Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties

Chapter 317 Pingwu Order

Su Ze did not think highly of Beihai King Yuan Hao. This guy couldn't even beat Hu Chen, so he was not an opponent worthy of attention.

Yuan Hao was just a distant relative of the royal family, so Su Ze didn't worry that he would be reported if he drove him away.

In the eyes of the Shogun's office, occupying Huazhou was a natural thing.

Otherwise, wouldn’t Su Ze’s long time of operating in the Northwest have been in vain?
"Call all the generals to discuss the matter!"

Su Chao and Wei Xiaokuan took the order and went out. The young Wei Xiaokuan rubbed his hands repeatedly. He was finally able to participate in the war that could affect the overall situation in Guanzhong.

But Su Chao's face looked a little strange. Wei Xiaokuan had worked under Su Chao for a long time. He noticed something was wrong with his boss and asked cautiously:
"Chief Secretary, is it difficult to capture Huazhou?"

Su Chao led Wei Xiaokuan out of the barracks and said:

"In order to capture Huazhou, the money, food and troops have been prepared long ago. The general has even made arrangements for the civil affairs after the occupation of Huazhou."

Wei Xiaokuan said doubtfully:

"Then what instructions do you have for your subordinates?"

Su Cho said:

"General, you must implement a strict equal distribution of land in Huazhou, reorganize the land in Huazhou, and distribute land according to the number of people."

"Isn't the general promoting the land grant order in all places?"

Su Cho said:

"Huazhou's land problem is actually not that bad. In recent years, the population of Huazhou has been reduced by more than half due to wars, and Hu Chen also looted a lot of it. There is already a large amount of vacant land, so there is not much resistance to the implementation of the land grant order."

Wei Xiaokuan had also done the land granting work in Liangzhou. He knew that the biggest difficulty in granting land was land. When he granted land in Liangzhou, he relied on organizing land reclamation and the land confiscated from the Yang family in Hanzhong, as well as the redemption of Di and Qiang pastures, and finally completed the land granting.

After hearing Su Chao say that the population of Huazhou had dropped significantly and there was little resistance to granting land, Wei Xiaokuan said:
"Chief Secretary, if that's the case, then we can just follow the original rules for granting land, okay?"

Su Cho said:

"The difficulty lies in allocating land according to the number of people. The general must survey the land and clear out the land occupied by the wealthy families."

Wei Xiaokuan exclaimed: "Ah?"

Now Wei Xiaokuan understood what Su Cho was worried about. Wei Xiaokuan and Su Cho were both from Guanzhong gentry, and they certainly knew what land meant to the gentry and powerful people.

Asking the powerful aristocratic families to give up the land they have already occupied is equivalent to digging up their roots. Su Ze's actions will arouse the hostility of the entire Guanzhong aristocratic family.

The Su family is not so bad, but the Jingzhao Wei family owns tens of thousands of acres of land near Chang'an. If Su Ze really did this, the Wei family would immediately stop investing in him.

Of course, the Wei family would not immediately withdraw the Wei descendants who had already defected to Su Ze, as that would be tantamount to breaking with Su Ze.

However, the Wei family will no longer send their children to serve Su Ze in the future, and will also withdraw their preferential treatment in intelligence, trade, etc. to Su Ze. After all, the power in Guanzhong is not just Su Ze's.

This was a painful thing for Wei Xiaokuan, and he also understood Su Chao's dilemma.

Su Cho said:

"The general also plans to demolish forts with more than 500 soldiers, and prohibit the construction of new forts at key water and land junctions, within a 50-li radius of the city, and near the passes and rivers. Families that have built forts will be taxed."

Su Ze's intention was already very clear, and Wei Xiaokuan also knew that it was time to take sides.

Su Cho said:

"The general said that since the end of the Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period, the wealthy families built forts in the local area with the original intention of protecting their families and the country. This played a huge role in the survival of the Han people's clothing and customs in the north."

"But in the past hundred years, the forts have blocked traffic, gathered people in the countryside, and the gentry used the forts to exploit and oppress the people. In the future, these places will set up Zhechongfu to protect the people, and there will be no need for forts."

Although Wei Xiaokuan came from a prominent family, he couldn't help but nod, thinking that Su Ze was right.

This special building, a fortress, is actually a small city.

The fortress was originally a refuge built by large families to avoid disasters.

During the era of the Five Barbarians' Invasion of China, the Han people in the north were slaughtered like pigs and dogs. The common people relied on the forts built by the wealthy families to avoid the slaughter by the barbarian cavalry. It can be said that the forts sheltered the flame of Han civilization.

However, since the fall of the Western Jin Dynasty, the rulers in the north were unable to establish effective grassroots rule, resulting in these forts becoming bastions for the powerful families to maintain local rule.

At that time, the largest fortress of the Yang family in Hanzhong could accommodate a thousand soldiers. There were weapons and equipment, granaries and wells inside the fortress. If Su Ze had not arranged for internal support, many people would have died in the capture of these fortresses.

In addition to being blockhouses and turrets in places controlled by powerful aristocratic families, many powerful aristocratic families would also build forts near major traffic routes and set up checkpoints on the routes to collect taxes.

Of course, the taxes collected were not the regular taxes paid to the government, but tolls collected by these wealthy families themselves.

According to the reports from the Western Region Merchants under Su Ze, there are more than 30 forts set up near the official road within a radius of 100 miles around Tongguan alone, which means there is a post every five steps. This is why the price of goods shipped from Chang'an to the Western Regions will skyrocket by a hundred times. The logistics cost of transporting goods is too high. For both public and private reasons, Su Ze can no longer let these forts go.

As scholars with a certain political foresight, Su Chao and Wei Xiaokuan certainly saw the harm that the fortresses posed to the local area, and they also understood Su Ze's determination to raze the fortresses.

However, as members of the Kansai samurai clan, they were somewhat resistant to this decree.

What worried Wei Xiaokuan even more was that the Guanxi gentry hated Su Ze because of the "Equal Field System" and the "Pingwu System". When Su Ze wanted to take over Guanzhong and attack Yongzhou, the base camp of the Guanzhong gentry, he would encounter great resistance.

After saying this, Wei Xiaokuan looked at Su Cho and asked:
"Chief, aren't you worried?"

Su Chao shook his head and said:

"Xiao Kuan, you know that the general's decision cannot be changed. I talked to my brother about this, and he told me not to think about other things and to concentrate on executing the general's decree."

Wei Xiaokuan thought for a moment and said:
"Chief Secretary, the general did this out of love for the people. As long as the general is in Guanzhong, there is no need to use the fort to protect the people. Just tear it down."

"What Su Jijiu (Su Liang) meant was to demolish the fortress, not to exterminate the nobles in Guanzhong. There's no need to make too many assumptions."

Su Chao thought about it, yes, the reason why Su Ze issued the "Pingwu Order" was to require the wealthy families in Huazhou to demolish the forts while ensuring the safety of military force. This did not mean to exterminate the wealthy families. They could not rebel because of this, right?
Having said that, even if the powerful families in Huazhou rebelled, they would definitely not be a match for Su Ze, so he could just suppress them directly.

Thinking of the powerful families in Guanzhong, Su Chao knew that they would not rebel because of this.

As for the Equal Field Order, the process of land occupation by aristocratic families such as the Wei and Su families was basically legal. Those who used violence to occupy land were often bumpkins who had just made their fortune. They had no influence in local governments and could not annex land by legal means.

Even families like the Su and Wei families would donate grain to disaster relief in years of famine and invest in rebuilding their hometowns, paying more attention to their local reputation than ordinary wealthy families.

You can say they are putting on a show, but they are not within the scope of Su Ze's "Equal Field Order".

The two of them comforted each other. As long as Su Ze did not openly break with the local gentry, there would not be too much trouble.

Keeping these thoughts in mind, Su Cho notified all the generals and came to Su Ze's military camp to discuss matters.

When the plan to attack Huazhou was proposed, the generals did not show any excitement on their faces. Instead, they were more inclined to think - "We should have attacked Huazhou a long time ago!"
As for the selection of the commander, no one had any objection and their eyes were all on Yu Jin.

The last time Yu Jin went to Tongguan to welcome Princess Chenliu, he scared King Yuan Hao of Beihai half to death just by passing by Huayin City. It was just right to let him lead the troops to Huazhou.

Su Ze said to Yu Jin:

"General Yu Jin, the cavalry general, is ordered by this general to lead 5,000 cavalry and infantry to attack Huazhou."

After Empress Dowager Hu came to power, generals with miscellaneous titles became sold at wholesale prices, and even general titles such as Four Expeditions, Four Garrisons, Four Peaces, and Four Peaces showed a tendency to be issued indiscriminately.

The title of General of Cavalry was a miscellaneous general. It was the title that Su Ze asked the court to give to Yu Jinqing after his marriage in recognition of his contribution in welcoming Princess Chenliu.

The official position of General of Cavalry is not as high as Yu Jin's original position as the Magistrate of Gaoping County, but in Su Ze's military headquarters, it is the number one military position after Su Ze, the General of Pingxi. This also indicates Yu Jin's position in the army.

Yu Jin stepped out and took over Su Ze's military order.

Su Ze looked around again and said to Hou Mo Chen Shun, who changed his Chinese name to Chen Shun:

"Light Cavalry Lieutenant General Chen Shun."

"My subordinate is here!"

"You will be appointed as the pacification envoy, leading two thousand soldiers and horses, and follow General Yu into Huazhou. You will be responsible for suppressing the rebellion and clearing up the local area."

Houmo Chenshun immediately took the order and left. Su Chao and Wei Xiaokuan looked at each other and understood Su Ze's arrangement.

Houmo Chenshun was from the Six Garrisons and had no connection with the Guanxi gentry. In fact, these Six Garrison warriors were instinctively hostile to the gentry.

He, the suppression and pacification envoy, is the sharp knife used by Su Ze to clean up the local area!

Su Chuo vaguely felt that Su Ze was different from before.

Since taking in 100,000 survivors of the Six Garrisons, Su Ze's attitude towards the Guanzhong gentry has become increasingly tough.

As Su Ze's junior fellow apprentice, Su Chao could vaguely sense Su Ze's thoughts. Thinking about how Su Ze improved the new paper, researched printing, promoted warriors from humble backgrounds and imparted knowledge to ordinary people, did Su Ze really want to build a world that did not rely on the gentry?

It seems that it is not impossible if you think about it.

Su Cho seemed to have lit up something in his heart. In the two hundred years since the end of the Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period, China had only experienced a brief moment of unity, and the rest of the time it had been sinking in darkness.

The culprits behind this are certainly the Hu people who moved south, but don’t the aristocratic families who only think about themselves have any responsibility?

So many heroes, who tinkered with the politics of the aristocratic families, were unable to escape the cycle of reincarnation.

Maybe Su Ze really has a way to unify the world and get rid of the curse of China's sinking?

(End of this chapter)