Cangzhou is very big and small.

The larger one is the area of ​​Cangzhou, which is at least 30,000 square kilometers. The smaller one is the society of Cangzhou. Although there are a large number of hidden households, the population of this state is still very small. The sky is only 100,000 or 200,000, which is a desolate small county in the future.

Once this person is small, the society will naturally become smaller. The upper class of Cangzhou is even smaller, with about three to five thousand people, the most active and most powerful part of which is concentrated in Qingchi County, Shou County and its vicinity, with about a thousand people.

Such a small upper class society controlled about 50% of the remaining 50% of the land in Cangzhou, and was in the hands of the generals and nobles in Kaifeng Prefecture or the great merchants in Qingzhou!

At the same time, such a small upper class society is also the power that the officials in Cangzhou rely on. If you want to draw a Chinese feudal pyramid, the top is the emperor and the court, the lower is the local government, and the lower is the local tyrants, and the lower is of course the ruled working masses.

It is certainly a political correctness to eliminate these local tyrants who were later called landlords and bullies, and to establish a three-level ruling structure like the court-official government-people! Not only do people in later generations hold this view, but there was the same political correctness in ancient China!

Wasn’t the landlord class ruled in ancient China? How could there be the idea of ​​suppressing the powerful?

Well... the rule of the landlord class is a macro-discussion, and it does not mean that there is no conflict between the landlord class and the court. In fact, suppressing the landlords and powerful people has been the top priority of the court for a considerable period of time!

There was a "moving tomb" in the Han Dynasty, a "equal land" in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, and the imperial examinations gradually flourished from the Tang Dynasty to the Song Dynasty. Although the "suppression of annexes" policy seemed to be less, using the imperial examination system that values ​​culture and neglects military to contact the force of local tyrants is actually a means of suppression by killing people with a soft knife!

At the same time, implementing state monopoly and suppressing industry and commerce is also an important means to suppress landlords and powerful people to oppose landlords and capitalists. That is the Marxist view of later generations, and of course this is a truth that does not need to be tested in practice!

However, the feudal emperors in ancient China did not understand this truth. They always felt that when merchants made a fortune, they would buy land, control their population, become landlords and powerful people, possess private soldiers of the army, and then fight against the central government... Therefore, ideal rule should still focus on agriculture and suppress commerce and suppress mergers. It is best to eliminate the powerful landlords and merchants, and form a model of the state directly managing small farmers and operating industry and commerce.

But ideals are beautiful, and reality is very cruel!

Although the imperial examination system weakened the combat effectiveness of the powerful landlords, they turned them from bullies who danced with swords and guns into scholars who were knowledgeable about education and rituals, and seemed to be easy to rule.

But at the same time, officials selected through the imperial examination system have become weak and lack sufficient ability. In other words, the power of the powerful and the power to suppress the powerful has been weakened at the same time. Officials with insufficient ability are still in a state of disarmament.

On the one hand, the local tyrants lost most of the force of resistance; on the other hand, most of the officials sent by the court were "spoiled" and had no room for guests to drive, and at most they had a master who waved paper fans.

In this way, the local officials sent by the court had to rely on local clerks to rule. Those local clerks were often one with the landlords and powerful... They had to rely on these local clerks to suppress the merger of local tyrants, and they could think about it, but they knew it was unreliable.

Therefore, in the era when the nobles ruled China, there was still a case of suppressing annexation. However, when the relatively popular imperial examination officials assisted the emperor in ruling the country, the policy of suppressing annexation disappeared.

In Cangzhou at the turn of spring and summer of the first year of Jianzhong Jingguo in the Song Dynasty, several civil servants Da Qingtian wanted to investigate the landlords, so naturally they had to be completed by the clerks in Cangzhou. Otherwise, who would be allowed to investigate? 30,000 to 40,000 square kilometers! If several civil servants checked by themselves, they would not be able to find out one percent of the territory even if they ran away.

If you have to rely on clerks, the five civil officials Qingtian had not yet figured out how to investigate the area and households, and the news of the inspection of the local area and households had spread throughout the upper class inside and outside Qingchi County. The news of the Maritime Office purchasing the land for the former knights also spread throughout the Qingchi County.

So when Wu Haogu returned to the Maritime Office in Qingchi County from Zhongyi Village, several local tyrants in Cangzhou were already waiting for him. The first one was Chai, the only name was Li, and the courtesy name was Zihao. He was the eldest son of the old man Chai from Wudi Chai family. He was born with a tiger-backed and bear-waisted face, but his face was a bit ugly, with high eyes, high cheekbones, a big mouth, and a big beard.

In an inner hall in the backyard of the yamen office, Chai Li and several Cangzhou rich people were brought over. After seeing Wu Haogu, Chai Li immediately stepped forward and sang a fat look: "Chai Li has met the head of Wu."

He called Wu Haogu the "Head of Wu" because although he had an official position from the third rank of the ninth rank, he did not get the official position of the court. Instead, he worked as a Dadubao in Jiehe Shangshi, that is, the militia captain of Shangshi. He had more than 100 regular guards under his command, who were full-time "militia". He was equipped with paper armor, bows, arrows, spears, straight knives and shields, and served as the key guards of Shangshi City. He was also the basic force of Shangshi City's Dadubao.

These "responsible guards" are naturally mainly the children of the Chai family and Murong family, and some are strong customers provided by the Ximen family. The market paid them salaries according to the standards of the imperial guards. At the same time, each household was assigned a house in Shikumen (you can get the property rights after working for 20 years), and the treatment was still very good.

In addition to these "standing guards", the market also has so-called "police inspectors" responsible for maintaining public order. Currently, there are about 100 people, and the weapons they are equipped with are only straight knives and bows. The treatment is the same as the standing guards, with the salary equivalent to the imperial guards, and they can also get allocated housing.

The title of "Head of First Nations" is called Wu Haogu by the officials and civil servants of the market...

"Zihao, Lingzun's health is better?" Wu Haogu asked about Mr. Chai's body before he waited for Chai Li to introduce the visitor, and the old man Chai, who looked very tough, had a bedridden in January this year, and it seemed that he had a stroke! The situation was very bad.

"Half of my body is numb," Chai Li sighed, "Ximen Grandpa (Ximen Qing's grandfather) went to take the pulse and even slap the needle, but it was not very useful."

Wu Haogu also knew that Old Man Chai had delayed time and had no choice but to do anything. The medical treatment these days is like this, so after a few words of comfort, he called Chai Li and a few visitors to sit down.

"Head of Wu," Chai Li took a breath, calmed down his mood, and pointed to the man in his twenties who was in his twenties, dressed up as a man with a big back and waist, and a big head, and introduced, "This is the leader of the Liu family in Qingchi. His single name is a square character, and he is nicknamed Liu Datou."

The head is really big! But it's bigger, so it doesn't seem to be a disproportionate proportion.

"A certain family has seen a great official!" Liu Datou bowed with a voice in Cangzhou and asked again in a muffled voice, "A certain family heard from Chai Dianyan (Chai Li) that as long as they offer 3,000 acres of land, they can be replaced by a imperial guard, but is it true?"

After hearing this question, Wu Haogu smiled, "It's not true."

"Oh, I know it's not true!" Liu Datou shook Datou, "Chai Jiuyan, you are lying to others again!"

Chai Li looked unfair, "First of the People, this..."

Wu Haogu laughed, "If you don't really want you to have 3,000 acres of land for nothing, and buy it according to 4,000 slabs... But the land must be connected!"

"Give 4,000 yuan to collect?" Liu Datou was shocked by Wu Haogu's suggestion, "The great official, Tian Ke from a certain family has no land deed!"

It turned out that what he wanted to offer to Wu Haogu was Hidden Field without a land deed, and wanted to change his identity as an imperial knight to serve as a talisman for the family to shelter from the wind and rain. Because his Qingchi Liu family was a rich man like the Wudi Chai family, and no one was an official in the family, so it was a bit troublesome when facing the Qinghu in the field.

"It's okay," Wu Haogu smiled and waved his hand, "As long as there is no problem with the land, it's fine. If there is no land deed or not, I am not a close official in Cangzhou.

In addition, can you ride a horse? Can you ride a archery? If you don’t, it will be a bit difficult. Maybe you can replace the man who can ride a horse and shoot an archery at home."

"Yes, I do!" Liu Datou nodded vigorously, "To be honest, a family has raised sheep for generations, so he has been riding horses since he was a child, and when he got older, he learned to shoot arrows on horseback!"

The way to raise sheep in Cangzhou is to settle the herds. Because the pastures are generally large, shepherds usually ride horses. In addition, there are big bad wolves in Cangzhou, and there are also many thieves stealing sheep. There are often conflicts between pastures and pastures and farmers, so the skills of riding, shooting and fighting are also necessary.

"That's great!" Wu Haogu smiled and turned his eyes to several other men who were also rich, and said with a smile, "I have followed His Majesty's order to go to Cangzhou to acquire the land of the Imperial Knights, and also recruit some skilled men with skilled bows and horses to fill in the Imperial Horse in front of the hall. If you are interested, or if anyone in your family meets the conditions, you can come to the government office to share the same. If you can sell more than 3,000 acres of land at the same time, then the conditions for filling in the Imperial Horse in front of the hall can be relaxed.

As for whether there is a contract for land or not, I don’t care! Moreover, if a mu of land is at least one lump, good land can be added.

In addition, as long as you are qualified to be selected as the Royal Horse in front of the Palace, you will immediately get 1,500 acres of vocational land! This is an inherited vocational land. As long as you can provide knights for the officials from generation to generation, you can pass on the vocational land.
Chapter completed!