Chapter 109: The Alleys Are Empty
Liu Rengui stood in a remote corner of Xianyang City, watching the "Crown Prince Order" posted on the mottled city walls made him want to hit someone.
In the past few days, he, the second-ranked figure in the county yamen, has basically been transferred to the county yamen runners. All the documents in the county are handled by Wei Zhubo, including posting this "Crown Prince Order".
Liu Rengui had long learned in detail what Li Chengqian had done recently in Xianyang. He knew that Li Chengqian's promotion and reuse of officials who have no foundation in the court and are capable of lower-class officials.
Li Chengqian, who suppressed Li Tai's rebellion, had the position of prince as stable as Mount Tai. As a middle-aged official with ideals and ambitions, Liu Rengui naturally wanted to rely on his thighs as soon as possible to achieve his knowledge.
Besides, Xianyang, as a thousand-year-old ancient city, had a large population and a small land. Now that Li Chengqian has transferred people to open up land, it is a good thing that benefits the country and the people. Even if he did not get Li Chengqian's eye, he could gain a good reputation locally.
But now the local clan headed by Wei and Dugu clans joined forces to destroy this matter, and Wei Man's courage was almost swelling to catch up with his fat body.
Liu Rengui, who lost the support of the local yamen, became deaf and blind in the county yamen. He was doing other things, but he kept keeping his confidant watching Wei Man posting the notice.
His confidant told him that Wei Man had posted notices everywhere, but the people were busy farming and had not seen it yet. When the second month of February, the dragon raised his head and the people would naturally know.
After finishing his official duties in the yamen today, he wanted to go to a restaurant to drink, but was pushed by his confidant and tried to stop him from coming out.
Liu Rengui immediately became suspicious and sent his "confidant" out of the county government and walked straight to the lively place in the county town. He looked around all the way but couldn't see a place where the 'Crown Prince' was posted.
Liu Rengui was sure that he had been fooled, and returned to the county government to question Wei Man angrily. Unexpectedly, Wei Man only glanced at him, turned his head and said sarcastically: "What did County Magistrate Liu look for that notice? Is County Magistrate Liu going to Longshouyuan to open up the land?"
"I asked for that notice to see if anyone deposed the public for personal gain and disobeyed the Crown Prince's orders.
There is no notice in the whole city now, which shows that some people do not take the crown prince's Lingwen seriously."
Wei Man heard this but said fearlessly: "Li Laojiu will take our Liu Da County Chief to see the notice you posted."
After he said that, a smiley yamen runner walked to Liu Rengui and said, "Please please, County Magistrate Liu!"
Liu Rengui snorted angrily, and then followed Li Laojiu with his sleeves. He wanted to see what tricks they could do, but he got angry all the way. It turned out that these things picked up such important notices and posted them in remote and deserted places, and no one could see them.
"You guys just paste the Crown Prince's word in such a place where birds don't poop?" Liu Rengui glared at Li Laojiu and said.
Li Laojiu said calmly when he heard this, "Go back to County Magistrate Liu, this is the order of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. The small ones are posted in a crowded place and are afraid of being torn. Moreover, the wind is strong in the southwest. If they are posted in the wind at the city gate, they will be blown away by the wind."
Li Laojiu said this and pointed to the weeds that were more than one person in front of him and said, "You see how good it is. It took the young people a lot of effort to find such a good place. There is neither wind nor anyone coming. I've posted it here for a year or two."
"But no one sees it here!" Liu Rengui roared.
Li Laojiu deliberately opened his eyes wide when he heard this, "How could it be? If someone wants to go to Longshouyuan to open up the land, he will naturally find this place."
"You!" Liu Rengui no longer wanted to talk nonsense to him, so he left first with a swing of his sleeves.
After Liu Rengui returned, he wanted to write a memorial to impeach Xianyang County Magistrate, Wei Man and the local tribes behind him, but he knew that this kind of impeachment was of no use.
The other party only needs a few days to wait for the farming season, even if the farmers go to Longshouyuan, they can no longer reclaim the fields. They can post the notice at any time with great fanfare.
However, if he wanted to hand over his impeachment memorial to the court, he had to hand it over one layer. When Li Chengqian saw his memorial, he might be the harvest. By then, I'm afraid Li Chengqian would not think that he was a capable person.
The tall Liu Rengui walked around the house for a few times. Finally, he made up his mind to write a notice and post it in person, and then guarded the city gate and told the people.
Thinking up a way to deal with it, Liu Rengui narrowed his eyes and said coldly: I don’t believe that there will be no people going to Longshouyuan!
If you have to do this, you are more angry with Wei Man and the local tribes in Xianyang.
Sun Silang is eighteen years old this year. He is a simple farmer. He has a dark and strong life and is a famous and good crop style.
The four parents of Sun Silang brothers died early. He lived with his elder brother and sister-in-law when he was young. The eldest brother also died of illness the next year and left only a thirteen-year-old nephew.
They and their second and third brothers did not separate their families. The family of more than a dozen people grew the twenty acres of land at home, and they paid various taxes and could not get enough. So since the previous year, they rented and planted 20 acres of land in the Dugu family, and they had to pay 60% of the rent every year. One acre of land was only 40 to 50 kilograms of grain left in a year.
In this way, the family, men, women, and young can barely get a round belly after working hard for a year, but nothing left.
His sister-in-law wanted to tell him a good marriage, but she couldn't say it because she had too many people and had few land. This made the 18-year-old Sun Silang very angry. She felt displeased when she saw anything and wanted to go out and try it out.
On that day, Sun Silang, who was sitting at the door repairing a hoe, saw that the city gate was very lively, so he put down his work and led his nephew to the city gate to watch the fun.
When Sun Silang's uncle and nephew arrived at the city gate, there were already many people surrounded here. Sun Silang saw a tall official standing against the city wall. At this time, the official was using strange Mandarin (Henan Mandarin, Sun Silang didn't know) to tell everyone about the reclamation of the Dragon Shouyuan.
The official also knew that he had an accent, so he spoke very slowly. Sun Silang listened very seriously. He heard that he went to Longshouyuan to reclaim the land. The imperial court did not collect taxes for three years. Now he went to the imperial court to release agricultural tools and seeds, and everyone worked and had dinner together...
Sun Silang felt a little warm when he heard this. Just when he was trying to ask how to get there, he heard a cough coming from beside him. He turned his head and looked like an old man in a satin robe.
The old man Sun Silang knew Mr. Zhao Liu, the accountant of the Dugu family. People living nearby said that Mr. Zhao Liu was a very knowledgeable person. He often came out of the Dugu family and walked on the road and shaking his head and recited articles loudly. If others asked him what he was memorizing, he always smiled and said, "Can you know such a great truth like you?" Then he left with a smile.
Of course, Mr. Zhao Liu sometimes also helps people write letters, so people around here respect him very much.
When the people around saw Mr. Zhao Liu coming, they were all busy getting out of the way. Mr. Zhao Liu just coughed a few times and walked to the inside.
He didn't listen to what Liu Rengui said, but just shook his head and read the notice in a humming manner. After he finished reading the notice, he turned around and walked out.
All the villagers hurriedly asked him, "Mr. Zhao Liu is so good at saying this?"
Zhao Liu said with a smile: "Okay! OK--"
Everyone saw that he was insincere and felt aroused in their hearts. The clever one followed Zhao Liu quietly. Without taking a few steps, they asked in a low voice: "Mr. Zhao Liu's notice?"
Zhao Liu rolled his eyes and said, "Do you dare to believe the notice?" After that, he left.
After hearing Zhao Liu's words, the person who heard him knows the secret of immortality, was a mysterious secret to everyone.
So when I was a little moved, everyone had the idea of going to Longshouyuan to open up the land, and Sun Silang also returned home dejectedly.
Liu Rengui was dry-mouthed, but he didn't know that all his efforts had been ruined by Mr. Zhao Liu's words.
Liu Rengui stood at the city gate for a day, and only more than ten people were willing to go to Longshouyuan to open up the land, which made Liu Rengui very depressed.
He didn't sleep all night and couldn't figure out why. The next day was February 2nd, Liu Rengui thought that there were many people in the county today, and he could see if anyone was willing to go to Longshouyuan.
Liu Rengui once again stood at the city gate and interpreted the notice he posted yesterday to the people who came and went. Today, there were many people in Japan, but there were not as many people around him as before.
Today, many people come to the city to repair farm tools and buy seeds, and no one has the time to listen to him.
This made Liu Rengui feel a little cold and wanted to give up this opportunity to take the Li Chengqian line.
"Rocks and Roosters..."
Just as Liu Rengui was about to leave, a high-pitched tune suddenly came out of the city gate. Liu Rengui turned his head and saw a large group of people rolling in dust not far away.
Liu Rengui didn't know what was wrong, so he hurriedly walked out of the city gate and ran up the city wall from the stairs next to him.
Liu Rengui looked down from above and saw two peasant brothers and sisters walking from the official road outside the city. The brothers and sisters walked and sang.
Everyone around them followed them, and the group of people buzzed like a mobile bee swarm, flying bigger and bigger, and walking more and more people.
Finally, when I walked to the city gate, I simply stopped leaving and sang in an open space next to the city gate. The people passing by and walked into and out of the county town stopped to watch.
Liu Rengui didn't understand what they were singing. When he saw that the soldiers guarding the city next to him were also focused, he patted a soldier next to him and asked, "What are they singing?"
"Uh?" The soldier was shocked and came back to his senses from the performance under the city. He didn't know what the county magistrate Liu was doing.
Liu Rengui had no choice but to say loudly: "I ask you what are they singing?"
"Oh, they sing about brothers and sisters opening up the land..." The soldier talked to Liu Rengui with a singular look on what he sang below.
Just as they were talking, Xianyang City was already sensational. People near the city gate lived outside and ran away when they heard the sound. Although people in the distance didn't know what happened, they all ran out.
Duan Hongda and his partner sang the brother and sister in the open space over and over again. There were already crowds of people around him. It was the dry time of early spring. There were so many people together. When you move, you will be filled with dust.
In addition, the two of them were constantly wandering around the field, making the scene look like smoke fluttering, and the dust fell down to make the two of them covered in dust, and they were more like people who had just returned from the field.
Liu Rengui looked at the city walls of Xianyang City as there were so many people. He didn't know what these people who sang the song of persuading agriculture wanted, but he really wanted to squeeze into the crowd to promote the opening of Longshouyuan.
But when he was still hesitating, the play below stopped and a few old farmers walked out, and those old farmers also spoke to everyone in Xianyang accent.
Liu Rengui was afraid that they were people with ulterior motives, so when he saw someone coming out to say something, he pricked up his ears and listened carefully. He almost screamed when he heard it.
Chapter completed!