Landlord of the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 114 Refugees (6)

With a big stick and carrots, the refugees can't be honest.Some built city walls, and more people reclaimed resettlement areas.The main purpose of reclamation is to catch up with the next autumn harvest, so that the resettled refugees can enter the cycle of self-sufficiency.

The other three counties also followed Cang County's footsteps. Since the implementation of work-for-relief was relatively early, there were no incidents of refugee riots.Of course, there were also ordinary people among the refugees, but they also worked hard, not for nothing, so Xu Qing just turned a blind eye.

After a few days of leisure, another incident happened.In the city of Cangzhou, the price of food is soaring. It is rumored that the governor's mansion gave the refugees rice to eat, and as a result, the food was sold out, so the price of food soared...

Only one grain store can sell grain at a par price, which one?The Huang family...why can the Huang family sell food at a par price?I don't know, I only know that one day Miss Huang came out of the governor's mansion in a huff.And some people said that they have never seen Miss Huang's gaffe like this before, it must be caused by a big loss!
Then there were rumors again that all the families in Cangzhou were forced to sell grain by the governor, but only the Huang family did not obey the governor's wishes.So the Huang family still has surplus food, but the Huang family will be hostile by the governor from now on.Other families have no food, so the price of food is getting higher and higher.

——Xu Qing naturally knew that this was a rumor, because he had never bought a grain of rice from the family, let alone forced others to sell it.But no one will believe you when you say it, otherwise you can talk about why the price of food in the grain store has risen due to the shortage?
Who is spreading rumors?

The last time the refugees made trouble, it was because someone was instigating it.Xu Qing secretly asked Anhe to follow the few remaining men who had nothing to eat, and wanted to investigate, but got little.

I only know that those guys are not from Cangzhou, it seems that they really just eat rice.After Xu Qing ordered relief with work, they immediately left Cangzhou and headed towards Henan.Anhe followed out of Cangzhou and followed for another forty miles, but he didn't see that they had any intention of returning, so he didn't pay attention...

Shao Deng, the county magistrate of Cang County, handed over the notes, saying that "the people's grievances are boiling."

After reading the scriptures, Xu Qing sneered, and the public was full of grievances?There are only [-] households buying rice for food in Cangzhou City, and there are at most [-] households outside the city.This kind of people can't be regarded as the boiling of public grievances... The bulk of the grain store is the merchants who come and go.

There are also five to sixty people in the small caravan. People eat horse chews, and the daily food consumption is quite large.The caravan travels at a slow speed, from one point to the other, often more than ten days, they have to replenish the grain store at one time.Therefore, once the price of food in the grain store is high, they will be the most affected...

Fortunately, there were few people buying rice in the city, and there were not many caravans. Food prices soared, but the Huang family's food was still cheap, so the actual damage to Cangzhou City was limited.The most damaging thing was Xu Qing's reputation in Cangzhou.

All the rumors pointed to Xu Qing, all saying that Xu Qing sacrificed his own family in Cangzhou to please outsiders, favoring one more than another, and the fat and water flowed out.Xu Qing sent a letter to Huang Shimei, asking her to raise the price of Huang's grain according to the market price.Xu Qing knew that Huang Shimei was taking responsibility for him.Xu Qing doesn't need her to help with this matter, he also needs a trustworthy person in the family...

In one day, the food price of Huang's family rose as high as the market price.Hundreds of households in the city have to stop cooking if they want to see it, and the atmosphere is gloomy...

At the same time, Anhe began to arrange eyeliners everywhere to closely monitor whether there were crowds gathering to make trouble.

Huang Shimei handed over a letter, saying that all the clans were not aware of the hidden poisonous needles in Xu Qing's decree, except for Huang Shimei.But later, after Xu Qing arranged for the refugees to work for relief, another person saw it, and he poked out this idea.

People in the family are not fools, this reminder, almost everyone understood, it turned out to be a soft knife to cut flesh.

Various families gathered together to discuss how to wrestle with Xu Qing.As a result, they negotiated the idea of ​​damaging Xu Qing's reputation first, and then restricting Xu Qing's power to protect his own interests.

At the end of the letter, Huang Shimei's handwriting was a little rough, and she wrote, "It turns out that frogs really can't jump out."As for who the person came out of the bucket, Huang Shimei didn't mention it, and she didn't even know if she thought about it.

It is reasonable for someone to perceive the danger of those decrees, and the strategy of boiling frogs in warm water is not very wise.The aristocratic family didn't pay much attention to Xu Qing before, so they didn't worry about the deep meaning of what Xu Qing did. Xu Qing took advantage of this and cut off as much meat as he wanted.

Now, since he has been noticed and wants to break his wrist, then let's break his wrist...

I searched all the officials in Cangzhou and found a few who were closely related to the aristocratic family. Anyway, they were not clean, so it was easy to find some evidence, and they were all sent to prison by Xu Qing.Several counties other than Cang County will be escorted back to Cangzhou...

There are nearly 4000 soldiers in Cangzhou, and they are famous during the day. They take a walk on the edge of several family manors, shout slogans, and engage in military exercises.

In addition, a decree issued:
"Any new household registration, whether it is a refugee or a black household, will pay half a shi per dicin this year and next, and will be exempted from miscellaneous taxes. The old household registration will pay [-] shi per dicin this year, and will also be exempt from miscellaneous taxes..."

In the end, some people in the market were bought to counterattack the rumors.Spreading the words that the aristocratic family wants to increase the price of food to crowd out the words that are good for the country and the people. Although this kind of speech made Xu Qing himself have a lot of goose bumps, but for the sake of arm wrestling, what is goose bumps?
Rumors are unstoppable and endless. It is better to take the initiative to grasp the power of rumors, grasp the trend of rumors, and let him benefit his own side.

Officialdom, business, military force, tax cuts, Xu Qing is almost at war with the aristocratic family!

——Xu Qing sent out a challenge, does the family dare to follow up?
People don't fight with officials, this is Xu Qing's advantage. With this advantage, Xu Qing looks down on the aristocratic family, almost doing everything is justified, and others dare not openly oppose the boycott.

A strong dragon does not overwhelm a local snake, this is the advantage of the aristocratic clan.The power of the aristocratic family is everywhere in Cangzhou, and they are all-pervasive, and the direction of public opinion is almost monopolized by them.

With the tip of the needle facing the wheat awning, the atmosphere in Cangzhou became even lower.Dark clouds roll in, thunder bursts...

Speaking of it, there is really no deep hatred between Xu Qing and the family itself.It's just that the knowledge from later generations let him know the great harm of the aristocratic family's land annexation, so he chose to clear the empty households.Secondly, he figured out that Li Yuan sent him here to deal with the aristocratic family, so he decided to deal with the aristocratic family.

In short, the war between him and the aristocratic family is inevitable and irreconcilable. It is not only the class struggle of the poor family represented by Xu Qing against the aristocratic family, but also the imperial mandate that Xu Qing bears, that is, the centralization struggle of the central government against the local government.Otherwise, he will live a good life, but why go to wrestle with the family?
Several military exercises almost put everyone in the Cangzhou family at risk.Some small families began to send their families and money out of Cangzhou. They were not rich and belonged to the kind of fish that could be filtered through the fishing net.

But several big families are still in a stalemate with Xu Qing, they don't think Xu Qing can use state soldiers to deal with them.Not to mention the high price of food, other oil, salt, soy sauce and vinegar teas are also rising in price, and the scope of the impact is even greater...

Buying rice and eating less is because many people have their own rice, but not every family produces the necessary oil, salt, sauce and vinegar.How about saying "prosperity, the people suffer, death, the people suffer", the struggle between Xu Qing and the family made the people of Cangzhou suffer for nothing for a few days.

Now is the public outcry...

In Shao's house, Shao Jing was lying on the sickbed, dying.

"Brother, Xu Qing hasn't moved yet. It seems that he has no other options..." Shao Deng said while holding a pot of soup and looking down at Shao Jing who was on the sick bed.

"Ahem..." Shao Jing coughed, breathed out slowly, and said in a mosquito voice: "This new governor is not an ordinary person..."

"Brother, I understand..." Shao Deng helped Shao Jing tuck the quilt, nodded and went out.

As soon as he reached the door, a young servant came.When Shao Deng saw him, he frowned slightly. This was one of his confidantes.Turning him around to a corner, the young man leaned into Shao Deng's ear and said, "Just now, the governor ordered that customs clearance duties in Cangzhou be cancelled, and merchants who sell goods in Cangzhou will no longer have to pay taxes!"

——Shao ​​Deng gasped after hearing this, and thought to himself: How dare he do this! ?

With a 50.00% profit I'm crazy, with a [-]% profit I'm desperate.The price of goods in Cangzhou is so high, at least it will attract the caravans outside to go crazy!

In the past, caravans, except for leaders with strong backgrounds, would not sell goods in more than three counties.There is a saying that "going through three counties, you will lose money." If you travel too long, it means that the officials will be exploited more seriously.

But now that Xu Qing has canceled the Cangzhou tariff, it will undoubtedly increase the profit by a large amount!Originally, the businessmen outside Cangzhou adhered to the attitude that your territory is your master, and did not intervene in the struggle of Cangzhou territory.But in this case...

Profit, isn’t a businessman just after profit, why bother with so many unspoken rules?With the order of Xu Qing's government, the merchants in the whole south of Hebei began to move around...

Shao Deng also realized this, and he returned to Shao Jing's ward again, asking the old fox for advice with a bitter face.Shao Jing was slightly startled when he heard Xu Qing's decree: "Deng, you forgot, cough cough cough... Merchants are afraid of being robbed in addition to the commission, those people raised by the Shao family, cough cough cough..."

"Oh, brother, why not just rob the caravan..." Shao Deng made a gesture of wiping his neck after speaking.

"Deng, it's not a good thing to change a governor... What we want is an obedient governor. Right now, we can just train him..."

"Brother, I understand..." Shao Deng nodded.

"Deng, remember, if you can't control the governor in the hands of the Shao family, you can also destroy it..." It was a rare time for Shao Jing to show his ambition.Seeing this, Shao Deng helped Shao Jing to go out again.

On the border of Cang County, in Daokou Village, the owner of the village, King Daokou, gathered five hundred men, left the village, and headed straight to the western border of Cangzhou...

(End of this chapter)