Strange Tales from the Northern Qi Dynasty

Chapter 408: Not Just Killing the Flesh

Xiazhou.

On a quiet road at the foot of a mountain, Da Xiwu rode his warhorse, looking at the thick smoke in the distance with despair on his face.

The billowing black smoke was rising into the sky and could be seen clearly even from a long distance away.

The knights around Da Xiwu had already started cursing.

They put in a lot of effort and paid a lot of price, and finally managed to temporarily get rid of Hulugu and cover their tracks. However, just half a day later, they were betrayed again.

The thick smoke in the distance was not ignited by them.

That was the signal smoke used by ordinary villages to inform surrounding troops when encountering bandits.

In order to prevent threats from the north, the Pseudo-Zhou Dynasty built many beacon towers in the villages along the road so that the local officials along the road could provide the latest enemy movements at any time.

But Da Xiwu never imagined that one day, the beacon tower they built would become a weapon against their own people.

These beacons exposed Da Xi Wu's position and continuously provided the surrounding Han army with information on the recent movements of Da Xi Wu and others.

The deputy general beside Da Xiwu was so angry that he couldn't even speak.

"What a mob!"

"Troublemakers!!"

"They are all Zhou people. The Qi people just came and they rebelled?"

"You really have no morals!"

"This is what untouchables are like. They have no manners and no virtues!!"

The deputy general said angrily: "Duke, let's go and destroy that village first. As long as we slaughter a few villages that betray us, no one will dare to betray us again."

Da Xiwu had a calm expression and ignored the little Xianbei beside him. After all, he was young and thought too simply. If he really massacred the village here, the impact would only become worse.

Now it is just betraying the whereabouts, but if the whole village is massacred, it may be something else.

Da Xiwu had no choice but to lead everyone away from here again.

He knew in his heart that Hulugu must have noticed the commotion here, and it wouldn't be long before he would come and kill him.

Da Xiwu ran away again, his headache symptoms became more and more frequent.

Although winter has passed, spring planting is about to arrive, and the climate is beginning to warm up, warming does not mean that it will not be cold anymore.

In this season, wearing heavy armor and riding a horse at full speed at Da Xiwu's age, he is still alive, which shows that his body is really strong.

They didn't dare run up the mountain as the road would be blocked. They could only run down along the path and try to get out of the forest as soon as possible. Da Xiwu was not sure where to go next.

According to Yuwen Xian's original strategy, Daxi Wu's purpose of rushing in was to attack those cities that were not heavily guarded, raid the enemy's food routes and warehouses, make the enemy dare not ignore him, and put pressure on the other side.

However, Da Xiwu really has no way to implement the strategy now.

Because Hulugu was still behind him, he couldn't take Hulugu with him to attack the city, right?
What we need to do now is to find a way to get rid of Hulugguang.

But it just so happens that this thief Hulugu is a mad dog. Once you are bitten by him, there is no way to make him let go unless you knock out his teeth.

But there are not many people who have the ability to knock out Hulugu's teeth.

Da Xiwu led everyone and quickly disappeared into the distance.

Shortly after he left, a cavalry appeared here.

They were all wearing light armor, and there were about two thousand of them. They surrounded the enemy from both sides at an extremely fast speed, and after arriving, they began to scout the surrounding area for the enemy's whereabouts.

Hulugu came here riding a fast horse. He lowered his head and looked at the traces left by the enemy, then looked up at the thick smoke in the distance.

He asked everyone to continue exploring the surroundings while he himself moved closer to the direction of the thick smoke.

After walking on the path for a long time, Hulugu suddenly stopped, raised the arrow in his hand, and aimed at the bushes beside him.

"who?!"

The next moment, several people dressed as hunters came out shouting. Their faces were filled with panic and they quickly revealed their identities: they were hunters from a nearby village.

Hulugu looked them up and down, then asked for a pass and took a look.

"Was it your village that lit the signal fire?"

"Exactly."

"When we found thieves approaching, we immediately went back to inform the villagers, arranged for the old and weak to hide, and brought some young and strong people to set traps on the road."

Huluguang asked, "Where did the people go?"

The hunters hurried to show him the way.

Hulugu's face looked much better. He looked around and saw the warriors taking out some money from their pockets as a reward for these hunters.

Hulugu promised: "If you can kill the rebel general, I will write to His Majesty and pardon your entire village's taxes for one year."

After saying this, he hurried away with his knights.

Da Xiwu led the crowd to run continuously for half a day, and finally came to a stream. Just as they were about to settle down to rest, black smoke rose again in the distance.

Da Xiwu stood there in a daze, just looking at the smoke in the distance without saying a word.

It seems that my time has come.

Inside the county town, a large number of people gathered at the gate of the government office, forming a long queue. The spring breeze was not rough, but the temperature was not low. Many people were rubbing their hands and stamping their feet to keep themselves warm.

There should be more than 600 civilians, and there were military officers watching them on both sides.

In order to prevent unrest, Huluxian adopted a method of handling the matter in batches, handling it street by street in the city and village by village outside the city.

There were many clerks sitting in front of the report board opposite the government office. They were all holding documents and carefully verifying the situation.

"Wang Daque has done it."

The clerk handed the brand new household register to the farmer in front of him.

"Three of you, except for the mulberry fields, all other land grants will be banned for you."

"It's gone. The land grant is finally gone."

The farmer's eyes welled up with tears. He tightly grasped the household register in his hand and could not help asking again, "It's gone, right? From now on, the land grants will have nothing to do with us? The tax will be collected based on the mulberry fields, right?"

"Yes, yes, next one!"

The clerk waved his hand rudely and asked the man to leave.

Over at the government office, several local officials were standing next to Huluxian, staring at the situation in the distance and chatting in low voices.

These farmers gathered at the gate of the government office, and their main business was to return the land.

That’s right, Huluxian brought people here to steal their land!
But they were so willing to be robbed that they were afraid that they would arrive too late and the new government would not have time to seize their land.

Hulu Xian and Gao Changgong neither acted like provincial governors nor like generals.

The governor Gao Changgong could not sit still, so he rushed out with his knights and now they have rushed to Yanzhou.

General Hulu Xian was mostly concerned with the government affairs within the counties. While Gao Changgong was fighting in the front, he was cleaning up the mess in the back.

Every time Hulu Xian captured a city, he would find a way to restore the official system so that orders could be issued. Then, the first thing he did was to abolish the false land grants of the Zhou Dynasty and check the household registration.

For these farmers who were forced to have more than a dozen sons and hundreds of acres of land, this was a policy of great benevolence.

Looking at the farmers who kept thanking him and shedding tears, Huluxian couldn't hold back any longer.

He looked around and said, "It is unjust that the Zhou Kingdom is not destroyed. The people are so happy after their land was taken away. This is simply absurd!"

Those standing beside him were all old officials who had a good reputation in the local area and could not be found to have committed any crime, as well as some newly inserted military officers.

The newcomers naturally had nothing to say about these things, but the old officials knew all too well. The person closest to Huluxian at the moment was the temporary county magistrate. This was an old man, skinny, who had worked as an official in the city. He was arrested and thrown into prison for opposing the behavior of the city officials. When the verdict was about to be made, Gao Changgong and others broke in.

He thus went from being a prisoner to a temporary official of Xinhan.

The old man looked at the scene in the distance and said angrily: "This is how they make money!"

"Oh? Who are they?"

"Who else could it be?"

"They are the officials, the powerful local people, and the Xianbei people."

The young man on the side was frightened and quickly reached out and pulled the old man.

The old man was not afraid, and he pulled the young man's hand away, "What are you afraid of? I'm not scolding a Xianbei like General Hulu!"

Huluxian was not angry either. He just said softly: "I am not Xianbei, but Chile Dingling."

"No problem, just continue."

The old man then continued, "They first made up household registrations for these laborers. If there were three children in the family, they would say there were thirteen, and if there were ten children, they would say there were twenty."

"They always say the big things, and don't care if there are stillborn babies. They will suppress them if possible, and will never change anything."

"Then, they granted land according to the household registration, but it was all fictitious. Anyway, those people didn't exist at all, so it was impossible for them to come to the government to ask for it."

"But the land granted by the government was issued, but it was not granted to these non-existent people. It was sent directly to the hands of local nobles."

"Local nobles got a lot of land out of thin air, and the taxes were borne by farmers who had nothing. The government raised taxes, and the nobles got farmland, while the nobles and military leaders increased the number of military households under their command."

The temple's land grant system was manipulated by the Zhou Dynasty's powerful families and nobles.

All kinds of policies aimed at benefiting the people can become cannibalistic policies in their hands, and the cruelty is extremely severe. Farmers not only have to bear their own taxes, but also the taxes of the masters.

This is simply treating farmers like oxen and horses, and there is no need to worry about the self-employed farmers going bankrupt. Even if they go bankrupt, they can still be allowed to shine in other places. This is a complete industrial chain. From birth to death, everything is useful to the masters and there is no waste.

Huluxian was not so surprised.

As old rivals, Qi and Zhou each have their own strengths.

The State of Qi was in chaos. The emperor and nobles killed people at will. There was no morality at all. People were cannibalistic. The State of Zhou was better. They behaved very well on the surface, but they only committed cannibalism in secret and did not show it to others.

Huluxian lowered his head and started to think in his mind.

He thought for a moment before coming to his senses. He looked at those people and said to them with a smile, "I already know a lot about what's going on here. Don't worry about me. Go and do your work. I will leave on my own. You don't have to see me off."

No one dared to disobey, and they said yes and left.

Hulu Xian then led the rest of the military officers and generals away from here. Someone was already waiting for them with war horses.

Huluxian mounted his warhorse and led everyone towards the city gate.

Huluxian was not riding fast. He looked around and said seriously, "Did you hear it? Those big families here are definitely not good people."

"There's no need to hesitate any longer, and don't worry about whether it will cause any chaos, arrests, or house searches."

"I don't care about their stance. No matter whether they approach us or hide at home after we enter the city, I will thoroughly investigate their past behavior and deal with them according to the law. Let's start doing it now."

"The big families, the powerful, and those over there"

Huluxian pointed to the magnificent pagoda in the distance.

"Do everything you need to do. Don't leave anything behind."

Listening to his words, the deputy general felt a little embarrassed.

He asked, "General, after all, we are just a local army, and we are Lingzhou Army. It is a bit unreasonable to send military officers to take over the city right now. If we give orders to govern it again, wouldn't it be inappropriate?"

"Local generals are not allowed to meddle in local affairs."

“What should I do??”

Huluxian looked helpless, "Our governor has gone out to fight, what else can I do?"

"Should we wait for the governor to return from the battle? Or should we wait for the officials assigned by the imperial court to arrive?"

"How long will that take?"

The deputy general scratched his head and said, "That's what I said, General. How about you send someone to deliver the document to Governor Gao first and wait for Governor Gao's reply."

Huluxian touched his chin and said, "It's fine to send a letter, but forget about waiting for the letter to come back before doing anything."

"Let's do it first."

"I am not an ordinary general, I am a relative of the emperor!"

"Isn't being a relative by marriage the goal of hoping to use your status to do whatever you want? If I don't even dare to do this, then wouldn't it be a waste of my status as a relative by marriage?"

Several officers just smiled bitterly when they heard this.

Shouldn’t the in-laws care more about this kind of thing?
However, Huluxian was very determined, mainly because spring planting was about to begin, and new areas in Xiazhou and Yinzhou had started. If he could not take charge, get rid of those latent termites, gain the trust of the people as soon as possible, and mobilize them to farm, then this autumn would be too difficult for the Han State, as there were too many places that needed relief.

Hulu Xian didn't care about other people's opinions. He wrote down his thoughts and actions in a document and sent it to Gao Changgong. He then immediately ordered all places to do according to his orders.

Hulu Xian’s first step was to target those big families who specialized in exploiting the common people for a living.

Big families are different from powerful families. Powerful families are usually composed mainly of officials, who occupy the lower levels of the local area and take over some businesses that big families disdain to do.

A big clan is one that has been passed down for many years and has officials, prefects, and even ministers.

Not all big families are bad, but most of them are not very good. As for the powerful, this is a derogatory term. Those who are called powerful are definitely not good people.

No matter whether they are big clans or powerful people, they can only speak within the rules. Just look at Qi State and you will know. What a crappy big clan. They dared not even breathe when they met the old Xianbei, just because the other party did not abide by the rules.

The same was true for these people from the Zhou State. Before the Han army came in, according to the rules, no one dared to challenge them. But when the army came in, they were unable to use the tricks they had.

Military officials from various places brought their garrisons and began to search and plunder.

Local people were encouraged to expose the dirty deeds of the local people, and at the same time the captives were brought out to be questioned.

These corrupt officials who were arrested were well aware of local affairs.

Hulu Xian launched a purge in the newly acquired lands, aiming to clean up the areas before the new officials arrived.

As expected, unrest broke out in the local area. When they discovered that the Han army had begun to pursue them, those who had temporarily bowed their heads also bared their fangs and prepared to flee or seize the city.

However, the armor, slaves, and bows and crossbows they had were more than enough to deal with the civilians, but they were far from enough to fight against the Han army.

All places were shocked by the "atrocities" of the Han army.

In a good family, there is constant crying, in an extremely kind family, not a single chicken or dog is left alive.

The temple that Yuwen Yong did not dare to attack directly was not a big problem for Huluxian. After searching it, everything he found would make Huluxian unable to take his eyes off.

The temples of the Zhou State were extremely wealthy, even richer than the big families. These people, who did not have to pay taxes, came up with the most advanced ideas to reap the people. Countless grains and money were hidden in various dark rooms and secret passages.

As heads fell to the ground one by one, the blood-stained food was found out.

The most hateful thing is that a lot of the grain has been piled up for too long, more than a few years, and is no longer edible.

Hulu Xian didn't understand their intention. They had mountains of grain, but they just left it there, allowing the grain to rot and be damaged. They were unwilling to lower their own desires even a little, and were even more unwilling to give out even a little to help the people around them.

Huluxian's work went quite smoothly and he became more and more adept at it.

After Hulu Xian had exerted his influence and implemented a series of benevolent policies in various places, greatly reducing the burden on the Zhou people, Daxi Wu died.

All places were pardoned and granted land, and the skyrocketing taxes were eliminated. The people, watching the powerful people who had bullied and exploited them being arrested and beheaded, were happy to light beacons to report the latest location of the thieves.

Daxi Wu's body was destroyed by Hulugu, but the roots of people like him were killed by Huluxian.

(End of this chapter)