Chapter 127: Meetings Should Never Be Expanded
Just as Zhang Heng and Wu Tong were plotting face-to-face, Yun Ce was also holding the Yun Clan’s first expanded meeting.
Of course, the expanded attendees were only Zhang Min, Steward Qiu, and An Ji.
The most core figures of the Yun Clan remained just four: Yun Ce, E Ji, Feng An, and Liang Kun.
E Ji was very satisfied with the meeting room’s seating arrangement. Yun Ce sat in the middle, she was on his left hand, Feng An and Liang Kun sat on his right, while Zhang Min, An Ji, and Steward Qiu could only sit on the cushions opposite, with the hierarchy clear at a glance.
Yun Ce felt that this Chang’an family expanded meeting was very necessary, mainly because the family population had suddenly surged from three hundred twelve people to eleven thousand one hundred thirty-eight people, including twenty-seven women about to give birth, and the family population would continue to increase at that time.
At this major turning point for the family, it was necessary to clarify the family assets, plan for the future, set long-term development goals for the family, and formulate the family’s first five-year plan.
Everyone who could participate in the family meeting was very excited, aside from E Ji who was so excited she could hardly contain herself, there were also Feng An and Liang Kun who were excited with faces flushed red, the scheming Zhang Min, and An Ji and Steward Qiu who were excitedly shedding tears on the spot.
Although E Ji spoke first, demanding to drive Zhang Min out of the venue, and used her eyes to force An Ji and Steward Qiu to agree to her motion, she was ultimately stopped by Yun Ce.
Yun Ce first set the tone for the meeting, namely—to make the Yun Clan a family beneficial to the Great Han and beneficial to the Great Han People.
Everyone needed to speak one by one with Yun Ce’s tone as the main theme.
1 The first to speak was E Ji. She believed that the Yun Clan had too few masters, which was not conducive to the long-term development of the Yun Clan, and it was necessary to quickly perform a ritual to inform the ancestors, requesting the ancestors to temporarily abandon, in this harsh time, the ancestral precept that Yun Clan males must not have children with women under eighteen, and to take developing the number of direct-line descendants of the family as the current primary goal.
1 Only with heirs could the Yun Clan exert its subjective initiative and actively contribute its strength to the development of the Great Han and the happiness of the Great Han People.
1 While E Ji was speaking, Zhang Min laughed out loud several times, and after being sternly criticized by Yun Ce, she finally sat seriously on the cushion and participated in the meeting.
1 Then, Yun Ce praised E Ji’s positive speech, while pointing out that E Ji’s ability to participate in meetings and discuss politics needed to be strengthened, and she needed to learn how to propose her own opinions and requests in the correct language and correct manner.
1 Feng An spoke next. He believed that the most important long-term goal at present lay in taking root, and since the Yun Clan had received the court’s order to establish tuntian farms north of the Great Wall and south of Iron Enclosure Pass, the Yun Clan should quickly and actively participate in the construction of the tuntian farms, and immediately advance with an attitude of time waiting for no one.
1 He himself was willing to be a vanguard for the family, lead a portion of people, take the lead in entering the vast region north of the Great Wall, find areas suitable for farming and reclamation, and lay a solid foundation for establishing the family’s foundation.
1 Yun Ce basically agreed with Feng An’s opinion, but he believed that wild beasts roamed north of the Great Wall, and from time to time small groups of Gui Fang people crossed the Iron Enclosure Pass defense line to harass the rear, Feng An’s martial power was insufficient to serve as the pioneer officer for this task, and this matter should be handled by him personally.
1 Liang Kun thought that although the Yun Family looked strong with many people and horses now, its internal management was chaotic, the problem of slaves not knowing their masters was particularly serious, it was necessary to quickly clarify the internal management system, quickly build the Yun Clan management framework, quickly organize the existing manpower, control it well, achieve smooth operation like an arm commanding the fingers as soon as possible, and for this, he was willing to take on this task and serve the Yun Clan tirelessly until death.
1 Yun Ce basically agreed with Liang Kun’s suggestion, but he hoped that this matter should be jointly managed by Liang Kun and Feng An, only with concerted efforts could the rules be detailed and personnel arrangements rationalized.
1 When it was Zhang Min’s turn to speak, her mouth moved several times, and finally she hesitantly uttered a sentence, demanding that the Yun Clan everyone must maintain a humble and cautious attitude, maintain a certain respect for the Great Han, and not treat this tuntian as an opportunity for the Yun Clan’s own development.
2 They should take supplying provisions and military supplies to Iron Enclosure Pass as the top priority, otherwise, the Yun Clan would have no way to gain a foothold north of the Great Wall.
2 E Ji and others sneered at Zhang Min’s speech, and someone questioned whose rice she was eating, whether she still wanted to become the patriarch’s concubine, and if she still couldn’t figure out her position like now, in the future, the child she bore as a concubine would not be given to her to raise.
2 Zhang Min flew into a rage and stormed around the venue, wanting to beat E Ji. E Ji also flew into a rage at the same time, twisted Milk Dog’s tail, causing Doggy’s mouth to gape wide, and the venue descended into chaos.
2 The meeting had to be stopped, waiting for a suitable time to reconvene.
2 Yun Ce inserted both hands into his wide sleeves, watching E Ji and Zhang Min fight, as Feng An said softly: “There are too many people, we need to set off as soon as possible. The Grand Marshal’s Mansion has already agreed to send troops to escort the slaves north of the Great Wall.”
2 Liang Kun followed: “The Yun Clan should quickly abandon the industries in Lantian County and rapidly enter north of the Great Wall. Lantian County is too close to Chang’an, with countless pairs of eyes watching, leaving us little room to maneuver.”
2 “If the Yun Clan wants to grow strong, it needs to build its foundation month after month and year after year. There is no more suitable vast territory for our development than north of the Great Wall and south of Iron Enclosure Pass.”
2 Yun Ce shook his head: “Currently, the most important thing is not to rapidly head north, but how to twist these eleven thousand people into a single rope.”
2 “I would rather spend more time, more money, and more effort to solve the people problem first, and only then can we talk about heading north. If the people problem can’t be solved, heading north will be all for nothing.”
2 Feng An said coldly: “To govern chaos, harsh laws and severe punishments are indispensable.”
3 Liang Kun shook his head: “Relying solely on harsh laws and severe punishments will only make people’s hearts turn away, which is not conducive to long-term stability.”
3 Yun Ce smiled: “In the Great Han, no one has ever treated slaves as people. What we need to do now is to make these slaves feel like they are still people.”
3 Feng An said: “How to do it?”
3 Yun Ce smiled: “Change the old appearance to a new one.”
3 “How to change the old appearance to a new one?”
3 “Baths, new clothes, change their food and call them by their original names. Men should not be lightly humiliated without criminal punishment, women should not be abused without wrongdoing, and as for children, they should be treated as treasures.”
3 “Isn’t this too merciful? Often, a master’s mercy does not win loyalty, but instead makes some people with ulterior motives think the master is weak and easy to bully.”
3 “That depends on how you execute the rules I set. Strictly enforce within the rules, compensate for execution outside the rules, and make them understand that the rules are harsh, but we are merciful.”
3 With that, he pulled out a 《Primary Labor Management Measures》 formulated by Doggy from his sleeve and handed it to Feng An.
3 Feng An and Liang Kun noted down some special requirements from Yun Ce, then took Steward Qiu to the Yun Clan’s slave camp.
4 Milk Dog’s mouth no longer had the strength to gape wide, lying weakly in E Ji’s arms, listlessly sticking out its tongue, its belly heaving dramatically like a sealed box, as if the next moment it might die from not catching its breath.
4 Seeing that E Ji was also gasping for breath, while her own hair wasn’t even disheveled, Zhang Min smugly said to E Ji: “You’re not much of a head wife after all.”
4 Yun Ce came over to hold the trembling E Ji who was about to collapse from anger, threw away the useless dog from her hand, and kept comforting her by stroking her back.
4 “You’re a noble lady, why get angry with a martial woman like her? Just sitting there quietly is something others can’t compare to.”
4 Hearing Yun Ce’s words, E Ji immediately perked up, leaned her mouth to Yun Ce’s ear and whispered: “Last night when she came back to bathe, I went in and saw, tsk tsk, there were several knife scars on her breasts… and a knife scar nearly a foot long on her stomach. At that time, her intestines must have spilled out.”
4 E Ji’s voice wasn’t loud, but just right for Zhang Min to hear. The originally beaming Zhang Min immediately lost the desire to argue with E Ji, and slunk back to her room with her head down.
4 E Ji giggled in Yun Ce’s ear: “This easy-to-manage woman, Young Master must not miss her. I just crushed her spirit, this is the time she most needs comforting. Young Master, go quickly, otherwise, this woman will really come to hate me, and it won’t be easy to get along in the future.”
4 Yun Ce looked at E Ji in surprise: “Where did you learn all these skills?”
4 “From my mother. When I was five, Mother started teaching me how to be the first wife in a great household.”
4 “Did your mother know back then that you would become the Yun Clan’s first wife?”
5 “No, Mother said this is called being prepared. What if I became the first wife in a great household?”
5 Yun Ce smacked his lips: “You and your mother were really bold thinkers back then.”
5 E Ji kissed Yun Ce on the lips: “Hasn’t it come true? We have three hundred servants at home, two vassals, and eleven thousand slaves. Now, who dares say I’m not the first wife of a great household?”
5 “Huh, you really hope I go find other women?”
5 “What does a wildman like you know about great households? A family needs to be prosperous with many descendants. Right now, you’re the only shoot in our house. Branching out and scattering leaves is the top priority. Only by making the family big and strong can our children live rich and healthy lives.
5 Humph, if Young Master had ten brothers, which vixen would dare enter the door.
5 Go quickly, that woman is already crying.”
5 E Ji pushed Yun Ce away, picked up her dead dog from the ground, and returned to her room proudly surrounded by An Ji and a crowd of lackeys.
5 Yun Ce naturally entered Zhang Min’s room, and upon entering, he saw Zhang Min eating cakes while pretending to howl toward the window.
5 Seeing Yun Ce come in, she put down the cakes happily: “Your stupid woman is easy to fool, right? Now tell me, what’s the current situation with your Yun Clan.”
6 “Don’t look at me like that. I used to be a spy, and I still am. Everything you say and do, I have to report. Look at the documents I send up to all those high-ranking and powerful people—you’d better be careful.”
