Chronicle of Emperor Jing

"Xiao Shangshu!"

"Thank you, Master!"

Xiao Yue withdrew from the hall and met Xie Meng at the entrance of the hall.Xiao Yue greeted him before leaving.

"Boss Fuji, I wonder why His Majesty announced me to come today?" Xie Meng watched Xiao Shangshu walk a little away, leaned close to Fuji who was guarding the door, and asked him in a low voice.

Fudge raised his eyelids, glanced at him, and said with a half-smile: "Master Xie, you'll know when you go in, please."

Xie Meng failed to get the reminder from the caring people around the emperor, so he could only walk inside nervously.

During this period of time, he did a lot of things for the emperor, but he also offended many people.On the surface, he is the emperor's confidant, helping the emperor to do very private work, but Xie Meng knows his own affairs, he knows very well in his heart, because he cheated Wei Yan, the emperor doesn't have a good impression of him.

What Xie Meng was most afraid of was that after the emperor achieved his goal, he would cross the river and demolish the bridge, and use him as a scapegoat to calm the anger of the officials.

At that time, the emperor will still be a wise and benevolent king, but he is a villain who makes trouble and criticizes his colleagues for deceiving the emperor, then he will be called an injustice.

Now, the investigation of the case in the Gyeonggi area is almost done, and the cases in other state capitals will naturally be handled by the local officials and people sent by Yushitai. He only needs to pay attention to the final result and report to the emperor.

The most difficult bone, that is, the dignitaries in the capital, has been almost eaten by him, and Xie Meng's usefulness has naturally declined sharply, but he knows a lot of secrets about the Ministry of Public Affairs, and the emperor suddenly Calling him urgently made him feel so uneasy.

"My minister, Xie Meng, pays homage to His Majesty, my emperor is safe!" No matter what he was thinking in his heart, Xie Meng's audience ceremony was absolutely meticulous and impeccable.

Knowing that the emperor doesn't want to see him, he still wants to be careless and informal, just to make life difficult for himself.

"Stay flat." Jing Li looked at him blankly for a while, and waited until the atmosphere in the hall became tense, before signaling the servant to show Xie Meng the fish scale books from Kangping County.

"Xie Aiqing, do you understand what I mean?"

"I understand." You don't need to hit the drum with a heavy hammer. A smart person like Xie Meng knows what the emperor wants to do when he sees the scale book.

Starting from making decisions for the common people, not allowing noble families or powerful local families to forcefully buy their fields, to now the emperor instructs him to check the fish scale book, this direction of development, as long as you think about it for a while, you will know that it will happen sooner or later. So when Xie Meng saw the fish scale book at this time, there was no trace of surprise in his expression.

The fish scale book of the Ministry of Household Affairs has not been checked for many years. The current state of the fields in various prefectures and counties may not be consistent with what is recorded in the fish scale book.

When Gaozu ruled the world, Dingkou was not as many as it is now, and the wasteland reclaimed is not as much as it is now. Logically speaking, there must be a lot more fields than before, but in the fish scale book, there may not be so many.

According to regulations, if the number of fields has changed, and the owners of the fields have changed due to separation or sale, there will be corresponding changes on the county government's fish scale book. At the end of each year, these changed fish scale books will be listed. It is handed over to the government office to form a book, and then handed over to the magistrate's office, and finally gathered to the household department, which becomes the certificate for the household department to collect taxes from the state governments.

However, regulations are regulations, in fact, it is another matter.Whether the collection of taxes can be completed on time and according to the amount is closely related to the performance appraisal of local officials, and the performance appraisal is also related to the promotion of official career, and no one can treat it lightly.

If for some reason the fields become water swamps or other reductions, it means that the county’s taxes will also be reduced, and the local officials must be very active in reporting, but if new fields are reclaimed, taxes will also increase, and the local officials will Very unreported.

Most of the new fields reclaimed in the local area are known to the county magistrates who are close to the people, but for various reasons, such as someone spending money to manage them, such as more things are worse than less things, such as when taxes are not collected enough, they can hide them from They have to pretend not to know the reasons for making up for taxes in these fields so that they can get an excellent performance appraisal and so on.

Anyway, many fields were not hidden from their tenures, but caused by their tenures. Even if the court wanted to investigate, they would not be able to find them.

Xie Meng has worked his way up from being an official close to the people step by step. He knows all these things.Similarly, because of the above-mentioned reasons, he has always been with the light, and has no intention of uncovering these things. Now that the emperor wants to clear Zhang Tianmu, he can't pretend to be stupid, so he can only bite the bullet and investigate.

Xie Meng is smart and interesting, Jing Li saves a lot of effort, and he asked again: "Has Ai Qing heard of Qi Yuanheng?"

"Of course I have heard of it."

Xie Meng, Qi Yuanheng, a layman in Xiaoshan, is very famous. He even met Qi Yuanheng and Xie Meng when he was young.On that day, when Qi Yuanheng and his father lived in Tanjia Village, Xie Meng had never been a teacher, so he met him in the village by chance.

"Right now, Qi Yuanheng is persuading farmers and mulberry schools in Kangping County, and repairing water conservancy. Starting tomorrow, you go to his place for a few times to think about the regulations for this matter. I will make a decree after writing a booklet. These fish scale books in your hand, It belongs to the Ministry of Household Affairs, you can take it to have a look tomorrow first, but when it is Qingzhang, you still need to use the county government." Jing Li ordered.

Yesterday, Jing Li took Wei Yan to Kangping County for a stroll. Many happy things happened and a lot of unhappiness happened. do it.

And Qi Yuanheng has a lot of manpower, Jing Li thinks that Xie Meng can borrow some to run errands.

Xie Meng replied yes, thought for a while, and then asked: "Your Majesty, if the fields that are not registered in the fish scale book are found out, how should I deal with it?"

"I don't care about what happened in the past, and I will do it according to the order in the future." When Jing Li said this, he remembered something. He took out a few pages from the hidden compartment of the imperial case, picked a few pages, and signaled The servant sent it down, "I'll check these people carefully, and then help them find something to do, so that they won't be too idle."

"Chen Zunzhi!" Xie Meng took the few pages, glanced at them, and put them in his sleeves.

The emperor is not going to settle the score, so there will be less resistance to this matter going forward.However, he thought instead that the emperor had actually done the calculations and received a lot of fines, so he became more generous this time.

And the list he got, I don't know how these people offended the emperor and made him make things difficult for them.

The list that Jing Li handed over to Xie Meng was the small book that he secretly wrote down to settle accounts. Some time ago, these people used many methods to deal with Wei Yan. Now that he has the opportunity, he will definitely return it.

He is the emperor, even if he wants to find someone to settle the score, he doesn't need to do it himself in many cases. For example, Xie Meng knew what to do after getting his hint this time.

After explaining these things clearly, he asked Xie Meng to leave. Then, he thought of another person. He suddenly remembered that Zhao Shi was disobedient and dared to act behind his back. He hadn't dealt with Zhao Shi well yet. Well, to be precise, he left Wei Yan to handle the accounting, but Wei Yan seemed to have forgotten.

"Why is Zhao Shi still living in your house?" At night, he hugged Wei Yan and asked about it.

"Ah?" Wei Yan felt that the emperor was inexplicable, didn't the emperor let Zhao Shi live in his house?How did the emperor forget so quickly?My memory is very bad!When he thought of this, he paused for a moment, then suddenly remembered another matter, and then he understood why the emperor asked such a question, and suddenly felt embarrassed, "Chen..."

"Ah what, did you forget what I said? My memory is very bad!" Jing Li lightly touched Wei Yan's forehead with his forehead and said with a smile.

"Your Majesty, I didn't mean it."

"I know, you are too busy, but you have left his affairs behind, and you have wronged Zhao Shi too much." What Jing Li said was very reasonable, um, reasonable with another purpose.

"It's my fault. Zhao Shi has been with me for so many years, so I should pay more attention to his affairs." Wei Yan really forgot, and immediately admitted his mistake obediently.

"It's okay, don't forget about it next time." Jing Li snickered in her heart.

"Don't worry, Your Majesty, I won't do it again."

With the emperor's reminder again, Wei Yan finally remembered this matter.However, he had too many things at hand, and it was hard to guarantee that there would be accidents if he continued to let it go, so he put this matter at the forefront to deal with it.

On the second day, he went back to the mansion, called the chief housekeeper Wei, and discussed these matters with him.

"Helping Mr. Zhao find a suitable residence is not difficult, but helping Mr. Zhao as a matchmaker...Hou Ye, you are embarrassing me." The housekeeper is proficient in finding a house, but helping Zhao Shi find his wife, Mr. The housekeeper was really helpless.

"Should we let the official media come to help?" Wei Yan felt that it was unreliable to rely on the big housekeeper for this matter, so he pondered.

"Master Hou, why don't you ask Mr. Zhao what he means about this matter first?" The butler was a little ashamed when he heard that Lord Hou was going to use a matchmaker, and hurriedly persuaded him.

Mr. Zhao Shi Zhao is also a man of his age. With his behavior, if he wants to find his wife, how can he not find it? Then there must be a reason for him not looking for it.Master Hou is probably embarrassing Mr. Zhao by rushing the ducks to the shelves.

"It's okay, it's just a backup reference, not to make a decision immediately. Zhao Shi has no relatives around him, and I am his boss. I must help him worry about these things. Just follow my orders."

"Yes, Lord Hou." The chief steward felt that his Lord Hou's words were also very reasonable. It is common for subordinates not to be married and the boss to act as a matchmaker, so he did not continue to object.

Early this morning, Xie Meng brought people to Kangping County.Since the emperor is going to let him check the fish scale book, there will be more times when the county government needs to cooperate in the future, so Xie Meng entered the county, first went to the county government, and met the county magistrate Sun Ke, intending to get acquainted with him friendship.

He is now the head of the People's Discussion Department, and he is a sixth grade.This rank seems to be very low. In the capital where nobles walk everywhere, he is just a small official with the size of a sesame seed and mung bean, but the county magistrate Sun Ke is only from the sixth rank, a head lower than him, and he must first salute when he sees him. As far as he is concerned, his official position is not as humble as he imagined.

Xie Meng entered the county government office, met with Sun Ke, sat down as host and guest, drank tea for a while, chatted a few words, and made a gossip before talking about his reason for coming.

"Since Mr. Xie is going to visit the practice of farming and mulberry practice of Da Layman Qi, I will find someone to lead the way!" Sun Ke was a little worried about why he came, but he was relieved to understand his purpose, and hurriedly greeted him. The yamen servant on duty outside came in and told him to help Xie Meng lead the way later.

The matter of Qi Yuanheng in Kangping County is not a secret. Xie Meng can find the place by going there by himself, but Xie Meng came to see him first and then went to the field, but he was showing kindness to him.

Came and walked quietly like an emperor, without disturbing anyone along the way, if he hadn't gone to the village yesterday, Qi Yuanheng said vaguely, he would not know about the Shangsi Festival at all.

The emperor acted in such a way that he was clean and pure, and absolutely did not disturb the people. However, as the county magistrate of Kangping County, and a county magistrate who had not been appointed by the emperor for a long time, Sun Ke couldn't help thinking about the emperor's mind.

Now that Xie Meng made it clear that the horses and chariots took this trip, it was to show that his trip was only for business, not for Sun Ke.

Sun Ke understood these twists and turns in the officialdom in an instant, and he was naturally relieved.

"Master Sun, it's getting late. I have an errand on my body, so I'm leaving." Xie Meng took a sip of tea, estimated the time, stood up and said goodbye.

"Business is important, and the next official will not leave you in vain. Thank you, sir. This way please." Sun Ke also stood up and sent Xie Meng out of the gate before returning to work.

Xie Meng and his group left the city gate, and it didn't take long before they noticed the difference.

"My lord, look, the fields here are criss-crossed and the ditches are smooth. The layman of Xiaoshan has done a great job this time." Xie Meng's entourage on this trip included not only the guards sent by the emperor to protect him, but also the helpers who helped him with things. , one of his aides saw the spring scene in the field and spoke.

Xie Meng looked at the fields on the left side of the road, and then at the fields on the right, and her only thought was: "There is a clear difference between the two!"

"The clearer the distinction, the more obvious the means of Qi Da Layman!"

Others were stunned by the scenery of the field before seeing the real master, but Jing Li saw it, and made a lot of mistakes. In order to belittle Qi Yuanheng, he also worked very hard.

"Let's take a look first."

Xie Meng was not in a hurry to see Qi Yuanheng, but took people around for a walk, took out the fish scale books that the emperor gave him, and compared them to each other.

After countless years of changes, the terrain of this place has changed a lot, but the county is there, the land is there, and I can’t run long legs. Even if there are many differences from the fish scale book, Xie Meng is not in a hurry, but instead I ran around the village patiently, and only entered the village at noon.

He led people to patrol around, and someone had already seen him, stepped forward to inquire about his origin, and then reported it to Qi Yuanheng.

Qi Yuanheng and Xie Meng were no more than acquaintances back then, and then there was Wei Yan's matter in the middle. Even now, Wei Yan has no intention of revenge, and Qi Yuanheng is not generous enough to laugh at these matters.

However, the emperor has done everything that should be done. Now, Xie Meng has become the emperor's lackey again, helping the emperor to bite people everywhere. He is probably here today with a holy order.

Thinking of the emperor, Qi Yuanheng suddenly had some bad words in his heart.Of course, he wouldn't tell anyone such obvious words of courting death.

Although he looked down on the emperor's dog legs, Qi Yuanheng would not offend people easily. Knowing that Xie Meng was coming, he ordered people to prepare more meals, and sent people to the county town to buy some dirty wine. Just waiting for noon to entertain them.

The emperor allowed him to be responsible for implementing these measures this time, and no one else was there to point fingers. He just ordered Sun Ke to fully cooperate with him in his actions. He was so easy to talk, most of them were for Wei Yan's sake, and a few were for his own sake. One point, Qi Yuanheng knew very well.

In this world, a thousand-mile horse often exists, but Bole does not often exist.

Qi Yuanheng considered himself a Maxima, and the emperor could barely be regarded as a Bole, but the emperor, Bole, had too many Maxima, and it was not easy for ordinary people to get his attention.

Now in this Kangping County, he, Sun Ke, and Xie Meng needless to say, they are all famous figures for a long time, and many scholars who came to help are also temporary talents.

With so many talented people gathered here, how many of them can get the emperor's favor?

Qi Yuanheng understands all these principles.

If Qi Yuanheng saw the emperor alone, he would definitely be able to calm down, and he would also say something to make the emperor happy, but seeing the emperor and Wei Yan appearing together, and the emperor treated Wei Yan like this, Wei Yan was not angry at all, just foolishly Listening to the emperor's words, he couldn't calm down, and always wanted to do something to make the emperor unhappy.

Now that the emperor and Wei Yan are not here, Qi Yuanheng has turned back into a wise and wise layman Qi.

When Xie Meng came over, he stood at the entrance of the village to greet him personally.

"Thank you sir!"

"Scholar Qi!"

After the two met the ceremony, they each introduced the companions around them, and they were considered to be acquainted with each other, so Qi Yuanheng invited them to the table.

"Master Xie, today's meal is too simple and the hospitality is not good, please thank you, Mr. Haihan." Qi Yuanheng apologized for the simple meal.

"Layman Qi is too polite, I'm the one who bothered you." Xie Meng's posture was also very low.

There is no way, Qi Yuanheng is Wei Yan's best friend, and if they really match up, the emperor might be biased, and he can't afford to provoke him.

The two chiefs talked politely to each other, and the accompanying people below were not careless enough to stir up conflicts. The whole lunch was quite peaceful.

"I don't know what is the purpose of Mr. Xie's coming this time? If it is useful, Mr. Xie just ask." The meal was almost used up, and Qi Yuanheng finally asked Xie Meng's reason for coming.

"I came here this time to measure the acres of land and check the fish scale books. Can Master Qi teach me a strategy?" Xie Meng replied.

His voice was not loud, but everyone at the banquet heard it.Some people are stunned, some people understand it very well.

There is no need to keep this matter secret. The reason has been mentioned above. The field is there and there is no way to run away. That is to say, there will be different opinions on who the owner of the field is, but no matter who the owner is, the tax that should be paid still needs to be paid. handed in.

Moreover, the government is making decisions for the people. If anyone has any objections to the ownership of the land, it is time for the government to make a decision.

"I don't need this matter, the people in the household department or the house are the masters. I only have a small suggestion..." Qi Yuanheng told Xie Meng about the farce of the Shangsi Festival.

"Don't worry, Layman Qi. When measuring the acres, the ditches and ridges will definitely not be counted as the acres that need to be taxed." After hearing this, Xie Meng promised without any hesitation.

This practice is not unique now, but was stipulated a long time ago. Of course, it was easy for him to agree.

"I know all of this. What I would like to suggest is, can Mr. Xie mark the location of the main ditch on the new fish scale book?" , the farmers had a lot of conflicts. Even if they have persuaded each household and set up a location, after a long time, I am afraid that someone will still occupy it. If there is a mark on the fish scale book, it will be convenient for latecomers to open it again. Too much, don't be so fussy.

"I'm afraid I need some painters." Xie Meng thought for a while before replying.

On the fish scale book, there are all simple diagrams, and a lot of words are used to indicate it below. It is not impossible to draw ditches, but the workload has increased significantly.

"I understand the meaning of Layman Qi. I will report this matter to His Majesty, and please His Majesty to make a decision."

"Then thank you sir!"