Eastern Jin Dynasty: My powerful father

Chapter 134 Looking at people as mirrors

On the eve of the Mid-Autumn Festival, Huan Xi returned to Chang'an and met Wang Meng outside the city.

It had been half a year since Huan Xi went on tour. Huan Xi saw that Wang Meng had a strange look on his face and hesitated to speak. He knew that Wang Meng had something to say to him, but it was not convenient for him to say it in public.

When returning to the city, Huan Xi invited Wang Meng to ride with him, and asked Xie Daoyun to carry Aman to another carriage.

In the carriage, Huan Xi asked:

"Is there something on your mind, sir?"

Wang Meng took a deep breath and said bluntly:

"I heard that death has always existed since ancient times, and people cannot stand without faith.

"Since my lord is interested in Liangzhou, even if talents are rare, he should not make a promise to Xie Ai and be bound by a peace treaty in the future."

Previously, Huan Xi sent Zhang Shisheng to send a message to Xie Ai, promising that he would never violate the peace treaty with Zhang Chonghua.

When Huan Xi heard this, he suddenly realized that Wang Meng was angry because of this matter.

He didn't take it to heart and smiled nonchalantly:

"Sir, you are worrying too much."

However, Wang Meng would not be fooled. He said seriously:

"If my lord wants to capture Liangzhou, he will break his promise and attack us. If he does this, how can the world trust him!"

Although Sima Yi swore to Luoshui and broke his promise to destroy the Cao Shuang clan, no matter which dynasty they were in, there were people who valued integrity more than their lives.

Wang Meng was not jealous. The relationship between Huan Xi and him was not comparable to that of Xie Ai.

In fact, Wang Meng also likes loyal people like Xie Ai.

But in Wang Meng's view, Huan Xi's promise was purely unnecessary and put a moral shackles on himself.

Huan Xi was not angry at Wang Meng's offense. As a monarch, even if he cannot be happy after hearing the advice, he should not feel resentment because his loyal words are offensive to his ears.

Moreover, Huan Xi also understood that Wang Meng's loss of attitude today was not for his own benefit. After all, he was still thinking about the Lord.

Huan Xi said seriously:

"Sir, you should know that when Huan was in charge of Shu, he wanted to collect cattle people for use, so he asked for jade to establish trust. How could he be in vain for Xinyi?

"When Zhang Chonghua dies and chaos breaks out in Wuwei, how can it be said that I am violating morality by sending troops to help?

"At that time, we can take control of Liangzhou and use our youngest son as a puppet to control the situation behind the scenes. In a few years, under the guise of imperial orders, we can recruit the governor of Liangzhou to serve as an official in the court, and then we can legitimately occupy Liangzhou."

Wang Meng wondered:

"Zhang Chonghua is in his prime, why do you think my lord is going to die soon?"

Of course Huan Xi couldn't tell him his identity as a time traveler, so he could only explain:

"Sex is a bone scraper, wine is a poison that penetrates the intestines. Zhang Chonghua is content with enjoying himself. He is drunk all day long and dreams of death. This is how he knows that his life span will not last forever."

He was worried that Wang Meng wouldn't believe it, so he added:

"Zhang Chonghua's brother Zhang Zuo is very ambitious. If Zhang Chonghua is not a short-lived person, I will have my own way to provoke infighting among their brothers.

“As for what was said that day, it was just to appease the Zhang brothers.

"Otherwise, with Huan at his side, how could Zhang Zuo dare to act rashly."

After Wang Meng heard this, he finally felt relieved and apologized to Huan Xi for his previous offense.

Huan Xi held his hand and said:

“Using history as a mirror, we can understand the ups and downs; using people as a mirror, we can understand gains and losses.

"I also ask my husband to be my mirror, to reflect my gains and losses, so that I can realize my right and wrong."

Wang Meng was moved.

Back in front of Weiyang Palace, Huan Xi got off the carriage, and Xie Daoyun led Aman through the door.

Aman is about to be one year old now and can already learn to walk. The couple accommodates him and walks very slowly.

Huan Xi hugged Luo Niang with his other hand.

The guards along the way saluted one after another. Aman had been away from Weiyang Palace for too long and looked at everything here curiously. In his eyes, everything was novel.

Luo Niang obediently hugged her father's neck and leaned on his shoulder. There were too many strangers in Weiyang Palace, and she seemed a little intimidated.

Huan Xi settled down his family and transferred 5,000 pieces of cloth from the palace as a reward for the soldiers accompanying him.

The next day, after a night's rest, Huan Xi went out of the city and went to Jiqiaoyuan. There was no progress yet on the new armor, but the improved four-wheeled carriage and printing technology had been figured out.

Huan Xi was greatly relieved to see the craftsman driving the improved four-wheeled carriage in the wilderness for a demonstration from a distance, and seeing that it could turn freely.

The craftsman stopped the carriage in front of him and explained the principle to Huan Xi. In fact, the front wheel was fixed on an independent movable axis to achieve free deflection.

The rear wheels are still fixed to the main frame to bear more weight.

But no matter how it is adjusted, with ancient technology, four wheels are not as flexible as two wheels, but for Huan Xi, this level is acceptable.

At least there is no need for a group of people to pull in front and a group of people to push from behind to help the four-wheeled carriage turn.

And because the rear wheel bears more weight, it can also extend the service life of the front wheel shaft.

Huan Xi couldn't wait to get on the carriage and drove it himself. He was quite satisfied. He asked someone to take out 100,000 yuan on the spot and let the craftsmen who participated in the development of the four-wheeled carriage and made contributions divide it among them.

Then he went to the printing factory to inspect. Previously, after Wang Meng reviewed printing technology, he had already set up a factory outside the city to print books.

However, among block printing and movable type printing, block printing is mainly used.

After all, both wooden movable type and clay movable type have obvious flaws, and lead movable type, limited by the current level of craftsmanship, is really impossible to make.

Huan Xi's original intention was just to promote education, and printing books and engraving printing could meet his needs.

However, Huan Xi still spent 200,000 yuan to reward the craftsmen who made contributions to the research and development of engraving and movable type respectively.

After the inspection, Huan Xi couldn't wait to put on a new carriage and return to Chang'an. Because he was deeply troubled by uneven roads during his inspection, he sent a message to Wang Meng, asking him to collect corvees after spring plowing and repair roads as the main project. .

In particular, the five routes from Chang'an to Tongguan, Puban, Tianshui, Hanzhong, and Nanyang that Huan Xi specifically mentioned are the top priority.

After spring plowing and before autumn harvest, Wang Meng recruited 250,000 men and women in Yong, Qin and Liang prefectures to repair roads.

The construction period was three months. Since the people only had to perform corvée and labor for one month each year, 250,000 people were divided into three batches. They could only return home after working on the official road for a month.

Although Huan Xi allowed the emperor to pay for the service, that is, to pay silk cloth, in order to be exempted from corvee and labor service.

But there will always be people who are reluctant to pay more money and would rather work on the official road for a month. After all, Huan Xi would not kill the people by doing corvee work for Huan Xi.

Moreover, people everywhere built and paved official roads near their homes, and they themselves would eventually benefit from them.

Of course, there are also more people who choose to work as slaves and spend their spare time weaving or doing small business in their spare time.

Otherwise, how could it be possible that Huan Xi ruled only 250,000 adult men and women from 300,000 households.

Since Huan Xi encouraged procreation, especially for adult men, even if you had not yet started a family, the rent was paid on a monogamous basis.

However, even with such regulations, single men can still afford taxes, but the surplus is much smaller in comparison.

For women, the late marriage tax since the Han and Jin Dynasties has also been retained.

Therefore, the young men and women under Huan Xi's rule still had a high willingness to get married after they reached adulthood.

Huan Xi returned to Jiao Fang Hall, where Xie Daoyun was waiting for him.

Seeing Huan Xi enter the door, she pushed a few blank sheets of paper on the table towards Huan Xi and asked:

"Could it be that your husband has been copying the Queen Mother's handwriting?"

Huan Xi was secretly shocked. He picked it up and saw that it was all waste paper left behind by copying his handwriting.

But Huan Xi was not an ordinary person after all. He asked calmly and calmly:

"Why shouldn't I copy the Queen Mother's handwriting for use in correcting edicts in the future?"

What he said made sense, but I had never heard of someone having to copy the handwriting of an imperial edict.

In most cases, edicts are drafted on behalf of others. They do not necessarily have to be handwritten by the emperor or the queen mother, as long as they use their seals.

Of course, as a senior lover of Empress Dowager Chu's calligraphy, the reasons given by Huan Xi were enough to fool Xie Daoyun.

After all, Xie Daoyun could never have imagined that Huan Xi, as a minister, would be so rebellious and dare to take advantage of the Queen Mother.

When Huan Xi saw Xie Daoyun, she no longer pursued the matter. Instead, she asked how she found these waste papers. It was easy to attack and defend.

But it’s not Xie Daoyun’s fault, but that Huan Xi didn’t hide the waste paper deeply. Aman crawled all over the house, holding a box from under the bed. His mother opened it for him, and Aman found these waste papers. Paper.

Xie Daoyun was originally curious about Huan Xi's calligraphy practice, so he took the scrap paper from Aman's hand and recognized it at a glance. The handwriting was quite similar to his cousin's, so he was confused.

Huan Xi was glad in his heart that the private messages between himself and the Queen Mother were hidden elsewhere and were not found by this scoundrel.

Aman was still smiling at Huanxi, not knowing how much trouble he almost caused his father.

But there are advantages to this. With a legitimate reason, you won’t have to carry your wife behind your back when practicing calligraphy in the future.

At the same time, after Dai Shi obtained the jade seal passed down from the country, he ordered people to send it to Jiankang without stopping.

After regaining the treasure, all the princes in the court were delighted, and Dai Shi became the general of the country.

However, Yin Hao's attention is not on the imperial seal. Recently, he has been trying to win over Yao Xiang's five younger brothers, hoping to use them as his own.

Now that he felt that the time was ripe, he finally revealed his true feelings, hoping that they could send assassins to Pengcheng to assassinate Yao Xiang.

Come to think of it, Yao Xiang must have been unprepared for the assassin sent by his brother.

However, Yin Hao did not know that sending the hostages to Jiangnan was an arrangement made by Yao Yizhong before his death.

Yao Xiang shouldered the heavy responsibility and was still able to risk crossing the river and riding to Shouyang alone. The five of them also voluntarily went south without any resentment towards their brother.

They agreed on the surface, but how could it be possible that the assassin secretly sent was really to assassinate Yao Xiang, but instead gave him a tip to let Yao Xiang be careful about Yin Hao.

Only Yin Hao is still waiting for good news from the assassin.

　Next chapter before 12pm

　　

　

(End of this chapter)