"The state affairs are ruinous, the people's livelihood is in dire straits, and the crisis cannot be sustained forever." [Book of Shang, Shang Yang]
The boss didn't move, quietly handed over a silver hairpin from his wife, and bravely asked: "May I ask, sir, what does the master of your house want to ask? I can't speak, so I'm afraid it will disturb the master of your house."
interest."
"Hey, what you said is very smart." Mu Shunqi glanced at the silver hairpin, accepted it with a smile, and said, "It's not a big deal. You can answer whatever I ask. My young master loves his servants leniently and won't make things difficult for them.
your."
The boss then calmed down and called his wife and children to come forward to clear away the dishes. He followed Mu Shun and opened the bamboo curtain, walked to the emperor and others, knelt down and said, "I have seen all of you, your honorable family.
The shop is shabby, if the soup cakes are not to your taste, please don't blame me."
The soup cake just now can be said to be the prototype of later generations of noodles. Apart from a few green vegetables and noodle cakes, there was only clear soup and little water. The emperor felt that it was tasteless when he ate it. It was barely okay when mixed with pickles and sashimi.
It's a pity that there is no chili in this era, otherwise, just spoon a spoonful of chili sauce into the soup cake, and it will taste delicious.
The emperor and others were rinsing their mouths with freshly cooled boiling water and yearning for the taste of chili peppers. When they heard the boss's words, they were all a little surprised. Even Yang Qi, who had a straight face, looked surprised.
Zhao Wen couldn't help but said: "I don't see that you are quite good at talking. Have you ever read a book before?"
"There is a gentleman here who is good at stargazing and wind angles. I heard he is from the Shan family from Shandong. He lives here as a guest and likes to travel around the countryside in Luli. We don't know what to call him, but we see that he often rides a green bull.
So I called him Mr. Qingniu. He sometimes went to a small shop to eat soup cakes. When he was full, he would not leave in a hurry. He would often ask the children to learn how to read or talk about strange things. The children would occasionally listen.
Listen, I also remembered some." The boss said truthfully.
"Mr. Qingniu?" the emperor asked curiously. Unexpectedly, there were also strange hermits in the back alleys. According to the boss, Mr. Qingniu was proficient in Taoism and medical skills. He was said to be a hundred years old, but he looked only fifty years old.
He has a high reputation among the people in Chang'an.
Yang Qi on the side suddenly said coldly: "You're just a wandering alchemist, riding a green bull. Could it be that you want to imitate me?"
The boss didn't know how to answer, but the emperor thoughtfully changed the subject and continued to ask: "Your bakery is open in a village, so I'm afraid the business is not as good as if it were opened in the city, right?"
"If it were in the past, it would naturally not be as good as the shops in the nine cities. After all, many business travelers and traveling scholars would go there." The boss was a sensible person and turned a deaf ear to Yang Qi's interruption, deliberately not mentioning Mr. Qingniu.
He continued: "It's just that it's almost done now. I heard that there are wars everywhere in Kanto, thieves have blocked the roads, and no business travelers have come from the east for a long time, so the business in the nine cities and here is not very good."
The emperor knew that not long after Li Jue and others had finished wreaking havoc on Yingchuan, Cao Cao was still fighting the Yellow Turbans in Yanzhou, and Yuan Shao was fighting for Hebei with Gongsun Zan. In comparison, Guanzhong was relatively quiet.
However, this silence will not last long, because it will not take long before Li Jue and Guo Si see that there is no hope of pardon, and they will send troops westward under Jia Xu's persuasion. By then, all the people in Guanzhong will be in ruins, and the advantage they have finally established in the court will be
Nothing left.
The emperor suppressed his depressed mood and cheered up: "You are still running a cake shop, which means that everyone here still has some money and food. What about the harvest? How is the harvest in the past two years?"
"I don't have any free land at home, so when I open a cake shop, I often have to rely on the help of my relatives and neighbors to make a living." When talking about the harvest, the boss immediately grimaced: "It was better in the past. There has been insufficient rain in recent years, and last year it was almost impossible.
There is a drought, so we can only barely survive with this harvest."
The boss was afraid that the emperor had a government background, so he only dared to tell half of the story. As for the other half, the emperor could guess the other half without even mentioning it.
In addition to disasters plaguing the people, the heavy taxation in the late Han Dynasty was also a major reason. For example, the land tax was one for thirty, but Emperor Xiaoling levied an additional ten cents per mu. The starting age for oral tax was also raised from seven years old.
Lowered to one year old. Such things, coupled with the corruption of local officials, seriously increased the burden on the people. After the Yellow Turban Uprising was put down, uprisings continued in various places, which is enough to prove the heavy exploitation suffered by the people.
The emperor continued to ask some trivial matters, such as the burden of raising children, the current situation of the people in the countryside far away from the towns, etc. The situation he received was really not optimistic, which made the emperor frown.
Seeing this, Yang Qi quickly asked the boss to retreat and said to the emperor: "There have been many disasters recently and it is difficult for the people to make a living. This is the case everywhere. Your Majesty has the country in mind, and while you are worried, you should be more diligent in government affairs and elect elected officials.
The virtuous and capable will promulgate benevolent policies to make the people happy and the world at peace."
"What you said is true, but now Li Jue and Guo Si in Shaanxi County are about to rebel, and the war is coming. The three assistants in Guanzhong are afraid that they will suffer another war. I don't know how long it will take to restore the balance of the world.
The emperor sighed and suddenly asked: "The secret edict sent by someone to deliver to Li Jue should have arrived by now, right?"
"Calculating the schedule, we should arrive in Shaanxi County in the next two days." Yang Qi said. After consultation with Wang Yun failed to achieve any results and he was unable to do anything for a while, he was very worried about the emperor's behavior of asking the Chancellor to draft a private edict to pardon Li Jue.
Will he have the same success as when he secretly drafted an imperial edict to pardon Xu Rong: "I'm afraid Li Jue, a tiger and a wolf, will not be easily convinced. Furthermore, Wang Situ later learned that if he persisted in denying it, wouldn't it be a disgrace to the court?"
I'm afraid there will be other troubles by then."
"I didn't want to be like this, but I didn't want to wait for you. When Wang Yun killed Dong Zhuo and asked the Chancellor to draft a pardon in private, did he follow the rules that the three princes were ordered to do on the spot? It can be seen that the rules are not set in stone, and he can adapt to expediency.
Why can't I? If it weren't for the fact that he has not committed any serious crimes yet, and has served the country well, and is supported by Huang Wan, Lu Bu and other ministers and soldiers, there would be no place for him to speak in this court."
"When discussing matters with Wang Situ, you must go according to his will. If you go with it, you will be happy, and if you go against it, you will be angry. The courtiers under him have complained a lot in the past few days. This time, they refused the invitations of His Majesty and the ministers and acted alone. He insisted on following his wishes.
There is no way to deal with Li Jue in this way. If things go on like this, I'm worried that Situ will become more stubborn." Zhao Wen never forgot to criticize Wang Yun, and suddenly said: "Your Majesty used thunderous means to capture Zhang Xi, which is really satisfying."
The emperor's eyes flashed, and he was secretly proud, but he was not comfortable showing it: "The evidence in Wei Wei's case is conclusive and cannot be repeated. You must be honest and convict him as soon as possible. How is Ting Wei Zhengfa Yan's relationship with you recently?"
"Fa Yan has recently stated many times that he wants to pardon Cai Zhonglang. He also cited the case of Hu Gong who was sentenced to Afu Liangji during the reign of Emperor Xiaohuan. He asked Cai Yong to be punished for the crime of being a party member, deprived of his rank and salary, and be exempted from the death penalty.
For common people."
"Commoner?" The emperor did not expect that the sentence would be so light. He immediately said: "That's fine, let's sentence it like this first. Wang Yun will definitely not be willing to accept it. You will bargain with Xuanfan and make a compromise. You must preserve it."