Good people are forced to become thieves, which is worthy of sympathy.
Then the bandits raided merchants and robbed wealthy households, which is understandable.
But working as a pawn for Taoist priests, occupying land to build temple fields, beating, expelling, and oppressing ordinary people, turning himself into a landlord, and even raping women as wives and concubines. This nature has changed, and he has turned from a victim to a perpetrator.
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The entire Zhaozhuang and the good fields on the banks of the Hu River were occupied by the Li family.
The remaining land was divided up by thieves. The better houses in the village were also taken over by thieves, and the beautiful women in the village were also taken as wives and concubines by thieves.
Tao Kai's life was very prosperous. He had a wife and four concubines, and more than 300 acres of dry farmland.
Business travelers passing by the Hu River had to pay him protection fees, otherwise they would be robbed. His next target was Zhuxi Village in the northeast. There were no big households there who could occupy the fields.
What the government dare not take care of has the support of Taoist masters!
As long as he doesn't provoke the Li family in the west, no one in Juancheng County will dare to touch him.
Tao Kai even planned to rebuild the village school. When the robbers' sons were six or seven years old, they would send them to the village school to study. They might become officials in the future. Even if they failed to pass the Jinshi examination, they could still ask the Taoist priests to help them.
Several of them joined the county government as subordinate officials.
"Brother, someone from Zhuxi Village is coming to join us!"
"Bring him here."
The person who came was a gangster from the village, whom the villagers called Zhao Er.
Tao Kai sat on the top chair and asked: "Why do you want to join the gang?"
Zhao Er replied: "My old father left more than twenty acres of land. Although I am not very useful, my brother is very diligent. My brother died of illness this year, leaving only orphans and widowers in the family. My second uncle and several cousins
, Shengsheng occupied my family’s land. I couldn’t get angry, so I came to seek refuge with Brother Tao.”
"Want to get your land back?" Tao Kai asked.
Zhao Er said: "I also want the land of my second uncle's house. If he is in the first grade of junior high school, I will be in the fifteenth grade. My cousin-in-law is beautiful, and I want to ask for it to be my wife."
"You have such a vicious heart that you even care about your cousin-in-law," Tao Kai said with a smile, "All the benefits are yours? What can our brothers get?"
Zhao Er said: "I helped Brother Tao to bring Zhuxi Village over. I know all the people in the village who have grudges, and they can also join the gang."
Forcibly occupying a village can easily cause trouble. If there are a large number of insiders, things will be much easier to handle. Moreover, if more villagers join the gang, Tao Kai's hard power will be enhanced and a gang will dominate the countryside.
If a rich householder in the village actively donates money, Tao Kai will accept it and let him be the leader of the gang. On the one hand, everyone will feed the common people together; on the other hand, they will form a team to fight against the harsh government.
Tao Kai called a few capable men and asked them to go back with Zhao Er and take back the land of Zhao Er's family first. This has a demonstration effect. When Zhao Er becomes more powerful, people in the village will naturally envy him, and people who volunteer will appear.
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"Brother, a man is coming on horseback!" His subordinates came to report.
Tao Kai asked: "How many have come?"
The subordinate replied: "Just one person, riding a horse."
Tao Kai immediately let down his guard: "Follow me to greet you."
It was Bai Sheng who came, riding alone outside the village.
Tao Kai, with a dozen of his men, quickly went to greet him and greeted him respectfully: "What are your orders, Lord Chai?"
Bai Sheng rode on the horse and said with his nostrils pointing to the sky: "The magistrate is going to inspect the embankment. When passing by here, we should treat him well and bring out good wine and meat!"
"Definitely, definitely." Tao Kai smiled apologetically.
Bai Sheng said: "I have to go to the village ahead, so prepare quickly!"
After saying that, Bai Sheng rode through the village.
Tao Kai looked angry and spat: "Dog officer!"
The subordinate reminded: "Brother, is there any fraud? I heard that this Zhizhou is very young and he arrested many monsters in Huhe Town a few days ago. He also arrested many big businessmen in Lei Ze. No way. Are you here to catch us?"
Tao Kai shook his head: "Both demons and big families are rich, and the dog officials can make money by catching them. We have only been here for more than half a year. In addition to grabbing a lot of land and food, we have not saved much money. We are all poor. Ghost, the dog officer doesn't like him. Go kill ten sheep, get a few jars of wine, prepare twenty guan of money, and send the dog officer away."
In the afternoon, Ju Ming led dozens of archers and swaggered outside Zhaozhuang Village.
Tao Kai had been waiting for a long time. When he saw the dog official Ju Ming, he no longer had any resentment in his heart, but was filled with envy. How wonderful it is to be an official, with people cheering for him and offering wine, meat and wealth wherever he goes.
"The common people pay homage to the prefect!" Tao Kai immediately knelt down and kowtowed.
"Kill the thief!"
Without saying a word, Zhu Ming took off his mace and rushed over, smashing Tao's head with the mace.
The rest of the thieves fled in fear, and Deng Chun and others pursued them with archers. The thieves greeted the reward governor, so naturally they could not bring weapons, so they had to run for their lives when facing the archers.
I asked Bai Sheng to come and act before, just because I was afraid that the thieves would escape after hearing the news, and it would be too time-consuming to hunt them down.
Trapping is much simpler, just stick your head in front of you and let Ju Ming smash it.
Deng Chun, Li Bao, and Zhang Bor all chased each other on horseback, like a tiger rushing into a herd of sheep. The three of them galloped on, but more than a dozen thieves were unarmed and could only flee in all directions. One of them was cut down while trying to escape.
The other thieves in the village started to run away when they heard the noise. They were not smart enough and even wanted to run away with their wives, children and belongings.
The battle here is over, and Bai Sheng also rides back.
Leaving more than a dozen archers behind to let Bai Sheng search the thieves' house, Zhu Ming led his men straight to Huang Tingguan.
We still plan to trap, not attack by force at all.
This time Yang Pu was sent out and stood in front of the Taoist temple and shouted: "The governor has arrived, the abbot must come out to greet him!"
The abbot of Huangtingguan is called Li Gongzuo. As a registered disciple of Wang Laozhi and a Taoist official, he never thought that the government would dare to take action.
Li Gong made an air of immortal Taoism and came out surrounded by more than a dozen Taoist priests. He walked up to Ju Ming and made a Taoist bow: "Meet the prefect!"
Ju Ming stood on his horse and said in a cold tone: "Someone has exposed you for hiding demon scriptures and secretly spreading demon magic. Is this possible?"
Li Gongzuo laughed when he heard this: "Prefect Rong Zhen, Pindao is a Taoist official appointed by the imperial court. How could he spread evil magic? Someone must have made a false accusation."
"Maybe you are innocent, but what about the Taoist priests under you?" Ju Ming asked.
Li Gongzuo said: "I dare to use this Taoist robe to guarantee that there is absolutely no demon in Huangtingguan."
Ju Ming said: "Gather all the Taoist priests in Huangting Temple, and I will personally give them a lecture. Those who are not in the temple will also be called back, immediately!"
Li Gongzuo had no choice but to summon Taoist priests.
These Taoist priests all have families. They come to Huangtingguan to work every day, and go home to live with their wives at night. They also have rotating holidays, and those who live in the Taoist temple at night are on night shift. (Quanzhen Taoism has not yet emerged, so Taoist priests can marry wives and have children.)
Counting the handymen in the Taoist temple, more than a hundred Taoist priests gathered one after another.
There were even rural landowners who took the initiative to donate their land as temple fields, put on Taoist robes and became practitioners, in order to resist the government's excessive taxes and miscellaneous taxes.
It was already dark at this time and all the pilgrims had left. Zhu Ming ordered: "Deng Chun, lead someone to search you. Zhang Boring, lead someone to search the Taoist temple!"
Naturally, nothing can be found in a body search, but there must be something "hidden" in the Taoist temple.
Not long after, Zhang Bor came out holding a torch: "Sir, we found several demon scriptures!"
"Take them all away!" Zhu Ming was furious.
Li Gongzuo was horrified and shouted: "Prefect, wait a minute, someone must have framed it. I have never seen the demon scripture. How could it be hidden in the temple?"
Zhu Ming asked: "Even if the Demonic Scripture was framed by someone, but you colluded with thieves and bandits, occupied the land of the surrounding good people, and resisted the government and refused to pay taxes, was this also framed by others? Stop making excuses and go to the state court to confess your crime!
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For a time, the cries were loud, the Taoist priests were in tears, and they no longer looked like practitioners.
Zhu Ming was arresting thieves and raiding Taoist temples. In addition to establishing his authority, he also wanted to get more money and food.
Here in Juancheng, there are disciples and old officials of the Li family all over the place. The subordinate officials colluded and deliberately did not collect enough autumn grain this year to force Ju Ming to compromise. It was impossible for Ju Ming to conjure money out of thin air, so he had to make some extra money to make up for the shortfall in autumn grain.
Make up for it.
As for the recovered land, we have to find a way to distribute it to tenants, and return it to the original owners if they are still there.
It must not be turned into official land, otherwise the harm will be even greater.
Guantian was also called Guanzhuang. Officials were dispatched to serve as village supervisors, and the land was levied and collected violently, which could force all the tenants to flee.
In view of this situation, the imperial court also changed its strategy and contracted all official land to large landowners, and then asked the large landowners to recruit tenants for farming. This policy existed in the late Northern Song Dynasty, and became extremely common in the Southern Song Dynasty. However, letting large landowners do subcontracting
People are only a little better than the direct management of officials, which only prevents tenants from fleeing on a large scale.
For the tenants who were allocated land in Huhe Town, as well as the tenants who were allocated land here, Ju Ming would promise to be tax-free within three years.
But in practice, only official taxes and extra money can be exempted, and officials will levy exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes in various ways.
Ju Ming could only do this, at least ensuring that the tenants who obtained the land would not go bankrupt within three years after becoming the principal owners.
In three years' time, he will definitely no longer be in Puzhou, and the people will just wish themselves well.
Staying at the Taoist temple that night, the archers were all excited after receiving the reward, and returned to the city the next day with a large amount of money.
Bai Sheng, Zhang Bor and Shi Yuangong stayed and were responsible for distributing the confiscated land to the tenants, whoever was farming. All land deeds were given, and the handling fee for the transfer of land was waived. This required the cooperation of the Juancheng County Magistrate.
Ju Ming wants to go to the county government office in person.
Yao Guangshu understood what happened and had no reaction.
Wang Laozhi had offended Cai Jing a long time ago. Those Taoist priests in Huang Tingguan were all Wang Laozhi's disciples and they all deserved to suffer.
The land deeds were handed out one by one, and specifically stated that they would be tax-free for three years. The farmers in Huhe Town also went through the procedures for reissues.
All the Zhang family's property that was occupied by the Taoist temple will be returned.
For a time, the reputation of the prefect spread throughout the county, and scholars in Puzhou rushed to write articles praising him.
Zhu Shengfei looked at the notice posted at the gate of the state government office and murmured to himself: "Such capable officials will become famous ministers in the future."
The content of the notice is very simple. It orders the magistrates and county magistrates of the four counties of Puzhou to start checking Taoist temples and temples in their respective jurisdictions. If there are demons, arrest them immediately and clean up the temple fields. Illegally obtained temple fields must be returned to the landowners, which is legal.
Temple fields must pay taxes, and past tax arrears must also be paid!
Ju Ming had already set an example himself, so the county officials knew what to do. Not only could they please the magistrate, but they could also take advantage of the opportunity to make a fortune.
This is the breakthrough. Only after establishing authority will people listen to the decrees issued by Ju Ming, and only then will all Taoist temples cooperate honestly. Otherwise, the county officials will definitely be perfunctory.
