On the Arhat bed on the side corridor of the back hall, Xue Limei was playing with her son. It was almost eleven months old. The little Lord Yang was so beautiful that he was deeply loved by all the concubines. He was able to stand up and walk with his hands on his feet. At this moment, Lord Yang held the windowsill on the kang, looked out the window frame on tiptoe, looked at it shakingly for a few glances, and sat down with a butt.

Xuelimei lay lazily on the bed, pillowing a brocade pillow and a pair of naked and white feet. As soon as Lord Yang fell down, she would smile and raise her feet to hold it up. The little guy was wearing open-crotch pants, his butt was smooth and pink, as cool as jade. Xuelimei probably suffered from the sequelae of Yang's family law, and she especially liked to touch it.

She has become very lazy recently and always likes to eat sour foods. When Miss Gao touched her, she knew that the little girl had been caught and was pregnant. Yang's family has a great career, and it was a good thing to add children to import them. Han Youniang was overjoyed. Only Yu Tangchun wanted to cry without tears: the sisters who like to accompany the master to play with Yushu Houting Flowers the most had a baby, but their stomachs were not moving at all. God was really eyeless.

These two days, Yu Tangchun has been entangled with Gao Wenxin and kept asking her for the method of having a noble son early, which made Gao Wenxin laugh and cry. Both of them are normal, so they have to wait for the opportunity. Is this mean that they will give birth? That is the ability to give birth to Guanyin, so why should her belly be flat?

Helplessly, she had to prescribe some prescriptions for men and women to replenish and condition. However, her own master's health is important. She prescribes prescriptions for regulating essence and replenishing qi and strengthening the body, but there is no medicine for tigers and wolfs.

Having said that, my master didn't know whether he was practicing Qi or learning Cheng Qiyun's thirty-eight methods of walking on the room. Her courage often made her soul scattered, her bones and muscles soft, and she had to beg for mercy every time. She was lying there for a long time and she was lazy to move her little fingers, and it wasn't time to use the medicine.

The little guy fell to Aunt Xueer's feet again. He turned around impatiently and saw Aunt Xueer holding the sour plums in his mouth with a smile. His eyes couldn't help but lit up, and he immediately pointed to her mouth and screamed twice.

He can't speak yet, from Han Youniang. Four beautiful mothers took turns to teach him to call him mother every day. Lord Xiao Yang is still the old god, but he just doesn't speak out. Whenever he needs anything and wants to go, he will point his hand in a arrogant way, say the word "ah", and everything he wants is immediately fulfilled.

Xue Limei raised her orchid fingers and used her two green onion fingers to tease him. Mr. Xiao Yang reached out and grabbed it twice but couldn't get it. So she curled her mouth and was about to howl. Xue Limei hurriedly smiled and said, "Be good, baby, don't cry, give it to me, right!"

She pouted and spit out half a piece of chewed plum blossoms. Lord Xiao Yang quickly crawled over, stretched out his mouth and took it. He just pursed it in his mouth twice. His little face was pulled up and began to vomit out with a strange look on his face.

Xuelimei smiled and the flowers were trembling. While she used her hands to follow the words Xiao Yang said to her, the princess smiled and said, "You want everything, but you still want it? Look!"

Her cherry lips opened, and Lord Yang turned around and crawled in fear. His little butt twisted in a very funny way. At this moment, Yang Ling walked in thinking about his thoughts. He had to go to the back hall from left to right. On the left was the piano room and the Arhat bed on the right was the place where the female family members in the inner house met with the female guests. It is usually one of the places where the female family members in the family rested and chatted, so Yang Ling often walked here.

Seeing Yang Ling come in, Xue Limei quickly sat up and tidied her hair scattered from her temples. She smiled sweetly, "The master is back. Has Mr. Li already returned to the city?"

"Well, yes. You don't have to get up. Let's play with your son. I'll go to Yun'er's place to see how the information she and Adni have sorted out."

Yang Ling said as he walked to the kang and teased his son, "Be good, baby, I will take you fishing tomorrow, come and call you dad."

The child couldn't speak yet, so he just said casually. After saying that, he turned around and left, and walked to the door. He heard two tender and crisp sounds coming from the bed: "Dad...Dad, Dad..."

The wind was coming from Yang Ling's feet, and he had already left the door. Suddenly, a "dry land pulling onions" jumped back. The Wudang "Tiyunzong" light skills were able to fall two and a half meters in his hands, which was already a perfect achievement.

Yang Ling couldn't help looking at his son happily and kept saying, "What did you say? Hurry up, keep calling, call dad."

Xue Limei had a petal of sage in her cute little mouth, and her almond eyes were wide open, and she seemed to be stunned for surprise.

Mr. Xiao Yang looked at his father with black and shiny eyes. While holding Aunt Xue'er's feet, he said with a smile: "Dad, Dad!"

"Ahha!" Yang Ling was overjoyed. He snatched over and picked up his son, kissed him on his delicate little face, and then said majestic: "Who said that boys are too late to learn words? It depends on who they are. Who is my son? Follow me, be smart, hahahaha..."

After Yang Ling finished speaking, he hugged his son happily and was about to run out, saying proudly: "I will take my son to show them, haha, you will teach him every day, I don't need to teach you, you will call him dad when you open your mouth."

Xue Limei hurriedly raised her shoes and went downstairs and said coquettishly: "Don't let it go, the child is sweating so much. Be careful to blow it, look at how beautiful you are."

Yang Ling hurriedly stuffed the child into her arms and said, "Then you take him and I'll call the young ladies and the others."

After a while, Yang Ling broke in with the surprised and happy Han Youniang, Gao Wenxin, Yu Tangchun, and the little maid Yun'er.

Xiaoyun was holding a hap dog in his arms. This dog was just bred by a dog-raising man in the capital. Yang Ling knew it was a hap dog at first sight, but it was a rare thing at that time. The people in the capital thought that this kind of puppy was both cute and rare. At present, because it was rare, only royal relatives and noble families could afford it. This puppy was one of the playmates of the eldest son of the Yang family.

Han Youniang said in surprise: "Let me see, baby son really calls him dad?"

I saw Mr. Xiao Yang holding Aunt Xueer's thighs and keeping "dad". Xue Limei smiled so hard that she leaned back and forth, tears came from her eyes. When she saw them coming in, she smiled and said with a smirk: "The master is so happy. Xiao Bao can call him dad, but he just can call him. He calls him whatever he catches."

Sure enough, when Lord Xiao Yang saw Yun'er holding his favorite pug in his arms, he happily let go of his aunt's thigh, pointed to the pug, and shouted first, then shouted "Dad, Dad".

Han Youniang, Gao Wenxin and others couldn't help laughing. Yang Ling was so amused that she sat on the kang, pointing at her son and said, "You little bastard, you really make me face. It's better not to scream, okay, okay, don't scream."

"Dad, Dad...".

Han Youniang and the others laughed even harder. Yang Ling couldn't resist it, so he had to laugh dryly, "Although he doesn't understand what it means, at least he can call him, hehe, you want him to call him. He is too lazy to pay attention to it."

The son finally got to speak. This was a big happy event, and no one paid attention to him. Han Youniang and his wife surrounded Master Yang in the middle and said angrily: "Good son, good baby, come, call me Mom (aunt) and listen."

The little guy stared at his dark eyes, looked at his somewhat nervous mother and aunt in surprise, then turned around, twisted his little butt and crawled towards Yang Ling, screaming all the way, and plunged into his arms. He only had a small butt sticking out, obviously scared by them.

Yu Tangchun sighed, ticked his bare butt with her big toes, and said angrily: "This little ungrateful wolf is from the Old Yang family. I love him in vain. I refuse to call him, so I'm stingy!"

Yang Ling hugged his son and laughed happily. He temporarily left the business and asked someone to bring iced watermelon and sour plum soup, and chatted with his wife, concubine and beloved son, and had a happy chat.

The adults sat on the kang, ate melon seeds and fruits, and chatted about family matters. The children crept around between their legs with the little hakama dog, laughing and playing. Occasionally, they looked at the young lady with their eyes, and Yang Ling and young lady saw from each other's eyes, all of which were satisfied, warmth, affection and sweetness.

Yes, the most difficult years have passed, and the situation of mutual support in poverty will no longer need to appear. As time goes by, those bitter past events will become more and more beautiful memories. Perhaps it is true that one day, when two people are old enough to move, they sit on a rocking chair, and knees are like now, and there are a few children playing there, and they will tell them about these past events in a bunch of time.

Now, what is accumulated and accumulated is the deeper and deeper relationship between them. Their lives and their feelings are happier than most people in the world. Happiness is enough.

Yang Ling came to Cheng Qiyun's residence and saw Cheng Qiyun. Adni and the two beauties were fighting with each other, and Chu Ling sat at the table with her chin in her arms, smiling and watching.

Yang Lingqi said: "What's the fight so hard?"

As soon as the two saw Yang Ling, they immediately rushed to complain: "Sir, come and review, please check the tax issues..."

"Yang, Sister Yun'er is too conservative. She just modified the old system. In my opinion, she should have made a big move..."

"Stop and stop!" Yang Ling was quarreled by them, and hurriedly pulled one to the table with one hand, pressed their shoulders and said, "Sit down for me." He glanced at Chu Ling, who was standing with a smile, and said, "No need to be polite, you can sit down too."

As he said that, he sat down, poured a cup of tea for each person, and said with a smile: "Okay, Master Qingtian is here, if you have any injustice, just come one by one."

The two beauties snorted at the same time, gave him a pretty look, then looked at each other, but stopped talking.

Seeing that the two machine guns were fired out, Yang Ling smiled and said, "Chu Ling, you said."

"Ah! I... I say..." Chu Ling looked at the boss's wife timidly, but the boss's wife did not express her objection. She had to bite the bullet and say to the boss: "That's right, didn't the Duke of the Guogong let the two girls discuss your "Twelve Comments on Jingzheng" again? This... the opinions on the administration, land, taxes, and military system, uh... Miss Adni and the Miss have very different opinions. They are just a little fierce argument. They are not arguing, so don't worry."

When Yang Ling heard this, he realized that he actually asked the two to discuss. He just wanted to refer to their opinions. He had communicated with Yang Shen, Jiao Fang, Yang Yiqing and others and made changes to their opinions at any time.

Cheng Qiyun has a very clear understanding of human nature and psychology. Adni is from the West and has no habit of seeing the Eastern system since childhood. She asked her to help me understand it. Maybe she could come up with a unique idea from the perspective of an onlooker. Yang Ling asked them to understand it. She wanted to improve the system from their perspective and have fewer loopholes. In this way, once it was presented, the obstacles could be minimized.

In fact, at that time, both the political system and the economic system, and even the imperial examination system that was criticized more often later. At that time, it was quite mature and advanced than the West, but the East was only famous and the West was profit-oriented. Compared with the values ​​of the West, it was undoubtedly more pragmatic in the West. In terms of democratic systems, the West was also more advanced than the East.

Yang Ling just asked the two to take a look casually. He gave some advice. Unexpectedly, he was moved and funny when the two were so serious. Yang Ling thought about it and said to Cheng Qiyun: "Well, I understand. Okay, let's talk about the administration first. Let's talk about it, where are your main differences?"

Adni rushed to say, "I think the problem should be solved from the root of the question. The most urgent task is to cut off redundant staff and select talents. Selection of talents should be made without regard to background and qualifications, and vigorously promoted young officials. They have broad vision, dare to innovate and have a lot of energy. People over fifty years old in the local area can only be granted miscellaneous officials. They should not be the head of prefectures and counties. They should be rewarded with excellence, punish greed and laziness, and strive to do their best."

Yang Ling rubbed his chin and pondered for a while, saying, "Well, that's it, but when it comes to implementation, how to master this standard? Who will determine which young man is excellent? Who is not unqualified? Moreover, if he is over fifty, he will not be the head of the hall, which will inevitably affect many local officials and cause them to resist. Many officials in their fifties will be uneasy in political affairs, but specialize in speculation and making profits for personal gain. How can these problems be solved?"

Adni's face turned red, Yang Ling smiled and comforted: "If the person in the upper hand is honest and wise, and then in charge of one government and one government, he can use such a rectification method. He can use it in such a huge country, and the communication and information are extremely slow, that is inappropriate. Adni came up with the solution based on the situation of your country, and your country is just equivalent to one government and one government here. If it is limited to this, you will not be able to blame you."

Although Adni is a knowledgeable and talented girl, her understanding of this ancient oriental country and its official and cultural heritage formed over thousands of years is naturally not as good as Cheng Qiyun, so what she advocates is a bit out of reality. Cheng Qiyun heard that he couldn't bear to embarrass Adnie and couldn't help but smile.

Yang Ling glared at her and asked, "So tell me, what are your opinions?"

Cheng Qiyun smiled and said, "I think that policy implementation is from top to bottom. To rectify the administration of officials, we must take the rule of law as the core of governance and strengthen the control power of the court to ensure the implementation of the new law. The specific practices have been paved and simple to implement.

Haven’t the censors of the Censorate, Hanlin Academy, and Thirteen Imperial Envoys just been purged? Now the officials and newly promoted people are very good in terms of character and ability. Adults should first strengthen the strength of the judiciary and the six departments in the six departments, and the cabinet system is controlled and assessed at all levels, with clear rewards and punishments, and clarify responsibilities in order to increase the intensity of the implementation of government orders in each department."

Yang Ling nodded secretly: "In the current unified feudal society, if you want to successfully reform, you can only achieve the unity of power from top to bottom. If the court does not strengthen the control of institutions at all levels, the reform will be a piece of paper. The policies set by the top and the above are registered and archived, and they will not be implemented at all.

Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen centralization. In fact, whether it is centralization or decentralization, there is a background that suits it. Based on the current political, economic, cultural, and under the current technological level and information capabilities, if you want to decentralize power and democracy, it is purely a head for the donkey to kick it. It would be strange if you use utopianism to implement it and not cause chaos in the world.

Of course, there are differences in this centralization. If all the powers are raised to the hands of the emperor and the emperor is a wise ruler, then it will be a big deal and can exhaust him to death. If he is a foolish ruler, then everyone in the world will be in trouble.

Cheng Qiyun's proposal was actually to strengthen the cabinet's governance capabilities. This ability was placed under systematic supervision. In this way, the cabinet was not alone, and the officials' political achievements and personal character were highly controlled, which was indeed a good way to improve the efficiency of the bureaucratic team.

Most importantly, this is exactly in line with what Li Dongyang said about power. No matter what kind of reforms are, some of the rights and interests must be damaged. The key to the question is whether you can win the support of another part of the bureaucrats. According to this statement, if the power of the cabinet is strengthened and the power of Kedao is strengthened, then I will first fight for the cabinet of the Ming Dynasty and the entire supervision system and become an unswerving supporter of my reforms."

Before going to Nuer to work, Yang Shen gave him similar opinions. Now that he coincided with what Cheng Qiyun said, Yang Ling couldn't help but praise him. He and Cheng Qiyun discussed several points in detail, about the assessment methods of officials by the Daoshi official, such as tax collection, departure audit, and political performance assessment place appointment and removal system.

Among these arguments, some of the terms were exactly what Liu Jin had done at the beginning, but Liu Jin did this entirely to slander people, and used personnel assessments to make money for himself. As a result, he was reading the good story wrongly. Now the old story is brought up again. Thinking of Liu Jin, Yang Ling couldn't help but feel a lot of emotion, and at the same time reminded him:

Do things with a worldly attitude and be a human being with a worldly attitude.

This power cannot be taken, nor can it be handed over to any private person. The implementation of this power must be really put down and placed in the hands of the six departments and thirteen departments. There are so many local officials. They can restrain each other and prevent people from doing too outrageously in their concentrated power, not to mention that there are cabinets that restrain each other.

The assessment of officials is concentrated on the collection of local taxes. In the audit of the departure, the assessment is guaranteed to be well documented and measured, rather than letting the supervisory officials say it. The rectification of officials is the basis, and it naturally involves many other aspects, such as cracking down on illegal tyrants and pursuing illegal tyrants and tax arrears, which extends to the extension. The two of them wrote while writing for a while, which talked about the most troublesome land concentration problem.

Cheng Qiyun said: "In fact, all these reforms are linked and complementary matters, including the rectification of the administration and the impact of tax collection and criminal title, and in terms of integrity, the land issue also involves criminal title and integrity and tax collection. Speaking of the issue of land being occupied by the powerful, it is necessary to mention the contribution of Liu Jin and Eunuch Liu.

He cleared the land in order to highlight his personal achievements and to clear as much land as possible to seek credit, which caused many families to be destroyed. However, after the land of those victims was truly reissued, the amount of land in other places was really solid.

How much legal land does the officials, gentry and people actually have? How much land has been hidden by local tyrants or occupied by the imperial court? They are also recorded. The greedy ones do not count. There are 1.47 million hectares of land that are hidden and unreported, and 800,000 hectares of tax evasion, right? With these data, tax collection and even tax reform are much easier."

Cheng Qiyun smiled and said, "The Lord has listed some more reasonable tax methods that are being explored and implemented in some places, such as "Lijia Silver" in Yingtian Prefecture, "Jingping Silver" in Zhejiang and Guangdong, "Bangyin Silver" in Fujian, and "Ten Duanjin" in Jiangnan. Most of these tax methods have changed the traditional physical tax and paid in discounted silver, which not only facilitates the collection, transportation and storage of the court, but also eliminates the loss and mold caused by poor storage in these links.

However, I think among these methods, the "one-whip tax payment method, and the tax payment is distributed to the acres" you mentioned is the best. This method is implemented, which is mixed, equal taxes, power difference, silver difference, etc., and the power difference is combined into one. The power difference is classified into a land tax. All the land-free people do not need to pay taxes, and the rich people cannot get more. The corvee labor is fair, so no one will lament the unequal."

Yang Ling nodded and said, "Yes, and with the two silvers, the physical service and the power of the two generations has expanded the circulation of currency and weakened personal dependence. Vendors and craftsmen have gained greater freedom, which is crucial to the development of industry and commerce."

Yang Ling secretly discussed this with some ministers in the court. He also won their approval. The "One Whip" law ensured the stability of the court's taxes and would not make the rich richer, the poorer poorer, and even bankrupt and rebelled. It strengthened the development of industry and commerce, and farmers with land were willing to farm, and wealthy families in the city were willing to buy land, and would not violate the interests of the powerful officials and local tyrants too much, so as not to arouse strong opposition from the local government. All their efforts were wasted.

The One Whip Law makes it difficult for officials to use tax corruption, reduces the burden on the poor, increases the annual income of the court, and is within the scope of the land that power officials and gentry can accept. This is a relatively pragmatic reform strategy. If you really have a hot mind and want to return the land to the people with one size fits all, and fight the local tyrants and divide the land, you have to first bring a team up the mountain to fight guerrillas.

The two of them became happier and happier. Yang Ling's thoughts became clearer and clearer. He said excitedly: "It's very good. Now Jiao Ge Lao, Yang Yiqing and the others should have gone out of the yamen. I'll go to the city to have a look and discuss with them. I'll submit it to the emperor in the next two days."

Yang Ling was only concerned about happiness, but did not pay attention to Adni's resentment, and as he saw him get up and leave quickly, Adni looked even more lonely...

"The emperor has actually read these arrays, and the official letter is just a signal to the world and a signal to reorganize the land. His own Duke is responsible for clearing out bandits and resettling refugees. He has seen and experienced in the local area and knows that the country cannot be rich and strong, and the people are happy to work, and the bandits will be suppressed endlessly, and the ills cannot be eliminated. If the new policy is implemented, the country cannot be enriched and the country cannot be strengthened.

Now the emperor is young and is about to make a great achievement. All the great masters are ministers of the state of the country. Please do your best to express your opinions. Let’s finally consider these remarks so that the new policy can be implemented smoothly. Mr. Liu, what do you think?"

Yang Ling looked around and said loudly. At Jiao Fang's mansion, several invited adults sat around the table and were making final considerations on the new reform policy.

The ones that serve on the platform are always prepared. The implementation of a policy and decision-making are all detailed investigations, research, balance of forces in various aspects, and coordination of the results. Just like now, Yang Tinghe and Yang Yiqing are incompatible. However, his power occupies two seats in the cabinet and plays an important role in the implementation of decision-making.

Although the finalized reform of the administration was extremely beneficial to the cabinet and would not affect other places' rights and interests, it was strengthened, but it was inevitable that he would be separated from him by concealing it in advance without any instructions. Therefore, Yang Ling also invited Liu Zhong, the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue. He was from Yang Tingya. He was there, so he told Yang Tinghe about what he agreed to at any time.

Everyone knew what Liu Zhong said in this way, so they naturally knew that it represented Yang Tinghe's opinions. So after Yang Ling finished speaking, he first looked at him and wanted to know the opinions of Grand Secretary Yang Tinghe and Liang Chu.

Liu Zhongqian smiled softly and said, "When the lower officials were in the Hanlin Academy, they only knew how to stimulate words and criticized the current ills. They were incredible about the existence of some bad policies that turned a blind eye to no one to correct them. They only thought that the court officials were not doing their jobs and neglected their duties. Until they became the Minister of Revenue, they were powerless and had difficulty in making progress, and they realized that the accumulated ills were deep and they could not achieve results without drastic measures.

At present, land annexation is serious, refugees are scattered, the grass translation disaster is coming, the national treasury is empty, and the cost is scarce; Tatars in the north and Qinghai in the west are all in a state of change, Hami garrison is in a dilemma, the chieftains in the south fight for power and profit, reform and reform are imminent, and the officials are deeply agreeable to the subordinates."

This is the result of the distribution of power. Otherwise, even if Yang Tinghe agrees in his heart, he will inevitably make things difficult for him. Yang Ling was very happy when he heard this and only listened to Liu Zhong: "The officials only have one suggestion. The land occupied by the giant gentry and rich people can be forced to return it to the farmers. In addition, no matter how much their inherent land is, including those that have hidden taxes and not reported, they can only strengthen management and impose tax fines, and cannot be confiscated and distributed to civilians.
To be continued...