People in the Three Kingdoms: Starting from Preaching

Chapter 89 Both rise and fall are bitter
As members of the Yellow Turban Army, they would not covet the man's prey. When Xu Chen heard that the man wanted to use the prey in exchange for bribes, he said that it was not necessary. Since the man was unable to walk, he would send someone to send him home.

When the man heard about the Yellow Turbans' righteousness, he was immediately moved. If he hadn't had difficulty standing, he would have knelt down to express his gratitude.

The Yellow Turbans waived the medical expenses, which naturally made him feel relieved. However, he immediately came up with another idea, which was to sell the prey to the Yellow Turbans in exchange for some food or money to pay taxes.

After hearing this, Xu Chen realized that the man was a villager from nearby. The government had recently imposed additional taxes on each household, ranging from one or two hundred coins to four or five hundred coins, depending on the area of ​​land. This made all the people worried.

When the Yellow Turbans were at their peak, those people who were luckier only had to deal with the government's increased grain taxes and corvée labor. Those who were unlucky might be robbed by the Yellow Turbans and then forced to rebel.

No matter which situation it is, it is a disaster for the people. At this time, they have no surplus food or money to pay taxes, so they can only find ways to earn some income to fill the gap.

The man had no choice but to risk going into the mountains to hunt. If he could get some prey to sell, he would be able to get through the current situation.

In the end, he was able to kill a wild boar, but he was also injured by the boar. If the Yellow Turbans had not saved him, he would have been seriously injured and died by now.

Now that he saw that these Yellow Turbans seemed to be good people, he simply thought about selling the prey to the Yellow Turbans, perhaps he would not suffer any loss.

After knowing the whole story, Xu Chen did not refuse. He agreed to the matter with a wave of his hand and only asked the man to give a price. After his injury healed, he could take away the corresponding food or money.

The matter was settled, and the man was naturally overjoyed, but Xu Chen couldn't help but sigh when he walked out of the military medical camp, and Zhang Zhongjing also looked unhappy.

They all understood that although this man had managed to deal with the government's miscellaneous taxes for the time being, most of the people were probably helpless. As a result, who knows how many people would be ruined.

"The rebellion has just been quelled. Even if the court wants to levy taxes, how can it be so heavy? Don't the emperor and the officials want the people to survive at all?" Xu Chen said in a cold tone.

Zhang Zhongjing shook his head. After all, he had been a county magistrate, so he understood the trick very well: "Taxes are never collected according to the imperial court's decision. If the imperial court asks for ten coins, the prefectures and counties dare to ask for thirty coins, and the townships and counties dare to ask for fifty coins. It is hard for the people to bear it."

Xu Chen was silent for a moment, then he called Wang Dang and issued an order: "There is a Han town near the camp, do you understand what I mean?"

Wang Dang was stunned at first, then he laughed: "I understand, I understand, I will do it right away!"

Xu Chen nodded, thought for a moment, and then said, "Tell the local villagers that if they are willing, they can follow the Yellow Turbans to Yuyang to settle down."

Wang Dang also accepted the order and turned to leave.

Zhang Zhongjing looked at this scene and of course knew what Wang Dang was going to do. He was no stranger to the Yellow Turbans' tactics of beating the local tyrants and dividing their wealth.

He originally wanted to say something, but when he thought of the plight of the local people, he could only sigh.

Cleaning up a township is just a piece of cake for the Yellow Turbans today.

However, within one day, Wang Dang led his army back to the camp. He not only brought back some wealth from the local powerful, but also learned the reason for the tax.

Through interrogation of the petty officials, it was learned that the tax money was collected from the whole country to repair the palace as the palace was severely damaged by fire.

Not only the common people had to pay this money, but local officials as well. Many county magistrates who were newly added to the local areas had to pay millions before taking office.

There was a rumor that Liu Zheng, the newly appointed governor of Youbeiping, had paid 20 million yuan to be appointed. When Xu Chen learned the truth, he thought that it was just as Zhang Zhongjing said. It would be strange if these local officials did not extort money back after spending so much money to get the job.

I'm afraid that this time alone will not be enough to make their money back. This taxation is just the beginning, and there will be endless measures waiting for the people in the future.

How can we not overthrow and rebuild such a world?

Xu Chen mounted his horse and led the Yellow Turban army back to Yuyang. Now that the war was over, it was time to enjoy the fruits of victory.

After driving away Zhang Chun's army, the main area of ​​the entire Yuyang County was in a completely vacuum state. Once the Yellow Turbans moved in, they could claim to have occupied half of the county.

As for the more remote counties and towns, Xu Chen was not in a hurry. He first digested the food so that he could leave some food in his stomach for more.

The Yellow Turbans won a great victory in this battle, and the morale of the soldiers was naturally very high. On the way back, the army, led by the flag of the Natural Religion, sang the song of triumph, and the momentum of sweeping the world soared into the sky.

Xu Chen was also in high spirits. The Yellow Turbans' efforts had finally opened up some situations and given them more living space.

Expanding from one county to several counties, the scale of land and population resources is completely different.

Previously in Yuyang, although Xu Chen had reduced the cost of governing the Yellow Turbans as much as possible and even released several thousand Yellow Turbans directly to the fields, in the end, the only ones that needed to be supported were some squad leaders and garrison commanders of the military settlements and a core of more than 1,500 officers. But even so, it was very difficult to support them.

If the Yellow Turbans had not plundered the wealth accumulated by the noble families along the way, they would not have been able to survive for more than a few months. Even this battle was supported by borrowing grain from the people under their rule.

If we win this battle, the situation will be much better. For quite some time, the Yellow Turbans will be able to enjoy a relatively stable environment for development.

Zhang Chun would certainly not be willing to lose his hometown like this, but it would take a long time for him to regroup and fight back. I am afraid that few powerful people from other counties are willing to use their own wealth to help him take revenge.

It can be said that the Yellow Turbans no longer have any external pressure for the time being. Now that they have money and free time, they have reached a new window of development.

In this battle, although Zhang Chun took away a lot of wealth in the end, most of them were valuable items such as gold and silver utensils. To the Yellow Turbans at the moment, these things were meaningless. Instead, the food and goods left behind had real value.

As for Lu County and Guangping County, the wealth and goods there were even more intact, just waiting for me to cash them out.

Those were the wealth accumulated by the wealthy and powerful families over countless lifetimes. As long as all these properties were counted and confiscated, the Yellow Turbans would be able to go from being extremely poor to being moderately wealthy.

With this wave of fat, whether it is the wages for recruiting soldiers and civilians or the money and food borrowed from the people, they can be easily repaid.

Of course, these properties will eventually be consumed, and the truly important assets are population and land.

As long as the Yellow Turbans complete the first wave of autumn harvest under their rule, they will have completely gotten rid of the situation of relying on plundering the wealthy and powerful to make a living, and it will also be the time to declare that the Yellow Turban cause is on the right track.

Xu Chen rode his horse and felt that the world was vast and there was a lot to be done. He felt that he had taken another step towards that grand cause.

(End of this chapter)