Good citizens are forced to become thieves, and they certainly deserve sympathy.

Then they plundered the merchants and robbed the rich, which is also understandable.

But he became a minion for Taoist priests, occupied land to make temple fields, beaten, expelled, and oppressed ordinary people, turned himself into a landlord, and even robbed people's daughters as wives and concubines. This nature has changed, from the victim to the perpetrator.

The entire Zhaozhuang, the good fields on the banks of the Gu River, were occupied by the Li family.

The rest of the land was divided among the thieves. The slightly better houses in the village were also occupied by the thieves, and the beautiful women in the village were also taken as wives and concubines by the thieves.

Tao Kai's small life is very nourishing, he has a wife and four concubines, and more than 300 acres of dry land.

All the merchants who passed through the Gu River had to pay him protection money, otherwise they would inevitably be robbed. His next target was Zhusizhuang in the northeast, where there were not many big households to occupy the fields.

The government doesn't dare to take care of it, with the support of the Taoist master!

As long as he doesn't provoke the Li family in the west, no one in Juancheng County will dare to touch him.

Even, Tao Kai also planned to rebuild the village school, and when the robbers' sons were six or seven years old, they would be sent to the village school to study, and maybe they would be able to become officials in the future. Even if you can't pass the Jinshi exam, you can ask the Taoist priests to help and stuff a few people into the county government to be Xu officials.

"Big brother, someone from Zhusizhuang is coming to join the gang!"

"Bring him here."

The one who came was a splash in the village, and the villagers called him Zhao Er.

Tao Kai sat on the chair and asked, "Why do you want to join the gang?" ”

Zhao Er replied: "The old father left more than 20 acres of land, although I am not successful, my brother is very diligent. My brother died of illness this year, leaving only orphans and widows in the family. My second uncle, with a few cousins, occupied my family's land in the past. I couldn't get angry, so I came to Brother Tao. ”

"Want to get your land back?" Tao Kai asked.

Zhao Er said: "I also want the land of the second uncle's family." He did the first year of junior high school, and I did fifteen. My sister-in-law was born beautiful, and I want to be a wife. ”

"You are vicious, and even your cousin-in-law is worried about it," Tao Kai said with a smile, "The benefits are all yours?" What can our brothers get? ”

Zhao Er said: "I helped Brother Tao to get Zhusizhuang over." I know who has a grudge against anyone in the village, and they can join the gang as well. ”

Forcibly occupying a village is easy to make things bigger, and if there are a large number of internal ghosts, things are much easier to handle. Moreover, more villagers can also enhance Tao Kai's hard power and form a gang that dominates the countryside.

If there are rich households in the village who take the initiative to contribute, Tao Kai will also accept them, and will also let the rich households be the small leaders of the gang. Below, everyone fishes and eats the people together; On the other hand, they held together to fight against the harsh government of the government.

Tao Kai called a few of his subordinates who could fight, and asked them to go back with Zhao Er, and recapture the land of Zhao Er's family first. This has a demonstration effect, Zhao Er's prestige rises, and there are naturally people in the village who are envious, and those who take the initiative to contribute will appear.

This is a world of the jungle, especially JD Lianglu!

"Big brother, a duke is riding a horse!" Men came to report.

Tao Kai asked, "How many came?" ”

The subordinate replied, "Just one man, on horseback." ”

Tao Kai immediately let down his guard: "Follow me to greet you." ”

It was Bai Sheng who came, riding alone to the outside of the village.

Tao Kai took more than a dozen subordinates and walked quickly to greet him, and greeted him respectfully: "What do you have to say?" ”

Bai Sheng rode on a horse, and said with his nostrils facing the sky: "Zhizhou is going to inspect the embankment, and when you pass by here, you should be entertained, and all the good wine and meat will be taken out!" ”

"Definitely, definitely." Tao Kai smiled.

Bai Sheng said: "I still have to go to the village in front, you guys hurry up and prepare!" ”

After saying that, Bai Sheng rode through the village.

Tao Kai looked resentful and said, "Dog officer! ”

The subordinate reminded: "Big brother, will there be fraud?" I heard that this Zhizhou is very young, and he also arrested many demons in Guhe Town a few days ago. The big families on Razor's side were also caught a lot by him. You can't be here to catch us, right? ”

Tao Kai shook his head: "The demon road and the big households are rich, and the dog official can make oil and water if he catches it." We have only been here for more than half a year, and apart from grabbing a lot of land and food, we haven't saved a lot of money. We are all poor ghosts, and the dog officials don't look down on us. Go and kill ten sheep, get a few jars of wine, prepare twenty more yuan, and send the dog officer away. ”

In the afternoon, Zhu Ming came to the outside of Zhaozhuang Village with dozens of archers.

Tao Kai had been waiting for a long time, and when he saw the dog official Zhu Ming, he no longer had resentment in his heart, but was full of envy. How good it is to be an official, those who call and hug each other, and wherever they go, there are people who offer wine, meat and goods.

"The grass people meet Taishou!" Tao Kai immediately knelt down and kowtowed.

"Kill the thief!"

Zhu Ming didn't say a word, took off the iron shovel and rushed over, smashing Tao Kai's head and blooming.

The rest of the thieves fled in terror, and Deng Chun and others chased after them with archers. The thieves greeted the reward Taishou, and naturally it was impossible to bring weapons, and they had to flee for their lives in the face of the archers.

asked Bai Sheng to come to act before, purely because he was afraid that the thieves would flee after hearing the news, and it would take too much time to hunt him down.

Booby trapping is much simpler, sticking his head out in front of him for Zhu Ming to smash.

Deng Chun, Li Bao, and Zhang Bo all rode horses to chase after them, like tigers entering a flock of sheep. The three of them galloped on horseback, and more than a dozen thieves were unarmed, only to scatter and flee, and as they fled, one was cut down.

The rest of the thieves in the village also began to flee when they heard the movement. The brain is not bright, and he still wants to take his wife and children and goods away.

The battle here was over, and Bai Sheng also rode back.

Leaving more than a dozen archers and asking Bai Sheng to raid the thieves' houses, Zhu Ming led people straight to Huang Tingguan.

Still planning to trap, he won't attack at all.

This time, Yang Pu was sent out, standing in front of the Taoist temple and shouting: "Zhizhou has arrived, the abbot will come out to greet him!" ”

Huang Tingguan's abbot is called Li Gongzuo, as a registered disciple of Wang Laozhi, and he also has the official body of a Taoist official, he never thought that the government would dare to do it.

Li Gong made the appearance of a fairy wind and Taoist bones, and was surrounded by more than a dozen Taoist priests, and walked up to Zhu Ming, making a Taoist priest: "Meet Taishou!" ”

Zhu Ming stood on his horse, and his tone was cold: "Someone exposed your private possession of demon scriptures and secretly spread demon laws. Is there such a thing? ”

Li Gongzuo laughed when he heard this: "Too shourong, poor Dao is a Taoist official canonized by the imperial court, how can he spread the demon law?" Someone must have made false accusations. ”

"Maybe you're innocent, but what about the Taoist priests under you?" Zhu Ming asked.

Li Gongzuo said: "Poor Dao dares to use this Taoist robe on his body to guarantee, Huang Tingguan will definitely not have a demon." ”

Zhu Ming said: "Gather all the Taoist priests of Huang Tingguan, and I will personally admonish them." Those who are not in the view are also called back, immediately! ”

Li Gongzuo had no choice but to summon the Taoist priests.

These Taoist priests all have families, and they come to work in Huangtingguan every day, and go home to live with their wives at night. And there are also rotational holidays, and those who live in the Taoist temple at night belong to the night shift. (The Quanzhen Tao has not yet arisen, and Taoist priests can marry wives and have children.) ）

Counting the miscellaneous in the Taoist temple, one after another, more than 100 Taoist priests have gathered.

There are even rural landlords who take the initiative to donate land for temple fields, and wear Taoist clothes to become cultivators, in order to resist the government's harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes.

At this time, it was already dark, and the pilgrims had already left, so Zhu Ming ordered: "Deng Chun, you take someone to search your body." Zhang Bo, you lead people to search the Taoist temple! ”

Naturally, you can't find anything by searching your body, but there must be something "hidden" in the Taoist temple.

After a while, Zhang Bo came out with a torch: "Xianggong, I found a few demon scriptures!" ”

"Take it all!" Zhu Ming was furious.

Li Gongzuo shouted in horror: "Too conservative and slow, someone must have framed me, I have never seen the Demon Sutra, where will it be hidden in the view?" ”

Zhu Ming asked: "Even if the Demon Scripture was planted by someone, but you colluded with thieves, occupied the land of the surrounding good people, and resisted the government and refused to pay taxes, is this also planted by others?" Don't quibble anymore, go to the state court and confess your crimes! ”

For a while, the crying and shouting shook the sky, and the Taoist priests wept, and there was no longer the demeanor of a cultivator.

Zhu Ming is arresting thieves and raiding Taoist temples, in addition to Liwei, he also wants to get more money and food.

On the side of Juancheng, the Li family's protégés and former officials were all over the place, and the officials colluded to deliberately not levy enough autumn grain this year, so as to force Zhu Ming to compromise. It was impossible for Zhu Ming to conjure up money out of thin air, so he had to make some extra money to make up for the shortage of autumn grain.

As for the recovered land, it has to find a way to distribute it to the tenants, and the original owner is still there.

It must not be turned into an official field, otherwise the legacy will be even deeper.

Guantian is also called Guanzhuang, and officials are sent to be village supervisors, and they can force all the tenants to flee.

In view of this situation, the imperial court also changed its strategy, contracting all official land to large landlords, and then letting the large landlords recruit tenants to cultivate. This policy existed in the late Northern Song Dynasty, and became extremely common in the Southern Song Dynasty. However, letting the big landlords be subcontractors is only better than the direct management of the officials, and it is only necessary to avoid the large-scale exodus of tenants.

For the tenants who were allocated land in the town of Guhe, and the tenants who were allocated land here, Zhu Ming promised to be exempt from tax within three years.

However, in practice, only the regular tax and the land money can be exempted, and the officials will change the law to collect harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes.

Zhu Ming can only go so far, at least to ensure that the tenants who obtain the land will not go bankrupt within three years after becoming the main household.

Three years later, he will definitely not be in Puzhou, and the people will ask for more blessings.

That night, when they stayed at the Taoist temple, the archers received the reward, and they were inexplicably excited, and returned to the city the next day with a large amount of money.

Bai Sheng, Zhang Bo, and Shi Yuangong stayed behind and were responsible for distributing the confiscated land to the tenants, and whoever was cultivating it was to be distributed to whomever was farming. All land deeds are granted, and the handling fee for the transfer of land property is waived. This has to be cooperated by the county magistrate of Juancheng, and Zhu Ming wants to go to the county government in person.

Yao Guangshu figured out what happened and didn't react to it.

Wang Laozhi had already offended Cai Jing, and those Taoist priests in Huang Tingguan were all Wang Laozhi's disciples and grandchildren, and they all deserved to suffer hardships.

A piece of land deed was issued, and it was specifically indicated that the tax exemption was for three years, and the farmers in Guhe Town also reissued the procedures.

The Zhang family's land and property that was encroached upon by the Taoist temple were all returned.

For a time, the prestige of Taishou spread throughout the county, and Puzhou scholars even competed to write articles to praise them.

Zhu Shengfei looked at the notice posted at the gate of the state government and muttered to himself: "Such a capable official will be a generation of famous ministers in the future." ”

The content of the notice is very simple, ordering the magistrates and county magistrates of the four counties of Puzhou to start an inventory of Taoist temples and temples in their respective jurisdictions. If there is a demon, arrest it immediately, and clean up the temple field by the way. The illegally obtained temple land must be returned to the landlord, and the legal temple land must pay taxes, and it is also necessary to pay the past tax arrears!

Zhu Ming has already made a demonstration in person, and the county officials know what to do, not only to please Zhizhou, but also to take the opportunity to make a fortune.

This is the breakthrough, after Liwei, the decree issued by Zhu Ming will be listened to, and the Taoist temples around will honestly cooperate, otherwise the county officials will be perfunctory.

(End of chapter)