The Great Arcanist Who Traveled Through the World of American Variety Shows.

Chapter 633 Regional Balance
The operation to occupy the Greek peninsula went unexpectedly smoothly. Especially when Richard implemented the Equal Distribution of Land and the Order of Freeing Slaves in the Greek peninsula, he immediately won the support of the lower classes.

As for the high-ranking officials and nobles on the Greek peninsula, if they can cooperate with Richard and help complete these decrees, Richard will also give them preferential treatment and make them honorary nobles.

At the same time, you will have the opportunity to study at the Roman Academy.

The opportunity to study at the Roman Academy was actually an opportunity to participate in state affairs and to become an official of the entire empire.

Richard used the right to participate in politics in exchange for these people's support for the empire. If the nobles and upper class were smart enough, they would know what to do with this approach.

Of course, if you meet someone who is not smart enough, it doesn’t matter. Just be more careful in your next life.

Richard treated Rome, Greece, Gaul, Spain and North Africa equally. He gave each region a comprehensive score based on its population, education, and the proportion of power it occupied in the empire.

Then, the quotas will be allocated to each region according to the comprehensive scores. This division will not be absolutely fair, but only relatively fair.

However, in many cases, even relative fairness cannot be achieved. This is something that the ancient Dongda University was very aware of.

The An-Shi Rebellion in the Tang Dynasty and the dispute between the North and South Lists in the Ming Dynasty were all disputes over the right to speak in politics.

On the surface, the An Lushan Rebellion in the Tang Dynasty was caused by An Lushan, but in reality, the root cause was the political and economic discrimination against the Hebei gentry.

This problem has existed since the founding of the Tang Dynasty. Emperor Taizong of Tang, Li Shimin, wanted to solve this problem, but his father, Li Yuan, planted a big bomb for him, which led to the Hebei region's distrust of the central government.

This big thunder was to kill Dou Jiande.

When Li Shimin captured Dou Jiande, Dou Jiande was willing to surrender and personally wrote letters to his subordinates, asking them to surrender as well.

Li Shimin promised to guarantee Dou Jiande's safety and give him corresponding treatment. If things develop in this way, Hebei's problems can be solved by half.

But Li Yuan took action.

At that time, Li Yuan must have seen that his eldest son had made such great achievements and his prestige was so high that even he could not compare to him, let alone the crown prince.

In this way, the political balance was completely broken. After all, he had always been trying to strike a balance between the Crown Prince and the King of Qin, and then he sat back and enjoyed the benefits.

As a result, he never expected that Qin Wang Li Shimin's eldest son would capture two kings in one battle, and not only conquer Luoyang, but also pacify the north.

Who in the Tang Dynasty can match such military achievements?
Li Yuan then started to make trouble. After learning that Dou Jiande had surrendered and Li Shimin had made a promise, he directly ordered Li Shimin to kill Dou Jiande.

The direct consequence was that Hebei surrendered and then rebelled again.

This was exactly what Li Yuan wanted, so he directly appointed the prince as the commander-in-chief and led the army to pacify Hebei. This approach was also the reason why the prince was allowed to gain fame.

In his opinion, all the troops in Hebei had been defeated by Li Shimin, and the only ones left were just a bunch of useless people who could be dealt with with a few casual attacks.

But what he didn't expect was that the prince led the army to pacify Hebei, but instead of pacifying it, it caused him a big mess. The Tang army was defeated in successive battles, forcing Li Yuan to use Li Shimin again.

Then let Li Shimin pacify Hebei again.

Although Hebei was stabilized after the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, Hebei had always distrusted the central government. In addition, because Hebei was pacified twice, there were almost no people from Hebei families in high positions in the central government.

Almost all power in the Tang Dynasty was in the hands of the Guanlong nobles.

In terms of taxation, the difference in treatment between Hebei and Guanzhong was even greater. The Tang Dynasty implemented the Fubing system, and if you became a Fubing, you did not have to perform corvée labor.

At that time, there were more than 289 Zhechofu in the Tang Dynasty. These Zhechofu were institutions that managed local soldiers. Among them, there were 22 in Guanzhong and only in Hebei.

Hebei's population is several times that of Guanzhong, but the number of Zhechoufu in Hebei is less than one-tenth of that in Guanzhong.

Because there were few Zhechoufu, Hebei bore 70% of the corvée labor in the country, and in addition, the taxes were higher than other places. As a result, Hebei suffered terribly. This also led to Dou Jiande's death in the early Tang Dynasty. As a result, when the Tang Dynasty fell, people in Hebei still worshipped him.

Under such circumstances, the emergence of An Lushan was another choice for the people of Hebei. So when An Lushan started his rebellion, many people in Hebei responded.

Even after An Lushan and Shi Siming died, the people of Hebei continued to oppose the Tang Dynasty.

This time, the aristocratic families in Hebei directly chose to support the three towns in Hebei, and the direct result was that the three towns in Hebei were in a semi-independent state from the middle Tang Dynasty until the end of the Tang Dynasty.

They did not pay taxes or grain, and their military governors were elected by themselves. They completely ignored the central government of the Tang Dynasty, and the Tang court did not pay much attention to them.

When the Tang Dynasty fell and the Song Dynasty was established, the Youzhou area in Hebei directly became the Liao Kingdom. It was directly separated from the Central Plains. By the time of the Southern Song Dynasty, not to mention Hebei, the entire Central Plains was occupied by foreign races.

It was not until the Ming Dynasty, when Zhu Yuanzhang unified China, that the problems left over from the Tang Dynasty began to reappear.

The north had long been ruled by the Hu people, and its culture and virtues were not as good as those of the south, which led to the major case of the North-South List in the 30th year of Hongwu.

In the 30th year of Hongwu, the Ming Dynasty held the imperial examination and admitted 51 Jinshi, all of whom were from the south. No one from the north was on the list.

In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang also knew about this case. The writing level of northern scholars was not as good as that of southern scholars, and there was basically no favoritism or fraud in this exam.

But things cannot be done this way. A huge empire cannot only allow people from the south to be officials and not admit people from the north. This is not a good thing for the empire.

So Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the chief examiner to re-examine the papers and told him to increase the number of places for northern scholars, and the matter was over.

As a result, the chief examiner at that time, Liu Sanwu, refused to do so. As a southerner, he knew very well that doing so would squeeze the places of southern scholars. At the same time, he was also a great scholar of the time and was unwilling to compromise, believing that this would tarnish his reputation.

So the second marking remains the same.

Didn't he know that this was a political incident? He knew it. After all, he had been an official for decades and was very clear that this was not a simple right or wrong, but a political incident that concerned the stability of the country.

Perhaps for his reputation, perhaps for his hometown, or perhaps for other reasons, Liu Sanwu simply refused.

This incident made Zhu Yuanzhang furious, and he directly issued an imperial decree to execute all the more than 20 examiners who presided over the examination. Liu Sanwu was spared from death because of his old age and was sent to guard the border.

Zhu Yuanzhang then personally ordered another examination, this time all candidates were from the north, and he personally reviewed the papers and selected sixty-one people.

From then on, the Ming Dynasty began to recruit Jinshi from the North and South lists.

The stability of an empire cannot rely on just one region. This was the case with the Roman Empire in the past, where almost all of the imperial nobles were Romans.

The North African provinces were only their food base, Spain only provided the empire with ores and various precious metals, and Gaul only provided them with military forces and manpower.

As for managing the country? All they need are Romans. As for the upward channels, there are very few. Without upward space, how could the people in these provinces be willing to support the empire? So after the foreign invasion, many of them directly voted, and then followed the foreigners to get promoted and make money.

Richard would naturally not make such a mistake. The Roman Academy he promoted was to recruit talented people from all over the country and give them the opportunity to govern the country.

With this upward channel, Richard can win over powerful people, nobles and talents from all over the place.

After Richard's exchange of interests, the vast majority of Greek nobles and upper-class people agreed and began to help implement the Equal Field System and the Slave Release Order, but there were still some people who were unwilling.

Richard was not polite to these people and directly ordered the army to encircle and suppress them.

At the same time, because the Greek peninsula had just experienced a war and had a large population, but land resources were not abundant, Richard drew people from here and migrated them to other provinces to balance the population in various places.

This will not only solve the land problem, but also weaken the power of local wealthy families, while also replenishing the population from other places, creating a win-win situation for all parties.

(End of this chapter)