Chapter 883 Observing the sentiments of the people
"Hey..." Wang Xian let out a long sigh. How could he not know the little girl's thoughts, but he was already full of love debts. How could he harm this elfin-like girl again? "Be obedient and go back..."
"I don't care," Ling Xiao pouted with a stubborn look on his face: "How many times have you left me behind, and this time I will follow you no matter what."
"Why are you following me?" Wang Xian asked in a muffled voice.
"I'm not doing anything, I'm just following you."
"Hey..." Wang Xian was so depressed that he stopped talking.
"So, you agree?" Ling Xiao was as happy as anything, and immediately burst into tears and said with a smile: "Let them give me an extra bed!"
"Don't even think about it, go live next door!" Wang Xian knew that this girl was slandering her, so he said with a straight face: "I'll make a three-part agreement with you. If you don't agree, I'll go back!"
"Promise, promise, promise to them all!" Lingxiao nodded like a chicken pecking rice, but Wang Xian was deeply doubtful of her integrity. He looked at Lingxiao for a long time and shook his head.
"Forget it, do whatever you want..." Wang Xian closed his eyes again, not looking at the proud little rooster.
After several days of sailing, the prince's mood was still depressed. When the boat docked, Wang Xian persuaded him to get off the boat and walk around to see the scenery, but the prince was not interested and refused to get off the boat.
Of course, this did not trouble Wang Xian. He thought about it and said in a different way: "It's better to go down and have a look. It's a rare opportunity to check out the people's sentiments. I don't know when the next time will be."
The prince was indeed persuaded. From then on, whenever he visited a place, he would get off the boat and, accompanied by local officials, go to the market to check on the people's sentiments. I saw that in every prefecture and county, the streets were clean, the goods were plentiful, and the people were decent.
When it comes to beggars, you can’t even see poor people in ragged clothes...
At first, the prince was very happy. He felt that the Ming Dynasty was really a prosperous country and a strong people. But after seeing more of the same scenery, he started to mutter. On this day when he was inspecting Qinghe County, Huai'an Prefecture, he finally couldn't help but ask.
He asked the Huai'an magistrate beside him and said: "Chen Futai, I have something that I don't understand. Please give me some advice."
Magistrate Chen hurriedly said respectfully: "Your Highness has killed the minister. If you have anything to ask, the minister must tell you everything he knows."
"If I remember correctly, your mansion was hit by a flood this year," Zhu Gaochi said slowly, "The six counties and two states in the mansion seemed to have been affected by the flood, and Qinghe County was even more devastated. How come the people didn't seem to be affected at all?
Influence."
"Well..." Magistrate Chen pondered for a moment, then smiled and said, "That's probably because the imperial court provided timely relief and local disaster relief was effective."
"Yes, yes." Qinghe County Magistrate nodded in agreement: "Master Futai is very good at disaster relief."
"Really?" Zhu Gaochi looked at the two officials and said, "Last month's memorial also said that there are tens of thousands of refugees in your county and the people are hungry. In less than a month, everything has been solved?"
"Yes, it's solved." Magistrate Chen and Qinghe County Magistrate nodded while wiping sweat, "It's quite hot today..."
"Oh," the prince became interested, "Prefect Chen is a rare official. Please tell me how you did it?"
"This..." Magistrate Chen was dumbfounded and couldn't answer for a long time.
"Or are you just pretending to be peaceful and hiding all the victims because I'm here?" The prince's voice turned cold.
"Don't dare!" The two officials shook their heads quickly, "It's really solved..."
"Okay then," the prince said calmly: "Since the situation in your county is so good, you should pay the tax and grain exemptions this autumn and next summer..."
"Ah!" Magistrate Chen and Magistrate Qinghe no longer chanted the curse. With the current situation of Huai'an Prefecture and Qinghe County, even if they were sold, they would not be able to pay taxes and grain!
"Your Highness, spare your life!" The two of them knelt down to the prince and began to slap themselves desperately. "You can't do this, Your Highness!"
"Which song is this from?" the prince frowned.
"We deserve to die for deceiving His Highness!" The two officials then told the truth, describing how they drove away the victims and beggars, how they dressed the people in the best clothes, and how they gathered all the goods in the county into shops facing the street.
, and other whitewashing behaviors, came to the prince one by one.
"You! You..." Zhu Gaochi's face turned pale with anger, he pointed at the two of them and said hatefully: "How brave you are!"
"We don't want this either!" Magistrate Chen said with snot and tears: "But I heard that all the counties in the south do this. What if we look too ugly and leave a bad impression on His Highness..."
"What?!" Zhu Gaochi was so angry that he trembled: "They all do this?"
"Yes, that's what we do!" Magistrate Chen nodded firmly: "If I dare to deceive His Highness, I will strike with thunder from heaven!"
"You should have struck with five thunderbolts!" Zhu Gaochi angrily yelled at the two officials who were like sieving chaff: "Just wait for the black yarn to fall to the ground!" After saying that, he stopped inspecting and returned to the ship angrily.
Order to set off.
While the boat was sailing on the river, Wang Xian knocked gently on the prince's door. No one answered, so he pushed the door open and went in with his food box.
The prince was sitting there sulking. Wang Xian opened the food box, put some food on it, and said with a smile: "Your Highness, it's time for dinner." Originally, he was supposed to stay at Qinghe Station tonight, but now he could only eat and sleep on the boat.
"I have no appetite." The prince shook his head, looked at the cheerful Wang Xian, and said angrily: "Why aren't you angry?"
"I'm used to it." Wang Xian smiled and said, "You have forgotten that I was born as a small official, and I have done a lot of cheating to make a living."
"Why are you committing fraud?!" The prince said bitterly: "Do they think that I will not understand their difficulties when they see the real situation?!"
"You may sympathize with their difficulties, but you may also look down on them." Wang Xian said with a smile: "If they want to be promoted, they must leave a good impression on you."
"So they are committing fraud?!" The prince said angrily: "This is deception! Even if they succeed by chance, it will be a misfortune for the country!"
"As long as I can get promoted, I don't care about the many things." Wang Xian said softly.
"..." The prince was silent for a while and whispered: "Then why did the situation in the memorial be so miserable?"
"If it wasn't miserable, how could the imperial court reduce taxes and provide relief?" Wang Xian replied: "The purpose of comparing misfortune in memorials is to ask for money, and to pretend to be fat in front of His Highness is to gain official status. In fact, the purpose is the same.
of."
"But he treated me like a fool and played around with me!" Zhu Gaochi had been in charge of the country for more than half a year. The decision to provide relief to Huai'an Mansion and reduce taxes and grains were all decisions he made with great difficulty under a very tight financial situation. Naturally, he was extremely angry at this moment.
"My dynasty is not alone in this officialdom," Wang Xian said with a wry smile: "It has been like this in all dynasties. Your Highness will check the people's sentiments and know the civil affairs well, and the people below will restrain themselves a lot."
"Understand the sentiments of the people?" Zhu Gaochi snorted angrily: "If you look around like this, what can you find? It's just a waste of people and money!"
"We can change the method." Wang Xian said with a smile.
"What method?" Zhu Gaochi asked.
"Private visit incognito." Wang Xian whispered.
"Private visit in private?" Zhu Gaochi's eyes lit up.
"Yes." Wang Xian nodded.
The next day, the ship arrived at Xuzhou Prefecture. There were a forest of flags on the pier, and gentry gathered. The Xuzhou prefect led a group of officials to wait eagerly. As soon as the ship docked, gongs and drums sounded, and everyone knelt down and shouted loudly:
: "I respectfully welcome His Royal Highness to Xuzhou! Your Highness is a thousand years old!"
After shouting, there was no movement. Xuzhou magistrate and others took a peek, but the prince was nowhere to be seen on the boat. It took a while before they heard a question: "Hey! Where is Xuzhou mansion?"
The prefect of Xuzhou hurriedly stood up and said respectfully to the military attache who asked the question: "This is my official. I wonder where this lord, His Royal Highness, is?"
"Didn't you receive His Majesty's order?!" The military attache ignored him and asked in a cold voice: "Your Majesty is not allowed to be greeted by local officials, is not allowed to accept banquets, and is not allowed to perform any ceremonies!"
"I did receive this."
"Then why didn't you obey the order?!" the military attaché asked.
"The Crown Prince has an edict, how dare you disobey your Majesty," the magistrate of Xuzhou hurriedly said with a smile, "It's just that everything today was done spontaneously by the gentry and people in Xuzhou. They have admired His Highness for a long time, otherwise it is not enough to express their admiration."
Filial piety!"
"Yes, yes!" The gentry nodded in agreement: "It was our own initiative and has nothing to do with the government."
"Hmph!" The military attache didn't bother to argue with them, and said coldly: "Your Highness can't get off the ship, and he doesn't know how to be a guest. You can go back later." After saying that, his figure disappeared from the bow of the ship, leaving behind a pile of
The Xuzhou officials and gentry looked at each other in disbelief.
"Sir, what should I do?" the official under his command asked the Xuzhou magistrate in a low voice.
"Cold!" The prefect of Xuzhou felt so depressed that he wanted to vomit blood.
On the official road outside Xuzhou City, more than ten capable warriors on horseback escorted a carriage to Xiao County, which is forty miles away from the capital.
There were three people sitting in the carriage, apparently Wang Xian and Ling Xiao dressed as servants, and His Royal Highness the Prince dressed as a wealthy businessman. Before they arrived at the dock, they got off the boat in advance and rushed to the nearest county town.
"Why don't you go to Xuzhou City to see it?" Not to mention, Zhu Gaochi was dressed in brown silk and wearing a Liuhe hat, and he really looked like a rich and fat official.
"Although Your Highness has decreed not to disembark, the Xuzhou Mansion will still make careful preparations." Wang Xian was dressed in a green shirt with a cloth scarf on his head, but his beautiful short beard trimmed neatly around his lips made him look less like a servant. Let alone
Talking about the picturesque Lingxiao on the side, how could there be such a handsome servant?
"Hey." Zhu Gaochi nodded and said to himself that it was fortunate that Wang Xian, a familiar official, was accompanying him, otherwise it would have been too difficult to see the public sentiment.
Along the way, seeing that the prince was obviously nervous, Ling Xiao comforted him and said: "Uncle Prince, don't worry, I have very good martial arts skills and will protect you!"
"I'm very relieved." The prince smiled at Lingxiao. Apparently the little girl had something wrong.
"Your Highness," Wang Xian finally spoke: "Anyway, Xuzhou is still relatively wealthy, and the situation we see is not too bad."