Chapter 88: Eating the Rich (Part 2)
Shandong Gao Xuezheng read the complaint letter and put it aside. There are at least 280 letters of this kind every year, if not 300. The local gentry are of this character. If the government has to step in every time to suppress them, it can only be said that there is something wrong with the local officials.
On the other hand, County Magistrate Dong did not place all his hopes on Gao Xuezheng. He called all the county officials together and asked, "I want to replace some gentry who pay taxes on my behalf. Do you have any candidates to recommend?"
The officials were all silent, looking down at the ground. Magistrate Dong was annoyed by the look of these people, and started to question the chief clerk. The chief clerk immediately said that he didn't know any good candidates.
Magistrate Dong had guessed that this might be the case, so he asked other officials. Every official spoke, and everyone said the same thing, not knowing who to choose.
After the group of people finished speaking, Magistrate Dong said angrily: "In that case, the three families who owe the most silver will be stripped of their jobs. After collecting the February taxes, you will go to them every day and ask them to hand over the taxes they owe!"
"Your Excellency the Magistrate, this is not possible!" the chief clerk hastily advised.
"Why not? If the taxes are not paid, it is the government's fault!" County Magistrate Dong said in a tough tone. This time he decided to get things done first, no matter how much the people below him objected.
On the fifth day after Kochi Prefecture made up his mind, Gao Xuezheng of Shandong received a letter. Seeing that the signature was from his teacher's fellow student, Gao Xuezheng became serious. After reading the letter, Gao Xuezheng said to the messenger: "I already know about this. Go back and tell Mr. Niu, I will mediate this matter."
After the messenger left, Gao Xuezheng's nervous expression disappeared immediately. County Magistrate Dong of Mouping County is very interesting. The new official made the local gentry so nervous when he took office, but no one knew what he could do.
Magistrate Dong had made up his mind, and regardless of the opposition of the county officials, he directly announced that the three families' duty of paying taxes on behalf of the county would be cancelled this year, and the government would collect the taxes themselves.
Soon it was February, and the yamen runners went to the countryside to collect taxes. Magistrate Dong was anxiously waiting for news in the county yamen. Meanwhile, in Mengyin County, Huo Chong sat in the county yamen, drinking with his trusted magistrate Peng Siyuan.
"Brother Huo, this year's taxes will depend on your hard work." County Magistrate Peng sighed helplessly.
Huo Chong smiled and replied, "County Magistrate Peng, I am only paying taxes according to the rules. If you ask me to pay more, I can't pay it."
County Magistrate Peng sighed, "Brother Huo, I asked those who owed taxes to come to the county to see me. But they refused to come. I wonder if Brother Huo can persuade them to come."
Huo Chongcai was unwilling to be used as a pawn. Hearing this, he immediately shook his head and said, "I am a newcomer, how can I know the gentry in the county?"
Seeing Huo Chong's refusal, County Magistrate Peng continued to persuade Huo Chong to work for him. Huo Chong, of course, refused. He felt that some people in the area were not quite right recently. He had no time to establish good relations with them, let alone offend the local bosses.
After finishing his meal, Huo Chong returned to the park in Mengyin County. The so-called park was just a term Huo Chong used internally. Seeing some modern words always made Huo Chong feel better. As for the "park" itself, it was just a few plots of land surrounded by a fence.
This kind of remote and poor place is not suitable for agriculture. The only advantage is that there is no need to worry about land use. The locals have no ability to operate the business, and large tracts of mountain land are free to use.
As soon as they arrived at the "park", they saw some people standing at the gate with bags on their backs. Facing these people in tattered clothes, the gatekeepers were very nervous. Huo Chong hurried forward and saw that the local employees of the park had come out and were talking to the people at the gate in the local dialect.
Huo Chong could barely understand what was said, and heard that the local employees were not very familiar with the guys outside the door. From what they were saying, they could only be sure that the guys outside had heard that someone who might not even be considered a fellow villager was working for Huo Chong, so they came here to seek opportunities.
Listening to this man's arguments, Huo Chong called over a local employee and asked, "Can you vouch for them?"
The local employee hesitated for a moment and then shook his head. Huo Chong said to him, "Just tell them that we are not hiring any more people now."
When sending someone over, Huo Chong called over the deputy manager Zhang Jing who had already come out, "Watch them and talk."
They saw that the local employees said they were not hiring, and those people were just disappointed, but asked if they could be arranged to stay here as it was already late.
Huo Chong asked Zhang Jing, "What do you think?"
"It's not impossible for him to stay there. But looking at that person makes me feel...uncomfortable." Zhang Jing replied.
"Yeah." Huo Chong agreed with Zhang Jing's opinion and said, "Since they want to stay overnight, we can't chase them away. Make some arrangements for them."
It was late at night. The straw curtains of the thatched hut where the guests were staying were shaking, and someone sneaked out. He walked slowly and stealthily, gradually approaching the gate of the park. There was a fire at the gate, and the guards were dozing off beside it.
The man walked around the fire and slowly moved to the gate of the park. There was some noise outside, and soon the fence was pushed down, and a group of people came in through the gap.
Just as they were approaching the fire, a few people who were dozing off at the door jumped up with sticks in their hands and blocked the way of those people with great energy.
As the two sides began to confront each other, they heard the other side shouting: "Hey guys, you just came here to make a living, why do you want to throw your life here? Get out of the way, we got the things and we'll share with you."
The night watchman was cursing and had no intention of giving way.
When the robbers saw that the four or five guards refused to retreat in the face of fifty or sixty people, the leader shouted, "If you don't have eyes, don't blame us for being rude! Kill them!"
When the guards saw the robbers coming, they turned and ran away, and the robbers chased after them, cursing.
The robbers outside the fence had already pushed down a long row of fences and rushed in. Seeing their leader chasing after them, they also followed him in a loud voice.
When they all entered the park, the sound of gongs rang out. There was a roar of killing outside. A team had already gone around the fence and got behind the robbers, blocking their retreat. A dozen torches were lit inside the park, and hundreds of people rushed out with sticks and half-surrounded the robbers.
Huo Chong stood on a high place, watching the siege, and felt a little sad.
It is true that one should travel thousands of miles and read thousands of books. I never thought that I could learn something from Prince Yong. When I first met Prince Yong, he said, "You are so eloquent, I am afraid you are a big thief."
Huo Chong was able to answer fluently because of his knowledge and experience. Although Huo Chong did not like the "forced approach" of people in this era, that is, to find an excuse and use it to the fullest. But this also proves that people in this era will only ask for help from unfamiliar people when they are desperate.
However, the few people during the day also seemed to be able to answer questions fluently. Since they could not be time travelers, Huo Chong could only classify them as bandits.
The purpose of letting these suspicious people stay here is to confuse them. Huo Chong's security personnel have also been trained, and there have been incidents in several places. Huo Chong gathered everyone for a meeting to share their experiences. After a little investigation, the people in Mengyin found the location of the thieves. This is how they were able to surround the thieves in one fell swoop.
Ding Sheng, the head of Mengyin County, watched as Huo Chong's men lined up in formation, holding the middle of the long stick with their left hand and the end of the stick with their right hand on their waist. When the thieves rushed over, they would stab them with the long sticks. The thieves screamed and screamed. He couldn't help but praise: "Master Huo, your men are really powerful."
"They are just trying to protect themselves, they are just for show." Huo Chong laughed. Although Huo Chong didn't want the government to see too much, this time they were catching thieves after all. With the government's presence, it would be much easier. Otherwise, Huo Chong would annihilate the thieves himself and then hand them over to the government. Although it was correct, Huo Chong just felt that something was not right.
Although Huo Chong said his men were just show-offs, the thieves couldn't get out. As the encirclement was completely closed, the thieves were knocked down one by one by the stabbing of the long sticks. The last few bandits in the circle were waving their steel knives desperately, still making a lot of noise. But these people were already in a desperate situation. After a round of stabbing with the long sticks, they finally fell down screaming.
Perhaps because their last performance was too ferocious, the employees were still worried about the gangsters who had fallen to the ground. While they were still at the bottom, they beat them with sticks. The gangsters shouted loudly: "Please spare my life, stop beating me, or someone will die!"
Huo Chong couldn't stop laughing at the screams, and then he heard the constable beside him say, "Master Huo, you said that I arrested all these people. This is not okay, you have to give half to Master Huo. Otherwise, you are stealing Master Huo's credit."
"No need, no need. Captain, you've worked hard today." Huo Chong said lightly.
Before dawn, the gang of thieves was sent to the government office. Peng, the magistrate of Mengyin County, obviously did not expect Huo Chong to be able to capture the thieves in one fell swoop. He was so excited that he could not finish his words, "This... is really..."
Huo Chong didn't care about County Magistrate Peng's reaction, but he had to listen politely. After finally handing over the people, Huo Chong returned to the park and first commended the participants. He also announced that several injured employees would receive full pay while recovering from their .
When everyone was happy, Huo Chong called the local employees to the stage and praised them loudly for being reliable. He also announced that these people should go back to their villages and call the people they were willing to guarantee to work in the park.
Whether it was local employees or employees from other places, they were a little confused by this decision. Huo Chong was not confused. He had long wanted to expand recruitment. It was just that he didn't have the opportunity at the time and he didn't have much confidence in local employees. After this incident, the performance of local employees was really good.
However, the originally cheerful atmosphere was a little cold at this time. Huo Chong stepped forward and patted the shoulders of the local employees. He loudly asked the employees who followed him to Mengyin County: "Why, don't you want the people guaranteed by these brothers?"
Zhang Jing was the first to react and immediately shouted loudly: "Of course I want it!"
After the celebration banquet, General Manager Zhang Quansheng and Deputy Manager Zhang Jing came to Huo Chong and asked, "Sir, should we wait and see?"
"No need to wait. Let them recruit people as soon as possible." Although Huo Chong had drunk a few more glasses, he was far from speaking with a lisp.
"It's really hard for local people to work." said Zhang Quansheng.
Huo Chong explained: "Work ability can be improved through training, but character is extremely difficult to change. If we don't recruit people locally now, it will be even more difficult in the future."
"Why is it so hard to get along?" Zhang Quansheng asked anxiously. Zhang Jingze stared at Huo Chong with burning eyes, and it seemed that he also cared about it.
"When we interrogated the thieves, they said that they heard that the locals working here made a lot of money, so they thought they could rob us. Where do you think the thieves heard that?"
"…It turns out that the locals sold us out!" Zhang Quansheng suddenly realized and anger immediately appeared on his face.
Before Zhang Quansheng could get angry, Huo Chong first calmed him down, "Quansheng, jealousy is a natural reaction of human beings. I mentioned this during the training."
Zhang Quansheng probably remembered what happened in the training course, and his emotions calmed down a little, but he still said unhappily: "You took our money and things, but you didn't say anything good about us!"
"Quansheng, they are working, why don't you pay them? What I am concerned about is that there are still too few people who can come to work here. Only when there are more people can we stay stable. If there are only 20 or 30 people working here, of course people will be jealous. And I said before that I want to secretly raise cattle here, kill them for meat and use the skin. Do you think that if the locals in Mengyin County are only jealous of us, if there is really any rumor, will we be better off?"
"If they report it to the authorities behind our backs, they are wrong!" Zhang Quansheng said angrily.
"Are we here to get angry or to get work done?" Huo Chong asked.
After a lot of persuasion, Zhang Quansheng finally reluctantly accepted Huo Chong's statement.
In the next half month, Huo Chong's park became lively. I thought it would be good if each local employee brought back two or three people, but they brought five or six people at least, and more than ten people . Even though Huo Chong said that no one over 40 years old was allowed, Huo Chong doubted whether some of them were 50 years old. However, those people insisted that they were 39 years old, and Huo Chong had no choice.
More manpower means more work. Huo Chong found that Zhang Quansheng's organization, which was mainly composed of people from Zichuan County and Linzi County, was quite capable. However, when there were obviously two large groups of people under him, with a total number of more than 300, Zhang Quansheng was completely unable to handle it.
On the contrary, Zhang Jing was only sixteen years old when he followed Huo Chong in Zichuan County. He is only nineteen this year and also has no experience, but fortunately he can work according to the training content.
Huo Chong stayed here for more than half a month, and he was very satisfied to see that Zhang Jing had gradually been able to arrange these 300 people with organizational discipline. No matter what era it is, talent is the most important.
The mountainous area lacks suitable land for farming, but there is no shortage of land. Originally, there were more than a dozen large pens in the park with more than a hundred people, raising donkeys, sheep, pigs, cows and other livestock. Now there are more than 300 people, and the number of pens has tripled.
Although Huo Chong was worried that young people would encounter problems, he could only strengthen the organization's discipline learning and repeatedly told these people to solve problems according to the organization's model. Only then did he return to Zichuan County.
The personnel sent by Mouping County had been waiting in Zibo County for several days. As soon as Huo Chong came back, they immediately came up and told him what had happened recently, "Sir, the local Sea Dragon King is causing trouble again. This time he has colluded with several scholars and insisted that our people were causing trouble."
"What does the magistrate say?" Huo Chong asked. There was no chance for him to reconcile with the "Sea Dragon King" who made money from the sea. But even the Juren were involved, so it was not something that the Sea Dragon King who made money from the gray smuggling business could incite.
At this time, the only person in Mouping County who could help Huo Chong was the newly appointed County Magistrate Dong.
