The Ming Dynasty: Starting with bandits, it swept across the land.

Li Chengye became interested after hearing Yang Chongwang's words.

"Brother Yang, how did you come to this conclusion?"

"These past two days, I've sent my men out to scout out the situation in Huangling."

"The poor people of Huangling, compared to those of Yijun and Baishui, only have one more bowl of rice at home, yet they still tighten their belts and wait to die."

But the situation was different for the landlords and gentry in this area.

Many people register their land under the name of the Yellow Emperor Temple, using the pretext of incense offerings to avoid paying taxes and grain levies for many years, accumulating considerable savings.

Let's find a big one, extort a fortune, ruin one family, and we should have enough food for the winter, plus some gold, silver, and valuables to recruit soldiers and horses.

Li Chengye pondered for a moment: "Have the wealthy gentry really become this rich? Huangling is not a fertile land, yet they have managed to amass such wealth..."

"Land annexation has been going on for years, not to mention the tax-exempt status of temple properties," Yang Chongwang scoffed. "The question now is, which one should we target?"

Then Yang Chongwang told Li Chengye in detail what he had found out.

"Currently, we are aware of three main companies."

The family, surnamed Huang, were related to the temple keeper of the Yellow Emperor Temple and had a close relationship with him. They owned over a hundred acres of land, most of which was registered under the temple's name.

The other family, surnamed Li, lived right next to Pingtou Pass. They owned more land, over two hundred hectares, and because they were near the pass, they did some shady business and were quite wealthy.

The third family lived a bit further away, in Zhoujiabao, and owned the most land, over 500 hectares. Their head was a retired official from the capital who had acquired a considerable amount of land over the years.

Yang Chongwang paused for a moment, then analyzed, "Logically speaking, if we concentrate our efforts, we can take down any of these three companies. But the problem is, even if we take them down, we may not be able to transport them all."

The Huang and Li families live close to us, but they are also close to Huangling County. Zhoujiabao is a bit more remote, but it is still within Huangling County.

When our convoy, fully loaded with provisions, is heading back, there's no guarantee that the officials in Huangling County or the soldiers from the nearby garrisons won't dare to attack us.

You must understand, those garrison troops, though usually useless, become like starving wolves when they smell food.

Li Chengye tapped his fingers and asked, "Of these three families, which one has the worst reputation? Which one is the most unethical?"

"The Li family, I suppose," Yang Chongwang answered readily. "They bully and dominate the market, forcibly seize farmland, lend money at exorbitant interest rates, and have driven people to their deaths. They charge tenants the heaviest rents, and don't even reduce them in years of disaster."

But those closest to the county seat would be the ones causing the biggest commotion and allowing the government troops to react the fastest.

"And then?"

"Then it should be the Zhou family." Yang Chongwang thought for a moment. "At least the Huang family knows how to restrain themselves. They usually repair bridges and roads to maintain a facade. In this year of disaster, they occasionally give out some thin porridge and some old grain. Although it's just for show, they are still better than the Li family."

Over the years, the Zhou family, relying on their connections to officials in Beijing, has engaged in numerous acts of extortion and plunder, accumulating considerable resentment among the people. However, due to their family's power and influence, others dare not speak out against them.

"In that case, let's go with the Zhou family. We'll have done a service to the people."

-----------------

Meanwhile, inside the Zhou family compound, Zhou Chongli stood on the stone steps in front of the main hall, looking up at the corner tower on the west side of the courtyard, where a tiger-crouching cannon was mounted.

Zhou Chongli is fifty-eight years old this year, and most of his hair has turned gray. He has been retired from Beijing and returned to his hometown for three years.

Compared to his lean physique when he was in office, he is now much more prosperous, but the shrewdness in his eyes remains unchanged.

He was from Shaanxi. In the late Ming Dynasty, officialdom was divided by region, such as the Chu Party and the Zhejiang Party, and he belonged to the Shaanxi Party.

Thanks to the support of his fellow townsman Zhang Pu and his own good interpersonal skills, he was promoted to the position of principal officer in the Ministry of Personnel, which he was originally quite satisfied with.

He dared not hope to enter the inner court, after all, he had never been to the Hanlin Academy, but he could still aspire to become a vice minister.

However, since the Tianqi era, factional strife has been fierce. First, the Donglin Party gained power and severely denigrated those who were not members of the Donglin Party. Later, in the fourth year of the Tianqi era, Wei Zhongxian gained power and wanted to put the Donglin Party to death.

The two sides fought fiercely, even to the point of tearing each other apart.

Many of his fellow villagers in Shaanxi had pledged allegiance to Wei Zhongxian, but Zhou Chongli felt that in the more than two hundred years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, no powerful eunuch had ever had a good end. Even Wei Zhongxian, who called himself "Nine Thousand Years Old," probably wouldn't last long.

Those years of being sidelined diminished his desire for power, which had been as intense as when he first entered officialdom. He eventually submitted his resignation and returned to his hometown to live in seclusion.

Since passing the imperial examination and leaving his hometown to take up his post, he has rarely returned to his hometown in Shaanxi over the past twenty years.

He remembered that when he was young, his family's county in the central part of the country was not a place of scenic beauty or wealth, but it had a good harvest every year, which allowed people to live a stable life. That's why his father was able to support him to become a Jinshi (a successful candidate in the highest imperial examinations) and send him to Beijing with the output of 300 mu of land.

But after he retired and returned to his hometown, he found that Shaanxi suffered from major disasters almost year after year without interruption. The year he first returned home, there was a flood, and afterwards, there were droughts all the time.

The repeated disasters over the years made him realize that the situation was not good, so he rallied the villagers to contribute money and labor to build this courtyard. Although it is called a courtyard, it is more like a fortified village that appeared at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty.

His preparations were correct. Since the famine began, refugees had often come to the village seeking food, and bandits from the mountains had also come down, but they were all driven back by his fortress.

Seeing the situation becoming increasingly tense, he asked a former official friend to get two Tiger Cannons and some weapons and bows and arrows from the Tongguan garrison.

As for armor and the like, he didn't get any. In feudal dynasties, unless someone openly rebelled, no one dared to get armor.

At this moment, his eldest son, Zhou Wenqi, walked towards him.

Zhou Wenqi was in his early thirties, wearing a silk robe. He resembled Zhou Chongli in his features, but his eyes were much fiercer.

"Father, I have made arrangements everywhere: ten people on each of the east and west walls, twelve people on the south wall, and twenty people on the north wall against the hillside. They will be on duty in three shifts, each shift lasting three hours."

Zhou Chongli nodded without speaking, his gaze remaining fixed on the corner tower.

"Father, our fortress is sturdy and we have cannons, what is there to worry about?"

Zhou Chongli looked at his son with a hint of disappointment: "I told you before, be kind to your neighbors, do good deeds, it doesn't cost much. But you just didn't listen. In this world, having a lot of money isn't necessarily a good thing."

Zhou Wenqi disagreed with his father's opinion.

Over the years, my father has been serving as an official in other places, and he has taken care of all the affairs at home.

If it weren't for him, our family would never have become so wealthy. My father has been an official in Beijing for too long and doesn't understand the local customs and traditions of Shaanxi.

This talk of benevolence and morality is just for show. When it comes to actually doing things for the family, it all comes down to who has the toughest methods.

However, he also felt a little regretful, thinking that he shouldn't have been so harsh on the villagers in previous years.

Most of the villagers had fled the famine, and in the past two years, they had also been harassed by bandits. They could only barely cope with the situation with the few people they had.

But now that this large compound and fortress have been built, I suppose there's nothing to worry about anymore.

Just then, a servant came to report that a group of soldiers had arrived at the village entrance.

Government troops? What are government troops doing here?

At this moment, Li Chengye, who was disguised as a Ming soldier by flying the flag of the government army and wearing armor, looked at the large courtyard in the center of the village. No, it could not be called a courtyard; it was more like a castle.

This Zhoujiabao is a bit difficult to attack.