Peace Order
Chapter 606 - 47: The Wind of the Mighty, The Last Martial Arts Legend_4

Chapter 606: Chapter 47: The Wind of the Mighty, The Last Martial Arts Legend_4

The distinguished guest had left when Li Guanyi was seen eating and examining documents on the side.

The guest was quite displeased and said, "If you wish to become famous throughout the world, you should not treat gentlemen with such disrespect."

Li Guanyi: "Ah???"

The young man raised his eyebrows and asked, "What do you want?"

The distinguished guest was taken aback, having not anticipated Li Guanyi’s directness, and stroked his beard as he listed his demands, including but not limited to allowing sons of noble families to become officials in their respective cities, tax reductions, and exemption from taxation on the land under the officials’ names, as well as the granting of Permanent Land and so on...

Li Guanyi had been slurping noodles.

Mouthfuls of noodles with a bite of garlic, he was eating with relish.

But upon hearing the old guest begin his lofty discourse, the young man’s eyes widened in shock, and he couldn’t even keep eating his noodles, his face expressing a look of how dare you say such things. He blinked and said, "Do you have the keychain?"

The distinguished guest was puzzled: "I do not."

Li Guanyi replied, "So you admit you don’t have it?!"

After pondering for a moment and glancing at the weapons and scrolls, Li Guanyi thought that discarding the weapon would be dirty, and hurling a scroll would give Yuan Zhi a headache later. After hesitating for three seconds, Li Guanyi slapped his noodle bowl onto the guest’s head, drenching the man in hot soup, and then ordered:

"Take him away!"

Two brawny soldiers from the Qilin Army came in and dragged the elderly man with white hair out. The old man was shocked and outraged, shouting, "I have studied extensively, and my name is known to all under heaven; how dare you treat me this way! You, you, you!!!"

Li Guanyi said, "Mr. Lei, didn’t you hear him?! Distinguished guest!"

"Distinguished guest!"

"How can you drag him out like this?"

Lei Laomeng was stunned when the young man ordered, "Take him away with a pitchfork!"

Consequently, dissatisfaction with Li Guanyi among various noble families grew day by day, yet the Chen Family from Jiangnan proactively donated their land and their daughter to the Qilin Army, placing their bets. These noble families all gathered in the largest State City of the Jiangnan Eighteen States, waiting for Li Guanyi to arrive, intending to negotiate with him.

However, Li Guanyi simply couldn’t be bothered with them.

The Qilin Army implemented a new land policy, starting with a sweep through villages with the weakest control by the aristocratic families, moving on to the small cities owned by lesser families, and gradually enforcing the policy. The power of these families was no match for Li Guanyi’s Qilin Army, and the decrees were rapidly enforced.

At first, the noble families thought, what’s the use of just a few small villages?

They also felt disdainful: the folks from mere small towns with a bit of money dare to be called noble families?

They believed Li Guanyi wouldn’t dare to move against the major noble families after dealing with these insignificant ones!

By the time they realized what was happening, the whole of Jiangnan had swiftly been filled with crimson Qilin Flags, enclosing the largest cities. These aristocratic family elders woke up to the sounds of ordinary people busily working outside.

And when they inquired, what about us?

What about the land of our noble family?

What, not divided?

At that moment, their eyes turned red, not merely because their interests had been harmed.

But simply because they had not received any benefits.

It was more upsetting to them than losing money to see those rustic commoners benefit.

And as the commoners acquired land, the gap between them would shrink, which was more painful than death for the nobles, as it touched upon their core interests.

This led to the entire spectrum of nobility, great and small, in Jiangnan flocking to the State City of the Jiangnan Eighteen States, seeking out the major families and distinguished individuals to complain, resulting in the elders of these families, in great anger, issuing proclamations denouncing Li Guanyi as a traitor acting against the interest of the state.

They outright labeled him a rebel, part of an insurrection!

Li Guanyi laughed aloud, then, together with Wen He, initiated the fourth phase of the reforms. They began by adjusting the conscription service into land taxes, linking taxes to landholdings and population: those with more property paid more, those with less land and property paid less, and those without property paid nothing. The noble families all cursed him fiercely.

Wen He twitched the corner of his mouth, realizing why Li Guanyi insisted on blocking the news, the troops, and Pang Shuiyun who followed the troops from entering Jiangnan.

Lord, was it intentional?

The poll tax was a decree that had continued since the Red Emperor’s era.

Elder Pang would be furious.

What, the poll tax? Cut it. This, what’s this, the spring tax? Cut it!

Fire Loss? Cut it!

Excessive taxes and levies, cut them all!

Exemption from taxes for noble families?

Cut it!

Noble relatives joining the ranks under the guise of being servants to the nobility to evade taxes?

I’ll cut that too!

Just when Li Guanyi’s reputation was about to reach the heights of being [harsh rule][harsh rule]!

[A mere child is not fit to strategize for the world]!

And [Qilin][Qilin]!

[A virtuous person is distributing land here]!

As these two polarizing sentiments continued to diverge, the young man resting his chin in one hand and twirling a pen in the other looked at the petition co-written by all the major noble families cursing Li Guanyi as a treacherous official causing suffering, and the secretly coordinated letters to Ying Country and Chen Country. He said:

"Yuan Zhi, we’ve dug the pit deep enough, it’s about time."

"Let the news in."

"It’s time for us to go to the State City. These people have begun to attack me, even planning to ambush me with axe-wielding assassins, oh my..."

Yuan Zhi kept silent, then said, "Perhaps, you needn’t have knocked Wen He out."

"Your tactics are versatile and adaptable, maybe, just maybe, he can come up with a trick or two. In this situation, his schemes are bound to be the most effective, much better than whatever the two of us could think of."

Li Guanyi was suspicious: "Yuan Zhi, are you covertly scolding me?"

Yuan Zhi answered earnestly, "Not at all, it’s just that the Lord is like a dragon, able to soar and to hide."

Li Guanyi chuckled.

"Let’s go!"

The Qilin Army led the march, and news began to circulate.

Meanwhile, all the noble families of Jiangnan, both great and small, were assembled in the newly built Changfeng Building in Jiangnan.

Like a rally, they cursed Li Guanyi furiously.