Wenying Hall is located on the east side of the palace city. As the residence of Emperor Tianyou, it is naturally the real center of the Chu Kingdom.
It was late at night, and the doors of other palaces had been locked. The door of Wenying Palace leading to the Privy Council to the east was still open, and a dozen guards in golden armor were still guarding outside the hall.
Shen He was sitting in the small hall outside the second door with a whisk in his arms. Although he was not yet fifty, his energy was obviously not as good as before. Even though he had caught up on sleep during the day, it was only the second watch at this time. He As soon as I sit down, I feel that my eyelids are soft and weak, and I can fall asleep at any time.
As a young eunuch of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Shen He really wanted to hide and take a nap. Even if His Majesty knew about it, he would not blame him. However, Shen He still stuffed two green acanthus seeds into the soles of his shoes so that when he was tired and relaxed, the green acanthus seeds would be available. The burrs can prick him awake.
"Is that a bastard thing to say?"
Hearing the suppressed dissatisfaction and scolding coming from inside, Shen He woke up with a start. He didn't know what was going on. He didn't bother to take out the green thorns from the soles of his shoes. He suppressed his numbness and trotted into the inner hall. He saw him under the copper candle lamp. That intimidating burly figure was slamming a memorial onto the corner of the table.
"What kind of news is irritating your Majesty again?" Shen He asked with a smile when he saw that His Majesty was only annoyed by a memorial and nothing else.
"Han Daoxun wrote a letter saying that the hungry people in the four cities were blocking the roads and it was an eyesore. He suggested that the Jingzhao Prefecture drive away the hungry people. What the hell are you saying? Is this an eyesore? He was really asked to compile a book in Hongwen Hall. Confused?" The burly figure raised his head under the lamp and showed Shen He the memorial on the corner of the case.
Han Daoxun's memorial was only three to four hundred words long, and he urged the hungry people to expel them because of the inconvenience caused by the road blockade.
"Perhaps Young Supervisor Han has something to say that he would like to express to His Majesty?" Shen He guessed.
Shen He had contact with Han Wenhuan, the old minister of the Ministry of War, and he was an old fox, but he had not had much contact with Han Daoxun.
He only knew that last year, the deputy privy envoy, a bachelor of the Wenying Palace, had agreed to leave because Wang Jixiong was not on good terms with the prince and was seriously ill and could not handle state affairs. Before Wang Jixiong returned home, His Majesty asked Wang Jixiong to recommend officials from prefectures and counties to join the court. This Han Daoxun He was the first person recommended by Wang Jixiong.
It was just that Han Wenhuan's eldest son, Han Daoming, had just been promoted to the governor of Chizhou. Han Daoxun had little experience in the court, so he was transferred to the court. He was examined by the Privy Council and the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and was promoted to Hongwen Hall as secretary and junior supervisor.
When Wang Jixiong left Jinling, Shen He was ordered to see him off.
All the descendants of Wang Jixiong died in the war, and only his young granddaughter Wang Jun accompanied him. He had five carts of luggage and nothing except poems and books.
Shen He thought that he would never be able to do what Wang Jixiong did in his life, but he believed that Wang Jixiong would not recommend Han Daoxun casually, and the Anning Palace forced Han Daoxun's son to be with the third prince, probably because he saw this, right?
It was just that before Wang Jixiong said goodbye and left the capital, he was summoned by His Majesty to the Wenying Palace to talk for more than an hour. At that time, Shen He was sent out, and no palace officials were present. No one knew what Wang Jixiong had discussed with His Majesty, nor did they know. I know how Wang Jixiong introduced Han Daoxun to His Majesty.
"Is there anything else you have to hide when you talk to me? Do you want me to rack my brains to guess the riddles he left behind?" Emperor Tianyou said angrily.
Sometimes it is not that he is ignorant of the caution of the people below him, but sometimes it is precisely this that makes him angry - it makes him feel that as the king of a country, he is inevitably trapped in a network that he cannot break free from.
"If Your Majesty really wants to know what is going on in his mind, just summon him to the palace tomorrow, or send someone out of the palace to summon him now?" Shen He said, carefully handing the finished memorial to the corner of the table. superior.
"What can I call to ask?" Emperor Tianyou waved his hand and said, "Han Daoxun didn't say it clearly in the memorial, but think about it, is there any place in Jianghuai that can accommodate hundreds of thousands of hungry people?"
"..." Only then did Shen He realize that His Majesty was not angry with Han Daoxun because he was not smart, but because he was too smart.
Shouzhou, led by Xu Mingzhen, the uncle of the state, has always been the main battlefield between Chu and Liang. This has also led to a serious loss of population in Shouzhou. It is really necessary to drive away hundreds of thousands of hungry people from the vicinity of Jinling. Shouzhou It is the largest resettlement place.
Except for Shouzhou, even Chuzhou has been peaceful for several years without fighting. The land has its own owner. Where can there be a place to resettle these hungry people?
Han Daoxun inexplicably submitted such a memorial at this time. It turned out that he wanted to please the Anning Palace!
However, Shen He then thought of something and felt something was wrong.
I heard that the water bug epidemic is very severe outside the four cities, and that hungry people are infected with the disease in ten cases. So, the purpose of Han Daoxun's memorial is to drive all these hungry people to Shouzhou. Is it a blessing or a curse for Shouzhou? ?
Shen He took a peek at Emperor Tianyou, thinking that His Majesty probably didn't know about this situation, but when he thought about which side Han Daoxun supported, he still didn't know, and there were some things that he really couldn't say casually.
Otherwise, if he talks about it, he really doesn’t know which side he is trying to please and which side he is offending. It’s even harder to fool around with someone who is confused!
"Liu Zhong!" Emperor Tianyou didn't want to call Han Daoxun over to vent his anger, so he directly judged the fate of this memorial and refused to approve it or leave it to the courtiers below for discussion.
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Han Qian didn't know what Emperor Tianyou would think after seeing his father's plan to ward off hunger, but since there was no news in the palace, it meant that the memorial was "retained", or it must have not been delivered. into the hands of Emperor Tianyou.
Han Qian wished for this from the bottom of his heart, secretly feeling that his father should be depressed for a while, so that he could continue to hang out in the Linjiang Marquis Mansion without taking risks with the "Epidemic Water Dredging", which had unpredictable consequences!
On the day of the winter solstice, it was extremely cold and snowy.
The minister, Shen Yang, contracted the cold and took leave for two days in a row. Han Qian did not arrive at Linjiang Marquis Mansion until noon every day to answer questions.
On the winter solstice, Han Qian left the city early and went to the Qiuhu Mountain Villa. In addition to giving winter clothes and other cold-proof holiday items to the soldiers and family members who stayed at the farm, he also took the initiative to send a bag of rice and noodles to each tenant of the farm; Following the ceremony, Fan Xicheng was sent to the homes of Zhang Qian and County Lieutenant Liu Yuan in Lizheng. At noon, accompanied by Fan Dahei, Zhao Wuji and Lin Haizheng, they rushed back to the city and arrived at Linjiang Marquis Mansion to meet Mao.
Han Qian led Fan Dahei and the others to take the horse away, and walked into the Marquis Mansion, thinking to ask for something for his stuttering, and then go to the archery range to practice riding arrows. Several guards stood in the front yard talking, but when they saw him walking in, they kept silent. , Han Qian felt that the atmosphere was very strange. When he saw Feng Yi, he caught him and asked: "What happened?"
"You don't know?" Feng Yi asked strangely.
Seeing Feng Yi ask this, Han Qian's scalp felt faintly numb. Today is the imperial meeting. Officials and generals of fifth rank and above in Beijing will enter the palace to participate in discussions. He got up and changed clothes just after his father and son were born. He opened the door and saw that the courtyard was covered with thick cloth. A thick layer of snow makes me sigh...
"Today, your father was in the Qihua Palace in front of all the civil and military ministers. He asked Your Majesty to drive out the hungry people from the four cities in order to purge the capital. This made Your Majesty furious. He drove your father out of the Qihua Palace on the spot and gave it to the Censor.
Taiwan will hold your father accountable for his blunder. I thought you already knew about it," Feng Yi said.
When Han Qian first entered Jinling City, he had a good rapport with Feng Yi. In the past two or three months, Han Qian had to make up for the wasted time in the past, so he didn't hang out with Feng Yi much.
Yi's little gambling skills gave Feng Yi the opportunity to go out and kill everyone, and the relationship between the two naturally became closer.
What happened to Han Daoxun today made Feng Yi very worried for Han Qian.
"Every time I go out of the city, there is a mess along the road. When people look at it, they think that our country of Chu is in ruins and the emperor is ignorant and mediocre. I tell them that they should have been driven out long ago." Kong Xirong said in a loud voice.
Kong Xirong and Feng Yi, the two "why not eat minced meat" guys, naturally didn't think there was anything wrong with driving out the hungry people from the four cities. Han Qian just smiled bitterly.
He entered the city from the villa in a hurry and did not go back to rest for a while. He came directly to Jianghou Mansion. Who knew that he was really stubborn. Seeing that the memorials in the previous days were useless, today he went directly to the court meeting.
admonish?
In order to maintain state power, the imperial court exacted heavy taxes from the people, and naturally had no spare capacity to take care of the hungry people. However, Emperor Tianyou was still a person who cared about face and historical evaluation. After becoming emperor, he always did not forget to show diligence and compassion.
attitude of the people.
His father directly remonstrated at the great court meeting today, urging Emperor Tianyou to drive out the hungry people in the four cities. Isn't this a slap in the face of Emperor You?
However, Emperor Tianyou was so angry that he drove his father out of Qihua Palace and went to the Yushitai to hold his father accountable for his mistake. Han Qian was a little surprised.
Han Qian's head was as big as a pockmark, and he thought about asking Guo Rong and the third prince Yang Yuanpu to ask for leave and go back to the house to check on the situation. However, as soon as he stepped out of the east courtyard study hall, he saw Li Chong coming from the west courtyard with a gloomy face.
"Your father is also known as a good official in Guangling. Today he made suggestions in court to drive away the hungry people. Where do you want to go?" Li Chong asked.
"..." Han Qian was slightly startled. He didn't expect that Li Chong would use a questioning tone when meeting him instead of gloating about his misfortune. He didn't know where he could have offended Li Chong, the star of the family?
"Your father is so thoughtful about Shouzhou, and you didn't notice it at all beforehand?" Seeing that Han Qian didn't pay attention to his intention, Li Chong blocked the way and asked.
Han Qian also wanted to say that his father had never thought about Shouzhou, but seeing Li Chong still looking indignant, he suddenly had a thought: Emperor Tianyou was in Qihua Hall today, and he was unusually angry.
Li Chong also mistakenly thought that his father's remonstrance was to drive all the hungry people outside Jinling City to Shouzhou?
Some of the hungry people outside Jinling City were refugees who fled south from the wars in the Central Plains in the early years. Some were refugees from the Liang Kingdom who invaded south and fled the war from the Jianghuai area. The able-bodied people were taken away during the successive military expansions, and the rest were left behind.
Most of them are old and weak, women and children, and most of them rely on fish, crabs, shrimps and snails in ditches and rivers for a living. The water bug epidemic spreads wildly, and two or three out of ten people have been sick for several years and are waiting to die.
If the spread of the water bug epidemic cannot be effectively controlled and the hungry people outside Jinling City are forced to be resettled in Shouzhou, which is six to seven hundred miles away, I am afraid that nearly half of them will not be able to survive.
Precisely because of this, the understanding of the water bug epidemic in the current world was quite simple, and no one dared to easily accept the hungry people infected with the disease, lest the hungry people spread wildly in their territory and cause harm to the local area.
Even if his father directly suggested that all the hungry people affected by the epidemic be driven to Shouzhou, Shouzhou would not accept it casually.
How could Emperor Tianyou mistakenly believe that this was the purpose of his father's remonstrance?
And Li Chong's aggressive look seemed to firmly believe that his father had Shouzhou's best interests at heart?
Before "Epidemic Water Treatment" was published, who in the world would have thought that forcing hundreds of thousands of hungry people to Shouzhou would be a great benefit without serious disadvantages?
Is it possible that the aloof Emperor Tianyou didn't know the truth about the water bug epidemic spreading among the hungry people outside the city, so he was so angry?