To achieve immortality, I cultivate using Qi Luck

The county has not recruited county soldiers or minor officials, so there is temporarily no way to control the barbarian settlements outside the city.

Therefore, it is still unclear how many Yi people are outside the city, and this needs to be sorted out and investigated gradually in the future.

However, the Yi people in the city have already been cleared out this month.

There are about three hundred households and nine hundred and seventy-two people of Yi people in the city, mostly consisting of women, elderly, and weak. There are hardly any adult men left, as they have all been conscripted by the king to join the army at the front line.

Because there are not many adult men, these Yi people are very honest. With the Royal Teacher’s presence, they are all very fearful and cannot create any disturbances.

Moreover, they, like the immigrants, have experienced several years of war, their families are impoverished, and they even lack food.

Many families’ stored grain will not last through this winter.

Now, I have recruited the healthy women and elderly among the Yi people in the city, and also used the method of work-for-relief to let them help with some work in exchange for life-saving grain.

However, these measures can only solve the immediate problem.

Without adult men, these barbarian women and children, even if they farm after the spring, will not be able to grow much grain.

It will be a struggle for them to feed themselves with their annual harvest. If they are to be taxed, they can’t survive.

Therefore, I request the king to temporarily pardon these barbarian women and children and not to tax them for these few years; otherwise, it will only drive them to death.”

Zhao Xianzhi, after saying this, knelt down and begged Lu Yuan for permission.

Lu Yuan looked at the kneeling county magistrate and fell into deep thought.

This man is indeed a capable official. In less than two months, he has already investigated Qingshui County, which he is to govern, and accomplished a lot.

Assigning him to be the county magistrate here was a proper arrangement by the Ministry of Personnel.

I believe that with him here, Qingshui County will be in good order in just a few years.

However, the problems raised by Zhao Xianzhi in his report just now are indeed serious and need urgent solutions.

It is indeed not good to put more pressure on the elderly, weak, women, and children of the Yi people who are already struggling to make a living.

Otherwise, if all these people are forced to die, there will be no one left in the local area.

The territories conquered by Lu Yuan in the Southwest Yi are so vast, but relying entirely on immigration is simply unrealistic.

How many immigrants are there?

Previously, those gathered from Su Country’s refugees were just more than 200,000. Even if all these people were moved here, they would not be able to fill the vast territories.

So, for the Southwest Yi, the best way to assimilate the territories quickly is a combination of small-scale immigration and absorption of local Yi people.

After some thought, Lu Yuan said, “I approve of your proposal, not only for the tax relief for the Yi people in Qingshui County but also for all new prefectures and counties in the entire Southwest Yi region. The Yi people, like the immigrants, will be exempted from taxes for three years.

As for the elderly, weak, women, and children of the Yi people, I have already instructed the Ministry of Personnel to recruit single men from all over the country to move here. At the same time, the Military Department has also begun recruiting prefecture and county soldiers in the mainland, who will soon be transferred here.

By then, you local officials should cooperate with the Ministry of Personnel and Military Department to identify the Yi women and children who have lost their husbands and men and assign them to the recruited single men and prefecture and county soldiers.

This way, we can both settle the single men and prefecture and county soldiers in new homes, enrich the local population, and solve the livelihood problems of the Yi women and children who have lost men in their families, so that they have a pillar in their households and do not starve to death.”

Zhao Xianzhi was overjoyed at these words and quickly knelt down to express his gratitude, saying, “The king is benevolent. With the king’s decree, the Yi people of all places will have a way of life, and many lives will be saved. I will strictly follow the king’s decree, personally supervise this matter, and make sure that there are no mistakes.”

“Hmm.” Lu Yuan nodded slightly, without saying much more.

Recruiting wifeless men and prefecture and county soldiers to the Southwest Yi was already Lu Yuan’s original strategy for governing the Yi, and it was already being carried out.

Domestically, the recruitment of these two categories of personnel is ongoing, but since the work has just started, the progress is somewhat slow.

According to the Ministry of Personnel and Military Department’s reports, there are currently five thousand prefecture and county soldiers and two thousand single men recruited.

The two categories together only add up to seven thousand people, which frankly, is a small number.

What can this many people do?

At the very most, they can only provide a solution for seven thousand households of Yi women and children, or twenty to thirty thousand people.

Compared to the millions of Yi people scattered throughout the country, this number is insignificant and hardly worth mentioning.

The reason for only recruiting so few people is quite simple.

Many people, upon hearing that they are going to the Southwest Yi, back out even before the officials have a chance to mention the benefits of living there.

The present three provinces of Chu State have just experienced war, with the local population reduced to varying degrees. Most local people have farmland and houses, and those who don’t can go to the cities to work. Additionally, with Lu Yuan’s policy of light corvee labor, they are living quite comfortably.

In such circumstances, who would want to come to this broken place full of Yi people and still at war?

So even if the officials from the Ministry of Personnel and Military Department guarantee and tell the recruits and immigrants that upon moving to the Southwest Yi, they will be given farmland, houses, wives, children, and even tax exemptions for three years, there are still very few willing to come.

Thinking of the detailed reports submitted by the Ministry of Personnel and Military Department, Lu Yuan felt a headache coming on.