At this time, a strong and honest young man with his head wrapped in a black scarf, wearing a pair of straw sandals, was waiting anxiously at Fupi County Temple.
From time to time, he looked at the corner of the county temple, obviously waiting for someone in the temple.
Suddenly, a small official wearing a black turban and a black robe with white cuffs hurriedly walked out of the porch. He suddenly saw the young man blocking the entrance of the county temple and hurriedly stepped back.
But the young man who had been waiting for a long time didn't let it go. He tried his best to smile and walked up to talk to the clerk:
"Chen Shuzuo, don't you know what happened to our army's military service?"
The young official named Chen Shuzuo was already impatient. Seeing that this man dared to talk about such a thing at the gate of the county temple, he became even more furious. He was just worried that someone would pay attention, so he held back his temper and scolded:
"Deng Dang, you are really a coward. Where is this place that you can talk about this? The loss of military service is an important matter for the military and the country. Is it my decision?"
Of course it's disrespectful to call someone by his or her name, but why should we be respectful to such a humble citizen?
This man named Deng Dang is actually also a smart person, otherwise he would not have been entrusted by Quanli Society to clear up this matter. It’s just that he comes from the bottom and doesn’t understand many joint matters.
At this time, Deng Dang also knew that he had violated a taboo, so he quickly apologized and said with a smile:
"Chen Shuzuo, we are a country man, and our mouth is really stupid. But the hearts of us countrymen are warm. We, the village elders, would like to invite Shuzuo to come to our club tomorrow. Last year, we brewed some turbid wine in the club. I want to Please give Chen Shuzuo a try."
Chen Shuzuo certainly understood the meaning of Deng Dang's words and also understood the reason for this meal of wine.
Seeing that Deng Dang had already set a trap, Chen Shuzuo, who had been keeping him under control for several days, said leisurely:
"Okay, I'll go to your club tomorrow, but don't fool me with country drinks."
After saying that, Chen Shuzuo ignored Deng Dang who was laughing there and left.
Looking at Chen Shuzuo's back, Deng Dang, who had returned from the army, felt depressed, but thinking of the instructions given by the three elders in the club before setting off, he could only sigh in the end.
Well, we are already in Guizhou Province. If we want to be more energetic, we should go back as soon as possible and send this news to the club.
Chen Shuzuo's words mean that their company will have to bleed again to get this meal.
…
What has actually happened?
It turns out that after the Yellow Turbans in Runan were pacified last year, chaos was about to break out again in the days just after Runan had settled down.
This matter starts with Yuan Shao.
Last year during the Jiazi Rebellion, the Yuan family was massacred in the Golden Palace, but Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu escaped.
With the family blood feud at the forefront, the little gap between the two brothers seems a bit ridiculous.
At that time, the two discussed it and in order to avoid being blamed for everything, the two brothers ran away separately.
Yuan Shu went to Nanyang, where he had deep connections and was able to attract people who wanted to flee. Yuan Shao, on the other hand, chose to return to Ruyang and take refuge there to wait for the opportunity.
During the Yellow Turban Rebellion, Wang Yun of Taiyuan went south with his army, and during the war, he rode alone into the enemy lines in Runan to contact various wealthy families, organized a coalition of rural soldiers and troops, and worked together to kill the Yellow Turbans in Runan.
It can be said that Wang Yun made great contributions to the Runan Yellow Turbans being put down so quickly.
But later, Liu Hong asked Wang Yun to lead troops north to intercept the Taishan Army retreating from Yingchuan. Wang Yun delayed and was imprisoned.
After that, the powerful forces in Henan moved all the way to the west on the pro-king side of the Hanoi front line, and Liu Hong's carriage entered Guanxi. This Wang Yun was resurrected by the Guandong court, because he had prestige in the Yuzhou area, and he was appointed as the governor of Yuzhou.
Restore production in various counties.
When Wang Yun returned to be the governor of Yuzhou, he promoted his former comrade Xu Miu, who had quelled the Yellow Turbans, as the prefect of Runan.
As a prefect who started his career as a military man, Xu Mu always clung to power very tightly.
Both Wang Yun and Xu Miao knew that Yuan Shao was hiding in their hometown, but they turned a blind eye and pretended not to know. But if Yuan Shao wanted to cause trouble in Ruyang, Wang Yun and Xu Miao might have to attack him hard.
Because he could not raise a banner, Yuan Shao only had the core generals and troops in his hands. He lacked troops, so he had been dormant.
It was against this background that Xu Mu, the governor of Runan, responded to the order of the Guandong court and wanted to transfer military supplies to Luoyang.
There, the Third Battle of Weihan between Kanto and Kansai had already begun.
Xu Mu was the prefect, so naturally he could not really care about these general affairs, so after assigning the tasks to each county, each county completed it on its own.
When the county's mission was sent to Fupi, the county was required to serve eighty-two men.
Naturally, this task of conscription was not completed by the Fubei Order. He also handed it over to the people below.
In the Han Dynasty's county teams, the person responsible for accepting losses was Jicao.
And who is actually doing the work this time? It’s not the chief of Ji Cao, but his assistant.
As the name suggests, this scribe is the person responsible for writing and copying various official documents and files.
For example, when the army was dispatched this time, the secretary would write down the specific names of the towns, communities, and households.
Although he seems to be just a copycat, he doesn't make any decisions. But in fact, his sword and pen can end the life and death of a family. Because he can change things at will, as long as the chief of the collection and cao above is not particularly decent, he will not be interested in these things.
It all passed with one eye open and one eye closed.
So when Deng Dang came to ask Chen Shuzuo, he was asking the right person, because he was the one who gathered Cao Cao, and he really didn't care about this matter.
In fact, this is not the first time Deng Dang has come to see Chen Shuzuo.
Five days ago, Deng Dang found Chen Shuzuo under the guidance of someone, and wanted to ask why this time the labor was not distributed among all the townships, but only in their township.
This time, the army sent out 82 soldiers. Logically speaking, more than 20,000 people in the county were all assigned to one village. In fact, there were not many people.
But among the official summons issued, only Xinxiang was issued. This is unfair.
You must know that there are only 500 households in a township. With 82 dings, almost one-fifth of the rural households have to have dings to serve.
Although the military rations this time were not transported as far as Kyoto, they still had to be transported to the prefecture and Pingyu. During this period, the distance alone was two hundred miles. Not to mention the hardship, only the grain and rice in this process had to be borne by themselves.
And if anything goes wrong in this process, as long as the transferred rations are not enough, the soldiers will have to bear them.
What's dramatic is that usually during missions, this military resource is always not enough. In the past, this difference could be divided among each township, but now it is all concentrated in Xinxiang, which will cost Xinxiang's life.
So the third elder in Xinxiang asked Deng Dang to bring a bacon chicken to Chen Shuzuo to ask what was going on.
Chen Shuzuo also gave an explanation, which was very reasonable.
He said that your Xinxiang is a Fumin township, newly transferred to Fupei. The labor that was assigned in the past was shared by each township. This time the labor must be borne by you Xinxiang alone, otherwise the bowl of water will not be equal.
Deng Dang was furious after hearing this.
Why do we, newly settled in the countryside, have to bear all the labor we have done in the past? I haven’t settled in yet, so what does your labor have to do with me?
There is no such thing as this in the world.
But Deng Dang held back because he felt a deeper meaning from Chen Shuzuo's words.
What does Chen Shuzuo mean by restoring the people's township? It's Deng Dang and his group. They are all soldiers who were demobilized and became the people.
It turned out that when the Taiping Dao uprising occurred in Runan the year before last, one or two of the ten households participated. However, all the county soldiers in Runan were wiped out by Zhao Qian, so after Wang Yun took charge of the work in Runan, he
There are absolutely no soldiers available.
So at that time, Wang Yun recruited a group of refugees from the Yangzhou area in the south to train into an army and participated in the subsequent suppression of the Runan Yellow Turbans.
There are approximately more than 5,000 troops in this group, because they generally come from the hot and humid areas of the Yangtze River and Huaihe River, and they are all brave and capable of fighting. They have made great contributions in the war.
Later, Wang Yun was deprived of his position as governor, and the troops in his hands were naturally disbanded. Because they were not the government's management experts, the court did not support them.
And Wang Yun was worthy of them, and used his power at the time to give these people the status of Fumin.
The Han Dynasty built its country based on military merit. It valued the soldiers who were the cornerstone of the country and received certain preferential treatment economically.
In the Pre-Han Dynasty, Fumin could still be allocated thirty acres of homestead land. Of course, this preferential treatment is no longer available now, but the taxes are still lower than those of ordinary households.
This is how Deng Dang and his group were placed in Fubei.
To be honest, Fupi is pretty good. You can tell from the name that this place is a fertile area. Moreover, the climate is similar to that of Jianghuai, and rice is grown there, which makes Dengdang and others satisfied.
But soon Dengdang and the others discovered something was wrong.
After the Yellow Turbans in Runan were pacified, order in Runan County was quickly restored. The bureaucracy of the Han Dynasty was even much stronger than before the war.
The Runan people who had been exiled before the war returned to their hometown, only to find that their Pitian was occupied by a group of outsiders.
From then on, the conflicts between the natives and the guests began.
And who does the Fupi County Office help? Whoever gives the money will help. Fortunately, Deng Dang and his soldiers still have some money, and theoretically there is Wang Yun's platform at the top, otherwise they may not be able to live well.
But this is theory. How can Wang Yun really like these soldiers? A famous Taiyuan family would let you idiots get involved?
However, Deng Dang and his fellow villagers were both rich and weak, so they naturally became the target of exploitation and blackmail by the petty officials in Fupi County.
This time, the county sent out troops and sent out conscripts, so these petty officials naturally thought of using this to extort money from Deng Dang and others and make a little fortune.
So, there was the previous plan.
This Chen Shuzuo is just a low-ranking official who can use the opportunity of assigning labor to extort money. Those with real power, such as those who are directly linked to money, food and taxes, are the subordinates of powerful officials. That is power.
It's too big.
Households and fields are all related to money and food, and water cao is responsible for water conservancy. If you don't feed these little officials, if they say they cut off the water for you, they will cut off the water. How can this rice survive without water?
So, who in the end is rich in this rich country?
…
But he said that Chen Shuzuo had just left through the front door of the county temple, then turned a corner and came back through the side door of the county temple.
He would discuss it with a few of his confidants.
Yes, even a lowly official like Chen Shuzuo has a lot of help.
These helpers are not part of the regular establishment; they are all serving as servants in the countryside.
The reason why this group of people exists is entirely due to the actual needs of the Han Dynasty in grassroots governance.
A county in the Han Dynasty generally had more than 10,000 people, but a large county like Runan with a population of more than one million even had double the number of people under its control.
The Han Dynasty inherited the Qin system and had in-depth local governance.
The county magistrate has nothing to do with the affairs within the county. He should show good deeds and encourage righteousness, prohibit rape and punish evil, deal with lawsuits and pacify thieves, take care of the people's current affairs, hold classes in autumn and winter, and report to the county and country to which he belongs. This is all what he should do.
meaning.
Naturally, the county magistrate cannot do so many things alone, so he has various assistants under him, each of which has its own responsibility. The levels include Cao Chang, Zuo Shi, Shu Zuo, Xun Xing, Qian, Xiao Shi, etc.
wait.
But to do so many things, how many people are officially assigned by the imperial court? There are only four to five hundred people in large counties, and only two to three hundred people in small counties. With this number of people divided by each Cao Cao, how can it still be enough to do things?
Therefore, the general work of various counties and temples is like this. The small official Dou Shi will take the lead, and then when specific work is done, the servants will be sent down, and the subordinates will come to help temporarily.
After Chen Shuzuo returned to Jicao, he called two people, one named Zhang Bo and the other Ma Zhong.
Both of them are such helpers.
For ordinary farmers, this is a hard job. No matter what you are drafted to do, you will have to give up the work in the fields, and generally the head of Guizhou is afraid of the government, let alone serving in the county.
If anything goes wrong during this process, one's life will be lost.
Therefore, the head of Guizhou generally regards this kind of labor as a tiger.
But Uncle Zhang and Ma Zhong are different, they are happy to do this.
Because no matter what you do, if you wear a layer of county skin, you will have delicious food and drink wherever you go. For example, Uncle Zhang did brisk walking.
Jianbu is a messenger who specializes in delivering messages. The Han Dynasty's post stations are spread all over the world, but not all areas are rich enough to have horses to deliver messages, so they use the most ancient way of transmitting information, running on legs.
Logically speaking, Jianbu is very hard work. For example, during the period of Emperor He, many Jianbu died in order to deliver lychees and longans as tributes from Lingnan.
But would a person like Uncle Zhang do such a hard job? He was doing the beautiful thing of delivering official documents to the local government.
Whenever the county had something to do and wanted to summon people from the countryside, people like Uncle Zhang would be sent to the countryside with official documents to bring people up.
There is room for manipulation in this process. One day more and one day less, why did Uncle Zhang come here? Therefore, those villagers who were passed on, in order not to offend Uncle Zhang, had to give them a good meal.
Uncle Zhang was a wanderer in the countryside. He was not involved in production, so he naturally didn't worry about missing out on the work in the fields. Therefore, he naturally wanted to continue doing such a prestigious and beautiful thing, where he could even eat and drink.
But since it was a labor service, it would naturally expire. At this time, Uncle Zhang took refuge under Chen Shuzuo, and he had to arrange for him to replace the next countryman who was to serve, and then continue to stay in the county temple.
Naturally, the countryman was happy that he didn't have to serve in the army, and secretly gave Uncle Zhang six bushels of rice.
It's truly a win-win situation.
Seeing Chen Shuzuo coming back, Uncle Zhang and Ma Zhong were surprised, but they still came over.
Chen Shuzuo pinched his beard and asked again:
"Did you do what you were asked to do safely this time?"
Uncle Zhang and Ma Zhong patted their chests and said:
"Shusuo, don't worry, even these small things can't be done, and we don't have to hang out in Fubei anymore."
Chen Shuzuo nodded, explained some more things, and then left.
No wonder Chen Shuzuo was so careful, because what he wanted to do this time was different from the small businesses in the past where he extorted three cents and four cents. This time he was doing something for Wang Gongcao in the county, and he could not be tolerated.
careless.
The meritorious officer is the chief official next to the county magistrate, and even has more power than the county magistrate to a certain extent. Because the county magistrate is a temporary official, the meritorious officer is the son of the local wealthy family. It goes without saying which one is effective.
Alright.
Not to mention, this meritorious Cao Cao's surname is Wang, who is a descendant of Wang Ba in those days. Two hundred years ago, our wealthy family all belonged to the Wang family.
Chen Shuzuo, Zhang Bo, and Ma Zhong are all small figures. The former is a lackey at best, and the latter is just two scavenging flies. But Wang Gongcao is a real big tiger.
But this time, this big tiger will look at people like Dengdang and other rehabilitated households with its devouring eyes.
But Deng Dang was ignorant of all this.
This chapter is about False Wings in the Central Plains. What does False Wings mean? False means borrowing, which means to steal, and then fly to the Central Plains. Then who steals it? How to steal it? I won’t say it here, but you guys must have guessed it.
come out.
When I was imagining this chapter, I thought about using a small aspect to tell the story from bottom to top based on Deng Dang's personal experience. Please stay tuned.