Zheng Ying did not know what was going on, but Zheng Ying knew that Xiao Ruxun's orders were. He was absolutely loyal to Xiao Ruxun. As long as it was Xiao Ruxun's orders, he would follow them unconditionally. Thus, he did not raise any objections.
Xie He wanted him to provide 200 elite soldiers, which he provided. Xie He also needed a capable general to lead the troops, which he also provided. Xie He also wanted this troop to listen to Xie He's orders, which he agreed to.
Hence, Xie He brought along a team of 36 people and a total of 400 soldiers and headed towards the direction of Big Cliff Village.
On the way, Xie He distributed the basic information of the Rong Family to the rest of the team.
In the early years, the Rong Family was a self-employed farmer. Later on, due to the fact that the third generation of the family knew how to run a business, the Rong Family managed to earn quite a sum of money and even nurtured two scholars.
Both of them passed the High Scholar's exams and the Rong Family prospered. After three generations, the Rong Family had become the most powerful family in Big Cliff Village. It was the standard for knowledge to change one's fate.
In the span of three generations, the Rong Family had married into other powerful families in the village and established a strong reputation. In the densely populated Big Cliff Village, the Rong Family lived like a tyrant. 60% of the farmland in the village belonged to the Rong Family.
Naturally, in the process of making their fortune, the Rong family made use of the tax exemption granted to them by the two High Scholars. They did many things such that the farmers in the village went bankrupt. If they didn't become tenant farmers, they would have lost their land and had to go to the city to find work. It seemed like the Rong family had also contributed a lot to the Wokou Pirates.
According to the rules of the Daming Dynasty, High Scholars had the privilege of being exempted from taxes. However, not all land was exempt from taxes. Every level of official had their own land that was exempt from taxes. However, in reality, up until today, any land owned by a High Scholar or above did not need to be taxed.
Therefore, the people who were still paying taxes in Big Cliff Village were the self-employed farmers who were struggling to survive. Most of the tenant farmers were living a muddle-headed life. They did not have enough to eat, but they did not starve to death.
The Rong family had only owned a few hundred mu of land in the early years, but now they owned tens of thousands of mu of land. Just relying on two High Scholars was not enough. As for what had happened in between, Xie He could even guess with her toes.
However, that kind of evil could not be seen now. The tenant farmers lived honestly, the farmers worked hard to survive, and the powerful landlords who occupied large amounts of land lived relatively luxurious lives. This kind of orderly life actually produced a strange state of peace.
However, this was an illusion, an extremely hypocritical illusion. The tyrants who controlled 90% of the fertile land did not pay a single cent of taxes, swallowing the taxes that originally belonged to the imperial court into their stomachs. At the moment, it looked peaceful, and no one died. Everyone had something to strive for, but the biggest victim was the entire country.
Daming Chao was the biggest loser.
No one would be able to tell that the root of the country's downfall was hidden within the bountiful farmland.
Pushing aside its seemingly prosperous and comfortable appearance, one would be able to see the shocking and terrifying truth.
What Xie He wanted to do was to completely cut off the root of the country's downfall. She wanted to tear apart this false prosperity and comfort, and return everything to the right track.
In order to achieve this goal, Xie He first needed these local ruffians.
The main family of the Rong family lived in the village, and there were branch families who ran shops in the county. Together with a few other large families, they controlled the price of grain in the entire Yin County. Of course, they would choose to attack the main family. They would directly destroy their base, and the rest would not be able to escape.
Now that the autumn harvest was approaching, it was the busiest time in the farmland. A large number of farmers were busy working in the fields. As the owner of the land and the farmers, the Rong family naturally did not idle around. Today, the Rong family had gathered the leaders of the various families in the village and held a short meeting.
The main point of the meeting was that everyone had to hurry up and harvest the grain, store it, and not send a single grain to the county to be sold. When the county ran out of grain, they would use this as a threat to negotiate with the Zhennan Army.
They planned to launch an attack on the Zhennan Army during the autumn harvest.
After the Zhennan Army arrived, they did not hesitate and directly wiped out the entire Shen Yicheng family. Although this greatly shocked these people, at the same time, it also aroused their fear and hostility.
Facing the family of the Prime Minister of the country, they were so ruthless, and even divided the family's assets equally to the peasants. This was simply unbelievable. These so-called northern expeditionary troops were simply robbers and bandits. They could not agree with them at all.
Not only did they do this, but they also used the army to forcefully intimidate them. Not only did they sweep the county government clean, they even sent someone else to take control of the county government. They even sent someone to audit the accounts, saying that they wanted to get back the taxes that they had accumulated over the years.
What was this?
Weren't these robbers and bandits?
If they could make a move on the Shen Yicheng family today, they would be able to make a move on them next year. The Rong Clan knew this very well. These days, not only did they actively contact the local tyrants from other villages, they also gathered the families of the local tyrants and organized them together. This greatly increased the resistance of Big Cliff Village.
The other villages were the same. Everyone agreed to give Xiao Ruxun and the Zhennan Army a taste of their own medicine during the autumn harvest. They did not sell any grain, and they were not allowed to enter the village. If everyone raised their troops at the same time, what could the Zhennan Army do?
Not only that, the Rong Clan and some other big families also sent people out of Ningbo to other places to ask for reinforcements. Although there was no news of reinforcements, the military forces in their hands were enough to launch a counterattack against the Zhennan Army that was occupying the Ningbo Prefecture.
As long as the Zhennan Army was attacked by so many people at the same time, and they did not have enough grain, would they still have to worry about the Ningbo Prefecture being occupied by the Zhennan Army? This group of robbers would be destroyed sooner or later.
They had such confidence in themselves.
The main content of today's meeting included how to mobilize the troops, how to carry out the operation, who would be the commander-in-chief and so on. Everyone expressed their views and exchanged ideas. Although there were still many things that had not been discussed, at least everyone had the intention to cooperate.
The rest of the discussion was to discuss how to distribute the land that was confiscated by the Zhennan Army after the Zhennan Army was killed. This was the main point, and the rest was not that important.
The head of the Rong Clan, Rong Bing, had the most say in this matter. This was because one of the women in his clan had married a man from the Shen Clan, and that man's status in the Shen Clan was not low. Therefore, the Rong Clan felt that they should be able to get some of the high-quality land.
Regarding this, many families objected.
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