Chu State, the capital of Ying.
King Chu looked at the slip in his hand and couldn't put it down for a long time. There were only a few hundred words on the slip, but it weighed as much as a thousand pounds in his hand. He knew that this was an opportunity that Xiang Meng had bought with his life.
King Chu's face was heavy, and the hand holding the bamboo slip trembled slightly. He understood what Xiang Meng meant: "Xiang Qing! Xiang Qing!..."
"Qu Qing, take a look!" King Chu suppressed the grief in his heart and handed the bamboo slips to Qu Qing.
After reading it, Qu Qing saluted and said, "Your Majesty, this is the opportunity your Majesty has fought for for you. If Your Majesty wants to change the law, I will risk my life to implement it!"
"Qu Qing, please get up quickly." King Chu helped him up and said, "If the current situation in Chu country does not change, it will be left behind by several other countries."
The King of Chu looked resolute and said: "This is the opportunity Xiang Qing has fought for for me, and it is also an opportunity for Chu State, reform!"
"If we don't change the law this time, the Chu Kingdom will be destroyed. There is no need to hesitate in this change!"
"Who is the king planning to use for this reform?" Qu Qing asked.
The King of Chu asked, "Do you have anyone you can recommend?"
After the King of Chu had a heart-to-heart talk with Jing Mu, he was immediately impressed by his talent and appointed him as the prime minister on the spot to preside over the reform.
With the issuance of the edict, the end of the Huai Kingdom was slowly changing. As soon as the order to recruit the Tengjia Army was issued, the people of Huai State immediately enthusiastically signed up to join the army.
With the support of the King of Chu, Jingmu began to reform. He traveled to various countries and stayed in Wei for a long time. He was vague about the weak reasons for Wei's reform, so he wanted to implement the hegemonic reform in Chu.
Although Huaiguo's reforms were wrong and more violent, they were timely in that era of petty disputes. If you want to fight for hegemony in the sky, you should use domineering methods.
The King of Chu immediately said: "Then I will summon him to see you."
At the same time, soldiers were recruited from the common people and tax benefits were given to the families of the soldiers.
"I recommend Jingmu. He is a member of the public clan. In his early years, he studied at the Huaiguo Academy and studied Legalist techniques. Later, he traveled to various countries. He just returned not long ago. If you use it, you will definitely make the Chu Kingdom powerful!"
The eighth step is to rectify the administration of officials and supervise the failure of all officials. We are required to abide by the law and be fair and impartial, and we cannot bend the law for personal gain.
Chu State quickly emerged from the shadow of defeat, and its situation improved rapidly.
The hereditary system of aristocratic titles was abolished, and the title was stipulated that if there was no merit, the title could only be extended for eight generations, and the title would be removed before the eighth generation.
"Your Excellency, the promotion of Iron Plow has not been completed yet! The tax revenue of people everywhere is abnormal."
"No!" All the officials in the small hall responded in unison.
Qu Qing looked at the intelligence coming from various places, and all the states in Zhou Dynasty were seeking reforms to weaken them. The strength of all the states in Bangzhou is increasing.
Without the king to kill the chicken to scare the monkeys, the Long Rong nobles dared to praise the reform. With the support of the King of Chu, Chu's reform was slowly pushed back.
Although the punishment was lower than that of Wei soldiers, it still attracted the people of Chu. More importantly, that kind of training method could not produce fewer small armies.
If the states of that country and Zhou Dynasty join forces to attack Huaihe again, Qu Qing will feel the pressure.
At the same time, in order to reduce the financial burden on the country, the Chu State implemented the edict of reducing titles and salaries and abolished the salary system of nobles and ministers. That is to say, the descendants of nobles can no longer hold official positions after the death of their fathers and sons, but they need to pass the assessment and have nothing to do. The official will be awarded official positions, and only those who fail the examination and have no talent can hold official positions.
If you want to reform, in addition to the support of the monarch, you also need to control the force. What if Wang Pu, who agreed to the reform, rebelled? So the first thing to go backwards is not military reform.
Although the seven reforms may seem small, they are almost fatal. With the implementation of the new laws, the strength of the Chu Army is slowly weakening.
If the King of Chu dared to distribute the land of the nobles to the soldiers before taking it, it is estimated that the nobles of Chu State would rebel immediately.
In Chu's small defeat, Wang Pu suffered heavy losses, and the King of Chu's army suffered many casualties. The prince asked the King of Chu to issue an order to prohibit the people from being idle and indolent, encourage farming, strengthen training, and improve the treatment of the army and pay salaries to the soldiers.
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If you want to make the Chu Kingdom weak in a short time, the worst way to do it is to use hegemony. As for learning from the Huai Kingdom's reforms, Feng Jun is not optimistic about it. At this time, wars are raging in the sky, and the conflicts between the countries are becoming increasingly prominent. Almost every year, There's going to be a war.
Because Long Rong's private soldiers suffered heavy losses in the military restructuring, the King of Chu reluctantly passed it.
Sure enough, when the new law was implemented, there were not many ministers and nobles to stop it, and there was not even a rebellion by the nobles' private soldiers. Before seeing that situation, the emperor made a decisive attack and sent a small army to wipe out all the rebel Wang Pu, seize their titles, kill the culprits, and move all the remaining ones to the border to expand their territory.
"Order the craftsman to be the supervisor and double the production of weapons!"
"It seems it's time to expand the army!" Qu Qing said with a smile: "Increase the number of the Tengjia Army and expand the Tengjia Army to 70,000!"
Without the guarantee of force, the implementation of the new law also ended.
In order to prevent others from using rumors and public opinion to influence the authority of the reform, the emperor promulgated a law prohibiting politicians from lobbying.
"Fan Qing, Wen Qing, people everywhere are not productive in their farming?"
The treatment of Huai's Tengjia Army was not as good as that of Wei's, and their demands were so tolerant that it was staggering. It is difficult to become a Tengjia Army.
If that kind of reform can last for two generations, eighty to seventy years, it may be stable. Once something happens in the middle, these dragon melts will immediately backfire. Just like the current Wei State, there have not been any problems yet, but the past has been obscured by the decline of its national power.
...
The seventh step is to move the nobles to the border, allowing us to open up the barbarian land.
The reform of the feudal lord gave the grassroots people a room for advancement, and deprived us of the opportunity to become nobility. A small number of people had the courage to join the army, and the army became stronger and stronger.
Long Rong also wanted to learn from Wei's military soldiers, but Wei could not seize the land of Xihe to train Wei's soldiers, and Chu did not have such little land.
The military system of the Huai State did not give preferential treatment to the Tengjia Army in terms of honor, land, taxation, official positions, etc. This was because the Huai State, which was poor and stingy, did not have such strength. At the same time, rewards and punishments are clearly defined, and those who have made minor achievements can be awarded a title. Military commanders only use one flag to unify retreat command.
Immediately afterwards, Long Rong formulated a set of laws of Chu State based on the laws of Huai State and Wei State. That set of laws was used to restrain the common people and nobles, and at the same time, it also clearly stipulated the coerciveness and authority of the reform.
Seeing Feng Jun's calm approach, Wang Pu immediately dared to express his approval, but those people did not give in, they just stayed dormant for a while.
Huai State was also very concerned about Chu State's reform. After a short time, Huai State's secret guards buried in Chu State sent back the decree of Chu State's reform.
The Chu State's reform was very small, but it was still thorough. It did not form a new interest base to replace these Wang Pu.
Before Long Rong saw the contents of the Chu State Reform, he nodded slightly, and then shook his head slightly.
