After the imperial court examination, Yin Shuhuai issued another decree to distribute all three hundred scholars among the Nine Ministers for rotational duties. Yin Shuhuai’s original intention was to let the three hundred scholars quickly familiarize themselves with the functions and working scopes of various government departments. Once the job rotation ended, they could immediately take office.

This decision caused the noble and aristocratic families to watch closely and stay alert. Everyone knew that the Emperor and the Chancellor had long been dissatisfied with the aristocratic officials and would certainly find every possible way to heavily employ scholars from humble backgrounds to replace the noble families. These three hundred people were the first wave of chess pieces thrown out by the Emperor and the Chancellor. The stance of these people was inherently opposed to the aristocratic families, yet the families could do nothing about it. This was because as time entered the third month of the third year of the Jianyuan era, it began to rain continuously in the Central Plains.

The heavy rain was relentless, falling continuously for more than two months, making the local people everywhere completely numb. Fortunately, Yin Shuhuai was well prepared. Around the time of spring plowing, he had already issued a strict imperial decree commanding all provinces and commanderies to dredge ditches and clean up riverbeds. However, the imperial court’s administrative orders could only pass smoothly without obstruction in the Guanzhong and Henan Yin regions. Many other commanderies and counties had negligent administrations that simply did not follow the court’s decree to dredge rivers and canals. Consequently, after the fifth month, the rivers everywhere swelled violently and flooded agricultural fields and villages. What was worse, in order to protect the fertile lands of the local aristocratic gentry from being affected by the floods, the chief officials of various provinces and commanderies actually ordered workers to repair half of the dikes and dig up the other half when the flood arrived. They reinforced the dikes on the south bank where the wealthy elites lived and dug open the dikes on the north bank where the common people resided, causing all the floodwaters to pour into the commoners’ fields.

Countless common people were submerged by the floodwaters in their nightly dreams. Overnight, countless villages and fields turned into a vast, boundless ocean. The common people had worked hard for a year, yet not only did they reap absolutely nothing, but they even ended up with their entire families tragically killed. The officials of various commanderies and counties actually still had the nerve to submit memorials to the imperial court, hoping that the court would step in to provide disaster relief.

“I will give disaster relief to their ancestors!”

During the grand imperial audience, Chancellor Shentu Yang threw all the disaster relief memorials sent by local officials right at the heads of their respective relatives at court. Pointing at the noses of the many high officials in the imperial hall, he cursed, “Is this a natural disaster? This is a man-made calamity! This is a man-made calamity brought about by you bunch of high and mighty, parasitic bureaucrats who hold positions without doing any work! Even if I tied a dog up to serve as a county magistrate, the dog would at least know how to be obedient and wag its tail! They, on the other hand, are just great! They refused to obey the court’s decree beforehand, but when something went wrong, they wanted the court to clean up their mess. Do I look like a piece of toilet paper to you?”

Shentu Yang was absolutely furious. He immediately ordered Gao Jingde to lead ten thousand soldiers and rush to various regions because he wanted to chop off the dog heads of the local responsible officials at all levels!

The entire court of civil and military officials was shocked to hear this and immediately persuaded Shentu Yang not to be so impulsive, saying, “The officials of various commanderies and counties may have been negligent and lazy, causing the flood to submerge the common people’s fields, but some of them also have crimes that do not deserve death!”

“The Chancellor is angry that the local officials of various commanderies and counties dug up the river dikes and caused the common people to perish, but are the scholarly clans and wealthy households not also the citizens of our Yin Dynasty? Take the Grand Administrator of Dongjun for instance, who only reinforced the south bank river dikes during the flood. That was because seven or eight out of ten of the fertile lands and population of Dongjun are located on the south bank, while the arable land on the north bank is not only scarce but also barren. The Grand Administrator of Dongjun was merely looking at the big picture.”

Shentu Yang’s eyes narrowed slightly, keenly catching the loophole in the words of the man pleading for the Grand Administrator of Dongjun, “You just said that seven or eight out of ten of Dongjun’s fertile lands and population are on the south bank? But the land survey records submitted by Dongjun last year did not say so!”

According to the laws of the Yin Dynasty, every year in the fifth month after the winter wheat was harvested, the court would organize an annual land survey, which meant requiring all provinces and commanderies to count the actual number of cultivated land acres and the size and age of the local household populations. The court would collect taxes according to the data provided by each province and commanderie.

Although Shentu Yang had not read many books, he had a very good memory. He remembered very clearly that last year’s summer tax collection for Dongjun was mostly on the north bank. In the fifth month of this year, floods occurred frequently in various places, and the Grand Administrator of Dongjun also used the excuse that the arable lands on the north bank were all submerged by the flood to request tax reductions and exemptions from the court. How come it had suddenly changed now, and the fertile lands of Dongjun were mostly on the south bank?

As soon as these words came out, the entire imperial court was terrified and shocked.

The official who had just defended the Grand Administrator of Dongjun was sweating profusely like pouring rain.

Shentu Yang laughed out of extreme anger, “Good! Very good! Truly wonderful! It seems I was not wrong. These dog officials who occupy positions without doing any work are indeed good dogs raised by the aristocratic families! In the past, when I read history books and saw stories about local officials colluding with powerful gentries and wealthy elites to favor the rich and powerful while exploiting the weak and vulnerable, I did not quite understand what it meant! Today, I finally understand!”

The court officials sitting there could not help but feel their old faces blush with shame upon hearing this.

The so-called practice of favoring the rich and powerful while exploiting the weak and vulnerable meant that local officials were overly partial and accommodating to powerful clans and influential elites when conducting land surveys. While helping the powerful families conceal their actual land acreage and population, they simultaneously carried out heavy taxation and extortion against the ordinary people. They even counted the houses where the common people lived as cultivated land, shifting all the imperial court’s tax burdens onto the heads of the ordinary people, causing popular resentment to boil over.

“No wonder the common people in various places frequently rise up in rebellion. If I were them, I would not only rise up in rebellion, but I would also kill those local officials who assist tyrants in doing evil, as well as the local powerful gentry!” How could they only start an uprising without killing people?

Shentu Yang sighed with emotion, thinking that the common people of the Yin Dynasty were still too simple, honest, and kind. However, he, Shentu Yang, was not as weak and easily bullied as the common people.

“Since the chief officials of various commanderies and counties are all completely willing to serve as dogs for the local powerful gentry, then let us chop off their dog heads and replace them with a new batch of people to be officials!”

Shentu Yang turned his head to look at the Yin Emperor who sat gracefully at the head of the hall. The ruler and minister looked at each other, and both obviously thought of the three hundred people left behind from the previous imperial examination.

Receiving the Emperor’s hint, Shentu Yang immediately said, “From those three hundred scholars, select those with outstanding results to serve as grand administrators and county magistrates in various provinces and commanderies. Let them take office and immediately start this year’s land survey. I want to see exactly how much tax revenue those powerful clans and wealthy elites have embezzled from the court!”

With one order from Shentu Yang, countless heads would roll on the ground.

The civil and military officials who had originally planned to defend the local officials all panicked. They knew that at this very moment, pleading with the Chancellor was useless, so they decisively begged the Emperor for mercy, “Please think twice, Your Majesty! The floods in various places have just receded, the people’s livelihood is desolated, and everything is waiting to be rebuilt. The common people of all provinces and commanderies are still waiting for the court’s disaster relief. If we rashly kill the local chief officials at this time, I am afraid it will provoke local riots!”

Shentu Yang was full of disdain, “I want to see who dares to riot! If they dare to riot, I will dare to execute all nine generations of their families!”

Previously, local officials ignored the court’s decree and colluded with local powerful gentry to change wheat cultivation to mulberry cultivation, forcing the common people to rebel, which had already made Shentu Yang want to kill. It was just that the reason for killing was not sufficient back then. Now it was different; he was killing people according to the laws of the imperial court. As long as his blade was sharp enough, he was not afraid that there would not be enough dog heads chopped off!

“Your Majesty, please think twice! Your Majesty, please think twice!”

Another person advised, “As the saying goes, a great plague inevitably follows a great disaster. The grand administrators of various commanderies ignored the court’s decree and caused floods to break out everywhere, so their deaths are not to be regretted. But if they all die, who will provide disaster relief and comfort the people?”

“Those three hundred scholars are just bookworms who engage in armchair strategy and have never had any experience in governing the world and pacifying the people. How can they take up the heavy responsibility of a grand administrator? Why not let the grand administrators of various places provide disaster relief and comfort the people to atone for their crimes through good deeds, and it will not be too late to judge their crimes after the flood disaster passes.”

Yin Shuhuai glanced at Shentu Yang, who was furious, and spoke slowly, “Appointing and dismissing officials, as well as assessing, executing, and rewarding them, is originally the responsibility of the Chancellor.” Yin Shuhuai did not mind if Shentu Yang killed all those local officials who occupied positions without doing any work. He was only worried that such a drastic approach would cause local rebellions.

Sensing Yin Shuhuai’s hidden worry, Shentu Yang immediately spoke up, “Your Majesty, if you do not decide when you ought to decide, you will instead suffer from the chaos it causes. First, local officials did not listen to the decree and oppressed the people into rebellion, and later, local officials favored the rich and powerful while exploiting the weak and vulnerable. From all these events before and after, we can see that the officials in all provinces and commanderies are already rotten to the core. Why does Your Majesty not take this opportunity to scrape out all these abscesses together?”

It was easier said than done.

Yin Shuhuai got straight to the point, “What if they rebel?”

“I will personally lead the army to suppress the rebellion,” Shentu Yang said, his right hand instinctively pressing on the hilt of his sword. His words were forceful and resolute, showing that it was a must.

This was exactly the phrase Yin Shuhuai wanted to hear!

“Then let us proceed according to what the Chancellor said!”

The Emperor’s words were absolute. Shentu Yang then ordered Gao Jingde to lead twenty thousand troops to rush to various provinces and commanderies to strictly investigate crimes such as corruption and dereliction of duty among local officials. This was to prevent the local powerful gentry from acting desperately out of panic. In case they really wanted to rebel, the twenty thousand troops led by Gao Jingde were enough to suppress any local force.

Yin Shuhuai also specifically appointed ten imperial commissioners, hundreds of medical officials, and three hundred scholars to serve as envoys, carrying medicinal materials and supplies to accompany Gao Jingde to various commanderies and counties. The task of the former two was to provide disaster relief and comfort the people, while the task of the latter was to investigate and verify the true situation of the inaccurate land surveys in various provinces and commanderies. Yin Shuhuai simply did not believe that the phenomenon of favoring the rich and powerful while exploiting the weak and vulnerable only occurred in Dongjun.

Since they had already offended the aristocratic families, they might as well do what needed to be done thoroughly to the very end.

After Gao Jingde led the twenty thousand troops to leave Luoyang, Shentu Yang even ordered the one hundred and eighty thousand troops stationed outside Luoyang city to practice diligently. Even the one hundred thousand Yan troops guarding the Sishui Pass received orders from Shentu Yang, telling them to stand ready in full armor and pay close attention to the movements in Yanzhou and Yuzhou.

It seemed that they sensed the Yin Emperor’s determination to clear up land acreage and evaluate the administration of officials. The powerful aristocratic families in Nanyang, Yingchuan, and other places, headed by Huo Quan, immediately presented this year’s accounting records as soon as the envoys sent by the court arrived locally. The data inside was virtually identical to the data secretly investigated by the Night Owl Guards dispatched by Yin Shuhuai. It appeared that the aristocratic families in the Guanzhong and Henan Yin regions were still relatively honest.

However, the provinces and commanderies far away from the capital region had huge problems.

Time quickly entered the middle of the sixth month, and the disaster relief teams dispatched by the court arrived in various provinces and commanderies one after another, beginning to work on disaster relief and epidemic prevention after the floodwaters receded. As the various imperial commissioners and envoys went deep into the primary level, a large number of local officials with inaccurate land surveys were quickly exposed. The first to bear the brunt was the Grand Administrator of Dongjun, Xi Tongjun.

Gao Jingde strictly followed the Chancellor’s orders. As soon as he arrived in Dongjun, he arrested this master of Confucian classics who came from a family that had produced high officials for four generations and was highly respected throughout the nation. He then had the envoys strictly investigate the local land survey situation. Under the pressure of the twenty thousand Yan iron cavalry, the envoys sent by the court quickly uncovered the true data of the local cultivated fields and population. Compared with the accounting records submitted by Dongjun last year, the lands and population of the local powerful aristocratic families were actually hidden by as much as three times.

Without saying another word, Gao Jingde sent both the data found by the envoys and the Grand Administrator of Dongjun himself back to Luoyang under armed guard.

Shentu Yang immediately arrested the man and put him in prison. However, he did not expect that the students of the Imperial Academy would actually gather more than three hundred people at the palace gate to plead for mercy for Xi Tongjun on the second day after he was sent to the judicial prison.

Hearing the crying and crying of injustice at the palace gate, Yin Shuhuai even sent a eunuch to find out about the situation. After learning the inside story, he sent an envoy to publicize Xi Tongjun’s crimes to the public. However, this move failed to awaken the conscience of the Imperial Academy students. They still insisted that Xi Tongjun was a master of Confucian classics from a prominent family and should not be thrown into the imperial prison. Driven by public anger, some audacious individuals even banged on the palace gate to cry out against the injustice.

Yin Shuhuai simply laughed it off and immediately ordered Xi Tongjun to be put to death!

This time, the entire court of civil and military officials was shaken. Chen Yong, the Chancellor of the Imperial Academy, entered the palace at the first opportunity to see the Emperor and plead for his old friend Xi Tongjun.

Yin Shuhuai was already tired of this world-famous scholar who spoke endlessly of moral essays but never did anything useful for the people. He looked expressionlessly at Chen Yong, who was citing classics and speaking passionately. His pale and handsome face was hidden behind the twelve tassels of his imperial crown, and his gentle voice carried a natural authority without anger, “Do you think your own seat is very clean?” Probably not expecting the Emperor to say such a crude phrase, Chen Yong looked at Yin Shuhuai with a face full of shock.

Yin Shuhuai waved his hand, “The Chancellor of the Imperial Academy is advanced in years. From now on, you do not need to enter the palace, nor do you need to attend the imperial court audience.”

With just one sentence from the Emperor, he directly stripped this old official of four reigns of his right to enter the palace and attend court.

“Your Majesty…” Chen Yong spoke instinctively, “I am the teacher arranged for you by the Chancellor!”

“Do you think your virtue and conduct make you worthy of being the Emperor’s teacher?” Yin Shuhuai asked back expressionlessly.

When Chen Yong was escorted out of the imperial palace by the Imperial Guards, he was still completely dazed.

After this incident, the civil and military officials throughout the court clearly saw the Emperor’s determination to purge the official administration and execute Xi Tongjun. For a time, everyone was completely silent out of fear, and no one dared to plead for mercy for Xi Tongjun anymore.

After all, no matter how good their relationship with Xi Tongjun was, and no matter how much the major aristocratic families stuck together through thick and thin, their own official positions were much more important than someone else’s life.

What was more, the evidence of the Grand Administrator of Dongjun’s crime of colluding with local powerful gentry was ironclad. Since the Emperor wanted to kill a chicken to scare the monkeys, they would just accept it.

However, what everyone did not know was that Xi Tongjun’s execution was only a beginning. As the deep verification in various places progressed, a large number of local officials involved in corruption, fraud, and inaccurate land surveys were caught. There were no fewer than ten grand administrators of various commanderies involved, and the total number of commandery governors, provincial governors, chancellors of vassal states, and provincial governors reached dozens. These people were either escorted back to Luoyang by Gao Jingde to await execution or were hacked to death on the spot by Gao Jingde because of their resistance.

After clearing out these corrupt and derelict outcasts, the imperial court dispatched dozens of officials to fill their vacancies.

Yin Shuhuai did not follow Shentu Yang’s suggestion to let those three hundred inexperienced scholars serve as grand administrators or chancellors of various places. Instead, he asked Huo Quan and Zhao Bushi to recommend capable and efficient officials to fill the vacancies across the regions. The first thing these new officials did upon taking office was naturally to conduct land surveys and population censuses, commonly known as counting cultivated land and population numbers.

Probably intimidated by the Emperor’s act of chopping off dozens of heads all at once, the newly appointed grand administrators and chancellors completed the land survey and population census work for the third year of the Jianyuan era with an unprecedentedly strict attitude. The results were significant. Directly reflected in the accounting statistics for the third year of the Jianyuan era, the number of fields and population in all provinces and commanderies across the country turned out to be five times higher than that of the second year of the Jianyuan era.

However, before the imperial court could even begin tax collection for the third year of the Jianyuan era according to the data provided by each province and commanderie, the powerful gentries in various places killed their local chief officials one after another and rose up in rebellion!

When the news reached Luoyang, the Yin Emperor, who was eating beef vermicelli soup, looked expressionlessly at Shentu Yang.

Shentu Yang put down his bowl and chopsticks, stood up, and said, “I will go suppress the rebellion right away!”