The Qian family was a well-known big family in Yanghewei, and the news that the Qian family was raided by the garrison soon spread throughout Yanghewei.
Ordinary people who heard the news only regarded it as an additional condiment for after-dinner chat.
However, everyone in the large Yanghewei family, who did not understand the truth, was in danger, fearing that their family would become a target of property raids under the tiger-character banner.
Not long after the Qian family was confiscated, the Shi family, another wealthy family in Yanghe Acropolis, was also raided by soldiers from the garrison, and the whole family was imprisoned.
This suddenly frightened the big families in Yang and Wei.
The wealthy families who have the ability to find a way to move their families, or split into two groups, one group will stay in Yanghe to guard the family business, and the other group will take the money they can take with them to escape Datong under the rule of the Tiger Flag.
A few wealthy households with limited financial resources and no distant relatives simply donated their entire family property to the Tiger Flag.
Zhao Yutu, who was in charge of the Yanghewei County Government, immediately learned about the various actions of those wealthy families in Yanghewei.
He did not stop the wealthy families from leaving Yanghewei or even Datong at all, and allowed them to leave. However, after such families left, all the land and property left behind would be confiscated.
For those large families who separated a tribe and left Datong, Zhao Yutu only distributed the land to those who stayed behind. For those large families who donated their entire family, Zhao Yutu only collected the land and returned everything else one by one.
The division of fields in Yang and Wei is in full swing.
Those who benefit the most are the tenants who used to rent other people's fields, and those farmers who only have a small amount of land at home. For them, they don't need to pay a tael of silver. They get a lot of good land, they don't have to pay rent, and their taxes are lower than that of others. It used to be less, but things are about to get better soon.
The common people have a stronghold in their hearts, and they are willing to support anyone who can bring them tangible benefits. As for whether the Tiger Flag is a rebel, they don't really care.
Zhao Yutu stayed in Yanghewei for half a month. He could only handle official documents sent from other places in Yanghewei and send special personnel to send them back to various places.
"The land distribution is coming to an end. What should County Magistrate Su and Qian Shi's family do?" Jiao Yun asked Zhao Yutu.
Now he has been promoted from county magistrate to Yanghewei County Magistrate. Because the new county magistrate has not yet taken office, he still holds the position of county magistrate for the time being.
In Yanghewei, except for Zhao Yutu, he has the most power in the yamen.
Zhao Yutu put down the official document in his hand, raised his head and glanced outside the house, and said, "Is it snowing outside?"
"It has been more than half an hour. When Xiaguan came over, the snow on the ground had reached the soles of his shoes." Jiao Yun looked back and looked outside the house and said.
This is no longer a snow in Datong, but it is the biggest snow in Datong so far this year.
Zhao Yutu put his hands to his mouth, took a breath of hot air, and said, "It's good to have snow. Auspicious snow heralds a good year. I hope there won't be another severe drought like this year in the coming year."
"It's okay here in Datong. I heard that the drought in Shaanxi is even worse. There has been no harvest for two consecutive years. If this continues, there will be big trouble in Shaanxi." Jiao Yun said.
Zhao Yutu took out his pipe, filled it with tobacco, lit it, took a puff, and slowly exhaled white smoke from his mouth, saying: "The imperial court will not distribute relief grains to Shaanxi, and the people who have no food to eat have no choice but to rebel if they want to survive. There is a way to go, this is the eternal truth.”
"Sir, are you saying that there is a rebellion in Shaanxi?" Jiao Yun looked at Zhao Yutu with wide eyes.
Although he guessed that there would be problems in Shaanxi sooner or later, he did not expect that some people in Shaanxi had already begun to raise a flag to rebel.
Zhao Yutu took a long puff of cigarette, exhaled it slowly, and said: "The rebels in Shaanxi have never stopped, but they were not large-scale and were quickly suppressed. If there is still a severe drought in Shaanxi next year, the court may not be able to suppress them."
As a senior executive of Tiger Flag, he had far more channels to obtain information than Jiao Yun.
Every senior member of the Tiger-Character Banner must not only focus on the military and political affairs under the Tiger-Character Banner, but also discuss information about the outside world from time to time to ensure that they are not ignorant of the situation in the outside world.
"If the people of Shaanxi also hold high the flag of rebellion, we, the Tiger Flag, will be able to relax more, and the court will not only target our Tiger Flag family." Jiao Yun said with a smile.
He welcomed anyone who dared to rebel against the Ming Dynasty.
Zhao Yutu walked around from behind the table, walked to the door, opened the thick curtain in front of the door, looked at the snowy scene outside and said: "Before the summer harvest, Shaanxi should be relatively stable and nothing major will happen. Everything depends on the summer harvest." After that.”
After harvesting summer grain, taxes must be paid.
Shaanxi has suffered from severe drought for several years, and the fields either have no harvests or only have a pitiful harvest, which is not even enough to grow grain. However, there are no reductions or exemptions for various taxes.
Even if there is severe drought for consecutive years, the people will still have to bear the same taxes as in good years.
And even if the court reduced taxes, it would still be a drop in the bucket. The court could not collect taxes, but there would be no tax reductions at the local level. It would only take the portion of the tax reductions and exemptions from the people under other names.
The chaos in the last years of the dynasty cannot be changed by just one word from one person in the court.
"Kill them!" Zhao Yutu stubbed out the tobacco in his pipe, looked back at Jiao Yun and said, "Su Naichen, Qian Wanjun, and Shi Kaiqing were all beheaded. Several people from the Qian and Shi families who had committed serious crimes were also beheaded. The others were also beheaded. People were sent to the grasslands to perform labor service.”
After saying that, he put down the door curtain, returned to his desk, picked up an official document from the table and handed it to Jiao Yun.
Jiao Yun took it and took a look.
"Post the notice when the weather clears, and you personally escort them to the execution ground for execution." Zhao Yutu explained.
Jiao Yun nodded.
The official document was stamped with the seal of the Military and Political Department, and he knew that the execution of these people was approved by the proprietor.
At this moment, a big man wearing cotton armor walked in from the door.
"Director, the carriage is ready."
Zhao Yutu walked aside, put on the leather jacket hanging on the hanger, picked up a cotton hat and put it on his head, and said: "Yang Hewei will be left to you and Huo Shouwei, the new county magistrate. We are already on our way here, and I hope you can cooperate well in the future."
"It's snowing so heavily outside, sir, why don't you stay one more day and wait for the snow to stop before leaving." Jiao Yun saw that Zhao Yutu was leaving despite the heavy snow and wanted to persuade him to stay.
Zhao Yutu waved his hand gently and said: "There are still many things in Datong Town waiting for me to go back to deal with, so I won't stay here."
After saying that, he walked out.
There was a thick layer of snow on the ground, leaving clear footprints on it.
On the street in front of the Yamen Gate, there was a large cart pulled by two horses parked, surrounded by a group of cavalry wearing cotton armor and felt hats.
When the driver saw Zhao Yutu coming out of the Yamen, he quickly put the stool on the ground for Zhao Yutu to step on.
Jiao Yun stood beside the carriage, helped Zhao Yutu get into the carriage, and watched as the carriage and the cavalry guarding it walked away.
