Yang Yuanqing pondered for a moment and asked: "Do you think I can meet the King of Chu?"
The old man had a look of helplessness on his face, "We have no choice but to rely on many connections to no avail. I heard that the military master is from Taiyuan, so I have to give it a try."
Having said this, the old man brought a heavy small clay pot from the house and placed it in front of Yang Yuanqing, "We won't let the military master help in vain. The ten coins here are new money from the Sui Dynasty. Give it to the military master."
drink wine."
After saying that, he pushed the clay pot to Yang Yuanqing. Yang Yuanqing suddenly noticed several old men appearing at the door, all looking at him hopefully.
He suddenly understood something and said with a smile: "My father-in-law is the village chief!" Both of us are named Qiao. Everyone trusts me and they elect me to be the village chief."
He was afraid that Yang Yuanqing would not agree, so he pushed the money jar in front of him and said: "Master Jun, just try your best. It doesn't matter if you can't do it. This will be regarded as Master Jun's hard-earned money."
Yang Yuanqing secretly admired the old man's ability to speak. At this point, he had to agree even if he didn't agree.
"Okay! Let me give it a try. I have a friend whose relative is King Chu's concubine Zhang. Maybe he can deliver the message for you. But I want to ask what the matter is. Do you want to file a complaint?"
"This is not a complaint. I just want to reflect on a situation. We heard that the land tax in Hengshan County is 25% tax per yen. Why do we have 20% tax per yen here? How to calculate the interest on young crops? There is also the provision of free grain. It was stipulated in the past
It’s a return for disaster years. We paid last year and the year before last, but this time the autumn drought returns only a little bit of what we paid this summer. If we say we didn’t care before, are we paying last year and the year before that in vain?”
Among the counties in Hebei, Hengshan County and Shanggu County were deeply abused by Wei Daoer, so they gave a loose tax rate. Twenty-five tax per one, the same is true for Qinghe County and Bohai County, and other counties are taxed per twenty-five. This
It's nothing fancy.
The green crop money was temporarily lent by the government to farmers for living expenses during the lean period, and would be returned during the summer and autumn harvests. No interest was charged, so Yang Yuanqing was startled when he heard about the young crop money.
Yang Yuanqing then asked: "It's really strange. Is there any interest in the young people's money here?"
"It's just weird! It doesn't exist in other counties, so why is it only in our county? Although the interest is not high, you pay one penny for every twenty dollars, but it still makes people feel worried."
Yang Yuanqing was confused, but he still said without saying a word: "It is right to have a tax of 20 per cent for the land tax. Hengshan County was badly ruined by Wei Dao'er. So the tax is a bit special. As for the profits from young crops, we will put them aside first.
Let’s talk about the charity warehouse. This year’s autumn drought. How much did you return?”
Several old men standing at the door also came in, and they all talked about it: "We only have five buckets of rice. That's the grain we paid for this summer, but last year and the year before last we each paid one stone of grain. Let's go to the county government. The county government
Let us go to Dou Jiande to ask for it, but Dou Jiande did not take away the Yicang grain. We all know that, why did Sui Dynasty not recognize it?"
Yang Yuanqing frowned. He remembered that in April this year, Ziwei Pavilion specifically discussed the restoration of the free warehouse system, including the issue of the continuation of the free warehouse grain from the previous dynasty.
At that time, it was said that each county would take inventory of the Yicang grain depot. If there was grain in stock and the accounts were clear, it would be counted. At that time, a supervisory censor was dispatched and thirty counties were selected for supervision and review.
Fangfang County may have incomplete account books for the charity warehouse, or it may indeed have been transferred away by Dou Jiande's army. However, this county illegally collects interest from young crops, which makes people suspect that there is also a problem with the food in the charity warehouse.
Thinking of this, Yang Yuanqing said: "That's it! I will step in for you tomorrow and ask the county government what is going on. You can also send a few elders to go with me to find out the matter."
Qiao Cunzheng and several old men looked at each other, stood up and bowed, "Thank you, Master, for standing up for us."
.......
Early the next morning, Yang Yuanqing led 500 guards and continued to march north. The county seat of Fangfang County was twenty miles north of Qiaojia Village. He was accompanied by five elders from Qiaojia Village, including Qiaocun. They all thought that
Yang Yuanqing was a partial general who came from the capital. Although military and political affairs were not related to each other, people who came from the capital always gave people an illusion of power.
But Yang Yuanqing stayed up almost all night. He was thinking about where the loopholes in these systems were. Since ancient times, those who formulated various systems in the imperial court have always refused to perfect the systems, and always left some gaps in them. This is easy.
Take advantage of the loopholes for those below.
This is of course because the formulation is too strict, which will increase the burden on the court. More importantly, it is necessary to leave some leeway for the officials below. This is also a tradition since ancient times. You must leave a little leeway in everything, both as a person and as an official.
There is leeway, so the customization system will also leave some leeway.
In this way, the officials below will have the opportunity to make money. Just like the continuation of the charity warehouse, an additional clause is added. If the account books are incomplete, the old and new accounts may not be merged. What is incomplete account books? The account books are originally complete. Just because
Once this regulation came out, local officials would destroy the account books and make them incomplete, thus turning the old grain in the warehouse into unaccounted grain.
Yang Yuanqing would not allow this kind of thing to happen, but he could not consider everything comprehensively, so he implemented the Ziwei Pavilion collegial system. Major matters involving the system are discussed by everyone and then voted on. But it is this kind of
The traditional idea of leaving a little room for change made the prime ministers tacitly understand that many systems were passed with only a few loopholes left.
The most typical example is the Yongye Tian system of the Tang Dynasty, which refused to add the lock that prohibited buying and selling, leaving a loophole that could be bought and sold, which led to large-scale land annexation in the mid-Tang Dynasty, and eventually the Anshi Rebellion broke out.
There are also various laws and regulations of later generations. There are so many loopholes. Is it really because those who consider the system do not understand it? No, in fact, the root cause is this kind of moderation thinking. Don’t do everything to the absolute limit and leave yourself some room.
Even if mountains and rivers do not change, one day it may turn to oneself or one's descendants. Therefore, it is euphemistically called: a person should keep three points of sincerity in mind.
In fact, if you think about it further, it is useless even if the system is formulated and perfected, because the system is dead and people are alive. The system needs to be implemented by someone. If the implementation is not effective, the board is raised high but lightly laid down, or even not implemented at all.
Ignore the so-called system, what do you do to me?
Yang Yuanqing was deep in thought, but Cheng Yaojin was in high spirits. He drank three bottles of wine in one go last night. Although they were all fruit wine, they were very enjoyable and made all his boredom disappear.
Cheng Yaojin already knew that Yang Yuanqing was going to testify. He had a lot of ideas and was very good at dealing with this kind of thing. He stepped forward and said to Yang Yuanqing: "Manager, these officials are all cunning as ghosts. They must be all
We have already thought of a countermeasure, and asking them so openly and openly will definitely have no effect. It is better to let the humble officials investigate privately and dig out the truth."
Yang Yuanqing also had to admit that Cheng Yaojin was sometimes very useful. Not everything could be done in the right way. Sometimes it was necessary to go the wrong way. At this time, Cheng Yaojin's role became prominent.
Yang Yuanqing nodded, "Take a few brothers with you! Remember not to expose yourself."
"Don't worry, manager. Doing this kind of thing has always been Lao Cheng's advantage."
Cheng Yaojin led several brothers to speed up their horses and take the first step.
.....
Fangfang County is a relatively small medium-sized county. There are less than 2,000 households in the county. Most of the population live in rural areas. The county is not large. It only takes a stick of incense to cross the county.
The magistrate of Fangfang County, whose surname is Xu, is Xu Shouxin. He is about forty years old. He has been the magistrate since the ninth year of Daye. He has already been entangled in various relationships in the county.
Xu Shouxin didn't know about King Chu's crossing the border, nor did he know that he had been sued by the villagers in the south of the county. During this time, he had been thinking about how to get the excess grain from the warehouse to the Central Plains to sell.
At noon, Xu Shouxin was planning a plan in the official room. Suddenly, a government official came to report, "In the county, a group of cavalry has come from outside. They said they came from the capital and asked you to meet them."
Xu Shouxin couldn't help but cursed in a low voice. Needless to say, these cavalrymen must be eating and drinking together. He had no choice but to walk out of the county government office, but he saw Yang Yuanqing riding a horse.
Xu Shouxin didn't know Yang Yuanqing, and he didn't know much about the organization of the army. He didn't realize that these hundreds of cavalry were the most well-equipped personal guards of the King of Chu. However, he was the magistrate of a county after all and had some experience. He saw that Yang Yuanqing actually
Wearing a golden helmet, I couldn't help but feel a drumbeat in my heart. Only the commander of an army can wear the golden helmet.
The concept of the commander-in-chief of an army is to lead an army alone. For example, Xu Shiji and Qin Qiong can both wear gold helmets. However, they did not dare to offend, so they did not wear gold helmets, but only wore silver helmets.
Xu Shou became a little uneasy. Who could be this senior military officer wearing a golden helmet? At this time, he suddenly saw that the sword Yang Yuanqing wore on his waist turned out to be a black jade hilt. He was once a Sui Dynasty minister, so of course he knew about this sword.
What is the sword with the black jade hilt?
This is the Panqing Sword, the former sword of the Emperor. This sword was once given to Yang Yuanqing and is known to the world. Now it appears on the waist of this officer. The golden helmet and the Panqing Sword. When the two clues are put together, then
The identity of this officer was immediately revealed.
Xu Shouxin's legs trembled. He had already guessed who the officer in front of him was. With a 'plop', Xu Shouxin knelt down on the ground, kowtowed, and said in a trembling voice: "Xu Shouxin, the magistrate of Fangfang County, visited Chu."
Your Highness, I wish your Highness a thousand years of life!"
His words stunned Qiao Cunzheng and several old men. They stood there as if they were dumbfounded. Suddenly, five old men knelt down together and kowtowed like garlic. Their heads made a banging sound, "Little people have
I cannot recognize Mount Tai, and I have neglected His Highness the King of Chu. I beg Your Highness the King of Chu to forgive me!"
They were telling the truth. Last night Yang Yuanqing led his soldiers to stay overnight in the village. They just cooked a pot of hot soup perfunctorily. If they had known better, they should have brought out grain, pigs and sheep to entertain him.
Yang Yuanqing waved his hand and said to people on both sides: "Everyone is invited!"
He smiled at Magistrate Xu again and said: "These rural farmers are unclear about some things, so I specially brought them here to ask."
Xu Shou's confidence froze, as if a bucket of ice cubes had been poured into his heart.