Chapter VIII: Persons in charge of the household department
Jiang Zhe was in a good mood throughout the afternoon. The results of the morning court were much better than he originally expected. Although as he had originally expected, most of the ministers in the court were inactive, and more than half of them were inactive.
He was on Li Gang's side, but it could be seen that the ministers still recognized him as the emperor. At least he was not a complete puppet.
At the same time, the performance of Li Min and Huang Jingtai also boosted his spirits. Huang Jingtai may not have any real talent, but he is good if he has guts, not to mention Li Min seems to be really talented.
After dinner, Jiang Zhe felt a little bored, so he planned to leave the palace for a walk. This was the first time he left the palace after traveling through time. He didn't take anyone with him, and only asked Zhang Xiao to follow him.
Exiting Chengtianmen and crossing the Jinshui Bridge is Fengtian Square. On the east side of the square are the offices of the four departments of officials, rites, households, and industry, and on the west side is the location of the Ministry of War. At this time, all the government offices have gone off work, and there are only thirty-six employees.
The guards stood in the square like nails.
Jiang Zhe planned to continue walking forward, but saw that the lights in the household department were still on. He couldn't help but get curious. He didn't expect that people in this era also worked overtime, so he walked to the window and looked in, and saw a scribe who looked like a clerk under the kerosene lamp.
He was busy writing at his desk, and from time to time he would look at the abacus at hand.
Jiang Zhe asked Zhang Xiao to wait outside and walked in slowly. Seeing that the man didn't even raise his head, he asked, "Why don't you go home yet?"
"Ah?" Unexpectedly, the man was startled when someone came in at this time. He looked up at Jiang Zhe, but he didn't recognize him either. He smiled and said, "My lord, haven't you gone home yet? Please sit down first. I will
The work at hand will have to wait a while to be completed."
Jiang Zhe didn't sit down. He looked around and said, "Are you going to stay and work overtime yourself, or is it arranged by your boss?"
The man continued to write calculations without raising his head, and said with a sneer: "I'm not afraid to let you know, sir. No one wants to take the initiative to work overtime. This is not because we, Mr. Lu, are looking for trouble."
Jiang Zhe heard that he didn't take the initiative to work overtime, and his favorable impression of him dropped slightly. He planned to leave, walked to the door, and asked casually: "Mr. Lu, which Mr. Lu?"
"Who else could it be? Mr. Lu from the Huainan Qing Li Department."
"Lu Yunhai?" Jiang Zhe took one foot outside the door and took it back.
"Yes, you know Mr. Lu Yun Hailu, who has become a saint since then. Sir, do you know him?" The man kept saying with his hands.
Jiang Zhe felt a little unhappy when he heard that he didn't have much respect for Lu Yunhai in his tone and actually called him by his first name. However, it was inconvenient to get angry at a scribe. At the same time, he also wanted to hear what Lu Yunhai's subordinates thought about what he always wanted to see.
He was a man of reform talents, so he pretended to be casual and asked: "You just said that Mr. Lu is looking for trouble, what do you mean?"
"What about this? I can't explain it in a sentence or two."
"I happen to have nothing else to do, so just tell me." The more he didn't say anything, the more Jiang Zhe wanted to know.
The man stopped, rubbed his sore wrist, and said, "Isn't this the Western Turks attacking again?"
"Yes, but the Western Turks are coming. What does it have to do with whether you work overtime or not?" Jiang Zhe asked puzzledly.
The man chuckled and said, "You can't tell that this gentleman is still impatient. Please listen to me and I will explain it to you slowly."
Jiang Zhe also realized that he was indeed a little anxious. It seemed that he really valued Lu Yunhai a little too much, so he smiled coquettishly and said nothing.
The man continued: "Because the Western Turks are attacking the border, Mr. Lu believes that because the emperor has just ascended the throne, in order to show his power, he will definitely send heavy troops to fight against it, and Huainan, as the world's granary, will inevitably be one of the important supplies of military food."
land, so he ordered us to take inventory of Huainan’s various accounts day and night."
"There is nothing inappropriate about Lu Gaohan's actions. Why do you say he is just looking for trouble?" Jiang Zhe was a little puzzled. He was full of expectations for Lu Yunhai, so he used the word to match.
The man smiled mysteriously and said: "It seems that you don't know much about the current situation, sir. Judging from your clothes, you are a member of the clan?"
Jiang Zhe smiled and said, "You have good eyesight. My surname is Jiang."
"If I'm not afraid of your anger, I guess you don't care about government affairs." The man was really straightforward.
Jiang Zhe didn't care and continued to ask: "What do you mean by this?"
While clearing up the documents on the table, the man said casually: "If you understand the current situation of the court, you will know that the emperor will definitely not fight this war. Our Lord Lu is just looking for trouble."
"You are not the emperor, how do you know whether he wants to fight this war?" Jiang Zhe's doubts became more and more serious.
The man chuckled and said: "Of course I don't know if the emperor wants to fight this battle, but I know that the emperor will definitely not be able to fight this battle."
"Please tell me carefully. I really want to hear what you have to say." Jiang Zhe's curiosity has been completely aroused.
The man looked outside and said, "To understand this, you first have to know who in this court says what is effective."
"Does this need to be said? Of course it is the emperor." Jiang Zhe deliberately followed his words.
"Your Majesty?" The man shook his head and said, "Who in the capital doesn't know that the current emperor was a famously dull prince before he ascended the throne? Let me tell you, the most effective speaker in this court is Li Gang and Prime Minister Li. As long as Prime Minister Li doesn't want to
Fight, even if the emperor wants to fight, he can't send out troops, and Prime Minister Li has always been in charge of fighting. And even if we really want to fight this battle, we can't mobilize food from Huainan."
Jiang Zhe smiled slightly bitterly. Originally, he was a little complacent about discovering Li Gang's control of the court at the first time. But now it seems that this is not a secret at all, even a scribe knows it.
"Why can't we adjust grain from Huainan?" Jiang Zhe became interested in the person in front of him and continued to ask.
The man rubbed his hands and said: "First of all, it's not cost-effective. From Huainan to the front line of Yumenguan, one stone of grain is equivalent to six taels of silver. How much silver does it cost for an army of hundreds of thousands? You can't waste it like this if you have money, let alone
Not to mention that there is no money in the treasury at all. The best way is to sell the official grain in Huainan on the spot, exchange the money to buy grain in the customs and transport it to the front line, but the grain in the customs will definitely not be available."
"You can still transport grain from the east of the river." Although Jiang Zhe thought what he said was reasonable, he still wanted to deliberately make things difficult. During the funeral of the late emperor, he also did a lot of homework, and he still had a certain understanding of the geographical distribution of the Tang Dynasty.
of.
Who would have thought that the man was calm and said, "It's true that there are food and soldiers in the east of the river, but they can't move because they are in the north of the East Turks. Although they have been relatively peaceful in the past two years because of the marriage, but before
The number one enemy of our country, who can guarantee that they will not invade our territory again in the future? The best choice to transfer grain to Hedong is Huainan. This is why there is a war in Longyou and cannot transfer grain from Huainan.
The second reason."
Jiang Zhe was really impressed by what he had seen. He really didn't expect that this person looked ordinary on the outside, but he had a lot of troubles in his heart. Not only was he quick in thinking, but he also had a very far-sighted vision. Such a person would
Lu Yunhai's men didn't seem to be well-received. What was going on? So he asked, "Since you see clearly, why don't you explain it to Lu Gaohan?"
The man curled his lips and said, "It's useless to say it. Our Mr. Lu is a stubborn person. As long as your point of view is inconsistent with his, he will think that it must be you who are wrong, not him."
Okay." After saying that, he shook his head. It seemed that he was very dissatisfied with Lu Yunhai's point.
Jiang Zhe was originally full of hope for Lu Yunhai, but now from what he learned from this person's mouth, Lu Yunhai was not as good as he thought. He was disappointed and at the same time happy to find the person in front of him, but
He also wanted to see how high the level of the person in front of him was, so he smiled and said: "I have benefited a lot from talking to you for a long time. But you and I are just acquaintances for the first time, how dare you confront the emperor in front of me,
Why are the Prime Minister and your superiors showing disrespect? Aren't you afraid that I will report you?"
The man laughed and said: "As the saying goes, you benefit yourself at the expense of others. People will only attack others when it is good for themselves. I am just a little scribe. If you report me, what good will it do to you? No.
Well, why would you bother with that?"
Jiang Zhe found that this man was really not simple. He didn't say anything shocking, but everything he said made sense. He was really a useful person. Since he had a love for talents, he asked: "What's your name?"
what name?"
The man replied smoothly: "My name is Zhao Pu, what's yours?"
"Zhao Pu?" Jiang Zhe was surprised and asked, "Can you read the Analects of Confucius?"
"The Analects of Confucius? Oh, that's a sage's book. As a little scribe, I don't have time to read that." Zhao Pu didn't know why Jiang Zhe asked this question.
Don't read the Analects? Isn't he the one he imagined? Jiang Zhe felt a little disappointed, but then he thought, what's the harm if the person in front of him is not the Zhao Pu who is famous for ruling the world with half of the Analects? He is still a talent.
, it is a talent that should be used by itself.
And there is no such thing as a pie in the sky. If you continue to place your hopes on others, you will probably be disappointed one after another. Lu Yunhai will be very disappointed. Yes, you must rely on yourself and rely on your own understanding of history.
Understand that with the accumulation of knowledge that exceeds that of people of this era by thousands of years, I will definitely be able to establish my own great cause in this era.
Thinking of this, Jiang Zhe patted Zhao Pu on the shoulder and said: "It will be good for you to read more in the future. It's not too late. Let's go. I will discuss it with you in detail another day."
Walking to the door, he said again: "By the way, I forgot to tell you, my name is Jiang Zhe." After that, Zhao Pu walked out without waiting for a reaction.
Zhang Xiao had been waiting outside. When he saw Jiang Zhe coming out, he immediately followed him and whispered: "The emperor should return to the palace. It is already dark. If anything happens, I am afraid that I cannot protect the emperor by myself."
Jiang Zhe nodded and said: "Your concerns are right. I will return to the palace. But you can't rest yet. You must hurry up and do the things I have assigned you."
"Yes, I understand." Zhang Xiao bowed and replied.
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