Volume 1: Little Yuanba Chapter 27: Catch Thieves in a Swarm
"The monk wants to let go, but he is reluctant to give up the rent of twenty stones and seven buckets per year. That old guy doesn't practice enough, and monks always worry about what their rice vat is!"
Yang Yi's words made Li Dan very happy: "A monk is just a monk, but he has not become an Arhat. He still has to eat. How many monks are there in the temple now?"
"Five of you, and one from Guangdong to place orders." Yang Yi replied.
"Even if there are six. If the masters don't have as much food as you and I, they will still need fifteen to eighteen kilograms of food a year. Do they have other land besides this?" Li Dan asked, touching his chin.
"There are temple properties in the temple. I heard that when this dynasty was first established, a general pursued the enemy here and his horse was exhausted.
The general later became a marquis and sent people to build this temple. He also donated 150 acres of his own land as temple property.
Later, people donated, donated, and pawned one after another, and the total amount reached more than 270 acres. So it is true that the monk said that they have no energy to manage these 100 acres."
Yang Yi is very meticulous in his work, and he went out of his way to learn more about it this time, so he answered immediately.
"No wonder. The rent collected by six people on the two hundred acres after paying taxes is enough to make ends meet. The rest is really superfluous."
Li Dan nodded: "Wait for me to think about whether I should buy it or pledge it, or each should have one? Have you ever gone to see it in person? How many tenant farmers are there?"
"There are currently eight households renting 87 acres, and the rest is vacant.
The tenants built some thatched huts near their land to live in. They were very simple and simple, with one large well and one small well. These eight households did not raise livestock."
He looked so carefully, it was not easy to do so in one day.
"You go ahead and recruit people. I'll think about it, and I have to go back and discuss it with my aunt. There's no rush. We have to gather and train tomorrow. We can't fall behind others." Li Dan glanced at Gu Da as he spoke.
As expected, this guy couldn't hold his breath any longer. He raised his head and asked, "Training? What training? Didn't you say we won't go into battle?"
"It's one thing not to go to the battlefield, but it's another thing whether you might encounter bandits." Yang Yi understood a little better and made casual gestures with his hands:
"How can you know where there are bandits and where it is safe when you are walking on the road? Saburo is telling us to be prepared for the situation, otherwise we will become a herd of sheep."
"That's what it means." Li Dan gestured with his chin: "Look, twenty or so people can't surround a lake bandit leader, and they even let him run away.
If he had more than twenty people behind him, what do you think would happen now?" He sighed and pointed with his hand: "This is called a rabble. How can it be a war if they swarm forward?
I have no choice but to call it a fight, and I think you’ll call it a ‘swarm of bees’ from now on! We must invite Yang Baihu to train you for a few days, so that everyone can learn to protect themselves, right?”
Gu Da was so embarrassed by his scolding that he looked back at the group of people he was proud of. They were all standing staggeringly. He began to feel that training was necessary.
Li Dan didn't have time to keep talking, so he drove away the snickering Yang Yi and continued to recruit troops, and then asked Gu Da and others to gather around and carefully look at these candidates.
This guy really has charisma. Apart from a few people who came to join in the fun, he has already attracted seventeen or eight people.
There are those who were originally under Gu Da's staff, and there are also the children of merchants in the West City, and they all look big and round.
"Okay, at least it looks good!"
Seeing Li Dan's approval, Gu Dacai became happier and quickly expressed his merit and said: "I have tried them all one by one. If you can't lift the sledgehammer twenty times in the blacksmith shop, I won't use it!"
"Well, just find two more and that will be enough." Li Dan told him to take people back and quickly find some sickles, forks, rakes, flails, axes and shovels. Either bring or buy twenty of each and get them tomorrow.
The one behind the Chenghuang Temple is reserved.
Then he went to the county government office by himself. People kept saying hello to him on the way. It seemed that the news of catching the lake bandits had spread. Everyone had heard about it.
On the way, he met Song Xiaoniu, who came back to look for him. He said that Mr. Sun, the executioner, was very happy and had reported it to the county magistrate. Magistrate Fan was now eager to ask Li Sanlang for questioning.
After arriving at the county government office to report, the secretary immediately came out and took Li Dan directly to the signing room. At the head were Magistrate Fan, County Registrar Lin Yuchang, Chief Sun (Xing), and Chief Xiao (Bing).
, Li Dan stepped forward and saluted:
"Student Li Dan has met Mr. Boss, ladies and gentlemen." He has the status of a child in this county, so he calls himself a student.
"San Lang, please forgive me!" Magistrate Fan's voice was anxious. Just as he was about to speak again, a government official announced that General Zhaoyi had arrived. When he heard that it was Zhao Laosan's father, Li Dan rolled his eyes and stepped to the door. Zhao Jintang shook his head.
As he swayed and walked in to chat with everyone, Magistrate Fan took him and sat on his right side.
This General Zhaoyi is a hereditary third-grade martial arts title, and he is the second-ranked person among the characters Zhao, Yong, Yi, and Wu.
Normally Magistrate Fan does not need to politely ask him to take a seat in the honorable seat, but now that he is the largest military attache in the county, he will have to ask for more from the other party, so he just has to do it half-heartedly.
Zhao Jintang sat down and saw Li Dan. Xiao Yuan opened his eyes and said, "Hey, this is...Li Sanlang?"
As he spoke, he looked at Mr. Fan inquiringly. Li Dan reluctantly bowed to him as a salute.
Before Mr. Fan could explain, Mr. Lin hurriedly said for his superior: "Sir Binglao, those two gangsters were captured by Li Sanlang and his men. Just as I was about to ask for details, your Excellency arrived."
"It's just right. Why don't we listen together? What does Bingchuan (Zhao Jintang's name) think?"
Seeing that Zhao Jintang acquiesced, Magistrate Fan asked Li Dan to tell the story of the day when the bandits were discovered and when Wei Xiong and other government officials arrived later.
After Li Dan finished speaking, everyone fell silent, everyone frowned and thought. It was Chief Lin who looked at the scene and spoke first:
"It seems that the thieves are indeed exploring the reality of our county. You two adults need to deploy your defenses as soon as possible and decide on a defensive strategy!"
Magistrate Fan looked at Zhao Jintang and saw that he was silent, so he had to express his position first and said: "Xing Cao, you must work hard tonight to get the confessions of the two thieves." The landlord stood up and agreed.
At this time, I heard that the head of the household, Liu, had arrived. He first confessed to everyone, and then told the county magistrate that the results of this year's tax collection had come out.
Fan Xianzun nodded, pressed it with his hands, asked him to sit next to him, and then said:
"Now that the capital of Zhou is gone, there are only fifty servants and more than twenty policemen in the county, so the defense is insufficient.
The situation is critical, so I still want to ask General Zhaoyi to take charge of the overall situation, and we are willing to assist and work together to fight against the threat of the lake bandits."
Zhao Jintang half-closed his eyes and shook his head: "It's just a gangster who climbed over the wall and stole some property, so he shouldn't make such a fuss."
He pointed his finger at Li Dan: "Here, nephew Li Xian is here. Come and catch one, one, and two. What are you worried about?"
Li Dan was so angry that he gritted his teeth, but heard Chief Xiao say: "Maybe the general has forgotten?
It was your recommendation that Li Sanlang was appointed as the leader of the team. He is about to take his wife to Wannianli. How can he have time to catch thieves and prepare for thieves now that he is so busy?"
Several people said "Yes", Zhao Jintang rolled his eyes: "This..., that's terrible. I have only one general, how can I guard against so many thieves?"
Even if we include the servants, we only have fifty, so we can’t even defend the city!"
"It doesn't matter." Fan County's Chief Registrar took out a letter: "The Lord has ordered that each county can prepare its own armor regiment for defense. Therefore, I have invited Director Liu here to discuss the recruitment of troops."
When Mr. Liu heard this, he leaned forward. He had just collected some food tax, and he had to spend money before he could warm his hands?
I heard the county magistrate continue to say: "I have calculated, we are a small county, but we can still recruit two or three hundred people." As he spoke, he looked towards the chief bookkeeper again.
"Yes, yes." Chief Secretary Lin quickly added: "What the County Lord means is that the county recruits 300 people, and then asks each wealthy family to provide some servants and servants. If we can collect 500, then the county will have no worries.
!”
Zhao Jintang nodded slightly when he heard the first half of what he said, but frowned on the second half.
It is not that the wealthy families do not have strong men, but whether these people can be gathered together and how many people will obey orders after gathering are all problems.
The most difficult thing to deal with is probably not Minzhuang, but these unwilling and incompatible guys who are supposed to go to the battlefield for their master.
"If the people are strong, I can still think of ways to command them. If it's the servants and servants, I'll forget it!" He waved his hand with disdain.
"This..." Chief Secretary Lin was a little embarrassed: "It's really difficult to get five hundred people to come out from the county.
I don’t know how long it will take to prepare for the invasion. For example, half a year, then it will take until the beginning of next spring.
Whether there are so many strong men in the countryside willing to come is a problem. Besides, farm work and business will be delayed..."
He looked at Manager Liu who had a grimace on his face and added: "Five hundred people spend a lot of money. Calculated for half a year, each person spends two kilograms per day, so the food alone costs more than sixty dan..."
"Moreover, there are people on all four walls, and there are three patrols every day. Five hundred people are indeed not many!" Director Xiao also said.
"Hey, I just said it can't be done. You should hire someone else, or wait until Zhou Du comes back."
As Zhao Jintang spoke, he gestured to stand up, but a group of officials hurriedly stepped forward to stop him and persuade him. At this time, Li Dan couldn't help it anymore: "My lords, I would like to ask the student to give me a few words of advice, is it okay?"
After looking at each other for a while, Chief Lin nodded: "What do Sanlang have to say? But it doesn't matter!"
There is no county magistrate in this county, and the chief registrar is the second-largest person, so when he opened his mouth, County Magistrate Fan immediately persuaded Zhao Jintang to sit back in his chair, expressing his authority to listen.
Li Dan said: "The whereabouts of the lake bandits have been exposed. The students expected that they would not attack immediately if they knew that our county was prepared. The students are recruiting manpower for the tens of thousands of years of war, and Nancheng must be doing the same at this time.
Since the county was in a hurry and failed to prepare, the students wanted to make it clear that these 120 people were included in the regiment training. When they went out, they served as auxiliary soldiers and when they entered, they served as regiment training soldiers.
With this statement, they can be asked to work harder in the past few days before departure. During the day, they will patrol the county or practice the advancement and retreat of the army. At night, they will take turns to patrol the city and keep watch to keep the city on alert.
The other four gates also asked Chief Xiao to add more guards to conduct strict inspections, or the execution room could also arrange for catchers to monitor passers-by inside the gates.
In short, a posture was used to make the other party hesitate and dare not take action immediately. At the same time, the county actively recruited soldiers, striving to recruit five hundred people before the students and others left for Ten Thousand Years.
In this way, after the students leave the county, there will still be 500 guards in the county.
When the students return and lead the team, choose the brave ones to replace the lazy ones, and send the rest back home. Then the team training will have enough people and the elites will be better.
As for the money and food spent, you can list the amount and use, and then collect donations from the elders of the city, and then publish the names of the donors, or select the first hundred people to cut stones as a record, or later submit to the court to present them to the people for commendation.
Everyone will donate enthusiastically, and the students think that most of the food and salary can be solved, and the old parents (referring to County Magistrate Fan) have nothing to worry about!"
After hearing this, County Magistrate Fan thought about it and agreed repeatedly. Everyone also clapped their hands and smiled, saying that this plan was very good, so they decided on the spot.
Li Dan took the opportunity to ask Chief Xiao to provide twenty swords, shields, and spears each, and was quickly approved. Magistrate Fan agreed to use the open space behind the Chenghuang Temple as a training formation.
Li Dan said that the county has never had fixed armaments, so it would be better to leave a hundred and fifty troops as standing troops to defend against invaders after this incident. This suggestion was also adopted by the county magistrate.
Li Dan was relieved to be able to calmly make the drill justifiable.
The most satisfied person was Zhao Jintang. Not only did he get 500 regiments of trained soldiers that he could temporarily command, but he also had a solution to the food and salary problem, so he didn't have to worry about it.
Of course, if all the officials could use their hands during this period, they would definitely have his share.
Li Dan saw that he had nothing to do, so he resigned to avoid being an eyesore. Besides, he was still thinking about the new type of carriage.
When she ran to Han An's house, Su Siniang told others that she hadn't come back and she should still be at Chen Gang's house.
Li Dan hurriedly met Yang Dayi and had a confidential conversation with him. Seeing that Han An had not returned yet, Li Dan had to run to the Chen family's horse and carriage shop to look for him.