The people of the Dong family didn't know it at this time. They had just arrived at the village today, and someone later ran to the village office a few miles away, which had just been established a few days ago, and told the thief officer that a group of wealthy families had come to their village today.
, whereabouts are strange.
The Tang Dynasty established administrative agencies at the town and village levels with the purpose of strengthening its control over the vast rural areas. This control was not only reflected in taxes and soldiers, but also in public security.
Once there are bandits or criminal thieves in rural areas, the local robber-catching officer will first lead the police to arrest them. If they cannot be captured, they will report it to the town sheriff. It won’t take long for the robber-catching camp to catch up with them.
Soldiers will appear.
And these forces to maintain public security were actually not meant to deal with bandits and criminal thieves at the beginning, but to deal with those big households.
In the feudal era, there were a large number of landlords and gentry families in the vast rural areas. These large families were based in the countryside and relied on land, clan and other forces to control the vast rural areas. These large families wanted money and food.
grain, and there were also a large number of tenants, servants and the like who were dependent on them.
If they deliberately wanted to fight against the rule of the Tang Dynasty, they could pull out rebels ranging from dozens to hundreds.
The purpose of the town and village level action agencies set up by Li Xuan is to prevent these wealthy families from resisting the rule of the Tang Dynasty. Once a wealthy family tries to resist the rule of the Tang Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty will usher in
Immediate suppression.
Therefore, any large family in a village is the focus of the village's anti-robbery officer and the town's police officers. Once any abnormality occurs, the relevant situation will be immediately reported to the anti-robbery camp and even the military.
And this is also an important reason why Li Xuan set up a regular armed force like a bandit camp on the ground.
Li Xuan even planned to set up a militia unit after the situation stabilized a little and there were enough retired soldiers in the local area. Everyone would do whatever they should do on weekdays. Occasionally, they would train intensively for a few days, and then wait until the slack time to train intensively.
A few months.
Once there is any local unrest, the militiamen can be called out immediately to maintain the situation and relieve the pressure on the banditry camps and even the regular army.
After all, according to the current financial resources of the Tang Dynasty, it is basically the limit to maintain a bandit capture camp with a scale of three to four hundred people in a county. It would be impossible to have more. It would be easier if there are militiamen as supplements.
Now that a group of people from the Dong family came to this village secretly, they naturally attracted the attention of the village's thief officer immediately.
Immediately, this retired military thief officer was conscientious in his duties, and immediately took seven or eight of his detectives to Zhuangzi, who was staying at Dong's house, to take a look at the situation.
He went to the Dong family manor to investigate the situation, not that he believed that the Dong family were gangsters or anything like that, but as the village's robber catcher, he had the responsibility to find out the situation of the people under his jurisdiction, especially those with big families.
people’s situation.
If the Dong family here is just an ordinary wealthy family, then it doesn't matter. As long as the Dong family behaves themselves, they can continue to be their landlords. But if the Dong family is one of those stubborn families, then don't blame him for being rude.
.
When the burglary officer led the detectives to the Dong family manor, he said: "Open the door quickly and check." The Dong family servants who were watching the door were frightened and thought they were pretending to be Tang Dynasties.
The bandits discovered them and came to arrest them.
Immediately some servants ran and crawled to report the situation to Dong Songan!
After Dong Songan heard this, his expression changed drastically!
Not long after, after receiving the news, Old Man Dong, Dong Bode and others also came out, all of them looking nervous.
"What's going on? Are those puppet Tang thieves coming to kill you?" Although Old Man Dong spoke in a calm tone, everyone could hear the fear in his seemingly calm tone.
Dong Songan said: "It should not be the thieves of the puppet Tang Dynasty, but their government officials!"
"Why did they suddenly come to our house?" Dong Bode said: "We have been so low-key along the way, and we didn't alert them all the way!"
Dong Songan shook his head!
Naturally, they didn't know that the burglary officer outside the door came to check, and it was just a routine inspection. However, they had various misunderstandings.
What should we do now?
This question immediately came to the minds of the Dong family. At this time, the women in the back house seemed to have heard the news. An old woman came out of the backyard and came to the group of Dong Songan and others: "Master, young master, madam, please let me know."
Come ahead and ask, what is happening outside?"
Old Man Dong waved his hand and said, "Go back and tell Madam that it's nothing serious, so don't panic!"
After the old woman bowed and retreated, another servant ran in. As soon as she came in, she said: "Master, it's not good. They said if you don't open the door for inspection, they will break down the door!"
"What? They dare?" Dong Bode said sharply immediately. He was a little anxious when he spoke, so that he started coughing as soon as he finished speaking, but he coughed twice and continued:
"Is there any royal law? This is our Dong family's house. Why do they come in to check as soon as they say they want to? And there are so many female relatives in our village. What if they come in and disturb the madam and ladies!"
Dong Songan said at this time: "Grandpa, second uncle, I'll go out and take a look first!"
Old Man Dong nodded slightly and said: "Go ahead, talk nicely, and give me more tea and mercury. Now is the autumn of chaos. It is better to do less than to do more!"
Dong Songan said: "An'er knows!"
After saying that, Dong Songan just walked out!
At the same time, outside the Dong family manor, Qu Guangtai frowned and looked at the closed door of the Dong family in front of him, thinking about countermeasures in his heart. Could this Dong family be a fake official family? Otherwise, ordinary wealthy gentry would be right.
I am dissatisfied, but I am not so scared that I dare not even open the door.
If this is really a family of pseudo-civilian officials, there might be an armed confrontation, which would be a bit tricky!
Qu Guangtai, like all the sheriffs and thieves under the Tang Dynasty, is a retired soldier of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty. In his early years, he was an ordinary villager on the edge of the mountains. The harvest of the fields he rented last year was not good. After paying the rent, his whole family was
There was not enough food, so in order to save food, his old father ate grass roots and weeds, and finally starved to death. His newly married wife also couldn't stand the hunger and ran away secretly with the strangers, leaving only him, his old mother and
A hungry and blue-faced son.
In the first half of this year, his family was so poor that he couldn't get rid of the blame. When he wanted to take his family out to beg, it happened that the New Army of the Tang Dynasty was recruiting soldiers on a large scale. In order to provide food for his family and to have enough to eat, he joined the New Army of the Tang Dynasty and became a spearman to serve as a spearman.
After more than half a year of fighting in the Tang Dynasty, he was promoted from an ordinary cannon fodder soldier to a corporal.
But in the second battle of Lanjiang a month ago, he was injured in the wrist joint of his left hand during the battle. The injury could not be said to be major, minor or severe, but it was not fatal. His limbs were disabled and his life was
The level of being unable to take care of oneself, but to put it mildly, this wrist is already unbearable. Not to mention lifting heavy objects, even fighting with a spear is unfavorable. After the wounded soldiers in the military have recovered from their injuries, they finally
You can only be forced to retire!
However, the New Army of the Tang Dynasty has always treated retired soldiers well. In addition to distributing fields, they will also arrange work as long as it does not affect normal work.
Qu Guangtai changed his career to a robber-catching officer and came to this village that had just been occupied by the Tang Dynasty. Strictly speaking, he had only been here for four or five days.
When a new official takes office, he will naturally not want to see any instability in the village under his rule.
Seeing that the door of the Dong family was delayed, Qu Guangtai immediately said: "Get ready for battle and knock on the door!"
Half of the detectives Qu Guangtai brought here were recently retired soldiers like him, and the other few were young men recruited locally. After listening to Qu Guangtai's order, those young policemen
Kuai was still a little hesitant, but several policemen who were retired soldiers started to prepare to knock on the door without saying a word.
At this time, a small door opened on one side of the Dong family's main door. Before the door was opened, a man's voice came from inside: "Please wait!"
When Qu Guangtai saw this scene, he couldn't help but snorted. These big landowners are just like this. When he first came to this place a few days ago, he conducted a thorough inspection of the big families in other villages. At first, he refused to do so.
Open the door, but every time he threatens to rush in, everyone shrinks and opens the door obediently.
I won’t shed tears until I see the coffin!
After the side door next to the Dong family's main door was opened, first a boy wearing a melon skin hat came out, and then a young man wearing a commoner robe.
Although this young man was wearing commoner clothes, one look at his demeanor showed that this man was definitely not a country boy, but at least a scholar, because his robe was a Confucian robe.
I saw this man come out and say: "Dong Song'an, the owner of this place, has met this gentleman!"
Qu Guangtai watched this man speak, looked at him secretly, and then said: "Who are you? Why do you come to our Guanghe Village? Open the door quickly, we want to go in and check!"
When Qu Guangtai looked at this person, he also glanced inside along the open side door. Just by taking a look, he knew that this family was not simple, and definitely not one of the ordinary rural landowners, because not only did this young man
The person's demeanor is extraordinary, and through the side door, you can see that there are many people inside, old and young, masters and servants. Just by looking at this scene, you can tell that this family has an extraordinary family background.
What is the background of the Dong family, and why did they suddenly come to Guanmen Guanghe Village, a remote village? Maybe they are a pseudo-official family?