Family Rise: Beginning with Grandfather.

Chapter 606: The Prefect Lying Down
"Sir, I want to identify them. They robbed my shop. The grain shop facing the street at the west city gate is ours!" Another middle-aged man stood up and shouted.

"Is there any evidence?"

The middle-aged man said, "I have it at home!"

"Go and get it! As long as there is solid evidence, I will return the shop to you!"

The middle-aged man was enlightened when he heard this and ran home in a hurry to get the evidence.

The evidence is a deed, or an official deed.

The so-called official deed is a deed stamped with the official seal of the prefecture or county, and it can also be called a red deed.

The counterpart of the red deed is the white deed, which is a contract signed privately by the people without the approval of the government.

Even with an official deed I can’t keep the shop, this is so fucking unfair!

After glancing at the deed, Yang Mingzhao said, "Ma Yan, make a new official deed for him! Register it!"

Ma Yan, who had been prepared, immediately took the deed, then re-drafted it and asked the people to register.

In just a few minutes, a new deed was ready and stamped with the official seal of the county government.

"Take it! You can take over this shop now. From now on, this shop is yours!" Yang Mingzhao said.

When the middle-aged man received the deed, tears welled up in his eyes. He fell to his knees on the ground and kowtowed repeatedly.

"My Lord is so kind and righteous. I am so grateful to you!"

"Woo woo, thank you for your kindness, sir!"

"Go, go. Hey, wait, I still have to try the case and sentence them all later! You can stay here and continue watching!" Yang Mingzhao almost forgot about his business.

With the first person taking the lead, the rest became easy, as many people came forward to confess the crimes.

Yang Mingzhao's method of judging was also very simple. If there were many people who pointed out crimes, then this family must have committed many crimes and must be severely punished. If human lives were involved, they would be beheaded. If no human lives were involved, they would be imprisoned and forced to do hard labor later.

If there are only a few people who make accusations, then it is possible that they have committed a false accusation, or that the crimes they have committed are minor, so they can be kept for later processing.

Officials, yamen runners, and wealthy gentry were brought up one after another, and the people pointed them out one after another.

At the beginning, there were only a few hundred people gathered, but by noon, two to three thousand people had gathered in the street in front of the county government.

Most of the people in the city came running.

"Should this damn county magistrate be killed?" Finally it was the turn of the county magistrate Li Zhongping. Yang Mingzhao shouted while holding a teapot in one hand.

"He deserves to be killed! He deserves to be killed!"

The people were excited and shouted.

Bang bang bang~~
Yang Mingzhao knocked on the gavel, "Silence, silence!"

"If he deserves to be killed, then kill him!"

"Have you remembered everything?"

He looked at Ma Yan beside him.

"I've got it remembered!" Ma Yan replied.

"Very good, kill them now! Kill those who are guilty of heinous crimes first!" Yang Mingzhao said.

Including the county magistrate Li Zhongping, twenty-three officials and wealthy families were dragged out again. When the surrounding people saw this, they were both frightened and excited.

What they were afraid of was the bloody act of beheading, and what they were excited about was that these damned officials were finally punished.

Lin Botao stood in the crowd and looked at the officials who were tied up, especially the official who killed his parents, his eyes were full of excitement.

He looked at Yang Mingzhao again. At this time, Yang Mingzhao was still standing on the chair, holding the teapot and drinking water from his mouth in a very ungraceful manner.

Yang Mingzhao had been shouting for quite some time and his mouth was dry and his tongue was parched.

On the execution ground, the officials and wealthy people were still struggling and crying, but their mouths were blocked and they could only make whimpering sounds.

Yang Mingzhao didn't give them any chance to speak, and didn't even interrogate them. As long as enough people complained, it would be a death sentence.

They were all crying bitterly, and some were even scared to pee.

The people around were extremely excited.

"Kill them, kill them!"

"Kill them!"

The people shouted.

Yang Mingzhao laughed, "Execution!"

The young and strong men held long knives and pinned down the officials and wealthy men, and started to chop them down with all their might.

However, these guys' skills were not very good, and their knives were not professional swords. After one chop, not a single one was killed.

There are also good aspects. None of these young and strong people are afraid, and each of them behaves very seriously.

Only those who have killed people and seen blood can be considered qualified warriors.

Today is to give them courage training.

What followed was a bloody scene with heads rolling everywhere.

Looking at the blood all over the ground, the shouting people around finally quieted down.

Yang Mingzhao shouted again: "From today on, I am the county magistrate of Taiping County. You are all citizens of Taiping County. If anyone has any grievances, you can come to the county government to file a complaint at any time!"

"Starting tomorrow, the county government will recompile the Yellow Book. All citizens who own property in the county will need to come to the county government to register. If you don't come, your property will be treated as unowned property!"

"When the time comes, the county government will sell off your properties. Don't blame me for being unreasonable!"

"Okay, that's all for today. I'm tired, let's all go!"

After saying that, Yang Mingzhao turned around and walked back to the county government office.

They asked Chongshan to compile the Yellow Book of Taiping County, which was the household registration, which recorded in detail the hometown, name, age, number of people, land and property, assets, and divided the household registration according to the occupation, which was mainly divided into three categories: civilians, military personnel, and craftsmen.

The fish scale book, also known as the fish scale map or measurement book, is a land registration book that arranges houses, mountains, ponds, and fields in order and connects them, indicating the corresponding names. It is the general book of private fields.

The most important information in the county government is the Yellow Book and the Fish Scale Book. With the Yellow Book and the Fish Scale Book, one can know how many people there are in a county, how many fields there are, how much taxes should be collected, and so on.

However, sometimes people are unwilling to register because once they have a household registration card, they need to pay various taxes and perform labor service for the government. Many people would rather remain hidden than register.

Hidden households and hidden fields were common in Dayong, and if Yang Mingzhao wanted to distribute land to the people, he had to figure out all the people and fields in the county.

The people in the city did not need to divide the land, but they had properties and shops, and industrial and commercial taxes were collected, so they also had to be registered.

On the third day after Yang Mingzhao and his men entered the city, Deng Xing and Han Lin each led a hundred young and strong men to the county town.

In the county government office, Yang Mingzhao asked them, "How is it going? Is everything going well?"

"It went smoothly. The Inspection Office has been taken down. The inspector and the deputy inspector were all killed by me. As for the archers, I killed a few people who had done many evil things on weekdays. As for the rest, I gave them three buckets of grain and dismissed them!" "Those archers took the grain and thanked me repeatedly. Hahahaha, they usually have problems even eating, let alone giving them grain. Don't worry, sir, they won't make trouble again!"

Deng Xing said.

Yang Mingzhao smiled and nodded, "Very good, if we occupy the Inspection Office, we will have blocked the north gate of Taiping County."

They left one hundred young and strong men in the Inspection Office. These one hundred young and strong men certainly could not stop the army, but they had no problem blocking the official road.

"Things are going smoothly on my side too. The Yan family has some strength, but that's all. I just made a slight move and the Yan family was wiped out!" Han Lin said jokingly.

"The Yan family has a lot of assets, countless money and grain, and many fields. It's hard to sort them out in a short time, so I left Lin Liu there. Young Master, you can arrange for someone to go over and check it out!"

Yang Mingzhao shook his head and said, "Don't worry, don't worry. The things are there and they won't go away. Next we should distribute the land to the people!"

"Tomorrow, leave two young men in the city to register the people in the city."

"Old Deng, Old Han, Zhao Kai, Zhang Mo, Li Cheng, Yu Qiyan, the six of you will each lead fifty men and two clerks, with the county seat as the center, to the surrounding villages and towns to distribute land to the people!"

"As long as the people are willing to register and settle down, we will allocate land to them. All adults over the age of sixteen, regardless of gender, will be given land."

"Tea farmers will be divided into tea mountains, herbal farmers will be divided into herbal fields. In short, the fields should be divided first!"

These were plans they had made previously, allocating fields according to their fertility and the type of crops they would plant.

All persons over the age of sixteen were given land. Each person could be allocated three mu of paddy fields. If there were no paddy fields, they could be allocated five mu of dry land. If the land was too barren, they could be allocated eight mu at the discretion of the government.

Tea farmers will not only be given tea mountains, but also some land where they can grow crops.

Similarly, herbal farmers will not only use medicinal fields, but also some fields for growing crops.

There may be some unfairness in such distribution, but rules must be set, otherwise it will become more and more chaotic.

"By the way, try to keep the fields around the county town and give them to the people in Three Arrow Valley!"

Yang Mingzhao did not forget the brothers under his command. As long as they were willing to contribute, he would definitely give them more land.

After the instructions were given, everyone started to get busy the next day.

Registration was done within the city, and land was measured and distributed outside the city.

The people in the city have already accepted the existence of people like Yang Mingzhao and have cooperated very well in registering.

At first, the people outside the city didn’t believe that there was such a good thing in the world, but as long as there was one person willing to try, the rest would be easy.

And as soon as the first village completed the land distribution, the following villages began to look forward to their arrival.

As for the gentry in the villages and towns, the same thing applies: those who have done many evil things should be killed directly. If they are relatively good people, leave them a few acres of land, and the rest should be distributed to tenants and servants.

That’s right, even slaves were given land, and things like indentures had to be abolished.

All the high-interest loans previously lent by the gentry were abolished, and all the land was distributed to tenants and slaves. As for houses and floating assets, as long as they were willing to cooperate in the division of land, Yang Mingzhao would not deliberately kill them.

Once the land is distributed to the tenants and slaves, they will certainly not want to work like slaves for the gentry and landlords anymore. If the gentry and landlords want to forcibly demand the land in the future, Yang Mingzhao and others may not even need to do anything, as the tenants and slaves will kill them.

There will be riots and fights, but under the strong suppression of force, all struggles will be in vain.

In the beginning, some people still resisted, but as the land distribution work got on track, those gentry and landlords no longer dared to resist.

Many gentry and landlords even fled Taiping County with their families, but Yang Mingzhao did not stop them. They could run if they wanted to, as they could not take their land with them anyway.

In the end, some people even took the initiative to capture the gentry and landlords, and sent them to the county government, asking Yang Mingzhao to divide the land among them.

This chaotic situation lasted for two months until the land distribution work was coming to an end.

The landlords were beaten and the land was divided, and everyone was doing it more and more smoothly.

Yang Mingzhao sat in the county government office and kept counting small coins. Today he killed a landlord, and the young and strong men brought him several hundred taels of silver. Tomorrow he killed a local gentry, and the young and strong men brought him several thousand taels of silver again.

Soon, the county government's treasury and granary were filled with silver, money and grain.

In just two months, they actually harvested nearly 100,000 taels of silver and more than 50,000 shi of grain.

Looking at the cartloads of grain being loaded into the Changping warehouse, Yang Mingzhao said angrily: "These gentry and landlords are really abominable. They would rather let the grain rot in the warehouse than lower the rent for the tenants!"

Chen Buyu said: "If they had a little conscience, the tenants wouldn't have lived such a miserable life!"

Is Taiping County very poor?

No, Taiping County is not poor. The good weather and good harvests in Taiping County are enough to provide food and clothing for more than 100,000 people.

However, there were too many gentry and landlords in Taiping County. These gentry and landlords occupied a large amount of land, making the tenants miserable.

Coupled with the heavy taxes and levies imposed by the government, the people found it difficult to make ends meet.

It's just the common people who are poor.

……

Just when Taiping County was measuring and dividing land, news of bandits causing chaos in Taiping County spread quickly.

To the south of Taiping County is Dongxiang County, to the east is Mingtong County, to the west is Tongjiang County of Baoning Prefecture, and to the north is Ziyang County of Hanzhong Prefecture in Longnan.

Yang Mingzhao did not block the news, and he could not block the news, so on the third day after they started the uprising in the county, the news spread out of Taiping County.

Moreover, after the land was divided, many gentry and landlords fled Taiping County.

Kuizhou Prefecture City.

"Your Excellency, there are rioters in Taiping County. Your Excellency Qing is acting on behalf of the people and sending troops to suppress them!"

There were two people standing in the hall, one was Yan Jifei, a direct descendant of the Yan family, and the other was Huang Hengtai, a local squire in Taiping County.

Yan Jifei was very lucky. When Deng Xing led people to attack the Yan family, Yan Jifei was not at home. When he returned home, he found that the Yan family had been surrounded. He did not dare to go forward, but just secretly observed for a while. After seeing that his father and brothers were all chopped to death, he was so scared that he fled from Taiping County.

Huang Hengtai's home was in the south of Taiping County. The land distribution started from the county seat. He received the news early and fled to Kuizhou Prefecture in advance.

There were many Yan family members and local gentry like them, and many of them fled to Kuizhou Prefecture, wanting to ask the prefectural government to send troops to quell the rebellion.

The prefect, Su Muye, stroked his beard and said, "I already know about this matter. I have asked the military to quell the rebellion. You can go back and wait!"

He sent the two away with just a few words, but after they left, Su Muye began to sigh.

It is said that the prefect who exterminated an entire family and the county magistrate who destroyed a family, but this is aimed at ordinary people.

What can the prefect Su Muye do when faced with a group of rioters?

Ask the Dusi Yamen to summon soldiers to quell the rebellion?
Don't joke, if the Dusi Yamen could quell the rebellion, then the Black Tiger King, the Nine Heavenly Kings and the like would not have gone unexamined for several years.

Those garrison soldiers cannot be relied upon at all.

Moreover, the government office has no money or grain. All the money and grain had long been requisitioned by the provincial government in the name of suppressing the rebellion. Now the granary in the government office is so full that rats would starve to death.

Without money, food, or soldiers, what else can Su Muye do?
Su Muye thought about it and decided that he should go to bed!
Since there's nothing you can do, you might as well just lie down.

(End of this chapter)