——Time back to the ninth day of the first month of November——

On the same day, after defeating Xiong Tuo, the king of Xucheng, in the area of Mushan, Zhao Hongrun, the king of Su, did not take advantage of the situation to take the lands of Linying, Zhaoling, and Xiping, because before that, he had to settle the dispute over the more than 50,000 Chu army prisoners.

You must know that Zhao Hongrun only has 20,000 Junshui troops and 10,000 Yanling soldiers under his command, while the Chu army has as many as 50,000 prisoners, and the side with the superior strength is captured by the side with inferior troops, which is a very dangerous thing, because if it is not handled carefully, once these 50,000 Chu soldiers start a riot, the 30,000 Wei soldiers under Zhao Hongrun will suffer far greater casualties than on the battlefield.

In this regard, Bailiba's suggestion is still to kill, as the so-called non-our race must have a different heart, this general who was born in a military family and has been taught by the sect since he was a child, can't trust those Chu troops at all, even if it is Qu Cheng, Gu Liangwei, Wu Ma Jiao, and Wu Ji, he is also half-convinced at the moment, let alone those Chu soldiers.

In this matter, Qu Cheng for the first time put forward an objection to the Wei generals represented by Bailiba.

He said to Zhao Hongrun sincerely: "His Royal Highness King Su, it is ominous to kill prisoners for no reason. Moreover, most of the soldiers of the Chu State are not standing troops, those Chu soldiers, in the non-war period, are just poor farmers of the Chu State, they helped the Emperor Xiong Tuo of the city to invade the Great Wei, just for money to support the old and young in the family, although they are afraid of Xiong Tuona and other princes and nobles, but there is no loyalty at all, as long as His Royal Highness lures them, they may not fall to His Highness, to the Great Wei. ”

Hearing this, Gu Liangwei, Wu Majiao, and Wu Ji also nodded one after another, firstly, they were also from the bottom of the Chu State, so they would naturally pity those Chu soldiers who were in the same class as them, and secondly, this matter was related to the life and death of the entire 50,000 Chu captives, if they could not convince His Royal Highness the King of Su. Perhaps His Royal Highness the King of Su would listen to the advice of the great general of Baili Ba, and kill all the 50,000 Chu soldiers in order to reduce the burden.

"Tempting them with profit?" Zhao Hongrun pondered for a moment, and asked Qu Cheng: "If this king gives Chu soldiers who are willing to surrender to my Great Wei, a house and ten acres of land will be exempted from taxation for three years, and then according to the tax of my Great Wei after three years." Take one of the five, are they willing to surrender to my Great Wei? ”

Qu Cheng, Gu Liangwei, Wu Majiao, and Wu Ji were stunned when they heard this, and after half a ring, Wu Ji asked timidly: "Your Highness, is the tax of Great Wei twenty percent?" ”

"That's right." Zhao Hongrun replied inexplicably.

Wu Ji seemed a little incredulous after hearing this, and asked again: "Are there any other taxes?" ”

"This ...... The matter of taxation, this king is not very clear......" Zhao Hongrun looked at Bailiba with some hesitation, but saw Bailiba shrugging. said: "I don't know very well, but as far as I know, the people of Dawei generally only pay the 'tithe' field tax, and in addition, after paying the field tax, they don't have to pay the 'household tax'. On the other hand, if a family has no land, they only need to pay a household tax, which in previous years was about 20 yuan per household per year. It's about ten taels. If the household tax is not paid, it can also be replaced by forced labor. And then there's military service. From the age of thirteen to thirty-five, it is possible to be conscripted into the army, but most of these are just local guards, unless the national situation is urgent and compulsory recruitment, otherwise it is like the Dangshan battalion. And my Junshui battalion won't recruit those recruits. Speaking of this, he couldn't help but boast to himself: "The soldiers of my Junshui Battalion are not even qualified to go to the battlefield if they have been training for less than a year. ”

Hearing his last sentence, Qu Cheng, Gu Liangwei, Wu Majiao, and Wu Ji couldn't help but turn their heads to look at Bailiba. I was secretly speechless.

Look at the Wei soldiers, they don't even have the qualifications to go to the battlefield after less than a year of training, and then look at the Chu army where they used to be, recruit a group of poor peasants to train for about a month and a half, and immediately put them into the battlefield, no wonder the Wei soldiers in the Junshui battalion are almost all one enemy, and it is not a problem to kill a few Chu soldiers in a single battle.

However, Bailiba didn't notice the gaze of Qu Cheng and the others, shrugged his shoulders and continued: "In addition, my Great Wei also has commercial taxes, salt taxes, and mountain (mine) taxes, but those are not aimed at ordinary people, so for us and others, it doesn't matter......

"In other words, the field endowment, the household endowment, and the conscription, choose one of the three......" Wu Ji muttered to himself.

Seeing his appearance, Zhao Hongrun couldn't help but ask, "Is it very heavy?" My Great Wei's Taxes? ”

I saw Wu Ji lick his lips and said with a wry smile: "If His Royal Highness has also experienced the heavy tax of 'tithe', he will not feel that the tax of 'tithe' is heavy...... What's more, it can also be replaced by forced labor. ”

"Tithe?" Li Qi, the general under the command of Bailiba, looked at the four generals of the Chu State in surprise, as if with an expression of disbelief.

"Yes, tithe......"

Gu Liangwei and Wu Ma Jiao also smiled bitterly and agreed.

"......" Zhao Hongrun couldn't help but exchange a look with Bailiba, I believe both of them wondered why a tyrannical country like Chu had not died so far.

Probably guessing what they were thinking, Qu Cheng shook his head slightly and said: "In the country of Chu, it is not that there have been no riots, but the princes and nobles in various places have suppressed them with private soldiers. …… In addition, this tax is not set by the king of Chu, the tax set by the king of Chu is only thirty percent, but the princes and nobles of the Xiong clan in various places will rise on the basis of these two percent, in other words, thirty percent of the annual income of the people of Chu will be attributed to the king of Chu, and two percent will be attributed to the princes of the Xiong family in various places...... Wu Ji is a person near Xiangcheng, the former Xiangcheng Jun Xiong Ling's people, when Xiangcheng Jun Xiong Cheng once set the tax at fifty percent, and later Xuancheng Jun Xiong Tuo and Pingyu Jun Xiong Hu conspired against Xiangcheng Jun Xiong Ling's territory, and then reduced the tax to forty percent...... From this point of view, Xiong Tuo was far less greedy than the rest of the princes in Chu. His Royal Highness didn't know that it was not uncommon for the nobles of some territories in Chu to set their taxes at seventy percent, or even eighty percent. ”

"The country of Chu has not died so far...... It's unimaginable.'"

Zhao Hongrun shook his head wordlessly, you must know that even if it is the tax of 'tithe', he feels that it is quite heavy, but he didn't expect that compared to the Chu State, it is really a small thing, and it is not enough to compare at all.

"And what about the advice of the four of you?" Zhao Hongrun glanced at Qu Cheng and the others.

I saw Qu Cheng think for a while, and said: "Actually, His Royal Highness doesn't need to allocate additional houses and fields, if there is still wasteland in the territory of Great Wei, as long as they are allowed to reclaim it by themselves, the tax they take is also 20%, I believe that most of the Chu soldiers are willing to return to Great Wei with their families." ”

"Uncultivated wasteland? I really don't know this king. Zhao Hongrun hesitated, because he really didn't know much about it.

At this moment, I heard someone shouting not far away: "Uncultivated wasteland? South of the Yellow River, the land of three rivers, an endless wasteland. ”

Everyone turned their heads in surprise, and happened to see Meng Kui, the left attendant of the Ministry of Works, running here out of breath.

"Lord Meng."

Zhao Hongrun and the others got up to greet him.

"Congratulations to His Royal Highness King Su and the generals for their great victory in this battle!" Meng Kui hurriedly walked in front of Zhao Hongrun and the others, and congratulated with a smile.

Zhao Hongrun arched his hand and said with a smile: "Thank you, thank you." …… Lord Meng has just arrived? ”

I saw Meng Kui arching his hand towards everyone here, nodded and said: "General Debaili ordered his soldiers to deliver the good news to the camp, and the lower officials followed His Highness's instructions and drove a carriage with four thousand Yanling soldiers to transport the materials needed for the attack on Chu to this place in a carriage...... For the sake of prudence, Xia Guan still left a thousand Yanling soldiers in the camp to guard, hoping that His Royal Highness would not blame Xia Guan for making his own opinions. ”

Zhao Hongrun smiled slightly when he heard this, you must know that he originally asked Meng Kui to ask the five thousand Yanling soldiers who stayed behind to rush here with the supplies and baggage in the camp after getting the news of the victory of his army, as for the Yanshui camp, it was empty, but the cautious Meng Kui left a thousand soldiers in the camp to prepare for all kinds of emergencies.

A mere 1,000 Yanling soldiers, compared to the matter that Zhao Hongrun is considering at the moment, it seems insignificant, after all, if this matter goes well, he can get tens of thousands of troops from the Chu State, where can a mere 1,000 Yanling soldiers compare.

"As Master Meng said, there are countless wastelands in the land of Sanchuan in Henan?"

"Exactly." Meng Kui nodded, stroked his beard and said: "In fact, if it weren't for the Chu army attacking our Great Wei, our Ministry of Industry would have begun to invest in the construction of the land of Sanchuan in Henan in the second half of this year...... In June, our Ministry of Industry submitted a petition to the Vertical Arch Palace, wanting to recruit 100,000 people to reclaim the land of Sanchuan, but unfortunately 100,000 people is not a small number for my Great Wei...... However, may it solve the urgent needs of His Highness? ”

"Will the Chu soldiers be placed in the land of Sanchuan, Henan?" Zhao Hongrun pondered for a while, and did not rush to make a decision, after all, this kind of major event has a lot to do, he has to think carefully about it against the territory of Great Wei before deciding, and besides, this kind of thing has to ask his father Emperor Wei Tianzi and the meaning of the Great Wei court, and it is not something that he can decide alone.

But even so, Meng Kui made a good suggestion to him, and at the same time made Zhao Hongrun understand that the most important thing about the narrow territory of Great Wei was the fundamental problem of insufficient population. In the huge Great Wei, the Ministry of Industry made it difficult to recruit 100,000 people, which made Zhao Hongrun a little angry.

After pondering for a moment, Zhao Hongrun looked at Qu Cheng and the others, and decided: "Qu Cheng, just follow what you say." ”

Qu Cheng and the others were shocked when they heard this, after all, Zhao Hongrun's promise meant that he would find a way to get the more than 50,000 Chu army captives to surrender to Great Wei, instead of killing them all in order to reduce the burden.

The four of Qu Cheng couldn't help but feel Zhao Hongrun's attention to them, and said in unison: "His Royal Highness King Su is benevolent!" ”

"But this king has a word first, if those Chu soldiers refuse to surrender to my Great Wei, it seems that in the current situation, this king will have to kill."

"The last will understand." Qu Cheng nodded in understanding, and then asked, "I don't know if there is anything I need to do for the same thing?" ”

"Come." Zhao Hongrun hooked his finger towards Qu Cheng and the other four.

Seeing this, Qu Cheng and the others stepped forward.

"You go back to the Chu army first......" Zhao Hongrun whispered his decision to Qu Cheng and the others, only to hear the four of them nodding again and again.

"The last will understand."

The four of them hugged their fists and went back to the Chu army.

Soon after, Zhao Hongrun ordered Li Qi, Gong Yuan, Wu Ben, and Yu Chun to supervise more than 50,000 Chu soldiers to dig a huge pit that could bury 20,000 or 30,000 people at the foot of Mushan Mountain. (To be continued.) )