Xiang Yan didn't know much about political affairs, so he suggested:
"Your Majesty, why don't we take the people's relatives as hostages, and once the people escape, we will punish their relatives!"
King Qi of Chu only asked:
"Can we complete the registration of household registration?"
"And this method may be used to manage the city. How can the people living outside the city stop it?"
After saying this, Xiang Yan was speechless.
Due to its national conditions, the Chu State's household registration was very chaotic, especially after many new laborers moved in during the war. At this time, even if they wanted to implement Xiang Yan's "relatives as hostage" method, it was impossible to do so.
After a pause, Xiang Yan could only ask:
"Then, in the opinion of the king..."
King Qi of Chu frowned and replied:
"The only solution for the present is to adopt the same reforms as the Qin State."
You must know that King Qi of Chu had served as prime minister in Qin, so of course he knew how to face this problem:
Facing Qin's superior system, neighboring countries such as Zhao, Wei, and Han must either implement the same reforms as Qin or wait for population loss and eventual extinction.
The reason why Chu State was less affected is because its border with Qin State is in the northwest and the Bashu area has extremely inconvenient transportation, so the Chu State system has been maintained until now.
But as the saying goes, "Be born in sorrow and die in happiness."
Precisely because the Chu State was far away from the Qin State and there was no reform crisis, even though it had a vast territory and a large population, it was like a piece of scattered sand because of the lack of reform.
At this time, the crisis finally came, and the Qin army was in Huaibei.
Without Shen Bing's propaganda campaign of leaflets, the Chu State would have had a few months of buffering time... The communication was lagging behind and news spread slowly, and the scope was not large and it was easy to block.
But as soon as Shen Bing launched his propaganda campaign, this absolute institutional advantage was immediately reflected and intensified its internal contradictions.
The result is that if the Chu State wants to prevent population loss, it must adopt the same system as the Qin State. In this way, the Qin State's system will no longer be attractive to the Chu people... Both sides are the same, and of course no one wants to leave their hometown.
However……
Xiang Yan said hesitantly:
"Your Majesty, if we implement a reform, we will take back the fiefdoms of each clan."
"How can all the tribes be willing to do so?"
King Qi of Chu also considered this.
To be precise, it is not about taking back the fiefdoms of various ethnic groups.
On the surface, the fiefdoms of each tribe still belong to each tribe...just like the Qin State, except that each tribe no longer has the management rights of the people, and all management rights were taken back and concentrated in the hands of King Qi of Chu.
Then will all ethnic groups be convinced?
After thinking for a while, King Chu Qi replied:
"If the law is not changed, the Chu State will be destroyed, and how will it be able to enclose the land?"
"Calling all ethnic groups to come to court to discuss reform together."
Xiang Yan responded and sent people to issue the order from King Qi of Chu.
But even though Xiang Yan did this, he didn't have any hope in his heart, because he knew what kind of people these Chu nobles were.
A few days later, envoys from all ethnic groups rushed to Dongting.
The Zhao family is the old minister Zhao Shi, the Qu family is Qu Wei, and the Jing family is Jing Tong. They are all people who can speak with each other from the major clans.
Seeing this, Yan felt a little calmer.
Because this shows that all tribes attach great importance to this matter. After all, it is they, not King Qi of Chu, who are facing greater difficulties at this time, so they are also eager to find a solution.
There were also small clans such as the Dou clan and the Ban clan, and the number of people who came was even greater than when the King of Chu held the cud to convene a court meeting.
I don’t know whether it was the prestige of King Qi of Chu or the situation.
Everyone gathered together to salute the King of Chu, which was quite a sight.
King Chu Qi nodded with satisfaction, signaled everyone to get up and said:
"Your Majesty, you should know the reason for this meeting."
"The Qin State's army is pressing down on the country and is deceiving our people in Chu with warnings. Now the people are heading north one after another. I wonder what countermeasures you have, sir?"
This is the trick of King Qi of Chu.
In fact, King Qi of Chu knew about it from the beginning and even decided what to do, but he would not directly tell you what to do... This shows that King Qi of Chu was self-willed and did not respect the opinions of the nobles.
As soon as the topic was brought up, all the nobles felt the same.
After a brief discussion, Zhao Shi raised his hands and replied:
"Your Majesty, I suggest building a line of defense in the north direction and patrolling it with cavalry."
"This will intercept the people who are going north to surrender to the Qin Dynasty. If they are captured, they will be severely punished."
"As time went by, the people no longer dared to escape."
When everyone heard the words, they all agreed.
This seems to be a way. The people thought that there was a way to survive by going north, so this way of survival was cut off for them, so they had no choice but to continue to stay in Chu and let the nobles exploit them.
But King Qi of Chu shook his head and said:
"Since the Huaihe River defense line was occupied by the Qin army, our army has not had a complete defense line in the north direction."
"At this time, our army is in short supply of supplies. How can we still build a defense line hundreds of miles long in the north direction?"
"If it was built in a hurry just to protect the people, how could the Qin army sit back and watch?"
"What's more, the Qin army also has a Shenwu army... How can we use the cavalry army to stop the people from going north?"
When King Qi of Chu said this, all the nobles became silent.
Zhao Shi's statement is indeed too idealistic.
Where can we find the manpower, material resources and financial resources needed to build a defense line?
Another more serious problem is the garrison problem.
This does not mean that the Chu army is short of troops. In fact, if the Chu army unites the troops of all ethnic groups and recruits more, they can still make up 400,000... which is twice the strength of the Qin army.
The problem is that after Xiang Yan was defeated several times before, who would dare to go out of the city to fight the Qin army?
In particular, Zhaoxie also mentioned the use of cavalry... isn't that just the meat and potatoes of the Shenwu Army?
After a moment of silence, Qu Wei suggested:
"I thought that we could send troops out of the city to supervise the people's farming..."
Before he finished speaking, he was opposed by others.
Doushi said:
"We have always sent troops out of the city to supervise."
"But the soldiers will never be as good as the people."
“Often they are still there when they leave the city, but many of them are missing when they return to the city.”
Banshi is even more anxious:
"If you're not careful, the soldiers will kill all the people, and only a few of them will be able to escape back to the city..."
"If the unruly people cause trouble, their courage is as high as the sky!"
Everyone commented one after another.
Seeing that the time was almost up, King Chu Qi winked at Xiang Yan.
Xiang Yan understood and went out to pay homage:
"Your Majesty, I have something to say."
King Chu Qi said "Oh" and asked knowingly:
"What do you think, General?"
Xiang Yan replied:
"I believe that the reason why the people rushed to surrender to Qin first is because Qin's system is better than Chu's system."
"Many of the strategies previously discussed are merely treating the symptoms rather than the root cause."
"If you want the people to stop wanting to go north and surrender to Qin, I think the only way is reform."
King Qi of Chu pretended to have just learned this and took a deep breath and said:
"Reform? This is causing great trouble..."
Xiang Yan interrupted King Qi of Chu and said:
"Your Majesty, if we don't change the law, it won't take long for Chu land to have no people to use it."
"Even soldiers will flee to Qin, and then it will be too late!"