"So much?" Qu Duan's face suddenly turned pale, and he shook his head again and again: "This number of officials is really helpless, please forgive Lord Liu!" ”

"Master Qu doesn't need to worry, I don't plan to let you out." Liu Cheng laughed: "Those sergeants are not unreasonable, and it is okay to make up for a few years of arrears at once, first make up for half a year and a year, and make up the rest slowly." “

"This county can't take it either." Qu Duan smiled bitterly: "I'm not afraid of adult jokes, there are only a thousand stone grains in the county treasury, six or seven hundred taels of silver, even if it is empty, it is not enough." “

"Master Qu, please rest assured, since you are telling the truth, you treat me Liu Cheng as a friend, how can I, Liu Cheng, embarrass my friend?" Liu Cheng laughed: "I won't move the money and food in your treasury at all, maybe I can make up for the shortfall." “

"Make up the shortfall?" Qu Duan smiled bitterly on his face, although he didn't speak, but the meaning was obvious-thank God you guys don't come to scrape the ground, where can you make up for the deficit for me?

"Don't you believe me?" Liu Cheng smiled: "Let's put it this way, even in the poorest place, there are people who have money, but the money is not with adults, right?" ”

"Yes, but so what?" Qu Duan rolled his eyes, thinking in his heart I don't know what you mean, but those gentlemen and gentlemen are hiding in their own cottages, can you really rob it? “

"Someone!" With Liu Cheng's voice, Yu He came in from outside, holding more than a dozen pieces of paper in his hand, Liu Cheng put those pieces of paper in front of Qu Duan, and said with a smile: "Master Qu, let's see if there is anything wrong." “

Qu Duan glanced at Liu Cheng with some doubts, and just looked at the two lines, a layer of sweat oozed from his forehead, and it turned out that the main real estate of the gentry and landlords in Yichuan County was recorded in detail on those sheets of paper, as well as the approximate annual output, and there were more than a dozen pieces of paper densely packed. Qu Duan took a cursory look. With the situation he knew, there was basically no big mistake, and this Liu Cheng actually came prepared.

"My plan is this, the gentry are hiding in their own villages, and their lives are naturally safe. But it's about to start spring, and the crops in spring can't be planted in this situation, even if he doesn't plant crops, it's not a good thing to have poles everywhere, who knows if he will be tied up with meat tickets when he goes out? So it's better to flatten these poles, Master Qu, are you right? “

"And this list is—"

"Master Qu, I won't go around the bend with you anymore. This army has to make up for the arrears, do you want money and food, and the emperor is not short of hungry soldiers. There are the properties of the gentry on this list, so let's take one hundred li and use them to get a pair of shoes for my soldiers to wear, and they can eat enough, and they can have silver, copper money, and grain and cloth, if they don't have any. The cattle are also discounted. “

"What if the gentlemen don't give it?"

"My subordinates are soldiers of the imperial court, but the imperial court is in arrears to ask the gentry to borrow some money and food, if they don't give it to me, there is no way, after all, there is no knife in the world to borrow someone. That's robbing. It's just that there is no money and food, and I naturally don't care about the pole near him, after all, this is not my defensive ground, and he can't blame me. “

Qu Duan is also a smart person. Hearing this, I also heard what Liu Cheng meant, those pole thieves are not stupid, and they saw Liu Cheng's soldiers coming. The first reaction was to get out of the way and go to the neighboring territory. In this way, as long as there is a gentleman willing to pay, then his neighbor will become a "drainage canal", but instead of floods, it will be a group of poles and thieves, and the most likely reaction of that neighbor is to also give a sum of money to ask Liu Cheng to get rid of these troubles. Even if there are a few gentry who feel that their power is strong and the cottages are strong and refuse to pay for them, they are not afraid, because the poles and thieves will naturally not attack these cottages under normal circumstances, because that will only bring a large number of casualties. But when their numbers gather to a certain extent, hunger and the growth of their own strength will force them to besiege the cottage in order to obtain the food and wealth stored inside, and at that time, it will not be a mere one percent to ask Liu Cheng for help.

"My lord, this is a good idea, but-" Qu Duan stopped at this point, but the unspoken words were very clear: "Then you can do it alone, why bother talking to me about this?" ”

"Lord County, no matter how I say it, I am also a martial artist, and it is not good to ask the gentry for money directly like this, and I will end up with a handle." Liu Cheng laughed: "But if you are willing to help, it will be different, the gentlemen are happy to donate to you, you can give us these Qiu Bafa more, no one can say that mine is not, right?" If you want, let's eight or two, I'll eight and you two, how about it? ”

Hearing this, Qu Duan was also a little moved, and he made a rough estimate, if it is tossed according to Liu Cheng's set, even if only half of the gentlemen are willing to pay money, they can get six or seven thousand taels of silver, according to six thousand taels, the two achievements are one thousand two hundred taels, which is not a small number for a Shaanxi county order. Of course, this money is not taken for nothing, there must be a gentleman who has a lot of money and pain to write a letter to sue himself, but Yichuan is not famous here, and there is nothing to do with the very hard gentleman. Besides, seeing that the territory is about to be chaotic, he can keep one side safe, even if he gets some money, he has to say a word to the boss, he was kicked to Shaanxi to be a county official in his previous life, and he peeled off his black gauze hat, and it is better to go home than to squat in Yichuan and sleep and eat restlessly all day.

"Good!" Qu Duan gritted his teeth: "Lord Liu, just do it according to your method, but I can make it clear in advance, I invited you to come to suppress bandits, not to use soldiers as bandits." “

"Don't worry about this!" Liu Cheng laughed: "You should have heard a thing or two of what I Liu Cheng did in Juzhou, if you are not convinced, as long as you cooperate with me, which one is not making a lot of money?" Master Qu, just wait and count the money! “

"Since that's the case, then please Lord Liu take the three hundred taels first!" Qu Duan handed over the tray: "Take it to the soldiers first, just treat it as my first share, and then share more dividends." ”

Hearing Qu Duan say this, Liu Cheng couldn't help laughing, he didn't expect this county order to be such a wonderful person, so he smiled and took the tray: "Then I will be disrespectful!" “

Liu Cheng's action was very fast, and on the afternoon of the day he entered the city, he went down half of the courtyard in the courtyard of his residence, where Yu He commanded more than a dozen scribes to copy a letter of urging donations to dozens of local gentry and hundreds of large and small landlords, and along with this letter of urging donations was a letter written by Qu Duan to them in his private capacity. In the letter, Qu Duan analyzed the advantages and disadvantages to them in a rather friendly tone. Liu Cheng deliberately made all the senders not set off at the same time, so that the people who were far away from the county seat and those who were close to each other received the letter at about the same time, and Liu Cheng set the time for the collection of money very urgently, informing him that due to the limited troops and time in his hands, if he refused to pay, then the officials and soldiers would not care, so that these gentry and landlords could not unify their attitudes through consultation.

Liu Cheng's meticulous arrangement paid off, and within three days, more than 30 people sent money and grain, all of them were relatively small landlords and gentry with fewer acres of land, adding up to 7,800 taels of silver and more than 300 stone of grain. For these people. Paying for peace was a more advantageous option, because their power was smaller, and the stockade was not as strong, and it was better to pay for protection than to be taken away by the starving people. At the same time, Liu Cheng told the soldiers where the money came from, and told them that as long as they bought the strength to fight, not only could the arrears be paid off quickly, but they would not have to worry about arrears in the future.

The white silver and the life of three meals a day made Liu Cheng's promise sound quite convincing. Du Ruhu completed the task in only three days, and according to Liu Cheng's instructions in advance, he only carried out a symbolic requisition, and drove away the thieves and homeless people near the house of the person who paid the money and grain. Du Ruhu even released a few prisoners. And let him bring a message to their leader - this time the general is a kind person, and he doesn't want to kill more, but since he takes people's money and food, he has to eliminate disasters with people. If anyone who doesn't open his eyes dares to come back, don't blame the officers and soldiers for being polite.

It turned out that the captives had a good memory, and the thieves and homeless people deeply understood what Liu Cheng had not finished saying - since they had paid the money and grain, they could not go. Naturally, the place where there is no money and food will not be managed. In order to commend the righteous deeds of the gentry who paid the money and grain, Qu Duan copied the names and places of origin of all the gentry and landlords who paid the money and grain in detail on the notice posted at the four gates of Yichuan County. It doesn't matter if the thieves can't read, they can ask the passers-by at the city gate to read it for them.

Soon the gentry and landlords in Yichuan County who had not yet paid the money and grain were annoyed to find that the density of homeless people and thieves near their village was rising in a straight line, although this level of threat was not enough to make the largest squires make concessions, but most of the small and medium-sized squires began to feel that something was wrong, even if the thieves were not able to capture their village for the time being, threatening their personal and property safety, but it was about to start spring, and it would be a year to delay the spring ploughing! And as the famine intensifies, the hunger will force the bandits to increase the intensity of the siege of the stockade. There are two choices in front of them: 1. Honestly pay for the officials and soldiers to drive away the homeless people and bandits; 2. Move to the big squire's village and seek their refuge. The vast majority of people chose the first option, the reason is very simple, those big squires are not bodhisattvas, they will also collect protection money from those who take refuge in their village, but they will not take the initiative to drive away the thieves in the wilderness, anyway, they all have to give money and food, it is better to give it to the side that can drive away the thieves.

"Master Qu, this is your first dividend, six hundred taels! You click and see if there are any shortcomings. Liu Cheng waved his hand, and the two soldiers laboriously put the two leather bags on the several cases in front of Qu Duan, and under the weight of the silver, the cases made a tooth-sore creak.

"So fast?" Qu Duan looked at the leather pocket in front of him with joy, he reached out to untie the leather cord of the pocket, revealing the gray-black silver nuggets of different sizes inside, and the corners of his mouth subconsciously curled. "Lord Liu said that he laughed, I can't believe you in doing things?" The curl carefully re-tightened the pocket, laboriously placing it under a few cases. At this time, the atmosphere in the room unconsciously became relaxed, and the relationship between him and Liu Cheng was no longer the kind of relationship between the county guard and the passing general, who were wary of each other, lest the other party take advantage of him, but joked like friends for many years.

"Qu Xianzun, how many people still haven't paid it?"

"Almost less than a quarter." Qu Duan flipped through the roster: "But after calculating the money and grain they haven't paid, they account for more than half, these people are either the precipitous village, or the head of the joint insurance of several nearby villages, the village gate is the emperor of the soil, not afraid of the thieves and hungry people, not to mention these miscellaneous money and food, even if it is a positive endowment on weekdays, it is often in arrears, and this is almost all that can be collected." Speaking of this, Qu Duan showed a dissatisfied and helpless look on his face.

Liu Cheng poured himself a cup of tea, and asked while drinking, "Are all the Zhengfu in arrears?" How much do they owe? “

"That's a lot." Qu Duan smiled bitterly: "Let's take the Chi Lechuan Chi master of the Chi family village as an example, there are more than 2,000 acres of land in his name alone, not to mention the positive endowment owed over the years, and the Liao salary over the years has not been paid." “

"What?" Liu Cheng was stunned when he heard this, this Liao salary was levied from the forty-sixth year of Wanli, and now it has been levied for a total of five years, according to the calculation of nine cents of silver per mu, the more than 2,000 acres of land sent in his name alone is a small two thousand taels of silver, Liu Cheng doesn't think that the old man Chi is a good person, and those who owe taxes to the government will not ask the farmers for it: "What kind of person is he, dare to do this kind of thing?" “

"Chi Lechuan's brother is a showman, he has done a lot of things in the county, he knows some guns and sticks, his family has a lot of land, and he has sheltered some rogue teenagers, and he runs rampant in the township on weekdays, and he is friendly with the scribes in the yamen and the third class of officials, and colludes together. The county officials left after serving one or two terms, and it was too late to maintain the situation, whether it was to collect grain and levy service, they couldn't do without him, and it was too late to curry favor, how could they be embarrassed by him? “

Looking at the bitterness on Qu Duan's face, Liu Cheng subconsciously swallowed back the mocking words. In the long history of ancient China, this kind of struggle between the central imperial power and the local tyrants for the dominance of the grassroots is too common, on the whole, the control of the central imperial power at the grassroots level is actually declining, the Qin and Han dynasties can also directly mobilize the grassroots people, and in the Ming and Qing dynasties, the power below the county level has almost completely handed over to the gentry group. The reason is very simple, the central imperial power of the Qin and Han dynasties used an abnormal means to achieve this high degree of control, in the "Historical Records of the Cool Officials" in the "Historical Records of the Cool Officials" with distinct strokes to describe the cruel struggle between the cool officials who represent the imperial power and the local heroes, in the pen of Taishi Gong, these cool officials play with the provisions, and often use extremely cruel means such as ethnic extermination, torture, and even sitting to crack down on the suppression of local powerful and noble forces, it can be said that there is no such cool officials who are only loyal to the emperor to the local and aristocratic forces, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty consumed a huge amount of martial arts to conquer the Quartet. However, the first article of the "Six Articles of the Imperial Decree on Chazhou" formulated by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty to supervise the duties of the officials in the history of the Han Dynasty is "strong and powerful, the field house exceeds the system, the strong bully the weak, and the many tyrannical widows" and the sixth article "2,000 stone violates the public and is strong, the powerful are attached to the strong, the goods are bribed, and the government decree is cut" are all to prevent local officials from colluding with the local tyrants. It is not difficult to see that, at least in the early Western Han Dynasty, the relationship between the local officials appointed by the central government and the local tycoons was hostile. (To be continued.) )