NOVEL NEXT Chapter 416: The Overall Situation Will Be Settled
Zhao Kingdom.
In recent days, the entire populace of Zhao Kingdom has been celebrating a significant event.
The wedding of King Zhao and Princess Zhaorong, scheduled for the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, is an event of national celebration. It is not just the marriage of King Zhao and Princess Zhaorong, but it is also intimately related to the common people of Zhao Kingdom.
Along with this wedding, the court has issued a series of new laws with an extremely wide scope.
Foremost is the reform of land policies, with the court setting stringent limits on the amount of land individuals and families can own. Any excess is reclaimed by the state and redistributed to those without or with little land.
Correspondingly, the court has adjusted the land rental policy. The rent is directly related to the amount of land owned. The less land one owns, the lower the rent proportion; the more land one owns, the higher the rent proportion.
The healthcare reform proposed by the court earlier on has, after two years of development, been fully implemented in every province and county of Zhao Kingdom, achieving true accessibility for everyone to afford medical treatment and medicines.
In terms of education reform, the court has also introduced numerous specifics.
The Imperial College is preparing to establish more public schools in each province, ensuring that all children receive education while also launching literacy campaigns to systematically and progressively increase the literacy rate among the people of Zhao Kingdom.
Those who are illiterate often can only do manual labor. However, if one can read and do arithmetic, a person has more job options and typically earns more.
Since the establishment of Zhao Kingdom, it is for the first time the court has undertaken a significant reform of the Imperial Examination.
Originally, subjects such as Horse Riding, Music Department, and Shooting were officially canceled from the Six Arts. In the Book Department, calligraphy and painting were also removed. The new Imperial Examination retains parts of the Confucian classics, adjusts the weight of Mathematics, Law, and Rites, and adds a highly weighted subject, Political Essays.
The Political Essays subject requires students to analyze specific events, summarize the main issues, and propose correct countermeasures, testing their real talent and knowledge in governing the country.
Overall, this reform makes it easier for children of commoners to stand out in the Imperial Examinations.
Horse Riding, Music Department, Shooting, calligraphy, and painting are subjects requiring substantial financial investment, which ordinary people cannot access.
However, in Math, Law, Rites, and Political Essays, the sons of scholarly families do not have a significant advantage over those of commoners.
Of course, the court also provides a path for the scholarly families. They have easier access to the Six Arts, and if they enter the Confucian School, they can join the court as officials without the Imperial Examination. However, for those entering via the Confucian School, if they lose their Vast Righteous Qi, they will be stripped of their official position.
Subsequent social welfare laws, minimum wage laws, and holiday laws are all advantageous to ordinary people.
The people of Zhao Kingdom will probably never forget the transformation in their lives that occurred around this wedding.
Of course, not everyone is satisfied with the reforms and policy changes.
In this reform, the interests of famous families, landlords, and gentry have suffered greatly, yet they dare not voice their anger.
This reform was jointly promoted by the Emperor and King Zhao.
Nominally, it is King Zhao and the Emperor, but in Zhao Kingdom, even a three-year-old child knows it is the Emperor and her Imperial Consort.
The Emperor adopted King Sheng's child; people initially speculated whether that child was hers and King Zhao's, but nobody ever confirmed it. Now, there is no need for confirmation.
King Sheng's child resembles King Zhao even more than King Zhao's children, and combined with the Emperor's favor towards him, even a fool could guess that he is indeed the Emperor and King Zhao's own blood.
No matter how united all the famous families in Zhao Kingdom are, they cannot compete with the Emperor and King Zhao as a couple.
On today's continent, where over twenty countries once existed, only four remain. Only Zhao Kingdom is temporarily undisturbed by war. Even the powerful families with Semi-Saints are fragile like glass in the face of war.
The famous families of Zhao Kingdom are well aware that regardless of which of the three countries, Wei, Chu, or Xia, emerges victorious, their ultimate target will undoubtedly be Zhao Kingdom.
The nation still relies on the Emperor and King Zhao for protection. Even if some interests are lost, they have no choice but to bow their heads.
There are still a few days until the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. In Zhao Kingdom's provinces, especially in the capital, households are already hanging red lanterns as if celebrating a new year, and their doors are adorned with the character "Double Happiness" to celebrate both the wedding of King Zhao and Princess Zhaorong and the approaching new chapter in their lives.
Unlike the celebratory, festive atmosphere in Zhao Kingdom, for Qi Country and Chu Country, this is an extremely difficult new year.
For Chu Country, the Xia Emperor, the foremost ruler of the continent, has personally led the Xia Country army, sweeping through unopposed. Chu Country cannot resist, and even Semi-Saint experts have had to hide defensively within their military formations, not daring to confront the enemy.
Under the personal campaign of the Xia Emperor, Chu Country has already returned all the territories it previously annexed from Wei Country.
Moreover, they have lost much of their own territory.
As more land is annexed and the national territory grows larger, the Xia Emperor's power nears that of a Saint without limit. The emperors of the Five Great Dynasties are several times more powerful than the Semi-Saints of the Hundred Schools. Perhaps even a Saint arriving personally cannot stop the Xia Emperor.
In Chu Country, inside the Imperial Palace.
The Emperor of Chu, with a look of despair, turned to an elder and asked, "Teacher, what should I do?"
When Chu Country first schemed against Xia Country, he never imagined things would develop to this point.