Prince of Song Dynasty

Chapter 770
On the top of the mountain more than ten miles away, Yu Daoxiang put away the binoculars and said with regret: "It's Zhang Wumeng, this old thief, who spoiled my good deeds."

Shangguan Bingyun also put away the binoculars, and thought of something, his expression turned ugly, and he said, "Empress, I'm afraid this is going to be bad, judging by Xiao Chuo's appearance, after the internal troubles of the Liao Kingdom are settled, he will definitely treat me, Xiangfu Kingdom. Send out a large army to retaliate. Your Majesty said that the past five years will be the best period for the development of Xiangfu Country, and there should be no more wars, otherwise it will affect the normal development of the country."

Yu Daoxiang frowned when she heard the words. It was her decision to plant stone mines and poisonous paper on the road.Now, in order to avenge her personal revenge, Xiao Chuo and Xiang Fuguo have completely formed a death feud, which may cause a lot of trouble for her husband: "Since this is the case, then tell Your Majesty about it."

Shangguan Bingyun closed his eyes slightly, opened them slowly after a while, and said: "Your Majesty, Your Majesty told you to go back as soon as possible. He will arrange for Hu Sanguang to spread the news about Xiao Chuo's massacre of the Shangjing royal family as quickly as possible. And secretly give some support to some tribes in Liao who are loyal to the royal family, and try to make the civil strife in Liao last as long as possible."

...

...

At the request of Empress Dowager Xiao, Zhang Wumeng detoxified Yeluxiu himself.

Originally, it took half an hour to get to Shangjing, but it took three hours.During the period, some courtiers also suggested that Empress Dowager Xiao should take a detour back to the city, but immediately a courtier said: "Can you guarantee that there are no stone mines on other roads?" After that, no one dared to mention the detour.

Long before Xiao Chuo returned to the city, thousands of scouts had already been dispatched to search for all suspicious traces in the vicinity.At the same time, all the servants in the capital began to clear the streets.All people need to go back to their residences for interrogation.

Back in the palace, Xiao Chuodang even summoned his confidants and gritted his teeth and said: "Quickly deal with the royal families in various places, and then prepare for the battle of Xiangfu Kingdom, this palace must cut Haoyue and Ye Chen into pieces, so as to eliminate the hatred in my heart." .”

Although all the officials knew that this was definitely not a good time to go to war with the Xiangfu Kingdom, but no one dared to say no in front of the enraged and faintly mad Empress Dowager Xiao.

...

...

Nearly half of the territory of Xiangfu Kingdom is composed of Xitao Plain and Hetao Plain.

Xitao Plain is the alluvial plain of the Yellow River, located on both sides of the Yellow River, starting from Shizui Mountain in the north, ending with the Loess Plateau in the south, extending to the later Ordos Plateau in the east, and connecting with Helan Mountain in the west.Covering an area of ​​more than 4 square kilometers, the surging Yellow River obliquely runs through it, with a flow of 1000 miles, wide water surface and gentle flow.The terrain along both sides of the Yellow River is flat. As early as [-] years ago, the ancestors dug canals to divert water and irrigate farmland. The names of Qin Canal and Han Canal have been extended to this day.

Hetao refers to the "Ji" bend of the Yellow River and its surrounding watersheds.Here, the Yellow River first flows northward along the Helan Mountain, then eastward due to the obstruction of the Yin Mountain, and then southward along the Luliang Mountain, forming a large bend in the shape of a "ji" horseshoe, called Hetao.The plain is alluvially formed by the Yellow River and its tributaries.Extending along the Yellow River from east to west, it is thousands of miles long and nearly two hundred miles wide from north to south.The area is about [-] square kilometers.It is the subsidence area between the Ordos Plateau and Helan Mountain, Lang Mountain and Daqing Mountain.The terrain is flat, the soil quality is good, and it has the benefit of irrigation by the Yellow River.

After hearing Kou Zhun's words, Ye Chen realized that he hadn't visited various parts of his country after the founding of the country, so he made a decisive decision and handed over the political affairs to Han Xizai and Ma Wentao despite their objections. Instead, Lian Jicheng led a thousand hidden guards to quietly leave Xia Jing and started a private visit in a micro-service.

...

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In the wilderness not far southeast of Huaizhou, there is a vast expanse of yellow-green Artemisia annua, stretching to the sky, intertwined with the blue sky, the autumn wind blows, the grass undulates like waves, rustling, and occasionally a bird flies up , piercing the air like an arrow, rushing towards the depths of the grass.

Ye Chen stood by the river, and five people stood three steps behind him. They were Lian Jicheng, the commander of the secret guards, Tian Jiumi, the servant of the Ministry of Agriculture, Chen Wenjing, the magistrate of Huaizhou, Du Zhong, the magistrate of Wuhe County, and Kou Zhun.In the distance are a thousand dark guards, either bright or dark.

Hundreds of paces away from the six of them was a very ordinary village. The six of them entered the village in plain clothes with only two hidden guards.

Looking at the village, Ye Chen had a general understanding of the living standards of farmers in this era.

Simply put, it is poor, very poor.Strictly speaking, the roads in the village are not roads, and the excrement of all kinds of poultry and livestock is everywhere, and only when they are close to the simple homes of the villagers will they be cleaned a little bit clean.The houses on both sides of the uneven road are almost all thatched houses, which is the characteristic of this era in the Northwest. Half of the houses, the roofs of the Central Plains and Jiangnan are mostly herringbone, only the northwest has only a herringbone, and there is a hole on the south wall. A foot-sized hole in the wall can be regarded as a window, and no tiles can be seen on the roof of any house.

At this time, some farmers were basking in the sun at the base of the wall with their sleeves on their sleeves. Seeing the arrival of eight distinguished persons who were obviously of status and status, they immediately dispersed and hid in their own rooms and looked out through the crack of the door. Their expressions were mostly curious, but There was also a look of resentment, this kind of resentment made Ye Chen frowned slightly, and Chen Wenjing, the prefect of Huaizhou and Du Zhong, the governor of Wuhe County, who were almost all focused on Ye Chen, couldn't help but trembled when they saw this.

"Chen Wenjing, Du Zhong, is this the case in all the villages in Huaizhou?" Ye Chen was a little puzzled. Now the latest population statistics of Xiangfu Country is more than 370 people, males 500 There are many people, the original land of Xiangfu country plus the newly reclaimed land of more than 190 million mu has a total of more than 700 million mu.On average, regardless of age, each person will have two or three acres of land.Although we know that most of the land is in the hands of landlords, it shouldn't be so poor, right?
"Report to Your Majesty, according to His Majesty's will, our Xiangfu Kingdom has very strict control over landlord annexation, so although there are small landlords in this village, most of the land is in the hands of the villagers. Live a good life, let alone go hungry, Your Majesty, you see, they would rather bask in the sun at the base of the wall than work, and they are so poor in life because most of the villagers in this village are too lazy." The magistrate Chen Wenjing didn't say anything, and the county magistrate Du Zhong couldn't bear to explain in a low voice.

Ye Chen said lightly: "There is an investigation."

Du Zhong's expression froze, his forehead was immediately covered with fine sweat, and he said in a low voice: "I'm guilty, I haven't done any investigation." If it wasn't for Ye Chen's strict prohibition to reveal his identity before entering the village, he would have knelt down by now Plead guilty.

"Lord Du, as early as the founding of the country, I said that everything that the government of my Xiangfu country considers should be based on facts, and should be investigated first before making a decision. I said, 'Without investigation, there is no right to speak'. What's more, this kind of important matter is related to people's livelihood, let alone jumping to conclusions, otherwise there will be jokes of "why not eat minced meat". I never believe that the people in a village in my Xiangfu country will be lazy." Ye Chen said these The tone of the speech was very calm, and there was no meaning of reproach.But Du Zhong had already panicked and was sweating profusely.

Ye Chen waved his hand to stop Du Zhong from pleading again.The prefect Chen Wenjing took the opportunity to say: "Your Majesty, most of the villages in Huaizhou are like this, and as far as I know, my Xiangfu Kingdom is also like this except for the Shanshen Town that Mr. Kou used to pilot. .”

Chen Wenjing was originally a civil servant of Song State in the northwest prefecture before the founding of the state, and was later recommended by Ma Wentao, and after Ye Chen secretly asked Hu Sanguang to send spies to investigate and investigate, he was appointed as the prefect of Huaizhou.As far as Ye Chen knows, this person still has the ability to govern the world.Now it seems that it can be regarded as understanding the people's sentiments.

"Your Majesty, when the manpower is poor, the family property accumulated by the Zhuanghu for several generations was destroyed by the war. It is not so easy to get rich if you have to start from the beginning. I came from a Zhuanghu family, so I know that the Zhuangzi in Quanxiang Fu Kingdom are all rich. They look the same. After all, the rents collected by the landlords are the same." Compared to Chen Wenjing who understands the people's sentiments, Tian Mijiu obviously has a personal experience.

Ye Chen nodded and said: "The Ministry of Agriculture will take a village in every county in the country and conduct a statistical survey to find out the income structure of the farmers, and then find out the favorable growth points from it. The best one is suitable for them. of."

While talking, everyone saw a couple from a distance, with a pair of children struggling to carry buckets, staggering to fetch water from the river outside the village to water their fields.After walking in, I found out that it was a vegetable field.

At this time, the couple was watering the field, and the person carrying the water was a boy and girl aged twelve or thirteen.

The girl let go of her hand at this moment, and the bucket fell heavily on the ground, splashing a few splashes of water. She raised her hand and wiped Jingjing's forehead, looked at her brother who surpassed her with a smile, and said, "Ga Wa, don't run so fast!" , beware of falling! Parents said that after carrying this bucket of water, they asked you to hurry up and prepare for school, and the fields at home don’t need your help.”

"My sister heard from my parents in the morning that she delivered vegetables to Zhang's mansion in the city, and paid for last month's food and female workers, seven cents of the money, and a little more will be enough for the tuition fees of the schools opened in the city. When the time comes, you You have to study hard!" The girl faced the sun, her eyes turned into crescent moons.

"No need to prepare. Grandpa Liu in the village knows less than a hundred characters in total. I have already learned them all. Now in the village, only Liu Erwa and I know the most characters. So, I will carry water." The name is Ga Wa. The boy replied with a smile, picked up his bucket, and continued walking towards the vegetable field.The bucket was a bit heavy, weighing about twenty or thirty catties. Although it wasn't very heavy, the vegetable field was four or five hundred steps away from the river.It was only then that Ye Chen and the others realized that they were blocked by a forest on the edge of the village just now, and only after turning the corner did they realize that there were quite a few people running back and forth carrying water to irrigate the fields.Most of them are thin and short boys and girls, and Ye Chen even saw a few seven-year-old children carrying washbasins and other things to carry water back and forth.

(End of this chapter)