Prince Li You of the Great Tang Dynasty begs the noble families to their deaths!

Li You immediately sent a message to the "Junping Society" established in the surrounding counties: if any abandoned infants are found, they should be adopted; if the parents' identities can be found, they should be recorded for future use; and it should be spread that there is a place called "Junping Society" that can adopt abandoned infants. Those who have "need" should place the infants in a certain place and they will be taken care of, which will also bring some comfort to the parents.

A dozen days after the message was sent out, two babies were brought to the village.

One of the babies' cries was indeed a bit strange, but the baby was healthy, without any deformities, and was very cute. Li You really couldn't understand why they would throw away such a beautiful child. What were these parents thinking?

Another baby, who was otherwise healthy but had six fingers on his left hand, was also abandoned.

Li You assigned the two children to be raised by some kind-hearted soldiers in the army. After a few years, when they grew up, they were raised by Huang Chao's army.

Raising children is actually quite simple; it just involves consuming some food.

The other matters that were reported were more difficult to handle.

It is said that two families got into a fight over a funeral, resulting in deaths and injuries on both sides.

The reason was that both families had their eyes on a "feng shui treasure land" and wanted to move their ancestral graves there, but two graves could not be placed on one mountain, so a conflict arose.

This kind of thing is quite common in rural areas. Ignoring other off-field factors, it ultimately comes down to which side has the stronger fist.

The problem is that these two families are neighbors in the village, and both have sons who have joined Huang Chao's army.

Therefore, the matter transformed from an internal conflict among the villagers into an internal conflict within Huang Chao's army, forcing Prince Qi, Li You, to intervene.

Personally, Li You found the idea of ​​a "feng shui treasure land" to be utterly absurd.

But you never know, some people will believe in this kind of thing.

Li Youxian summoned the soldiers of Huang Chao's army who had reported the matter.

"Greetings, my lord!"

"Are you Zhang Hua?"

"Indeed, I am Zhang Hua."

"You two are Xiao Long and Xiao Gang?"

"That's right, it's just the two of us."

Li You nodded, then said, "Your Zhang family has over eighty members, and the Xiao family has over sixty. To start a war over this matter and make enemies is extremely unwise. Who told you that that piece of land was a geomantically auspicious site?"

"My lord, he is a wandering Taoist priest."

"What did the Taoist priest say?"

"First, several members of my Zhang family fell seriously ill and, unable to find a cure, we invited a Taoist priest to come and see them. After examining the patients and looking around, he said that there was something strange about my Zhang family's ancestral graves, that we had been punished by heaven, and that we must move them. If we didn't move them, even more people would die later."

"Upon hearing this, the elders in the family felt that they had no choice but to move the grave. So they asked the Taoist priest to survey the land and select a suitable plot. He said that after the grave was moved to this auspicious site, everything would go smoothly, and the descendants would be extremely distinguished, with several even becoming high-ranking officials."

Upon hearing this, Li You shook his head and chuckled, "Was all the training we did for our soldiers in Huang Chao's army a waste of time? Zhang Hua, let me ask you, within the Tang Dynasty, what kind of people are those who can hold official positions?"

"Nine out of ten are from prominent families, and the remaining few are from poor families with money and power."

"Hmm, it seems you heard about this in class. And look at your Zhang family, just a few dozen people—can you really call them rich and powerful?"

"That... doesn't count."

"Where is your Xiao family?"

"Uh...we're not even as good as the Zhang family."

"Then that settles it, doesn't it? None of your families' descendants will become officials. That Taoist priest was definitely lying, and not just to your two families. This shows that the so-called feng shui treasure land is utter nonsense. Zhang Hua, those people in your family who suffered from serious illnesses, did they eventually recover?"

"No, they're all dead. That wicked Taoist priest, if I ever run into him, I'll kill him!"

After being reminded by the King of Qi, Zhang Hua finally realized that his family had been deceived.

Xiao Long and Xiao Gang were also furious.

"I heard that the relationship between your two families has deteriorated drastically, is that right?"

"Yes, my lord, the two of us have also fought with Zhang Hua in private."

Who won in the end?

"...Zhang Hua is very agile; we can't beat him."

Li You smiled and said, "Here's what we've done. We've recently cleared out a lot of unclaimed land in Chengwu County. One of your families can choose to relocate the entire estate here, including the graves. We don't need to hire any Taoist priests this time, lest they try to scam you again. The land in the original village will be allocated to the other family to cultivate. My Huang Chao army will provide compensation to the relocated family, both in terms of money and labor. You two families can then settle things peacefully and won't have to live together anymore. How does that sound?"

After discussing it for a while, Zhang Hua finally said, "What you say is very true, my lord. Our Zhang family will move here. The two families have fallen out like this, so it is indeed not appropriate for them to live together."

Xiao Long said, "Our Xiao family won't take their land for nothing. We'll give them half of the harvest every year."

Li You nodded: "That's for the best. When you relocate, don't forget to spread the fame of the Junping Society to attract people from your surrounding villages to join. Also, these wandering Taoist priests and monks who swindle people must be eliminated to prevent similar incidents from happening again. The three of you will lead a group to handle this, starting with the dozen or so counties around us!"

"promise!"

In the days that followed, Zhang Hua and his accomplices traveled from village to village, capturing many swindlers and Taoist priests, and imprisoning them in the village for education.

Without these people selling "grave anxiety," there have been far fewer related incidents.

The idea that "feng shui treasure land" is unreliable has also spread.

When the common people heard this, they all felt that their children and grandchildren were not cut out to be officials, let alone have the opportunity to become officials. They then realized that those Taoist priests and monks were deceiving people.

Some families, similar to Zhang and Xiao's, who were embroiled in disputes over relocating graves, even to the point of bloodshed, have calmed down and either made peace or chosen other locations to relocate their graves.

Through this incident, Junping Society gained a good reputation.

People in many counties and prefectures became aware of the existence of this organization.

The messages from other soldiers were about local bullies, bandits, gamblers, and lechers who ran rampant in various counties and villages.

Li You gradually discovered that while aristocratic families were not exactly benevolent in this era, there were also many scoundrels hidden among the common people.

A particularly notable figure is a villain named Sun Chao.

This man, relying on his land and money, gathered a group of followers and controlled several nearby villages, acting like a local tyrant.

Sun Chao treated the wives and daughters of every household in the village as playthings. His favorite thing to do was to drag the wives and daughters of the villagers while they were farming and rape them in front of their husbands. It was extremely absurd and unscrupulous.

Because Sun Chao was extremely vicious and ruthless, most of the villagers dared not speak out against him and could only endure it.

Some who dared to resist were killed by Sun Chao using various methods.

The children born to the wives and daughters of ordinary people were not known whether they were their own or Sun Chao's; they could only raise them to adulthood in a daze.

There's no need to educate such a fellow; just send troops to kill him and divide the land equally.

In an era without oversight, there were many similar figures. By eliminating these people, Huang Chao's army seized approximately 30,000 mu of farmland—this figure only represents a dozen or so nearby counties.

As a result of the aforementioned events, the reputation of the Junping Society grew, and the number of people joining the society gradually increased. The grievances they reported to Huang Chao's army also accumulated.

One murder case completely ignited the reputation of the Junping Society, and from then on, it was unstoppable, bringing immeasurable impact to the Shandong region of the Tang Dynasty and Huang Chao's army itself.