Chapter 626: The top and bottom share the same desires and share the joys and sorrows
Shenjing
As Emperor Chongping denounced and questioned the Xia Flood in the city of Shenjing, the central government agencies of the Han Dynasty began to take action, mainly to speed up the harvest of summer grain. In addition, they issued documents to local provinces, prefectures and counties to warn against the Xia Flood, and the central court officials
Their eyes are also focused on the rains and floods in the Central Plains and Huainan.
The construction of water conservancy projects in the northern provinces has put aside the talk of wasting people and hurting money. No matter what, we must speed up harvesting summer grain, let alone summer floods, and we cannot delay summer taxes.
Word spread in the city of Shenjing that it was the first heavy rain since the beginning of summer in Henan. This was a rare scene in the arid north in the past five years.
Prince Chu's Mansion, evening
In the room, King Chu was sitting behind the case, his face was slumped, and he was sighing. Sitting on the pearwood chairs on both sides were Princess Chu Zhen Qing, Liao Xian and Feng Ci.
Feng Ci said: "Your Majesty, don't be upset. What happened before was not your fault."
But today, the Queen Mother specifically sought out the King of Chu to enter the palace to say goodbye. She said that a group of family members of the Wei and Zheng dynasties came to the palace to plead for mercy, which quite disturbed the Emperor's recuperation. The Emperor had been hugging him in the palace since the Gongling Mausoleum collapsed.
I was sick, and I didn’t listen to singing and dancing much anymore, and some of the young and beautiful women who were waiting on me were gradually sent away.
King Chu shook his head and said: "That's not what the two vassal princes and princesses said at the beginning. They said that the two vassal princes were used to pampering themselves, so they followed them to take care of them on the road. The lonely king believed their words. Sure enough, the woman's words could not be
Believe it."
Zhen Qing's face looked a little unnatural. What did the prince say? Is it aimed at her?
At this moment, Prince Palace Chief Shi Liao Xian said: "Your Majesty, the news came from Beijing at noon that there was a heavy rain after the summer in Henan."
"Let's go down, okay?" King Chu said to himself, but suddenly he was startled and looked at Liao Xian in surprise.
Princess Chu Zhen Qing also stared at Liao Xian and asked in surprise: "Is it raining in Henan?"
These days, she was well aware of some public opinions in the capital, and she knew that because of the attention of her father in the palace, whether it would rain or not would become an event with political significance.
In fact, Jia Heng never said that there would be floods this summer. He just hoped that the court would be careful, and maybe his words were more intense. As a result, due to Emperor Chongping's overreaction, coupled with the encouragement of well-intentioned people, word spread that somehow it happened.
Out of shape.
Passed on, Jia Ziyu said that heavy rains this year will lead to floods, and various places should step up the construction of water conservancy projects, and so on. The purpose is naturally to accelerate in the opposite direction, thereby damaging Jia Heng's prestige.
Liao Xian pondered and said: "Your Majesty, Uncle Yongning is probably right again this time. From the first year of Chongping to the third year of Chongping, every summer, the Yellow River will report summer floods. At that time, everyone paid attention to this.
There has been a severe drought in the Northland for several years, but this is not a common occurrence."
Feng Ci frowned and said in a low voice: "Last time, a gold mine was found in Henan. The Holy Scriptures believe in it even more."
The King of Chu pondered for a moment and asked: "If there is a flood in Henan or Huaiyang, what impact will this have on Gu?" It doesn't matter whether there is a flood or not, the key is what can he get from it?
"Your Majesty, Uncle Yong Ning is now highly valued in the palace, maybe we can sell him a favor?" Liao Xian thought for a while and said.
"Selling favors?" King Chu murmured and asked, "How should we proceed? The solitary king is now in charge of the supervision of the imperial mausoleum, and he cannot get away from it."
Liao Xian said: "If there is a flood, the prince will organize scribes and gentry in the capital to raise donations for the people of Henan. This move will definitely win the hearts of the saints."
King Chu's eyes lit up, and he felt a little moved in his heart.
Feng Ci frowned and said: "This matter still needs to be considered. The prince has already gained a reputation of generosity in front of the clan, but he has received complaints from the palace. This is the time to hide one's capabilities and bide one's time. It is not good to do this again."
Liang Feng, even if we do such things, we can't do it in the name of the prince."
When King Chu heard this, his eyes dimmed and he said, "That's the truth."
Liao Xian pondered for a moment and said: "Your Majesty is famous now, so it is not good to be too calm." Sometimes, it's not that the superiors don't have good suggestions, but they have too many suggestions and they don't know which one to listen to.
The King of Chu paused for a moment and said in a low voice: "Now it seems that the job of supervising the construction of the imperial mausoleum is a good job for King Qi. He is now the king of the county and has merits to be paid, but for the lonely king, he has no merit.
None, otherwise if there is a flood in Henan, the lonely king can also represent
The palace went to Henan and Huaiyang to inspect the river embankments to show the clan's love for the people."
Everyone was startled when they heard this, but they were already accustomed to King Chu worrying about gains and losses. King Chu's temperament had always been one of foresight and hesitation, and he would worry about gains and losses whenever he encountered adversity.
King Chu said, but did not listen to the response. He stared at Princess Chu Zhen Qing who was sitting opposite, looking expectantly and said, "Does the princess have any ideas?"
There was a look of thought on Zhen Qing's beautiful face, her phoenix eyes flashed, and she said softly: "Your Majesty, you can't say that. It's good to supervise the construction of the imperial mausoleum and not to make King Qi specialize in beauty. Even if he has a name, it's good."
, in the future, if you are truly pure by nature and serve your ancestors with utmost filial piety, you will be able to overcome all opinions."
Supervising the construction of the imperial mausoleum is the greatest legal basis for enthroning the throne, and it is much better than thinking about doing a few meritorious deeds.
"What the princess said makes sense." King Chu thought about it for a moment, and then he calmed down and said with deep conviction.
"Your Majesty, we'll wait until the floods in Henan are followed up before we talk about anything else. It's too early to say whether it will rain like this now and whether there will be floods." Zhen Qing said in a soft voice.
Seeing the anxiety of the King of Chu, he said with relief: "As for the previous clan issue, although my father and the Queen Mother were a little unhappy, they also knew that it was not the prince's fault. If the prince is still worried, I will meet the princesses of Wei and Zheng tomorrow.
Concubine, talk to them and persuade them to live in peace."
The beauty eased King Chu's anxiety with a voice as cold as jade, and also caused Feng Ci and Liao Xian to think.
"What the princess said is very true. It's still unclear where we will go in the coming months in Henan. Maybe there will be no floods, but everyone is happy." Feng Ci continued.
Liao Xian also said: "Your Majesty, if something serious happens, you should calm down first. Your Majesty, please calm down and don't be impatient." At this moment, the King of Chu looked at Zhen Qing, with a complicated look in his eyes.
"And last time, my lord and concubine were checked. It was the boss who was scheming against the lord and wanted to make my father suspicious of him." Zhen Qing's jade-like face said softly.
The King of Chu has been in charge of the government for so many years, and he also has a secret intelligence force. There is an informant of the King of Chu in the Prince of Qi's mansion.
"Is this really him?" King Chu's expression changed, his eyes became colder, and he said, "Fortunately, my father did not believe him."
"When the prince was sent to Luoyang, the palace had plans to investigate the prince. It seems that the prince has eliminated the suspicion. Now whether Prince Qi has been found, I still don't know who I am." Zhen Qing said in a low voice.
The King of Chu was silent for a moment and said with emotion: "It is true that tigers are not harmful to people, but tigers are harmful to people's hearts. The lonely king thinks that he respects his brother, and he does not want to resort to such insidious methods!"
Zhen Qing's eyes were dim and she said in a low voice: "Your Majesty, all the actions of Prince Qi have already lost the favor of the palace. In addition to being wary of secretly shooting cold arrows, the one you really want to deal with is King Wei. He is the Queen's Yuanzi. This is
The prince’s confidant is troubled.”
The King of Qi still has one elder, and the King of Wei has a direct descendant, so her prince can only choose the virtuous one. The King of Chu sighed and said, "The King of Wei is not easy to deal with."
"It's not easy to deal with now. Let's wait another three or two years and see if it's not too late." Zhen Qing said softly. King Chu nodded and asked, "Have you visited Jia's house recently?"
Zhen Qing said: "After my mother left Beijing, she didn't go much in the past two days. I'll go over and have a look in two days."
She didn't have anything to do and didn't go often, so she easily got lost. Fortunately, her younger sister had a good relationship with the Qin family, and Xinxin also recognized the Qin family as her godmother, as the two families were related.
"Well, don't stop moving around." King Chu warned, and suddenly said with emotion: "This Jia Ziyu didn't stop in Henan. He was mining and building rivers. When he returns to Beijing, I'm afraid my father will
You still have to rely on me."
Such a great talent must be put to good use after he ascends to the throne.
——
Henan, Guide Prefecture, Yucheng County
After a heavy rain, it has been cloudy for two more days, and today it started raining again.
At this moment, Jia Heng was accompanied by a large number of officials from the Henan feudal and feudal dynasties, including Tan Shiliang, the magistrate of Guide Prefecture, Lu Li'an, the magistrate of Yucheng County, and Xu Kai, a scholar of the Imperial Academy, and went to inspect the river embankment.
"Rumble"
Above the sky, thunder rumbled, dark clouds rolled, and rain began to fall intermittently. For a while, the sky and the earth were vast and dark.
The willow trees beside the embankment sometimes
The branches and leaves swayed in the wind, and large raindrops fell from time to time.
Everyone was wearing bamboo hats and raincoats on their heads, looking at the busy river workers in front and behind the embankment. At this moment, Jia Heng looked around, looking through the rain curtain, and saw that on the entire embankment, soldiers and civilians were carrying stones and glutinous rice sand in the rain.
Shi Piao is always busy.
Under the command of the Hedao Yamen craftsman, pile driving, drilling, and stone addition were all carried out in an orderly manner.
Jia Heng looked at the Yellow River and saw large splashes of water splashing in the originally shallow river. He frowned and his eyes showed a hint of thought.
In recent years, there have been successive droughts in the north, and the rivers have dried up. The shallowest part of the Yellow River has even reached the crook of the legs. This has undoubtedly bought time for Henan to repair river embankments. According to estimates, not all river embankments need to be rebuilt.
The 60-mile section of the river embankment from Yucheng to Dangshan counties is relatively dilapidated. The other section of the river embankment is the section from Xiao County to Xuzhou. After Xuzhou, it is the area responsible for the Nanhe Governor's Yamen.
Jia Heng looked at the groups of soldiers wearing Han military uniforms in the distance. Qi Jianhui, the governor of the Fenwu Camp of the Beijing camp, Pang Shili, the general of the Yangwei camp, and other generals of the Beijing camp were leading the guards and commanding the troops of the Beijing camp.
Soldiers, assisting the peasants to carry earth, wood and stones, shouts of "one, two, one" came from a distance.
Eighty thousand troops from the Beijing camp went to Henan to quell the rebellion. Together with the captured bandits and the common people hired by Dingfu with rice and grain, about 140,000 to 50,000 people gathered along the river embankment at this moment.
There were even cavalry troops from the Beijing camp who pushed back and forth to prevent chaos when the river was being built.
In the past, thieves and bandits were whipped and hard labored, so not only did they not cause trouble, but they were all strangled by the Beijing cavalry.
At the same time, the Henan Province has formulated a commutation plan. According to the severity of different criminals' crimes, they can redeem their sentences through corvee. Of course, this does not mean that they have fully redeemed their sentences. For some crimes, commutations are still limited.
At the same time, the former coerced servants, whose crimes were relatively minor and who did not carry human lives, were redeemed with corvee labor and were released back to their hometowns after the river fortifications were completed.
Jia Heng patrolled along the river embankment, followed by a large number of officials, most of whom were wearing raincoats and bamboo hats. Liu Jixian, the bodyguard in Jinyi, initially held up a big umbrella to protect him from the wind and rain, but for
Jia Heng waved his hand to stop him.
"Sir." At this moment, Guan Hetong, the current governor of Hedong Governor's Yamen, heard the news and led the middle and lower-level officials from Hedao Yamen to come quickly from the river embankment. He approached and shouted to Jia Heng.
shouted.
"Guan Tongzhi, how long will it take to complete the construction of the river embankment from Yucheng to Xiao County?" Jia Heng looked at Guan Shoufang, who had a muddy face, and asked loudly.
The gatekeeper said loudly: "Replying to your lord, it will still take twenty days to work in two shifts during the day and night. The river embankment has not been repaired for many years, and this place is relatively gentle. The water is moving downwards. Once it becomes blocked, the risk of a breach will be greater, so we should concentrate on it."
Manpower was used to heighten and reinforce it.”
Jia Heng frowned and asked: "If we send half the manpower, can it be reinforced within half a month?"
The gatekeeper thought for a while and said: "If we need another 30,000 people, and with more coordination, the construction period will be greatly shortened."
Jia Heng pondered for a moment, then turned to look at the Magistrate of Guide Prefecture aside, and said: "Prefect Tan, how much more labor can Guide Prefecture recruit? Will it delay the busy farming season?"
Henan was severely hit by disasters in March and April, and production was reduced in many places. Therefore, there was not much busy farming, so there was basically not much harvest. Even the imperial court did not mention Henan's summer tax this year, but Jia Heng still transferred it from Taicang to the gods.
Beijing to pay the summer tax.
Except for Runing Prefecture and Kaifeng Prefecture, some prefectures and counties are exempted from summer taxes this year. This year, taxes in Henan Prefecture, Guide Prefecture, Nanyang Prefecture, Weihui Prefecture, Zhangde Prefecture, and Huaiqing Prefecture will be halved as appropriate.
Part of it was kept in the vassal treasury for emergencies.
In fact, if combined with the civil unrest in Runing and the destruction of Kaifeng Mansion, it seems that the saying goes, "Children who can cry are fed by milk."
Tan Shiliang was a middle-aged official in his early forties with a fair complexion and a short beard. He thought for a moment and said loudly: "To make the platform, Guide Mansion can still spare six or seven thousand men, but
The river service is heavy, and if someone is not good, he will be disabled. Because Henan has exempted half of the summer tax, the people are busy with farming and have doubts."
Ordinary people obviously don't want the river engineering affairs to affect their labor force or even make them disabled. The government does not allocate corvees, but now they have enough to eat. Everyone is watching and wondering.
Jia Heng pondered for a moment and said: "The government should actively mobilize the people to build embankments on the river.
If a person goes up the embankment, his family will receive rice and grain subsidies. The people along the river in Guide Prefecture will not be disturbed by the river. It is even more important to mobilize people to go up the embankment and show justice to them. If there is a flood, the people will be displaced and the land will be affected by the flood.
, the autumn grain will also be delayed."
In the past, the people relied entirely on their own volition and were suspicious of the government's credibility, so not many people came at first. Later, the government actually distributed food to the people's homes. Although it was not much, it was undoubtedly life-saving rations for the whole family during the lean period.
Everyone needs to eat enough.
In addition, Kaifeng Prefecture was a provincial capital and received high attention from top to bottom. Later, everyone enthusiastically competed to be the first. It was in this environment of striving to be the first that Kaifeng Prefecture's river embankment was quickly repaired and reinforced.
In fact, some people at the government level do not understand that white rice is distributed to the poor. The Henan Governor's Office's explanation is to use work instead of relief, and use rice grains to recruit people to build water conservancy projects.
However, with the arrival of the busy farming season, the period when the harvest has stopped and the family's food rations are unsustainable has gradually passed. Regardless of the reduction in production during the busy summer farming season, the farm work in the family's fields is not that onerous after all, so river labor has become the next best thing.
Options.
Under the premise of being short of time, the manpower is insufficient.
Jia Heng did not say how to mobilize, but the prefect of Guide Prefecture did not ask, what else could be done?
That is to say, the corvee is assigned to the clan and village sages on the basis of Baojia. The difference is that you will not be allowed to work for nothing, but you will be given a certain amount of rice and grain subsidies. If you do not go to the dike at this time, you are a unruly citizen who does not understand the justice of the court.
Feng Lian looked at the young man across from him, and when he heard what the young man said, his heart moved slightly, feeling a little weird.
I originally thought that in Henan we would crack down on the gentry and be cruel to the officials, strictly discipline the officials, and make life difficult for them to manage, while being lenient in providing relief to the common people. This is an unusual look in the officialdom.
Now it seems that he just has a conscience, but he is indeed not an alien.
Think about it, if he was really young, he would not have achieved the powerful position he has now with Ningguo Yuanzhi. No one can ignore that Jia Heng became an important minister at a young age, so he must have two brushes
.
Everything you do must be backed up.
Xu Kai, a scholar at the Imperial Academy, looked at this scene with a thoughtful expression on his face.
As they talked, they entered a wooden shed that had been built and began to arrange related river affairs.
"After the Hedong River passes through Xiao County, it should be inspected by the Nanhe Governor's Yamen. Xu Hanlin immediately wrote to the Nanhe Governor's Yamen, urging him to come to Xuzhou to discuss the river flood meeting." Jia Heng sat down and ordered.
In terms of river section defense, the east side of the river belongs to the secondary river, while the river side of the Nanhe River belongs to the main river. The two sides must coordinate river flood affairs.
Xu Kai cupped his hands and said: "I will accept your order."
With that said, he took the paper and pen delivered by the official in the shed and began to write to the Governor's Yamen of Nanhe.
Jia Heng looked at Qi Jianhui, the commander-in-chief of Fenwu Camp, Pang Shili and others, and asked: "How many people are there on the river embankment in Beijing camp now?"
Qi Jianhui clasped his fists and said: "Report to your lord, the Beijing camp has 40,000 infantry, 20,000 cavalry, and the newly built Henan Dusi's 15,000 government guards are here."
Jia Heng asked: "How is the morale of the generals?"
"Most of the infantrymen have not fought, so they have no objections to the construction of the river. It's just that they have been away from Beijing for more than a month and are homesick." Qi Jianhui said.
Jia Heng thought for a while and said: "Later, when more than a thousand households of soldiers are summoned, I will give a lecture."
The morale of the soldiers also needs special attention during this period. He has to build the river embankment despite the rain. As time goes by, he will easily become resentful. During this period, he will also have to live on the river embankment.
Sharing the same desires and sharing joys and sorrows is always the best way to resolve the grievances at the bottom.