Nearly a year after the death of Marquis Xihou, the imperial decree of the Emperor of Qin came to confer a posthumous title on him. The short-lived king of Wu received the posthumous title of Rui, and Marquis Xihou was known as King Rui of Wu. With the granting of the posthumous title by the Emperor of Qin, the succession of King Sheng of Wu to the throne was justified and no one could question it any more. The second year of King Sheng of Wu was a year of disaster.
In this year, most places in the north-central part of the Great Qin continent were in drought, and many farmers in the countries of Qi, Lu, and Yan did not have any harvests, while in the countries of Zhao, Chen, and Chu in the central and southern parts of the continent, the harvests of their fields were also reduced quite a lot. Only Wu, the whole country to improve water conservancy, to fertilize the fields, the use of advanced and convenient farming equipment farming, the country planted a large area of high-yield drought-resistant crops, coupled with the Wu is located in the south, the many rivers, by the arid climate less affected, the Wu Autumn Harvest this year to obtain a bumper harvest.
Although the autumn harvest of Wu was a great harvest, the winter wheat planting in the coming year must be reduced, because the winter of this year came too early and too cold. Wheat seeds sown in early October, because of the snowfall, the temperature is too cold, the wheat seeds were frozen, sown wheat did not emerge, wait until the temperature warmed up, the officials around the country hastily organized farmers to replenish the seeds, no more wheat seeds farmers, you can go to the official government on credit, to minimize the sudden cold weather on the crops brought about by the disaster.
At the end of October, the weather in Wu was still cold, except that the snow had melted in the fields, and the fields were full of farmers busy replanting winter wheat. On the avenue not far away came a group of horse riders and a dog.
"This winter will be cold and long, the local officials must make sure that the people prepare sufficient firewood for the winter." When the first person wearing a white fox fur trimmed black brocade robe, riding a snow white steed, this person's face is handsome, slender, it is the Premier of Wu Zheng Yuming, followed by the officials who manage the civil affairs of Kangcheng, of course, the big bull and guards do not leave the left and right, wood is now as long as the master goes out, it will certainly follow.
"Your Excellency, after Mr. Gongsun's prediction of the weather came out, my humble servant had the Yamen go to villages all over the place to look after the people to pick up more firewood to prepare for winter, and the feudal lords of the surrounding mountains that have big mountains have all sent out circulars not allowing them to close the mountains privately." The one who answered Zheng Yuming was the Secretary Farmer official in charge of agricultural affairs around Kangcheng.
"The feudal lords with mountains should still be given some financial assistance." The answer of the Si-nong officer pleased Zheng Yuming, but for those feudal lords who owned mountains, Zheng Yuming did not want to suppress them too hard.
The nobles who still have fiefdoms in Wu are the original supporters of Ulsan's crusade against Yi Ji. Now that Ulsan's forces are in control, Zheng Yuming has taken their interests into consideration when reforming the nation's land, and for the former supporters, Zheng Yuming has taken the initiative of surveying the arable land in their fiefdoms, and charging them a tax of five percent of the acres of arable land surveyed, which is half the amount compared to the rest of the nation. And the mountains and forests on the fiefdom, according to the area to collect not much mountain forest tax. In this way, compared to the original tribute, the taxes borne by the nobles did not increase.
These policies were only enjoyed by the nobles who embraced the Ulsan regime, those Tang nobles who had just annexed into Wu's land, and the Wei nobles who had already been extinguished did not have such luck; the Wei nobles were still able to enjoy Wu's national treatment, and the fief nobles of the Tang who had ceded to Wu's land were directly given to Zhou Cheng's army to be driven back to the Northern Tang, with their estates and properties being confiscated.
"As you wish, I will send someone to understand the actual situation and compensate them according to the damage they suffered." This Si Nong official was very competent.
Zheng Yuming nodded, fortunately there are not many nobles with fiefdoms now, and these fiefdoms will not be hereditary, after twenty to thirty years, the fiefdom nobles will disappear within the country of Wu. There are even fewer fiefdom nobles with mountains and forests, and the funds to compensate these nobles for the loss of mountains and forests being cut down by commoners is not too much, and the compensation measures are just to appease these nobles.
Zheng Yuming took his men on a morning patrol around Kangcheng, casually visited a few villages, and found that the villagers were actively replanting winter wheat, and that the villagers had enough leftover food at home, and picked up quite a lot of dry firewood, and after praising the seriousness of the Sifu Nonggong officials, Zheng Yuming ended the patrol and returned to the Prime Minister's Office.
Upon entering the Prime Minister's Office, Wu Mu was already waiting inside the office.
"Your Excellency, the situation in the surrounding vassal states is really bad, and my humble servant has learned from merchants traveling to and from various places that there is chaos everywhere." Wu Mu is now the Deputy Director of the Department of Commerce and Industry, and after he joined the royal court, he left his family business to his clan brother to take care of, and focused on politics himself. Although Wu Mu was no longer a businessman himself, he was after all the commercial leader of Ulsan, and the Ulsan merchants would report to him when they encountered problems outside the city.
"Chaotic image?" Zheng Yuming was surprised, in his mind, many vassal states had long had chaos appear, how come Wu Mu didn't say that vassal states had chaos until today?
"There has been mob unrest in Qi and Lu." Wu Mu lowered his voice to speak the news brought back by the merchants.
"Is the scale of the unrest large?" Zheng Yuming sighed slightly, thinking that the common people of Qi and Lu really couldn't survive.
"It's all about the unrest at the gold mines; the kings of the two countries have rushed their armies to quell it, and when the merchants came back, they heard the news that the mob had been put down."
"It's just that the scale isn't too big if there's unrest in the mines." The miners who could only eat half-full, against the well-armed Huben, the end could be imagined, and this riot would only serve as a splash.
"Many places in those two countries have an extinct fall harvest." Wu Mu shook his head and sighed, the people of Qi Lu and the two countries were already suffering, touching the disaster year, coupled with this year's cold, I don't know how many people will die in this cold winter.
"Are there any refugees coming over?" Zheng Yuming was silent for a moment before asking.
"No, the kings of Qi and Lu have ordered that the people are not allowed to leave their residences at will, and if they dare to do so, they will be killed on pain of death. Moreover, Tang has set up a gate at the border, not allowing refugees from Qi and Lu to enter the country." The lord of Tang was afraid that the refugees would rush into Tang and cause turmoil in Tang, and had stationed heavy troops at the border of Qi and Lu to stop them.
In addition to blocking the entry of the disaster victims from Qi and Lu, the Tang State, like the sovereigns of Qi and Lu, also prohibited its own common people from traveling at will, and set up barriers fifty miles away from Wu's current border to prevent Tang nationals from going to Wu privately. The reason why Tang had to set up barriers fifty miles away from Wu's border was because Article 3 of the original compensation contract stipulated that Tang was not allowed to set up a permanent army on Wu's side of the border.
The result of not having a permanent army in Tang was that the number of ordinary people within Tang sneaking away to Wu was increasing. In order to stop the Tang people from fleeing, the feudal lords and nobles of Tang strengthened their management of the peasants in their fiefdoms and wrote to the King of Tang to request the King of Tang to send an army to stop them. After half a day's discussion with his ministers, the King of Tang set up a barrier fifty miles from the border of Wu to choke off the Tang people's way south.
In this way, not only does not violate the indemnity contract, but also to prevent the loss of nationals, after the implementation of such measures, the Tang domestic civilians really shall not go south, but only the barrier to the Wu border of the 50-mile range, in addition to the nobles, the civilian population all ran out, all run to the Wu side, this square 50 miles, actually turned into a deserted place, but also became the buffer zone between Tang and Wu.
"So there will be less refugees coming to Wu." Wu still lacked labor, Zheng Yuming didn't mind those refugees coming to Wu, but it was a pity that Wu was separated from Qi and Lu by Tang and Zhao, the current Zhao land was the original Wei land, and Zhao's border defense was tighter than Tang's.
"Duke, it's good that fewer refugees are coming, after all, the situation will be even more severe next year, we have to save more food in Wu." Wu Mu was melancholy about the future development trend, the news brought back by the merchants made Wu Mu feel that those vassal states were sitting on gunpowder.
"Yes, Wu has to store more grain." Wu only had a good harvest year this year, and the people just had a balance in their hands, so if there was a large influx of refugees, Wu would not be able to withstand it. "How is the business of the merchants?" If Wu's goods were stagnant due to the disaster, Zheng Yuming would have to readjust his policies.
"The business of the merchants has not been affected, but rather the sales are even greater than before, and our products from Wu are always snapped up as long as they arrive safely at their destinations."
Zheng Yuming skimmed his lips, "What a drunk."
The calamity had no effect at all on the purchasing power of the nobles of the vassal states, which surprised Zheng Yuming. Although Zheng Yuming despised those nobles for not recognizing the chaos and still reveling in the song and dance, he still welcomed the benefits to Wu.
"Huang Zhong, the Intelligence Bureau has to increase its manpower and double the number of officers sent to each country." Chu Chao Hui flipped through the information in his hand and ordered Huang Zhong after reading it.
"Yes!" Huang Zhong owed his assent. Huang Zhong's intelligence organization was now under the jurisdiction of Chu Chao Hui's Military Prime Minister.
"It's best to build a stronghold in various places and pull strings with characters from various places." What Chu Chao Hui meant was to place undercover agents all over the vassal states.
"Subordinate understands." Huang Zhong had a feeling that his superior was interested in expanding Wu's power.
Chu Chao Hui waited for Huang Zhong to leave, then took out the document Wei Qing sent his fast horse to send, after reading it, he pondered for a while, got up and went to Kang Cheng military camp with his guards.
"Gentlemen! Are you ready?" In front of Chu Chao Hui stood fifty officers in uniform, not bad, these people were all officers, Chu Chao Hui's secret weapon to manage the army - training officers.
"Report sir, ready!" The officers replied in unison.
"Good! Three days from now, all of you will be heading out to your posts, so I hope you will do your jobs well."
"Never fail to meet the officer's expectations!"
"Now, dismissed!" Chu Chao Hui waved his hand vigorously at the officers, and the neatly arranged officers dispersed soundlessly.
"Great General, the next class of training officers has been enlisted, here is the list." Fan Jin, who should not be in the military camp, handed Chu Chao Hui a list.
"In the future, all training officers must go to the North Academy for a year of further training to strengthen their cultural and ideological qualities." Chu Chao Hui was satisfied with Fan Jin, and with Fan Jin's assistance, Chu Chao Hui trained the secret weapon to master the military soul of the army.
The training officers just assembled have only been in the North Academy for half a year for further training, Fan Jin is their main mentor, these soldiers who have been promoted to training officers, the vast majority of them come from the valley, and the ones with the least amount of time for learning are also personally taught by Fan Jin for two years, the training officers go to the armies in various places and only adjudicate on the soldiers' military performance on the surface, and are actually tasked with grasping the dynamics of the soldiers' minds.
Zheng Yuming knew that when Chu Chao Hui sent a training officer to the army, it was just after a cloud and rain had subsided.
"You want to copy the commissar system of the GD army?" Zheng Yuming lay on the bed panting slightly, Chu Chao Hui was getting more and more insatiable on the bed, he had to use ten percent of his strength to make Chu Chao Hui insatiable.
"This system is good, there is historical proof." Chu Chao Hui had already been satisfied, but still lingered and refused to leave his lover's body, still half-pressing on Zheng Yu Ming.
"How long have these training officers been trained? Can they fulfill their duties?" Zheng Yuming was a bit worried.
"The original in the valley was subject to Fanjin inculcation, and in the North College specifically targeted further training, should be competent, now the situation is pressing, can only let them enter the army early." Chu Chao Hui rolled over and took Zheng Yuming into his arms.
"Something happened?" Jung Yuming ran one hand up Chu Chaohui's chest, where there was a strong heartbeat.
"Zeng You wants to marry a local noblewoman." Chu Chao Hui received the news back from Wei Qing's fast horse today, so he decided to speed up the pace of sending training officers to various places.
"Are you worried that Zeng You will change?" Zheng Yuming immediately understood Chu Chao Hui's intention of sending out the training officer.
"The hearts of people are hard to say, I don't want to face the subordinates mutiny, it's better to snuff out everything in advance." Chu Chao Hui is not worried about Zeng You's intentions at the moment, the promotion of officers in the army is not Zeng You's call, and the salaries of officers and soldiers are not in Zeng You's hands, and with the current army system in Wu, even if an officer mutinies, he can't take the soldiers under his jurisdiction with him.
However, the marriage between Zeng You and the local nobles still caused Chu Chao Hui's vigilance, he needs absolute mastery of the army, and the mastery of the army, in addition to the system, the other is the hearts and minds of the people. As long as the heart of the army is toward Chu Chao Hui, even if Zeng You is close to the local nobles, he will not dare to have any dissent.
Zeng You's marriage is just a primer, really let Chu Chao Hui began to implement ideological control of the army, is the situation of the vassal states around the Great Qin, Great Qin if there is a big chaos, Wu can not stay out of it, a high cohesion of the mind of the army is a guarantee of peace and quiet in the country of Wu.