Since Yang Feng's envoy came to ask for surrender, Cao Zhang knew that it would be difficult for Yuan Shu, who only had old and weak soldiers, to leave Huainan, because Yang Feng had been wandering in Huainan for a long time and must be very familiar with the terrain, and it would be very easy to follow Yuan Shu to pursue him. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

But Cao Zhang is still not idle, now there are many thieves in Runan, and many of them are supported by local wealthy families, so Cao Zhang took 400 tigers and leopards and 1,000 soldiers given by Li Tong to start sweeping up the thieves in Runan.

There are also two acquaintances of Cao Zhang, Li Tong's two sons Li Xu and Li Ji, Li Xu is 11 years old this year, and Li Ji is 9 years old, but seeing Cao Zhang, who is similar in age to them, also went to the battlefield, so they also asked their father Li Tong, Li Tong is obviously more open-minded, and readily agreed, in his opinion, those thieves who gathered hundreds of people will not be the opponent of the tiger and leopard cavalry and the elite soldiers under their command at all, so the two sons will not be in any danger.

Li Xu and Li Ji have been in Runan for a long time with their father Li Tong, and they also know a lot about the local wealthy families.

In the Han Dynasty, the blacksmith shop was not allowed to produce weapons, and the weapons were produced in the arsenal belonging to the imperial court, but in the late Han Dynasty, the three policies of selecting talents, the system of expropriation, the inspection system, and the Renzi system gradually became a tool to serve the wealthy family, and thieves began to run rampant.

This phenomenon is actually a vicious circle, first of all, there are people in a wealthy family, in order to make their own family in the local exploitation of greater interests, so under their own rule conniving thieves to rob the township, and many of these thieves are strong men from the proud family's own family, after robbing the stolen goods, the thieves keep a small share, and the large part is dedicated to the wealthy family, so that the hidden income of the wealthy family has increased a lot.

And because of the protection and appeasement of local officials, thieves are becoming more and more rampant, at this time, the wealthy family plays a role in defending local tranquility, spending huge sums of money to recruit strong men, forging weapons, defending against thieves, slowly, the local wealthy family has become an armed force that cannot be ignored, which is also the reason why the local wealthy family is dominant in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, in the final analysis, it is because the officials are all wealthy families, and the distribution of interests is seriously uneven, resulting in a sharp rise in the power of the wealthy family.

This is a phenomenon of a family of officials and bandits, first of all, the magistrate shielded the thieves supported by the wealthy family, looted the township, and obtained abnormal income, and then the wealthy family used the banner of defending the homeland to fund the recruitment of private soldiers, forging weapons, and the thieves who were already with their own gang sang a double reed, won the hearts of the people and increased their power, and then the wealthy and thieves who formed a tacit understanding went to one side, and the thieves went to rob other places, and the wealthy family used their own private soldiers to clamp down on the new magistrates, monopolize all kinds of money-making industries, and make huge profits.

This is why in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, the blacksmith shop could not build weapons but the local wealthy family was able to raise private soldiers, the wealthy family in this era is a kind of gray area, the bright is to let their children out, the secret is to support the rogue robbery, and then play the image of the protector, this phenomenon abounds, except for Yanzhou, which passed through Zhang Miao's rebellion, the local forces were purged by Cao Cao once, the situation in other states and counties is similar, which is why Yuan Shao was able to gather more than 100,000 troops, And Cao Cao, who sat with him on the Heluo Plain and the land of Sanqin, only had tens of thousands of troops.

The private soldiers of the local power Hao clan in Hebei were all used by Yuan Shao, but the Hao clan in Cao Cao's territory still took charge of themselves, and the army under Cao Cao was all his own subordinate soldiers and descendants, and it could almost be said that there were no private soldiers of the Hao clan, and there were fewer natural people.

Of course, in the gap between the wealthy clan, local officials, and thieves, there is another kind of group, that is, the clan, such as Li Tong, Xu Chu is the leader of the clan, they are because they can not bear the nuisance of the rogues, and the exploitation of the Hao clan, they have gathered a group of fierce people to protect themselves, and over time, they can also occupy some townships and counties, but they say that it is not good to say that it is a group of rabble, it is difficult to become a climate, and it is not easy to be sandwiched between the Hao clan and the rogue Kou, and in the end they will still choose to take refuge in one of the princes, For example, Li Tong and Xu Chu chose Cao Cao.

Therefore, in the late Han Dynasty, if a thief could be undefeated in a place, it was very likely that he had the support of local forces and the protection of local officials, because these thieves were not bound by the rules and could wantonly rob the people and make huge profits for the local wealthy clans, which was a good tool for making money.

After knowing these things, Cao Zhang has a deeper understanding of the local wealthy family, no wonder many Taishou have to hire local famous people to be officials, because they are the real masters of the place, there are soldiers in the Ming place, ** there are thieves, maybe there are big officials above, if you are a little Taishou If you are not obedient, let the thieves make trouble, and then let the big officials above impeach you for governing the place is unfavorable, and it won't be long before an obedient Taishou comes.

This shows the benefits of Cao Cao's dedication to the emperor, because of the dedication of the emperor, Cao Cao's officials can show their strength when they take up local posts, and they do not need to be coerced by the local wealthy clans, thieves are rampant, and your wealthy clans can impeach me for governing no way, but the Son of Heaven does not recognize it, I am still too guarded, you have no way at all, to a certain extent, Cao Cao played a role in restraining the local tyrants when he welcomed the Son of Heaven.

Because many Taishou brought soldiers to the place, although the local wealthy families did not dare to do it, but connived at the thieves to rob the house and let the relatives in the DPRK impeach the Taishou, no matter how many soldiers were too guarded, they still had to step down, unless it was an iron-fisted Taishou such as Sun Jian, and the thieves secretly supported by the Hao clan could not fight back, and there was no way to impeach, if not, as a Taishou, even if there were soldiers, they could only choose to cooperate, because the local tycoons basically had officials in the DPRK and China.

But this situation changed after Cao Cao greeted the Son of Heaven, no matter how big the relatives of the Hao clan were in the court, they were not as big as the emperor, and if they wanted to be impeached, they had to be recognized by the emperor to count, and the emperor did not recognize it, and the Taishou was still too shou, and he could still slowly rectify the snake in his own territory.

This is also the reason why Yang Biao feels that he has no energy to return to his hometown, he can't cover it, what is he doing if he doesn't go home?

After the introduction of Li Xu and Li Ji, Cao Zhang believes that it is not easy to eradicate the local forces in Runan now, because Yuan Shao has not lost, and Yuan Shu has not died, if he dares to act against the local forces, and the local wealthy families join forces to fight back, it will be very tricky, and after Yuan Shu is destroyed, the arrogance of the local forces in Runan will fall, and then wait until Yuan Shu loses the battle, then it is the best time to eradicate the local forces.

And now, Cao Zhang can only choose the method of treating the symptoms rather than the root cause, frantically sweeping away the thieves and weakening the armed forces of the local wealthy clans.