"The Rewarded Fields Edict?"
Inside the Central Secretariat, Wei Guan looked at the document just delivered from the imperial court, deeply astonished.
Normally, whatever laws or policies the imperial court intended to issue, it was impossible for the Central Secretariat to know nothing about them.
They would always hear something beforehand and make preparations.
This time, however, the decree had truly arrived at the Central Secretariat without the slightest warning, demanding that it be implemented as soon as possible.
Wei Guan was momentarily bewildered.
He carefully read through the decree, and after one reading, his face went pale and sweat soaked his back.
How was this a Rewarded Fields Edict at all?!
This was plainly a land confiscation edict!
The edict Cao Mao had given the Central Secretariat stated: Great Wei had achieved unification, and the officials throughout the realm had contributed greatly. I have decided to reward them, while further clarifying the distinctions of rank and station, so that ministers who have rendered meritorious service may receive the authority they deserve.
What followed was the substance of the rewards.
First-grade officials could hold two thousand mu of land, second-grade officials fifteen hundred mu, with the amount gradually decreasing down the ranks.
Officials at the lowest rank were permitted only three hundred and fifty mu of farmland and allowed to retain five tenant farmers.
By the land measurements and yields of the Wei-Jin period, an adult man needed seventy mu of farmland to support a family.
A ninth-grade official could possess five times as much farmland as an ordinary person. That was by no means little; it was already a considerable disparity.
But there was one problem. It was called a reward, yet Cao Mao had no intention of distributing farmland to anyone.
He was merely declaring with great generosity: