I

He showed respect in front of Zhao Han and even said that he would consider the issue of being a thief. But as soon as Wang Diaoding returned to the city, he immediately went to see the prefect and tried to discuss how to kill Zhao Han!

When Wang Tiaoding met, he said, "Master Fu, I went to see Thief Zhao yesterday."

Yang Zhaosheng was a little surprised that he could remain calm and just said: "Oh, I understand."

"This thief cannot be suppressed with force," Wang Diaoding expressed his point of view. "It is even more impossible to appease him softly, so we have to design a trap to kill him!"

Yang Zhaosheng asked: "What did you see in the den of thieves?"

"The thieves are united and have high aspirations. The people are happy and happy, just like a paradise in the world," Wang Diaoding said with emotion, "Zhao Yan, the leader of the thieves, wants to rule the three generations."

Yang Zhaosheng shook his head and smiled: "It seems that he is also a good thief."

Wang Diaoding frowned and said: "The master of the palace has never thought about suppressing thieves? In one or two years, Zhao thieves may steal the entire Ji'an mansion!"

Yang Zhaosheng sighed: "The Zhao thieves emptied all the treasury and caused a huge military disaster. Your Majesty did not reduce or reduce the land tax, but only acquiesced to Ji'an Prefecture to suppress the tax. Half of Luling County was occupied, and Anfu and Taihe counties were also affected. You thieves, it may be difficult to collect the summer and autumn grains this year. How can I think about suppressing thieves? If we collect taxes again this year, I'm afraid I won't be able to get promoted in this life."

"Your Excellency, you only want to be promoted and don't want to suppress thieves for the country?" Wang Diaoding said angrily.

"Where's the food? How can we recruit troops to suppress bandits without food?" Yang Zhaosheng asked.

Wang Tiaoding said: "This thief is invincible, so we must find a way to trap and kill him!"

Yang Zhaosheng smiled and said: "Then you can think of ways to trap and kill them. The top priority is to collect summer grain. I'm afraid your Luling County can't collect a few."

After saying a few words, the two of them broke up unhappy.

After Wang Diaoding left the government office, Yang Zhaosheng sighed: "It's great to be young. I've been young too."

Yang Zhaosheng is actually very capable, but he has experienced too much darkness and has long been smoothed away by reality. Now, I just want to be an official safely and earn some money to support my family.

He envied his classmate Wu Rousi, who quickly wiped out the White Lotus Sect in Henan and killed two White Lotus Sect giants. But Jiangxi is different from Henan. The gentry are not so obedient, and this Zhao thief is not as easy to deal with as the White Lotus Sect!

Yang Zhaosheng is full of twilight energy and has no courage to do anything serious. He only has the bottom line of repaying the king with death.

Historically, he was captured by the Qing army and chose to die rather than surrender, and did nothing else.

Wang Diaoding came out of the magistrate's office and summoned the squires of Luling County.

He told the peasants' association in detail and said to the squires: "Zhao Thief's peasant association may spread to the whole county. If you try to suppress the tenants, you may provoke a riot among the tenants. It is better to take the initiative to reduce rents and interest rates and show the tenants With kindness, this can dilute the influence of Zhao Thief."

"Your Excellency, last year we supported the governor to suppress thieves, but we don't have much food anymore. How can we reduce rent and interest?"

"That's right. Tenants have a hard time, but landlords have an easy time? The imperial court increases taxes every year, and local governments have apportionments. If we continue to reduce rent and interest for tenants, they will not be able to survive in the future."

"Then since Thief Zhao is crossing the river to rule, I guess he won't make any big moves in the short term."

"..."

The rebels were all under their noses, but these gentry were submissive and expected Zhao Han to be satisfied with half the county.

I really can’t shed tears until I see the coffin!

Wang Tiaoding sent the gentry away and slumped down on the chair, feeling very tired.

He did not hire a master, but a civil servant to discuss matters.

The civil servant said: "The county magistrate is so handsome, those landowners are afraid. If the Zhao thief can really be wiped out, all the gentry in the county will definitely donate money and food enthusiastically, but can the county magistrate really wipe out the Zhao thief?"

"No, at least not for the time being." Wang Diaoding shook his head.

The civil servant added: "Since no one can suppress the Zhao thieves, the gentry dare not act rashly. They are afraid of offending the Zhao thieves and losing their wealth! If the county magistrate is not good enough, and the government magistrate is not good, at least the governor must come with a large army. This county Gentlemen take action only when they see hope."

Wang Tiaoding asked: "But I didn't ask them to donate food and suppress thieves. I only asked them to reduce rent and interest as a show of kindness to the tenants."

The civil servant laughed and said: "They can be divided up with a knife at their necks, but they will never take the initiative to reduce rents and interest rates. It's like a dog with meat in its mouth, how can it spit it out? Someone has to beat it with a stick. , only when the beating hurts will he spit out the meat."

"They are all short-sighted people!" Wang Diaoding said with contempt.

The clerk shook his head: "The county magistrate can figure it out, how can the squire not know it? They are not stupid. But we can't open this hole. If we reduce rent and interest this year, should we reduce it next year? Will rent and interest be reduced in the future? Tenants will be reduced. Don’t push too far? If you make the tenants unruly, I’m afraid I won’t be able to collect the rent in the future!”

Just like capitalists, if they give workers a wage increase, they can completely solve the strike problem. They are actually very willing to do so.

What are capitalists afraid of?

They are afraid that if the price rises once, there will be two or three times, and the workers will never be fed enough. Then don’t raise wages even once, and would rather spend more money to suppress them, and never open the door to raise wages!

Dead end, no solution.

Wang Tiaoding thought about the paradise on the Zhao thief's side, then thought about the prefects and gentry on his own side, and then thought about the faces of the officials in the Wenxuan Department, he suddenly felt the urge to surrender to the thief.

Calm down, calm down, and never be a thief!

…

The gentry did not move, nor did the peasant associations, but the tenants did.

The tenants on the east bank of Lushui were extremely envious when they saw the abundant summer grain harvest on the west bank.

The tenants secretly contacted each other and elected a representative, who came to Yongyang Town on the pretext of taking his wife back to his parents' home.

"What's your name?" Zhao Han asked.

"Luo Xian, a common man, has also been educated for several years. In his early years, he had six acres of land, but now he has become a tenant farmer." Luo Xian knelt on the ground and kowtowed. "This year, there was a serious drought in the spring. The wheat harvest was also rained, and the neighbors had a bad harvest. Even the landlords are urging you to rent. Mr. Zhao, the tenants on the east coast are looking forward to your coming and want to live a good life like those on the west coast."

Zhao Han smiled and asked, "Does everyone think so?"

Luo Xian said: "As long as Mr. Zhao goes to the east bank to divide the land, the lives of the common people belong to him. Even when the officers and soldiers come, the common people will pick up their poles and fight against the government!"

The people's support is available.

Zhao Han said: "I have an agreement with the government, and we have already demarcated the Lu River to control it. People cannot speak without faith, and I cannot allocate land to you for the time being. However, I can send a missionary team and a peasant association to help you form a peasant association on your own. . You can’t rely on me for everything. You have to stand up and ask landlords to lower rents in times of disaster. There are also loan sharks and loan sharks. The interest rates are too high and unreasonable. You don’t have to pay for the money you borrowed!”

A few days later, Chen Maosheng personally led the missionaries across the river, accompanied by several soldiers and backbones of the peasant association.

Farmers' associations were quickly formed in villages and towns on the east bank of Lushui River. Not only tenants but also many homesteaders joined in enthusiastically.

It's not that they don't pay rent to the landlord, it's just that this summer's grain harvest is bad, the tenants must first keep enough for their own rations, and then send the rest to the landlord. Moreover, all the loan sharks we borrowed at high interest rates have been rejected!

At the same time, the peasant associations led the peasants to resist taxes and pay the normal tax, and resolutely refused to recognize the exorbitant taxes levied by local governments.

Now, even small landowners are willing to join the farmers’ association!

Many small landowners are unwilling to donate their land. Once they donate their land, they have to work as tenants, so they become the main tax payers to the government. They joined the peasant association purely to resist taxes, because local governments imposed excessive taxes and miscellaneous taxes that exceeded the official taxes of the imperial court.

From this perspective, small landowners are also militant and the main force in Zhao Han's rebellion. The premise is that there is no juren in their family. Juren can escape a large number of miscellaneous factions and Ding servants.

"Rebellion, everything is reversed!"

A Mr. Hu couldn't hold himself back. He didn't dare to attack the missionary team, but he dared to attack his own tenants.

This guy asked his son to bring his domestic slaves and go directly to the house to collect rent by force, and actually beat a tenant seriously and seriously injured him.

Under the command of Chen Maosheng, more than 600 members of the Peasants' Association captured the Hu family compound and captured Mr. Hu and several of his sons. Then, a grievance meeting was held, followed by a public trial.

Zhao Han originally wanted to proceed step by step, first developing farmers' associations, then training grassroots officials, and gradually encroaching on the entire Luling County.

But, I can’t hold it back!

The old house was on fire, fierce and violent.

After the grievance meetings and public trials, the mission suddenly lost control of the peasant associations.

The peasants found an organization because of the peasant association, quickly united and killed several big landowners in succession. Then, tenants who had not joined the farmers' association also took it upon themselves to take action to kill the landlords.

After killing the landlord, he asked Chen Maosheng to preside over the land distribution.

Rent and interest reduction?

Haha, there is only a river across the river. Life is so good on the west bank. Why not just divide the land on the east bank?

Chen Maosheng hurried back to Yongyang Town: "Headquarters, I'm not doing things well and I can't control the farmers' association. Please punish me!"

"It's not your fault. It's because I didn't think well and underestimated the enthusiasm of the farmers," Zhao Han said. "You can deploy some more missionary officers to control the farmers' emotions. I asked Zuo Xiaoliang to cross the river in person and send more The backbones of the farmers' associations, immediately organize the work of dividing the fields. Let Jiang Dashan and Huang Yao each lead 500 soldiers to help you control the field. Remember, use the opportunity of dividing the fields to consolidate the farmers' associations in each village and town. The new farmers' association must Be obedient and don’t disobey orders again!”

A chain reaction occurred again. Chen Maosheng and Zuo Xiaoliang were still dividing their fields, and the peasant movement had spread spontaneously. It spread northward to the border of Luling County, eastward outside the city, and southward to the edge of the mountains.

Four fifths of Luling County have essentially become Zhao Han's territory.

The big landowners were frightened. They were unwilling to reduce rents and interest rates before, but now they came to Zhao Han voluntarily. I just hope to save my life, money, food and a small amount of land.

Over the past year or so, many of the grassroots officials trained and promoted by Zhao Han have been sent to emerging areas, and there has once again been a shortage of officials at all levels.

Promotions come quickly and officials are highly motivated.

The thoughts of corruption have been downplayed, and they only want to continue to expand their territory and continue to be promoted. Most of them are children and schoolchildren, and a few are scholars. They could not become officials before, but now they see the possibility of becoming high officials.

Countless scholars at the bottom began to follow Zhao Han in rebellion wholeheartedly, and were even more eager to rebel than Zhao Han.

The county magistrate, Wang Tiaoding, gave up completely. In the blink of an eye, only one-fifth of his jurisdiction was left.

In other words, not even one fifth, because the area near Tianhe Town was occupied by Fei Yinggon and his gang of bandits. The surviving big landowners hurriedly asked the county magistrate to suppress the bandits. Wang Tiaoding didn't even bother to see these bastards.

If this rate continues, Zhao Han will be able to occupy the entire county this year, leaving only one city for officials.

His career is going great, and Zhao Han is getting married.