What Chen Tianhua did not expect was that less than half a month after he handed in his petition for guilt, a messenger who had arrived on Hong Kong Island from Hue via Guangzhou would send Shouhan's approval to him.

"After losing the battle, you plan to ask for a crime and it's over? Whoever is defeated where he is, he will get his face back! ”

On his petition document, Shouhan wrote a few lines of words with cinnabar teeth and claws, and the bright red cinnabar was dripping like blood.

"What do you mean?"

He looked at Li Peiting, who had accompanied the messenger in front of him, and tried to find an answer from him.

"The matter of Xin'an, the lord said, I can't blame you all. The main responsibility is on him. He didn't take into account how strong and stubborn the clan forces in the interior were. During the discussion, someone said that they wanted to replace you, and the lord was a little shaken. But the eldest lady's words changed the lord's mind. ”

It turned out to be Xiao Huamei's credit?!

"I wonder what the eldest lady said?"

Li Peiting, who accompanied the messenger, showed a smug smile on the corner of his mouth.

One of Shouhan's recent habits is to take Xiao Huamei with him when he is deliberating, and set up a seat for her, asking her to sit on the side to listen, which can be regarded as a kind of experience and education for her. During the break in the meeting, Shouhan would sometimes come to the school to test this precious daughter on some of the things discussed in the meeting to see what her opinion was.

When the council was discussing how to deal with the setbacks in Xin'an County, some people suggested that Chen Tianhua would not be able to lead the troops to do things unfavorably, and that Jian Yihua should remove him from the position of commander of the North Route Army and transfer him back to continue to preside over the affairs of the camp office. Change someone else to go to Guangdong to do business.

And Wang Bao, who rushed back from other places, also expressed to Shouhan before the meeting that he was willing to go to Guangdong to help Chen Tianhua open up the situation.

"If you change people, you have to re-familiarize yourself with the local situation, isn't it more delayed? There can be no major moves for at least two months, and it will be detrimental to the morale of the military on Hong Kong Island. ”

Hua Mei, who was sitting behind the small table on the side, came out coldly with such a sentence, which made the people who were discussing it hotly stunned for a moment. I can't help but look at this drooping girl differently.

So, the lord changed his mind and no longer mentioned the replacement of the former enemy's commander. I wrote to you. We need to work together. Do a good job in Guangdong! ”

It turned out to be the merit of the eldest lady!

Chen Tianhua was a little overwhelmed.

"Don't think about anything else, remember this incident in your heart, when the eldest lady has something to use you in the future, just remember to help!" Pei Ting said this in his mouth. I couldn't stop snickering in my heart.

Now Yan Mei'er has also given birth to a son. It is the son of the son. Whether the eldest son will succeed to the throne or the son-in-law will succeed to the throne in the future is between the two theories. However, it has always been based on strength as the final decision. If there is a group of commanders and generals on the side of the son-in-law. Thinking about it, Li Muhua can only sobbed secretly!

What kind of cooperation, Chen Tianhua is a little dumbfounded.

The messenger took out a document from the picture bag he carried, asked Li Peiting and Chen Tianhua to inspect the fire paint seal on it, and then took out the receipt and asked them to sign for it.

"This is a letter from the Lord to you. What I gave me was to ask me to rectify the branches, joint numbers, and trading shops with business dealings of the Han Yuan firm in various parts of Guangdong, and use all of them to deal with this group of local tyrants in Xin'an County! In addition, from the day the letter arrived, I have ordered that I should no longer have dealings with merchants related to this group of local tyrants in Xin'an County, and seize the time to collect the accounts. ”

This is to economically complete the encirclement and suppression of the families in Xin'an County! Chen Tianhua chewed on the meaning of Li Peiting's words.

After opening the letter that was a little too thick, Chen Tianhua laughed at the same messenger with some self-deprecation, "Everyone else is singing and advancing, but I am the only one who is depressed." Alas! Character problems! ”

When the messenger heard this, he smiled slightly and clasped his hands together, "Amitabha, the lord is really right!" ”

"When I set off to board the ship, my lord specially beckoned me to go to his signing room to give me a face-to-face lecture. He said that if Master Chen did not say the words of discouragement, there was no need to tell him about the following words, and if he heard that others had won a battle and said some discouraged words, he should convey these words truthfully. ”

"Tianhua listens to the teachings of the Lord!"

"Tianhua, don't think that Zhang Xiaohu and Xu Huanshan will win the battle? To be honest, the enemies they face are far less vicious and cunning than the enemies you face, and they are good at demagoguery, and being deceptive is the characteristic of the enemies you face. The Spaniards, who are trapped on an isolated island and surrounded by Chinese compatriots, have neither an organization nor a popular foundation compared to the local tyrants of Xin'an. Moreover, our South Central Army has been working in Luzon for many years, and Zhang Xiaohu is known as a murderer there, so he was captured. ”

"The same situation is the same for the Mo family. After recovering the Red River region, the Mo family was rampant, and there were plagues such as locust plagues, and the internal ministers were greedy for fame and wealth, or planned to protect themselves. Let's ask, in the above situation, do you have the Xin'an local tyrants you faced? ”

After learning that Xin'an was frustrated, Shouhan also racked his brains to think about where the problem came from. For this reason, it actually reached the point of restlessness and tossing and turning. Seeing this, Yan Mei'er couldn't help but feel very distressed, "So many kings and sultans have been swept away by you, and a few gentry have made you so embarrassed?" ”

Hearing this, Shouhan couldn't help but reply, "What do you know?!" ”

"If you don't clean them up, how will I deal with those people in Liangguang and the mainland in the future?!"

Seeing that Xianggong was so entangled, Yan Mei'er couldn't say anything else, so she had to comfort her gently and let Shouhan go to bed.

After a long time of tossing and turning, Shouhan fell into a deep sleep. In my sleep, I vaguely heard someone whispering a few words or a few words in my ear. It seems to be the key to solving these problems, but it is difficult to hear in the urgency.

"Who are our friends and who are our enemies?"

"The gentry, small and medium-sized landlords, yeoman farmers."

"The ancestral hall is also a dead landlord."

"Rent reduction in 25 and interest reduction in 15."

"Divide and disintegrate the enemy."

"The problem of Chinese society is the problem of the peasants, and the peasant problem is, in the final analysis, the problem of the land!"

"Ahh

I finally heard a few words clearly. Shouhan kicked into the air again and fell directly from the clouds.

Sitting up from the bed, he ordered the sleeping Tianzhu Orchid Asin to light the lamp and take a sip of warm tea on the bedside shelf, and the Orchid Ashin kneaded Shouhan's temples with her slender fingers.

"King! But had a nightmare? ”

This orchid didn't know much about the title and official position of Shouhan, only that his man had several king's seals in his hands. If he destroys another man's kingdom, he is a king!

"It's okay, I dreamed about something."

Sitting at the table and trying to recall the words he heard in his dream, Shouhan suddenly woke up.

Historically, there have been peasant uprisings and outbreaks in Chinese society, as well as the tide of displaced people. In the final analysis, it is a land issue. Since you local tyrants and inferior gentry are able to use the ties of land and clan kinship to organize manpower and armed forces to confront me. Well, I can deal with you with the land problem as well!

In this thick letter, Shouhan elaborated to Chen Tianhua his views and solutions to the Xin'an problem.

"The Lord ordered the military division to send two thousand people to Hong Kong Island to listen to the dispatch, in addition. One hundred and fifty students were drawn from the government hall and from various villages. All here to standby. ”

"I also selected dozens of guys from the Han Yuan firm who are familiar with the situation in Xin'an County. Ordered them to come here and wait. ”

The Courier and Pei Ting explained to him their respective manpower support for Chen Tianhua.

"The lord said that this Xin'an is just a test field, and we must find out the situation here. Do a good job, we won't plant bigger heels in the future! ”

Half a month later, when the 2,000 requisitioned reinforcements, the 150 village chiefs with experience in working and studying in villages and towns, and Li Peiting's dozens of men who were familiar with the situation in Xin'an County from the Hanyuan business system in Guangzhou, arrived on Hong Kong Island, it was completely relieved from the decadent atmosphere of April.

Looking out over Hong Kong Island from Lei Yue Mun Pier, the slightly flattened land on the island has been turned into a training ground for the strong men. Those strong men who had not had time to change the full set of uniforms and armor of the Nanzhong Army, wearing fat jackets temporarily transferred from the warehouse, dancing with mourning guns and desperate knives in their hands, under the leadership of the commanders, practiced hard one move at a time, and shouted one after another.

"It's a rainbow of morale!"

"Yes, the human heart is available."

Two students who had just graduated from the political hall commented on the bow of the boat.

These students, who still exuded a green atmosphere, along with the village chiefs who had rural work experience, and the business men who were familiar with the situation in Xin'an County, together with the soldiers and officers selected by the troops on the island, were organized into a small team of dozens of people, like tiny steel needles, inserted into the fortress of Xin'an County, which seemed to be unable to penetrate the water and penetrate.

Watching the boats rowing silently across the sea in the afterglow of the slowly setting sun, Chen Tianhua, who saw off on the dock, couldn't help but sneer, he led his troops to attack Jiqingwei that day, but was unexpectedly harassed by the villagers of the surrounding villages everywhere, and the leaders of those besieged villages also knew that the field battle of the Nanzhong Army was powerful, and they were invincible, so they relied on their respective encircled villages, and listed the crowd in a stone's throw from the surrounding villages, and restrained the passing Nanzhong Army teams. The soldiers who had stragged behind pounced like hungry wolves and bit fiercely.

Nearly two-thirds of the casualties caused by the attack on Ji Khanh Wai were caused by these people.

In the plot described in Chen Tianhua's petition document, this scene is very appropriately and vividly illustrated. "During the march, the two scouts got on their horses and went out first, only a hundred steps away from the spearhead, and they turned over a banyan tree, and from the grass beside the road, more than a dozen villagers jumped out, and threw the two people and horses to the ground with scratching hooks, and stoned them to death. By the time the brigade arrived, the dozen or so men had already dispersed. ”

"Now, I'm going to play a battle with you for people's hearts!"

Chen Tianhua looked in the direction of Jiqingwei from afar and muttered to himself.

June of the seventh year of Chongzhen.

Ji Qing Wai.

The people of the five major families gathered in Deng Yuanxun's house again, and this time, the atmosphere was much duller than the last time when Mrs. Deng invited everyone to eat poon choi.

"Although the pirates have retreated to the island, there are bandits scattered all over the countryside. Some lawbreakers, even the unscrupulous children of their own people, mingled with them. Fanning the flames and saying something rebellious! ”

Mrs. Deng summoned everyone. That's mostly for that.

For more than a month, those teams equipped with escort arms, led by the Han Yuan merchants who were familiar with the situation, were like small fish, shuttling back and forth between the villages. It is their principle not to enter the walled village, but there are also a large number of villagers and villages outside the walled village. The task given to them by Chen Tianhua is to win the hearts of these villagers outside the walled village, at least, so that they can not help each other in the future.

Although the work is progressing very hard. almost made Chen Tianhua start the plan that was later jokingly called "gun barrel land reform" by Shouhan. In this so-called gun barrel land reform program. Chen Tianhua planned to dispatch all his mobile forces, go straight to Kowloon, and go north along the peninsula, in the area of the five major families. Backed up by force. raided the landlord's house. The landlords' floating wealth and grain were distributed to the peasants. To do so, it's simple, and the effect is straightforward.

But. Thinking about it, it was still vetoed by Chen Tianhua himself. The reason is very simple, if you send grain, clothing, and silver to the peasants, do they dare to accept it? The peasants did not dare to collect it at all, and even if they reluctantly collected it, they had to secretly send it back to the landlord at night. I have to take a few words of reparation.

After the unremitting efforts of nearly 1,000 people day and night, a stream of public opinion called by the patriarchs of the five major families "unhealthy tendencies" and "great rebellious words" spread from various villages.

"There are three knives on the heads of the farmer, the rent is heavy, the profit is high, and the incense in the ancestral hall is indispensable!"

"The incense money in the ancestral hall, shouldn't the accounts be announced? There is no problem with honoring the ancestors, it is the amount it should be, but there should also be a brother who settles accounts, right?! ”

"When we fought with others for water, land, homestead, and cemeteries, the people who went to fight against the family came back with soup and medicine money, and we went to fight with the pirates, why didn't we see a penny?"

For a while, all kinds of discussions blew into the ears of the elders of various families.

More lethality is yet to come.

"There are rules in the clan, if you sell land, you must first buy it from the people in the clan, so now our land rent and profit are also borrowed from the clan brothers, should we also reduce it?!"

These rumors have spread to the walled village through various channels without exception, and the people in the walled village also feel a little reasonable.

I can't say that when I sell my land, the fertilizer and water do not flow into the fields of outsiders, and when I pay rent and profit, should I also talk about the friendship of the same clan and the same clan?

The discussion on the streets and alleys was naturally reported to the patriarchs, and at this time, the patriarchs panicked.

From the small landlords who had some fields in their homes and hired a few long-term laborers, or rented out a part of the land to their clansmen for cultivation, to the yeoman farmers who grew and ate for themselves, and those tenants who rented other people's land, they all kept their eyes on the actions of the patriarchs.

"The incense money in the ancestral hall should indeed be announced, and so much incense money is collected every year, but I haven't seen any good things to worship the ancestors in the ancestral hall! Even the tent curtain was changed when the Emperor of the Apocalypse first ascended the throne! How many years has this been!? "That's what everybody says.

"Rents and profits should be reduced! Just like the twelve brothers who came back from the provincial capital that day said, the rent should be twenty into five, and the profit should not exceed one and a half points, and the donkey should not roll! This is what the tenants say.

"There is a money exchange between brothers of the same clan, and the profit should be lowered, it cannot be said that we should sell land and let the brothers of the same clan buy it first, and the brothers of the same clan will put away the profits without thinking about the face of the ancestors!" This is the cry of the small landowners and yeoman farmers.

"What's more, they actually said that if they don't give them a clear statement, they will go to the ancestral hall to cry and worship their ancestors, and then go south to the sea to make a living!"

The patriarch of the Hou family was a little helpless.

"What you said is quite good, my Peng family, I am not afraid of the jokes of the rank brothers, someone has already invited those pirates to their home and treated them like guests! They don't even listen to me, the patriarch! I hate that those pirates will also pretend to help these people work in the fields every day, tell them how they can harvest more food, harvest more fish and shrimp, if they are in Nanzhong, how their land is, and so on, I am ashamed to say it, for fear of dirtying your ears! ”

The affairs of the Peng family actually appeared in the other four families, but those families did not directly expose their family ugliness like him, which can be regarded as a hornet's nest.

"There is such a rebel in your clan, why don't you open an ancestral hall to deal with him? What invades the pig cage and sinks the pond, they will be used, and they will be honest if they dispose of a few unscrupulous descendants! ”

Hearing this, the fat on the fat face of the patriarch of the Peng family shook twice, and he rolled his round eyes and looked at everyone, "Our five families have always been in the same spirit, I don't believe it, there is no such person in your family, no one says such a thing?!" In addition, as far as I know, the Au family and the Yu family in Sheung Shui, the Su family and the Li family in Sha Tau Kok, the Cheng family and the Wen family in Sai Kung, and the Lin family in Kowloon and the surrounding islands are all privately colluding to demand that the patriarch disclose the accounts and expenses, and demand the so-called rent and interest reduction within the clan. The Lin family in Kowloon can no longer bear it, yesterday I heard that the Lin family opened an ancestral hall, invited someone to do notarization, and reduced the land rent and profit in the clan to twenty-five and one and a half cents. Moreover, the patriarch Lin Ah Si also announced the public expenses of the ancestral hall one by one in front of the ancestors of the ancestral hall over the years. ”

After listening to the latest situation brought by Patriarch Peng, all the patriarchs were terrified, as soon as this opening was opened, things would be even more difficult to handle in the future. Rent, profit, or not, this is a dilemma.

If it falls, it will inevitably offend the rich families in the clan and affect its own interests. If you don't surrender, you will be pitting yourself against the old and young masters who account for the majority of your own clan. In this stormy and eventful autumn, offending the whole clan is not fun.

Not to mention that it has always been a confusing ancestral hall incense money! The patriarchs all know what money they can get their hands on their fields! (To be continued......)