Although they said they had a plan in mind, in the final analysis they still had no idea.
After all, the imperial court sent inspection officials to supervise the reform, which shows that the imperial court attaches great importance to this matter.
Moreover, this matter was still led by Li Huan, the notorious commander of the Jinyi Guards. If these inspection officials were really so easy to dispatch or deal with, even they themselves did not believe it.
However, after feeling nervous, I thought about how they are still the top figures in the local area. The huge Yutian County is completely under their control. As long as they are not willing, it is really difficult for outsiders to know the real situation in Yutian County.
It's unlikely.
After breathing a little sigh of relief, a group of people had already arrived at the city gate.
As the county magistrate, Zhang Ke's eyes fell on an official who looked to be about forty or fifty years old among the visitors, because in Zhang Ke's opinion, this person was surrounded by a crowd, needless to say
Naturally, he is the person in charge of this inspection.
Taking a step forward, Zhang Ke bowed respectfully and said: "Xiagguan Yutian County Magistrate Zhang Ke pays homage to your Excellency. Your Excellency has come a long way and has had a hard journey."
The person Zhang Ke regarded as the person in charge of the inspection officer was indeed the person in charge of this group of inspection officials. This person was an effective assistant under Wang Yangming, his name was Wang Yuan, and he was deeply trusted by Wang Yangming.
Wang Yuan was originally just an official of the eighth rank, but because of his strong ability, he caught the eye of Wang Yangming and was promoted by Wang Yangming. Now he has become a real official of the sixth rank.
It can be said that this person is not bad in both ability and loyalty. This person Li Huan came to investigate openly and covertly, and Wang Yangming recommended Wang Yuan to Li Huan to deceive local officials.
After three rounds of wine and five flavors of food, Wang Yuan looked at Yutian County Magistrate Zhang Kedao with a drunken look: "Sir Zhang, I am here to inspect the tax reform on the order of the emperor.
I don’t know the progress of Yutian County’s implementation of the method of dividing land into acres. Have you ever made a clear count of the number of acres and acres in Yutian County?”
Li Huan was not surprised or surprised at all by Qiu Dagang's answer. It was perfectly normal for these local officials to obey and disobey their orders.
A burst of silk and bamboo orchestral music sounded, and everyone changed glasses while enjoying the fine wine and delicacies in front of them.
If Wang Yangming in the civil service group had not suddenly sided with Li Huan, Li Huan might not even have the official manpower to carry out tax reform for him.
Huang Wei, Liu De, and Zhang Ke looked at each other, with a faint smile in their eyes.
Wang Yuan respectfully took the yellow book from Li Huan's hand, and immediately started to read it carefully.
Wang Yuan glanced at Zhang Ke, nodded slightly and said with a bit of arrogance: "Master Zhang is being polite, I am just following the emperor's order."
Li Huan casually handed the yellow book to Wang Yuan and said, "Master Wang, just take a look."
Zhang Ke waved his hand slightly to signal the musicians around him to leave, and the entire restaurant fell silent.
While Wang Yuan breathed a sigh of relief, he also felt a cold sweat in his heart for Zhang Ke and others.
Everyone knows that Li Huan is definitely the kind of person who kills people like crazy. Now it is obvious that Zhang Ke and other officials have problems, and now he has put the matter into Li Huan's hands.
The man stepped forward and saluted Li Huan with great respect: "Qiu Dagang, the chief flag officer of the Jinyi Guard stationed in Yutian County, pays homage to your lord."
At this time, Wang Yuan looked at Li Huan with some respect and said, "What do you think, sir?"
As he spoke, Zhang Ke said to the bookkeeper sitting next to him: "Get the yellow book that records the newly counted acres and population."
Although I am still a little worried about the other people who followed Wang Yuan, as the official in charge of this incident, Wang Yuan's attitude can almost represent the attitude of all officials.
Wang Yuan only glanced at it and then looked away. It was clear that the person who came was the Jinyiwei manpower stationed in Yutian County.
Li Huan's expression was so calm that it was impossible to guess what Li Huan was thinking.
After Zhang Ke, Liu De and others left, the drunkenness on Wang Yuan's face, which originally looked drunk, obviously disappeared a little. Even though there was still some drunkenness left, his whole person seemed to have changed.
An average person.
Zhang Ke was stunned for a moment, feeling a little joyful for no reason in his heart. Hearing what Wang Yuan meant, he seemed to have come to go through the motions.
If Zhang Ke, Liu De, Huang Wei and others had met, I'm afraid they wouldn't have left so peacefully.
At this moment, Lin Pingzhi led someone quietly into the living room.
Wang Yuan laughed loudly and said: "It's easy to say, easy to say, everyone is working for the imperial court."
Even so, there were very few officials who could really do the work, so Li Huan had to send some Jinyiwei officials to help supervise the matter.
The specific situation of Yutian County over the years is obviously a secret to ordinary people, and ordinary people cannot find out about it. However, for the imperial court, the imperial court still knows something about the situation of Yutian County.
While speaking, Li Huan waved his hand slightly towards Lin Pingzhi and said: "Go, bring this person to me."
Seeing Wang Yuan's surprised and angry expression, Li Huan said lightly: "Perhaps in the eyes of these people, Yutian County is really their Yutian County."
Seeing the smile on Wang Yuan's face, Zhang Ke turned slightly to make way for the way in and out of the city: "My lord, please, I have already prepared a banquet in the city to welcome you."
Zhang Ke and others were not surprised that Wang Yuan had someone from Jinyiwei around him.
In this case, Wang Yuan could guess what would happen to these people if they fell into the hands of Li Huan, even without thinking about it.
However, a look of surprise flashed through Wang Yuan's eyes and he said: "They...they are so brave. The imperial decree was issued, but these people actually concealed such an decree. What do they want to do? What on earth are they doing in Yutian County?"
Is it the Yutian County of the Ming Dynasty, or the Yutian County of local officials like them?"
However, Zhang Ke didn't think too much, he just glanced briefly, and his attention naturally fell on Wang Yuan.
If not, given Li Huan's evil reputation, if the local officials learned that Li Huan personally came to inspect, I don't know what tricks these officials would do.
The bookkeeper immediately took out a yellow book. This yellow book was quite thick, and it obviously recorded a lot of data.
It has only been four or five years since the early years of Zhengde. As a result, the population has dropped by nearly 100,000, and the number of acres of land has dropped by nearly 200,000.
Wang Yuan stroked his beard, smiled modestly and said, "Master Zhang, you are serious."
With a slight cough, Zhang Ke bowed his hands to Wang Yuan and said: "To tell you what my lord, after I received one of the imperial orders from Yutian County, all the officials from top to bottom of the county government paid great attention to it. According to the requirements, Yutian County has completed
Statistics on the number of Dingkou and acres of land."
In the largest restaurant in Yutian County, Zhang Ke and a group of officials welcomed Wang Yuan and others into the restaurant.
After having a drink, Zhang Ke, Liu De, Huang Wei and other officials from Yutian County looked at Wang Yuan's approachable appearance, and the worries they had in their hearts disappeared.
Not to mention anything else, there is obviously a huge gap between the acres of land in Yutian County and Dingkou recorded in the court records.
At this time, Zhang Ke, Huang Wei, Liu De and others were gathering in a wing of Qingyang Tower, all drunk.
It can be said that everyone knows this, so when they saw the Jin Yiwei beside Wang Yuan, Zhang Ke and others reacted very calmly. It is normal for Wang Yuan to follow the Jin Yiwei.
It would be strange if not.
This is the information about Yutian County recorded by the imperial court. The yellow booklet presented by the Lantian County Magistrate in front of me clearly states that Yutian County currently has a population of 356,000.
There are more than 650,000 acres of land.
Qingyanglou
Such a casual attitude will make anyone feel at ease when they see it.
Lin Pingzhi immediately looked excited, pressed the handle of the embroidered spring knife on his waist with one hand, and strode outside.
"Sir, these Yutian County officials..."
Hearing this, Qiu Dagang shook his head almost instinctively and said: "Back to your lord, I am in Yutian County. I have never heard of any tax reform method, and I have never seen a county official go to investigate Dingkou."
and the number of acres.”
His eyes narrowed, and Wang Yuan suppressed the turmoil in his heart.
At this time, Wang Yuan stood up staggeringly, looking like he was full of food and wine, and said to Zhang Ke and other officials: "Everyone, the yellow book is here for now. After I review it, I will definitely report it to you.
The emperor also has Wangge Lao, the champion please take credit."
More than a dozen officials, big and small, were chatting and laughing with relaxed expressions.
Li Huan glanced at the other party, nodded slightly and said: "Mr. Qiu Qi, I would like to ask you, since the imperial court issued a tax reform law, local officials were ordered to inventory the number of acres of land in Dingkou, the local prefecture and county. Has the county government of Yutian County ever done so?
Is it carried out in accordance with the imperial decree?"
Li Huan did not come with a big fanfare, but hid his identity. Naturally, he wanted to see with his own eyes how well these local officials carried out the imperial orders.
Lin Pingzhi on the side squinted his eyes and said: "Sir, I will go and lock up all the officials."
Needless to say, the figure that made Zhang Ke take a second look was none other than Li Huan.
Zhang Ke and others hurriedly said: "Thank you sir, sir!"
Zhang Ke's eyes paused for a moment on one of the figures. He felt that this person's temperament was quite ordinary. At first glance, he did not seem to be a member of Jinyiwei.
According to the records of the imperial court, in the early years of Zhengde, there were 80,000 households in Yutian County with more than 435,800 Dingkou people and about 830,000 acres of land. Of course, this is the record of the early years of Zhengde.
According to the data recorded by the imperial court, during the Hongwu period, Yutian County had more than 1,070,000 acres of farmland.
In just one hundred years, the number of acres recorded in the yellow books has mysteriously disappeared by almost 20 to 30%.
Li Huan looked at the cold sweat on Wang Yuan's forehead and couldn't help but smile and said: "Master Wang, don't worry, this matter has nothing to do with Master Wang."
Wang Yuan just glanced at it, took it casually, then handed it to Li Huan who was sitting next to him as if he didn't care, and said, "You guys should take a look."
They had long known that Li Huan was presiding over the tax reform. It can be said that there were very few officials in the court and even at the local level who really supported Li Huan.
In Wang Yuan's view, the data in the yellow book is simply a joke. In the case of the huge Yutian County, when the number of acres and population is checked, normally the population and number of acres should have increased significantly.
The results were not bad. After checking, it was found that both the Dingkou and the fields fell instead of rising. It would be strange if there were no ghosts involved.
It was precisely because he knew the details of Yutian County that Wang Yuan felt so nervous when he saw the statistics compiled by Yutian County officials in the yellow book.
Li Huan gently tapped the table with one hand, glanced at everyone present, and sighed slightly: "I promised your majesty that I will try my best not to use weapons in the future, but why do some people always want to die on their own?"
After a few more jokes, Zhang Ke and others arranged for Wang Yuan and others to stay in a mansion.
Since he is valued by Wang Yangming, Wang Yuan naturally has some ability. Looking at the data recorded in the yellow book in his hand, he immediately recalled in his mind the previous information about Yutian County over the years.
records to come.
He looked at the officials sitting there with Wang Yuan. At first glance, he saw that each of the officials was younger than the last, and their temperaments were completely different. At first glance, they were from Jinyiwei.
Seeing Wang Yuan's posture, Zhang Ke and others breathed a sigh of relief.
In fact, looking at Wang Yuan's demeanor, he didn't look like a serious official coming to inspect, but rather like he was taking the opportunity to extort money.
Holding back the joy in his heart, Zhang Ke said with a serious face and respect: "Your Excellency is loyal to the emperor and patriotic. You are truly a role model for us. I admire you greatly."
I heard Huang Wei say: "Everyone, it seems that we can feel at ease this time. We just need to send someone to give some benefits to Wang Yuan. Even if the other party sees any problems from the yellow book, I am afraid that the other party will pretend
Tsukuru didn’t see it.”
"Hahaha, then Li Huan would never have imagined that the inspection official he sent has actually been bribed by us. He actually wants to learn from others and reform. I really don't know how high the sky is. If reform and reform were so easy, then all the ordinary people in the past dynasties
When it comes to change, there won’t be only a few people who can succeed in the change.”
Liu De squinted his eyes and said with a bit of certainty and ridicule: "Even if someone succeeds in the reform, they themselves will be backfired by the reform, and ultimately end up dead. In my opinion, Li Huan is a yellow man.
You are too arrogant, relying on the emperor's favor, and you don't know the heights of the world, but a mere warrior wants to imitate others and change, and his death is not far away!"
[On the first day of the Lunar New Year, I wish you all a Happy New Year! Happy New Year to everyone!]