When Li Qinzai returned to Chang'an, it was expected that the heads of the famous families came to see him off. After all, they were about to receive huge benefits.
But what Li Qinzai didn't expect was that so many ordinary people and farmers came to send him off.
Everything he did in Jiangnan, whether it was to destroy prominent families or deal with officials, actually had only one ultimate purpose, which was to curb land annexation and allow landless farmers to gradually return to their fields, so that farmers could have their own land and poor people could have their own land.
Way to survive.
But what he did in Jiangnan was known to the heads of prominent families, a few officials, and unexpectedly the common people and farmers were also aware of it.
What Li Qinzai didn't know was that all his actions in Jiangnan had had a series of chain reactions on the common farmers in Jiangnan.
It is inevitable that disturbances from high-level officials will eventually affect the people.
The noble families have stopped buying and selling land. Some of the ordinary farmers who lost their land were recruited by the noble families to work in shipbuilding workshops, and some were favored by Li Qinzai's decree to re-measure the land. The landlords had to return part of the land.
In other cases, after the Gu family was confiscated, the government returned most of the land under Gu's name to the farmers.
In short, the people have really received favors. To Li Qinzai, it may be just a small favor that is inconspicuous, but in the eyes of ordinary people, this is nothing less than a rain from heaven.
So today, Li Qinzai set out to return to Beijing, and unexpectedly received the pious gratitude and congratulations of tens of thousands of people.
The people's support is because there really is someone working and paying for them in this world.
Li Qinzai, who was riding out of the camp, was shocked when he saw the crowds of people outside the camp and hurriedly dismounted. Faced with the pious kneeling of the simple people and farmers, Li Qinzai did not dare to support him, so he hurriedly knelt down and bowed in return.
"It doesn't have to be like this, it doesn't have to be like this. Elders, please come back. The days to come... will get better and better." Li Qinzai said with a smile.
Among the crowd, the heads of the six prominent families stood silently. Seeing the grand scene of tens of thousands of people seeing each other off, the six heads of families looked at each other with mixed feelings in their hearts.
They were born and grew up in the south of the Yangtze River. They once thought that the family ruled the people of the south of the Yangtze River and ruled the life and death of the people with one word without dispute. But now when they saw the people bidding farewell to Li Qinzai, the family heads suddenly discovered that this kind of treatment was something their ancestors had never experienced for generations.
But a foreign imperial envoy got it easily.
The people's hearts are turning their backs and they are looking eastwards.
The heads of the family looked calm, but their hearts were filled with thunder.
Today's scene has greatly shocked them. For the first time in their lives, they begin to doubt the meaning of their ancestors' management of Jiangnan for generations.
After Li Qinzai returned the courtesy to the people, he glanced at the six family heads with a profound look in his eyes.
The six family heads caught his eye and hurriedly smiled and bowed.
Li Qinzai slowly walked up to the six people and whispered: "Family heads, after I leave, I still hope to treat the people well. They are the foundation for you to run Jiangnan."
"The land has been occupied by you, the people have no way of living, and the foundation of your family business for hundreds of years no longer exists. I don't need to teach you such a simple truth, right?"
The six people were awe-inspiring and bowed down to receive the instruction.
Li Qinzai cupped his hands and smiled and said: "The imperial navy is about to set sail. I have prepared fine wine in Chang'an to congratulate you all in advance on your abundant profits."
…………
Set off from Suzhou and head north.
Li Qinzai should have chosen to go north via the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, but he still wanted to see the suffering of the people along the way, so he decided to ride back to Beijing.
Sometimes he really felt as if he had become the tailor of the Tang Dynasty, sewing and mending along the way, filling in the gaps and prolonging the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty.
After all, it was the most shining dynasty in Chinese history. Li Qinzai was already a member of the Tang Dynasty, and it was his duty to do something for it. As long as it was not too hard, he would be happy to do it.
All the way back to Beijing, I encountered no so-called injustice.
Xue Rengui's 20,000-strong army was escorting him before and after him. Who dared to show his face in front of Li Qinzai when he was doing something unjust?
During the long journey, Li Qinzai became more and more disappointed. He wanted to be the master of the sky and his addiction to eradicating injustice in the world could not be vented. Apart from the officials from various states and counties coming out of the city to greet him, and the endless official dinners and banquets between you and me, there were basically no activities.
There's nothing else to do.
Riding horses slowly, stopping and going, a month later, in the middle of the hot July, Li Qinzai and Xue Rengui finally arrived in Chang'an, which they had not seen for a long time.
Riding on his horse, looking at the majestic Chang'an City Wall in the distance, Li Qinzai slowly exhaled and murmured: "This trip will only last three or four months, and there is not even a business trip subsidy. Next time..."
As he was talking, he suddenly stopped.
Alas, this is a bit deviated from the truth. Although Li Zhi did not give him a business trip subsidy, Li Qinzai's trip was really not in vain.
Not to mention the generous gifts given to him by the Lu family of Wu County, after the negotiation, the heads of the other six prominent families also gave him many valuables and treasures.
Not only that, after the investigation of the Zhu family and the Gu family, the local officials were very sensible and secretly gave him a lot of valuable surplus from the two prominent families' warehouses.
Anyway, Li Qinzai represents the imperial court, and sending Li Qinzai is equivalent to confiscating the national treasury. The logic can be said to be very rigorous and impeccable.
As for Li Qinzai, during his trip to the south of the Yangtze River, he not only gained the heartfelt love of the common people and farmers, but also quietly made a lot of money. He gained both fame and benefits from business trips. It seems... not bad, and he can do it more often in the future.
The only regret is that the gentle and beautiful Jiangnan woman did not taste it this time.
It's not that Li Qinzai didn't want to, it was because Prince Teng was keeping a close eye on him.
For fear that Li Qinzai would do something to disappoint his daughter, if on his next trip to Jiangnan he took several concubines back to Chang'an without any reason and competed with his daughter for her husband's favor, King Teng would never accept it.
So under the strict guard of his father-in-law, Li Qinzai tried to go to the city several times to find something happy to do, but in the end he failed.
A high-ranking and elegant young prince went to the south of the Yangtze River and found nothing to do during the day and nothing to do at night. After four or five months, sometimes he even had to rely on his long-lost dexterous hands...
My father-in-law will not understand the sadness of Duke Li.
I finally returned to Chang'an today, and Li Qinzai's eyes were red for some reason.
I haven't known the taste of meat in the past half year, so I want to indulge my desire when I get home today.
Thinking of this, the fatigue of the journey seemed to disappear in an instant. Li Qinzai whipped the horse hard, and the horse neighed. Under the escort of a group of soldiers, the group of people galloped towards the gate of Chang'an.
An hour later, Li Qin entered the city and ran straight to the Duke's Mansion.
As soon as he arrived outside the mansion, he saw Butler Wu standing at the door eagerly looking forward to it. When he saw Li Qinzai coming on horseback, Butler Wu shouted in surprise.
"The fifth young master has returned home!"
The door of the house opened wide, and Li Siwen and his wife, Cui Jie, Xiaoba, Xiao Xiba, and even the pregnant Jinxiang, Qiaoer and Hongbi came out one after another. His relatives, wives and children all looked at him with tears in their eyes.