Yecheng, because of the water that runs through the whole city and got its name, the county was established in the Western Han Dynasty, and this county was once the seat of Donglai County.

This city is close to the sea on one side and the mountains on the other, as long as the narrow and long sections on both sides of the water belong to the plain area, it is also the place where the farmland and the city of Ye County are located.

At its peak, Ye County, as the county seat, had a population of 100,000, experienced the Yellow Turban Uprising, coupled with the bandit natural disasters in recent years, and now the population of the city is less than 10,000, and the whole city looks dilapidated.

In Han Lie's opinion, the so-called chaotic people really can't talk about it, on the contrary, in this big winter, you can still see groups of people sifting sand grains in the icy water, such a crazy move, naturally these people are stupid, but because they are panning for gold.

When Han Lie led his army to the city, he was also surprised by the crowd that was crowded in the water, and after inquiring, he learned that the sand grains in the water could sift out copper and gold, some as small as rice grains, and some with big fingers.

The civil unrest in Yecheng was caused by the competition for the gold sifting area in the river water, and the people of the villages and pavilions often united together and hated each other in order to compete for the favorable water area, and if anyone stepped on the border, they would have a large-scale fight.

In order to compete for copper and gold, some local wealthy families naturally take the lead in it, and they often fight hard.

According to the locals, it has been more than 30 years since the last time a large amount of copper and gold was screened out, that is to say, almost no one has screened out copper and gold in the water for more than 30 years, but since the spring and summer of this year, after several heavy rainstorms, the local people suddenly found that copper and gold appeared in the sand in the water.

At first, only a small number of people came to sift the sand, but with a few heavy rains in winter, the copper and gold in the river suddenly increased significantly. (One gold in the Han Dynasty is about 250 grams in modern times.) ）

A gold was worth 10,000 dollars at that time, which could almost make a family of five rich and live a worry-free life for a year, and it was this huge money temptation that completely stimulated the people of Yecheng.

Han Lie led his army into Yecheng, and it only took three days to have a comprehensive understanding of the situation in Yecheng.

After figuring out the cause of the civil unrest, Han Lie asked Dian Wei to take his men and horses to impose martial law on both sides of the river, and at the same time asked people to send letters to the patriarchs of the fourteen wealthy clans in Yecheng, inviting them to come to the county government the next day to discuss.

Although the people's livelihood in Yecheng is withering, on the population list of the county government, there are only 2,000 households, and there are only more than 8,500 people, and the real situation is obviously more than this population, from the land list, Han Lie can clearly see that the land in Yecheng is seventy percent in the hands of these fourteen local wealthy families, and the other three percent are two percent of the official land, which means that only one percent of the land is really in the hands of the people.

The Hao clan bureaucracy is in charge, and the land annexation is serious, this is a common phenomenon in various places in the late Han Dynasty, Han Lie saw such a phenomenon when he was in Zhending, but it happened that Zhending happened to encounter a flood that the people did not encounter, and many Hao clans were unable to resist after the disaster, and Han Lie re-measured the land and returned it to the official land, and then rented it to the local people, which alleviated the contradiction between the people and the Hao government, and also laid the foundation for Han Lie's reputation in Zhending.

After reading the county annals, Han Lie called the trembling county magistrate, county magistrate, county lieutenant and other officials of the county and asked, "Have you verified all these data?" ”

Due to the lack of household registration in Yecheng, the county officials are called chiefs, and the county chief officials who have completed 10,000 households according to the Han official system are county magistrates, and those who are less than 10,000 households are county magistrates.

In the face of Han Lie's inquiry, several county bigwigs were not afraid, but they saw that Han Lie had brought thousands of people, and all of them were tall and steady, and all of them were black and red shirt uniforms of the imperial court, which was daunting.

"This county has just arrived this year, and the data are all left by the predecessor, and the lower officials have not had time to verify it, but the county and the county lieutenant are both locals, and they must know more about this matter than the lower officials for many years, please check it out." Although he was afraid, the county magistrate Wang Bao suddenly pointed the finger at the county lieutenant.

"General, according to the regulations of the imperial court, the land population is measured once every three years, and this roster is naturally true when it was recorded two years ago." Faced with Wang Bao's sudden attack, the county Cheng Li Qi hurriedly defended.

He and the county lieutenant Gao Liang are both from local wealthy families, and now their two major families control the county's two percent of the fields, as well as the county's various money-making camps, their family population alone has more than 100 people, and there are no less than 1,000 servants, and the population they reported is actually only 11 members of the family, and those servants naturally become private households, and they are directly exempted from obligations such as forced labor and taxes.

Han Lie summoned them here today to bite each other, because he had already sent someone to investigate the situation of these three people, in fact, Wang Bao did just take office this year, this person is a native of Donglai Qucheng, and he has no foundation in Yecheng, and he has been completely overshadowed by the county magistrate Li Qi and the county lieutenant Gao Liang for more than half a year, and to put it bluntly, he is an empty shell county magistrate.

It was precisely because of these points that Han Lie decided to take these two people first, if Wang Leopard dared to report it, then he would continue to keep this person, but if he even had this responsibility, after solving Li Qi Gaoliang this time, he would also throw this person aside, but now it seems that this Wang Leopard is still a little bold.

"Komeito, bring people up." Glancing at the quibbling Li Qi, Han Lie calmly commanded.

After a while, Sergeant Yishi escorted a few people to the county government hall, and when Li Qi and Gao Liang saw the faces of these people clearly, their faces suddenly changed and they knelt on the ground and shouted: "The general spares his life, the general spares his life." ”

It turned out that the four people who were brought up by Xu Huang were Li Qi and the steward of Gao Liang's mansion, and these four people were very clear about any dirty things in the mansion of the two, and looking at the expressions of these people kneeling on the ground, Li Qi and Gao Liang didn't know that these people were afraid that they had already recruited all of them.

Not to mention that in recent months, the two of them have privately incited the people to fight, taking advantage of the opportunity to buy and rob copper and gold at a low price, and the crime of concealing more than 1,000 people alone is enough to cover the crime of raiding the family and exterminating the clan.

"Lord Wang, the next thing will be handed over to you, you don't need me to teach you how to deal with it, right?" Han Lie glanced at the dumbfounded Wang Leopard, turned around and walked out of the lobby.

"Please rest assured that the general will be dealt with in accordance with the law." At this time, where did Wang Bao dare to play any careful thoughts, just now he pointed the finger at Li Qi and Gao Liang, in fact, he was trying to seize power by taking advantage of Han Lie's momentum, but the situation in front of him has changed, and it is obvious that his cleverness has been seen through by Han Lie.

And Han Lie's current case is handed over to himself, it seems that he is reusing himself, but he is actually roasting him on the fire, if this matter is not handled well, Han Lie will naturally not be satisfied, if it is really judged according to law, it will definitely be a river of blood, and then he, the chief judge, will inevitably leave a reputation as a cool official.

"Cool officials are cool officials, it's better than being excluded like this." Wang Bao is only in his early twenties this year, and he was finally able to sit in the position of the county magistrate, and he was determined to make meritorious contributions, so he was unwilling to go on like this, so after a short ideological struggle, he immediately made a decision.

"Remove the crown of Li Qi and Gao Liang." Wang Leopard, who turned over and sat in the main hall, looked solemn and shouted.

"My lord, what does this mean?" Xu Huang, who followed Han Lie to the side hall, looked at Han Lie with some puzzlement and asked.

Han Lie walked to the window, looked at the gloomy sky, and said to himself, "It's snowing soon, our sergeant should add a cotton coat." ”

Wang Ling, who was sorting out the books in the side hall, got up and poured hot tea soup for Han Lie, and said: "This Li family and the Gao family have thousands of good land, tens of millions of family assets, usually do not cultivate virtue, exploit corruption, and deserve death, although the people have been angry for a long time, but if the lord leads the troops to raid the house, it will inevitably cause the dissatisfaction of the Donglai clan, which is not good for the reputation of the lord, if Wang Bao is responsible for raiding the two families, the clan is not easy to say, and it can also play a deterrent role in the other twelve wealthy families in this county." ”

"Of course, in this winter, our soldiers should indeed add cotton clothes, and if we don't raid their homes, where will we get the money to buy cotton clothes?" Wang Ling explained his actions to Han Lie with some ostentatiousness, this kid is getting older and older now.

"As far as you are wise, you and I ask you, where did the copper and gold in this water come from?" Although Han Lie had a straight face, he did not hide his appreciation for Wang Ling in his eyes, this kid had this insight at a young age, and he would indeed be a usable talent in the future.

Speaking of the copper and gold in the water, Xu Rong and Xiahou Lan in the side hall all put down the things in their hands and pricked up their ears curiously.

"Water has a source, converges into a river, and there is copper and gold in this water, and there is only one possibility to trace the source, that is, there is a gold mine somewhere upstream." As soon as Wang Ling's words came out, Xu Huang and the others were also stunned.

Han Lie nodded approvingly and said: "You can teach it, I have already sent Zilong to lead his subordinates to explore the source of the water under the pretext of inspection, if there is really a gold mine, we will not make this trip in vain." ”

"The lord is wise." Wang Ling patted his ass, and when he learned the news that there was really a gold mine, everyone was also happy.

"My lord, Sun Tao, who was captured under Beihai City, is now recovering from his injuries, what should he do with it." After gossiping, Xiahou Lan got down to business.

"If he wants to stay, he can stay, if he wants to leave, let his family use the money to ransom, we can't support him for nothing in these two months." Han Lie pondered, it's a pity to kill it, it's too cheap to let it go, now is the time to be short of money, it's good to be able to ask for a ransom, as the saying goes, although ants are small, they are also meat.

"Whoa!" With Han Lie's instructions, Xiahou Lan naturally knew what to do, not only Sun Tao in his hands, but also hundreds of prisoners at the beginning, although most of them surrendered now, but there were still some who were unwilling to stay in the army all the time, so they happened to pack up with Sun Tao.