Thief Emperor

Chapter 538 What great confidence!
Li Yun frowned and didn't speak for a long time.

Of course, it cannot be said that Zhuo Guangrui's opinion is completely unreasonable. In this era, imperial power did not extend to the countryside, and administrative units below the county level were all managed by local gentry and landlords, as well as clan leaders.

If Li Yun launched a large-scale land reform in Jiangdong, he would actually be killing these old landlords.

However, this kind of revolution will not affect the interests of future new landlords such as Zhuo Guangrui and Yao Zhong, because the fundamental system has not changed. Even if they lose land temporarily, they will naturally be able to get it back from other places in the future.

But if the old landlords find out, they will definitely try their best to fight Li Yun, because once Li Yun occupies their land, they will lose everything.

The reason for this situation was mainly because Li Yun took a shortcut at the beginning.

If he had raised the flag of rebellion like Qiu Dian did when he was in Xuanzhou, and after occupying a piece of land, he would have divided the land and made himself a king, ruling the country on his own, then the land he conquered would truly be his own land, and he could distribute it however he wanted.

However, he took a shortcut at the beginning.

That is, relying on the name of Wu Zhou, he grew his own body on Wu Zhou's rotting corpse. At this time, if he wanted to deny Wu Zhou's land deeds, many problems would arise.

There are not so many shortcuts in this world, and you always have to pay a price.

Li Yun is now paying the price for the shortcut he took. He has now escaped from the shackles of the Wu Zhou court, but the entire Jiangdong region, if it wants to completely escape...

It is not easy.

Li Yun was silent for a long time. After rubbing his temple, he looked at Du Qian and Yao Zhong and asked, "Do you think so too?"

Yao Zhong lowered his head and said nothing. Du Qian hesitated for a moment and then said, "At first, I had the same idea as my superior. The equal distribution of land is a process that every dynasty must go through when founding a country. Otherwise, the source of unrest will always be there. If there is no problem in our generation, there will still be problems in the next generation, and the next generation, and there will be..."

"There will be someone like Qiu Dian."

At this point, Du Qian first looked at Li Yun's face, and then continued: "After Brother Zhuo came back, he found the two of us and explained the pros and cons to us. Now, I also agree with Brother Zhuo's idea. This matter must be done, and it should be done."

"But we can't be impatient, and we can't just cut it off."

"Right now, we don't actually have full control over the states and counties, let alone the counties. Even the chief officials of the states and counties are not considered our people."

"We basically don't know the specific situation in each state and county."

Having said that, Du Qian stopped talking and looked at Yao Zhong.

They all knew Li Yun's temper. Once he set his mind to something, he would definitely accomplish it. Therefore, at this moment, Du Qian could not speak alone. Yao Zhong also needed to come out and share some of the pressure.

Yao Zhong gritted his teeth, stood up, and said, "Master, the three of us have discussed this for more than an hour, and we all think that this matter cannot be rushed."

Li Yun said "hmm" and said slowly: "Tell me about your charter."

Yao Zhong breathed a sigh of relief and said quickly, "Shangri-La, what we mean is that this matter must be done, but it would be best to extend it from one or two years to more than ten or twenty years. Next year, Shangri-La will hold a literary meeting to select materials. According to this situation, within three years, each county in Jiangdong will basically have people under Shangri-La."

"With them here, at least we can report how much land each county has and how many people it has."

Yao Zhong continued, "With the specific numbers, we can calculate how much land each person can get. If there are enough fields in some counties, there is actually no need to do this in a big way and cause criticism."

"As for other prefectures and counties, you can ask Lord Fei to go there and conduct a strict investigation of the administration and criminal law of each county. The Great Zhou Dynasty has been in disarray for more than a year or two, but for dozens or even hundreds of years!"

"As for those local big families who have occupied tens of thousands of acres of land, few of them are clean. Once the old accounts are found, they will be severely punished and their land will be confiscated."

"Local governments will soon own large-scale official farmland, and then, following the example of Yuezhou and Wuzhou, they can rent these official farmlands to local tenants at low prices or for free."

At this point, Yao Zhong looked at Li Yun and said cautiously: "In this way, at least Jiangdong will not have any trouble with the land issue, and there will be no source of trouble."

"When you are successful in your great cause, all states in the country will be re-registered and all citizens will be equal. At that time, it will not be too late to implement large-scale equal distribution of land."

Li Yun listened to him quietly, and then remained silent.

He didn't say anything, and the three people present, including Du Qian, basically didn't dare to say anything.

After a long time, Li Yun exhaled a breath of foul air and said, "Maybe I was too impatient."

Li Yun lowered his head and drank a sip of tea, then continued, "Let's fill in the positions of officials in each county according to your wishes. How long will it take to calculate the land and population of each county under my jurisdiction?"

Du Qian thought for a moment and said, "It will take at least one or two years."

"Well, let's discuss this matter after the amount is known. Before that, we will do as Mr. Yao said and punish the wicked and take over the government land at the same time."

"But, let's make it clear in advance."

Li Yun looked at the three people and said in a deep voice: "I will keep my opinion until the number comes out."

"That means whoever tills the land owns it!" He looked at Zhuo Guangrui with a burning gaze, "Also, the reason I agreed to postpone this matter is not because I am afraid of those damn gentry and landlords outside Jiangdong."

"It's because I need to find out the specific situation in Jiangdong before making a decision."

After saying that, Li Yun stood up and walked out with his hands behind his back.

This time, Li Yun, who was always polite to these scholars, rarely kept them for dinner, but just walked away.

Zhuo Guangrui and Yao Zhong looked at Du Qian at the same time, both feeling a little uneasy. They knew that their boss sometimes had a bad temper.

Du Qian also noticed the two people's gazes. He lowered his head and drank a sip of tea, then said, "Both of you should go back and do what you need to do. Don't worry, the person in charge will be fine."

"It's very reasonable. As long as you are right, there will be no problem."

Zhuo Guangrui bowed his head and said to Du Qian, "Mr. Du, I did not say this casually before. The Zhuo family has more than 40,000 acres of land in Wu County. All of it can be handed over to the government and used as public land."

"Please, Lord Du, report to the higher authority."

When Du Qian first arrived in Jiangdong, he was 26 years old, and now he is already 30 years old.

At his age, he is still a young man in Li Yun’s original world, but in this world, there is no problem in calling him a "man".

Even Zhuo Guangrui changed his name to follow Yao Zhong.

After all, since Li Yun left the court, all the old official positions in Jiangdong were actually not important.

Du Qian stood up, nodded and smiled, "Brother Zhuo is very enthusiastic. Both me and the superior can see it. Don't worry, I will definitely convey your message."

Zhuo Guangrui then nodded, clasped his fists, lowered his head and left.

Yao Zhong bowed to Du Qian, hesitated for a moment, and then said, "Mr. Du, I will be leaving Jinling in a few days."

"Whether the land is distributed equally or not, I will go there and take a look at the general situation of each prefecture and county."

Du Qian looked at him, nodded and said okay.

Yao Zhong breathed a sigh of relief, bowed to Du Qian, and turned away.

Du Qian sat in his seat, lowered his head to drink a sip of tea, and after thinking for a long time, he stood up and went to look for Li Yun.

After asking Li Yuan's servants, Du Qian found out that Li Yun was in Li Yuan's backyard. Under the guidance of the two servants, Du Qian soon saw Li Yun again in the backyard.

At this moment, in front of Li Yun, there was a strange iron bottle that was wide at the bottom and narrow at the top. The mouth of the bottle was thin, and there was a string coming out of the bottle.

Du Qian was somewhat curious and asked, "Erlang, what is this?"

Li Yun looked back at him, then looked at the iron bottle in front of him and said, "I call this thing Thunder."

"Brother Du, please step back. I am going to start the experiment."

Du Qian quickly retreated, and Li Yun then lit the fire from a distance with a torch, and then also retreated quickly.

"boom!"

After the two of them retreated several feet away, the thunder bomb exploded with a loud bang.

The loud noise scared Du Qian so much that his face turned pale and he quickly covered his ears!

Iron pieces flew!

Li Yun was mentally prepared and calmed down. After the explosion, he looked back at Du Qian and said with a smile, "Brother Du, I have this thing, so why should I be afraid of the gentry and landlords?"

Du Qian took several deep breaths before returning to normal, muttering, "Amazing, amazing."

The two of them walked forward together, picked up the fragments on the ground and examined them. After a while, they went to rest on a nearby chair together.

Du Qian looked at the explosion site, then at Li Yun, and said with a smile: "Erlang is so confident."

"That's not what I'm confident about."

Li Yun knew what he was talking about and smiled too.

“It’s the will of the people to be fair.”

(End of this chapter)