In the face of the siege of the five countries, the state of Chu has done its best, and every household in the country has already recruited one person, but it can only barely cope with the current predicament, and cannot cope with the possible increase of troops in the future of Qi and Wei.

As soon as this news came out, it immediately caused an uproar in the state of Chu.

As soon as the Chu people got such news, they instantly realized that this matter was quite bad for the Chu State at that time, and while worrying about the future of the Chu State, the vast majority of the Chu people were in disbelief about this matter.

After all, there are tens of thousands of households in Yingdu alone, and the population of Yingdu alone accounts for nearly one-tenth of the population of Chu State. Who would believe this kind of thing, you must know that in addition to Yingdu, Chu also has important towns Yancheng, Wancheng, Chencheng (lost), Shouxian, etc., although the population of these cities is not as large as Yingdu, but at least the people in the city alone are more than 10,000 households.

In this way, who would believe that Chu State is such a small person.

Of course, people from other countries who got the news were also in disbelief, as the largest country in the world, it was hard to imagine that there were only more than 6,700,000 households in a land of 5,000 miles outside the land of Jiangdong.

You must know that the State of Chu has always been known as a million people with armor, which means that the people of the State of Chu have at least one million households, even if it is discounted, there should be eight or nine million households.

And now, the king of Chu and the important ministers of the court all told them that there were actually only more than 600,000 households in the state of Chu.

Don't believe it.

The people of Chu and other countries did not believe it.

Although everyone doesn't believe that there are only such a few people in the Chu State, even Xiong Huai, the king of Chu, does not believe that there are only such a few people in the Chu State.

However, there is no doubt that on the official books of the Chu State, at least in the account books of the Taifu and Sima Mansions, there are only so many people in the counties of the Chu State and the feudal lords in various places.

This is not to be believed.

As soon as this news was confirmed, the Chu people learned that there were really only such a few people in the Chu State, and the whole country was in an uproar.

Then, under the mention of some people, as well as the active recollection of some older people, the people of the country immediately knew. It turned out that as early as more than 20 years ago, after the king of Chu led the five kingdoms to attack Qin, he had checked the household registration of Chu twice in succession.

Judging from the official data of Chu now, it is obvious that the two original actions to count the population failed completely.

As a result, under the impetus of some well-intentioned people, and under the difficult predicament faced by the Chu State, a trend of demanding another census of the population soon took shape.

On the third day after the news spread, Xiong Huai received a letter from a little-known mid-level official in Yingdu.

This man wrote a letter strongly asking the king of Chu to take stock of the population in the country again.

After Xiong Huai received the letter, he did not react, neither agreeing nor objecting.

After this person wrote the book, the news that he was not reprimanded by the king of Chu came out, and many officials who claimed to be patriotic and self-proclaimed people with lofty ideals began to write to the king of Chu, asking the king of Chu to check the population for the third time.

The day after receiving the first letter, Xiong Huai's Wang case was full of letters calling for an inventory of the population.

Of course, these officials who wrote were all low-level officials in the Yingdu, and none of the important ministers in the court were not.

In this regard, Xiong Huai still did not show his approval, nor did he open his mouth to reprimand.

Then, the officials who wrote to request an inventory of the population were not reprimanded by the king of Chu after seeing the letter, and they were immediately greatly encouraged.

Then while they continued to write, they began to lobby the important ministers of Yingdu, especially the Taifu Sima Mansion, which was related to the hukou and was responsible for taxation and military conscription, asking them to take the initiative to take their due responsibilities and not to eat a vegetarian meal.

On the tenth day, that is, the day when the news of the Qin-Han coalition army storming Luyang came, the new Taifu Yin Jin Juntong, Sima Jian of the left, and Deng Lingguang of the right Sima who had been bombed for five days in succession, entered the palace of Chu at the same time under strong pressure from inside and outside, and asked the king of Chu to issue an edict to check the population in order to deal with the current crisis of the Chu state.

Xiong Huai saw that the important ministers of the court came forward, and this time he did not continue to remain silent, of course, he did not directly agree, but issued an edict to the ministers to discuss the matter.

The next day, the court meeting.

Zuo Sima Sima Jian was the first to speak: "Great King, since the Qin and Han countries increased their troops, the ministers have been thinking hard day and night, thinking about how they can resist the Qin and Han coalition forces, and even the possible Qi and Wei coalition forces in the future. Relying on the gods of the king and the protection of God, after watching the copywriting of Sima Mansion in the past dynasties, the minister found a very wrong place.

That is, the people of my Chu State, starting from King Xuan, have been showing a decreasing trend for decades, until more than ten years ago, the king broke the Qi State, obtained a large number of people from the Huaibei Land of Qi State, and destroyed the Yue State, which completely reversed the trend of decreasing people.

However, not counting the people plundered from the Qi country, not counting the people of the Yue country, but only the people of our Chu country, it is still decreasing.

This is extremely abnormal, although there are constant disputes in the world, but looking at the situation in the northern countries, as long as they do not suffer great defeats and a large number of national lands are lost, the people of the countries basically maintain stability and even growth. Although there are no specific data on each country, it can be seen from the increasing number of troops sent by each country in the past hundred years of warfare. ”

Saying that, Sima Jian said with a heavy face: "And my Chu State is different, the minister checked the archives of my Chu State for nearly a hundred years, and found that except for the early years of King Xuan, the people of Chu State have been growing unexpectedly, and since the later years of King Xuan, the population of my Chu State has begun to decline.

What's more serious is that our Chu State has lost its territory in the war, and the population will decrease to a certain extent. However, after our Chu State won the victory in foreign wars, our Chu State had an abnormal situation in which the population remained stable or even decreased.

This situation is abnormal, so the minister thinks that in the past few decades, there must have been a large number of population loss in my Chu State, either the people fled to become thieves, or there were some nobles hiding the population. ”

Speaking of this, Sima Jian suddenly bowed down and said: "King, now the country is at a critical juncture of life and death, and the strength of the whole country can only barely cope with the current situation.

Therefore, the minister Zuo Sima Jian risked his death to hear about it, and asked the king to issue an edict to check the population of the country, find the thieves who fled to the opposition, and issued an edict to let the nobles in the court and the nobles report the number of vassals in their families, and check the hidden population of the nobles, so as to tide over this crisis of national destruction. ”

As soon as Sima Qian's voice fell, Yin Jinjun of Taifu, and Sima Deng Lingguang on the right came out at the same time, and then bowed down to Sima Jian on the left and right: "Please count the population." ”

Many of the ministers in the temple changed their faces.

In fact, as early as ten days ago, when the King of Chu rejected Sima Qian's proposal to transfer troops from the Yellow State, and then asked everyone to go back and think about how to deal with various countries, there were already many people thinking about the intentions of the King of Chu.

As soon as everyone left the palace, Yingduzhong began to leave a message from the court, and at that time, many ministers vaguely understood what King Chu meant.

The king of Chu wanted to do something to the hidden population of the nobles.

After all, as the king of Chu, the king of Chu has the most spies in the country. There are large-scale rumors in Yingdu, and it is not that many ministers join forces, so it must be spread and advocated by the king of Chu himself. Now that the ministers can confirm that they are not letting people spread rumors, the result is obvious.

And the consequences are unexpected, the tide of Yingdu began to blow to the hidden population, and now, Taifu Yin, Zuo Sima, and Right Sima have officially proposed to check the hidden population of the nobles in the court meeting.

At this time, the ministers looked at each other, and then turned their eyes to Qu Yuan, and when they saw that Qu Yuan did not react, they turned their eyes to Qu Yuan's henchmen, and then after seeing that none of them reacted, everyone became puzzled again.

Wasn't this instigated by Qu Yuan?

After a pause, Xianyin Fan Huan took the lead and said: "King, Zuo Sima's words are the words of the country, please don't listen to the king." ”

King Huai of Great Chu

King Huai of Great Chu