When the Northwest Army captured Wanzhou City, which was garrisoned by nearly 100,000 horses in only half a day, the news spread completely, so that many Jiangnan clans who had a wait-and-see attitude were shocked.

They were shocked not only by the strength of the Northwest Army, but also by the decisiveness of Ning Zhiyuan, the prince of Zhenguo.

In the face of Wanzhou City, which was garrisoned by Han troops and civilians, the general of the Northwest said that he would fight without mercy.

Such a fierce and decisive temperament made all the Jiangnan families feel frightened.

A few days later, another piece of news came back.

The four most powerful families in Huainan, namely Shang, Zhong, Duan, and Mi, were imprisoned by Ning Zhiyuan, the minister of Zhenguo and the minister of supervision, on charges of conspiracy against the state.

Two days later, the heads of the Shang, Zhong, Duan, and Mi families, as well as Tian Yiguang, the former commander of Wanzhou, and other high-ranking military officers, were beheaded in public after being tried by the local government, and all their families were demoted to military households, and their family property was also confiscated.

In this way, these four four major families who have been entrenched in Huainan for many years and have gone through several generations have fallen and their families have been ruined.

After the news spread, it made all the Jiangnan clans tremble and everyone was in danger.

In fact, they didn't know that this was already the mercy of the Ning family.

According to Ning Zhiyuan's temperament, he has always pursued a policy of cutting down the grass and eradicating the roots of this kind of family that attempts to rebel.

Not only the own family, but even the entire family must be eradicated before they give up.

This was what the Ning family did when they were renovating the local Haoqiang in the Northeast.

All families that dare to use private troops against the Northwest Army will be wiped out.

This time, the reason why Ning Zhiyuan's subordinates showed mercy and did not wipe out all the four major families was that his little son-in-law Chi Fei persuaded him.

One of Chi Fei's identities is an intelligence chief, and this place in Jiangnan is the place where he sends the most spies.

Therefore, he knew very well that in the Jiangnan region, where there was plenty of oil and water, the number of powerful families was far more than that in the northeast.

Moreover, many large families are linked together through children's marriages, partnerships, etc., and the relationships are complicated.

If the criminal family is directly wiped out as before, it is likely to force these Jiangnan clans to really unite and rebel behind their backs.

The so-called open guns are easy to block, but hidden arrows are difficult to prevent.

Although the Northwest Army was invincible on the frontal battlefield, it was sometimes unable to guard against these various conspiracies and tricks from various ethnic groups in the south of the Yangtze River.

As for killing all these families, it is even more impossible. This was done by Cao Cao, a generation of heroes, but it turned out that it didn't work at all, and there were endless troubles.

Therefore, the best way to deal with it is not to engage in joint sitting, only to do it to the family, and try not to implicate the entire family.

Even in the specific way of dealing with one's own family, it is more prudent to try to adopt the method of only pursuing the original culprit and not harming the family.

In other words, only those who participated in the incident should be held accountable, and those who should be beheaded should be beheaded, without mercy.

As for how to deal with the prisoner's family, Chi Fei strongly disapproves of the practice of confiscating the prisoner's wife and daughter into official prostitutes, and the rest of the men being exiled for thousands of miles.

This approach is not only extremely inhumane, but also prone to future problems.

If the first-class people escape halfway, maybe many years later, there will be unscrupulous people like Yan Beiqing who want revenge and come back to make trouble.

In order to prevent retaliation from the families of prisoners, the best way is to demote all the families of prisoners to military households.

The military households of the Great Wei were all family members of prisoners who had been convicted of crimes, and they became military households after being sentenced to the army, and they could only be converted into civilians after five generations.

These military households were essentially serfs in the army, and they were responsible for cultivating the fields and providing military rations for the army.

Their children can also join the army as soldiers, and as long as they have served in the army for three consecutive generations, they can become civilians early. Therefore, there will still be many children of military families who choose to become soldiers.

In the same way, demoting the family members of the offenders to military households can allow them to contribute their labor under the supervision of the army and make meritorious contributions to their crimes.

If, after five generations, the family still wants to avenge the great-great-great-great-grandfather who committed the crime back then, it will be regarded as a strange person in ten thousand.

It is impossible for ordinary people to do this, even for the sake of future generations in the family, and they do not want them to continue to take the desperate road of revenge.

This practice of reducing the families of prisoners to military households is far better than the traditional practice of confiscating prisoners' wives and daughters into official prostitutes and exiling men for thousands of miles, and it can also increase the labor force for the army, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone.

After listening to his little son-in-law's suggestion, Ning Zhiyuan felt that it was quite reasonable, so he showed mercy and only investigated the main culprits of the four major families of Shang, Zhong, Duan, and Mi, and did not exterminate the entire family together.

But even so, Ning Zhiyuan's thunderous methods still frightened the Jiangnan family.

As for the temperament of this Northwest general, they finally got a first glimpse.

On the Huainan side, Ning Zhiyuan, who had just disposed of the four major families of Shang, Zhong, Duan, and Mi, could be described as proud and smiling.

It is worthy of being the four most wealthy and powerful families in the Huainan region, and the amount of property and grain copied from their homes this time is much more than he expected.

This time, Ning Zhiyuan, who is the leader of the bandits, can be regarded as slaughtering four big fat sheep, and he has been in a very good mood for a few days, and everyone is laughing.

Ning Zhiyuan has never been a stingy general, and he knows the truth of clear rewards and punishments.

Just like when he was rectifying the local Haoqiang in the Northeast, he distributed different amounts of property to each subordinate general as a reward according to his official rank, and even ordinary soldiers increased their military salaries for two months in one go, with a posture that everyone has a share.

This time, it made the officers and men of the whole army happy and jubilant, and everyone couldn't wait to meet a few more such fat sheep.

The share that Chi Fei received was the largest and most valuable of the finest goods.

If nothing else, there are more than a dozen necklaces strung with each thumb-sized, rounded South Sea pearl. Almost every string sold can be exchanged for a three- or four-entry house, and its value can be imagined.

Not to mention the other gold and silver jewelry, which almost had to be packed in sacks.

Seeing such a rich spoils of war, Chi Fei couldn't help but feel again, sure enough, in ancient society, there was nothing more profitable than fighting.

In addition, the wealth of these wealthy families also gave him a new understanding of the richness of Jiangnan.

After the battle and the spoils, it's time to get down to business.

After rectifying the four major families, Ning Zhiyuan began a large-scale inventory campaign to re-measure land and check hidden households in the entire Huainan area.

Even the officials and personnel in charge of the measurement were brought from the northwest and northeast, and no locals were used to avoid collusion with each other.

The Northwest Army only recognizes the land deed and the land deed, and it must also have a contract filed with the government, otherwise it will be invalid.

Under the force and pressure of more than 100,000 Northwest troops, the remaining families did not dare to be demons anymore, so they could only pinch their noses and obediently cooperate with the investigation.

As a result, this investigation really found a large number of state-owned land and tax evasion land occupied by the powerful family, as well as a large number of hidden households who were treated as serfs and did not have to pay poll tax.

The number of them is even greater than that of the Northeast.

As for the encroached land and hidden households that were discovered, Ning Zhiyuan did not completely follow the practice of the Northeast to let the peasants claim all of them, but divided the fields into three types: high-grade fields, medium-class fields, and low-class fields.

The upper and middle fields were nationalized, and only the lower fields were taken out for local farmers to claim.

This is a suggestion made by Zhang Wenxuan long before the expedition.

According to Zhang Wenxuan's meaning, the fields in the south of the Yangtze River are fertile, even if they are low-grade fields, they can be called medium-sized fields in the northeast, and they are even more high-quality fields in the poor areas of the northwest.

Therefore, the Ning family could have nationalized the high-quality and medium-class fields, and then leased out these fields to the landless tenant farmers to cultivate as a source of income for the state treasury. In addition, part of the state-owned land can also be used as a reward for rewarding meritorious officials in the future.

The same was done elsewhere, with the aim of turning the royal family into a super-large landlord with the largest number of high-class and medium-class fields, so that the treasury would have a stable income.

Ning Zhiyuan felt that Zhang Wenxuan's suggestion was quite reasonable, so he did it according to his method this time.

The land confiscated from the four major families of Shang, Zhong, Duan, and Mi, as well as the superior and medium fields of the encroached land confiscated from the various wealthy families, were nationalized, and then a large number of hidden households who were sold into slavery were allowed to cultivate these fertile fields.

For the time being, only 30% of the land is harvested each year, and the rest is owned by tenant farmers.

And restore the identities of these hermits who were sold into slavery, so that they can become good citizens again.

The remaining inferior fields were taken out for the local peasants to claim, and it was stipulated that as long as the claimants had cultivated the land for five years and paid 50% of the land every year, the public land could be turned into private land and allowed to be bought and sold freely.

In addition, Ning Zhiyuan relied on the fact that he had a lot of "ill-gotten gains" in his pocket, and directly issued a local announcement, clearly ordering that from today onwards, all farmers in the entire Huainan area will be exempted from tax for one year. If an official dares to disobey the order, he will be severely punished.

As soon as these two policies came out, especially the one-year tax exemption, it immediately caused a huge shock among the local people.

Could it be that this Ning family is really so generous, not only taking out so many fields to help the poor, but also willing to tax exemption for a year?

A few days later, as more and more bold farmers claimed up to 50% of the public land, and the tax exemption policy was fully implemented, the people who had been skeptical finally began to believe that this was true.

The people were extremely surprised and rushed to tell each other.

The Ning family, which promulgated these two decrees, also quickly won the support and praise of the local people, and its reputation among the local people can be said to be growing day by day.

More and more people are sincerely grateful to the Ning family, because this one-year tax exemption policy has enabled many families who were originally struggling to survive due to the plague and war to finally take a breath and not starve to death.

Taking advantage of the fact that the people began to improve, Ning Zhiyuan also asked some soldiers of the Northwest Army to help the displaced people rebuild their homes while the iron was hot, or to patrol around to maintain local law and order to prevent anyone from taking advantage of the opportunity to cause chaos.

Due to the previous two policies for the benefit of the people, coupled with the strict military discipline of the soldiers of the Northwest Army.

For a time, the people of Huainan, who were originally full of fear of the Northwest Army, quickly became staunch supporters.

Even at this time, whoever dares to speak ill of the Ning family and the Northwest Army is likely to be besieged by everyone.

In fact, most of the people in Jiangnan who have just experienced the plague and war have difficulty even supporting their own families, let alone paying taxes for the coming year.

Ning Zhiyuan, Zhang Wenxuan, Chi Fei and others naturally knew this, so the Ning family had already set a policy of implementing tax exemption for one year to the people in the entire territory of Jiangnan to restore their vitality.

However, Ning Zhiyuan only implemented the tax exemption policy in the Huainan area, rather than fully implementing this policy in the provinces south of the Yangtze River, which has a deep purpose.

According to the youngest son-in-law Chi Fei, this is to build the image of the Northwest Army as a liberator.

That is to say, as long as the Northwest Army goes, the people there can enjoy preferential benefits of tax exemption for one year.

When the news spread, the people in other places, who were suffering from heavy taxes, naturally looked forward to the arrival of the Northwest Army, instead of being as fearful and fearful as before.

Since it has long been decided to implement a one-year tax exemption policy for the provinces south of the Yangtze River to restore their vitality, they should simply use this as a signboard to brush up the favorability of the Ning family and the Northwest Army among the people in various places.

This is the best way to buy people's hearts, and it is far more useful than the public notice, so there is now the Huainan area tax exemption decree.

As soon as the public land claim policy and tax exemption order came out, the common people in Huainan naturally praised and applauded.

Compared with the joy of the people, those powerful families are crying bitterly and wailing.

Because the Ning family not only wants to recover the encroached state-owned land, but also asks them to make corresponding compensation.

Every mu of land that has been encroached upon or evaded in taxes must be taken as the standard for the harvest of high-grade paddy fields, and compensation for three years' grain output will not be enough, not even a pound of less, and only grain will be collected, not silver.

This compensation order completely blew up the nest of many powerful families.

This Ning family is really ruthless.

If this is the case, wouldn't it be to take out more than half of their family's grain stockpile?

And now that there is a famine in all parts of the south of the Yangtze River, food is far more expensive than silver and gold, isn't this equivalent to digging their ancestral graves?

It's tolerable, it's unbearable. Since your Ning family is unkind, then don't blame us for being unjust.

For a while, the powerful families in Jiangnan who were still waiting and watching finally couldn't bear it anymore, and they united to fight the Ning family to the end, and they couldn't accept this condition no matter what.

Soon, large and small private armies appeared in various parts of the Yangtze River, ranging from a few thousand to tens of thousands, and as many as 70,000 or 80,000 people.

These private armed forces held various flags to control the local government and occupy the county seat, putting on a posture that if the Ning family refused to revise the decree, they would fight to the death with the Northwest Army.

In the whole of Jiangnan combined, there are almost more than 300,000 horses.

This is the reason why Xie Mingshun, the Duke of Anguo, will be jealous of the Jiangnan clan, what he fears is that they will unite and rebel together.

And what about the Ning family?

In the face of the continuous emergence of private armed organizations in various places, Ning Zhiyuan waved his hand and issued a military order to the whole army: Anyone who disobeys the order will be killed!

As a result, the Eastern Front Army led by Ning Zhiyuan himself, and the Western Front Army led by Xiao Zhijian, the two armies swept all the way from two directions.

Once they encounter a county town that dares to resist and disobey the order, they will directly send troops to attack the city without saying a word.

With the blessing of powerful firearms such as floor guns and muskets, the Northwest Army, which was already brave and good at fighting, was even more invincible and unstoppable.

Everywhere the army went, these private armies composed of the family's private soldiers suffered countless casualties and mourning.

In less than a month, nearly half of the Jiangnan clan was cleaned up by the Northwest Army.

All the big families who participated in the rebellion were all beheaded by the Northwest Army, and the whole family was demoted to a military household.

This battle directly caused hundreds of great families that had endured for several generations to fall and be lost to the public.

Including the private soldiers and civilians they raised, the number of people involved exceeded one million.

Because the number of people involved was too large, later generations would call this liquidation campaign the "Jiangnan Great Liquidation".

Seeing that the Northwest Army was so strong, the remaining families finally couldn't bear it, and they surrendered one after another, and took the initiative to accept the compensation request made by the Ning family before.

Ning Zhiyuan was willing to let go of these local moths who were accustomed to seeing the wind and rudder, and immediately put forward a new demand for compensation for them.

It is necessary not only to compensate for the grain output per mu for three years, but also to pay additional rent.

That is, each household must pay 20 years of rent according to the amount of land occupied and evaded by taxes, and the rent price during the Jing'an Emperor period should be used as the compensation standard.

That is to say, for every mu of land that is encroached upon or evaded in taxes, not only must three years of grain output be compensated, but also 20 years of rent must be paid at the rent price during the Jing'an Emperor's period, and not a penny will be missing.

This new regulation immediately made a lot of family members cry bitterly.

This Ning family clearly wants both food and money, which is really more ruthless than an iron rooster.

However, in the face of the invincible Northwest Army, which had a large number of firearms and was invincible, they were unable to resist at all, so they could only be forced to accept this condition.

After this battle, the Ning family not only succeeded in recovering a large amount of encroached state-owned land, but also obtained a huge amount of grain and property from the family members who were beheaded by the raid.

Now, coupled with the loss of grain and silver from these wealthy families who have already entered the line, the net worth of the Ning family has skyrocketed several times in an instant, and there is no richer family in the world than the Ning family.

This large-scale inspection campaign, that is, the plan to eat large households, not only solved the problem of food shortage in the near future, but also obtained a large amount of military funds, which made Ning Zhiyuan so happy that he couldn't close his mouth.

However, not all of the Jiangnan clans who were swept away by the Ning family were willing to admit defeat.

Since the hard ones don't work, let's come with the soft ones.

Soon, all kinds of rumors that were unfavorable to the Ning family began to spread gradually throughout Jiangnan.

Some say that the siege of Xinjing was the result of collusion between the Ning family and the Hu people. Later, because of the uneven distribution of the spoils, the two sides fought.

Some say that the Ning family is even more ferocious than the Hu people, and they wielded butcher knives at the people of Jiangnan, causing millions of civilians to die at the hands of the Northwest Army.

Some people say that Ning Zhiyuan himself is a womanizer, and the reason why he kills many families is to occupy the wives and daughters of each family.

In short, all kinds of rumors began to spread, and they became more and more intense.

At this moment, the "Seeking Truth", which had been silent for a long time, reappeared and quickly spread to the provinces south of the Yangtze River.

This time, "Qiuzhen Bao" not only reported in detail the recent movements of the Northwest Army, but also reorganized the rebellions that occurred in various parts of the Yangtze River.

For many people who want to know about current affairs, the appearance of "Seeking Truth" is too timely. Too many people want to know what's going on on the East and West lines lately.

However, all of this is far less eye-catching than one of the miscellaneous talks called "Notes on the Journey to the East".

The reason why this miscellaneous essay is remarkable is that its author is signed "Chi Fei".

Chi Fei?!

Could it be that the author of this miscellaneous note is really Mr. Chi Fei, the author of the three masterpieces of "Liang Zhu", "Xianxia" and "Rebirth", which were popular all over the country back then? !

For a while, because of this miscellaneous note, the author's name, the latest issue of "Seeking Truth" has become the hottest topic in Xinjing and even in the whole of Jiangnan.

Especially many of Mr. Chi Fei's book lovers, they were even more excited and rushed to tell each other.