At the beginning, his wife came to him, and he became rich by selling kidney treasures.

"I am willing to serve Your Majesty as a servant and contribute to Your Majesty's public land system."

Facing the emperor's questioning and the gazes of his ministers, Zhao Ping'an knew that the matter was doomed, and he immediately stopped being ambiguous.

After all, if you continue to oppose it, you will definitely end up in trouble.

"We are also willing to serve Your Majesty at our utmost."

All the disciples and former officials who followed Zhao Ping'an's lead expressed their opinions one after another, and the implementation of the public land system was unanimously approved by the court.

Although this was the result of coercion and inducement, it cannot be denied that this was the first time that opinions were reached unanimously.

In order to facilitate the management of public land and reduce corruption, while the public land system was being implemented, four departments of the Ministry of Revenue were set up in each county and prefecture, and the rights exercised by the county guards on behalf of the Ministry of Revenue were taken back.

The four departments of each county are not under the jurisdiction of the county officials, but are directly under the jurisdiction of the county's Ministry of Revenue. The county's Ministry of Revenue has one Shangshu with an official rank of third grade and two Shilang with an official rank of fourth grade. The officials of the other four departments of the county's Ministry of Revenue are reduced by one level.

The four departments of the county will also collect taxes and land system affairs on behalf of the townships, villages, pavilions, and household registration.

The household registration, taxation, and land system matters of the four departments of the county were all submitted to the county’s Ministry of Revenue, which, after verification and confirmation, would hand them over to the Ministry of Revenue in the capital.

When the emperor announced the public land system, which was launched in parallel with the land grant system, to all counties and prefectures throughout the world, the common people, who had long been exploited by the princes, aristocratic families, and the three dukes and nine ministers, immediately cheered and rejoiced, and the serfs stood up and sang songs, praising the emperor's great grace and virtue.

As for the princes and noble families in various places, seeing that the Li family, the foreign relatives, and the Xu family, the noble family, both supported the public field system, some of them chose to wisely give up part of their land to become public field, and firmly supported Your Majesty in implementing the public field system.

Of course, there are those who know the times, and there are also those who don’t.

Those hereditary nobles who were ignorant of the times and refused to support the public land system first united to resist the order and disrupt the establishment of the four departments of the Ministry of Revenue in counties and prefectures.

They wanted to make the emperor make concessions in this way.

But for these stubborn nobles, the emperor asked at the morning court: "My dear ministers, do you have any solution?"

"Your Majesty, the reason these hereditary nobles united to resist and prevent the establishment of the four departments of the Ministry of Revenue of the counties and prefectures was simply to retain their privileges."

"I suggest that we pacify them and send an envoy from the Ministry of Rites to negotiate with them." Zhao Ping'an stepped forward and proposed.

"Prime Minister Zhao's idea is very good. If we can pacify them all, Your Majesty won't have to send troops to suppress them."

Many ministers followed suit, but the emperor sitting on the throne did not express his opinion.

Ren Hao stood up at this time and said: "I am against the appeasement."

"Appeasement is not only a concession, but also a sign of weakness."

"Appeasement will only make the nobles more reckless and ignore the imperial edict, and it may also cause those nobles who have already surrendered to rebel."

"Oh."

"In that case, does Lord Ren have any other good ideas?" Wen Yan asked with his eyes lighting up.

"I advocate the direct extermination of these hereditary nobles who resisted the imperial order in order to intimidate the hereditary nobles in various places," Ren Hao proposed.

"This……"

All the ministers were stunned. They didn't expect Ren Hao to be so cruel and ruthless that he would kill an entire family with just one word.

"Ren Sikong, your method is really stupid and absurd. Doing so will only provoke more resistance from the hereditary nobles. Do you want to kill them all?" Zhao Ping'an immediately retorted and disagreed with this approach.

"Reform is no joke, and it is bound to require sacrifice."

"If we are soft-hearted on the road to reform, we are doomed to fail."

"If we try to appease them and compromise with them just because they disobeyed the emperor's order this time, what if they are dissatisfied with the new reform system next time and directly unite to rebel?"

"Could it be that Your Majesty is asking you to just give the Weiyang Palace to them?" Ren Hao said to Zhao Ping'an, then looked at His Majesty who was sitting on the throne and cited the failure of the previous emperor's reforms. In addition to the fact that the ministers in the court did not support it, the most important point was that the emperor was too kind.

"Mr. Ren is absolutely right." Wen Yan nodded and made up his mind.

Ignoring the opposition from Zhao Ping'an and other ministers, she directly dispatched Xu Qing, Wuming, and, on the recommendation of Ren Hao, the governor of Anyang County, Baihu Hou Shi, and old retainer Li Jin, as the main generals to quell the rebellion.

The four men each led 2,000 soldiers and set out in four groups to various counties to wipe out these hereditary nobles who were ignorant of the times.

These hereditary nobles never dreamed that their plan would fail this time and that His Majesty would directly send troops to wipe them out.

Even if they regretted their decision at this point, they could not change their fate of being exterminated.

Such bloody means not only completely intimidated the hereditary nobles in the counties and prefectures so that they would not dare to disobey the emperor, but also made it possible to implement the public land system and the four departments of the county and prefecture revenue department. Even though the county and prefecture officials had many dissatisfactions, they were also afraid of being exterminated.

This major event was also written about in the Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian, who only recorded in great detail the benefits of the public land system and the establishment of the four departments of the Ministry of Revenue in counties and prefectures, while all negative records were kept simple.

The total number of hereditary nobles from all over the country who were exterminated exceeded 30,000, but Sima Qian did not mention the relevant figures in his Records of the Grand Historian. He only wrote that those hereditary nobles were exterminated because they disobeyed the imperial order and intended to rebel.

The reason why Ma Qian changed his character of not fearing power and did not record the truth was because the promised benefits were indeed given, and many Confucian scholars were arranged into the four departments of the county.

Because he supported the public land system this time, His Majesty appointed him as the Prince's Tutor and Vice Minister of Rites, with a salary of 500 dan, and awarded 100 acres of land and an additional fief of 100 households.

As for the others, they were rewarded with land and several hundred households for their support.

As Ren Hao was the greatest contributor this time, Wen Yan originally wanted to reward him with a thousand acres of fertile land and a fief of a thousand households, but Ren Hao refused.

He hoped that Your Majesty would distribute these fertile fields as public land to the people so that they could live and work in peace and contentment.

"Minister Ren is indeed a pillar of the country. You all should learn more from him." Wen Yan said with praise, and the other ministers followed suit, especially Censor Chen, who praised Ren Hao the most.

After leaving the palace, Ren Hao did not go to Nangong to handle the affairs of the Ministry of Revenue, but went directly back to the mansion in a carriage.

After all, the four departments of the Ministry of Revenue have been put on the right track, and he has now become a hands-off Sikong. All matters, big or small, are decided by Li Shiji and Shen He, and all the work is done by the four departments.

After Ren Hao returned to the mansion, Qing Zhu came up to him and said, "Master, Hui Lixue and Shi Huan are back."

"I see." Ren Hao nodded. Qing Zhu, who was following him, asked in a roundabout way, "Master, where did you send them before? They came back to the mansion smelling awful and had no regard for etiquette. They went into the kitchen and started looking for food everywhere, like starving ghosts reincarnated."