This year was his third year as Luzon's Prime Minister.
It was going to be four years soon.
Yuan Yan had always clearly remembered the day when he became Luzon's Prime Minister and the time he served. Yuan Yan attached great importance to this position, which had been kept since the Myanmar period.
At that time, when Xiao Ruxun only had three orthodox scholars under him, Chen Longzheng, and his father, Yuan Huang, Xiao Ruxun resolutely gave him the important task of Luzon's Prime Minister, which showed how much Xiao Ruxun valued and expected of him.
In the past few years, Yuan Yan had been working hard without complaint. Even after the establishment of Daqin, he did not beg Xiao Ruxun to transfer him away from the hot frontier of the empire. He still spent his days here.
In fact, it was not that he did not want to leave here. After several years of development, there was a relatively good infrastructure, and the climate was quite good. The crops planted here could ripen three times a year. It was an important granary of Daqin and an important supply base when the Divine Land was short of food.
And there was an endless stream of businessmen coming and going, not only from China, but also from Korea, Ryukyu, and various vassal states in Southeast Asia.
There were even Barbodes rhododendri and Huangmaoyi from Europe. They all came here to do business, buying spices, Daqin porcelain, silk, and other goods.
The commercial trade here was prosperous, and the income was extremely high. The annual tax also accounted for a good proportion of the central financial revenue.
As the actual ruler of this offshore province, which was called a country but actually belonged to Daqin, Yuan Yan had made great contributions.
Xiao Ruxun led the troops to conquer this place, cleaned up the excessive unfriendly natives, introduced the residents of the Central Plains to live and develop, and set the general direction of the development. It was Yuan Yan who was responsible for the specific implementation.
In fact, it also proved that Yuan Yan did not let down the expectations of Xiao Ruxun and Yuan Huang, and built Luzon very well.
Another thing was that the Luzon controlled by Xiao Ruxun was two-thirds of the Luzon developed by Yuan Yan.
In the past few years, based on the foundation of Luzon under Xiao Ruxun's control, Yuan Yan led the garrison to continue to develop southward, and successively developed several inhabited and uninhabited islands. They were all rich in resources and fertile soil, extremely suitable for cultivating rice and fruits.
Yuan Yan was very happy to divide these islands into food growing areas, fruit growing areas, and some spices growing areas.
In his vision, he would turn Luzon into a huge warehouse. There would be no shortage of crops, fruits, and other crops. Many people would come here to do business, collect more business taxes, and revitalize this once barren archipelago.
That was exactly what he did.
Through continuous development and reclamation, the land of Luzon was slowly firmly controlled by the Han people. The natives who were willing to naturalize knelt on the ground and accepted the title of Daqin, becoming Daqin people. They followed the Daqin people to learn the Han language, etiquette, and farming methods, and lived very well.
Yuan Yan, who was unwilling to naturalize, did not show mercy. With the support of Xiao Ruxun, he launched several small-scale annihilation wars.
He wiped out sixteen or seventeen tribes who were unwilling to cooperate, killed those who should be killed, and captured those who should be captured to do hard labor. In any case, they were used as waste.
Under the arrangement of a series of policies by Yuan Yan, Luzon gradually glowed with considerable vitality. As the most important granary and commodity replenishment base in the mainland of Daqin, Luzon gradually occupied a very high position in the economic activities of Daqin.
Especially since the founding of the Daqin, a large number of merchants from Fujian, Zhejiang, and Guangdong took ships to Luzon to buy things to bring back to sell, or resell to other vassal states, making a lot of money. Luzon had become an inseparable part of Daqin, and its status was no lower than that of Myanmar.
And to be honest, Yuan Yan did not envy those central officials. In his view, those central officials only followed Xiao Ruxun later, and did not have enough qualifications.
The first to follow Xiao Ruxun was only him, his father, Yuan Huang, and Chen Longzheng. Chen Longzheng is now following Xu Guangqi, who is regarded as the future Chief Secretary of Daqin, and is responsible for the locusts control. In the future, he should be able to stand shoulder to shoulder with Chen Longzheng.
More importantly, the position of the Prime Minister of Luzon was appointed by Xiao Ruxun during the Former Ming Dynasty, which had a different meaning. In the end, he might be directly included in the central government as a senior official, and did not need to go to other places to accumulate qualifications.
Of course, Yuan Yan was not without worries. The reason why he had been staying in Luzon was also for the sake of his father, Yuan Huang.
After the founding of Daqin, Yuan Huang had refused to recognize Xiao Ruxun's position. He had always thought that Xiao Ruxun was a rebel, claiming to be a remnant of the Daming Dynasty. Although he was right under Xiao Ruxun's nose, his unruly appearance made Yuan Yan deeply worried.
The great purge in the first year of Longwu scared Yuan Yan out of his wits. He thought that Xiao Ruxun was going to make a move against Yuan Huang. In the end, he did not. Yuan Huang was alive and well. He was in good health and ate well. He also kept writing to Yuan Yan, in which he angrily denounced Xiao Ruxun's cruelty and bloodthirstiness.
He said things like "I was really blind", "I really did not see through Hsiao Jixin's wild ambition", "If I were twenty years younger, I would definitely rebel", and so on, which made Yuan Yan tremble with fear.
Yuan Yan also wrote to Yuan Huang more than once to let Yuan Huang see the reality, but Yuan Huang just did not agree and ignored him. He insisted on reprimanding Xiao Ruxun. He insisted on remembering the Daming Dynasty in his heart and refused to recognize Xiao Ruxun's Daqin.
According to Yuan Yan's original plan, Yuan Huang should be in Wang Xijue's position now, and the first person in Daqin should be Yuan Huang's Cabinet Chief. In that case, as the son of the Cabinet Chief and one of Xiao Ruxun's earliest subordinates, his future was naturally limitless.
But Yuan Huang's series of actions made Yuan Yan unable to even go back to Beijing. He could only stay in Luzon and contribute silently, hoping that Xiao Ruxun would treat Yuan Huang better and make Yuan Huang happier after seeing his contribution.
Of course, he also had some feelings for Yuan Huang. But Yuan Huang was his father. What could he do?
He could only hope that Xiao Ruxun could accept the existence of Yuan Huang for the sake of the past, let him die peacefully, and pursue the Daming Dynasty in his dream.
That was what he hoped for.
And he believed it from the bottom of his heart. So when the Black Yama of the Central Investigation Department appeared in front of him, read an investigation report on Yuan Yan's corruption and malfeasance, and escorted him back to the capital for trial, he was dumbfounded and his mind went blank.
He never thought that he would be corrupt and malfeasant.
In all honesty, he had been in Luzon for more than three years. When had he ever been corrupt or malfeasant?
When Luzon was poor, it was he who led the people to build it up bit by bit. Now Luzon had just developed and had some money. How could he be corrupt or malfeasant?
He couldn't understand, and he didn't know what was going on.
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