At the beginning, Sheng Changbai's biggest purpose was to destroy the bandits and water bandits' cottages and water villages.
Rectifying the public security in Xuzhou will make Xuzhou more stable, allow people to live and work in peace and contentment, open up trade routes, and prosper the economy.
I don't have such a strong will to catch the bandit leader.
But now that the state government is short of money, these bandits have no chance to go to other places, change their appearance, hide their names, and settle down as rural landlords elsewhere.
During this period, Sheng Changbai also interrogated some bandits, although most of the bandits had more or less tragedies.
But after becoming a thief, all the evil he did was true.
It has reached the level of robbing homes and businesses, but there are really only a few people who still have justice and morality in their hearts.
After doing too many bad things, the moral bottom line becomes lower and lower the more it is breached.
After gathering three hundred archers, Sheng Changbai followed the guide who surrendered to the village into the mountain.
It's also been a long time since the bandits had experienced government encirclement and suppression, so they took advantage of the inconvenient transportation and being easy to defend and difficult to attack.
Without the sense of crisis, the bandit sentry posts were not arranged carefully. They dealt with the few hidden sentries arranged and did not change their positions.
The professionalism and vigilance of these bandits were worse than Sheng Changbai expected.
"Lu Dutou, take a team of people and block the back of the stronghold to ensure that no one of the thieves escapes."
"Sun Dutou, Wang Dutou, you take the remaining people and wait for the order. Once the order is given, you will lead the people into the stronghold. Remember to surrender to avoid death, and to kneel down and not kill. But if there is resistance, life or death will not matter."
When the archers were training, Sheng Changbai did not use any complicated organization. Ten people were in one armor, three armors were in one team, and three teams were in one capital. They were divided into captains, deputy captains, captains, captains, and captains.
The three capitals formed one battalion, and Sheng Changbai himself took command temporarily.
In addition to the fact that Sheng Changbai personally led a team of 30 people as personal soldiers, the total establishment was 300 people.
"kill!"
"Tongping leads the troops to suppress the bandits. You bandits, please surrender immediately. Surrender to avoid death. Kneel down and do not kill!"
"I surrender."
"Spare my life."
"I don't want to die."
The start was quite smooth. After taking care of the outposts, the status of the men living outside the village was not high.
Seeing that there are many people in the government, there is no strong sense of resistance.
After breaking into the inner siege of the mountain stronghold, the middle and high-level people in the mountain stronghold lived there. All the leaders also lived in this area, and many of them were long-standing bandits.
Every hand is stained with blood. He knows that he will not have a good life if he surrenders, so he will not choose to surrender.
"Brothers, follow me and kill,"
"Fight them."
"If you kill an official who kills birds, he will be recruited and become an official."
After a while, several bandits wearing brocade clothes and looking like leaders began to organize a manpower to resist.
"Liu Tao, get my bow."
After taking the bow, Sheng Changbai began to draw the bow and draw arrows, shooting these "conspicuous bags" clamoring for profit.
After Sheng Changbai shot and killed the three loudest and most powerful conspicuous people.
The bandits could not organize any decent resistance and began to flee.
After five minutes of defeating the enemy and two hours of pursuit, Sheng Changbai waited for an hour in the cottage party hall before the battle had a rough outcome.
"The big verdict is that this battle will be decided in the first battle at Heifeng Village. All the bandits headed by 'Xiashanhu' will be killed. In this battle, more than 30 enemies will be killed and more than 500 will be captured."
"The battle report is not urgent. Let's treat the wounded first."
A copycat real estate robber is just a small part.
Most of the remaining people have no experience as bandits, and they have family members of bandits.
There are women these people kidnapped from the mountains, refugees who came here for various reasons, and farmers captured by bandits.
These people are not on the front line in the bandit camp, but they still have their own place.
Work as maids and servants for bandit leaders, and work as coolies for the village, transporting goods, cutting firewood, building houses, and farming.
In addition to not paying taxes to the court, the structure of a mountain village is similar to that of an ordinary village.
The leaders in the cottage are just like the landowners in the countryside, they are exploiters.
Except for some bandit leaders, the lives of others are no better than those of the farmers down the mountain.
"Da San, do you want to treat these bandits too?"
"Forget it, the leader. As for the others below, try to treat them as much as possible. One more person can give you more work."
Still for the next big action, Sheng Changbai was planning to do some big projects, build water conservancy projects, and build dams and embankments.
When there was no modern telephone equipment, all we could rely on was manpower.
It can be said that Sheng Changbai is in short supply of manpower. One more convict means one less corvee can be collected.
The biggest worry in Xuzhou is flooding, and Sheng Changbai will not ignore it.
I didn't take care of it before because I have been busy with farming for the past six months and I really don't have much manpower.
Although the Hunan Army in the prefecture can be said to be an engineering force, it is the Hunan Army's job to build cities and barriers, build roads and bridges, dig rivers and embankments, and provide logistics and transportation.
But because the Hunan Army of the Zhou Dynasty was regarded as a military force, it replaced a large part of the corvee service in the previous dynasty.
The Hunan Army has many things to do, such as repairing plank roads, managing various inns, escorting various items, garrisoning various warehouses, passes, etc.
Logically speaking, Sheng Changbai could apply to the imperial court to mobilize the Xiang army to carry out the project.
But in fact, the Hunan Army does not have any idle manpower.
Even if a few hundred people are reluctantly transferred, it will only be a drop in the bucket for the water conservancy project.
If you want more manpower, you still need to recruit more corvees from farmers.
In summer and autumn, farming is busy, and the farming season cannot be delayed. It is not suitable to recruit manpower, so Sheng Changbai always wants to wait until after the autumn harvest before starting construction.
"Liu Tao, go and urge the archers to do their work faster. After returning to the Yamen, we will distribute the reward to them." Sheng Changbai continued to give instructions.
Soldiers need to be quick, and in order to prevent other bandits from learning the news and making it more difficult to suppress the bandits, the end must be completed as soon as possible.
Burn corpses, treat the wounded, interrogate bandits and find the money and items hidden by the bandits.
Even if the process is streamlined as much as possible, there are still many things that must be dealt with after breaking out of the stronghold.
But the result is worth it. One village has hundreds of laborers and thousands of dollars worth of goods.
If it were known that these bandits were so rich, Sheng Changbai's previous predecessors might have destroyed these bandits long ago.
It took half a month for Sheng Changbai to defeat five mountain strongholds and water strongholds.
The difference between a mountain village and a water village is that the people at the bottom of a mountain village are farmers, while the people at the bottom of a water village are fishermen.
The labor of 2,000 people was harvested, which was the result of excluding women and children, and more than 10,000 pounds of goods were harvested, which was also the remainder of the bounties paid to the archers.
If someone has money, the project will have the foundation to get started.
These people did not surrender voluntarily, they were all bandits' subordinates captured by Sheng Changbai after they broke through the bandit stronghold.
No matter what, these people contribute to the bandits.
Regardless of what crime these people were sentenced to, Sheng Changbai did not feel guilty at all if they were given a period of reform through labor.
Now that he had people and money in his hands, Sheng Changbai did not continue to personally lead troops to suppress the bandits.
Just tell the remaining bandit villages and leave them to your subordinates.
These bandits were all a ragtag group. Apart from allowing Sheng Changbai to experience some atmosphere and see blood, they did not provide any practical training in terms of force.
As he was busy with things, Sheng Changbai let go of this.
He began to lead people to survey waterways and repair water conservancy projects.
The first thing is to continue to gather the gentry and wealthy businessmen to gather wool. Whichever company contributes the most money and efforts will build which section of the river first.
These people have the most farmland and will benefit the most from the renovation of water conservancy projects.
All of them are extremely rich. If you don't get some money, you won't be able to help these people.
Sheng Changbai was at the river construction site. When the supervisor was working hard, an unexpected person arrived in Xuzhou.
"Young Master, Second Young Master Gu is here." A boy from the family came over to inform.
"Gu Er? Gu Tingye? Why did this person suddenly come to Xuzhou?" Sheng Changbai asked doubtfully.
"It's the second son of Marquis Ningyuan. He said he has something to ask for help."
"Okay, I'll explain it here and then go back. You go back first and help Mr. Gu settle down first."
Gu Tingye ran over. Sheng Changbai was the only one in the Sheng family in Xuzhou.
There was no need to worry that Gu Tingye would miss his sister, so Sheng Changbai followed the etiquette and allowed Gu Tingye to stay at home.
When Sheng Changbai returned home, he saw Gu Tingye, who still looked dusty after cleaning up. He was very tanned. He could tell at a glance that there was a lot of people running outside, so he asked
"Zhong Huai, what happened? Why did you come to Xuzhou?"
"Oh, it's a long story." Gu Tingye became a little sad and sighed as soon as he opened his mouth.
"There's no rush, let's eat first, and then we'll talk slowly after eating."
Sheng Changbai waved his hand to the maid and began to set the meal.
"Is there any wine?"
"We are such a big city in Xuzhou, how can we not have your wine and food?"
"As long as you have wine."
After the wine was served, Gu Tingye drank three large bowls.
"Take your time, don't get drunk so quickly. You should let me know what happened, right?"
"A lot of things have happened to me in our family recently, and none of them made me happy. My father went away, and I just had a few arguments with him. The whole Bianliang said that my father was mad at me.
"Gu Tingye said with red eyes.
"When I left the capital, Marquis Gu was in good health. Why did he fall pregnant so suddenly? Please forgive me."
Although it was not that surprising, Sheng Changbai was still polite and expressed his regret for Gu Yankai's death.
Gu Yankai seems to be in good health, but after all, he is old and has some cardiovascular problems. Heart diseases are normal. Being angry or aroused by Gu Tingye caused him to fall ill and he could not be rescued. He died directly. In this era, it is considered
Ordinary things.
The reason for the underdeveloped medical treatment is that people in this generation will die suddenly when they get sick. Sheng Changbai has adapted to this situation.
Gu Yankai died suddenly, and Sheng Changbai couldn't figure out how Gu Tingye was feeling now.
Gu Tingye is not sad, Gu Tingye is in a very depressed state now.
Gu Tingye felt sorry for Gu Yan, Gu Tingye was not even willing to observe filial piety for Gu Tingye.
Eat meat when you should, drink wine when you should, even the most basic thing of not eating meat and drinking wine during the mourning period, Gu Tingye was not willing to do it for Gu Yan.
If you think about Gu Tingye on the bright side, it can be said that Gu Tingye is drinking to drown his sorrows and remembering Gu Yankai.
After all, this person doesn't follow any rules, let alone Gu Yankai who often beats and scolds him.
Even his grandfather, who cared about himself and left a large amount of assets to himself, Gu Tingye was also unwilling to observe filial piety.
When Sheng Changbai first came through, he was having a banquet and drinking with Gu Tingye. At that time, Gu Tingye's grandfather, Mr. Bai, had not even been buried yet.
"It was"
After a few more bowls of wine were drained, Gu Tingye slowly began to talk.
The conflict between Gu Yankai and Gu Tingye, even if it happened another time, was not because of other things.
The father and son still had a dispute over Mannia and whether she could enter the Hou's house.
Because of the disagreement between Gu Tingye and his wife, Concubine Rong summoned Gu Yan to the palace to reprimand her, saying that the Gu family was cheating people. The Gu family had made great efforts to marry Rong Feiyan, and then ignored Rong Feiyan. Why did they bother to ask for marriage in the first place.
After being humiliated by his in-laws and returning home, Gu Yankai certainly had to admonish and teach Gu Tingye a lesson.
Gu Yankai hoped that since Gu Tingye married his first wife, he and Rong Feiyan would live a good life.
Gu Tingye refused to admit his mistake and insisted on being stubborn.
Gu Yan started to talk about living a good life, but Gu Tingye insisted and said that he would go to the outside room.
This son is not only disobedient, but also insists on confronting his father.
Gu Yankai was so angry that he vomited blood and fainted. Sheng Changbai was not around. He didn't know whether Gu Yankai had a cerebral hemorrhage or a heart attack. Anyway, he couldn't be saved and he immediately fell cold.
"The whole capital was spreading rumors that I had disobeyed my father, made him angry to death, and was disobedient and unfilial. I went to call the doctor at that time, but no one believed me."
Gu Yankai's death is definitely related to Gu Tingye, but it is not appropriate to put all the responsibility for Gu Tingye's death on Gu Tingye.
This was caused by Gu Yan's inability to open his Qi too much and his poor health.
As soon as Gu Yankai died, Gu Tingye's stepmother, Xiao Qin, began to show her direct affection towards Gu Tingye and no longer pretended to be Gu Tingye's good stepmother.
They tricked Gu Tingye in person. Xiao Qin noticed that Gu Tingye was fainting and vomiting blood, something was not going well, so he took the opportunity to send Gu Tingye away and asked him to call the imperial doctor.
After Gu Tingye came back with the imperial doctor, he stopped him outside the door again.
After Gu Yan died, the responsibility for his death was placed on Gu Tingye.
Gu Tingye became the sinner of the whole family and was kicked out under the accusation and abuse of all the elders of the Gu family.
"In this case, you might as well leave Bianliang and avoid the limelight. Our Xuzhou, with its beautiful mountains and clear waters, is a good place for self-cultivation. You can live in Xuzhou in a down-to-earth manner."
Gu Tingye's previous reputation was just that he was uneducated, coveted flowers, and lingered in fences and tiled houses.
For a noble son, this is just a trivial matter. When others hear it, they can just say that Gu Tingye is not up to par.
Then there is envy, jealousy and hatred towards Gu Tingye, who can enjoy such a life without having to work hard on his own.
But the reputation of being angry with his father and being disobedient and unfilial is much more serious.
In the Zhou Dynasty, which already governed the country with filial piety, the official career could be terminated directly, or even punished directly.
Gu Tingye, an unfilial person, still wears his head very firmly.
Xiao Qin, the stepmother who was famous in Bianliang for her love for Gu Tingye, personally killed Gu Tingye. It can be said that there was no room for improvement, and Gu Tingye really had no need to stay in Bianliang.