Chapter 167 Courtesy to Others
"I pay homage to His Highness!"
"Jiefu does not need to be polite."
Zhao Xing waved his hand and asked someone to give Wang Anshi a seat. He smiled and said: "Jiefu, thank you for your hard work. How do you feel about this time?"
"This is all my duty, no hard work." Wang Anshi mused: "The biggest feeling I have is that I have some ideals. Of course.”
"Oh?" Zhao Xing smiled and said: "Tell me carefully."
"I used to think that the laws I proposed were all strategies that benefited the country and the people. Until I personally took charge of the land in Yangwu County Only after taking a closer look can I deeply understand the difficulties involved. His Highness once said that the success of the reform depends on the people and not the law. In fact, I have always disagreed with it. Now I finally understand the meaning of His Highness's words. "Wang Anshi. said.
Zhao Xing was a little relieved when he heard that Wang Anshi was good at everything, but he was a little too stubborn.
This seems to be a common problem among many capable people.
"I am very curious about what you encountered in Yangwu that made you feel like this."
"I was supervising the inventory of fields in Yangwu County. I was worried about the officials in Yangwu County, so I selected some people from the county school of Yangwu County. Even so, many of these people were bribed."
“This is the case with the supervision of the minister. Without the supervision of the minister, this problem will probably be more serious.”
“I used to think that as long as the laws formulated by the minister are implemented, the long-standing abuses in the court can be solved. Now. Just measuring the acres is so difficult. Now that I think about it, I was really ridiculous at the time." Wang Anshi laughed at himself.
In his mind, measuring acres was the simplest of the policies he formulated.
Who knew that what he thought was simple could be so difficult.
"Jiefu, don't belittle yourself. There are always places in the world where the sun doesn't shine." Zhao Xing shook his head and said.
Wang Anshi was right. Except for a few of the reform policies he formulated, most of them became policies that harmed the people.
Although this was not his intention, this is the actual situation.
In the end, as the reform failed, almost all of his new policies were stopped.
Looking at it this way, Wang Anshi seems to be talking on paper.
In fact, this seems to be correct. Wang Anshi has indeed served as an official in many places and understands the sufferings of the people.
But if you look at Wang Anshi's resume, you will find that Wang Anshi was a local official in his early years.
Although he served as a Beijing official in the mid-term, his position was not high.
In the Shenzong period, he was appointed to preside over the reform and became the Xianggong.
Some people say that Wang Anshi's reform was too idealistic.
In fact, Wang Anshi's idealization was not due to his ignorance of the common people and the long-standing shortcomings of the Song Dynasty.
It is his underestimate of human nature.
In Zhao Xing's view, Wang Anshi has the ability and vision, but his methods are too poor.
Especially in terms of officialdom and political intrigue.
It can be said that in the middle and late stages of Wang Anshi’s reform, the so-called reform has become a platform for parties to fight against each other.
Zhao Xing implemented a land inventory in Kaifeng Mansion. On the one hand, he was doing experiments to truly feel the difficulty and prepare for his future accession to the throne.
Another purpose is to train Wang Anshi and let him see the real situation in the implementation of his policies.
In this way, when Wang Anshi is appointed to carry out reforms in the future, he can pay attention to the flaws and shortcomings in the implementation of the new law.
Rather than stubbornly believing that others are against the new law when you hear different voices.
"Although the matter in Yangwu County is over, the land inventory work in the other sixteen counties of Kaifeng Prefecture has not yet been completed. I am going to wait for you to rest for a few days and let you go to each county for inspection." Zhao Xing said.
"I don't need to rest. We can set off tomorrow." Wang Anshi said.
After hearing the words, Zhao Xing persuaded him a few words, but when Wang Anshi insisted, he had no choice but to leave it to him.
"Since you insist, let's set off tomorrow. The Gu Council will arrange for someone to accompany you to protect your safety." Zhao Xing said.
"I obey!" Wang Anshi responded.
Zhao Xing asked Wang Anshi to go back and called Sheng Changwu in.
"I pay homage to Your Highness!" Sheng Changwu saluted.
"No courtesy." Zhao Xing waved his hand and said: "Tomorrow Wang Xima will go to the counties for inspection. You lead your own troops and ask Gu Tingye to assign another troops to you to accompany you." Zhao Xing said.
"I obey!" Sheng Changwu responded.
"By the way, has your wedding date been set?" Zhao Xing asked.
"It has been decided to return to Your Highness on the tenth day of August." Sheng Changwu said.
"There's only a little more than a month left. Didn't I tell you to tell me the date?" Zhao Xing said.
"Your Highness, please calm down. My father said that Your Highness is busy with affairs, and I won't let you disturb His Highness with this trivial matter." Sheng Changwu said.
"I have to talk about him next time. No matter how busy I am, don't I have time to say a few words?" Zhao Xing said.
Sheng Changwu couldn't say anything after hearing this, so he could only remain silent.
"Go back and tell your father that when Li Ge arrives, I will still meet him at your house." Zhao Xing waved his hand.
"Yes, I will definitely bring you here. If His Highness has no other instructions, I will leave first," Sheng Changwu said.
"Go ahead, I'll give you a day off today, go back and rest." Zhao Xing said.
“Thank you, Your Highness!”
After Sheng Changwu thanked him, he bowed and left.
"Sanshui, remember it. Prepare a gift and send someone to deliver it when the time comes." Zhao Xing said.
"My servant has taken note of it," Sanshui responded.
"Yes." Zhao Xing nodded and continued to review Zazi.
…………
The next day, under the protection of Sheng Changwu, Wang Anshi went to various counties to inspect the progress of counting the acres of land.
I inspected several counties and found some problems and reported them to Zhao Xing.
After Zhao Xing learned about it, he did not tolerate it. He directly questioned the crime and then promoted the county magistrate to take over.
After a few times, the county magistrates also became more honest and did not dare to mess around.
Those landlords and gentry, including those with profound backgrounds, did not dare to use any drastic measures.
After all, it wasn’t long before Zhao Xing was assassinated.
The officials are investigating this matter strictly. If you dare to do anything extreme at this time, you may be regarded as the person behind the scenes.
…………
Yin Hanzhang worked hard and finally found some clues about the assassin, and hurriedly came to the East Palace to report it to Zhao Xing.
"So the assassin is really related to King Yong?" Zhao Xing was a little unbelievable when he heard the news told by Yin Hanzhang.
Yin Hanzhang did not find anything useful from those dead soldiers.
Zhao Xing asked him to focus on monitoring the movements of Prince Yong's Mansion and Prince Yan's Mansion, but he found nothing unusual.
So after thinking carefully, he changed his mind.
Three hundred dead soldiers, so many people must have a place to stay.
Those places in villages and counties are easily exposed.
The areas around Bianjing are all plains, and there are almost no inaccessible places.
If these assassins want to hide, they can only hide in various villages.
There is a big difference between the so-called Zhuangzi and the village.
Landlords, squires and official families owned large amounts of contiguous land.
In order to facilitate management, a village will be built and people will be sent to manage the land and tenants.
The people who live in Zhuangzi are stewards sent by the master. The tenants can only live nearby, not in Zhuangzi.
If you want to hide someone without being discovered, Zhuangzi is the best place.
Yin Hanzhang asked people to check all Zhuangzi in Kaifeng Mansion to see if there was anything abnormal.
This matter is easy to say and very difficult to say difficult.
Zhuangzi’s tenants relied on their master’s family for survival. Not only did they have little contact with outsiders, they also had a certain degree of loyalty to their master’s family.
You must be careful when checking, otherwise it will be easily exposed.
After taking so long, he finally found some clues.
Generally speaking, there are not many people in charge of management in Zhuangzi. Zhuangzi is completely self-sufficient in food and drink.
But starting in the past few months, several Zhuangzi began to experience abnormalities. They would buy some meat from the outside world every few days, and the quantity was large.
After Zhao Xing was assassinated, those Zhuangzi stopped buying meat.
These Zhuangzis all have one thing in common, they are all under the name of King Yong.
"I'm not sure yet, I need to investigate further." Yin Hanzhang said.
Yin Hanzhang did not dare to say anything about the clan matter. All he could do was report the clues he found to Zhao Xing.
As for what Zhao Xing thinks, it is none of his business.
"You did a good job, keep checking." Zhao Xing said.
After sending Yin Hanzhang away, Zhao Xing fell into deep thought.
Regarding this result, Zhao Xing was a little unbelievable at first.
After all, judging from King Yong’s performance, he can be classified as an idiot.
He obviously won the battle for the crown prince position, so he just waited to ascend the throne.
Because her daughter was jealous of Rong Feiyan, she had Rong Feiyan kidnapped.
You must know that Rong Feiyan is the favorite concubine of the official family. If she is not good, she may lose her position as heir apparent.
Later, the position of crown prince was not lost. In order to avenge his sister, the Rong family helped King Yan rebel.
In the end, all the Yong Wang family died tragically, and Zhao Zongquan took advantage of them.
Zhao Xing originally thought that such a fool would not have the guts to assassinate him, and always thought it was King Yan.
After all, this is the master who dares to rebel.
But now that I think about it carefully, it seems normal for King Yong to be so stupid as to do such a thing.
…………
In late July, the sun was blazing and the weather was extremely hot.
Zhao Xing is not as diligent as before when he goes to the Kaifeng government office.
Basically, he only goes there every few days. Usually, Sheng Hong is asked to send the official documents that he needs to deal with to the East Palace.
On this day, Sheng Wei sent someone to send news that Li Ge had arrived in Bianjing.
Zhao Xing asked Sheng Wei to show him the glass products first, and went to Sheng Wei's house to meet Li Ge early the next morning.
Li Ge first presented the generous gifts he had brought, including fine century-old ginseng, mink skin, tiger skin and tiger bones.
There are even a few tiger whips.
Tiger skin and tiger bones are nothing.
In later generations, this thing was used to protect animals, but in ancient times it was very common, even somewhat widespread.
Every year, some tigers attack people in various places, and the government offers rewards for killing tigers.
But century-old ginseng and fine mink skin are still relatively rare.
But for Zhao Xing, that's all.
"Thank you, King Qin, for your kindness." Zhao Xing waved his hand and asked someone to accept the gift. Then he looked at Li Ge and waited for the next step.
When you give courtesy to others, you must ask for something.
This time the gift was heavier than last time, and Zhao Xing was curious about his purpose.
Thanks to Prince Wang for the 10,000-coin reward for his bookcase, and I owe him 2 more.
I currently owe four chapters, and I will definitely pay them back later.
There have been two updates during this period, but the number of words has not changed.
It used to be three updates with six thousand words, but now it is two updates with six thousand words.
(End of this chapter)