At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty

At that time, after An Dun reorganized the army, Guo Peng focused his energy on the harvest of summer grain, continued to observe the situation of the farms in various places, and patrolled everywhere.

Starting from Qi State, to Le'an State, and then to Jinan State, I plan to meet and chat with Zang Hong and Cao Cao to discuss some things.

Inspections along the way, going deep into newly established villages and reclaimed farmland, personally inspecting the growth of food crops and water conservancy conditions, asking farmers about life at home, seeing their living conditions, asking whether there is enough food, etc.

Guo Peng has never slacked off on this kind of thing.

Guo Peng felt relieved to find that everything was developing according to his expectations.

Guo Peng felt that although he was exploiting them, at least giving them a stable way of life in this world without going into exile or starving was the best way to achieve his goals and take care of their lives.

At the same time, on the way to the villages in various counties and counties, Guo Peng realized the importance of roads.

So he ordered the accompanying officials to send people to inspect the road conditions after they go back, build a number of roads centered on Linzi County, list the road traffic problem in Qingzhou as a very important issue, and provide a certain amount of financial revenue Come fix the road.

No one is more aware of the importance of transportation issues to national development than Guo Peng.

Watching Qingzhou gradually glow with new vitality under his own governance, Guo Peng was even a little proud.

But soon, his pride was shattered.

Chapter 247 .240 Six Shattered Pride

Guo Peng began to inspect all the way from Linzi County, and inspected every village along the way very carefully.

When he inspected a newly established village in Jinan, he was very satisfied when he saw that the harvest in the village was very good and the farmers were working diligently.

So Guo Peng praised the newly appointed village head in the village who came out of his village, and walked back with a smile.

After walking a few miles, two middle-aged men suddenly appeared on the side of the road and knelt down in front of Guo Peng.

The guard stepped forward to scold them, but was stopped by Guo Peng, who got off his horse and quickly stepped forward to help them up.

"My lord! Help me!"

The two cried in a mess, and intermittently told what happened to them.

Guo Peng ordered the establishment of new villages and towns, granted land to the refugees, ordered them to cultivate to facilitate hoarding of food, and also left enough rations for the refugees so that they would not starve to death.

But at the same time, in order to make officials and villagers more motivated, Guo Peng set up a reward system for both farmers and officials.

In short, the more crops are harvested within a certain range, the more food will be rewarded, and the food will be fuller than other families.

The more grain the grassroots village heads and township heads turned in, the better their political achievements, and the more rewards and promotions they could get.

This is a very normal reward and punishment system, and there is nothing worthy of attention, but what these two people said made Guo Peng furious.

In order to obtain more food, better political performance and faster promotion, the village head of this village drives the peasants as slaves.

When farming and working, he led his own people to patrol the fields with whips. When he saw someone taking a break, he whipped up and scolded him to continue working and not to be lazy. The rest time was compressed to the extreme.

Not only that, when handing over grain, in order to gain more political achievements, they forcibly reduced the share of grain rations that Guo Peng stipulated to be reserved for farmers, and turned in more, so as to gain political achievements and praise.

But the farmers in the village would not have enough to eat, would be hungry, feel very uncomfortable, and could not persevere.

If you don’t have enough to eat, you will have no strength to work, but if you don’t work, you will be whipped. Some older people can’t hold on anymore, and several of them were beaten to death.

This time when Guo Peng came to inspect, all he saw was peace, but no one dared to speak out, for fear of death.

But the two of them had already lost their relatives, and they just wanted to avenge their relatives, and asked Guo Peng to uphold justice for them.

The officials who followed Guo Peng to inspect the fields were stunned, while Guo Peng kept a dark face and remained silent for a while, telling them to go back with him.

Back in the village, Zhao Neng, the village head, heard that Guo Peng had turned back halfway. He didn't know what was going on, so he rushed to greet him. When he saw that Guo Peng was accompanied by two people from the village, he was shocked.

Guo Peng got off his horse, took a whip in his hand, and walked over step by step. The village head was so frightened that his face turned pale, and he backed up again and again. After a few steps, he fell to the ground.

"Zhao Neng, because you work hard, are smart, and recognize characters faster than others, I named you Neng. I hope you will become a capable official. My expectations for you are correct. You are indeed Quite capable.

The amount of summer grain and autumn grain handed in last year was among the top. I plan to promote you to be the head of the village after I go back, so that you can pass on your experience to the villages everywhere, so that they can all learn from you. "

Guo Peng stood in front of Zhao Neng, looking down at him.

"But can you explain to me what it's like to watch the farmers with a whip?"

Zhao Neng's pupils shrank and his whole body trembled. Just as he was about to speak, Guo Peng slapped his face with a whip, which hit his mouth. The whip pulled his words back and knocked out a few teeth.

Zhao Neng covered his mouth and writhed on the ground, blood dripping down through his fingers.

"You've grown up, you can beat people with a whip, not bad, not bad, you can recognize characters quickly, you also learn this kind of thing very quickly, and you lose your conscience very quickly, right?"

Another whip was whipped on his body, and a bloodstain was quickly revealed through his clothes, which looked very frightening.

"If I remember correctly, you are also a refugee. You entered my manor, ate, learned to read, arranged work for you to do and learn, and let you be the village head. Pointing to you to read the past Hard times, do things well, let everyone have something to eat, and as a result, you seem to have forgotten that you were also hungry, right?"

Guo Peng flicked the whip a few times, lashing him three times in a row, and then kept whipping, harder and harder.

"Let you be the head of the village to handle affairs, and you came here to be a tyrant?"

"What do you think of yourself? Huh? The emperor?"

"What I dare not do, you do it very happily, don't you?"

"Dare to bully people, dare to starve to death, do this kind of thing, are you really not afraid of cutting off your children and grandchildren? Ah?"

After dozens of lashes were drawn down, Zhao Neng's flesh and blood were bloody, leaving only one breath.

As soon as Guo Peng stretched out his hand, the guard next to him handed over a ring-shou knife. Holding this knife, Guo Peng chopped off Zhao Neng's head with one knife, and handed the bleeding head to the guard.

"Take it, pass the head to every village, and tell the village chiefs of every village that if a person dares to starve to death, this will be their fate."

The personal guard took the head and took the order to leave.

Just beheading is not enough, one Zhao Neng can kill, and the hundreds of newly established villages in the four counties cannot be killed by himself.

So Guo Peng immediately ordered Qingzhou State Shepherd's Mansion to send officials to each village to conduct a census with a roster of refugees.

The living and the dead are all registered in the register, and the living are ignored for the time being. If the dead are dead, find out the cause of death for me. Once a problem is found, the village chief will be beheaded directly for public display.

When the village was established, Guo Peng set a census policy. The number of people settled in each village, the gender, name and birthday of each person were recorded in the register. Any one more or one less would be added or deleted, and no exceptions were allowed.

Now it comes in handy.

Guo Peng discovered a loophole in his own policy. It is a simple, obvious loophole that can be easily exploited.

It is arrogant to think that there will be no problems if the policy is implemented.

It is not feasible to rely on people's conscience to restrain their behavior.

Policies must evolve with the times, and so must the law.

Guo Peng's pride was shattered, he realized his mistakes, and began to seek ways to improve.

Xun Yu expressed his opposition to Guo Peng's behavior of beheading the criminals and spreading them to the four directions.

"It is true that killing can stop crimes for a while, but the reason why some people commit crimes is because of policy omissions. If the policy omissions are not corrected, more and more people will commit crimes. There is no end to killing. Hope, must observe."

Guo Peng sighed, and said to Xun Yu: "Wen Ruo's words, I naturally know that I can't kill all the people who entrap Li Shu by myself. Does Wen Ruo have any strategies to teach me?"

Xun Yu thought about it for a while, and said, "Duke Ming can send patrol envoys to patrol all over the world, with no time, no number of people, and no route. They can be observed clearly or unannounced. In this way, the heads of local villages and townships can be feared, and they will not be afraid. Dare to act recklessly, you can reduce the occurrence of such things.”

"I will order this matter."

Guo Peng nodded.

Then Xun Yu suggested that Guo Peng should not use too many people from humble and poor backgrounds, thinking that they were born in poverty, greedy for money and status, and once they gained power, it would be difficult for them not to seek personal gain for themselves.

Xun Yu cited some examples from the Western Han Dynasty to Guo Peng, saying that those who were born in poverty would have some mentality of being afraid of poverty. Retaliatory use of power.

They intensified the torture of Li Shu, and collected money on a large scale and on a large scale, turning them into people like misers, who would not repent until they died. This kind of thing happened frequently.

Therefore, the Han Dynasty learned these lessons and stipulated that officials should have family property, be well-read in poetry and books, and be virtuous, so that they would not be greedy for money, and would not oppress Lishu to embezzle public funds.

Xun Yu suggested that Guo Peng should appoint the sons of the gentry to be the heads of villages and townships. The children of the gentry have surplus money and will not be greedy for such a small amount of wealth, so that this kind of thing can be avoided to a certain extent.

Wouldn't it be nice to have a two-pronged approach?

Chapter 248 Seven Night School

Guo Peng would accept Xun Yu's suggestions before, so Xun Yu felt that Guo Peng would also accept them this time.

Xun Yu didn't quite agree with Guo Peng's appointment of a large number of people from poor backgrounds who could only read a few words as village heads and township heads at the grassroots level.

He upholds the unanimous concept of scholars in the Han Dynasty, and believes that even if people from poor and humble backgrounds can read, they have no virtue and cannot be reused.

Although he didn't think about it in depth, he didn't consider the deeper issue of class attributes, but Xun Yu also disagreed.

But this time, Guo Peng took a few glances at Xun Yu, and opened his mouth to say a famous saying in "Lao Tzu".

"The way of heaven is to damage more than enough to make up for what is not enough. The way of man is not the same. The damage is not enough to give more than enough. If you have enough property in your family and you have read poetry and books, you will not commit crimes? During the time of Emperor Guangwu, Ouyang She Embezzling tens of millions of money and being executed, isn't Ouyang She not reading enough books?"

Xun Yu didn't know how to answer Guo Peng's question for a while.

Guo Peng caressed Xun Yu's back, shook his head, and sighed: "Wen Ruo, I have studied in Luoyang for eight years, and I have met no fewer nobles than you. Those who have a lot of wealth but are still greedy, I will Have you seen less?

The kind of people you mentioned do exist, but they are not common. Greedy people will not change just because they are rich and have read poetry and books. Clean and honest people will not change because they were born in poverty.

The important thing is not who to use, but the detailed formulation of policies, strict enforcement of laws, and joint supervision from top to bottom. Only in this way can those in power be cautious and dare not overstep. "

Xun Yu didn't expect that what Guo Peng said made him unable to refute, he couldn't think of arguments to refute, he couldn't think of words to refute, and felt that what Guo Peng said was very reasonable.

"What Duke Ming said, Yu didn't think deeply about it, and Yu lost consideration. Please punish him, Duke Ming."

Xun Yu decisively admitted his mistake to Guo Peng.

Guo Peng shook his head and took Xun Yu's hand.

"It's not Wen Ruo's fault. It's because people's hearts are getting worse. There are not many, even very few, honest gentlemen like Wen Ruo in the world."

"Duke Ming praised you absurdly, but Yu really didn't dare to do it."

Xun Yu felt a little hot on his face.

That night, Guo Peng called Cheng Li to his study to teach him the opportunity face to face.

"night school?"

"Yes, night school."

Guo Peng nodded: "Although the conditions are relatively simple, I have decided to implement the night school policy in the villages that we can directly control."

Cheng Li was very surprised when he saw the draft of night school policy written by Guo Peng.

"This……"

"Well, I had an idea before the crusade against Dong Zhuo, and now I am more and more aware of the necessity of night school. Take this time as an example, it is not enough to rely on myself.

I am not enough alone. I sent patrol envoys to make unannounced visits with fixed routes from time to time, which can deter people, but they cannot solve the problem from the root cause, and the effect is still not enough.

If you want to solve the fundamental problem, you must start from the root. The root lies in the township, the village, and the land. Those village chiefs who are appointed by the village chief are the masters of each village and township, and almost control the life and death of farmers.

I ordered them to carry out, but I can't control whether they carry out well or not. They secretly discounted, secretly violated, and used the loopholes in the policy to take advantage of loopholes to entrap Li Shu and make them hungry. I couldn't find out in time. .

In the end, Li Shu suffered, and I was blamed. Li Shu and I both lost, and these people benefited. Li Shu couldn’t eat enough, so they wanted to rebel. Isn’t that how the yellow scarf thieves grow and grow?

I garrisoned the fields to prevent the yellow turban thieves from continuing to grow up, but it has only been a long time now, and such a problem has appeared, and people have died. If this continues, sooner or later the yellow turban thieves will appear again in the villages. Does the original intention still make sense?

At that time, I will conquer the world in front of me, and Li Shu will rise up in the rear, and I will not care about each other. Will I still achieve my goal and realize my pursuit?No, I must stabilize the rear and turn it into my most reliable base camp, so night school must be held! "

Cheng Li frowned and thought hard, thinking that what Guo Peng said was reasonable, but what direct connection did opening night school have with the rectification of farming policy?

"My lord, is there any connection between the night school and Tuntian Zhice?"

Cheng Li couldn't figure it out.

"Of course there is."

Guo Peng nodded resolutely: "If you want to prevent these village emperors from doing whatever they want to entrap Li Shu, the best way is not to supervise me personally, but to let Li Shu supervise spontaneously. I want to change the content of the policy of farming, and I want to teach Li Shu how to counteract it." Illegal village head.

But if the common people are illiterate and do not understand reason, and only know how to farm and eat to rebel, this policy will not go on, and it is meaningless. They are illiterate, and I have nothing to do. I must let them be literate and understand reason. "

Cheng Li felt very surprised.

"My lord, I want the common people, Li Shu, to supervise and counter the head of the village? My lord... have you read the books of the Mohist school?"

When Cheng Li said this, Guo Peng remembered that some ideas of the Mohists on grassroots rural organizations coincided with his own ideas.