After Bai Gui met with Shang Ying, he went to the state of Qi. The business affairs are all handed over to the shopkeeper below.

All the business seems to be not his Bai Gui's business, it is all the people below who are doing business with the Qin State. It's not about doing business with the Qin State either, but! Do business with the merchants of the Qin State.

In fact! Behind the scenes, Bai Gui and Qin Guo are doing business. The people who came forward to do specific things were all the shopkeepers below and the henchmen sent by the Qin State, and they were in their personal names.

If you do business with people under the banner of Bai Gui, they won't be able to kill you? If you say that you are doing business for the Qin State and are the clerk of the Qin State, you will also be considered to have done this business.

In his personal name, bribing the magnates of the Wei State, or partnering with the magnates, this business will be much easier.

got the assurance of his father-in-law Bai Gui, and Shang Ying's confidence hardened. After going back to discuss with Qin Xiaogong, he began to embark on a comprehensive reform.

Reform! That is, the change of the law, which was later called the "Shang Martingale change method".

Before! Since he came, the Qin State has been changing the law, experimenting, and experimenting. I am accumulating experience little by little, and I dare not let go of my hands and feet.

Because! Comprehensive reform is very risky. Internal and external troubles, one careless, will be wasted.

Internal worries! The Shang Dynasty reform directly affected the interests of the Qin magnates. If you touch the nerves of the powerful and infringe on their interests, they may start a civil strife. If these elites collude with foreign enemies, they can overthrow your regime in one fell swoop.

So! Qin Xiaogong and Shang Ying did not dare to advance and carry out comprehensive reforms. Reform should be carried out little by little. First win over the people, give benefits to the people, and win the trust of the people. After getting the support of the people, the interests of the elites will be mobilized.

In the beginning, let the people get rich first, let the population develop, and let the elites see hope. When the population grows, the people become richer, and the taxes paid by the powerful will increase accordingly.

Outcome! All this is just a little sweetness that Shang Ying and Qin Xiaogong gave to the people and the magnates.

The big sweetness is still to come!

But! Seriously weakened the interests of the elites.

There were some powerful people who were short-sighted and only looked out for their own interests and did not care about the interests of the Qin state.

If the Qin State is not strong, how much can you benefit? The war is coming, you were bullied by the Wei State, and your life is just a little better than the people. And when the Qin State is strong as a whole, foreign enemies such as the Wei State will not dare to bully you, so you can live a stable aristocratic life.

In the face of national interests and personal interests, short-term interests and long-term interests, certain elites only see personal interests and short-term interests. So! They were opposed to Qin Xiaogong and Shang Ying's reforms.

But! Right now! The people have tasted the sweetness, Qin Xiaogong has tasted the sweetness, the wise men of the Qin State have tasted the sweetness, and the tide of reform is unstoppable.

So! Some powerful people want to object, but it's too late.

But! For the sake of safety, Shang Ying consulted with Qin Xiaogong and asked Bai Gui for help.

In front of Qin Xiaogong, Shang Ying did not hide it: he was Bai Gui's son-in-law.

Qin Xiaogong also saw the face of history clearly and was willing to keep secrets for Shang Ying. In this age of sin, if others know that you have descendants, they will punish your whole clan.

All these years! While the Qin State was reforming little by little, Qin Xiaogong and Shang Ying had secretly trained 50,000 troops. This army not only has excellent military skills, but also has a strong political and ideological level. One word! They were the people of Qin Xiaogong and Shang Ying. Listen to the command of Qin Xiaogong and Shang Ying.

Right now! With Bai Gui's guarantee and equipping Shang Ying with 10,000 cavalry, Qin Xiaogong and Shang Ying's confidence became harder.

With this 10,000 cavalry, within! It is possible to quell a rebellion. Outside! It can resist the invasion of foreign enemies.

As you can imagine! 10,000 cavalry, capable of reaching the designated strategic location at the fastest speed, can prevent all civil unrest in time.

Of course! If you can settle it peacefully, you will solve it peacefully, and you will not expose your strength.

Without the guarantee of his father-in-law, Bai Gui, Shang Ying and Qin Xiaogong did not dare to carry out comprehensive reforms. You don't have that force as a guarantee, and once civil strife starts, you can't clean up the scene. Once the internal ghosts collude with the external enemy, and come to an internal and external alliance, the Qin State will perish.

No! The state of Qin will fall into the hands of others. When the time comes! The state of Qin returned to its original state, the country was poor, and the people had no way to live.

According to Shang Ying's estimates, by the time the comprehensive reform reaches a critical moment, the 10,000 horses and weapons that Lao Zhang's people have helped should be almost in place. So! If something goes wrong, it can be stopped immediately to quell civil unrest or accidents.

The first reform of the comprehensive reform is the adjustment of land ownership. All hereditary nobles only retain the existing taxes and own the land that has been cultivated.

All other uncultivated land is used as a reward.

As long as the subordinate people have meritorious service, they can get a piece of land. And then! When they reclaimed the land, they only paid the corresponding taxes to the king, and did not need to pay taxes to the original landowners.

In the past, all the land belonged to the local hereditary nobility. The land of the Qin State was divided among hereditary nobles. The king has a royal fief, and everyone else has their own fief.

Other hereditary nobles were required to pay a "national tax" to the king, who used it to maintain the state apparatus.

So! In order to live a luxurious life, the hereditary nobles increased taxes on top of the national taxes, looted the people's fat and ointment, and let the people live a poor life forever.

Right now! As many fiefs are cultivated on your territory, you will be taxed as much as you want. How much you paid to the king in the past year, how much you still pay? But! The land that has not been cultivated is awarded as a prize to people of merit from all walks of life.

These rewarded people are the people of your fiefdom.

These lands were mainly used to reward soldiers.

The future route of the Qin State is: strengthen the army!

Later! Anyone who kills an enemy on the battlefield gets a piece of land for their families.

So! The first step in Qin's reform was land reform, which was to move the interests of the elites.

In fact! It did not move the interests of the elites, but only weakened the land area of the elites. Because! How much you paid to the king and how much you still pay doesn't affect you in any other way.

The hereditary aristocracy not only collected taxes on land, but also taxes on commerce, handicrafts, etc. For example, hunters have a hunter's tax, craftsmen have a craftsman tax, and there are many kinds of taxes.

The policy of Shang Ying and Qin Xiaogong was to recover a part of the idle land. Furthermore! Nor is it a permanent retraction, but a temporary reward.

When the time is right, the land will still be yours to manage. Because! These lands are bought by your subordinates in exchange for their lives, and their descendants or immediate relatives still live in your fiefdoms. Isn't it?

Later! There has definitely been a change in policy. For example! It is possible to increase the tax by an appropriate amount, and then distribute it according to the ratio of "national tax" to "local tax". Such! The land is still yours.

But! There are some people who don't believe what you say, they just don't accept it. So! Shang Ying and Qin Xiaogong were slow to carry out comprehensive reforms.

The time is not ripe, and you want to overhaul it will only cause civil strife.

Agrarian reform was only one part of the Shang Dynasty reform, the beginning of a comprehensive reform. In other respects, reforms are also being carried out in tandem. Here's how it works: one hair moves the whole body.

Why did the Shang Dynasty change wait until now? Another reason: legislate!

If you want to reform comprehensively, you have to legislate first.

(End of chapter)