Picked up a copy of Romance of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 861 The People Behind the Scenes
Zhong Changtong tidied up his clothes and rushed to the palace early. Under the leadership of several yellow gates, he arrived at Houde Hall. Looking up at the main hall, he saw the emperor sitting on a bearded chair with some anger on his face. Zhong Changtong bowed respectfully to the emperor, "See you!"

Liu Xi didn't let him get up, but just looked at him coldly, and then said: "You came very quickly. Usually, when a minister enters Luo, he comes to see him the next day. It's only been more than ten days for you. , came to see me, not bad, not bad."

Zhong Changtong was not afraid, raised his head, grinned, and said, "Aren't I afraid that I will affect your majesty's good mood? I know that your majesty will be annoyed when he sees me, so he didn't dare to come to see me."

"Oh", Liu Xi snorted coldly, "You can see clearly, so I have to find a way to let you go to Ningzhou or Jiaozhou, and it is best not to see you in this life. It must be great, don't you think?"

"Farewell, Your Majesty, among the officials in the East Palace, the ministers are the worst. Zhuge Kongming has served as the third commander, and the rest of the ministers are not servants, but also serve as state shepherds outside. I am the only one who has been the prefect for six years. I have been number one in political performance every year, and I have never been promoted. I lost the governor, the state shepherd, and even the county magistrate under my command."

Hearing Zhong Changtong's complaint, Liu Xi laughed and waved his hands, "Get up, sit down!"

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Zhong Changtong bowed again, and then sat in front of Liu Xi.

Liu Xi sized him up and said with emotion: "Back then, when you followed me, you were just a brat, the youngest among the crowd, but now, you have grown up, how about you, do you have a family? "

"Every daughter in the family goes to the state shepherd to get married. How can I, a little eunuch, get married?" Zhong Changtong said in a low voice, and Liu Xi laughed, "Are you blaming me for not using you?"

"I dare not!!"

"For so many years, why has I been reluctant to let you come to Luoyang and enter the core of the temple? It's not because of your nature. If you don't believe in ghosts and gods, then you don't believe in them. Why do you want everyone in the world to follow you? Like, do you believe in ghosts or gods? How much trouble have you caused me these days? Ah? You just gave you the position of the servant of the priest, but you almost demolished Luoyang's Zhonglie Hall!!"

"I ask you, if you continue to be like this, do you even want to tear down the altar for offering sacrifices to heaven on Mount Tai?"

Liu Xi frowned and asked angrily.

Zhong Changtong was a little scared at this moment. He hadn't seen the emperor for a long time. He really didn't expect that the emperor had changed so much. Chong Chong questioned, as if he would be dragged out and beheaded if he answered incorrectly, Zhong Changtong looked bitter, and hurriedly said: "Don't dare."

"Don't you dare? Haha", Liu Xi sneered, looked at Zhong Changtong who was a little panicked in front of him, slowed down, and continued: "Ah, you are my confidant, when I was still the prince, you followed me I'm by my side, and I intend to use you again, but you have to promise me that you can't act so recklessly again, after you take office, the documents to impeach you can flood the Hall of Houde."

"This time, I will give you another chance. I will give you the household mansion. The household mansion is the most important thing in the temple. You can take care of the household mansion with peace of mind. If you don't understand anything, you can ask the minister. Don’t blame me for being merciless if you cause trouble.”

"Your Majesty...if you make a mistake, will you kill me?" Zhong Changtong asked cautiously.

"Oh, that's not true, I will cut your hair, let you become a monk, and go to worship the Buddhist scriptures all day long..."

Zhong Changtong's eyes widened suddenly, "I will definitely not make mistakes again!!"

"Okay...you get up!" Liu Xi said, and asked about some things in Liangzhou, especially Zhangye's situation, Zhong Changtong proudly talked about Zhangye, Zhangye was originally just Liangzhou In a poor and unremarkable county in the state, under Zhong Changtong's careful management, the annual taxation has shown an astonishing upward trend, and the emperor is also quite curious about this.

"Your Majesty, you don't know that there is too little arable land in Zhangye, and all the land that can be arable has been taken by powerful families. Most of the people have become tenants under the hands of others. If there is no land, the land belongs to others, so this The grain production is very low, Your Majesty may not know it, the people value the land very much, and without land, it will definitely be a huge blow to the people.”

When Zhong Changtong talked about the issue of land, Liu Xi immediately became serious. Now that the emperor wants to implement the land equalization system, this is what he thinks in his heart. The rich and powerful continue to annex the people's land, making the people's land more and more scarce. In the end, the land reclaimed by Emperor Xiaokang and the people who worked so hard to reclaim it returned to the powerful hands, but the people still had no land.

Liu Xi wants to break this cycle, he wants the common people in the world to keep their farmland.

Therefore, when he heard Zhong Changtong talk about this issue in Liangzhou, he seemed very concerned.

"At that time, I was thinking about how to solve this problem. Don't blame your majesty. In Liangzhou, they dare not provoke me, especially in Zhangye. I can do many things as I want. Bypassing the state shepherd, they are all afraid of the minister and think that the minister is a monster, but this also gives the minister a chance to show his talents."

"Hehe, they didn't think wrong." Liu Xi sarcastically asked, "Then how did you do it?"

"At that time, I thought, isn't the problem about the land? Wouldn't it be fine if I just let the powerful spit out the land? Therefore, at the beginning of this, I killed many powerful people and put their The cultivated land was distributed to the people." Zhong Changtong said, but Liu Xi shook his head with some disdain, "It's useless."

Zhong Changtong was shocked and asked: "How did your Majesty know?" Liu Xi smiled and didn't answer, then Zhong Changtong said: "It's really useless, I killed a group of tyrants, and the rest are still It will continue to be annexed, and those common people, after owning the land, some people will become new tyrants, there is no way to avoid it, so I failed.”

"Afterwards, I was thinking about what method should be used to prevent the tyrants from annexing the people's farmland. I had an idea at that time, so I ordered everyone to continue to cultivate and cultivate more farmland."

"Oh, what a pity, this failed too. Zhangye is just like that, not much land can be reclaimed. The minister is helpless. Fortunately, a talented person came at this time. Your Majesty may also know that it is Jia Xu, the disciple of Duke Jia. The man called Xu Fu, now called Xu Shu, proposed to the minister, and the minister ordered that all the cultivated land in Zhangye belong to the prefect's mansion, and it is not allowed to sell it! He also distributed the powerful land to the local people."

Liu Xi's face was moved, his eyes widened, and he looked at Zhong Changtong suddenly, "What did you say?"

"Your Majesty's minister is only here to solve the problem, not to occupy the land..." Zhong Changtong hastily explained, but Liu Xi didn't pay attention to his explanation, and asked directly: "The result, how is the situation? It is the place in Zhangye today. Is it as prosperous??"

"Oh, Your Majesty, I'm still wrong."

"No! How could it be wrong?!"

Zhong Changtong looked at the emperor with some doubts, and said just now: "Your Majesty, the minister is really wrong. After the minister gave such an order, all the people scolded me behind my back, and the state pastor almost wanted to impeach me. That's all. After that, the common people completely lost their enthusiasm for farming, and they felt that they still became tenants, and there seemed to be no difference between farming for temples and farming for tyrants.”

"How can there be no difference?? Although the land belongs to the temple, the right to use it is in their hands. They can cultivate it as they like, and the harvest is all theirs!"

"Fools in the countryside, how do you know this? Your Majesty, the farmers refused to cultivate, and the large planting area formed by the gathering of powerful and powerful people stopped because of this. Zhangye suffered a devastating blow. At that time, I wanted to kill the dog Xu Shu. The thief was beaten out!!"

"In the end, I still wanted to open my mind and no longer be attached to the land. The number of people that arable land can accommodate is limited, but business can be accommodated, so I opened the door to business, reduced business taxes, and encouraged merchants. The curfew was no longer enforced when going out to do business, and all businesses prospered, Zhangye just now has the current situation," Zhong Changtong said proudly.

But Liu Xi, who was in front of him, was at a loss at the moment. He frowned, gritted his teeth, and his hands seemed to be trembling slightly. Zhong Changtong was stunned for a moment when he saw the silence of the emperor, and then asked : "Your Majesty? Are you okay??"

Liu Xi raised his head abruptly, staring at Zhong Changtong in front of him, his back felt cold.

"Who sent you here?"

"Your Majesty, didn't you ask the minister to come here?"

"Hehehe, is that so?" Liu Xi sneered, the murderous intent in his eyes became stronger, Zhong Changtong was startled and frightened, and hurriedly bowed down, "I don't know what I said wrong, please deal with it, Your Majesty, even execution Yes, I just beg Your Majesty not to let me become a monk."

"Hahaha!", suddenly heard a loud laugh, Zhong Changtong slowly raised his head, and secretly glanced at the emperor, the emperor was full of smiles, where there was no trace of anger, he smiled and helped Zhong Changtong up, "You don't have to be afraid. I'm just scaring you. It seems that you really don't dare to make mistakes anymore. Is it that scary? Look at you, your hands are soaked."

"I dare not!"

"Get up, get up." Liu Xi said with a smile, his words were kind, and he could not see the killing intent just now. Pu She, don’t let me down, do you understand?”

"I will live up to His Majesty's high expectations!"

After seeing off Zhong Changtong and sitting alone in Houde Hall, Liu Xi's face gradually became gloomy.

"Xun Yu."

ps: I am very grateful to Bai Bai for being the leader of the little fairy, thank you Baibai, the No.14 leader of this book, hahaha, thank you very much for your support.

(End of this chapter)