Chapter 850
The Road to Empire
Time flies, and in the blink of an eye, it is already the first day of the first month of the fifth year of Tianwu.
The empire has been established for five years.
Therefore, Chen Jie decided to hold a grand banquet in the palace to celebrate the achievements of the empire in the past five years.
Therefore, all the civil and military officials went to court one after another early in the morning.
Winter in Dadu is much colder than in the south. A heavy snowfall transforms the city into a silver-white world, with the cold air condensing into frost that hangs on the branches of ancient cypress trees, glistening and translucent.
Today, Chen Jie is hosting a banquet for his officials at the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests.
This newly built circular hall sits atop a three-tiered white marble Sumeru pedestal.
Unlike the solemn and majestic Fengtian Hall, the Qinian Hall is designed to be more harmonious and open-minded—its blue glazed tile roof symbolizes the heavens; its twenty-eight giant pillars made of golden nanmu wood support the sky, each representing one of the twenty-eight constellations in the heavens.
Tonight, there will be no court assembly here, only a family banquet. It is a victory celebration banquet specially organized by Chen Jiu Si for his "old brothers" who fought alongside him.
At the beginning of the hour of Xu (7-9 PM), the palace was brightly lit.
Thousands of palace lanterns hung from the roof ridge, their glass shades reflecting the candlelight and illuminating the interior as if it were daytime.
Beside the massive gilded dragon pillar hangs a newly made Suzhou embroidery screen depicting "Emperor Taizu's Northern Expedition," from the Huangzhou Uprising to the capture of the Yuan capital, every stroke of which is filled with bloodshed and turmoil.
Chen Jiu Si did not wear the heavy and cumbersome imperial robes, but changed into a bright yellow casual dress and a black gauze winged crown. He looked less aloof like an emperor and more heroic like a commoner.
He sat upright on the rosewood dragon-carved chair in the center, with Su Yunjin and Zhao Ya beside him. Su Yunjin had specially removed her heavy phoenix crown today, wearing only a simple bun with a plain silver hairpin, and looked at the young men in the room with a smile.
Zhao Ya, on the other hand, wore a red riding outfit, looking heroic and extraordinary. Two empresses, two different styles.
"My lords, let us feast to our hearts' content today. You have all worked hard these past few years!"
Chen Jiu Si raised the jade wine cup in his hand, his voice so loud that it seemed to shake the dust off the roof of the palace.
Before the words were even finished, the hall was already in an uproar.
Duke Chen Xiaohu of Chu had his sleeves rolled up, revealing scars on his arms from the Battle of Luoyang.
With one hand gripping the leg of a roasted whole lamb and the other holding a wine jug, he exclaimed, his mouth dripping with grease, "Your Majesty! We love to hear that! Back in Huangzhou Prefecture, we did the same thing, drinking from big bowls and eating meat in big bites!"
"Tiger General is right!" Duke Zhou Chu of Xin State laughed and agreed. The young generals, who could no longer contain themselves, rose from their seats and gathered around the brazier in the center of the hall.
The hall was covered with thick Western Region velvet carpets. The civil officials removed their court boots, and the military officers unsheathed their swords. For a moment, all etiquette and rules were thrown to the winds. After several rounds of drinks, the atmosphere became increasingly heated.
The musicians played "The General's Command" and "Returning in Victory," the stirring drumbeats making hearts burn.
Dozens of dancers, brought as tribute from Yunnan and Jiaozhi, dressed in gowns woven from peacock feathers, twirled and danced in the hall, their skirts fluttering like blooming lotus flowers.
However, most of the officials' eyes were not on the dancers, but on the steaming dishes on the table—most of them roast duck with crispy skin and tender meat, Yellow River carp so fresh it would make your eyebrows fall off, as well as hand-pulled mutton from the border region and braised lion's head meatballs from the south.
These gluttons were clearly more interested in food than in beautiful women.
Chen Jie was also very happy to see everyone drinking so happily.
After several rounds of drinks and dishes, Chen Xiaohu spoke first: "Your Majesty, now that the people are convinced and the national treasury is full, and our commerce has reached the countries of Southeast Asia, shouldn't we launch a military campaign against foreign powers? That tiny country of Fusang is currently occupied by Lan Yu and his gang. Shouldn't we pacify it and make it submit to the rule of our Great Han?"
Upon hearing Chen Xiaohu's words, the ministers who were drinking and eating meat immediately lost their appetite and their eyes lit up.
At this moment, Chen Jie also put down his wine cup, waved his hand, and all the talented dancers withdrew.
Chen Jie said, "I was thinking of talking about this after the New Year, but since you've brought it up, let's talk about it."
After Chen Jie finished speaking, everyone in the room looked at him. Chen Jie said, "These past five years have been tough for everyone."
Chen Jie pointed to the military generals in the arena and said, "Back then, I said that I would conquer all the surrounding neighboring states within two years, but..."
Chen Jie paused. Five years ago, after Chen Jie ascended the throne, he thought of taking advantage of his great victory to directly wage war against the surrounding countries, crush the neighboring states, and unify the world. However, one person persuaded Chen Jie to stop.
That's right, it was Su Yunjin. She told Chen Jie that she wanted to go back to her hometown in Mianshui with him to pay respects to her mother-in-law. She had heard that the place had been converted into an imperial mausoleum, and as a daughter-in-law, she couldn't miss it.
Chen Jie originally planned to go down in a grand manner, but Su Yunjin hoped that Chen Jie could travel incognito. Chen Jie naturally agreed to his wife's request.
So Chen Jie, along with Su Yunjin, Zhao Ya, Huang Wan'er, and three other women, plus a few guards, traveled incognito from Dadu to Huangzhou Prefecture. They disguised themselves as merchants and traveled slowly to gain a deeper understanding of the hardships faced by the common people.
Seeing the miserable lives of the people, even though Chen Jie had unified the country, the people's lives were still very miserable. Although the national treasury had money, that money was originally intended for the Northern Expedition.
The lives of ordinary people did not improve, and Chen Jie was heartbroken when he saw this.
Although he became emperor for the sake of power, his initial intention was not to let the people live a life worse than pigs and dogs. Now that the country is unified and he has become emperor, should he let the people live a miserable life because of his militarism?
No, this is not what Chen Jie wants. The first step in building a strong nation is naturally the economy.
The first economic principle of this era is to break monopolies and expand the national treasury.
First, break the monopoly and conduct a population census. During the Great Qian Dynasty, gentry and powerful families often concealed their population and land holdings, making it difficult for the state to collect taxes.
Therefore, Chen Jie directly ordered Li Shanchang, the Minister of Revenue and Earl of Jiading, to lead the re-survey of the land and population throughout the country, with the Qinglong Army as his assistant, and to promulgate a policy law for the Great Han Empire.
State-owned land
After the land was nationalized, Chen Jie ordered local households to allocate land, a move that was met with strong support from the local people.
As for the gentry and powerful families who wanted to rebel, they faced the empire's most elite legions. Not to mention the legions, they couldn't even handle the local police. If they dared to rebel, their former tenants could tear them apart and divide all their property among themselves.
Chen Jie has only received land so far, not his family's wealth yet, which is already considered a great favor from the Emperor.
This alone is enough to solidify the foundation of the entire world. In this era, land was still the foundation of a dynasty.
Chen Jie had previously read about a dynastic cycle of three hundred years. The reason why a dynasty could not last more than three hundred years was that three hundred years was the peak of land annexation, and the people could not survive, so chaos would naturally ensue.
Chen Jie then addressed the problem at its root by directly nationalizing the land, prohibiting any individual from possessing it. This would fundamentally guarantee that every citizen would have food to eat, and that the land would not be taken away, ensuring that the people would have something to eat.
In this world, for ordinary people, having a stutter means a peaceful and prosperous era.
In addition, the state has also made provisions in law for those who sell themselves into slavery. The right to life of those who sell themselves into slavery must be guaranteed, and the master who kills the slave must bear legal responsibility and pay with his life.
However, Chen Jie did not abolish slavery for the time being because he still had hidden policies that he had not yet announced.
With these few measures implemented, the foundation of the Great Han Kingdom was immediately solidified. Land, taxes, and all other aspects grew exponentially, and local governments became rich instantly.
Therefore, this policy is known as the first policy of the founding of the nation: land belongs to the state.
Secondly, we should encourage local areas to build water conservancy and roads so that people can get rich quickly. As the saying goes, if you want to get rich, build roads first. Water conservancy is even more important. Each village should build multiple large reservoirs. These reservoirs have many functions. They can irrigate farmland during droughts and store water during floods to prevent floods.
Furthermore, fish can be raised in the reservoir, and ducks, geese, and other poultry can be raised on the banks, which can directly enrich people's dining tables and provide them with meat and high-quality protein.
To make the country prosperous and the people strong, the first priority is to ensure that the people can afford to eat meat.
Furthermore, local governments encourage large-scale farming, and the science and technology institute has developed a vaccine to prevent poultry viruses. With these policies in place, it is safe to say that the people's food problem is absolutely solved.
Every household can say they have enough to eat.
Based on this, Chen Jie began to study commerce with the Ministry of Commerce. Commerce was divided into two parts, the first of which was that the state had to monopolize.
This mainly included dual-use goods for both military and civilian purposes, such as salt, iron, and horses. These were officially monopolized, and by monopolizing these goods, the national treasury could be quickly filled. With money, Chen Jie could do many things.
Secondly, there is the private economy.
Chen Jie encouraged the private economy to prosper society, and suggested that the government should not interfere in the private economy, but only conduct macro-control. However, as the economy prospered, an important issue came to the forefront.
That's money.
Previously, the national economy was underdeveloped, so there was no problem of not having enough money. However, as the economy developed, money became increasingly insufficient. Therefore, Chen Jie joined forces with the imperial court to open banks throughout the country and actively promoted paper money.
This reform led to rapid economic development across the country, quickly making a number of people wealthy.
After the civilian population stabilized, Chen Jie began to reform the military. He felt that the old army system was flawed, so he reformed it.
Therefore, a new military system was implemented.
The first change was the reform of the military, which changed the previous system of ten-man commanders, flag officers, and centurions to the current nine-level system of squad, platoon, company, battalion, regiment, brigade, division, army, and army group commander.
Moreover, the military system adopted the most traditional three-three system: a squad of ten people, a platoon of three squads, about thirty people, a company of three platoons, about one hundred people, a battalion of three companies, about three hundred people, a regiment of three battalions, about one thousand people, a brigade of three regiments, about three thousand people, a division of three brigades, about ten thousand people, and an army of three divisions, about thirty thousand people.
An army group consists of approximately three corps, with over 100,000 men.
Secondly, the position of inspector was added to the military, with inspection teams checking the daily routines of all soldiers.
At the same time, Chen Jie made a standardization suggestion in the military strategy compiled by Zhang Dingbian and other dukes, which was to incorporate the formation of queues, marching in formation, and internal affairs inspections, etc.
To transform this army into a rudimentary form of modernity.
At the same time, a standardized model for military merit was established, and military merit was linked to the promotion of cadres.
Chen Jie designed a five-tiered system of military merit, with each tier corresponding to different standards, giving all soldiers a clear path to promotion. This made the soldiers yearn for war, as only in war could they advance rapidly.
It can be said that the military has undergone tremendous changes in the past five years.
Of course, that's not all. (End of Chapter)