Tian Ce

Once the border issues were settled, it was time to turn to the villages scattered around Tsukimiura.

There were twenty-five villages of varying sizes.

Originally, Dongfang Mao had intended to adopt a conciliatory approach toward the village squires—the landlords—in these areas.

After all, in the countryside, the influence of these people was deeply rooted; a single misstep could incite a riot, making them very troublesome to deal with.

However, with the Land of Rice Fields' rebel-suppressing army looming on the horizon, Dongfang Mao no longer had the time for such gentleness.

He had no choice but to adopt the simplest and most brutal method: dispatching Yasuke and Kyuzo to lead the New Martial Army directly into each village for armed suppression.

Faced with the sudden arrival of the military, the villages reacted fiercely, organizing resistance one after another.

Yet, the forces these villages could muster consisted of nothing more than the squires' hired thugs and a handful of incited villagers, totaling no more than a hundred people.

They were dressed in rags, and their weapons were merely farm tools like hoes and shovels, possessing no combat capability whatsoever.

How could a mob of rabble possibly withstand the well-trained New Martial Army?

The battle was devoid of suspense; in the blink of an eye, the resistance was thoroughly crushed.

With the opposition forces purged, the task before Dongfang Mao was how to dispose of these squires and landlords.

Perhaps there were indeed kind-hearted, charitable individuals among them, but time was of the essence, and he had no leisure to distinguish them one by one.

He took a swift and decisive approach: confiscate their assets and haul the entire lot, along with their families, to the execution grounds of each village for public trial and sentencing.

Fortunately, these squires did not die unjustly; they had spent their days preying on the locals, usuring, exploiting, and plundering, leaving behind a trail of heinous crimes.

Unlike the city dwellers of Tsukimiura, these rural farmers were almost entirely illiterate.

The squires had only cared about squeezing and exploiting them; why would they ever bother to instill concepts of loyalty to the state or devotion to the Daimyo?

In the hearts of these farmers, there was no concept of a nation or a Daimyo; all they thought about was how to survive.

This was precisely why Dongfang Mao had been able to train the New Martial Army from a group of refugees in the desolate village outside the city so smoothly.

Furthermore, due to the severe drought in recent years, many farmers had suffered total crop failures.

The squires had only intensified their cruelty, grinding their bones for marrow and forcibly seizing farmland, driving many families to ruin.

Consequently, when these squires were dragged onto the makeshift execution platforms at the village entrances, the watching villagers all had bloodshot eyes and were gnashing their teeth.

Their gaunt faces were etched with such deep-seated resentment that they longed to rush forward and tear their enemies to shreds.

This scene of public indignation was a world apart from the public trial of the City Deputy and the three great families in Tsukimiura.

Back then, the execution ground had been almost deathly silent, with no display of intense resentment or hatred toward those being punished.

In fact, a large portion of the audience had been dragged from their homes by the New Martial Army and forced to watch, which had left Dongfang Mao feeling rather insecure at the time.

When Dongfang Mao, still in the city, learned of the villagers' feedback regarding the public trials, he was first shocked, then overjoyed.

After so many days of being overwhelmed and frantic, he had finally encountered a piece of news that was actually satisfying.

It made Dongfang Mao sigh inwardly: rural folk were better after all—simple and honest.

Unlike those city dwellers, each and every one of them spent their days thinking of ways to make things difficult for the wise and martial Grand Governor; they were simply rotten to the core!

Without hesitation, he immediately ordered Luzhen, the Minister of Finance, to allocate funds and grain to be sent to each village.

This was to provide relief to the villagers who were currently on the brink of starvation.

At the same time, he ordered the Ministry of Taxation to re-survey all the land in these villages.

Once the landholdings were clarified, he formulated a new land policy.

All land was to be reclaimed by the Governor's Mansion, abolishing private land ownership.

Farmers could lease land from the Governor's Mansion and pay annual land rent.

After leasing, the name of the tenant would be registered under the land plot.

The registrant and their direct family members under the same household registration would have priority for leasing.

Poll taxes and other miscellaneous levies were abolished and folded into the land rent, which would be collected uniformly based on the size and quality of the land.

Following this, Dongfang Mao established a "Village Administration Bureau," dispatching 25 Village Supervisors, each equipped with three bailiffs from the New Martial Army and one tax officer from the Ministry of Taxation, to each village to maintain order and supervise agricultural production.

They were to explain and promote the policies issued by the Governor's Mansion to prevent villagers from being misled by those with ulterior motives.

They would also coordinate village affairs and audit the daily tax grain.

Furthermore, within each village, a village chief was to be selected by the villagers themselves and granted official status.

This chief would be responsible for assisting the Village Supervisor in managing village affairs and mediating conflicts between villagers.

At the same time, this created a three-way system of mutual supervision and checks between the village chief, the Village Supervisor, and the tax officer to prevent the abuse of power.

After completing these tasks, Dongfang Mao diverted a large number of laborers from the labor camps to the villages to build roads, ensuring smooth connections between the villages and Tsukimiura to strengthen the Governor's Mansion's control over the countryside.

They also dug irrigation canals to withstand the drought.

As Dongfang Mao's decrees were issued, the villagers were initially somewhat incredulous, their eyes filled with wariness and caution.

They still thought these people from the upper echelons were just finding new ways to torment them.

However, with the arrival of the relief grain and the implementation of several short-term policies, the villagers were moved to tears of joy.

Many even spontaneously ran to the Village Administration Bureau within the village, kneeling in a row and kowtowing heavily.

They did not quite understand the relationship between the Grand Governor's Mansion and the Land of Rice Fields.

But they did not care; they only knew that they had finally waited for a high-ranking official who was not there simply to exploit and oppress them!

Furthermore, many who learned about the Grand Governor's Mansion heard that the Grand Governor's New Martial Army was actually composed of refugees.

And those refugees were, just like them, farmers who toiled in the fields every day.

In an instant, a large portion of the young and able-bodied men in the countryside spontaneously wanted to sign up and join the New Martial Army.

Judging by this momentum, the number of volunteers was several times higher than what was being recruited in the city all day long.

This made Dongfang Mao grin from ear to ear.

These farm boys had no major issues, and there was little barrier between them and the New Martial Army, making them the most suitable source of soldiers.

Dongfang Mao made a prompt decision to accept them all.

Of course, even those joining the army had to follow the rules.

Before they came, they all had to go to Tokichiro at the Department of Propaganda to experience the power of a "Speak Bitterness" meeting first!

While things were flourishing for Dongfang Mao, news of Tsukimiura finally spread to the outside world.

This could be called the biggest news since the end of the Second Ninja World War.

In the thousand years since the current situation of the Ninja World was established, this was the first time someone had dared to escalate the form of warfare to the level of seizing cities and capturing territory.

To provoke a nation so blatantly was truly shocking to everyone.