Cultivation of chastity

Chapter 157 Zhang Xuansu

"No way? Can Qingque be so cruel?" Li Shimin was a bit unbelievable when he heard the news.

Li Tai has always given Li Shimin the impression that although he is a little greedy for money, a little bit shameless, and will pretend a little bit, he is actually quite decent.

At least the things he has been doing all the time are even more upright, like why I agreed with him to open an agricultural school at the beginning, it was not because he thought of a way to let the people in Chang'an and outside have a place to live.

As a result, in just a few years now, Li Tai is so cruel that the people are required to serve in corvee in the winter. Is it necessary to repair the Zhengguo Canal?
To be honest, Li Shimin really didn't believe it. After all, a few months ago, Li Tai was still a normal person, and he suddenly became abnormal?

But in fact, these censors are really not talking nonsense, because there are still people working in Zheng Baiqu's place in winter, so there is nothing fake about it.

To be honest, if the dynasty was changed and the people were forced to work in corvee in winter, then they would be forced to work in corvee, and if they were extorted and extorted, they would be extorted.

As long as you don't take your life, no, even if you take a life, as long as it can be settled, it will be over.

But the problem is that it is the Tang Dynasty, and it is the Zhenguan era of the Tang Dynasty.

With the Great Sui Dynasty, how did Emperor Sui Yang perform? After playing a top empire to the second generation and dying, he has almost experienced the Zhenguan monarchs and ministers of the Great Sui Dynasty, but they all understand what is called the people are the most important, and the king is the lightest.

The big and small aristocratic families also realized that they were not superior, and the people could still push them down the mire.

Just like this, although the rudimentary form of the Zuyong adjustment system had appeared before the Tang Dynasty, the greatest thing about the Tang Dynasty compared with the previous dynasties was that it truly formally established the Zuyong adjustment system and even institutionalized it.

This is of great significance throughout the history of the development of corvee in ancient times.

Under the ruling ideology of light corvee and low tax, the continuous and orderly adjustment of the three items of "rent mediocrity" in the early Tang Dynasty brought the policy effect to its peak in the Kaiyuan period. In the household, the rice is fat and the corn is white, and the public and private warehouses are full of fruit.”

Therefore, during the Zhenguan period, the issue of corvee was paid special attention to. Others would not say anything about working indoors. In the eyes of the world, digging coal was also working indoors, so the courtiers ignored it.

But the renovation project of Zheng Baiqu is different. It is a large-scale field construction project that the court is staring at.

Under such circumstances, it would be a bit inhumane to let these corvees continue to serve in the wind and snow these days.

And these days, these courtiers more or less know that Li Tai's Zheng Baiqu is still advancing the project.

After all, everyone is watching the project from top to bottom, but because it's snowing these days and Su Dingfang is on patrol, ordinary people can't get close to it.

So most people don't know the specific situation, but it is certain that Li Tai will let the corvee continue to work in the winter.

And this can be confirmed, so although these censors can be regarded as rumors, they are not regarded as lying.

"Saint, the King of Yue has always cared about the people. If you say that he suddenly became tyrannical, no one will believe it. Why don't you send a righteous minister to Zheng Baiqu to check it out? If you want to come, you will know all about it!" Dou Jing stood up and said.

"Subject!" Tang Jian stood up decisively to reconsider Dou Jing, and said, "Shangshu Dai Zhou is in charge of official assessment, so let Dai Shangshu go to Zhengbaiqu, so that he can inspect the entire Zhengbaiqu Transit Department, how about it?"

At the beginning, Tang Jian still recruited these people to work in Chang'an in the form of corvee. Of course, he basically couldn't go back.

However, when Li Tai knew about it, he directly gave Honglu Temple money to buy these Eastern Turkic remnants as corvee labor.

With a large amount of favor, and some Eastern Turkic nobles living in Chang'an did need money for consumption, when Honglu Temple came forward, the Eastern Turkic nobles chose to accept the money and grain and sell their own people.

Therefore, Li Tai bought it at a price of five tangs each. As for how much Honglu Temple earned, Li Tai didn't know.

But in any case, with a stable supply of benefits, especially after Honglusi found that he seemed to have extra work to earn extra money, he naturally became concerned about Li Tai.

How much you earn is a small matter, the real big thing is that the function of Honglu Temple has been developed.

So Tang Jian didn't want Honglu Temple to return to the original Qingshui Yamen, and tried to help Li Tai if he could.

"The end of the year is approaching, and Dai Shangshu is very busy, why don't we ask Zhang Yushi to go there." Wen Yanbo stood up and said, "Zhang Yushi is honest and upright, and everyone in the government and the people know it. Let him go to Zheng Baiqu , everything can be seen.”

When the courtiers heard this, they divided up their positions and discussed for a while, but they didn't say anything more.

Because everyone knows that Wei Zheng and Zhang Xuansu are the two hardest bones inside and outside the court.

Sometimes Wei Zheng will be tactful, but Zhang Xuansu will not. He is a real man, which is also the reason why it is difficult for him to get promoted.

Zhang Xuansu even worried that he would be an official of the prince in the future, forcing Li Chengqian to send an assassin to kill him.

As a result, after recovering from the injury, he still continued to sternly admonish him. At that time, he was afraid that he would stick out his neck, so he waited for Li Chengqian to chop it himself!

But now, when Li Chengqian in the court hall heard that Zhang Xuansu was going to investigate Li Tai, the corners of his mouth still twitched involuntarily.

After all, as a teammate, Zhang Xuansu's absolute rationality in dealing with things and not dealing with people would make people feel very annoying, but letting him deal with his opponents is nothing more reassuring than this.

After all, it was someone else who went, and Li Chengqian was afraid that the other party would be bribed by Li Tai, so he came and never returned.

Yes, Li Chengqian, who has already started to manage affairs, has gradually discovered the importance of money and silk.

It's just that compared to Li Tai's attitude as if the money was not money, Li Chengqian couldn't figure out where Li Tai got so much money!
"Xuan Su, I will give you an imperial edict, and I have worked hard for you to go to Zheng Baiqu to find out the whole story." Li Shimin said,
"If Qingque really disregarded the wind and snow and forced the people to build the Zheng Baiqu, you can bring him and the envoy of the water capital, Ma Zhou!"

"Minister, obey the order!" Zhang Xuansu replied to Li Shimin, saluting respectfully.

After Zhang Xuansu got the imperial decree to complete the procedure, he immediately ordered a team of people and headed towards Zheng Baiqu.

The Sanbai Canal area under Zheng Bai Qu's construction is not too far from Chang'an, and Li Tai also specially repaired the road, so the road arrived in one day.

It's just that because of the snow, the snow has accumulated about a foot, and it is impossible to gallop on these roads.

After passing through Gaoling, it was already dark, but Zhang Xuansu only sent some people to live in the inn, while he searched for folk houses in the Zhengbaiqu area. After knocking on a few doors, he found a place to stay.

"Thank you, old man, just call me Zhang Jun." Zhang Xuansu looked at the old man who opened the door for him and saluted.

"Zhang Jun, these days my Dalang is working on the Zhengbaiqu construction site, so the two of you squeezed together in my Dalang's room. I wonder if you can get used to it!" The old man looked politely at the old man who opened the door for him. , but spoke.

"Thank you, old man." Zhang Xuansu said, "It would be great to have a place to cover at this time. However, if it's freezing cold today, will your family still have to serve in corvee?"

"Come with me!" said the old man,

"Corvée? That's not true, we have already handed in the mediocre money for this year, and there is no need for my family to serve corvée.

As for my Dalang, he was working in Zheng Baiqu to beg for food. "

The old man took Zhang Xuansu and groped towards the room, Zhang Xuansu continued to say, "Part-time job?"

"Hmm! Just sell your labor and pay according to the construction period. We farmers only have a little strength!"

When the old man said this, he said with a little bit of vigilance, "Mr. Zhang, you are not from Gaoling, are you?"

"Yes! I was born in Yu Township, Puzhou, and I'm going to come to Chang'an to take the Jinshi exam." Zhang Xuansu said, "After arriving in Chang'an, I feel depressed, so I went out to walk around Chang'an to relax my mind."

"It's because you are great scholars, you've learned Chang'an dialect really well!" the old man exclaimed after hearing Zhang Xuansu's words.

"It's old man, it's winter, don't you worry that your Dalang will freeze to death when he is a corvee?" Zhang Xuansu asked doubtfully.

The old man said to Zhang Xuansu: "It is a lie to say that you are not worried.

But when he came back a few days ago, he was wearing the padded clothes issued by King Yue, cotton gloves on his hands, and a thick scarf around his neck.

Obviously the King of Yue was very kind to our people and knew the sufferings of our people.

And I have heard from my son that with the arrival of winter, a lot of chicken and pork are added to the meals. This is meat! "

"It's really good to have meat to eat in this winter!" Zhang Xuansu couldn't help being awed when he heard this.

In the Tang Dynasty, whether a family was rich or not, whether or not they could eat meat was a very important criterion.

Under such circumstances, these corvees can eat meat, at least for Zhang Xuansu, this cannot be considered harsh.

"That's right, after King Yue became the county magistrate here in Gaoling, the days are getting better day by day.

When I escaped a few years ago, I didn't believe that I could live such a good life.

Now, I'm just waiting to save enough money, and then go to buy a daughter-in-law to continue the incense of my Dalang! "

The old man looked forward to the future.

Zhang Xuansu can naturally see that the old man in front of him really feels the beauty of life and is full of longing for the future.

"It's here!" The old man brought Zhang Xuansu to Dalang's room, the old man said,
"I'll go and burn some kang for you two, Mr. Zhang, you'll just stay here for the whole night, and I'm sure the cold won't come under the covers."

The old man left after saying that, Cao Wei, the chief guard beside Zhang Xuansu, said;
"Censor, please go to bed and rest. I have to go to Zheng Baiqu tomorrow, and my subordinates will just stay on this bench for the whole night, just practice as usual."

"Let's sleep on the kang together." Zhang Xuansu shook his head and said, "It's freezing cold, if the cold invades, it will be very troublesome!"

Cao Wei is a solid boy. Hearing what Zhang Xuansu said, he naturally chose to sleep on the kang together.

Zhang Xuansu froze for a moment, but also lay on the bed.

After a while, the bed was warmed up. Obviously, the old man had already started to burn the kang.

Zhang Xuansu can see the leopard in his eyes, so he can more or less know that the local people are indeed living a good life.

Because things like the kang are more or less fire-prone for wooden houses, so they are not very popular in Chang'an City, and in Chang'an, the land is relocated, and the poor have no money to demolish the house and build the kang. .

But in Gaoling, when Li Tai built Gaoling, he built a kang, so most of the rooms in Gaoling are mud tile houses.

Originally, in the first and second years, people had to collect firewood for burning, but as Li Tai unified the coal industry in Guanzhong, the cost of coal was further reduced, and at least the local people could afford charcoal fire.

Originally, in the past few years, the common people still needed to pick up branches in autumn, dry them and store them as firewood.

But now, as long as you exchange charcoal bills for briquettes before winter, you don’t have to worry about the problem of not burning enough in winter.

It can be said that the matter of charcoal fire seems very small, but Zhang Xuansu couldn't help thinking that Chang'an seemed to have rarely heard of people freezing to death in winter since King Yue consciously controlled the coal industry.

This point is not only myself, it seems that all the ministers in the court have ignored it intentionally or unintentionally.

It seems to take it for granted that people around Chang'an don't need to die in winter, but in fact, a few years ago, many people died of freezing under the city of Chang'an.

However, the number of people who died from burning coal in winter has increased year by year, so the court has some complaints about Li Tai's coal industry, but compared with the cold weather, the people who died of freezing, this death Almost negligible.

"Is this the power of coal?" Zhang Xuansu was a little dazed about what he thought of because of the kang.

For the first time, he knew that besides salt, iron and food, there was actually one other thing that could be directly linked to people's livelihood.

In this drowsiness, the cockcrow soon ushered in the sunshine of the next day.

Zhang Xuansu bid farewell to the old man, and left fifty Wen as an overnight stay, and then continued to wander around.

Zhang Xuansu did not rush to investigate the corvee, but wandered around, looking like a literati who came out to see the snow scene.

And he asked Zheng Baiqu about the use of corvee from the mouths of the people around him.

But the fact is that although what he heard from the mouths of the people was working in winter, the people were happy, and even many people took the initiative to go there, but they were kicked out because they were too old or too young.

After all, being able to work and even eat meat in winter is something that many low-level people dare not even think about.

Now as long as you are willing to work hard, you can achieve it, so why don't you sell your labor power, why don't you go to work!

Therefore, Zhang Xuansu stopped and stopped for about a week (a week here is six days, five days a week).

In the end, Zhang Xuansu brought people to the construction site of Zheng Baiqu. Although he had already made a judgment in his heart, he had to at least see with his own eyes how the workers in Zheng Baiqu were doing.

(End of this chapter)