The Empress Governs the Country VI (1)
Because she was busy, the time Jing Wan spent with her son once again decreased. However, for Jing Wan who has always been good at maintaining a healthy lifestyle, she won’t continuously stay at the desk without stretching. Normally, at about every hour or so, she will just move around. This more or less was when she would play with her son.
However, speaking of which it was also strange. The little crown prince normally was indeed quite like a little demon king, wanting to look for his mother constantly, but when Jing Wan was truly busy, he was also obedient and quiet, not making a fuss. Regardless whether he was under Jing Wan’s eyelids or not, it was all like so. The palace servants all say, the little crown prince is a filial child, knowing to care for his mother at such a small age.
Regardless of the reason, hearing this kind of remark, as the mother, she was still quite happy.
After she finished bonding with her little baby, she continued burying herself in work.
However, regardless of the day, Jing Wan’s exercise everyday was nevertheless unshaken by thunder. Right now, she has already returned to the state prior to getting pregnant. Aside from that scar as the most direct evidence, from the other areas, one really can’t tell in slightest that she had given birth to child before. However, she had also long been using the best scar removing medicine, so right now, it appeared very light.
After ensuring that there absolutely weren’t any problems with the logistics on Li Hong Yuan’s side, and the defense at other borders were also in place, Jing Wan just issued her first government decree.
With each county as a unit, elect outstanding farmers, the imperial court will give praise and reduce the tax. On top of the great amnesty given previous, the tax will be once again reduced. In these three years, with the two overlapping, the tax can be completely exempted. Moreover, the reduction is effective for up to three generations of a family. However, the supervision towards said people will also increase. If said people were to break the law, then all the benefits will be revoked and will also be severely punished. Of course, in contrast, if in the next year, they are once again voted up, then the reward from the imperial court will double.
At the same time, within a certain range, she also implemented assistant programs for dedicated crops.
Not only so, Jing Wan also gave order to the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of Revenue, research farm tools. Organize the growth process of the various regions’ crops, heading out to the local regions to carry out field study, and increase the crop output as much as possible.
Regarding the farm tools, she also gave out a few simple diagrams. Because she’d only seen before in her past life when accompany her grandma, the specifics, she wasn’t very clear. However, it still gave them a rough direction. As for the latter, she also gave a bit of suggestion. In summary, it can be covered in one word: ‘crossbreeding’.
In regards to grafting, because it had succeeded on the flowers in the early years, at the time, Luo Pei Shan already saw its value. And now, directly bringing it out to promote, it can’t be more fitting.
Because it was all beneficial to the country and the people, improving the people’s welfare, the imperial court naturally won’t oppose. On the contrary, they all eagerly participated in it. For instance, they further elaborated on the first point’s election requirements and manner, and also added the various punishments for practicing fraud.
In these last two three years, Qi Yuan’s harvest have all been pretty good, and there also weren’t any large scale natural disaster. Under this kind of situation, supporting the war with Southern Qi for another two three years was more than enough. And during this time, Qi Yuan will also rapidly develop. Thus, the follow-up also won’t have any problems.
For the sake of further expanding the productive force, the people that had escaped the mountains, or forced to migrate to a different region in the past will be allowed to return to their native home, and have their field and home returned to them. Government officials must not because of their past carry out any unlawful beating, or have any insulting behavior.
This kind of situation, in reality, exist quite a few. Natural disaster and manmade disaster can all bring about it, regardless whether it was the flood in the south a few years ago, or the war in the northwest, let alone incidences from even earlier.
However, although developing, having experienced her past life, Jing Wan knew how serious the consequences brought about by environmental destruction were. That’s why, even if at present, the destructive power isn’t even near comparable to her past life, preventive measures still need to be put in place. If this kind of awareness can be fostered early, then thousands of years later, the world might enter a different kind of civilization, but it was also possible that there won’t be that serious of a situation.
The report of victory from the frontlines came from time to time. Although not ruling out the possibility of just reporting the good news and not the bad news, Qi Yuan right now indeed occupied an enormous advantage. The battlefield has already shifted onto Southern Qi’s territory, and in Li Hong Yuan’s private letters to Jing Wan, it was in even more detail. Of course, there was also some lovey-dovey corny lines that can’t be shared with a third party.
TN: All
Jing Wan also wrote quite a bit about the matters in court to Li Hong Yuan. In the beginning, she would even ask Li Hong Yuan some questions, but these things slowly lessened. In contrast, some of her own thoughts and political views were continuously increasing. Of course, when it comes to cringiness, Jing Wan absolutely wasn’t Li Hong Yuan’s opponent. That’s why, her words of longing were very reserved.
As such, even if the two of them were separated by thousands of miles, that intimacy and harmony still didn’t change. Perhaps because they weren’t close by, even if a certain someone acted up, Jing Wan won’t know either, and won’t ‘bicker’, so the sweetness level seemingly was even denser.
However, for the sake of their correspondence, they even specially opened a ‘special route’. If Yuan Qi Emperor were to be a bit more ‘diligent’, then perhaps it will even exhaust to death a few horses.
And because of this problem, Jing Wan thought of a few more things. In ancient times, places that were a bit farther away just became a completely different world. Communication was forever a big problem. As such, Jing Wan couldn’t help but think of ‘postal services’. Purely just sending some letters, or transporting little things, it was completely doable. Just, the construction for this net might be a bit big, but if really setting to the task, then it wasn’t that difficult of a matter, can go down to the various prefectures, various provinces, and various counties, and then further break down into the various towns, villages, and such. They can have the counties autonomously take charge, while the imperial court sponsor. The related personnels undertaking the task will also be considered ‘government employees’, or just directly record in the Ministry of Revenue.
As for ‘express delivery’, this service, can actually look for those wealthy merchants to handle. However, this matter certainly will be slower than the ‘postal service’. Even though among the people, there was still ‘escort service[1]‘, this kind of profession, but in Jing Wan’s view, it was far from enough. Armed escort service, compared to ‘express delivery’, can only be considered small-scale. Additionally, it was just without an informative network, the things transported will also be a lot less. The merchants may not necessarily care about the interest in this.
Jing Wan wrote and drew, even having some things written in the past dug out.
Afterwards, she discovered that she seemingly forgot about one of the most important thing that should be handled at present, and that was just the financial support for the family of fallen or injured soldiers.
Jing Wan smacked her forehead, a bit vexed. She really shouldn’t have forgotten. Even if it was still early, still not reaching this step, but as the one in power, she should’ve long thought about it. Moreover, she should start arranging step by step and not have the matter dragged out.
Even though the imperial court had a fixed regulation and system in regards to financial support for the family of fallen and injured soldiers, Jing Wan’s eyes, it was still far from enough. The imperial court’s financial support wasn’t enough to begin with, and it will even get embezzled and exploited level by level as it gets passed down. In the end, what actually ends up in the hands of those injured soldiers or the family members of fallen soldiers was just a tiny amount.
Moreover, if a strong able-bodied worker returns home crippled, not many will be able to live well. Aside from needing to rely on others for many things, their dignity will also be severely damaged, leading to depression, violence, and other extremities. Actually, these were still considered light. What’s more likely is that their family won’t provide for them, having them abandoned, or perhaps completely disregarded.
[1] Basically mercenaries hired to protect and send goods, or people.
