Second-hand time travel: Liu Bei, the big-eared bandit

Chapter 12 First, get a piece of land.
It didn't take long to recruit prisoners into the army, because these guys were all acquaintances to Liu Bei.

After registering their names, Liu Bei now had over two hundred new recruits under his command.

However... most of these names shouldn't be taken seriously.

After all, most of the prisoners are illiterate and they usually use pseudonyms.

Therefore, the names registered in Liu Bei's register were all abstract ones like "Big Eyes", "Eight-Foot Man", and "White Beard".

But Liu Bei didn't care, since a name was just a label anyway.

There were no barracks available at the moment, and these guys couldn't be allowed to live in the county, so Liu Bei approached Zou Dan, who was in charge of money, grain, and land, and planned to buy a piece of wasteland in the west of the city with his own money to station troops there, so as to prevent the prisoners from disturbing the people.

Since Gongsun Zan made Liu Bei raise money and grain to support his troops, he naturally needed a place to station his troops. Since Liu Bei had no land at home, he should find a piece of land.

There is indeed a large area of ​​unclaimed wasteland more than ten miles west of the city, located in Shiliting. It is public property within the county and covers several thousand acres.

That land was probably an ancient battlefield before. It was all relatively compacted earthen slopes with many wild graves. There were no rivers or ditches nearby, so it wasn't very suitable for reclamation and planting crops.

However, purchasing land for cultivation required paying taxes and grain rations, so no one had ever been willing to buy that place.

But that so-called wasteland wasn't completely empty.

On the contrary, there is now a large village there, with quite a few people.

Because that was the sacred site of the Taiping Dao (Taiping Dao).

Previously, Le Yin allocated the land to Taiping Dao for use; that was the land.

However, the land demarcation only marked out an area for spreading the word; it was not a sale, and the land itself remained ownerless.

The Taiping Dao built a temple and charitable institution there for relief and charity purposes, so no one investigated the issue of land occupation.

Gongsun Zan and Zou Dan were newcomers and naturally did not know that Taiping Dao had been operating there for several years. Seeing that the land was a blank piece of land in the county documents, they generously allowed Liu Bei to buy it.

Moreover, Liu Bei didn't spend a single penny to buy this land.

Since the army's expenses should nominally come from the county, stationing troops on Liu Bei's land is equivalent to the county owing Liu Bei a debt.

This debt was naturally impossible to repay, so Liu Bei proposed to use the debt to offset the cost of buying the land, and also requested that the county exempt him from all taxes during the period when the executioners were stationed there.

This was a reasonable request. Gongsun Zan certainly knew that it would be difficult to accommodate more than two hundred people. Liu Bei bought the land to station and train troops, so he naturally approved the deal.

In other words, Liu Bei got a piece of land for free and was exempt from taxes.

The price to pay is having to raise your own army.

However, Liu Bei had no intention of spending his own money...

He led the executioners directly to the charitable institution at Shili Pavilion.

This charitable shelter was the Taoist temple of the Way of Peace, providing people with free food and lodging, as well as a place to worship the Yellow Heaven and spread the Tao. It was also a place to collect offerings from believers.

In recent years, Taipingdao has developed rapidly, building charitable shelters in various states, and has indeed been providing porridge and medicine to relieve the poor.

Of course, they also did their fair share of trickery and deception, after all, the Taiping Dao needed money and supplies, and they had to trick wealthy families into contributing funds to believers.

The Taoist priests in Zhuo County were usually quite law-abiding and were acquainted with Liu Bei. They would occasionally inform Liu Bei of the whereabouts of bandits.

At this time, Liu Bei was discussing with the Taoist priest Taiping about using this charitable shelter to house his troops and get some free food.

"These are all thieves; if they cause trouble here..."

The Taoist priest was very uneasy: "Besides, I don't have that much grain to take. General, please don't make things difficult for me."

"I'm not some general, nor am I trying to make things difficult for you." Liu Bei shook his head, smiling broadly. "But your Taiping Dao has come here to build houses, occupying land in this county, and hasn't paid a single penny of rent to the county so far. Doesn't that count as your Taiping Dao forcibly seizing land?"

"This……"

Sweat beaded on the Taoist priest's forehead: "General, oh no, young master Liu, I have obtained permission from Magistrate Shile County to preach here..."

"The permit is for you to preach here, not for you to illegally occupy land... How about this, from now on you provide lodging and food for my people, that will be considered as paying land rent, how about that?"

Liu Bei is a very reasonable person, but his asking price is a bit high.

"How can I possibly feed so many people?"

The Taoist priest grew anxious: "Since you've occupied land within the county, then I'll simply pay the taxes and rent..."

“That works too. The annual rent is 1.8 million coins, which can be paid monthly at 150,000 coins per month.”

Liu Bei was counting on his fingers: "Oh, by the way, most of the land around Shili Pavilion is now my private land. I can charge whatever I want."

The Taoist priest looked like he was about to cry: "Young Master Liu, please don't treat me like this! I'll just go somewhere else to spread my teachings..."

"That's fine, but the county has already designated the area for spreading the teachings, and it's been reported to the prefecture. The temple can only be set up in this area. If you encounter prefectural soldiers elsewhere, they won't be as accommodating as I am..."

Liu Bei said nonchalantly, "You know about this, it's not that I'm deliberately making things difficult for you."

Indeed, the areas for preaching were agreed upon in advance. If the Way of Peace did not follow the rules, it would be tantamount to disregarding the government.

Setting up temples and gathering people to spread the word everywhere can easily lead to trouble, and the government is already very wary of such things.

"Here's what we'll do. I'll allow your disciples to cultivate the land on my land, and I won't charge you any rent or grain taxes. I'll even waive the government's grain taxes for you... but you'll have to be responsible for providing food and lodging for my people."

Liu Bei discussed business as if he were buying vegetables at a market: "Look, you've made a fortune this way, haven't you?"

The Taoist priest considered it for a moment and felt that it was a mutually beneficial deal, so he nodded in agreement: "Then so be it! And please ask Young Master Liu to restrain his subordinates from causing trouble."

"Of course, they are soldiers now, and if they cause trouble, they will be dealt with according to military law."

Liu Bei, of course, would not allow his troops to cause trouble on his own territory, and the deal was thus struck.

More than two hundred criminals were thus housed in the charitable shelter on Taiping Road.

But a few days later, they split into more than a dozen small groups and left the charity home, each going in a different direction.

"Brother, this is tantamount to letting them go for nothing. I'm afraid they won't come back... Why is that?"

Jian Yong didn't quite understand Liu Bei's actions.

These people were all bandits, but Liu Bei let them eat and drink at the charity house for a few days and then released them, allowing them to gather their original small gangs on their own.

“I’ve locked up their leaders and made them go to Malaysia to ransom their boss.”

Liu Bei did not hide anything from Jian Yong: "For them, it is easier to get horses than money. For us, it is actually easier to exchange horses for money and grain, since I still have to raise military funds."

"But if they go looking for horses, they're definitely going to rob them again..."

Jian Yong shook his head: "Moreover, these bandits may not have the loyalty to redeem their friends."

"Only those who are loyal can join my ranks. As for those who are not, their leaders will naturally lead us to their homes in a few days and wipe out those bastards."

Liu Bei put his arm around Jian Yong's shoulder and said softly, "As for looting... poor families don't have horses; only wealthy families or horse merchants do. If they don't make some noise, how am I supposed to raise money from the wealthy families?"

(End of this chapter)