Li Xiao thought it was clear that if 250,000 mu of wasteland that could grow grain, 80,000 mu of mulberry fields and 130,000 mu of economic crop fields could be sorted out from Huangxian and Zhaoyuan, a large number of refugees would be able to arrange.

According to Li Xiaojun's original land grant rules, each household with 20 mu of land for grain planting wasteland can be assigned to 250,000 mu of wasteland, and 12,500 refugees can be assigned to 250,000 mu of wasteland. Calculated by a household's minimum of 3 people, 37,500 people can be assigned to it.

As for 80,000 mu of mulberry fields improved from light saline-alkali land, calculated by 30 mu of contracts per household, at least 2,660 households can be arranged, and at least 8,000 people can be arranged to become mulberry silkworm households.

As for the 130,000 mu of economic crop planting land improved from severe saline-alkali land, as before, as calculated by the contracting of 60 mu of each household, at least 2,160 households can be arranged, with a population of 6,480.

In this way, it can be calculated that if all these desert fields are developed, a total of at least 51,980 refugees can be placed.

Li Xiao sighed in his heart that if the imperial court had rewarded Huangxian and Zhaoyuan County earlier, he might not have thought about arranging prisoners to plant tobacco in Wudingzhou. After all, there is enough land to arrange his 45,000 prisoners now.

"Let me do this, I ordered An Qian, the general manager of Jintang City, to recruit a large number of strong refugees gathered outside Jintang City to Chifengwei. If the land is still surplus, then recruit refugees from Henan and Shandong. We must prepare all the manpower before the spring thawing, so as to renovate the land and arrange production as soon as possible."

Li Xiao thought about it and said to Chen Zilong and Xu Xiuqing: "After recruiting refugees, you and Zheng Rubao, the head of the mulberry silkworm class, will be responsible for the specific responsibility. The wasteland and saline-alkali land should be rectified as soon as possible, and it will not be delayed."

Chen Zilong and Xu Xiuqing stood up and answered Li Xiao’s order: “Please rest assured, I will do this as soon as possible.”

After talking about the wasteland, Xu Xiuqing said to Li Xiao in a joking tone: "Mr. Li, there have been many rumors in Huangxian and Zhaoyuan recently. He said that the adults planned to annex and confiscate the land of the landlords and gentry, and to share such land between refugees and poor peasants, but he didn't know if he really had this intention?"

After Xu Xiuqing finished speaking, she suddenly became deeper when she saw Li Xiao's eyes.

"Oh, there are such rumors. In my opinion, someone should have said such nonsense in order to specifically select the relationship between the official and the gentry." Li Xiao said lightly.

"In the eyes of the students, there is indeed someone who intends to oppose our army. Such instigation rumors have been rumored. Do you want to thoroughly investigate this matter?" Chen Zilong said from the side.

Li Xiao shook his head: "This kind of rumors is useless to investigate. As long as our army does not really confiscate the land of those landlords and gentry, the rumors will naturally be self-defeating."

Li Xiao paused, but a flash of light in his eyes. He said slowly: "However, since such rumors have spread, our army can take advantage of the momentum to properly rectify the landlords and gentry who have occupied the fertile land and are rich."

Chen Zilong was shocked: "Maybe Lord Li, do you really plan to confiscate the land of the gentry? Our army's strength is still limited. This is a matter of offending public anger, so it is probably not good."

Li Xiao smiled and said, "When I was worried too much, I would certainly not be stupid enough to confront these gentry head-on. However, I have a plan, and I call you to get into the trap, but I can let them hand over the land obediently."

Chen Zilong and Xu Xiuqing looked at each other in shock. No, Lord Li actually has such a way?!

"Please say it in detail, sir." The two of them said in unison.

So Li Xiao smiled and said the plan in his heart.

After hearing this, Chen Zilong and Xu Xiuqing all laughed and said they were all right.

"Since both of you agree, let's deal with this matter like this." Li Xiao smiled and made the final decision.

......

"Brother Gu, Brother Gu, General Li of Chifeng Gu issued a notice saying that the confiscation of the land of the gentry on the market was purely false, but someone maliciously spread rumors, and he asked me not to believe it easily."

Wang Shengtong held a notice secretly tore off the street in his hand and came to Gu Zhidao Mansion with a smile on his face. As soon as he came in, he hurriedly shouted to Gu Zhidao, a landlord who was smoking a hookah.

Wang Shengtong rushed to Gu Zhidao and was about to hand him the notice, but Gu Zhidao pushed it away.

Gu Zhidao glanced at him and smiled faintly: "The housekeeper has already reported this to me. Brother Wang has received the news, but it is still a little late."

Wang Shengtong smiled and said, "It seems that when we were waiting for the cup of bow and snake shadow, we were scared by myself. I don't know which guy who was chewing all the gossip made such rumors to confuse people's hearts. It's really hateful."

Gu Zhidao also had a smug smile on his face: "I just said that Li Xiao would not be a completely reckless young man. He must be so powerful that he will oppose us gentry and landlords. Now that the government has issued a notice to explain the matter, it has been revealed."

Wang Shengtong nodded, he sat down on a chair, and asked softly: "Brother Gu, but after this announcement, he said that the government asked each family to show land deeds to verify and register the land, but why?"

Gu Zhidao smiled and said, "Well, can't you understand this? In the eyes of the old man, this must be Li Xiao coming to Zhaoyuan to suppress the bandits that day, and asked us to hand over the food and grass supply, and taste the sweetness. Now that Zhaoyuan in Huangxian is all under him, he must still want to let us take the amount of land that everyone has occupied and hand over the military rations as last time. This guy, this is a good plan."

Wang Shengtong said anxiously: "When this happens, will we, the landlords and gentry, have to pay a large amount of taxes like those ordinary people?"

Gu Zhidao sighed: "That's true. Li Xiao has never been a good person, but he has taken such a lenient act than paying all the land."

Wang Shengtong shook his head repeatedly and said, "If this is the case, then I will lose a lot. I heard that in the Chifengwei, every farmer collects taxes per mu of two pounds per mu, and collects them in summer and autumn a year. The 5,000 acres of land passed down by the next family can only cost 2,000 stones of rice and grain a year. I feel sorry for me if I pay it like this."

Gu Zhidao snorted coldly: "You guy, why are you panic? The old saying goes, soldiers come to block the generals, and water comes to cover the earth. He has policies, so we will naturally have countermeasures."

"Brother Gu, do you mean?"

"Brother Wang, why are you so stupid? He wants you to report the land and land deeds. Wouldn't you be less reported or concealed? In this way, the grain taxes to be paid will naturally be much less." At this point, Gu Zhidao laughed sinisterly.

After hearing Gu Zhidao's words, Wang Shengtong's eyes lit up.

"Brother Gu is really a scheming and a good idea. Now, Li Xiao wants to make a decision. It's like a dog biting a pig and peeing." Wang Shengtong laughed. He thought about it, then lowered his voice and said to Gu Zhidao: "How much does Brother Gu plan to hide it?"

Gu Zhidao smiled and stretched out a finger.

"Oh, Brother Gu only concealed 10% of the report?" Wang Shengtong was a little surprised.

Gu Zhidao shook his head: "Half."

"Ah, half?"

"Well, my family has more than 12,000 acres of land. If I only pay half of it, I can pay more than 2,400 stones of grain less in a year." Gu Zhidao smiled.

"Okay, Brother Gu is very calculating. I, brother, conceal half of the reports." Wang Shengtong gritted his teeth.

......

Ten days later, Huangxian, Zhaoyuan, and the landlords and self-cultivated farmers in the former Chifengwei filed all the land deeds in the Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Department for verification.

The officials of the Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Department defined the land boundaries for each person based on the land deeds provided by each person, and reissed the new land deeds covered with the Red Phoenix Guard official seal.

At the same time, Li Xiao divided Huang County, which was newly assigned to Chifengwei, into 5 townships, Zhaoyuan County, and into 6 townships, respectively, and sent branches of the Civil Affairs Department to be responsible for the government operations of each township.

Then, grassroots semi-official personnel such as village chief and Li Zheng also designated a group of well-known local elderly people to serve as such, thus achieving thorough control of each township.

As for Huangxian and Zhaoyuan County, Li Xiao was divided into Huangxian and Zhaoyuan Town, and officials were sent to manage the county town and collect commercial tax. The commercial tax amount was the same as Chifengwei, which was one-eighth of the monthly sales.

Sure enough, after all the above matters were done, the Chifeng Guardian government then ordered that the land tax be paid in summer and autumn according to the standard of two dou per mu, just like Chifeng Guardian.

The big landlords' Gu Zhidao, the middle-class landlord Wang Shengtong and others were all glad to see Li Xiao's tricks, and were happy that they had already taken precautions.

Among them, Gu Zhidao's registration in the government only had 5,000 acres of land, which was much less than his original 6,000 acres, which showed his greed.

Wang Shengtong was timid. After thinking about it, he hesitated to report 3,000 acres of land. Although he began to regret it as soon as he checked the land with the government, he was helpless.

In the end, the results of the land inventory came out, and more than half of the land acres were inconsistent with the land amount that Li Xiao had previously counted.

Originally, Chifeng Wei Deng plotted 180,000 mu of land and self-cultivated farmers. After verification, only 100,000 mu of land were confirmed, and the other 80,000 mu of land belonged to the unowned land.

Of the 590,000 mu of land that were newly included in Chifengwei, only 270,000 mu of land were confirmed, and as many as 320,000 mu of land, which belongs to the uninhabited land.

In this way, there are 400,000 mu of land, which is an unconfirmed land.

After obtaining this result, Li Xiao laughed loudly. Chen Zilong, Xu Xiuqing and others, who were counted, also had smiles on their faces.

"Sir, your plan to get you into the trap is amazing. In this way, our army will take back the landless land, and those landlords and gentry are mute and can't say what they have to suffer." Chen Zilong smiled with a stroke of his beard.

"The best thing is that Lord Li is so easy to plan and has a whole county land. Moreover, the land concealed by the gentry is mostly Ueda and Nakada. In this way, the guys who are good at calculating will suffer a lot of losses." Xu Xiuqing also looked happy.

Li Xiao sighed with a smile: "The human heart is not enough to swallow an elephant. Such a guy has tried his best to report taxes, but now he is just holding himself in his body, which is also a pity."

Li Xiao pondered for a moment, and then Chen Zilong said, "Let's do it, slept, during this period, you and the staff of the Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Department, and I will send military troops to cooperate with you and other work, and take all the uninhabited lands into public ownership. If anyone resists or causes trouble, he will capture it on the spot and never let it go!"

Chen Zilong smiled and agreed loudly.

Li Xiao smiled and said, "After this batch of land is taken back to public ownership, as before, the families of our army's meritorious soldiers will be given priority to each household with 40 mu of land. If there is still land left, it will be granted to local poor peasants and refugees. In this way, many people will be resettled."

Chen Zilong looked excited and bowed and shouted: "Sir, I will definitely let this matter go well for you. Don't worry, sir."

......

"Master, Master, something is wrong!"

While Gu Zhidao was leisurely eating hookah in the yard, the housekeeper ran in from outside with a crying voice.

"Seeing your panic, what's wrong with you?"

Seeing the butler's sad face, Gu Zhidao frowned.

"Master, there are brigades of officers and soldiers outside. They want to confiscate all the land in our mansion that was concealed. The young man quickly sent his subordinates to stop him, but was captured by the soldiers who were like wolves and tigers. The young man finally ran back to report the news!" The butler shouted with a sad look on his face.

"ah!"

Gu Zhidao's five thunders thunders blew up, and he stood up from a rattan chair like a snake bitten.

"Take me to see!"

Gu Zhidao threw down the hookah, pulled the butler's collar, and ran out.

Unfortunately, he was running very fast at such an age. It can be seen that when he knew that he was going to lose more than 7,000 acres of land, all his physical potential exploded in this moment.

Before he ran far, Gu Zhidao saw from afar that the officers and soldiers of the brigade and the officials of the Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Department were measuring the so-called uninhabited lands.

Gu Zhidao's face suddenly turned like earth.

Soon, as he ran closer and closer, he saw a man wearing a black cloth scholar who was commanding the personnel of the Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Department to check the land, while several servants in the Tagu Zhidao Mansion were dejectedly caught by a group of fierce-looking officials and soldiers, and did not dare to move.

"Chen Zan painting, Chen Zan painting, let's listen to the old man's words!"

Gu Zhidao could see clearly that this scholar was Chen Zilong, the assistant of Li Xiao, who had met in the Chifeng City Office that day. He shouted loudly at Chen Zilong from afar.

"Oh, it turns out it was Gu Xiangshen, but why did he run so anxiously?" Chen Zilong asked deliberately in a surprised tone when he saw Gu Zhidao running closer while gasping for breath.

Gu Zhidao secretly hated him, "Damn it, what big heads are pretending to be? Don't you know what's wrong?"

But even though he thought so, his face was filled with a hard smile: "Mr. Chen, you misunderstood. These lands are the lands of my family's ancestors, not the land without a border."

"Oh, that's it, let me take a look at Tian Qi first." Chen Zilong pretended to open a copy-style Tian Qi booklet, looked carefully, and said in a surprised tone: "No, as Tian Qi shows, Gu Xiangshen's land and field are not there? Isn't this wrong with me?"

Gu Zhidao felt very distressed, but he still smiled hard on his face: "My Lord Chen, these lands belong to my family. It is estimated that there was something wrong with reporting the land that day. Gu's family also had the original old Tianqie, so please check it out."

After hearing Gu Zhidao's words, Chen Zilong's face sank: "What are you saying in Gu's words? On that day, when the government issued the land contract again, it specifically proposed that in order to make mistakes, I allowed you to come to the government to report again within five days. Nearly ten days have passed, and I have not seen Gu's words come to the government to make a request for errors in land division and to be able to be measured again. And when the land was measured that day, Gu's words also came to confirm the boundaries of the land, but why did you say such words today!"

When Chen Zilong said this, he deliberately emphasized his tone and snorted coldly: "Can the gentry Gu has bad intentions and wants to go against the government, and he will not be able to swallow this unparalleled land!"

Seeing that Chen Zilong pretended to be confused and even showed his face, Gu Zhidao's intestines were regretful.

I regret it. If you know that in order to pay less land tax, you wanted to destroy your own ancestral land, Gu Zhidao would not conceal the land.

"This, this..." Gu Zhidao's face turned red and white, and he scratched his ears and foreheads, but there was no solution.

"Gu Squire, if there is nothing else, please come back. We will measure the land urgently, but we have no time to talk to you in detail." Chen Zilong said coldly.

Gu Zhidao's lips were trembling, his face was as swollen as a pig's liver, and cold sweat oozed out of his face in the cold early spring weather.

In a hurry, he no longer cared about his dignity. He rushed to the front of the officials of the agriculture and animal husbandry department and rolled on the spot: "Heaven and earth are consciences, sirs, these lands are indeed mine! You cannot take them away like this!"
Chapter completed!