Chapter Thirteen: Losing one’s virginity in secret
"If the king is not secretive, his ministers will lose; if the ministers are not secretive, they will lose their virginity; if the affairs are not secretive, they will be harmed." [Book of Changes·Xici]
After Meng Ta returned, he immediately visited Que Shangshu and expressed his willingness to donate his land for farming and resettling the refugees.
After receiving this memorial, the emperor was very happy. He expressed his intention to buy the bones with thousands of gold, and praised Meng Ta generously. Not only did he order the eunuchs to give him food, reward him with jade and swords, and ordered him to travel in safe cars, he also received
His son entered the palace as a Langguan, which was an unexpected blessing for Meng Ta.
After the imperial edict was issued, Meng Ta immediately rode on the chariot gifted by the emperor, with a jade sword hanging on his waist, and returned to Fufeng in high spirits, preparing to hand over to the officials of the Shaofu.
As soon as he returned home, Meng Ta summoned his only son Meng Da, who was seventeen years old this year, and said, "Father, I have found a good future for you."
Meng Da behaved well and his words and deeds were elegant. He had received the letter from his family earlier, so he naturally knew the whole story. At this time, he said unhurriedly: "This matter is not worth publicizing, otherwise bad words will be spread outside and my family's reputation will be tarnished.
"
"Don't worry about this. Look at the Taiwei Magong pulling his sleeves and forcefully admonishing the king to depose him. You know that the country cherishes its wings more than anyone else!"
Meng Da thought about it, but it was also the same reason. Anyway, in this matter, the emperor deliberately used his family as a model, so naturally he would not let his family get a bad name.
"Tomorrow I will send off the extra servants in my family, and then register the fields and the farmers who have committed themselves to me and hand them over to the officials of the Shaofu. From now on, my family will have no more money. If I want to recover in the future, I will count on you.
Achievements." Meng Ta stared at Meng Da and said, "Don't let your father down."
Meng Da knew that his father had also spent all his family wealth back then, and in exchange for a Liangzhou governor, he created the Fufeng Meng family. Now Meng Da is repeating his old tricks, obviously to make the Meng family reach a higher level. His predecessors gave him
With the road paved and the foundation laid, Meng Da, who was already extremely intelligent, naturally became more motivated and responded generously: "Don't worry, Aweng, I will definitely honor my Fufeng Meng family!"
"Okay, I know you have been smart since you were a child. In terms of intelligence, you are no worse than other family members!" Meng Ta thought of Fazheng at a young age and couldn't help but patted Meng Da on the shoulder and encouraged: "You must seize the opportunity to enter the world.
When Gong Weilang has the opportunity, he should pay attention to management and show more performance in front of the country. The country is also a young man, and it is the right age to make a difference. I will have a lot to say with you."
Meng Da complied with all of Meng Da's instructions.
Just listen to Meng Ta talk about it again: "Today Tingwei and I are the most close friends. You met him when you were young. His husband is one year younger than you. Now he spends his days studying with the country, specializing in secret books.
.I think he is extremely intelligent, and from now on he will be considered one of the top three officials in Banya, a figure in power. After you enter the palace, you will have to get closer to him, and it will be a good idea to support each other."
Talking about Fazheng, the shadow of his childhood acquaintance suddenly appeared in front of Mengda's eyes. If his father had not wanted to wait and see the situation and prevented him from taking the Ming Ce test, he would have been serving the emperor in the palace now, working with Fazheng and other young people.
Has Toshiyan talked about classics?
Although the start is a little worse now, it is still too late to catch up. Meng Da thought of the scene of the small competition with Fazheng, and the energy to refuse to admit defeat suddenly filled his body, and he was looking forward to entering the palace this morning to meet Fazheng again.
Compete.
Let’s not mention the competition among young people for now, but with Meng Ta taking the lead, the rest of the wealthy families who stayed on the sidelines all responded to the news. They did not have the courage of Meng Ta, and they just returned the land they had occupied in Shanglinyuan.
imperial court.
These fields have been developed and utilized for decades in the hands of wealthy families, and all of them are high-quality fertile land.
The land was registered and handed over to the emperor. A rough calculation showed that it was nearly ten thousand acres. Although there was definitely a lot of gaps compared to the actual number, it was still satisfactory.
As for those wealthy families who still had a sense of luck, the emperor no longer treated them politely, and directly ordered Dong Cheng, the captain of the Sili School, to cooperate with Zhang Chang, the young governor, to investigate one by one and punish those nobles who still did not return the land with serious crimes.
Some noble clans, such as the Jingzhao Wang family and Feng Yi Li family, faced the officials who came to purge their abbot, but they still put on the pretense of being the ministers of the family and the Yuan clan, trying to obstruct the abbot. The officials who came to purge the abbot were not polite and directly
Reporting to Dong Cheng, the captain of the Sili School, Dong Cheng immediately sent troops to capture them all and throw them into Tingwei Prison.
It's just that the people whose interests have been harmed are unhappy.
They gathered at Taiwei Ma Rixi's house to "please" for the people and vent their dissatisfaction. Ma Rixi had no choice but to bite the bullet and find an opportunity to talk to the emperor about the matter tactfully.
Unexpectedly, the emperor was dissatisfied: "The Taiwei is here to act as a lobbyist for them?"
"I don't dare." Ma Rixi nodded and said, "I just think that by reclaiming wasteland and taking in the refugees, they can reduce the burden on the local area. Even if there is a mistake, the imperial court will not confiscate family property and put the whole government in jail."
"You mean I tortured you too much?"
Seeing Ma Rixi lowering his head and saying he didn't dare, the emperor immediately said: "Then you are accusing Dong Cheng of excessive torture. In this case"
The emperor suddenly shouted outside: "Li Jian!"
The visitor ordered Li Jian to immediately enter the palace from outside the door and kowtow: "My servant is here, what are your orders?"
"Go and call Captain Sili."
After Li Jian left, the emperor looked at Ma Rixi, who lowered his head and said nothing, and said slowly: "When Dong Cheng comes, you two will confront each other to see if he tortured him too much."
Dong Cheng has been pretending to be a tiger in the past few days, relying on the imperial edict to torture the powerful people in the capital. It is a time when he is satisfied. Now the emperor forcibly determined that Ma Rixi was dissatisfied with Dong Cheng's torture, and did not give Ma Rixi the slightest chance to defend himself.
Let Dong Cheng come over to confront him. This is not a confrontation at all. This is clearly an intention to drive a wedge between the two of them and make them resent each other!
At this time, Ma Rixi was very anxious and uneasy. He really didn't want to have another political enemy for nothing.
He was aware of the emperor's methods. He didn't have the power of Wang Yun, so how could he take over such a disaster? Seeing that the emperor was about to take the opportunity to beat him, Ma Rixi couldn't express his pain, but instead he held on and remained stubborn.
Act like you are upright.
Since he couldn't escape and was riding a tiger, he simply showed off his scholarly character and argued with him.
After a while, Dong Cheng, the captain of Sili School, arrived swiftly with square steps.
"The captain of the Sili School, I promise to come to see you, your Majesty!"
The emperor glanced at Ma Rixi and suddenly said: "Dong Cheng, do you know your guilt?"
Dong Cheng was shocked. He thought the emperor knew that he was secretly spreading rumors and wanted to find him specifically to question him. He pretended to be confused and said: "Forgive me for being ignorant, please give me a clear explanation!"
The emperor said calmly: "The Taiwei said that you recently tortured the wealthy people who occupied Shanglin, and the torture was too cruel. Can you plead guilty?"