The wealth of the Qi State is second only to the Huai State. It can even be said that if the Huai State did not have a larger land and a larger population, it is not certain who has more taxes between the Qi State and the Huai State.
In addition to the basic land tax, oral tax, and salt and iron taxes, Qi State also has a nvlu. What is a nvlu? To put it simply, it is a female branch.
At that time, Guan Zhong carried out reforms to encourage business and increase taxation. The most critical one was the establishment of nulv. At the time when the number of female households in Qi was the largest, there were 7,500 households. The number is huge, surpassing all other summers.
These women provided Qi with a large amount of money, accounting for almost half of Qi's tax revenue.
When King Qi Min of Qi State just died, King Qi Min was extravagant and extravagant. He was very happy with his achievements. He went to war with neighboring countries many times and spent a lot of money, so he levied many miscellaneous taxes.
As a result, the taxation of Qi State has been further increased. On the surface, the taxes collected by Qi State are not high, and the agricultural tax is only one-tenth, but the total of those exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes is twice as high as the regular tax.
It was precisely because King Min of Qi levied high taxes that after Huai State occupied these cities and abolished Qi State's tax standards and changed them to Huai State's tax standards, these cities were quickly settled.
The tax revenue of Huai State is not less than that of Qi State, but the exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes are less. What's more important is that the credibility of the Huai royal family is much higher than that of the Qi royal family. This is also the reason why the people trust Huai State more.
After occupying these cities, the Huai State implemented reforms and digested the spoils of war. On the other side, the battle between Yan and Qi continued.
After the Huai State and the Yan State separated the boundaries, the Yan State continued to attack the Qi State. Le Yi led the army to attack Linzi. Because the Qi army had been defeated in consecutive battles and there were few troops in the country, it was no match for the highly morale Yan state.
Le Yi marched straight in, directly besieged Linzi, and then spent more than a month to capture Linzi, the capital of Qi. The remnant troops of Qi State escorted King Qi to escape, but were ambushed by Le Yi in advance. King Qi died in the rebellion, and the remaining Qi army fled to Jimo under the leadership of Prince Zhang and Tian Dan.
Le Yi led his army into the city and ordered that after entering the city, no rape, robbery, and killing were allowed. He also sent soldiers to maintain order, and sent soldiers to occupy the treasury of Qi and close the palace to show mercy to the people of Qi.
Le Yi served as the Prime Minister of the Yan State for more than ten years. He held a high position and was extremely prestigious. In addition, he had won consecutive battles in the Qi State, and the soldiers were in awe and did not dare to surpass him.
When the army entered the city, there was no commotion as expected. Le Yi also ordered people to kill the people who took the opportunity to cause chaos and rob, in order to win the trust of the people of Qi. After occupying the capital of Qi, granaries were opened to distribute grain to the people.
After stabilizing Linzi, Le Yi transported all the gold, silver, jewels, beauties, grain and cloth from Qi's treasury and palace back to Yan.
King Yan, who was far away in Jicheng, was overjoyed when he learned that Le Yi had defeated Linzi in a battle. He immediately took out a large amount of gold, silver, jewelry, wine, cattle and sheep to reward the soldiers.
When Le Yi led the army back to Jidu, King Yan saw a murderous army.
Seeing such a majestic army, King Yan was very happy. He immediately stepped forward and stopped Le Yi who was about to salute: "Xiangguo, you are a great talent who can assist the ancient holy kings. I have God's protection, and you have your help. I really don’t know how to repay you for your good fortune, so I will use the land of two hundred miles as your fiefdom and make me the king of Changchang, which means that our Yan country is prosperous!"
Le Yi was also very moved: "Since ancient times, there have been countless talented people, but most of them have been buried. I can make contributions because of your trust. Just like a thousand-mile horse, Bole does not always exist. This is There is a wise king first, and then there are wise ministers!"
After the King of Yan awarded Le Yi and the army a reward, Le Yi once again commanded the army and returned to Qi. After capturing Linzi, the capital of Qi State, last time, Le Yi did not attack the cities across Qi State. This time, Le Yi began to attack these cities.
In the next few years, Le Yi showed his prowess and led the Yan army to conquer Qi cities one after another. Seeing the sharpness of Yan's military front, even Prince Ji was wary of Yan. Tens of thousands of Huai's troops had been stationed in Qi.
In just one year, Le Yi defeated seventy-two cities in Qi State, leaving only one city of Jimo left in Qi State.
After completing the capture of those cities in Qi, Le Yi then personally led an army to attack Jimo. Just because Jimo gained a lot of time to strengthen its defense when conquering other cities.
By the time the Yan army attacked Jimo, Jimo City had been built by the Qi people and was impregnable. Le Yi led his army to besiege Jimo for more than two months, but was unable to capture the city.
If the attack continued, the soldiers of Yan State would definitely suffer heavy losses, and Yan State was originally a relatively weak country among the states of Zhou Dynasty, so Le Yi did not want to lose too much national strength.
In addition, Yan State had occupied all the remaining cities in Qi State, Le Yi was not in a hurry to capture Jimo, so he sent people to besiege Jimo.
At the same time, Le Yi divided the cities he captured in Qi and redivided all the cities into counties. He wrote to the King of Yan to implement benevolent governance in Qi to win over the people. He wanted to occupy Qi by reducing taxes on the cities in the areas that occupied Qi, abolishing Qi's exorbitant taxes, respecting local customs, and giving preferential treatment to officials from all over the country.
If Le Yi can continue to rule Qi, after twenty years of benevolent governance, Qi will completely become the land of Yan. But just two or three years after Le Yi implemented benevolent government, King Yan suddenly passed away.
The strength of the Yan State was entirely supported by virtuous ministers such as Yan Wang Zhao and Le Yi. The sudden death of Yan Wang Zhao caused Le Yi to lose his strongest support. What's even more strange is that Yan Wangzhao was always in good health, but his death was very sudden, and he didn't even leave any last words. However, Prime Minister Leyi was leading the army outside and had no idea about the situation.
This made Le Yi feel gloomy.
This kind of thing has happened several times in the states of Zhou and Zhou. Less than a hundred years had passed since the events of Wei Wu, Wu Qi, and Chu King Jingmu, and this happened again in the Yan Kingdom.
The King of Yan who had just ascended the throne did not trust Le Yi. Coupled with the slander of the old nobles of the Yan Kingdom who had escaped the palace uprising of the Yan Kingdom, the King of Yan was very wary of Le Yi. Of course, there was also Huai among them. The contribution of the national secret guards.
Even the death of King Yan Zhao had secret guards involved.
After Prince Ji saw that the kings and ministers of the Yan Kingdom were wise and complementary to each other, he was very worried and reported the situation to Wang Xu, so Wang Xu asked the secret guards to help the old nobles of the Yan Kingdom communicate with each other.
What the secret guards didn't expect was that the old nobles of Yan State actually took advantage of King Yan's serious illness to isolate himself from the inside and outside, causing King Yan to die of illness. Sure enough, the temptation of power can make people ignore family ties, and he can do anything for the sake of his position as the king of a country.
(End of chapter)
