Volume 2: Soaring! The Overlord of the Region Chapter 195 The World Becomes Transparent Again (Part 4)
Yingtian Prefecture governs eight counties, and Zhu Youdong prepared four hundred work teams for this investigation. With such a high density, not to mention the counties, even every township under the county can be guaranteed to have at least one work team.
"Dear team members, following the order of His Highness, our team is responsible for Guangtong Township in Gaochun County, Yingtian Prefecture. This place is densely covered with water networks and surrounded by lakes. It is extremely productive and is also the main transportation node for goods from surrounding areas. It has been known as the thoroughfare of seven provinces since ancient times. However, because of this, the land here is coveted by officials and businessmen at all levels, and the turnover of personnel is also very large. In short, the complexity of our team's work is much higher than that of many other teams. And this just shows the trust of His Highness in us! We must not be afraid of difficulties and complete the investigation of this township in a solid manner, so as not to let down His Highness's kindness to us!"
"Teacher (Captain), rest assured, we will do our best to live up to your highness's expectations."
On May 21, 1612, Zhang Wenhua, a senior teacher at Fangshan School, led a work team to Guangtong Township, Gaochun County.
Zhang Wenhua had been teaching at Fangshan School for six years since he entered the school in 1606. According to the rules set by His Royal Highness, the schooling period for ordinary students at Fangshan School was six years. After six years, most students either joined the army at Henghaiwei, or worked at Fangshan Grocery Store, Daming Haimao, Daming Pharmaceutical, or entered Fangshan Laboratory for further improvement.
Of course, there were also some students who were really talented in eight-part essays and devoted themselves to the imperial examinations. For such students, Zhu Youdong usually sent them a Chengyi and then let them return to their hometown to participate in the boy's test. In the local prefecture tests in 1611, there were a total of 223 candidates in Fangshan School, and 135 of them obtained the title of scholar. Its high success rate shocked the entire Jiangnan region. So much so that when the new students enrolled in 1612, in addition to continuing to enroll a thousand orphans or refugees, Zhu Youdong had to set aside another 300 places for some dignitaries and wealthy businessmen in Jiangnan to send their children to Fangshan School-of course, such students would have to pay tuition, and the price was extremely high, one thousand and two taels of silver per year! Even so, there were still officials and businessmen at all levels who broke their heads for a place in Fangshan School!
When students from different classes were mixed in one class, of course many problems that had never been encountered before arose. At least after the start of the new semester, Zhang Wenhua, Li Guojun and others who took over the new class felt extremely headache.
After six years in Fangshan, Zhang Wenhua received guidance from Zhang Yicheng and others, and had obtained the title of Juren three years ago. But he completely gave up the idea of going to Beijing to participate in the imperial examination. In his words, the status of Juren only gave him some freedom, and he didn't need to pursue anything else. In this life, the only thing he could do was to teach and educate people for His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.
For this population census, the higher authorities required each class to select at least one teacher to lead the team. After Zhang Wenhua and the other two discussed, they thought that the first-year students only needed to learn 300,000 words in Chinese, and that Li Guojun and Huang Zhigang were both capable of handling such a simple course . So Zhang Wenhua took the initiative to sign up and became the leader of a work team.
After arriving in Guangtong Township, Zhang Wenhua went directly to the local township head.
In the dynasties of the Chinese Empire, the imperial power generally did not extend below the county level. The so-called township head at this time was of course not an official appointed by the court, but was elected by the local wealthy households: Guangtong Township was prosperous in commerce and trade, and it was impossible not to have a township head.
"Meet Captain Zhang."
"You are too polite, may I ask your name? How old are you? How many years have you been in office?"
"You are not worthy of me . My surname is Ma, and my given name is Ming. I am thirty-five this year. I have been the head of this village for seven years, having been recommended by the village heads."
"Oh, Brother Ma has been appointed as the village chief in his twenties. It seems that he has quite a lot of prestige here. Not bad, not bad."
"I dare not. They are all trusted by the villagers nearby."
I don't trust you. You are the local tyrant, with the most land, the most money, and the most lackeys. Otherwise, how could you become the head of such a fertile place?
However, Zhang Wenhua had spent six years in Fangshan, a place where all kinds of heroes gathered, so he still had some basic sophistication. He said kindly, "Brother Ma, I think you know the purpose of our team coming here."
"Yes, we should re-examine the suspect. That's the way it should be. I will definitely cooperate with Captain Zhang."
"Okay, Brother Ma, please notify the 18 village heads and 193 village chiefs in this township to gather here tomorrow."
"Yes, I will send someone down to notify you right away."
At the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the household registration system in the country was completely destroyed. In order to rebuild the household registration system, Zhu first conducted a population census (household registration), established the Lijia system and identity and property certification (yellow book), and finally conducted a land census and registration (fish scale map).
As for Zhu Youdong, since the Yellow Book was completely destroyed, he had to retrace Zhu's steps, and the first step was of course to re-conduct a census.
At this time, the Ming Dynasty had a sound national institution and the world order was relatively stable. Therefore, compared with Zhu Youdong, Zhu Youdong had both advantages and greater difficulties in this census: the Lijia system was still in place and barely functioning. The advantage was that the Lijia head could give a general outline. The difficulty was, of course, because the Lijia heads at this time were almost all corrupt, and to a large extent, they were often the most direct class that hindered this census.
But no matter what, the first step for this work team to go to the grassroots level is of course to find local grassroots cadres, publicize policies, and implement tasks.
On the afternoon of the 22nd, all 211 village heads came, without a single one absent.
This is certainly not because these guys are loyal to the king and actively respond to the call of the grandson, but because none of them want to be the rafters that stand out. Besides, although Guangtong Township is not big, it is not easy for everyone to get together on weekdays. It is a rare opportunity for everyone to get together and agree on attack and defense. Isn’t it a good thing?
When it comes to this census, what people fear the most and are most disgusted with are the headmen of the local lijia system.
They have been bullying the countryside for too long. Although many village chiefs are nominally rotated, in fact, they are hereditary. These guys are almost without exception village bullies and bandits in the countryside. They rely on the little power in their hands to squeeze other ordinary people who are already poor and make a fortune... Let's not talk about anything else, just say that they manipulate taxes. When arranging corvée labor, they seek power for rent, and I don't know how many good people have been broken up...
Of course, not all Lijiazhang were such bastards, but Zhang Wenhua didn't have the energy to distinguish them one by one at the moment.
"Hmm~~Brother Ma, are all the village chiefs here?"
"Captain Zhang, everyone is here, not one person is missing."
"Well, good, very good." After taking a sip of tea with a smile, Zhang Wenhua said, "I invited everyone here today, but there is actually nothing else to do. After all, His Highness had already issued an order on the population census in the Jinling Daily ten days ago. Even if Brother Ma is not loyal and diligent, you should have received the policy explanation and specific operation methods of this population census in ten days."
"Yes, we have all received the instructions from the head of the village, and we have read them over and over again, and preached them to the villagers in each city and town."
"Hahaha, that's good. Our team won't have to waste any more words here. For the next two months, please live here so we can build relationships. Mayor Ma, I'll leave the food, drink, and toileting of these two hundred people in your hands! Don't worry, all the funds will come from the work team."
"ah?!"
As soon as Zhang Wenhua said this, Ma Ming started to shout, and more than 200 people exclaimed in unison. After a while, seven or eight village heads stood up and said, "Captain Zhang, there is an emergency at home!"
"Hey? That's strange. How come so many people have urgent matters at home at the same time? Are your wives about to give birth or are your sows about to give birth?"
After leisurely blowing the bubbles in the teacup, Zhang Wenhua simply crossed his legs and laid back on the recliner : "I'm telling you all, starting today, for the next two months, you can only stay in this yard and are not allowed to go anywhere else!"
As the saying goes, a snake cannot survive without a head. If you want to conduct a population census, you must first control the local snakes. Not only Zhang Wenhua, but almost all the leaders of the 400 work teams, when they arrived at a place, the first thing they did was to put all the local lijia heads under house arrest.
As for why you didn't come to the meeting? That's even easier. The one who stands out will be the main target of attack.
"Captain Zhang! Although we are not appointed officials by the court, the court's annual taxes are all collected by us from every household. We are also the ones who lead people to perform the country's annual corvée service! If His Highness finds out that you treat us so harshly, I'm afraid you will be in trouble!"
"Haha." Zhang Wenhua squinted his eyes at the man with a face full of flesh and a strong waist who stood up first to threaten him: "You said it yourself, aren't you officials appointed by the court? If anyone doesn't collect taxes for the court properly, we can just replace him when the time comes."
"Humph! If I don't want to be the head of the village, who dares to be the head of the village in our city?"
"I see. Then I can't let you stay here, Old Wang!"
Before Lao Wang finished shouting, a loud gunshot exploded in everyone's ears. When everyone came to their senses, a blood hole suddenly appeared on the bright forehead of the heroic head of the village. The splashing blood directly splashed on the bodies of the three or five headmen of the village and the jia, causing these headmen of the village and the jia who were also fat and bloated to jump up as if they were electrocuted, and let out bursts of heart-wrenching screams.
"Hmph!" Zhang Wenhua slammed the table and stood up: "Listen to me ! I was a poor scholar who was bullied by village bandits and local tyrants. Even if I don't know everything about the shitty and even crazy things you guys did in the past, I at least know most of it! According to my opinion, when I get here, I will first gather more than 200 of you and kill you all! Finally, His Highness is kind-hearted and said that it is not easy for you to work for the country at the grassroots level. If you can avoid killing, don't kill. But, there are just some people who don't know what is good for them!
Watch out for me! There are only five members of the work team in this room, including me. Two of them are remnants of the army! There are only thirty bullets in the revolving pistols of the five of us, and we just fired one. There are more than 200 of you here. If 29 of you stand up and are killed by us first, then the remaining 100 or so can kill the five of us, and then you can go back naturally! Do you want to give it a try?"
This kind of words may sound provocative, but in fact it is the biggest sedative: Who the hell is willing to sacrifice their own life in exchange for the interests of others? Therefore, the scene, which was originally full of anger because of the death of a person, suddenly became quiet.
"I also want to tell you that it's useless even if you kill all five of us! There is a Henghaiwei army in the county right now. If I don't contact them after tonight, the five hundred elite soldiers who killed so many Jiannu in Liaodong will come! At that time, it won't be as simple as one person's death!"
