Great Han Empire

Chapter 958 Chapter [-]
The sixth year of Jianxing in the Han Dynasty (AD 202), November.

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According to the "Shangji Law" of the Han Dynasty, "September is counted", the annual statistical data of counties and counties in various places will end at the end of September, and at the beginning of October, the county magistrates (chiefs) will check the county's household registration, cultivated land, and money grain. , Prison conditions, etc. are compiled into accounting books (also called "collection books") and submitted to the county.According to the counting books of the counties, the governors of the prefectures compiled the counting books of the prefectures and reported them to the imperial court. The imperial court then evaluated the achievements of the local chief executives and rewarded and punished them.

The officials of the governors of each prefecture are generally composed of chief officials such as Changshi and Zhizhong, while the officials of the county and state are headed by the county prime minister, and they go to Beijing with a group of officials such as Changshi and Jicao.

In addition to sending the plan documents to the capital for review and inquiry by the imperial court, officials from all over the country also had to participate in a series of sacrifices and celebrations held by the imperial court at the beginning of the year, so they had to rush to the capital before the end of the year.Because the remote state and county are far away from the capital, at the beginning of October, the planners will leave.

In November, officials from various counties and countries arrived in Kyoto one after another.

The first to rush to Chang'an was the Shangji official of Qingzhou Pingyuan County.Dahongyu Yuan Yao came out of the city to greet him, and received him with the gift of welcoming princes and kings, which made the officials of Shangji flattered and grateful.

Along with the planners in Pingyuan County, Mi Heng, the prefect, rushed to Kyoto.As early as last year, the imperial court ordered Mi Heng to return to Beijing, but Mi Heng found a lot of reasons and refused to return to Beijing to serve.The situation in the capital was different this time, and the eunuch Kong Rong wrote several times to urge him, and Mi Heng returned to Beijing in a hurry.

Mi Heng was very surprised to see the extremely high standard of welcoming etiquette. "When the county officials arrived in Beijing, Dahonglu treated each other with the ceremony of welcoming the princes. Only Emperor Guangwu had ever appeared. Today, county officials around the world enjoy this kind of ceremony again." Great honor, dare to swear to die for it.”

"Your Majesty and His Majesty the Eldest Princess said that the great man can gradually move towards Zhongxing, and the officials of various states and counties have worked hard and made great achievements. It is not an exaggeration to welcome them with this gift." Yuan Yao said with a smile, "Your Majesty also decreed that in the future, when the county officials enter Beijing, everyone To welcome you with this gift, there can be no slightest negligence."

Mi Heng and Yuan Yao were not familiar with each other, so they were a little more polite, and they went into the city together.

The city of Chang'an was full of people, and there was a constant flow of cars and horses, making it very lively.Mi Heng kept looking around in the carriage, "How long will it take for Weiyang Palace to be repaired?"

"The reconstruction of Weiyang Palace has just begun, and it is estimated that it will not be completed until the Ming Dynasty or the next year." Yuan Yao pointed to the bustling crowd on the avenue and said, "This year, the imperial court mainly rebuilt the temples of Gaozu and Shizu, and repaired the government offices of various governments. Now The outer palaces are being relocated, and it is estimated that they will all be moved from Liyang to Chang'an by the end of this month."

Mi Heng frowned slightly, with a hint of worry on his face.His Majesty and the Eldest Princess have been staying in Liyang Palace, and the officials of Shangshutai, Zhongshujian, and Shizhong Temple have been handling official affairs in Liyang Palace.At this moment, the court hall is about to have a storm, but the Outer Court and the Inner Court are separated in Chang'an and Liyang, and they are clearly separated.Does this indicate something?
In Kong Rong's letter, Mi Heng already knew Yuan Yao's position on Confucian classics and the Mingtang system, so the two kept silent except for a few innocuous words occasionally.

A group of people arrived at the county apartment.The Jundai Apartment is a residence exclusively for officials of the county and the country. It is located near Zhichengmen Avenue in the west of Chang'an City, very close to Weiyang Palace and the government offices of various governments. The famous "Beique Jiadi" is also located here. (Bei Que refers to Xuanwu Que in the north of Weiyang Palace. There are a few residences of royal relatives, important ministers and eunuchs here, commonly known as "Bei Que Jiadi".)
Yuan Yao bid farewell to Ni Heng and drove away. His subordinate officials were responsible for arranging their daily life and schedule.There are quite a lot of people accompanying the officials to Beijing. There are "Xiaolian" or "Maocai" recommended by the prefecture and state, and these people will serve in the Lang's office; There are also some young scholars with excellent character and learning. These people are sent to Taichang Mansion, and they are arranged to study in Taixue by offering wine.In addition, the planners also brought local special products presented to the emperor by the county and the state. These are custom-made and must be given.
The officials of Dahonglu Mansion explained the matter clearly and were about to leave when Mi Heng stopped him and asked him to send himself to Yushitai.After returning to Beijing, the ministers must first report to Yushitai, and submit a report on their duties to the emperor through Yushitai.Mi Heng also arrived in Chang'an for the first time, so he couldn't tell the difference between east, west and north.Originally, he could ask Yuan Yao to send him to Yushitai, but Yuan Yao was ranked in Jiuqing, a much higher rank than him, so it was difficult for him to speak.

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Mi Heng met Chen Hao at Yushitai.The two had known each other since their early years in Jinyang, and they got along well with each other and had a good relationship.Chen Hao took him to chat for a while, and introduced him to Zhishu Yushi Xixi.

Xi Xi is more than 30 years old, with a very ordinary appearance, he looks gentle and friendly, and his voice and smile are impressive.He spoke very slowly, his voice was very gentle, and he sounded like a spring breeze, very comfortable, and his smile just gave people a feeling of spring breeze.

When meeting for the first time, Mi Heng spoke coldly and didn't give him half a good look.Xi Xi didn't take it seriously, and said some compliments.Chen Hao was very embarrassed. When sending Mi Heng out, he said unhappily: "You still have to hang out in the capital, and you can't offend people casually. Are you planning to go to Hexi Dunhuang to be the prefect?"

Mi Heng snorted, "It's not speculative to say more than half a sentence, I see him annoying."

Chen Hao glared at Mi Heng, and shook his head helplessly, "I'm annoyed seeing you now. Some time ago, please come back and you won't come back. Now Chang'an is busy, and something will happen, but you run faster than a rabbit? You What do you want to do? Do you want to come back and wave the flag?"

"Exactly." Mi Heng said bluntly, "Yiqian, after a while, we will confront each other head-on. Do you dare to confront me head-on in court?"

Chen Hao looked at him up and down, suddenly burst into laughter, then his face turned cold, he gritted his teeth and said: "You are dreaming. I would rather talk to the wall than argue a word with you." After speaking, he turned and left.

Mi Heng laughed loudly, and waved at Chen Hao again and again, "Big axe, send me to Mr. Kong's house, I don't know the way."

"No time, find it yourself."

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In mid-November, except for the northern counties of Youzhou and Bingzhou, most of the counties and officials from Jizhou, Yanzhou, Qingzhou, Bingzhou, Sili and other places rushed to Chang'an one after another, and began to submit plans to Prime Minister Cai Yong. Bo, report the specific situation.

In this dynasty, the prime minister was responsible for accepting the plan. In the second year of Emperor Xiaoai's Yuanshou (two years BC), the prime minister was changed to Situ, and Situ was then responsible for accepting the plan.When Shangshutai was in power, the emperor often personally or entrusted Shangshutai to be responsible for the calculation.

After the prime minister accepts the plan, he must review the plan documents with the officials above the "two thousand stones" (that is, the three gongs and nine ministers), and call the county and country officials for detailed inquiries.

In order to ensure the accuracy of the facts and figures reported in the accounting book, and to prevent the occurrence of fraud and violations of the law as much as possible, the "Shangji Law" defines the errors that occur in the accounting book statistics as "book errors" and "true errors". two kinds. "Book error" is a clerical error, with a slight penalty. "True mistakes" means making falsehoods, deceiving the court, and concealing guilt. If verified, the punishment will be extremely severe.The prefects and prime ministers of the prefectures and countries in various places are very cautious about this, and carefully proofread and verified the accounting books submitted by the counties. They also asked the counties to list the detailed accounts of certain items when submitting the accounting books ( Also known as "discretion"), it is submitted together as a copy for direct review and review by the county government.

The counties and states in various places have to be busy for a long time for "planning", and the Dahan has more than 100 counties and states. At the end of the year, the court is also very busy, and the subordinates of the prime minister's mansion even work all night long.At present, there are only 52 counties directly controlled by the imperial court. However, because the Han Dynasty was in a period of war, there were a lot of military and political affairs, and the counts of each counties and states were large, and it was very difficult for the imperial court to review them. Relatively speaking, the review time was also short Correspondingly longer.

In the plan books of the counties and states, the imperial court mainly reviewed the population increase and decrease, the amount of land and land distribution, the collection and expenditure of wealth, and the relief of the poor, etc., which were directly related to the growth of national power and the stability of the country.

At the end of November, the imperial court found a problem in the plan book of Ganling Kingdom.

There are many discrepancies between Ganling’s chancellor Xu Hun’s report in the plan book and the facts grasped by the court, and the data provided by Xing Yong (yong), the governor of Jizhou, in the plan book. There are obvious frauds in the number of sub-fields, the number of fields that can be cultivated by military households, and the expenditures for relief and water conservancy construction.

Tai Changqing Xu Shao is Xu Hun's father.The prime minister, Cai Yong, invited the emperor, and asked Xu Shao to withdraw immediately and not to participate in the review of the plan.In addition, the case was transferred to Tingwei's Mansion, where the top strategist of Ganling State was detained for detailed inquiry.

At the same time, Liu Heshang, the imperial historian, impeached Xu Hun of the Ganling Kingdom, saying that he was corrupt and violated the law in the prefecture and state, and he was lawless. , Let Xing Yong, the governor of Jizhou, rush to Ganling State to arrest Xu Hun, lest Xu Hun get the news and collude with his subordinates to destroy the evidence.

After careful consideration, the eldest princess refuted Liu He's impeachment memorial, and believed that the case should not be judged without a thorough investigation. When he arrived in Ganling State, Xu Hun was temporarily detained.

This happened so suddenly that not only Xu Shao was caught off guard and had no chance to intercede, but even Da Sima, General Li Hong, Da Si Nong Li Wei and others were extremely surprised.Now that Xu Shao is in trouble because of his son, of course he doesn't dare to support Zheng Xuan any more. Then, who will the prime minister deal with next?Yang Biao?
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At the end of November, the imperial court found problems again in the audit of the above plan.

Yang Yi, the prefect of Hongnong County, reported that the number of officials in the county far exceeded the actual number in the above plan. His purpose was to occupy more "posts and fields" and seek personal gain for himself and his subordinates. What's more serious was that, He falsely reported the number of refugees resettled, and embezzled the imperial wealth with his colleagues.

In order to properly resettle the refugees, the imperial court not only required the counties to naturalize and settle the refugees nearby and distribute land, but also required the counties to give the refugees houses to live in, and agricultural materials such as agricultural tools and seeds.The more refugees resettled in counties and counties, the more relief money the imperial court allocated, and the more rewards the imperial court rewarded county officials.This year the army recovered Luoyang, and Hongnong County and Henan Yin had to resettle a large number of refugees.According to the usual practice, when encountering this kind of thing, the county government government will more or less falsely report the number of people. On the one hand, it can add some money and food to the county treasury, and on the other hand, it can also seek some benefits for the county officials, but Yang Yi is courageous. It was too big, and there were too many false reports, so it was quickly found out.

The chief strategist in Hongnong County refused to admit that his superior was a member of the Yang Clan.Now Yang Biao, the Patriarch of the Yang Family, is the Grand Tutor, and Yang Qi, one of the Nine Ministers, is Zongzheng, who is powerful and powerful, what are you afraid of?
Chen Gong, the lieutenant of Sili, immediately gave evidence.The facts are undeniable, and the top planners in Hongnong County stared wide-eyed and could no longer be arrogant.

Liu He, the doctor of imperial history, impeached Yang Yi, the prefect of Hongnong County, and implored the emperor to order Chen Gong, the captain of Sili School, to rush to Hongnong County and arrest Yang Yi for trial at Tingwei's Mansion.

The eldest princess was secretly surprised.In the Mingtang system, Yang Yi was on the side of Prime Minister Cai Yong, but now Prime Minister Cai Yong, in order to prevent Yang Biao from helping Zheng Xuan, turned his back on him and pushed Yang Yi to the side.Yang Yi is the same clan of Yang Biao, pushing Yang Yi is tantamount to warning Yang Biao not to provoke the imperial court, otherwise the imperial court can beat the Yang family into a mess.Yang Biao is the head of the Yang family, and Yang Yi's accident caused him to lose face, so he had to hide at home for the time being, so as not to be ridiculed by others.

As for Yang Yi, he cheated at the feet of the emperor, and he may not be too arrogant. The one who Yong did this was obviously Yang Qi.Although Yang Qi and Yang Yi belong to the same clan, their relationship has always been bad. In addition, Yang Biao, the head of the family, has been oppressing him everywhere for decades, which makes him feel very useless.This time it happened to kill two birds with one stone, and both problems were solved.When the court is stable in the future and the court needs the Yang Clan to contribute, it will not be a problem for him to be among the third princes.

The eldest princess gradually felt uneasy, and she had a strong sense of foreboding.After carefully consulting Xiao Lan, Chen Qun, Liu Fang and other ministers, she finally decided to order Yang Yi, the prefect of Hongnong County, to be detained.

In a period of more than half a month, the imperial court successively found out that there were serious violations of the laws in the planning of two counties and states, and there were "real errors" in varying degrees in the planning of nine counties and states. For a while, the atmosphere in Chang'an was tense. The top planners in the county were panicked, worried that they would be found out, and they would also be imprisoned in the prison of Tingwei's Mansion.

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In December, an even more sensational news came out of Chang'an.

Both the Shangji of the Yanzhou Governor's Department and the Shangji of Jiyin County have found out the problem.Ding Li, the governor of Yanzhou, and Zhu Ji, the prefect of Jiyin County, corrupted the law and worked in collusion in the two matters of resettlement of refugees and relief of the poor. The two not only joined hands to deceive the court and swindle wealth, but also cooperated with some rich and influential people in Yanzhou to buy and sell land privately. profiteering.

Ding Li, the governor of Yanzhou, was a disciple of Zhu Jun, the former Taiwei, and a colleague of Li Wei, the chief minister.Zhu Ji of Jiyin County is the son of Zhu Jun, the former Taiwei, the brother-in-law of Li Wei, the chief minister, the younger brother of Zhu Mu, Zuoling Zhongshu, and the elder brother of Shi Zhu Xiaolan, the head of the eldest princess's house.

Prime Minister Cai Yong rushed to play the eldest princess, and asked the chief minister Li Wei to avoid and no longer participate in the review of the plan.Please Zhongshu Zuoling Zhu Mu and the head of the eldest princess's mansion Shi Zhu Xiaolan avoid, stop handling government affairs for the time being, and fully cooperate with the investigation of the Tingwei Mansion.

Liu He, the imperial historian, impeached Ding Li, the governor of Yanzhou, and Zhu Wei, the prefect of Jiyin County, and implored the emperor to issue an order to immediately send envoys to Yanzhou to arrest Ding Li and Zhu Wei, escort them back to Chang'an, and hand them over to the Tingwei Mansion for trial.

After the eldest princess saw the memorial, she felt chills all over her body, and she was speechless for a long time.Her ominous premonition was verified, the storm was already coming, and it was unstoppable.

For the first time, she felt the powerful power of Xiangquan and the Achilles heel of imperial power.

Any power has pros and cons. Although imperial power and ministerial power restrict each other, they also complement each other. When the two sides reach a balance point, the court will be stable.Now, the check and balance of power in the court is not a check and balance between imperial power and prime minister's power, but a tripartite confrontation between imperial power, prime minister's power, and military power. This is a deformed official system and a product of special circumstances. Powers can restrict each other, but they cannot complement each other.Power only restricts and does not complement each other. Its balance is an illusion, but when external forces invade, the illusion shatters, and what remains is the killing of each other among the three, without any possibility of retreat.Whoever retreats will be attacked and killed by the other two, and the remaining two will continue to fight until there is only one left.

Today's court has fallen into such a dead end, and the way to save it is to drive out the invading external forces, that is, to adopt the five-room bright hall system in the construction of Sanyong, so that the storm will stop immediately and the loss will be reduced to a minimum. lowest.

The eldest princess sent an order to Prime Minister Cai Yong and Da Sima General Li Hong to rush to Liyang Palace to discuss matters immediately.

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In Chang'an, after hearing the news, General Li Hong of Da Sima immediately sent Fu Gan to Da Si Nong's Mansion to meet with Li Wei and inquire about the specific situation.

"Brother Zhongyuan, is this true or not?" Fu Gan was anxious, "The general asked me to ask you, please tell the truth, are brothers Jingming (Ding Li) and Zhongping (Zhu Yu) corrupt? Facts against the law?"

Li Wei's face was gloomy, and he was silent for a long time. Suddenly, he punched the table and said angrily: "No, they didn't take money and pervert the law, and they didn't take any money from the family, but the fact now is that what they did They did break the law, and all the evidence shows that they were corrupt and broke the law."

Fu Gan was stunned for a moment, but didn't understand, "Brother Zhongyuan, what do you mean? Why can't I understand? Since Brother Jingming (Ding Li) and Brother Zhongping (Zhu Wei) didn't fill their pockets, they are innocent. , then how can there be the fact of corruption and breaking the law?"

Li Wei smiled wryly and shook his head again and again, "The final interpretation of any policy rests with the imperial court. If the government of the prefecture and county government misunderstands you, or the imperial court deliberately makes you misunderstand, then even if you have a hundred mouths, you can't pay yourself back one." clean."

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In the new field system, the imperial court has detailed regulations on various types of land. After the confinement of land (that is, the total number of acres of land), it lists "township roads, mountains, rivers, forests, farms that cannot be cultivated, fields that can be cultivated and land that cannot be cultivated, and fixed land." Kentian".The problem lies in "the fields cannot be cultivated" and "the fields can be cultivated or not".

Although the uncultivable land is not suitable for farming, it may be rich in ore, and can be planted with mulberry and fruit trees, and can be used to raise livestock. The land tax burden is calculated according to the amount of ordinary good land, so even if the early investment is relatively large, its The return is far greater than that of farming, so generally the rich will actively ask to buy or lease these lands.

Reclaimable or uncultivable land generally refers to uncultivated land and poor quality.

When these two types of land are awarded, they are usually doubled, redoubled, or even tripled or five times awarded to farmers. However, because Yanzhou is basically a rich town with a lot of land and few people, no one wants these lands.

In order to increase taxes, the imperial court issued an order to all states and counties that these two types of land could be sold, and gave a reference price.There are many rich people in Yanzhou, and the price was very cheap when the land was sold for the first time, so many people bought it.They invested a lot of money in the land, and the returns turned out to be very high.Everyone has tasted the sweetness and wants to buy it again, and the price of course has risen.The return on land is high and the price has risen, but the amount of land is still limited, so some people sell it and some people buy it.

However, the imperial court believed that some of these lands later became reclaimable land, the nature of the land changed, and it was prohibited to buy and sell land, but the state and county governments were still letting go, instigating, and even personally participating in the buying and selling, that is, Knowing the law and breaking the law is a serious violation of the law.This is the origin of the crimes of Ding Li, Zhu Yan and some rich and influential people in Yanzhou buying and selling land privately and making huge profits from it.

Fu Qian understood.According to the "Tian Law", this matter is indeed against the law. Unless the imperial court re-edits the "Tian Law" according to the special situation in Yanzhou, or explains some of the "Tian Law", otherwise Ding Li and Zhu Wei's The charge is convict.

"Then the court said, what happened to the two elder brothers' deliberate exploitation of the court's wealth in terms of resettling refugees and helping the poor?" Fu Gan asked.

"To resettle the refugees, we must give relief. To relieve the poor, we must also give relief, but these two reliefs are different." Li Wei sighed, "Emperor Xiaowen once proposed that 'when Fang Chunhe is in harmony, we should help the lonely and poor people', this sentence The word later became the law of the Han Dynasty, which is "Xingchun". Every spring, the officials of the states and counties have to help the poor farmers. limited, but resettlement of refugees is different, as long as they are refugees, they must be given relief, and it is a thankless thing to be able to provide relief at any time."

"Yanzhou has only been stable for two years, and there are many poor people. Relying on the "Xingchun" to relieve the poor is not enough, so they took the opportunity of this year's rebel army to invade Yanzhou, falsely reported the number of refugees to the court, and obtained a large amount of relief money and food, so they deliberately squeezed the court. The charge of Fu will also fall."

Fu Gan was dumbfounded.Although the two elder brothers did not take any money from their families, violation of the law is a firm matter.

"This is the power of the Prime Minister, this is the power of the Prime Minister." Li Wei said with a stern expression, bitterly, "A law, if he explains it to the left, it can make you live, and if he explains it to the right, it can make you die."

"Brother Zhongyuan, is there a way to save him?"

"Hmph..." Li Wei sneered, "Since you have drawn your bow, there is no turning back. If you want to save Jingming and Zhongping, you have to fight to the end. You are Sima Yi's brother-in-law, do you think he can trust you?"

"Zhongda? What are you looking for?" Fu Gan asked in surprise.

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(End of this chapter)