The Three Kingdoms: The Oath of the Peach Garden, the Rise of the Han Dynasty

As soon as the order was issued, Yinguan City sprang into action.

On that day, Xu Rong led three thousand county soldiers north to Pingcheng. Before leaving, he only asked Li Chang for five thousand shi of grain and a batch of tools for building the city and cultivating the land.

He declared, "Within three months, the walls of Pingcheng will be three zhang high. If any barbarians dare to come, I will make sure they never return!"

He turned and left.

In order to reduce the pressure on food supplies, he also planned to try land reclamation there.

Zhao Yun, Pang De, and Xu Huang each led 500 cavalrymen and divided into three routes to wipe out the bandits within Yanmen Pass.

Zhang Fei was kept in the city to wait for the prisoners to be trained.

……

Ten miles south of Yinguan City lies Wangjia Village.

A brand-new notice was posted on the old locust tree at the entrance of the village.

The minor official who had come with them read aloud, word by word, explaining to the villagers:

Liu Bei, General Who Crossed the Liao River and Governor of Bing Province

Order: From this day forward, the new policies will be fully implemented in Yanmen County. All wasteland will belong to whoever cultivates it. The poll tax, land tax, and all other miscellaneous taxes will be abolished, and only 50% land rent will be collected…

Halfway through the reading, the villagers were so shocked they couldn't believe it, slapping their heads hard, thinking they were dreaming.

"Abolish the poll tax? Really?"

"There's no such thing as a free lunch. A new broom sweeps clean, and once that fire's gone, who knows what they'll do to us?"

"When that Prefect Zhang first came last year, he also said he would reduce taxes, but he ended up collecting even more taxes than before."

One of the insightful people even said:

"I heard from a friend in Luoyang that starting in February, the emperor began raising taxes again, saying he was going to build some kind of palace. Apparently, it's because the emperor believed the words of a treacherous person!"

"How despicable! It's all that treacherous minister's fault!"

Among the crowd, an old man with gray hair stood on the far end, leaning on a cane; it was Old Man Wang.

He lived to be fifty-six years old and served under three different prefects. Each of them spoke kindly but in reality, they wanted to squeeze every last drop of oil from the bones of the people.

After hearing the notice, he said nothing and turned to walk home.

"Dad, is this true?" Wang Er, the son, followed behind. "If the poll tax is really abolished, our family can harvest two more bags of grain this year, and we can also get Xiao Hu a wife."

"Stop dreaming." Old Wang said without turning his head.

"There's no such thing as a free lunch. None of these officials are good people. Just you wait, within three months they'll be finding ways to collect taxes. We should keep our grain hidden and not flaunt our wealth."

Wang Er sighed and remained silent. He also felt the plan was unlikely, but he still held onto a sliver of hope.

Meanwhile, outside the city, in the refugee camps.

Holding her three-year-old daughter and leading her five-year-old son, Liu stood at the very back of the line.

She fled from Yunzhong County half a month ago. Her husband was killed by the Xiongnu cavalry, her house was burned down, and all her food was looted. She and her two children begged for food and ate dirt all the way before finally managing to escape to Yanmen.

The line slowly moved forward, and finally it was her turn.

A soldier dressed in Han army armor scooped two large bowls full of bean porridge and handed them to her:

Eat slowly.

Liu lowered her head, not daring to look him in the eye, took the bean porridge, and turned to run to the corner.

Previously, when they were in Yunzhong, the soldiers also distributed porridge.

But those soldiers, while distributing porridge, were also conscripting men. All the men over fifteen were taken to the army and never returned. She was afraid, afraid that her son would be taken away too!

She hid behind a tattered tent and fed porridge to her two children. Watching them devour the food, she couldn't help but shed tears.

"Mother, I'm hungry." The daughter looked up at her.

"Sweetie, eat slowly, there's more." Madam Liu wiped away her tears and poured the porridge from her bowl into her daughter's bowl.

The boy, barely grown up, looked up and said, "Mom, I want to eat more bean rice!"

At this moment, an official walked over, holding a booklet in his hand.

Liu shuddered and quickly shielded the two children behind her.

"Don't be afraid," the clerk smiled. "I'm here to register your household. Where are you from? Who else is in your family?"

Liu held the child tightly, without saying a word.

"Don't worry, I won't drag your son into the army." The clerk saw her concern:

"General Liu has ordered that all refugees who are willing to stay in Yanmen will be allocated fifteen mu of wasteland and will also receive seeds to grow. Children who reach the age of seven can also attend the county school free of charge."

Liu raised her head, her eyes full of suspicion.

Fifteen acres of wasteland? Seeds and oxen? Free books?

How is that possible?

Is she still asleep? Or is she already dead?

Internal affairs were handled by Xun Chen, Jian Yong, Xiahou Lan, and a large number of local officials from Liangzhou and Yanmen in Bingzhou, who worked tirelessly day and night.

They finally came back to life.

Simultaneously.

Half a month later, the first good news arrived back in Yinguan City.

Zhao Yun led his troops in a surprise attack, annihilating the bandits who had been entrenched in eastern Yanmen for many years. He killed the bandit leader Hei, captured more than 300 bandits, and seized several hundred shi of grain and dozens of warhorses.

There was also a considerable amount of gold and silver treasure that had been looted.

What's even more remarkable is that Zhao Yun didn't transport all the grain and treasure back to the city, but left half of it and distributed it to several nearby villages that had been ravaged.

Wangjia Village is one of them.

When Zhao Yun led his soldiers to deliver bags of grain to the village entrance, the entire village was in an uproar.

Old Wang stood at the front of the crowd, his eyes wide with amazement as he stared at the piles of white rice.

In all his life, this was the first time he had ever seen government soldiers return the stolen grain to the people after suppressing bandits!

In the past, the government troops were even more ruthless than the bandits when they suppressed them. They not only robbed all the grain, but also demanded that the people pay them money and grain as a reward!

"Fellow villagers," Zhao Yun reined in his horse, "the Black Bandits have been wiped out by us. No more bandits will come to harm you. This grain was stolen from you, and now it's being returned to you."

After saying that, the soldiers unloaded the grain and piled it on the open ground at the entrance of the village.

"General Zhao!" Old Man Wang stepped forward shakily and bowed deeply to Zhao Yun. "In my fifty-six years of life, this is the first time I have seen such a good official as you. General Liu is truly blessed to have a subordinate like you."

"Old man, you flatter me." Zhao Yun dismounted and helped him up. "Protecting the territory and ensuring the safety of the people is our duty as soldiers. If bandits come again in the future, just send someone to Yinguan City to report, and we will arrive as soon as possible."

The villagers watched Zhao Yun and his soldiers leave, and they began to murmur amongst themselves.

"It turns out that General Liu's troops are really different from those before."

"Not only did they not steal our things, they also returned our food."

"He's different from those treacherous officials in the court!"

"Maybe that new policy is real?"

Old Wang stared at the grain on the ground and remained silent for a long time.

He returned home, took out the grain hidden in the cellar, and said to his son:

"Erwa, let's go to the government office tomorrow to register and clear that wasteland at the east end of the village."

"Father, you believe me?" Wang Er asked in surprise.

"I believe you," Old Wang nodded. "A man like General Zhao wouldn't lie to us. General Liu, having such subordinates, must not be a bad person either. Even if he changes his mind in the end, it's better than starving to death than for us to clear the wasteland and grow crops."

The news spread like wildfire throughout Yanmen County.

More and more people began to believe in the new policies, and took the initiative to register their household registration with the government and reclaim wasteland. Refugees in the refugee camps also signed up to participate in the land reclamation.

Liu also went to register.

She was indeed allocated fifteen acres of wasteland, received seeds, and along with several hundred other people, received a draft ox.

The official told her that she didn't need to buy the ox; she could return it after the autumn harvest. If the ox gave birth to a calf, he would only take half of the calf.

Everyone present was shocked. They never expected that not only would they receive seeds, but they would also be given cows to use for free! And they were even allowed to keep half of the calves that were born!

That's incredibly kind of them!

Those officials before, they wanted to seize, take, and arrest everything!

Looking at the land deed in her hand and then at the two children playing in the yard, she felt for the first time that there was hope for the future.

But problems also arise.

a few days later.

"Mingdao! Come out here!"

Jian Yong, sporting dark circles under his eyes, stormed into the main hall of the prefect's mansion, clutching a stack of bamboo slips covered in writing:

"You're talking about comprehensive land reclamation! Tens of thousands of households in Yanmen, hundreds of thousands of hectares of wasteland! And the displaced people, all of them need to be registered one by one! Even if I had three heads and six arms, I couldn't finish it all!"

His beard and hair were a complete mess, and he continued listlessly:

"More than 300 refugees arrived yesterday, and I have to take care of their food, water, and toilet needs. I can barely sleep for two hours a day now. If I keep doing this, I'm afraid I won't live to see next spring."

Xiahou Lan fared even worse, clutching a stack of weapon ledgers, his voice hoarse:

"And then there's the weaponry. Eight or nine out of ten of the weapons for the three thousand county soldiers are rusted, and the new recruits haven't even received their armor yet. There are only three blacksmiths in the blacksmith shop, and it will take half a month to make a suit of armor."

There were also military settlements and literacy programs within the army. Some people didn't want to farm, and others didn't want to learn to read!

There's a shortage of teachers for the part about conscious awareness of intention! Right now, one person has to teach hundreds! It's simply impossible to keep up!

Especially those articles, they were too difficult for these soldiers; they simply couldn't learn them!

Li Chang sat at his desk and asked Princess Wannian to leave first.

He took a sip of tea, then looked up at the two civil officials who were on the verge of madness: "Where is Youruo?"

Jian Yong felt much more at ease when he thought of Xun Chen:

"The great talent you invited will not only be in charge of the entire Yanmen government affairs, but also the things we coordinate, as well as the Jixia Academy you taught him."

"How is he doing now? How dare you even sit here drinking tea? Look at what you, the dignified governor of Yanmen, are doing!"

Li Chang wasn't embarrassed at all. "I've traveled through time and become Liu Bei's fourth brother. I worked diligently and rose through the ranks to become the governor."

If I have to be treated like a beast of burden, then wouldn't my time travel have been for nothing?

With a confident wave of his hand, he said, "Don't worry, I've been working tirelessly day and night during these days that you can't see!"

I already have a solution for the problem!

"First of all, don't rush things. This is the toughest time right now, but after these three months, everything will get back on track. Besides, I have no one else I can use besides you guys!"

Jian Yong and Xiahou Lan: "You said the same thing last year when we were fighting the Yellow Turbans in Ji Province!"

Li Chang: "..."

"In that case, I'll transfer Mr. Jia Xu over to help you."

Jian Yong and Xiahou Lan laughed, "That's how it should be!"