Clan Rise: Starting as a Grandfather

Chapter 826: Chapter 616: Raising an Army, Expansion (Part 2)

Once the Divine Sun Sect raises an army again, it will inevitably face a joint attack from the court and various forces.

Therefore, this time they absolutely cannot expose the existence of the Divine Sun Sect.

For the Divine Sun Sect, raising an army is just the beginning. Next, the Divine Sun Sect will hide behind Chen Hengchang, while helping Chen Hengchang seize the world and continue to accumulate strength.

Meanwhile, Lin Fuan will also clean the inside of the Divine Sun Sect, washing away its filth and allowing the Divine Sun Sect to be reborn.

If the Divine Sun Sect wants to see the light of day again, it must stand cleanly before the world; otherwise, it cannot threaten the world.

He doesn’t want the Divine Sun Sect to continue being rats in the gutter; he wants its members to be people, living under the sun.

Of course, doing so will make the Divine Sun Sect pay a heavy price, perhaps even lose the foundation for rapid growth, but Lin Fuan is still determined to do so.

Because he has had enough of living in the gutter, he also wants to achieve dignity and be praised by the world.

Simply put, he too wants to be a good person and wants to lead the members and disciples of the Divine Sun Sect to be good people.

A group of extremely evil people wanting to be good people sounds a bit amusing.

But this is what Lin Fuan wants most to do. He is not an innately evil person but rather a pitiful person who cannot choose his life.

Now he wants to break free of his destiny’s shackles and become a legitimate man superior to others, which is not hard to understand.

As for those Divine Sun Sect followers, they are nothing but tools for him to break free from destiny.

Therefore, he is willing to cooperate with Chen Hengchang and willing to assist Chen Hengchang.

The sixteenth year of Xingyue, namely, the third year of Jianxing, on the eighth day of August.

Chen Hengchang gathered eight thousand brave men in Jiujiang Prefecture to rebel, raising the banner of ”Punish the foolish king, eliminate treacherous ministers, restore Da Rong, and relieve the people.”

Chen Hengchang started the rebellion in the name of the grandson of Prince Zhao Yuan, claiming to restore Da Rong and thus appearing aboveboard.

Emperor Chengping is named Chen Zhaowu, and before Emperor Chengping ascended the throne, Chen Zhaoyuan was Da Rong’s Crown Prince, only because Chen Zhaoyuan died of illness later, letting Emperor Chengping inherit the throne.

To reckon, Chen Hengchang and Emperor Jianxing Chen Zhaojun are still brothers, following the same generation; Chen Hengchang should be called Chen Zhaochang. He was initially called Chen Zhaochang, changing his name to Chen Hengchang after Prince Qing fled to Black Mountain Island.

The reason for changing his name was to sever relations with the Da Rong royal family and to facilitate hiding his identity.

The eight thousand brave men under Chen Hengchang are actually the descendants of the Navy of Black Mountain Island and now they have returned to fight.

The Divine Sun Sect and Chen Hengchang have prepared very thoroughly.

Raising the army on the eighth of August, they occupied Jiujiang Prefecture.

Soon they captured two states and nine counties under Jiujiang Prefecture, occupying the whole territory in just one month.

Moreover, their generals increased to more than eighteen thousand, and they claimed to be righteous troops.

From then on, the soldiers under Chen Hengchang combined with the followers of the Divine Sun Sect into one army, and henceforth they were the righteous troops to restore Da Rong.

Of course, the Divine Sun Sect is only hidden behind the scenes and has not disappeared.

The Divine Sun Sect’s high-level followers have not completely pledged allegiance to Chen Hengchang; those who did were prepared by Lin Fuan for Chen Hengchang.

They cannot even be called Divine Sun Sect followers, as they haven’t practiced the Spirit Continuation Blood Refining Skill.

Simply put, on the surface, the righteous army led by Chen Hengchang has nothing to do with the Divine Sun Sect.

...

In early September.

Taiping County presents an entirely different scene. The Longnan Province in the north has suffered from drought for three years, and Taiping County also has slight drought conditions. However, over the past three years, Yang Mingzhao organized laborers to dig wells and channels to draw water from underground and rivers, preventing the farmlands of Taiping County from suffering drought and even reclaiming tens of thousands of acres of paddy fields.

Even for farmlands far from water sources, Yang Mingzhao arranged soldiers under him to organize the people to water and irrigate them.

Now in Taiping County, looking around, it is all a scene of plentiful harvest.

It is now the time of new rice harvest, also when people should pay the autumn taxes.

Without waiting for the county government’s officials to urge taxes in various villages, the people voluntarily carried rice to the county town or nearby towns to pay and submit taxes.

In the open space outside the county government, people coming to pay land taxes are all smiling, chatting, and exchanging greetings.

Yang Mingzhao and Chen Buyu stood inside the government office, looking at the people outside, their faces full of smiles as well.

People voluntarily coming to pay taxes is probably their greatest recognition.

Actually, the land tax they set is not low. Land tax is divided into summer and autumn taxes. Summer tax, top-grade field tax is seven liters per acre, lower-grade field five liters. Autumn tax, top-grade field six liters per acre, lower-grade field four liters.

The land tax collected per acre annually is two liters more than Da Rong’s land tax, yet the people are still very happy, because besides land tax, they do not need to pay any other unreasonable taxes.

Farmers need to pay land tax, whereas people in the town need to pay property tax, collected according to the area of residences, roughly equivalent to a real estate tax, approximately five silver coins annually for a typical civilian house, which is neither high nor low.

Based on Taiping County’s workforce, a sturdy laborer can earn about twenty coins a day selling their labor, earning six or seven silver coins a month.

That is to say, a typical household needs to give away a month of a sturdy laborer’s wages annually to pay taxes.

Apart from that, shops are calculated separately, also based on shop area, twice that of residential property.

Furthermore, Yang Mingzhao set up tolls on the main roads entering and exiting Taiping County, charging passage fees.

Finally, Yang Mingzhao also monopolized salt, iron, and tea, the food salt produced in salt wells, tea processed in tea workshops, and iron ingots purchased from outside were all specially operated by the county government.

Even so, the prices in Taiping County are still very stable, and people remain affluent.

The county’s tax revenue is very high, sufficient to support three thousand soldiers, with every household storing grain, ensuring no issues with subsistence.

Taiping County is now thriving.

”Young master, after collecting the autumn grain, we can set out on an expedition!” Chen Buyu said happily.

Yang Mingzhao nodded and said, ”It’s time to set out on an expedition. Gather everyone, let’s discuss the expedition plan!”

Actually, the plan had long been formulated; they just needed to reconfirm it.

Two quarters of an hour later, Yang Mingzhao’s team was already assembled.

Civil servants included Ma Yan, Lu Bo, Qi Zhang, Zhang Baichuan, and Lin Baichao, among others.

Ma Yan and Lu Bo are Yang Mingzhao’s personal followers, but now they are the County Magistrate and Deputy Magistrate of Taiping County and also Yang Mingzhao’s chief stewards.

Qi Zhang is a teacher at a private school in Taiping County, over forty years old, an old pupil, but he was the first scholar to pledge allegiance to Yang Mingzhao.

Many civil servants in the county government are former students of Qi Zhang.

These students do not have much knowledge, but they can write and do calculations, and they perform well as clerks. Yang Mingzhao values Qi Zhang and his students highly.

Zhang Baichuan is the second scholar to pledge allegiance to Yang Mingzhao, a poor Scholar who pledged allegiance because he was grateful for the land distributed to his family by Yang Mingzhao.

Lin Baichao is the young man whom Yang Mingzhao met at the city gate being harassed by Government Officials when he first came to Taiping County.

He has now pledged allegiance to Yang Mingzhao and works as a civil servant in the county government.

Currently, there are more than fifty civil servants in the Taiping County government. Some come from Three Arrows Valley, all young people trained there, some are the students brought by Qi Zhang, totaling seven, and the last group is scholars who voluntarily pledged allegiance, similar to Zhang Baichuan and Lin Baichao.

For a county government, more than fifty civil servants are certainly too many, but Yang Mingzhao is preparing for future officials.

Moreover, several towns within Taiping County have offices, each with more than ten clerks.

Yang Mingzhao also established many schools in Taiping County specifically to train officials.

This is the best solution available; their foundations are too shallow, so they have to find every way to train officials.

Compared to training officials, cultivating generals is much easier.

Whether it’s Deng Xing, Han Lin, Li Dagui, Yang Ze, or Zhao Kai, Zhang Mo, and other young people, they are all qualified to serve as generals.

Over the past two years, they trained three thousand soldiers, educated more than thirty Martial Artists, which, while not a large quantity, is sufficient for their next step of expansion.