Volume 2: Soaring! The Overlord of the Region Chapter 197 The World Becomes Transparent Again (VI)
Because it was a sudden raid, the servants of Mr. Tian's family were not well hidden. After Ma Ran sent people to block the entrance of the entire courtyard in advance, they could not escape. In addition, Du Qi, a local who was not afraid of scruples, pointed out the people - most of the servants of Mr. Tian's family were locals. So the final result was: in addition to the eight people in Mr. Tian's family, there were a total of 45 servants. Excluding the doorman just now, a total of 44 people were concealed.
"Hey, Master Tian, you're making it very difficult for me to handle this."
Mr. Tian, who had no idea that he had been tricked by the young man opposite him, could only lie down and take the beating: "Sir, it's my fault that I was on duty. I'm old, and I didn't think clearly about what family members are at the moment, so, uh, anyway, please forgive me, Sir. I'm willing to fill out this household registration book again."
"Humph! Now you know you are wrong! How did I remind you just now? Besides, the gatekeepers are all family members, how can you say you don't know the meaning of family members? You are clearly hoping for a lucky break and deliberately defying the court! Tian Minggui!"
"Please ask for instructions, sir."
"You have two choices now. First, I will report these two household registration books to His Highness, and His Highness will send a letter to the Ministry of Rites to remove your entire family's honors! From now on, you will be responsible for military service and taxation. It is possible that your family will have to serve as the grain chief. Are you willing?"
"General, please spare my life. How can you take away my honors? I have studied hard for decades. Please tell me the next point."
"Well, the next thing is that you personally come forward and call a meeting of all the villagers in Bendu, and assist me in completing the population census of Bendu. If the error does not exceed three people, I will treat what happened just now as if it never happened! "
"Yes, please rest assured, I will do my best to serve you!"
Before the head tax was abolished, conducting a census was a thankless task in any era. Not to mention that although this was a simple census, with the trilogy of household registration, yellow book, and fish scale atlas written by Zhu Yuanzhang more than 200 years ago, the vast majority of rural gentry knew what His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was up to.
Therefore, it was inevitable that prominent figures at the grassroots level would oppose this census. Zhu Youdong's method was to first bypass the county-level clerks and then directly lock up all the village heads: not all village heads were bandits or tyrants, but in the current situation in the Ming Dynasty, it would not be unfair to say that more than 90% of the village heads were bad people.
After eliminating the interference of these two classes as much as possible, we can then face the rural gentry directly: these guys either have officials in their family and their descendants at least have the title of Juren. Or some of them are currently serving as officials in other places. Anyway, these guys have a transcendent status in the countryside and are the real and tough rebels hidden behind the clerks and the head of the village.
But it doesn't matter: as the saying goes, when a scholar meets a soldier, he can't explain his reason clearly. Not to mention that these soldiers have been trained. The real power of these guys lies in incitement. When the people who stand in front of them are controlled, they are asked to stand up and face everything themselves, especially the big-headed soldiers holding swords and guns, their skills are at least 50% wasted.
Specifically speaking of Mr. Tian, his family had produced a Jinshi for many years, and they had only relied on two Juren for support. The two Juren were naturally not at a disadvantage when facing the county magistrate, and they were also at an advantage when facing the clerks and the village head. But facing the level of the crown prince, they were completely not enough - not to mention that there was a handle on them.
In short, Mr. Tian cooperated very well and personally came forward to gather all the villagers in Bendu.
"My fellow villagers, I'm Du Qi. Many of you may know me. Yes, I'm the Du Qi whose family was destroyed before! Now I work for His Royal Highness the Crown Prince! This one is General Ma. General Ma personally killed more than a dozen Jiannu in the battle of Sarhu in Liaodong. He is truly a hero!"
"Stop bragging and get down to business!"
"Ahem... fellow villagers, since General Ma is not familiar with our local dialect, let me tell you the significance and specific methods of this census."
The Jiangnan region, especially the southern part of Jiangsu, was the richest place in the Ming Empire. The common people here would send their children to school if they had the slightest chance. Therefore, the literacy rate here was the highest, reaching about 20%.
Even so, the Jinling Daily could only really influence the residents of various cities and towns. For the vast majority of rural residents, they certainly knew about the Jinling Daily, but it was impossible for them to actually read the newspaper. More often than not, they had to rely on literate people in their local cities and towns to read the newspaper to them. However, it was OK for children in private schools to read the newspaper on weekdays, but how could the village heads and gentry allow the scholars to read the recent dozens of issues of the Jinling Daily to everyone?
Therefore, when Zhu Youdong was explaining the tasks to the captains of each working team, he specifically pointed out: We must make sure that every citizen understands our policies clearly.
"...Fellow villagers, after listening to the Chu-Han dispute just now, you all understand the importance of household registration to the country, right? Then let me continue to talk about the importance of household registration to you...In short, as long as the household registration is complete, no one will dare to bully you at will, nor will they dare to increase taxes on you at will! They will not dare to let you bear corvée labor that you should not bear in the first place! Everyone!"
At this point, Du Qi, who was somewhat proud at the beginning, was now in tears: "If the Yellow Book was always clear, how could I, Du Qi, be assigned to long-term service for three consecutive years by the head of the village? How could my children starve to death? How could my wife run away? Everyone, ask yourselves, when I caused your family to be destroyed, were you afraid? Are you worried that one day the head of the village will do the same to you? Since you can't resist, can you only use the last copper coin in your family to please the head of the village? Just ask the head of the village to show mercy to you?
But! Are these flattery and weakness useful? As long as the Yellow Book is not rebuilt, you will all follow in my footsteps sooner or later! And when your families are destroyed, our city will be finished. Next, Gaochun County will be finished, Yingtian Prefecture will be finished, Nanzhili will be finished, and the country will be finished!
You say, yes or no? "
Dutch started by reciting a script, but as he continued speaking, he became more and more comfortable. But what embarrassed him was that when he finished speaking with great emotion, he found that the audience was a bit bored.
The eyes of the audience showed approval and enthusiasm, but the tyranny of the gentry, clerks and village heads over the years still made them dare not stand up and respond at this time.
After all, they have not been forced into nothing like Dutch.
"Pa pa pa~~" Ma Ran took the lead and started clapping with his hands. Then more than a dozen people in the entire work team also started clapping. Although the applause of these dozen people seemed very empty in such a wide venue, Ma Ran just kept clapping.
Gradually, some villagers in the audience began to applaud. After clapping for a while, they saw that no one around them made any movement, so they quickly put their hands down. But within a moment, someone else began to applaud. This time, the applauders did not give up. Then, those young men who were full of vigor and vitality and whose blood had already boiled after hearing Du Qi's words, stood up and applauded one after another. Finally! The whole village finally rang with huge and warm applause!
Looking at the villagers whose eyes had become completely different from before, Tian Minggui, who was sitting on the stage, trembled in his heart: It's over! Life will be difficult from now on!
