Thief Emperor

Chapter 652 The Long Table of Power

Xue Yun'er was naturally very happy when the Xue family returned to Jinling. The two families gathered together and had a lively meal.

Mr. Xue and Mrs. Xue held their eldest grandson Li Yuan in their arms and were almost reluctant to put him down.

The Xue family originally lived in Li Yun's Li Garden in Jinling. Now that Li Yun's family has moved to Qianyuan, it was natural for them to move in Qianyuan as well.

After two days of excitement, Mr. Xue settled down in the garden, enjoying the long-lost family happiness, while Xue Shou followed Li Yun and devoted himself to work.

At this moment, there are still about twenty days until the end of the year.

Li Yun has a lot to do at the end of the year.

In addition to the issues regarding the Jiangdong framework, there are some fundamental issues that need to be determined, such as whether to continue using the Zhaoding era name next year or to use its own new era name.

These miscellaneous issues require meetings and discussions almost every day.

The day after the Xue family came back, Yao Zhong, who had been traveling outside for several months, also returned to Jinling and came to Qianyuan to visit Li Yun.

When Yao Zhong arrived at Qian Garden, Li Yun was directing the servants to move a long table into the warm room of Qian Garden. Yao Zhong quickly stepped forward and bowed his head, "Take the seat."

Li Yun looked back at him, then instructed the servants at home: "After moving in, move the chairs in as well. This table was not easy to come by, so don't bump it."

The tabletop of this long table is made of a whole piece of wood without any splicing. It is half a meter wide, which is quite rare.

This is the long table that Li Yun asked Jinling Workshop to make more than a month ago. It was just finished and delivered today.

After giving a few instructions, Li Yun turned back to look at Yao Zhong and said with a smile: "Just got back?"

Yao Zhong lowered his head and said, "I came back yesterday evening. I was really too tired. I was afraid that something might go wrong if I rushed to see my superior, so I went home and rested for a night."

Li Yun said "hmm" and asked with a smile: "Mr. Fei is not back yet?"

At this time, Li Yun's way of addressing Fei Xuan had changed. He used to address Fei Xuan according to the official title of the Wu Zhou Dynasty, calling Fei Xuan "Duke Fei Fu". But now he no longer used this title, which meant that Jiangdong would draw a clear line with the Wu Zhou Dynasty in the future.

"Mr. Fei is still inspecting the Jiangnan West Road and will not be returning to Beijing for the New Year."

Li Yun sighed softly: "Mr. Fei is really dedicated to his work."

He paused, and then said, "However, he has to come back. After the New Year, it will be a big day for us in Jiangdong. I am still waiting for him to come back and establish the Ministry of Justice for Jiangdong."

Yao Zhong was moved when he heard this, and then he lowered his head and said, "After I go back, I will write a letter to Mr. Fei and ask him to rush back to Jinling."

Li Yun nodded with a smile and asked, "How is the situation after being gone for a few months?"

"There were some resistance at first, but the superior won a great victory on the battlefield, and his reputation spread quickly. Relying on the superior's power, things went much more smoothly afterwards. Now the various prefectures and counties in the Jiangnan West Road have been basically sorted out."

At this point, he looked up at Li Yun, paused, and then bowed his head and said, "Before, the superior wanted to divide the land equally. I have been calculating this matter for the past few months. According to the current number of public lands in various states and counties, even if these public lands are only divided equally, at least 70% to 80% of the tenants in each state and county can get about two acres of land."

Li Yun thought for a moment and asked, "One household?"

Yao Zhong lowered his head and said, "One household."

"These fields are too few for one family."

Li Yun was silent for a while, then slowly said, "We still have to keep some of the public land. We will discuss how to distribute the land in detail later."

In fact, when Li Yun sent Fei Xuan to investigate and confiscate the land of the wealthy households, he was already carrying out the “equal distribution of land”.

Because the equal distribution of land throughout the dynasties is completely different from the land reform in another world. When feudal dynasties distributed land, many of them recognized the land certificates of the previous dynasty. However, in the early days of the founding of a feudal dynasty, the population was often declining and everything was in ruins, so there were a large number of unowned land that could be distributed.

However, there is always a process of population recovery in the early stages of a dynasty.

For example, even if a family was allocated dozens of acres of land, as long as they had three sons, these lands would be divided into several parts after a few decades.

If this family is honest and doesn't know how to curry favor with others, after only two or three generations, there won't be much land left.

If the family gives most of the property to the eldest son, then after one or two generations, they will become tenant farmers again.

In this case, the land needs to be redistributed periodically, for example, every 20 or 30 years.

In this regard, public land is undoubtedly easier to operate.

After all, Jiangdong has not experienced large-scale unrest, and there is not much vacant land for large-scale distribution at this moment.

Of course, right now, only Jiangdong has this trouble.

Other places do not have such troubles. For example, in the Central Plains, after several periods of chaos, although nine out of ten houses are now empty, the war has led to a large-scale outflow of population and mass deaths. It is not an exaggeration to say that six out of ten houses are empty, or even seven out of ten houses are empty.

Those places in the Central Plains are already devastated.

Once Li Yun has taken over these places with large plains, he will no longer have to worry about equal distribution of land. Not only can the land be divided equally, but he will also be able to have a large amount of land to grant fiefdoms to meritorious soldiers in the Jiangdong Army.

Yao Zhong bowed his head deeply and said, "I understand."

Yao Zhong reported to Li Yun what he had seen and heard during this period of time. As they talked, they arrived at the warm room of Qianyuan. At this moment, the long table had been set up. Yao Zhong was a little curious and asked, "Sir, this doesn't seem to be a table for eating?"

“This is for meetings.”

Li Yun looked at the table with satisfaction, then pointed to the seat at the top and said with a smile: "I'll sit here, and you sit on both sides, so that you can talk and take notes at the same time. Many things can be decided after discussion." Yao Zhong was startled, then looked at the long table and asked: "Top seat, how many people can sit at this table?"

Li Yun thought for a moment and said, "There will always be room for six or seven people on one side."

He smiled and said, "From now on, people from the central government will often sit at this table. If they need to call someone over to discuss matters, they can just call them over temporarily."

"Just right."

Li Yun said softly, "There will be a lot of things to discuss in the afternoon. When the time comes, Brother Juzhong will come over and we will discuss things together."

Yao Zhong was a little excited, but he immediately bowed his head deeply: "I obey your command."

Before leaving, he couldn't help but glance at the long table and memorize its appearance in his mind.

Yao Zhong knew in his heart that for a long time to come, all political affairs of Jiangdong would probably be decided on this table.

However, Jiangdong’s power does not lie on this table.

Because this table, in the final analysis, is just for advice and consultation, and the decision-making power still lies with Li Yun alone.

…………

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The table was used for the first time in the afternoon.

Li Yun sat in the main seat, and the participants sat on both sides of him.

Du Qian, Yao Zhong, Zhuo Guangrui, Xu Ang, and Li Yun's brother-in-law Xue Shou also sat at this table.

Mr. Li lowered his head to drink tea and listened to them discussing one thing after another, rarely expressing his own opinions directly.

Because once he spoke, it actually meant that the discussion was over.

The meeting lasted about an hour. Du Qian coughed, looked at Li Yun, and said, "Sir, we haven't established a new dynasty yet. It's better to continue using the old Zhou dynasty's reign title."

"The vacant Luzhou governor."

Du Qian smiled and said, "Hezhou Governor Xu Kun has done a good job in the past two years. I think it is appropriate to place him in this position."

"As for the candidates for the governors of Jingxiang and other states, the Personnel Department has already drawn them up. These people can come to Jinling before the end of the year."

Li Yun nodded and said with a smile: "Then I will make a decision after I meet him."

At this point, he paused and continued, "Next year, we don't need to use a new year name, but we will use new coins made by ourselves. This is the newly minted new coin. You can all take a look."

He took out a row of new coins from his sleeve and placed them on the table. Everyone took one or two coins and looked at them carefully in their hands.

The words on these new coins are no longer the year number, but the four words "Jinling Tong Bao".

The right to mint coins is definitely a very important power. One of the important reasons why Li Yun was able to make a fortune quickly was that not long after he occupied the Yian Copper Mine, he began to mint coins on his own and mastered the right to mint coins.

This means that he is no longer short of "money", at most he is short of "goods".

In other words, as long as Zhou coins were still in circulation, he could spread out part of his expenses by minting coins.

Of course, this was only for a short period of time.

Later, Zhou coins depreciated rapidly, and there was no point in minting Zhaoding Tongbao coins again.

At this time, Jiangdong’s own currency must be promoted.

After everyone looked at it, they all nodded. Zhuo Guangrui smiled softly and said, "Compared with Wu Zhou's money, the quality is much better."

Li Yun smiled and said, "That's settled then."

He stood up and said with a smile, "That's all for today. As for the detailed parts, please go back and work hard to get them done as soon as possible and send them to me."

He looked at a few people and spoke slowly.

"During this period, you have to work hard to finalize the framework and details. It will be much easier to handle the work in the future."

Several people stood up and nodded their heads.

Xu Ang looked at Li Yun, hesitated for a moment, and then said, "Should we revise the Jiangdong Law when we take the throne?"

Li Yun was stunned for a moment, then smiled and said, "This can be repaired, but we are still growing and only in a small corner, so we should not spend too much energy on this."

"Wait for Mr. Fei to come back, and make some minor changes based on Zhou's law, and we'll use it temporarily."

After saying this, Li Yun clasped his fists towards several people and spoke seriously.

"Everyone has worked hard today, Li Yun will keep it in mind."

Everyone bowed their heads quickly in return.

"Your words are too harsh, your words are too harsh."

(End of this chapter)