The northeastern land, Liaozhou, Jizhou and Yingzhou, are more vast than the Lulong lands controlled by Zhang Zhongwu before, but in terms of the population, it is not the same order of magnitude. In such a huge area, there are only more than one million people who are actually borrowing. This is the result of Zhang Zhongwu trying every means to expand the population after entering the Northeast.

Of course, there are actually not a few people who are not borrowing, at least not as good as those who are borrowing, but these people are either savages in the old forest, as fierce as tigers, or bandits wandering around, as cunning as foxes. Of course, there are also the tribes that come and go as wind, who are capricious and surrendering from time to time, which makes Zhang Zhongwu headache.

Now it is no longer Lu Long's army.

In order to appease Zhang Zhongwu and free up his hands to clean up the domestic chaos, Li Ze also hoped that Zhang Zhongwu's Lu Long's army would organize it when he entered the chaotic land of the Northeast. Then he would come to pick up the ready-made ones, so he used the name of the court to enthrone Zhang Zhongwu as King of Liao.

So now, Zhang Zhongwu's army should be called the Liao army.

It should be said that Zhang Zhongwu did not disappoint Li Ze's hope in general. After entering the Northeast, after working hard for several years, he finally made the Northeast look like a revival.

When he first entered, Zhang Zhongwu showed his thunderous means, killing people and killing the indigenous tycoons in the Northeast to the fortitude. Although Zhang Zhongwu was defeated repeatedly in the battle with Li Ze, when he arrived in the Northeast, he became a figure who could stop his children from crying at night. After losing several decisive battles with Zhang Zhongwu, the local tycoons who had connected themselves chose to kneel to Zhang Zhongwu.

By this time, Zhang Zhongwu had already gained a firm foothold.

After the big stick is used, the next step is candied dates.

Zhang Zhongwu's means of governing Liao territory surprised Li Ze.

He was in Liao and divided the people into three or six or nine levels

The first-class people were naturally the people who followed him to retreat all the way to the northeast from the land of Lulong. These people had the highest power and formed the supreme ruling institution of the entire Liao Palace, occupying the key positions of the government governments in various places and the position of the chief officer in the army.

The second-class people are the local tyrants in the Northeast. These people can also enter the bureaucratic organization to become officials, but at most they become deputy lieutenants and assistant officials. The direct descendants of these families must enter Zhang Zhongwu's personal guards to become attendants, which is actually equivalent to being protons. When there is a battle, these local tyrants must also organize young and strong men, bring their own weapons, become servants of the Liao army, and engage in some auxiliary combat work.

The third-class people were those who were affiliated with barbarian tribes and those from Goguryeo. Some of these people were engaged in breeding and grazing, while others were working on land. These people could get the land in Liao land. Of course, they also had to pay heavy taxes and bear various types of corvee labor.

The fourth type of people are the savages and their families captured by the Liao army from the old forests of the mountains and the survivors after they were suppressed because of rebellion, and of course, there were a large number of slaves.

Compared with the first three types of people, these people have no power at all. If the third type of people are bullied, they can go to the government to shout for justice. If they meet a clear-headed official with a sense of justice, or they can uphold justice, the fourth type of people can only silently bear everything.

A society with distinct hierarchies actually completed the structure and maintained social stability in a very short period of time, which made Li Ze amazed.

It was precisely such a society with distinct hierarchy that made Zhang Zhongwu transform from an invader into the real king of Liao in several years.

In the land policy of Liao, Zhang Zhongwu learned from part of Li Ze's successful experience and successfully implemented it on his territory. The third-class people were able to obtain a lot of land for free to cultivate, which was a little heavy tax. But at least, these people could pay the tax under good weather conditions, and after paying the tax, there were still some surplus to allow the family to eat and wear. However, the contribution of these people was far from enough to support the economy of Liao.

The real economic support of Liaodi are the first and second-class people.

A large number of soldiers were rewarded with fields, which was different from the third-class people who had to pay more than 70% of the land harvest. They only needed to pay 30%. At the same time, these soldiers were also given a privilege that they could enter the old forest to capture the savages and become their slaves. Therefore, when there was no war, Liao soldiers often entered the old forest to capture the savages in groups.

This is a very risky job. Although the savages do not have sharp swords, guns, arrows, and armor, their combat effectiveness is extremely considerable. Therefore, when they enter Lao Linzi, there will be casualties from time to time, but overall, the income is far greater than the expenses. Zhang Zhongwu strongly encourages this behavior. Every time a savage is caught, the Liao Palace will give soldiers a certain reward. If the soldiers do not need slaves, they can be sold to the Liao Palace. A strong savage can be sold for dozens of cents of money.

For Zhang Zhongwu, this is a matter of killing two birds with one stone. First, the Liao Palace can obtain a large amount of labor, and secondly, it has tempered the combat level of soldiers, so that his soldiers' combat effectiveness has always been maintained at an extremely high level. He cannot spend a lot of money like Li Ze to allow soldiers to conduct various drills, and can only use this more barbaric means.

The Liao Palace has a large number of military camps, and these military camps use slave farming. Apart from preventing these slaves from starving to death, these military camps have basically no other consumption. When they are alive, they keep creating wealth for their masters. When they die, they dig a hole and throw it into them, and they will be done.

In addition to these, the local tyrants in Liao were the main players who contributed tax revenue. After failing in the battle with Zhang Zhongwu, these local tyrants still retained a certain degree of strength. They owned a large amount of land and population. Zhang Zhongwu may have given them certain privileges, and the tax paid by their land was 50%. At the same time, Zhang Zhongwu also allowed these people to do business. The caravans in Liao were basically from these local tyrants.

Of course, there are caravans that do business seriously, and there are caravans that do smuggle.

As long as Zhang Zhongwu pays enough taxes, Zhang Zhongwu is too lazy to pay attention to the way these local tyrants do business. If they have the ability to smuggle items from the area under Li Ze's rule, Zhang Zhongwu would be happy.

You should know that although Li Ze conferred Zhang Zhongwu as King of Liao and the two sides maintained a general state of peace, the economic blockade of Liao has never been relaxed.

Strategic materials including salt, tea, iron, sesame, oil, grain, etc. are even more strictly controlled.

However, just as Liu Yan from Weihu Mountain was always able to get some such materials, under the rule of Li Ze, there were also many desperate people starting such smuggling journeys for money, and it was impossible to ban them at all.

A simple example is that in the border area of ​​Pingzhou, if a person carries one hundred kilograms of salt, the cost per kilogram is less than 5 cents, and one hundred kilograms of salt is only 500 cents, which is not worth a silver dollar.

But if he can successfully transport this hundred kilograms of silver to the opposite side, each kilogram of salt will immediately rise to twenty cents, and one hundred kilograms of salt will be worth two silver dollars. A four times profit is enough for many people to fight. The border is so long that the risk of being caught is not high, as long as you are not smuggling on a large scale.

In fact, many small gangs in these smuggling activities are controlled by the Tang Dynasty's inner guards. With this opportunity, they are also desperately carrying out infiltration toward Liao.

After six years, using this pyramid-like structure, Zhang Zhongwu was constantly accumulating his strength. His powerful military strength in Liao land allowed him to sit steadily on the top of the tower and look down at the entire Liao land.

In the past two years, under the suggestion of Zhang Zhongwen, the strict hierarchy in Liaodi has been loosened. The main reason is to give people at the next level some opportunities to strive for the next level.

For example, if a second-class person wants to become a first-class person, he will evaluate it based on the taxes paid and military achievements made. Once it is passed, he can jump to the first-class person and gain more privileges.

People at the third level have only one chance, that is, they become soldiers and make military achievements. In essence, people at the third level can still be regarded as free people, and they can sign up for the army. Once they make military achievements and become officers, they may jump to the second level, obtain land, slaves, etc., and thus change their own destiny.

The worst thing is of course not the fourth-class slave class. They only have one chance, that is, when the war breaks out, they can become suicide squads, survive and make military achievements, and become free people.

This suggestion was the decision made by the Zhang brothers when they felt that the opportunity for counterattack had arrived in the current situation. In this way, they could gain more combat power.

Although their strength has basically returned to the level in the Lulong era, their opponent Li Ze is far from comparable to that of the past. Although Li Ze's main focus is on the war of unification, for the Zhang brothers, this is still a giant.

This is their only chance. If Li Ze was allowed to complete the great cause of unification smoothly, they would not have thought of living like this in Liao.
Chapter completed!