Zhutian: Starting from the Space-Time Merchant

Chapter 272 My Money~~~
"Kill~~~"

Amidst deafening shouts of battle, the Red Turban Army, with red turbans wrapped around their heads and wielding weapons such as rebar and seamless steel pipe spears, surged towards the walls of Yingzhou like a tidal wave.

'Bang~ bang~'

The few firearms on the city wall emitted smoke.

The accuracy of these firearms is appalling, but they do have some sound and light effects.

The main force of the Yuan army defending the city consisted of local Han garrison troops, who were mostly just going through the motions.

They don't even make a few hundred yuan a month, why are they working so hard?
Those who truly fought to the death were the Mongols and Semu people within the city.

They kept firing arrows, throwing stones and logs; they were truly fighting desperately.

Holding his sword, the Darughachi of Yingzhou constantly patrolled the city walls, shouting and yelling to urge the troops to fight.

Upon seeing the Han soldiers offering passive resistance, he immediately led his personal guards forward to kill them.

The supervision had some effect, at least temporarily stabilizing the city wall that was under heavy attack.

The Darughachi of Yingzhou City was said to be very energetic and that he would have sex with three women every night.

In the heat of battle, he even took up a bow and arrow and approached the battlements to shoot arrows outwards.

"Sir~~~"

The guards hurriedly tried to dissuade him.

But the next moment, the Darughachi, who had half his body sticking out of the crevice, suddenly had a burst of blood erupt from his chest.

The enormous impact sent him staggering backward, and he fell to the ground the next moment.

The guards were shocked and rushed forward to help him up, only to find that the Darughachi had a large gash on his back, a bloody mess of rotten flesh.

Fresh blood fell like a mountain spring.

With the death of the supervisor, Darughachi, the local garrison defending the city quickly collapsed and scattered.

The Red Turban Army stormed the city walls, killed Yuan soldiers, and opened the city gates.

Lin Dao, having put away his sniper rifle, instructed Shi Nai'an, "For the merit of being the first to scale the walls, military merit will be promoted five times, with the upper limit being a centurion."

"Ask the vanguard soldiers whether they want a thousand acres of land as a reward or three thousand strings of cash."

"The money can be given immediately, but the land will be allocated after the army has settled down."

Lin Daojianjun has always valued cultural knowledge.

A soldier, relying on his merits in battle, could at most rise to the rank of centurion.

Only by being literate, literate, and able to do arithmetic can one have the opportunity for further promotion.

As for the rewards, for the vast majority of ordinary people who had no land to stand on, a thousand acres of land would make them the equivalent of a large landowner.

The Red Turban Army is still engaged in mobile warfare, and the land cannot be distributed for the time being.

Therefore, Lin Dao offered another option: three thousand strings of cash.

The Yuan Dynasty's monetary system was chaotic, and its economy collapsed in its later years, with only gold, silver, and copper coins maintaining their value.

One string of cash was roughly equivalent to one tael of silver.

Three thousand strings of cash means three thousand taels of silver.

Those who frequently watch period dramas know that when the main characters go to a restaurant, they often take out tens or hundreds of taels of silver and don't even need to pay change, thus helping the waiters in the restaurant achieve upward social mobility.

So much silver, it looks like it's just a few dozen or a few hundred dollars.

In reality, metal currency was always highly valued in ancient times.

In the Yuan Dynasty, the official income of a first-rank official was only a little over three hundred strings of cash a year.

The official's public income over ten years, as a reward for being the first to arrive, was not a small amount.

Liu Futong, who was standing to the side, twitched the corner of his mouth.

My money~~~

Aside from occasionally performing miracles, Lin Dao did not provide any financial or food subsidies.

All the expenses now, apart from the previous spoils, are from Liu Futong's donated assets.

What's most infuriating is that even with the money and supplies provided, Liu Futong was still just an elder of the White Lotus Sect.

In the Red Turban Army, he was only assigned the position of advisor.

Liu Futong read the book until it was worn out, but still couldn't understand what "advisor" meant.

Within the Red Turban Army, he could say a few words about anything, but he couldn't make any decisions.

"That does not work."

Standing behind Lin Dao, Liu Futong watched Lin Dao head towards Yingzhou City. "This man is too wicked. He wants to devour my entire family. If I continue to follow him, I won't even have a hair left. We have to break up!"

Yingzhou City was the seat of Yingzhou Prefecture, but in reality, there were only about a thousand households in the city.

Located in the heart of the Mongol Yuan territory, the defenses here were not strong.

After entering the city, Lin Dao instructed Zheng Chenggong to "post notices to reassure the people, and personally lead a patrol of the city to strictly enforce military discipline and prevent disturbance of the people."

He then turned to the radiant Shi Nai'an and said, "Distribute the soldiers' rewards immediately; there must be no delay."

Lin Dao's accumulated experience across multiple time periods made him very clear that in the era of cold weapons, talking about anything else was just nonsense; only tangible benefits were real.

What White Lotus Sect, what Maitreya Sect, what Ming Cult, what Ming King!
Without clothes on your body, food in your belly, and money in your hand, all of this is nonsense.

The siege ended, and the soldiers were in a state of high spirits.

To appease the soldiers at this time, it is necessary to immediately distribute rewards and benefits.

Otherwise, even without a large-scale massacre, various disturbances to the people would inevitably occur one after another.

He has experience and knows how to handle things.

He then instructed Shi Nai'an to "seal off all warehouses and seal the doors of wealthy households in the city to await further instructions."

"Leader!"

Lin Dao rode his horse straight into the government office.

The surrendered officials knelt throughout the courtyard.

Those who resisted have all been killed.

Those who were cowardly have already fled.

The rest of them each had their own agendas.

Most of them were prepared to temporarily join the rebels and wait for the imperial army to return.

If the imperial army cannot return, then continue to serve as an official in the new dynasty.

For them, this kind of thing is completely psychologically unbearable.

Some clerks even had their positions passed down through generations in their families, remaining hereditary clerks for over a hundred years.

After all, even if a dynasty changes, the new emperor still needs someone to do the work and collect taxes. "Yellow register, fish scale register." Lin Dao sat down and his first words were, "Bring me all the case files and other documents from previous years."

Many of the rebels, who came from humble backgrounds, did not understand the intricacies of these matters.

They either kill to vent their anger, or they glance at things carelessly and move on, busy collecting benefits and enjoying beautiful women, delicious food, and fine wine.

Rebel armies from aristocratic families, like Li Shimin's, were more concerned with stability and winning over allies.

Only a time traveler like Lin Dao could understand the intricacies of the situation and have the heart to stand up for the people who truly suffer injustice.

The yellow register is the household registration book.

Every household registered in this state has its place of origin, age, number of people, land, property, and employment all recorded.

Population has always been the most important means of production.

"There are many hidden households." Flipping through the Yellow Register, Lin Dao quickly saw the hidden tricks that were not written down: "Wealthy families have hidden so many people."

The Yellow Register is also called the Yellow Register of Taxes and Labor Services.

Those registered in this system are required to pay taxes and perform corvée labor.

Lin Dao looked through the list and saw that the vast majority of the people were ordinary citizens, while the truly wealthy families had very few members.

He had seen these tricks used in the Yellow Register before and was very familiar with them.

"This is the official yellow register for dealing with the imperial court." After stamping the yellow register, Lin Dao smiled and asked, "Who has the secret yellow register?"

The dark yellow register contains the true population records of the local area.

Only by obtaining the secret register can taxes be effectively collected, corvée labor be levied, and even wealthy households be extorted.

Without a doubt, the clerk who possessed the secret yellow register intended to use it to negotiate with Lin Dao.

Seeing that no one responded, Lin Dao chuckled softly.

They knew they were manipulating him, waiting for him to ask again so they could negotiate.

The afternoon sun shone through the extremely thin mica polished on the roof and onto the lobby.

Lin Dao suddenly stopped laughing and picked up the fish-scale book.

Fish-scale album, also known as fish-scale map or measurement album.

In modern terms, it's a land property register.

This is a general record of folk land, which arranges and connects the houses, forests, ponds, fields, etc. of each household in order and marks them with their corresponding names.

The field is named for its resemblance to fish scales.

After flipping through dozens of pages of the thick fish-scale book, Lin Dao simply closed it.

Like the previous Yellow Register, this fish-scale register was something public and official.

It hasn't been changed in decades.

If you actually use this to collect taxes, you might be able to collect a thousand shi on the surface, but in reality, you'd be lucky to collect even a hundred shi.

Of those households that owned land listed in the register, probably less than one in ten still exist.

The wealthy households listed in the Yellow Register actually had less land and farmland resources than ordinary households listed in the Fish Scale Register.

Without even asking, it's obvious that this is all part of the old tradition of using strange and mysterious methods.

This time, Lin Dao simply didn't ask who had the truly useful Fish Scale Book.

I opened the case file and began reviewing past trial records.

The first case file I saw was a wrongful conviction.

"Master Liu forcibly abducted a woman in the street, and the sentence was that the woman's husband injured Master Liu and was sentenced to three thousand li of penal servitude?"

"Anyone with a conscience knows what's going on."

After reviewing the judge's signature on the case file, Lin Dao smiled and said, "Judge of Yingzhou, please step forward."

Before long, a middle-aged man with a goatee crawled in on his knees and bowed to the forest path.

He casually tossed the case file in front of him. "You presided over this case?"

"It was my decision."

"How many strings of cash did you receive?"

"Your Majesty, please forgive me." The judge bowed and said, "This humble official is wholeheartedly devoted to the people, honest and upright, and has never accepted any bribes."

"You." Lin Dao raised his hand and pointed to an armored soldier in the hall. "Go, break one of his legs."

Without hesitation, the guard stepped forward and, amidst the judge's terrified cries, swung the mace hanging from his waist and smashed it into the judge's left knee.

The judge's mournful horn call sent chills down the spines of everyone kneeling outside.

Lin Dao asked again, "How much money did you receive?"

The judge was rolling on the ground, only able to wail.

Lin Dao instructed his personal guards again to "break another one of his legs."

The judge, whose legs were both broken, nearly fainted from the excruciating pain.

Lin asked for the third time, "How much money did you receive?"

The judge could only wail and sob; he offered no reply.

"Drag him out and chop him up."

"Arrange for someone to search his house."

"And this Mr. Liu, his property will also be confiscated."

Lin Dao picked up another file and started looking through it.

The officials kneeling outside the hall watched helplessly as the judge, whose legs were in a strange position, was dragged out and, in front of everyone, his blade fell.

Armored soldiers followed them out of the yamen and led troops to confiscate their property.

The sunlight overhead was warm and bright.

However, the officials of Yingzhou were all trembling like leaves, their backs covered in cold sweat.

This is something I never even imagined.

When the rebel king entered the city, he did not plunder or enjoy the beauties.

Instead, they're here to exonerate the lowly commoners?
Is this king out of his mind? Does he not want to conquer the world?

"Zhou, the owner of the tofu shop in the east of the city, crashed into the Darughachi's vegetable cart in the street. He is sentenced to immediate execution?"

Lin Dao, his breathing slightly heavy, looked at the monogram on the dossier.

“The Assistant Magistrate of Yingzhou, please step forward.”

(End of this chapter)