Chapter 424: Poisonous Bait
While the noble families in the world were busy with their own business, the princes of the world were also not idle.
This era is no longer the era of worst-case scenarios in the original historical trajectory.
Under the impetus of Tian Ze, the competition and rivalry among the princes of the world had already entered a new stage.
It seems that someone of Yuan Shu's level is not even qualified to participate.
Among all the princes who have managed to survive to this day, none of them have any shortcomings in their abilities.
Moreover, they are also forced to continue learning and growing.
Just like Boss Cao, there is no trace of the Cao who once massacred the city. He is best at learning from experience and has been imitating the model under Tian Ze's rule, even going deep into the fields frequently.
In order to have a slight chance of winning, these princes were forced into involution by Tian Ze.
Knowing that they could not stop the actions of the powerful families, they did not sit and wait for death, but sought opportunities in adversity.
After all, the powerful families belong to them, and it is impossible to take any action without notifying them.
Although they cannot stop it, it does not mean they cannot set some thresholds.
Just like Tianze, the aristocratic families are allowed to manage the Northeast, but they must pay the price of a large population.
Cao Cao and his men also copied and came up with a set of rules.
The wealthy and powerful families were allowed to relocate the population, but in addition to paying a large amount of money and grain, they had to give them two civilians as compensation for every ten people relocated.
After all, these are the people under their rule, and it is their power that is lost.
Although these were unfair terms, the wealthy and powerful families had no choice but to accept them.
Because Cao Cao and others set the scale just right, they could exploit them to the greatest extent while not causing them to turn against them.
This is a political compromise.
As for collective resistance, they did not dare to do so. With Tian Ze by their side, they would never dare to turn against Cao Cao and other princes unless they were pushed to a certain extent.
Taking this opportunity, the various princes not only gained a lot of money and grain, but also gained a large number of population again, which greatly enhanced their control over the areas under their rule.
Many reform policies that were once difficult to implement have now been implemented smoothly.
Everything seems to be moving in a good direction.
However, Cao Cao and others did not become complacent at all because they knew that although they were the beneficiaries, they were not the biggest beneficiaries.
Although their strength seemed to have increased again, the gap between them and Tian Ze was widening further.
This is a poisonous bait.
While their apparent strength is rapidly expanding, their development potential is also rapidly decreasing.
In the past, these powerful families were determined to join them in resisting Tian Ze, but after this incident, will they still be so dedicated in the future?
But what can they do? Since they can't stop it, they can only maximize their benefits on this basis.
And this is exactly what Tian Ze wants to see.
Quietly, more and more people started working for him.
The power of various princes was also being purified and reduced, becoming the more ideal new spark in his mind.
When he had nothing to do, Tian Ze began to study the reform matters of various princes and made comments from time to time.
"Yuan Benchu is too rough in his work. He has not yet sorted out the administration of officials but has already implemented a lot of policies. This big step will cause chaos. Remind him."
"Cao Mengde is smart and decisive, but he has gone too far. These policies are clearly exhausting the resources. I suggest he make some changes."
"Sun Bofu is really brainless. What the hell is this? He has no formal training. Send him the two books from the Jixia Academy."
...Watching Tian Ze instructing various princes on their reforms bit by bit, Chen Gong felt extremely speechless.
"Your Majesty, we are enemies! Is it appropriate for you to aid the enemy like this?"
Tian Ze said nonchalantly: "What's wrong with this? Reform is cutting one's own flesh. They need to reform too much. In the short term, their strength will inevitably decrease rather than increase."
"It will take at least several years for these reforms to take effect, so what impact will it have on us?"
Tian Ze, who has personally carried out a series of reforms, knows best the hardships along the way.
The reason why he was able to carry out reforms so smoothly was, on the one hand, because he had insights from later generations, and on the other hand, because he started small and built up large, and had laid a solid foundation.
As for Cao Cao and his men, they were carrying out reforms when the people under their rule were still very rigid. It was too difficult to implement them, and the time required was so long that it far exceeded the time Tian Ze expected to take them down.
In this situation, Tian Ze has nothing to worry about.
The reforms of Cao Cao and others were nothing more than working for themselves in advance.
With the foundation of their reform, many things will not be so troublesome when we take over these places in the future.
This governance of Xiliang taught Tian Ze a great lesson.
Previously, whether it was Youzhou, Bingzhou, Jizhou or Sili, due to the influence of foreign races, Yuan Shao, Li Jue, Guo Si and others, the territories after being taken over were basically in chaos.
All the middle and upper-level management positions are vacant, leaving only a group of disorganized people with nothing.
Moreover, there were enough floating population in Tianze at that time. The influx of these people who had been exposed to advanced management models for a period of time and had developed habits easily diluted the small local population.
This allowed Tian Ze to shape the new order at will without any hindrance.
Able to fully implement your ideas.
But this is not the case in Xiliang today.
Thanks to his early funding and the influence of Gongsun Zan, the people of Xiliang have lived a slightly "better" life in the past two years.
If you give a refugee who has been wandering for years and has not had enough food to eat a full meal, he will be filled with gratitude and even do whatever you say.
But if you give a good meal to a common people who have enough to eat, he will also be grateful, but he will only be grateful.
Although Tian Ze's reforms are good overall, some of them will inevitably affect the existing interests of the people in the short term.
It would be fine if the people had nothing, but when they have certain interests, it would be difficult to implement it wantonly.
The slow progress of the reform in Xiliang gave Tian Ze great reflection.
But this is driven by the times. It is impossible for Tian Ze to let the people return to the state of "nothing" for the sake of reform. In this case, he can only find helpers and start education in advance.
Cao Cao and others are the best choices.
The base of the powerful families in the Central Plains and the South is too strong, and must be resolved with perseverance.
The reforms of Cao Cao and others were equivalent to helping Tian Ze loosen the soil, water the plants, and prune the branches in advance, waiting for Tian Ze to pick the fruits.
As for aiding the enemy.
Tian Ze chuckled.
Putting aside other things, just the most basic issue of official reform, given how difficult it is to deal with the powerful families, I should be impressed that Cao Cao and his men were able to straighten out the official system under their rule within five years.
It is undoubtedly a pipe dream to want to improve one's strength in a short period of time through reform.
This was also a poison bait released by Tian Ze, but Cao Cao and others had to take the bait.
Because if we don’t reform, we will definitely end up in a dead end.
(End of this chapter)
