Wait, please don't call me Emperor Zhaolie

Chapter 167 Lu Su: Why are there so many people here?

Liu Bei transferred Chen Deng to Xia Pi and made him concurrently the Gong Cao of Xia Pi County.

After Chen introduced the details of the wealthy families in the seventeen counties in detail, Liu Bei also had a rough idea of ​​where to start to win them over.

This is the benefit of the local nobles taking the initiative to surrender, and making a big bet to help.

"Sir, among the more than 30 powerful families in Xia Pi, only five have been related to the Chen family by marriage for several generations. They are neither strong nor weak, and their cultivated land is only 300 to 400 hectares. We can bring them in for assistance."

"The land measurement is of great importance. It should be implemented first in Pengcheng, where there are the fewest nobles, and then in Langya, Donghai, Xiapi and Guangling. However, there are many bandits in Langya, and Xiapi and Guangling are adjacent to Yangzhou, which may easily lead to outside intervention. Moreover, Pengcheng..."

Chen Deng paused and looked at Liu Bei, wondering whether he should say something or not.

The reason why the Yellow Turban Rebellion broke out was because the aristocratic and powerful families were constantly swallowing up land and enslaving the people. After Zhang Jiao's rebellion was put down, some scholars across the world saw the root cause of the chaos.

He also suddenly realized that Guangwu's land reclamation at least extended the life of the Han Dynasty by a hundred years. If land reclamation was carried out again, the world would surely be completely renewed.

At the same time, it also brought good news and bad news. The good news: the Han Dynasty can still be saved. The bad news: it will cost them their lives to save it.

Most powerful people could not tolerate the practice of measuring land and cutting into the flesh of the wealthy. They would feel that occupying one or ten hectares of good farmland was better than nothing, but asking them to give up one or ten hectares of land was more painful than killing them.

As long as they have soldiers and troops in their hands, they will choose to rebel.

For some powerful people, if they had to collect their followers and the land they had occupied for many years in order to save the Han Dynasty, what did it matter even if they continued to enjoy the Han Dynasty's salary for generations?

If a wise and powerful person sees that land measurement is inevitable, he might as well surrender to a powerful feudal lord, give up his land and a large number of servants and slaves, and obtain compensation from other sources.

This is exactly what happened when Chen surrendered to Liu Bei.

Seeing that Lord Xuande had become the most powerful among the princes in the world, in order to help the world and save the crisis, he re-measured the land in each state and county, checked the population, land and taxes, and confiscated the soldiers and their weapons such as bows, arrows, spears, etc.

He won over a few wealthy and powerful families and a large number of common people to eliminate the disobedient powerful people in Qingzhou.

Not a single member of the noble family made a move, but all the powerful people in the court took action.

He also divided Beihai Confucian scholars into gentlemen who were practical and useful to the world and villains who were good at idle talk, so the two factions are still in opposition today.

All of these conspiracies were laid out in the open, but they made many people unable to resist. First of all, the powerful families' troops were shattered as soon as they fought with the Qingzhou army, and the tens of thousands of soldiers from various families were no match for the thousands of soldiers from the military government.

Moreover, Lord Xuande also used internal division to make the side branches of the powerful families oppose the direct branches. Many of the powerful families who were exterminated were led by the side branches.

Chen Deng was thinking about those powerful families who were clinging to their land and followers, and he didn't know how many of them would be wiped out. Some of them could be killed, but killing some of them would cause bad consequences.

"Whatever, Yuanlong, just speak frankly." Liu Bei asked with a smile.

I asked Chen Yuanlong to come and hear his opinions on where to start with the field work.

"Sir, most of the noble families in Pengcheng are from the Liu clan. If they rise up in rebellion during the land survey, it will affect Lord Xuande's reputation."

Chen Deng said thoughtfully.

Unexpectedly, after hearing this, Liu Bei waved his hand and said with a mysterious smile: "Yuanlong is fine. I dare not tell other noble families, but I still have a way to make the Liu family give up resistance."

Chen Deng asked the reason in surprise, but Liu Bei smiled and said nothing. Of course, family members have their own lobbying methods. Except for the princes of the Liu family, the rest could be persuaded without any hesitation.

We are all relatives. You help me and I help you.

If they don't know what's good for them, I'll have to interfere in the replacement of the local clan leader in the name of comforting the clan members of the seven temples.

If anyone dared to say that Liu Bang's descendants had nothing to do with Liu Jiao's descendants, Liu Bei would have his soldiers tie him to the ground, have him face the Taishang Mausoleum in Guanzhong and behead him. …

In late November, the cold wind blowing from the north fills the house, making people want to sit around the fire and warm themselves.

A cavalry team of more than one hundred men came from Gaowang Township, Dongcheng County, Xia Pi, surprising the common people who had come out to chop firewood in the cold weather.

The cavalry held high the flag with the word "Liu" on it so that the people would not be afraid. Duke Xuande executed Zuo Rong and exempted the people of Xia Pi from taxes for one year, winning the favor of the common people.

Wherever the Qingzhou army passed by, they did not plunder or invade any place. The people were grateful and also became bolder. They stood in the distance and guessed where the big shot came from.

Some people speculated: "Is it possible that Lord Xuande came here?"

This was quickly refuted. It was said that Dongcheng County was the southernmost county of Xia Pi. Apart from the Lu family, there were no other powerful families there and it was close to Yangzhou. Lord Xuande was busy with official duties all day long, so how could he possibly come here?
Perhaps it was a cavalry general named Liu in the army who happened to pass by.

This reasonable analysis made everyone nod their heads.

"No, you see, they are not passing by, the cavalry is heading straight for Lu." Some sharp-eyed people saw that the cavalry did not turn around, but galloped in the other direction of the field and quickly disappeared from their sight.

Liu Bei was checking the arable land along the river in Xia Pi when he suddenly remembered that there was a man named Lu Su in Dongcheng County. He did not go to Tan County to pay a visit to him, the governor of Xuzhou. This was not acceptable.

He was originally planning to return to Xia Pi from Huai Ling, but he immediately changed his mind and continued riding south with Dian Wei, Liu He and others.

Lu Su, who was resting at home, had not yet opened the bamboo slips when he heard the servant come to report in a panic that Lord Xuande was coming to visit.

The amount of information was too overwhelming and Lu Su was unable to react immediately.

"Who?! Who is coming?"

The servant had no choice but to take a few steps closer and shouted, "Someone said that Liu Xuande, the governor of Qing, Yan and Xu provinces, the governor of Yingchuan and the general of Xiapi, passed by Dongcheng County and came to visit Lu Zijing."

This time Lu Su finally understood. It turned out to be the Left General Liu Shijun.

After coming to his senses, he immediately jumped up from his seat.

"Hurry! Hurry, hurry, hurry!" Lu Su hurriedly asked the servant to help him tidy up his clothes and ran out to greet him, forgetting even to put on his shoes.

When I went out of the house, I felt some pain in the soles of my feet and realized that I was not wearing any shoes, but I couldn't care less at the moment.

When Lu Su ran to the door of his house panting, he saw more than a hundred cavalrymen drinking water, resting, and combing the hair of their horses.

There were many guards surrounding a man in a crimson robe. He looked at the scenery with his back turned, and seemed to be talking with the guards beside him, nodding from time to time.

Lu Su was so excited that he carefully adjusted his crown again, bowed respectfully and asked, "May I ask if Lord Xuande is here in person? I am Lu Su, a native of Dongcheng, Xuzhou, and I pay my respects to Lord Xuande."

Liu Bei turned around and said with a smile: "I heard that there is a hermit living here. Liu Xuande came here uninvited. I hope Mr. Zijing will forgive me."

After saying that, he bowed and apologized.

"How dare Su blame Lord Xuande? The fact that you can come to our door is an honor to our humble family." Lu Su bowed repeatedly.

It was an honor that many people would long for to have Lord Xuande visit them, and the same was true for Lu Su.

"This is not a place to receive distinguished guests. Envoy Liu, please come into my humble abode to keep warm."

Lu Su bowed and asked respectfully.

(End of this chapter)