Tranquility

In May, when the spring and summer are handing over, the sky and the earth are clear and the climate is pleasant.

The capital has ushered in the peak of blind dates again. At this time, no matter if you are the high-ranking Mrs. Gonghou, the noble and proud Mrs. Hanlin, or the generous and straightforward Mrs. Jiangmen, you must treat your own girls—whether they are your own biological daughters. , or a concubine's concubine's daughter, or a niece who lost her father--dressed up beautifully, and then led to show her face at various flower viewing parties in Beijing with a smile on her face.

And all kinds of unmarried men, married widowers, married wretched men, etc. in Beijing also dressed up like dogs at this time and went to other people's flower parties to express themselves while secretly peeping at those who rarely go out on weekdays. Miss boudoir.

At this time, Tangning always had the most headaches.

Although no son would be full enough to invite Tangning to the flower viewing party - a joke, as long as Tangning appeared, the ladies would not notice them.

But Tang Ning started his official career very early, and his colleagues, bosses and even subordinates were middle-aged and elderly men who were a few rounds older than him. In the ancient times of early marriage and early childbearing, none of these men had many young daughters or granddaughters behind them.

To be honest, Tang Ning's background is not very good, but it can't help others to be good-looking, and she has a three-yuan degree only in decades, and she is well-known among literati. These auras are enough in the eyes of those fathers and grandpas To be their son-in-law Chenglong, even if he is not qualified to marry a concubine daughter, it is more than enough to marry a concubine daughter.

So, when the men in the family mentioned it, even if Madam and Miss were not satisfied with Tangning's conditions, she had to take a look at it first in order to save the master's face. It is also willing to let them post upside down.

So, before being overwhelmed by piles of invitation cards for the flower viewing party, Tangning, who was quite experienced, packed up and hid in Wuyi Zhai, which had no women or old men, only two and a half princes.

Why do you say two and a half princes?

The two princes are the second prince, Feng Chu, and the third prince, Feng Ju; the eldest prince has already done business, and he should have left Wuyizhai long ago, but he still comes back from time to time to show off his beautiful feathers in front of the two younger brothers, by the way I despise my younger brother's bald hair, so I can only count as half.

The palace, Wuyi Zhai, a leisurely afternoon.

The breeze is refreshing, and in the elegant room on the east side of the second floor of Wuyizhai, the windows on three sides are wide open, and the scenery outside the window is beautiful.

The elegant room was very quiet, only the sound of the breeze flipping papers.

Lin Qingyu was still in the moon-white uniform, leaning on the small couch by the window with his eyes slightly squinted, his wide sleeves covering his body, trembling slightly with the breeze.

Tang Ning knelt by the window to the north, and on the short table in front of her were the Three Prince's immature essays.

The third prince was young, and his qualifications were blunt, and he was cowardly, but he was also very lazy. He even went to school and spent three days fishing and two days drying the net. Almost all the traits that Lin Qingyu didn't like were combined into one.

So, after Tangning came, the education of the third prince fell on Tangning.

On the short table opposite Tangning, sat a young man wearing a prince's suit.

He is said to be a boy, but in fact he is only a few months younger than Tangning, but he has a delicate baby face, is dressed in tender yellow, and his body is slightly frail due to years of illness. I am several years younger.

The first time Tangning saw this young man, she almost took him for the third prince. Fortunately, Tangning was cautious, and did not salute rashly before Lin Qingyu introduced him.

Even so, Tangning was still in a cold sweat from the second prince's stare, feeling that the second prince had seen through her thoughts.

To be honest, I really can't blame Tangning for this.It can only be blamed that the second prince's appearance is too deceptive. If his innate royal demeanor is ignored, others will only think that he is a molester raised by some powerful family.

The second prince's face is small, with a round outline but a slightly pointed and slightly raised chin, a typical baby face.His facial features all express the word "exquisite": the nose is small and exquisite; the lips are a little thin, like a little red embellishment.This made his already big eyes even bigger, occupying almost a third of the entire face.

However, it is these big eyes, dark and deep, when staring at people, people have a chill feeling of being stared at by a devil.

Therefore, Tang Ning, who was sitting across from her at the moment, felt extremely stressed. Although the other party was not looking at him at this time, the way the other party looked at the person on the bed from time to time made Tang Ning feel uneasy.

Whoever said that the second prince was sick and incompetent, and the second prince was gentle and peaceful, really blinded him.

Because she made up her mind to help the second prince rise to power, Tangning had been deliberately observing him for the past few months, and she also made friends without any trace.However, the more she got in touch with, the more Tangning could feel the danger of the second prince, and this feeling became more and more profound with the deepening of understanding.

Tangning was very sure that he was not the second prince's opponent, because he felt that the second prince did it on purpose to let him know his true colors. If he was unwilling, Tangning's impression of the second prince would only be what others judged him to be.

Tangning originally wanted to have a showdown with the second prince after a period of contact. He really wasn't the type to engage in scheming. According to his thinking, since they were going to rely on him, at least sincerity was necessary.

But at this moment, Tangning decided not to do anything, not even the veiled overtures he made before. He only did what he was supposed to do every day.

Because when he saw Feng Chu's penetrating eyes, he understood that Feng Chu understood all his thoughts, but he didn't express what he meant. Tangning didn't understand what he meant, so he could only follow his thoughts. tacit understanding.

At this time, the three people, who were thinking of each other, reached a strange harmony in this bright and comfortable room.

When Feng Chu finished flipping through the last page of information in his hand, Lin Qingyu opened his eyes as if he had sensed it.

He tilted his head slightly, and slowly propped up his body. The waterfall-like blue hair was hanging down by his hand. Lin Qingyu seemed to have not woken up yet. His usually cold breath seemed to be melted by the warm sun, and his movements were rarely lazy and casual.

Feng Chu's dark eyes suddenly flickered, and Tang Ning immediately bristled like a frightened animal. Fortunately, this extremely dangerous feeling only appeared for a short moment, so short that Tang Ning almost thought it was an illusion.

As if Lin Qingyu didn't notice anything, she reached out her hand to Feng Chu, and Feng Chu respectfully handed over the information in her hand.

Lin Qingyu took the document and passed it to Tangning who was beside him without reading it.

Among the three, Tangning had the lowest priority. He could only read it after the other two had read it.

Tangning took the information in her hands, and it turned out to be about taxation and living standards in recent years. The data on it were very detailed, such as land tax, population tax, commercial tax, etc. The descriptions of living standards were even more varied. What are the specialties? What is the source of residents' income, how much is the price of rice, and even the cost of marriage.

Just as Tangning was trying to distinguish a bunch of numbers in traditional characters, Lin Qingyu asked Feng Chu a question.

"What can your Highness see?"

Tangning paused as she turned the pages. This question was too general and vague to answer.

Feng Chu has obviously gotten used to Lin Qingyu's way of asking questions, and calmly replied: "According to the data recorded by him, tax revenues in various places have been increasing year by year in the past few years, and people's lives are more prosperous. In some places, most people can have enough food and clothing. Even Yongzhou, which often suffers from floods, has applied for disaster relief from the imperial court less and less frequently, if it wasn’t written in this document, I almost forgot about this place.”

Tangning continued to flip through the pages and found the page of Yongzhou. The numbers on it were really good. Taxes are increasing, the population is also growing, and there is a lot of surplus food in the warehouse. At first glance, it seems that there is a good trend of continuous development.

Lin Qingyu nodded and got up, Tangning looked up at Lin Qingyu, but Feng Chu immediately reached out to grab the teapot, poured Lin Qingyu a cup of tea, and handed it respectfully.

Lin Qingyu still had a cold expression on his face, he took the teacup in his hands naturally, but glanced at Tangning with sharp eyes, as if to say, "Boy, learn more, even a dignified prince understands winks better than you."

Tangning's face flushed slightly, she hurriedly lowered her head and continued to read the documents, but the speed of turning her hands up unconsciously accelerated.

Lin Qingyu took a sip of tea and asked lightly, "Is there anything else?"

Feng Chu pondered for a moment, and said: "The biggest problem I am facing now is the serious land annexation, but according to the records on it, those officials and squires did occupy a lot of land, but even so, the local land tax is still increasing. The land tax has been reduced, and the rapid increase in commercial tax in recent years alone is enough to make up for the gap, and the big taxes on salt, tea, and wine have also risen very quickly. It can be seen that the impact of land annexation is actually not that great, but why? Is the money in the treasury still not enough?"

Tangning put down the documents and looked up. Obviously, he was also very interested in this question.

Feng Chu frowned slightly, and asked herself, "Is it because the prices are also rising? Or is it because the father built the golden pagoda? No, no, before the father built the pagoda, the national treasury was already tight."

Lin Qingyu got up and took another two steps, "Increasing prices are a factor. It is normal for prices to rise, but there must be a limit here. If the increase is too high, the common people earn more and spend more, which is not conducive to development. But , the people's life is obviously more affluent than before."

Feng Chu listened, and said along: "Only the national treasury, the increased income cannot cover the expenditure."

"Then what extra, unreasonable expenditures have the treasury had in recent years?"

Feng Chu sat up straight, took out a pen, and wrote on the paper one by one: "Military salaries and official salaries are legitimate expenditures, and improper things are not on the surface, such as eating empty salaries, embezzling disaster relief money, embezzling There are discounts on taxes, the shortfalls from the treasury’s borrowings from the royal family’s nobles, the expenses of the father’s cultivation of alchemy, and the taxation of the fiefdoms of princesses and princes…”

The two discussed for a long time, but there was still no definite answer.

Lin Qingyu finally said: "It seems that these are not enough to cause a huge deficit in the national treasury, Zi'an, what do you think?"

Tangning didn't expect Lin Qingyu to ask a question suddenly, and he was at a loss for words. Fortunately, he collected his thoughts for a while, and then said with a trace of uncertainty: "I feel that it may be the result of all these small and small deficits. We can't To study these details carefully, it is better to jump out and grasp the overall trend from a macro perspective.”

Feng Chu was a little interested, "Macro? Overall? Isn't the data just now an overall figure?"

"Your Highness doesn't know. Sometimes, problems can be revealed only by comparison, and this official can't explain it clearly. But when I was in the Imperial Academy, I once sorted out a lot of data about Dazhao's past, and His Highness can tell at a glance."

"Then you can take a look now, teacher, what do you think?"

"Go back quickly."

"Yes."

Tangning went downstairs, and when she passed the East Wing, she saw Ding Jiugong's head, nodded at him, and headed towards the Imperial Academy.

Tangning stayed in the Hanlin Academy for three years, facing a pile of data in traditional characters every day, making her dizzy and dizzy.His hands were itchy for a while, and he couldn't see the numbers crowded together, just like a person with a cleanliness must keep his home in order, so he made a form, one form for each region, and translated the traditional numbers into Arabic numbers and filled them in. .

From the beginning of the table by region, Tangning became more and more addicted to it. Later, he made a bunch of tables by tax type, by people's class, and various classifications.In the end, he simply drew a bar chart, and compared each year with various colors. With the bar chart, there will be a percentage behind it.

In the end, when Tangning left, he had accumulated a lot of these blueprints alone. According to the time travel strategy, handing in these blueprints was considered a great achievement.

But Tang Ning didn't want to be in the limelight, and he didn't have the ambition to govern the country, but he was unwilling to let him take these blueprints home to collect dust, so he randomly found a corner cabinet and stuffed them in. No one will find out, it depends on fate.

Of course, out of subtle selfishness, Tangning stamped her personal seal on the back of each picture.

I didn't expect him to use these pictures so soon. Sure enough, people should work hard at all times. Maybe it was useless at the time. Who knows if they will be used in the future? Tangning sighed all the way into Hanlin, which he hadn't visited for several months. hospital.

The Imperial Academy has a large place and not many people. Tangning's original office hadn't arranged for anyone to move in yet. This made Tangning heave a sigh of relief. She greeted the doorkeeper and walked to her former office familiarly.

When they were about to arrive, Tangning saw a lot of people gathered in a remote corner from a distance. Those people were chattering and even stretched out their hands to push someone.

Tang Ning frowned. The officials of the Imperial Academy prided themselves on being noble, and the most important thing was to use words instead of hands. No matter how fierce the fight was in secret, no one would tear their faces on the stage.

But he has already left the Hanlin Academy, these battles have nothing to do with him, and he doesn't have the energy to meddle in other things, especially when he can't figure out the specific things.

Tangning was planning to make a detour at the intersection ahead, but as he got closer, the faces of those people gradually became clear. Tangning's eyes were sharp, and she immediately recognized that the person being pushed and shoved was Lin Zi Zhang.

I saw him arched back, still in the same timid manner, he lowered his head, and tried his best to protect something in his arms. Those people seemed to be here to get something, grabbing his arm, and stretched out their hands to grab it.

Lin Zizhang was so pulled by them that he couldn't stand upright. He staggered, with tears in his eyes, looking very pitiful.

Tangning couldn't bear to sigh, he was half of the Lin family anyway, so he couldn't let Lin Zizhang be bullied no matter what.

So Tangning spun around, and as he approached, the voices of those people became more and more clear.

"This is something from the Hanlin Academy, how can you let it go home and use it?"

"Taking it without telling it is stealing, has Lin Tanhua read all the books of the sages into the dog's belly? Don't even understand this?"

"No, it's not—it's Qiao Hanyun's—"

"Joke, how did you know that the inkstone belonged to Qiao Hanyun? Even if it belonged to Qiao Hanyun, who are you and why do you take his things?"

"That is, no matter who owns it, if it is placed in the Imperial Academy, it is for public use in the courtyard!"

At this moment, Tangning had approached. The more he looked at those people, the more familiar they became. He tried his best to search. Aren't these people the same as Qiao Hanyun's followers back then?

When Qiao Hanyun's accident happened, they hid faster than anyone else, but now they bullied Lin Zizhang who was the only one who treated Qiao Hanyun sincerely. Could it be that they disliked Lin Zizhang for being too affectionate, which made them even more miserable?

Thinking of this, Tangning couldn't help feeling angry, and asked loudly, "What's going on?"