Chapter 467 Fly Dog
In the second year of Taiwu, spring, February.
Runan, Fupei.
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 things 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 is disrespectful to call people by their names, but how should they be respectful to such a humble citizen?
This man named Deng Dang is actually a smart man, otherwise he wouldn't have been entrusted by Quanli Society to clear this matter. It's just that he comes from the bottom and doesn't understand many joint things.
Deng Dang also knew at this time that he had violated a taboo, so he 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. I would like to Please give Chen Shuzuo a try.”
Chen Shuzuo certainly understood the meaning of Deng Dang's words and the reason for this meal of wine.
Seeing that Deng Dang had already set a trap, Chen Shuzuo, who had been keeping him in check 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.
Forget it, we are already in Guizhou. If we want to be more energetic, we should go back as soon as possible and deliver this news to the club.
Chen Shuzuo's words meant that their club was going to bleed again to get this meal.
……
What is going on?
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.
During the Jiazi Rebellion last year, 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 recruit desperate troops. Yuan Shao chose to return to Ruyang, where he took refuge and waited for the opportunity.
During the Yellow Turban Rebellion, Wang Yun of Taiyuan went south with his army, and during the war, he rode alone behind 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, Henan's powerful forces headed west on the pro-king side of the Hanoi front line, and Liu Hong's carriage entered Kansai. 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 to restore production in various counties.
When Wang Yun returned to Yuzhou as governor, he promoted his former comrade Xu Miu, who had quelled the Yellow Turbans, as the prefect of Runan.
Xu Mu, as a prefect who started his military career, always clung to power very tightly.
Wang Yun and Xu Mu both knew that Yuan Shao was hiding in their hometown, but they turned a blind eye and pretended not to know. But if Yuan Shao wants to cause trouble in Ruyang, he may be hit hard by Wang Yun and Xu Miao.
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 a prefect, so naturally he couldn't 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.
Among the prefecture and county teams of the Han Dynasty, the person responsible for accepting losses was Ji Cao.
And who is Cao doing specifically in this episode? It's not the chief of Ji Cao, but his subordinates.
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.
Don't look at it like this is just a copycat, without any decision-making. But in fact, his sword can cut off a family's life or death. Because he made random changes here, and as long as the director of the gathering above was not particularly upright, he would turn a blind eye to all these.
So when Deng Dang came to ask Chen Shuzuo, he was asking for 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 eighty-two 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 in the official summons issued, only Xinxiang was issued. That's not fair.
You must know that there are only 500 households in a township. With these 82 dings, almost one-fifth of the rural households have to serve as dings.
Although the military rations this time were not transported as far as Kyoto, they still had to be transported to the county government. During this period, the distance alone is two hundred miles, and the pain of fatigue is not to be mentioned. Only the food and rice for this process need to be borne by myself.
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, the military resources are always not enough. In the past, this difference could be divided among each township, but now it is 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 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 even come to settle down yet. 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 Minxiang? It was Deng Dang and his group, they were all soldiers who were demobilized and became the people.
It turns out that when the Taiping Dao uprising broke out in Runan the year before last, one or two of the ten households participated. However, all the county soldiers in Runan were lost in Zhao Qian's hands, so after Wang Yun took charge of the work in Runan, he had no soldiers at all.
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. He made great contributions in the war. Later, Wang Yun was deprived of his post as governor, and the troops in his hands were naturally disbanded. Because they are not the rulers of the imperial court, the imperial court does 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 founded its country based on military merit. It valued the soldiers who were the cornerstone of the country and received certain preferential treatment economically.
During the Pre-Han Dynasty, the restored people could also be allocated thirty acres of homestead land. Of course, this preferential treatment is definitely no longer available, 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 rich area. Moreover, the climate is similar to that of Jianghuai, and they can grow rice, which makes Deng Dang and others satisfied.
But soon Deng Dang and the others discovered something was wrong.
After the Runan Yellow Turbans 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 foreigners.
From then on, the conflicts between the natives and the guests began.
And who does Fupi County Office help? Help whoever makes money. Fortunately, Deng Dang and his group of soldiers still had some money, and Wang Yun theoretically supported them at the top, otherwise they might not have had a good time.
But this is theory. How can Wang Yun really like these soldiers? How can a well-known Taiyuan family let you idiots like you get involved?
However, Deng Dang's village was rich but weak, so he naturally became the target of exploitation and blackmail by the petty officials in Fupi County.
This time, the county sent out troops to lose the soldiers, and 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-level official who can use the opportunity of assigning labor to extort money. For example, those subordinates of powerful Cao Cao such as Hu Cao, Tian Cao, Shui Cao, who are directly linked to money, grain, and taxes, are extremely powerful.
Households and fields are related to money and food, and water cao is in charge of water conservancy. If you don't feed these little officials, if they say they cut off the water for you, then the water will be cut off. 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 more 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, and 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 much official staff was given by the imperial court? Large counties have only four to five hundred people, and small counties have only two to three hundred people. If this number of people is divided into different groups, how can there be enough to do anything?
Therefore, the general work of various counties and temples is like this. The small official Dou Shi will take the lead, and then when the 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 job is a hard job. No matter what you are drafted to do, you will have to give up working 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 general heads of Guizhou regard 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 must have good food and drink wherever you go. For example, Uncle Zhang did brisk walking.
Jianbu is a messenger who specializes in delivering messages. Dahan Station transportation is spread all over the world, but not all areas are rich enough to have horses to carry the post, so they use the most ancient way of transmitting information, running by foot.
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 someone like Uncle Zhang do such hard work? What he did was to deliver 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 maneuver in this process. One day more and one day less, isn't that what Uncle Zhang does? Therefore, those villagers who were passed down had to give him a good meal in order not to offend Uncle Zhang.
Uncle Zhang is a wanderer in the countryside. He is not involved in production, so naturally he is not worried about missing the work in the fields. So naturally I wanted to do this wonderful thing that was both majestic and could be eaten and taken.
But since it is labor service, it will naturally expire. At this time, Uncle Zhang took refuge under Chen Shuzuo, and he arranged for him to replace the next countryman who was to serve, and then continued 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 buckets of rice.
It's really a win-win situation.
Seeing Chen Shuzuo coming back, Zhang Bo and Ma Zhong were surprised, but they still came closer.
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:
"Shuzuo, 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 is so careful, because what he wants to do this time is different from the small businesses in the past where he extorted three cents and four cents. This time he is doing something for Wang Gongcao in the county, and he cannot be tolerated. careless.
The meritorious officer is the chief official second only to the county magistrate, and even has more power than the county magistrate to a certain extent. Because the county magistrate is a floating official, the meritorious officials are all children of local wealthy families. There is no need to say whichever words work.
Not to mention, this meritorious Cao Cao's surname is Wang, and he is a descendant of the former Wang Ba. Two hundred years ago, our rich land 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. And Wang Gongcao is a real big tiger.
But this time, this big tiger will look at Dengdang and other rehabilitated households with its devouring eyes.
And Deng Dang was ignorant of all this.
This chapter is False Wings in the Central Plains. What does False Wings mean? Fake means borrowing, which means stealing, and then take off in the Central Plains. Then who stole it? How to steal it? I won’t go into details here, but you guys can definitely guess it.
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. Stay tuned.
(End of chapter)