"Since we've already fortified the walls and cleared the countryside, why were they left behind?"
Shen Tang glanced at the bandits, who were trembling with fear.
She weighed how to deal with them.
Chu Yao said indifferently, "They probably had their own reasons."
Shen Tang gave a rare sneer and frowned in displeasure, firing off several questions in a row. "Reasons? What reasons? The reason being that they overestimated themselves? Or did they think their usual contributions were generous enough to earn them so much goodwill that they'd be spared from being trampled under our iron hooves?"
Chu Yao's expression was impassive.
"All that matters is that they can't find fault with us."
The fertile land already cultivated in Longwu Commandery was all in the hands of wealthy households and local gentry. Zhao Feng and the other Martial Gall Warriors could only reclaim wasteland in unclaimed areas. Those newly cultivated fields were remote, and their soil needed careful tending to improve its fertility.
There simply wasn't enough to go around.
That was the least of their problems. The most difficult issue was collecting the land tax.
The fertile fields were all in the hands of these people. To put food on the table, commoners had no choice but to become their tenant farmers. The size of the harvest and the number of mouths in each tenant's household were all closely tied to how much tax the commandery governor could collect. If they concealed the figures, the Prefectural Government couldn't collect the full amount of Tax Silver.
With Zheng Qiao's royal court utterly indifferent to the fate of the provinces and commanderies under its rule, the operation of the commandery seat, the soldiers' pay at Yonggu Pass, and the repairs and reconstruction across Longwu Commandery all depended on that income. To