A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 644
The three thousand cherries in the Wujia Xiudefang Cherry Orchard are producing fruitful fruits this year, especially the early-maturing varieties, which are the first for Chang'an.

"Give some to everyone."

Wu Huaiyu closed the door at home and thought about his mistakes. In fact, it was rare for him to have some leisure time. He took a group of children to play. These days, he seemed to be the principal of a kindergarten.

Thanking guests behind closed doors, it is rare to have leisure time.

However, he still has to see his students. It is rare that in Beijing, a group of disciples who enter the house come every day to greet him and ask for advice.

Li Yifu is the most diligent visitor and has to come at least twice a day. This guy is now the supervisory censor and also serves as the prince's minister. Although his rank is only lower than the eighth rank, he is a serious Jinshi. He was originally a Jinshi of the Fourteenth Middle School and was known as The child prodigy, now the 16-year-old supervisory censor, is also a student of Wu Huaiyu, a son-in-law of the warrior Yi, a nephew of Li Baiyao, a clan brother of Li Mengchang, and a confidant of the prince.

This series of shining titles has made this guy really proud. He is like a star in the Yushitai. He has a strong backing background. After entering the Yushitai Li Yi Mansion, he immediately solved a major case.

During the impeachment of the two governors of Zezhou, Zhang Changgui and Zhao Shida, they occupied thousands of acres of fertile land in the territory, and many officials in the territory received donations from the people.

The young Li Yifu dug up a Zezhou embezzlement case, and he impeached the two governors before and after him. Moreover, he hit hard, and there was blood as soon as he struck. All kinds of evidence were brought out, and the court immediately investigated thoroughly. Then I discovered that there really weren’t many good officials in Zezhou, and they were all greedy and acted the best.

The two governors each occupied thousands of acres of the people's fertile land, and other officials followed suit. They even charged for rides, imposed various taxes, and made the people miserable.

This case was such a big deal that Li Yifu even directly posted the case in the Beijing News in the East Palace.

Public opinion fermented, and more and more rumors were raised, and finally it even came to the head of the deceased Dugu Yanyun. He also occupied a lot of land in Zelu and other places, and even accepted bribes from Zhang and Zhao.

In the end, the emperor came forward in person, and the case ended here, and no further digging was carried out.

There was a great earthquake in the officialdom of Zezhou, which almost wiped out all the officials. The officials were also reorganized. The emperor specially sent Sun Shunde, the uncle of the queen family, to take over as the governor of Zezhou. He rectified Zezhou and cleared tens of thousands of acres of fertile land, all of which were distributed to poor.

Li Yifu also became famous in Chang'an due to this case, and even the emperor personally summoned him to commend him and rewarded him with a hundred pieces of silk.

He even got the title of Xiao Wei Zheng in the court.

"Teacher, good news."

When Li Yifu came in, he happily congratulated Huaiyu, "Just when I was at the Yushitai, Shiren came to announce the decree. Ma Zhongcheng was promoted to Minister of the Secretariat. He is still the crown prince's right concubine, and he was promoted to Gaotang County Bo."

Wu Huaiyu was a little surprised and asked Li Yifu to sit down.

It can be said that Ma Zhou and Wu Huaiyu entered the officialdom together. They were poor scholars at the beginning. Wu Huaiyu invited him to be a guest and brought him to Longyou to join the army. The promotion was really fast.

From supervising the censor to serving the censor, then to serving as a minister, and then transferred to the scholar, and then promoted to govern the book and serve as the censor, then admonish the officials, and also serve as the prince's right concubine.
Now he has been promoted to the title of Vice Minister of Zhongshu.

In the 30 years before Ma Zhou, he was in a state of decline, but in recent years he has been on the rise, and his promotion speed is really no slower than that of Wu Huaiyu.

Moreover, the officials he has been promoted to in recent years are also very special. It is a standard promotion path for noble and important ministers, the path to prime minister.

"Ma Gong is really only one step away from becoming the prime minister now." Li Yifu was very excited, and even more envious. Ma Zhou was really his role model.

"Ma Gong has been promoted to the Minister of Public Affairs at this time, so the teacher must have returned to his prime ministership."

Wu Huaiyu only shook his head.

My brother-in-law has been promoted to the Vice Minister of the Middle School. How can I ask my brother-in-law to serve as the Secretary of the Middle School? Even if he inspects the school, it is impossible.

However, he is not in a hurry to come back. Now there is fierce fighting in the court, and if we want to implement reforms and new policies, the situation will be more complicated, too complicated, and prone to accidents.

Now he would rather take it easy and spend more time with his wife and children at home.

Seek the country first.

"Eat cherries, this is a new variety today,"

"Thank you, teacher."

Huaiyu chatted with Li Yifu and asked some about the land occupation situation that the Yushitai is currently investigating. This situation is still relatively common and serious.

During the previous turmoil, many fields were deserted, many households were extinct, and many people left their hometowns. Many fertile fields were either truly abandoned or 'recorded' as abandoned fields. In those places, powerful officials used the name of land reclamation to convert these fields. Good farmland occupied,
Now the court is beginning to focus on investigating these matters. Firstly, the external environment is safe, and secondly, the court is paving the way for the two tax laws.

The most important reason for implementing the two-tax law is that the land equalization order, which is the basis of rent-to-yong adjustment, cannot be carried out. There is no land to divide, powerful mergers, corruption and appropriation, etc.
The land equalization order itself was not a large-scale land contracting of later generations, but was still based on the current situation of private ownership of land. The remaining public land, wasteland, and absolute household land were allotted. There was only a small amount of land that could be divided. After the previous After more than ten years of allocation, there has long been no land to be divided. In fact, in the heartland areas such as Guanzhong and Guandong, basically all the land was divided in one or two rounds of allocation.

Nowadays, soldiers in the new government are often not allocated enough land when they click on it. The land for meritorious service can only be allocated to Kuanxiang. The land for officials and nobles, such as Yongye Tian and career land, is also not enough.

This is a serious problem. The foundation of the entire tax system in large countries is no longer functioning, and it will not work unless it is changed.

If there is no change, then the first problem that will arise is actually the government army system. In the new point, the soldiers cannot be assigned fields, and the soldiers cannot receive land for their meritorious service. Then who will prepare their own armed food and fodder to fight for the court?

The emperor said that 1 years is too early to seize the day. That is not an exaggeration. It is indeed urgent.

Now, it is a good reason to launch the land clearing operation on the pretext of combating corruption. We can take this opportunity to find out the situation of the land in the world, crack down on corrupt officials, and recover the occupied land.It can be said that Li Yifu has a keen sense of smell, or it can be said that he just happened to encounter this wind.
Ma Zhou's promotion to the Vice Minister of the Secretariat at this time is also related to this. First of all, Ma Zhou and Wu Huaiyu have a very good relationship. The two have been together for a long time, and many of their governance concepts are also close. Ma Zhou was deeply influenced by Wu Huaiyu, and has always been While emphasizing that there is a big problem with the rent modulation and it is time to change,
Since Wu Huaiyu refused to come back, the emperor pushed Ma Zhou to the position of Minister of Zhongshu. The Ministry of Zhongshu was the decision-making organ, and the Minister of Zhongshu was also an important official in charge of daily affairs.

To do big things and implement the New Deal, we must first sort out the personnel issues.

"Teacher, the Yushitai will send a group of supervisory censors to patrol the various roads and strengthen inspections and supervision. I want to go out to patrol one area. What do you think, teacher?"

The idea of ​​censorship was actually proposed by Wu Huaiyu when he was serving as the censor. He and Gao Jixiu advocated that the censors of the three courtyards of the censorship station should be divided into different responsibilities.

The number of supervisory censors was also increased. Not only was there a permanent supervisory censor from each province, there was also one in the capital, and the two were rotated every year.

In addition, supervisory censors will be dispatched regularly and irregularly to patrol various prefectures and counties to monitor officials and interview people's conditions.

Whether they are supervisory censors or patrol censors, they are only in the eighth rank, but their power is not small. For a young, talented, and profound person like Li Yifu to be the patrol censor, there is definitely a lot to do.

"Which way do you want to go?"

"Ask the teacher for advice."

"Since you committed a big case in Zezhou before, you might as well go to Hedong."

After getting rid of two governors of Zezhou and overthrowing all the officials in a state, no one in Hedong would dare to underestimate him if he went to Hedong for inspection.

Li Yifu respects Wu Huaiyu very much. Even though Wu Huaiyu is now removed from all official positions, Li Yifu knows very well that this teacher, who is only six or seven years older than him, is truly a man who can stir up troubles and has too much to learn from.

After the Dragon Boat Festival in May, he really left the capital and went to Hedong, where he served as the censor of Hedong Road.

The patrol supervisor itself is still a supervisory censor. The patrol supervisor is just an errand, equivalent to the leader of the central government's special inspection team. In fact, it existed in the Sui Dynasty, but it was not as systematic as it is now.

When Li Yifu left the capital, his main task was to clear the fields, then interrogate prisoners, inspect warehouses, conduct household registration censuses, calculate money and food, encourage schools, praise good people, and care for the elderly.
This is a person who patrols hunting on behalf of the emperor, reports on major matters, and makes decisions on small matters. He is a truly official-level existence. When he comes to the local level, whether it is administration, military, or the clan in the village, he can take care of everything big and small.

Li Yi's Mansion patrolled Hedong, but there was no government office. The various states and counties inspected and inspected officials, made decisions on punishments and prisons, and also visited talented people.

Officials below the fifth rank who embezzle money, bend the law, commit crimes, etc. If the circumstances are particularly egregious, they can even be beheaded first and then dismissed directly.

When Li Shimin came to the throne, the prime ministers, ministers, generals and other important ministers made separate inspection tours. Now, he changed the inspection to the supervisory censor, forming a permanent system that is more mature.

These patrol magistrates and local supervisory censors were the emperor's eyes and ears. They also patrolled the hunting grounds on behalf of heaven and supervised local affairs.

And precisely because the power they received was too great, the imperial court finally adopted Wu Huaiyu's advice and used only eighth-rank supervisory censors to exercise this power, and most of them were young censors with a Jinshi background.

Wu Huaiyu was very optimistic about Li Yifu. This man was young, talented, and discerning. Especially at such a young age, he was as skilled in dealing with people as the old officials in the yamen. This kind of man also had a backer. As long as he did not drift away or seek death, , then the official career is indeed limitless.

Wu Huaiyu also knew that this guy's heart was not pure enough, but upstarts like the Wu family also needed people, especially people like Li Yifu who could do things well.

As for whether it will float in the future, or even whether it will bite the Lord, that is not urgent.

The days spent shutting up at home and thinking about life became a bit boring after a long time. Because of the emperor's decree, Wu Huaiyu could not go out. In fact, he really wanted to live in Fanchuan or Sanyuan.

In the blink of an eye, June turns apricot yellow,

Both sides of the Wei River seemed to be swept by golden waves of wheat overnight.

At this time, the cuckoo also began to cry every day, looking forward to harvesting, and looking forward to harvesting, reminding people to hurry up and harvest.

It was already early June,
Eight hundred miles of Qinchuan ushered in another good year.

But Wu Huaiyu could only sit at home and listen to everyone talking about the ripe wheat and the good harvest.
I'm a little tired of living this kind of life behind closed doors.

Ma Zhou came with his eldest sister and the child in his arms.

"It's only been less than two months, Erlang can't sit still anymore?" Ma Zhou said with a smile.

"Being locked up in this big house every day without being able to get out is like being in jail for a long time." Although Wu's house has more than [-] acres and is very huge, no matter how big it is, he can't bear to stay there every day.

"The sage is right, you won't be able to stay on your own within two months," Ma Zhou smiled. "The sage asked me to send you a message, saying that you should be relieved of your isolation and think about your past, and that you should go to the Menxia Provincial Political Affairs Hall tomorrow morning."

"But I don't want to enter the political hall now." Wu Huaiyu wanted to go out, but he didn't want to return to the prime minister now.

"Don't worry, the saint also knows your thoughts and is not in a hurry to get you back. Tomorrow the saint will go to the political hall to discuss matters with the prime ministers. Not only the prime ministers are going, but also some ministers and ministers are summoned.

There are also Duke Changsun and Duke Xiao. Although they have no official duties with you, they are also specially called. "

"You didn't ask Hou Jun to gather?" Huaiyu asked with a smile.

(End of this chapter)