Da Tang: Father, can I resign?

Chapter 115: Incense Taboo: Two Short and One Long

This kid not only talked about household registration, but even the numbers were accurate to the last digit, not a cent away!

Is it necessary to have such a good memory?
Moreover, the number of registered households and the actual population can be said to be the most critical and sensitive topic in Pingzhou.

By clarifying the differences and connections between the two, we can understand the root cause of all Pingzhou’s problems.

Who is this child?
He doesn't talk much, but why do I always feel that this conversation is dominated by him...

Liu Xin became more and more confused and even felt uneasy in his own home court.

Are all the little kids in Chang'an monsters?
Oh, you don't want to tell me... Seeing that Liu Xin didn't answer this question, Li Ming deliberately said loudly:

"It's a pity that Pingzhou's population is too small, less than half of Yingzhou's, so it's hard to make money doing business.

"Uncle, why don't we go to Yingzhou?"

Wei Daijia immediately responded:
"Indeed, Yingzhou is now a directly-affiliated state, and all the rules are the same as in Pingzhou."

"No, wait!" Liu Xin was not very cunning. When provoked by Li Ming, he blurted out anxiously:

"Actually, that's not entirely true..."

Oh?
Li Ming showed a kind smile:
"Which one is not true? The registered population of Pingzhou?"

"Uh……"

Liu Xin thought slowly for a while, his eyes rolling around:

"This number is indeed true. There are indeed only this many registered households in Pingzhou."

Liu Xin put emphasis on the four words "registered household registration".

Li Ming deliberately said in a dull tone:

"Not even as many people as a neighborhood in Chang'an."

"But..." Liu Xin thought for a while and said:

"Little brother, and the other two, after all your journeys, don't you think Pingzhou is quite prosperous?"

The three of them remained silent and just looked at Liu Xin.

Liu Xin lowered his voice and said:

"What you saw is true."

What does this mean?
Li Ming couldn't help but frown.

Schrödinger's Pingzhou is in a superposition state of having many people and few people at the same time?
But Liu Xin obviously had no intention of explaining further.

"In short, Pingzhou has a decent population, so you won't have trouble finding laborers or making money.

"If you don't believe me, you can go to Yingzhou next door."

Seeing no valuable information, Li Ming patted his butt and jumped down from his seat.

As if it was a starting gun, his uncle and his uncle's uncle also stood up at the same time and bowed to Liu Xin:
"I am sorry for the trouble. I hope you will forgive me, Lord Liu."

Liu Xin said goodbye to the strange group of people, and finally suddenly thought of something:
"By the way, speaking of rules, Pingzhou does have a special rule."

"What are the rules?" Wei Daijia asked curiously.

"If someone asks you for mountain and sea donations when you are purchasing mountain products," Liu Xin explained carefully, word by word:

"Give them the money for my sake. If you run into any trouble, you can tell me about it."

The three of them exchanged glances quickly and answered at the same time:

"it is good!"

After seeing off the three people, Liu Xin sighed heavily:
"It's rare for the common people to have a way to survive, so 'that family' must not do anything evil..."

…………

"Tsk, I thought he was an honest official. I even suspected that my identity had been exposed."

Leaving the government office, Li Ming said excitedly:

“Finally, I couldn’t help but reveal my fox tail.

"'Mountain and sea donations', right? Bribes are not collected directly from the merchants, but collected from them under various pretexts?
"Envoy Liu Xin's tactics are very sophisticated!"

The cunning fish finally took the bait, and Wei Daijia was very excited:
"I have never heard of this miscellaneous tax, and it is obviously not the power of a provincial governor to collect it, and the money collected did not go into the government treasury.

"Privately setting up heavy taxes and embezzling all of them into his own pocket, this is definitely not just Liu Xin's fault.

"If we dig deeper, we will definitely be able to catch all the officials in Pingzhou, big and small."

Hou Junji stroked his steel whisker thoughtfully:

"Although Liu Xin was a mediocre and incompetent official, his personal character was good. He was honest and self-protective, so he was able to continue to serve as the governor despite his lackluster political achievements.

"I didn't expect you to be so bold..."

It would have been fine if you had just embezzled money, but you even went so far as to come up with a special excuse and set up a "mountain and sea donation."

Even the corrupt official Hou Junji was amazed.

How could such a daring person be regarded as "playing safe"?
"Establishing a tax is no small matter. Why didn't the Hebei Provincial Supervisory Censor impeach him?"

Li Ming shrugged:

"Maybe it's because the officials are protecting each other. Everyone in Pingzhou is covering up for it and hiding it from the Censorate."

Wei Daijia nodded excitedly:

"Your Highness, what's the next step?"

"How do we get there?" Li Ming laughed.
"Just do as Liu Shijun said. We will openly openly set up a stall to do business and see who dares to come and collect this so-called 'mountain and sea donation'. We will put everyone on the list!"

As long as this charge can be proven, no one can save Liu Xin and his running dogs!

Li Ming felt that the purpose of this trip to Pingzhou was about to be achieved.

As long as Liu Xin is completely eradicated, capable and skilled officials who are trusted are placed in place, and the household registers are re-created and counted, Pingzhou will be completely under control!

As planned, return to Chang'an to celebrate the New Year!
In his excitement, Li Ming overlooked a problem that he actually understood -

In feudal society, what really hindered the imperial power from penetrating into remote areas was never corrupt officials.

…………

"Jingde! Yuchi Jingde!"

This was the fifty-third time that Changsun Wuji visited the Duke of E's mansion in a month, and he was as anxious as the previous fifty-two times.

"Oh, Lord Changsun, why are you so anxious? I am sleeping peacefully." The so-called sleeping peacefully is a Taoist sleeping posture that combines meditation, breathing and rest.

Yuchi Jingde slowly welcomed Changsun Wuji in, sat him down, offered him tea, and looked relaxed and contented.

It was as if Changsun Wuji was a hot-tempered military general, while Yuchi Jingde was a civil official.

At a banquet, the arrogant General Yuchi beat up Li Daozon, but was frightened by the sinister Li Er who used the story of Emperor Gaozu of Han killing his meritorious officials.

General Yuchi suddenly became Taoist Yuchi. He either took drugs or practiced Taoism every day. Because he didn't get enough sun, even his black hair turned a little white.

"Oh, how can you sleep! How can you sleep at your age!"

Changsun Wuji was almost going crazy:
"The person abducted by 'that' prince is not only my Changsun Yan, but also your Yuchi Xunyu!

"How did you manage to sleep?!"

Yes, Changsun Wuji was the first to discover that his grandson was missing, and the whole family searched frantically for him.

On the same day, Li Ming received a reply letter written by Chang Sun Yan in Li Ming's carriage.

The general meaning is: The world is big, goodbye, Uncle. I am going on a long journey today, please don’t worry about me, we have Uncle Hou Junji, who is both civil and military, to protect us.

Changsun Wuji was immediately filled with questions.

Damn, I feel even more worried with Hou Junji around!
In the Jiucheng Palace incident, the two sides almost formed a mortal feud! ! !
Almost immediately, Changsun Wuji issued orders to all the counties and cities along the way, urging them to stop His Highness Li Ming's carriage and bring back all the naughty children!
However, information transmission takes time.

In addition, Li Ming was also very cunning along the way. He kept a low profile and did not report any prefectures or counties he encountered, for fear that his political enemies would set an ambush along the way and create a "traffic accident" or something.

This resulted in Changsun Wuji's interception order being impossible to implement.

Even if there were counties and prefectures that received the order and discovered Li Ming's whereabouts, the choice was between the ready-made combination of the prince and the Minister of Personnel, and the Grand Marshal Changsun who was far away.

Those old-timers also decisively chose the four stages of civil servants passing the buck:
In the first stage, they claimed that they had not received any urgent orders from the Grand Marshal;

In the second stage, the urgent order was received, but His Royal Highness Li Ming and his party were not found;
In the third stage, His Royal Highness Li Ming did not notify the county in advance when he passed by, and the county government could not find anyone;
In the fourth stage, the location of His Highness Li Ming and his entourage was finally determined, but they had already left the area, and it was too late to take any further action. Please ask the Grand Marshal to surrender.

We are all thousand-year-old foxes. As long as His Majesty does not give the order, Changsun Wuji can do nothing with these non-stick pans.

So by now, Li Ming and his party should have arrived in Lulong County, Pingzhou.

However, there was no notification from Pingzhou!

A living person disappeared right under his nose!
"Mr. Changsun, your children and grandchildren will have their own blessings. You should not be bound by worldly affairs. Want one?"

Yuchi Jingde calmly handed over a golden elixir.

Originally, Yuchi Jingde and a group of civil servants headed by Zhangsun Wuji were not very harmonious.

But now I have let it go.

"I am an ordinary person! I cannot let go of worldly desires!"

Changsun Wuji was almost going crazy.

His precious grandson fell into the hands of his mortal enemy, and he couldn't laugh heartily like the immortal Yuchi Jingde or the expressionless Fang Xuanling.

"That's four thousand miles! Almost ten thousand miles round trip! And he's still just a child!" Changsun Wuji scratched his head.

"Wuji, let go."

Yuchi Jingde's eyes suddenly became deep:
"Children grow up very quickly. Your Majesty, for example, was only a dozen years old when he started the war.

"When you return from this trip, Chang Sunyan will give you a surprise."

"I'm afraid it's just a shock!" Changsun Wuji said unhappily.

"Hahaha..." Yuchi Jingde was amused by him and asked suddenly:
"It's okay if I don't go to the small court meeting today. Are you going too?"

"Oh, I'll go!" Chang Sun Wuji stood up in a hurry:
"I was so mad at you. I almost forgot about visiting you!"

Changsun Wuji left in a hurry.

After watching his old colleague walk away, Yuchi Jingde slowly stood up and offered a bunch of incense to the incense burner.

"May the Supreme Lord bless you, and may Yuchi Xunyu have a safe journey..."

Snap, a crisp sound came out of nowhere.

Without wind or external force, the two incense sticks broke for no apparent reason.

Yuchi Jingde stared at the two short and one long incense sticks, speechless for a moment.

…………

"If anything happens to that child..."

As he rode his horse into the palace, Changsun Wuji gritted his teeth and cursed fiercely.

Before this incident happened, although the Crown Prince repeatedly warned him not to hurt his brothers, Chang Sun Wuji always thought unconsciously:
After all, the journey is long, and His Highness "that" might encounter some kind of accident on the way to Liaodong...

However, after Hao Dasun stabbed him in the back, his interests became tied to the safety of His Highness Li Ming.

You guys must stay safe!
In front of the gate of Liangyi Hall, Changsun Wuji took a deep breath and went into the hall calmly.

The music and the debate went on as usual.

Until the Secretary of the Central Secretariat Cen Wenben and the Imperial Household Secretary Liu Li jointly dropped a bomb of moderate size.

"Your Highness impeached the Minister of Rites, Li Daozong, for corruption and violation of the law, and for violating the rules of etiquette."

It's really funny that the Minister of Rites doesn't observe etiquette.

Li Daozon was not there at the time. He had gone to Dingxiang City to give a lecture on etiquette to the Turkic chieftain Ashina Simo.

We have just passed Jiucheng Palace, and Your Majesty is thinking of King Jiangxia's loyalty and bravery. It is unwise to attack King Jiangxia now... Changsun Wuji was saying sarcastic words in his heart.

These two assistant ministers are still too young. I don’t know who is the mastermind behind them…

Just as Changsun Wuji was engaged in a lawsuit that had nothing to do with him, he suddenly realized that his old rival Fang Xuanling was turning his head and looking at him.

The old man with facial paralysis even had a hint of confusion, resentment and disdain in his usually calm eyes.

Why are you staring at me?
Changsun Wuji was confused and slowly realized that something was wrong with the atmosphere in Liangyi Hall.

He looked up and was surprised to find out.

His Majesty was also staring at him.

Eh? No... it has nothing to do with me. Those two assistant ministers are not my followers. I know nothing about it!

Changsun Wuji felt like the wolf was coming.

(End of this chapter)