The male lead went insane after the female supporting character gave birth to the main villain'

In the second year after Qin Yan ascended the throne, a severe drought struck the northern states of Han and Yi, requiring the court to provide relief grain.

At that time, the Great Zhou Dynasty had only been established for five years, and the labor force was small. There were not many people carefully cultivating and raising grain in the fields, and the total annual grain output was less than six million shi.

The Qin banquet nearly depleted the national treasury. They purchased grain from some small southern states and ordered officials, noble families, and wealthy merchants to donate grain, but in the end, they only managed to raise less than two million shi (a unit of dry measure).

The two million shi of grain saved the 400,000 people in Hanzhou and Yizhou from resorting to cannibalism and from fleeing famine to the south.

But with only water and soup every day, they could only survive the drought and get through the next spring, barely enough to avoid starvation.

He still remembered that all those aristocratic families had complained to him about being poor, and each family had donated a maximum of only one thousand shi of grain.

Now look at the grain that has been confiscated from the private military camps of these aristocratic families, from their farms, grain shops, various manors and villas, and their homes.

A whopping four million shi!

How much grain did they have at the time?

Two million koku?

Still three million koku?

They had so much grain, yet each family only donated 1,000 shi (a unit of dry measure), totaling no more than 200,000 shi.

They would rather hide the grain and watch so many people starve to death than sell it to him.

Is it because the price he offered wasn't high enough?

Moreover, another important thing was that a large number of ancient books, fertile land, shops, and all sorts of unique skills were found in those aristocratic families.

For example, there are secret recipes for papermaking, iron smelting, mineral exploration, as well as various weaving and dyeing techniques, jewelry making, ceramic firing, carving, and many other crafts, and a large number of skilled craftsmen.

It is no exaggeration to say that a great family with a history of hundreds of years has a more profound foundation than the royal family supported by the entire world!

Many of their secret recipes are unique to the entire royal family and all members of the royal clan.

Qin Yan coveted those unique recipes and skilled craftsmen.

But what he cares about most are those ancient books and the annotations of famous people and scholars from various dynasties.

If those ancient books and various insightful articles could be disseminated to the common people through papermaking, then knowledge would no longer be monopolized by those aristocratic families, and consequently, the sources of officials would no longer be monopolized!

It can be said that more than two-thirds of the officials in the current imperial court come from those aristocratic families.

The remaining third were mostly military generals, many of whom had fought their way up from among the various warlords under Qin Yan's command.

Most of their families are small, established families.

Because martial arts, weapons, various physical training techniques, and most importantly, military books were all monopolized by aristocratic families, ordinary people did not know how to practice martial arts, how to arrange troops, or how to become generals leading troops into battle.

These military families are still on his side now, but once he's gone, they won't remain loyal to the next emperor.

That would then become another threat to imperial power.

Therefore, whether it is literature or martial arts, those aristocratic families can no longer continue to monopolize all kinds of knowledge!

Now, knowledge is passed on to the people. In ten or twenty years, when there are knowledgeable and capable people among the people, he will be able to select capable people from among the people to replace the sons and protégés of those aristocratic families in their official positions.

The powerful families could no longer restrain or threaten the imperial power!

Qin Yan said with a determined look, "I will never allow these aristocratic families to monopolize books and knowledge again!"

"Your Majesty will surely achieve your wish, but things should not be rushed. After all, even a rabbit will bite when cornered!" Su Yan handed him a cup of warm tea.

Qin Yan took the tea but didn't drink it. Instead, he frowned and said with dissatisfaction, "I have a million soldiers and tens of thousands of cavalry. Now that half of those aristocratic families have been wiped out, do the remaining families dare to rebel against me?"

"If they dare to resist, then I will annihilate them completely, severing their lineage!"

By the end, Qin Yan's face was filled with murderous intent.

This is certainly the simplest and most effective method.

However, two-thirds of the officials in the Great Zhou Dynasty are from aristocratic families. If Qin Yan were to directly use military force against these families, those officials would definitely not stand idly by.

They would threaten Qin Yan to withdraw his troops. If Qin Yan persisted in his course of action, it was highly likely that most of the officials would defect, throwing the entire country into chaos.

Su Yan believed that even so, Qin Yan could once again reclaim the world.

But what about the people of the world?

They had just survived ten years of chaos and had only managed thirteen years of recuperation before being plunged into turmoil again. How many people would die this time? How long would it take for the Great Zhou to recover to its current state?

Will the barbarians further north take this opportunity to invade the Great Zhou?

All of these are things that Qin Yan, as an emperor, must consider.

She also knew that the ambitious and shrewd Qin Yan would not actually use such methods to eliminate the Shi family.

He's only saying that because he's so angry; it's just something he said in anger.

Sure enough, within a few days, Qin Yan announced to the world how much fertile land, estates, shops, ancient books and paintings, gold and silver treasures, and grain a prominent family possessed.

What's particularly malicious is that he also compared the amount of grain donated by those aristocratic families with the amount of grain stored in their homes during the major disasters that required food relief since his ascension to the throne.

The contrast was like that of an ant versus an elephant, which aroused extreme resentment among the people.

Afterwards, Qin Yan sent people to set up all the valuables, grains, books, land deeds, and house deeds of the aristocratic families on a street in a grand manner, and had them read aloud.

Su Yan gave him another suggestion: to train some eloquent people to tell the people about the harm that aristocratic families had caused to the people of Da Zhou.

For example, aristocratic families monopolized books and knowledge, resulting in the emergence of officials from their families in the imperial court.

The more officials in their families, the more land quotas they could obtain that were exempt from taxes.

Once they have a quota, they will try every means to buy up the fertile land from the people at a low price.

At that time, the powerful families will have the most fertile land, but they will not need to pay land taxes.

However, the imperial court had to pay salaries to officials, support soldiers, and store grain to provide disaster relief and food aid in case of local disasters.

The imperial court cannot function without food. In order to obtain enough food, the court can only increase the taxes levied on the people, thus increasing their burden.

Another danger is that all officials come from aristocratic families. If ordinary people have a conflict with the protégés or even the servants of these families, the officials will protect the lackeys of the families, leaving the people with nowhere to seek justice and only able to suffer injustice.

What era doesn't have people who resent the rich? And there are those who have become rich by sucking their blood and eating their flesh. How could ordinary people not hate the powerful families?

Some people who hated the aristocratic families spontaneously told their relatives and friends, and soon the news that the aristocratic families were a cancer in the Great Zhou Dynasty spread like wildfire.

Those aristocratic families who had not originally participated in Qin Yang's rebellion were also cursed by the people.

When members of aristocratic families take to the streets, they may even be splashed with excrement by radical citizens!

Taking advantage of this favorable wind, Qin Yan reinstated the policy of reducing the number of officials exempt from taxation land in previous years.

This time, even when the officials objected again, Qin Yan was not angry.

Tell the people their names directly.

Officials would have their carriages blocked by the people when they went to and from court, and they would be splashed with excrement and insulted about their ancestors for eighteen generations.

Qin Yan also took Su Yan's advice and had someone write down the stories of how they were cursed and splattered with excrement by the people every day. He then found an opera troupe to stage it and spread it throughout the country, making those dissenting officials famous.

These officials from aristocratic families all considered themselves noble scholars. In ancient times, scholars cared most about their reputation and all wanted to create outstanding articles that would make them famous throughout the world and be passed down through the ages.

Qin Yan kindly helped them gain fame far and wide this time.

Whether they want to use this kind of fame to become famous is none of Qin Yan's business.