Starting from the Western Han Dynasty

Chapter 165 Li Huan: I am actually a cunning old thief!

"It's you?" Xiao Zui was stunned, not daring to look at his eyes at all.

"It's me." Li Huan is still holding a three-year-old baby in his arms. It is indeed a baby, but in this era, it is true that he has already started working before he can stop wearing diapers.

It was a joke in later generations, but here it is a bloody fact.

"I said that Marquis Anyang is a good official, how about it?" Li Huan wiped the baby's nose and looked at the dumbfounded Xiao Zui with a smile.

Xiaozui suddenly seemed to have come back to his senses. He screamed "Wow" in fright, and knelt on the ground. He was extremely frightened and said: "I don't know the identity of the lord. I have offended you before. Please don't remember me." It's too late, little lady, I..."

"Didn't Cuihua tell you very carefully? Do you want me to say it again?" Li Huan couldn't help laughing.

Cuihua quickly comforted Xiao Zui softly, helped her up, and whispered a few words of reminder.

"I... this little woman's son doesn't know the blessings he has accumulated in several lifetimes..."

"It's because she has a very good mother." Li Huan reached out and stroked the sweaty hair of the child next to him. "When a person is born, he is a blank piece of paper. Whatever his mother teaches him, he will remember."

Xiao Zui's anxious tears were about to flow out, and she said very frankly and honestly: "Your Majesty, the little lady didn't teach you anything..."

"You have a good son, and I fell in love with his filial piety towards you." Li Huan smiled and shook his head: "You may feel that you have taught him nothing, but he has learned the concept of filial piety from your every word and deed. This is enough for one thing, how about it? Do you agree to let your son be my disciple?"

"Agree, agree!" Xiaozui nodded quickly. In fact, she didn't understand what Li Huan said. She just understood the meaning of the last sentence and understood what it meant.

"Very good." Li Huan looked at Cuihua: "Take them down, have a nice bath, and then put on new clothes."

He looked at the thin and ignorant child in front of him: "When tomorrow dawns, your mistress will bring you to see me."

Xiao Zui saw that his son was dumbfounded and just about to move his mouth, the child immediately knelt down and kowtowed to Li Huan...

Perhaps, following his grandmother, he didn't learn anything else, but learned to kowtow.

In life, if you want to stand up, you must first kneel down.

"I will inspect the construction site outside the city tomorrow. The day goes by too fast..." Li Huan yawned: "Let's go and see Sima Qian. He is a Taishi magistrate who also serves as the magistrate of Anyang County, which is a bit unfair."

Everyone left with smiles and joy.

The government office has become a temporary residence for the nobles, but this era is an era of orderly hierarchy and power politics, so the Marquis of Anyang expropriated other mansions next to the government office as the temporary Anyang County government office.

When Li Huan came here, Sima Qian was writing and drawing around a piece of bamboo slips, reaching out to beat his lower back from time to time...

"Oh! Junhou, you are finally here..." Sima Qian's eyes were full of resentment, just like the little daughter-in-law who was guarding her boudoir.

"So many?" Li Huan casually grabbed a scroll of bamboo slips and after reading it for a few times, he was shocked.

"More than that!" Sima Qian changed his posture: "It's strange to say that when we were in Chang'an, we also used bamboo slips. Later, after Junhou's paper became popular, we all used paper to write. It is light and flexible. Now it is better. , using the bamboo slips again, I feel so tired..."

"In Anyang County, from the county magistrate down to the county magistrate, county lieutenants, and county supervisors, everyone is corrupt and bending the law. The big ones can be traced back to the corruption that built the river embankment and flood control dam a few years ago. The small ones are too many. Bullying It is just a daily routine for men to dominate women, and it is their daily operation to invade innocent people's property, and they can kill people at will without hesitation."

Sima Qian casually grabbed a few scrolls of written bamboo slips and piled them in front of Li Huan. Then he laughed strangely: "Junhou, your land here has also been occupied by the county magistrate. The county captain and county supervisor each occupied 150 acres!"

"Ouch! Oops!" Li Huan opened the bamboo slips and found this record: "How dare they? How dare they? My reputation for killing the Huns in Gaoque has already shocked the world, and they actually dare to invade my territory Land? My food... Are all these tenants fools? No one reported this to me? "

"How dare they?" Sima Qian looked around and fixed his gaze on another bamboo slip: "This is the confession of the junior official responsible for measuring the land..."

After he handed it to Li Huan, he said with a sarcastic smile: "The county magistrate believes that the entire Anyang County belongs to him from top to bottom, and you, the Marquis of Anyang, have only built your own mansion here. , you will return to Chang'an City to enjoy the blessings. As long as you take good care of the people you left behind to look after the ancestral home, I will definitely say good things in front of you."

He took out another bamboo slip: "This is the confession of the small officials in charge of taxation. They say that they are secretive in their work. As long as they ensure that the taxes on the fields of the Marquis of Anyang can be paid in full, they will not occupy hundreds of acres of your land. Something big happened!

Besides, the salary of our court, including cash, official fields, and the official fields of the county magistrates, are all together with the official fields of your Marquis of Anyang. When you look at the official fields of Anyang Marquis after leaving the county seat of Anyang County, you will see everything with your eyes. All the mountains, rivers, ponds, fields, grass and trees that you can see are yours. Since there are so many, and you are not here to watch the farming every day, then everyone just takes a small amount, who can find out? Woolen cloth? "

"Damn it!" Li Huan cursed: "Everyone in the court is criticizing the cruel officials and criticizing His Majesty for secretly sending embroidered messengers to spy on his officials. No wonder he did such a disgusting thing. Look at what these bastards did. What the hell is this? I’m still here, how dare you fool me like this!”

Li Huan angrily smashed the bamboo slips on the table, stood up suddenly, and was about to chop down these idiots overnight, but suddenly calmed down, and turned to look at Sima Qian: "These people say that as long as the tax money comes in, Just fine? Who cares what the people below do?"

Sima Qian nodded calmly: "Ran Ye!"

Li Huan suddenly felt a chill coming from behind. He looked at Sima Qian intently: "Have you finished the trial?"

"There are not many things going on in the small county, but the trial will continue tomorrow. As long as someone comes to report and report, the officials will record it..." Sima Qian poured tea for Li Huan: "Your Majesty, please temporarily suspend your thunderous anger. The officials here will It's different from those in Chang'an, where they need to be tortured by ruthless officials, but here I just raised one head, and they were so frightened that they all confessed, which is much easier to deal with than the officials in the capital."

Li Huan sipped the tea and narrowed his eyes: "Mr. Sima, we have known each other for so long. Although you have been lowering the rank one by one, is this the first time you have poured me tea?"

"Hey! How dare I accept the title of Lord and Marquis like this?" Sima Qian bowed his hands to the ground: "Since the Lord and Lord have noticed Xiaguan's little thoughts, please think twice about it..."

"Do you think it's enough if the taxes can be raised? Isn't it necessary to do this?" Li Huan asked calmly, but Huo Qubing's eyes were already cold. He was holding the handle of the knife, and the veins on the back of his hand gradually appeared.

Zhang Qian was the only one who was very calm. He was really calm, not the kind of calm that Li Huan wanted to slap Sima Qian in.

Sima Qian didn't seem to notice these subtle changes in their emotions.

"It's not that the lower officials feel this way, but the people above me feel this way. The saying that royal power does not go to the countryside has been around since ancient times, and the administration of officials at the grassroots level of the empire will always be a cruel fact that cannot be changed."

Sima Qian said: "Liu Shui's county magistrates, iron-clad officers, and grassroots officials in any place are controlled by major families. Now Anyang County can be so smoothly captured by the monarchs only because we brought three thousand troops with us on this trip." , these three thousand troops, under the leadership of the monarch, captured the entire Hanzhong County by surprise. How could these Tufang families dare to compete with the monarch?

So, how happy you are killing now, when you leave here and the army withdraws, how miserable the people here will be. "

He looked directly at Li Huan, full of courage and fearlessness, which made Li Huan think about why this guy had his dick cut off by Emperor Liu Che in history. If you think you are a real man, Boss Liu will tell you not to be a real man...

Too rigid!
Where has your previous spirit gone?
Li Huan pondered, picked up the tea cup again, and sipped the tea carefully, but in reality he was savoring Sima Qian's words.

It is impossible for him to stay in Anyang County forever. Being here is an invisible deterrent, and the wealthy families will behave obediently with their tails between their legs.

Is Anyang County so poor?Are there also aristocratic families?

Have!
Li Huan really couldn't deny that the largest rooster would grow as a chicken's head in the henhouse, not to mention that this was a place where humans lived together as a city.

Moreover, the population here is quite large. According to the county magistrate, this is a big city... There seems to be no big connection between poverty and population...

There are many people in Chang'an, but everyone is very rich; but there are also beggars on the streets who test people's compassion.

Anyang County is very poor, but there are still families who can eat meat every meal.

Li Huan suddenly laughed out loud. Even in the caves of primitive people, some people have more meat in their caves, and some people have no meat in their caves.

Wherever human settlements are formed, there will inevitably be a gap between rich and poor.

Over time, a big clan will form, and the big clan will naturally squeeze out the living space of other people, and all kinds of injustices will happen. What is ridiculous is that, to a certain extent, when the big clan does not threaten the rule of the imperial court, it can actually guarantee the imperial rule. The tax revenue is generous, ensuring that no one in the local area will stand up to make trouble and make the emperor unhappy.

So, since this is the case, if you are the emperor Liu Che, why do you have nothing to do and get rid of these people?
And there is no point in getting rid of it. It will hurt your muscles and bones. Within a few days, a new group of small landowners will appear in the local area to dominate, and most of them are the ones with more males in the family. People replaced these small landowners and became the local emperors again.

The basis of feudal rule was these small landowners.

The emperors of the past dynasties knew this very well. Only the top big landowners would threaten the emperor's rule, and those who became big landowners usually had their own clansmen as spokespersons in the court.

For example... Li Huan thought to the end and realized that he was the biggest landlord in Anyang County... Interesting, he was the source of all evil.

Perhaps, in the eyes of these small landowners in Anyang County, they are the ceiling of the landowner world. They want to get rid of them and establish an order here that belongs entirely to my Li family. I am the boss here.

The little landlords also very much agree that you are the boss here. If you want to announce the killing of people, we all hang our heads and see who is unlucky and you pick and cut them down. We will come to see you again after you have finished your power. You, give gifts when you should, give places when you should, give people when you should...

Then everyone joins hands and becomes a happy landlord together and continues to exploit those damn mud-legged people...

Li Huan suddenly felt that Sima Qian, who was still bowing and holding his hands in front of him, was much more pleasing to his eyes, because this guy had seen through everything from the beginning and figured out the problem between the landlord and the landlord.

But I looked at all the injustices in Anyang County with the eyes of a modern person... As a result, I found that the source of all evil was myself, so how could I eliminate evil?

Is it really like Lu Xiucai said, you killed yourself?correct answer!
Good guy, you did it to the end, did you slap yourself in the face?
Huo Qubing, who was standing next to him, had unknowingly moved his hands to fiddle with the documents on the side. His mind was very active, and he actually figured out this relationship...

Li Huan glanced at Zhang Qian from the corner of his eye. Zhang Qian...well, he understood from the beginning...

Co-authored, just myself and Qu Bing, father and son, both responsible and established?

In fact, in Sima Qian's eyes, he is nothing more than the kind of person who dominates his fiefdom, suppresses the Anyang dignitaries with thunderous and bloody methods, and then wipes out the entire Anyang County to the end, replacing all positions with his own people. That kind of prince.

Obviously everything is for himself, but he still calls it euphemistically, it is for the people of Anyang County...

It turns out that he is such a person in Sima Qian's heart!
What made Sima Qian even more aggrieved was that he had such thoughts and ideas in his heart, but he did not dare to express them at all. He just used the people as an excuse...

"Okay, tomorrow, we will continue to review the case. As long as it is reasonable and well-founded, record it. The paper mill can be built in three or two days, and paper can be made in six or seven days..." Li Huan put down the tea cup, feeling a little solemn. : "Even if you don't have enough manpower, don't tire yourself out." "Here!"

Sima Qian bowed and sent Li Huan away who was in a complicated mood.

Zhang Qian intentionally stayed a step, and waited until Li Huan had left before he said, "Would it be too much to stimulate the Lord like this?"

"No." Sima Qian was quite calm.

"But these charges are all justified. Why must we do this?" A trace of unbearability flashed in Zhang Qian's eyes.

"I have looked through the annals of history and found that no resourceful person in the past or present has been able to solve the problem of grassroots government. Maybe the monarchs will?" Sima Qian buried himself in sorting out the documents.

Zhang Qian opened his mouth and was silent for a while. Looking at Sima Qian's voice under the candlelight, a coldness appeared in his eyes. He shook his sleeves and said: "Since ancient times, all those who have reformed have died unexpectedly. How can I sit back and watch when you treat me like a brother?" Is he in trouble? After the official purge in Anyang County, these problems may appear again in more than ten years, but the monarch's move can allow the people of Anyang County to live a comfortable life for 30 to [-] years, unlike some people who only It will hurt people both now and in the annals of history.”

Sima Qian angrily said: "The history I recorded is all reasonable and well-founded. Why did the Taizhong doctor come to this point and speak like a sword?"

"Hmph!" Zhang Qian just sneered: "You think you don't like it? You can't stand the people being bullied? Just because you don't like it, you claim to change everything? This is what the history books say, so what do you think? However, after your death, in a few hundred years, when future generations compile history books, how will they delete your history books?"

"Don't forget that the monarch has Empress Chen on his head. Even if the monarch is unwilling to turn Anyang County into his own county, what about Empress Chen? Empress Chen is happy to see this done.

The [-] households whose surname was changed from Chen to Li, as foreigners of the Li family, have moved to Anyang County one after another to defend the main clan. The [-] households have multiplied and spread, and Anyang County has been reborn. After more than a hundred years, everyone's surname was Li. "

Sima Qian's face was illuminated by candlelight.

"The prince is a human being, not a god..." Zhang Qian's tone softened a little: "You are young and you have ideals, but placing your ideals on others is ultimately the stupidest decision."

"I have traveled thousands of miles and read thousands of books. You have also traveled thousands of miles and read thousands of books. But wherever you go, there are official inns. Wherever I go, there are wolves, tigers and leopards. , Grinding teeth and sucking blood, I have seen the ugliest human heart in the world."

"Caring about oneself is not an ugly human heart; caring about the world is the heart of a saint." Zhang Qian's tone became calmer, even with a hint of confusion: "The saints are all in ancient times, the saints are in books, and the saints are in legends. Have you and I seen the saint with our own eyes?”

Sima Qian shook his head, but his eyes gradually became firmer, and the flames were clear, illuminating the contours of his face clearly, and even his hairs: "The king once said, "Heaven and earth establish a heart, establish a life for the living and people, inherit the knowledge of the past, and create peace for all generations." .”

"You must be crazy!" Zhang Qian dropped these words and turned away.

In some respects, Sima Qian already regarded Li Huan as a saint.

A living saint is the greatest threat to the imperial power, so the cost of being a saint is high, and the first one is death.

Zhang Qian suddenly broke into a cold sweat. Only now did he understand why Empress Chen, who had long since ceased to be a real empress, would let Li Huan destroy Anyang County in her own name.

The world does not need living saints, it only needs saints who died in books and were recorded in the annals of history; what the world needs is hypocritical villains, but they are not real villains.

Hypocritical villains can best use the words of dead saints to maintain the emperor's authority; living saints may not necessarily listen to the emperor's words.

The moonlight was shining on the earth, and Zhang Qian seemed to be walking on a layer of water. He suddenly felt that people like Sima Qian were too idealistic, so he could only hide in the house and write history books, organize literary strategies, and look for ancient ancient classics. It is enough to continue the completed book.

If it wasn't Li Huan tonight, but someone else, I'm afraid Huo Qubing would have had his head chopped off long ago.

After all, Sima Qian's words seemed to be persuading Li Huan, but in fact they were deliberately irritating Li Huan. The method of stimulating generals sounds cliché, but through the ages, how many heroes have lost their precious lives because of this method of stimulating generals?

At this moment, Zhang Qian made up his mind to visit Empress Chen early tomorrow morning.

Zhang Qian sneered and looked back at the courtyard where Sima Qian worked. Some people were indeed only suitable for writing history books, while the rest were a mess!
Wei Shaoer noticed something strange about Li Huan. This was not only when the two of them were affectionate, but more importantly, Li Huan had insomnia...

From knowing Li Huan to now, she has never seen Li Huan like this.

There was no one in Anyang County that Li Huan couldn't deal with, and Wei Shaoer was even more confused.

Some women won't ask if a man doesn't tell him; and some women will definitely ask after noticing something strange about a man. I can't say which one is better, I can only say which one is more suitable.

"There isn't much trouble, maybe I just fell into Sima Qian's trick." Li Huan hugged Wei Shao'er and suddenly laughed.

"Sima Qian? That Taishi Ling? How dare he be so bold?" Wei Shao'er was full of disdain: "He comes to our house to eat and drink when he has time, and he always wanders around. I even hate him. Go The sick child secretly read the biographies he wrote about his husband, and there were a lot of filthy words in them. If my mother hadn't nodded, I would have wanted to secretly instigate people to burn those things he wrote!"

This is very conservative, Li Huan thinks it should be an assassination.

Li Huan nudged Wei Shaoer's nose with his nose and said with a smile: "No matter what he does, after thousands of years, some people will lift him to the sky, and some will trample him into the dirt. You say, I serve with my wisdom." Your Majesty, you used your bravery to intimidate the Huns, isn’t it just so that your descendants can live a good life?”

"My ambition in life, at the most serious level, is nothing more than to leave a name in history. My husband has already done that. At the most small level, it is to bless our descendants. Now my family, Li, has taken over Anyang as a fiefdom, and my husband has taken over the corrupt officials here." Beat it down hard, and all the people in Anyang praised your husband as a virtuous man."

The more Wei Shao'er went on to talk, the more strange he felt: "I don't even think about it. What else does my husband have to be sad about?"

Li Huan looked at the moonlight outside the window and asked meaningfully: "Before you set off, did Jinzhan tell you that after arriving here, she would arrange for people to come over and gradually replace the officials, big and small, in Anyang County?"

Wei Shaoer glanced at Li Huan strangely: "Husband, didn't the princess tell you these words?"

Li Huan understood in his heart, Jinzhan felt that these words did not need to be said to him, just like when he, Huo Qubing, and Li Gan rode to Pingyang City with their guards, Cao Xiang was sitting in the Marquis Mansion enjoying the delicious food. I knew immediately that I was waiting for someone to arrive.

Where do eyes and ears come from?

Just because the entire Pingyang City belongs to the Marquis of Pingyang. This belonging means that all the officials from the county magistrate of Pingyang City to the lower ones belong to the system of Marquis of Pingyang.

I am also stupid. I have already reached the top position of the princes, but I didn't think about this problem...

Therefore, Sima Qian specifically emphasized that officials in Anyang County were easy to interrogate. When asked what illegal things they had done, they would tell them immediately.

County magistrates, county magistrates, county lieutenants, and county supervisors all secretly occupied their own official fields... Is this someone else's secret occupation?This was obviously intentional; because they knew that after arriving here, the first thing they would do was to replace them with their own people.

As long as Guantian sends people to check, he will find out, and then he will have an excuse to tell these people to go away, and he can replace them with his own people.

The county magistrates thought very clearly that since they and others were already so sensible, they would definitely not offend Marquis Anyang. They could step down from their current positions as if to protect themselves and let Marquis Anyang arrange for his people to take over.

Similarly, after he reported to Gillian that all the officials in Anyang County were arrested by him, Gillian immediately said that you, my mother, should tell His Majesty these things.

What your mother said to His Majesty is actually that she and Jin Laoer will choose suitable people to replace these original officials.

However, the embarrassing thing is that Li Huan is not very familiar with the process of princes building ancestral residences in their own fiefdoms in this era... Others have already regressed, but he continues to move forward...

Everyone thought that Li Huan understood this "rule", but Li Huan himself didn't know it. He just realized it at this moment.

Sima Qian thought Li Huan knew about it, but Li Huan purged the officials and pursued the case to the end. He wanted to hang the heads of these officials on the city tower and tell the corrupt officials in the world that I don't want you to retreat, and I want your heads to comfort the suffering people.

So, he thought that Li Huan was the saint mentioned in ancient history books... so he had such a strange temptation.

It was only at this moment that Li Huan realized that the ancestral residence of the Hou Mansion was not simply a matter of building a house, setting up a ancestral hall, offering sacrifices to heaven and earth, and telling the ghosts and gods in all directions, and then it was over.

In this land of the Han Empire, the rise of every monarch means a powerful force carving up the fat cake of the Han Empire.

This was a coincidence. I didn't really think so at first. I just thought this place was too poor.

But coincidentally, in the eyes of Gillian, Jinzhan, Wei Shaoer, Zhang Qian, Sima Qian, and even Huo Qubing, everything he did was building his own "kingdom".

First, there would be a big fanfare to arrest corrupt officials and eliminate the rule of officials; and then soon there would be rumors that the Marquis Anyang was moved by the filial piety of a poor child and accepted him as his disciple, which was known to all women and children. This was a promotion of filial piety.

When the rhythm is picked up, people will rush to praise the greatness and kindness of Marquis Anyang; after all, the Han Empire took the lead in the concept of governing the country with filial piety. This rhythm is so popular that it can even become a good story and spread.

In this way, it is easier for the common people to accept that the entire Anyang County is gradually being controlled by the Li family.

Li Huan leaned on Wei Shaoer's jade arm, and he felt that the things he did unconsciously and unpremeditated looked more and more like careful planning... Well, it's hard to argue, this is what I, Li Huan, carefully planned!

Jie Jie!

Perhaps, after these things are reported to Chang'an, people with similar status to myself will admire that I do things flawlessly and that I am an outstanding group!
Even Emperor Liu Che would be shocked after reading Gillian's confession. He would nod his head in front of the imperial case and say in his heart: This boy is really on the right track!

"Jinzhan doesn't need to say anything to me, I know what I should do." Li Huan responded to Wei Shao'er: "I'm a little hungry. If Cuihua is not asleep yet, ask her to order someone to prepare some food, and we will eat in the house. a barbecue."

Wei Shaoer excitedly went to call Cuihua, Li Huan saw her walking like that, and knew that this girl had misunderstood him...

If you misunderstand, just misunderstand. I have been misunderstood since I entered Anyang County until now...

One person cannot resist the entire era, and neither can Emperor Liu Che; anyone who has reached his position will do the same.

The only difference is that I will not squeeze the people of Anyang County too hard.

Li Huan cheered up, prepared to barbecue, and shouted loudly: "Come on, come on! Turn over my tiger penis wine too!"

　ah!Qiqi is so long, I praise myself!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)