Jingshan Town was too messy and couldn't be cleaned up at the moment, so Zhao Si and his guards stayed at a post station outside the town.
"Your Highness," Zhong Shizhong and Liu Fa came hand in hand to report on the statistics.
"...467 of the captured bandits were Chen Laoliu's old team, all of whom he had recruited as disciples when he was preaching in Shouzhou. The rest were young men recruited and brought along along the way.
"
"There were 4,100 people rescued, 560 of them were Manichaeans who came from Shouzhou. The remaining 2,400 people were the family members of young people. The strong laborers at home were taken away.
If they don't follow us, they will all starve to death. The rest are villagers captured nearby."
Having said this, Master Zhong's tone became slightly higher.
"Four hundred and ten of the women were kidnapped by the bandits along the way and after entering Jingshan Town, for Chen Laoliu and his subordinates to have sex with. With the testimony of several leaders, we also found a few women in the wild.
There are more than a hundred corpses. They are all old and weak women who were tortured and killed by bandits, as well as those who could not bear it and committed suicide."
There was silence in the room. Ming Zhaoxia, standing next to her, looked at Zhao Si with fire in her eyes, biting her lips and faintly heard the sound of grinding her teeth.
After a moment of silence, Liu Fa asked.
"Your Highness, how should we deal with these thieves?"
"Chen Laoliu and the forty-nine bandit leaders, as well as those who testified that there were lives in their hands, were all killed. The rest were handed over to the local authorities for disposal."
"Your Highness, according to the rules of the imperial court, if we go out and win, we must sacrifice prisoners." Zhong Shizhong reminded carefully.
"Are these thieves worthy of offering prisoners? Those who can offer prisoners in front of Xuande Gate must be princes and ministers from the north and west. Those who can offer prisoners at the Ancestral Temple must have the surname Yelu and Wei!"
Zhao Si spoke loudly, and every word and every sentence was like a bell ringing in the master's heart and in Liu Fa's heart.
"For these bastards who take pleasure in killing people, death is the best outcome for them. Post a notice to inform the people everywhere, and then kill these bastards in public to uphold the justice of the country!"
"Yes!" Liu Fa responded quickly.
But some of the seed masters advised with some worry, "Your Highness, if you deal with it this way, will you be accused by the civil servants of being a master of power and easy to kill?"
Zhao Si smiled faintly, "I am cautious and prudent. I am not as good as you when marching and fighting; you are not as good as me when dealing with civil servants. Don't worry, civil servants have a powerful mouth. My mouth is no worse than theirs, and I can even hit them if I try hard."
people."
Zhong Shizhong and Liu Fa both laughed, bowed and went out.
Zhao Si continued to write and draw on the paper.
"Thirteenth Lang, what are you writing?"
Without outsiders around, Ming Zhaoxia would still like to be called Thirteenth Lang.
"I'm thinking about the local political system of the country."
"What's the problem? Thirteenth Lang saw something wrong?"
"Big question. I have been thinking before, starting from the former Tang Dynasty to this dynasty, why did the emperors of all dynasties continue the system of roads and prefectures and counties? Especially this prefecture is divided into smaller and smaller areas. In the past, there were more than ten counties and twenty counties.
Several counties are one state. Now several counties are one state. They overlap one another, and nine sheep out of ten are herded."
"The magistrate is a high-level official position, and the magistrate and the county are all sent by the capital officials. Everything has to be managed by the central government. In the end, nothing can be controlled. For example, this time when the bandits in Jingshan rebelled, as long as Suzhou responded in time and mobilized the imperial army, it would be able to
If he tried to contain him, if it didn't work, he would notify the neighboring Bo, Shou, and Haozhous to set up defenses together, and he would be allowed to harass four states and five counties, killing thousands of people."
Ming Zhaoxia also became interested when she heard this.
"Your Highness wants to understand why the imperial court established such a local political system?"
"Weaken the power of local governments!" Zhao Si shook his head and said, "Once bitten by a snake, you will be afraid of ropes for ten years. The former Tang Dynasty and the Guo Dynasty were divided by local governments, and warlords were afraid of melee. So we established this system, one state
In just a few counties, the prefecture and county officials are all sent by officials from the capital. There are roads above the prefecture, and there are Marshals, Caosi, Xiansi, and Cangsi. In addition to decentralizing power, they are also responsible for supervising the prefectures and counties."
"So you say, what can state and county officials do? What do they dare to do? They can only live in ignorance and confusion. Therefore, the political system of this country, dynasty and local government is simply extremely bad. It cannot effectively govern and cannot respond to changes in time. In the end,
The scary thing is that in various counties and localities, the court's hand has withdrawn, but wealthy and aristocratic families have firmly grasped it."
Speaking of this, Zhao Si's eyes were shining brightly, like the Venus star shining in the dark night in the east before dawn.
"Then what do you think your Highness should do?"
"Of course it needs to be changed. Wang Jinggong's reforms seemed to be very good in the central government, but once they arrived at the local level, they all changed, and most of them turned into evil laws. Why? The imperial court's control over local areas was too poor.
Got it!"
"Your Highness, how do you want to change it?"
"I have an idea, but there are still many things that need to be considered."
Ming Zhaoxia listened to a few words, and the more she listened, the more confused she became, so she stopped asking and let Zhao Si think for himself.
She sat aside for a while, helping to sharpen the ink, and suddenly remembered something. Seeing Zhao Si concentrating on something, she went out, said hello to Cen Meng, and took a few guards with her.
Go straight to Jingshan Town.
Zhao Si sat at the table and thought about things all afternoon. When Ming Zhaoxia came in with food and woke him up, he realized that it was almost dark.
"Thirteenth Master." Ming Zhaoxia called out while eating the cake.
Zhao Si took a bite of the pancake, picked up a pickle with chopsticks, and snorted.
It was wartime, and he and Ming Zhaoxia ate the same food as the officers and soldiers.
This is the iron law he set.
"I want to discuss something with you."
"you say."
"There were four hundred and ten women kidnapped by the thieves. Forty-six of them had committed suicide in the past half day. The guards found out and went to treat them, but twenty-five of them died."
Zhao seemed to be silent.
At this time, the etiquette defense has begun to show up.
Especially the gentry who controlled the rural areas made etiquette extremely solemn and solemn. Because the people followed the etiquette, they did not dare to offend their authority in the slightest and could honestly let them oppress and bully them.
Even if these unruly women are sent home, they will most likely be rejected by their families and neighbors.
If they are abandoned by their families and have no ability to survive, they will really have no choice but to die.
"Zhaoxia, do you want to win them over?" Zhao Si saw what Ming Zhaoxia was thinking.
"Yes, Your Highness. They really have no way out. But they didn't want to get to this point today. They were completely killed by bandits. Now they are rescued, but they still can't jump out of the fire pit. Nujia
I can’t bear it.”
Zhao Si nodded, "Feeding them is not a problem. The key is to give them hope in life. Let them have something to do and feel that they are still useful. Only in this way will they persist in living. Otherwise, they will feel despair.
Being alive is like being a walking zombie, what’s the difference?”
Ming Zhaoxia's eyes lit up, "Thirteenth Lang is right, give them hope of living. These women have been skilled in needlework since childhood and can make a living as tailors. As long as they have a way to make a living."
Zhao Si pointed in another direction, "Women are more careful and tougher than men. We can train some women to be caregivers, learn to treat injuries and illnesses, and help doctors. As long as they dare to think and act, women can do what men can do in many aspects."
Things to do.”
Zhao Si's words seemed to point out a clear path for Ming Zhaoxia.
"Thirteenth Lang, some women are the wives and daughters of hunters. They have practiced some kung fu since they were young. Equipped with swords, guns, bows and arrows, they are no worse than men. I want to form a women's guard team to protect the women who are bullied. If anyone dares to bully them, I will
Take them to knock out the teeth of these thieves!"
"Okay, women will not let men down! Zhaoxia, the female escort team you formed can be called Zhaoxia Guard."
Ming Zhaoxia squinted her eyes, trying hard to transform from a little fox into a cute and well-behaved cat, and said flatteringly: "Thirteenth Master, is it really possible for me to be a slave?"
"Within my ability, you can do anything. Also, Zhaoxia, don't always call yourself a slave in the future. Call yourself the same as Mrs. Zeng. When I left Kaifeng City, I already gave Da Zongzheng a copy of the book,
Register your name in the clan book in the name of Prince Jian's concubine."
Ming Zhaoxia seemed to have cast a restraining spell. She looked at Zhao Si blankly, unable to believe what she just said.
"Thirteenth Prince." Ming Zhaoxia called out faintly, feeling happy, excited, and a little panicked.
Zhao Si took Ming Zhaoxia's hand and said, "If you don't let me down, I will never let you down." This chapter has been completed!
