Although the riot of thousands of tenant farmers in Chongming County was quickly quelled by Li Weiguo, Xiao Yang, the conspirator behind him, not only failed to cause trouble for Li Weiguo, but caused heavy losses to his family's property, and even the landlords who formed an alliance with Xiao Yang against Li Weiguo also complained and blamed him.

In the Xiao family's mansion on Middle Street, in the study, Xiao Yang was lying on the Taishi chair with a sick face, he was not lightly ill, he was angry, he had been in the officialdom for decades, and he couldn't fight Li Weiguo, a young man who had just entered the officialdom, and his old face was thrown to Mars, how could he not be angry.

At this time, the housekeeper of the Xiao family, who went out to inquire about the situation, came in to report.

"Master, I've found out." The housekeeper said respectfully: "The county magistrate's cash-for-work is to let those tenants repair the dikes and houses that were washed away by the flood, and the county government will provide money and food. ”

Listening to the report of the subordinates, Xiao Yang's brows gradually tightened, and he gritted his teeth and said: "Those lowly Diao people who resist paying the rent are disobedient to the king, and openly smash and rob the landlords, which is equivalent to an open rebellion, Li Weiguo's stinky boy who has not dried up not only does not offend these Diao people, but now he wants to help these untouchables with work for relief, it is really unreasonable, I am angry with the old man!" ”

Boom!

The tea bowl fell to the ground, and the porcelain piece could fly several meters away from the window, which shows how angry Xiao Yang is at the moment.

"The old man is angry, don't be angry." The housekeeper hurriedly comforted: "That Li family kid is just a clown jumping off the beam, although he wins a small victory over the master, but like the Monkey King, he will never be able to turn over the five-fingered mountain of the Buddha, and in the end, he can't change the fate of his head in a different place." Didn't the lord already do something in the account books, just ask the governor of Liangjiang to send someone to send him to prison and ask him to be punished. ”

Xiao Yang glanced up at the housekeeper, and when he said this, his mood was much better, and he said proudly: "That's!" Master, how can I find out what he has done, a stinky boy? The excerpt to the Governor of Liangjiang has already been handed over, at most for a month, at least for half a month, and the Governor will punish him for a serious crime of embezzlement and bribery, and send him to prison for questioning. ”

He paused, and continued: "This kid is really hateful, first the old man to his mouth to the disaster relief food was taken back by him, yesterday he deliberately sat still and watched those untouchables smash and rob my Xiao family, before and after the old man lost tens of thousands of taels of silver, the old man can't wait to pick his skin and pull his tendons, if you just put him in prison to ask for the guilt, it is really not hateful, if you don't teach him a hard lesson, the old man really can't swallow this bad breath!" ”

The housekeeper thought about it, so he said: "The old slave has a plan, which can be used for the lord to take such a breath and implement it together with the fake account plan made by the lord, maybe it is not impossible for the governor to directly order him to be beheaded." ”

"Oh, the plan will be released?" Xiao Yang looked at the housekeeper, there were no weak soldiers under the strong general, and the housekeeper of his Xiao family was naturally not easy to match, Xiao Yang wanted to know what tricks he had, and showed an expectant look.

The housekeeper smiled and said: "Although the county lord is young, he is shrewd and tight, and he proposed that the work for relief can not only appease the untouchables who have lost their homes and land, but also get the support of the people. ”

Xiao Yang frowned, and said: "How can the old man not know that this kid is cunning, if he wins over the people's hearts, I am afraid that even if there is a plan to fake accounts, it will be difficult to put him to death." I heard that this kid has the support of foreigners behind him, and if he can't kill him with one move, I'm afraid he will give him a chance to turn over, and if the foreigner has an excuse to interfere to save him, it is not impossible for the old man to suffer at that time. ”

"Don't worry, master, the old slave's plan will make him unable to turn over."

The housekeeper smiled confidently and whispered a few times in Xiao Yang's ear, Xiao Yang nodded obediently, showing joy, and then made the housekeeper fully responsible.

After the tenant farmers' rebellion that day, Li Weiguo promised to give the thousands of tenant farmers the opportunity to work for relief. The specific implementation method is that the county government will pay for these tenant farmers to build river embankments and rebuild their homes, which can not only complete the post-disaster reconstruction tasks stipulated by the state government, but also give these tenant farmers the opportunity to work and make money, killing two birds with one stone.

However, a few days later, the tenant farmers in other parts of Chongming County also knew that the new county magistrate appeased the tenant farmers and gave them work for relief, and they were also brutally exploited by the landlords, but they were a little timid and did not dare to resist, they learned that Chongming County ordered Li Weiguo and Li to love the people like a son, and was a great good official, so they gathered together and went to the county government to petition, begging Li Weiguo to give them the opportunity to work for relief.

The entire Chongming County has a registered population of 200,000 and a floating population of tens of thousands, and since most of the powerful factions in the former county magistrates and officials came from local landlords and gentry families, they deliberately let the near the civilian areas be washed away during the catastrophic floods, so as to protect the landlords, gentry, and wealthy households from the floods or be less affected by the floods. However, the proportion of the population of these rich people is very small, not even a fraction of the total population, and the total number of people is only a few thousand, while the number of civilians affected by the disaster is as high as 200,000.

"Young master, there are nearly 10,000 more people gathered outside the yamen today than yesterday, and they have all heard about the county government's work-for-relief thing!" Zhang Xiaoliu hurriedly walked into the county hall and reported to Li Weiguo, who was reviewing the official documents.

Li Weiguo frowned and asked, "How much silver is left in the county government treasury?" ”

"Less than 20,000 taels!" Zhang Xiaoliu replied by the way: "The household warden said that if it goes on like this, within ten days, the county government will have no capital turnover. ”

Li Weiguo suddenly had a headache, and in order to appease the thousands of tenant farmers who had rioted and make them not to cause further trouble, he came up with a clever plan to provide relief through work, which appeased the mob and won a good reputation for loving the people. However, this good reputation of loving the people is not so easy, as the people in Chongming County spread the news of the county government's cash-for-work, a large number of refugees have flocked to the county government, asking the county government to give them the opportunity to work for relief.

Seeing that in just a few days, the silver in the treasury of the Kung Fu County Yafu flowed out, and now there are less than 20,000 taels of silver left, but to appease tens of thousands of mouths, I am afraid that within ten days, the county government will have to declare "bankruptcy and bankruptcy".

"Call the housekeeper here!"

Li Weiguo gave an order and called the housekeeper.

The warden, as the name suggests. One of the officials of the six houses of the county government is similar to the function of the household department in the six central departments of the imperial court, that is, the county-level officials who are in charge of all the dingkou, money, grain, and taxes in a county.

The name of the household warden in Chongming County is Wu Yong, and he is the only one available under Li Weiguo, because of the deliberate difficulties of Xiao Yang and others, in the six rooms of the entire county government, all the five room officials have taken sick leave, and only this Wu Yong returned to the county government to help.

At first, Li Weiguo didn't believe Wu Yong, thinking that the other party was an undercover agent deliberately sent by Xiao Yang, but later sent Zhang Xiaoliu to investigate secretly, only to know that Wu Yong and Xiao Yang were not in the same group, and they were quite talented, and their reputation in Chongming County was very good.

Soon, Wu Yong, the warden of the household, came to the lobby and saluted Li Weiguo.

"What do you have to call the little officials over?"

Li Weiguo glanced at Wu Yong, saw that he looked tired, and thought that it was because he was too tired to be in charge of the work-for-relief work, so he said: "Wu Hufang has worked hard these days, please sit down, come here, and serve tea." ”

Wu Yong thanked him and sat down, his own subordinates served tea, and after listening to Li Weiguo's explanation of the intention of summoning him, he hurriedly said: "My lord Mingjian, the strategy of cash-for-work itself is very correct, but my Chongming County has been severely affected by the disaster, affecting most of the area and seventy or eighty thousand people, the imperial court's disaster relief grain money has been deducted and misappropriated layer by layer, and the money and grain that actually go to the hands of the county government are seven or eight, and the rest can help 10,000 people at most, and now tens of thousands of people have gathered outside, I am afraid that the county government cannot afford it." The hearts of the adults are admirable, and today's things have been done to the fullest, and I expect the people will understand. ”

Is it strange that the common people will understand?

Li Weiguo smiled bitterly, if it doesn't matter in normal times, it is easy to dissuade them by reasoning with the people. But the current situation is different, these people have suffered from floods, living on the streets, not enough to eat and wear, in order to compete for a steamed bun is enough to trigger a big bloody case, at this time the people will not reason with you at all in order to survive, unless you give them a chance to survive with work, otherwise you just say that they will not understand you, but will hate you.

That's human nature!

Li Weiguo shook his head and asked, "This county wants to save everyone, I don't know why Wu Hufang taught me?" ”

Wu Yong looked at Li Weiguo in surprise, his expression suddenly became complicated, he didn't understand why Li Weiguo insisted so much, whether he was talking nonsense beyond his strength, or really thinking about the people, and he didn't know how to answer for a while.

Li Weiguo didn't know what Wu Yong was thinking, and when he saw him in a daze, he thought that the other party had no choice, so he said: "Chongming County is a first-class county, and there should be a lot of taxes in a year, so it is better to collect next year's taxes from the landlords and businessmen in advance, so as to maintain the policy of reassuring the people with work for relief, what does Wu Hufang think?" ”

Wu Yong came back to his senses, and suddenly smiled bitterly: "The adults can think of this method, and the little officials are deeply admired, but the adults have just arrived, and they still don't understand the taxation situation in my Chongming County." Don't hide it, the county's taxes have been collected in advance for ten years, and now not to mention that the common people refuse to pay taxes, even the landlords and businessmen will never pay out of their pockets. ”

"Poof...... cough cough cough ......"

Li Weiguo squirted out a mouthful of tea, coughed for a while, his face was full of surprise and then became angry, and roared: "How can this be true! These dog officials, a term of office of a county magistrate is only three years, and they actually collect taxes in advance for ten years, which is simply lawless! ”

Although Wu Yong was not angry, after all, he had been in the officialdom for many years and knew the twists and turns, so he explained slightly: "My lord is angry! Although it is illegal to say that this advance tax collection is illegal, it has always become a common practice in various places. Our Chongming County has been in deficit since the beginning of Kangxi's first southern tour, and the first thing that successive county commanders did when they took office was to fill the deficit for the previous county commander. Our county has advanced taxes for ten years, although it is a bit exaggerated, but it is not the most exaggerated, I heard that some county governments in Sichuan have advanced taxes to twenty or thirty years later. ”

After listening to Wu Yong's explanation, Li Weiguo gradually calmed down, thinking that the entire Qing Dynasty was already rotten and couldn't be rotten anymore, the upper beam was not right and the lower beam was crooked, not to mention that this Chongming county was naturally no exception.

Originally, Li Weiguo also planned to advance a year's taxes for disaster relief, but now it seems that it is not very feasible, and with Xiao Yang, the head of the land, secretly making a stumbling block, those landlords and businessmen will definitely not cooperate.

It seems that you have to figure it out on your own.

After talking with Wu Yong for a while, Li Weiguo found that the seven major landlord forces in Chongming County were not monolithic, in fact, they were divided into two opposing forces because of the entanglement of interests.

Although the four families of Su, Zhou, Zan and Yan were big landlords, but over the years, as Xiao Yang has always held the power of the county government, more interests have been distributed to the other Xiao, Lu and Huang families, which are married to each other, and with the help of the government, they secretly suppressed the four families of Su, Zhou, Zan and Yan, and annexed their land, which made the relationship between the two sides tense.

"Is it possible to make the four families of Su, Zhou, Zan and Yan fall to Lord Ben?" Li Weiguo looked at Wu Yong and suddenly asked.

Wu Yong was stunned for a moment, and then said tentatively: "What do you mean by pulling one and hitting another?" ”

Li Weiguo nodded and said, "That's exactly what I mean!" ”

Wu Yong thought for a while, and tunneled: "Although the four families of Su, Zhou, Zan and Yan are also landlords, they have been suppressed by the Xiao, Lu and Huang families for many years, and they have lost a lot of land. ”

Li Weiguo said with a smile: "Lord Ben has nothing else, this business opportunity does exist." ”

Wu Yong also suddenly came to his senses, and immediately asked: "In this case, the humble position is a matchmaking for adults!" ”

Li Weiguo suddenly laughed: "With the help of Wu Hufang, we will win this time to fight the landlord!" ”