"Oh! I'm so happy that you still know the economics officer."
Li Qi smiled softly, his tone full of sarcasm.
Du Ming smiled bitterly and sighed: "Du is so ashamed of His Majesty!"
"I can see that."
Li Qi is really angry now. The prefect of a state actually went to help the people do things. Regardless of whether you charge money or not, this is putting the cart before the horse. You must know that the city walls are still in the same shape. If you don't want to be Magistrate, then you should become a full-time priest, don't occupy the manhole and do nothing.
An old man with a blue cloth on his head walked over with a cane and said to Li Qi and others: "I am Niu Qing, the elder of this bamboo village. I wonder what you are doing in my bamboo village?"
"It turns out it's Elder Niu. I'm sorry. I'm disrespectful." Li Qigong held up his hand, stopped Du Ming who was about to introduce him with his eyes, and said, "We are friends of Governor Du. We passed by here and came here to visit."
"That's it. Please forgive me for my slightness."
"Where, where."
Du Ming said: "Elder Niu, I'm really sorry. Du has a distinguished guest coming to visit, so I'll leave now."
It was not easy to persuade Niu Qing to stay, so he saluted and said: "On behalf of Zhucun, Niu Qing would like to thank the prefect for his generous help."
"No thanks, no thanks." Du Minggong cupped his hands and said, "Goodbye."
"Prefect Du, walk slowly."
Li Qi also offered his hand, and then left Zhucun with Du Ming.
Li Qi and others followed Du Ming to a pavilion on the edge of the Yi River. In a poor place like Yizhou, this pavilion looked quite impressive, and there was a plaque hanging on the pavilion.
There are three words written on the plaque - Di Gong Pavilion.
Throughout the ages, there are only two people who dare to call Di Gong. The first is of course Di Renjie, and the second is Di Qing. Obviously this refers to Di Qing, and Di Renjie has probably never been here.
Li Qi also admired Di Qingke very much, and saw a stone tablet beside the pavilion. He walked over and took a look, and saw that there was an inscription engraved on it.
"I was born as Di Gong, and I am loyal to the assistant saints. I have strong feelings and righteousness, but I am jealous and stubborn. I ask for a tassel to lead the way, and I will fight for the army. I gather talented people, and the strong generals follow the wind. The thieves dare to do it. In fact, it is a natural temptation. Come and follow." On the outskirts, a group of ugly people were dying. When I destroyed the front, it was as easy as tearing away. I repaired the fake office, and Cong Ran was awarded the head. His wings were cut, and his confidants were killed. Although he wanted to raise himself, who could follow the plan? Burn the hut and leave. Returning to the nest to lie down. The six relatives could not be saved, so they were said to offer their prisoners. They pushed back to the edge of Yong, the record of the Southern Kingdom. The nine-hole lapel belt, the lips and teeth of the city. If the danger is lost, the army and food are not maintained. The common people are stunned, and the birds and beasts are frightened. When my father comes, lightning sweeps away and the clouds open. Rebellions and battles are defeated. The program is restored. The teacher builds a temple and a banquet, and the people have a spring platform. The sound of the sky shakes, and the talent of the Duke is revealed."
The signature is "Guizhou Magistrate Yu Jing"
Li Qi watched for a long time and couldn't help but stand in awe and said with emotion: "Mr. Di is a real hero!" Then he asked Du Ming: "Who is this Yu Jing?"
Du Ming replied: "This Yu Jing is the prefect of Guizhou. He followed Di Gong to quell the rebellion of Nong Zhigao. Later, when he learned that Di Gong died of illness, he built Di Gong Pavilion here and wrote an inscription on it."
Li Qi stood in front of the inscription and admired it for a while, thinking to himself. It's a pity that Di Gong has passed away. Otherwise, if he could help me, why should I worry? Fortunately, I still have Yue Fei. He stretched his hand into the pavilion, but did not say "please". , then went to the pavilion first.
Du Ming couldn't tell that Li Qi was very dissatisfied with him. He shook his head and followed in. He nodded slightly and said, "I'm sorry, can I show you the official seal of the Economic Envoy?"
This is the rule.
Li Qi waved his hand, and Niu Gao immediately took out the official seal of the Privy Councilor and handed it to Du Ming.
Because Li Qi has only been in office for more than a year, the news has not yet spread to this remote and remote area. However, when Li Qi was the economic envoy, he vigorously promoted foreign trade, including Jiaozhi and Dali, so there are many people here.
I have heard of the title of Economic Envoy.
Du Ming looked at it carefully for a while, and was not surprised at all, because he knew that Li Qi had many roles, and he also heard that Li Qi led the troops to recover Yanyun, and it was reasonable for him to become the privy envoy. He stood up and saluted again:
"Your Majesty Du Ming, see the Privy Envoy."
"Let's skip these." Li Qi's tone was very calm.
Du Ming sat down, looked at Li Qi, seemed quite ashamed, and said, "I wonder why the Privy Councilor suddenly arrived?"
Li Qi asked: "Don't you think I should come?"
Du Ming was stunned and looked embarrassed.
Li Qi snorted and said: "It's really eye-opening that a huge Yizhou city looks like this bird. Magistrate Du, I heard that you were also the number one scholar, so you can't be fooled."
Li Qi had investigated Du Ming before he came here. He was the number one scholar in the first year of Daguan. Since he was from a poor family and had no backing, he had been moving around in border areas. It was not until the Zhenghe period that he came to Yizhou to take up the post of magistrate.
I stayed here for a full ten years, but my status was unknown and I had no merit or demerit. But for an official, no merit is just a fault, and doing nothing is not a compliment.
Du Ming used to have a quick temper, but in recent years, it has worn off. He didn't take Li Qi's cynicism seriously at all, and said with a smile: "It's been so long, I don't remember it very clearly. Maybe I'm confused."
.”
Li Qidao: "Prefect Du, I have no intention of getting into trouble with you. It's just that from the moment I entered the city, I didn't feel your presence, not at all."
Du Ming nodded and said, "Your Majesty knows, this is reasonable."
Li Qi snorted and said, "This is the first time I've heard that Governor Du has any secrets."
Du Ming shook his head and said: "There is no such thing as an unspeakable secret. It may be that the Privy Council has just arrived here for the first time and you don't know much about the situation here."
Li Qi frowned and said, "I'd like to hear the details."
Du Ming sighed and said: "It has been ten years since Xiaguan came here, but could you guess, Privy Councilor, that the drum of grievance outside Xiaguan's government office has only been sounded a few times in these ten years? Ten times?
Ah, there are only a handful of them. How could there be only ten cases in this huge Yizhou in ten years? In fact, there are hundreds of murder cases here every year, but it’s just not my turn to take care of it. I, the prefect, are just a decoration, the only one.
The purpose is to show that this place belongs to our Song Dynasty territory, nothing more."
Li Qi asked curiously: "Then who is in charge here?"
"Toast. Oh, that is, the heads or chiefs of some tribes."
Du Ming saw Li Qi's confused look, so he explained: "This chieftain was specially appointed by the imperial court. Generally speaking, chieftains are very famous people from some tribes. The imperial court lacks control over this place, but it hopes to collect taxes.
, so some people were appointed as chieftains to collect taxes for the court.
In the first few years, these chieftains paid taxes, but in the past thirty years, the strength of these chieftains gradually grew, and they established themselves as kings and no longer paid attention to the court. Not only that, they also fought with each other and levied excessive taxes on the people.
, acted recklessly and sought personal gain, officials of this generation repeatedly complained. They hoped that the court could intervene, but the court turned a blind eye to this, so the local people regarded themselves as tribes, not as citizens of the Song Dynasty.
To put it nicely, I am a magistrate, and to put it badly, I am just a scholar. The people do not take me seriously at all. What I say is not as useful as a toast’s fart in their eyes. If something happens to them, it will not matter.
They each asked their own clansmen for help. The government is very unfamiliar to them, but they did not bully me. This may be the only face they gave to the court."
The tone was full of helplessness.
After hearing this, Li Qi felt sad in his heart. If that was really the case, Du Ming was not as good as Ji Minren. In any case, Ji Minren was very prestigious in Fengxiang and was supported by the people, but he was constantly suppressed by the court officials.
and exploitation.
And this Du Ming. The high officials in the imperial court are too lazy to pay attention to him, and the people don't take him seriously. What's the point of being an official like this?
But after what happened to Ji Minren last time, he really didn't dare to make a judgment, and asked: "Then there is no need for you to lower your status and go to help people do things. You are also the prefect after all. This undermines the majesty of the court."
.”
Du Ming smiled bitterly and said: "Privy Councilor, do you think I want to do this? But what the magistrate is doing is really frustrating. Since the court can't give me support, I have to rely on myself. I hope to win the support of the people."
Support, if the people ignore me, even if I care about the people, what can I do? I can only do something for the people to let them know me and make them appreciate me, so as to gain their support. Although I know this is useless
It’s different from Foolish Old Man moving mountains, but besides that, what else can I do?”
A trace of emotion appeared on Li Qi's face. Did I really blame him wrongly? Regardless of whether it was true or not, he still stood up and bowed his head and said: "Li Qi did not know the inside story and wrongly blamed Governor Du. Please forgive me for this."
Du Ming hurriedly stood up, returned the salute, and said: "I can't do it, I can't do it. How dare I accept such a great gift from the Privy Council? It's really embarrassing for Du."
The two sat down again, and Li Qi asked: "Prefect Du, if the imperial court appoints chieftains to collect taxes, but now the chieftains no longer pay taxes, why does the imperial court not ask questions?"
Du Mingdao: "This is actually very simple. It can be summarized in two sentences. First, the mountains are high and the emperor is far away. This place is too far from Bianliang and it is really difficult for the court to manage. Second, people who are not my race must have different minds.
The people here are all non-Han people. Firstly, the imperial court looked down upon these people. Secondly, it did not trust them and did not regard them as our subjects of the Song Dynasty.
At first, Nong Zhigao hoped to annex the Song Dynasty, but the court thought he was a traitor to Jiaozhi and was afraid of offending Jiaozhi, so he refused. However, this was only one of the reasons. Another reason was that Nong Zhigao hoped to integrate into the Han people and be accepted by the Han people.
The same treatment is not allowed by the imperial court. Negotiations between the two parties failed one after another, so Nong Zhigao only raised the army. And the whole of Guangxi cannot be regarded as the tax of a state in Hangzhou, and the imperial court does not like it. It is good if you can pay it, but not
The imperial court was too lazy to collect the money. Another point was that Jiaozhi repeatedly burned, killed, and looted on the border of Yizhou, but the imperial court never paid any attention to this. It was the local chieftains who drove away the bandits in Jiaozhi. All this happened.
This is the situation today.”
If this is said to future generations, it will definitely be attacked by the people of the whole country. The fifty-six ethnic groups are one family, but it is different now. The Song Dynasty is a Han country, and there will definitely be resistance to other ethnic groups. The Khitan people,
The same is true for the Dangxiang clan and so on. The division is very clear. This place is far away from the Central Plains, so the gap between the two sides is getting bigger and bigger.
After hearing this, Li Qi understood something in his heart.
Du Ming suddenly asked again: "By the way, why did the Privy Council suddenly come here?" His eyes were full of expectation.
Li Qi didn't answer but asked: "I wonder if Magistrate Du is in good health?"
Du Ming was stunned for a moment and said truthfully: "He is quite tough."
Li Qi chuckled and said: "That's good, you will be very busy from now on."
Du Ming was so happy that he stood up and said, "The Privy Councilor wants to bring the new law here."
"We have no plans yet." Li Qi shook his head.
Du Ming looked disappointed after hearing this.
Li Qi added: "But from now on, there is only one ruler here, and that is the emperor. The people here have only one identity, and that is I, the people of the Song Dynasty. The world is one family, how can people be divided by clan."
Du Ming couldn't help but be overjoyed again. Talking to Li Qi was like riding a roller coaster, and said, "Privy Councilor, are you serious about what you said?"
Li Qi nodded and said: "Of course, otherwise I came here to admire the weird city wall in Yizhou?"
Du Ming blushed and became embarrassed and silent.
Li Qidao said: "I have sent people to ask the chieftains to come to Yizhou to meet me. I want to see what these local snakes are capable of."
Du Ming was stunned for a moment and said: "The Privy Councilor doesn't know something. No one cares about these chieftains. I don't think they will come."
"Yeah?"
Li Qi laughed and said, "Don't worry, there will be no one left behind."