A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Starting from the Village Chief

Chapter 417 Slaying Yin Ashu
After the Awakening of Insects, spring plowing begins.

Li Yi also went to the fields every day. He gave the county and prefectural officials a strict task: no land was allowed to be idle or abandoned; all land had to be cultivated.

He owns 15,000 mu of land in Henan, most of which was planted with wheat last year. The remaining land will be planted with millet and sorghum this spring. He has many slaves, tenants, cattle and horses, so there is not much pressure in spring plowing.

"What a busy scene of spring plowing! When the autumn harvest comes, there won't be so many starving people anymore," Luo San said with great emotion as he accompanied Li Yi.

Li Yi did not buy any more land, but only purchased land, houses, and workshops in some large prefectures and counties. He advised Luo San and Liu Heizi to take advantage of the opportunity to buy land in Henan.

Land prices are really cheap now, and the government allows people to buy land, but there's only one requirement: the land must not be left uncultivated. If it is left uncultivated, the government will impose a fine of grain, and if it remains uncultivated for two consecutive years, the land will be taken back.

With everything in ruins and needing to be rebuilt, Li Yi didn't care about whether or not to merge or not; what he cared about was that the land could be cultivated and that there would be enough grain to produce.

This round of land transfers was indeed a celebration for the nobles and powerful families.

However, the imperial court and the military merit group also enjoyed many benefits. The twenty military prefectures established under the Luozhou General Administration alone, with 20,000 new soldiers and 100 mu of military land per person, occupied 2 million mu of land, most of which were good fertile land.

Officers at all levels also had official lands, and the various cavalry and chariot-cavalry headquarters also had public lands. Officers also had permanent estates, and soldiers who received honors also had merit lands.

The soldiers and officers of the prefectures under Luozhou suddenly occupied tens of thousands of acres of land.

Some, like Liu Heizi and Luo Dafu, not only received land but also purchased some land themselves.

This immediately transformed the soldiers of Luozhou into some of the most prominent self-cultivating farmers or even small landowners in the county, making them middle class.

Although many of the soldiers were selected from the top six households in the local area, many soldiers and officers were also transferred from Guanzhong and Hedong.

Including government-owned land, official land, and school land of prefectures and counties, the ownership of land today is quite different.

It has injected a lot of fresh blood.

The local landscape has changed.

Luo San, a man from Guanzhong, also owned thousands of acres of land in several counties of Luoyang. He directly recruited starving people as his retainers and tenants. He was well-off and built houses for the recruited starving people, transporting cattle, plows, seeds, and other supplies. With a thousand acres of land and more than a dozen tenant households, he could easily keep up with the seasons.

"Henan is currently lacking cattle and horses, lacking Wude plows, lacking almost everything," Luo San arranged for people to continue trading with Tuli Khan.
Salt, tea, wine, sugar, silk, and porcelain were traded with Tuli Khan for cattle, horses, camels, sheep, furs, medicines, and slaves.

Horse traders made a lot of money coming to the Central Plains, especially those who traded good horses that could be used as warhorses.

Cows also make money.

Cattle from the Turkic steppes, after being brought to the Central Plains, could be used for plowing and pulling carts for transportation with a little training.

The profits from trading directly with Tuli are astonishingly high.

Even if the Li family caravan had to bribe various locals along the way and ultimately pay the emperor an additional 10% of the profits, it would still be very profitable.

However, this is a business that ordinary people can't do; you need very strong connections and background.

Liu Heizi and Dafu have also been transferred to the military government in Henan. They can basically be promoted one rank here, after all, it's a new military government.

These guys trusted Li Yi completely. When he suggested they buy some land, they all readily made the purchase. After buying the land, they followed Li Yi's example, hiring migrant tenants, building houses, and buying cattle and raising pigs.

Nowadays, each of them has relatives or hired managers to help them manage things.

Countless refugees from all over the country flocked to the area.
They were all continuously divided up; some young and strong men were taken by the government to reclamation and spring plowing as part of a work-for-relief program, some were taken to repair cities and roads, and some were taken to build canals.

Many others were chosen by officials like Li Yi and Liu Heizi, as well as powerful local families, to work as servants, tenants, long-term laborers, or short-term laborers.

Everyone is busy with spring plowing.

Li Yi's Wude Plow Workshop hired many young and strong migrant workers to produce plows on an assembly line. The blacksmith shop was in the same situation, overwhelmed with orders for various plows, hoes, and other farm implements, and constantly hiring more people.

There are no idle fields.

Li Yi was very pleased with the lively scene.

After this round, most of the fields in Luofu will have new owners. Those who missed this round, especially ordinary people, will not have another chance.

Some people grit their teeth and take a gamble, and if they hold on, they'll have a hundred or two hundred acres of land, and their lives will get better and better.

Some people, fearing the burden, choose the seemingly more secure status of tenant farmers, but then they can only work for others day after day, making it difficult to turn their lives around.

These are all individual choices.

Li Yi respected their choice, even though that choice might not be truly autonomous and voluntary.

Luo Dagui and a group of fellow villagers from Yusu Township also came to Luoyang.
This time, he came as a new soldier. Seeing that his second brother, Dafu, had already become a sixth-rank general, Dagui could no longer sit still.

Despite the objections of his parents, wife, and children, he wrote to Li Yi requesting help in mobilizing the local soldiers.

This was a small matter. Li Yi simply made a call, and Da Gui became a new soldier in the military government, which was located in Henan.

"This time, we have selected five more soldiers from Luo Family Fortress, more than twenty from Xingsheng Village, and more than fifty from Yusu Township."

Da Gui was very excited to see Li Yi. He was wearing a red military uniform and was still very excited despite the hardship of the journey.

With the Tang Dynasty now engaged in numerous wars and frequent military campaigns, the demand for soldiers has increased significantly, making the men of Guanzhong the best candidates for the imperial guards.

Many young men from Guanzhong have also been greatly inspired by the fact that the Guanzhong garrison has been invincible in its campaigns over the past few years, with each soldier earning merit, honors, and official titles.

Every time soldiers are selected, many people rush to sign up. It's not as strict as it was in the Sui Dynasty. As long as you are young and strong and from a good family with a registered household, there are no special requirements regarding your family's status or the number of brothers you have.

Luo Dafu's family originally consisted of four people, father and sons. Now, his father is old and his eldest brother has passed away, leaving only two brothers. If it were during the Sui Dynasty, although his family would have enough wealth, only one of the two brothers could command the local soldiers.

But now the Tang Dynasty doesn't have so many restrictions. The priority is to unify the world first, and the Guanzhong Fubing (local militia) is naturally the most reliable.

Da Gui had always regretted that, according to their father's wishes, one brother should go to the local militia while the other stayed behind. As a result, after three years, Da Fu had already become a sixth-rank general of the Imperial Guard, while he was still just a recruit. "I have good news for you, you've become an uncle again."

Luo San Niang and Shu Ying gave birth one after the other, less than ten days apart. Luo San Niang gave birth to a son, and Shu Ying gave birth to a daughter.

Now Li Yi had two sons and three daughters.

Luo Dagui was unaware of the news on the way, but was very excited when he heard it. His sister had given birth to a son for Li Yi, which would solidify her position in the Li family.

"What's my nephew's name?" Da Gui asked happily.

"Take the nickname Taiping."

The eldest son's nickname is Ping An, the second son is now called Tai Ping, the eldest daughter is Ru Yi, and the second daughter is named An Lan.

"Where's the daimyo?"

During the Tang Dynasty, single-character names were more common.

"The eldest son's name is Cong, and the second son's name is Yan."

Li Yi has three daughters. The eldest is an adopted daughter, nicknamed Qian Dengzhao, whose formal name is Li Shu. Li Yi treats her as his own. His biological daughter, Ruyi, is called the Second Mother in the family, and her formal name is Li Wan. The newborn Anlan is the Third Mother, and her formal name is Li Xiu.

Li Yi felt a little regretful that he was never by his side when his children were born.

Du Shiniang had not been able to conceive, and now that her father had passed away, she had to observe three years of mourning, which would actually take twenty-seven months.

Shi Niang must have had a difficult time during this period, but unfortunately Li Yi was not by her side.

Caozhou.

In the twilight of late spring, inside the governor's mansion, Chief Clerk Yin Ashu sat upright in the hall, wearing a light scarlet official robe with a gold-plated belt around his waist and a conspicuous silver fish-shaped pouch.

"General Zhang, you won't shed a tear until you see the coffin. If you don't tell the truth, don't blame me for being impolite."

The man with his hands tied behind his back and iron chains piercing his collarbone in the hall was Zhang Wu, Meng Haigong's general in the Eastern Expedition.

Meng Haigong controls the two provinces of Cao and Dai, with 30,000 troops under his command. In recent years, he has not expanded much, just guarding this piece of land and tens of thousands of men. This can be said to be either that he has no great ambitions, or that his abilities are limited.

At the beginning of his uprising, Meng Haigong always referred to himself as the registrar. After Yang Guang was assassinated, he was persuaded by his brothers to call himself the King of Songyi.

After becoming king, he naturally had to promote his subordinates.

He organized his 30,000 men into three armies: left, center, and right. He personally commanded the center army, his eldest son Meng Yi commanded the left army, and his cousin Meng Dangui commanded the right army.

Each army is divided into ten prefectures, each with a thousand men. The commanders are all called generals and are granted various honorary titles.

For example, Yishi, Yijun General, the Four Generals of Conquest of the East and West, the Inner Army, Zhenjun, and Fujun Generals, the Four Generals of Pacification of the East and South, the Four Generals of Front, Rear, Left, and Right, the Four Generals of Zhenyuan, Anyuan, Fuyuan, and Pingyuan, the Generals of Zhenwei, Jianwei, Ningyuan, and Ningshuo, etc.

The name sounds impressive.
In reality, they only had a thousand men. At the beginning of the Kaihuang era of the Sui Dynasty, these generals with various titles were only of the sixth or seventh rank.

Zhang Wu was the General Who Conquers the East under Meng Dangui, the Right Army Commander, and also Meng Dangui's brother-in-law. These people all came from ordinary backgrounds, low-level figures, but they managed to achieve some fame and success during the chaos of the Sui Dynasty.

Because these people were all lowly figures, Meng Haigong and his men harbored great hatred for scholars and clerks after seizing the two prefectures of Cao and Dai. They would kill anyone who spoke in a way that they could not understand, quoting classics and histories.

Because of this, no scholars were willing to support them, and they never became large or powerful.

Meng Haigong and his gang liked to plunder powerful clans and wealthy families. Over the past seven or eight years, Meng Haigong and his men have replaced the former local tyrants and rich households, and become large landowners one by one.

They had indeed lived a comfortable life these past few years, but who would have thought that Yin Ashu would come along and treat them so badly.

Yin Hao, Yin Ashu's son, stepped forward carrying a cowhide whip. "You surnamed Zhang, hand over one hundred taels of gold and you can go back now. If you don't, you can wait to die today."

A loud bang came from outside the hall.

"Chief Secretary Yin has quite the airs of an official. A dignified sixth-rank General Who Conquers the East, you arrest him as you please, and dare to resort to such private torture?"

Meng Dangui, clad in armor, slunk in.

A squad of armored soldiers followed behind him.

Seeing his brother-in-law's miserable state, his eyes twitched, and he gritted his teeth and roared, "You damned bastard, you're asking for death!"

"presumptuous!"

Yin Ashu slammed his gavel heavily on the table. "I am acting on the orders of Li Sikong, the Pacification Commissioner of Henan and Hebei, to survey the land of the Caozhou General Administration. Zhang Wu has seized official and private land. We have also found armor and crossbows hidden in his residence, and discovered that he has been involved in human trafficking, usury, and exploitation of the people."
"I am now pursuing the embezzled funds; do you dare to interfere with the trial by staying in court?"

"Hahaha, you donkey-grass sitting there looking all high and mighty, today I'm going to chop off your head and kick it around like a ball, to get justice for the brothers of Caozhou."

"How dare you! I am an official of the imperial court, and also the father of Consort Yin. Meng Dangui, don't forget your place!"

"Status? What status do I have? I was the governor of Daizhou, but you even dismissed Daizhou. I was the commander-in-chief of the right army, but you want to dismiss 10,000 soldiers of the right army. What status do I have now?"
"My current identity is to kill you."

Having said that, Meng Dangui drew his sword, rushed forward, and raised it high. Yin Ashu screamed in terror and raised his hands to block in front of him.

The knife falls,
Yin Ashu's arm was severed, and he screamed in agony.

Meng Dangui swung his sword again, beheading Yin Ashu who was turning to flee.

"Chop up all these rats, big and small,"

The Yin family members no longer dared to act arrogantly. They all cried out for mercy, and some even knelt down and kowtowed.

Meng Dangui snorted coldly.
His armored soldiers rushed forward and cut them down one by one.

(End of this chapter)