Three days later, Huangfu Wujin personally led 50,000 troops into Xuchang County, even Huangfu Wujin himself did not expect such a result, 8,000 musketeers entered Xuchang County, only put a row, the military spirit of the Qi army collapsed like an avalanche, and the 20,000 Qi troops stationed in Xuchang County fled and surrendered, and no one resisted stubbornly.

The collapse of the Xuchang army swept through southern Henan like dominoes, and the 5,000 garrisons of Xiangcheng County took the initiative to surrender to the Chu army, and the 3,000 garrisons of Xiangcheng County also laid down their arms and surrendered to the Chu army.

At this time, the territory controlled by Emperor Fu of Qi was only Nanyang County and Xiyang County in southern Henan, Shangluo County and Hongnong County in western Henan, and Dugi Prefecture, where Luojing was located, a total of four counties.

Huangfu Wujin's army set up camp in a wilderness twenty miles east of Yingchuan County, at dusk, Huangfu Wujin was guarded by more than 100 personal soldiers, strolling on the edge of the rice field, this time is the beginning of October, the north is already early winter, and southern Henan is still the busiest time in late autumn, the rice fields are full of farmers who cut rice and grab the harvest.

The land where they were located was the manor of Wang Huangfu Jiao of Xingyang County, which occupied 120 hectares of fertile land, and the peasants who cut rice were his tenants.

Huangfu Wujin walked in front of an old farmer who was busy cutting rice, the old farmer was concentrating on harvesting, and suddenly heard a companion next to him calling him, and when he looked up, he saw a large group of soldiers standing in front of him, and in front was a high-ranking official wearing a golden helmet, which frightened him, and the sickle slipped to the ground, and a sergeant next to him smiled at him: "This is our Royal Highness King Liang!" ”

When the old farmer heard that the young man in front of him was the famous King Liang, he immediately bowed his head and bowed, "The people are ignorant, meet His Royal Highness King Liang!" ”

The companions who were cutting rice with him next to him were also so shocked that they knelt down and saluted together, and Huangfu Wujin hurriedly helped them up, "You don't need to be polite, please get up!" ”

He came to inspect the rice field, in fact, he wanted to ask the farmers about the autumn harvest, and the soldiers immediately put up a few small stools, and Huangfu Wujin waved his hand and smiled: "Everyone please sit down, chat with everyone casually, don't be afraid." ”

Several peasants sat down tremblingly, they had been farmers for generations, and the highest official they contacted was only the county magistrate, and even their master, the king of Xingyang County, had never been there, let alone seen the famous King Liang, and hundreds of murderous soldiers surrounded them, this feeling was really nervous.

"Where does this land belong?" Huangfu Wujin asked with a smile.

The old farmer saw that the prince was smiling, and couldn't help but feel a little relieved, so he said: "Back to the prince, this area is the boundary of Songzhuang in Baiqiao Town, Yingchuan County, our village is about five miles to the east, and more than half of the people are surnamed Song, but this wheat field belongs to the manor of the king of Xingyang County, and has nothing to do with our village." ”

"Oh!"

Huangfu Wujin is a little interested, he knows that the king of Xingyang County, Huangfu Jie, is very active in Luojing, and was named Zongzheng Siqing, and re-identified the royal family in Luojing, and pulled many people who are surnamed Huangfu but have nothing to do with the royal family into the Zongmiao to kneel and worship their ancestors, which is quite a bit of a farce, it turns out that this is his manor.

"And how big is this manor?"

"It's very big, I heard that there are more than 10,000 acres, more than eighty percent of the fertile land in our village belongs to his manor, as well as Zhangge Village and Mazhuang, which are basically included in this manor, most of the people in the three villages are his tenant farmers, and I have been farming the manor for 30 years."

"Then how much do you rent on the field? Do you pay taxes? Huangfu Wujin asked again.

The old farmer thought for a while and said, "We have two ways to rent the field, one is called each to pay each, and the other is called two plus one, you can choose by yourself." ”

"What do you mean to give to each other? What is two plus one? ”

"Back to the prince, each pays his own, that is, the field is handed over to him, and the tax is handed over to the government, which is paid to each, two plus one is two into the field plus a bucket of grain, and then we don't have to worry about the rent of the government, he will pay it, and generally we will choose two plus one."

"Why?"

Huangfu Wujin has vaguely guessed that this is the way for the magnates to evade taxes, he also heard the magistrate in Dongjun say that the tens of thousands of hectares of fertile land owned by the king of Qi never pay a grain tax, but he has to collect taxes from the government on behalf of the farmers who grow grain, in fact, the burden of the peasants is not less at all, but the taxes that should be handed over to the government are embezzled by the powerful, so there are very few homesteaders in the north, and the court taxes basically depend on the three southern states.

But he wanted to understand the trick in this, and the officials of Dongjun were also vague, and they could only know best by asking the old farmer.

"The government's field endowment is ten taxes and one, we are all on the field, one mu can produce two stones of rice, ten taxes and one is to pay two buckets to the government, and the owner only asks us to collect one bucket of fields, so basically everyone chooses the way of two plus one."

The old farmer sighed again and said: "Actually, we also know that there is a risk here, we all know that the owner will not hand over these land taxes to the government, so we are worried that if the government investigates it again and asks us to make up the land taxes owed, then we will go bankrupt." ”

Huangfu Wujin nodded silently, in the final analysis, it is the greed of the magnates, but since ancient times, if the old magnates are eliminated, new magnates will be produced, and the cycle will start over and over again, just like when he received 200,000 soldiers from the Chuzhou Prefecture last year, why did those captains support him and were willing to work for him, didn't they just want to wait for him to seize the world, and they would become new magnates?

From ancient times to the present, which founding emperor can break this strange circle? In history, Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to break this strange circle, he repeatedly created big cases, swept away all bureaucrats and magnates, and even mobilized the people at the bottom, allowing the common people to tie up corrupt officials in Beijing with ox ropes, but after his death, he appointed a cowardly grandson to inherit his throne, and finally his strong son Zhu Di, who had military power, was not restored?

Yang Jian also wanted to break the strange circle, eradicate the Guanlong military aristocratic group, his son Yang Guang inherited his father's will, determined to reform, he moved the capital to Luoyang, implemented the imperial examination, broke the nine-product Zhongzheng system, ambitious, but the rush was too hasty, causing chaos in the world, or was overthrown by the Guanlong group, the establishment of the Li Tang Dynasty, and finally Li Tang although the eradication of the Guanlong group, but was restored by the Shandong military group, and finally defeated by the hands.

History always repeats itself, all kinds of magnates are endlessly alive and well in this land, and you sing and I appear on the stage, maybe this is Huang Zongxi's historical circle.

Huangfu Wujin sighed and asked the old farmer, "Do you have any difficulties now?" ”

Several old peasants looked at each other, they all wanted to speak and stopped, Huangfu Wujin saw that they were in trouble, so he smiled and said: "It's okay, just say that you can help me as much as you can, if you can't help, I can't help it." ”

"Lord Wang, our biggest difficulty now is that we don't have time to harvest rice, seeing that the cold wave is coming, and we haven't had time to dry the grain, we are very anxious."

Looking at the peasants who worked hard and regarded food as their life, Huangfu Wujin turned around and asked lightly: "General Zheng, how many rice fields did you trample on when you fought with Huangfu Yingjun?" ”

Zheng Yannian hurriedly stepped forward and replied: "Returning to Your Highness, together with the rice fields trampled by the Qi army, there are about fifteen hectares in total, and the lowly position has been compensated." ”

Huangfu Wujin nodded, and then pointed to the boundless rice field and said: "The weather is getting colder, and it is estimated that there will be no battles these days, so let the soldiers participate in the rice harvesting together." ”

Huangfu Wujin's tone was very flat, but there was an irresistible majesty in the blandness, Zheng Yannian hurriedly agreed, "The humble post will be arranged early tomorrow morning!" ”

"I don't just mean your troops, the 50,000 troops have to work together, and the captured Qi army will all go down to the ground to harvest Dao rice."

Huangfu Wujin turned back to his pro-soldier lieutenant and said, "Wait a while to pass on an order, and tomorrow morning, let all the generals above the rank of captain come to my big tent for a meeting to discuss the matter of cutting rice." ”

The captain of the pro-soldier agreed, but Zheng Yannian hesitated and said, "Your Highness, what if all the troops are working in the fields and are worried that Nanyang's army will attack?" There are at least 50,000 Qi troops over there. ”

Huangfu Wujin shook his head, a little helpless to take him, "You elm head!" How the Emperor's handsome army collapsed, don't you see? Do you think the Qi army in Nanyang still has the courage to attack us north? ”

"But ....."

"There's no 'but'!"

Huangfu Wujin interrupted him and said coldly: "This is my order!" ”

"Yes! Humble duty understood. ”

At this moment, a personal soldier rushed over and whispered a few words to Huangfu Wujin, who nodded, greeted a few old farmers with a smile, and turned back to the camp.

Walking to the big tent of the Chinese army, the soldiers stepped forward and pointed to a camp tent, "Your Highness, the person who came is in that small camp tent." ”

Huangfu Wujin walked into the tent with his hands behind his back, only to see a middle-aged scribe sitting on a chair drinking tea and pondering, he smiled, "Are you Zhao Ziwei's staff?" ”

The middle-aged scribe hurriedly stood up and saluted, "Humble Fang Jun is General Zhao's staff!" ”

He took out a letter and respectfully handed it to Huangfu Wujin, "This is a handwritten letter from my general to His Royal Highness." ”

Zhao Ziwei is the confidant general of Huangfu Chen, who was appointed as the chief soldier of Nanxi, controlling the 50,000 Qi troops of Nanyang County and Xiyang County.

Huangfu Wujin opened the letter and looked at it, the tone of the letter was written very humbly, it was nothing more than that he was loyal to the Daning Dynasty, not to the King of Qi, he was a minister of the Daning Dynasty, not a slave of the King of Qi, and he was willing to respond to the call of the Empress Dowager to serve the regent of the prison country.

These high-sounding words Huangfu Wujin can guess, the key is what Zhao Ziwei's offer is, this is the core, this letter is not written, Huangfu Wujin raised his eyes and glanced at this staff member Fang Jun, put down the letter and said with a faint smile: "I don't know what General Zhao's plans are in the future?" ”

Huangfu Wujin asked more subtlely, Fang Jun understood what Huangfu Wujin meant, he smiled and said: "General Zhao is willing to hand over 50,000 troops to His Highness, he only hopes that after His Highness ascends the throne in the future, he can return to his hometown and serve the people of his hometown." ”

"I wonder where General Zhao's hometown is?"

"Back to Your Highness, General Zhao's hometown is in Longxi County."

Huangfu Wujin pondered for a moment and said with a smile: "With General Zhao's talent, I have wronged him too much to go to Longxi, so I will make him the Duke of Laiyang County and the Governor of Qingzhou in the future." ”

Zhao Ziwei's surrender cannot be compared with the surrender of He Qianjue and Liu Hanzhang, so he cannot be the prince of the country, and can only be demoted to the county duke.

Fang Jun was overjoyed, "I'll go back and report to General Zhao!" ”

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(To be continued)