Chapter 41: Cleansing the Tyrants On the city wall, Ji Fang was stunned when he saw the Hu people being defeated by the Han army with unstoppable force. Then, he showed a look of surprise and shouted, "Reinforcements are coming!" Hearing this roar, countless soldiers climbed to the top of the wall and looked outside. Seeing the Han cavalry chasing the Wuhuan people, some were excited or weeping and shouted: "Reinforcements are coming! Reinforcements are coming!" The battle made their blood boil, and it was not until the end of the battle that everyone seemed to wake up from a dream and completely relaxed. After Guan Yu and Ma Teng cleaned up the battlefield, Tian Ze led a hundred personal guards and came to the city wall surrounded by two large armies. The group of one hundred riders all rode white horses, wore bright armor, and held lances in their hands, looking very majestic. This is the ceremonial guard carefully constructed by Tian Ze, and it is also an absolutely elite hidden force. "I am Tian Chengshou, the newly appointed governor of Liaodong. Here is the imperial appointment document and seal. The city guards, please open the gates immediately!" Tian Ze knew the current situation in Xiangping City very well, so he knocked on the door directly.
Ji Fang looked at the seal in the hands of Tian Ze's personal guard from afar, and hurriedly ordered people to open the city gate. "Your subordinate Ji Fang pays homage to the envoy." Seeing Ji Fang in his tattered and bloodstained armor and with a determined expression on his face, Tian Ze quickly helped him up. At the same time, Tian Ze used the Qi Jue to investigate Ji Fang thoroughly. As expected, he is a third-rate general, but fortunately he has good character and can lead an army without any problem. "Thank you for your hard work." Tian Ze patted Ji Fang's shoulder and said in a deep voice. "Your Excellency has worked hard. I have only done my duty." Ji Fang said. Tian Ze used the art of looking at qi to roughly scan the surrounding defenders. Most of the people in front of him were extremely high-quality soldiers! They have experienced countless bloody battles, and their fighting will and combat capability are beyond doubt. As long as their physical fitness is enhanced, they are equipped with armor, given enough money and food, and trained, they can become an elite division. "Everyone has worked hard in this battle. After the battle, each of you will be rewarded 20,000 yuan." Tian Ze's words were like a bomb, exploding among the defenders. Everyone was extremely excited and immediately knelt down to express their gratitude: "Thank you, Envoy Tian!" He gave away nearly two years' worth of military pay in one go. Such a strong "cash ability" made everyone convinced. Almost in an instant, the yellow dots of varying shades on the map all turned green. "Officers at all levels will receive additional rewards based on their rank and performance. All soldiers who died in this battle will receive a pension of 50,000 coins, and their children will be raised by the government until they reach adulthood." These soldiers are not just themselves, they have families behind them. Most of the people today do not want to be soldiers, most of them just do it for survival and have no choice. Tian Ze had plenty of money at that time, but Liaodong was extremely poor. Such a huge reward was enough to drive countless soldiers and civilians crazy. The soldiers, who had been oppressed and poorly treated, were instantly filled with a sense of pride and belonging, and their social status inevitably improved. Although such drastic measures will inevitably lead to extremely large military expenditures in the future, it will encourage countless civilians to join the army and countless soldiers to dare to die.
"Ji Fang, I'll leave this matter to you. Make sure every copper coin is delivered to the right person." "Yes!" Ji Fang's eyes were red, his heart was surging, and he had the thought of dying for his friend. "As long as you fight the enemy seriously in the future, I will definitely not treat you unfairly." He is now very wealthy and the thing he has no shortage of is money and food. "Envoy Tian is mighty!" everyone shouted in unison, their eyes full of fanaticism. Seeing that everyone's loyalty had increased significantly again, Tian Ze nodded slightly. As long as the problem can be solved with money and food, it is not a problem. "Ji Fang." "My subordinate is here." "I learned from the Hu captives that many wealthy families in the city are colluding with the Hu people and trying to start a rebellion. Is this true?" Ji Fang's expression froze for a moment when he heard this, but he still replied, "Sir, it is true. During the defense of the city, a few thieves caused chaos at night. They must have been caused by the big families in the city." "Okay." Tian Ze smiled slightly. He had been preparing to take action against these local tyrants and evil gentry, and now that the other party had offered him evidence, he would naturally not let it go. A county is not like a county where he can do whatever he wants. Even if he has the support of the Wuzhong Tian family, he must have a visible excuse, otherwise he will not be able to explain to the court. With Ji Fang's words, he could justifiably get rid of these people. He took two thick lists from Dian Wei, handed one to Ji Fang and the other to Guan Yu. Ji Fang opened it and was shocked. He looked up at Tian Ze unconsciously, wanting to say something. But after meeting Tian Ze's meaningful eyes, he thought for a moment and lowered his head again. The list recorded almost all the powerful people in the city. Their various evil deeds were extremely detailed, and their oppression of the good people was shocking. This was what Jia Xu had discovered early on. More than 90% of the crimes committed by the powerful people in Xiangping City were enough to cause their property to be confiscated and their families to be exterminated. Even the few who were relatively clean had many bad deeds. There may be good people within the exploiting class, but there is absolutely no good exploiting class. Moreover, the powerful are different from the imperial court. The imperial court is mostly concerned with continuity and stability, so when a disaster occurs, it will most likely choose to provide disaster relief to save the people, while the powerful would rather have more disasters so that they can plunder the people's wealth at a lower cost. Unlike the imperial court, which was constrained by the power structure and external pressure, no matter how stupid they were, in most cases they still acted within the rules. However, the powerful could only be constrained by morality. As more and more powerful people continue to break the bottom line, their eating habits become more and more ugly, and they only regret that they don’t eat enough or fast enough, and gradually a situation of competing to see who is worse is formed. The powerful people in the world today rent land to tenants, and at best they collect 50% of the grain, and the normal rate is 60% to 70%. When the world was in chaos, the rent collection ratio even reached 80% or even higher. "Yun Chang, you lead your men to confiscate the homes of all these powerful people, detain all of them, and hold a public trial tomorrow and punish them according to the law." Cut the Gordian knot and kill the person! Liaodong was surrounded by enemies and the situation was tense. Tian Ze did not have time to deal with these powerful people. "promise!"
Guan Yu was forced to leave his hometown because of evil gentry and officials. He had no good feelings towards these powerful people and naturally would not show mercy. At this time, the powerful people in the city did not know that Tian Ze was preparing to attack them. They thought the situation was not stable yet and stayed at home, which made it easier for Guan Yu to defeat them one by one. Tian Ze ordered martial law in the city and no one was allowed to go out. Guan Yu, who was well prepared, cleaned up the situation piece by piece. By the time the powerful people in the city reacted, it was too late. These tyrants were used to being tyrannical and bullying, and they had many private soldiers at home, so how could they be willing to surrender? Conflicts occurred from time to time. However, facing the wolf-like and tiger-like regular army, they were like an egg hitting a stone. Jia Xu had already woven a huge intelligence network in Xiangping City, and the situations of all the powerful people were clearly known. All their secretly hidden personnel and property were confiscated by Guan Yu. The screams continued all night long and only gradually stopped in the early morning. The next morning, Tian Ze was checking the victory report presented by Zhang He. When he learned the good news that Su Puyan was killed and almost no one under his command escaped, Guan Yu, covered in blood, walked in with a stack of account books. "My lord, yesterday my army was searching for the guilty tyrants in the city, but due to negligence, we lost dozens of people. These criminals have raised many assassins and secretly hid bows, crossbows and armor. They are really audacious!" "The confiscations we have made are extremely impressive. The relevant data has been compiled and sorted. Please have a look." Tian Ze took the account book and began to read it carefully. As he read it, his face became more and more gloomy. Finally, he threw the account book to the ground. "Okay! Okay! Okay!" "Most of Liaodong is in their hands. They have hundreds of millions of dollars in property, tens of thousands of hidden households, more than 3,000 private soldiers and assassins, and more than 70% of Liaodong officials are their people. Awesome, really awesome!" Seeing the massive amount of property confiscated from the account book, Tian Ze did not feel happy at all. Instead, he felt a chill in his heart and deeply felt the terror of the powerful families. The Eastern Han Dynasty had enriched the aristocratic families too much. If it weren't for the fact that these people each had their own selfish ambitions and were unable to unite into a force, even he would not dare to touch them. But the more this happened, the more Tian Ze became determined to crack down on and reform these powerful families. Otherwise, even if he unified the world, it would probably not be his world, and the fortune of those hidden households and tenants would never fall into his hands. It may even be possible that an absurd situation like that of the Jin Dynasty, in which "the king and the horse share the world," will occur. Jia Xu, Cheng Yu and Chen Gong, who had just arrived last night, were not surprised at all when they heard this. Although it is just a small place like Liaodong, the local tyrants have been entrenched for dozens or even hundreds of years. It is normal for them to get so much money, food and population after confiscating all of them. As they had been in the Central Plains for many years, they knew better than Tian Ze how powerful the aristocratic families were, so when they first learned of Tian Ze's ambitions, they refused. But Tianze’s golden finger is too hardcore. "My lord, don't act too hastily, so as not to attract the attention of the court." Jia Xu said in a deep voice. Although they are powerful enough to completely wipe out all the powerful people in Liaodong, they cannot do so now because the powerful families in the world will not allow this precedent to be set. "I understand. If you count the time, it's almost time." By now, Zhang Jiao had already established his power, with hundreds of thousands of followers, spanning eight states, including many in Youzhou. The Yellow Turban Rebellion was not far away. Many ministers submitted petitions, but none of them were taken seriously by the emperor. Tian Ze knew that his persuasion would be useless, and he only focused on recruiting refugees. The two-year drought has resulted in an increasing number of refugees in the Central Plains. Tianze absorbs tens of thousands of refugees almost every month. If it were not for the need to identify the refugees' personalities and eliminate the Yellow Turban followers, the number would have increased a lot.
The banks of the Daqing River are already filled with villages, and the population that can be accommodated has reached its limit. Tian Ze needs to find other places in Liaodong to accommodate these people. "Post a notice to reassure the people and inform the whole city of tomorrow's public trial. All the victims in the city can come and file a complaint. After verification, the government will return all the money, grain and land that were seized from them." (End of this chapter)
