Xuande

Chapter 639 The day we met honestly

Looking at the group of insects trembling because they had been exposed, Guan Jing sneered and waved off the guests.

"Now you have to do two things when you go back. First, go back and honestly count the number of servants at home, and then follow the imperial court's order and go to the county government to register. Each person can keep up to three servants, and the rest will be dismissed and handed over to the government. No one is allowed to stay, this is something you must do in the near future.”

"Second, go back and honestly count the number of acres of land in the family, the number of remaining farm tools, livestock, etc., and report it to the county government, and wait for the county government to arrange people to go to verify it. After that, press Mu to pay taxes, not a copper coin less."

"Anyone who has lied about the numbers, or deliberately concealed them, the imperial court will randomly check them. Once they are found out, it's not me who came to see you. Did the soldiers outside see it? That's because they went to the battlefield with the general and killed hundreds of thousands The elite of the Xianbei people will come to find you."

After finishing speaking, Guan Jing turned around and left without staying for even a second.

Being with this group of insects for a second would make him feel sick, and that ugly posture made him feel very uncomfortable. He was very worried that if he stayed with them for a while, he couldn't help but order them all to be arrested and killed. .

So in the entire living room, only Lao Du and his group were left with trembling calves and lingering fears.

After leaving the county mansion, Xiao Du asked Lao Du anxiously, which made Lao Du upset.

"Don't ask any more questions. It's meaningless to ask these questions. After you go back, count the family property and tell the county government everything. Don't hide anything. Tell the government all the land, houses, and number of slaves."

"what?"

Xiao Du turned pale with shock: "How could this happen? Then...then we have to inform the government of our 5000 mu of land? We reported [-] mu of land before, how can we tell the government? Tell them, not to mention anything Consequences, we..."

"Silly boy, the government already knows!"

Lao Du shook his head bitterly and said: "We are probably being targeted. The government knows too much. We can't hide it at all. If we try to lie, we will be killed. So, don't hide anything at all. Report the facts, servants, land, house property, don't hide it."

Xiao Du was even more shocked.

"How did the government know? Father, we spent a lot of money to bribe the people in the government to make the accounts! There shouldn't be any problems with those account books! How could this be?"

Old Du also wanted to know about this question, but now he was blind to the county government and didn't know anything.

The group of local officials who used to have contacts and friendship with him did not know where they went, and the new ones had no friendship with them. It is said that they were all from Liangzhou, and there were even people from Yizhou and Sanfu. .

Because the time is short, they don't even have time to deal with these newcomers.

It is true that in the past, those who served as officials could be transferred from outside, but those who served as officials were basically locals, and some were from the village, so it was very convenient to take care of them.

Even if you don't know each other, you can always find an acquaintance you know to introduce and match up, and then the other party will make a price for the sake of the acquaintance, give money, do things, come and go, and you will become acquainted.

It's easy to handle things when you are familiar with it. Through an acquaintance in the government, you can get to know more acquaintances in the government, and then you will get to know each other logically. In a few months, the inside of the government will be like their own home. Knowing in advance can effectively avoid risks.

But now a group of foreigners have come here, not to mention friendship, it is a bit difficult to even speak with each other's accent, let alone other aspects.

"The people I used to know are gone. I don't know where they went. It's probably bad luck. We are blind to the county government now. No matter what is inside, we don't know anything, so we can only admit it. "

Old Du sighed deeply, with a look of a late hero.

Xiao Du was stunned for a long time, and then slowly said with pain on his face: "If so, we... how much tax do we have to pay every year! If those slaves are all released, how many people will we have to hire to work? How much is that expenditure? If the government comes to blackmail every now and then, this property will be gone soon! Father!"

"idiot!"

Old Du was so angry that he slapped Xiao Du on the face: "I'm going to lose my life, why are you still thinking about this? Do you know what the county magistrate said just now? What are those soldiers here for? Let's If there is any more concealment, it will be these soldiers who will go to our house next time!"

Xiao Du was dizzy from the beating, but he still heard what Old Du said clearly.

"Soldiers?"

"Soldiers who come to kill you with steel knives! Fight anyone, don't fight soldiers!"

Old Du said angrily: "Go back to the statistics immediately! Report it as quickly as possible! Otherwise, our whole family will become a ghost under the knife!"

Xiao Du lost all temper at all, and ran back like a ghost chasing after him.

Many other large-scale families in Xincheng County also made the same decision as Lao Du.

They naturally also know why the government has so much information in their hands but hasn't attacked them yet.

This is the last chance. If you don't seize this opportunity, the next time you come to their house is not a slave restriction order, but a house raid. This time, if you cooperate with the slave restriction order, there may be a future. If you don't cooperate, you will die In a few days, the whole family will go to see their ancestors neatly.

They had no doubt that the general in Luoyang City who killed tens of 10 people could not do this.

What happened in Xincheng County is just a small episode in the entire Sili area, and the same thing is happening in countless counties.

Those county magistrates stunned the local families with half-truths and half-false words. Many families were frightened by this and did not dare to disobey the imperial court's order.

Naturally, there are those who are timid, and there are also those who are strong-headed. Relying on the large number of slaves in their family, they feel that they are powerful in numbers, and the government and the court will never dare to really attack them.

Of course, it is also because there are too many, and it is really impossible to give up. If they really want to give up, in order to maintain the family business, they need to hire an excessive number of hired workers, and the consumption of family expenses will increase countless times, which makes them unacceptable anyway.

Therefore, they can only act as Tietouwa and confront Liu Bei's slave restriction order in order to obtain some changes.

At least, one cannot bind only three slaves.

However, their struggle is meaningless, they still lack the channels to obtain information.

In a sense, the promulgation of the slave-holding order can even be said that Liu Bei successfully split the entire slave-holding group, letting go of the upper class, not targeting the upper class, but targeting the lower class of the slave-holding group.

He successfully used the power of the upper bureaucracy and the big landlord class to launch a blow to the middle and small landlord class in the Sili area.

Small and medium landlords without political power could not resist the strong demands of the Luoyang court, and their military strength could not be compared with the more than [-] Central Han Army under Liu Bei.

Anyway, with the promulgation of the slavery restriction order, the Luoyang court knew it well and had no objections.

The bureaucrats expressed their support symbolically, and then casually dismissed some servants they despised to report to the government, saying that these were the servants we dismissed, and now our family is all legal servants.

It's almost meaning, and it's over, and the executive department also knows that they are not targeted this time, so hello, me, everyone.

Then Liu Bei also pretended to cooperate with them in acting, and after a symbolic investigation, he announced that the slavery restriction against these families was over, and what to do after that.

They will even be thanked and compensated by Liu Bei for their little efforts and cooperation at the political level.

This is the essence of the slavery restriction. If there is no follow-up, it is just a symbolic self-improvement.

However, because Liu Bei has a backup, this is also Liu Bei's strategy of dividing and attacking the entire slave holding group, weakening the overall strength, and causing a large number of lower-level groups to be hit by dimensionality reduction.

And the upper layer can be regarded as intact, not to mention that it is injured.

At this stage, Liu Bei is not yet ready to attack them, and everyone still needs to pretend to be false. After a while, when Liu Bei has accumulated enough strength to turn the table to see the truth, these guys will be shocked to find out—where are my allies?

Oh, I sold it years ago...

To be honest, Liu Bei is now more and more looking forward to the day when he will be honest with them.

But as far as the current situation is concerned, there are still a group of people who are serious about the slavery restriction.

(End of this chapter)