I

Guangxin Mansion is a large mansion, and the prefectural government is Shangrao County, and it also has six counties under its jurisdiction: Yushan, Yongfeng, Qianshan, Xing'an, Yiyang, and Guixi.

The prefect Xie Lijing did not sit in the prefectural city, but took the initiative to attack with Xiangyong.

Along the way, the county magistrates and gentry were asked to recruit soldiers, but unfortunately, the brave men recruited during the day ran away secretly at night. After Xiangyong barely passed a thousand, the news of the rebels came, and in an instant, only a few hundred remained.

Yiyang city head.

Xie Lijing looked at the rebels outside the city, and at the few dozen Xiangyong left around him. He only has these dozens of township braves available, the Yamen servants in Yiyang County have all escaped, and the county magistrate probably slipped back to his hometown, and no one is willing to accompany the magistrate to guard the city.

"Kaicheng surrender."

Xie Lijing's choice was very miraculous. He asked several Xiangyongs to open the city gate, and he led others to maintain law and order. At the same time, he took good care of the county government's treasury and documents.

When Xiao Zongxian led his troops into the city, he learned that the magistrate of Yiyang had escaped, and that the magistrate of Guangxin was in charge here, so he immediately came to pay a visit: "Thank you, old man, for maintaining law and order and protecting the county government!"

But Xie Lijing said: "I will not follow the thief for the reward of eating the king and being loyal to the king. You can kill me or tie me up. It's up to you."

"I won't kill you or tie you up, you are a good official." Xiao Zongxian said.

Xie Lijing responded with a sneer and stopped talking.

Xiao Zongxian felt a little embarrassed and asked someone to take care of him properly, so he went to deal with business.

Three days later, Xiao Zong seemed to have received the news, and he knew that Xie Lijing had the will to die, and he hadn't eaten a drop of water or eaten a grain of rice in these three days.

Xiao Zongxian hurried over, but seeing the other party's haggard appearance, he sighed, "Old Mister, why bother?"

Xie Lijing didn't speak.

Xiao Zong said angrily: "If you don't eat anymore, when I capture Fucheng, I will definitely start killing people."

Xie Lijing finally spoke out, his voice hoarse: "You won't."

"I'm stubborn," Xiao Zongxian shouted, "Come here, forcefully feed me porridge. After you're full, cover your mouth, tie up your hands and feet, don't let him commit suicide, and send him back to Ji'an to be dealt with by the general town!"

"Zhu Zier dare... um..."

After three days of starvation, Xie Lijing had no strength left. He was held down by two soldiers and his mouth was forcibly opened.

He was force-fed cold porridge, some porridge sprayed from his mouth, some porridge was choked out from his nostrils, and his face and neck were covered with porridge water and rice grains.

Xiao Zong was too lazy to take care of it anymore, before the New Year, he had to occupy the entire Guangxin Mansion, this was a death order issued by the Military Academy.

Leaving a small amount of auxiliary troops transporting grain to garrison Yiyang, Xiao Zongxian immediately divided his troops. He led the main force to the east, all the way to occupy Xing'an and Shangrao (Guangxin Fucheng), and then divided his troops to occupy Yushan and Yongfeng. Another division was sent to occupy the lead mountain.

Xing'an County originally belonged to the boundary of Yiyang County. During the Jiajing period, it was established as a separate county because of its rich porcelain production.

One can imagine how popular the porcelain here is.

The porcelain kilns here are collectively called Hengfeng Kilns. During the Republic of China, the name of the county was simply changed, and the name of the kiln was directly called Hengfeng County.

After winning the Guangxin Mansion, Zhao Han's financial income will rise to a higher level.

Xing'an County is rich in porcelain, and the next counties of Shangrao, Yushan, Yongfeng, and Qianshan have a prosperous paper industry.

In terms of market size alone, in the mid-Ming Dynasty, the combined number of paper mills in Qianshan, Yongfeng, and Shangrao counties was only one-fifth of that in Yushan County.

However, by the end of the Ming Dynasty, Qianshan County came from behind and had a tendency to overtake Yushan County.

Why is this happening?

Because civil servants and eunuchs were tossing about, a large number of parasites were raised, and the court could not collect taxes normally.

Including the Fei family's paper mill, all of them are "private troughs", and the government can make whatever they want. As for the official slot, in addition to the official paper mill established by the imperial court, other official slot licenses will also be issued.

Only by bribing civil officials and making friends with eunuchs can merchants obtain official licenses. This kind of merchants is commonly known as "lantou".

They have a papermaking license issued by the government, but they don't make paper themselves. Instead, they accept orders from the imperial court and local governments, forcefully buy paper from private paper mills, and often credit and lower prices, hoard paper, and manipulate the market.

The private paper mills in Shangrao and Yushan counties were the worst, with a large number of bankruptcies. Qianshan County is farther away, so the paper industry is booming.

It's just that the tentacles of "leading the head" had extended to Qianshan by the end of Ming Dynasty, and the papermakers in Qianshan were also made miserable.

Zhang Yinggao, the former magistrate of Guangxin, received strong support from the gentry in several counties because of the abolition of this phenomenon in Shangshu, and he was able to recruit and train thousands of village braves.

After Zhang Yinggao was defeated and committed suicide, the "leaders" revived, and no one could stop them!

Zhao Han is clear about the situation here, so he has already given instructions.

After Xiao Zongxian took down Fucheng, he immediately arrested the "Lantou" and ransacked the homes of all the vampires entrenched in the heads of merchants.

This move was so satisfying that all the paper merchants in the four counties of Shangrao, Yushan, Yongfeng, and Qianshan became Zhao Han's loyal loyalists.

Immediately afterwards, Xiao Zongxian promulgated another decree. From now on, when the government buys paper, it will no longer set up a "leader", and each family only needs to keep a part to sell to the government.

These paper makers really have no shortage of orders from the government, because the orders from Jiangnan have already made Guangxin paper in short supply.

As the Chinese New Year approached, paper merchants from four counties gathered in Guangxin Mansion, including many merchants from Fei's family, and unexpectedly sent Xiao Zongxian a Wanmin Umbrella.

At the same time, these merchants joined hands to divide the land.

The counties in Guangxin Prefecture are all mountainous and have little land, so food income is nothing. As long as Zhao Han doesn't mess with the paper industry and helps them eliminate the "leaders", these merchants can donate all their land.

As for the many tea mountains, Zhao Han has formulated a policy to allocate land for free and tea trees for payment.

Each tea tree costs several taels of silver, and the government pays to buy it. After the land was distributed to tea farmers and tenants, the tea farmers and tenants paid annual installments and slowly repaid the money to the government.

Landowners who are forced to take away their tea mountains will automatically obtain tea selling licenses and receive tax incentives for ten years.

…

Henglin, Fei's ancestral home.

Hu Dinggui did not continue to be the official historian of Nanchang County. After expanding the army, he could already command 500 troops.

When he came to Qianshan with his partial troops, Hu Dinggui did not capture the county seat. Instead, he came directly to the Fei family's ancestral home to cause trouble.

"Old Master, it's not good, the rebels have surrounded our house!"

Fei Yuanzhen has been awake for half a month and has been in a panic all day, feeling that he cannot escape.

He guessed correctly.

In a town, one evil gentry must be selected to ransack their homes to vent the grievances of the farmers.

In Hekou Town, Zhao Han personally identified Fei Yuanzhen’s family! As for the other branches of the Fei clan, if there are too many people, they will divide their families. They are not allowed to cause any trouble other than dividing their fields.

Fei Yuanzhen asked his slaves to tie the rope for him and said, "Only if I die will the man named Zhao let the Fei family go."

The slave wanted to dissuade him, but after hearing this, he immediately helped tie the rope and roughly helped Fei Yuanzhen onto the stool.

Fei Yuanzhen trembled and hung his neck on the rope.

Suddenly he burst into tears. He was really afraid of death. He hadn't lived enough. I stood on the stool and hesitated for a long time, still unable to make up my mind. I always felt that I could take another look at the situation.

The confidant house slave couldn't wait any longer, because the rebels had already broken into the door, so they simply kicked the stool away with their feet.

"Plop!"

The stool fell to the ground, and Fei Yuanzhen successfully hung himself. His legs kept struggling and kicking.

When Fei Yuanzhen stopped moving, a close servant suddenly cried out in grief: "The old lady hanged himself, the old lady hanged himself, oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo...

Hu Dinggui led his troops to break in. When he saw the corpse playing on the swing, he curled his lips and said, "Everyone who lives in this house will be arrested by the master. The slaves will be screened, and those who have done evil will be tried in public. Those who have not done so can be divided into fields." !”

Goose Lake Fee House.

When Fei Yuanyi heard that Fei Yuanzhen's house had been ransacked and that Fei Yuanzhen himself was dead, he was so frightened that he went cold and hid in his house without coming out to see anyone.

The second and third eldest children of the family, Fei Yinghuan's two younger brothers, were dancing with joy.

Haha, they can divide the family property.

It doesn't matter that the land has been taken over. Fei's still has many shops in Ehu and several paper mills at the foot of the mountain.

When the farmers' association personnel arrived, the brothers greeted them warmly. They even took their wives and children with them, went out and knelt down toward the west, shouting: "Long live Mr. Zhao, long live Brother Han!" Then they stood up and said, "Men of the farmers' association, let's divide the property first. The land can't be lost, so what?" It doesn’t matter what time it is!”

At this moment, Fei Yinghuan had left early. He was going to Ji'an Mansion to celebrate the New Year with his wife.

Otherwise, Fei Yinghuan would have been so angry that he would have beaten his two younger brothers.

Fei Yuanyi was hiding in the inner house. After hearing this, he immediately picked up a walking stick and rushed out: "I'll beat you two unfilial sons to death!"

The second child, Fei Yingqi, quickly dodged and ran to hide at the farmers' association.

The third child, Fei Yingke, was not afraid, and said plausibly: "Father, please don't do this. The division of property among the wealthy families is the rule set by Mr. Zhao. Mr. Zhao is your grandson-in-law, how can father take the lead and disobey orders?"

Fei Yingqi also helped: "The third brother is absolutely right. Brother Han is the one who wants to be the emperor. He has his own rules for doing things, and we should all abide by his rules. Brother Han said that the big family must If the family is divided and the property is divided, will my father still want to make Brother Han a success?"

Fei Yingke then said to the farmers' association staff: "All you gentlemen from the farmers' association, please go inside first, and I will take you immediately to count your family property."

"Yes, yes, please come in, gentlemen of the Farmers' Association!" Fei Yingqi was also enthusiastic and regarded the Farmers' Association as the Buddha and Bodhisattva who saved them.

If there is no separation of families, although the family property belongs to everyone, Fei Yinghuan has the final say in everything. The two of them are just raised trash fish.

Fei Yingqi rolled her eyes and suddenly ran into the house, shouting along the way: "Brother Han has become the king of Jiangxi and wants to allocate land to all the domestic slaves in the world. From now on, you are free and will no longer be slaves to others. , come out quickly to divide the fields!"

Fei Yingke also rushed into his inner house and asked his wife to release the slaves as soon as possible. They now strongly supported Zhao Han's policy.

The members of the peasant association looked at each other. They already knew that this was the home of General Zhao Er and his wife's natal family. It's just that this family is really... It's hard to describe in words.

"Evil beast, evil beast!"

Fei Yuanyi cursed loudly while leaning on his crutches, then knelt down on his knees, reciting the words of his ancestors and crying loudly.