Tiger Guards

Chapter 124 Sharpening the Knife
Early in the morning, the north gate of Anyi was opened, and the troops put on armor, pushed vehicles, and began to move out of the city.

Last night's fire didn't seem to cause any ripples.

After yesterday's lesson, even though Zhao Ji led his troops out of the city today, Zhao Yan did not go to the Forbidden City to give lectures, but came to the Ministry of Personnel to discuss politics.

After Shizhong Ding Chong died, Shangshu Pei Mao took over seamlessly and filled the vacant position.

Zhao Yan held two votes, and with Pei Mao present, matters discussed in the Menxia Province could be passed quickly.

The Menxia Province discussed not only the political and military affairs of Hedong, but also the dispatch of envoys to various parties.

For example, yesterday Zhao Ji and Zhao Rui discussed winning over Zhang Yan, and today they made a decision to send an imperial envoy to promote Zhang Yan and ask Zhang Yan to send 500 people to Hedong to protect the emperor.

These five hundred people can sometimes play a key role. Soldiers from Hedong will inevitably hesitate when dealing with difficult issues in Hedong.

The five hundred people sent by Zhang Yan, after having enough food and water, were very suitable for doing dirty work.

Although Qubei can do this dirty work, asking the Huns to beat and suppress prisoners is different from using the Black Mountain Army.

In the pavilion in the Forbidden City.

Liu Xie held up the bamboo slips and asked, "Have the two thousand rolls of silk been deposited into the county treasury?"

Fu Wan, who was lecturing him today, sat across from him and calmly replied, "Not only the two thousand rolls of silk, but also the five hundred gold from the original donation has been deposited into the treasury. There has been no shortage."

The court is short of these gold and silk?
There is no shortage of it. The value of the gold, silk, money and grain confiscated from the Fan family alone is greater than that of the Hou family's wealth.

The amount of gold and silk that Wei carried with her when she evacuated the manor was even more than that of Fan.

The gold and silk obtained from the Fan family allowed the court officials to spend a day making new official uniforms and look respectable.

After hearing this, Liu Xie sighed, "Zhao Qing is kind by nature, why is he so stubborn?"

In the past two days, I have been sorting out the developments of the past few days. If the clan thieves and Baibo’s old soldiers detained in Anyi City were quickly reorganized and no chaos occurred, Zhao Ji probably would not have raised an army to attack the former nobles.

Yesterday's "Petition to Punish the Han Traitor" was finally exposed and copied by Wei Ji and posted at the north gate.

The ministers and officials were ashamed, but they could not stop it.

This petition to suppress the rebels immediately gained the support of the existing clan rebels in Hedong; even the students and scholars who had suffered hardships along the way with the court joined in.

Since Dong Zhuo entered the court, such great unrest has been caused, so many people have died, and the survivors have suffered so much. Someone must come forward to take responsibility.

In the end, whether it was the emperor's immorality that brought down the disaster, or the officials' immorality and incompetence, someone must stand up and take responsibility.

Previously, we could crudely blame it on Dong Zhuo and the evil thieves Li and Guo, but now think carefully, the officials were unable to suppress these treacherous ministers, doesn’t that show their incompetence?

If you can't fight the enemy and die for your loyalty, and you can't recommend talented people and give up your position to make way for them, isn't that a lack of virtue?
Zhao Ji was really very restrained. Like Li Jue, he was determined to marry Tang Ji, the concubine of the deposed Emperor Hongnong King.

Now that Princess Hongnong has fallen into the chaos of the army, I'm afraid the evil thief Li Jue has succeeded.

Liu Xie actually did not agree with Zhao Ji's accusations and condemnations of the ministers and officials for being immoral and incompetent, because he knew clearly that the court's shortcoming was the shortage of money and grain.

Without stable money and food, it is impossible to mobilize manpower.

It is impossible for soldiers to bring their own food and fight for the country without receiving pay; people like Dong Zhuo and Li Jue did all kinds of bad things, but at least they could ensure that the soldiers had enough to eat.

As to why it was impossible to collect money and grain, this is another profound question.

A few days ago, there were clearly signs of completely destroying the Hedong clan bandits, but the bandits counterattacked and the captives in the city became harassed.

Perhaps Zhao Ji's condemnation of the ministers and officials was instigated and pushed by the Hedong clan thieves behind the scenes.

At this point, Liu Xie could only wait and see what would happen next.

Fu Wan thought for a moment about his doubts and replied, "Minister Zhao grew up in the mountains and has a strong character. He has received little instruction from sages, so he acts straightforwardly. Now he is in command of a large army, and he is worried that his clan will follow in the footsteps of Huo Guang and Dong Zhuo. He is like a frightened bird. I believe that we should appease him with kind words and restrain the officials so that they do not interfere with each other."

After a pause, Fu Wan continued, "The court is now in disarray and in urgent need of recuperation. Once virtuous individuals from all corners of the country are recruited, Zhao Yuanming will recognize the difficulty and retreat, and persuade his grandson to remain loyal to his position. My concern now is that the deaths of Ding Chong and Dong Zhao will attract Cao Mengde."

Previously, Cao Cao sent Cao Hong to lead troops to defend the city, but he was repelled by Zhang Yang.

After Dong Zhao's lobbying, Zhang Yang agreed to let Cao Cao's envoys carry gold and silk into Guanzhong to distribute money. In October last year, he obtained the position of Governor of Yanzhou for Cao Cao.

With Ding Chong's death, Cao Cao had a reason to send troops; Dong Zhao was also burned to death, so Zhang Yang might let some of Cao's troops pass through.

Dong Zhao's death was far beyond Fu Wan's expectations.

He had already imprisoned Dong Zhao and tortured him with floggings, but he managed to fool Zhao Ji but not Zhao Yan.

It is not easy to tell the emperor such details. The censor Dong Fen and the Grand Chamberlain Shi Qian outside the pavilion are not that reliable.

"I have heard that Cao's army is strong and brutal, like tigers and wolves."

Liu Xie became concerned and said to Fu Wan, "Please discuss with Zhao Yuanming to encourage Zhang Yang to hold on to Hanoi."

Giving the necessary official positions and important positions in the imperial court can help Zhang Yang stabilize Henei and win over his subordinates.

"only."

Fu Wan could only agree and do his best.

As for the Henei troops, if Dong Zhao were alive, he could slowly mobilize them and suddenly invade Hedong to catch Zhao Yan off guard.

But now the situation was difficult. Before Zhao Ji could reorganize Hedong, there was no imperial edict from Henei to raise troops to Hedong. Zhao Yan and Zhao Ji might make crazy moves that would be detrimental to the court. While they were discussing this, Wei Ji, acting as an envoy, led a dozen or so cavalrymen to successfully take over the Salt Supervisor City.

Wei Ji was very familiar with this place, and was even more familiar with the strengths and weaknesses of each family in the county.

According to the list he made, the Hedong knights rushed to various places in Anyi to visit Zhao Ji with his invitation.

These powerful clan leaders had also been prepared. It was impossible for them to abandon their ancestral heritage and flee. As long as there was a glimmer of hope, they would find ways to seek opportunities for survival and development.

No matter how ruthless Zhao Ji was, he could not attempt to uproot them like the previous imperial court did.

The collapse of the Wei and Fan families has given them a wake-up call.

Even if they stayed in the manor and fort and refused to come out, Zhao Ji would not be able to do anything to them for a while.

Just like the Baibo generals before him, he could only maintain superficial peace with them.

But who dares to be the first to resist now?
With the imperial court in their hands, those who resist are considered traitors and rebels. The morale of the people in the fortress has collapsed, making it difficult to work together to defend.

Once it's breached, it's all over.

How to plunder the powerful is a delicate job.

Before taking action, Zhao Ji thought it would be difficult to deal with, but once he started, he found that someone at Lao Zhao's level could also be considered a small tyrant.

If a small-time tyrant is alone, the county officials can make his family restless and flee far away.

However, the relationship between the powerful and the county officials is often complicated. When the county magistrate or county head wants to deal with them severely, the county officials are perfunctory and lazy, and there is a lack of implementation basis, which makes the powerful difficult to deal with.

Once we capture the various small tyrants, it will be easier to deal with the big tyrants who own forts and manors.

When powerful people of all sizes unite together, they become a difficult armed group.

If it is differentiated, at least half of it can be eaten.

Either reach a tacit understanding with the big tyrants and eat up the small tyrants; or organize the small tyrants to eat up the big tyrants.

Obviously, the origin of the Hedong Huben determined that this time they could only eat the big and powerful people, and then eat some of the small and powerful people.

Eat two-thirds, this is Zhao Ji's estimate.

Therefore, when the army moved to the north of the city to set up camp, Zhao Ji began to look for the Huben and Hedong knights in the camp according to Wei Ji's list, and questioned them one by one.

He worked until the afternoon before he finally drew up a death list.

It is not necessary to execute the people on the list. If they do not resist, they will be demoted to slaves and thrown into the mines to work and polish themselves for a while.

Once their temperaments have been tamed and other places have been stabilized, we will select suitable people from among them to form the suicide squad.

With the miserable fate of this group of people as a backdrop, other people’s resentment will not be so great.

These people will not cause trouble in the short term before the main force collapses.

In order to prevent these people from causing trouble, an idea came to Zhao Ji's mind.

While he was thinking, Han Shu appeared outside the door: "Minister, Hu Wenxu is leading the Wenxi volunteer soldiers. According to scouts, there are no less than 2,000 of them, and they are about to cross the bridge!"

"Well, prepare the horses, I'll go and greet them."

Zhao Ji rolled up the bamboo slips, worried that he would forget the brilliant idea that had just come to his mind, so he picked up a pen and wrote on one of them, "Store grain in Anyi, relocate families, and enrich Anyi."

Just take hostages and exploit the powerful. These people will always have hidden money, and they will still be able to rise quickly if they seize the opportunity in the future.

If there is a way out, I will naturally not follow you down the same path to the end.

Moving close family members to Anyi to participate in farming can further release production potential and allow more currency to circulate.

Anyi and Wenxi are adjacent to each other and rely on the Sushui River, making irrigation convenient.

The surrounding fields are fertile. As long as the water does not dry up and we actively fight locusts this year, we can guarantee basic farming income.

If you want the majority of people to cooperate and obey, you can only catch those powerful people and beat them to death.

Those who were beaten to a state of despair would rather die than live, and others would not dare to object or resist. With the court's righteousness and the threat of force, the vast majority of people would blindly follow.

Cao Cao could capture good civilians and set them up as military settlements, while he could arrange for the hungry civilians to be settled as government settlements. This would be mutually beneficial and the two dilemmas would be resolved.

Therefore, it is necessary to seize the vast majority of food.

Wherever there is food, there are the hearts of the hungry.

By breaking up the big and powerful people and bringing down the small and powerful people, we will have the foundation for state-run farms.

In order to further rally the military spirit, when the government-run farms were established, part of the rent and taxes could be distributed to the local Tiger Guards.

The income of the Huben was changed from salary to a share of the official farmland.

Under this model, future external expansion will inherently require the overthrow and destruction of local order; the scale of the Tiger Guards can also grow, but it will not become excessive as it grows.

Compared to salary, getting a share of the farm profits... the meaning is obviously fundamentally different.

(End of this chapter)