Han official!

Chapter 136 Five Scholars

Five people form a group with one group leader, ten people form a squad with one group leader.

Wushi means five soldiers.

Wushili is located on the Loess Plateau south of Chang'an. The land is broken, with winding mountain roads and gullies everywhere. It is vast and desolate, and there are traces of wind erosion everywhere.

From time to time, a narrow stream appears among the loess gullies, and some red willows, cattails and rushes grow on the banks of the valley, adding a bit of vitality to the deserted gully land.

Guo Jie rode a Hexi horse to Wushili, wrapped his head with gauze to block the frequent gusts of wind and sand. He slept in the loess gullies twice and continued to move forward on the narrow loess road.

The only consolation is that there are scattered post offices, kiosks and relay stations on the Loess Plateau.

When night falls, you can live in the adobe house surrounded by red willows and cattails.

Everyone was tired from the wind and sand along the way. They were happy every time they saw a chuan, but felt a little unhappy when they met a you.

The duties of the post office, the kiosk, and the courier service overlap, but each has its own focus.

Post is mainly used to deliver documents.

The main purpose of the mission was to provide food and lodging to officials on official business.

The pavilion is mainly for public security.

The number of rooms in the inn was reduced by seven or eight, and more than ten rooms were added. Guo Jie and others no longer had to squeeze into one or two small rooms, and they could also eat hot soup. There was even a stingy man in the inn who, upon learning that Guo Jie was a Gongcao in the official temple in Chang'an, offered him millet wine and a meal of meat.

"The loess road here is really winding."

The mountain road twists eighteen times, but the road through the loess gullies can twist twenty-eight times. Wei Guang rode on Stanley, carrying an eight-stone bow on his back, looking at the endless gully roads ahead, veins bulging on his forehead. "As long as my brother-in-law convicts Zhao Tuo, Nai Gong will shoot his head off with the eight-stone bow."

The thing that annoyed him most was the rugged mountain roads.

The two loess hills looked straight, but one had to walk around the hills again and again. A quarter-hour journey took nearly an hour.

"Pooh!"

Guo Jie spat out the dust that had filled his mouth, looked up at the river valley in the distance, and breathed a sigh of relief. "It's not far. After passing the gorge ahead, we'll reach Wushili."

Wushili was built in a slightly flat valley, along the water, next to a wide river, and surrounded by acres of crops.

Guo Jie rode his Hexi horse and passed a gorge, where he saw a vast expanse of lush green crops. He couldn't help squinting his eyes as he looked at the endless green leaves.

The only crops grown on the land around Wushili were a small amount of corn, and more were hemp for weaving cloth.

Although ramie and ramie are both called hemp, they are two completely different crops.

Ramie is like a rattan, growing very tall, even taller than a person. It has relatively high requirements for water and soil, and can only thrive near water.

Ramie is different. It is more like a low weed that can be planted in dry land. It can grow as long as it is watered on time. It does not need to grow near water and can be cultivated on more land.

Therefore, ramie is also called grass tribute.

The vast land around Wushili, even in the valleys, is planted with ramie, which grows wildly with water.

"We should be at Goshiri."

Guo Jie pointed to a tall earthen wall built with ramie stalks not far away and said in a deep voice, "Remember, we're here to accompany Chong Huangrou to buy a few carts of coarse linen. We are Chong Huangrou's guests, and we're here to investigate the hidden households in Wushili."

Hidden households are people who are not registered in the household register.

In order to avoid taxes and reduce the amount of taxes and head taxes they had to pay, the powerful would often conceal the number of their population.

Guo Jie was a Gongcao in the official temple. Coming here to verify the number of people recorded in the monthly book was an important duty of the Gongcao.

But it sounded different to Zhao Tuo's ears.

It has a threatening meaning.

If Chong Huangrou is not allowed to get involved in the counterfeit currency business, Guo Jie will be arranged to find out the number of people in Wushili, and they will have to pay more taxes and head fees every year.

"He who comes is stopped!"

The rammed earth inner wall of Wushili was very high, comparable to the beacon tower at the frontier, as high as four zhang, nearly nine meters. On it stood a minor official wearing a black cap and a black robe. When he saw several men on horseback appear at the inner gate, he immediately shouted.

Several soldiers nearby took out their hunting bows, put feather arrows on them, and stared nervously at the several men in armor riding horses below.

Chong Huangrou wore a Liang crown on his head and a piece of silk cloth, which was a deep red-edged robe made of double-layer silk. He rode a Hexi horse a few steps forward.

"Bastard!"

Chong Huangrou said with a smug look on his face: "I am Chong Huangrou, the eldest son of Qu Chenghou. Hurry up and open the inner door. I give you three breaths to open the inner door, otherwise, I will flog you severely."

Chong Huangrou's jade-like face is very recognizable.

There is no other man in the whole Chang'an who is more handsome than Xijun.

Han Yan is the emperor's close attendant and ordinary people cannot see him. The only one who can see him is Chong Huang Rou.

Without taking out the talisman or seal, the clerk carefully looked at the soft and charming face of the Insect Emperor. He was stunned at first, then mesmerized. He had never seen such a good-looking person.

"Wait a moment, Mr. Bug."

The village official was already certain that this person was the notorious Chong Huang Rou, but out of caution, he went to the Quchi-shaped house of a cousin.

The village official said respectfully, "One of my cousins is the head of a flag pavilion in Gao City. Please wait for a moment at the gate. I will immediately call my cousin to come and greet you."

"Excuse me, Mr. Chong, please come in quickly."

Zhao Tingzhang was disheveled and hurried to the inner gate to greet Chong Huangrou. Because he was too anxious, he did not put on his jacket and trousers properly, and hurried out of the Quchi house and rushed to the inner gate of Wushili.

"Humph."

Chong Huangrou snorted coldly, dismounted and walked into Wushili, followed by several guests, who walked into the inner gate together, leading the Hexi horses.

Director Zhao saw a familiar face at the door.

Gongcao Guo Jie actually followed him.

Chief Zhao was shocked and almost drew his two-foot sword. He shouted to his clansmen and arrested Guo Jie, who was investigating the counterfeiting of coins, on the spot.

Due to Chong Huangrou's status as a marquis, Zhao Tingzhang did not use force without authorization.

"Go and call Zhao Tuo."

Chong Huangrou said with disdain: "We bought a few carts of coarse linen today. From now on, every shipment of coarse linen must be sent to the main office."

Zhao Tingzhang heard Chong Huangrou say the purpose of coming to the remote Wushili.

It dawned on him.

No wonder Guo Jie kept his eye on the counterfeit coins in Gao City.

It turned out that Chong Huangrou had taken a fancy to the business of counterfeiting coins and wanted to make huge profits from it and take away most of the profits from the host Zhao family.

Zhao Tingzhang's mood calmed down, and he couldn't help feeling a little proud. Even the eldest sons of the nobles and dukes asked for help from the host Zhao family!
He rubbed his hands and said happily, "Please come in, Lord Insect. My brother is waiting for you in Yanmen's house. I have prepared a banquet to entertain Lord Insect, who rarely comes."

The architectural layout of townships and neighborhoods is different.

The lvli is shaped like a cross, while the xiangli is shaped like a Chinese character "回". The xiangli has two rammed earth walls and two sets of gates: the outer gate and the middle gate.

The inner and outer gates are the inner gate, the first gate to enter the Huizi Township.

The middle gate of the village is Yanmen, the second middle gate to enter Huizi Township.

The outer circle of Wushili is inhabited by distantly related clansmen, most of whose houses are thatched huts. Some villagers, wearing tattered jackets and trousers, do not work and gather together to gamble. It is rare to see men taking plows and hoes out to plow the fields.

The wife and daughter at home were extremely tired, weaving cloth with great effort, exchanging the coarse linen they wove for corn rations for the whole family.

The conditions of each village in the countryside are different, and each village has formed its own customs.

Guo Jie walked into Wushili and observed the situation in the village. He noticed that Wushili had two distinct characteristics.

One is that every household has at least one loom.

The second one is a man from Wushili who is very lazy and doesn't work. He relies on his wife and daughter for support.

Due to the special circumstances of Wushili, the wife and daughter could support the whole family by weaving. More than ten men in the village, regardless of age, gathered in one family's home to gamble together, or three or five people gathered together to drink millet wine.

Guo Jie stepped into Yanmen and saw that the residents in the inner circle were more addicted to gambling. Lu Bo's shops were everywhere. Many wealthy families from nearby villages came to gamble, and they all wore cloth robes and scarves, and their clothes were more neat.

"This is Goshiri."

Zhao Tingzhang's face was filled with pride. "As long as every villager has a loom, they can have enough food to eat and don't need to farm at all. Villagers have already mortgaged all their land to their brothers in the clan in exchange for looms. The fields outside the village are rented out to villagers from other villages for cultivation, and they collect a rent of 60%."

Sixteen?
Only 40% of the crops were left on an acre of land, and the rest were all given to Zhao Tuo.

Fifteen percent is already a very heavy rent.

Zhao Tuo actually collected 16% of the land rent, leaving no way for the common people who rented the land to survive.

Guo Jie and his companions looked at Zhao Tingzhang with a hint of disgust.

"Even so, many common people are eager to rent and cultivate the land within the Wushili area."

Zhao Tingzhang caught a glimpse of the expressions of Guo Jie and the others. How could he not know what they were thinking? He continued to look smug: "The crops grown in the Wushili are ramie. Unlike grains like corn, which require ten months of hard work out of twelve months a year, ramie only requires a few months of hard work before it can be harvested."

"Besides..."

Zhao Tingzhang said with great complacency, "The five-scholars will buy up the remaining 40% of the ramie, and at a higher market price. The money and grain left by the common people will be more than what they would have earned from growing millet."

The market price of one acre of ramie.

Far lower than the market price of an acre of corn.

The situation in Wushili is the opposite, where the yield from one acre of ramie is higher than that from one acre of corn.

It lies in the special situation of Wushili.

Ramie is the raw material for making counterfeit currency.

Guo Jie glanced at Zhao Tingzhang a few times, but did not see the exclamation he wanted to see. He followed Chong Huangrou into the Sun-shaped house.

Zhao Tingzhang was annoyed and furious. "He only got promoted to Gongcao by fawning over Zhao Yu and Zhang Tang. How dare such a flatterer act so arrogantly in front of me? Bah! You're so shameless!"

The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. "If it weren't for the fact that you're a guest of Chong Huangrou, even if you were a Gongcao, you wouldn't be able to enter the gate of Wushili."

Whenever Guo Jie went to the village of a powerful family, that powerful family would be in trouble and all their property would be confiscated.

The clansmen were also sent to Linyuan to work as farmers.

Guo Jie has become a community ghost and plague god.

The powerful had long had an unwritten rule that as long as Zhao Yu and Zhang Tang were not present in person, even if Guo Jie was holding official documents from the government, he would be punished.

Guo Jie would never be allowed to enter the inner gate.

When Zhao Tingzhang saw Guo Jie, he originally wanted to stop him outside the door, but because Chong Huangrou was a guest, stopping him would be an offense to Chong Huangrou.

Helpless, they had to let Guo Jiefang in.

"Mr. Chong is truly a distinguished guest."

At the entrance to the guest room stood an old man in his forties, dressed in a black robe worth eight thousand coins. He was tall, and a two-foot-long sword inlaid with gold and silver hung from his waist. He shouted, "Go and kill the geese that Madam has raised. They are a rare delicacy. I was reluctant to eat them before, but now that the Insect Lord has arrived, we must kill the geese as a treat for him."

When Anguo Shaoji heard the word "Madam," his eyes lit up and he immediately said, "I'm good at cooking geese. Today, I'll let Zhao Litian taste the delicious goose soup. I wouldn't say it's as good as Princess Pingyang's, but it's a rare delicacy in the mansion."

When Guo Jie heard the words "good at cooking geese", he almost burst out laughing.

I don't want to reveal An Guo Shao Ji's thoughts.

Does An Guo Shao Ji want to eat geese?
He wants to eat the lady.

Zhao Tuo did not care and often went in and out of the big and small mansions in Chang'an. He knew that some nobles and dukes often brought a large number of slaves with them when they went out to show their status, including the chef Ding who was kept in the mansion.

"hehe."

Zhao Tuo laughed out loud: "Today, I will try the cooking skills that Chongjun brought to me and see how delicious the goose he cooked is."

Chong Huangrou looked at Zhao Tuo strangely, then at An Guo Shao Ji, without responding to this sentence.

Chong Huangrou didn't know how delicious geese were.

But I know that someone has tasted the lady's delicious food.

An Guo Shao Ji was overjoyed and said cheerfully, "Don't worry, Zhao Litian, this meal will definitely give you a feeling you've never had before."

Zhao Tuo didn't dare say that he had eaten all the banquets in the mansion, but he had eaten quite a few. He heard An Guo Shao Ji say something he had never experienced before.

He couldn't help but look forward to it.

"Zhao Litian must have made a lot of money from his linen business."

Chong Huangrou directly stated her purpose: "I came here this time for only one thing, to buy a few carts of coarse linen. This is not the only time. From now on, whenever coarse linen from Wushili is shipped to Gao City, I will buy a few carts of it."

Zhao Tuo's heart trembled. He understood the meaning behind Chong Huangrou's words, which was that she wanted to get a certain percentage of the profits from the counterfeit money business of the host Zhao family.

"this."

Zhao Tuo pretended to be embarrassed. "I'm afraid I can't sell you several carts of burlap. I can only sell you one. After all, there are other people who want to buy burlap."

"A car?"

Chong Huangrou was furious: "Who are you looking down on? Do you think I can't afford coarse linen? Guo Jie, take the Yueyan Book and immediately check the records of the five scholars. There are no hidden households that have not been reported."

Guo Jie was waiting for this sentence. He took Wei Guang, Mang Tong and Su Jian out of the Rizi Mansion and, under the pretext of checking the Fu register, began to look for Su Jian's wife and children, as well as the warehouse where the coarse linen was stored.

Yi Zong stayed in the official temple in Chang'an. When the appointed time came, he immediately took the thief catcher and the prison clerk to Wushili.

The only two people Guo Jie could completely trust were his two brothers-in-law, Wei Guang and Yi Zong.

When it comes to safety, you need to leave behind someone you can completely trust.

(End of this chapter)