"My mother is worried when her son travels thousands of miles, not to mention that the insignificant Lizhou is three thousand miles away - you said these two bastards, I worked hard to bring them up, not to mention every ten days
I just brought a letter from home, but it’s not like I’ve heard anything from him except getting off the boat in Jiazhou and asking the boatman to go back to Jianye to report that he’s safe.”
Princess Rongle was sitting in the flower hall of the back house, thinking that her second son was far away in Qionglai Mountain and there had been no news for three or four months. She was angry and worried at the same time, and complained to Zhu Hang,
"I said that we should have risked our lives and not let Zhi'er go out to Lizhou. Look, the city of Jianye is about to freeze three feet now. Zhi'er and Tong'er have never suffered hardship since they were young. They have traveled three thousand miles.
How can we endure such hardship in the bitter cold land outside? Besides, we don’t even know whether we will be bullied locally. We in Jianye don’t even know, what kind of thing is this!”
Zhu Hang was even more upset when he saw his two daughters-in-law standing aside with tears in their eyes. He said to Princess Rongle, "Just say a few words. The mountains are high and the roads are far away, and it is inconvenient to send messages. No news is the best news."
, nothing will happen!"
"No, these two heartless guys have forgotten their parents, and they don't care about their wife or son. I can't worry about it. I will send someone to Lizhou tomorrow," Princess Ronngle said, "They were not there when they left.
No matter how many bags you bring, I'm afraid I won't even have two sets of winter clothes to keep out the cold on such a cold day, so I'll have to bring two more sets."
"Just relax and stop messing around. By the time the people you send arrive in Lizhou, spring has already begun there. How can I still wear the winter clothes you sent?" Zhu Hang said, "The situation will calm down in two years.
, we should be so shameless as to ask His Majesty to transfer Zhi'er back to Jianye!"
Jiuli Town is located deep in the southern mountains of Qionglai Mountain. Even officials from neighboring Jiazhou, Qian Yunshu, Cai Yi and others are not very clear about the scale of the Sihu Hall that Zhu Zhi supervised in Jiuli Town, let alone
Not to mention the people in the temple three thousand miles away.
In fact, since Zhu Zhi was demoted to Lizhou, such a remote place has faded from the sight of everyone in the temple. That is to say, everyone in the Zhu Mansion has always been concerned about Zhu Zhi and the two brothers Zhu Tong in Qionglai Mountain.
situation.
Seeing that Princess Rongle's mood had calmed down a bit, Zhu Hang went to the side room, sat down and looked through the many files placed on the long desk.
No one in the imperial court thought that Lizhou was involved with the remnants of the Khitan. The focus of attention was still on places such as Jingjiang Prefecture and Yongzhou. There was a dispute over whether to set aside a place in these areas for the remnants of the Khitan to move into.
However, it has been almost a year since there has been any new news about the remnants of the Khitan, but few people in the court felt that there was anything wrong with it.
In the impression of the world, the Tubo Highlands are a more distant existence than the Western Regions.
Thinking about Zhang Qian's mission to the Western Regions, it took more than ten years for him to return, and now it has been less than a year since he received no new news from the remnants of the Khitan. What is there to make such a fuss about?
As the Minister of Honglu Temple, Zhu Hang was in charge of matters such as the tribute of the vassal state. Logically speaking, matters such as communicating with the Dali Kingdom and the Chuanyi were under his control, but his actual power was limited.
He wrote several times to request Emperor Shaolong to send envoys to Dali to communicate with the remnants of the Khitan troops and prevent the Red Husband cavalry from attacking southward through the Tubo Highlands. Wang Boqian, Yang Maoyan, Zhou He, Gao Chunnian and others tried their best to stop it.
Emperor Long did not comment, so all these matters were delayed.
Zhu Hang could also understand the thoughts of these people. In the final analysis, he just didn't think that the Chihu people would go to all the trouble to attack the southwest. He thought that he would not take the initiative to send envoys to negotiate and remain silent. For the sake of Dali's own safety, there was a high probability that
The remnants of the Khitan will be refused passage.
In this case, the remnants of the Khitan will be isolated to the west of Dali, and the DPRK and China will not have to worry about whether to accept it or not.
Thinking of this, Zhu Hang couldn't change anything except for saying "Yes" in his heart.
At this time, there was a soft sound of footsteps on the verandah, and then Zhu Hang heard his daughter Zhu Duojin’s voice coming from the flower hall:
"I just heard that the Ge family has bought another farm in Chizhou. It is said to have thousands of acres of land. There is no movement in our family. The meat and bones will be gnawed clean by others..."
Zhu Hang listened for a while and became even more upset.
After the fall of Bianliang, in addition to thousands of clan members being kidnapped to Mobei, countless civil servants and generals in the government and the public surrendered. After Emperor Jianji ascended the throne in Xiangyang, the first...
??At that time, an order was issued to confiscate the fields, houses and properties of these surrendered ministers in Jinghu, Jianghuai and other places to make up for the lack of military resources.
Whether it is the confiscation of the land and property, or the confiscation of the land and then selling it off and replacing it with supplies urgently needed by the army, the entire process will inevitably be manipulated by local officials and a number of people will be enriched.
However, the civil and military officers who supported Emperor Jianji's enthronement in Xiangyang at that time were under extremely strict control around Emperor Jianji. In addition, the situation was extremely critical at that time, and most of them had no chance to participate in that wealth feast.
After Emperor Shaolong came to the throne, Wang Boqian, Yang Maoyan, Zhou He, Gao Chunnian and others all advocated a thorough investigation of the confiscation of the properties and properties of surrendered ministers that had involved a lot of fraud and favoritism since the first year of Jianji.
Wang, Yang and others kept saying that this move was to purge officials, make up for the national treasury deficit, and raise military resources to support the war on various defense lines.
In the past two years, the central government has sent a large number of supervisory censors to local areas to carry out investigations. Many major and important cases have been discovered, and hundreds of thousands of acres of hidden and underreported surrender property have been confiscated again to make up for the shortage of state funds. However, during this investigation,
, the land and houses were once again hidden and moved, and they took this opportunity to suppress dissidents and extort places.
It's like another feast.
In the past two years, except for the central route, Jingxiang, which has been under great military pressure, the other defense lines have been generally calm and have received extremely rare opportunities to recuperate. However, taking advantage of the opportunity to recuperate, the number of generals going to the south of the Yangtze River to purchase land and houses has also increased day by day.
.
For example, the Ge family has successively purchased more than ten farms in Jianye, Chizhou, Xiangtan and other places in the past two years.
Zhou He and Gao Chunnian are now extremely docile in the court, obeying Emperor Shaolong's orders in everything, and getting along quite harmoniously with Wang Boqian and Yang Maoyan, but they also know very well that Emperor Shaolong did not treat them
The replacement is also out of the need to stabilize the court.
On the one hand, they obeyed the holy will in the court, on the other hand, they also annexed fields and houses among the people as a plan.
Zhu Hang heard that after Emperor Shaolong came to the throne, in just two or three years, the Zhou and Gao families annexed more than 100,000 acres of farmland in various parts of the Yangtze River. He didn't know how much of it was for the new round of feasting.
Little did he know that Emperor Shaolong was completely kept in the dark and was deliberately indulgent in order to win over the generals; after all, the farms newly added by Ge Boyi, Zhou He, Gao Chunnian, Wang Boqian, Yang Maoyan and others in recent years included
Some of them were directly rewarded by Emperor Shaolong.
Zhu Hang could do nothing about it and was heartbroken, but his wife Princess Ronngle and daughter Zhu Duojin were angry that they could not participate in it. They also complained that he was pedantic and stubborn. Whenever they heard about another family adding a farm, they would whisper in his ears.
Zhu Hang felt even more painful, as if the fall of Bianliang had long been a thing of the past and the scars had long since been healed.
This made him couldn't help but wonder, had Xu Huai anticipated this situation by seizing Beijing and Xiang to stand on his own feet?
…………
…………
As the New Year approaches, there is heavy snowfall in Biyang. The charcoal stove is placed against the wall of the study. The flue made of iron sheets leads to the window. The coal in the furnace is burning red-hot; the iron kettle on the charcoal stove is emitting hot steam.
The lid of the pot is constantly lifted and dropped, and the hot water overflows and splashes onto the hot body of the pot, making a "sizzling" sound on the stove.
Wang Xuan was about to come in and saw Xu Huai sitting in front of the stove, staring at the steaming water vapor and saying, "You are in the study. You thought there was no one in the study! What are you thinking about in a daze?"
"I often see this phenomenon of water vapor constantly pushing up the lid of the pot. I often see it in my dreams. I can't remember what it means for a while." Xu Huai stood up and asked with a smile, "Zhen'er is asleep, can you hold me?"
Let’s take a look?”
"It's such a cold day, how can I get out of the house to blow the cold wind?" Wang Xuan said, reaching out to lift the iron kettle aside, but her hand was burned by the steam.
"I'll do it!" Xu Huai was busy lifting the iron kettle, fearing that Wang Xuan would be burned again, and asked her, "How many new wool blankets have been woven in the weaving institute so far?"
"There are less than a thousand, what's wrong?" Wang Xuan asked.
"There is still a little missing," Xu Huai said, "I want to include wool blankets in this batch of pension supplies..."
"Didn't we decide to distribute it to the production officials first?" Wang Xuan asked.
"In order to successfully build the iron bridge on the Majian River, the battle for the beachhead on the west bank was very fierce. Xu Tan suffered dozens of arrow wounds and was forcibly dragged off the battlefield," Xu Huai said.
Welfare can be postponed, but pensions should be given priority..."
At this time, the curtain was opened from the outside, and Niu Er rushed in and shouted, "Your Majesty, Su Mung is back and asks you if you want to see him!"
"He came here just after returning to Biyang? You asked him to go back to reunite with his family first," Xu Huai said. "I have been out there for more than two years and endured many hardships. Returning to Biyang was also a bumpy road, and it was a big New Year.
You have to ask him to rest for two days before we talk about business..."
"Su Laochang is still waiting in the front office. He is busy with many things. We can't reunite the father and son even if we ask Su Mi to go back now." Niu Er suggested with bright eyes, "Why don't we have a banquet at night?"
During the Chinese New Year, we just happened to invite Mr. Shi, Mr. Crow, and Mr. Hu to come over and have some fun?"
"I think you're greedy again. Okay, go ahead and get some help!" Xu Huai said with a smile.
Niu Er was usually forbidden to drink alcohol, but whenever he had the opportunity, he encouraged Xu Huai to hold a banquet so that he could have a good drink.
