The atmosphere in Shaoxing Mansion has been a little relaxed recently, which made Min Honggui breathe a sigh of relief and was also slightly satisfied. This is all due to him, Min!

Of course, as the second military control director of the departing Navy Lieutenant Colonel Liu Fubo (who temporarily managed this military control area when he just took over the eastern half of Shaoxing Prefecture), Lieutenant Colonel Sun Wu, naturally made the greatest contribution. As one of his most capable generals, Min Honggui also gained the recognition of a group of upper-level officials of the Southern Development Team through his efforts over the past year. As for his future prospects, it is naturally very likely that he will pull up.

Min Honggui was transferred from the position of Xinchang County Magistrate to the newly established Dongshaoxing Military Region, serving as social propaganda and education work. To put it nicely, it is actually to recruit surrenders and rebels from the local area and establish a new order for the East Coast people. To put it bluntly, Min Honggui's main task is to establish a stability maintenance meeting in Yuyao County, Shangyu County, and Linshan Wei, and provide food and grass for the East Coast troops stationed here to suppress them. If the war is not won, the development team will continue to bleed and raise these big-headed soldiers.

Today, Deputy Director Min Hongguimin followed Wang Erdian, president of the Shangyu County Stability Maintenance Association, to the countryside to collect grain. They brought three platoons of infantry, all from the Fifth Division of the Zhejiang New Army. The early rice outside had been harvested, and the food in the hands of the landlords of the households was really not small, but because the people on the east coast had not yet established a stable and reliable taxation system, they could only rely on these local snakes to help collect grain and taxes.

Wang Erdian is the owner of a pawnshop in Shangyu County. It is said that his ancestors passed down their poetry and books. I don’t know why his generation could not even make a fortune. He could only rely on his father’s relationship to run a pawnshop in the city. Perhaps because of the popularity of Shangyu County and the business is prosperous, the business of this pawnshop is very good. It is a bit exaggerating to say that he makes money every day, but the daily earnings cannot be said to be a small amount. Therefore, with the fact that he has no fame and no one in his clan who has studied and become an official, this pawnshop that makes money is attracted by many real power figures, and wants to find an excuse to swallow it in one bite.

As a local snake in Shangyu County, Wang Erdian, who has been rooted in this place for countless generations, naturally felt the news, especially the magistrate who came from the Han military flag, which was obviously not a good bird. However, after thinking about it, he had no good solution, so he was very worried for a moment and seemed to have to wait for death.

It was also his life that he should not have been killed. Just when the Han military flag magistrate might have done anything bad at any time, the yellow-clothed thief - ah no, it was the East Coast heavenly soldiers - suddenly came over. The imperial army - uh, said the wrong thing again, it was the Qing bandits - lost consecutive battles and collapsed in several months. Shengxian, Yuyao, Shangyu, and Linshan were all lost. Even the city west of Cao'ejiang was robbed, which shocked Wang Erdian inexplicably and was ecstatic because he was saved!

After being saved, Wang Erdian did not hesitate. After the East Coast people officially established a military-controlled area in September, and the upper-level officials took office one after another, he surrendered in early October, taking advantage of his familiarity to compete for the position of member of the Stability Maintenance Council. Because he seemed eloquent and had a way in the countryside (their family had a lot of land in Shangyu County), he was appointed by Deputy Director Min Hongguimin as the president of the Stability Maintenance Council, and since then he has been regarded as an extra-staff cadre on the East Coast.

As the name suggests, the Stability Maintenance Meeting is to strive to maintain local stability. At the same time, the cadres, technicians and soldiers sent from the East Coast provide food and salary to maintain their digestion and transformation of the occupied areas. Wang Erdian is naturally very familiar with this kind of "business". However, after taking office, he held several meetings of the members of the Stability Maintenance Meeting, and made a practical and feasible levy plan according to the money and food requirements given by Min Honggui.

Then, he commanded the three yamen runners in Shangyu County who were retained and collected money and grain from house to house. Some of them were easier to collect because they were from members of the stability maintenance association, or the wealthy businessmen who knew that the weather had changed, had to bleed and cooperated with the collection of grain and taxes. But some yamen runners were more difficult to collect, especially some stern (of course, there were also some who were more resistant to the proportion of levies). At this time, Wang Erdian was not nervous and directly asked the three yamen runners to lock them up and took them into prison. After cleaning up, they basically paid fines and taxes in full.

Min Honggui, deputy director of military control, praised Wang Erdian's ability, so he gave a few words in front of Lieutenant Colonel Sun Wu, the director of military control, which made Wang Erdian get the status of a formal cadre and he has received the salary of the East Coast. Today is the day when Min Honggui and him made him go to the countryside to collect grain. They borrowed three platoons of new troops from the city, and brought seven or eight policemen at the same time. There were some coolies behind him pulling carriages of all sizes, and the group walked towards the countryside in a mighty manner.

The place where the grain collection was to be collected was not very close. It was already afternoon when everyone arrived. The villagers in the nearest village seemed a little afraid of them, but they quickly went to inform the old people in the village to come forward to receive them. In fact, this was already very good! You know, when the East Coast people went to the countryside to collect grain for the first time, these villagers saw the soldiers wearing yellow clothes and ran away, and all the villages ran away! The East Coast staff leader who led the team was very confused. I don’t know why they were so scared. You must know that the war has ended for a while!

Later, he found a hiding and lost villager and forced him to tell the reason with a pistol. The villager said tremblingly that the reason why everyone ran away was that during the war, a team of passing East Coast soldiers shot and killed several people because they were asking for food and water. After hearing this, the staff officer was speechless for a long time. He asked someone to record the villagers' words and planned to go back and ask the military police to check which part of the soldiers' military discipline was so bad. Although the hope was so slim, most of the leaders would not check seriously, for fear of hurting the morale of the brave East Coast army. What's more, they always believed that the military discipline of the East Coast army was the best in this era and there was no need to improve.

Of course, the reason why the people ran away when they saw the East Coast people was not only heard of bad rumors or real disturbances. The bigger reason seemed to be that when the Shangyu County was besieged, the East Coast soldiers scattered around the East Coast arrested the villagers in the vast rural areas and then sent them to Dinghai Port as a reserve population for immigration. This arrest was undoubtedly extremely bad, because wherever the East Coast soldiers passed, even livestock were not spared, many houses were demolished, and materials were sent to the fortifications outside Shangyu City, which shows the tragic situation at that time.

Although the arrest of the people of Shangyu County as reserves for immigration was stopped halfway - because the army commanded by Junio ​​at that time defeated the Qing army in Yuyao County and then occupied Shangyu County. The situation east of Cao'e River was settled, and Ma Wenqiang had a bigger goal, so he stopped urgently - but the bad influence had been caused, and the image was difficult to recover for a while, making the local people flee when they saw the soldiers on the east coast.

As a last resort, Lieutenant Colonel Sun Wu, the military director who took office, directly passed the important task of breaking the deadlock to the members of the "professional counterpart" stability maintenance committee. They did have a better way. Through various channels and methods, it took about half a year to slowly turn the situation around, making the rural villagers no longer resist the rulers of the East Coast. Although they were still very scared, they finally stopped running away. This is progress, isn't it?

"Zhang Yuanwai, come here, come here." Wang Erdian's nephew, Wang Xiaodao, who was from the Society, shouted loudly to a middle-aged man. This guy is now a small leader of the county public security bureau, with seven or eight police officers under his command, and most of them are the former accomplices of the Society (actually black social elements...). At this time, he was very arrogant and was wearing very skinny and carrying swords and guns. His identity was extraordinary, and his voice was three points higher than usual.

Mr. Zhang had already seen Wang Erdian and uncle Wang Xiaodao, but he had never seen him. He saw people calling him. Frightened by the power of the more than 60 East Coast soldiers carrying rifles, Mr. Zhang walked over almost step by step and said with a bitter face: "President Wang, didn't you say you would come here next month? The money and food in our village have not been collected yet. You are here now, I'm afraid you'll have to go there for a free trip."

"Not next month! Xinchang, Sheng County is very urgent to reclaim land. The villagers of Xiujiang Defense Line (the east bank of Cao'e River) also need a lot of money and grain. Lord Sun is afraid that he can't wait until next month, and he will need money and grain to be put into the warehouse this month. If not, not only will I wait to eat, but you may also be in trouble." Wang Xiaodao's head shook like a rattle and shouted loudly. While he said, he also looked at Zhang Yuanwai with some pleasure, thinking that he originally dared not provoke such a country rich man because they had money and people, and it was also related to the county town. It is not difficult to kill such a gangster like him, as long as he was willing to pay some price. But now, this decent person who was originally stomping his feet within a few miles had a day of silence and talk to him in a low voice. What a pleasure!

Of course, Wang Xiaodao is not a fool. He knows very well who gave it to him now! The East Coast Chief can make him so majestic in the county, so he can naturally make him so majestic. Therefore, when it comes to serving the East Coast Chief, Wang Xiaodao has always been very dedicated, even if he does not hesitate to do it. At this point, he is quite like his uncle Wang Erdian. Is it really not a family to go into the family? Just like this, even if Min Honggui was not around, he would try his best to collect the money and grain from this official Zhang. He believed that he had this ability, and the three platoons of East Coast infantry behind him were his greatest confidence.

"President Wang, it's really a bit urgent to collect grain this month." Zhang Yuanwai ignored Wang Xiaodao and said directly to Wang Erdian who was standing behind him: "Early rice is harvested in mid-July, and it's less than a month. It's the time for rice to be concentrated in all villages. The price of grain has dropped sharply. At this time, you can collect grain at this time, so there is no problem, but if you have to collect taxes together, it will be difficult. Everyone has no spare money. They have to wait until the rice is collected. Otherwise, wait for you to come next month? I will definitely collect all the money and grain. I'm waiting for you to come here."

"What are you talking about in a dream?" Wang Erdian looked at the rich man who was still a little confused and sighed, "Zhang Yuanwai, if it were the previous Qing Dynasty, this matter might be pleaded with one or two, but now it is the world of the Eastern Dynasties. If you still act with that old method, you will probably be a little out of date. Let's put it this way, Zhang Yuanwai, your village must pay it today, and if you don't pay it, you must pay it. Not only should the rice be sufficient, but the money must be less, otherwise I will not be able to pay it any worse."

Seeing that Mr. Zhang was going to say something else, Wang Erdian suddenly stepped forward and lowered his voice and said, "Today, Director Min of the Military Control District went to the countryside to collect debts. You, Lao Zhang, are unlucky, and you can't escape this disaster. Don't look at me with that look. I know that your family still has some old foundation. The shops in the city are also very good. Lao Zhang, I have agreed that the taxes and silver in this village will be covered by you. You must be clear. OK, don't look like a dead person. What a big deal. Following the adults of the Eastern Dynasties, your life will definitely get better day by day. Wasn't the Tartars so strong back then? You should have heard of the situation in Ningbo in the east over the years. The officials of the Eastern Dynasties and Shang Dynasty are not as greedy as the Tartars, and their level is better.

Those scattered Qing officials are much stronger, at least they have never heard of many tricks and robberies. We live a peaceful life under the East Bank, and we are a rich man. If we want to make trouble, we will not have a good ending. Moreover, Lao Zhang, don’t worry about the Luo Shi, the Qing Dynasty will fight back. Bah, it’s impossible! I won’t be a joke with you at this time. A few days ago, the Qing Dynasty and Hangzhou quietly sent people over to discuss peace with our Great East Bank. Hehe, this is not a peace talk. It sounds nice. It’s obviously a defeated peace talk. I beg our Great East Bank to let them go and don’t go there again! So, Lao Zhang, you can also put some of your little thoughts away. If you don’t expect, live a good life in the future. I won’t lie to you.”
Chapter completed!