The strongest devouring system in the Three Kingdoms

At the city gates, bulletin boards, and even at the crossroads of major roads and post stations in the autonomous region, proclamations bearing the seals of the Autonomous Region Government and the King of Wei were posted, detailing the policies and new laws concerning all aspects of the major reforms in the autonomous region.

All the teachers trained in the past two years have been transferred to other positions. Their most important task now is to publicize these policies to various regions and ensure that the vast majority of people are aware of the new policies of the autonomous region.

Everywhere, scholars were reading proclamations, and the people of the autonomous region, especially those of Jizhou and Bingzhou and Qingzhou, which had just been incorporated into the autonomous region, were experiencing Chen Er's open-mindedness and boldness for the first time.

"Regarding agricultural taxes, all previous agricultural taxes, whether local or central, are abolished. From this day forward, only one tax will be levied: the agricultural tax, which will be levied at five percent of the annual output!" Upon reading this, Shi Yue himself was shocked. A tax of only half a percent—that was incredibly low! "Tenants are not taxed. The tax will be levied on the landowner, with the tax payment period in October each year. The landowner must personally go to the local tax bureau to complete the process. The tax can be converted into monetary value for calculation."

"The specific accounting standards will be available at the local tax bureaus after they are established. Please visit the tax bureaus directly to find out."

"The agricultural tax is already so low, His Majesty the King of Wei is truly too benevolent."

"Who says otherwise? In the past, miscellaneous taxes would take up almost 40 to 50 percent of the annual harvest. If there was a famine, there wouldn't even be enough food left."

"In terms of government affairs, the autonomous region will establish an autonomous region government, which will be in charge of the government affairs of Youzhou, Jizhou, Bingzhou, Qingzhou, and Anbei Protectorate. The autonomous region's administrative center will be located in Yuyang, where the autonomous region's government council will be established. Each of the four prefectures and one prefecture will establish its own state government council. The government council will be subordinate to the executive council, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Security, the Ministry of Transportation, the Ministry of Agriculture (including agriculture and water conservancy), the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Police, etc. Local functional departments will be the same as those of the central government of the autonomous region. At the same time, the autonomous region's tax bureau and anti-corruption bureau will be independent of the government council, responsible to the government council, but not managed by the government council."

"The tax bureau actually has its own armed forces?" Upon reading this, the young scholar who was reading the proclamation was also taken aback. He immediately understood the intention of His Highness Prince Wei. The tax bureau had specifically added this clause targeting the powerful families who might enter various departments of the State Council. There would be quite a show when taxes were collected this year. The scholar thought to himself that he came from a poor family and his family had fallen into decline. His family owned a dozen acres of land, but these things had nothing to do with him.

In terms of tax reform, Chen Er can be said to have been at the forefront of the entire empire. Of course, it wasn't just taxation that was at the forefront, but taxation simply had the greatest impact.

"Scholar, keep reading!" The onlookers urged the dazed scholar when he stopped reading the proclamation. The scholar snapped out of his reverie and quickly moved on to the next item. In reality, the tax issue had nothing to do with ordinary people; they would never dare to resist taxes.

"Fellow villagers, the next step is education reform, which concerns all of us, so please listen carefully," the scholar said loudly.

"What is education?" This Confucian scholar was talking to these commoners about education—wasn't that like casting pearls before swine? These illiterate people had no idea what education meant. The scholar explained, "Education, simply put, is reading." "Reading? Young man, what does reading have to do with us?" "Exactly, what does reading have to do with us? Kid, you're not just trying to amuse us, are you?" a fierce-looking burly man said.

"Uncle, you'll understand once I read it aloud." The scholar dared not argue with the brute in front of him; he couldn't win. Moreover, he knew that once he read out the upcoming policies, everyone would be shocked.

The Confucian scholar was not in any other place than Yang County, a small county in Bingzhou. In the year or so that Lu Zhi had been in power in Bingzhou, the people of Bingzhou were still suffering, although their lives were much better than before. After all, Lu Zhi did not have the courage of Chen Er to take action against those powerful families. Although there were not many powerful families in Bingzhou, it was precisely because of this that Lu Zhi dared not take action, because he still needed to rely on those people. But Chen Er did not need to rely on them, so Chen Er was extremely ruthless when he took action!

Disobedience means death! This is certainly not Chen Er's original quote. Chen Er's original quote was: "Throughout history, has there ever been a reform that wasn't bloody?"

Chen Er's words were full of murderous intent, but this was also the truth. Reform would inevitably touch the interests of many vested interests, and those vested interests would certainly not give up their interests before they were beaten to a pulp. This is why reform is so difficult to carry out.

However, Chen Er's current strength makes him fearless of those powerful clans. He is confident that he can deal with their counterattacks because he only needs to eliminate the powerful clans in Bingzhou and Qingzhou. Besides, the Zhen family and other commercial families have already sided with Chen Er, and the Kong family in Qingzhou has also been bought off by Chen Er's education program. Chen Er said that the power of the powerful clans he needs to face is not as strong as he imagined.

“Starting this year, the regional government will gradually establish schools in various prefectures, counties, and even towns. Once the schools are built, all children aged six and above must attend school for three academic years. During this period, the regional government will cover the cost of textbooks and accommodation. Students will only need to pay a tuition fee of fifty copper coins per year. Their families will be responsible for their own food and clothing. If a family is in dire need, they can apply to the school for subsidies or tuition reductions. This policy is compulsory; all students have an obligation to attend school and must fulfill this obligation.” The young Confucian scholar knew that the illiterate people around him did not understand what obligation meant, so he explained to the elders and villagers, “It doesn’t matter if you don’t understand obligation. As long as you understand, it is necessary; all children must go to school.”

"Everyone can go to school?"

What Chen Er didn't expect was that his compulsory education system was actually a bit superfluous. If he loosened the restrictions and provided school teachers and textbooks without limit, the people of the world would go crazy, because who wouldn't want to study? Everyone understood why those big families were so powerful—it was because they had mastered knowledge! They had mastered the knowledge that ordinary people like them could not.