Under Zhou Yangong's insidious hint, Su Hui discovered for the first time that doing good deeds turned out to be a very satisfying thing. He looked at the simple porridge shed built by himself, and sipped the porridge.
The happy and contented expressions on the faces of the victims who were drinking porridge made Su Hui even feel at this moment that he was a Bodhisattva descending to earth to save all people from dire straits.
In fact, the victims are easily satisfied. Although each person only needs two bowls of gruel every day, which is already a very happy thing for them who are too hungry to walk. And I heard from the imperial envoy Mr. Zhou that the porridge shed
It will continue until the spring of next year. At that time, whether you return to your hometown or stay in Ping'an County, the government will provide food seeds and agricultural tools. This news is even more exciting. There is now a lot of wasteland in the Northern Han Dynasty. As long as
If you have seeds and farming tools, and if you catch a good season, you can turn around in one year.
Mr. Zhou also said that next year's taxes will be reduced by half from the original basis. Although it is not completely exempted, this is already the biggest good governance since the founding of the Northern Han Dynasty. How can the people be unhappy? Their demands are actually very low, as long as
As long as they can fill their stomachs, if there is still a slight surplus, they will be so happy that they can't sleep. Those who farm the land are practical, and no one expects to get rich by digging in the soil.
Three hundred garrison soldiers, no, more than 290 garrison soldiers and county government officials were organized by Su Hui, and they began to build simple houses in the open space in the northwest of the county. They did not need to be very strong and heavy.
As long as it can be sheltered from the wind and rain, it will be fine. As long as we survive this winter that can freeze people to death, when the spring comes and the flowers bloom, when the earth thaws and the grass seedlings struggle tenaciously to produce dots of green on the yellow land, the victims will
Hope has come.
The heavy snowfall this winter will play a big role in alleviating the drought. As long as there is another snowfall before spring comes, the seeds sown in the beginning of next spring will be able to emerge from the soil in a few days.
.Drinking hot porridge, everyone began to look forward to the good days next year coming soon.
What Zhou Yangong knew was that since the early days of the founding of the Northern Han Dynasty, there had been more than 279,110 registered households, but by the time Emperor Xiao ascended the throne in the first year of Jiafeng, there were still less than 200,000 registered households.
.In twenty years, instead of multiplying more, the people have reduced by a quarter. What he doesn't know is that without Liu Ling guarding the border all these years, according to the normal historical trajectory, the Northern Han Dynasty would only have
Thirty-five thousand households remain.
Even so, the Northern Han Dynasty, which has reduced its residents by more than 70,000 households, is already full of wasteland, and weeds have become the main theme on the land. The decrease in residents has even caused the embarrassing situation that the Northern Han Dynasty has no troops to recruit.
Basically all the men of the right age are in the army. In the 20 years since the founding of the Northern Han Dynasty, more than half of the soldiers in the army had already joined the army in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China. From the 15th year of Qianyou, there were basically no new soldiers joining the army.
The sequelae of this Zhou invasion was that the number of troops in the Northern Han Dynasty was reduced by nearly 30,000. Tanzhou, Yuzhou and Yingzhou together could barely recruit less than 15,000 new soldiers, and most of them were
They are the elderly and children. Even so, the purpose of the common people joining the army is just to have a good meal.
If this continues, no matter how talented King Zhong is at leading his troops, he will be faced with the embarrassing situation of having no troops to lead in ten years. Fortunately for Duke Zhou Yan, not only did he meet Liu Ling, a man who knows people well.
, and even met a Ming Lord who knew people well and made good use of them. He believed that as long as His Majesty Emperor Xiao and King Zhong worked hard, and there were more officials like himself, the Northern Han Dynasty would be able to truly succeed in less than six or seven years.
developed.
Zhou Yangong did not go to the post house to rest, but went directly to the county government lobby of Ping'an County. He asked Su Hui to take out Ping'an County's daily documents, and then truthfully report the true situation of Ping'an County in the past two years. He knew his own fate.
In the hands of Zhou Yangong, Su Hui's answer was quite satisfactory and there were not many lies. However, he was a little careless about the question of how many people starved to death and underreported the number of people by 70%.
These account books, copywriting and other things have been abandoned for a long time by Su Hui. Seeing that the documents from these years can still be scraped together, even he finds it a bit incredible. Su Hui, who has not been involved in government affairs for several years, really can't imagine that he has become a high-ranking official.
The master who was so indifferent was still persistent in helping him complete what he should do.
This made him a little touched, and he planned to increase the salary of his master named Xie Huanran by 20% after he returned. It was said that the poor scholar was from the Xie family in Jiangnan, but he didn't have the demeanor of a famous family. In Su Hui
In my eyes, the Wang family and the Xie family in Jiangnan were among the top aristocratic families. Anyone who came out of the family would be considered a member of a distinguished family. Xie Huanran, no matter how you looked at this person, you would not want to be a member of the aristocratic family.
However, this person is very capable. Although I don't like him very much, in order to basically maintain the county government, it is really thanks to Xie Huanran's obscurity in these years.
With Su Hui's ability, pacifying more than 2,000 disaster victims is absolutely a dream. If it weren't for Xie Huanran, I'm afraid he would have exposed his flaws long ago. But who is Zhou Yangong? In his eyes, Su Hui, who thought he was doing well,
, is just a waste. After his own observation, Zhou Yangong discovered that Su Hui's gentle and gentle master was actually a talent.
Because of Su Hui's greed and hard work, the grain stored in the Ping'an County granary is quite sufficient. There should be no problem in supplying local victims with this grain until the beginning of next spring, but what needs to be solved is high-quality grain seeds. Zhou Yangong originally wanted to cooperate with Su
Hui discussed it and later went to Xie Huanran directly.
Just when Su Hui was following Zhou Yangong, nodding and bowing, the housekeeper in his house mysteriously pulled him from behind. Su Hui instinctively glared at the old housekeeper, then raised his hand to hit him, and realized
When he saw that the Imperial Envoy was not far ahead, he had to ask bitterly: "Didn't you see, sir, am I paying the Imperial Envoy for an inspection? Why do I have to come here now to cause trouble?!"
The old housekeeper Su Zhong lowered his head in grievance and whispered something to Su Hui that made the latter almost faint from happiness.
"Someone from the Su family in Taiyuan is here, and they want to see the master."
Su Hui grabbed Su Zhong's chest and asked in a low voice, "Say it again!"
Su Zhong, who was already in his fifties, looked quite old, and was a little out of breath when his master's big hand grabbed him. He hesitated and said: "Not long after the imperial envoy entered the city, a carriage arrived in front of the mansion.
.According to the visitor, he is from the Su family in Taiyuan. He also said that he is the steward of the residence of the great scholar Su Xiu, and his name is Su Huai."
Su Hui felt dizzy for a moment. First, the imperial envoy came to the city and hinted that as long as he completed the errands assigned by His Majesty, his career would be just around the corner. Then, the Taiyuan Su family, whom he had never had any contact with before, came to visit, and the person who came was a bachelor.
Su Xiu's housekeeper, good things do come in pairs.
Su Hui tried his best to calm down his emotions, and then quickly glanced at where Zhou Yangong was. Seeing that the imperial envoy was lowering his head to listen to what his master Xie Huanran was saying, and not paying attention here, he took a deep breath.
Then I told myself to calm down.
He asked Su Zhong to go back quickly and serve his fellow clan members from Taiyuan Prefecture. After sorting out his words, he walked behind Zhou Yangong. Zhou Yangong asked Xie Huanran what kind of crops could mature relatively quickly to alleviate the disaster and see if they were
It is not about using your ability to raise a batch of seeds to distribute to the victims in the spring of next year.
Su Hui cleared his throat and said with a flattering smile: "Sir, there are some small problems with the place where the victims are resettled in the west of the city. Should I go and have a look?"
His tone was very humble, and it seemed that Duke Zhou Yan in front of him was not just an imperial envoy, but more like his own ancestor. But even so, compared to his ancestors in Taiyuan, Zhou Yangong was still a bit lower.
Su Hui is not an idiot. He knows that the status of imperial envoy is temporary, and the promises made to him may not necessarily come true. But the Su family in Taiyuan is different. Now the bachelor Su Xiu is one of the most popular people in the military aircraft department.
If you curry favor with the Su family in Taiyuan, it would be much more meaningful than currying favor with Zhou Yangong.
While discussing agricultural issues with Xie Huanran, Zhou Yangong didn't care whether Su Hui, a county magistrate who knew nothing about anything, needed to accompany him. He waved his hand magnanimously and said: "There is no trivial matter for the people, including food, clothing, housing and transportation.
It’s about people’s livelihood. The housing problem cannot be taken lightly, you should solve it as soon as possible.”
Su Hui quickly saluted and apologized, then abandoned the sedan chair and took a horse. After identifying the stirrups seven or eight times, he finally climbed up and went straight to his house under the protection of his trusted aides.
At this time, sitting in the living room of the Su Mansion drinking tea was Su Huai, the old housekeeper of the bachelor's house Su Xiu. This man had been following Su Xiu for twenty years. If he had been willing, Su Xiu would have arranged it long ago.
He went out and became a county guard. But he seemed to have an incredible loyalty to the Su family. He would rather be a housekeeper in the Su family for the rest of his life than be a local emperor.
It is precisely because of this that Su Xiu has great trust in him.
You can't find any good tea in a remote place like Ping'an County, and the brewed tea tastes far less fragrant than the tea soup made with salt and spices. Su Huai, who is used to drinking boiled tea, may be in a good mood and is not interested in this kind of water.
The broken tea with tea stems floating on it was not picky at all, and I drank it with gusto.
Hearing a commotion outside the door, a voice that was hoarse and vibrating due to excitement came in from outside the door. Su Huai could guess from the tone of his voice that the person coming must be the person he came from Taiyuan Prefecture to meet specifically this time.
That clan member from the distant branch of the Su family.
The reason why Su Huai was in a good mood was because he was not late. He was very glad that he did not slack off and rest a little longer on the way, otherwise he might not be able to keep up with the imperial envoy if he was one day late.
Su Hui couldn't care about that much anymore. As soon as he entered the door, he greeted a junior as a gift to his elders. This made Su Huai feel more and more comfortable. He made an exception and walked over to help this person who he might not even look at normally.
"Junior" boy, the more I watch it, the more I like it.
"Are you Su Hui?"
Su Huai asked with a smile.
"Junior, I didn't know that my uncle was coming and asked him to atone for his sins."
Ignoring Su Hui's flattery, Su Huai said with a smile: "I have read your genealogy just now. Yes, your Su family in Ping'an County is a branch of the Su family from Taiyuan. In terms of seniority, you call me a clan.
Uncle, I am not wronged. I will never take advantage of you in my entire life." (To be continued)
