Although the speed of the carriage was not too fast, it was driven out of nearly thirty miles in the first half of the day after the flat and wide official road.

It was not until then that Wen Ming, who had calmed down, knocked on the wall of the car, stopped to move his body, loosened his muscles and bones, and untied his hands at the same time. After all, he was not young anymore. After sitting for half a day, his body bones were still a little overwhelmed.

Wen Ming, who was recovering his body, thought in his heart that perhaps it would be a good idea to retire at this time, but he didn't know if the political opponents would let him go easily when he went to the capital. Or maybe even the forces in Jiangnan would not let him go...

Just as he thought of this, he heard a burst of rapid horse hooves coming from the road behind him. It was a little far away at the beginning, but soon, it was close. This made Wen Ming's heart suddenly mention. Are there really some lawless Jiangnan tyrants who dared to intercept and kill their second-rank officials in the court on this halfway?

The servants who were with him were all vigilant, and they all pulled out their weapons and blocked their master behind him. Seeing that the fast horses were really coming here, someone even raised the courage to ask, "Who is coming? How dare you collide with the imperial officials!"

"Wow..." After seeing Wen Ming in the crowd, Li Ling, who was rushing to the front, felt sure that he quickly tied the reins and controlled the rushing horse to stop quickly, causing the horse to raise both front legs immediately, almost lifting him down, and then stabilized. The people behind him also made the same moves, but their posture was much more casual than his.

Before Li Ling could report his identity, Wen Ming, behind the crowd, had already shouted: "Wen Zhong... why are you chasing me?" The vigilance just now had changed to surprise. As he spoke, he was already standing by and greeted him.

Li Ling even quickly turned over and dismounted, bowed with fists and said: "Sir, the official came to send you off after hearing that you were leaving Jiangnan. You are really good at this big thing, why don't you send someone to tell the official..."

"Haha, if you have an official position, how can you act so casually? It was because I took this into consideration that I did not give it a special notice, and it was not a good thing." Wen Ming helped Li Ling up and said a few reproachfully, but there was still joy between his eyebrows and eyes.

"What the sir said? You are both my boss and my respected senior Li Ling. If you want to travel far, I should send you there. Now everything is going smoothly in the government office, and it is nothing if I leave for two days." As he said that, Li Ling looked at Wen Ming carefully, "Sir, is it really dangerous to go to the capital?"

Wen Ming shook his head gently, pulled Li Ling and came to the side. The others also kept a distance from them consciously, but formed a certain guard to prevent any assassination and pursuit.

"There are quite a risk in the officialdom. I was impeached by so many people this time, so I will naturally be at a loss when I return to the capital. But I have already seen it. The struggles in the court are just like that. It's just a loss of office and going back to be my commoner. I feel ashamed!" Wen Ming smiled and touched the beard under his chin, looking free and easy.

But Li Ling still saw a little unwillingness from his eyebrows, and sighed: "Adults have made contributions to the country and the people have been kind to the people. In the past year in Jiangnan, he has never done anything wrong. However, he was dismissed just because of the false accusations of some short-sighted and greedy guys in the court. I really can't accept it!"

"Haha, I'm going to tell you, in fact, when I decided to re-edit the civil book in Jiangnan and clear out this big mistake of harming the country and gaining personal gain, I already thought of such a result. This ending is more likely to happen than if I achieved my wish."

Seeing Li Ling frowning quickly at his words, Wen Ming smiled again: "Wen Zhong, you are also a smart person, and have served as an official in both the capital and local governments. Can't you see this? Compared to setting rules, it is more difficult to change rules; compared with changing rules, it is even more difficult to change the changed rules again. This is the difficulty of reform.

"Aren't Shang Yang in ancient times and An Shi, the king of Song, all the results? Of course, I, Wen Ming, could not compare with these sages. Compared with them who had achieved great results in reform, I could not even take the first step. But my ending was no different from them. Although Shang Yang had achieved success in reform, he ended up tragically and died tragically. As for Wang Anshi, he still could not escape the fate of the death of the political recession."

Li Ling listened to his feelings silently, and didn't know what to say for a moment. In fact, as a time traveler, he knew more about how much pressure Wen Ming had to withstand this decision. Even if he was just in a corner of Jiangnan, he would still be frantically attacked by countless vested interests. He just didn't want to admit it before, but now, because of Wen Ming's words, the truth was completely pushed to the front.

After exhaling, Li Ling's expression became more and more serious: "So, sir, think that all this is irreversible? What we once wanted to do for the Dayue court is probably impossible to truly implement?"

"At least it is impossible to do it now. All the officials in the court will not agree, and the gentry from all over the country will not agree. Even Your Majesty will not stand on your side. So when the crowd attacked and shouted to kill me, Your Majesty could not protect me and could only sacrifice me." A bitter smile appeared again, and Wen Ming patted Li Ling's shoulder, "But no one can tell what will happen in the future. Your Majesty is old and no longer regained his original ambitions and is determined to stabilize, so he doesn't want to mess with the government anymore. But what about him in a hundred years? When the new king ascended the throne, it may be another opportunity, but I may not be able to wait for this day."

Li Ling was silent and didn't answer his words. It wasn't that he had any concerns in his heart, but he really didn't know how to comfort Wen Ming. After a while, he said slowly: "What the lord said is, but there is something that the official has always wanted to ask, but he has never had this opportunity. If he doesn't ask this time, he may not have this opportunity in the future."

"You said, I will definitely speak out."

"This time, even though I knew that this would attract condemnation from all officials, I couldn't even keep my own position, but why did you still have to take a risk? Did I really have to be crumbling and unable to save myself without change? But as far as I have seen and heard, this is not the case."

"The three feet of ice is not cold for a day, and the changes in the world are the same. Although the world of Dayue still looks like a prosperous and prosperous world, under this appearance, do you really have to be rich and have no worries about food and clothing?

"Do you know that during the reign of Emperor Taizong, there were 80 to 90 million people in this dynasty, with more than 50 million hectares of land, and the annual tax revenue reached more than 30 million taels. You should know that at that time, there were still strong enemies in the north, and in the west, the Tubo in Dali had never surrendered. The military expenditure of the court was not a small number every year.

"But in this case, by the 18th year of Emperor Guangxu of Emperor Taizong, the treasury still had a surplus of 12 million taels. That was the real peaceful and prosperous era, with a rich country and a sufficient people. But now, except for the ghost army in the north, I have eliminated all the external troubles, but the annual treasury surplus is less than three to five million. Once a war broke out in the north, the treasury would be hollowed out. Do you think this is what the prosperous imperial court should look like?

"What about the people? How many aristocratic families occupy all over the country, occupying the land that should belong to the people, turning the people who should have farmed for the country into their own slaves, or concealing their household registration, in order to allow their own family to have more land. As for ordinary people, it is a blessing to have enough food and clothing. If it encounters a disaster year, it can only be sold for houses, land, children, and even sold themselves as slaves in order to survive.

"It is precisely because of this that the Luotian Sect was bewitched in Jiangnan, which made countless people who were suffering from disaster rise up and risked being beheaded and became chaotic people. Think about it, even Jiangnan, which has always been famous for its wealth, has become such a situation. What is the other place in Dayue?

"This is just the beginning, and the signs are not obvious, but the worries are vaguely visible. If the court does not use strong medicine to make the people rich and to curb the growing wealthy families and the embezzlement of the people's fat and ointment, then one day, when disaster strikes, my Dayue will repeat the mistake of the previous dynasty's fall.

"I heard that although I am not talented, I have been appointed as an official for the court and received great favor from Your Majesty. No matter how overestimated my ability, I will do my best to the court and the people of the world to try to make changes. However, I have to be alone in the end. Even if I have the determination to sacrifice myself and achieve good deeds, I have no ability to achieve success."

At the end of the day, a strong unwillingness and anger emerged from his eyes, and even his body trembled slightly because of this angry feeling.

Li Ling listened to his words in a daze. He knew some things, and it was the first time he heard about them. But he could see that Wen Ming said everything from the heart. He really wanted to do everything to change the world, but the obstacles were too great. He was too weak and could only end up in a sad end.

Wen Ming's expression slowly recovered after he finished speaking, and he smiled self-deprecatingly: "It's hard to achieve great things after all. I can't compare to the ancient sages. Failure is inevitable. Wen Zhong, I am very pleased. At least you are willing to follow and follow. I also hope that you can inherit my wishes one day and make a change for my Great Yue! But it's not now, but in the future. After all, you are still young and can still wait.

"You must remember the lessons of my failure this time. Before you find a strong enough allies without more than 50% of your confidence, don't take risks anymore. After all, it's still late, and it's time for me to set off."

After patting Li Ling's shoulder, Wen Ming staggered towards the carriage. At this moment, he no longer had the energy he had before and looked more like an old man.

Li Ling looked at him until he got on the carriage, and then bent down respectfully and bowed: "Governor, please take care of me when I go to the capital!"

The two carriages started again, but Li Ling stood there, watching him slowly stay away until he could no longer see him.

At this moment, somehow, he felt a little sorry for Wen Ming, and not to mention the uncertainty of his trip to the capital. He was a magistrate and a second-rank governor who had only two carriages and several followers seemed too desolate.

"I really can't behave like him, and I'm not that foolish and loyal person..." Li Ling sighed softly in his heart.

At this time, a gust of wind came from the north and was blowing on Li Ling, making him feel a chill.

In this spring day in Jiangnan, Li Ling felt a chill, which spread throughout his body...
Chapter completed!