Red Mansion: Seizing Jiangdong, starting with pirates

Chapter 26, New Deal

Jia Yucun seemed to be able to predict the future.

The source of his confidence comes from the excellent matching mechanism of the Daxi court.

Sure enough, a few days after Fang Yong and his party left, officials and soldiers from the imperial court heard the news and rushed over, taking back the land that had just been distributed.

The fire of hope in the eyes of the people was ruthlessly extinguished.

Not only that, every household in Fangjiazhuang was required to pay a fine of one penny of silver.

If you don’t pay the fine, you are collaborating with bandits!

Perhaps even the officials and soldiers of the imperial court did not expect that the villagers of Fangjiazhuang had not a penny left to be squeezed out of them.

The people here didn't have a single grain of food left at home, and they couldn't even eat grass roots. The land that Fang Yong distributed to them was their last hope, but even this was ruthlessly destroyed.

When pushed to the limit, even cotton will bottom out.

What's more, Fang Yong had demonstrated twice how to kill an official in front of all the villagers.

One time was when the government collected grain, and the other time was when Fang's family took in a concubine.

Officials are no longer sacred in the eyes of the people.

When the first pickaxe fell on the officers' and soldiers' heads, the villagers' fearful eyes completely turned into blazing flames of anger!
Afterwards, the villagers carried the heads of the officers and soldiers to join Fang Yong, and Fang Yong successfully gained a large number of loyal followers.

In fact, Fang Yongda doesn't need to go through so much trouble.

According to the gangsters' practice of recruiting people, it would be enough for him to force each of the villagers to stab Mr. Fang's body and then scare these people into joining the gang.

But in that case, what Fang Yong got was just a group of sheep that were forced into the wolf pack, but now, what he got was a group of real wolves!
Fang Yong used his power as the third in command to place all those who defected to him in the water fort.

At this time, the number of troops under Fang Yong had reached 1500.

Fang Yong's status in the water stronghold rose rapidly, and the nominal leader Wang Lun became more and more wary of Fang Yong.

However, since Wang Lun was completely sidelined in the military, even though he was very afraid of Fang Yong, he could only endure it and did not dare to show it at all.

In fact, Wang Lun had already shown his hostility towards Fang Yong and Gan Ba a long time ago. Everyone in the entire water village knew about it, but Wang Lun himself thought he had hidden it well.

However, seeing Fang Yong's power growing day by day, Wang Lun couldn't help it after all. He learned a strategy of sowing discord from the storybooks and prepared to use it to deal with Fang Yong and Gan Ba.

One day, Wang Lun called Fang Yong and Gan Ba over. He took out two peaches, ate one himself, and then gave the remaining one to Fang Yong and Gan Ba to divide among themselves.

Then, something unexpected happened to Wang Lun.

Fang Yong actually broke the peach in half and he and Gan Ba each ate half.

This is wrong!

Isn't that what's written in the storybook?

Unwilling to give up, Wang Lun spent a large sum of money to buy two jade rings. He wore one himself and gave the other to Fang Yong and Gan Ba to distribute.

Then, Fang Yong and Gan Ba were both not interested in Yuhuan, and in the end Yuhuan was casually given to Xue Dacui who happened to pass by.

I have to say, this is a divisive tactic that couldn't be more crude.

Since Wang Lun was so useless, Fang Yong didn't even have the desire to treat him as an opponent.

As the end of the year was approaching, the old man found Fang Yong and asked to borrow money hesitantly.

After Fang Yong asked, he found out that he wanted to buy a new cotton-padded jacket for Aunt Liu.

Aunt Liu is Li Sheng's mother. After careful care during this period of time, Aunt Liu's illness has improved a lot, and her complexion has naturally become better...

Fang Yong did not object.

It just so happens that in a few days, Xue Dacui will go shopping for New Year's items. He can just bring back a few pieces and give some to the old man. He can also buy some clothes for Daiyu and Xiao Xueyan.

After a while, it was Laba Festival and the water village was peaceful.

Fang Yong gave subsidies to his brothers, and the aroma of Laba porridge wafted from every household. But the world outside the village was completely different.

During this festive occasion, the people had no food to fill their stomachs.

That's all.

As for the common people, there is always a way to survive.

Whether eating tree bark or grass roots, or even eating soil at worst, there is always a way to survive.

But you can always trust the excellent matching mechanism of Daxi Dynasty.

Emperor Longqing paced in the harem garden, looking at the falling snow, and couldn't help reciting a poem.

The white snow is falling,
The frost covering the ground creates a new scenery.

Don't waste the beautiful scenery.
Only when the people study hard can they achieve true success.

Dai Quan was standing aside, clapping and cheering for the emperor with a happy look on his face, but he was actually in a heavy mood. It seemed like there had been a lot of snow recently.

On the day of Laba, the officials of Daxi started to work, because the court officially promulgated the 19th New Policy, and His Majesty personally approved it: Study hard!

As for the so-called education, Emperor Longqing understood it as taking advantage of the leisure time in winter to explain knowledge and principles to the people and build schools for children, so that the educated people would not be misled into rebellion.

However, the understanding of Daxi officials seemed to be slightly different from that of Emperor Longqing.

Study, study, how can I let my boss see that I am studying well?

Explain knowledge to the people?
What's the use?

It is impossible for the imperial envoy to go to the countryside.

So what can you do to let your boss see your achievements?

So, on the Laba Festival, when the common people could not even afford to eat, the officials came to every household.

"What are you all doing hiding in your houses in broad daylight? Come out now. His Majesty's new policy requires you to build a school in the city. All families with male children must send one!"

"By the way, bring your own food. If you don't have enough food, there will be no one to bury you if you die of starvation!"

A woman was crying while holding her child.

"Master, my husband has starved to death in order to feed my mother and me. There are no male heirs in my family anymore!"

"He starved to death. Where's his body? If you say he starved to death, then he starved to death!"

"The body, the body has been buried!"

"Buried? Humph, I don't care. Your family's name is in this book, so you must send me someone! If not, capture me and take me to build the academy!"

The police officers of Daxi were always sharp-tongued but cruel-hearted. Even when the woman finally dug out the body of the man wrapped in a straw mat, the police officers still forcibly took away the woman's ten-year-old child on the grounds that they could not identify the child.

Soon, under the high-pressure policy of the imperial court, people in various places suffered terribly, and large numbers of people killed officials and joined bandits.

This situation was particularly serious in Nanjing, where several princes and nobles even openly enslaved a large number of people to build houses for themselves in the name of building an academy.

In addition, with food prices and commodity prices continuing to rise, people's tolerance seems to have reached its limit.

After returning from another shopping trip, Xue Dacuizi and Fang Yong discussed this issue.

Xue Dacuizi believed that a great chaos was about to come.

Fang Yong did not deny Xue Daqiuzi's opinion, but he felt that things still needed to be done with caution. The first bird to stick its head out gets shot, so it would be best if he didn't fire the first shot.

Fang Yong asked Xue Dacuizi to continue hoarding food.

The price of grain has now risen to 25 cents per pound, but you still have to buy it because it will only become more expensive in the future.

Xue Dacui explained hesitantly, "The secret warehouses are already full. If we continue to stockpile, we can only put them in the village. Then my second brother will definitely notice."

(End of this chapter)