The disgraced official I took care of was actually Zhu Houcong's childhood friend.

Chapter 222

Zhou Chu instructed the Embroidered Uniform Guards to keep an eye on the clerks and continue measuring the land, using rulers provided by Zhou Chu.

After all, the rulers used by these clerks who were responsible for measuring the land were more or less problematic, and many of them even had two sets of rulers, one too long and one too short.

Besides, there are many other underhanded methods used to measure land, such as how tightly the ruler is pulled, and these methods often involve dirty tricks.

Zhou Chu specifically informed the Jinyiwei (Imperial Guards) in charge of supervision of all this, and that anyone found to be tampering with the documents should be beheaded on the spot.

No one cared about the lives of the clerks; if they died, they died.

After killing several corrupt officials who had secretly tampered with the land, the remaining officials responsible for measuring the land were terrified and dared not have any other thoughts.

You can't teach it by others, but you can teach it once and for all.

Zhou Chu dispatched thousands of troops to each prefecture in Jiangnan Province to help the Embroidered Uniform Guard establish its authority and create momentum. Anyone who dared to tear down the notices was arrested and executed as a warning to others. As for the notices themselves, they were simply torn down and replaced.

After this happened repeatedly, no one dared to defy public opinion and tear down the notice anymore.

In addition, to prevent scholars from taking offense, Zhou Chu had the Embroidered Uniform Guard arrange for someone to read each notice aloud in public before it was issued. The content of the notices was mostly in vernacular Chinese, not in difficult-to-understand texts. Basically, Chen Zhao had people write down exactly what Zhou Chu said.

In this way, the people will not have any trouble understanding the notice, and it will be easy for them to understand its contents.

With the addition of the lotus flower ballads from beggars in various places, the people at the very bottom of society quickly understood what was going on.

So it's not that the imperial court wants to increase taxes, but that these wealthy gentry and officials want to squeeze money out of them.

In the past, they would have tolerated this, since ordinary people had nowhere to seek justice or voice their grievances until they could no longer bear it and a rebellion would break out.

But now the situation is clearly different. Temporary yamen have been set up in each county where the Jinyiwei (Imperial Guards) are located to handle this matter. In no time, all the temporary yamen of the Jinyiwei were full, and countless people lined up to appeal their grievances and accuse the local gentry.

As for Zhou Chu, he led Shen Lian and Lin Lu to patrol the prefectures and counties of Jiangnan Province. If any of the Imperial Guards were found to be shirking their duties or failing to act, they would be dealt with according to military law without any leniency.

Of course, many Imperial Guards were also secretly following them.

Even so, Zhou Chu still encountered countless unexpected events along the way. His place of residence was flooded every two or three days, and he was constantly being assassinated. This made Zhou Chu feel as if he had returned to the road when he first arrived in Suzhou Prefecture.

Zhou Chu was never an easy person to talk to. If any of these people dared to send assassins at night, Zhou Chu would directly gather a portion of his elite Tiger Guards and carry out a purge and confiscation of the property of the local gentry.

Zhou Chu didn't need to find out who wanted to assassinate him; he simply used the name of Japanese pirates to indiscriminately purge the local gentry.

Zhou Chu didn't want to guard against thieves for a thousand days. As the saying goes, prolonged defense will inevitably lead to defeat. If it happens too often, he would eventually fall into their trap one or two times.

Only by making these people feel pain and fear will they dare not make a move.

After several such purges, the gentry were all terrified. They never expected that Zhou Chu would act completely unpredictably, and that there was no need to investigate who sent the assassins.

In this way, no one would dare to send assassins anymore. Even if someone wanted to do so, they would be stopped by others, who did not want to be implicated.

Measuring the land might result in some financial losses, but it's not just their business that suffers. Although it hurts, it's not unacceptable.

But if you offend this living devil, it could be a disaster that leads to the confiscation of your property and the extermination of your entire clan, and the worst part is that there's nowhere to seek justice.