knife

Chapter 121 Each Doing Their Own Thing
Baoping City, the once luxurious mansion of the Yan family that even the Tiele people envied, has now become the residence of the General of Chariots and Cavalry.

Before the imperial decree arrived, this name was the most reliable and reassuring sign for the people of Baoping Prefecture.

If you dare to plant Li Dachui's bandit flag on the city wall of Baoping City, believe me, many people in Baoping Prefecture will start to flee.

Xiao Changche's reputation is still very valuable, just like her military abilities, and is valued by Zhou Zhi and Li Dachui.

Regardless of whether Li Dachui had harmed the people in the past or whether he had robbed the rich to help the poor, in the official narrative, he was a bandit, and the vast majority of people still minded this.

The luxury mansion has now been divided into several large functional areas.

Whether it's Li Dachui or Xiao Changche, their command system is quite rudimentary, and their members are relatively simple, so they don't need so many houses at all.

Wastefulness is not Li Dachui's style. He is the kind of person who can squeeze water out of a dry towel and oil out of a stone. As for Xiao Changche, she has always been the kind of person who is very frugal and knows how to stretch every penny. She has always despised Li Dachui's exquisite life!
Thus, one-third of the Yan family mansion was converted into a clinic, one-third into a school, and the remaining third became the government office.

Everyone is very busy.

Xiao Changche was busy reorganizing the army.

At this juncture, this is definitely not a simple or easy task.

Since Tiele didn't die, will he immediately launch a military campaign to retaliate after returning home?
Linghu Ye verbally reached an agreement with Zhou Zhi, the city lord of Tai'an, and released Luo Hua and the families of Xiao's officers, but that doesn't mean he wouldn't suddenly draw his sword and attack people.

You can never trust a politician's promises to you.

Because they could turn on you at any time.

Moreover, afterwards they can justify their actions in a grand and righteous way.

Therefore, the entire city of Tai'an was mobilized this time.

This also allowed Xiao Changche and Zhang Ruo to truly witness the strength that Li Dachui possessed.

The sight of 30,000 fully armed infantry and cavalry left Xiao Changche, Xiao Dongwei, and their group of poor bastards speechless.

It's important to understand that Xiao Changche was on the verge of bankruptcy by supporting three thousand elite cavalry. She was either robbing the Northern Yuan or bandits for money, or asking Linghu Ye for money, or borrowing money from others. She never had a penny left in her pocket and was always operating in debt.

Now, a well-equipped combat group with off-the-charts fighting power is right in front of her.
It's like a poor guy suddenly winning hundreds of millions in the lottery.
Completely bewildered, I had no idea what to do.

Of course, after realizing what had happened, the group of poor people, represented by Xiao Changche and with Xiao Dongwei as their core, were all overjoyed.

According to the agreement, the armed forces of both sides will be reorganized and then placed under the unified command of Xiao Changche.

Moreover, they will never have to worry about money again.

From now on, Li Dachui will be in charge of the money matters.

Li Dachui was in charge of raising funds, operating the business, and managing the operations.
Xiao Changche was only responsible for one thing: fighting.

Of course, we have to win the battle. If we lose, everyone will have to run away and everything will belong to someone else.

Xiao Changche was so busy that he didn't even have time to heal his injuries.

As a general in charge of the army, she knew all too well how much it cost to mobilize tens of thousands of fully armed people for demonstrations and marches every day. It was a pain in her heart to see money flowing out every single day.

Therefore, the sooner the reorganization is completed, the sooner these people can return to their normal lives and do what they were supposed to do.

Once the reorganization is complete, a full command system can be established.

As for the mobilization system, Li Dachui's troops already had it; all they needed to do was transplant it completely.

Meanwhile, Li Dachui was busy rebuilding the administrative system of Baoping Prefecture.

In the past, Baoping Prefecture was the domain of the Yan family.

From the city to the countryside, everything was firmly controlled by the Yan family and its vassals, who implemented a clan-based management system.

National laws do not exist in the State of Aquarius.

Now, the Yan family has been completely destroyed, and his vassals who are still alive are now fish on a chopping board. Li Dachui and Xiao Changche are figuring out how to swallow them whole.

Rebuilding a system in a desolate, barren place is no easy task.

Zhang Ru originally thought that she could really show her skills in this area.

In terms of extensive knowledge and experience, and especially in terms of system building, he believed that no one here could compare to him.

But he was soon disappointed. Neither Li Dachui nor the arrogant Mao Daxian showed any interest in asking him for advice.

Initially, he planned to wait until they were stuck in a quagmire and had no other choice before offering his help, which would not only make him appear magnanimous but also avoid delaying things.

So he went to sit in Li Dachui and Mao Daxian's office every day.

However, reality disappointed him.

Li Dachui may not be suited to making improvements on existing foundations, but rebuilding on barren land is what he likes best.

He had already done something similar once before in Helan Plain.

Now, it's just a matter of transplanting the events of Helan Yuan over.

He also has no shortage of the talent he needs.

From a long time ago, in Tai'an City, and in the last two years in Helan Plain, he has been consciously cultivating talents in this field.

With no one to consult, Zhang Ruo finally couldn't contain herself and took the initiative to learn about Li Dachui's actions.

Li Dachui has always been a kind and understanding person.

Upon seeing that Zhang Xueshi had taken the initiative, he immediately presented them with an administrative management tree diagram. Of course, Xiao Changche was at the top, and Li Dachui humbled himself by placing himself below Xiao Changche.

Zhang Ruo studied diligently from a young age, overcame numerous obstacles, and was awarded the title of Academician and later appointed as Vice Minister. His intelligence and talent were beyond question. Although it was the first time he had seen such a tree diagram, he immediately understood its meaning.

Moreover, Li Dachui's diagram was incredibly detailed, clearly indicating what each person was responsible for.

"You even send officials to such a small village?" Zhang Ru stared at Li Dachui, speechless. "Is this expense necessary?"

Li Dachui smiled and said, "Scholar, the Qin Dynasty governs by the principle that imperial power does not extend to the countryside. So I would like to ask, who controls the countryside?"

"Of course, they are the elders and respected figures of our village!"

"Where do the local elders and esteemed figures come from?"

Zhang Ruowei was taken aback.

"The so-called local elders and sages are, to put it bluntly, just wealthy and educated people from the local area. But if you dig deep into their roots, who are they?" Li Dachui said calmly, "They are all branches of powerful families, controlling countless people on behalf of these families. The people know nothing of the imperial court or the laws of the country; they only know their families and clans."

Everyone here is intelligent, and even though it was just a subtle hint, Zhang Ru immediately understood what Li Dachui meant.

"How did the Great Qin Dynasty fall into its current predicament? Whose fault is it? It lies with these powerful and aristocratic families!" Li Dachui continued, "Now that I have seen this problem, I will naturally find a way to solve it."

“But in that case, your financial burden will be extremely heavy. Right now it’s just a small Baoping Prefecture. What if we consider the entire Guanwai region, or the whole world?” Zhang Ru frowned. “The wealth of the world is finite. If you spend a little more here, you’ll have a little less elsewhere.”

“Zhang Gong, who says that the world’s wealth is fixed? Wealth is created; it just depends on whether you know how to earn it.” Li Dachui laughed. “And what we want to do is to work hard to make this pie of wealth bigger and bigger, so that not only can we earn more, but the people can also earn more.”

"It's easier said than done!"

“Scholar, you can’t just give up because it’s difficult, can you?” Li Dachui said, “Just like when you submitted your memorial impeaching Linghu Ye, didn’t you know it was difficult? But you still did it, didn’t you?”

“From village to town, from town to county, from county to prefecture, you’ve gone straight to the bottom!” Zhang Ruo pondered, “I’m afraid your method will encounter a lot of resistance in the future.”

"As expected!" Li Dachui laughed. "However, I implemented this method on the Helan Plain with excellent results. If it works equally well in Baoping Prefecture, then it proves that this method is effective. Anyone who opposes it, I will eliminate them!"

“It might be feasible outside the pass!” Zhang Ruo nodded slightly. “However, it would be very difficult inside the pass. The powerful families inside are too dominant.”

"Whether you're strong or not depends on how sharp your knife is!" Mao Daxian, who had been busy all along, picked up his pen and looked up: "As long as the knife is sharp enough, even a dragon has to coil up for me, and a tiger has to crouch down for me."

"How can you govern the world so quickly?" Zhang Ruo said disdainfully. "You are currently only governing a small territory. If you had ever stood in the imperial court and looked out over the world, you would know that sometimes killing cannot solve problems at all. Do you think you can kill everyone in the world?"

"That depends on who we killed," Mao Daxian chuckled. "Look, we wiped out the Yan clan completely. Doesn't that make things much smoother in Baoping Prefecture? By the way, Scholar Zhang, we didn't actually kill that many. The Yan clan, including the direct descendants and collateral branches, only numbered a little over a thousand. Naturally, they were all wiped out. As for the other vassals, we only killed the leaders; the rest were sentenced to prison. In total, we only killed a few thousand people, which is insignificant compared to the hundreds of thousands of people in Baoping Prefecture!"

"What is reform through labor?" Zhang Ruo asked blankly.

"Labor reform!" Li Dachui laughed from the side. "We believe that some of them can still be saved, so we arrested them to do labor. Once they've reformed, they'll be good citizens again, right?"

"Isn't it just sending prisoners to do forced labor? It's called labor reform!" Zhang Ruo suddenly realized.

Li Dachui stood up laughing: "Master Zhang, you and Master Mao should get closer. I'm going to see Xiao Changche. I haven't seen her for many days. Her injuries haven't healed yet!"

(End of this chapter)