Zhu Nao

The summer tax was collected very quickly, and when it was counted in the treasury, everyone was shocked.

Every spring before planting, the government will conduct a census and register the roster.After the crops matured in summer and autumn, the government took the roster to collect taxes.However, it has been several years in a row before, the population registered on the roster and the actual taxes collected are not consistent.There is no other reason. After spring every year, a large number of people die or flee. In summer and autumn, the actual population is much smaller than the population at the time of the registration, and the taxes collected are naturally less.

However, the summer tax collected this year, although the total amount is not too much because of the tax reduction, the tax paid almost matches the population on the roster!

In this way, it proved the correctness of what Zhu Nao said that day-even if the mass exile of the common people was related to the scourge of bandits, the main reason was the excessive expropriation by the government.In the past, the number of people in Xiaqiu would be greatly reduced. It was because the common people fled before the officials came to collect taxes in order to avoid taxes.Once they can afford to pay their taxes, why should they abandon their families and go into exile?

Not only that, after the tax reduction order was promulgated, many migrants came to the state capital to register their household registration.These people claimed to be farmers who had been harassed by bandits or left by natural disasters, and now they want to return to the fields.It is not known whether they are really refugees, or bandits who want to return to the fields because they can't continue to be bandits.Zhu Nao's instructions were all lenient, and the officials helped them restore their identities.

In this way, because of a tax reduction order, the population of Langzhou has not decreased but increased for the first time in many years!

However, although the dire situation has eased, it has only eased. The population increase is very small, and bandits are still a serious problem in Langzhou.

Therefore, when Zhu Nao held regular meetings every day, officials would ask, when will he start to deal with bandits?The state government also receives reports from the people every month, where the bandits killed people again, and where the bandits robbed food again.

It's not that Zhu Nao doesn't care about the bandit disaster, but that this matter really cannot be rushed.

First, the state government must first stabilize the hearts of the people.Many officials thought that the problem of bandits was just a struggle between the government and the bandits, but in fact the common people were the most important link in the process.The bandits come from the common people, and they will also harm the people. It is hard to say whether the common people are on the side of the government or the bandits.A few years ago, the government sent people to suppress the bandits. Every time I went up the mountain, no matter how I searched, I couldn’t find the bandits. Later, I learned that the bandits had a good relationship with the people in a nearby village. Every time the officers and soldiers went, the bandits would go into the village. Hiding, the people helped hide, and also deceived the officers and soldiers, so that the government spent a lot of manpower and material resources but got nothing.Therefore, only by stabilizing the hearts of the people can the government concentrate on dealing with the bandits instead of dealing with the common people.

Furthermore, Jun Nao also needs time to collect information about bandits.Due to the mess left by Song Rentou, bandits have grown extremely fast this year, and many cottages have sprung up like mushrooms. Originally, there were only Tulangzhai and Changmingzhai in Langzhou, two villages with hundreds of people. But suddenly there were three or four more.The state government doesn't know the situation of these cottages at all, so it doesn't know how to start.

However, this point was well resolved after Jun Nao offered a reward to the people to collect all information about the bandits.

In the past, the state government sent officials to investigate the situation in the cottage.However, officials have limited manpower, limited time, unclear investigations, and often fool things around.And the news of the people is much better than that of the officials.They are grateful for the benevolent government of the new state government for reducing taxes, and believe that this time the state government really wants to deal with bandits.So many people come to the government to report letters every day.

Soon, letters reporting bandits piled up like a hill.

……

In the afternoon, Zhu Nao was sitting in the room looking at the newly made roster sent by the officials, while Cheng Jingzhe was practicing saber skills in the courtyard, dancing with a big sword in his hand.

Suddenly, the sound of practicing martial arts stopped.Zhu Nao heard Jing Zhe's voice coming in: "Master Dou."

Zhu Nao raised his head and looked outside the door. After a while, Dou Ziyi walked to the door with a bamboo tube as long as his body.

"I have seen Zhuzhou Mu." Dou Ziyi saluted outside the door.

Zhu Nao put down the roster: "You don't need to be too polite, just come in."

Dou Ziyi entered the house with the bamboo tube in her arms, and said solemnly: "The lower officials have already done what Zhou Mu asked the lower officials to do."

Zhu Nao was puzzled, "What's in this bamboo tube?"

Dou Ziyi pulled out the contents of the bamboo tube, and it turned out to be a large roll of paper.There was no such a big table in the house for him to spread out the paper, so he simply knelt on the ground and unfolded the paper carefully.

Zhu Nao got up and came out from behind the table to look, seeing clearly the content on the paper, he couldn't help being startled.

—It turned out to be a map of the whole state.

Zhu Nao entrusted Dou Ziyi with the task of sorting out the bandit information sent by the common people. In order to be able to see it more intuitively, Dou Ziyi even drew a map of Zhangzhou territory by himself.He marked the location of each cottage on the map, and carefully marked each cottage's name in small characters.

These annotations include the approximate number of people in the cottage, the main personnel composition of the cottage, the identity of the leader of the cottage, what the bandits do for a living in the mountains, and so on.Some copycats have less information, others are incredibly detailed.

"The owner of Jiayou Village, Niu Dayou, is from Pingshui Village. In Heiniu Village, he has an affair with Wang Xiaogui, a married man. In the middle of every month, he will go to Heiniu Village to have an affair with Wang Xiaogui..."

Zhu Nao read out this passage funny, and asked: "Has this Niu Dayou ever killed anyone? Has he done many evil things? If there are too many, send someone to lie in wait for Wang Xiaogui's house, and arrest him directly. Just leave him alone."

Dou Ziyi said respectfully: "Yes, I will do it in a while."

Junao continued to look at the map.This bandit map, which gathers the wisdom of the common people, is full of unexpected and interesting gossip. The owner of Xiaoji Village is afraid of birds, and driving a group of chickens up the mountain can scare him to death; Goose meat, roasting a few geese at the foot of the mountain might lure him down the mountain...

Zhu Nao looked at it and smiled knowingly from time to time.

Dou Ziyi also explained solemnly on the sidelines: "Zhou Mu, these news have been consolidated and screened by lower officials, and have been checked by people. Most of them should be true."

If the officials are directly asked to investigate, the officials are often confused, time-consuming and labor-intensive, but not effective.But after collecting from the general public, let the officials go to check, the matter is much simpler, and the efficiency is also greatly improved.

Zhu Nao smiled with satisfaction: "Very good, very good. Director Dou is really reliable in his work, and he will become a pillar of talent in the future!"

Dou Ziyi didn't seem to have expected to receive such a compliment, so she put on a more reserved posture: "It's just a simple and trivial matter for Zhou Mu's praise."

Junao shook his head: "You are too humble."

It has to be said that Dou Ziyi has done a very good job in this matter, which has exceeded Zhu Nao's expectations.Zhu Nao only ordered him to sort out the available information, and he sorted it out in great detail. Some trivial things seemed meaningless, and if they were used properly, they might have unexpected effects.More importantly, Dou Ziyi drew the map.From the map, the forces of all parties are marked, where they need to be afraid, and where they can be used, all of which can be seen clearly.

Zhu Nao examined the map carefully, becoming more and more satisfied the more he looked at it.He smiled and said: "Thank you for your hard work. If you can calm down the bandits in the future, you will have a lot to do."

Dou Ziyi was so praised by Zhu Nao that she didn't know how to deal with herself and was at a loss.After handing over the map, he had nothing else to do, so he lowered his head and said, "If Zhou Mu has nothing else to do, I will leave as an officer."

Junao waved his hand: "Okay, let's do your work."

Dou Ziyi retreated to the door, only to feel that her cheeks were hot, and even her ears were hot.He has worked in the state capital for many years, and has always been looked down upon by others because of his frailty. He himself is used to it and doesn't like to fight.Therefore he is rarely praised.Even he himself didn't expect that his face would be so thin.

He couldn't help but stop, and looked back at Junao.Zhu Nao seemed to sense it, and looked up at him, seeing his expression, couldn't help raising his eyebrows slightly.

Zhu Nao seemed to notice it, with a smile on his face, he touched the map and said with emotion: "It's really thoughtful and intelligent."

Dou Ziyi: "..."

He wanted to leave but didn't move, hesitated for a moment, and said in a low voice: "I have heard people say that Maxima is common, but Bole is not often..."

After a pause, he said, "I will never forget the kindness of knowing you."

After making a bow, he really turned around and left.

……

A day later, an official document was sent directly from the State Shepherd's office, sent to the lower-level officials, and then gradually passed from the lower-level officials to the hands of all the clerks, which greatly shocked the state government.

"What is this? Letter of surrender??" Qian Qing shook the document in his hand in disbelief, "The state pastor said that you should send it directly to all the cottages??"

"It's not all of them..." said the little official, "We were not allowed by the state shepherd to take away the ferocious villages such as Tulang village and Heishan village."

Qian Qing: "..."

He settled down and began to read the content of the letter of surrender written by Zhu Nao to each cottage.

"...Although you have committed crimes, it is justifiable... Will you give me a chance to redeem your sins? Uh... If within three months, you voluntarily surrender and hand over all the stolen and robbed property...then the state government is willing to net Be on the sidelines, measure lightly..."

The more Qian Qing watched, the more dumbfounded he became.Zhu Nao asked the copycats to surrender within three months and hand over all their belongings?

...Aren't you crazy?

At this moment, Yang Chengping rushed into the second hall and went straight to Qian Qing.

"Master Qian! Uh, Qian, Qian Qing! Have you seen the surrender letter written by Zhou Mu??" Yang Chengping asked anxiously.

Qian Qing raised the document in his hand, indicating that he was reading it.

Yang Chengping rushed to Qian Qing's desk, and slammed his hands on the table. There was a loud "pop", which made Qian Qing tremble in fright.He was agitated and spit all over the place: "You saw it too! You don't think Zhou Mu is crazy??"

Qian Qing was sprayed with saliva all over his face, so he had to close his eyes and wipe his face with his sleeves.

He and Yang Chengping had many conflicts, especially in their attitude towards the bandits, one of them advocated suppression and the other advocated security.But this time, it was rare for them to have a tacit understanding.

——Surrender?What kind of ghosts are you recruiting?Just kidding!Who gave Junao the confidence?

"What is written here?" Yang Chengping snatched the letter of surrender from Qian Qing's hand, pointing, "Punishment to atone for the sins of Tian slaves? Is this also called punishment??"

Zhu Nao asked the bandits to surrender voluntarily, and refused to forgive their crimes easily, and punished them to become "field slaves".But the so-called field slaves are similar to tenants.The state government allocates land for them to grow, and the land belongs to the state capital. They pay the state capital for land rent to redeem their sins.The most paid in the first year, and then decrease in turn.In the fifth year, even if they have completed the atonement, the state government will help them restore their good citizenship, and the land they cultivated will also be distributed to them.

"What's the difference between this and your recruiting?!" Yang Chengping said angrily, "The so-called punishment is actually a reward. It's just a change of soup!"

Qian Qing wiped off his cold sweat: "Uh... I think it's worse than my Zhao'an."

In essence, Zhu Naoding's punishment was the same as Qian Qing's. They both wanted to use the land to attract the bandits back.This kind of punishment is indeed no different from rewards for some poor bandits.They used to be double-exploited by the landlord and the government as tenants. If they became land slaves, the exploitation would be much lighter. After five years, they would be able to receive the land and become self-cultivating farmers.

But when Qian Qing wrote the recruitment letter, Dou Ziyi criticized it as "stingy" and "letting the government lose its prestige".Zhu Nao just changed recruiting security into surrender, and changing rewards into punishments, so the government has prestige?

Whether there is prestige is secondary, the key is, those bandits who were not summoned back with heavy rewards, why did they come back obediently and be punished?Who is stupid? ?

"I admit that the state pastor has handled economic affairs very well these days." Yang Chengping stared, "But he manages bandits like this? It's just nonsense!"

Qian Qing didn't know whether to laugh or cry, and said tactfully, "Maybe... Maybe Zhou Mu doesn't know much about bandits..."

He couldn't help but secretly sighed in his heart.After all, no matter how capable Zhou Mu is, he is still too young!