Chapter 228 Heads Rolling

Chapter 228 Heads Rolling

Chapter 228 Heads Rolling (Part 2)
"Kong Yansheng pays his respects to the number one scholar." Kong Yansheng, the head of the Nan Kong family, is over seventy years old, but he appears very humble in front of Xu Qing.

In fact, it is more than just humility.

Kong Yansheng wanted to hug Xu Qing's thighs and call him godfather.

It can be said that Xu Liushou’s great kindness to Nan Kong was like his reincarnated parents.

This is because Nan Kong had lost the title of Duke of Yansheng for more than two hundred years, and had not been granted any title during this period. It was not until the previous emperor that he was granted the hereditary position of Doctor of the Five Classics in the Hanlin Academy, with an official rank of only eighth grade.

Even so, the Southern School of Confucius was grateful to the late emperor.

Since the death of the previous emperor, sacrifices have been made every year.

The kindness of a Doctor of the Five Classics was so great, not to mention that Xu Qing directly helped the Southern School of Confucius to regain the title of Duke Yansheng.

It can be said that even if all the scholars in the world opposed Xu Qing, it would be impossible for the Southern School of Confucius to oppose Xu Qing.

Only after losing something will one know how to cherish it.

Now Nan Kong cherishes the title that he got back with great difficulty.

Therefore, when Xu Qing and Chen Fu were clearing fields in Dongshan Province, they received strong cooperation from the Southern School of Confucius.

Because Bei Kong had committed so many evil things, Nan Kong, who had just regained his title, was extremely low-key and dared not do evil at all. As a result, after a sharp contrast, Bei Kong's influence in Dongshan Province was almost completely eliminated.

Occasionally, some scholars who were studying abroad would come to Dongshan Province and say a few bad words about Xu Liushouchu Beikong. When others heard it, they would be glared at or beaten up.

Because it was wrong for the people to beat scholars, some scholars reported to the authorities.

In the end, they were all perfunctorily dealt with, and then the matter was reported to the provincial education commissioner. The provincial education commissioner dared not get angry, so he directly sent the troublemakers back to their hometowns and asked the provincial education commissioner to punish them.

"Sir, please stand up. I am just a junior and do not deserve your kind gift." Xu Qing had completely different attitudes towards South Kong and North Kong.

He just wants to tell the world that it’s not that he doesn’t respect Confucianism, but that he only respects the Confucianism that he approves of.

Xu Liushou simply despises cynics.

In name, Kong Yansheng came to visit Xu Qing, but in fact he was summoned by Xu Qing.

Kong Yansheng was worried that he had no chance to repay Xu Liushou, but when he saw Xu Liushou calling him, he was determined to come to meet him even if he had thousands of troops.

It can be said that Xu Qingling infinitely elevated his historical status in the Kong family.

Even if he is not called the founder of the revival after his death, it is more than enough for him to be enshrined in the world's temple.

Xu Qing spoke directly, "The court didn't allocate a penny to me for this flood control, and I can't take it out. Spring plowing is coming soon, so the canal must be dredged immediately, and there can be no delay. This is my plan. The gentry and nobles in Qingzhou will mainly contribute money and grain, and the victims will contribute manpower to tide over the difficulties together. I came to ask Yanshenggong to take the lead and call on the gentry and nobles to donate money and grain."

Kong Yansheng: "Mr. Zhuangyuan, there is no problem on my side, but I am afraid that I can't attract a few gentry and noble families."

He went on to say: "Without the imperial court paying the big bucks, asking the gentry and nobles to pay money and grain is more difficult than killing them."

Xu Qing smiled and said, "If he doesn't come out, then I will kill him and confiscate his property. I have the strength and means to do so. Duke Yansheng can also tell them this clearly."

Xu Qing was preoccupied with the important task of encircling and suppressing the Black Mountain Demon, so he had no time to continue messing around with this group of insects.

And with his current prestige, killing his way through a state capital is no big deal.

It is indeed difficult to plough the world, but it is easy to rule a state or a prefecture.

...

...

"What? Not only does the imperial court not intend to provide disaster relief, but it is also targeting us?"

Because it was Duke Yansheng who summoned the people, all the noble families and gentry came without much hesitation.

After all, Duke Yansheng is a plaque for scholars all over the world.

Unless they don't recognize the sign, they'll have to show up just to say hello.

I didn't expect that this would be the case after I arrived.

"In previous years, every household contributed three taels of silver to control the flood. How can the people not contribute a penny?" shouted a local gentry.

Water conservancy has always been a good project for corruption.

In particular, the people suffered greatly from the flood and had to spend money to control the flood.

The stipulated amount of silver was three taels, but when it was actually carried out, the land could not even be kept.

Even so, we have to grit our teeth and cooperate.

Otherwise, the gentry and wealthy families would still have food to eat and a place to live, but the common people would still have to sell their fields, land, and children.

After a flood, everyone can have enough food to eat.

In addition, there are also some things to pay attention to when building a dike.

Which side is solid and which side is not solid depends on the person.

Even the raw materials for building the dam were provided by some wealthy people.

It's really a case of killing two birds with one stone, and everyone gets rich.

Although Xu Qing had a big name, everyone was naturally very unhappy when he turned the table as soon as he arrived.

"Xu Liushou wants an answer today. Here is the amount each family should donate. Please compare carefully." Kong Yansheng is old and doesn't say much. He just acts as a mouthpiece.

When the gentry looked at their own amounts, they immediately felt dizzy.

The amount of this donation is almost one-third of their net worth.

One third is basically fatal.

After the donation was made, except for two or three wealthy families with good reputations, all the other gentry refused on the spot.

...

...

When Kong Yansheng was raising funds.

Xu Qing was not idle. He took his men to study measures to control the flood.

In fact, the imperial court already had old precedents for flood control, and the Ministry of Works had already prepared blueprints for how to build the dike before Xu Qing arrived.

After comparing it on site, the general construction process will come out directly.

To put it bluntly, the imperial court did not lack the ability to control floods, but it lacked the money.

Why did the Minister of Works and the Governor of the River offer sacrifices to the gods? Of course, they wanted to ask the gods to suppress the water monster, but in the final analysis, they had no money to make a fuss.

Although the reform has achieved some results, the first things to do are to make up for the deficits of previous years and build the army.

In fact, the Prime Minister also knew that allocating funds for flood control would be a bottomless pit.

After layers of corruption, there is not much money left that can be used for practical purposes.

Moreover, if too much funding is allocated, it may even lead to lower-level governments actively creating floods.

Xu Qing and his men visited the site and asked the victims about the true situation of the gentry and wealthy families.

He also has some information, but on-site visits and mutual verification are necessary.

When his visit was over, Kong Yansheng's fundraising work also came to an end.

The result was of course a failure.

After hearing this, Xu Qing was very satisfied, "Mr. Kong, thank you for helping me with this big favor."

Kong Yansheng was stunned: "Mr. Zhuangyuan, I am just running errands. And most of them really don't want to cooperate with you."

Xu Qing smiled: "I told you, if you don't cooperate, I'll kill you. It's that simple."

Kong Yansheng didn't expect that Xu Liushou was not joking, but was serious.

About ten days passed.

Three thousand Yunzhou soldiers entered Qingzhou at a very fast speed.

After the troops arrived, Xu Qing began to arrest people.

Of course, these powerful families and gentry resisted.

But because the capital was hosting the world's number one martial arts conference, all the truly powerful martial artists in the local areas went to the capital.

It can be said that this is a martial arts event that only happens once in a century.

It doesn't matter if they don't get a ranking, just exchanging martial arts experiences is enough for them to gain a lot.

Moreover, for every warrior, participating in such a grand event is enough to brag to his children and grandchildren.

The gentry and nobles of Qingzhou would certainly not fail to meet this small request for the powerful warrior they worshipped, and they even gave him travel expenses.

They didn't expect that this was also sending away their own life-saving talisman.

Without powerful warriors, they lost their last bit of life-saving capital.

Facing the army reorganized by Xu Qing's father-in-law, they had no power to fight back. The guerrilla general leading the troops this time was Zhou Zhen, who was also the leader of the rebels who was put on the shelf during the last Yunzhou mutiny. Now he has been reinstated after making meritorious contributions.

Moreover, Zhou Zhen is a member of the Zhou family in Taicang, and is also a relative of Xu Qing.

At present, Zhou's cousin is still living in Xu Qing's hometown in Jiangning. Even Taicang Zhou has tacitly agreed that Zhou's cousin will marry Xu Liushou as his co-wife in the future.

This is a great thing!
The gentry and wealthy families in Qingzhou could never have imagined that Xu Liushou would not even give them a chance to bargain and would directly lead his troops to confiscate their homes.

After all, according to convention, if you ask for a high price, you should pay it back on the spot.

Now even the officials of Qingzhou, the managers of this section of the canal office, and the transport troops were shocked.

The transport troops were military households whose livelihood depended on the grain transport business.

This time in Qingzhou, Xu Qing truly demonstrated what it meant to have a heavy sword without an edge and to have great skill without effort.

One force can defeat ten!

Some scholars and candidates from the gentry and wealthy families were so angry that they went to the capital to file a complaint.

But Duke Yansheng's memorial arrived first.

It was said that the gentry and wealthy families were plotting rebellion, and that they had dug up the dikes and intentionally destroyed the people's fields in order to achieve their goal of annexing the land.

This memorial contains a lot of supporting evidence and a detailed list.

The key point is that it was sent directly to the cabinet and was not stopped halfway.

It is clear at a glance who is more trustworthy, the Yansheng Duke or ordinary scholars or juren.

What's more, the newly appointed Prime Minister Liang took sides and ordered the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of Rites to strip the scholars and juren who had filed the complaint of corruption of their rank and status, and to revoke their official titles.

...

...

The gentry would naturally not sit still and wait for death. Even if their properties were confiscated, there would still be remnants of evil who would recruit people everywhere and want to rebel directly.

Who knew that after Xu Qing's house was confiscated, he directly started to provide work-for-relief.

What’s more, the payment is clear and transparent, and wages are settled on a daily basis.

However, the biggest problem with daily wage payment is that it consumes too much manpower and resources.

But Xu Qing did not use any officials from Qingzhou. He directly asked the people he brought with him to distribute the money, and then asked the people from the Red Flower Society to keep an eye on it.

Not to say it's foolproof.

But the corruption in the middle has indeed been reduced a lot.

Xu Qing did not leave the officials of Qingzhou idle either.

He personally went to work on the dike, and the other officials had no choice but to follow him.

When it comes to hard labor, who can compare to him, the martial arts master?

If Xu Qing could go back to his previous life, with his strength, he could become rich just by moving bricks!
Even though these officials were as cunning as foxes and ruthless, they had no energy to collude secretly when they were taken to work by Xu Qing every day.

Moreover, Xu Qing would kill a local gentry from time to time and place his head on the levee, saying it was a sacrifice to the River God.

This made the officials who wanted to cause trouble tremble with fear and dared not neglect it anymore.

Xu Liushou, oh no, Xu the Barber really killed someone.

Now Xu Qing has unlocked a new nickname, "Xu the Barber".

After hearing this, Xu Qing smiled.

Finally it’s not a short-lived nickname anymore.

Is it still a good sign?
However, excessive killing also has side effects.

The border troops of Yunzhou also secretly took advantage of this to embezzle some silver.

There is no other way. Even if my father-in-law wants to reorganize the army, it is impossible not to take a single penny.

Among the gentry whose properties were confiscated, there must have been some good people who were wrongly accused.

Many people advised Xu Qing not to go too far.

Xu Qing could only say, "I killed the wrong person, and I bear the sin myself."

Even Xu Qing failed to stop the spread of rumors that he was the reincarnation of the devil.

The human heart is like a mirror, it reflects whatever it sees.

Can he stop doing these things just because others slander him?

Well, many of them are not defamatory.

If he kills ten people this time, maybe one or two are good people, the remaining three or five are half good and half bad, and there may be only two or three very bad people.

Just two or three people like this committed almost 90% of the evil deeds, or they dragged people who were not so bad to do evil together.

If he had time, he would definitely review the case slowly.

But time was running out, so Xu Qing had to cut the Gordian knot.

...

...

"Young Master, someone poisoned the food." Su Lianqing also looked haggard.

Killing people is the simplest thing to do in water control.

The remaining things are complicated.

Even though Su Lianqing's spiritual cultivation had been raised to the level of being able to drive objects with the help of Xu Qing, facing these complicated and tedious matters still consumed a lot of energy.

However, although she was haggard, she felt that her life had more meaning.

People who have been in darkness for a long time yearn for light more than anyone else.

What she is doing now is really healing for her, and it has also given her a deep understanding of the teachings of Luojiao to save the world.

Luojiao is indeed an extraordinary inheritance.

Even though the younger generations have gone astray, the fundamental teachings still include love and compassion.

Without these, it would not attract so many ordinary people to join.

The biggest advantage of working with Xu Qing is that you don’t have to use such despicable means to get things done.

And Xu Qing bears the greatest pressure.

In fact, she felt very sorry for the young master.

Because Qingzhou's actions this time were too cruel, Xu Liushou's reputation, which had just improved slightly, took a sharp turn for the worse.

The rabbit dies and the fox is sad.

Even if the imperial court suppressed the criticism against Xu Qing, the surrounding gentry and wealthy families could not have been unaware of what had happened in Qingzhou.

If Xu Qing uses similar methods in the future, the backlash will be even greater.

Moreover, Shilin’s smear campaign against Xu Qing is intensifying.

The latest rumor is that Xu Qing is the old emperor's illegitimate son, because Xu Qing's son was brought into the palace to be raised.

There are also rumors about Xu Qing's son, saying that he is the reincarnation of the Demon Star...

Xu Qing alone is powerful enough, let alone Tianmoxing.

In fact, everyone originally wanted to say that Xu Qing was the Devil Star, but his examination essay alarmed the Star of Literature, so he was really the Star of Literature who had descended to earth, and it was not easy to discredit him.

You can only beat around the bush.

Xu Qing would naturally not be affected by these things. He asked Su Lianqing, "Who did it?"

"It should be a water demon."

Su Lianqing has very strict control over food matters. Under such circumstances, it is difficult for ordinary people to make a fuss about it.

Those wealthy gentry were all killed, and the remaining people were even less capable of doing this.

Xu Qing nodded slowly, it was time to end this matter.

He used work as a substitute for relief and slaughtered the gentry, which naturally won the hearts of the people. The resulting incense and luck began to strengthen the seal.

This is also the court's experience in strengthening the seal of water demons.

"Weiyang Sword, it's your turn to take action."

(End of this chapter)