The first poisonous scholar in Daxia, starting from the abdication of the prime minister

Chapter 158 The aristocratic families held a secret meeting to discuss countermeasures!

To what extent?

Gu Jingzhi was a little confused. He didn't quite understand what Wei Xuan meant.

After a moment's thought, he said solemnly, "Teacher, the root of the chaos in this world lies in land annexation. I have earned the trust of Your Majesty and have been granted the Great Xia Dragon Bird. To ensure the long-term prosperity of Great Xia, I am willing to use this opportunity to promote land reform!"

"Change the accumulated evils of past dynasties in one fell swoop!"

Looking back at the past and present, the historical records of all dynasties show that land issues are one of the most serious problems that have caused chaos in the world. In most cases, it is the root cause of the collapse of dynasties.

Since he came to power, he has been planning for a long time to promote land reform through a larger land annexation case.

Even if the Gu family was not there, Emperor Xia would probably choose another family.

The existence of aristocratic families, however, posed a huge obstacle. To put it bluntly, the reason why Emperor Xia never took action against the aristocratic families was due to historical limitations.

It is difficult to destroy the foundation of a family, but for a founding monarch, this is not a big problem.

The difficult part is the reformers and the new laws.

The people who work for Emperor Xia are originally the landlord class. It is not easy to expect the landlord class to do this. More importantly, there is no suitable way to deal with the old laws at present.

Without proper new laws, it will only lead to real unrest.

By then, not only will it fail to shake the foundation of the aristocratic family, but it will also cause suffering to the people of the world.

Gu Jingzhi's reform of land laws was not achieved overnight.

Now all we need to do is use this case to take back the land illegally acquired by the aristocratic families and distribute it to the people. Then we can formulate land policies, nationalize the land, and prohibit the private sale of land.

Once the foundation is solid, the tax laws can be gradually revised.

This is a follow-up to the land policy.

As long as we don't rush to touch the fundamental interests of the aristocratic families - the officialdom - at the beginning, and then thoroughly investigate the cases of land annexation in the world, it will inevitably implicate officials and bring them down. After all, without the protection of officials, the trend of land annexation would not have developed to this extent.

As long as there is involvement, the aristocratic family will inevitably compromise.

In a word, as long as the intention is not to cut off the family's career, there is a high possibility that the family will compromise.

Looking at the high-spirited Gu Jingzhi, Wei Xuan smiled and took out a piece of paper from his sleeve and handed it to Gu Jingzhi. Gu Jingzhi took it and looked at it, and his eyes were suddenly shocked.

"Teacher, have you prepared this list long ago?"

"hehe!"

Wei Xuan patted Gu Jingzhi on the shoulder and said with a smile: "Now that you have made a decision, just do it well!"

Having said that, he turned around and left quickly, leaving Gu Jingzhi with a confused look on his face.

How could he know that Emperor Xia had actually discussed the issue of the list with Wei Xuan a long time ago. He was sure that Gu Jingzhi would not ask anyone else about this matter and would definitely ask Wei Xuan for help.

Therefore, Emperor Xia also revealed his overall plan, with the aim of getting Wei Xuan to support the reform.

At first Wei Xuan prepared two lists.

Both lists include capable officials.

The difference is that one list is relatively conservative, while the other list includes officials who are bold and responsible.

He just wanted to know what Gu Jingzhi wanted to achieve.

Now that Gu Jingzhi has made his choice, he naturally has to push the right person to Gu Jingzhi's side!

……

Based on the list given by Wei Xuan, Gu Jingzhi recruited officials from the Ministry of Revenue, the Ministry of Justice and the Censorate, and then selected some people from the Dali Temple.

Of course, Liu Sandao and others who were assigned to Gu Jingzhi's command were naturally indispensable.

After the personnel were finalized, Gu Jingzhi began to prepare the starting point of the case.

Jiangnan is undoubtedly the first stop, but now we have to wait for Lin Feng to come back.

Now that Emperor Xia has issued an order to deal with the aristocratic families in the court, this news will probably spread as soon as the court is dismissed. Fortunately, Gu Jingzhi sent Lin Feng to Jiangnan more than two months in advance.

At the moment, no matter how fast the noble families are, they cannot match Lin Feng's pace.

Now the eyes of the entire capital are focused on Gu Jingzhi. The aristocratic families would never have thought that Gu Jingzhi had already made plans.

Right now, he only needs to help Lin Feng attract attention in Beijing.

Of course, the aristocratic families would not just ignore this matter.

This is not...

All the noble families serving as officials in the capital gathered together again!

……

Located in a garden facing east of the capital, the leaders of the major families in the capital gathered together.

"Everyone, I believe everyone is aware of what happened in the court today, so there is no need to introduce it again, right?"

Chen Ru, also the head of the Chen family, is the initiator of this gathering.

The Chen family is different from the Song, Li, and Tang families. Some of their members hold high positions in the central government, but there must be other reasons why he can sit here.

Although the Chen family does not have important officials in charge of the six ministries, it is the most powerful family in the local area.

The reason for initiating this gathering was mainly because once the case was investigated, the Chen family would undoubtedly be the one that suffered the most.

As soon as Chen Ru finished speaking, Li Chun said calmly: "Although it is said that they are investigating the land annexation case, in the end it is just to cut off the foundation of my family!"

"Every one of us has our hands in this matter, especially the clan members and their children serving in local government positions... I'm afraid those are the ones the emperor really wants to deal with."

He was demoted from a minister to the governor of Jizhou, to clean up the mess left by his brother Li Yuan. As the first high-ranking official to be demoted, he naturally subconsciously believed that the purpose of the Xia Emperor was to disintegrate their power in the local area.

However, as soon as he said this, he was refuted by Wu, the master of Song Pu's house. Wu shook his head and said, "Master Li, you are worrying too much!"

"Before I came here, the Prime Minister said that the Emperor's goal was to undermine the foundation of my family. However, this matter... is not what Patriarch Li said!"

"Oh?"

Chen Ru asked curiously, "Brother Song, don't you think so?"

Master Wu nodded. He looked at Li Chun and said, "Although Patriarch Li was demoted and Lord Tang was dismissed in the court today, the Emperor will certainly not start a full-scale war with the aristocratic families at this time!"

The so-called all-out war naturally touches upon the taboos of the aristocratic family...officialdom!

"The five noble families of the world are Song, Chen, Li, Tang, and Yin... We noble families control the land and grain of the world, but the most important thing is that nearly half of the officials in the world come from noble families."

"If the Emperor goes to war with us now, it would be like throwing an egg against a rock!"

"From what Brother Song said, then all we need to do is unite officials from all over the country and petition the emperor to revoke his decision. Why are we still discussing countermeasures here?"

Yin Hong, the representative of the Yin family, said so.

When he said this, the other families were all at a loss for words. Chen Ru said, "Brother Yin, if only this matter were that simple!"

Although the Yin family is also a noble family, they later focused on the military. Most of their children served in the military, so their minds are naturally not as meticulous as those of civil servants.

"As the founding monarch, the Emperor's ability and courage are incomparable to those of ordinary emperors. If we resort to local pressure, I'm afraid that for a long time to come, our aristocratic families and the royal family will be in a full-scale war!"

"Since you don't want to go to war, but you also don't want to be investigated, then what do you think we should do?"

"..."