Hearing that a major assassination case had taken place, Cui Youfu was the first among the courtiers to rush to Shou'an County. He had served as a county lieutenant here and thought that he had to bear more responsibilities than others.
When he arrived, there were already people kneeling outside the county office. He pushed aside the crowd and walked inside, when someone suddenly hugged his leg.
"Save the official, he doesn't know anything."
"Are you the magistrate of Shouan County?"
"Yes, the lower official was wronged..."
Cui Youfu kicked the opponent away. In his eyes, the opponent was already a dead person. The question was how many people would be killed this time.
When he entered the county office, he saw that it was Diao Bing, the general of the Forbidden Army, who was guarding the lobby. He quickly stepped forward and said, "I want to see the saint."
"The saint is still resting. Please wait a moment, Mr. Cui."
"good."
Cui Youfu had no choice but to retreat again.
He looked around and saw Yuan Zhiyuan and other fellow students covered in bruises, and his expressions became uglier.
Then, he saw Zong Han in the crowd and waved.
Zong Han quickly stood up, stepped forward, and called in a low voice: "Young Mansion."
Shaofu is a good name for a county captain, and it was also the name Zong Han used to call Cui Youfu when he was here. It reminded him of the prosperous years when he first entered the officialdom.
The magistrates of Shouan County have changed one after another, but Zong Han is the only one who still stays here, which shows his ability.
Cui Youfu became a high-ranking official and returned to Luoyang. Zong Han had been paying close attention to this former Shangguan and wanted to contact him, but he never dared to come to disturb him. He just asked someone to send some herbs such as mugwort and cnidium, saying that he was praying for it. Cui Youfu went to pick it specially because he stayed up late all year round and was cold.
"Come with me."
"Here."
The two of them walked to a deserted place. Cui Youfu stood still, looked at Zong Han, and then scolded him sternly.
"How dare you allow them to commit such a big thing?!"
Hearing such an unkind scolding, Zong Han's uneasy heart calmed down a little. He knew that Cui Youfu's willingness to scold him showed that he still cared about his old relationship and was willing to give him a hand.
He immediately knelt down in tears and took the initiative to admit his mistake.
"The villain knew his crime and wanted to offer the county magistrate as a sacrifice to the New Deal. He knew that Du Wulang had arrived in Shouan County, but he allowed the county magistrate to act recklessly, which led to such a big incident."
Cui Youfu was just guessing without evidence. If Zong Han was lucky enough to hide it from Cui Youfu, it might make Cui Youfu give up on him. Because they had built trust when they worked together in the past, he was the one with such a candid attitude.
"Sacrifice? It's up to you to think of."
Cui Youfu was so angry that he kicked Zong Han over and said: "The imperial court has worked hard to make the people rich and clothed, but when the national policy is in the hands of local officials like you, you only care about personal gain, damn it!"
Zong Han quickly knelt down again, kowtowed repeatedly, and said: "The county magistrate connived at Hu Bugui's loan sharking. The villain has no power to restrict him, and he is unwilling to join in the same trend with him, so he had to make this move."
"Don't you know how to go to the Yushitai to tell me earlier?"
Zong Han responded: "The villain dare not disturb Zhong Cheng."
Cui Youfu scolded and kicked him, and his anger subsided a lot. He calmed down and thought about it. The emperor was definitely not hurt by the rich man. His deeper purpose was to use this incident to once again demonstrate his determination to implement the New Deal. .
Although he had no pros or cons involved in it, he did not want this "treason case" to be too involved and cause turmoil in the current situation, so he sighed and said, "Do you want to live?"
"The villain begs the Prime Minister to save me."
"If you want to save your life right now, the only thing you can do is to calm down His Majesty. Do you know how to calm down His Majesty?"
Zong Han was not sure, so he hesitated and replied: "I beg Zhongcheng to give me some advice."
Cui Youfu pulled him up and said: "I know that you are a local snake in Shou'an County. You have colluded with the local noble families and have more power than the county officials sent by the imperial court. If we want to implement the new policy, we cannot avoid you."
"New Deal? Zhongcheng is talking about Spring Miao Loan?"
"That's just asking for advice. To put it simply, how many acres of land are there in the county, how many households are there, how to collect taxes..."
~~
Cui Dong waited outside the county government office for a long time, and finally saw Du Wulang's attendant Quan Fu outside the county government office. He quickly stepped forward and expressed that he wanted to see Du Wulang.
But Quan Fu shook his head and said: "Cui Langjun, it's not that Wu Lang refuses to see you, but that there is a major assassination case and Wu Lang can't leave."
"This is evidence collected by the Cui family that the county magistrate was embezzled and violated the law. Please hand it over to Wu Lang for me, it may be of great use to him."
"Thank you very much Mr. Cui Langjun for your kindness, but I won't use it anymore." Quan Fu said, "The magistrate of Shouan County committed the death penalty of stabbing a driver."
Cui Dong was surprised that a servant could directly refuse to check such important evidence. He thought for a while and said, "I want to ask if the saint is okay?"
He actually wanted to ask whether such a big incident in Shouan County would affect the Cui family.
Quanfu said: "I'm just a servant. I don't know about such big things."
Cui Dong thought to himself, Quan Fu has been with Du Wulang all the time and has personally experienced the situation when the incident happened. How could he not know about it? Such an answer showed that Du Wulang no longer valued their past friendship.
This made him a little disappointed.
"Why don't Cui Langjun ask Yuan Zhiyuan?" Quan Fu was about to turn around and leave, but suddenly reminded him, "Isn't he from the Cui family? Maybe he knows something."
Cui Dong was stunned for a moment and said in deep thought: "Inkstone?"
Quan Fu nodded and said goodbye, but the last words he said made Cui Dong shiver and he felt goosebumps all over his body.
"Cui Langjun, don't worry, Yuan Zhiyuan still doesn't know about his sister."
"Wha...what?"
Cui Dong took two steps after him, wanting to step forward to ask clearly, but Quanfu had already walked towards the officials who were rushing over, leaving him standing there in shock, wondering how Quanfu could know about this.
Even he himself only learned about it a while ago.
A person like Du Wulang who doesn't care about worldly affairs would not care about these secrets of the Cui family. So, someone else told Quanfu to say this?
Could it be the emperor’s order?
Thinking that the emperor had already targeted the Cui family, Cui Dong discovered that the possibility of the Cui family being involved in the assassination case was not small.
He walked towards Yuan Zhiyuan in despair, and while observing, he vaguely recognized that the face was indeed somewhat similar to that of the maid in the past, but he had not noticed it before.
"Mr. Lang." Yuan Zhiyuan was talking to several villagers. When he saw Cui Dong, he quickly stood up and saluted regardless of his injuries, looking very respectful.
"Is the saint okay?" Cui Dong asked.
Yuan Zhiyuan responded: "I didn't know that Wu Lang was surrounded by saints at first, so I didn't pay attention. They took the Hu family steward out from inside, and soon the thugs surrounded him."
Cui Dong wanted to ask again, but a young man who looked like a scholar next to Yuan Zhiyuan suddenly asked in return.
"Why was Cui Langjun able to get the news so quickly and come to care about the saint?"
"I……"
"Don't you call yourself Xianyun Yehe?"
Cui Dong looked at the other person and asked, "Who are you? Do you know me?"
"Lin Ji, my family is also in Shouan County, from Muyu Village." Lin Ji said: "When I was a child, I fled famine with my family to Yanshi, and now I have returned home to take the exam."
"Why do you recognize me?"
"Because Muyu Village is now the land of the Cui family."
"So what?"
"When I was young, I remembered that my grandpa was a very hard-working person, but he could not support his family of three." Lin Jidao said: "Later I realized that someone was eyeing his fields. At that time, Hu Bugui had not yet come.
In Shouan County, the person who came to Muyu Village to force taxes was the steward of the Lingfu."
Cui Dong said: "Don't throw all the dirty water on the Cui family. The Cui family has never occupied any land."
"Yes, one is willing to sell and the other is willing to buy. I have nothing to say." Lin Jidao.
After he finished speaking, he stopped insisting, made a cross-hand salute, helped Yuan Zhiyuan up, and left politely.
He said these words because he has learned a lot over the years, understood the laws of land annexation, and felt deeply about it.
Let me also mention Cui Dong by the way.
Cui Dong stood frozen for a long time, watching the poor scholars disappear before his eyes, still motionless.
Until someone tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around and saw Zong Han.
"What is Cui Langjun thinking?"
"I suspect that the Cui family is being targeted." Cui Dong said, "I have a feeling of being watched from a high place. I can't explain it. It's like there are eyes in the sky watching me. He knows everything."
"No need to doubt." Zong Han whispered: "The Cui family is being targeted by the emperor."
"Why?" Cui Dong didn't know why, and said: "The Cui family has neither colluded with the county magistrate, nor does it bully men and women like the Hu family. The Cui family has accumulated virtues and done good deeds, built bridges and roads, and benefited the village..."
Zong Han said: "Because the money spent by the Cui family to accumulate virtue and do good deeds should be taxes from the imperial court."
Cui Dong didn't say anything, since he didn't agree with this sentence from the bottom of his heart.
In the eyes of the aristocratic families, the reason why Li became emperor was because the five surnames were willing to let Li become emperor. The land and population belonged to them hundreds of thousands of years ago, so why did Li collect money from them?
When it comes to Cui Dong's generation, this idea has become blurred, but the pride is still there.
But Zong Han saw it clearly and said in a low voice: "When the Emperor personally comes to Shou'an County, what he wants to do is definitely not a county magistrate. Cui Langjun should understand this. Please return home quickly and ask Mr. Cui to express his position."
"But I still don't understand. The Cui family has done nothing wrong, why should they suffer such an unreasonable disaster?"
"The Cui family is right, but things are going to change now." Zong Han said: "It's going to rain, it doesn't matter whether you hold an umbrella or not. The court wants to abolish slavery, and it doesn't care whether you are a good master or a bad master.
It's just the way of the world. In those years, I helped the Cui family buy land, and I didn't care whether the landowner was right or wrong."
After hearing this, Cui Dong asked, "What do you mean? Are you going to betray the Cui family?"
"Yes, in order to save my life, I will recruit the Cui family if necessary." Zong Han emphasized: "This is a major assassination case, and you can lose your head at any time."
After saying that, he turned around and went to do other things. Suddenly he thought of something and mentioned something to Cui Dong.
"By the way, a while ago, the third steward was sent to the government office and given a hundred canes for killing a slave?"
"yes."
"Cui Langjun mentioned that the Cui family was being targeted. I remembered that someone came to visit the Third Steward at that time."
"who?"
"I don't know who it is," Zong Han said. "He took the talisman of Luoyang Mansion. He asked the third steward a few words and then left, telling him that the hundred sticks should be struck gently. At that time, I thought it was the Cui family.
We have no relationship, and I thought it would be fine just to tell me, so why bother with Luoyang Mansion. Now that I think about it, that person might be some kind of spy."
Cui Dongdao: "Are you saying that the third manager betrayed the Cui family?"
"It's not unusual for a bitch like that to be capricious."
Cui Dong suddenly realized what he had said. He thought of what Quan Fu had just said, and knew that the incident with Chun Zhi was revealed by the Third Steward.
The question is, how many other things about the Cui family have already been exposed?
The emperor knew so many big and small things, but kept them secret, and even went to Shou'an County in person. What was he going to do?
Cold sweat started to flow from Cui Dong's forehead. He quickly got on his horse and galloped back to find Cui Xu.
~~
More and more important officials from the imperial court gathered in front of the Shouan County Office.
Finally, they were summoned by the emperor and filed into the cramped courtroom.
Xue Bai stood behind the public case, still wearing the same cloth, with the blood of an unknown person still stained on his clothes.
"Saint safe!"
"I'm waiting for help to come too late, please ask the saint to forgive me!"
Xue Bai said nothing, looking at the pair of people tied up in the hall, who were Hu Bugui and his steward.
All the officials had no choice but to look at these two people. They were both smart people and knew who they were without asking.
Cui Youfu pondered and spoke first, saying: "Presumably these are the two culprits who collided with the saint?"
He didn't want the matter to escalate, so he used the word "collision" instead of "assassination" and named the two as the culprits, hoping not to implicate more people.
"Bang!"
Xue Bai slapped the gavel and suddenly got angry.
"Come, tell the officials what you just said to me again!"
"The common people deserve to die! The ordinary people deserve to die!"
The manager of the Hu family was so frightened that he lost control and lost his soul. He was paralyzed there, unable to say anything except that he should die. Hu Bugui was not much better, except that he was still sweating, and his whole body was like a piece of dead flesh. .
"Don't tell me? I'll tell you for you."
Xue Bai threw away the gavel in his hand.
"I can't investigate this case because there will be no evidence. The farmers got the loan sharks from Chunmiao Loan and gambled away all their money. In this Shouan County, Hu Gong's words are the law!"
"belch."
When Hu Bugui heard this, he couldn't take a breath, choked, rolled his eyes, and fainted from fright.
"I ask you to kill this beast to serve as a warning to others."
"Killing him is easy." Xue Bai said: "What should we do with the fields that they have robbed and plundered over the years? What should we do with the farmers who have been plundered? Do you have any regulations?"
Of course some of the officials knew about it, but just after Xue Bai finished asking, someone already stood up.
Everyone looked around and suddenly discovered that this was the new Luoyang Yin, Zhang Xun.
Zhang Xunqian's appointment as Luoyang Yin happened just a few days ago. No one had reacted at that time. Now that they thought about today's major case, the courtiers realized that the emperor had planned it in advance.
"Since I took office, I have inspected the field records and Ding records in each county. I found that the magistrate of Shouan County was corrupt, perverted the law, and committed many crimes. Please check them one by one."
"allow."
"Your Majesty, would you like to return to the Eastern Capital first..."
"Just check here."
Zhang Xun then beckoned and had the magistrate of Shouan County escorted up, and at the same time dozens of volumes of documents were brought in.
When Cui Youfu saw this, he knew he couldn't avoid it.
In fact, everyone knows that what the emperor wants to solve is not the problem of one household, but the ills accumulated over hundreds of years since the founding of the Tang Dynasty. This is a hard problem.
He originally wanted to take a look at it, but now he can only bite it hard.
As time passed, Zhang Xun was very patient in distinguishing the number of acres recorded in Shou'an County from the real number, and analyzed where the acres that had been decreasing year by year had gone, and then brought up the issue of collusion between officials and gentry.
At this moment, someone said: "I'm giving this to Guanglu Shaoqing Cui Can to ask for an audience."
"Cui Can is the great-grandson of Cui Xinggong, right? The son of Cui, the governor of Huazhou." Zhang Xun seemed to be thinking about it and murmured to himself: "His uncle Cui Xian married Princess Ding'an, the daughter of Emperor Zhongzong."
This was another way of showing, intentionally or unintentionally, that he was prepared.
Those officials in the court who had good relations with the Cui family and wanted to speak for the Cui family had to think twice.
In full view of everyone, Cui Can walked into the court and greeted Xue Bai tremblingly.
"The old minister is incompetent. Even though he has become an official, he should still take care of him. But he failed to do his best and caused His Majesty to be frightened in Shou'an County. He deserves death."
Although the glory of the Boling Cui family has declined, at least Cui Chu's previous generation was still granted the title of Duke and nobility and was buried in the imperial mausoleum. When Cui Chu said these words, his posture was considered low.
Xue Bai said: "The fact that I was frightened is a minor matter. The Shou'an County government's bullying of the people is a major matter."
Cui Chu glanced at the list of abandoned fields and knew that there must be evidence that the Cui family colluded with the county office to annex the fields and avoid taxes through illegal means.
No wonder the emperor didn't even bother to look at Cui Dong's evidence of the county magistrate's crime.
"I believe that Spring Miao Loan is good governance. This person should never destroy the livelihood of the people for his own selfish desires and then offend His Majesty." Cui Can didn't hesitate much and spoke slowly, "This time, the people of Shouan have suffered a great loss.
It's difficult, the Cui family is willing to donate money, grain, and acres of land to make up for the losses of the people."
This statement is very straightforward and there is nothing clever about it.
But useful.
Xue Bai took a deep look at Cui Can and nodded.
"I'm not here to ask you for money."
"I definitely did not mean this..."
"I'm not injured, so you don't have to blame yourself." Xue Bai said: "Although you have become an official, you are far-sighted and should make suggestions for the resurgence of the Tang Dynasty. Chunmiao Loan can lead to such changes, so you will also make a move."
Cui Chu said: "I obey the decree."
"I'm tired, so I'll drive back to the palace." Xue Bai pointed to the Shouan County Magistrate, Hu Bugui, and the Hu family manager who were kneeling on the ground, and said: "Behead them."
He said very little and did not convict.
After killing the three culprits, the matter came to an end for the time being, but whether it was an assassination or a collision with Yu Jia today, Xue Bai would have to decide based on his mood in the future.
This time it was nothing more than him stepping into the game and showing his determination to the world.
~~
A few days later, Cui Chu wrote a memorial, saying that the Cui family owns thousands of hectares of fertile land due to the accumulation of their ancestors. However, looking around the countryside, the poor no longer have a place to stand. She is deeply worried about the increasing land annexation in the Tang Dynasty and the collapse of the rent-to-pay system.
, requesting changes to the tax system.
In order to show her determination to support the emperor's reform, Cui Can resolutely decided to donate her family's acres of land to the court so that the court could re-measure the land and conduct a population census.
Xue Bai attached great importance to this memorial and immediately sent it to the prime ministers for discussion.
Yan Zhenqing and Du Youlin all agreed with Cui Can's views. Afterwards, a court meeting was held. Zhang Xun, Yuan Zai and others strongly supported it, and even Cui Youfu also agreed.
As a result, the imperial court once again made a series of transfers, and transferred a group of financial and taxation officials who had been sent to various places for training back to the court, including Liu Yan, who has been quite effective in the reform of salt and tea.
Qi.
According to Xue Bai's idea, he hoped to completely abolish the tax system and simplify the tax system into land tax, household tax, plus commodity tax and special taxes for special commodities such as salt, tea, wine, and iron.
In principle, you have to pay as much field tax as there are fields, and you have to pay as much household tax as there are Dingkou, and this involves many complicated issues, such as levying grain and cloth or directly levying money, and then leads to questions.
Fees and how to calculate them.
But no matter what, he finally started to change...
~~
In the second half of the fourth year of Zhengxing, the new tax law was still being formulated and had not yet been promulgated.
Yan Zhenqing is busy with these things every day. In just two months, many wrinkles have appeared on her forehead.
Finally, in November of this year, he went to the Mingtang with a thick stack of books and asked to see Xue Bai.
"Before your Majesty checks it, you should know that there is no perfect tax system in the world."
"yes."
Xue Bai's eyes fell on the pleasing Yankai script. He was looking forward to it, because it was an improvement he made on the basis of the Two Taxes Law.
"It's no longer enough to live in mediocrity. No matter what, we can only move forward."
Saying that, Xue Bai opened the scroll.
At first glance, the simple tax law is still densely designed.
Just as he was about to take a closer look, Yan Zhenqing stopped him again.
"The Tang Dynasty has gone through wars, and His Majesty has not been on the throne for a long time. The imperial court still cannot fully control the household registration, land registration accounts, local officials and even Jiedushi, and military and political power in various places. Your Majesty's decree continues. Although the original intention is to stabilize the people, it may
Let them use this name to apportion taxes. When the time comes when local rent mediocrity and new taxes coexist, the people will not be able to make a living."
Xue Bai asked: "How do you think we should start?"
Yan Zhenqing closed her eyes and hesitated for a long time.
He didn't expect that one day he would have to make such an opinion.
"Your Majesty can send envoys to encourage farmers to go to all parts of the country to measure the fields and seize the escaped households. Hebei should be the first priority in this matter."