Using well-equipped militiamen to attack gangsters and gangsters is like killing a chicken with a sledgehammer.
Without any casualties, but with only a dozen archers injured, Sheng Changbai defeated various large-scale criminal gangs in Xuzhou City.
This wave of crackdowns on crime and evil not only cost little, but are even open source.
Excluding the money spent on food, accommodation and training for hundreds of archers during this period, and the rewards distributed.
Some of the stolen money and dirt seized were returned to the victims, and there was still a considerable balance.
The effect of improving public security is also very obvious. The atmosphere in the city has been cleared up, and the people in the city also know that Sheng Changbai has been appointed as the general magistrate of Xuzhou.
Archers have used swords and seen blood. They have experienced actual combat and tempered their courage. The next thing is to eliminate all kinds of banditry.
These water bandits, bandits, and mountain bandits just took advantage of mobility.
As long as the government is determined to govern, frontal force will still be superior to the government.
There is no need to rush to deal with these bandits, Sheng Changbai is prepared to engage in a protracted war.
First, blockade waterways and land passes to cut off the channels through which these bandits can purchase daily necessities.
Arrange for archers to lead the team and patrol the plank road frequently to prevent these bandits from robbing homes as much as possible.
Then he posted notices and spread the news in the areas where the bandits were established, nearby villages, markets, and intersections.
Inform these robbers that if they have not committed any crime before, the government can forgive their crimes and let bygones be bygones.
Mobilize the villagers, mobilize the power of the masses, report the thieves, and get rewards for catching the thieves.
The robbers who have made mistakes are also given a chance to save themselves and a hope.
Reporting on an accomplice can absolve oneself of the crime and also earn a reward.
Except for the culprits and some people who are naturally fond of doing evil, other people's problems are relatively easy to understand and can be reformed.
After all, most of the bandits at this time were just honest farmers.
It was due to various reasons, including oppression by landlords, persecution by subordinate staff, and coercion by bandits, that they had no choice but to embark on this road.
The Zhou Dynasty was still in its early dynasty, and it was far from oppressing the people to the point where they could no longer survive.
When they can be good citizens, most people will not be afraid of becoming bandits.
After material blockade, mass mobilization, and polarization of public opinion, the leading party who is familiar with the terrain is finally selected to lead the way.
Some ineffective cottages and water villages can naturally be easily dismantled.
After the preliminary work of suppressing bandits was completed, it was time for summer harvest.
The most important task given to Sheng Changbai by the imperial court was to collect taxes.
By taking care of all the affairs of the court, Sheng Changbai can do what he wants to do according to his own wishes.
"Send an official document to every county. This year's 'displacement' and 'transformation' cannot be too much. I don't want to see that in such a good year, people will sell their houses because they can't pay taxes."
Farm, those who sell their sons and daughters." Sheng Changbai ordered the clerk.
Although the general magistrate is responsible for collecting taxes, the officials are not responsible for the front line. They only need a final result.
If he wanted to save his worries, Sheng Changbai could just ask the magistrates of each county under Xuzhou to hand over the full amount.
Even Pengcheng has its own Fuguo Magistrate to manage it, so Sheng Changbai doesn't need to worry about it.
If the county magistrate wants to collect taxes, he has to count on the wealthy gentry in the county and the subordinate officials in the yamen to go to the front line to collect taxes.
The land tax in the Zhou Dynasty was levied according to the grade of fields, paddy fields and dry fields, upper, middle and lower levels and the degree of fertility.
Tax rates range from 50% to 30% and vary in different regions and locations, and even in the same region in different years.
Although the land in Xuzhou is fertile, the Hexi East Road it belongs to supplies blood to Hebei and Tokyo. The standard of land tax has always been high. Generally, the land tax for middle land is 15%.
For the common people, although the burden is not light, it is still within the tolerance range. In such a good year without disasters, Sheng Changbai does not worry about insufficient tax collection.
I only worry that local officials and subordinates are exploiting the people too deeply.
If you think about it, officials have too many ways to exploit the people, the most important of which are transfer and transformation.
The "support transfer" is a system for collecting physical goods, which requires farmers to transport goods to designated locations and pay. If farmers are unwilling to go through the labor of long-distance transportation, they have to pay an additional "support transfer," which is "foot money."
‘Conversion’ refers to the collection of money, silk, silk, cotton, cloth and other currencies or equivalents. Adjusting the conversion ratio between these can easily increase the actual amount of taxes paid by farmers.
Then there are miscellaneous taxes such as agricultural equipment tax, cattle leather tax, silkworm and salt tax.
There is also Ding money for head and body. According to the Ding tax in Da Zhou, a man is considered a Ding at the age of 20 and an old man at the age of 60. Men between the ages of 20 and 60 have to pay the Ding tax. They must pay money or silk to match their two sexes.
Taxes are paid at the same time.
Hebian means the government compulsorily collects grain and rice from the private sector, and Hemai means the government compulsorily purchases private cloth.
Hebing and Hebuying means that the government purchases grain and cloth at lower than market prices, which of course is another burden for the people.
This is still a good situation for the country's economy. When the country is short of money, buying and selling can easily turn into forced apportionment and collection.
"It is rare for a magistrate to be kind and considerate of the people." These scribes are all masters of flattery.
"It's just a matter of being loyal to the emperor and eating the emperor's salary."
Sheng Changbai cupped his hands and replied politely, these people looked at Sheng Changbai's youth and thought about deceiving Sheng Changbai all day long.
Once we become more familiar with the situation and have available local manpower, we will also need to replace a batch of subordinate officials in the yamen.
In order not to be fooled by his subordinates, Sheng Changbai could not stay in Pengcheng and enjoy his happiness.
I still have to go to various counties and villages to visit the tax payment situation.
Sheng Changbai was a new official, with a promising future and a strong background. Among the several county magistrates and magistrates, no one dared to openly confront Sheng Changbai or touch Sheng Changbai's brow. He was exploiting him too much.
When dealing with money and food, there should be more losses and some oil and water should be left. The officials up and down the yamen work hard to collect taxes and keep some "hard-earned money". This is an unspoken rule, and Sheng Changbai will not delve into it.
Wanting all officials to be honest and honest has been a difficult problem for thousands of years.
The leaders are honest, but not all the people below are so honest. The subordinate staff in the yamen have no future. They have no pursuit of status and can only pursue money.
It is inevitable that there will be some people who are greedy for profit. The state does not need to levy more, and the county does not need to levy more.
After farmers paid the prescribed amount of money and grain, they still had some money to spare, so these people took this as an opportunity to make a fortune.
The result of catching such a person was that after Sheng Changbai was caught, his house was confiscated, his army was confiscated, and he was issued a three-company set.
They try to impose harsher sentences as much as possible. Sheng Changbai has a certain range of sentencing autonomy. Of course, he has no sympathy for these people at all.
When Sheng Changbai finished his summer tax matters and returned to Pengcheng, the state seat, he also waited for the seeds sent from Bianliang to his family.
Although the effects of rectifying public security and reducing excessive levies and miscellaneous taxes were quick, and Sheng Changbai gained quite a reputation as a "green sky" in a short period of time, these could only bring temporary benefits to the people.
After Sheng Changbai is transferred and leaves, there is no guarantee what will happen when the next official takes charge, and there is no guarantee that these people can live a good life.
It is better to promote the development of high-yield improved varieties, which will benefit the people of Xuzhou for a long time.
"Sir, the seeds from Bianliang have arrived. This is the letter my family brought to you."
"Liu Tao, go find a better warehouse to store the seeds and take care of them."
After Liu Tao went to make arrangements, Sheng Changbai opened the letters sent home on the ship and read them.
The letters from Wang Ruofu, Rulan, and Minglan are just normal greetings and daily pleasantries.
There is nothing too important to tell, that is, some gossip and Bianliang news.
Although there was no explanation, several people, besides missing Sheng Changbai's appointment, inevitably felt some relief.
With one less person to restrain them, these three women were living quite happily.
During this period of time, Wang Ruofu often took two people out to attend banquets hosted by noble officials.
Not to mention going out to socialize, how lively the scene is and how good the fun is.
Just that these three people can go out and Mo Lan is restrained at home by Sheng Hong is enough for these three people to be happy.
Seeing that Lin Qige was not doing well, the other people in the Sheng family's back house felt that they themselves were doing well.
Sheng Changbai wrote a reply directly, talked about his current situation, picked out a few interesting things, and talked about them in the letter.
Then wait a few days, purchase some Xuzhou specialties, and send the letter back.
The most valuable letter is from Sheng Hong.
He talked about some changes in the situation in the court and the appointment of important officials.
Although Sheng Hong did not say it directly, Sheng Changbai could also see that the changes in the court were mainly due to the competition between the forces headed by the two kings for the position of crown prince.
It's just a matter of competing for rights and holding back each other.
In the letter, Sheng Hong also mentioned a family matter, and Chang Wu's marriage was settled.
After Sheng Hong's matchmaking, a capital commander of the Forbidden Army was optimistic about Chang Wu and was willing to recruit Chang Wu as his son-in-law.
Because of the tradition of being a military attache, it was of course best for Chang Wu to get married as soon as possible.
Chang Wu should go through the pre-marriage procedures as soon as possible. In the second half of the year, Chang Wu should be getting married.
The foundation of Dafang is still in Youyang, and Changwu's wedding will still be held back in Youyang.
Changwu had already arranged for a marriage in the army and returned to his hometown to arrange the wedding.
The first house hopes that someone from the second house can attend Chang Wu’s wedding.
Sheng Hong and Sheng Changbai both had official positions and it was difficult for them to leave.
It can be said that the remaining people in the second room are women and children, and the slightly older one is Chang Feng.
Chang Feng is already sixteen, not too young, but he has a loose personality, and he is somewhat disrespectful to a big family for a bastard.
No matter how much Sheng Hong doted on Chang Feng at home, it was useless. No matter how outsiders looked at Chang Feng, he was just an ordinary bastard of the Sheng family.
If a concubine goes to Dafang to attend the wedding, if Yu Yang and his parents see it, they will only think that the second brother of the Sheng family does not pay attention to Dafang.
Many people think that Shengjia's second-bedroom apartments have been developing better and better in recent years, and they no longer look down on larger apartments.
Before Chang Feng became a Jinshi, the only men who could fully represent the Sheng family when away from home were Sheng Hong and Sheng Changbai.
There are not enough men in the family, and the only ones left in the family who can represent the Sheng family are the old lady and Wang Ruofu.
It is impossible for Wang Ruofu to return to Youyang. Wang Ruofu has no deep feelings for Dafang and has no good impression of his hometown in Youyang.
You cannot leave the prosperous Bianliang and go to Youyang to deal with so many poor relatives of the Sheng family.
When she first married Sheng Hong, she was tortured a lot by some elders of the Sheng family who relied on their elders and neglected them.
There is only one old lady Sheng left, who has a deep relationship with Dafang and also has a certain affection for Youyang. She has enough status and seniority.
Although I am old, I can travel by water all the way from Bianliang to Youyang, so it is not too difficult.
In order to prevent the old lady from being alone and having no family to take care of her when she was away from home, Sheng Hong planned to let a child follow the old lady back.
The old lady followed suit and agreed to take Minglan with her.
"Sheng Laoliu is really the old lady's lifeblood now!" Sheng Changbai sighed after reading Sheng Hong's letter.
It has been more than twenty years since she married Wang Ruofu to Sheng Hong, and she felt that she was worthy of it, and there was a little friendship between the Sheng family and Lao Tanhua, but the old lady did not take the initiative to do anything.
The old lady has a lot on her mind. She is willing to return to Youyang this time because she wants Changwu to get married. She misses the old lady from the big house.
But the most important thing is that the old lady is planning for Minglan.
First, he wanted to go back to Youyang to change the genealogy, and record Minglan under Wang Ruofu's name, pretending to be a fake legitimate daughter, and give Minglan a little more background.
The second is to go back to Youyang to see if there is a suitable candidate for Minglan and find Minglan an in-law.
As the daughter of a fifth-rank official and concubine in Minglan, she was married to the son of a local gentry, although it was considered a low-level marriage.
But her husband's family was not well-established, and Minglan had the Sheng family to rely on, so she had the confidence to live more comfortably.
A prosperous gentry family can also maintain a prosperous life.
The old lady has been unwilling to intervene in Sheng's family affairs for so many years, and she is unwilling to move. This time she traveled thousands of miles, and it was basically Minglan.
The old lady has really good intentions for this granddaughter she has raised for six years.
"Xu San, you choose some capable people to take with you and return to Beijing via the waterway. If you can intercept the old lady on the way, follow the old lady back to Youyang to protect the old lady's travel safety. If you don't meet the old lady on the way, , you go back to Tokyo Mansion to look for the person, and then go back to Youyang with the old lady."
Sheng Hong didn't say anything about the time when the old lady was going to leave, so Sheng Changbai could only arrange it this way.
The Sheng residence in Tokyo, although Sheng Changbai also left some bodyguards.
But Sheng Changbai couldn't guarantee whether the old lady would take it with her when she went out.
I expected that the old lady didn't want to go through too much trouble, so she probably didn't bring any manpower, so Sheng Changbai simply sent someone there directly.
Sheng Changbai now has enough manpower, with hundreds of archers in hand, so it is really not a big problem to deploy dozens of them.
Just recruit again to make up for it. There are 200,000 to 300,000 people in Xuzhou. How can Sheng Changbai send people?
"Yes, but sir, when will I return to Xuzhou?" Xu San asked.
"When will the old lady return to Tokyo? You can send her home and then come back."
After getting used to it, Sheng Changbai felt a little uncomfortable even though Xu San was not around.
But this is better than Mrs. Sheng encountering any danger on the road.