Recreating the prosperous Tang begins with summoning players

Chapter 21

There is no suspense about the destruction of the Dashuixia cottage. When Yu Chixin led the players into the cottage and beheaded the leader, the bandits surrendered one after another.

When the third master in the backyard saw the captured second master, he immediately knelt down and begged for mercy.

In this battle, except for one player who was accidentally injured by friendly forces, none of the other players were injured. Such a result can be regarded as a complete victory.

"Old Cui, these bandits are really making fake money. These stoves and money fans are all evidence."

Cui Tao stepped forward to take a look, and sure enough there was hot molten iron in the stove.

Beside the stove is a money fan carved in stone, into which the red-hot molten iron is poured, and then turned into fake money after it cools down.

Facing the hematite ore and a large amount of charcoal in the yard, this is where the bandits made fake money.

The third head of the bandit den was a simple and honest man with the appearance of a farmer, and he was escorted to Cui Tao.

Cui Tao asked: "Do you know what is the crime of privately casting fake money?"

The third leader said with ashen face: "According to the law of the Tang Dynasty, it should be executed."

"Since you know, why do you want to privately mint fake money?"

The third-in-command raised his head, looked at Cui Tao and said, "If the government doesn't give you a way to survive, can't you starve to death?"

This question can be stopped by Cui Tao.

I only saw the third head of the family who looked like a farmer bowed to the ground and said:
"My family was originally a generation of soldiers in Dashuixia Township, Guazhou, Longyou Road. My father was Tianbao who went to Goguryeo for four years. There is not even a single death on the battlefield!"

Cui Tao lowered his head. Although Emperor Xuanzong of Tang created the prosperity of the Kaiyuan period, after this era, Cui Tao understood that the prosperity was forged by the blood and sweat of many ordinary people.

The third family raised his head and said: "My father died for the country. My mother never regretted that my father joined the army, and taught our brothers that my father was loyal to the country. My elder brother took the place of my father and served in the military. In the first two years, there were letters from my family. When I came back, like my father, I completely cut off the news."

"Being loyal to the country, my wife doesn't complain about this matter, and neither do I!"

"However, the prostitution agent inspected the four directions, and when he reached the Ding Ji in Guazhou, he said that my father and brother were not dead, and the Ding Ji was still alive, and asked my family to pay 30 years of rent!"

"My father and brother are dead, and only my mother and I, who were young, were left farming Susukida. The officials came to collect the rent from the dead father and brother, forcing my old mother to become a seller of Zhongyuetian, but I still couldn't make up the shortfall."

"My old lady was arrested and imprisoned by the government, and hanged in prison three days later. My ancestral home was also taken over by wealthy households in the countryside. At that time, if I didn't become a bandit, what else could I do?"

After saying this, Cui Tao avoided the eyes of the third master.

However, he knew that what the three masters said was true. The military system of the Tang Dynasty was corrupt, and the soldiers of the three masters were like generations of soldiers, but many people died because of the destruction of the soldiers. In the "Song of Soldiers" written by the great poet Du Fu, "Even if there are healthy women to hoe the plow", it refers to the situation where the imperial court dispatched soldiers, and there were no men in the family to cultivate the land, so women and children could only come out to farm.

In the fourth year of Tianbao, Li Longji, in order to fill the treasury, ordered Wang Gong to serve as the household registration officer of the Ministry of Households. This Wang Gong was another cruel official who catered to the emperor.

Originally, according to the military system of the Tang Dynasty, families who sent soldiers out of the government were exempted from rent, and they were also exempted from the land tax of Yongye land and granted land.

However, in order to be able to extract oil from the hands of the people, the Wang Gong determined that those soldiers who had no clear death news did not die in battle, but fled back to their homes, and demanded that these families pay rent.

Originally, he lost his mainstay because of the war, and was chased for many years of rent.

This also caused many Fubing families like the third headed family to go bankrupt.

Many people sold their fields and sons and daughters, and in the end they still had to sell themselves and become slaves in order to survive.

This third family is an ordinary family that was gradually going bankrupt under the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty.

And such things are common in Longyou, not to mention Guanzhong where land annexation is more serious.

Cui Tao looked at the bandits around him. They sounded like bandits, but they were all sallow and emaciated, more like a group of victims fleeing famine.

This game is too real, right?
The players felt that their emotions were driven by this group of npcs. A few college players who had never seen the poverty of the common people turned their heads away and shed tears.

Cui Tao then came back to his senses and said: "The private coining of fake money is undeniable. I will escort you back and ask His Royal Highness King Jianning to make a decision!"

Then Cui Tao packed all the tools and semi-finished products they used to forge counterfeit money, as well as the iron money found in the backyard, and escorted them back to Guazhou City.

When he arrived in Guazhou City, Cui Tao immediately asked to see Li Yan.

After listening to Cui Tao's words, Li Yan was silent for a long time and asked:
"Cui Canjun, what do you think this Dashuixia cottage should be guilty of?"

Cui Tao lowered his head and said, "The Dashuixia cottage is a den of bandits, and the meat tickets for cutting firewood in the den were tied up by them a few days ago, and there are also the bones of merchants whose tickets were torn up by them in the back mountain."

Li Yan nodded. This Dashuixia cottage is indeed a bandit, and they have a lot of life lawsuits in their hands.

Cui Tao said sternly: "Your Highness, the problem of the government soldiers is not a problem of Guazhou, nor is it a problem of Longyou. The people in the cottage are indeed pitiful, but they disobey the laws of the Tang Dynasty and kill people. It is a fact, and according to the law, be beheaded."

Li Yan nodded.

Cui Tao continued: "However, there must be a lot of problems in Guazhou as mentioned by the three masters."

"Many Fubing families donated people and money, not to mention the men who died in battle, and the women and children left behind were bullied by local tyrants and forced to sell their land."

"It's not a matter of three heads of one household."

Li Yan nodded and said, "Then what should I do? What should Gu do?"

Cui Tao said categorically: "Clear the land! Re-determine the rent and adjustment! Your Highness, I request to see you in Guazhou!"

Li Yan sat up straight and read his appearance, that is, according to the appearance records in the small book and the field book, he re-cleared the land and registered the population.

From Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty to Wu Zhou Dynasty, there was a practice of regularly asking and reading.

But in the Wu Zhou period, Datang gradually lost its control over the grassroots, and Dasuo Maangyue also paused.

Except for a big survey in the early years of Kaiyuan, which failed in the end, Datang never re-cleared the land and counted the population.

Large households hide their population and pay less rent.Local officials and subordinate staff transferred taxes to ordinary people.

This is also the reason why ordinary owner farmers in Datang continued to go bankrupt and bandits everywhere prospered day by day after the prosperity of Kaiyuan.

Li Yan sat up straight and said, "Good! Then, according to Cui Canjun's words, conduct an inventory of all the fields in Guazhou, and it will look good!"

Li Yan continued: "Order Facao to try the Dashuixia bandits' counterfeit money case, together with the Dashi businessman's counterfeit money case. The whole process of the trial will be recorded and posted in all the post offices in Guazhou!"

(End of this chapter)