I rode and slashed unparalleled in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 863 If ​​You Don’t Do It, There Are Plenty of Others Who Will Do It (Combined Chapter 4K8)

"This girl runs pretty fast."

After a night of passion, when Su Yao woke up the next morning, Cui Ying was no longer by his side.

Su Yao touched the still warm bed, a meaningful smile appeared on the corner of his mouth, and the charming and erotic scene of last night emerged in his mind.

He stretched lazily and was about to get up when he saw a silk handkerchief beside his pillow, on which were embroidered a few lines of beautiful words: "I don't need to thank you for your kindness. I will never let you down."

"It's true."

Su Yao chuckled and put away the handkerchief. At this moment, a burst of hurried footsteps came from far away and stopped abruptly outside the door. Then, Dian Wei's rough voice was heard:
"Who are you? How dare you stop me?"

"Hey, General, don't worry!"

Sun Cheng said hurriedly:
"The general was exhausted last night, and he may not have gotten up yet. Please let me in first to pass on the message."

"Hmph," Dian Wei snorted, "You slave, you are too polite. The general has always been diligent, how could he be lazy? I have military intelligence to report, and I can't delay. Get out of my way."

As soon as he finished speaking, Dian Wei pushed Sun Cheng away and strode into the room.

In an instant, Dian Wei saw that Su Yao had stood up and was tidying up his clothes. He was stunned for a moment, then knelt on one knee, clasped his fists and said, "General, I am sorry for the rudeness. I have military intelligence to report."

"It's okay. Please tell me what's going on."

Su Yao pulled Dian Wei up with a warm face. Sun Cheng, who was standing at the door, was stunned by this scene.

Wow, is this the soldier?
You really have no manners at all.

In the past, Envoy Han and his predecessors all took the rules between superiors and subordinates as their guiding principles.

Even if the second-in-command's assistant came, he had to wait outside before entering the door and get permission before he dared to step in. Unlike this general, he was so reckless and just pushed the door open and walked in, and the general didn't care at all.

Sun Cheng was secretly amazed in his heart, but did not dare to show it. He could only stand by the door with his head down, waiting for orders.

At the same time, Dian Wei also began to report the military intelligence and battle results in detail.

He happily reported to Su Yao that after yesterday's battle and last night's raid, all resistance forces in the city had been eliminated this morning.

"The enemy troops were in a state of disarray. After learning that Han Fu was dead, most of them surrendered. Although those who resisted stubbornly relied on the advantages of the city, they were still killed by our army without a single piece of armor left!"

"In this battle, our army killed more than 2,000 bandits and captured 10,000. Now, most of the people in the city have settled down and are waiting for the general's instructions."

After Su Yao heard this, his originally lazy expression instantly became much more energetic:
"Good, good, good job, all the soldiers have worked hard. Now that the house is cleaned up, we can come down and set up our new home with peace of mind."

After that, Su Yao ordered:

"Immediately arrange for personnel to post notices throughout the city to reassure the people that our army will protect the territory and the people, so that they do not need to worry and can resume their daily lives as soon as possible."

"At the same time, order all camps to reorganize the prisoners as soon as possible and strictly control the soldiers. If anyone disturbs the people, they will be executed without mercy."

"The general will get the order!"

Seeing Dian Wei leaving, Sun Cheng stepped forward and asked softly:

"General, do you want to prepare a celebration banquet to reward the soldiers?"

Su Yao waved his hand and said, "Now there are many things to be done, and we also have to prepare to relocate the wealthy families. It is not appropriate to spend money lavishly at this time."

After pondering for a moment, Su Yao continued:
"You can ask the kitchen to prepare some good wine and food and distribute them to each camp so that the soldiers can have a simple celebration first and then celebrate their victory properly when they return to the capital."

"Also, send someone to count the casualties of this battle, bury the fallen soldiers with honor, provide compensation to their families, and treat the injured with all your strength without slacking off."

"The villain understands, the villain understands."

Sun Cheng smiled and explained:

"We at the County Magistrate's Office will ensure that the food is well prepared, but I'm afraid that the statistics of casualties are not something I can interfere with."

Everyone has their own division of labor. Sun Cheng, as a manager of a county magistrate's office, can manage the internal affairs, but it would be difficult for him to handle matters outside.

It's not impossible, but obviously, just like Dian Wei, few people will buy into his idea now.

At this time, Su Yao came to his senses and realized that he was not in the military camp, and Sun Cheng was not Xun You. He was used to giving orders.

Immediately, Su Yao asked Sun Cheng to find Xun You and also to learn about the preliminary inventory of the warehouses and family businesses in the city.

"General, Mr. Xun has been waiting in the study for a long time."

"Oh? So fast?" Su Yao was surprised.

He had just given Xun You the task last night, and now it’s not even noon and Xun You’s here?

You have to know that Xun You is not the kind of person who asks for instructions on everything. He will only come to him when there are at least some results or situations.

So, with curiosity in his heart, Su Yao strode to the study immediately after the maids had tidied up his appearance.

Su Yao stepped into the study and saw Xun You standing in front of a huge map of Jizhou, frowning slightly, and lightly drawing on the map with a brush in his hand. Hearing Su Yao's footsteps, Xun You quickly turned around and saluted: "General, you are here so soon."

Su Yao smiled and waved his hands, his eyes falling on the map: "Gongda, judging from your attitude, I guess you have made a major discovery?"

Xun You nodded slightly, his expression solemn: "General, last night, Ju Shou, Shen Pei and I stayed up all night to conduct an emergency inventory of the city's warehouses and aristocratic family businesses. The preliminary results are out, and the situation is more complicated than we expected."

He walked to the desk, picked up a thick stack of documents, and handed it to Su Yao:

"This is a preliminary inventory record. Although the money and grain in the county governor's treasury are not abundant, it is enough to maintain the army's expenses for a period of time. However, the family's industry hides many problems."

Su Yao took the document, glanced at it quickly, and immediately a look of understanding appeared on his face.

It's very simple. This is a record of land and population of the local county government. Xun You focused on extracting the records of upper-class families, especially those with more than one million yuan.

But what was surprising was that the number of upper households in this document was very small, which was very different from the prosperous and flourishing scene of the aristocratic families that Su Yao had previously known.

According to common sense, a noble family has been operating for several generations, with many branches and leaves, and countless children and dependents. However, in the records before us, many noble families have only a few registered populations, and some families that claim to have been passed down for hundreds of years have only dozens of direct descendants.

"Gongda, is this record true?" Su Yao frowned slightly, raised his eyes from the document and looked at Xun You.

Xun You looked stern and said in a deep voice: "General, this record was repeatedly checked by me, Ju Shou and others, and there should be no mistakes. But in my opinion, there must be something hidden in it."

In agricultural society, population and land were the biggest sources of tax revenue for the dynasty. A mature system had already been in place during the Han Dynasty. By registering the taxpayers, they were divided into lower, middle and upper households and treated them differently, known as "common people", "middle families" and "big families".

The property level of a commoner is 10,000 coins. If it exceeds 100,000 coins, they will be promoted to a middle-class family. If it exceeds 100,000 coins, they will be promoted to a wealthy family. Although the title sounds good, the different levels correspond to different tax standards.

Even when the prestige of the central court remained high, the court repeatedly targeted wealthy families. In the early years, the standard for relocation of the mausoleum towns was to directly select wealthy families with more than three million coins. By the time of Emperor Xuan of Han, in addition to high-ranking officials with more than two thousand stones, wealthy families with more than one million coins had to be relocated.

Therefore, just as all enterprises in later generations want to retain the treatment of "small taxpayers", any family with a little ability is extremely resistant to being rated as a superior household.

As he spoke, Xun You sighed:
"In recent years, the country has been in chaos, and it is not uncommon for aristocratic families to hide their people and evade taxes and labor service. Now that the general has come to Jizhou, they must have made preparations for both situations. They are afraid that we will investigate later, so they have already secretly transferred and hidden a large number of people."

"I understand."

Su Yao placed the document in his hand heavily on the table:

"So whether it's punishment or relocation, it won't work to rely on existing data. We must conduct a large-scale land survey and population census in Jizhou again."

"What the general said is absolutely right."

Xun You stroked his beard and said, "If it were in the past, this would be extremely difficult to accomplish, or even impossible."

"Jizhou is a vast land with a large population and deep-rooted aristocratic families. Moreover, after the Yellow Turban Rebellion, many fortresses were built everywhere. They will certainly find ways to hinder the investigation. If we are not careful, it may lead to a joint boycott by the aristocratic families, or even a civil uprising."

"But now that the general has swept across Jizhou, with the power of this great victory and the great cause at hand, it is the perfect time to carry out this matter."

"Our army has just conquered Jizhou. The people are eager for stability and have high expectations for our army. This is what the people want."

Su Yao nodded:

"Then Gongda, you will take the lead in taking charge of Jizhou's census. Try to move this matter forward as quickly as possible and don't delay it for too long."

Xun You accepted the order with a bow, and then said solemnly: "General, this matter concerns the rise and fall of Jizhou, and You must do his best. However, the investigation is complicated and difficult, especially in terms of manpower deployment and the response of the noble families, which still requires careful planning."

Then, Xun You walked to the map and traced the mountains, rivers, and counties of Jizhou with his slender fingers:

"If we want to conduct a comprehensive investigation of Jizhou, it will be different from the previous trip to Hedong. Jizhou is vast, and the situation in each county is complicated. The manpower we brought is far from enough. And if we use Jizhou people on a large scale, we are afraid that they will involve themselves, and the officials will protect each other, making it difficult to ensure the accuracy of the information."

Checking the land and population to determine the tax base has always been a top priority for successive governments.

All the successive envoys, including Han Fu, had attempted to regulate the household registration and land use.

However, the reason why the data they obtained now was so outrageous was precisely because the aristocratic families controlled the local areas, mainly by monopolizing the quota of county government officials.

Under the Three Mutuals System, although the top local official came from another province, all the subordinate officials who actually did the work were from the local area.

These local officials have close relations with the aristocratic families. Many of them have even been officials in the local area for generations, and have climbed up to their current positions step by step.

These aristocratic families take care of each other in key aspects involving their own interests, recommend their own clansmen, and easily influence the household registration management work by controlling the actual government affairs of the county government.

Under their management, families with millions of dollars were often rated as middle-class households, while those who were not rich were often rated as middle-class or large households because they offended them, and had to bear heavier taxes and corvee labor.

“And there’s more.”

Xun You continued:

"Yesterday when you ordered us to register the officials who participated in the rebellion, several of them were evasive in their words and looked panicked, as if they were hiding something."

"So I became wary and secretly sent someone to follow and investigate. I discovered that they had colluded with some wealthy businessmen in Jizhou City last night, taking advantage of the war to make a lot of money, and now they are trying to abscond with the money."

"Oh? They dare to be so presumptuous right under our noses? Who gave them the courage? Gongda, have you checked it out? Is it true?"

Xun You looked solemn and nodded slightly: "Reporting to the general, I have sent people to verify this matter, and the evidence is conclusive."

"These people are all powerful in the local area. They appear to be honest and upright on weekdays, but in fact they use those businessmen as a cover to commit many illegal acts and forcibly buy the people's land at extremely low prices."

"Since the war broke out, they have taken advantage of the situation to rob and loot. Under the guise of appeasing the people and stabilizing the market, they have seized a large amount of government supplies for themselves, and then resold them at high prices to make a fortune."

"Now that they see that our army is in control of the situation, they are afraid that their crimes will be exposed, so they have been transferring their assets and even conspiring to abscond with the money."

"In fact, many people have already started to take action. When my subordinates went to check this morning, their mansions were empty. I'm afraid they are waiting for the city lockdown to end today and then flee."

That’s right, this is exactly why Xun You came here early in the morning.

After the army broke into the city, the entire city was sealed off. This was originally intended to prevent the remnants of the city from escaping, but it also accidentally cut off the retreat routes of these corrupt officials and illegal wealthy businessmen.

But now that the crackdown on rebels has ended and the blockade is about to be lifted, these people are very likely to take the opportunity to slip away.

"They can't run away!"

Su Yao snorted coldly and ordered:
"Notify Zhao Yun immediately to extend the city closure time and conduct a full-scale search to capture these shameless criminals. Anyone who dares to resist will be killed without mercy!"

Xun You hurriedly cupped his hands and said, "General, these people should indeed be killed, but now that Jizhou has just been settled, the people in Gaoyi are in a panic. If we kill them again, I'm afraid everyone will be in danger, which will affect our subsequent investigation."

Seeing that the topic turned back to the issue of manpower, Su Yao laughed:
"It doesn't matter if the officials in Jizhou are unreliable. Our reinforcements should be arriving soon."

"Reinforcements?" Xun You was puzzled.

At this moment, suddenly there was a sound of footsteps outside the door:

"Report to the General!"

"There are soldiers knocking on the gate outside the city, saying they are the imperial guards of the capital, escorting the newly appointed officials to take up their posts!"

Su Yao heard this and a determined smile immediately appeared on his face. He looked at Xun You and clapped his hands, saying:
"Look, it's coming."

"The imperial guards and the officials in the capital?"

Xun You suddenly widened his eyes and asked the soldier in confusion:
"Have you asked who is the leader? How many troops are there?"

The soldier looked at Su Yao, and when he saw the general nod, he replied:
"The man claims to be Wang Ling, the General of the Imperial Guards, and he is here with 800 cavalrymen to escort the new top scholar Xi Zhicai, the second place Fa Zheng, the third place Zhou Yu and other new novices in the imperial examinations, as well as officials from the Metropolitan Censorate and the Audit Department. He says he is here on the orders of the general to deal with post-war affairs in Jizhou."

hiss--

Xun You took a breath of cold air.

Good guy, really good guy.

He never expected that the general had planned early and moved such powerful support from the capital.

"I was wondering why these talented people are mostly waiting for orders in the Public Transport Bureau after passing the examination. It turns out that the general wants to use the best steel on the blade!"

"Yes."

Su Yao laughed:
"These imperial examination candidates are the reason why I dare to attack the local noble families."

"I want to tell them clearly through this action that if they want to keep their position, they should cooperate honestly. Otherwise, if you don't do it, there are plenty of people who will do it."

"The general has foresight and foresight."

Xun You's eyes flickered, and he felt both respect and fear in his heart.

The general won the hearts of the people through the imperial examination system. In the future, it will be increasingly difficult for the aristocratic families to deceive the court and threaten the superiors by monopolizing the local areas:
"However, although these new scholars are talented, they are new here and have limited understanding of the complex situation in Jizhou. They still need experienced people to assist them in their work."

"It's natural."

Su Yao nodded:

"Jizhou is a vast land with many talented people. I cannot leave all the local officials in Jizhou unused. Instead, I will recruit some and punish some to ensure their loyalty."

"For those who have committed notorious crimes and are stubborn, they must be severely punished to serve as a warning to others. As for those who know what is right, I don't mind giving them a chance to atone for their crimes."

"What the general said is very true. However, we need to be cautious in identifying the attitudes of these local officials. After all, they have a complex network in Jizhou, and if we are not careful, they may cause new chaos."

"It doesn't matter. I believe you can handle this."

Su Yao laughed, walked to the door, looked at Wang Ling, Xi Zhicai and others who were walking towards him, and said slowly:

"Xi Zhicai is known for his wisdom and strategy, and Fa Zheng, Zhou Yu and others are also outstanding people. They can check and balance the local officials, and with the supervision of the Jinyiwei, the situation in Jizhou will surely be stabilized."

"As for me, the general, I will clear out those ghosts and monsters for you and let them know the consequences of opposing me."

(End of this chapter)