I

  Chapter 122 120 [From the thief]

  The four townships occupied by Zhao Han were quickly abolished. Anyway, "township" is just a geographical concept.

  All sites were changed to eight towns.

  Each town has a central village and four natural villages. Zhao Han ruled a total of forty villages.

  These villages have also been redefined and their areas have been enlarged. A large surname is mixed with many small surnames to prevent a certain surname from gaining an absolute advantage in a certain village.

  Try to break clan influence!

  Although the landlord was either killed or forced to separate. However, the same surname dominates the village for a long time, and a new clan power will inevitably form over time. Zhao Han cannot avoid this kind of thing from happening, but he can try his best to delay its appearance!

  The number of grassroots officials is insufficient, and they have to be busy clearing up the land and dividing the land, but also busy with administrative divisions, and the whole winter is chaotic.

   The Juren provided by Xiao was originally unwilling to be a thief, and he was suffering from high-intensity work, so he just dropped the pick and quit. He felt that he was overqualified, that he had to deal with mud legs all day long, and even deal with women. This was an insult to him.

  Li Banghua and Ouyang Zheng walked around the villages and towns every day, accompanied by a few soldiers.

   "Quickly stop, you have something to say!"

   Several missionaries ran quickly, passing Li Banghua and Ouyang Zheng, because there was a fight in the field ahead.

  During the division of fields, there would be fights every now and then.

   Sometimes it is suspected that there is a problem with the division of land, and villagers beat public officials.

  Sometimes due to field boundary disputes, villagers fight each other.

  Ouyang Zheng gloated and said with a sneer: "Zhao thief is messing around. Many villages and towns have been messed up these days."

  Li Banghua has been only watching but not talking, and at this moment he finally couldn't help it: "Xianwen, you are born as a prodigy, do you really think that Bandit Zhao is carrying out disorderly government?"

  Ouyang Zheng was dejected, buried his head in silence for a long time, and sighed: "Oh, Wansheng can only think this way, should he still applaud?"

  The two continued to move forward and soon came to the troubled place.

  It was the villagers who suspected that there was a problem with the distribution of the land. The missionaries took the villagers to re-strand the land, and it was found out that the farm staff were messing around.

  The two people in charge of Zhangtian, one is from the Xiao family and the other is from the Liu family. The two cheated together, giving more points to their respective tribes and less points to other villagers, bullying the villagers beyond counting.

"take away!"

  Propaganda staff directly arrest people and hand them over to criminal officials.

   "Good catch!"

   "Catch me back and cut off my head!"

  The villagers clapped their hands and applauded, and stopped watching the division of the fields, and escorted them back to review.

  The missionaries couldn't stop them at all. After walking a few dozen steps, some villagers beat people up. By the time they returned to the town office, the two cheaters had already been beaten black and blue.

  Tired from walking, Li Banghua sat cross-legged on the field ridge: "Xianwen, will you follow the thief?"

   "I would rather die than obey." Ouyang Zheng said.

  Li Banghua smiled wryly: "I have been watching politics for so many days, and I want to be a thief."

  Ouyang Zheng said in surprise: "Sir, you can't think like this, how can you help the evildoers?"

Li Banghua looked at the boundless fields, and said with a bit of resentment in his tone: "The affairs here are impartial, impartial, and vigorous. You can't help but want to join them. If you have been an official in the court, if you have been hindered by politics, you know that this kind of feeling is not good. How wonderful."

  Ouyang Zheng suddenly had tears in his eyes: "What's wrong with this Ming Dynasty, gentlemen, are you not even as good as a rebel?"

"Ugh!"

  Li Banghua sighed: "It's hard to get back, the building will collapse. The old house will collapse, and no one who lives in the house is innocent. Including me, the house has been demolished."

   "Mr. is upright for the country, and even dismissed because of this, how can you be so self-pitying?" Ouyang Zheng was really afraid of Li Banghua's thieves.

Li Banghua pulled out a piece of dry grass from the ridge of the field, held it in his hand and played with it, saying, "Before I passed the Jinshi exam, my family sold the land year after year, leaving only six acres of land left. My grandmother passed away, and there was no coffin, so she wrapped her in straw and buried her secretly." Now, my family has thousands of acres of fertile land, how did they get it? I resigned from office and returned to my hometown, and I took the initiative to hand in the land tax, and was shocked to learn that the county personally sent the grain back to my home."

  Ouyang Zheng couldn't help but smile, and put away his smile again: "Even if Mister is dismissed from office, he is still a first-rank official. How dare the county magistrate accept the money from Mr.'s family."

"In the past few days, I have inquired about it," Li Banghua said, "The thief Zhao donated tens of thousands of acres of land to the Wuxing Town Hall, but left a hundred acres. Is he reluctant to part with the one hundred acres of land? Also. He has to reserve a hundred acres of land and pay the land tax to the town hall on time, so other bandit officials will not dare to evade taxes."

  Ouyang Zheng lamented: "Wan Sheng has been scolding that thief Zhao, but he still admires him in his heart."

Li Banghua said: "In Huangtian of Gyeonggi, when Emperor Chengzu died, he had to pay the land tax every year. Chengzu set an example, the emperor also had to pay the grain, and the officials all over the world naturally had to pay the grain. But after Chengzu passed away, Huangtian never paid any grain. .Which one is willing to pay for the honorable civil and martial arts?"

   "So the law should be reformed. Daming needs a Zhang Taiyue (Zhang Juzheng)." Ouyang Zheng said.

"You don't understand that Zhang Taiyue's reforms were mainly aimed at Jiangnan, and the people died and the government died," Li Banghua shook his head. "The people in the northwest, the small people in the south of the Yangtze River, are now suffering from a whip. If there is no whip, the Northwest thieves may be There can’t be such a big mess. As for Jiangxi, there are too many gentry. My family doesn’t pay food, but other families do? If the gentry don’t pay food, how can the treasury not be empty?”

  Ouyang Zheng said: "So we still have to reform, completely change."

"From top to bottom, we can't change it," Li Banghua pointed at the farmland that was expelled by Qingzhang. "We must go from bottom to top, so as to reverse the situation. If Bandit Zhao can persist for two or three years, half of Jiangxi will belong to him." Yes, at that time, it will become a trend that cannot be lost!"

  Ouyang Zheng said: "Thieves Zhao will kill landlords indiscriminately, and nothing will happen."

  Li Banghua said with a smile: "The landlord who is willing to donate land, he did not kill indiscriminately. If he really killed indiscriminately, I don't have to worry about it."

  Li Zicheng has been unable to recruit scholars because he is a thief and has no grounds to speak of. Everywhere they go, they will inevitably copy their salaries, kill the landlords to grab food, and coerce the people to flee.

  How does this make scholars seek refuge?

  Leave your own property behind and run away with Li Zicheng?

  Zhao Han is different, he has grounds, and he insists on not leaving.

  The properties of the landlord's family are all on Zhao Han's territory, but anyone who doesn't want to die can only bite the bullet and follow the thief.

  Ouyang Zheng looked back at the soldiers behind him, and asked in a low voice, "Why didn't the imperial court send a large army to attack the Zhao bandits?"

Li Banghua said: "There is no money, no soldiers. The food and salaries of the soldiers of the imperial court are either used to deal with the bandits or the Tartars. The Jiangxi bandits can only be suppressed by the local officials. Which local official do you think can kill the Zhao bandits?" Suppressed?"

  Ouyang Zheng had a flash of inspiration: "You can ask the gentry to organize group training!"

   "That's also a way," Li Banghua shook his head immediately, "First, the imperial court will not allow gentry to organize group training; second, if local group training is allowed, the Ming Dynasty will exist in name only."

  Ouyang Zheng was silent.

  Li Banghua didn't know what to say, the more he read about the anti-thief policy, the more he had the urge to turn to the thief. But he can't be a thief. He is the former Minister of the Ministry of War, his father and brother, and they are still under the rule of Ming Dynasty.

  The two walked in the countryside and returned to Yongyang Town together.

  Zhao Han's ruling center has been moved out of Wuxing Town, and Yongyang Town is now the core base.

  Above the Eight Towns Office is Zhao Han's General Military Mansion, where military and political affairs are handled, somewhat similar to Zhu Yuanzhang in the Yingtian period.

  Pang Chunlai is the chief civil servant, Fei Ruhe is the chief general, Xiao Huan is in charge of military logistics, Zuo Xiaoliang is in charge of civil affairs, Fei Chun is in charge of money and food affairs, Chen Maosheng is in charge of missionary work, and Huang Shunfu is transferred to the mayor of Yongyang Town.

  The above seven people are the core team.

   The talents contributed by the big clans of the Xiao family are still in the probationary period. The only Juren could no longer carry the heavy workload and was unwilling to deal with mud legs, so he resigned from office and went home to study.

   Only the children of the rich family who have survived this difficult stage and performed well can truly gain Zhao Han's approval.

   Recruiting talents and talents to vote for thieves, can they be reused immediately?

   Good idea!

  When passing by the town public school, Li Banghua could not help but stop and listen for a while when he heard the sound of reading aloud in the school.

  Ouyang Zheng said: "This Zhao thief, it's really hard to explain, he knows how to run a big school."

  It's not just a big school, Li Banghua doesn't know how to describe it.

  Although Zhao Han robbed a lot of money and food, he had to resettle the rogues returning to their hometown one after another, as well as the vagrants who joined the army in Fucheng, and bought a lot of corn and sweet potato seeds.

  The money and food are gradually running out, and at most they will last until next year's summer grain harvest.

   Even so, Zhao Han still squeezed out money and food to set up official schools in every town, which is equivalent to having two public schools in one township in Daming.

   In addition to waiving tuition fees, all school-age school children will be provided with a free lunch.

   Parents who do not send their children to school will be fined if they are found out!

  Zhao Han even recruited a group of old-fashioned schoolchildren, that is, scholars who could not even pass the entrance examination, and personally taught them "Taiwanese arithmetic". It is estimated that in a few months, these old-style schoolchildren will be able to master the four arithmetic operations proficiently, and they will be assigned to public schools in various towns as mathematics teachers.

  Back to the residence, it was already noon, and the soldiers brought food.

  It's all rough food, Li Banghua can still accept it, after all, he couldn't even eat enough when he was young.

  Ouyang Zheng is tired of eating, he is a son of a rich family, he came from a young age, and he is sour these days and nights.

  Sometimes, Ouyang Zheng even thought that if Zhao thief treated him with more respect, he would probably be willing to vote for a thief.

   "Can't eat?" Li Banghua laughed.

   "I'm getting used to it soon." Ouyang Zheng could only say, and then he had to bite the bullet and eat.

Li Banghua chewed the bran cakes of miscellaneous grains, swallowed the vegetable soup with difficulty, and said with emotion: "I heard people say that even thief Zhao himself eats this kind of thing every day. He doesn't even eat cakes in the morning, but only eats gruel. Pickles. Now that money and food are in short supply, all officials have to tighten their belts until the summer harvest.”

  Ouyang Zheng smiled and said: "It's just a trick to trick the little people."

"I do believe it," Li Banghua said, "this thief has great ambitions, and he is not a person who is greedy for enjoyment. There is only one servant girl in his house... Well, he said it was a maid, and she was also a poor-looking maid. In addition, there was A woman washes and cooks rice. It’s been almost a year since the rebellion, and I’m still not close to a woman, so what’s so special about having a simple meal every day?”

  Ouyang Zheng put away his smile, and took a hard bite of the bran cake: "This thief's ambition and strategy, if he can be an official in the court, he will be a minister of the country."

  Li Banghua shook his head and said: "Now that Wen Shoufu is also very clean. He doesn't live in a mansion, doesn't love women, has few domestic slaves, and keeps his food and clothing simple. In terms of personal virtues, Wen Tiren can be called a great sage."

   "This is the blessing of the court." Ouyang Zheng said.

Li Banghua said: "Wen Tiren not only has noble personal virtues, but also has a long-term memory. No matter how complicated the official duties are, he can handle them easily. He can remember the names and places of small officials who have only met once. In terms of personal morals, I am not as good as Wen Tiren; in terms of ability, I am not as good as Wen Tiren. If Wen Tiren was born in the early years of the dynasty, he must be a generation of virtuous ministers! However, since the new king came to the throne, Wen Tiren has not done a single serious thing."

  Ouyang Zheng was dumbfounded and said in disbelief, "How could this be?"

   "If you do a good job, you will definitely make a mistake," Li Banghua said, "I was dismissed from office and returned to my hometown just because I did something."

  Ouyang Zheng used to look down on magistrates, but after hearing what Li Banghua said, he felt that Daming was hopeless.

   Seriously finished eating the pancakes, and went for a walk in the village in the afternoon, and Ouyang Zheng couldn't fall asleep at night.

  The next morning, Ouyang Zheng ran to find Li Banghua: "Sir, I want to be a thief."

  Li Banghua said: "It's up to you."

Ouyang Zheng was afraid that Li Banghua would be angry, so he explained: "When a man is alive, he has to do something. Hearing what Mr. said about the court situation, Wan Sheng really can't see a future. Even if he was named on the gold list, he was just making wood in the court. It's better to follow Zhao Thieves."

   "Go, go." Li Banghua didn't stop him.

  Ouyang Zheng cupped his hands and said, "Sir, farewell!"

  The rebels had to give themselves a false name, Zhao Han changed his name to Zhao Yan, and Ouyang Zheng changed his name directly to Ou Zhen.

  After being a thief, this product was not reused, but was thrown to Yongfu Town to help divide the land.

  Ouyang Zheng didn't feel disappointed, because he had observed politics for many days and knew that as long as he did a good job, he would definitely be promoted quickly.

   It was almost the Chinese New Year, and Li Banghua couldn't help it.

  He was really in a hurry, he couldn't find a good book to read here, and he had nothing to do all day long. And the neighboring villages are in full swing, and Li Banghua really wants to join in.

  Because Zhao Han is doing the right thing, which is what Li Banghua has always wanted to do, but it is impossible to do it.

  On the twenty-eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, Li Banghua went to meet Zhao Han, wanting to have a heart-to-heart debate.

  (end of this chapter)