But the hateful thing is that this guy is pretending to be a god, making the people of Anyi believe that he is a god who has descended to the earth. If he kills him, it will make the people feel fear, hatred, and confusion towards him. This time, these aristocratic families are cutting off the source of the problem, which is too cruel.
And the most important thing is that Liu Zhuang finally understood why Chinese monarchs of all dynasties wanted to hold theocracy firmly in their own hands - if he couldn't control it, he would be a pope. It was already uncomfortable to bewitch the people like this, and if he bewitched his own soldiers, generals, and ministers, then there would be no fun.
A few days later, Yuwen Tai, led by several Han cavalrymen, once again went south to Hedong, passed through the Yubi Pass that she had longed to pass through, and finally arrived in Anyi.
At this moment, the Taoist continued to wander around Anyi, and the number of people in his entourage increased again. A group of people paraded through the city, looking very majestic. Five large flags of different colors fluttered in the wind on both sides of the streets in Anyi, and all kinds of musical instruments such as horns and drums sounded under the dome, echoing melodiously. The people on both sides were grateful and cheered as if they were brainwashed by him. His apprentices kept selling all kinds of cheap talismans, expanding their influence and making money at the same time.
This time, Liu Zhuang, who was fully prepared, brought Lu Bu and five hundred elite cavalrymen from the White Horse Camp and blocked their way.
"Greetings, Lord."
Seeing Liu Zhuang arriving, the old man with a sage-like appearance was not afraid. Instead, he smiled and bowed. Liu Zhuang didn't waste any words. He directly drew out his night spear and thrust it in front of the old man.
"Where did this evil monster come from? How dare you cheat me here? You pretend to be a god and cheat people out of their money? Return all the money you have collected! Then I will spare your life!"
As soon as Liu Zhuang opened his mouth, he put the hat on him and labeled him as a monster who did all kinds of evil.
Seeing the Lord of the Mansion in combat posture, the 500 cavalrymen under his command also immediately prepared for battle. The heavy cavalrymen in the front row raised their spears and jumped on their horses, as if they were going to launch a charge on the street and trample over these Taoists at the next second. The light cavalrymen in the back row also bent their bows and drew their arrows, ready to rain arrows on the ground at any time. The atmosphere became extremely tense and terrifying. The little Taoist priests who were beating gongs and drums were so scared that they stopped what they were doing, and the cheerful and festive music came to an abrupt end.
Some people even sat down on the ground after watching the White Horse Battalion emerge from the sea of blood, their pants wet with fear.
"Although this is my first time on earth, I have heard of your great name for a long time. Your benevolent policies have benefited the people of Hedong, which is a great kindness. I am also curing people's sufferings and warding off disasters and evil spirits. Our goals are the same, right? Why are you using force against me? Has the Lord been deceived by a traitor?"
The old Taoist with white hair and beard said calmly, "It tastes like green tea."
"Master, are you mistaken?"
Some people were also shocked and frightened, and they all pleaded with the Taoist priest for mercy.
"Master! He really is an old immortal! After we harvested the crops, we dried them for seven days without raining. Everyone was healthy and well, and lived and worked in peace and contentment. It was all thanks to the talisman that the old immortal sold us!"
Some people even knelt on the ground, which made Liu Zhuang even more angry.
"What a joke! It's been sunny these past few days, what does it have to do with this evildoer? Wake up! What you have in your hands is just a piece of wood with beautiful patterns carved on it! He is using this method to defraud money!"
Liu Zhuang stepped forward.
"Wait! Why is the Lord of the Mansion questioning me?"
The old Taoist priest said in confusion.
"I have suppressed the autumn rainstorms by myself for several days! Now the weather has been clear for the whole week! The people can dry their crops in peace! If you don't believe me, I will release my magic power now and make the rainstorm fall from the sky! Prove that what I said is true!!!"
The old Taoist priest began to cast a spell, and a strong wind blew and dark clouds covered the sky.
But Liu Zhuang's double pupils could see through it at a glance. He was using a [First-Ring Divine Art·Heavy Rain], a simple first-ring divine art that could cause heavy rain in a small area. The coverage area was only one street, and it would still be sunny if you were farther away. He was just trying to fool the people at the scene.
The old Taoist was not panicked at all. It didn't matter even if this magic trick couldn't fool the prefect, as long as it could fool the common people!
When it rains heavily, the people on the scene will surely be terrified and panicked because of the food drying outside. They will kneel down and beg me to continue suppressing the rain and restore the weather to sunny. Then I will withdraw the magic, and these people's worship, dependence on, and awe of me will surely become even deeper!
By then, word will spread from one person to ten, and from ten to a hundred, and all the people will recognize me as the true God! Under the overwhelming public opinion, do you, Liu Zhuang, really dare to kill me? Do you want to destroy your own base? ? ?
"Yes, Lord Fu, he might really be a god. We can't act rashly."
When the old Taoist priest was casting the spell, several officials who were not appointed by him started to stop him. It was obvious that they had colluded with each other and were determined to make the rainstorm spell a success.
While Liu Zhuang was writing down the faces and names of these officials, he pointed his finger at the old Taoist priest. An invisible golden thread instantly linked the two together. He siphoned the power of the blasphemous priest and directly plundered his magic into his own body.
I saw that after the old Taoist priest pretended for a while, the strong wind stopped after a while, the black clouds just condensed and dissipated, the sky was still as clear as before, nothing happened.
A drop of sweat slowly slid down his wrinkled face.
Where are my magic? What happened? I have used up my mana and magic, but why nothing happened?
The old Taoist saw a group of believers, all of whom were eagerly looking at him, wanting him to prove his supreme power again, so that the governor, whom they also respected, would recognize him as a god. He was a little flustered, and used magic for the second time, but was robbed by Liu Zhuang again. After the two of them repeated this five times, the sky was still sunny and nothing happened.
Seeing that it hadn't rained for a long time, the people were a little confused. What was going on? Several times before, heavy rain suddenly fell and we didn't have time to collect the grain. This old immortal came quickly and performed a ritual to stop the rain. Only then did we start to believe in him. Why didn't it work this time?
They didn't know that those few local rainstorms were definitely caused by this man's mysterious tricks, using Taoist magic.
As for the Taoist followers beside him, some were puzzled, while others were sweating profusely. The former were probably deceived into joining, while the latter should be the diehard followers who were causing the trouble.
"Keep trying, you monster! Why don't you continue to cast spells? I see it's not raining, but you're sweating like rain, you pretentious monster!"
Liu Zhuang looked at the man who was sweating profusely and scolded him harshly, then he used the old immortal's tricks on himself.
"Everyone! Do you know why I know he is a demon?! Because it hasn't rained in the past few days, it's obvious that I am doing something to protect you! I have been thinking about exempting you from taxes, reducing corvée labor, and helping you take back your own land. Have I ever asked you for a single copper coin? I don't even think it's necessary to tell you about such a small matter as keeping the weather sunny.
As a result, when I went out to Jiexiu to solve the problems of the local people, this person actually used my magic power to cheat people here! For such a small matter that I don’t even want to talk about, he actually asked you to pay such a high amount of money! Isn’t this kind of person a crazy monster who ravages the neighbors? ! "
"fart!"
The old Taoist priest failed in his spells five times in a row and became anxious, so he asked back using Liu Zhuang's words.
"What evidence do you have that you are the one who kept the sky clear?"
Liu Zhuang did not reply. He pointed to the sky and released the [Heavy Rain] he had just plundered. In an instant, strong winds blew up, dark clouds covered the sky, and raindrops the size of soybeans poured down from the sky, soaking the clothes and hair of the people, soldiers, and Taoists on the entire street!
"Oh my god?! It's raining, it's raining? We trusted the wrong person! The one who has been blessing us without asking for anything in return is the Lord of the Mansion!"
A large number of people were terrified and immediately stopped kneeling to the Taoist priest and bowed down to worship Liu Zhuang.
"Master! Keep the weather clear! We are still drying our crops at home! They will sprout if we water them!"
"If the clear sky is the result of the Lord's work, then this person is really a monster?"
Several common people who had just been transformed into Taoists also retreated in fear, keeping a distance from the old Taoist. His aging body was now soaked by the heavy rain, and his expensive and luxurious silk clothes stuck to his skinny body, making him look extremely embarrassed.
Liu Zhuang waved his hand, and the heavy rain that had just lasted for a few seconds stopped immediately, the strong wind died down, and the dark clouds dissipated. Except for the people being soaked and the water stains on the ground, it seemed as if nothing had happened, which immediately caused the people to exclaim in surprise.
Just as the Taoist said, this low-level magic could not fool the noble families, but it would be fine as long as the common people believed it. However, at this moment their beliefs were changing rapidly, from believing in an outsider Taoist to believing in Liu Zhuang, who had been very good to them.
At this moment, in the eyes of the Han Dynasty people who were very superstitious and had a low level of cultural literacy, the Lord of the Mansion was not only an honest official, but also a being close to God.
"You monster, what else do you have to say? Show your true form now! Return all the money you defrauded!"
Liu Zhuang approached with a spear in hand, looking murderous. The old Taoist was so frightened that his legs went limp. He fell to his knees in front of everyone, losing all his former dignity.
Yuwen Tai also received the signal from the Lord of the Mansion, raised his jade finger slightly, and turned the Taoist priest into a groundhog, which immediately caused screams all over the street! Everything the Lord of the Mansion said was right. This evildoer not only cheated our faith, but also our money!
"kill him!!!"
"Kill this monster!!!"
"Fuck you! Give me your money back!!!"
Liu Zhuang did not give him any chance to resist. Amid the surging and angry crowd, he grabbed the panicked big black rat from the ground, stuffed it into an iron box that had been prepared long ago, performed a sealing ceremony in a pretentious manner, and then handed it over to his cavalry.
"Throw this evildoer to the bottom of the Laishui River and let him never stand up again."
"Yes! Lord Fu."
The cavalryman took the box with great loyalty and went to carry out his mission. At this point, Liu Zhuang not only destroyed the Taoist's body, but also destroyed the fictitious image of him in everyone's mind.
Chapter 152: Mutual Compromise
After dealing with the leader, it was much easier to deal with the rest. Liu Zhuang immediately took people to control the scene and arrested all the believers to prevent the people who were awakened from the worship trap from beating them to death with anger on their faces - damn, you cheated me of my money! You still want the credit of the Lord of the Mansion!
Everything should be done according to the rules. For those people who have been deceived and joined the cult, just give them a reprimand and, depending on the severity of their complex, give them five strokes of the cane and let them go. As for the rest of the core members, don't even think about it. Return the money to the people first, and then we can talk about how many years you should be sentenced to.
What? Spent? Where the hell did you spend all that money? It doesn't matter if you can't remember, drag me to jail and give me a memory recovery.
As the real masterminds behind these Taoists, the noble families who have squeezed a lot of money from the people are now panicking, fearing that these people will give them up. Now the autumn harvest is over, Liuzhuang's five camps of Han troops and tens of thousands of troops are about to usher in the annual training session. Turning against Liuzhuang at this time is simply courting death. They have no choice but to put all the money they have extorted next to these people's residences, and then bribe the jailers, telling them to tell Liuzhuang the location, and we admit defeat.
After all, these jailers and clerks are also part of aristocratic families, and at the very least they are from humble backgrounds.
The next day, these people confessed. After Liu Zhuang found out how they had robbed the people of their money, he returned all the money to the people and did not continue to put pressure on the noble families. This round of confrontation ended with Liu Zhuang's victory again.
However, this time, Liu Zhuang was really tired of fighting with these aristocratic families, so he summoned all the staff who were not affiliated with the Hedong aristocratic families to discuss a once-and-for-all solution. After Jia Xu spent four hours finishing a day's work as a county magistrate, he slacked off at his workstation until the end of the day. Just as he was about to go home happily, he was stopped by Liu Zhuang.
"Come over tonight for the banquet. I'll treat everyone to a good meal, and we can discuss something during the banquet."
"what?"
Jia Xu's thin body swayed a few times as light as the breeze and he almost fell to the ground. His mature and beautiful face was full of frustration and he was forced to go to dinner and attend a meeting.
At the banquet, everyone ate their fill happily first. Because of the addition of people and horses, there was a lot more mutton. On almost everyone's table, there was a set of roasted lamb legs that were crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. They were then cut neatly and placed on plates with common condiments such as onions, ginger, garlic, etc., and served to everyone, making the staff very greedy.
After eating and drinking, Liu Zhuang asked everyone the soul-searching question - how to counterattack the aristocratic families this time.
"The Han Dynasty has its own national conditions. Aristocratic families are exempt from taxes. When their grandfathers followed Emperor Guangwu into Luoyang, they had already completed their life's work."
Guo Huai was also helpless. Before marrying Liu Zhuang, she didn't think there was anything wrong with the Guo family occupying so many people in Taiyuan County for nothing and not paying taxes.
Now that I have married and become the wife of the governor of Hedong, I suddenly realize that it is not until I manage the household that I realize how expensive firewood and rice are. It costs money to feed the people during corvée labor, to maintain the five camps of the Han army, and to settle the 10,000 households. However, the aristocratic families of Hedong, who account for nearly half of the population and nearly half of the tax revenue in Hedong, do not have to pay a single copper coin... Why don't they pay? That's our family's money! The emperor gave the tax revenue of Hedong to my husband!
This kind of privilege of the nobles is really a headache.
A group of people discussed with each other, chattering, but still could not come up with an effective solution, which made Jia Xu very annoyed. She had eaten and drunk enough, and in order to quickly end the meeting and go home to rest, she was forced to use her brain to think about how to solve this situation.
"My Lord, you want to use your position as a governor to solve the problem of the aristocratic family in a short period of time. It is too difficult and too dangerous. Otherwise, we should both take a step back."
Jia Xu adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses and spoke softly.
"My Lord, didn't you divide the relocated people into ten thousand households and use people to govern people? We can also use a similar method to deal with the problem of the noble families: we can guarantee the safety of the noble families' land, slaves and other private property, and the noble families can still enjoy tax exemption policies, but all your slaves and servants must be registered, and not a single one can be concealed."
"Then we can set a standard, such as one soldier for every ten households. I just said this ratio casually, and we can adjust it. Order them to form new armies among themselves, with a part-time garrison commander with hundreds of private soldiers, a part-time military officer with 500 private soldiers, a part-time Sima with 1,000 private soldiers,
People like the Hedong Wei family can enjoy the rights of aristocratic families not to pay taxes, but they must also fulfill their obligations to protect the empire. As long as you give the order, the aristocratic families must come to join the war with soldiers that match the ratio of their slaves, just like those aristocratic families who joined us when we defeated the Yuwen Xianbei - the only difference is that these aristocratic family soldiers must provide their own weapons and armor, because they are rich.
Being unwilling to equip your soldiers with weapons and armor means a very high death rate for servants, and no one will cultivate the fields. As a result, the power of the family will weaken rapidly. Now that a large number of refugees are dependent on you, my lord, it is not so easy for them to get new slaves.
Therefore, for the prosperity of the family, these noble families have no choice but to do their best to arm their servants. If they cheat or even run away on the battlefield, you, my lord, will have reason to blame the entire family, use force against them, and confiscate their land - in a sense, violating military law is more serious than violating national law. "
"However, the rank of these aristocratic soldiers can only be given to other military officers at most. When it comes to fighting, these aristocratic soldiers can be handed over to the captains under your command, or even deployed uniformly by you as the Lieutenant General of Hedong. In this way, the entire Hedong County has actually been integrated, but most of it belongs to you, and the other small part is cut into pieces and occupied by various aristocratic families."
Liu Zhuang listened to Jia Xu's speech and fell into deep thought. Isn't this the feudal system? However, it was limited to the division of military and financial power. It did not give any political rights to the wealthy families. Moreover, the scale was very small, perhaps only 800 or 1,000 acres of land.
At this moment, Liu Zhuang also deeply understood the distress of Liu Hong having to delegate a large amount of power to the grassroots - this is probably the only way to coexist and cooperate with the aristocratic families.
If you think about it carefully, Cao Cao did the same thing in the late Han Dynasty. Li Dian's servants always followed Li Dian, Xu Chu's followers and followers always followed Xu Chu, and Cao Cao only needed to control Li Dian. He could not control Li Dian's family and followers at all. It could be regarded as a helpless compromise.
Liu Zhuang paced back and forth, thinking it over, and finally made a decision.
"Okay, let's do as Wenhe said. Wenhe, help me draw up this plan tomorrow. By the way, add one more thing. These private troops and armed forces of each family must participate in combat training with my soldiers during the winter when there is no farming. And the family must provide them with food during the training."
"Yes, Mr. Fu."
Jia Xu bowed his head and accepted the order.
Chapter 153: Winter Military Exercises
The next day, Jia Xu was distressed to find that in order to go home earlier, the suggestion he made yesterday had actually led to an increase in workload. Normally he could slack off for five or six hours a day, but now he could only slack off for three hours.
Seven days later, the proposal was drafted and the final ratio was set at the same as the military land system, with one able-bodied man per ten households serving as a soldier, and providing their own logistics personnel, food, weapons, and armor. The mobilization rate was about fifty to one.
I know that your family is very unhappy, but all the military achievements made by the family's troops can also be attributed to the family, and I only appoint the highest-ranking officers, and the lower-level officers are appointed by the family themselves.
The Hedong family, which had been defeated by Liu Zhuang in several consecutive open and secret struggles and whose power was weakening, now saw the prefect taking the lead in compromising and making concessions in the new decree, and they also took a step back and chose to accept it.
The world is in chaos, and this is something that anyone can see. We have been training our slaves and followers, and arming them with all we have. Now, the governor just wants to determine how many people there are in each of our families, how many soldiers we can bring out in battle, and to manage them in a unified way. These slaves and followers are still ours, so let's leave it at that.
In a sense, Emperor Han Liu Hong achieved his goal of delegating military power: now the soldiers in various places were the private property of prefects and aristocratic families, so they would naturally spare no effort to care for and cherish their soldiers, and spend money to arm the army. The military strength of the Eastern Han Dynasty, unlike the decadent style of the last years of the empire, began to expand rapidly as never before!
It’s just that these unprecedentedly powerful armed forces do not belong to the emperor.
After accepting Liu Zhuang's proposal, the Hedong family joined forces to hold a banquet again and invited Liu Zhuang to attend. This time, the two sides reached a complete reconciliation and introduced three young talents of the year for Liu Zhuang to promote. Liu Zhuang did as he was asked one by one, and the name of one of them stood out.
Hedong Jia family - Jia Kui.
She is still a young girl who has just graduated from school, but she will be a famous figure in the future. In normal history, this person has many political achievements during his tenure as an official in Cao Wei. He organized the people to develop water conservancy, improved the local farmland irrigation conditions, dredged some rivers in the Central Plains, opened a canal of more than 200 miles, and facilitated transportation. He was known as "Jia Houqu" or "Tongqu Brother", and his agricultural talent was almost full.
Not only that, she was also a good general. During the Battle of Guandu, it was Jia Kui who was fighting against Yuan Shao's detachment on the Shanxi battlefield. When Cao Pi attacked Wu and Cao Xiu was trapped in Shiting by the Wu army, it was Jia Kui who rescued Cao Xiu. Although her record was just so-so, after all, her main business was domestic affairs, so it was not bad that she could achieve such a result.
At this point, Liu Zhuang's internal affairs team was also established. Jia Xu, sent by Dong Zhuo, was the chief strategist. Wang Ling from Bingzhou and others brought by his wife Guo Huai, and Jia Kui from Xiangling who were recruited from local families in Hedong, formed Liu Zhuang's civil service team.
Looking at these newcomers, Liu Zhuang was very confident in using them. No matter how good a talent is, it would be useless if you don't give her the opportunity to hone her skills and display her talents. He ordered Wang Ling to be Jia Xu's second-in-command and successor. After she was able to take full charge of the civil affairs of Hedong County, he would let Wang Ling be the county magistrate, and Jia Xu would be directly promoted to the military advisor of the Hedong General.
At the same time, Jia Kui was also sent to Jiexiu and Zishi, asking this young girl to figure out how to dredge the river and improve the horse and man pasture in this area.
After the autumn harvest was completed, the latest population census of Hedong County was also completed.
There are now a total of 220,000 households and million people in Hedong. These noble families concealed the fact that their population is as high as 100,000, which is also amazing.
Among them there were 10,000 households and 51,032 men and horses.
There were 40,000 military households and 205,110 people under the military-farm system.
There were 80,000 farming households and 399,844 people under the military-field system.
There are 90,000 households and 477,209 people in the aristocratic families.
According to this investigation report, as long as he wanted, he could at least draw 9,000 soldiers from the various aristocratic families in Hedong, as well as the corresponding logistical civilians to join the battle, which is almost the strength of four battalions. However, the aristocratic families need time to arm themselves, and they have never drawn so many troops before.
