I'm a bully in troubled times

Jiang Yu has always been good at playing tricks, and Yan Hou was also aroused by his words.

Jiang Yu continued: "If you are timid and restrained by these veteran officials, it will be difficult for Your Highness to carry on with the great cause of rejuvenating the country."

"What's more, I'm not blindly radical. I'm too radical, eager for success and profit, but it's not beneficial to the reform. Therefore, what I mean is not to seek speed, but to seek stability. Whenever the reform is carried out, wherever it goes, you must It is necessary to ensure that the decrees issued are actually implemented.”

"It makes sense." Marquis Yan said, "Pursuing quickness blindly will only backfire."

"And these old officials... After all, they have also contributed to the country. They can't be too much, but they can't be too conniving."

"Your Highness is wise," Jiang Yu said.

After chatting with Marquis Yan about the details of the reform, Jiang Yu was left for dinner again and would not return until late at night.

When he got home, Qi Ranming dug out from nowhere the broken bamboo flute that Suiqiu was playing with, and even played it twice.

Seeing Jiang Yu enter the room, Qi Ranming raised his head and smiled at him, "You still have this thing."

"This is proof that we are in trouble together, so we must keep it," Jiang Yu said.

Qi Ranming smiled and said: "At the time I was seriously injured, the flute was made from random bamboo. It was too crude and the pitch was not accurate. If you like it, I will make you a better one."

"I have a more important matter for you." Jiang Yu said, "Let's put aside such trivial matters for now."

"Leave me something?" Qi Ranming became interested and asked, "What's the matter?"

He always wanted to do something for Jiang Yu, but he never had the chance.

Jiang Yu said: "Today, Your Highness asked me for advice on how to recruit talents."

"What did you say?" Qi Ranming asked.

"I told His Highness the story of buying a bone with a thousand dollars."

"A thousand dollars for a bone?"

"Yes," Jiang Yu knew that there is no allusion to buying bones with a thousand gold in this world, so he explained, "It is said that there was a monarch who wanted to buy a thousand-mile horse with a thousand gold, but he couldn't buy it for several years."

"One of the monarch's bodyguards was ordered to buy a horse, but he bought back a dead horse."

"Then won't he be beheaded?" Qi Ranming asked, Jiang Yu seemed to have endless stories and new things to tell.

"Yes, the monarch is very angry." Jiang Yu said, "But at this time the guard said, if the world sees the monarch, you are willing to pay a lot of money even for a dead horse, and naturally some people will offer the real Chollima."

Qi Ranming: "What does this have to do with recruiting talents?"

Jiang Yu said: "A wise man is like a galloping horse, and the monarch who bought the horse is like our Highness."

"what do you mean……"

Jiang Yu said: "So, I would like to recommend you to His Highness."

"I'm that dead horse?" Qi Ranming raised his eyebrows.

Jiang Yu: "You just come from a lower family background, but in terms of talent, you are no worse than anyone else."

Qi Ranming smiled and said, "It's too late to say something nice now."

"So you agree?" Jiang Yu asked.

Qi Ranming thought for a while and said, "I guess I'm not suitable for officialdom."

"Don't worry," Jiang Yu said, "You don't need to cater to anyone, and you don't need to be slick and sophisticated. The people I choose for Your Highness are those who want to do practical things."

Qi Ranming: "But I don't understand these things you reformed."

Jiang Yu: "During the Battle of Gaoyang last time, I think you seem to be very familiar with the art of war?"

"It's not familiar, but I know a little bit." Qi Ranming said.

"Do you still remember Wei Boyong?" Jiang Yu asked.

Qi Ranming nodded.

"I think he's not bad, and you two recognize each other," Jiang Yu said, "You can lead the army with him. You are good at martial arts, so there will be no problem."

"Most of Yan's army is now controlled by the nobles, but most of the nobles are greedy for life and fear of death. When they go to the battlefield, they are resourceful and bloodless. I plan to learn from Qin and use military merit as the criterion for conferring titles. Based on your military exploits in the Battle of Gaoyang, it is enough to get quite a reward."

Qi Ranming smiled: "Since you said yes, then you can."

The next day, Jiang Yu recommended Qi Ranming to Marquis Yan.Yanhou saw that although Qi Ranming's complexion was not good, but his eyes were firm, and his gestures were well-organized, like a person with high martial arts skills. When he asked about the art of war and other matters about joining the army, Qi Ranming also answered fluently.

Jiang Yu told Yan Hou about Qi Ranming's military exploits in the Battle of Gaoyang, and Yan Hou was overjoyed, and immediately awarded Qi Ranming a second-class title—in Jiang Yu's memorial to Yan Hou, he mentioned the military merits and deeds. In the system of rewards, titles are divided into ten grades, and meritorious persons can be rewarded regardless of their birth status.

And Qi Ranming is an example-Qi Ranming himself is a slave/slave, he was recommended by Jiang Yu, and he made meritorious service in the Battle of Gaoyang, so he was immediately rewarded.

In this way, the measure of Yan Hou's reward for military merit has won the trust of the people of the country.

Discussing military merits and rewards can not only break the original system of appointing officers to a certain extent, but also stimulate the enthusiasm of soldiers to fight and improve the combat effectiveness of the entire Yan State army-this has been reflected in the transformation of Qin State.

In addition, the Marquis of Yan also gave Qi Ranming a splendid mansion.At Jiang Yu's suggestion, a high platform was built beside the Yishui River, and a thousand taels of gold were placed on the high platform to recruit wise men.

Of course, there were many voices of opposition during this process, but Marquis Yan was very firm, no matter what those old ministers said, he did not waver.

Just as Yanhou was watching all the wise men from all over the world join him, news came from the state of Jin.

According to the news, Zhao Di and Shi Xiang went to Luoyi to meet the emperor, and asked the emperor of Zhou to make them princes, divide the land of Jin into two, and make Zhao Di and Shi Xiang the two. princes and kings.

Zhao Shi and Zhao Shi are powerful, Zhou Tianzi did not dare to offend them, and was willing to do this favor, so he agreed, and divided Zhao Di and Shi Xiang into enfeoffments.The original state of Jin ceased to exist, and it was replaced by two vassal states with different surnames, Zhao and Shi.

After receiving the news, Jiang Yu finally felt relieved for the time being.The post-split Jin State is no longer the same as the original Jin State. The two have fought for so long, and when the country was first established, the country must be in a state of waste.It will take time to grow strong enough to be comparable to the other four vassal states.

Not long after the news came out, another news came from the south—Chu State sent troops to Zheng State.

Without the threat of Jin State, Chu State's ambition to expand northward became more and more undisguised. Attacking Zheng State so recklessly is not only a demonstration of his determination to expand northward, but also a provocation to Qin State.After all, since Qin Zheng got married last year, the relationship has become increasingly close.

Jiang Yu even got an inaccurate news. The reason why Yingxi was able to escape from Quwo was because Zhao Shi's inner struggle could not take care of him, and Zheng Guo's intervention was also the reason.

Hearing the news that Chu State attacked Zheng State, Jiang Yu keenly sensed that this might be just the beginning.After Zheng State, there must be a war between Chu State and Qin State.

I don't know how far the struggle between the two vassal states will develop.

Regardless of whether Chu State wins or loses this battle, the Marquis of Chu will not let it go.

At the beginning of the year, the alliance meeting requested by the state of Chu was approaching, and it was unknown what would happen during the alliance meeting.

At a time when the situation in the world is changing, the reforms led by Jiang Yu are also intensifying.

During his lifetime, Xun Shu was very radical in wanting to abolish the hereditary system of noble titles and fiefdoms, weaken the privileges of nobles, and reform the state ownership of land.In this regard, Jiang Yu did not continue, but suddenly turned to taxation, corvee, farming and other aspects.

The officials, who had been frightened and aggrieved by Xun Shu, saw that Jiang Yu's reform efforts seemed to be a little weaker than Xun's, so they agreed to the reform after some consideration.

Compared to losing the title, taking some silver to reward plowing and weaving and land reclamation is nothing.Everyone lamented that Mr. Suiyang could be a man.

Soon, though, they stopped laughing.

Because taxes and corvee were followed closely, Jiang Yu pointed the finger at the fiefs and fiefs of the officials.Jiang Yu wanted to change the local official positions and unify them into two levels of localities, namely counties and counties.And this directly touched the fiefs of the hereditary title holders, asking them to separate the fiefs and put them in charge of the county guards and county magistrates.

Jiang Yu's decree was only issued, and the next day, some officials in the court began to cry, saying how good they were for the country, and now they were going to be taken away from the fief, saying that Jiang Yu was a wolf, and he actually hit the fief's head superior.It is said that the son of heaven entrusts the feudal lords, and the feudal lords enfeoff the princes and officials. The etiquette since ancient times, such as the law of the ancestors, cannot be abolished.

The group of newly-promoted officials led by Jiang Yu and the previous reformers all sprayed together.They were so sprayed that they almost crashed into the temple.It is said that the monarch was deceived by the traitors, they could not watch the Yan Kingdom be destroyed, and they cried so much that they were sincere and earth-shattering.

Seeing this, Marquis Yan said lightly: "Send him back to the mansion and let his son take care of him. If he seeks death again, his son will be punished for treason."

Let them die without daring to die.

In this way, the system of prefectures and counties slowly began to be popularized among the people.

The county guards and county magistrates are dispatched from the central government by the monarch himself. Reputable and talented officials are selected as county magistrates, and some newly recruited officials who have no actual political achievements are selected as county magistrates.

Such a complete set of local systems, in the eyes of the whole country of Yan, is quite difficult to implement. Every day, veterans shed tears on the steps of the Golden Palace, trying to crash into the pillars to death.

Jiang Yu's reforms mainly involved seven aspects, including the hereditary system, military merit, and farming. Now only the implementation of rewards for military merit and the local system at the county and county levels have already made so many people jump.

So much so that Qi Ranming worried every day that Jiang Yu would one day make the same mistakes as his uncle and parents.

——Since Jiang Yu recommended it to the Marquis of Yan, Qi Ranming is also qualified to go to court.But he doesn't like to speak, let alone take the initiative to play.

However, according to Jiang Yu's knowledge, on Qi Ranming's first day in the barracks, some people disapproved of him and publicly questioned his lack of qualifications.Of course, these people were headed by the old nobles, who believed that Qi Ranming was a slave, not qualified to lead soldiers, even inferior to Wei Bo, who was originally a commoner, but was conquered on the spot by Qi Ranming with his unrivaled swordsmanship.No one dared to say a word about Qi Ranming again.

Also conquered was Weber Yong.

Wei Boyong even followed Qi Ranming's ass every day, clamoring for Qi Ranming to teach him how to use swordsmanship. How could he manage to pick off his sword without much effort?

When Jiang Yu heard about it, he couldn't help but laugh, it really resembled Qi Ranming's simple and rude personality, who would never force anyone who could do it.

However, Qi Ranming was still serious, and said as a matter of course: "Well, I discounted the leg of that surnamed Shen."