GBP Chapter 96 Yue Shan's Admiration
Chapter 96 Yue Shan's Admiration
(This chapter has 4,000 words, and I'm too lazy to split it into two chapters.)
Xu Tianyi left Taikang County and took Gu Qinghan to inspect other counties.
Compared to Taikang County, which is already stable, the other counties are the more troublesome ones.
He not only had to inspect public order and stabilize policies, but also encourage commerce, find talent, and appoint officials.
His busy life made him feel incredibly fulfilled.
Moreover, he will be accompanied by many selected and sufficiently loyal students.
Everyone is literate, has a family, and a clear background.
Xu Tianyi's selection process only tested loyalty and memory.
His excellent memory is enough to prove that his intelligence is definitely not bad.
As for loyalty, that requires writing a pledge in blood to join the religion.
At this moment, his identity is that of the new leader of the Valley God Sect, and Yu Linglong has abdicated in his place.
They wrote a letter in blood and got a tattoo; there's no way they can escape now.
Only such a person is worthy of being the official Xu Tianyi desires.
Several months of peace, coupled with the autonomy of eleven counties and the recognition from the imperial court.
This led many wavering scholars to seek refuge with Xu Tianyi.
These people are of average talent, but they are quite intelligent.
These are basic things that can be learned quickly after being taught.
Today, Xu Tianyi has appointed at least a thousand officials, and more than twenty students are following him to learn and prepare for their posts.
To put it simply, all he needs to do is guide them, hold meetings to teach them how to do things, and finally send them on internships.
Someone will always stand out.
While he was busy, Yue Shan was not idle either.
He heard that Wei Qing had appeared in Taikang County.
Therefore, he specially requested permission to go to Taikang County for inspection.
Surprisingly, Xue Mantian didn't cause him any trouble and approved it directly.
Upon seeing a large group of people approaching Taikang County, the entire county immediately closed its city gates.
When Yue Shan's three hundred cavalrymen arrived at the city, he, as usual, sent someone forward to shout.
At this moment, Taikang County did not have many soldiers.
However, they also established professions such as city guards, yamen runners, and constables.
The city guards were mainly responsible for defending the city.
The yamen runners were responsible for assisting the county magistrate in carrying out government orders.
The constables are responsible for maintaining public order.
Yue Shan was somewhat surprised.
You should know that his three hundred cavalrymen were incredibly fast and were not armored.
Taikang County has suffered from floods, yet it was able to react so quickly. It seems that this so-called rebel prince consort has some ability.
Liu Qingfeng had already gone to another county to take charge of the administration.
Therefore, the magistrate of this county was a selected scholar.
Li Guanghua, a 45-year-old schoolteacher who had not yet passed the imperial examination at the county level.
Completely different from Liu Qingfeng, who was a scholar who passed the imperial examination.
Therefore, there are also differences among school teachers.
Li Guanghua had already arrived at the city wall. After reading Yue Shan's document, he still opened the city gate and even went forward to greet him personally.
"I have long admired the illustrious reputation of the Yue family. I, Li Guanghua, the magistrate of Taikang County, pay my respects to General Yue."
Yue Shan also dismounted and bowed.
"I am Yue Shan, Marquis of Wuwei of the Wuji Empire. I have come here to conduct an inspection."
Li Guanghua gave an awkward smile: "General Yue, this is outside your duties..."
Yue Shan didn't expect the other party to dare to talk back to him.
"I am here by order of the Emperor to guard Leizhou, and it is my duty to inspect the county town."
Seeing his firm attitude, Li Guanghua naturally stopped trying to stop him.
"General Yue, please follow me into the city, but please restrain your soldiers. The laws of this county are strict, so please do not make things difficult for them."
Yue Shan frowned. In the past, no matter which county he went to, the county magistrate and powerful families would eagerly send people to invite him to a banquet, and the etiquette was impeccable, without ever mentioning any laws.
Surprisingly, Taikang County, despite its history of floods, remains so well-behaved.
"Our army will not disturb the people at will, so you can rest assured."
Li Guanghua finally breathed a sigh of relief: "General, please..."
The group then entered the city one after another.
The city gate appeared to have been repaired, and the main road was clean and sturdy.
The city gates are all new, and even the city walls have been repainted.
Yue Shan looked at the clean city and was somewhat taken aback.
There wasn't much of a disgusting smell in the air.
"Does your county really place so much emphasis on appearances?"
He had some doubts because he even saw many people sweeping, painting walls, transporting stolen goods, and digging sewers.
Seeing Yue Shan's somewhat displeased expression, Li Guanghua realized that Yue Shan had misunderstood.
"General Yue, this is not corvée labor, but manual labor. They are paid for their work..."
Yue Shan frowned: "You guys are actually distributing money?"
It should be noted that the Wuji Empire's corvée labor is free; people are simply forcibly conscripted to work.
Simply put, farming requires people, but at this time, able-bodied men were pulled away to build houses for high-ranking officials and nobles.
If there's food available, that's good. But sometimes you have to bring your own food to fix things for free before you can go back to farming.
This also led to reduced crop yields, but taxes were still collected.
What's even more infuriating is that grain had to be exchanged for silver to pay taxes, and the value of the grain was determined by powerful families.
This led to the practice of donating land.
Farmers would register their land with powerful families, who wouldn't have to pay taxes. The farmers would simply give them a fixed amount of money and grain, about 70%.
Over time, the farmers became tenants of powerful families and lost their own land.
Then they also had to collect military pay, suppression pay, and taxes such as poll tax.
Most of these taxes will need to be increased due to losses.
The amount of loss was determined by the officials.
This is a case of exploitation by powerful families, wealthy merchants, and officials.
Finally, the people rose up in rebellion and discovered that there was such a group as martial artists in the world.
One person is worth tens of thousands of you, and even if you are exceptionally talented, you have no martial arts techniques and can only wait to die.
The clever ones went up the mountain and became bandits.
Mountain bandits are no better; they still join the powerful clans in persecuting ordinary people.
Because they dared not offend the powerful clans; if they did, they would also die.
Then, one day, when the officials have amassed enough wealth, they will hand it over as bribes.
Once the bribes are paid, they will organize the suppression of bandits, using the heads of the dead as a token of their achievements.
If these bandits aren't enough, then they'll use civilians to kill innocent people and claim credit for it.
In just ten years, the population of the Wuji Empire has decreased by 30%.
The new emperor sitting on the throne, the former King of Qi, did he not know all of this?
He knew perfectly well, but being born into nobility, he couldn't truly empathize.
Meanwhile, the phrase "drinking poison to quench thirst" is used in most places.
The King of Qi was no exception.
Without money, his court couldn't be stable; without the support of these treacherous officials, he couldn't become emperor.
There was no money, let alone the military expenses for the Yunzhou army or the expenses for suppressing bandits.
Thus, through his efforts, the Wuji Empire collapsed.
Young Yue Shan didn't understand these things. Although his family came from the military, he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth.
He could empathize with the people and the soldiers; he could sympathize with the people.
But he couldn't understand why it had turned out this way.
He was just a general.
He was somewhat surprised to see that these people were being conscripted for labor and were even being paid. Moreover, he was surprised that these workers were not lifeless or apathetic.
The overseer didn't carry a whip; he simply patrolled the area at will. If any people heard that the overseer was dissatisfied and threatened to deduct money or fire him, they would speed up their work and beg the overseer not to fire him.
Yue Shan sighed with emotion.
He then asked, "If we give each person money, where will the county get so much money?"
Li Guanghua chuckled: "General Yue is overthinking it. How much money can these people spend?"
According to our lord, these people are mostly old and weak, and they are happy to receive ten coins a day. We even provide them with two meals a day.
It wouldn't cost many ancient coins in a month.
As for the county government's silver, it was all obtained by confiscating the property of prominent families within the county.
Most of it was used to buy food and for commercial purposes; only a small portion was used to pay the workers' wages.
Yue Shan's lips twitched: "Confiscate their property..."
Li Guanghua laughed heartily: "General Yue, you may not know this, but in the eleven counties of the Northwest, almost all the powerful families, landlords, and magnates have been defeated. A large amount of gold and silver treasures, plus some stored grain, have been gathered by our lord and are being distributed in a unified manner."
After we had the money, the Shen family agreed to act as our intermediary and help us buy grain.
Therefore, the more than two million people in the eleven counties of Northwest China have now begun to live and work in peace and contentment.
The lord said that this year's tax revenue will only be 70%, with all other taxes waived. Those performing corvée labor will also receive wages and two meals a day.
Yue Shan roared, "Seventy percent! Aren't you afraid of divine retribution?"
Li Guanghua quickly explained, "General, please calm down. Do you know how much tax the common people had to pay before?"
Yue Shan snorted coldly: "The imperial court sets a tax rate of one-tenth! Who doesn't know this?"
Li Guanghua chuckled: "One-tenth of the tax?"
What about the taxes for suppressing the rebellion? What about the poll tax? The kickbacks for the yamen runners, the stall fees in the city, the entry fees for the city guards, plus the large number of officials who privately adjusted taxes, falsely reported amounts, various usurious loans, and various forced buying and selling.
If ordinary people did not rely on powerful families, they would have to pay more than 120% in taxes! At the same time, they would be conscripted for corvée labor at any time!
Therefore, these people became tenants of powerful families, only able to keep a tenth of the land for themselves, but having to work much longer hours every day.
Now you know why we don't lack money?
Because our money was all stored with powerful and wealthy families, confiscating their property and taking back our money brought stability to Taikang County!
Li Guanghua was filled with righteous indignation, clearly having experienced a dark decade.
Yue Shan was somewhat shocked.
As a young man, he had never thought of such profound things.
He could only see the poverty of the people, but he didn't know why they were poor.
Now that he has heard this, he hates corrupt officials even more, but he still speaks out for the powerful and influential families.
"Then why slaughter the powerful families? At least they saved the common people..."
Li Guanghua scoffed: "Survive?"
That's all just your opinion.
As our lord said, this is nothing more than the exploitation by the imperial court turning into exploitation by powerful clans.
Among them were spoiled brats who were greedy for money and lustful, and who arbitrarily beat, killed, played, and abused the people.
They engaged in usury, human trafficking, kidnapping women, murdering entire families, seizing land, running casinos and brothels, and enslaving the people.
Every single one of these stories I've told is a bloody and tearful fact; very few powerful and influential families are completely clean.
I do not deny that there are still many good people, but selfish and wicked people are everywhere!
Because the law has no jurisdiction over them!
Yue Shan and the others were speechless after hearing these words.
He began to reflect, to feel lost, to be confused, and to question things.
Li Guanghua continued, "General, you see, there are no more powerful families in the city now. Anyone who does evil will be arrested immediately!"
Every yamen runner and constable was strictly disciplined, and if any citizen was dissatisfied, the supervisory department would immediately come to handle the matter.
No one dared to take advantage of the people.
Throughout Taikang County, public security is stable, and all kinds of businesses have reopened. No one dares to engage in forced buying and selling or extortion anymore.
This is the county town of our dreams; this is what the Valley God's Heaven should be like!
Yue Shan's feelings were extremely complicated.
Looking at the orderly scene in the city, he sighed.
Even in the capital city of Zhongzhou, there were yamen runners and constables who acted recklessly, and a large number of spoiled young men who rode horses in the streets, wantonly bullying and whipping the common people.
Even here, on Yue Mountain, one can feel a sense of security.
He couldn't help but think that if the whole world were like this county town.
Will there still be rebellions?
Do I still need to come out and suppress them?
With 70% of the tax revenue going towards military pay, that shouldn't be a problem either...
Those nomadic tribes of the grasslands may have already been defeated and dared not venture south again.
Yue Shan sighed deeply: "Xu Tianyi is truly a good official..."
Li Guanghua's eyes were filled with piety: "Our lord is benevolent and righteous! This is the reason why we are loyal, and these are all things our lord taught us..."
Hearing him say that, Yue Shan suddenly remembered Wei Qing's questioning to him that day.
He lowered his head, feeling very guilty.
At that time, he felt that he had done nothing wrong.
Now it seems that I haven't done nearly enough.
It's easy to conquer a city, but difficult to govern it. He didn't govern it at all and left without a care.
It is indeed myself who is ignorant and somewhat incompetent.
Thinking of this, he immediately raised his head and bowed, saying, "Magistrate Li, I will be inspecting the county for seven days. During these seven days, I hope you can teach me some methods of governance, so that if I encounter a county with chaotic administration in the future, I will be able to handle it..."
Li Guanghua paused for a moment, then smiled.
"General Yue, why don't you go and find my lord? He is currently governing cities in other counties, and he has always been generous in sharing his knowledge with us."
Yue Shan frowned, then nodded: "Then I will go find him immediately!"
Li Guanghua nodded silently: "Our lord should be staying in Chongsheng City for the time being. General Yue can go to the city lord's mansion to find him."
Yue Shan bowed and immediately left the city.
Once outside the city, he saw lush green farmland, craftsmen repairing roads, newly dug waterways, newly built dams, numerous waterwheels, and a large number of people.
A sense of admiration for Xu Tianyi welled up in my heart, and my steps became lighter.
(6000 words finished for today, see you tomorrow...)