Mang Shusheng's Ink Painting Practice

Chapter 125 Rules of Conduct
When Zhao Yifu arrived outside the courtyard, he happened to see a very tragic scene...

It was a yellow-skinned creature that was half a person's height when standing up. It was grinning and looking ferocious, but was slapped by Hua Da Niu and thrown into the corner.

The skinny figure of the yellow fox looked so weak next to the solid physique of the Hua Da Niu.

"Meow~"

Hua Da Nv let out a hoarse roar, full of oppression.

The yellow-skinned man fell to the corner of the wall, looking angry.

Zhao Yifu walked over, and the yellow-skinned man immediately pounced on him when he saw him.

There is a strong demonic aura on its body, and you can tell at a glance that it is not a good thing. It may feel that compared to the powerful raccoon monster, humans are relatively weak.

But unfortunately, it didn't know that humans were actually the terrifying upright apes that had transformed into spirits. It really ignored how powerful a warrior human could be.

"Paji~"

Zhao Yifu also waved his hand, and his movements were exactly the same as Hua Da Niu waving her claws.

The yellow fox was stuck to the wall again, leaving a deep mark on it.

Zhao Yi Fu walked over and grabbed the yellow-skinned man.

"Squeak~"

The yellow fox let out a sharp hiss, then scratched Zhao Yifu's arm with its claws.

Unfortunately, although the claws were extremely sharp, they had no effect on Haoran's robes. Even when they grabbed the exposed skin on Zhao Yifu's right hand, there was only a shallow white mark.

If the defense is not broken, it really is not broken.

Sun Zhenghe, who heard the noise, hurried over with his servants and saw the tall and strong Zhao Yifu standing with a yellow leather stick in one hand, looking very virtuous.

Sun Zhenghe shuddered. He knew that Zhao Yifu was a very stubborn scholar, but he didn't expect him to be so stubborn that he would even take on the work of warriors.

But he still shuddered when he saw the yellow leather in Zhao Yifu's hand.

He said in a panic, "This is Wong Tai Sin... Sir, why did you capture Wong Tai Sin?"

Zhao Yifu asked in surprise: "Do you know him?"

Sun Zhenghe said, "This is my first time seeing it, but there has always been a legend about the Wong Tai Sin around here. Over the years, it has been looking for people to give it a title, and the people nearby have tried to avoid it."

Zhao Yifu nodded and threw the yellow-skinned creature to the ground. "Since I call you 'Huang Daxian,' you must have refined your transverse bone and can speak human language, right?"

The yellow-skinned man coughed twice after landing, then said in a sharp and somewhat crazy tone: "Damn it, cunning man, ruining my cultivation!"

"You are all not good people, just die and be clean, just die and be clean!"

Zhao Yifu saw the other person's eyes, which were not crazy, but really full of jealousy.

Sun Zhenghe shuddered, but didn't dare to say anything.

Zhao Yifu said thoughtfully, "I heard that when a yellow-skinned demon reaches a certain stage in his cultivation, he must leave the mountains to seek a seal from others in order to advance his cultivation."

"And if you fail to obtain the title, your cultivation will suffer a great loss."

"So most yellow-skinned people are extreme and narrow-minded, and are particularly prone to becoming jealous of their superiors over trivial matters..."

As he spoke, he changed the subject and asked, "You killed everyone in this house, didn't you?"

The yellow-skinned man rolled his eyes and said, "They deserve to die."

Zhao Yifu understood and said, "As expected, you killed everyone in the Xie family back then. Why did you kill them?"

The yellow fox sniffed in disdain.

Zhao Yifu's hands were burning with flames, which was the effect of activating the "Fiery Sun Hand".

He reached out to the yellow-skinned man with his palms burning with flames, saying, "Since you've already admitted it, your crime is truly heinous."

He showed little patience and curiosity, and seemed to want to resolve the problem here as soon as possible.

"This family was the first to do something that was against the will of Heaven. I am only acting on behalf of Heaven..."

The yellow-skinned man screamed.

Zhao Yifu remained unmoved. Without hesitation, he touched the weasel's head with his hands. The entire weasel's head was covered in flames, emitting a burnt smell.

The yellow-skinned man screamed impatiently, "It was that monk. That monk said that if we bury a child of our direct bloodline in the well, we can forever suppress the spiritual eye of the earth veins and make the Xie family prosperous for generations!"

Zhao Yifu's anger stopped.

He asked, "What kind of monk?"

The yellow-skinned man, whose head had turned completely black, said, "A monk wearing red clothes, with a fat head and big ears, but with the smell of rouge on his body."

Zhao Yifu understood what he meant when he heard it. This was very similar in appearance to the evil monk from Lunzang Temple that Taoist Bai Na had introduced to him.

He thought carefully for a moment and asked, "Do you know the name of the child who was thrown into the well?"

The yellow-skinned man answered honestly this time, "He's called the Ghost Boy in Front of the King of the Wheel of Dharma. He's said to be there to serve the King of the Wheel of Dharma."

Zhao Yifu nodded after hearing this, feeling that this matter made sense.

He said, "But I don't believe you killed the entire Xie family just to do good. Tell me your reasons."

The yellow fox's eyes rolled, but before he could say anything, Zhao Yifu had already grabbed its head and started grilling it.

"Ah~~"

"Why burn me again?!"

Zhao Yifu said coldly: "I see you are thinking, I don't need you to think to answer this question!"

The yellow-skinned man quickly shouted, "It's because of that kid! That kid ruined my practice, so I'm going to kill his whole family!"

Zhao Yifu was a little confused. He asked, "Which child is it?"

The yellow-skinned man said, "It was the child in the well. The other day I went to him to ask for a title, but he didn't say I looked like a human. Instead, he said I looked like his friend!"

"He ruined my cultivation, so I'm going to ruin his entire family!"

After hearing this, Zhao Yifu felt that the logic seemed wrong.

Somehow the child ended up treating a yellow fox that was seeking a title as a friend, but the yellow fox regarded this beautiful relationship as a curse.

Then the child died, and the yellow-skinned man sent away the family members who killed the child in the name of revenge...

In short, either this yellow fox is a tsundere who says one thing and does another, or its own thinking is too distorted, resulting in a 'negative equals positive' effect.

After hearing this, Zhao Yi Fu shook his head, grabbed the yellow-skinned man's neck, and then waved out a piece of spiritual paper.

Then the five elements seal was activated, and he pressed the yellow-skinned creature onto the spiritual paper. At the same time, the spiritual ink was controlled to attach to it... The next moment, the yellow-skinned creature seemed to have suffered a 'dimensionality reduction attack' and was pressed into the spiritual paper and turned into a painting.

The seal was completed, and a strange picture appeared.

A black-headed weasel was left in the painting, running around like a headless fly, looking very anxious.

Zhao Yifu straightened the "drawing paper" and then stacked it together with another piece of ghost boy's drawing paper.

Strangely enough, the ghost boy, who had been twisting and struggling, and the weasel, who had been running around like a headless fly, suddenly became quiet. They seemed to sense each other's presence at this moment and accepted this state of affairs.

Zhao Yifu nodded with satisfaction, he felt that he had done a good thing.

Although I can’t really describe what this good thing is, it’s a good thing anyway, right?

Then he turned to look at Sun Zhenghe and asked, "Master Sun, what's the situation over there?"

Sun Zhenghe hurriedly said respectfully, "Your Excellency, there are still 31 households with 100 people left in Wu Village. 26 of them have voluntarily given up their land, and only five are willing to continue farming."

Zhao Yifu nodded.

He thought for a moment and said, "In fact, this village is already dead in name only, and the water veins here have been polluted and are no longer suitable for irrigation."

"Then those five families will be relocated to other villages. There's abandoned land everywhere anyway, so you can just make the arrangements."

"In addition, these relocated people can be exempted from taxes for two years, which can be regarded as a moving subsidy from the county."

Sun Zhenghe nodded repeatedly and asked, "What about those landless people? How should they be resettled?"

Zhao Yifu said calmly, "They're unwilling to work and support themselves even if we give them the land. It's obvious they have bad intentions."

"But we officials cannot act without rules. Ask them if they are willing to cultivate the official land. I can give each family 80 mu of official land to cultivate."

The price he offered was actually quite high. Being a tenant farmer for the government was not a hard job in those days.

Especially after Zhao Yifu abolished the summer and autumn taxes tied to the land for the tenant farmers, they only needed to hand over the harvested crops according to a fixed proportion, and the rest was enough to feed the whole family and even live a good life.

In fact, in some places with good governance and harmonious people, many people would apply for some government land to cultivate in addition to their own farmland.

Of course, this is something that should be done within one's capabilities.

In any case, the Da Xu court has always attached great importance to the land and the farmers who work on the land, and from time to time it will cultivate some new seeds or new farming techniques for promotion.

This shows that the Great Xu court has not lost its enterprising spirit. After all, if it wants to counterattack the north by taking advantage of the geographical disadvantage in the south, it must accumulate more supplies.

Sun Zhenghe immediately took people there, but it was a long time before he brought some not-so-good news.

"Your Excellency, this time we have persuaded eleven families to plant the government farmland."

"But the remaining 15 families were unwilling to do so."

Zhao Yifu frowned and asked, "What do they want to do?"

"If they don't want the land, fine. Just assume they can't bear the hardship of pioneering."

"If they are asked to be tenant farmers and just cultivate cultivated land, what else can they do?"

After a pause, he tried to speak in a calm tone, "Could you please ask Patriarch Sun if there are any skilled workers who can do the work? If so, I can arrange for them."

After a while, Sun Zhenghe came back and said, "I've asked around, and there are indeed three families who are carpenters, and one blacksmith. They are all planning to go to the county town or town to make a living with their skills."

Zhao Yifu frowned and asked, "There are still eleven families left?"

Sun Zhenghe said, "There are two more families here who are planning to go to live with their relatives. They hope that you can issue them travel permits."

"There are three other families who make their livings on fishing and hunting, so we don't know what to do for the moment. We would like to ask you to help arrange a place for them to go."

"There are only six families left, and they are not interested in anything. They just ask when the adults will leave."

Zhao Yifu sneered and said, "I understand."

"I'll write travel permits for those two families going to seek refuge with their relatives. You can give them to them."

"As for those three hunters... that's even simpler. Let's have them all move to the county town. The men can work as errand boys or constables in the government office and receive salaries. I'm sure they'd be willing to do that."

Although being a constable may not be a good job these days, it is definitely a good place for the propertyless and landless.

"As for the remaining six households..."

Zhao Yifu snorted coldly, "Without land or property, he's unwilling to work. There must be something fishy going on."

"But it doesn't matter. Since they have nothing left and are willing to give up even their land, you can just send someone to take them away after everyone else is settled."

"I'll give you the documents and escort them to Fenglin County. I'll have them treated as refugees and sent to reclaim wasteland."

Sun Zhenghe was shocked when he heard this.

I originally thought that Zhao Yifu would be lenient in dealing with these matters... Indeed, his previous handling was a manifestation of leniency, because he was very tolerant of families who were willing to continue to live by their own labor, and even provided different degrees of help.

But for these six stubborn families, the punishment was ruthless.

Refugees... This is a group that is the source of unrest in feudal dynasties. No court would like to see refugees appearing under its rule.

Therefore, there are generally different resettlement methods.

Some people let the refugees fend for themselves or simply kill them humanely. Some more ruthless ones even take them directly to the quarry to do hard labor until they die of exhaustion.

Of course, Zhao Yifu's method of handling the matter was considered good, but the settlers had almost no status before they turned the wasteland into cultivated land.

Only if they could provide the court with output through military farming would these military farms be converted into ordinary official farmland, and they would then be able to become like ordinary farmers, at least tenant farmers, and no longer be taken-in settlers.

This military farming policy was originally intended to attract refugees to return to production, but now it has been used by Zhao Yifu as "labor reform."

As for the property of the common people?

Sorry, refugees don’t have any property.

After a while, sounds of smashing, shouting, cursing, and crying for parents were heard from this dilapidated village.

It sounds like they have done something terribly evil.

But the people who did not leave looked at this scene, some showed fear, some showed relief, and some showed relief, but there was no anger or sympathy.

A moment later, a member of the Sun family came up to Zhao Yifu and Sun Zhenghe with a strange expression on his face and said, "My Lords, Patriarch, we've found a lot of food and valuables in the cellars and secret compartments of these six households. No wonder they're so confident."

Zhao Yifu nodded and smiled, "I'm afraid they're just waiting for us to leave so they can go live their lives somewhere else."

Sun Zhenghe pondered for a moment and said, "Among those people, there may be some who also hid valuables..."

All these properties belonged to the extinct Xie family.

Although in the eyes of these villagers, since the Xie family has died out, their property is naturally ownerless.

But from the government's perspective, since these things have no owner, shouldn't they be confiscated?

Zhao Yifu shook his head and said, "When water is too clear, there are no fish. Let them be. As long as they can live their lives honestly from now on, that's fine."

Sun Zhenghe was convinced from the bottom of his heart, or rather, at that time no one was dissatisfied except those who were taken away as refugees.

Because at this time Zhao Yifu's actions were extremely methodical, and every word and action was very particular, making it impossible to find fault with him.

It's not that he wanted to frame them on purpose, but he gave them opportunities time and time again, but these people chose to become refugees who threatened local stability.

At this moment, some aura appeared on Zhao Yifu's body, which could be said to be the beginning of his fame!

　欧了

　　
　
(End of this chapter)