The Maojin knife from the late Jin Dynasty

Chapter 286 New Year’s Gift

Wang Sang, who sent the letter, was anxiously waiting for Liu Tai's reply.

To be honest, he was feeling somewhat uneasy at the moment, because he knew very well that if Liu Tai made up his mind to attack south of the Yellow River, then his place must be an important fulcrum, and his target would naturally be Li Ju of Xingyang.

However, Wang Sang was not allowed to wait too long. Soon a messenger came from Yecheng and rushed to Jijun to deliver Liu Tai's will to Wang Sang.

Wang Sang couldn't help but breathed a sigh of relief after seeing it, because Liu Tai decided to build the Yongji Canal first, and also asked him to build beacon towers all the way to Liyang within his jurisdiction.

"Wang Shuai, what did the King of Han say? Are you going to attack Xingyang?" Gaoliang asked Wang Sang eagerly at this moment.

"Why fight? Yongji Canal hasn't been built yet, so you know how to fight!"

When Wang Sang heard Gaoliang's words, he cursed casually, "Then Zu Ti died at such an untimely time, why did he die at this time?

If I die next year, I will try my best to survive this year, but I will also try to see what level the opponent is! "

"In that case, I will inform the brothers to rest!" Gao Liang said to Wang Sang.

To be honest, because the Chinese New Year is about to come, even Gaoliang is not very interested in fighting Xingyang. After all, if the soldiers go to war during the Chinese New Year, they will definitely carry out the orders, but they will definitely scold the people above them for being brainless. Why are we still having a war when we are celebrating the Chinese New Year so well?

"Go and rest!" Wang Sang waved his hand, looked up at Xingyang, and couldn't help but sigh, "Life is so good!"

Wang Sang didn't force anything. Liu Tai himself said he wouldn't fight, so he wouldn't fight either.

Because I have been following Liu Tai for so many years, if others don’t know Liu Tai’s level, don’t I know it myself?

Anyway, I don’t know if the guys in the Jin court really saw the power of King Han, or if they really allowed King Han to complete all the preparations he thought needed to be made step by step.

At least from the perspective of a veteran like Wang Sang, what Liu Tai is best at is using engineering to disguise himself as working.

But when you really think Liu Tai is working and attack him, haha, the enemy will encounter the King of Han in a defensive state.

It's not the kind of aggressive aggression when taking the initiative to attack, which doesn't leave people breathless at all, but when the enemy thinks that Liu Tai is weakest at this time, then Liu Tai will let you know what real war is.

Even though he is the main force of Liu Tai's army and is stationed in Jijun, he looks very powerful.

But if he is really attacked by someone and the entire legion is destroyed, or even himself is killed in battle, then the enemy will see what a million-strong army is!

The Yongji Canal under construction gathered almost a million corvees, and the supplies consumed every day were enough to fight a medium-sized war.

Under Liu Tai's deliberate training, these people all understand the rules and instructions. They are even different from normal corvee. They are willing to fight for Liu Tai, and some are even willing to die for Liu Tai.

Because they were actually paid for their work as corvees, while other guys asked people to do corvees, which required the people to bring their own dry food.

Wang Sang was stationed on the front line here in Jijun, and he was even more certain that a military wizard like Liu Tai, who had always been victorious, supported the construction of the Yongji Canal, so the Yongji Canal must have an unparalleled role in the military.

Wang Sang thought about it more and suddenly realized that his thirty thousand elites were, to some extent, a bait to attract the Jin army.

As long as the Jin army chooses to eat itself, it will inevitably use more than 100,000 troops. But at that time, as long as it holds the opponent back, with the courage of the King of Han, he may directly force millions of corvees and use ships to sail down the river.

As long as Liu Tai takes the lead with his personal guards, as many people from the other side will die!

But the problem is that the Jin court is really too stable. The Yongji Canal is almost completed, and they have no intention of attacking them by surprise. However, all the plans of the King of Han were in vain.

After waiting for so long, the result was not Zu Ti's attack, but Zu Ti's death from illness. I think even the King of Han was a little disappointed at this moment!

"I'm not, I don't have it, you guys, don't just make up your mind!" Liu Tairuo was afraid that he would deny Wang Sang's idea immediately if he knew it.

There is no way, for people of this era, Liu Tai can play millions of corvees, and he can make millions of corvees have no resentment. Then these millions of corvees can be transferred into millions of soldiers almost in the blink of an eye, and then as long as Just fight down the river!

This is why Wang Sang became more and more confident in garrisoning Jijun and was more willing to assist in the construction of the canal.

Because he found that as long as the Yongji Canal was completely opened, he would be basically invincible as long as he guarded his camp.

But in Liu Tai's eyes, corvees are corvees after all, soldiers are soldiers, and the two are more or less distinct.

But if Wang Sang can really hold off his opponent, Liu Tai will really wake up with a smile, because it's time for the cavalry to appear next.

After Liu Tai sent the letter to Wang Sang, he continued working in the Department of Internal Affairs, but suddenly Liu Tai came back to his senses and said:

"Mouyuan, do you think we can distribute the New Year's goods to the people?!"

"This is more difficult!" Chu Hui couldn't help but twitched his mouth when he heard Liu Tai's words, and sighed honestly.

Liu Tai said, "The exams are over and the Chinese New Year is coming soon. Officials have nothing to do, so they have nothing to do.

Then let’s see if the entire bureaucracy can deliver the New Year to the people.

Wait until next year, and let those Jinshis investigate this. Only when there is a direction for the investigation can they work! "

When Chu Hui heard Liu Tai's words, the corners of his mouth twitched. He always felt that Liu Tai was looking for trouble.

Where can I find work for myself these days?

However, Liu Tai knew that when he sent something to a subordinate, if something failed to be sent, it was either because there was a problem with his own process or there was a problem with the people below.

Now, taking advantage of the chaos of war, these New Year's goods are distributed as military supplies. If someone touches it, and who doesn't, as long as there is a problem, even if it is just a matter of distributing New Year's goods, this crime is not a trivial matter.

To put it simply, even if you are really corrupted by someone below, you must at least file a report and have a name for corruption.

But if the information is gone and the people below have not received it, then we can focus on inspecting this place.

Chu Hui couldn't help but sigh. Who makes Liu Tai the King of Han? Even if he goes crazy, everyone will go crazy with him!

After all, it is a legitimate excuse to give people New Year's Day gifts. If you really can't continue to do so, you will understand where the official administration needs to be improved. To be honest, to a certain extent, this is why it is easier to change the system in ancient times than in modern times.

Because the ancient political system revolved around the emperor. When the emperor completely grasped power and could implement his will to the localities through the army, there was no deep water for the emperor to reform, because there were only those who were willing to reform and be reformed.

The sage-king model will always be the political model with the highest upper limit and the lowest lower limit in human history.

Chu Hui said to Liu Tai resignedly: "Your Majesty, prepare to distribute something as a new year!"

"Let's make rice cakes and salted fish, and add a can of salted vegetables!" Liu Tai thought for a while and finally expressed his thoughts to Chu Hui.

"How many people are there?" Chu Hui couldn't help but despair after hearing Liu Tai's words.

Liu Tai said calmly: "Because when we implement the policy, we use male-dominated households as units. They are the common people who mainly pay taxes to the court, as well as some military households, so this distribution is also one for each household.

We now have more than two million households, and we need to decentralize all these things.

By the way, officials were issued two copies, and formal corvees related to court projects were also issued one copy. "

After hearing this, Chu Hui couldn't help but be stunned, raised his head and said to Liu Tai, "Do you also get one point for official corvee?

I remember that some of the corvees had acres of land in their families. They worked as corvees when the farming was slack, and then went back to farm when the farming was busy.

However, because of his superb skills or having a farm at home, he has to do two jobs! "

"Has their family paid taxes? If so, they have done two jobs for the big man, why can't they get two awards?" Liu Tai said after hearing Chu Hui's words.

I am not a capitalist, so I wish I could have one person do the work of three people and get a salary.

He is the King of Han, and what he pursues is the revival of the Han Dynasty. What he hopes is for the Han Dynasty to be stable.

The common people have done two jobs, why not give them two New Year's Days and only one New Year's Day? Isn't this unfair? Then who will contribute to the revival of the Han Dynasty? I am short of such a New Year's gift!

Hearing Liu Tai's natural words, Chu Hui didn't say anything, and naturally responded. He tried the entire administrative system under Liu Tai's command. Chu Hui wondered whether it was the taxation department of Gou Xi and the military history system of Xi Jianjun. After bringing them all in, I really don’t believe that these two systems are clean.

And Liu Tai immediately started arranging people to start the assembly line to produce rice cakes. Especially for this kind of rice cakes that need to produce almost three million pieces, simply being a master is no longer enough.

Liu Tai directly asked people to bring the steam engine over. The utilization efficiency of this steam engine is not very high, but it can still make simple up and down movements, especially since it was originally in the mine and was only responsible for crushing coal or pumping water. .

If you need to produce rice cakes in large quantities and need to beat the rice cakes constantly, use this thing to top it, and it will definitely soften the rice cakes!

Otherwise, if we rely on manpower to hammer the rice cakes into soft pieces, how long will it take to hammer the rice cakes with an amount close to 3 million!

It can only be said that Liu Tai's current steam engine is still the kind of thing that can bring some efficiency as long as the economic benefits are not taken into account, but if the economic account is taken into account, just save it, the gold and silver mountains are not as good as a mine. This thing is worn out.

However, with this thing, nearly three million rice cakes were made very quickly.

And those princes who originally went to the court and began to go home one after another also began to go to the court to receive this New Year's gift, and they were also calculated according to the official's share, and they could receive two gifts at once.

"There are fish every year, the cakes are rising step by step, and there is a piece of cake?" Zheng Lue looked at the pickles he received, and always felt that this jar of pickles was incompatible with the other two things.

"After all, the king was born in Laiyang, and he promoted the development of the salt industry, so people there like to eat pickles with salt added the most!" Wang Du said, not surprised by the scene in front of him, "Brother Zheng, you can put this thing It goes well with rice!"

To be honest, if Wang Du hadn't been mentioned by Liu Tai, then Wang Du might have naturally distanced himself from Zheng Lue.

This distance may not be what the two parties want to maintain, but the distance between the two parties is too big, and they may not be able to talk to each other in the future.

Just like Lu Xun and Runtu, they could talk about anything when they were young, but when the two distanced themselves, they naturally became estranged.

Of course, the gap between Wang Du and Zheng Lue will not be as big as "Master".

But one is fourth and the other is number one, the gap between the two is still too far.

But now, Wang Du is a Jinshi and is in the second place. Even if Zheng Lue is the top scholar, Wang Du can at least see his back. The distance between the two parties is at least not as big as it seems, so they can still mix together.

Zheng Lue nodded when he heard Wang Du's words, then he stuffed the rice cakes and salted fish into Wang Du's hands, then took the pickle jar in his hand and said, "Then I haven't eaten these pickles much, so I'll leave them to me. I'll let you take the rice cakes and dried fish back to Beihai."

"Won't Jieju return to Xingyang?" Wang Du was a little surprised when he heard Zheng Lue's words.

"Don't look at it as just a Yellow River, but this river is very wide!" Zheng Lue shook his head and said, "If the king doesn't cross the Yellow River, it will not be easy for me to go back!"

Wang Du looked at Zheng Lue and wanted to comfort him but didn't know how, because Wang Du understood that Zheng Lue couldn't return home.

At this time, Zheng Lue asked quite generously, "It's your son, what do you think about returning home now?"

Wang Du smiled calmly and said, "Now that I have completed the imperial examination, I will naturally go back to start a family, and then come back to establish a career!"

"So, congratulations to Ziqi!" Zheng Lue said to Wang Du, "Unfortunately, I have already informed the court that I will stay in Yecheng, so Cao Changshi asked me to be responsible for inspecting the distribution of New Year gifts up and down the canal. Otherwise, I must be asking for a wedding drink with Brother Wang!"

"It's not a wedding banquet, but it's the same thing if you stay with me tonight and don't get drunk or go home!" Wang Du said quite cheerfully.

When Zheng Lue heard Wang Du's words, he also laughed and said, "Then I will naturally sacrifice my life to accompany you!"

The two of them were naturally very drunk, and by the next day, Wang Du returned to his hometown.

This year, because Liu Tai took the initiative to distribute New Year's gifts, all the officials who received the New Year's gifts did not feel much. However, the common people's soldiers and those who paid taxes felt that they were part of this country for the first time. elements.

They couldn't help but feel in their hearts: "So this is the big man, is this the country?"

No one could give them an answer, but when they received their New Year gifts from the officials, they could feel as if they were insignificant, and for the first time they felt that they were being watched by the country.

Even if it was just a glimpse, it made them feel extremely warm, because they discovered that they were ordinary Han people.

(End of this chapter)