Tang's dining table

Peng Huizu, 41 years old, was from Heyang, Tongzhou, Guanzhong.

It is said that he is the descendant of Peng Zu, who lost forty-nine wives and fifty-four sons.

His father was a gambler and sold Peng Huizu as a servant six times. Each time, Peng Huizu could be found at home and begged his father not to sell him again... As a result, his gambler father sold him for six times. He was proud of it and often praised Peng Huizu as a smart boy who could run back by himself.

The reason why it was only sold six times was because when he sold it for the seventh time, he was unlucky and met the buyer for the second time. They broke Peng Huizu Aye's legs, and he wailed for two days. , died of pain alive.

After that, Peng Huizu became a boy servant of the family that bought him for the second time, specializing in serving the elderly in the family. Later, because of his diligence, good looks, and strong strength, he won the favor of his master. In his spare time, the master also Taught Peng Huizu how to read and write.

Before his death, the old master let go of Peng Huizu's identity as a husband. He also made up for Peng Huizu's academic status at the county school and sent him to the county school, thus erasing his identity as a slave.

Twenty years later, Peng Huizu won the first place in one fell swoop.

He has always believed that as a human being, one must abide by one's duties and respect superiors and inferiors. This is the basic order of society. Slaves must have the consciousness of slaves, and farmers must have the consciousness of farmers. Only when all four people are in their proper place can order be achieved. will be stable.

Just like these runaway slaves in front of them, they don't think about how to serve their master well. After gaining favor from the master, they can obtain freedom through formal channels, and then get the high position they want like him.

Those who don't follow the rules are untouchables, the real untouchables, because they can't even do the basic duty of observing order, and they just want to escape and use the power of the Tang princess in front of them to gain freedom.

It's not okay to do this. They can't do things that break the rules.

In his opinion, running away from one's master is the greatest damage to order, especially since there are many people in this group who have fled due to adultery, and there are quite a lot of them. These people are even more hateful than bandits who kill people and steal goods.

Therefore, he planned to send back these fugitive slaves who had fled to Leize County, or to kill them on the spot, which was very in line with the spirit of the law of the Tang Dynasty.

Before sending these escaped slaves back or executing them, Peng Huizu planned to teach them some lessons.

Wen Wen stood at the door of the yamen with his hands behind his back, watching Peng Huizu deal with the escaped slaves, especially after he saw Peng Huizu ordering the fingers of a maid who had fled for adultery to be cut off with a clamp and the legs of the maid's lover broken. I think this Peng Huizu deserves to die.

"Go and burn the county government office."

Wen Wen gave the order without looking back, and within a moment, fireworks were erupting from the house behind the county government office.

When Peng Huizu heard that there was a fire in the back hall, he stopped trying the case and ordered the pair of escaped slaves who had passed out to be tied up at the gate of the county government office. They hurried to put out the fire.

Since the fire was lit by Wen Wen's order, it would not be easily extinguished. Before Peng Huizu and the others could put out the fire in the back house, the Yamen in front was on fire.

Naturally, it was impossible to save the fire like hide-and-seek. When it got dark, Peng Huizu had no choice but to give up fighting the fire and watched helplessly as the Leize County Government Office was burned to a white ground by the fire.

Only when there is a county government, can there be a county magistrate. Without a county government, there can be no county magistrate. This logic was established during the Tang Dynasty, and Rou Wen, who has been a county magistrate for so many years, naturally knows the three flavors.

Generally speaking, a county government office is composed of a court hall, a middle hall, and a back hall. The court hall is used to try cases, the middle hall is used to handle official business, and the back hall is used to house the county magistrate and his family.

Leize County is a small county, and the government offices and prisons are integrated with the county government office. Therefore, if Wen Wenwen burns the county government office, it is equivalent to burning the management foundation of Leize County.

Wen Wen needed time to bypass the county magistrate and deal with the mess left by Li Si as soon as possible. Once these escaped slaves entered the countryside and obtained official status, it was basically like a fish entering the sea.

In the Tang Dynasty, even if the county magistrate wanted to accomplish something, he had to go through the village chiefs to accomplish it. Imperial power never went to the countryside!

The imperial power did not go to the countryside. This was not so much a phenomenon as a compromise made out of desperation, because the imperial court did not have so much money and food to support the huge number of rural officials.

In the Tang Dynasty, there are now 11 people with the status of prime minister, 137 people with the status of minister, 688 people with the status of minister, 1,953 people of the fourth rank, and 1,953 people of the fifth rank. There are tens of thousands of officials, more than 40,000 sixth-grade officials, more than 80,000 seventh-grade officials, and countless officials receiving imperial salaries. If we add in the even larger number of rural officials, there were originally 3,500 people in the Tang Dynasty. The ratio of supplying one official will suddenly increase to two thousand people supporting one manager.

This kind of support ratio is not a big problem in Chang'an. However, there is only one Chang'an in the entire Tang Dynasty. The tax collected by most states and counties in a year is not even more than the tax collected by one Jinchangfang in a year.

This is the current situation of Datang.

Of course, the Tang Dynasty also had some governance actions in the countryside, but generally talented people were chosen to carry out the tasks.

These two talented people refer to people who have money and talents.

In other words, the governance of the countryside has always been implemented by wealthy households and landowners instead of the dynasty.

Even if you are tracking down a fugitive, once you reach the village level, if the head of the family or the head of the village says that he has not been found, then he really has not been found.

Yunchu had always believed that the countryside of Datang should be able to achieve great things. He himself had grown up from being the head of Jinchangfang to Guangmingli to his current position step by step.

No one understands the power of the li chief better than Yunchu. Once the business is well done, it will be easy to make the rural management prosperous through clan or interests. At that time, the li chief will not be living based on the county magistrate's face. It should be that the county magistrate was overjoyed by the strong man's face.

The imprisoned runaway slaves were taken away by the village chiefs who had been contaminated by Li Si and settled down after changing their names.

Peng Huizu was busy looking for people to build the county government.

As for the fugitive slaves who had escaped without a trace, he couldn't take care of them at this time.

For a new county magistrate, in Leize County, where there is no one and no money, trying to get a county government office for nothing is as difficult as an unknown monk carrying an alms bowl and asking for alms everywhere in the hope of building a large temple.

Just when Peng Huizu was in the most difficult time, Angel Jia Chunyan came to Leize County after inspecting Linpu County.

In Juancheng, Jia Chunyan was full of praise for the newly appointed local magistrate. He believed that this magistrate, who had just taken office, could quickly calm down the chaos in which the previous magistrate was killed and officials were arrested, and quickly bring the governance of Juancheng County to an end. He is a man of political integrity and a rare talent.

In Linpu County, although Jia Chunyan pointed out many problems, he believed that the problems here were caused by the excessive involvement of the government soldiers in the search for the previous county magistrate and officials. The county magistrate of Linpu County , it is already rare to maintain a seemingly peaceful county. I believe that as long as the county magistrate is given another three months, he will be able to return a happy and peaceful Linpu County to His Majesty.

Even Leize County is a little worse, not a little worse, but a lot worse. Not only did civil unrest occur here, there were also serious incidents in which people set the county government office on fire in a rage, resulting in prisoners in the county government prison. Dispersed in a hurry.

Seeing that the county magistrate Peng Huizu was accused by thousands of people in Leize County who were bribed by Li Si with money and land, Jia Chunyan killed Peng Huizu in front of the people of the county in order to calm the people's anger. For this reason, the angel Jia Chunyan also received Wrote a letter to all peoples.

In this book, Peng Huizu, who had been in Leize County for less than twenty days, committed so many crimes that it is difficult to describe. Fortunately, an angel arrived in time to save the people of Leize County from the fire and water.

Jia Chunyan didn't understand why Yunchu would do this. It was obvious that the affairs in Leize County should be small but big, so why did Yunchu act in such a big way?

Even if Peng Huizu is a born evil person, he has only been in Leize County for twenty days. How could he commit so many crimes? This Book of Ten Thousand People does not look like a letter of commendation, but more like a letter of commendation. Proof of guilt.

Jia Chunyan told Yun Chu that this was not appropriate, but Yun Chu still insisted on his opinion and refused to change it. In desperation, Jia Chunyan took this book of people back to Jiyang City, where the emperor was stationed.

This time, Emperor Yunchu couldn't see clearly yet, and couldn't understand the far-reaching significance of what he did in Leize County by accepting escaped slaves.

After Li Zhi read the book of all peoples presented by Jia Chunyan, he asked Jia Chunyan in confusion: "Was Peng Huizu's death unjust?"

Jia Chunyan calmly answered, "Unjustly accused."

Li Zhi added: "It seems that the crimes mentioned in the Book of Ten Thousand People are also false?"

Jia Chunyan said: "More than 80% of it is nonsense."

Li Zhi moved his buttocks on the chair, leaned closer to Jia Chunyan and said, "In this case, why did you still unjustly kill Peng Huizu?"

Jia Chunyan sighed and said, "With the people's resentment boiling, the first thing I have to do is to appease the place for Your Majesty and eliminate the grievances between the government and the local people. At this time, there must be no chaos in Caozhou.

On the other hand, His Majesty's purpose in sending Peng Huizu to Leize County was to quickly quell the local chaos caused by the murder of the previous county magistrate and the capture of officials, rather than sending him to continue to cause trouble in Leize County. Damn it, as long as he can calm the place and appease the people, the rest can be taken care of later.

It seems that he is a mediocre and faint-hearted official who cannot help His Majesty to solve his problems. The only use he has left is to use his head to quell the people's grievances. "

Li Zhi asked: "Could this matter be related to Yun Chu?"

Jia Chunyan looked around, then lowered his voice and said, "It has nothing to do with Yun Chu, but everything to do with Princess An Ding."

"What's the reason?"

"Princess Anding is not only selling food at low prices in Leize County, she also wants to deploy some land in Leize County to plant new seeds and crops grown by Donggong. I heard that one of them can make a lot of money."

Li Zhi said gloomily: "What crops can make a lot of money?"

Jia Chunyan said in a deep voice: "Caozhou Peony."

Li Zhi slapped the table with a heavy hand and said: "What a waste of money. The farmland in Leize County is not fertile. There is insufficient food every year. If we don't grow food, what does she want to do with peonies?"

Jia Chunyan sighed and said: "When I passed the Yunchu military camp and returned to Jiyang, I once asked Princess Anding. Princess Anding said: Just because the food produced in the fields is not enough to eat, it is not as cost-effective to plant peonies. As long as the peonies are planted After coming out, the money exchanged is enough for the people of Leize County to buy food in other places..."

Li Zhi trembled with his hands and roared: "What if no one cares about the peonies I planted?"

Seeing that the emperor was so angry, Jia Chunyan hurriedly said: "Princess An Ding said that she will accept them all. Not only do she want peonies in pots, but she also wants peony roots for medicine, and peony seeds to cultivate new peonies in other places... As long as they are cultivated Once a new variety of peonies comes out, she can sell hundreds of peonies."