Such discussions will continue for several days before the New Year's Day, and the content is the same as in previous years. They are all intended to summarize this year and plan national policies for the next year.
Afterwards, Li Xia began to meet with officials transferred back from Longxi.
At that time, Jia Sidao invited Li Zengbo and transferred many officials from Jiangnan who regarded Li Xia as rebellious to Longxi in order to deal with Li Xia.
Even on the night when Li Xia came to take care of Li Zengbo, an official tried to assassinate him.
A few years passed in the blink of an eye, and the environment in Longxi was difficult. These officials had gone through great waves, and those who could not bear it had already resigned and returned to their hometowns; those who could stay were those who had put in too much hard work.
As the Hexi Corridor and Xingqing Prefecture were captured one after another, they were rewarded for their hardships and made great achievements. They seemed to have forgotten that Li Xia was a rebel.
This time, Li Xia merged Longxi and Hexi Corridors into Gansu Road, appointed Lian Xixian as the pacifier, and transferred Li Zengbo to take charge of Ningxia Road.
In this way, he can take the opportunity to deploy these officials, which is equivalent to a reorganization, placing capable people in their positions, and making the rule more stable.
Opening the evaluation files of Longxi officials over the years, the first thing Li Xia saw was the one with the most outstanding political achievements...
"Xie Fangde, courtesy name Junzhi, is from Xinzhou, Jiangnan West Road."
Li Xia read the information in the file softly, and glanced at the middle-aged man in front of him. He was nearly forty years old, with a strong body and a row of long beards on his chin. He was not like a frail scholar, but he was quite heroic.
.
"You were a Jinshi in the fourth year of Xingchang, and you were on the same list as Wen Yunsun and Lu Xiufu?"
"Back to King Qin, yes."
"When you were dealing with countermeasures, you could have been promoted to the first subject, but you chose to criticize the eunuch Dong Songchen and only passed the second subject?"
"Back to King Qin, yes."
"During the Battle of Ezhou, you were appointed as the Ministry of Ceremony to set up a cabinet, recruit militiamen, and raise military salaries. You sold your property and went around to raise funds, recruiting more than 10,000 militiamen to defend Rao, Xin, and Fuzhou?"
"It's just a small effort."
"After the war, you wrote an article to scold Jia Sidao and also scolded me?"
Xie Fangde was not afraid of Li Xia at all. He raised his head and said, "Yes, King Qin has military exploits, but he is also arrogant and has lost the courtesy of a monarch and his ministers."
"Should I scold?"
"It deserves scolding."
Li Xia asked again: "I heard that you wrote a poem when you took office in Longxi, 'The pines and cypresses become greener in the snow, and the support plan is always here'?"
"yes."
"Since we want to support Gangchang, what do you think of what I have done over the years?" Li Xia asked, "If the imperial court negotiates peace with the Meng Yuan Dynasty, or even forms an alliance to attack us, what do you think of it?"
In the past, Li Xia would try his best to avoid this kind of problem, try to only do things that are beneficial to the country and the people, and not force officials from the Song Dynasty to choose between loyalty and disobedience.
Many things will go away if you just turn a blind eye.
Li Xia didn't want to be emperor because he was afraid of forcing too many people to make choices. Li Zengbo, Lu Xiufu, Shi Jun, Yi Shiying, Fang Yankai...
But the current situation is not good, so he will test the reaction of some Song court officials.
That is to say, ask one more question.
Xie Fangde's answer was something he didn't expect.
"I also composed a poem, which King Qin heard."
"Yeah?"
"There is no conflict between Kongming, Ming Dynasty and Han thieves. Duke Liang thought of his ministers and became emperor."
"Well, the poem is pretty good." Li Xia said, "Forget it if you don't want to answer. I won't force you. Just feel free to work for the people."
"The King of Qin didn't seem to remember." Xie Fangde said, "I assassinated the King of Qin."
"Are you Jing Ke?" Li Xia said a rare joke. He suddenly thought of "Jing Ke assassinated Qin" and found it funny.
But Xie Fang was so frightened that he did not laugh, but said seriously: "That night I wanted to assassinate the King of Qin, but the King of Qin let me go. At first I thought it was a hypocritical act of benevolence and righteousness, and I waited for the King of Qin to send people to kill me again until I arrived in Longxi."
Li Xia once again turned his gaze back to the files to look at Xie Fangde's political achievements.
"When I took office in Longxi, I followed Li Shuai to visit the people. Born and raised in Jiangnan, I have never seen such barrenness and desolation..."
"You are a good official."
"I want to be a good official." Xie Fangde said, "I also just want to be a good official."
Li Xia was silent for a while and then said with a sigh: "Okay, I won't force you to ask questions, let's talk about government affairs."
Xie Fangde scolded himself for being cowardly in his heart.
He wrote a poem "The outline of support is always here", but when the matter came, he still avoided this problem.
"King Qin, I have something to tell you face to face. There are many Hu and Han marriages in the north, but the customs are very different. Hu people marry their fathers and concubines, and their brothers take their brothers' wives. Therefore, there are many cases in Longxi of forcing Han women to adopt step marriages..."
Li Xia had already read Xie Fangde's book, and said thoughtfully: "Do you think you are good at judging women to be morally responsible for these crimes?"
"It's not a good thing, but it can only be like this." Xie Fangde said: "Loyal ministers do not serve two monarchs, and loyal women do not serve two husbands. This is the normal way of heaven and earth. It is the normal way of heaven and earth to punish women. It not only abides by the normal way of heaven and earth, but also avoids the consequences of their inheritance.
doom."
"Did you know that the population under our rule is sparse, and the government has repeatedly issued edicts to encourage widows to remarry freely."
Xie Fangde noticed the word "freedom" mentioned by Li Xia and said: "It's hard to change the customs, and I don't know what to do..."
"Rule of law."
Li Xia suddenly said two words, and then added: "No matter what the customs are or what the Neo-Confucianism is, everything is tied to the law. Improve the law to criminalize step-marriage, regardless of forcing women to observe chastity or remarry."
, but any coercion is a crime."
"The Laws and Regulations of the Song Dynasty..."
"Recently, the Ti Xing Department is rewriting the Song Dynasty laws. How about Jun Zhi transfer to the Ti Xing Department? I will leave this part of the law to you to carefully consider and make perfect regulations."
Xie Fang was stunned for a moment. He felt that the King of Qin was decisive in handling government affairs and quickly found a solution to the government problems that had troubled him for two years. At the same time, he felt that something was wrong.
"May I ask King Qin, are you saying... that you want to re-establish the law?"
"Yes, before I went to the Western Regions, I had arranged for someone familiar with criminal law to handle this matter."
The laws of the Song Dynasty are no longer suitable for Li Xia's current territory, and revising the laws is one of the necessary things to do beforehand. Li Xia's tone is also natural.
Xie Fangde was stunned for a long time, as if he wanted to say something, but he didn't know whether he should say it or not.
Finally, he persuaded: "The King of Qin has the ambition to help the world. However, the King of Qin has received great favor from the late emperor and is trusted by the officials. I hope that the King of Qin will not let him down. Otherwise, he will lose his great righteousness, reputation, and no longer have faith to treat the people of the world. The gain is not worth the loss."
!”
~~
"The king plans to promulgate a new calendar, divide the six major towns under his rule, and even rewrite the law, but he also says that the time to become emperor has not yet come. But there is no way to have the best of both worlds? If you want to take drastic measures, why wait until the time is right.
"
This is what Han Chengxu asked Li Xia privately.
Of course, Li Xia would not take the initiative to bear this unjust name. Regardless of whether he planned to become emperor or not, he still had to wait for Song Ting's reaction before making any changes.
This is not a trivial matter and cannot be settled immediately.
Li Xia gradually began to think about the pros and cons of this every day.
He even made a few more trips to the Gewuyuan...
~~
"This is this year's completely improved gunpowder. Does your Majesty want to see its power?"
"Try it……"
Sun De began to make arrangements, and then followed Li Xia on horseback to Baishi Valley and climbed to the top of the mountain.
While waiting for the gunpowder to be arranged, Sun De or hesitated for a while, then stepped forward and asked: "Your Majesty, I was impeached a few days ago..."
"Don't worry, I don't want to punish you."
Li Xia said it before, and then added, "I won't deduct your salary."
"That's good. I'm just surprised. Li Dalang is not a prince. It doesn't matter how many meals we have."
"Someone wants to test my attitude towards becoming emperor."
"ah?"
Sun De was shocked when he suddenly heard this.
He thought that when he met the King of Qin at the Chongyang Temple in Kaifeng, he was still a trickster and he would consider proclaiming himself emperor in the blink of an eye.
"Amazing!"
Li Xia smiled, because it was rare to hear someone make such a comment about his proclaimed emperor.
"It's nothing powerful. I'm far from capable of becoming emperor."
"oh."
Sun Deor thought for a while and said: "It's useless even if the king comes to force me every day. I can't build an artifact that can hit Kaiping and kill Kublai Khan with one cannon... Oh, I still made a lot of them.
, increased the production of cannons and thunderbolts a lot."
This guy is smart after all.
He could guess Li Xia's thoughts from the fact that Li Xia came to the Institute of Science and Technology more often and started to propose making various firearms.
"I know." Li Xia said: "When I regained Guanzhong, I couldn't think of a way to do it, so I had to place my hope on Daochang Hao, hoping that he could make powerful firearms for me as soon as possible and assemble the army in batches."
"Did Master Hao do it?"
"Technology will eventually progress step by step, and military and political problems will eventually have military and political solutions."
Although Sun De or could not change the situation of Li Xia's lack of strength, he was very good at persuading people, saying: "It's not like the Yuan army or the Song army came over, but I don't know what they are nervous about. The northerners want to persuade the king to proclaim himself emperor.
The people from the south want to persuade the king to slow down and proclaim himself emperor."
"You are from the north, do you want to persuade me to become emperor?"
"Why should we listen to this kind of thing? The emperor is in charge of all the people in the world, so we should ask all living beings." Sun De said casually.
The speaker was unintentional, but the listener was intentional. Li Xia actually nodded and said, "I think what you said makes sense."
"The truth is true, what the Taoist said is naturally reasonable." Sun De said with a smile, just thinking it was a joke to make King Qin happy.
"Then when we go down the mountain, we will find some ordinary people and farmers and ask them whether they think Li Xia should be crowned emperor."
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~~
"Of course not!"
In the evening, in Luan Town at the foot of Baishi Valley, Li Xia, who was traveling incognito, asked an old farmer at random. What he never expected was such an answer.
"The King of Qin should be the emperor? How can the King of Qin be worthy of being the emperor?!"
"I dare to ask my husband, why is this?"
The old farmer pressed the crutch a little harder on the ground, and said: "Edi'er... Edi'er is in Luoyang, I can't see you! I can't see you... King Qin, King Qin, only has a small territory, how can he be worthy of being the emperor."
"Then who do you think is worthy of being emperor? How about the Mongolian Lord?"
"Of course it's Emperor Tianxing!" The old farmer hit the ground with his cane again and said loudly: "Emperor Tianxing of Dajin is the real emperor..."
Sun De or rolled his eyes, waited for Li Xia to finish asking and turned back, stepped forward and whispered: "Your Majesty, you don't need to care about this rotten wood, it is an old antique left by the Kingdom of Jin."
Li Xia was silent. He didn't expect that after several years of hard work, he would still have such an impression in the hearts of the people.
Later, on the way back to Chang'an, I asked many people, and most of them praised the good life under King Qin's rule.
But what Li Xia was thinking about was the old farmer who hit the ground with his stick and howled, "Edi'er can't be seen in Luoyang!"
So whether he becomes emperor or not, the answer is what he can do for the people of the world...