Free Web NovelChapter 1243: Chapter 1217: Appointments (Part 2)
Not to mention those who died in the war; when someone dies, they are gone, and everything disappears.
Zhao Hanzhang doesn’t want anyone to die.
Therefore, the bad idea proposed by Diao Xie must not be used.
If she were not someone from the future, she might truly fall into the quagmire of struggle with the Jiangnan’s aristocratic families. But she knows how great Jiangnan’s development potential is now, and that it shouldn’t be limited to the existing lands.
There are other pathways besides forcefully seizing land from aristocratic families.
Zhao Hanzhang asked Wang Dao, "How many people are in Jiangnan now?"
Wang Dao said, "Every year, people flee here. Excluding the unregistered refugees, there are four hundred and eleven thousand households, with a population of more than one million six hundred eighty-seven thousand people."
Zhao Hanzhang nodded, "Yangzhou is one of the ancient nine provinces, its scope is vast, comprising eighteen prefectures and one hundred seventy-three counties, but this population is still too small."
Wang Dao: "This is still the result of a mass migration of northern people to the south. If we exclude the northern people who migrated south over the years, about eighty thousand households would be deducted, and the entire Yangzhou might only have a little over one million two hundred thousand people."
Zhao Hanzhang: "So Diao Xie’s proposal is completely unnecessary. Jiangnan is now a vast area with sparse people; besides the existing farmland, there are large expanses of wild land that have not been cultivated."
She turned to Zhou Qi and said, "The state and the people are like parents and children. Children must support their parents, and parents must protect their children, hoping they can be prosperous and have a harmonious family life."
Zhou Qi nodded, "The Great General’s analogy is apt."
"You are the children living best under your parents’ knees. You are strong, contributing the most to your parents, and your parents can’t help but be partial to you. However, they also hope other children can live well, so they want you to help those children who are not doing so well. What do you think, Mr. Zhou?"
Zhou Qi lowered his eyes, thought for a moment, then asked, "How does the Great General want us to do this?"
"Although parents want you to help your poorer siblings, they will not forcibly take from their wealthy children to avoid family discord," Zhao Hanzhang said. "The national treasury will take out some money to redeem land, and then distribute this land to the poor for cultivation. Please, Mr. Zhou, after returning, discuss this with each family, allowing the state to redeem the land."
Zhou Qi respectfully agreed.
Zhao Hanzhang said, "After the war, Jiangnan needs military personnel stationed. Mr. Zhou is a native of Jiangnan and is most familiar with the terrain, which makes you the most suitable to guard it."
Zhao Hanzhang planned to appoint Zhou Qi as Yangzhou Governor and General Fenwei, concurrently serving as the Prefectural Governor of Wuxing County, leading Yangzhou’s military affairs.
Zhou Qi paused for a moment and asked, "Then who will be the Yangzhou Governor?"
Zhao Hanzhang’s gaze turned to Wang Dao.
Zhou Qi followed the gaze, and together their eyes landed on Wang Dao’s face, and he couldn’t help but laugh, "There is no one more suitable than Mao Hong."
Zhao Hanzhang gave a faint smile, yes, she feared sending others over, as those aristocratic families in Jiangnan could easily swallow them whole.
Even King Langya, who is so rightful and brought a large number of troops and officials, was not taken seriously by them. Who could she send to govern Jiangnan?
And handing it over to the local aristocratic families would make no difference from Jiangnan’s previous semi-autonomous state.
So it still had to be handed over to Wang Dao.
He had already established a foothold in Jiangnan, was a northerner, and with his talent and ideals, there was no one more suitable.
"Mr. Wang, would you be willing to answer my call?"
Wang Dao suppressed the excitement in his heart and bowed, "How dare I not comply?"
He felt quite attached to Jiangnan, and he had long conceived ideas for it. He thought those ideas were useless after leaving, but he didn’t expect Zhao Hanzhang to be willing to entrust Jiangnan to him for governance.
The matter was thus settled.
On the first day of returning to the court after a break, decrees kept emerging from the palace.
Zhao Hanzhang appointed Wang Dao as the Yangzhou Governor and Zhou Qi as Yangzhou Governor and General Fenwei, concurrently serving as the Prefectural Governor of Wuxing County, overseeing Yangzhou’s military affairs, ordering them to assume office within half a month.
This means the two would remain in the Capital City for at most seven days before they must quickly assume their positions.
Besides these two, Zhao Hanzhang also appointed many talented people from Jiangnan, mostly to positions in Jiangbei, or kept them in Luoyang, not sending them back to Jiangnan.
Instead, she selected a number of officials from the court to go to Jiangnan.
Good news from Jiangnan continually arrived; many Prefectural Governors, County Magistrates, and other levels of officials who rebelled with Wang Dun perished. Even if they survived, Zhao Hanzhang would not allow them to remain in Jiangnan, allowing for new Prefectural Governors and County Magistrates to take their places in those areas.
Additionally, some officials who exploited the people, engaged in corruption and malfeasance, with reputations so bad even she had heard of them, were also held accountable and replaced.
