Chapter 207: Popular Support
“Everyone come and see the latest government office notice.”
“General Pei has ordered that from now on, taxes will be collected only once a year, and there will absolutely be no additional taxes.”
“This year, Beiping Commandery land tax will be collected based on farmland size, only fifty percent…”
The common people, crowded together, heard this and immediately boiled over; no one cared what the yamen runner said next.
This is too good!
Only fifty percent land tax!
The grain harvested after a year of hard farming can finally be kept a bit more. The old and young in the family won’t starve to death. As for the promise of no additional taxes, it’s still unknown if it’s true. But it’s written in black and white, so it should have some use.
General Pei is the great benefactor sent by heaven to save them!
For the magnates, this is obviously not good news. Over a dozen magnate families occupy about half of Beiping Commandery’s good farmland, and when it comes time to pay taxes, they pay only a little per head. The government office apportions the required taxes onto the ordinary common people. Prefect Shen claims to collect fifty percent tax, but in actual operation, it reaches around sixty percent.
Now General Pei has ordered taxes by farmland acreage, so the magnates with vast good farmland must bleed money.
The Yu Clan, Li Family, and several other magnates had their homes confiscated, their money and grain all seized. They offered up over seventy percent of their family assets to exchange for a way to survive. They have no confidence or courage to resist the Pei Family Army.
Fortunately, General Pei only took money and grain, not the courtyard houses, shops, or farmland. After handing over fifty percent of this season’s autumn harvest grain, seventy percent remains!
The magnates gritted their teeth and painfully paid the fifty percent land tax.
Dong Dalang flew his fingers over the abacus, while Wang Erhe checked and counted the grain entering the warehouse one by one according to the numbers calculated by Dong Dalang. Pei Qinghe watched coldly from the side, saying nothing, her deterrence overwhelming.
When the government office collected land tax from the common people, Pei Qinghe went to the tax collection site early in the morning.
Pei Qinghe had come, so Prefect Shen dared not not come; he wore heavy official robes and stood beside Pei Qinghe.
There were over a dozen yamen runners responsible for tax collection, in pairs: one used a grain measure to receive grain, the other circled the register and called out names.
The yamen runners were used to throwing their weight around in the past, but now they tried hard to restrain their vicious greed and squeezed out dry smiles.
During grain collection, a yamen runner habitually kicked it, causing much of the grain in the grain measure to fall to the ground. By convention, the grain on the ground could not be picked up, and the taxpayer common people had to make up the difference with tears.
Pei Qinghe snorted coldly.
Without needing Pei Qinghe’s instruction, Pei Yan strode forward aggressively and kicked over that yamen runner with one foot. Pei Yan was tall and strong, using eighty percent of her strength in this kick. The yamen runner’s leg was nearly broken on the spot, and he clutched it, wailing repeatedly.
“Whoever dares to kick the grain measure again, chop off his leg.” Pei Qinghe’s eyes were icy cold, making the yamen runners tremble: “Go pick up all the grain on the ground.”
Under the gazes full of killing intent, the yamen runners all lowered their heads, set aside their respective errands, and knelt on the ground picking up grain.
That common person whose grain measure had been kicked went from despair, anger, and sorrow to shock, and now to joy and excitement, tears flowing like springs; he suddenly knelt on the ground and kowtowed three loud heads: “Thank you, General!”
Pei Qinghe stood up and went forward, reaching out to help up the tear-streaked common person, saying warmly: “You work hard farming, harvest grain, and pay fifty percent. I, Pei Qinghe, take your grain as military rations to raise the Pei Family Army, which will later protect your safety.”
These words made the common people shed tears; soon they knelt in a crowd, kowtowing and shouting for General Pei.
“Why didn’t the General come earlier?” No one knew which family’s young lad suddenly cried out: “If you had come two years earlier, my mother and sister wouldn’t have been sold.”
When there wasn’t enough grain at home to eat, they could only sell wife and daughter. Otherwise, the whole family would starve to death.
This cry struck the common people’s sore spot, and the crying voices merged into one.
Pei Qinghe sighed lightly and said to that bitterly crying youth: “If you have the will, go sign up to join the Pei Family Army. Practice martial arts well in the future and protect Beiping Commandery’s common people.”
That skinny youth of sixteen or seventeen wiped his tears and kowtowed again: “Thank you, General. In a few days, I’ll go to the new recruit recruitment place to sign up.”
Pei Yun and Gu Lian watched, sighing in admiration in their hearts.
One move to intimidate, one to win popular support.
Pei Qinghe has plenty of methods! They still have much to learn!
For the common people, whether General Pei is putting on a show doesn’t matter. These ordinary common people are like cattle and horses; no one cares about their joy, anger, sorrow, or survival. If General Pei is willing to win popular support, that’s enough for them!
The yamen runners dared not kick the grain measure anymore; the common people paid their land tax, calculated the remaining grain at home, and were full of joy. This was the least land tax paid in the past five or six years.
The land tax collection took five days in total, and Pei Qinghe oversaw it for all five days without leaving for a moment.
All the collected grain was sent to the barracks. Dong Dalang and Wang Erhe led people to count, store, and record accounts, busy without sleep for days.
Pei Qinghe didn’t handle these trivial matters and went to the new recruit recruitment place to personally recruit and assess soldiers.
That dark and skinny youth who had cried bitterly in public that day indeed came to sign up. With him came seven or eight youths of similar age, plus two girls of fourteen or fifteen.
The Pei Family Army’s assessment for female soldiers was much looser. Women brave enough to take this step were worth a second look.
Pei Qinghe warmly asked the two girls their names.
The taller girl mustered courage and answered: “She is Cui Er, I am He Hua. We two are cousins.”
“Our family has many brothers and sisters, enduring hunger and cold on ordinary days. Last year we couldn’t pay the land tax, so my father sold my elder sister. This year, if not for the General coming, it would have been my turn to be sold. My elder sister was sold by the black-hearted Yu Clan to Jiangnan as a female slave. She can never come back.”
“I don’t want to go to Jiangnan, nor be sold to a brothel. I want to be a female soldier; I want to follow the General.”
The shorter Cui Er had the same admiring light in her eyes: “General, take us in! In the future, we will charge and kill for the General.”
Pei Qinghe raised her eyebrow: “You two must think it through. The Pei Family Army has strict military discipline; every day there is practice martial arts training and reading and writing. There are assessments every month. Once in the Pei Family Army, you cannot quit at will. Otherwise, you will be treated as deserters.”
“Daring to be deserters means death.” Pei Yan drew her long saber and waved it, its shiny blade edge gleaming coldly, paired with a chilling laugh full of killing intent, enough to make timid and weak girls’ legs go soft.
He Hua and Cui Er were clearly a bit scared but could barely stand, their voices trembling slightly: “I, we have thought it through.”
“We won’t be deserters!”
Pei Yan sheathed her saber and grinned at Pei Qinghe: “These two have some courage.”
Pei Qinghe smiled slightly and said to Pei Yun: “Take both of them in. Train them well in the future; they are good soldier material.”
Pei Yun nodded with a smile, asked the two girls’ full names clearly, and recorded them one by one in the new recruit register.
