The Tang Dynasty started from saving Empress Changsun

Chapter 364

I heard that the army was sent to investigate corruption, and many people have objections.

Fang Xuanling got up and said: "Saint, the army is not good at investigating corruption, and it may implicate innocent people and cause even greater disasters. Why don't we send an official to deal with this matter, and it can also appease the refugees by the way."

Wei Zheng also came out and said: "Mr. Fang is right, please think twice, sage."

"Please think twice, sage." Other ministers of the civil service department also expressed their opinions one after another.

The people in the military didn't say a word, and they also didn't want to take this job.It's useless to do a good job, and you have to take the blame for a poor job.

Li Shimin also knew that he made a mistake out of anger, so he immediately borrowed the donkey from the slope and said: "Okay, who do you think should be sent?"

Fang Xuanling recommended: "The minister recommended Sun Fujia, the servant of the household department. This matter was originally caused by checking the household registration and clearing the land. He is also more familiar with this matter."

"Furthermore, he successively served as a doctor of the Ministry of Punishments and a young secretary of the Dali Temple, and he was in charge of prison affairs... It can be said that he kills two birds with one stone."

The rest of the people couldn't help but want to give him a thumbs up. This candidate is really good, and they all voiced their support.

Li Shimin also agreed with this candidate, but he didn't express his opinion immediately, but asked Tang Jian, "What do Qing Tang think?"

After all, he is the Minister of the Household Department, and Sun Fujia is now his deputy.

Tang Jian came out and said: "I also think Sun Shilang is suitable."

The high-level news is very well-informed, and the personnel appointments of various central agencies are the best in their hearts.

What's more, Tang Jian himself is the Minister of the Household Department, and he knows the situation of his deputy even more.

The current Dali Temple Qingwang is really an old-fashioned official, and he pays attention to stability in his work.

Usually such an official is very popular with everyone, but now that the country is at a critical moment of reform, his stability has become a shortcoming.

Li Shimin had already revealed in private that he wanted to replace him, and the person who was most qualified to take his place was Sun Fujia, the minister of household affairs.

Sun Fujia is the first imperial examination champion recorded in history, and also Li Shimin's confidant.

Although there is no evidence that he participated in the Xuanwu Gate Change, Li Shimin rewarded meritorious officials after he ascended the throne, and he was also knighted.

Although he is only the lowest-ranking county man, the meaning behind it is self-evident.

Later, he directly served as the Shaoqing of Dali Temple, but was dismissed because he misjudged the case.It didn't take long for him to resume his post as a doctor of the Ministry of punishment, and then as the Shaoqing of Dali Temple again.

The year before last, the imperial court wanted to reform the law, so he was promoted to be the minister of the household department, in charge of civil affairs, household registration and finance.

In the work of population inventory and land clearing, Tang Jian made the first contribution and the other made the second. In terms of seniority and merit, they are enough to get promoted. The key is to meet the emperor's wishes.

It is foreseeable that Sun Fujia will go to Huazhou for a tour, and as long as there are no problems, he will be promoted to be the Minister of Dali Temple after returning.

That's why just now everyone thought that it was a wise choice for Fang Xuanling to recommend Sun Fujia.

The incident happened suddenly, Chen Jingke and Li Tai were not suitable to stay in the palace, so they had to leave in a hurry.

On the way, Chen Jingke asked: "What do you think those people in Huazhou think? Rebelling on the edge of Tongguan, isn't this lighting a lantern in the toilet, looking for death?"

Li Tai spread his hands and said: "Who knows, anyway, I can't think of it. Let alone the edge of Tongguan, I can't figure out who dares to rebel in Guanzhong."

Chen Jingke shook his head and said: "Forget it, it has nothing to do with us anyway, let's go and watch."

The two of them took their guards all the way to Zixiao Temple, and they could already hear sporadic rumors along the way.

When I got back to the temple, I found that everyone was nervous, and I immediately knew why.

Seeing Wu Shu walking towards him, Chen Jingke said to Li Tai: "Go to the outer courtyard to appease everyone, I will appease the people in front."

There are many students over there, so they must be appeased.

Li Tai nodded and said, "Okay, leave the outer courtyard to me."

After speaking, he nodded to Wu Shu to salute, then turned and went to the outer courtyard.

Chen Jingke went up to meet him and said, "Are you scared?"

Wu Shu said with a smile: "You look down on people too much, I just feel a little strange, there are really people who dare to rebel in Huazhou?"

Chen Jingke said: "The palace said that there was indeed a rebellion over there. It seems that a local rich family was dissatisfied with the clearness of the land, and gathered a crowd to kill officials and attack the government soldiers."

Wu Shu said sarcastically: "It can only be said that profit makes the mind faint."

Chen Jingke said: "Leave them alone, the sage has summoned all the prime ministers and generals, and the matter will be settled soon. Please appease everyone, and don't make trouble."

Huazhou is only one or two hundred miles away from Chang'an, and the turmoil here can't be hidden from people. Soon all kinds of rumors have spread throughout the city of Chang'an.

What Huazhou tyrants bully men and women to fight against the court.

What kind of court officials are corrupt and accept bribes to measure the land and acres unfairly, forcing the people to rebel.

What rebels are about to hit the capital.

All in all.

But... the front foot still pointed out the common people who looked like they were concerned about the country and the people, and they turned around and did what they should do, without much worry.

No one is worried about whether the capital will be breached, whether they should prepare in advance to avoid military disasters; and no businessman dares to take the opportunity to raise prices.

The troubled times have just ended for more than ten years. More than ten years ago, hundreds of thousands of Turkic troops came to the city of Chang'an. The common people have "rich" experience in war.

Even the Turks were defeated by the sage, and what a group of thieves in Huazhou is nothing, the sage can wipe them out with a single sneeze.

So the common people are not afraid at all, and even hope that the rebel army can hit the city and create some fun for everyone to see.

The common people can watch it for fun, but the officials can't.

No matter how small the rebellion is, it is still a rebellion, but Guanzhong in Huazhou is only more than 100 miles away from the capital, who knows if there will be any accidents.

So the county magistrates of Wannian County and Wannian County in Chang'an put all the guards on the street to maintain law and order and deter Xiaoxiao.

Hundreds of officials also prepared memorials one after another, asking the court to send troops to suppress the rebellion and investigate the truth.

The next day's court meeting was very simple, and only one thing was discussed, the Huazhou Rebellion.

Li Shimin, who had made up his mind a long time ago, quickly cut through the chaos, and first ordered the two Zhechong mansions guarding Huazhou to send troops to quell the chaos.

Then he appointed Sun Fujia as the inspector of Huazhou, fully responsible for the affairs of Huazhou.

Some officials also tried to take advantage of the chaos to obstruct the progress of the investigation work by impeaching the Ministry of Household Affairs for disturbing the people.

They are also delusional.

If it weren't for the Huazhou Rebellion, there was still a little bit of persuasion, and now there is not even a little bit of possibility.

Stopping or suspending the inventory work will immediately cause a chain reaction. There will be incidents of resistance to the inventory all over the country, and even more people will start riots to fish in troubled waters.

And the gentry whose arrogance was finally suppressed will raise their heads again, and even the entire reform will be implicated at that time.

Li Shimin directly reprimanded those people, and said on the spot that anyone who dared to stop the investigation work would be removed from office.

Now no one dared to speak anymore.

This also made the spokespersons of many powerful families understand that the determination of the imperial court to investigate is unstoppable, and it is time to consider how to reduce losses.

They don't have the guts to rebel. They know better than anyone else who holds the knife, and they know that rebellion is a dead end.

In the Sui Dynasty, Yang Jian and Yang Guang's father and son made investigations from time to time, and they dared not rebel, and they dare not do the same now.

The reason why he was arrogant and domineering in the past was because Li Shimin was sure that he was seeking stability internally and was unwilling to go to war.

Now Li Shimin has stabilized the military stratum with enfeoffment, and has completely grasped the power of the military and the country. If he dares to use a knife against them, they will be persuaded immediately.

After retiring from the court, Sun Fujia first went to meet Li Shimin, and after getting a general understanding of the court's plan, he went to the Ministry of Zhongshu to file for the record, and then rushed to Huazhou with his own men.

The imperial court's messenger went one step faster than him, and arrived in Huazhou on the same day.

The two Zhechong Mansions, which had been waiting for death for a long time, were dispatched immediately, one was just to clean up the bandits who were looting everywhere, and the other was to solve the pre-existing difficulties in Zheng County.

Most of the more than ten thousand so-called rebels were dressed in shabby clothes and used farm tools as weapons, only a very small number of them held swords.

They just blocked the gate of the county seat and did not launch an attack on the city.Instead, they sat around and chatted together in twos and threes, and those who didn't know thought it was an outing.

The situation on the city wall is similar, there are not many defenders at all.Only some forced laborers hid in the shade with rusty spears to rest.

When the Zhechong Mansion army rushed over, they all stood up and pointed curiously.

It wasn't until the army rushed to the side that the rebels realized the danger. They left their farm tools and fled crying for their parents and mothers.

The government soldiers would not keep their hands away from the enemy, and directly brandished their weapons to kill each other, killing all those who stood in front, regardless of whether they resisted or not.

Then they didn't stop, but divided into several groups and chased after the fleeing people, and the "crisis" in Zheng County collapsed in an instant.

The 'defenders' on the city wall were also stunned and trembling. Many people couldn't stand the bloody scene and shivered under the female wall.

Before the Sun Fujia people arrived in Huazhou, the messenger who sent the battle report had already gone to Chang'an.

No one in Chang'an found it strange about this. It would be really strange if the elite government soldiers could not solve it quickly.

Now we are waiting for Sun Fujia's investigation results to see what happened to this rebellion.

As expected, Sun Fujia was worthy of being Li Shimin's most important person. Four days later, he returned to Chang'an with all the evidence and key criminals.

"According to what the criminal Zheng Guo said, he originally wanted to encourage the people to drive away the officials who cleared the land. They used this method to deal with the court's inspectors before."

"Imperial court investigators are afraid that things will become too big and they will not be able to take responsibility, so they often shrink back."

"Then Mrs. Zheng colluded with the local yamen officials and gave false data... This method has been tried and tested."

"This time he wanted to use the same method to deal with the officials who were investigated by the imperial court. Who knew that the investigators were not afraid this time, and even resorted to the government soldiers to forcibly clear the head."

"There was a conflict between the two sides when he led people to drive away, and finally the mob lost control and killed the court officials...Zheng Guo also regretted the beginning and wanted to stop."

"However, this matter was not done by him alone, but by many big families in Zheng County. Some of these people want to quit, and some think that the matter has come to an end, so they just don't do it and don't stop..."

"So they coerced more people to try to attack the county seat and the Dudu's Mansion..."

"It's just that they are not in the same heart, they are intriguing with each other, and they can't even manage the most basic management of the trapped people..."

"Some people brought mobs across the border like locusts and looted the village. Some people secretly led people to flee to the mountains, and some people led more than ten thousand people to try to take down the county town and then accept recruitment."

"It's just that those people don't want to attack the city at all, and they don't have siege equipment, so they just linger under the city and were broken by our army..."

Hearing this, Li Shimin couldn't laugh or cry, and said, "Where's the perpetrator? Are they all arrested?"

Sun Fujia said: "Only the two big families saw the opportunity early, and fled to the mountains with the mob after the incident, and the rest of the criminals were all arrested and brought to justice."

Li Shimin said: "The Ministry of Punishment issued an arrest order... Where are the officials from Huazhou and Zheng County? How much did they participate in?"

Sun Fujia took out another dossier and said: "Nine out of ten officials in Zheng County are related to the Zheng family and other big families. They colluded with each other to oppress the village... so that today's disaster happened."

"The Huazhou officials did not directly participate in this matter, but they are also responsible for allowing Zheng County to develop to where it is today."

Li Shimin said coldly: "The officials of Zheng County will be screened, and those who are related to the big rebels will be punished with the same crime."

"The officials of Huazhou Governor's Office, if they have nothing to do with this matter, they will be demoted to three levels and appointed separately. Those who are related to this matter will be dealt with by the same party."

Sun Fujia said: "Well, I just don't know how to deal with these coerced people?"

The officials also pricked up their ears. They were also stunned by the operations of these big households in Zheng County. They really thought that the rebellion was just playing tricks?
But rebellion, no matter how childish it is, is also rebellion, those who deserve to be killed, those who deserve to be exiled.But the people who are coerced are different, and everyone is still unwilling to cause more killings.

They are already prepared. If the emperor's treatment is too harsh, they will definitely stand up and persuade them.

Naturally, Li Shimin was even more unwilling to cause more killings, and said: "Screen them out, and those who did not cause killings will be released without charge, and they will be exiled for participating in plundering and killing people."

Everyone was relieved and said in unison: "Your Majesty is lenient."

At this time, Tang Jian raised a different opinion, saying: "After all, they have participated in rebellion, and gathering together is also a hidden danger. It is better to disperse them and move them to other places for resettlement."

Fang Xuanling also stood up and said: "What Tang Shangshu said is true. These people have participated in the rebellion and are more likely to be instigated by others. It is safer to take them away."

Everyone nodded, and everyone was worried about placing a group of people who had participated in the rebellion in Guanzhong. It would be best to disperse and move out.

As the so-called homeland is hard to leave, it is extremely difficult to move these people away.But now that they participated in the rebellion, it would be good if the court didn't kill them, and no one dared to object.

Li Shimin nodded and said: "Tang Shangshu is a mature and prudent statement, so where should these people be placed?"

Everyone started to discuss. Although everyone mentioned different places, there were generally two directions.

One is the northern frontier, where there is a large area of ​​land recaptured in recent years, which needs to be supplemented with population.

The second is the south, because the empress's eldest grandson Wugou grows sugarcane to boil sugar there, making a lot of money every day.Many dignitaries are enclosing land there to grow sugarcane, which requires a large population.

And under the influence of Chen Jingke, the imperial court is also gradually developing the Hunan and Hubei regions, which also require a large population.

But in the end everyone decided to move people north.

After all, the south can be developed slowly, and the north is more important.

(End of this chapter)