Clan Rise: Starting as a Grandfather

Chapter 809: Chapter 608: Emperor Yanping Passes Away

Yang Mingzhao naturally didn’t know that the Magistrate had already given up. He even sent people to the prefecture city to gather information, but after more than two months, the government office didn’t have any reaction.

This left Yang Mingzhao somewhat bewildered.

”Why doesn’t the government come to suppress the bandits?”

”Could it be that the Magistrate is still unaware?” Chen Buyu speculated.

Yang Mingzhao said, ”He’s not deaf, how could he not know?”

”Then why?” Chen Buyu was also quite puzzled.

Puzzled indeed, they naturally wouldn’t understand the mindsets of those officials.

Not to mention Su Muye, almost all the Bashu officials are in a state of inaction now.

When the first wave of rebels emerged to cause trouble, they still thought about actively responding, by mobilizing garrison soldiers, recruiting local braves, actively throwing themselves into the grand cause of rebellion suppression.

But a series of defeats completely extinguished their enthusiasm.

The first to rise up was the Black Tiger King, who could be said to have borne all the pressure, causing the government’s rebellion suppression army to scatter in disarray.

It’s not that the Black Tiger King was so powerful; it’s just that the government’s rebellion suppression army was too terrible.

Over ten thousand soldiers and braves set out without even being properly fed, and they were expected to suppress the rebellion?

At that time, the Black Tiger King, with just a few hundred fierce old bandits, scattered over ten thousand troops.

Then another Nine Heavens King emerged, and the Three Divisions Office of Bashu felt it was difficult to suppress the rebellion on their own, so they thought of joining forces with the Commander of the Mobile Capital Guard of Shunan.

Commander Ma He of Shunan indeed brought thousands of troops to suppress the rebellion, but he demanded money and grain before even starting the battle.

The Three Divisions Office of Bashu had to hold their noses and give money and grain, while Ma He, leading the army, advanced all the way, occupied four counties in a year, and then stopped.

Ma He continued to demand money and grain, and when the Three Divisions Office refused, he collected money and grain himself.

In this way, those four counties became Ma He’s territory.

Nominally, he was still the Commander of the Mobile Capital Guard of the court, but in reality, he became a local despot in Shunan.

As for why the court did not send troops to suppress the rebellion, it was because the court had forgotten about it.

Initially, there were still discussions about the rebels in Bashu on the court, but later, the civil and military officials were all busy fighting among themselves, with no one paying attention to the situation in Bashu.

Moreover, Emperor Yanping had been plagued by illness these past two years, making it difficult for him to manage state affairs effectively.

In such circumstances, no one on the court attended to the rebel army in Bashu anymore.

With the court ignoring, the Bashu officials were at a loss and could only give up.

Thus, the situation became like this.

Initially, Yang Mingzhao was still wary of the government coming to suppress the rebellion, but later, he not only found that the Magistrate’s office had no reaction, even the Three Divisions Office of Bashu was silent, which finally set his mind at ease.

Of course, he still arranged for people to keep an eye on the Three Divisions Office and the government office of Kui Prefecture, but he was no longer overly anxious.

In the main hall of the county government office.

”Since the government isn’t coming to attack us, we don’t need to rush to expand. Let’s manage Taiping County well first!”

Yang Mingzhao said.

”Young Master, aren’t we going to continue expanding? With our strength, we can completely capture another county!” Chen Buren said.

Yang Mingzhao shook his head and said, ”Without stable foundations, occupying more territory is useless. What we need to do now is establish firm foundations!”

”Firstly, recruit scholars. We still have too few scholars under us, and there aren’t enough civil servants in the county government.”

”With enough civil servants, we can establish systems, determine tax rates, and then collect taxes!”

”For now, we will cancel all onerous taxes and corvée labor, keeping only land and commercial taxes!”

”Secondly, repair waterworks. Many rural irrigation channels have long been unmaintained, many are already silted up. To ensure a good harvest for the people, we must ensure they can eat their fill!”

”The importance of waterworks needs no further elaboration, so next, we will organize the people to repair the canals.”

”We don’t need to provide money or grain for this; as long as we take the lead, the people will be eager to participate, as it concerns their harvest!”

”Thirdly, restore the operation of salt wells, tea workshops, and medicinal material workshops, and open up trade routes to ensure we can acquire more Silver Coin.”

”The salt wells can’t stop, as many Stove House depend on them for a living. We need to resume salt well production as soon as possible!”

”Likewise, tea and medicinal materials need to be restored. Not only to restore production but also to open trade routes, otherwise, the tea leaves and herbs grown by tea and medicine farmers will be meaningless!”

”It’s difficult to go to Kui Prefecture, but we can go to Longnan.”

”Fourthly, train troops. We only have seven hundred able-bodied men, which is obviously not enough! However, we don’t need too large an army now; recruiting too many able-bodied men would affect the farming!”

”So I’ve decided to recruit another eight hundred able-bodied men, making a total of one thousand five hundred, to establish the Taiping Army, um, Taiping Army is the name of our army.”

”Besides recruiting men, we also need to form farmer soldiers, similar to garrison soldiers, farming during busy seasons, and training during leisure!”

”Training by village, with each village training thirty to fifty able-bodied men, so that when we need to confront the court’s rebellion suppression army, we can gather tens of thousands of troops at any time!”

”And when the Taiping Army needs to expand in the future, we can also select personnel from the farmer soldiers!”

”Besides these, we also need to establish our own forge workshops, to forge weapons, and also produce armor. We don’t currently have the capability to forge Iron Armor, but we can use rattan armor!”