northernbook Chapter 237 Imperial Sword!
Chapter 237 Imperial Sword!
Wu Qiong had no choice but to shut up.
Ma Zhao looked at Ye Kun and said, "Sir Ye, Ma Zhao offends people whenever he opens his mouth. I'm afraid the officials in Yizhou will not accept it."
Ye Kun took off his sword and handed it to Ma Zhao with both hands:
"Master Ma, I give you my sword. From now on, you can supervise everyone from the governor to the city gate officials. If anyone does not obey the law, you will kill him with this sword!"
Ma Zhao took the sword and without saying thank you, he directly named a few assistants and said:
"Within three days, I will formulate new laws and submit them to Lord Ye and all the lords for review. After the new laws are finalized, they will be enforced in accordance with the new laws without favoritism!"
Everyone was submissive.
The military officer stepped forward to report: "Lord Ye, there are bandits in Qionglai Mountain, harassing Linqiong County and the people in all directions, robbing salt wells, and blocking trade routes. Linqiong has insufficient troops stationed, and is unable to suppress the bandits..."
Ye Kun smiled and said, "No problem, I'll let Zhou Xuanwu lead the troops to suppress the bandits."
Qionglai Mountain is located in the west of Chengdu Plain, only a hundred miles away from Chengdu. It is a transportation fortress between Kang and Tibet.
It is also an important salt-producing area in Yizhou.
This place is mountainous, very suitable for bandits to survive.
There is a Linqiong County in the local area. The county town is strong and can protect itself, but it is powerless to send troops to suppress bandits.
Ye Kun originally wanted to go and suppress the bandits himself, but he couldn't leave Chengdu.
Zhou Xuanwu took the order and led six young generals from the Tanbing Hall and an army of 3,000 to Linqiong to suppress the bandits.
The young officers of Tanbingtang became much more mature after the battle of Yizhou.
Some outstanding young people are already able to take charge of a large group of three to five thousand people.
Send out six outstanding officers from the Tanbingtang and Zhou Xuanwu, as well as telescopes, grenades and pulley crossbows, and there will be no problem in suppressing the bandits!
Ye Kun instructed Zhou Xuanwu: "After arriving at Linqiong, draw a battle map first, and then send it to me by flying horse."
Suppressing bandits is also a good business to achieve success and win people's hearts.
So you can only win, not lose!
After a few days, Xichuan officially entered the busy farming season and began to harvest wheat.
Ye Kun distributed a batch of sickles and ordered officials at all levels to supervise production and arrange the subsequent rice transplanting.
At the same time, we discussed with everyone to exempt the head tax in the entire Yizhou.
Because Yizhou’s treasury was sufficient and there was no shortage of money.
But Han Chun and Xie Tong refused.
They felt that it was easy to exempt it now, but if they wanted to restore the poll tax in the future when they were short of money, it would cause civil unrest.
Ma Zhao had sympathy for the people and mediated, saying:
"Lord Ye has just taken over Yizhou. He has no merits and no virtues. How can he win the support of the people? Only by reducing taxes can we gain the support of the people. So I suggest that for the first three years, the head tax be reduced by half. After three years, we will make a decision based on the situation."
Han Chun and others had no choice but to give in and agree to halve the head tax.
As soon as the news came out, the whole of Yizhou celebrated.
This is a policy that benefits everyone, so of course the people are happy.
Ye Kun also had another concern, which was that the major gentry were concealing the population and land situation, which was extremely serious.
The registered population of Yizhou was only 1.1 million;
But Ye Kun estimated that the actual population was over two million.
The gentry concealed their population and land, which was tax evasion, causing huge losses to the treasury and exacerbating the gap between the rich and the poor.
This problem could not be solved because Han Chun and Xie Tong were the largest gentry families in Yizhou and took the lead in resistance.
Zhuge Feng and Ma Zhao came up with a wicked idea - let Han Chun and Xie Tong select a group of the least powerful evil gentry, confiscate their properties and nationalize their assets.
This was used as a warning to force the landlords to hand over some of their land.
Xie Tong was vindictive and quickly drew up a list of enemies and gave it to Ye Kun for review.
Ye Kun did not want to kill innocent people, so he checked with Ma Zhao and others and selected seven or eight extremely evil tyrants to investigate and prosecute them immediately!
The wheat has just been harvested, and the gentry’s grain is all in the granary.
Ma Zhao led his men to search the houses and questioned the gentry:
"You reported 1,000 mu of arable land, which should yield less than 200,000 kilograms of wheat. But how did you get over 1 million kilograms of wheat? Your wheat yield is only 700 to 800 kilograms per mu? I remember you also reported wind and flood disasters, and you still have this yield. It's really bizarre!"
The wheat yield of Dading Kingdom, in a good year, is less than 200 kilograms per mu.
Based on the grain output and the calculated cultivated land area, the gentry had no way to deny it!
Ma Zhao was also cruel and ruthless. After verifying the evidence, he immediately beheaded a group of evil gentry and confiscated all their property to serve as a warning to others.
The wealthy people near Chengdu were all terrified and hurried to re-report their numbers and send taxes and food.
In the vicinity of Chengdu alone, Ma Zhao discovered more than 70,000 hidden people and tens of thousands of acres of unreported arable land.
After dealing with the evil gentry, Ma Zhao turned around and blackmailed Han Chun and Xie Tong:
"The local gentry were investigated and punished, only Lord Han and Lord Xie were safe and sound, and they didn't give a penny. I don't mind, but the other gentry don't accept it."
Ye Kun smiled and said, "Master Han, Master Xie, for the sake of long-term peace and stability in Yizhou, you should also show some appreciation. Seeing you take the lead, others will be more supportive."
Han Chun and Xie Tong considered themselves unlucky and each paid an additional 5,000 shi of wheat.
At the same time, news came that Shangguan Jifu had joined forces with Yizhou to fight against the Jiangdong navy, winning two of three battles;
The Changsha route also fought well, shooting and killing five generals from Yangzhou. This has helped Yizhou and stabilize the territory of Jiangnan.
Half of the soldiers from the Han and Xie families were killed or wounded.
Another thing is that Wei Dingshan is seriously ill and can’t hold on any longer.
Ye Kun wrote a letter to Shangguan Jifu, asking him to unite with Jingzhou, hold the Yangtze River defense line and the Jiangnan territory, and not to take the initiative to attack. He should then arrange production development and wait for the right time.
In Dongba County, there was a bumper harvest of rapeseed.
The oil press works overtime day and night to deliver rapeseed oil to Chengdu in a steady stream.
Ye Kun invited officials from Chengdu to taste rapeseed oil, and then opened the market to sell it, using refined grain as an anchor, with fifteen kilograms of grain being exchanged for one kilogram of rapeseed oil.
This is also a lucrative business.
According to the prices in later generations, three or four pounds of fine grain could be exchanged for one pound of sesame oil.
But rapeseed oil was rare and delicious, so it was snapped up by the wealthy families in Chengdu.
As for ironware, since the technical difficulties of crucible iron smelting were overcome, forged iron pots were also developed, and Ye Kun began to sell them in large quantities.
Even if there is hunger, sales will not work and production cannot keep up.
Just the iron pot production process is definitely high-tech for the Dading Kingdom!
The artistic element is as high as an eighteen-story building.
Throughout Chinese history, iron pot technology has always been a bottleneck for foreign countries, and it has been like this for a thousand years!
The West is powerful, but before 1500, they had to buy iron pots from China.
Ye Kun's iron pots, sesame oil, and porcelain were like cash cows, making him a fortune in Yizhou.
Other small items, such as soap, toothbrushes and tooth powder, quill pens, bean paste, stone mills, and various furniture, are also very profitable.
Ye Kun incorporated the profits of the three major industries of ironware, oil pressing, and porcelain into the treasury of Yizhou;
The profits from other small industries are considered their own.
Because that bastard Ma Zhao kept a close eye on Ye Kun, demanding that Ye Kun strictly distinguish between public and private affairs and not embezzle a single cent from the treasury!
Therefore, Ye Kun had to keep some private money, otherwise, he would really eat up Xie Baochan's dowry.
After the rice planting was completed, Yizhou had become generally stable.
Zhou Xuanwu won a great victory in suppressing bandits in Qionglai Mountain, killing 800 bandits and capturing more than 1,000 alive.
Ye Kun asked everyone: "How should we deal with the more than 1,000 bandits we captured alive?"
Xie Tong said: "We in Xichuan have no shortage of people. These bandits are extremely evil, so we might as well kill them all to save food."
This is also what Ma Zhao meant. He must be killed in order to deter other lawless elements.
Ye Kun frowned and pondered: "Is there any way to let them live and atone for their sins?"