Wei Yuan dispatched avatars in every direction to arrest the offending overseers and unruly thugs, while simultaneously assigning a vast array of related tasks within the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World for analysis.
Unexpectedly, his forces met with quite a bit of resistance during the arrests. Some overseers drew their blades on the spot, while others egged on desperate rogues to riot in an effort to muddy the waters.
Wei Yuan was thoroughly astonished. His avatars were moving under the direct authority of the Domain Lord—yet people still dared to resist? What was more, many of those resisting had not even achieved a Dao Foundation. Their resistance took all manner of forms: some threw tantrums and rolled on the ground; some claimed their father was Li Gang; and some even urged women to strip off their clothes and throw themselves onto the constables, screaming about indecency.
Wei Yuan dealt with them simply and ruthlessly. Anyone who openly resisted had their crimes increased by three degrees, which was essentially enough to warrant decapitation. The entire families of the resisting overseers were reduced to guilty commoners, forced to work from the very bottom. As for those boasting that their father was Li Gang, Li Gang was arrested right alongside them.
For the scoundrels and thugs, minor offenders were reduced to guilty commoners to turn over a new leaf. Major offenders were directly expelled from Qingming, cast out once more as displaced vagrants. With the fires of war raging ceaselessly around Qingming at present, the fate of anyone reduced to a displaced vagrant was easy to imagine. As for the most severe cases—those who had molested civilian women or caused permanent injury—every single one was beheaded.
Such an iron-fisted, thunderous crackdown finally reminded the mortals what a Domain Lord truly was.
Within days, Wei Yuan had executed over three hundred people, banished a thousand, and demoted four thousand to fifth-class guilty commoners. Throughout the entire process, Wei Yuan refused to entertain any sophistry or heed any pleas for mercy. He extracted records directly from the Zhou Tian Celestial Stars Array and had the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World analyze them.
Whenever the facts were clear and the evidence was solid, sentencing and execution followed immediately. Cases with unclear facts were remanded to officials of various ranks for retrial.
Sure enough, once the butcher's blade fell, the common people rejoiced, and azure qi surged forth, growing by tens of thousands of strands in the blink of an eye. Yet having spoken with Zhang Sheng, Wei Yuan knew this treated only the symptoms, not the root cause. He continually set related tasks within the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, gathering proposals and advice.
If one wished to reform, one first needed sufficient data for support; otherwise, it was mere blind action. The history books were rife with examples of this, and Wei Yuan understood the principle well.
In terms of data collection, thanks to the Zhou Tian Celestial Stars Array, the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, and the data architecture cracked from the minor world, Qingming was perhaps at the absolute forefront of Great Tang, inferior only to grotto-heavens where an immortal's divine sense surveyed all.
The Zhou Tian Celestial Stars Array monitored heaven and earth across an enormous expanse. Wei Yuan had originally erected it to guard against Wu scouts and flush out traitors. Now, he intended to invest a vast sum of immortal silver to upgrade the array, establishing a foundation for the upcoming reforms.
Throughout successive dynasties, land annexation became rampant in the closing years of an empire, plunging the people into misery. Prominent clans and powerful families entrenched themselves across regions, refusing to surrender a single scrap of grain or tax, leaving the national treasury empty and gradually leading to the dynasty's collapse. A major reason for this was inadequate data: fields covering mountains and plains were never entered into official registers, and out of a hundred thousand households in a county, barely over ten thousand might appear on the government census.
Now, however, with Wei Yuan surveying heaven and earth through the Zhou Tian Celestial Stars Array, no one could play tricks under his nose. With the array coupled with the data-processing capacity of the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, it was safe to say every detail, great or small, lay firmly within his grasp.
Only with data could there be a foundation for 'inequality.' What Wei Yuan needed to do now was artificially create inequality—and specifically among ordinary commoners who had no hope of cultivation.
Under the current system, the disparity between cultivators and mortals was immense. As long as someone reached Body Casting perfection, their family's living conditions experienced a qualitative leap. At present, every incentive—such as redeeming Lesser Origin-Nourishing Pills, quotas for Dao Foundations, and instruction in Body Casting cultivation arts—was structured entirely around cultivators. Those without talent for cultivation were treated virtually the same.
Clothing, food, shelter, and transport were the essentials of human life, and food was said to be heaven to the people. The first aspect Wei Yuan examined was sustenance.
Qingming currently held a billion jin of grain in reserve. Even after substantial sales to Jin and Zhao, its total inventory was still climbing. Meanwhile, the people of Qingming consumed an average of three to five hundred jin of grain a year, roughly equivalent to one jin per day.
According to calculations by the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, the bare minimum standard for survival was one hundred eighty jin; to avoid illness and retain a baseline capacity for labor required at least two hundred forty jin. For Body Casting cultivators, that requirement soared to anywhere between six hundred and one thousand jin; the higher their cultivation and the better their aptitudes, the more they ate.
Body Casting cultivators also had to begin consuming a portion of spiritual rice. For ease of comparison, the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World converted all spiritual rice into terms of mortal rice.
Previously, Wei Yuan had released a portion of granted land for military merit, but that accounted for relatively little; newly cleared fields still made up the vast majority. On the whole, the people of Qingming were primarily sustained through distributed rations.
Wei Yuan prepared to restructure the ration distribution system: land granted for military merit would remain unchanged, the grain quotas for cultivators of various ranks would remain unchanged, and everyone else would be issued a baseline ration of two hundred fifty jin.
This portion of grain served as a safety net for all, guaranteeing that they could scrape by without starving, though they certainly would not eat well. The baseline ration was lowered slightly from before, decreasing by thirty jin per year.
Here, Wei Yuan left a slight opening: all children, regardless of age—even newborn infants—could claim an adult-sized portion of rations. Pregnant women could claim a double portion. In this way, many families would inevitably have more children to receive more grain.
Under the new system, the Zhou Tian Celestial Stars Array would directly monitor everyone's labor, while the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World would calculate and analyze the results of each person's work in real time. Even within the very same field, the merit recorded for a slacker who swung a hoe only a few times would be worlds apart from that of an industrious man who labored throughout the day.
Merit earned through labor could be redeemed for grain. According to Wei Yuan's initial plan, a hardworking individual could cultivate up to ten mu of land on their own, allowing them to exchange for an additional seven hundred fifty jin of rations.
For a household of five, if just one person worked tirelessly year-round, the entire family could achieve an average of four hundred jin of grain per person—a standard already considered eating well. If a second person proved diligent, each person could receive as much as five hundred jin, allowing them to eat quite well indeed.
By letting the diligent eat until bursting while the lazy merely avoided starvation, the stark contrast would naturally show the vast majority what choice to make. As the Domain Lord, Wei Yuan's task was to ensure that everyone had the opportunity to eat until they were full.
Implementing the new system still required an immense amount of groundwork, followed by printing public notices, selecting personnel to carry it out, and then officially launching it. The Zhou Tian Celestial Stars Array was not yet sufficiently precise and required an upgrade as well. Upgrading the array alone would take several months and an investment of three million taels of immortal silver.
Yet Wei Yuan felt the silver was well spent. After all, its future utility would be enormous, far beyond the immediate benefits.
Once the new system took effect, the benefits shared by all in Qingming would consist of basic ration security, rudimentary schooling, and the opportunity to cultivate.
As for the unequal portion, in addition to food, Wei Yuan had prepared another measure: housing allocation.
Chapter 743