Cangzhou is big and small.

The largest area is Cangzhou, which is at least 30,000 square kilometers. The smaller one is the Cangzhou society, although there are a large number of hidden households, but the population of this state is still very small. Dingtian is more than 100,000 or 200,000, and it will be a desolate small county in the future.

As soon as there are fewer people, the society will naturally be smaller. The upper class of Cangzhou is even smaller, about three or five thousand people, and the most active and powerful part of them is concentrated in the county seat of Qingchi and its vicinity, about a thousand people.

And such a small upper class of society controls about 50% of the land in Cangzhou - the vast majority of the remaining 50% is in the hands of the generals of Kaifeng Mansion or the big merchants of Qingzhou!

At the same time, such a small upper-class society is also the strength that Cangzhou's officials rely on. If you want to draw a pyramid of Chinese feudal hierarchy, the top layer is the emperor and the imperial court, the lower layer is the local government, and then the bottom is these places are powerful, and the bottom is of course the ruling toiling masses.

And to eliminate these local tyrants, who were called landlords and bullies by later generations, and to establish a three-level ruling structure of the imperial court, the government, and the people, is of course a kind of political correctness! Not only did most of the people of later generations hold such views, but even in ancient China, there was the same political correctness!

Wasn't the landlord class ruling in ancient China? How can there be the idea of suppressing Haoqiang?

What's this...... The rule of the landlord class or something, that is a macroscopic exposition, does not mean that there is no contradiction between the landlord class and the imperial court. In fact, suppressing the landlords and heroes has been the top priority of the imperial court for a long time!

The Han Dynasty had "Qianling", the Sui and Tang dynasties had "Juntian", and from the Tang Dynasty to the Song Dynasty, the imperial examination was gradually flourishing. Although the policy of "suppressing annexation" in the Song Dynasty seemed to be less, the use of the imperial examination system that emphasized literature over military force to contact the local powerful was actually a suppressive means of killing people with a soft knife!

At the same time, the practice of state monopoly and the suppression of industry and commerce are also an important means of suppressing the powerful landlords -- pitting the landlords and the capitalists against each other is the Marxist viewpoint of later generations, and this is of course a truth that does not need to be tested in practice!

However, the feudal emperors of ancient China did not understand this truth, and always thought that when merchants made a fortune, they would buy land, control the population, become powerful landlords, have private troops, and then fight against the central government...... Therefore, the ideal rule is still to emphasize agriculture and suppress commerce, suppress annexation, and it is best to eliminate powerful landlords and businessmen, and form a model in which the state directly manages small peasants and runs industry and commerce.

But the ideal is beautiful, and the reality is very cruel!

Although the imperial examination system weakened the fighting power of the powerful landlords, and turned them from bullies who wielded knives and guns into talents who read and knew etiquette, it seemed that it was easy to rule.

At the same time, however, officials selected through the imperial examination system also became weak and lacked sufficient ability. In other words, the power to suppress the strong and the powerful weakened at the same time. Officials who are incompetent are still in a situation of disarmament.

On the one hand, the local tyrants have lost most of their resistance to the force; On the other hand, most of the officials sent by the imperial court are "lonely", and there is no door and guest curtain to drive, at most there is a master who shakes a paper fan.

In this way, the magistrates sent by the imperial court had to rely on the local officials to rule. And those local officials are often one with the landlords...... It is unreliable to rely on these local officials to restrain the annexation of local heroes.

Therefore, in the era when the nobles ruled China, there was still such a thing as suppressing annexation. However, in the Song, Ming, and Qing dynasties, when the relatively civilian imperial examination officials assisted the emperor in ruling the country, the policy of suppressing annexation disappeared.

And in Cangzhou, at the turn of the spring and summer of the first year of the Great Song Dynasty, the idea of several civil officials Da Qingtian to check the fields naturally had to be completed by the officials of Cangzhou - otherwise, who would investigate? Thirty or forty thousand square kilometers! If a few civil officials are allowed to check on their own, they will not be able to check one percent of the territory even if they break their legs.

And to rely on the officials, so the five civil officials Qingtian has not yet figured out how to investigate, and the news of the land inspection and household inspection has already spread throughout the upper class of society inside and outside Qingchi County. The news that the Municipal Bureau of the Imperial Ship Department purchased the vocational field for the Imperial Knight also spread throughout the city and outside Qingchi County.

So when Wu Haogu returned from Zhongyi Village to the Municipal Bureau of the City in Qingchi County, there were already a few local tyrants in Cangzhou waiting in the ear room. At first, a surname was Chai, a single name was Li, the word Zihao, was the eldest son of the old Chai of the Wudi Chai family, born with a tiger's back and a bear's waist, but his face was a little ugly, with hanging eyes, high cheekbones, a big mouth, and a big beard.

In an inner hall in the backyard of the government office, Chai Li and a few Cangzhou tyrants were brought over, and after seeing Wu Haogu, Chai Li immediately stepped forward and sang a fat song: "Xiaguan Chai Li has seen Wu Yuan. ”

He called Wu Haogu "Wu Yuan" because although he had an official position borrowed from the third class of Jiupin, he did not get an official position in the imperial court, but worked as a capital protector in Jiehe Shang City, that is, the militia captain of Shang City. There are more than 100 standing guards under his hands, that is, full-time "militia", equipped with paper armor, bows and arrows, spears, straight knives and shields, serving as the guards of all the key points in the commercial market, and they are also the backbone of the commercial market.

These "standing baoding" are naturally mainly the children of the Chai family and the Murong family, and some of them are the strong customers provided by the Ximen family. The commercial market paid them salaries according to the standard of the forbidden army, and at the same time, each household was allocated a row of shikumen houses (you can get property rights after 20 years), and the treatment is still very good.

In addition to these "standing guards", there are also so-called "police inspectors" in charge of maintaining law and order, and there are currently about 100 people, armed only with straight knives and bows and arrows. The treatment is also the same as that of the standing guards, with a salary equivalent to that of a soldier in the forbidden army, and he can also get allocated housing.

The title of "head of state" was used by the officials and public servants of the Shang City to refer to Wu Haogu......

"Zihao, Ling Zun's body is better?" Wu Haogu didn't wait for Chai Li to introduce the guests, so he first asked about the old man Chai's body - the old man Chai, who looked very tough, was sick and bedridden in January this year, as if he had a stroke! The situation is very bad.

"Half of my body is numb," Chai Li sighed, "Ximen Daguan (Ximen Qing's grandfather) personally went to check the pulse and pricked the needle, but it didn't work much." ”

Wu Haogu also knew that Old Man Chai was dragging his time, and there was nothing he could do, so after a few words of comfort, he beckoned Chai Li and a few visitors to sit down.

"Wu Yuanfeng," Chai Li took a breath, calmed down a bit, and pointed to the nearest man in his twenties, dressed as an outsider, born with a tiger's back and a big head, and introduced, "This is the head of the Liu family in Qingchi, with a single name and a square character, and he is nicknamed Liu Datou." ”

The head is really big! But it's bigger, so it's not out of proportion when you look at it.

"A certain family has seen a big official!" Liu Datou, who spoke in Cangzhou pronunciation, bowed, and asked angrily, "Big official, a certain family heard Chai Hangyan (Chai Li) say that as long as you offer 3,000 acres of land, you can change to a royal guard, but is it true?" ”

Hearing this question, Wu Haogu smiled, "It's not true. ”

"Alas, I know it's not true!" Liu Datou shook his head, "Chai Hangyan, you are lying again!" ”

Chai Li looked wronged, "Führer, this ......"

Wu Haogu laughed, "I can't really ask you for 3,000 acres of land for nothing, and buy it for 4,000 yuan...... But this field has to be connected! ”

"Give 4,000?" Liu Datou was shocked by Wu Haogu's suggestion, "Big official, Tian Ke of a certain family, but there is no land deed!" ”

It turned out that what he wanted to dedicate to Wu Haogu was the hidden field without a land deed, and he wanted to change the identity of a royal knight as a talisman for the family to protect from the wind and rain. Because his Qingchi Liu family is the same local tyrant as the Wudi Chai family, there is no one in the family who is an official, and he is a little troublesome when facing Chatian Qinghu.

"It's okay," Wu Haogu smiled and waved his hand, "as long as there is no problem with the land." I don't ask if there is a title deed, and this official is not a pro-people official in Cangzhou.

Also, Can you ride a horse? Can you ride and shoot? If not, it's a bit difficult, and maybe you can replace it with a man who can ride a horse and shoot arrows. ”

"Yes, I will!" Liu Datou nodded vigorously, "Don't hide it from the big officials, a certain family has raised sheep for generations, so a certain person can ride a horse since he was a child, and he will learn to shoot arrows on horseback when he is older!"

The way of raising sheep here in Cangzhou is fixed grazing, because the pasture area is generally larger, so the shepherds generally ride horses, and there are big bad wolves in Cangzhou, and there are many thieves who steal sheep, and there are often conflicts between pastures and pastures and farmers, so the skills of riding and shooting are also necessary.

"That's great!" Wu Haogu smiled and turned his gaze to several other men who were also local tyrants, and said with a smile, "This official has been ordered by His Majesty to go to Cangzhou to buy the career field of the imperial knights, and by the way, he will also recruit some sturdy men who are skilled in bowing horses to fill the palace in front of the imperial horse. If more than 3,000 acres of land can be sold at the same time, then the conditions for filling the palace can be relaxed.

As for whether there is a deed on those fields, the official doesn't care! Moreover, the price of one acre of land is at least one hair, and good land can also be increased.

In addition, as long as you are qualified to be selected as the royal horse straight in front of the palace, you can get 1,500 acres of vocational land immediately! This is a job field that can be inherited, as long as you can provide knights for the official family on your behalf, you can pass on the job field.

And in addition to the vocational field, there is also a lot of money to take! The treatment can be regarded as extremely generous! ”