The reason why Li Lu and Jiang Youqi came to Wu Shigong was this.
After the reinforcements led by Na Jiang Guerji were overwhelmed by Master Mou's senior brothers, Na Jiang Guerrilla was truly brave. He led his twenty-odd soldiers to break out of the heavy siege.
However, Jiang Youyi did not know the whereabouts of Eunuch Xiao, so he did not dare to go to Guide Fucheng, nor did he dare to return to Kaifeng. For some reason, he wandered around for a few days and then transferred to the county seat of Qi County Magistrate.
When Jiang Guerrilla arrived, he ordered the gate to enter the county town to rest for a while. But when County Magistrate Qi and other county officials heard the news of Jiang Guerrilla's arrival, they did not dare to open the city gate. Why? Because at this time in the Ming Dynasty
You don’t have an ID card, and you don’t have the photo or IC magnetic strip on the ID card. Who knows whether Jiang Guerrilla is real or fake.
However, if Jiang Guerrilla is real, it would not be good to lock him outside the county and let him fend for himself. Therefore, the county officials first used hanging baskets to hang down some water and dry food to feed Jiang Guerrilla.
. Let Jiang Youyi prove his identity.
How to ask him to prove his identity? It's very simple, just submit a petition. Let Jiang Guerrilla catch the leader of the Holy Spirit Society rebels.
Unexpectedly, Jiang Guerrilla was indeed very skilled in martial arts, and considering his fate, a dozen Holy Spirit Society rioters surrounded an elder of the Holy Spirit Society and fled from the county seat of Qi County Magistrate.
Jiang Guerrilla led a charge with his own soldiers and captured the elder. After obtaining the certificate of surrender, he entered the county seat.
In the county town, the officials headed by County Magistrate Qi naturally wanted to interrogate the elder. But Li Lu, who was participating in the interrogation on the side, was more thoughtful. He asked the elder about the situation in Li Lu's own defense zone.
When Li Lu learned from the elder's confession: Because the rebels of the Holy Spirit Society were rebelling in the direction of Guide Mansion, these rebels did not enter Li Lu's defense area at all.
Li Lu immediately returned home. And he regretted it. He even spent a thousand taels of silver to buy the heads of those rebels from Wu Shigong.
Unexpectedly, Jiang Youyi solved Li Lu's problem. When Jiang Youyi knew that Li Lu had more than fifty heads of Holy Spirit Rebellion people in his hands, Jiang Youyi proposed to Li Lu in order to use these heads to atone for his sins.
The requirement to purchase the first level is met.
Li Lu was frightened by the rebellion of the Holy Spirit Society. He felt that it was too dangerous to stay in the local area. Therefore, he thought that after returning this time, he would find a reason to retire and return to his hometown.
Return to the capital and get into his comfort zone.
So now Li Lu doesn't need so many heads at all. He only needs a few heads to explain the reason why he left his defense zone. The reason is: Li Lu discovered that the Holy Spirit can cause rebellion
, so he chased him all the way to the county seat of Qi County Magistrate.
As a result, Li Lu and Jiang Youyi hit it off immediately. They finally agreed that Jiang Youyi would use two thousand taels of silver to buy the fifty heads from Li Lu.
Then, they and County Magistrate Qi began to exchange confessions. Magistrate Qi would of course not refuse to help them. In the Ming Dynasty, as long as the officials were not life-and-death enemies and did not endanger their own interests, they would be willing to help.
Almost all officials will agree.
The purpose of Jiang Guerba's coming to Qianhusuo Fortress to find Wu Shigong was also to give a confession to Wu Shigong. Of course Wu Shigong agreed to Jiang Guerrilla's request.
But Li Lu made a new request to Wu Shigong. He asked Wu Shigong to return the dozen horses lent to Wu Shigong. Moreover, Li Lu was afraid that the way back would be unsafe, and hoped that Wu Shigong would send fifty cavalry to escort him.
Li Lu returned to his defense zone.
Wu Shigong thought about it, and Li Lu still owed him a thousand taels of silver. He really needed to send someone to Li Lu's defense area to get the silver. However, Wu Shigong didn't want to take care of Li Lu and his soldiers' horses.
Will go there again.
Seeing that Wu Shigong seemed to be hesitating, Li Lu was also happy and gave Wu Shigong an extra five hundred taels of silver. Now, both of them were very happy. However, the happiest thing was Li Lu. He didn't expect that he would change hands like this.
Five hundred taels of silver were obtained. Of course, Jiang Youbi now only wrote an IOU to Li Lu, asking Li Lu to find Jiang Youbi to collect the debt in the future.
Seeing that these things were settled, Wu Shigong also asked people to arrange for the two of them to go down and rest.
At this time, the person who went to the Qianhusuo fortress to announce Wu Shigong's decision to the mob came back. He reported to Wu Shigong: "Sir, the vast majority of people are willing to become your domestic slaves. After a rough calculation, there are a total of
There are more than 4,600 people. However, there are only eight or nine hundred young and strong among them, and the rest are old, weak, women and children."
Early the next morning, after Wu Shigong arranged for fifty cavalry to see off Li Lu, he rushed to the county seat with a hundred cavalry men, gathered the Qi County Magistrate and his entourage, and rushed to Guide Fucheng together.
After walking for a while, Magistrate Qi called Wu Shigong into the carriage he was sitting in. Magistrate Qi had already dealt with Wu Shigong many times, so he didn't talk to Wu Shigong at all.
Magistrate Qi opened the door to the mountain and said to Wu Shigong: Magistrate Qi and the others have made a rough estimate that the land owned by the rebels in this county who participated in the Holy Spirit Rebellion this time is about 15,000 acres. Therefore, it can be handed over to Wu Shigong.
There are also more than 7,000 acres of public land.
County Magistrate Qi gave Wu Shigong two choices: one was that Wu Shigong used the market price, which was three thousand taels of silver, to buy the grain in the official warehouse and the medicinal materials in the county government office. Magistrate Qi no longer interfered with the matter of public land.
.
Another option is that if Wu Shigong gives Qi County Magistrate another seven thousand taels of silver, Qi County Magistrate simply transfers these public fields to Wu Shigong's name and becomes Wu Shigong's private fields.
Comparing this with what we learned earlier, the price of land in the Ming Dynasty was fifteen taels to twenty taels of silver per mu. The price offered by Qi County Magistrate was almost free of charge to give these fields to Wu Shigong.
However, this approach did not disadvantage the county magistrate. First of all, because Wu Shigong had made great contributions this time, he could not rely on Wu Shigong's public land.
Although Magistrate Qi could get some contribution from the money from the sale of these public fields, most of the money obtained from the sale had to be turned over, and Magistrate Qi himself could not get it.
And if Wu Shigong is willing to convert these 7,000 taels, Magistrate Qi’s income will not be less, but can actually increase. Of course, of the 7,000 taels of silver, Magistrate Qi will get at most about 3,000 taels, and the rest will also
It should be divided among the upper, lower, left and right.
Wu Shigong immediately chose Magistrate Qi's second choice, without even negotiating with Magistrate Qi. Not to mention the price of these lands, they were almost free. Just now, Wu Shigong could arrange for some domestic slaves to go there
Cultivation of these lands will solve the employment problem of some domestic slaves.
There is another advantage: the land is all privately owned by Wu Shigong, so there will be no trouble in the future. Otherwise, after all, those lands are public fields. In name, the output of these public fields should be under the control of the county magistrate.
.If the county magistrate comes with some evil moth, then Wu Shigong will be dumbfounded.
As for the money used to buy these lands, Wu Shigong thought this way: Although his life was a little tight now, Wu Shigong was still prepared to meet the requirements of County Magistrate Qi in order to settle things once and for all.