Chapter 42 Liaodong Governance The next morning, the bustling Caishikou was crowded with onlookers. Tian Ze sat alone on the high platform, the desk beside him was filled with files, Jia Xu, Cheng Yu and Chen Gong were quietly waiting for the show to begin. As the soldiers appeared, escorting prisoners with their hands and feet tied with ropes, the people present became excited. Seeing those evil gentry and officials who usually bullied the people now in such a miserable state, the people's eyes were filled with anger and hatred, and they kept cursing at them. If it weren't for the difficult living conditions, piles of rotten vegetable leaves and rotten eggs would have been thrown at them long ago. Seeing these peasants filled with righteous indignation and cursing angrily, the powerful tyrants with ragged clothes and miserable looks all curled up and buried their heads deeply, their hearts filled with fear and their minds blank, and they followed the team like zombies. Once upon a time, they were the high and mighty masters, but unexpectedly, in the blink of an eye, they became prisoners who were hated by everyone. Because there were so many prisoners, they were lined up in a long line, and there were as many as a thousand soldiers guarding around them, for fear that the people would rush in on impulse. These people have committed countless evil deeds, and now they have ended up like this. I'm afraid many people want to fight them to the death. Tian Ze understood the people's feelings, but he must not let this happen, so as not to trigger an extremely bad chain reaction. Especially when he had just come to power, he had to ensure absolute stability.
After everyone was taken to the execution ground, the huge open space was filled with people kneeling. Tian Ze said, "My fellow villagers, I am Tian Chengshou, the newly appointed governor of Liaodong. Previously, when the barbarians invaded, I led my troops to defeat them. In the future, I will form a powerful army to protect you and prevent you from being harassed by the barbarians again." Hearing these words, the people cheered, their eyes full of admiration. Living on the frontier, they faced the danger of invasion by the barbarians all year round. What they most desired was not a kind governor, but a brave and warlike governor. Tian Ze's military achievements and deeds made them very convinced and reassured. "These people are all evil gentry and officials in the city. Some of them secretly collude with the Hu people, and the rest have a long history of bad deeds and are guilty of serious crimes. Today, this prefect will try them in public. If anyone has been treated unfairly, they can come forward to appeal. This prefect will definitely return the property and land they have robbed to everyone. This is no joke." Tian Ze said in a firm voice. Upon hearing this, the people knelt on the ground and kowtowed in tears to express their gratitude. The people of Liaodong had long been oppressed by the powerful, and never dreamed that one day someone would give them justice. At this moment, Tian Ze's name was deeply imprinted in their hearts. As the first prisoner was brought to the court, Chen Gong took a file and began to read it aloud. "Ding Yan, the head of the Ding family, killed three people in the He family restaurant after getting drunk in March this year... In January this year..., his family members..." These people were unscrupulous and did things without restraint. Many evil deeds had long been spread among the people. Jia Xu followed the clues to investigate. Although he could not guarantee that all crimes were recorded, he did not miss many, and most of them were enough to be sentenced to death. After Chen Gong finished reading the charges, Ding Yan's face turned pale and he bowed his head to plead guilty. Afterwards, many people came forward to state their grievances, and after Ding Yan admitted it, they were all recorded one by one, and the losses of these people would be compensated later. As Ding Yan's head was chopped off by the executioner, the people applauded and this grand trial officially began. It took more than four hours, from morning to afternoon, and countless people were beheaded. Some people whose crimes were less serious were sentenced to serve their sentences in mining. Countless people’s grievances were redressed, and large amounts of money and land were distributed. It was not until the trial of the last prisoner was over that Tianze, who had been sitting for a whole day, stood up. Glancing at the people present, Tian Ze said in a deep voice: "Fellow villagers, this is just the beginning, not the end. This governor guards the border for the court. Not only must he resist foreign invasion, but he must also protect the people." "These evil officials who run rampant in the countryside and bully the people will be severely punished by this governor. If you encounter any injustice in the future, you can come and complain. Once it is verified and dealt with seriously, this governor will give you a clear and fair sky!" "The governor is wise!" the people knelt down and said.
One day of public trial and the rolling heads completely established Tian Ze's absolute authority in Liaodong and also won the hearts of the people of Liaodong. However, this is just the beginning of a busy schedule. Compared with managing a county, managing a county is more difficult by more than one level. Jia Xu and the other three were so busy that they could hardly even touch the ground. Chen Gong quickly launched a cleansing operation against bad gentry and evil officials, and carried out a large-scale reshuffle of the officialdom in Liaodong. In contrast to the situation that Jia Xu had planned in advance and the people's active complaints, the bad officials in the counties and villages of Liaodong were caught in one fell swoop before they had time to react, and blood was everywhere. Only a few powerful people with a good reputation were lucky enough to escape, and Tian Ze did not take action against them. We will start reforming them later, but now is not the time. It is not the time to go to war against the aristocratic and powerful class, so it is not appropriate to touch them for the time being. The grievances of a large number of people were redressed, the extorted wealth was returned to their hands, the people received tangible benefits, and the people quickly won over. All parts of Liaodong welcomed the rare Qingming Festival, but it also led to a large number of vacancies in official positions. Fortunately, in the past two years, Tian Ze has attached great importance to the popularization of literacy and talent training among the people of Wen County. There are already many talents who can serve as minor officials, in addition to a large number of scholars introduced from the Central Plains. The reform in Wen County has achieved good results, and the management model envisioned by Tian Ze has taken shape. Under Chen Gong's proper arrangement, officials and clerks from all over the country were quickly replenished and improved, and no management chaos was caused. By replicating and promoting the Wen County model, villages in all counties quickly returned to normal and began spring ploughing in an orderly manner. Jia Xu began to integrate the land in Liaodong and vigorously developed commerce and intelligence work. Tian Ze seized a large amount of land from these corrupt officials and evil gentry. Even though he had returned part of it to the affected people, the accumulation of these people over decades or even hundreds of years still allowed Tian Ze to obtain nearly 30% of the land in the entire Liaodong. Although it was under the control of the imperial court and could not implement public ownership of land openly, they still continued to arrange people to purchase land secretly. Taking advantage of the two-year drought when many people were starving, Jia Xu arranged for a caravan to purchase land at a premium. Because the purchase price was surprisingly high, these caravans secretly leaked some information and promised to let the people rent the land for a lower rent, and many people agreed. Soon, Tian Ze took over more than 70% of the farmland in Liaodong. The task of cutting redundancies and expanding the military, which Cheng Yu was in charge of, was also proceeding vigorously. Because life on the border was hard, many of the soldiers in the counties were able-bodied men who were forced to serve. Some were old and weak, some were not yet adults, and there were also many lazy and rascals who just wanted to get by. Cheng Yu directly laid off nearly half of the soldiers, gave them subsidies based on their service time and performance, and dismissed all the old and weak soldiers, reducing the number of soldiers in the entire Liaodong to more than a thousand people, and the corresponding treatment was also greatly improved. As a border county, Liaodong was allowed by the imperial court to recruit a maximum of 5,000 soldiers, but Tian Ze would certainly not be satisfied with this. The mountains are high and the emperor is far away, and Liaodong is surrounded by enemies, so it is impossible to recruit many regular soldiers. Tian Ze recruits and trains local militiamen in counties and villages to defend his hometown, and selects the best ones among them to join the army. The wealthy Tian Ze provided Cheng Yu with a huge amount of money, food and supplies, allowing him to start large-scale military training without any scruples. In name they were local militia, but in reality they were trained according to elite standards, with food and accommodation fully provided, and no shortage of meat, fruits and vegetables. In addition, they received monthly food and salary, which was not only timely and in full, but also higher than that of ordinary border troops in other counties. If you are recruited into the county army because of your outstanding performance, your salary will be greatly improved. At the same time, Cheng Yu launched a comprehensive propaganda campaign in Liaodong with slogans such as "It's glorious to be a soldier" and "Defending the country and the people", widely publicizing the treatment of soldiers and subtly improving the status of soldiers.
In addition, with many soldiers from all over the country sharing their experiences, the military expansion work progressed very smoothly. Soon, Cheng Yu recruited more than 30,000 "village militia". This was despite Chen Gong's repeated dissuasion. Otherwise, with Cheng Yu's character, recruiting 50,000 young and strong men would be a piece of cake. Almost every day, the two of them would quarrel in front of Tian Ze, glaring at each other and almost getting into a fight. It didn't seem like they had a good relationship on weekdays. Cheng Yu always shouted that there was enough food, so what was he waiting for if he didn't expand his army? The surrounding Xianbei, Goguryeo, and the Three Han were all resources. If he lacked money and food, he could just rob them. Tian Ze was also helpless about this. Who could have thought that an old man in his fifties would act so radically? If Chen Gong hadn't been there, he couldn't have been stopped. A lot of the money and grain confiscated from the powerful had not even been warmed up yet, but it was already lost. (End of this chapter)