Fuyang (Zuoquan County) is located on the Taihang Ridge, with a fairly high terrain and is surrounded by mountains and rivers.
It did take Zhao Kuo a long time to drive from She to Suyang, mainly because of the extremely underdeveloped transportation in Zhao's country, which made traveling very difficult. The knights were clearing the way in front, and the Korean people
, followed Zhao Kuo around, dragging his family with him, and it looked like Ma Fujun was escorting them forward. Therefore, when this group of people just arrived at Puyang, local officials immediately left.
come out.
The scorching sun was shining high, and the sunlight was really dazzling. When looking into the distance, it was full of halos and the road could not be seen clearly. This was the first time since Zhao Kuo arrived that he had seen such strong sunlight. The four seasons in Handan are relatively average.
It is not very cold in winter and not very hot in summer.
Puyang Ling was an elderly doctor with a solemn appearance and was standing by the road meticulously. The county lieutenant led the county warriors and stood on both sides, watching the Korean bandits with eager eyes. Puyang Ling quickly walked to Zhao
In front of Kuo Kuo, Zhao Kuo bowed respectfully and saluted, and Zhao Kuo hurriedly got out of the car and returned the salute. This Ming Yang Ling looked very old-fashioned. Even when facing Zhao Kuo, he was not too excited and was very calm.
Looking at the Korean citizens who followed Zhao Kuo, the county magistrate frowned and asked, "Are these all your prisoners?"
Zhao Kuo shook his head and said: "They are Koreans from Shangdang. No one is willing to take them in, so I brought them here. I heard that the land in Huyang is fertile, but it just lacks the manpower to cultivate it. The Koreans from Shangdang
, are all honest farmers. If you can take them in and give them a piece of land that can be cultivated, I think more Korean refugees will come here. The increase in household registration is a great thing for Huyang.
That’s a good thing.”
"I want you to think about this carefully."
The county magistrate stroked his chin, looked at the Koreans, and said without hesitation: "I will take them in, but now we cannot let them engage in farming. I will let them be responsible for the construction of the county town, felling and other matters, so that they will not be hungry."
Look at them." Zhao Kuo nodded and said with a smile: "They will thank you for your kindness. You are a wise man." The county magistrate shook his head and said: "I want to make friends with you.
That's why he agreed to take them in, how can he be considered a wise man?"
Zhao Kuo was stunned and looked at him in surprise.
The county magistrate took them into Xuyang, but the county magistrate helped arrange the Koreans. The county magistrate also introduced himself to Zhao Kuo. He called him Zhao Yu. The name Yu is really unusual.
People dare to use it. From this point of view, his background should be not low. However, when he heard his name, Di who was following behind him seemed to know something. He followed Zhao Kuo and always wanted to talk to him.
.
Zhao Kuo ignored him, and Di was anxious.
The county magistrate brought Zhao Kuo into the palace to entertain him. The banquet was not very sumptuous, but rather simple, which made Zhao Kuo a little happy. What he was most afraid of was that officials from all over the country were extravagant and wasteful in order to welcome him, and the people all ate it.
If you can't afford a full meal, how can you waste more? Zhao Kuo sat in the upper position, and the county magistrate sat next to him. The two talked about the government affairs of the county. Di took Ge beside him and whispered to him:
"I've heard of this magistrate."
Ge glanced at him, his face was full of "Ask me quickly", Ge just said oh, turned away and ignored him. Di waited for a while, but couldn't wait for Ge to ask him, so he just
Neng took Ge's hand and whispered to him: "I heard that this Zhao Yu was born in a clan and was an upright man. He never told lies and always told the truth. Many people in Handan respected him for his honesty, so he was awarded
I am favored by your Majesty."
"So the Lord made him a county magistrate?" Ge didn't believe it.
Di continued: "At first, he was worshiped as a censor, then as a minister, then as a county guard, and as a county magistrate in Yunzhong... Hahaha, I didn't expect that today he became a county magistrate. It is said that,
The Lord once asked him whether he could accept Shangdang. He suggested that the Lord accept Shangdang. He also said that no matter whether he accepted Shangdang or not, the war between Qin and Zhao was unavoidable. Later, when the war failed, the Lord sent him
Call him over and ask him why he failed."
"He actually told the Lord: This is because you spend all your time thinking about accepting talented people, but don't think about how to use them to govern the country. This is the reason for the failure of Zhao State."
Ge became interested and asked: "Did he really say that?"
"Yes, everyone in Handan knows about this. Your Majesty cherished his talent and did not kill him. Later, he sent him as an envoy... Hahaha, do you think such a person can serve as an envoy? Sure enough,
When he failed again, the Lord drove him out of the palace..."
While they were talking, Zhao Kuo was already a little dizzy because of Zhao Yu in front of him. Zhao Yu said to him: I didn't pay much attention to the lower-level officials at first. I didn't know about their evil deeds because their management was very difficult.
It was effective, so I knew they were doing evil and didn't care about it. When I heard that you wanted to punish officials from various places and allow everyone to atone for their sins, I hurriedly arrested the evil officials and arranged for moral sages recommended by various places. You would also punish me.
?
Zhao Kuo was stunned and didn't know how to answer him. This man should not be a county magistrate. He should be a censor or a director in the palace, especially an official position like a director who specializes in admonishing and pointing out the king's shortcomings.
It is suitable for such a person to serve. Zhao Kuo thought to himself, after finishing the banquet, he returned to the room that Zhao Yu had arranged for him. Di, Ge, and Han Fei were already waiting for him.
When Zhao Kuo arrived, Di hurriedly told him what he knew, and Zhao Kuo suddenly realized it. Ge said with some admiration: "It seems that this county magistrate is still an upright person." However, Zhao Kuo felt vaguely,
It seems wrong to use integrity to describe him. Honesty should be used to describe him. Unfortunately, people who are too honest have always been disliked by everyone. Everyone likes to associate with honest people, but hates people who are too honest.
people.
Zhao Yu did tell the truth. After knowing that Zhao Kuo was coming, he did punish all the officials in Suyang. When Zhao Kuo walked to the place, he saw the officials kindly helping the people.
The goal he wanted to achieve seemed to be accomplished. Zhao Yu accompanied him and visited various parts of the county. The people in the county were very excited and gathered around Zhao Kuo.
Walking on the edge of the farmland on foot, Zhao Yu said to Zhao Kuo worriedly: "The harvests in recent years have not been very good, but the taxes are still very high. Last year, eighty-four people in my county died of hunger.
I reported to Handan to lower the taxes here, and told Handan about the casualties here. Because of my crime of starving the people to death, Handan fined me two years of salary."
"Without the salary, I have no way to help the people. The situation may be even worse this year."
Zhao Kuo frowned and glanced at him. When people starved to death in various places, they rarely reported accurate numbers to Handan. They tried to tell the smallest number so as not to cause disaster. To be honest, this person, to be honest, even his salary
They all gave up. Zhao Kuo said to him: "I have discussed these things with the Prime Minister Wei Wuji. Please rest assured that this year Zhao will reduce the corvee tax and give people everywhere time to cultivate themselves."
Zhao Yu nodded.
Zhao Kuo left here, and the people here went out of the city to say goodbye together with the Koreans. Zhao Kuo was still very happy. He could already feel that his inspections had had an effect. In the several cities he arrived after, he saw
When I saw the officials who had "reformed", I saw the happy but scared people. The people were happy because of the officials' change, but were afraid because they were worried that they would change back.
Zhao Kuo just told the officials in various places that he would often send people to inspect the conditions of officials in various places in the future, promote worthy officials with meritorious services, and punish evil officials who harmed the people. And he was indeed thinking about this matter. If he had not targeted the officials
With the supervision system, it is inevitable for officials to do evil and evil. Although the nobles have basic moral conduct, their moral conduct does not include treating these low-level people well.
In this era, no famous official became famous because he was loved by the people. It was more because he loved his people, because he could complete his mission, and because he could protect the king from being insulted. In the Han Dynasty a hundred years later,
After the dynasty recognized Confucianism, a group of virtuous officials emerged who were reluctant to see them off by the people, which does not exist today. The Qin State was the first to establish a supervisory system for officials.
Speaking of which, it is not a supervisory system, but the county magistrate must always pay attention to the situation in each township, and the performance of the township officials is also closely related to the farming conditions of the local people, so they do not dare to be as perfunctory as the Zhao officials.
Zhao Kuo traveled to various parts of Zhao State in this way. In addition to rectifying the government, more importantly, he wanted to see this era clearly. He had many systems in his mind, and he wanted to use these systems to change this era, but there
Before, he had to understand this era very well. Even the memory of his predecessor, Zhao Kuo, did not have much information about the people and the countryside. How could a noble person care about this?
Zhao Kuo is probably the most unique nobleman in the Zhao Kingdom...or the world.
The first thing Zhao Kuo thinks of now is the governor system and the post office system. Both systems were born in the Han Dynasty. The reason why he knew about it was because of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Each state set up governors to supervise local officials and report local affairs to the king.
The situation, the county set up a capital post, inspected each county, and collected information and conditions in the county. Zhao Kuo still remembered Zhang Fei in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms whipping the capital post... that is, he beat the officials responsible for supervising the county.
Speaking of which, they are all descendants of Zhao Kuo. Ma Chao is the descendant of General Fubo Ma Yuan, and Ma Yuan is the descendant of Ma Fujun... So Jin Ma Chao is his future descendant.
?
Zhao Kuo shook his head hastily, stopped thinking wildly, and thought of the supervision system again. At present, Zhao State does not have a perfect supervision system. This is because the nobles feel that the monarch sends people to supervise them, which shows their distrust and pride.
The nobles will regard this as their own shame, and they will choose to commit suicide to prove their innocence. Zhao Kuo does not want to see such a situation. Perhaps only a country like Qin that has changed aristocratic politics can establish a complete supervision system.
.
Zhao Kuo couldn't help but rub his forehead. Perhaps, they could be allowed to supervise the officials on the grounds of inspecting their performance?
There are still many things that Zhao Kuo needs to think about, but what he sees is far more difficult than he imagined. The further away from Handan, the more miserable the people he sees become, and these noble people will not take it easy.
In the corner where he looked, the people huddled together. Zhao Kuo saw those people with dull eyes, like walking corpses. They didn't even have a complete piece of clothing and their clothes were barely covering their bodies. The officials probably thought it was very awkward for them to pay their respects to Lord Ma Fu like this.
Not elegant, they are forbidden to go out.
So they just hid behind the crack in the door, showing their numb eyes, observing the situation outside. Even if Zhao Kuo walked into their courtyard, they just stood up mechanically, saluted, and said nothing.
They were not excited about this guest who came from afar, and they didn’t know who Ma Fujun was. Many people had never left this countryside in their lives. This was something that made them happy, because those young people who had left the countryside
Very few people come back.
Even when he came back, he dragged his disabled body and mind and fell exhausted in the countryside. He occasionally talked about the cruelty of war, which made everyone even more frightened.
There are many such people in the State of Zhao. Compared with them, the people around Handan are considered happy. The taxation of the State of Zhao, after going through several changes, now calculates the harvest according to the area of cultivated land and then collects taxes uniformly.
This calculation of the area of cultivated land is not calculated every year. This means that even if the cultivated land is abandoned and the harvest is reduced, people still have to pay taxes according to the prescribed standards.
In order to deal with this situation, various countries have carried out reforms. The first one was the Qi State. They chose to use the household as a unit, turn the collective farmland into individuals, and collect taxes based on family assets. This will not cause the people to be killed by taxes.
situation, and the Wei State also carried out tax reforms through the Ping Bian Law, in which the state directly controlled the sale and price of grain. The most thorough one was the Qin State.
The Qin State directly issued an order to recognize the private ownership of land, and then levied taxes in three forms: land rent, oral tax, and labor service. Although the Qin State's taxes were very high, taxes were collected based on the annual grain production and personal assets.
We will never force people to death.
Only in the State of Zhao, there has been no movement. No matter how many people went bankrupt and became slaves, no matter how many nobles collected large amounts of cultivated land but paid the originally stipulated taxes, no one paid attention to it until Ma Fujun Zhao She appeared and took charge.
After the taxation of Zhao State, he realized something was wrong. He executed the nobles who owned a large amount of cultivated land but paid small taxes, and recalculated Zhao State's cultivated land and grain production.
It's a pity that the last statistics before Zhao She's death also became the last statistics for Zhao Guo.
In addition to these outrageous taxes, there is also the corvee. Zhao Guoguo often mobilizes the people to serve, sometimes to fight, sometimes to build, taking away the young and strong, and asking them to pay taxes according to the standard. This is a bit excessive, and the most severe thing is the corvee.
The frequent Qin State also absolutely did not allow corvee labor during the busy farming season. Only the stupid Zhao State would allocate young men to build the capital during the autumn harvest season.
Merciless wars, outrageous taxes, and stupid corvee forces weighed heavily on the Zhao people, making it impossible for them to raise their heads or even straighten their backs.
