than 100,000 people. Su Ze looked at the farm of the Yang family, and Su Liang, who was familiar with him, felt a chill, and he knew that Su Ze had the intention to kill.
Su Liang said:
"General, although the Hanzhong Yang family is only a local family in Liangzhou, they are the most important family in Liangzhou. If we touch them, I'm afraid Liangzhou will be in turmoil."
Su Liang continued:
"If the general starts killing people, the nobles in other places will also feel sympathetic."
Su Ze glanced at Su Liang. As expected, everyone has their own limitations.
Su Liang was born into a prominent family, so he naturally preferred Su Ze to unite the gentry and try not to harm them.
This is not difficult to understand. Wasn’t this how Emperor Guangwu of Han came to be?
Although Su Ze was not born into a high-class family, he faced much less resistance than his predecessors in this era of loosening of family power.
As long as he can unite the gentry, if there is any change in the world, he may have a chance to seize the throne.
But Su Ze didn't think so.
Looking at those people who were like walking corpses, if Su Ze finally got such a world, what would be the difference between him and the emperors of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties?
When he was around, he could intimidate his subordinates with his prestige from conquering the world.
When his descendants come to power, they will unite with these noble families to share power.
Finally, the thunder will be passed on to descendants, and if the country can be maintained for fifty to one hundred years, it will be considered that the contribution of this ancestor is quite great.
If there are one or two unfilial descendants, the dynasty will be like those Southern Dynasties, and will perish after two or three generations.
Su Ze didn't want this to happen.
The Yang family in Hanzhong is not as good as the aristocratic families in the north who have passed down poetry and literature from generation to generation. At least they still have some dignity.
What kind of people are the Yang family in Hanzhong? They framed criminals and harmed the people, forced them to be slaves for them, and then they sat in their manor and enjoyed their wealth?
Where in the world can such a good thing happen?
However, Su Liang's opposition was not entirely unreasonable. If Su Ze directly used the army to destroy the Yang family, it would cause panic among other noble families.
There is more than one force in Guanzhong. If I push them to the side of others and form a joint force to encircle and suppress me, I will be trapped in Guanzhong.
Su Ze looked at Feng Shu and said:
"Since it is a matter of law, what do you think about conferring the title of Sima?"
Feng Shu knew that Su Ze wanted to ask for his professional opinion. Feng Shu thought for a moment and said:
“The first thing is to take the power of trial away from the counties.”
Su Ze thought for a while and said, "This is easy to do. First, let the county clerks take a legal examination. Those who fail the examination cannot judge the case."
"We will set up patrol offices in each county and assign our clerks to try cases. Serious cases will all be submitted to the provincial criminal department for review."
Su Liang thought about it and thought this was a good idea.
By setting up a circuit court and letting judicial officials travel around to try cases, it would be possible to avoid permanent corruption by the Yang family.
Feng Shu frowned and said:
"It's just that there aren't enough law enforcement officers in Liangzhou."
Su Ze waved his hand and said:
"Don't worry about that. I will naturally solve the problem of people."
"But what about the people who have been confiscated and enslaved?"
Feng Shu said:
"We can only do this gradually."
"Slowly and steadily? Can't we let these slaves sue the Yang family?"
Feng Shu was born into a family of jurists, and he was well versed in every aspect of judicial affairs.
He said:
"General, I know what you are thinking. You want these people to sue Yang and overturn the verdict."
"But some of these people have been slaves for generations, and they don't even want to leave the Yang family."
"Some others who were forced into slavery did not dare to sue the Yang family. For them, the court and the state officials were too far away. But the Yang family was right in front of them. Their relatives were in their hands, so they did not dare to resist."
Su Liang and Yang Kan also nodded, obviously not optimistic about Su Ze's plan.
Su Ze nodded, it seemed that he had thought too simply.
Ordinary people have their edges smoothed by various social realities. In the eyes of ordinary people, officials protect each other.
But this trick doesn't work, Su Ze has other ways.
Didn't your Yang family in Hanzhong fabricate crimes to enslave the people? Then the prefectures and counties can also use magic to defeat magic. Doesn't your Yang family have anything illegal?
Su Ze looked at Feng Shu and said:
"Sima Feng, what if someone reports the Yang family for illegal activities? Who has the jurisdiction over this case? Can the governor's office handle it?"
Feng Shu recited the law:
"According to the provisions of the Taihe Code, illegal activities of prominent families in prefectures and counties must be handed over to the prefectural governor's office and the prefectural Da Zhongzheng for joint trial."
Da Zhongzheng was an official responsible for assessing local status and determining family status.
However, after Emperor Xiaowen determined the surnames, Da Zhongzheng became merely an idle position responsible for coordinating and handling relations with local prominent families, and was basically held concurrently by the local governor.
Su Ze smiled and said:
"That's easy. This general is not targeting anyone, but to correct the local prison system."
After returning to Nanzheng, Su Ze immediately opened the system and summoned Su Lie (the cruel penman) to Hanzhong.
Su Lie was left in Wuxing by Su Ze to handle criminal cases. He greatly improved the public security in Wuxing and also arrested several tyrants who disrupted local order.
Su Ze simply appointed him as the Criminal Affairs Officer of the Liangzhou Governor's Office.
The next event today is to summon followers. Su Ze thought about it and decided to focus on the [Pen and Knife Clerk] series of followers and summon five of them first.
Su Ze discovered a new way to summon high-quality followers.
Then just “save” your luck.
During the first few system refreshes, Su Ze deliberately kept Lu Xiuning far away, and sure enough, no more orange or purple followers appeared, and the system returned to the blue and green levels.
Today, Su Ze summoned Lu Xiuning to his bedroom, ready to take advantage of her luck and summon a few purple followers.
Lu Xiuning felt a little uneasy when she received the summons from Su Ze. Could it be that Su Ze had been pretending to be a gentleman for so long and was finally going to take action against her?
Although Su Ze announced to the public that he wanted Lu Xiuning to be a military slave, he was actually quite caring towards her and even had a separate room for her to rest.
She was somewhat resistant inside, but somehow she washed and dressed herself up, and even tied her hair into a high ponytail according to Su Ze's preference.
When Lu Xiuning walked into Su Ze's room carrying a wooden basin for washing, Su Ze was concentrating on looking at the system.
It turned purple as expected.
(End of this chapter)