I

Xiong Wencan's pomp was grand, he was the governor after all.

Zhu Guoxun, the commander-in-chief of Jiangxi Province, even personally drove Xiong Wencan to Ji'an Prefecture on a warship.

Back then, Zhu Guoxun was promoted to commander-in-chief due to his merit, and it was Xiong Wencan who helped repay the merit. You can imagine the relationship between the two.

The guards were beating gongs and drums in front and holding signs such as "Avoid". Commander-in-Chief Zhu Guoxun escorted Xiong Wencan off the boat. There was a large group in front and behind, totaling two to three hundred people.

Seeing that Zhu Guoxun was quite nervous and kept pressing the hilt of the knife, Xiong Wencan smiled and said: "It doesn't have to be like this. Thief Zhao is an unusual bandit. This person is very methodical and will never lure you or me to kill him."

"It's better to be careful, no bandits in the world can be trusted." Zhu Guoxun reminded.

Walking on the wooden board to the shore, a large maroon sedan immediately stopped, and Xiong Wencan stepped into the sedan leisurely and sat down.

Zhu Guoxun showed great loyalty and always followed the sedan. I don’t know if the rebels really take action, he will choose to turn around and run away, or fight to the death to protect his old boss.

"Boom!"

"when!"

The officials held gongs to clear the way, and the people along the way were very unhappy and deliberately slowed down when trying to avoid them.

Mr. Zhao doesn't even ride in such a high-ranking official sedan, so why do you, a dog official, come to Ji'an to show off?

"Give way, please give way..." The official responsible for clearing the way had no choice but to keep pleading. They really didn't dare to show off their power in the territory of the rebels.

Xiong Wencan opened the sedan curtain and was quite speechless when he saw the situation outside.

Zhu Guoxun came over and said: "Because it is a nest of rebels, there are unscrupulous people everywhere. We should be careful to prevent these unscrupulous people from assassinating."

"No problem."

Xiong Wencan felt calm inside, and this scene was really nothing.

It's not like Xiong Wencan has never seen bandits who know how to win over people's hearts. Zheng Zhilong, whom he recruited to surrender, is used to doing this.

Before Zheng Zhilong accepted the recruitment, he plundered the coasts of Fujian and Guangdong, which often made the officers and soldiers exhausted. But Zheng Zhilong only targeted large households and even helped the poor. Especially the people in Quanzhou, the poor were mostly favored by Zheng Zhilong, so that every time the officers and soldiers took action, the local people took the initiative to inform him.

At the same time, a large number of coastal fishermen joined Zheng Zhilong as pirates. Those who were not pirates were also helping Zheng Zhilong transport goods on the shore. Zheng Zhilong's followers were almost everywhere.

In Xiong Wencan's view, the Luling Zhao thief was just Zheng Zhilong on land. At most, he could only study for a few more years and be more thorough in his kindness to the common people.

"Stop!"

Arriving at the gate of the General Military Mansion, the guards immediately stopped the group of people.

Pang Chunlai, Li Banghua, Xiao Huan and other officials stood at the door to welcome the governor. Wang Tingshi and Xu Ying also stood there.

Xiong Wencan walked out of the official sedan and recognized Li Banghua at a glance. He cupped his hands and said with a smile: "Mr. Meng An, we have been separated for many years, and I never expected to meet again here."

"It's really destined." Li Banghua didn't talk nonsense, and he didn't want to have any friendship with Xiong Wencan.

Chen Maosheng was still in southern Gansu. Li Ke, the deputy head of the Mission Department, stepped forward and said to Xiong Wencan: "General Zhao has an order that only five negotiators are allowed in. The rest will wait and find their own inns to stay. You are responsible for your own food and accommodation expenses. If there is any behavior that harasses businesses or people, you will be punished by law!"

Zhu Guoxun sneered: "Is this how your Lord Zhao... treats guests?"

Li Ke replied: "The people live a hard life, and my lord cannot bear to be treated harshly and practices frugality. What's more, it's not yet known whether you are a guest or an enemy!"

"The guest does as the host does, haha, the guest does as the host does." Xiong Wencan was like a smiling Buddha, leaving five people to accompany him and throwing the rest back on the boat.

Li Banghua introduced officials to Xiong Wencan. In fact, Xiong Wencan had already received the information, and now he was just matching his name with the real person.

After entering the General Military Mansion, Xiong Wencan observed all the way and found that all the officials were at work and did not come out to look around curiously.

Some civil servants passed by holding official documents. When they saw Pang Chunlai, Li Banghua and others, they just greeted them with fists in their hands. Those who had no time in their hands would even give a nod instead, while Pang, Li and other senior officials would nod in return.

Xiong Wencan lamented in his heart that under the rule of Zhao Thief, not only the people were more energetic, but even the atmosphere of officialdom was stronger than that of the court.

This thief can only be appeased, but cannot be suppressed!

There are many empty rooms in Zhao Han's inner house, so this time, Xiong Wencan was given space to enter the courtyard.

After the ceremony, everyone moved into the house, and everyone sat down in the yard, chatting and waiting for lunch.

Xiong Wencan sat down, took two sips of tea, and asked, "When will your lord see me?"

"Tomorrow," Li Ke explained, "the head of the town will go to the countryside to inspect the water transfer mill. We cannot return to the capital until tomorrow."

"I see." Xiong Wencan asked no more questions, thinking that Zhao Han was deliberately exposing himself.

Pang Chunlai sipped the tea and said: "The general wishes of the town, let us not beat around the bush. In one sentence, it is okay to recruit soldiers, and we will give them 200,000 taels of severance pay. Now our army has 80,000 people. Since we recruit soldiers to join the imperial court, we will definitely be able to do so in the future." No more fighting. Send the soldiers home and get at least 200,000 taels of silver."

"Where did you get the 80,000 troops? That's nonsense!" Zhu Guoxun suddenly started shouting. This was the role he played.

Pang Chunlai smiled and said: "You don't believe it? Then wait until spring starts and 80,000 troops gather in Nanchang City. Then Governor Xiong can slowly count them down."

Zhu Guoxun pounded the table and said, "Don't threaten me and wait until we have a fight!"

"Okay, let's talk about it after a fight," Pang Chunlai suddenly lost his smile and said with a gloomy expression, "Rebellion is rebellion. Since ancient times, recruiting an enemy has a good end? Are you kidding me that I haven't read "Water Margin"!"

The scene suddenly became stiff and the atmosphere was a bit awkward, so we could only turn to other topics.

After a while, Xiong Wencan excused himself to change clothes, and Wang Tingshi followed him immediately, and the two exchanged information in the toilet.

Wang Tingshi said: "This Pang Chunlai, whose whole family was forced to death by the government, was bent on overthrowing the Ming Dynasty. The Zhao thieves were taught by this man, and they were called masters and apprentices, but in reality they were father and son. Li Banghua agreed to the recruitment, but Pang Chunlai firmly opposed the recruitment. .”

Xiong Wencan asked: "Where are the other high-ranking rebel officials?"

"Some agree, some oppose, about half and half," Wang Ting said with a smile, "It is inevitable that there will be people who are greedy for high-ranking officials and generous salaries. Since they can be officials of the imperial court, why should they rebel?"

Xiong Wencan nodded and said, "This is normal."

Wang Tingshi added: "I think Zhao Thief agrees to recruit him. The performance he just performed probably cost a lot of money."

The two chatted in many details before returning to the courtyard together.

Near noon, meals were served, including wine and meat. But for Xiong Wencan, it was not very rich, and even seemed particularly shabby.

Pang Chunlai, Li Banghua and others were happy to eat. Although their usual work meals also contained meat, they were definitely not as good as this meal.

You can take a casual tour in the afternoon and even read official documents.

Xiong Wencan actually ran to read the tax book, and was shocked when he saw it.

The land tax revenue under Zhao Han was actually higher than that of the imperial court. However, there is no poll tax or other exorbitant taxes. The number of acres is surprisingly large. Apparently all the hidden fields have been found!

The so-called apportionment of the head tax into the land tax is to apportion the head tax directly into the land tax.

Zhao Han's policy can be considered as sharing a small amount of money per mu, because there is not much difference in the total amount of taxes; but it does not count as sharing a small amount of money per mu, because the "dining silver" has been cancelled.

Moreover, due to the inventory of hidden fields and the cancellation of preferential treatment for the gentry, even if the total tax amount remains unchanged, the taxes that farmers need to pay are far lower than Zhang Juzheng's whip tax.

Not only is it lower than the current one-lash tax, it is also far lower than the one-lash tax during Zhang Juzheng's reform!

Continuing to look through the tax rolls, Xiong Wencan discovered that the land tax in mountainous areas was very low. If no additional miscellaneous taxes were levied, the poor people in the mountains could still have enough to eat.

When he returned to the bedroom at night, Xiong Wencan remained silent.

"Why doesn't Commander Fu say anything?" Zhu Guoxun asked.

Xiong Wencan swallowed his saliva and said with a dry mouth: "The Ming Dynasty is about to change its color."

Zhu Guoxun was shocked: "Zhao thief?"

No matter what Xiong Wencan's ability is, if we use the company as an analogy, he can be regarded as an executive of the Ming Dynasty group company.

Since you are a senior executive, you must understand financial statements.

Daming Group is on the verge of bankruptcy, but Zhao Han, a small company, has a very good financial situation, and it is almost scary. Not only the land taxes in the countryside, but also the commercial taxes in prefectural and county towns are terrible, because those big businessmen can no longer evade taxes!

What's amazing is that even though they can't evade taxes, most businessmen strongly support Zhao Han's policies.

Because the officials under Zhao Han would not change the law and act haphazardly, the money that merchants had to pay was actually decreasing. Especially those small and medium-sized businessmen with weak backgrounds have become Zhao Han's die-hard supporters.

So where did the Ming Dynasty’s taxes go?

Corrupt officials, powerful gentry!

That night, Xiong Wencan tossed and turned and couldn't sleep, and secretly sighed: "Li Mengnan got on a good ship, but it's a pity that my tribe is in Sichuan."

Although Xiong Wencan is greedy and extravagant, if he can be a hero of Conglong, he is willing to divide his own land.

Compared with becoming a prime minister and leaving a name in history, the thousands of acres of land at home are nothing!

After much thought, Xiong Wencan decided to form a good relationship. While maintaining his official title of Ming Dynasty, he could express his goodwill to Zhao Han in private. What if it comes in handy in the future?

The next afternoon, Xiong Wencan finally saw Zhao Han, and this idea became even stronger.

Because Zhao Han is too young and has enough time to compete in the world. Even if he doesn't think about himself, Xiong Wencan still has to leave a way out for his family. One of his descendants may become an official in the new dynasty.

"Mr. Zhao, I have long admired your name!" Xiong Wencan clasped his fists and smiled.

Zhao Han smiled and said: "To each other!"

Xiong Wencan asked: "Can you and I talk alone?"

"Of course, Governor Xiong please." Zhao Han had a bright smile on his face.

In the secret room.

Xiong Wencan said immediately: "If I am in Jiangxi, please Mr. Zhao not to attack the city. In return, I can pretend that I have not seen many things."

Zhao Han suddenly smiled even more happily, because this governor was so interesting. He immediately replied: "Please rest assured, instead of attacking the city and taking territory, I will help the government to eliminate other bandits."

Xiong Wencan understood immediately.

That is to say, if other rebels appear in Jiangxi, Zhao Han will take advantage of the situation and take over the area, and the county town will naturally take it. After all, the county town has a lot of commercial taxes.

However, the imperial court can still send a county magistrate, but this magistrate will definitely be ignored.

The city and land belonged to the imperial court in name but in fact belonged to Zhao Han.

The two bastards, tacitly understanding each other, reached a secret agreement.

As for the money, Xiong Wencan promised to give him ten thousand taels, and he had to be allowed to pay in installments.