Lord Harland

Seeing Richard's gloomy face, the villagers present also knew the seriousness of the matter. Some people wanted to make a noise and beat the seemingly poor new freedmen.

Richard's eyes widened and he directly ordered the guards to beat the noisy villagers with sticks several times before the scene became quiet.

A few hours later, Vicksburg bureaucrats also arrived on the scene.

The petty bureaucrat in charge of allocating the fields is a young man with a particularly tender face.

"What's your name? How old are you this year? Are you a graduate of He'an Elementary School?"

Among the grassroots bureaucrats in the territory, there are some students who graduated from Henan primary schools. These students are usually very young, ranging from 17 to 18 years old and only 15 to 16 years old.

Seeing that the bureaucrat who divided the fields was so young, Richard asked casually.

"Lord, my name is McCullough. I am sixteen years old and graduated from Riverside Elementary School last year."

"Are you responsible for allocating the land to the freedmen here this year?"

McCallu nodded: "Yes, Lord."

"According to regulations, how should the farmland in this village be divided?"

"According to the plan, each freedman in this village has five acres of farmland, one mu of paddy field, and four acres of dry land."

Because the scale of farmland that can be cultivated near each village is different, the quality of farmland that free people can allocate is also slightly different. Some villages have better conditions and are naturally richer. Some villages are in poor condition and are slightly poorer.

Generally speaking, the city hall and the Ministry of Agriculture will plan in advance to control the population of the village and try to achieve a balance.

Most freedmen had one acre of paddy field and four acres of dry land. According to this standard, the territorial tax was three silver coins per person, or two hundred and seventy pounds of wheat.

But in this village, the new freedmen did not cultivate paddy fields, and the output of the dry fields this year was severely reduced. The harvest from one acre of land was less than 100 jins. One person paid 270 jins of grain tax, and the remaining grain was less than 200 jins.

Two hundred kilograms of grain was not enough to eat, and they had to reserve grain for next year, so the free people in this village were hungry and cold.

If Richard inspects next fall, the village may starve to death.

"Joseph, tell everyone, how many paddy fields and how many dry lands have you been allocated?" Richard pointed at Joseph.

"Lord, all the new freedmen assigned to this village this year will not be assigned paddy fields?"

"McCarru, according to the statistics of the Ministry of Agriculture, are the paddy fields in this village enough? Why did this problem occur? Since they encountered injustice, did these free people go to Vicksburg to complain? Why was no one handling it?"

Upon hearing that Richard was serious about pursuing the responsibility, Tony Byrne, the Civil Affairs Officer of Vicksburg, changed his expression, and he hated the village chief to death.

But at this time, I could only bite the bullet and answer: "I made an oversight here. When the villagers came to Vicksburg to complain, I handed it over to the mayor of Walls."

"Tony, you are an old man in the territory. You have had some minor achievements in the past. I think I have done you a good job and promoted you to the position of mayor of Vicksburg. As a person born as a slave, you should be satisfied with your achievements today. Okay, why are you covering up Walls?

You know, how much trust do I have in you when I hand over Vicburg to your management?

This is how you repay your lord, and this is how you manage your subjects?

You betrayed my trust in you, so what use do I have from you? "

Tony Byrne was a slave purchased by the Harland family for many years. Before William was granted the title of hereditary baron, Tony Byrne was the male servant of the Harland family. When Richard was young, Tony served as his personal attendant for a period of time.

After William gained the fief, Tony Byrne was the director of the cement factory. In the few years he served as the factory director, he worked hard and tried his best.

These people in the Haaland Territory are developing very fast and there is a serious lack of qualified grassroots bureaucrats.

Because Tony performed well and seized the opportunity well, he was promoted by Richard to the position of mayor of Vicksburg.

Unexpectedly, less than two years after he came here, Tony would have problems, and serious things would happen under his management.

Tony Byrne was very familiar with Richard, and upon hearing this, he immediately understood that Richard had murderous intentions. He knew Richard well and knew that he couldn't quibble at this time. The more he quibbled, the more Richard would hate him.

"Because Walls' sister became my secret lover."

After listening to Tony's explanation, Richard sneered and said: "It turns out that there is something wrong with the lower body. In this case, what is the use of your lower body?

The visitor pulled the dog out and executed it immediately. The body was thrown into the mountains to be fed to wolves. His family members were all sent to the mines and would never be pardoned. "

There are a large number of orcs in the mines. If humans are sent into the mines, we can see what a terrible situation they will face.

Orcs sometimes choose to eat people because they cannot complete mining tasks and have insufficient food.

According to statistics from Bernard, who manages the orcs, humans sent to the mines only live an average of two months.

"Tony has been dealt with for covering up crimes. McCallu, you are the official of the land allocation. There was a problem with the land allocation work in Carlo Village. Your supervision was not in place. You were guilty of dereliction of duty. You will be fined two years' salary and ten years of work." It cannot be upgraded during the year.

Walls, you're a wounded veteran, right? "

Seeing that the high-ranking mayor of Vicksburg was executed on the spot by Richard, his family members were also sent to the mines to kill them all. Fear immediately penetrated into Walls's bones, causing him to tremble violently, speechless, as if he had lost his mind and gone crazy.

Seeing that Walls was so frightened that he lost consciousness, Richard turned around and said to the officer in charge of intelligence: "Check Walls' file to see if he is a retired veteran? If so, spare his family. A life, if not for the family sent to be with Tony’s family.”

Among the several bureaucrats, McCullough has the least responsibility. It is difficult for a young boy like him to deal with the internal affairs of the village. He does not know the free people in the village when he goes to divide the fields. Basically, he has to rely on Walls to do his work. It is very difficult for him to do the work. Easily fooled by the following.

Moreover, McCullough's intentions were not too bad. He was only jointly and severally responsible for this matter.

Walls and Tony were the two main people who colluded and bullied the leaders.

Of the two, Richard hates Tony the most, because Tony is the person Richard pays close attention to and is also an important civil servant in the territory. Richard values ​​him more and often tells him to be kind to the people under his rule and not to bully the people. , let alone force people to death.

But the situation in the village is that after next spring plowing, a large number of people may starve to death.

After this incident, Richard had the worst sense of Tony and hated him the most.

Richard glanced around and stared at the other officials of Fort Vick. He sneered and said: "I don't believe you don't know about the injustice suffered by the free people of Carlo Village, but no one has reported it to me for half a year. You are all responsible for this matter. Officials in Vicksburg cannot be promoted within ten years. Tongmai Carew's treatment was the same, with each player receiving a two-year salary penalty.

If I were to discover the problem again and be punished for multiple crimes, not only would my life be in danger, but my family would also have to be sent to the mine to be with Tony's family. I hope you will cherish the wonderful life today and don't be greedy. If you treat the people under your rule better, I will be more tolerant to you if you make mistakes in the future. "

Intelligence officials quickly found the file and found that Walls was indeed a retired junior officer.

After hearing the news, Richard suddenly felt a little discouraged.

Because Richard cares most about the army and spends almost all day with soldiers. Relatively speaking, the army is cleaner than the local area.

Unexpectedly, Walls would become like this just two or three years after he retired from the army.

Not only did he give his sister to Tony as his lover, but he also occupied several women in the village, robbed the fertile land of free people, and even killed people, becoming a domineering local bully.

Unlike Tony, Walls had served as a soldier and fought in the war.

The army is the core force of Harland's territory, and it is also the basis for Richard to control the territory. All officials who are involved with the army will be sentenced to a lighter sentence.

Although Tony has a higher position and is a domestic slave of the Harland family, it is easy to deal with him. Walls has many old comrades-in-arms. In order to avoid their tragic death, Walls’ family must be treated kindly.

"Walls was executed immediately because he had committed meritorious deeds and was injured. His family tolerated it and moved to Vicksburg. They arranged for his wife to work in a quilt factory and gave her a job so that she could earn some money to support the family."

Richard knew in his heart that corrupt officials would never stop being killed, and even Zhu Yuanzhang could not stop official corruption even by peeling off the skin and making grass. Richard's family was sent to the mine, but they were also unable to control officials' corruption and disregard human lives.

But harsh punishments can still play some role. At least they can deter bureaucrats from inciting popular uprisings.

Anyone who dared to provoke a civil uprising would be dealt with by Richard on a large scale and killed with a butcher's knife.

After several incidents happened in succession, some smart officials in the Haaland territory have mastered the balance.

Compared with other areas of the Grant Kingdom, the Northern Territory is vast and sparsely populated, with more arable land per capita, no shortage of water, high food production, and a barely passable life.

Through constant inspections, Richard found that most free people lived a pretty good life, and it was relatively rare that they were in poverty.

Because of the disaster this year, Richard is also planning to give some food subsidies to the freedmen.

After returning to the mansion, Richard summoned all his relatives and told them what happened today.

"You are all relatives of me and Sophia, and you are considered the ruling class of the Harland Territory. The development of the territory is closely related to you. For people like us, we must have a long-term perspective and not be greedy for money. As long as If we take control of the political power, future generations can live a prosperous life and become superior people.

Every free citizen in the territory is an asset to us. They live a prosperous life, so that the goods we manufacture can have a market, and then the industry and productivity of the territory can develop. We should support any policy that makes them rich, and oppose any policy that makes them poor.

The same principle applies to the selection of lower-level officials. Those who can develop productivity and make the people rich will be vigorously promoted. Anyone who hinders the development of productivity and makes the people poor should be eliminated immediately.

You are all my relatives, connected by blood to our husband and wife, so you should support me. If you find problems below, you must report them immediately. If you need money to talk to me and Sophia, you must not collude with the bureaucrats below or obstruct me. Development of territory.

That’s it for today. Once you are caught by me for corruption or malfeasance, I will be absolutely merciless. You will even use your heads to intimidate the officials in the territory and educate them not to commit crimes.

Please remember this. Don't think that just because you are Sophia's brother or nephew, or my Richard's brother or sister, or a member of the Harland family, you can do whatever you want without any scruples. According to the rules I have set, if you people commit a crime, the punishment will be more severe than that of outsiders.

You should be more careful, do your part, and improve your self-cultivation. My moral requirements for you are higher than those of ordinary people. No matter who breaks the law, I will not show mercy. "

Richard's murderous words confused many people. Soon they heard that Richard had killed Tony and sent Tony's family to the mine, and they suddenly felt a sense of terror.

Many people ask themselves, some people have done some things such as bullying men and dominating women, corruption and dereliction of duty.

After hearing what Richard said, he immediately started to wipe the shit off his butt to prevent someone from poking into Richard's ear and angering him and killing him. Even relatives felt a sense of fear towards Richard because of his ruthlessness.

Richard wants to make them afraid. If they don't have the mentality of fear, they will do things unscrupulously, and the upper beam will not be straight and the lower beam will be crooked.

If you can't even manage your own family, you have no reason to control the officials of the territory.

If the top layer is a little bit rotten, the bottom layer will be a lot rotten.

If the administration of officials is bad, no matter how good the policy is, it will be bad in implementation.

Through constant inspections, discovering and solving problems, Richard discovered that the most serious problem in the territory today is the shortage of cattle.

Using cattle to plow the land is the most immediate way to increase the area sown with grain.

The average freeman in the Harland Territory owns thirty acres of farmland per household. Without cattle, it would be impossible to cultivate thirty acres of farmland by manpower.

However, the price of farm cattle is not cheap. A mature bull costs more than six gold coins, and the price of cows is slightly more expensive. Without three to five years of accumulation, free people could not afford to buy cattle.

In the past, Richard helped free people farm by renting cattle. He received very little rent, just a symbolic amount.

As the number of freedmen increased, the official number of cattle was somewhat in short supply. This year, some freedmen could not even rent cattle and could only use manpower to plow the fields, resulting in a decrease in output.

If Richard hadn't used a large number of Warcraft horses to plow the fields during spring plowing, this year's spring plowing task would not have been completed.

Richard sold 20,000 tons of grain and obtained 46,000 gold coins. Counting the working capital saved in the treasury, he already had about 100,000 gold coins in his hand.

The reason why there is so much money in the vault is entirely because of the unexpected fortune of 40,000 gold coins obtained from the secret base of the Venus family, plus part of the remaining funds from last year. Unknowingly, there was actually a lot of money in the vault. A huge sum of one hundred thousand gold coins.