Liu Province City, Provincial Governor's Manor.
Liang Zhaohuang held a banquet to entertain the commandery governors, officials, and cultivators who had escorted the tax levies from their respective commanderies to the provincial city.
Previously, during his inspection tour across the province, he had employed many thunderous, ruthless measures, even resorting to killing the chicken to scare the monkeys, all to establish his authority.
Now that the commanderies had smoothly collected Liu Province's first taxes and escorted them to the provincial city for delivery to the Liang Family, whether to soothe the people's hearts or to bestow favor and make a statement, Liang Zhaohuang naturally could not forgo hosting a banquet for them.
Of Liu Province's eleven commanderies, ninety percent of the commandery governor positions were now held by prominent clans and aristocratic families raised up by the Liang Family. Most of the cultivators who had come to pay taxes and attend the banquet came from the Liang Family's peripheral forces; many had even entered into marriage alliances with the Liang Family, with women of their clans marrying into it.
Thus, the atmosphere throughout the banquet remained quite relaxed and lively.
As the banquet neared its end and the atmosphere reached its peak, Liang Zhaohuang seized the opportunity to announce a decision.
That was to connect and clear the roads, waterways, and other infrastructure between Liu Province's commanderies and counties, as well as open Flying Boat routes between the commanderies.
To the prominent commandery clans and even the wealthy county aristocratic families, these two matters could be said to bring both benefits and drawbacks. They would aid the development of each family, yet they would also weaken their control over their local territories and authority.
However, Liang Zhaohuang had only recently established his might during his inspection of the province. Moreover,