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

The governors of Caozhou, Yunzhou, and Yanzhou were all alarmed by this phenomenon.

The fact that functions originally performed by the government have been replaced by a "spontaneously" formed organization is by no means a good sign for those in power.

The governors of each prefecture began to send out their yamen runners and clerks to mingle among the people and gather information about the Equalization Society.

Meanwhile, Li You, the instigator of the Junping Society, was busy allocating money to purchase the soon-to-be-harvested grain, as well as livestock such as cattle, horses, sheep, and donkeys.

Since the great success of Huimin Bank last year, Yin Hongzhi, under the instruction of Li You, set up private granaries in important places all over the country and used the proceeds to hoard grain and fodder. Most of these private granaries were concentrated on both sides of the Grand Canal, and many were also built in the Central Plains.

Now Huang Chao's army has shifted its strategic focus to Shandong and Hebei, where private granaries are under construction.

With the rapid rise of private banking, Huinong Bank, taking advantage of the momentum of the other three banks, established connections with more large merchants. Grain from Jiannan, Guanzhong, Taiyuan and other places could also be transferred to the private granaries newly established by Huang Chao's army through various channels.

Of course, Li You was keeping an eye on more than just food supplies.

The various livestock mentioned above also came into Li You's view.

Livestock such as cattle, sheep, donkeys, and horses can not only be used for animal power, but their tendons can also be used to make crossbows.

In addition to crossbow production, Li You also purchased smuggled iron ore from various places to forge weapons.

Those Shandong people who joined the Junping Society were then selected, educated, and trained through multiple rounds of screening, and were then absorbed into Huang Chao's army as soldiers.

When Li You first entered Shandong, he only brought two thousand men, but now his force has expanded to eight thousand.

It is time to unleash an even greater storm and destroy Huang Chao's army's natural enemy—the aristocratic families.

Li You had already noticed the government's espionage activities, but this was a minor issue.

Once the powerful clans in Shandong are dealt with and the enthusiasm of the common people for "equal distribution" is fully unleashed, an army of 100,000 men can be easily obtained, given the population base of Shandong.

Even without 100,000 troops, Li You was confident that he could raise 50,000 men, because he had managed to do so even in the most difficult times, let alone today.

An army of 50,000 men would be enough to uproot the entire bureaucratic system in Shandong, including all the military units stationed by the imperial court in the region.

Therefore, the key issue is still to eliminate the powerful clans.

The first prey that Li You set his sights on was the Xie family of Cao County.

The Xie clan of Cao County and the Xie clan of Dongshan in the south share the same lineage, both being descendants of Xie An, the prime minister of the Eastern Jin Dynasty.

According to preliminary investigations, the Xie family in Cao County now owns 170,000 mu of land, covering almost the entire county. Moreover, the county's top official is also a member of the Xie family.

If Boling in Hebei is the "ancestral home" of the Cui clan, then Cao County is the "ancestral home" of the Xie clan.

To ensure a smoother operation against the Xie family, Li You decided to draw troops from Hebei, Suizhou, and Raozhou to participate in the upcoming war.

The population of the Raozhou base area is relatively small; only one thousand people need to be transferred.

Three thousand troops were each transferred from Hebei and Suizhou.

After the troops arrive, Huang Chao's army will have a total strength of 15,000 men in Shandong.

The Xie family of Cao County is in grave danger.

……

Just as undercurrents were brewing in Shandong, a cultural storm triggered by eight thousand sets of simplified Chinese books finally resounded throughout the Tang Dynasty with the holding of the "Autumn Tribute" in various places.

In fact, Chao Yang did not stop printing books. His printing plants were still working overtime. Many scholars who did not receive books at first saw the "lifesaving package" placed at their doorsteps after a while.

This includes Li Shan, the talented scholar from Yangzhou mentioned earlier.

Now that the new book has arrived, there's no need to continue copying it.

Li Shan, Zhang Luo, Fan Cang, and everyone else in the world who knew about this matter were all wondering who this "Huang Chao" was, that he was still able to print books continuously.

If it were the imperial court, there would be no need to act so secretly.

Even the imperial court couldn't sustain such a large-scale printing of books in the long run. You have to understand that most of the imperial court's annual tax revenue was used for military purposes. I heard that they were going to launch a major military campaign against Goguryeo, spending money like water.

Therefore, Li Shan currently tends to believe that it is a powerful force that has strong opinions against the aristocratic families and is attempting to break their cultural monopoly and even shake their foundations through this method.

The autumn tribute ceremony in Yangzhou was held as scheduled.

After the exam, the collected papers caught the eyes of the examiners in charge of grading them.

The students' answers this year showed significant improvement compared to last year, with many excellent and outstanding works emerging.

The examiner thought to himself, "Some of the candidates seem to have a higher level of understanding and insight than I do!"

However... there were just too many high-quality exam papers, and the examiners began to have doubts again.

Could it be... that the exam questions were leaked?

Since the Sui Dynasty, the imperial examination system has been flawed, and leaks of exam questions have occurred frequently. Even so, the examiners in Yangzhou were unwilling to let this happen to them, so they reported it to the governor of Yangzhou and demanded a thorough investigation.

Upon hearing of this, Chen Zhihong, the governor of Yangzhou, was furious and immediately ordered an investigation.

After thorough investigation, every step was traced, but no evidence of leaked questions was found.

The subordinates reported the investigation results to Governor Chen, who thought about it and still felt something was amiss. So he went to the examination hall, took the examination papers himself, and carefully looked through them.

As he looked through the papers, Governor Chen nodded repeatedly, quite satisfied with this year's candidates.

"Yes, there are indeed many well-written articles, especially by this scholar named Li Shan. His citations are extensive, and his writing is magnificent; he is certainly qualified to pass the imperial examination!"

"This Li Shan is known for his talent and is a distinguished student of Mr. Cao Xian."

"Oh, that's not surprising."

After putting down Li Shan's answer sheet, Governor Chen began to read other people's answers.

"Huh? Are these words misspelled?"

Upon hearing their superior's words, all the examiners gathered around to watch.

However, a scholar named Ye Biyong wrote "政贵有恒，辞尚体要" instead of "政贵有恒，辞尚体要". This phrase comes from the Book of Documents and means that the policies for governing a country should be stable and consistent, and should not be changed frequently. When issuing decrees or writing proclamations, the language should be concise and to the point.

"It seems... I did make a mistake."

"I have seen similar cases when grading papers. The relevant papers have been relegated to the second-best category."

"Sigh, this article is quite well-written, it's such a pity."

In ancient times, the requirements for the neatness of the examination papers were very strict. Not to mention writing the wrong character, even if there was a little extra ink on the paper, it could be judged as unqualified.