The total population of the three provinces of Ji, Yan, and Qing was only a little over 12 million. Based on the principle of one soldier for every ten people, the scholars and powerful families of these three provinces together controlled at least 40% of the population and as much as 60% of the land.
It's no small feat for a scholar-official family to control a county.
In addition to the influence of these scholars and powerful families, it can be said that Shandong in the past was no longer the Shandong of the Han Dynasty, but the Shandong of these scholars and powerful families.
If we cannot thoroughly defeat them, these scholars and powerful figures alone will be enough to drag the Han Dynasty into an abyss of no return.
The imperial court issued another emergency call to action. The Royal Merchant Guild, along with its dozen or so member families, temporarily put aside all their affairs. Under the guidance of the Research and Manufacturing Bureau and the Engineering Academy, thirty factories and nearly a thousand workshops in the Sili region, totaling four thousand production lines, also ceased all production and began emergency production of various military supplies and equipment overnight.
In just four days, including the treasury's inventory, there were 40,000 sets of armor, 20,000 powerful bows, 50,000 powerful crossbows, and countless spears and arrows.
At the same time, officials at all levels in the five prefectures of Henan, Hanoi, Yingchuan, Shangdang, and Hongnong, in accordance with the imperial court's orders, urgently mobilized and conscripted 500,000 laborers and nearly 50,000 oxcarts and horse-drawn carts.
A fleet of 10,000 chariots from the royal transport team, along with 500,000 conscripted able-bodied men, were pulling countless supplies of grain and weapons, heading in an endless stream towards Chenliu, Zhao County, Changshan and other places.
The Royal Merchant Guild's rapid production and transportation capabilities, the court and government's powerful mobilization, and the people's enthusiastic response to the call were all beyond imagination, even shocking the officials of the court.
At this moment, the war machine that Liu Hong had built through a series of means was finally beginning to reveal the tip of its iceberg.
And this land of Ji, Yan and Qing provinces was Liu Hong's testing ground.
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