Ming Dynasty: Summoning game players at the beginning

Chapter 69 Hey, you really object
The Marshal snorted coldly, as if he was looking at a dead person, "What's wrong?"

"The lands under my name are the product of generations of hard work. Giving them away to refugees would be a betrayal to our ancestors and a sign of unfilial piety. If the refugees were to pay to redeem them, I believe the burden on them would be too heavy, and would go against the Marshal's original intention. Therefore, I believe the land division policy is inappropriate."

"Yes, yes. If we give the farmland to those refugees, what will happen to the students' families? Wouldn't that be like robbing Peter to pay Paul, feeding one group while starving another? I hope the Marshal will forgive me."

"During this famine, we grain farmers have also suffered greatly. Although we have a small fortune, our family is large, and we have many servants and children. Our annual expenses are very high. We also have to pay tributes to the court officials, so we can't save much money each year. We are really unable to do so."

"Hahahaha..." Upon hearing this, the Marshal couldn't help but burst into laughter, pounding the table wildly, making the bowls and cups jump and clink.

When the wealthy people saw this, they didn't know why the Marshal was laughing.

The Marshal clapped his hands, and more than ten servants slowly walked into the inner hall carrying trays with piles of books on them.

They carried trays to the extra square table behind the Marshal and spread the booklets out on it.

"Hey, so-and-so." The Marshal pointed at the wealthy man who first expressed his disapproval. "Where are you from?"

Although the man thought the Marshal was vulgar, he still responded, "I'm from Guangshan County, Liang Songwen..."

A wealthy man nearby was about to flatter the Marshal and quickly added, "He is the head of Guangming Village in Liangting Township, Guangshan County."

"Oh! Thank you for the additional information, uncle. What's your last name?"

"What is your surname? Your name is Wanquan."

"Very good, I remember you."

As soon as the commander finished speaking, the servants behind him picked out several tax and service books of the Lijia family from a pile of books, including household registration and land conditions.

"Liang Songwen owns 1,866 mu 5 fen 9 li of land. There are 35 registered members of his household, with an average land area of ​​53 mu 3 fen 3 li per person. He must pay summer taxes, autumn grain, village and territorial levies, and two additional taxes every year..."

The total tax paid was 423 taels, 7 qian, and 8 fen, but the actual tax paid was 193 taels, 3 qian, and 8 fen, which was less than half of the original tax. They often used excuses to delay payment. In the ninth year of Chongzhen, they used the excuse of a severe drought in Guangshan as an excuse to not pay a single cent...."

The attendant who had been reading the booklet put down the tax booklet in his hand and picked up another one with a grayish-white cover. He flipped through it for a moment and continued, "According to the testimony of the household register and tax collectors in Guangshan County, local people have bribed tax payers to reduce their taxes, or deliberately defaulted on taxes in order to get them exempted by the court, for at least twenty years."

"Oh, you've been evading taxes for twenty years. This year, you've missed out on at least two hundred taels of silver. That's four thousand taels of silver in twenty years. That doesn't even include the income from your business. How rich are you?"

The wealthy man looked flustered, his trembling hands waving across his chest. "This, this is the slander of the clerks! The commander-in-chief is new to government affairs and doesn't know the harm of clerks. Although they hold low positions, they are in charge of the county's money and grain taxes—"

Even the wealthy families among us cannot avoid being exploited and squeezed by them. For one tael of silver, they would say it was not of high quality and charge one or three taels. The extra money would become their profit.

If you don't give them benefits, they will at best delay paying taxes and punish you, or at worst collude with bandits to kill you."

"Your expression changes so quickly! I just took out the records and stripped you of your underwear, and you turned around and said the clerk was trying to harm you. How could he even make you pay 400 taels of tax and only pay 190?"

"There have been droughts and insect pests everywhere in recent years. In order to support a large family, I, we have no choice but to do this..." Liang Songwen looked around, hoping that someone would agree with him, but no one spoke.

The commander took a random tax and labor register and waved it in front of the wealthy man at the same table. "Haha, how ridiculous! I see a record here of a village with many refugees. One household should have paid 20 taels of tax, but it was raised to 35 taels.

Not only did he pay, he also paid for ten years. Can you guess why he didn't continue paying after only ten years? It was because he was so poor that he sold his children, his land, and finally sold himself as a domestic slave!
"Why, have the drought and insect pests grown eyes and only harmed you and not the poor people? Ah! Speak!"

Liang Songwen no longer had the ease of a scholar. His face flushed red with fear. After a moment of anxiety, he slowly uttered a few words, "Students are also difficult to deal with..."

"Is it difficult to do it? Then don't do it!"

The Marshal suddenly slammed the table. The armored warrior standing behind Liang Songwen understood what he meant. He grabbed the knife on his left waist with his right hand and pulled it out quickly. Then he stabbed it vertically into the back of the rich man's neck and stabbed it out from the front of his throat.

With a "pa ji" sound, blood splattered everywhere, especially on the faces of Liang Songwen and the wealthy people opposite him.

"Ahhh!"

The sudden murder frightened the gentlemen so much that they screamed and the wine glasses in their hands slipped. Several of them fell to the ground because they couldn't sit firmly. Others tried to crawl out of the inner hall but were stopped at the door by armored warriors.

"go back."

These two simple words were like the emperor's order, forcing those who wanted to crawl away to return to their seats.

Even though the residents of the courtyard outside the hall had seen the murder going on, they were watched closely by the armored warriors surrounding them and dared not move an inch. "I'm trying to reason with you, but you're treating me like I'm joking. If you don't want to live, there are plenty of people who can!"

The Marshal sat in the main seat, his originally somewhat foolish demeanor becoming fierce and terrifying after the blood splattered.

He added, "Keep reading out the names. Anyone whose accumulated tax arrears exceed three thousand taels of silver will be apprehended!"

"Zhou Dingguo, Chen Xinghe, Li Wenzhao..."

All the wealthy people whose names were called were grabbed by the throat and dragged away from their seats by the warriors behind them.

They were tied up with ropes and dragged to the door of the inner hall like dead dogs, facing the small and medium-sized grain farmers outside the courtyard.

"The Marshal insists on believing the words of the clerks and the people, and arbitrarily persecutes the good gentry. Taxation will be in chaos, and banditry will flourish. Isn't the Marshal afraid of the turmoil in southern Henan and the disheartening feelings of scholars across the country?"

"Don't be such a fool to come and oppress us on behalf of the whole world!" The Marshal pointed at the confession extracted from the torture behind him. "You always talk about benevolence, morality, and the classics of saints. You have occupied countless lands, made a lot of money, and harmed countless civilians. If Zhu Yuanzhang were alive, he would cut you into pieces!"

"Please spare my life! I am willing to give up all my family's land! I only ask the Marshal to show mercy and spare my life. I know I was wrong! Please spare my life!"

However, Qihuojun didn't listen to his nonsense at all. He punched him in the face, causing him to bleed from his nose and shut him up on the spot.

The flatterer He Wanquan was horrified when he saw this, and he knew that the Qihuo Army was killing the chicken to scare the monkeys.

Although the public execution of the wealthy was cruel and crude, he had to admit that although the Qihuo Army was a rebel, they had a legitimate reason to "punish according to the law."

He was also secretly thankful that he had very poor connections in the county government, and the accumulated amount of tax arrears was very small. Although he was a bit frugal in his daily work and occasionally used some tricks to trick his competitors, he would not dare to do anything to kill people.

"Kill the bad gentry!"

As the names came out one by one, the armored players howled excitedly like hungry wolves out of a cage, and took people by name, causing chaos in the entire banquet hall.

Some people struggled and resisted, some hid under the table, and some knelt down and kowtowed to beg for mercy, but were slapped three times by the heavily armored volunteers, leaving their cheeks red.

"I told you to owe taxes! I told you to owe taxes! I told you to owe taxes!" A heavily armored player slapped a gentry who owed 5,000 taels of tax.

The self-satisfied gentlemen lost their polite demeanor and cried and begged for mercy on their knees, expressing their willingness to donate their land to reform themselves.

"There are always people who think they have failed miserably and still have bargaining chips. Unfortunately, I gave you a chance to use courtesy before force, but you are greedy and it is gone now..." The Marshal coldly refused to negotiate.

The bound gentleman was pinned to the doorstep by the player's knees, his head hanging in the air.

"Do it!"

At the sound of the command, the steel knives hanging over the heads of the gentry fell down in unison. With a puffing sound, bright red blood spurted out from their necks, and their heads rolled into the courtyard one by one.

The big grain farmers all looked pale, their legs felt as if they were filled with lead and they couldn't move an even a step. They usually lived a life of luxury and had never seen the bloody scene of beheading at close range.

Some people were so frightened that they became incontinent and emitted a foul smell. Others' eyes turned white and they fell backwards and fainted.

The Marshal came to the inner hall door with a knife in hand and roared at the wealthy people inside and outside.

"Should we pay back the money owed over the years, or give up the excess per capita land to resettle the refugees? Do you want to be the chicken that is killed to scare the monkeys, or do you want the monkeys to survive? Just stand up and fart loudly!"

The gentry present were dizzy and dazzled by the Beggar Army's "attack first and kill later" fighting style. Looking at the rows of headless corpses on the ground, they had no idea what to do.

At this moment, being roared and questioned by the Marshal, everyone lost all thoughts and knelt down in a large group.

……

The "beat the gentry and divide the land" campaign in the areas occupied by the Beggar Army caused a lot of uproar, and the people who were usually oppressed by the rich were all in high spirits.

Many wealthy families could not bear the "oppression" of the beggar army and had to flee to Gushi in the east, which had not yet fallen, with their valuables, and distribute their property to form a returning home group.

Some wealthy families fled to Lijiazhai at night and joined forces with the gentry in the "occupied area of ​​Shangcheng". They knelt before Li Mu and cried, asking Master Li to take the lead and lead them back to the occupied area.

(End of this chapter)