In a chaotic and famine-stricken era, I picked up an empress to be my wife.

Shen An didn't try to hide anything.

"This matter needs to be explained in terms of the current situation in Daliang. The root cause of the current chaos in Daliang is that when Daliang was first established, too many princes and marquises were enfeoffed, and each of them was given land. The central sphere of influence is not even as large as all the other princes and marquises combined."

If this power structure continues, it's not a big deal.

However, those kings and nobles were ambitious and used their royal power to develop their influence in their respective territories.

If natural disasters or man-made calamities occur in regions controlled by the central government, the balance of power will shift, and the balance of power will be reversed.

As it turns out, this reversal did indeed occur, leading to the later Rebellion of the Ten Kingdoms.

In order to deal with the chaos of the Ten Kingdoms, your great-grandfather gave other military generals a lot of power, allowing them to fight against the feudal lords.

Although the vassal kings were eventually suppressed, the power of the military generals was greatly enhanced, ultimately leading to a situation where warlords and vassal kings coexisted within the Liang Dynasty, and the central government's power dwindled.

At this point, Dugu Meng sighed repeatedly: "I understand all these reasons, but what I want to know is what exactly you're talking about?"

"The current problem of the Great Liang is that the power of the warlords and princes is too strong. If you want the people to get land, you will have to make enemies of the most powerful warlords and princes in the world. You can imagine how difficult that is!"

But what if we greatly weaken the power of these warlords and princes? For example, by dividing them into two, four, or eight? As long as they are dispersed enough, it will be difficult for them to unite as one.

"Over time, their influence will naturally weaken. Even if the central government doesn't become stronger, after ten or twenty years, they will no longer be able to contend with the central government. If the central government wants to distribute land to the people, it only needs to deal with those forces that have annexed land, and it doesn't need to deal with powerful princes and warlords!" Shen An replied.

Dugu Mengdai frowned deeply: "But the problem is, how can we divide those warlords and feudal lords into two, four, or eight?"

"This matter is not complicated. First, grant all those warlords the title of king!"

"How can this be allowed? If they are made kings, won't they rebel against Heaven?"

"Being granted the title of king doesn't mean they'll rebel. Think about it carefully—are there any fundamental differences between today's warlords and those former kings? In fact, many former kings, because their interests are somewhat tied to the royal family, are less likely to rebel. But these warlords have no such scruples. As long as they're strong enough, they don't care whether you grant them the title or not; they'll rebel if they want to!"

"What you say makes sense, but what is the purpose of bestowing a title of king?"

"Titles of nobility and the throne are inheritable, but warlords are merely regional governors, and legally, their titles are not inheritable!"

"Wouldn't doing this just solidify the warlords' power? Wouldn't it even allow them to inherit their positions?"

Dugu Meng became increasingly confused.

"But what if the emperor then issued a decree of grace, ordering all the sons of princes and nobles to receive land and power? What do you think that would look like?" Shen An asked rhetorically.

Dugu Meng was puzzled at first, but after she figured it out...

His entire body bristled.

She discovered that this method was simply the most brilliant and open scheme in the world!

If all warlords are made kings and nobles and given titles, when their children hear that they can have land and power, even if they think it's a dirty trick, who can resist the temptation of power and land?

Power can be quickly torn to pieces.

Just as Shen An said, in a few decades, it may no longer pose any threat to the central dynasty.

"Judging from your reaction, you should understand. However, this method is based on the premise that the central government has sufficient strength. If you do not have your own strength as a trump card, even if you follow this method to issue the Enfeoffment Decree, it will still fail!"

That's why I only said that if your father did that thing well, the success rate would be 60% or 70%.

However, this is on the premise that your father was not poisoned.

The fact that he was poisoned to death shows how deeply the palace had been infiltrated. No matter what method was used, even if it succeeded in the end, he would not escape death.

"If you can return to the palace, you must persuade your brother, the emperor, to first eliminate the traitors within the palace before fighting those forces," Shen An advised.

After listening, Dugu Meng seemed to see a path that shone brightly.

It seems that all the stubborn ailments that she couldn't solve in the past can now be resolved.

This shocked her even more, and she was even more shocked by Shen An's mind.

Outsiders spread rumors that Shen An was a descendant of the dragon and learned everything from the dragon god, but Shen An himself admitted to her that it was all fabricated.

If it wasn't learned from the Dragon God, then all of this was Shen An's own analysis.

How exactly is Shen An's brain structured?

How on earth could he have come up with the most outrageous scheme of our time?!

Dugu Meng couldn't help but speak out what was on her mind.

Shen An felt somewhat uneasy, as he had simply slightly modified Emperor Wu of Han's Edict of Grace and presented it.

History progresses slowly, and ideas change at each stage.

They find it difficult to break through limitations and think of other solutions when they haven't encountered something similar.

Shen An, however, is different. With thousands of years of history and cultural development on Blue Star, he has accumulated a wealth of experience and can directly apply the situation of Daliang to this.

"Okay, I'm a little tired, I'm going to rest."

Shen An stretched and went back to his room to rest.

Dugu Meng watched Shen An's retreating figure, a smile involuntarily creeping onto her lips.

She had previously thought that being hunted down was the worst thing that had ever happened to her.

But it was through this that she met Shen An.

Now she feels that being hunted down this time was definitely the greatest blessing of her life!

She wrote down Shen An's words one by one. If she could go back, she would definitely follow this method when the time was right, and completely eliminate the threat posed by the princes and warlords, and completely eliminate the harm caused by the annexation of land!

Three days later.

Shen An and Liu Wenyuan led their men to towns and villages at all levels.

Compared to the past, when they dared not cooperate, now that the four major families have been dealt with, they have no more scruples.

Wherever Shen An went, crowds of people thronged the streets.

The land allocation by drawing lots went very smoothly.

The entire project was completed in five days.

After doing all this, Shen An arranged for Liu Wenyuan to popularize the knowledge that manure could be used as fertilizer among the people. Following his instructions, they fermented the manure to increase grain yield.

Shen An did not mistreat the corpse carriers who initially followed him.

The land was indeed allocated, but Shen An also kept a large area of ​​land for the government to reserve.

He gave away one-fifth of this land.

Especially Old Zhao and Black Six, Shen An allocated them a full fifty mu of land, instantly making them large-scale farmers.

To prevent land annexation from happening again, Shen An issued another edict stating that all land ownership belonged to the government, and no land could be bought or sold without the government's consent; land could only be contracted for cultivation.

Only one-tenth of the grain produced from farming needs to be handed over to the government.

Even so, this greatly boosted the people's enthusiasm for farming and their determination to support Shen An.

In just a few days, the number of people who chose to join the city defense battalion exceeded four thousand.

The Shen'an City Defense Battalion's military strength was the first to exceed ten thousand men.

This gave Shen An greater confidence to confront powerful enemies.

During this period, Shen An also arrested some spies who were trying to obtain repeating crossbows, including not only Li Huaiyi's, but also those of the nearby warlord Yuwen Qin.

Unfortunately, the secret of manufacturing repeating ballistae was known only to him. Even if some craftsmen were captured, they would not be able to manufacture it on their own, let alone assemble it properly.

Their goal is simply unattainable.

Faced with such minor skirmishes, Shen An was more eager for some forces to send ten or twenty thousand men to cause him trouble, so he could make a name for himself and obtain their equipment.

But whether it's Li Huaiyi, Yuwen Qin, or the Western Barbarians.

No troops were sent over the next three months.

Every month, Li Huaiyi would proactively send someone to deliver a letter expressing his goodwill.

Shen An, however, did not let his guard down.

The three-month-long war between Li Huaiyi and Yuwen Qin is nearing its end.

A major battle between him and Li Huaiyi is inevitable in the future.

However, since the beginning of winter, heavy snow and ice have made it impossible for anyone to start a war easily.

But after spring, the war will begin!

Just as Shen An was actively preparing for battle, a piece of news from the capital immediately changed the situation!