The group had just reached a cliff when they heard a whistling wind all around them, followed by a torrent of rocks falling from the mountain. Meng Huaiyi immediately ordered the group to stop.
Then they heard a sound coming down from the mountain.
"Who dares to trespass on our Green Dragon Mountain? Don't they have a death wish?"
Meng Huaiyi stepped back to the princess's side, holding up his cold blade, while the princess looked up at the crowd on the mountain.
"I am the Princess Zhenguo of the Southern Dynasty."
"Princess?" The mountain chief chuckled upon hearing Bai Yan's name. "We've captured the Crown Prince alive, what are we afraid of about a princess?"
"You look so delicate, you'd better go back quickly. If you don't listen, when the rocks come down, even if you're a princess, you'll be smashed into mincemeat!"
Bai Yan, however, remained completely calm. Instead, she alighted from the sedan chair and took a few steps forward.
"Back off! Don't come any closer!" the mountain leader shouted.
Bai Yan took another step forward, and a bandit on the mountain lost his grip on a stone, which fell to the ground.
But before it could hit Bai Yan, Meng Huaiyi's cold blade slashed down, and in the blink of an eye, the stone shattered.
"Boss... this time it seems like they're not just here for show." The bandits on the mountain whispered among themselves.
The bandit leader narrowed his eyes dangerously, about to raise his hand.
Bai Yan raised her hand first: "I am not here today to quell the bandits, how about we make a deal?" As soon as she finished speaking, two soldiers carried up three large chests. When they were opened, they were full of heavy silver ingots, dazzling to the eye.
"Money, so much money!" the bandits on the mountain couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.
"Shut up!" the bandit leader cursed.
Then he turned to Bai Yan below and asked, "What exactly are you here for?"
"I said I'm here to make a deal with you. The money is yours, and you'll do things for me," Bai Yan said loudly.
"Are you kidding me? You...aren't you a princess? We're bandits! Are you trying to trick us into going down here and then capture us?"
Bai Yan said, "You should know that I brought 50,000 troops with me when I went to Jiangnan. If I really wanted to capture you, I wouldn't have brought only 1,000 men. I am right here now, you can come down and take the money."
The bandits hesitated, but Dan Niang stepped forward, raised her hands, and shouted, "Our princess knows about the fact that the scholars and powerful families of Jiangnan have joined forces to seize land and oppress the people."
"I know you are all good people. If you hadn't been forced to live, why would you have taken up arms and become bandits? Once you're a bandit, you're never allowed to leave the mountain. What good is all the gold and silver you steal? Can you reunite with your family?"
"Our princess is Princess Tianfu. I don't know if you've heard of her. Our Jiangnan region produces silkworms. If you are silkworm farmers, you should know that a textile factory opened in the capital this year. It can weave cloth ten times faster than ordinary looms. That is thanks to our princess."
"His Majesty has now ordered the princess to set up a textile factory in Jiangnan, with the men cultivating mulberry fields. The princess will be responsible for providing the land and food. Each household will be given two mu of mulberry fields and two mu of farmland. The land tax will be calculated based on four-tenths of the yield. The mulberry leaves produced from the mulberry fields must be sold to the princess. You can handle the rest of the farmland tax as you see fit."
The bandits on the mountain were completely silent... Yes, four out of ten, almost half of the taxes, is a lot, but compared to the land that belongs to them, it's not much!
The fields! The fields are etched into the very bones of the Chinese people!
It is true that Jiangnan has always been a land of plenty, but it has never been the land of plenty that is rich for people like them who toil in the fields.
One of the reasons for the prevalence of bandits in Jiangnan was land annexation and excessive taxes. Ordinary people would cultivate the land for a year, and if they were tenant farmers, they would have to pay rent to landlords and powerful families first. They were lucky if they could keep two-tenths of the grain from one mu of land.
Their own land? That would be even worse. The reason why the gentry were so eager to acquire land was that those with official titles were exempt from the poll tax, while the poll tax paid by ordinary people in Jiangnan Province amounted to a debt to the imperial court at the end of the year.
In order to survive, the common people had no choice but to lease their land to members of the gentry who had achieved official rank, hoping to earn 20% of their annual income to fill their stomachs.
This is a conspiracy between officials and businessmen to acquire land with no money and to gain cheap labor. What can the people do?
They can't.
Dan Niang continued to entice, "Have you thought this through? The princess is short of manpower right now, and she knows that although you bandits have come up the mountain, you haven't ravaged the people, which is why she's giving you this opportunity. Now that you've agreed to the princess's terms, you'll get land if you have it, and money if you have it."
"If you miss this opportunity, you'll never have another one!"
More than half of the bandits were farmers before they became bandits.
"If you really give us land, you won't come up with all sorts of ways to collect taxes like those government offices do, will you?"
Bai Yan replied, "I am right here, and so is the money."
He then pointed to Liu Jin'an beside him: "This is Lord Liu from the Ministry of Revenue. You may come down now. Lord Liu will re-register your place of origin."
She looked up at the mountain chieftain: "This money is for Qinglong Mountain. It's my payment for clearing the way and also for buying people. I'm short of people right now. If you're willing to share the land and take the money, then come down the mountain."
The mountain remained silent for a long time, with Bai Yan sitting quietly in the sedan chair, waiting.
Footsteps gradually approached, and about seven or eight hundred people carrying bundles glanced at the princess warily. "Princess... is she really going to give us land?"
The princess smiled slightly, her red lips curving upwards: "Of course."
"Which fields will be allocated?"
With so many fertile fields in Jiangnan, it's really hard to know which one to start with.
Bai Yan looked down from the mountain, while Dan Niang hurriedly pointed in one direction: "Over there, Princess? That land all belongs to the Guan family!"
The man surnamed Guan is Guan Zhong, the one who used the excuse of celebrating his father-in-law's birthday.
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