A certain person is the Heavenly Killer Li Gui.

Chapter 35 All for the official hat
In the next few days, Yushan sent troops continuously and visited every village and town in the county. Except for the gentry with their own large estates, all the country gentry were wiped out.

The reputation of the Yushan bandits, who only killed the wealthy gentry and spared ordinary people, spread widely, and their reputation spread all over the world.

Among the gentry, those who saw the opportunity quickly packed their things and fled into the county town with their children after receiving the news.

Those who were slow to see the opportunity, or who were hesitant, were caught up by the Yushan thieves and killed all of them.

As for those gentry who hid in the county, their families were saved, but all the servants who stayed at home were killed. As for their property, they were plundered and no chickens or dogs were left behind.

Seeing that the autumn harvest was coming, it was the time to harvest grain. Even if the land outside the city still belonged to their family, without the workers, there would be no grain harvest at all.

It's not that they haven't thought about sending people home again to keep an eye on those mud-legged people, but for some reason, as many people were sent as many people died. It was as if the Yushan bandits had been staring at their home, which frightened them even more. Don't dare to go back.

Throughout Yishui County, people were panicked, and a large number of gentry flocked to the county government office, forcing Magistrate Ding to suppress bandits.

"Dear fellow villagers, it's not that I don't want to suppress the bandits, it's because the Yushan bandits are too ferocious. They failed to suppress the bandits twice in a row!"

"Even Inspector Liang died in the battle, don't you all know this?"

“There is nothing this county can do!”

Magistrate Ding had a gloomy look on his face and spoke to these gentry in an official tone.

"Then let's continue to ask the state to send troops. Last time two battalions were not enough, so this time we will send five or ten battalions. Is that enough?"

Ding Zhixian was reluctant in every possible way, and finally reached a consensus with Old Madam Liu. He no longer had to worry about the threat from Li Gui. Now if he rashly invites troops to suppress the bandits, he might not be so easy to talk to Old Madam Liu.

Thinking of this, Magistrate Ding prevaricated:

"This suppression of bandits is not just empty talk."

"Those Qiu Ba didn't come here for free. How often did they not ask for cards?"

"The anti-bandit money collected last time has long been used up. If we come back this time, the county really can't afford it."

When those gentry saw Ding Zhixian looking so tired and lazy, their teeth itched with hatred.

Outsiders don’t know who got the bulk of the money from those two bandit campaigns. How could these gentry not know?
But this has always been the rule between officials and gentry, and they could only admit it with gritted teeth, but they were unwilling to pay for it themselves, so they said viciously:

"Then we will collect the third bandit suppression fund!"

Normally, Magistrate Ding would have agreed, but now he didn't want to suppress the bandits, so he put on a show of loving the people, shook his head and said:

"It's inappropriate, it's inappropriate. We have collected it twice this year. The merchants and people are already overwhelmed. We really can't accept it a third time."

"If there is a civil uprising, the city will not be safe."

He only talked about the merchants and common people, but did not mention the gentry. He clearly wanted the gentry to pay. However, the gentry were all Pixiu people. They could only get in and not get out, so how could they be willing to pay?
"Autumn food is coming soon, so you might as well use it as a trade off and borrow money from other families to suppress bandits."

The autumn grain mentioned here refers to the grain tax after the autumn harvest. After being collected by each township and county, it is uniformly paid to the county government, then aggregated to the state capital, and finally to the central government.

Magistrate Ding shook his head hastily. If the grain tax cannot be paid on time, it will affect his career.

"This grain tax is so important, how can we allow it to be misappropriated privately?" "The county magistrate should know that if all the squires and we are trapped in the county town with no one outside to help us, we won't be able to collect the autumn grain at all?"

Dingzhi County is now in trouble.

The official structure has been like this from ancient times to the present. If the imperial power does not go to the countryside, the management of the most basic people will be completely absent. If you want to accomplish anything, you must rely on the power of "rural sages".

Although they are called rural sages, they are actually rural thieves. The gentry borrowed their power to manage the people at the bottom, bargained with the court, and even simply ignored local officials to exercise local self-control. If local officials did not have certain means, there was nothing they could do against them.

Now Dingzhi County is in a dilemma. Indeed, as those squires said, if they can't get out of the county seat, they won't be able to harvest anything this year's autumn grain.If you don't turn in the autumn grain, you will be severely punished, and you will definitely not be able to keep your official title.

But if the autumn grain is misappropriated and the superiors are held accountable, many things cannot be hidden, and the official hat must be thrown away.And when the time comes, these gentry will definitely deduct the autumn grain collected to pay off the debt, and they will still not be able to pay the autumn grain.

No matter what he did, this official had reached the end.

As soon as he thought about being dismissed from his official position, Ding Zhixian immediately felt dizzy and anxious.

Seeing that the squires were still chattering there, Magistrate Ding became angry in his heart, slammed the table and shouted:
"shut up!"

"How can I allow you to be so presumptuous in front of me!"

"The money for the suppression of bandits this time will be apportioned by the gentry. The specific amount will be delivered to the house tomorrow. Anyone who dares to resist and refuse to pay will be punished as a bandit!"

After saying this, Magistrate Ding walked away, leaving the stunned gentry in the living room, staring at each other in shock.

The reason why Ding Zhi County has always been very polite to the gentry is that they can help Ding Zhi County better control the affairs of the county, allow Ding Zhi County to successfully complete his term, and even decide the final evaluation of Ding Zhi County. inferior.

But now that Ding County Magistrate is about to lose his official position, who cares about the opinions of the gentry?

Faced with a dilemma, Magistrate Ding thought about it and came up with only one solution, which was to use the gentry's money to suppress the bandits, so that the gentry could go out of the city to collect grain taxes for themselves, complete the court's annual tax payment tasks, and keep their black hat.

As for offending the gentry, Old Madam Liu, and the Yushan thief Li Gui, it could be said that he offended everyone, and he couldn't care less about it.

In everything, keeping your official position must be your top priority.

Even if he lost his official position, what else would he do with his life?
After returning to the study, he thought about it carefully and found that things might not be as bad as he thought.

As long as the state can send a powerful force to destroy Li Gui, he himself will be safe. Even if Old Madam Liu is dissatisfied, he can only endure it.

As for those squires, he had always taken these people too seriously, but now that he had broken the pot, he saw it clearly.

To put it bluntly, the gentry was just a citizen, while he was an official, a serious Jinshi who was called out outside Donghua Gate.

Even though many of those gentry have the same official background, in this one-third of an acre of land in Yishui County, he, the Marquis of Baili, is the one who has the best word!

Even if those gentry let their relatives take revenge in the future, it would only be after he retained his official position.

Moreover, as they are both bureaucrats, the only way to retaliate is through strife in the officialdom. There are too many factors to win or lose, and it is hard to say what the outcome will be.

If those gentry leave the city in the future and dare to withhold grain taxes because of today's incident, he will dare to let them know what it means to be a magistrate with a broken family!
In order to keep his official title, Ding Enlu would do anything!

(End of this chapter)