Between the vast sea of ​​clouds

After the state meeting was over, Qingping returned to the hotel to rest, Li Yan said: "My lord, according to your previous instructions, those Yunce troops have been withdrawn."

Qing Ping took a sip of tea and said, "Using my Jun Order?"

Li Yan replied: "Yes."

Qingping leaned on the reclining chair, took the handkerchief handed over by the servant, wiped his face and said, "That's fine, what about the two people who were locked up, are they awake? If they are, bring them here now."

Li Yan said: "Isn't it inappropriate for your lord to see them at this time? Why don't you follow what I said before and just let them go back."

Qing Ping smiled and said: "Just put it back like this, I can't do it, I still have some questions to ask."

Seeing that she had made up her mind, Li Yan went to call someone to bring her here.Then came back to report, Qingping thought about what she said just now, pointed behind the screen, and said concisely: "Stay behind."

Li Yan knew that this was for her to listen, so he quickly dodged and hid behind the screen.After a while, those two people were escorted here, both of them were pale, and they could barely salute when they saw Qingping. One of them looked around with some fear and saw that those Yun Cejun were gone, so he said cautiously: "My lord, we don't know Taishan with our eyes, and offended your lord, please forgive me."

As she spoke, she poked the younger woman beside her, and the man said reluctantly: "Please forgive me, my lord. I will definitely come to the door to apologize in the future."

Qing Ping smiled and said: "There is no need to apologize. I called you here just to ask a few things. But before asking, you must also have doubts in your heart. Why among so many people, I only named the two of you. and no one else."

The two hesitated for a while, looked at each other, finally sat down, and said calmly: "Because I have seen two names in a roster, and it is precisely because of this that two are kept."

As soon as this remark came out, the expressions of both of them changed, and they didn't even care about making eye contact. One of them blurted out: "What roster?"

Qingping originally wanted to defraud them. Compared with those slippery patriarchs, these two were more reckless and impulsive. She just wanted to test the relationship between the families. When it comes to the roster, she is really a I have never seen the words.The only thing I have seen related to the Chenzhou family is the account book brought by Zhang Yi.But I didn't expect that after such a try, I tried other clues.Her heart tightened, thinking of Yan Jinghan's incident, she had a strong feeling telling her that there must be a relationship between the two.But she still acted nonchalantly, even smiled mockingly, and said, "What else can there be?"

She looked at the two people and said slowly: "I'm not afraid to tell you that Mr. Zhong Yuan, the servant of the Criminal Department, has already started to investigate this case. You all know that although Yan Jinghan died, she also left evidence. I am lucky to I can take a look..." She paused, then put away her smile, and said coldly: "The imperial court naturally pays attention to evidence, if there is no evidence in hand, even I can't bear the responsibility! "

One of them looked at her hesitantly, as if to confirm whether she really knew: "Why can't we understand what your lord said?"

"This roster is divided into two parts. There are patriarchs of aristocratic families like you, and those little-known officials." Qingping calmly said, "In short, thanks to the people on this roster, the demons of the God Academy were able to be separated in two parts. The rampage in the county also depends on these people, the remnants of the Western Rong can sneak into Chenzhou." She approached the two people, let them see the determination in her eyes, and said softly: "Otherwise, how can a mutiny become a rebellion? The feudal lord is so capable of raising private soldiers... The crime involved here is nothing to kill the nine clans, and a hundred deaths are not enough."

With a slap, the teacup broke into four pieces on the ground, and the hot water splashed out, soaking the blanket to a large extent.But at this moment, those two people didn't care about the tea splashed on their sleeves, their eyes were full of fear, and they whispered: "Since your lord knows..."

She didn't say the rest of the words, but Qingping already understood, and said: "The imperial court also knows, as for Your Majesty... You two may wish to think about it, why did you use Chenzhou first?"

The faces of the two of them turned sour, and they each lost their minds for a while, before one of them said: "Master Yan and we are old acquaintances, and we are also deeply saddened to hear the news that she has gone..."

Qingping sneered in his heart, Yan Jinghan's death was inextricably related to this group of people, but now it's the cat crying and the mouse pretending to be merciful.First, Liang Pu was assassinated and died, and then Yan Jinghan died in prison for no reason. Yan Jinghan was an official promoted by Liang Pu. In the eyes of outsiders, she was Liang Zhoumu's confidant. Wouldn't it be less known.Qingping pretended to be impatient and interrupted: "Stop talking, what to do with such useless things. You go back and wait for the news at home. I don't know anything about this. Let's go, I'm tired , I will not send it away."

The two of them didn't move, Qingping said inadvertently: "You suddenly bought fields to grow mulberry, and acted so boldly, there must be someone behind you to point out. These mulberry seedlings were all brought from Hezhou, um, I just don't know why they made the wedding dress"

Having said this, Qingping felt that she had thrown out all the important points that could be used, but the two of them did not move. She suspected that she had made a slip of the tongue, and in order to prevent repeated mistakes, she stopped talking immediately.Suddenly, the younger woman became furious, overturned the fruit plate on the table, and said angrily: "I knew how they could have such kindness, so it was their intention to let us die first, but in the end they didn't Take over these mulberry fields smoothly!"

Qingping and the other person were startled, the person quickly grabbed her sleeve and said: "Stop talking, let's talk about it when you have something to say! If you have any anger in your heart, when you see Mu Yi, ask her to understand That's it!"

But the woman was obviously angry, and she seemed to be indifferent. She was the one who made the most trouble before, and Qingping suspected that the aristocratic family was playing tricks. Looking at it now, it seems that this person has such a temperament, impulsive and irritable, and is easy to be used as a gun make.She drank tea in silence, the woman kicked over the chair again, she was furious, and shouted: "These Hezhou people are used to looking down on us, how can they be shy this time, and say nothing The state is so good, why join forces, I am! When the time comes, they will sell us backhandedly, and they will take away all the benefits! You still talk to me about Mu Yi? What kind of thing is she? What about the Xie family in Lingnan? It’s all about blowing out their reputation and making big drums out of cowhide!... What did she tell us at the time? Now it’s all over, the court knows about it, and they’re here to investigate us..."

The other person didn't expect her to have such a temper, and when he became anxious, he didn't care about anything, and poured everything out like beans, and was frightened half to death, and dragged and dragged, coaxing: "Okay, okay, don't talk about it!" !"

Qingping listened carefully, and didn't even notice that his lips were scalded by the hot tea. When he realized it, he hastily put down the teacup, who knew that he tilted his hand and fell directly to the ground.As soon as the sound came out, the two of them fell silent, Qingping's lips hurt badly, his brows were frowned, but he tried to put on a calm look, and said: "Go back, what's the use of arguing here." Painful, she paused in the middle of the sentence, pretending to be deep and authentic: "Man dies for money, and birds die for food. But no matter how much money you have, you have to live to enjoy it. Don't lose the big because of the small. Everyone Knowing that silk is highly profitable, it can be sold to Nanyang to double the profit, but Chenzhou has been established for hundreds of years, since it is profitable, why didn’t the imperial court plan to build mulberry fields here? Which is more important, each go back and think about it.”

After she finished speaking, she refused to speak any more, and called the servants to come in to clean up.Seeing this, the two also left with their own thoughts, and when Qing Ping was the only one in the room, she held her mouth and hissed, and suddenly someone behind her said, "My lord?"

It was only then that Qingping remembered that Li Yan was still hiding behind the screen, and said, "Come out, I almost forgot that you were still there, there is no need to hide, everyone has already left."

Li Yan came out, sat down and said: "This trial, I think you must have got the answer you want."

Qing Ping said: "That's right. If I had just guessed something before, it would be much clearer now. It seems that what Wu Yue said is true, it is true. With the silk produced in Chenzhou, how can it be compared with Hezhou? What's more, this After the mulberry tree is planted, it takes a lot of manpower and material resources from growing to cultivating to putting into output, not to mention how to set up a workshop to spin silk in the future. These are not just drawing cakes out of thin air. Chenzhou has never had such experience , at that time, as long as there is a mistake in one link, there will be unjust troubles in the future. At this time, there will be that "good-hearted person" to get along with each other, reap the benefits, and earn a reputation, killing two birds with one stone. But the Chenzhou family It's over, I woke up from a dream of wealth and honor, and ended up empty-handed. If they wanted to make a fuss, they would go to the court and the government. At that time, it would not be as simple as suppressing a mutiny. There are many vassal kings here, and they can mobilize their whole body. Come on, the aristocratic family is really going to be forced to the side of the feudal lord."

After all, Li Yan is from the north, so he only has a half-knowledge of the people's sentiments, but he also knows the consequences of this matter. If there is such a disturbance in Chenzhou, the world will be in chaos immediately. She said: "Then my lord will How to check?"

Qingping leaned on the recliner, closed his eyes and said: "Wait for news from the imperial court, then I have nothing to do with you. If Master Yao asks, tell her, we will see the outcome tomorrow."

Although Li Yan didn't understand what he meant, seeing that the adult's eye sockets were black and black, he responded and went down.

Qingping closed her eyes, her body was extremely tired, but her consciousness was still clear, she closed her eyes drowsily, drowsiness easily captured her, and she fell asleep in the afterglow of the room.

In the early morning of the next day, before the officials who were on duty at Chenzhou Mansion last night had left, they received a message from the former capital guard that the adults sent by the imperial court were already waiting outside the city.The news quickly spread to Yao Bin's residence, and she hurriedly sent an order to arrange the welcoming ceremony, and then asked the messenger: "Which adult is here, why is there no official document from the court?"

The person who sent the letter also asked three questions. Given the precedent of Li Shangshu, Yao Bin thought it would be better for him to go and see for himself. He didn't know who the master was and why he came to Chenzhou.She thought of the urgent delivery of the [-]-mile letter, and her heart beat a little faster for a moment.

There is no doubt that Yao Bin is an ambitious person. When everything is arranged properly, she will send someone to the hotel to invite Qingping, who knows that the person will only turn back and say: "My lord, the official of the hotel said, Lord Shangshu Already gone."

Yao Bin thought something was wrong when he heard it, and when he hurried to the outside of the city to have a look, he saw the flag of Wang Ming on his head, and the sharp-eyed official said: "My lord, it seems that there are four sides."

The guards cleared the way in front and back, and the leading military officer wore a sixth-rank robe, with an extraordinary imposing manner.There were so many people coming, Yao Bin's heart was beating even harder, he hurried to meet him, but he saw that group of people didn't stop, they went straight to the government office of Chenzhou.Yao Bin ordered the sedan chair bearer to follow quickly, this abnormal behavior made her startled and suspicious, and her heart was even more uncertain.When they arrived at the Chenzhou government office, Yao Bin spent a lot of effort to wait outside the lobby door one step ahead of them. Four officials in official fourth-grade scarlet robes came to meet her. He introduced: "This is Lord Zhengyao of Yaozhou."

The rank of Beijing officials is invisibly higher than that of foreign officials. Yao Bin stood at the bottom of the steps and said with a smile: "Everyone has come from a long way and worked hard all the way. I have ordered people to prepare a banquet to clean up the dust for the four adults."

"Master Yao, don't worry about this for now," one of them said, "Let's meet the order of the Holy One first."

For a moment, all the people in the mansion knelt down and listened to the oracle.Yao Bin heard one of the sentences, "Four special imperial envoys will inspect the three counties of Chenzhou, and each will take charge of the affairs of Chenzhou temporarily." Do you want to send four imperial envoys to take charge?She felt a little something wrong in her heart, but it was not easy to show it. She could only stand up from the ground after the imperial decree was read, and asked the imperial envoy, "I don't know something. business, what does that mean?"

The man who read the imperial decree said: "Naturally, the division of the prefecture's pastoral powers. Isn't the imperial decree not clear enough?"

Yao Bin choked for a moment. It was rare for someone to humiliate her like this. She finally endured it and continued to ask: "Didn't the imperial court send Master Li, Minister of Rites, why do you need to work for several adults?"

The four looked at each other, and they didn't know what information they had exchanged, but the person who spoke just now said: "In that case, may I ask Master Yao, why didn't you see Li Shangshu?"

There was nothing wrong with this person's demeanor and attitude, but Yao Bin still felt a little condescending from his words. As a state official, she was second only to the state pastor in the state capital, and the lower officials saw her He has always been respectful, and officials at the same level treat each other with courtesy.The so-called county magistrates are not as good as they are now. This group of officials from central Beijing took themselves too seriously. They completely forgot who is the boss at this time. Yao Bin snorted coldly and didn't say anything. God, it's like I didn't hear anything.

The imperial envoys clashed with Zhou Zheng as soon as they met, and those subordinates had already avoided it. At this time, no one was smoothing things over, and the atmosphere was stalemate for a while.A small civil servant wandered out from the corner, bowed tremblingly to all the adults, and then said: "Please accept the official report, Lord Shangshu invites all adults to gather in the back hall."

Seeing that someone had taken over, Yao Bin said calmly, "Then I won't bother you guys, please." Seeing that the other party also looked angry, Yao Zhouzheng lost his temper immediately, and his face changed from cloudy to sunny. , and even took care to send an official close to him to inquire about intelligence, calling it a helper.

But the back hall is heavily guarded, not even a fly can fly in, obviously discussing important matters, no one is allowed to spy, Yao Bin walks away sighing.

In the back hall, Qingping had been waiting here early in the morning. She didn't go outside the city to meet the imperial envoy as Yao Bin thought. On the table, they were even thoughtfully divided into categories according to the year and the department they belonged to. No matter how you look at it, they are all in the posture of being ready for battle.

The four imperial envoys who came here this time have their own backgrounds, and the ones sent by the court to this place to solve troubles must be extraordinary people.Three of them are newly appointed servants at the beginning of this year, and they are from household soldiers. Qingping has also carefully reviewed their resumes. They are all old people from the time when the emperor was in the hidden residence, but she is not very familiar with them.Now one of the five servants of the six books is here, which is almost a rare spectacle.Qing Ping also thought humorously, if she hadn't been promoted to Minister, then she would be able to cobble together six servants with her colleagues, and that would count them all.

But among the three imperial envoys, there is only one who has to be singled out. This person's surname is Hu, and the single character is 灈. He has the strength to beat Xie Qi by a level.And it turned out to be the case. By the time the emperor came to the throne, she had already completed her experience in the six departments, and she was about to prepare for joining the cabinet the next year.

Qingping knew very little about Hu Xuan, and his resume was only a few lines. Hu Xuan used to spend his days in the Hanlin Academy without any achievements to speak of.Unexpectedly, after entering the Chonghua Palace, he was first entrusted with important tasks, and later he shined brightly. When he was in the Six Ministries, he often had unique views on government affairs.The officials had no choice but to attribute Hu Xuan's change to the emperor's knowledge of people, and they praised him a lot, but the emperor didn't buy it, which embarrassed the courtiers.

If Qingping plans to join the cabinet, this person is the biggest threat.But Qingping has no interest in official career, she doesn't care what Hu Xuan thinks, or she doesn't care about everything in the future.After the clerk led the four imperial envoys in, they backed out. The last person to come in was Hu Xuan. She had a thin face, but her eyes were very bright, and she closed the door smoothly.

Qing Ping nodded and said: "You don't need to be too polite, just sit down."

Hu Xun sat down without hesitation, and no one said anything about etiquette. The three of them hesitated for a moment, and then they also took their seats. Soon their eyes shifted to the documents on the table. Song was very familiar with the account book, so he didn't know what it was, so he asked cautiously: "Please tell me, Lord Shangshu, what are these?"

Qingping replied directly: "I sent someone to transfer the fish scale books, yellow books, and taxes of the three counties in Chenzhou Prefecture for the past ten years. They are all in front of you now, and you can read them by yourself."

Lin Song stopped talking, and the rest of the people also lowered their heads to look at the documents in front of them. Qingping drank tea by himself and waited for them to finish reading.

Before she could refill a cup of tea, Lin Song had already raised her head with a serious face. After working in the household department for so long, how could she not know how serious the problems revealed by the records in these account books are, but officials are cautious after all. Be careful not to fall into the tongue easily.Now that Li Qingping put these things in front of them, what was he trying to imply?

Hu Xun arched his hands and said, "Master Shangshu, what is the meaning of this?"

Qing Ping said: "Just please take a look, so that you can have a general understanding of the current situation."

Hu Xun closed the yellow booklet and said: "As we all know, Chenzhou reclaimed wasteland, and Muliangpu of Qianzhou controlled the river for many years, which made the floods less and less, and the river was used to irrigate the fields. Chenzhou is known as the world's granary. How come after so many years? Taxes have not increased but decreased, and the land on these fish scale books is also the same, although there are more and more private land, but the tax is still the same, how can it be less and less?"

Qingping glanced at her, and sure enough she guessed right, Hu Xun was born in a family, but he pointed out the crux of the matter so bluntly, indicating that some of the families had secretly surrendered to the emperor, and the families of the six states were no longer a solid piece of iron, she replied "As Mr. Hu said, although Chenzhou has 300 million acres of land, the people who can collect taxes are only a little over 100 million." Before Hu Yan could ask another question, she took the initiative to explain: "And the other 200 million, the late emperor After entering the Dazong, the kings were rewarded, and nearly 50 mu were distributed...Of course, this is only a conservative estimate; the people took the initiative to merge it into the family name to avoid taxes, which is about 100 million mu; and the other 50, there are 20 mu. Since the first emperor succeeded, it has been used to build the Xinggong Palace and the Taimiao sacrifice field, and the other 30 is official land."

After Hu Xun listened to it, he went to look through the yellow book. The two servants from the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Officials couldn't say more about this matter, so Lin Songgong cupped his hands and said: "The imperial court sent me here to handle the case of mutiny. It should be managed by the Chenzhou government." As she spoke, she glanced at Hu Xuan, seeming to be accusing.

Qing Ping said calmly: "I am temporarily acting as the governor of the state. What does Lord Yi Lin mean, that you shouldn't take care of it?"

Lin Song stood up and confessed. Qingping knew that these old people in the hidden residence were very dissatisfied with his superiority. They didn't make any effort, but they took a lot of benefits for nothing.What Yan Minghua said in the palace that night was not widely circulated, and Qingping did not have the habit of rushing up to say good things about herself, so some people speculated that she was mentioned to this position by the emperor to appease the officials of Yunzhou.This kind of words came to Qingping's ears, she was right after thinking about it carefully, although she is from Qiongzhou, she made her fortune in Yunzhou, not to mention that she is very familiar with the officialdom of Yunzhou and the government offices of the three counties in order to implement the new law. Last year, Yuan Sui was in Chenzhou to investigate the case, and she was going to Yunzhou to collect files. It was Qingping who wrote to her former colleagues, which was convenient. If so, it would be correct to say that she came from Yunzhou.

As the saying goes, different ways do not conspire with each other, Qingping saw that the three attendants could not type out a few words with a stick, so she decided to discuss it with Hu Xuan, and she could see that these three did not accept her, nor did they accept Hu Xuan. , after all, their qualifications are not old enough, one is already a minister, and the other is preparing to join the cabinet.And it was because they were here that Hu Xuan couldn't say anything, which was very troublesome.

Qingping asked the other three servants to rest in the hotel on the grounds that the boats and cars were exhausted, but Hu Xun stayed behind, and she said: "Master Hu, Ming people don't talk dark words, the fish scale books and yellow books you read are all A few days ago, I asked the state government to work overtime to sort it out. Your Majesty sent you to Chenzhou, it will never be as simple as checking for mutiny."

Hu Xun gave her a strange look, and said: "Since your lord said so, let me also say that your majesty's meaning is already very clear, but those three are afraid of getting into trouble, and they came here just to 'do not seek meritorious service but No fault', if adults want to drive them to do something, it's impossible."

After pondering for a moment, Qingping said: "I'm showing you this, not asking you to do something. I've already done what I need to do, and it depends on what you want, Mr. Hu."

Hu Xun said: "My lord, what does this mean?"

Qingping got up from the chief seat, gently placed a stack of papers in front of Hu Xuan, and said: "The biggest obstacle has been cleared. In the next three months, what you want to do and what to check are all up to you. It's not whether it can."

Hu Xun's face changed drastically after only looking at one picture, and it was not until he became so calm: "This is...is this true?"

Qing Ping said: "Of course it is true, this is a copy, the original has been sent to the cabinet, and it is up to His Majesty to make a decision."

Hu Xun quickly regained her composure. With her intelligence, she couldn't think of the tricks in this petition signed and sealed by the family. Will the aristocratic family retaliate afterwards?" Although the court's decree says that Qingping is acting as the state shepherd temporarily, if the power is really handed over to her, no more imperial envoys will be sent, but the people below don't know that she has a title and no real power , being stunned and blinded by her for a while, when those people reacted, they definitely wouldn't just let her go.

Why Qingping doesn't know, Hu Xuan's ability to ask such a question just shows that their goals are the same, so she smiled and said: "I'm afraid, but I'm not afraid, I've already submitted the letter of pleading guilty to the cabinet, since I dared to make such a start, I've wronged those The aristocratic family never thought that this matter would end well."

Hu Xun raised his eyebrows, stacked up those account books, and said: "I am different from those three. They have different body and mind, and each has their own difficulties. I came here this time to solve problems for the country. My lord once Yunzhou promotes the new law to benefit one side, His Majesty sent you here just to push the new law forward, sir, don’t worry too much, if the sky falls, you can sleep under the cover.”

Qing Ping originally thought that it would take a lot of talking to convince her, but since Hu Yan can take the initiative, she can save trouble, and immediately said: "Master Hu is really funny, but this day will not fall."

Hu Xun suddenly said: "My lord cuts first and plays later, what are you going to do with such a bold move?"

"To make things bigger, the more they want to cover up, but I want everyone to know," Qingping looked at her and said, "You have also seen those fish scale books, and the taxes that can be collected are getting less and less. Last year's floods, they had reason to report to the imperial court, asking for tax relief again. You and I don't know how many fields the family has, and the imperial court doesn't know, but the fields will not run away after all. Before they have time to take precautions, they should clear the land Acres of land, report the amount, and then return the land to the people to make up for the arrears of taxes."

She turned around to look at a landscape painting hanging on the wall, her eyes didn't know where to fall: "The war in Yunzhou emptied the national treasury, now it's time to ask for money, and the householder won't say anything. "

Hu Xun nodded, seeing Qingping suddenly turned around and smiled, and said: "But I really didn't expect that Mr. Hu would want to go with me."

In fact, when the palace banquet was awarded at the beginning of the year, Hu Xuan had already heard some gossip. Everyone said that the newly released minister of the Ministry of Rites might be the biggest obstacle to her joining the cabinet, but Hu Xuan didn't think so. She and Li Qingping have only met a few times, but she has a very deep impression on this person. All these are just from Li Qingping's words. Hu Xuan went back and thought about it for a long time. People's handwriting is so similar?She has been hiding this matter in her heart, and it has not faded away with time.But based on her understanding of the emperor, the emperor would not let this person join the cabinet, and Hu Xuan had an indescribable premonition that this Li Qingping might stop at the position of minister.

But she guessed Qingping's true thoughts by accident, but all this is only a guess, and this thought is just a thought, Hu Xuan said: "I can only say that God blesses those who help others."

The conversation has come to this point, there is no need for the two of them to say any more, Qingping said to her: "I will send someone to send some things to the hotel later, Mr. Hu is at his own discretion. It's just that I have an unfeeling request, and I hope you My lord can promise me."

Hu Xun thought to himself that she was waiting for her here, but in this situation, she couldn't refuse, so she could only say: "My lord, please tell me, if Hu can do what he can, he will naturally agree."

Qing Ping chuckled softly and said: "If things get serious, and the Chenzhou family joins hands to file a lawsuit, and the imperial court inquires about the crime, please don't be soft-handed, you four should sue me, you still have to sue, and you don't need to defend me and cover it up for me, just say it. I only have I hope your lord will agree to this request."

After hearing this, Hu Xun was a little puzzled, pleading guilty was only a process, why he was so cautious, but seeing her resolute attitude, he reluctantly agreed after thinking deeply.