Liuyang (Zuoquan County) is located on the Taihang Mountain Ridge. It has a high terrain and is surrounded by mountains and rivers.

It did take Zhao Kuo a long time to get to Yangyang, mainly because of the extremely underdeveloped transportation in Zhao. The knights were driving the way forward, and the Korean people followed Zhao Kuo, and the families were with their families, which seemed to be Ma Fujun escorting them forward. Therefore, when their group of people had just arrived in Yangyang, local officials immediately came out.

The sun is shining brightly, and the sun is really dazzling. When you look into the distance, it is full of halos and you can't see the road clearly. Since Zhao Kuo arrived, it was the first time that he saw such strong sunshine. Handan has a relatively average season, winter is not very cold, and summer is not very hot.

Liuyangling was an elderly doctor with a solemn appearance and stood meticulously beside the road. The county magistrate led the county warriors, standing on both sides, watching the Korean bandits, staring at them, Liuyangling quickly walked to Zhao Kuo and bowed respectfully to Zhao Kuo. Zhao Kuo hurriedly got out of the car and returned the greeting. This Liuyangling looked very old-fashioned. Even when facing Zhao Kuo, he was not too excited, and was very calm.

Looking at the Koreans who followed Zhao Kuo, the county magistrate frowned and asked, "Are these your prisoners?"

Zhao Kuo shook his head and said, "They are Koreans from Shangdang, and no one is willing to accept them, so I brought them here with them. I heard that the land in Jingyang is fertile, but there is no farming staff. The Koreans from Shangdang are all honest and honest farmers. If you can take them in and give them a piece of land that can be reclaimed, I think more Koreans in exile will come here. The increase in household registration is a good thing for Jingyang."

"I want to ask you to think about this."

The county magistrate stroked his chin and looked at the Koreans, saying without hesitation: "I will take them in, but now I can't let them engage in farming and sericulture. I will let them be responsible for the construction, cutting and other matters of the county town, and will not starve them." Zhao Kuo nodded and said with a smile: "They will thank you for your kindness. You are a wise man." The county magistrate shook his head and said: "I promised to take them in because I want to make friends with you. How can I be considered a wise man?"

Zhao Kuo was stunned and looked at him in surprise.

The county magistrate took them to Yangyang, but the county magistrate helped arrange the Koreans. The county magistrate introduced himself to Zhao Kuo, calling him Zhao Yu. The name Yu is really not something that ordinary people dare to use. From this point of view, his background should be quite good. However, when he heard his name, Di, who was following behind him, seemed to know something. Following Zhao Kuo, he always wanted to talk to him.

Zhao Kuo ignored him, and Di was so anxious that he was wandering around.

The county magistrate brought Zhao Kuo into the mansion to entertain him. The banquet was not very sumptuous and a little simple, which made Zhao Kuo a little happy. What he feared most was that officials from all over the country were wasting extravagantly in order to welcome him. The people could not afford to eat enough. How could they waste it again? Zhao Kuo sat in the upper position, and the county magistrate sat beside him. The two talked about the government affairs in the county. Di pulled the Ge beside him and whispered to him:

"I've heard of this county magistrate."

Ge glanced at him, his face was full of "ask me quickly". Ge just said oh, turned his head and ignored him. Di waited for a while, but could not wait for Ge to ask himself, so he could only hold Ge's hand and whisper to him: "I heard that Zhao Yu, who is from a royal family, is upright and never tells lies. He has always told the truth. There are many people in Handan respecting his honesty, so he has been favored by Shangjun."

"So Shangjun asked him to be a county magistrate?" Ge was a little disbelief.

Di continued: "He was originally appointed as the censor, also as the minister, as the county magistrate, as the county magistrate of Yunzhong... Hahaha, I didn't expect that he would become the county magistrate today. It is said that Shangjun asked him whether he could accept Shangdang. He suggested that Shangjun accept Shangdang, and he said that whether he would accept Shangdang or not, the war between Qin and Zhao could not be avoided. Later, the war failed, Shangjun called him over and asked him why he failed."

"He actually told Shangjun: This is because you think about accepting talents all day long, but you don't think about how to use them to govern the country. This is the reason why Zhao State failed."

Ge became interested and asked, "What did he say so?"

"Yes, this is well known to everyone in Handan. Shangjun cherishes his talents and does not kill him. Later, he asked him to serve as an envoy... Hahaha, do you think such a person can serve as an envoy? Sure enough, Shangjun drove him out of the palace again..."

Just as they were talking, Zhao Kuo was already a little dizzy by Zhao Yu in front of him. Zhao Yu said to him: I didn’t pay much attention to the officials at the bottom, and didn’t know that they were doing evil. Because their management was very effective, I knew that they did evil and didn’t care. I heard that you wanted to punish officials from all over the country and allowed everyone to atone for their sins. Then I hurriedly arrested the evil officials and arranged moral wise men recommended by various places. Will you still punish me?

Zhao Kuo was stunned and didn't know how to answer him. This man should not be the county magistrate. He should serve as the censor or the Siguo in the palace, especially the official position of Siguo who specifically advises and points out the shortcomings of the king is the most suitable person to serve. Zhao Kuo thought to himself that the banquet ended and returned to the house arranged by Zhao Yu for himself. Di, Ge, and Han Fei were already waiting for him.

When Zhao Kuo arrived, Di hurriedly told him what he knew again. Zhao Kuo suddenly realized. Ge said with some admiration: "It seems that this county magistrate is still an upright person." Zhao Kuo vaguely felt that it seemed something wrong to describe him as honest, and he should be described as honest. Unfortunately, people who are too honest have always been people who are disliked by everyone. Everyone likes to make friends with honest people and hates people who are too honest.

Zhao Yu did tell the truth. After knowing that Zhao Kuo was coming, he did punish all the officials in Jingyang. When Zhao Kuo walked to the place, he saw the officials warmly helping the people. The goal he wanted to achieve seemed to be accomplished. Zhao Yu accompanied him and inspected all parts of the county. The people in the county were very excited and surrounded Zhao Kuo.

Walking on the edge of the cultivated land, Zhao Yu said to Zhao Kuo worriedly: "The harvest in recent years has not been very good, but the taxes are still very high. Last year, there were 84 people who starved to death in my county. I submitted a report to Handan, asking for a reduction in the taxes here, and told Handan about the casualties here. Handan punished me for two years of salary because of my crime of starving the people."

"I have no salary and I can't help the people anymore. The situation this year may be even worse."

Zhao Kuo frowned and looked at him. He rarely reported the exact number to Handan when starving to death. Try to say it to the smallest, so as not to cause disaster. To be honest, even his salary was gone. Zhao Kuo said to him: "I have talked about these things with the Prime Minister Wei Wuji. Please rest assured. This year, Zhao Guo will reduce the labor service tax and give time to the people in various places to cultivate."

Zhao Yu nodded.

Zhao Kuo left here, and the people here went out of the city with the Koreans to bid farewell. Zhao Kuo was still very happy. He could already feel that his inspection had played a role. In the subsequent cities he arrived, he saw the officials who had "reformed" and the people who were happy and afraid. The people were happy because of the changes in the officials, but were also afraid because they were worried that they would change back.

Zhao Kuo only told officials in various places that he would often send people to inspect the situation of officials in various places, promote virtuous officials who have made contributions, and punish evil officials who harm the people. But he was indeed thinking about this matter. If there is no supervision system for officials and officials do evil, it is inevitable. Although the nobles have basic moral ethics, their moral ethics do not include treating these low-level common people well.

In this era, no famous ministers became famous because they were loved by the people, and more because they loved their soldiers, because they could fulfill their mission and prevent the king from being insulted. After the Han Dynasty recognized Confucianism a hundred years later, a group of wise ministers who were reluctant to leave were emerged, which did not exist now. Qin State first established a supervision system for officials.

Speaking of which, it is not considered a supervision system. It is just that the county magistrate must always pay attention to the situation in each village. The political achievements of the township officials are closely related to the farming conditions of the local people, so they dare not be as perfunctory as the officials of Zhao State.

Zhao Kuo went to various parts of Zhao State in this way, in addition to rectifying the administration of officials, what is more important is that he wanted to see this era clearly. There were many systems in his mind. He wanted to use these systems to change this era. But before that, he had to know this era very well. Even the memories of his predecessor Zhao Kuo did not have much about the people and the countryside. How could the nobles care about these?

Zhao Kuo is probably the Zhao State...or the most peculiar noble in the world.

The first thing Zhao Kuo thought of now was the governor system and the capital stamp system. Both systems were born in the Han Dynasty. The reason why he knew was that because of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the states established governors to supervise local officials, and reported to the kings about the local situation. The county set up capital stamps, patrolled the counties, and collected information and situations of the county town. Zhao Kuo still remembered that Zhang Fei whipped the capital stamps in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms... that was to beat the officials responsible for supervising the county town.

Speaking of which, they are all descendants of Zhao Kuo. Ma Chao is descendant of General Fubo Ma Yuan, and Ma Yuan is descendant of Ma Fujun... So that Jin Ma Chao is his future descendant?

Zhao Kuo shook his head quickly, no longer thought about it, and remembered the supervision system again. At present, Zhao State does not have a perfect supervision system. This is because the nobles think that the monarch sends people to supervise them, which is distrust of themselves. The proud nobles will regard this as their own shame, and they will choose to commit suicide to prove their innocence. Zhao Kuo did not want to see such a situation. Perhaps only a country like Qin State that changed the aristocratic politics can establish a perfect supervision system.

Zhao Kuo couldn't help but rub his forehead. Perhaps, could they be allowed to supervise on the grounds of examining the political achievements of officials?

There were many things that Zhao Kuo needed to think about, but what he saw was far more difficult than he imagined. The farther he was away from Handan, the more miserable the people he saw. In the corner that these noble people would not easily look at, the people were curled up. Zhao Kuo saw those people with dull eyes and walking corpses. They didn't even have a complete piece of clothing and were not covered in clothes. The officials probably thought that it was inelegant to see Ma Fujun like this and prohibited them from going out.

Therefore, they just hid behind the crack in the door, showing their numb eyes, observing the situation outside. Even if Zhao Kuo walked into their courtyard, they just stood up mechanically, saluted without saying a word. Facing this guest who came from afar, they were not excited, and they didn't know who Ma Fujun was. Many people never walked out of this town in their lives. This was a thing that made them glad, because few young people who walked out of the town came back.

Even when he came back, he still dragged his disabled body and heart and fell exhausted in the village. He occasionally talked about the cruelty of war, which made everyone even more frightened.

There are many such people in Zhao State. Compared to them, the people around Handan are considered happy. After several changes, Zhao State's taxes now calculate the harvest based on the area of ​​arable land and then collect taxes in a unified manner. However, the area of ​​arable land is not calculated every year. This causes the people to pay taxes according to the prescribed standards even if the arable land is abandoned and the harvest is reduced.

In order to deal with this situation, all countries have carried out reforms. The first was Qi State. They chose to use households as units to transform collective arable land into individuals and collect taxes based on family assets. This would not cause the people to be killed by taxes. Wei State also carried out tax reforms through the placing method that directly controls the purchase and sale of grain and the price of food by the state. The Qin State did the most thoroughly.

Qin directly ordered the recognition of private ownership of the land, and then collected taxes according to three forms: land rent, tuition and labor. Although Qin's taxes were very high, taxes based on the annual grain production and personal assets would never force the people to death.

Only Zhao State has not been in trouble for a long time. Even if many people went bankrupt and became slaves, no one would pay the taxes originally stipulated. Until Ma Fujun Zhao She appeared and was responsible for the taxes in Zhao State, he realized something was wrong. He executed the nobles who owned a large amount of arable land but paid small taxes, and recalculated the arable land and grain production in Zhao State.

Unfortunately, the last statistics before Zhao She's death became the last statistics of Zhao State.

In addition to this outrageous taxation, there is also corvee service. The Zhao State Council often mobilizes the people to serve, sometimes fight, sometimes build, and draws away young and strong people, and asks them to pay taxes according to the standards. This is a bit too much. Even the Qin State, which has the most frequent corvee service, is absolutely not allowed to be corvee service during the busy farming season. Only the stupid Zhao State will draw young and strong people to build the capital during the autumn harvest season.

The ruthless war, outrageous taxes, stupid corvee, mountains were pressing on the Zhao people, making them unable to raise their heads or even straighten their waists.

"I must change all this."
Chapter completed!