"Have you heard what happened yesterday? Have you two been to Shengyun Tower before?" Li Hong motioned for the two of them to sit down, and then went straight to the topic and asked.
Wang Xiaojie and Heng Yanfan smiled bitterly, and then said at the same time: "I have been there."
"You're going, right?" Li Hong still looked relaxed. At least on the surface, he couldn't tell that His Majesty the Emperor was a little unhappy because his ministers had been to Shengyun Tower.
"Should I go more often?" Wang Xiaojie and Heng Yanfan looked at each other and then asked.
After the Ministry of War was restructured, both of them withdrew from the ranks of generals and then joined the ranks of civilian officials.
When they first joined the ranks of civil servants, there was a bit of xenophobia between civil servants and military officials, so in order to deal with the civil servants or to socialize, it was natural for the two of them to go to Shengyun Tower.
Heng Yanfan recalled how many times he had been to Shengyun Tower, then shook his head and said, "Not necessarily, it's possible that I went there more."
"Okay, you two, stop arguing about who is going more and who is going less. I know that both of you are fine, so don't show your loyalty in front of me." Li Hong waved his hand, leaned back in the chair, and continued to ask: " Yesterday I handed over Pei Qing's case to the Queen and the Emperor's eldest son Li Ye, do you have any objections?"
"A little bit." Wang Xiaojie thought for a while. His Majesty was known for his straightforwardness in the military, but this did not mean that anything could be hidden from His Majesty, so he still said frankly: "I want to I don’t understand why I just asked the Ministry of Justice to assist. Logically speaking, even if the Ministry of Personnel is in charge of Pei Qing’s case, I will have no objection. But if you leave it to the queen and the emperor’s eldest son, I can understand that you intend to make the emperor’s eldest son the prince. But other than the inspection, others will not be able to understand what you mean.”
Heng Yanfan looked at Wang Xiaojie, then at Li Hong, thought for a while and said, "Your Majesty, you don't want to reform the system of official slaves and private slaves in the Tang Dynasty right now, do you?"
"After all, he is a relative of the queen, so whether it is the queen's face or Pei Xingjian's, I have to give it to him. Furthermore, the inspection of Li Ye is also done casually, but I believe that with the Ministry of Punishment assisting, the queen will not pretend to be a public servant. , Li Ye can’t do it either.” Li Hong knocked on the table and answered Wang Xiaojie’s question.
Then he turned to Heng Yanfan and said: "Yes, the reform of slavery is imperative. I asked you to be the Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs. Do you think I have enough to support you? You are a general who is good at fighting. I will put you in the Ministry of Household Affairs." , isn’t it too wasteful?”
"Thank you for the compliment, Your Majesty. As long as I can do my best, I will do whatever I can to serve Your Majesty..."
"Just keep these words in your mind. Back then, I asked Li Yifu and Xu Jingzong to go to the Household Department, and their household registration was as airtight as ironclads. So now, even if a slave wants to be a good person, his path is becoming more and more difficult. The less it is, the more dangerous it is, but one advantage is that with the growth of population in the Tang Dynasty and the reclamation of wasteland, powerful nobles, aristocratic families, etc., annexing land and buying and selling land have not yet become common, but these lands If the imperial court does not take advantage of it, sooner or later it will pass through the loopholes of the Tang Dynasty laws and regulations, and then be transferred into the hands of people like them." Li Hong flipped through the memorial, then changed it to Heng Yanfan, and then threw it to Heng Yanfan and then to Wang Xiaojie. After seeing it, he threw it to Wang Xiaojie.
Seeing the two people looking at the memorials attentively, he continued to say slowly: "The reason why I keep you, Heng Yanfan, is to let you count the abandoned fields, Gyeonggi Road, Guannai Road, Henan, Hedong, Hebei, and Shannan's east and west roads. , Longyou Road, Huainan Road, Jiangnan East and West Roads, Qianzhong, Jiannan, Lingnan Roads, a total of 14 roads, commanding 328 prefectures, 1,573 counties, and two prefectures and counties. Do you have detailed data on all the abandoned fields at the Ministry of Finance? Can you fully control those lands? "
Heng Yanfan put down the memorials with a serious expression, then looked at Li Hong and replied: "Your Majesty, I have been serving as the Minister of the Ministry of Finance for nearly three years. I have traveled to various Taoist circles. At the same time, I have also obtained quite accurate information from the Taoist Yushi. The data is easy to say in other ways now, but... "
"Stop the ink and tell me, which ones you can't handle require my intervention or someone else's intervention." Li Hong said impatiently but cheerfully.
Heng Yanfan hurriedly stretched out three fingers and said: "There are only three roads that ministers cannot have full control of now. The three roads are Gyeonggi Road, Guannai Road and Henan Road."
After hearing Heng Yanfan's answer, Li Hong nodded as expected: "I thought of it, there are more officials in Gyeonggi Province, there are mostly wealthy gentry families in Guannai Province, Henan Province... It must be that you can't find opportunities to attack in Luoyang area, except for the officials. Dawai, just like Gyeonggi Province, there are many princes and nobles, so that’s why you are in trouble, right?”
"Yes." Heng Yanfan answered honestly.
Since His Majesty is determined to rectify the situation and wants to control the excess land in his hands and then distribute it to the people who are about to transform from slaves to good men in the future, then these princes, nobles, aristocratic families, and dignitaries must give up the excess land in their hands. Come out, and these people are the ones you can't deal with and can't complete His Majesty's errands.
"For example?" Li Hong asked with interest, but he was already two years old now, so there might be many people here who are close to the royal family.
And things are often like this, the more you are afraid of, the more likely it will come. Just as Li Hong guessed, Heng Yanfan cleared his throat and said: "For example, the lord of Xingyang County, Li Chuyuan, I dare not move."
"Uncle Ji Wang's daughter." Li Hong looked troubled and said a little helplessly: "That is a mistress that even Li Lingyue is not afraid of. She often goes in and out of the harem, drinks flowers with the empress dowager, and has a close relationship with the princess in the harem. They are all very good, and they are one of the few masters who can enter and leave the palace at any time. "
"Yes, so I... there is really nothing I can do." Heng Yanfan looked relaxed. He had long planned to leave this difficult matter to your majesty. After all, this matter was beyond the scope of his ability as a minister of household affairs. .
"Heng Yanfan, you didn't do it on purpose, did you? When I handed the household department to you, you promised..."
"But I really can't do it. If County Lord Li just says a word, I might have to peel off my skin even if I don't die. Besides, Your Majesty has a very close relationship with County Lord Li. Even if I have the intention, I can't do anything..." Heng Yanfan's facial features were all tense. Almost wrinkled together.
When His Majesty appointed him as the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, he took a fancy to his resolute and decisive actions in the army. This kind of thing is easy to say in other provinces, but once he got to the Three Provinces where the princes and nobles gathered together, he was the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue. I am completely incapable of taking the blame for His Majesty.
"Originally I wanted you to do the things that offended people for me, but I didn't expect that you, Heng Yanfan, only have this little ability. I thought it was an understatement to let you become the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue. Now it seems that you are qualified..." Li Hong curled his lips disdainfully and taunted his minister helplessly. Then he suddenly thought of a person, thought for a moment and said, "Then you haven't thought about starting with Xu Yanbo? Let's see if we can find a breakthrough from him." , after all, he is Li Chuyuan’s husband, right?”
Heng Yanfan spread his hands helplessly and said innocently: "I tried it. I originally planned to use a month's salary to invite Xu Yanbo to Shengyun Tower, and it was still a small matter, and I didn't dare to spend the money. , but who would have thought that I paid for my three-month salary, but in the end, do you know what Xu Yanbo said? I wanted him to spit out all the wine I invited him!"
Speaking of this, Heng Yanfan's heart and liver were trembling. Three months' salary, this was the decision he made with great grief.
"What did you say to him?" Wang Xiaojie was most interested in this kind of thing.
"What else can Xu Yanbo say? I'm afraid of him." Li Hong leaned back leisurely on the chair and said lightly.
"Your Majesty is wise." Heng Yanfan nodded repeatedly: "Yes, that bastard Xu Yanbo said three words: I am henpecked! I had no choice but to let my three-month salary go down the drain like this, right? So I tried to find a job in Xingyang Rumors spread that Xu Yanbo went to Shengyun Tower and found two young ladies to accompany him overnight. But... in the end, guess what? County Master Li came to the Ministry of Revenue and insisted that I invite Xu Yanbo to come again. Once, he said that Xingyang was a small place and had never seen the colorful world of Chang'an City, and that she was just like Xu Yanbo, a country boy and a country bumpkin..."
"Stop, stop, stop talking, I don't care about the bad things between you. In this case, I will take care of the three matters. You can make a detailed list for me in the past few days, and I will find them personally. Say. Okay, you can go back." After Li Hong finished speaking, he waved his hand quickly and told Heng Yanfan to get out.
"But... Your Majesty..." Heng Yanfan stood up reluctantly, looked at Li Hong with a bitter look on his face, and almost begged: "My salary for three months..."
"Get out of here, come on. I wanted to repay it for you, but after what you did in the three cases, you still have the nerve to ask me to pay this money for you? Come on, come on, don't bother me here anymore." Li Hong was impatient. He waved his hands to shoo away the "fly", but the "fly" had a look of grievance and reluctance on his face. He was shaking his body but his feet were motionless. He was so shameless that he refused to leave. He wanted to give away his three months' salary. Get it back from Li Hong.
"Hua Meng, drive Heng Yanfan out. He is not allowed to enter the Zichen Palace these days." The iron-rooster-like emperor spoke. Heng Yanfan, who was about to cry without tears, had no choice but to walk out of the palace with empty hands and a belly full of grievances. go.
Wang Xiaojie sat there with his head down and fell asleep, pretending not to see Heng Yanfan's pleading eyes. It wasn't until Heng Yanfan finally walked out of the bathroom that Wang Xiaojie raised his head.
After the "fly" Heng Yanfan flew away completely, Li Hong continued to read the memorial, and then after looking at it for a few times, he threw it to Wang Xiaojie: "The memorials presented by Dali Temple, Menxia Province, and Yushitai, regardless of Whether it is an official slave or a private slave, it is all under the control of your criminal department. The transformation of official slaves into private slaves has become more and more rampant in the past two years. How much inside information do you know? "
(End of chapter)