"Can the old gentleman introduce himself?" As soon as the battle ended, Zhao Weiji went to meet the master behind the rebel army first.

"I didn't expect that the dignified King Wu Yue of the Song Empire would also be interested in an old decay like me? It doesn't hurt to introduce yourself, the old man's surname is Guo, his name is Bailuo, and the word Shusheng is born. It can be regarded as a person in Shuzhong. ”

"Your surname is Guo? What is your relationship with Guo Anshi? "Zhao Weiji's real name is Guo Chongtao, the important minister of the Tang Dynasty after the five dynasties and ten kingdoms, successively served as two generations and three masters, and the surprise attack on Liang was the first to be the minister of a certain proposal, and he was given iron coupons and forgiven ten deaths. Not only that, but the destruction of Qianshu by the Later Tang Dynasty was also his credit. Later, because of his high merits, he was framed by Li Cong, Xiang Yanhe, Ma Yanqi and Empress Liu, and died with a cane, three sons were killed, and two young sons survived.

"I didn't expect that there are still people who remember my father's name now, it's really rare." Hearing that Zhao Weiji actually pointed out his background at once, Guo Bailiu couldn't help but be a little amazed.

"I didn't expect it, I actually met Guo Anshi's descendants in Shu, but I don't know what grudge you, the son of the Later Tang Dynasty, have against my Great Song Dynasty, why do you want to help the rebels and kill my imperial forbidden army?"

"Grudge? I myself have no grievances with the imperial court, after all, the Later Tang Dynasty has been dead for many years, and our Guo family has become accustomed to living incognito. But the problem is that your Great Song Dynasty court is too pressing, and no one cares about corrupt officials and corrupt officials in Shuzhong for many years, and not only that, but they also issue decrees and awards. Do you think that this peasant revolt was simply due to a homeless unrest? ”

As soon as Zhao Weiji heard Guo Bailiu's words, he understood the reason for the whole uprising, this was indeed an uprising of official coercion and civil rebellion.

"I wonder if Mr. Guo can give me a definite name so that I can start investigating this matter?"

"Names? Qi Yuanzhen, Zhang Shu. There's also something called Bo Mai Wu, so check it out. ”

After Zhao Weiji ordered someone to write down these names, he asked Guo Bailiu a new question: "I have always been curious, that is, how did Mr. come up with the idea of using earth to attack the city?" ”

"I didn't expect the prince to be interested in the poor and sour way of attacking the city."

"Of course I'm interested, this is not some kind of poor siege method, Mr.'s siege method is really eye-opening to me, so I want to ask for advice."

"Actually, it's not a big deal, it's just a mudslide and a way to come up with it. The mudslide caused a large amount of sand to accumulate under the city wall, gradually forming a mound as high as the city wall, and people could easily enter the city wall from the mound, hence the idea of siege. However, this method is only suitable for the peasant army that does not have too many siege equipment, and your prince has not invented new siege equipment since he joined the army. ”

After listening to Guo Bailuo's words, Zhao Weiji's heart was like twenty-five rats, and he scratched his heart with a hundred claws. That's it? In this way, he came up with the siege method of the Mongolian Muhuali that swept the Jin State later? This person is certainly not that simple, and he has to ask.

"Then how can I conclude that our official army must attack Langzhong County instead of Mianzhou first? I think attacking Mianzhou would have been a good choice at that time. ”

"The Langzhong garrison is newly defeated and demoralized, I think as long as a general will hope to be able to quickly and easily destroy the enemy's troops, after all, everyone understands the truth that persimmons pick soft pinch. I think even if the prince wants to attack Mianzhou first, he can't resist the intentions of the generals below. After all, the prince has not been a stubborn person since his debut. ”

"It seems that the old gentleman knows me very well."

"Generally, no matter how depressed my Guo family is, it has not fallen to that extent, and the "Shilin Daily" launched by the prince can still be seen."

From the above conversation, Zhao Weiji can draw a conclusion that this person is not extraordinary, intelligent and resourceful, and not like his father, although intelligent but less resourceful. It's just that I always feel that there is something hidden in this person's heart that has not been revealed, and he seems to pay a lot of attention to himself.

Since he still has something to hide, Zhao Weiji decided to dig it out, but it is estimated that nothing can be dug up directly, Zhao Weiji decided to use the strategy of wanting to capture the old man to see if he can force all of this person out.

"Thank you, sir, I still have a lot of things to deal with here, so I won't bother sir. However, because of his help to the rebels, Mr. is expected to be implicated, so let's enjoy the last days. ”

After saying this, Zhao Weiji turned around and wanted to be in this room immediately.

Seeing that Zhao Weiji was about to leave, this Guo Bailiu suddenly said: "I am guilty of helping the rebels, but is it not guilty that your dignified prince actually openly absorbs the homeless people and rebels?" ”

As soon as he heard Guo Bailiu's words, Zhao Weiji knew that the meat drama was coming, this guy really paid a lot of attention to himself, and his back was not as middle-class as he said.

The things in Guo Bailiu's mouth naturally do exist, and Zhao Weiji is indeed absorbing the displaced people who have gone out of Shuzhong and the rebels who have surrendered. However, it was not used as a private army, but as a reserve of labor. The tricks used are just loopholes in the laws of the Great Song Dynasty.

The laws of the Great Song Dynasty had severe restrictions on personal freedom, and basically the peasants were bound to the land where they lived, and it was very troublesome to move from one county to another. This unscientific system naturally stems from the lack of a tax system related to the Great Song Dynasty.

The main tax system at the beginning of the Song Dynasty basically followed the two tax laws of the Tang Dynasty, including household tax and local tax. The household tax is what we usually refer to as the poll tax, and the land tax is levied according to the value of the crops produced by the land owned by your farmer.

But the question arises, how to ensure that no one evades taxes, and the only way is to tie up the peasants in the place of household registration so that they do not run around, so that they can find people when it is time to collect taxes. So in this way, the mobility of the population of the Song Dynasty was very poor.

Although such a law binds the peasants, it is not without loopholes to exploit, and such loopholes are natural and man-made disasters. Once a natural disaster or man-made disaster occurs, it will inevitably produce a large number of displaced people, and you will have no money to hand over to you if you find this kind of homeless person, and if there is a rebellion similar to Shuzhong, it will produce a tragedy such as a large loss of household registration information, Zhao Weiji is taking advantage of such a tragedy to plunder a large number of people from Shu.

Once these populations have settled down in his territory, they will be able to become households under his territory when the imperial court conducts another household registration survey and cleanup.

What's more, many of the displaced people absorbed by Zhao Weiji this time did not actually settle in the two Zhejiang areas, but were directly sent by Zhao Weiji to the loosely controlled exile of the Great Song Dynasty. In this way, he has a large number of hidden people, and the war will kill people anyway, and as soon as the counterinsurgency war is over, there will be no proof of death.

"You can eat things indiscriminately, but you can't talk indiscriminately. Sir, since I said that I had taken in a large number of exiles and rebel captives, where is the evidence? ”

"Evidence? There are now a lot of ships from the merchant houses in the chamber of commerce under the banner of King Wu Yue on the Yangtze River and the Wei River, don't tell the old man that they are all used to transport goods? Although your Wuyue King's Chamber of Commerce is already a behemoth, it is estimated that it is still impossible to use so many ships to transport goods, right? If the officials really want to investigate, they may not be able to find out the whereabouts of these people. ”

"Sir, tell me what you want from me?"

"Then you're not going to deny the secret accumulation of population?"

"What difference does it make if you don't deny it? Sir and the forces behind him have gone to great lengths to investigate everything about me, just to get something out of me. I, Zhao Weiji, am not a good person, even if you can't deal a blow to me on the issue of absorbing displaced people, you can also find my handle on other issues, so what's the difference between not denying it? ”

"Since the prince is so refreshing, then the old man will say it bluntly, and the old Guo family wants to serve the prince."

Listening to Guo Bailiu's words, Zhao Weiji was a little unnatural, to be honest, his ambition was only completely clear to his wife Chai Yu, and his brother Zhao Weizheng only knew a little. And over the years, Zhao Weiji has been very good in Zhao Guangyi's eyes, this grandson is still very good, in short, he will not touch what the court values, and I don't know what the Guo family likes about him?

"I'm just a carefree prince, although I can fight, but I haven't been reused in the past few years, I don't know what you and your family like about me, it's worth the whole family?"

"The prince doesn't have to be humble, since the prince became famous in the Northern Expedition, our Guo family has begun to pay attention to the prince, and the prince can be said to have an extremely outstanding performance no matter which field he enters for so long. And in the eyes of the old man, the ambition of the prince is not as simple as being a carefree prince. Many of the things the prince has done so far are related to the lifeblood of the Song Empire. ”

Indeed, Zhao Weiji is doing too many things now to control the lifeblood of the Song Empire, whether it is a business alliance or a new-style school, or overseas trade.

Zhao Guangyi has realized that the agricultural tax can no longer support the expanding expenses of the Great Song Dynasty, so in recent years, Zhao Guangyi began to set up various commercial taxes to support the country's expenditures.

The largest taxpayer now is the business house under the Chamber of Commerce established by Zhao Weiji, as well as the increasingly frequent overseas trade with the Arab Empire under Zhao Weiji's leadership.

That is to say, the economic lifeline of the Great Song Dynasty is actually in the hands of his Zhao Weiji, but Zhao Guangyi has not realized it yet.

Coupled with the fact that in recent years, Tsinghua Academy has produced more and more "alternative talents" that have gradually begun to show their prominence in other fields that have not been taken seriously by the imperial court, and if this can be sustained, there is a possibility of academic reform.

Based on the above reasons, the Guo family concluded that this Zhao Weiji's ambition must be not small, so they were ready to use this rebellion to serve Zhao Weiji.

For Zhao Weiji, the investment of talents is naturally a matter of unwantedness, but the key to the problem is not Guo Bailiu, but the Guo family behind him, and even an old force, which is called a gate valve. Zhao Weiji still understands how terrifying the gate valve is, so he has to think carefully about the Guo family's investment.

However, at the same time, the counterinsurgency war had to continue, so Zhao Weiji decided to take Guo Bailuo to see what role their Guo family could play in this counterinsurgency war, and then consider whether to accept their surrender. Therefore, Guo Bailiu temporarily became a small staff officer in Zhao Weiji's army.