My older brother said I'm invincible.

Chapter 84 Can the land grant be changed?
After repeated questioning, Li Xuanba finally learned that it was Manager Liu who sent the items over. Manager Liu only told them that these were all sent by Li Xuanba.

It was clearly the grandfather's doing. He said he wouldn't interfere anymore, but he still gave his son a lot of help.

Zhang Du and his men, now equipped with new gear, no longer resembled the disheveled thieves of the past. They were now full of energy and looked quite professional, undoubtedly local militia.

Li Xuanba led the group inside, and the local soldiers bowed and greeted him.

This hastily assembled rabble, probably because of the bloodshed they had suffered earlier and the change of equipment, now looked quite elite and had made great progress. In the distance, on the newly built open-air training ground, Li Xuanba saw dust billowing as knights galloped back and forth, practicing mounted archery.

Li Xuanba led several officers, including regimental commanders and squad leaders, into the courtyard. San Shi did not go in with them; she waited outside.

Li Xuanba sat in the seat of honor, with the officers sitting on either side.

Zhang Du quickly began to report the situation.

“Recently, a brand-new local militia has appeared in the north. They are exceptionally brave. In the past few days, they have defeated several notorious bandits outside the city, and the number of bandits killed by them has exceeded one hundred.”

“They are different from the other local militia. They don’t stay in one place. They move around and go wherever there is news of thieves. They don’t bully the people and they don’t have a fixed location. The thieves outside the city have already started to move to other cities and dare not stay here any longer.”

Li Xuanba laughed. Just from Zhang Du's description, he already knew who was behind this.

He explained, "This is probably the local militia that my second brother organized."

"I haven't seen him for the past few days and I didn't know where he went. It turns out he went to fight the thieves."

Zhang Du and the others suddenly realized what was going on.

It turns out they were the same people who came to the rescue last time. No wonder they were able to kill the bandits and make them run away!

Zhang Du said with a smile, "Because of Erlangjun, fewer villagers are coming to us for help. Thieves from all over the country don't dare to go out and do business anymore. Even petty thieves are too scared to commit crimes again."

"I've heard that Second Master has already started leading his men to pursue them to other cities."

Li Xuanba laughed again; he could imagine how desperate those thieves must have been.

Logically speaking, the local militia members should have their own fixed positions and generally should not leave. If they cross regions, it is easy to cause conflicts. However, this is not a problem for the second brother. It seems that his troops have been taken over by his grandfather. In other words, they are nominally county militia members, and they can go wherever they want in the entire Xingyang County.

Unless the thieves escape Xingyang, they cannot escape their pursuit.

Several squad leaders were also eager to try, and squad leader Wang Erzhi spoke up, "Commander! We can also follow their example and go and punish those bandits!"

"These past few days, everyone's been talking about this local militia; how can we fall behind?"

Several people agreed with his view and decided that they should launch a full-scale attack to eliminate the bandits.

But Li Xuanba's expression remained remarkably calm; he simply shook his head.

"Since they have already come to pursue the bandits, we can focus on our own tasks and continue patrolling. The way to eliminate the bandits is not to capture and kill them. Even if we kill them, new bandits will appear."

"What we are doing now is the real way to eliminate thieves."

Upon hearing Li Xuanba's words, everyone bowed their heads in agreement.

Li Xuanba looked at Zhang Du beside him, "Regimental Commander, what did the Township Head say?"

Li Xuanba had long wanted to have a proper talk with the head of Changwu. He had previously sent Zhang Du to contact the head of the township. When Li Xuanba asked about it, Zhang Du frowned and said unhappily, "That man was polite, but he's not a good person. He even tried to bribe our people to find out what's going on."

As Zhang Du spoke, he sent someone to call in a soldier.

The man walked in quickly; he was also one of Li Xuanba's senior brothers. Zhang Du asked him to tell Li Xuanba what had happened after he met the village head.

The man spoke up, “I went to the village head’s residence and told him that I was a soldier under Commander Li. I then met the village head, who was not very old and had a thick beard. His steward gave me a lot of money, wanting to find out about the commander.”

"I pretended to take the money to see what he would ask. This person asked the leader many questions, such as what the leader liked, who was always by his side, and who usually took charge of things."

The man recounted the details one by one, and Li Xuanba seemed to be deep in thought. After he finished speaking, he took out the reward money, saying, "This is the money they used to bribe me."

Li Xuanba smiled and said, "Since they gave it to me, I'll accept it."

"Thank you, leader!"

Li Xuanba looked at the rest of the group and said, "I roughly know what kind of person he is. We can send someone to invite him over. I have something to say to him."

Zhang Du hurriedly went to handle it.

Just then, standing outside, the utterly shameless San Shi was pacing back and forth, muttering to himself. Suddenly, he heard someone call out, "San Shi? Is that you?"

San Shi suddenly looked up and saw several boys, all carrying firewood, walking inside. When they saw it was San Shi, they were very happy and quickly ran over.

"We couldn't believe it when my lord said it. So you really did follow him! Wow, your clothes!"

The crowd surrounded her, chattering amongst themselves, but San Shi was stunned.

"Why are you here?"

Where is Zhao the One-Eyed?

The children quickly recounted the day Li Xuanba found them, and how Li Xuanba knocked Zhao the One-Eyed down with a single blow. They were all extremely excited, gesturing wildly. They also talked about how they were now assigned to this place, doing odd jobs on a daily basis, but they were able to eat, and no one dared to bully them anymore.

San Shi was a little confused.

Li Xuanba never told her about this.

At this moment, Li Xuanba was still inside discussing the next plan with Zhang Du and others. Li Shimin was chasing after bandits everywhere, using the simplest and most brutal methods to solve the people's problems. This was certainly not wrong, after all, bandits were a serious threat, and eliminating them as soon as possible would reduce the suffering of the people.

However, Li Xuanba had more to think about. He had read many books and knew the principles of addressing the root cause. He couldn't really control the corvée labor issue, but he could at least manage other aspects and resolve some unreasonable matters.

The first issue is the division of patrol areas for the knights. Li Xuanba and others have already discussed this. Next, they are waiting for the village head to come forward and formally establish contact with the villages, thus forming a complete patrol process to guard against thieves.

Then, Li Xuanba wanted to interfere in the land allocation matter.

The land allocation issue in Changwu Township is utterly absurd. I've heard it's the same all over the country. Li Xuanba can't change the whole country, or even a single city. But he wants to at least change one township, one village, within his own power.
The head of the township in Changwu is surnamed Tian.

Tian Xiangzheng had only recently taken office. Although he was just a township head, he was still appointed from outside the area according to the laws of the Sui Dynasty. This township head's ancestral home was in Guanzhong, but unfortunately, he was of low birth and could only be a township head. Although he was of low birth, he was still a Guanzhong native and had a certain arrogance when facing other township heads of the same rank.

He has an ancestral home in the capital!

He already knew about this when Li Xuanba had just formed the local militia.

He felt both fear and a sliver of hope.

Those are dukes! If I could get on their good side, I would be set for life.

So when he learned that the third son of the Duke's family wanted to see him, he hurriedly got up, didn't even take the carriage, and rode his horse at full speed. He now lived in the countryside and dared not go to the city, even though the distance wasn't too far.

Soon, Tian Xiangzheng appeared at the gate of the farm. He tidied his clothes one last time and then walked quickly into the farm.

A soldier led him toward the small courtyard, and after being informed, Tian Xiang entered the courtyard.

"Greetings, Third Young Master!"

The village head deliberately adopted the accent of Chang'an and bowed to Li Xuanba in greeting.

Sure enough, upon hearing the familiar local accent, Li Xuanba was taken aback. "You're from Daxing?"

"Exactly!"

(End of this chapter)