Controlling mountains and rivers since the Warring States Period

Chapter 602 The Second Year of Jianning
"Is Liu Zhi still unwilling to admit his mistakes to his ancestors?"

When drinking and making merry with Emperor Taizu of Han
He Bo, who was holding a wine jar in his arms, suddenly thought of the dead Emperor Huan of Han.

This emperor had both merits and demerits in his life. Although he did not fall to the level of Emperor Cheng or Emperor An, those who should be held accountable still need to be held accountable.

After all, sitting in that position, yet unwilling to reciprocate accordingly,

This is a clear case of dereliction of duty.

but,

God rarely gets involved in such complex tasks as compiling lists; he leaves them to his subordinates in the underworld.

He was more concerned with the arguments and debates among the various parties during the interrogation and reckoning process.

After all, when things go to court, everything can be revealed, which perfectly suits the public's desire to watch the drama unfold.

otherwise,

In future generations, there won't be as many people who enjoy participating in juries.

"I heard that Liu Zhuang was so angry with him that he fainted?"

When Liu Zhi died,
He Bo was in the Central South, enjoying the smooth flow of the Lancang River, and therefore missed witnessing Emperor Huan Liu Zhi's verbal battle with his ancestors.

Liu Bang said, "I was so angry that I fainted once on the spot, and the more I thought about it, the angrier I got. I fainted again when I got home."

Liu Zhuang's health had also deteriorated due to his tireless work during his lifetime.

Even after becoming a ghost, he still worried about his descendants in the human world and could not be as carefree as other ancestors, so he would occasionally show signs of "relapse".

It is truly a case of mental illness that is difficult to cure.

Emperor Ming of Han, who was strict and self-important by nature, naturally could not stand Emperor Huan of Han, who was easy to fool.

Emperor An, Liu Hu, was a very muddle-headed person.

His ability to utilize people has been fully demonstrated in his true love for Yan Shi.

Therefore, when his ancestors surrounded him and lectured him, Liu Hu did not dare to fight back at all.

But Liu Zhi dared to do it.

When surrounded by ancestors,
He preemptively questioned, "The power of aristocratic families has damaged the foundation of the nation. Am I wrong to suppress them?"

Emperor Guangwu shook his head.

Then he shouted, "After Emperor Shun, powerful ministers held sway, and the emperor's authority was lost... Did I not regain power, repel the powerful ministers, and maintain the stability of the country?"

Emperor He and Emperor Shun also fell silent.

Emperor Zhang, Liu Da, was about to say something when his unfilial great-grandson, Liu Zhi, pointed at him and said, "Few of the bloodline that has been passed down has lived long lives, which has led to the chaos in the court due to the frequent changes of monarchs. Policies cannot be implemented for long and achieve their due effects. Is this my fault?"

Liu Da immediately retreated behind her father, secretly wiping away her tears—

He thought such things were only talked about by the dead in the underworld.

Little did he know that his descendants were also complaining in private that his seed was not strong enough.

then,

Of all the former emperors of the Han dynasty, only Emperor Ming of Han, Liu Zhuang, was truly eloquent and capable in battle.

He argued with Liu Zhi, but before he could win, he unfortunately fainted.

no way,
Emperor Huan was a member of a collateral branch who ascended to the main line. His father, Liu Yi, suffered suppression from Emperor An and had a difficult time in his fiefdom. As a result, the young Liu Zhi was influenced by the common people in his quarrels and disputes.

After ascending the throne, he was further harassed by Liang Ji, and his scolding became even more genuine.

How could this be compared to Emperor Ming, who was carefully raised by his parents from childhood and never suffered any hardships in life?
"Liu Zhi sounds like a god of war."

God increasingly regretted not being there at the time.

"When he saw his concubines arriving one after another, he cursed them even more filthily!"

Liu Laosan showed no awareness of being an ancestor and started whispering to He Bo about what happened after the Empress of Emperor Huan of Han reunited in the underworld.

“I even pulled some strings to have Dou Miao locked up with him!”

"Those two are really fighting now."

He Bo remarked with even more emotion, "Jin Han's family affairs have always been quite amusing!"

unfortunately,

The affairs of the imperial family affect the entire country.

There's always something funny going on there.
The whole country will then descend into chaos.

Too many innocent lives will be dragged into the vortex of love, hate, and grudges by a single family, only to meet a tragic end.

"I wonder what kind of trouble Liu Hong will cause next!"

Emperor Taizu of Han also chimed in, sipping his wine and anticipating the future behavior of his descendants.

He had no excessive attachment to the country and its people.

In any case, its reign has already surpassed that of the Qin Dynasty, which only lasted two generations.
The state that Qin, after moving west, also perished before the Han dynasty.
in this way,

Why are you still thinking about "the country lasting forever"?
Everyone has to die.

Things will break down eventually.

Out with the old, in with the new!

"How many more generations do you think the Han Dynasty can last?"

After three rounds of drinking,

Liu Ji, who had been lying on the ground having the beauty rub his stomach, suddenly sprang up and ran to He Bo's side, whispering:
"I reckon I'll live to see Liu Hong's grandson's generation!"

Liu Hong's methods as a monarch have already been demonstrated in the coup that sent Dou away once again.

And now,
This young man is busy learning from the experiences of his predecessors, using eunuchs to suppress the Qingliu faction, which has grown stronger by taking advantage of the infighting between the Dou family and the eunuchs, and thus creating a second "Disaster of the Party Prohibitions" for them.

He clearly possessed the same charisma as Emperor Huan in his prime.

With such a means of weighing things, it's likely that the old and dilapidated ancestral temples of the Han dynasty wouldn't have fallen into his hands.

"Are you still thinking of passing it down to your grandchildren?"

"It seems you're quite optimistic about the Han dynasty?"

"Optimistic my foot!" Liu Laosan said, stroking his beard. "You've fully considered the influence of Liu Da's bloodline!"

"Based on the assumption that later emperors could only live to be thirty!"

Han emperors typically married and had children when they were in their teens.

Regardless of whether they can survive later, at least "early birth and early raising" will always exist.

So, if we calculate it this way, three generations, which sounds like a long time, is actually only about forty years.

"I think Liu Hong probably won't live to see his grandson born!"

When He Bo heard his ancestors cursing their descendants to die young, he laughed and pointed at him, saying, "Only someone like you could say something like that."

"However, how long the Han dynasty can survive is not up to me, nor is it up to whether the emperor can hold power."

"It all depends on how long the people can endure it."

"When you started the Mangdang Mountain uprising back then, didn't you just act on a whim?"

"Have you even taken the time to think about what's going on above?"

Liu Laosan shook his head, then laughed and said, "That's right, that's right!"

"When this anger rises in my chest, my mind goes blank, and all I want to do is vent it!"

He raised his glass, clinked it with He Bo's, and then drank it all in one gulp.

"Then let's wish Liu Hong some good luck, and hope the people can tolerate him for a few more years!"

"correct!"

"Zhang Jiao is a native of the Central Plains. He hasn't picked up bad habits from those guys from the Western Sea, has he?" This was the martial virtue of the Western Sea Taoist priest.
That's widely known.

He Bo simply smiled and remained silent in response.

……

"The world is becoming increasingly chaotic."

"The Han dynasty is becoming increasingly incompetent."

"They actually have to rely on others to do something as simple as removing rotten flesh!"

In Julu City by the Zhang River,

Dressed in mourning clothes, Zhang Liang held a freshly printed tabloid and spoke angrily.

Zhang Jiao and Zhang Bao were tidying up the house when they heard their brother say this. They asked him what he had seen that made such a statement.

of course,

Considering Zhang Liang's temperament and the increasingly declining state of the Han Dynasty,

In the Zhang family's simple residence, such words could be heard every few days.

"It happened in Youzhou, on the border between Han and Yan."

Zhang Liang shook the thin, yellowed newspaper and said to his elder brother:
"Do you remember the band of thugs who robbed people and goods that we encountered on our way to Yan?"

Zhang Jiao then recalled something from many years ago.

At that time, he left Hejian County with his followers and brothers, heading northeast to Yuyang County, where he soon learned what it meant to be "lawless in the borderlands"—

Due to the ups and downs of the central government of the Han Dynasty over the past century,

This makes the situation more complicated the further you go to the border, and the locals often act in ways that violate the law.

For example,
They illegally boiled and sold salt.
They seized copper and iron mines, mined them privately, and used them to forge weapons and armor for themselves.

Although after Emperor He of the Han Dynasty, considering the drawbacks of the state monopoly on salt and iron, such as forced buying and selling and poor quality of ironware, he abandoned the monopoly and instead levied taxes on people who boiled salt and made iron.

But this tax is naturally quite high.

After all, in today's world, those who can participate in such an industry must be quite wealthy.

But greed is always the case that once you've gained an inch, you want a mile.

The local tycoons finally managed to persuade the emperor to abandon the government monopoly on the money-making industry, thus keeping this method of money-making in their own hands. Then they started to worry about the taxes that would have to be paid under the new system.

Ugh,
Taking charge of a household is no easy task.
The family prospered and multiplied, and countless members of the clan were waiting for the clan elders to share a meal with them.

Considering this situation,
The powerful families could only grit their teeth and weep, opening private mines and selling smuggled salt to save on taxes and benefit their own families.

They even had good reason to:
"I pay my taxes to the imperial court, but I have no idea how much will be embezzled by powerful and treacherous officials!"

"The iron I forge and the salt I boil are both superior to those produced by the government. If I produce more, I can benefit all the people under heaven!"

just,

Those ordinary people who suffer as a result are probably not included in the "people" they refer to. It is unknown where the "people of the world" in the hearts of these nobles are.

“Yes… mining and smelting require far too many people…” Zhang Jiao murmured to himself.

But it's something that can't be done in the light of day.
Therefore, in order to save themselves some effort, nobles would often choose to detain a large number of laborers in their own estates and prohibit them from leaving, so as not to attract attention.

As the business expanded, there wasn't enough manpower.
Even the wealthy and powerful, who have saved money their entire lives, are reluctant to hire new laborers.
Even knowing that a series of disasters were imminent,

There are plenty of people who are willing to sacrifice their freedom in exchange for the chance to live.
Save money if you can!

The wealth of noble people is the result of generations of hard work and savings. How can their descendants disregard this fine tradition and squander their ancestral legacy?

To drive the Xianbei people on the border,
Let them come and arrest people, and send them to the nobleman's manor to serve as slaves and servants, sacrificing their lives for the nobleman's cause!

As for how to repay those Xianbei people who rode horses and worked hard for the nobles?

That's easy.
The solution is to submit a memorial to the court, expressing the Xianbei's subservience, so that the court will reward and honor them.

ha,
They used public funds to do their own thing.

It seems that the benefactor's family business will reach new heights!
the above,

This is the secret rule that has been running for many years in the border region of Youzhou.

That year, Zhang Jiao arrived for the first time, an inexperienced outsider, still wearing a Taoist robe. In the private mines of nobles, the elite talent needed was:
The nobles were unaware of the true background of the Way of Peace.

However, they knew that many interesting techniques in the world were passed down from Taoist priests.

Without the hard work of these guys spreading the word,

The iron in their mines and the salt in their drying yards had to be compensated for by human lives to maintain their low efficiency!
How many people would they have to arrest outside?!

So tiring!
all in all,
Zhang Jiao and his group were thus inexplicably ambushed by a Xianbei tribe.

After subduing the other party, they followed the clues and found the locations of several illegal mining sites.

Considering their severe shortage of manpower...
Zhang Jiao could only report it to the local prefect and request that he send troops to resolve the issue.

The prefect immediately dispatched troops, but also withdrew them shortly afterward.

He found Zhang Jiao and said, "How dare you slander a good person without cause?"

“That place is not an illegal mine. The reason why we couldn’t find its record in the court’s archives before was because the clerk we temporarily hired overlooked it, so that officials like myself who took office later were unaware of its existence.”

"The records have been found, and that family has paid all the taxes they owed over the years... You Taoist priest, stop making trouble!"

They did not investigate the other party's private contacts with the Xianbei.

There was no accountability for the other party's act of privately capturing refugees and enslaving them.
A simple "taxes have been paid" can turn a major issue into a minor one, and a minor one into nothing.

As for the slaves in that mine?

Hey,
It has been a long-standing tradition for the wealthy and powerful to occupy land and hide their population.

He was a prefect who followed the "three mutuals" system, came from outside the region to take office, and would only serve for a few years before being transferred away.

Why go against the local powerful families and insist on settling this score?
The prefect drove Zhang Jiao away, claiming it was an act of goodwill.

“If you don’t leave now, you may find yourself unable to advance or retreat.”

then,

Zhang Jiao could only return dejectedly, and try to find a way to use the power of the Way of Peace to rescue those innocent people who had been captured.

But the power of aristocratic families was difficult to overcome even by several capable emperors, let alone Taoists.

unless,

The Way of Peace immediately declared that they had rebelled again, which gave them the confidence to gather tens of thousands of people to "rob and plunder".

"Who would have thought that a minor conflict between the Yan Kingdom and the imperial court on the border would lead to the removal of that illegal mine!"

Zhang Liang was still slapping his thigh and saying something.

"That's right, that's where iron is smelted."

"Even if the Yan state couldn't defeat the border guards, it could still manage to plunder the wealth of powerful families by splitting into several groups."

However, for Liaodong, which is much colder and more harsh than the Central Plains,

Iron is a very good thing.
Craftsmen skilled in iron smelting are in high demand.

When Zhang Jiao and his men arrived in the State of Yan
The ruler of Murong then issued a decree to protect the interests of artisans and elevate their status, in order to encourage them to forge more new tools and develop more new techniques.

Those who were taken to Liaodong must have fared better than those in the illegal mines.

"People often turn a blind eye to their own problems, or are too timid to solve them."

"Only outsiders can help him to remove the poison from the bone from a more comprehensive perspective and with more direct methods."

Zhang Bao listened quietly to his brother's words, then said to his elder brother:
"The world has long suffered from accumulated ills, and our mourning period is also coming to an end."

"Big brother, do you still remember what you wanted to do?"

(End of this chapter)