Chapter 637: The End of an Era

Although the affairs of the Angel Clan have a specific plan and are in progress, this matter is obviously not something that can be completed in a short period of time, Elzak wants to convince the Imperial side that the Angel Clan itself will need a lot of time to prepare for the migration, according to Chen Jian's estimate, even if things go as expected, the whole plan will be completed, and it will be after the autumn.

This timetable made Chen Jian very satisfied, because he felt that at that time, the alliance should have ended when the alliance was renamed the empire, and at that time, the angel clan suddenly broke away from the Erathia Empire and switched to the arms of the alliance, I believe that it can cause a greater sensation on the mainland, which is quite beneficial to Chen Jian's plan to build momentum for the alliance.

Therefore, during this time, Chen Jian was concerned about the follow-up of the Angel Clan's plan, and on the other hand, he was concerned about the situation of Esrena and others in Titalia, but on the other hand, he was actively consolidating the rule of his own regime within the alliance.

Strictly speaking, the Alliance's current dominance in Negan is actually quite stable, as far as a newly emerging force is concerned, Chen Jian has done everything so far has been very successful, he has grasped the hearts of the people, and now his prestige in Negan is in full swing, and all kinds of benevolent policies make Negan people praise him without hesitation, plus he has a strong force, as long as he himself is not confused, in a short period of time, no one can shake the rule of the Alliance.

But on the other hand, the coalition, which has just gained a foothold in Negan, is a rather fragile force.

Because just as Moryl analyzed, the alliance's dependence on Chen Jian is too deep, and if Chen Jian has an accident, the alliance will also collapse.

The contradictions between the various races, the huge differences in individual strength, the differences in the degree of recognition of the concept of the alliance, and other problems also put the alliance in an extremely dangerous state to a considerable extent, although there will be no major problems in a short period of time, but if they are not handled well, these problems will be like a time bomb, threatening the rule of the alliance at some point in the future.

Fortunately, Chen Jian has recognized these problems, because he has not been carried away by power, and he has been reminded by a sober-minded person like Moriel, and he has also actively begun to seek solutions and found the right direction.

As long as he is given some time, he can slowly resolve these problems little by little, he adopted Moryl's suggestion, got married early, he used the parliament to divide, co-opt, suppress, and absorb all races, he used the parliamentarians to make his concept of racial equality more deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, he proposed that the spirit of teamwork made the races with different abilities and advantages begin to put aside their prejudices and agree with each other, and he used the huge power in his hands to engage in propaganda warfare in the alliance, Slowly steer public opinion to the side of the alliance in favor of the alliance, and change the Negan people's preconceived notions on certain issues through changes in the general environment.

Everything is going on for the better.

Of course, the problems in the alliance are not the only ones, there are many things that Chen Jian has to worry about, such as in order to further implement centralized power, after announcing the abolition of the lordship system and not allowing the existence of private armies, Chen Jian once again issued a decree that shocked Negan people in the summer of this year.

A decree on the ownership of the castle.

In this decree, Chen Jian announced that all castles in the alliance, no matter how large they were, no matter who originally belonged to them, would be unified under the ownership of the alliance, and from now on, nobles or any other individuals in the alliance would no longer be allowed to own private castles.

The purpose of Jian Chen's decree was to abolish the large castle under Negan, so that it could not be relied on by potential rebels.

And the people targeted by this order are naturally those who have surrendered to Lord Negan.

After the rise of the alliance in Negan, there were countless Negan lords who surrendered to the alliance, some of these lords sincerely surrendered, some of whom wanted to follow the alliance to reap the benefits, and of course more who were forced to surrender due to the situation.

Although after the surrender, these Negan lords were all deprived of their private armies, except for a few capable ones who were reused, most of them became alliance nobles with no real power and no name, Chen Jian did not bother them much, let them keep a certain amount of private property, and then let them eat and die in the alliance.

But the problem did not end there, as everyone knew that it was the lord, of course there were territories, of course there were lords, of course there were lords, of course there were castles, and in the eyes of the Negan lords, these were their private property.

Jian Chen abolished the lord system, they had no opinion, they didn't let them have private soldiers, they also admitted it, who made themselves inferior in strength? It's better to be honest and live a peaceful life

But when Jian Chen wanted to take back their territory and people, Lord Negan, whose vital interests had been touched, did not do it.

The lords were very angry and thought that Jian Chen was ruining their lives, because without the territory and the people, they had no income at all, and without income, how could they maintain their luxurious life?

But in this aspect, Chen Jian is very tough, he wants to centralize power, and naturally he can't tolerate these surrendered lords who still have people and land in their hands to form a country of their own, because in Chen Jian's view, someone can have soldiers, land can have food and money, and with soldiers and food and money in hand, isn't this a warlord? And if the people of the territory are not recovered, then what kind of abolition is the lordship?

So the contradiction naturally arises.

Of course, with a good example like Jedette, most of the lords eventually obeyed, but there were also a very few lords who refused to obey this, they thought that they had surrendered, and there was no reason why they couldn't even keep their property, but the final fate of these lords was more tragic, because Chen Jian sent Moryl to deal with these things, and the dragon queen's methods have always been more ruthless.

And Chen Jian naturally didn't really force these old lords to a dead end, after careful consideration, he divided these lords into ranks one by one according to the size of their original territories, the number of people, and the richness of their territories, and then redistributed them land according to their ranks.

But it's just land, there is no attached population, and they don't have the ownership of the land, they just have the right to use, now, these old lords need to spend their own money to hire people to cultivate these land, and then they can use the production on it to get income, and these income, but also to the alliance to tax, it should be noted that Chen Jian also stipulates that if the divided land is abandoned for a long time, it will be taken back by the alliance, all of this means, although there is land again, But the old lords could no longer wield their power in these lands as they had done before.

At the beginning, the old lords were quite dissatisfied with this, and felt that Jian Chen was really a little too tricky, and he only gave land but not to people, and the land was much more than their territory before, and there were many conditions and restrictions.

But people are under the eaves and have to bow their heads, and in the end, these old lords can only obediently pinch their noses and admit it, because no one wants to try the thunder methods of the dragon queen like those diehards.

Soon, some of the quick-witted old lords were pleasantly surprised to find that things were not as bad as they had imagined, on the contrary, after careful calculations, they now, if there is no accident, their share of the land is managed according to the method Chen Jian said, and in a year, the income they can generate is even higher than the net income they can receive in the territory in the past, because now they no longer have to bear the heavy military expenses and castle maintenance costs.

In other words, as long as they manage it properly, it is really a fairly simple thing for them to maintain the luxurious life they used to have, and they don't have to worry every day that other lords will covet their territory, let alone fight to the death with other lords on the battlefield to protect their wealth.

At the same time, the old lords also realized that the farmers they had paid for were now much more motivated to work than the previous lords in their realms, and in this case, their incomes even had room to rise.

So soon, on top of these divided lands, large manors were built, and the lords of Negan also transformed into farmers, and some of the nimble old lords even began to study what to plant on their own land in order to make more money, and their dissatisfaction with Chen Jian's alliance of course, also disappeared without a trace.

And Negan's civilians have also benefited a lot from this, after all, they have money to help these farmers now, no matter what the final harvest is, they have a relatively fixed income, even if it is a disaster year, they don't have to worry too much about their livelihood, so there are many people who are willing to work in these big farms.

A new kind of employment relationship began to emerge in Negan, and the alliance also issued a series of policies and regulations to clearly stipulate the rights and obligations of both parties, so as to protect the interests of both parties to the greatest extent.

But in any case, just as a dish can't make everyone feel delicious, the policies pursued by Chen Jian can't be approved by all the old lords, especially when there are still some ambitious guys among these old lords.

Therefore, Chen Jian began to implement his plan to abolish the castle.

In addition to retaining some large castles in strategically important places for the alliance to garrison, Chen Jian ordered the rest of the castles to be abandoned and demolished one by one, and Negan's order set off a vigorous castle demolition movement.

Old, new, majestic, low, countless castles representing the splendor of a certain era and a certain institution disappeared forever from the land of Negan this summer.

In other places, however, some new, more functional large military fortresses were built, and Chen Jian divided Negan into a number of military regions, and built forts on important strategic points to station heavy troops to deter localities, and at the same time set up local security forces in various large cities to maintain local security, eliminate local bandits, and protect the security of the city and surrounding areas.

These methods of Chen Jian made those old lords who were secretly thinking stunned, and then their hearts were like ashes, because now, because of Chen Jian's actions, their allies who are also old lords are decreasing every day, and there are few supporters left in Negan, and now, they don't even have a castle that can be used as a base, and their influence in Negan is also in a series of policies implemented by Chen Jian, which is like ice and snow under the scorching sun in this summer.

Their sad present, their time, has come to an end.