A thousand-year-old family that began with the Battle of Makino

Chapter 38 Guan Zhong governed Qi and Qi became hegemonic

After Guan Zhong returned from Bai State, he began to reform Qi State's internal affairs.

The first is to divide and rectify the administrative divisions and institutions. After years of civil strife in Qi State and the licentious rule of Qi Xianggong, the entire Qi State has issued many orders, and the administrative regions overlap with each other.

So Guan Zhong sent people to measure the land area and divide the capital into six industrial and commercial townships and fifteen scholar townships, for a total of twenty-one townships. The fifteen scholar towns are the main source of soldiers in Qi State. Duke Huan of Qi was in charge of five townships, and Shangqing Guozi and Gaozi were each in charge of five townships.

He divided the state affairs into three departments and formulated the three-official system. There are three chief officials. Industry is the foundation of three ethnic groups, commerce is the foundation of three townships, Sichuan and Ze industry is the foundation of three Yu, and mountain and forest industry is the foundation of Sanheng. Clarify the responsibilities of each official and subordinate so that they can only manage things within their scope of responsibility and cannot manage things that are not within their scope of responsibility.

Thirty families in the suburbs constitute a town, and each town has a chief official. There is one pawn for every ten cities, and there is one pawn division for each pawn. Ten soldiers constitute a township, and each township has a township division. The three townships form one county, and each county has a county division. Ten counties form one genus, and each genus has a doctor. There are five genus in the country and five officials.

At the beginning of each year, the five subordinate officials would report the internal situation to Qi Huangong and Guan Zhong, and supervise their merits and demerits. As a result, the entire Qi State formed a unified whole.

Guan Zhong also proposed the land taxation policy of "levying taxes in proportion to the land", which means to levy varying amounts of taxes based on the quality of the land. Higher-grade land pays more taxes than medium-grade land, followed by lower-grade land. Such a tax burden was very reasonable in this era, which greatly improved the production enthusiasm of the people of Qi.

Based on his own business experience and the example of the Bai Kingdom prospering the country through commerce, Guan Zhong strongly advocated developing the economy, accumulating wealth and currency, and setting up "nine major and minor mansions" to observe the prosperity and famine of the year and the needs of the people to collect food and goods.

It also stipulated that only the special official mints of Qi State could mint coins, and other private mints would be severely punished. At the same time, the fishery and salt industries were also developed, and trade with foreign countries was encouraged, especially trade with the Wei Kingdom and the White Kingdom. Because of the alliance signed by the three countries, trade exchanges between the three countries were very frequent. Under these economic policies implemented by Guan Zhong and Qi Gong, Qi's economy began to prosper rapidly.

A large number of people from other countries poured into Linzi, mostly from Wei and Bai. Linzi quickly became as big a city as Luoyi.

Secondly, in terms of military affairs, Guan Zhong emphasized the deployment of troops to farmers and stipulated that the five houses in the capital should be one track, and each track should be one track long. Ten tracks constitute a mile, and each mile has a division. A company is divided into four li, and each company has a company commander. Ten companies constitute a township, and each township has a good man who is in charge of the military orders of the township.

In time of war, an army was formed, with one person from each household, five people per track, and five people per team, led by the track leader. There are fifty men in a li and a garrison of fifty, led by Li Yousi. There are two hundred men in a company, two hundred men per soldier, led by the company commander. There are 2,000 people in a township, and 2,000 people form a brigade, led by good people from the township. There are 10,000 people in Wuxiang, and a marshal is appointed. Ten thousand people form an army, led by the marshal of Wuxiang. Duke Huan of Qi, Guozi, and Gaozi are the marshals.

This kind of military organization makes the Qi army closely integrated. Every spring and autumn, hunting is used to train the army. Coupled with the military generals hired from the Bai Kingdom, the combat effectiveness of the Qi army can be greatly improved.

At the same time, Qi Gong also stipulated that people in the country are not allowed to move at will. People live together and know each other. When fighting at night, you can distinguish between ourselves and the enemy just by hearing the sound; when fighting during the day, everyone can recognize each other as long as they see their appearance. .

In addition, in order to solve the army's weapons problem, Guan Zhong and Qi Gong stipulated that people who committed crimes could use armor and weapons to atone for their sins. If you commit a serious crime, you can use armor and a halberd to atone for your crime. If you commit a minor crime, you can atone for it with a sword and a chariot. If you commit a small crime, you can use copper and iron to atone for it. This will alleviate the problem of insufficient military equipment. At the same time, the close exchanges with Bai Guo have greatly improved the quality of Qi's armaments.

The third year of Duke Qi and the eighty-ninth year of Bai Kingdom

Through the careful governance of Guan Zhong and Qi Gong, Qi's national strength has improved, and successive bumper harvests have made Qi's granary overflow, so both of them wanted to find an opportunity to try the results of the reform.

It happened that Qi Gong passed by Tan State when he was fleeing, but Tan State treated Qi Gong very badly, so Qi Gong always wanted to attack Tan State. Guan Zhong had been dissuaded by Guan Zhong in the past, saying: "Qi State's reform is at a critical moment now, so it is not good to cause extraneous problems!" Therefore, he never took action.

It happened that this time Tan Guo was caught by Guan Zhong for not observing etiquette and law. Guan Zhong immediately told Qi Gong:

"Your Majesty, you can raise your troops this time. Tan Guo does not respect etiquette. Even if he is destroyed, the other princes can't say anything!"

So Qi Gong immediately announced to the world excitedly that because Tan Guo did not abide by etiquette and law, Qi State was a big country and was an in-law of the Emperor Zhou, so he decided to send troops to investigate.

Soon, Tan State was originally small and its power was very weak, so it was quickly wiped out by Qi State. Qi State also wiped out Tan State and expanded its territory without much effort. Moreover, because Tan State did not occupy etiquette, coupled with the strong national power of Qi State, and the alliance between Bai State and Wei State, no princes opposed it.

This crusade gave Guan Zhong and Qi Gong strong confidence.

The fourth year of Qi Gong, the ninetyth year of Bai Kingdom
There was civil strife in the Song Dynasty. Song Mingong and Nangong Wan were hunting together. They had a dispute while playing chess. Nangong Wan was brave and powerful. During the dispute, Nangong Wan got angry and killed Song Mingong with the chessboard.

After the doctor Qiu Mu heard about this, he rushed to the palace gate with weapons. Nangong Wan fought with Qiu Mu and killed Qiu Mu. Then he killed Song Xianghua's governor father and supported him as king. All the princes fled, and then everyone showed their magical powers, and the Song Dynasty was in chaos.

In the fifth year of Qi Gong and the ninety-first year of Bai Kingdom, at the suggestion of Guan Zhong, Qi State and Song, Chen, Cai, Zheng, Wei, Bai and other states met in Beixing, Qi, to form an alliance to discuss ways to stabilize Song State. Sui Guo was also invited, but did not come. In order to improve the prestige of Qi State, Guan Zhong sent troops to eliminate Sui State as well.

The State of Lu was originally relatively powerful, but because it was defeated by the State of Qi one after another, and saw that the vassal states were all obeying the State of Qi, Sui and Tan, who did not obey the State of Qi, were wiped out, so they were ready to surrender to the State of Qi. Duke Lu wanted to take control of the State of Qi. The city of Sui was given to Qi to seek peace.

Soon, Qi and Lu formed an alliance in Ke.

Qi Gong and Lu Gong were already preparing to swear an oath at the altar of heaven. At this time, Cao Mo, who was standing next to Lu Gong, suddenly kidnapped Qi Gong with a dagger in his hand. The people around Qi Gong did not dare to take any action, but asked him loudly: " What do you want to do?"

Cao Mo said, "Qi is strong and Lu is weak. The strong countries have already invaded and occupied Lu. Now the capital of Lu is already on the border of Qi. Do you still want to invade?"

Cao Mo was a native of Lu. He served Lu Gong with his bravery and wisdom. Lu and Qi fought many battles. Cao Mo was a general of Lu, but he lost every time.

Seeing that the situation was not right, Qi Gong immediately promised: "As long as you let me go, I will return all the places that I invaded and occupied to Lu. How about that?"

When Cao Mo saw what Duke Qi said, he threw away the dagger in his hand, walked down from the Temple of Heaven, faced north, and stood where the ministers should be standing. His face and expression did not change at all, and he spoke and acted as if nothing had happened just now. Live the same.

Seeing this, Duke Qi was furious and just wanted to regret it. At this time, Guan Zhong stopped and said: "Your Majesty, you cannot do this. You cannot covet such small benefits just for temporary happiness. Doing this will cause you to lose all your prestige among the princes and lose the trust and help of the people in the world. It is not as good as Give it back to him."

After weighing the pros and cons, Qi Gong decided to return all the cities that had been occupied by Lu to Lu. In this way, Cao Mo regained all the cities that had been cut off by his many failed battles.

The sixth year of Duke Qi and the ninety-second year of Bai Kingdom

Wei and Bai were originally allies of Qi. Lu, Song, Chen, and Cai all surrendered to Qi one after another. Tan and Sui had also been eliminated long ago, and only Zheng was still in civil strife. Therefore, Guan Zhong suggested that Qi Gong mediate the civil strife in Zheng, so as to improve Qi's status and accelerate its goal of becoming a hegemon.

Since Duke Li returned to the country, Zheng Guo killed Ziyi, his benefactor Fu Xia, and forced the official Yuan Fan to death. After he ascended the throne and proclaimed himself king, in order to consolidate his throne, he wanted to unite Qi State. Guan Zhong seized this opportunity and suggested that Qi Gong unite the five kingdoms of Song, Wei, Zheng, Bai, and Lu. He also invited the Zhou royal family to participate and form an alliance in Juan. Although Qi Gong despised Zheng Gong as a person, he agreed for the sake of his own hegemony.

The seventh year of Duke Qi and the ninety-third year of Bai Kingdom

Guan Zhong also asked Qi Gong to summon Song, Chen, Wei, Zheng, Bai, and Lu to form an alliance in Juan in his own name. In this alliance, all six countries recognized Qi Gong as the leader of the alliance. From then on, Qi Gong became the recognized overlord in the world.

In the 24th year of Duke Qi, the 110th year of Bai Kingdom
Shan Rong attacked Yan State, and Yan State asked Qi State for help. Qi Gong believed that Chu State in the south was more harmful and was unwilling to send troops. However, Guan Zhong believed that those who were in trouble at that time were Chu State in the south, Shanrong in the north, and Di in the west. They were all scourges for the Central Plains countries.

If the king wants to conquer Chu, he must first attack Shanrong. After the north is stable, he can concentrate on conquering the south. Now that the Yan State has been invaded, it has asked our country for help. If it raises its troops to take the lead in attacking the barbarians, it will surely win the support of all countries. The Duke of Qi thought so and raised troops to rescue Yan. Guan Zhong followed his army to attack the Shanrong to rescue Yan State, and defeated the Shanrong until they reached Guzhu before returning to the army.

In the 26th year of Duke Qi, the 112th year of Bai Kingdom

The Di people in the northwest also raised troops to attack the Central Plains. They bypassed the Taihang Mountains and attacked Xing State first. As the overlord, Qi, of course, cannot ignore it. Guan Zhong was also very concerned about this issue. He suggested to Qi Gong:
"Rong Di is very cruel and greedy. All the countries in Xia are relatives and care about each other. If a country is in trouble, everyone should help each other and cannot ignore it. It is very dangerous to be satisfied with the comfort of the status quo, so sending troops to rescue Xing is the best policy .”

Duke Qi agreed with Guan Zhong's idea, so he sent troops to rescue Xing State, and Xing State was quickly rescued.

Soon, the Di people sent troops to attack Wei State again. Duke Wei was killed and Wei State was destroyed. The people of Wei State fled in all directions, and the surrounding princely states came to help one after another.

The Song State sent troops to rescue 730 people from Wei State. The Bai Kingdom sent troops to rescue 1,300 people from the Wei Kingdom, plus the residents of Gong and Teng, a total of 6,300 people. There were also many Wei people who fled into the Taihang Mountains.
So the princes established the son of the late Duke Wei as their king in Cao Yi. The newly restored Weiguo was in a very difficult situation. Bai Yu, the young master of the Bai Kingdom, brought a large amount of clothes and goods to help the people of the Wei Kingdom rebuild their homes.

Qi Gong and Guan Zhong sent Prince Wu Kui to arm Cao Yi with 500 chariots and horses and 3000 soldiers to defend the country. He also brought horse-riding sacrificial robes to the new Duke Wei, and also brought a carriage and brocade silk to Duke Wei's wife. In addition, there were more than 300 cattle, sheep, pigs, dogs, and chickens, which also helped to build the palace.

Just as all the princes were rushing to rescue the Wei State, the Di people attacked the Xing State for the second time, but the Xing State had not yet recovered from the previous attack.

(End of this chapter)