Han officials

Chapter 148 A Pot of Half-Cooked Rice [5.4K]

With Zheng Xuan's entry into Liao, the Han people throughout Liaodong began to become more confident.

Although they refused to admit it in the past, they knew deep down that their home was a wild and cold place.

Outsiders look down on them, and they also feel a little inferior in their hearts.

But things are different now. With foreign scholars coming here in an endless stream, the people of Liaodong have also become more assertive. Now anyone who dares to say that this is a remote place will be attacked on the spot.

After all, Goguryeo was destroyed, and Liaodong County had long since withdrawn from the ranks of border counties.

As for the name "vulgar", it has nothing to do with Liaodong County.

Whoever comes to Liaodong now will not praise it as a "land of peace and prosperity"?
To be a little presumptuous, isn't the current situation in Liaodong a real-life example of what was described in ancient books as "the way of the sage king flourished and people from all directions rushed to submit to him"?
I have to admit that there is some truth in the saying that the local environment and climate determine the local people.

However, just when the entire Liaodong was in a happy mood, the atmosphere in Lelang County was a bit strange.

……

The next morning, Lelang County.

After the county officials had finished their roll call, a tall, thin young man, seeing no one around, immediately pulled over a friend to ask, "How is the Lord today? What did the Lord say in my memorial?"

This man was called Mao Wei, and he was the clerk of the Household Department of Lelang County.

Due to the lax control of the Lelang prefect, all the military farms in Lelang County are now under the jurisdiction of the Buyehou Mansion, which is undoubtedly an encroachment on the authority of the Hucao Yuan.

When Wei Zhe was in Lelang County, the household official naturally did not dare to say anything.

But now that Wei Zhe has been out of office for several years, it is inevitable that the Household Official will have some unnecessary thoughts in his mind.

It's not that they are brave, it's just hard not to have such thoughts.

You should know that the scale of military farming in the nine counties of Lelang has been getting bigger and bigger in recent years, almost occupying half of the original farmland area of Lelang County. It goes without saying how much benefit is contained in this.

If the military farms in the nine counties of Lelang could really be brought under the jurisdiction of the county government, the Hucao clerk would probably surpass the Gongcao clerk and become the head of all the clerks.

Just as it is the nature of merchants to pursue profit, it is the nature of officials to pursue power.

Cutting off one's source of wealth is like killing one's parents, and usurping one's power is certainly even worse.

Don't overestimate the abilities of these local county officials. It's normal for them to do anything when they are driven by power.

Therefore, under the secret instigation of some powerful people, Mao Wei suggested that the prefect take back the jurisdiction of military farming.

But what made Mao Wei helpless was that he had submitted his memorial for more than half a month but still had no news.

Be it reprimand or praise, there was nothing, as if nothing had happened.

With such a result, not only Mao Wei himself, but even the powerful people hiding behind him could not sit still.

They didn't mind sacrificing Mao Wei, the household official, but they had to at least give a response, right?
If they didn't find out anything, wouldn't their efforts have been in vain?

At the same time, when Mao Wei stuffed a jade pendant into his pocket, his "friend" said helplessly:

"What else can I do? I'm either obsessed with calligraphy and painting or living a life of drunkenness and debauchery. How can I have time for the board of directors?"

This person has connections with Fan Kuo's staff, so he knows some inside information.

In fact, not to mention the county officials themselves, even the people around Fan Chou are now frowning.

There was no way. Fan Chou sighed all day long, so naturally the people below him didn't dare to laugh.

In fact, after Fan Chou first took office as the prefect of Lelang, although he adhered to the policy of Xiao Gui and Cao Sui, he did not neglect the basic government affairs, but the tone of his handling remained the same as before.

He was even diligent in his work and never caused any delay in the county government's affairs.

However, since the fall of Goguryeo, Fan Chou's situation has become a little abnormal.

At first, he was quite happy, especially after the news that Wei Zhe led the army all the way to the home city with great momentum reached Lelang, Fan Chou was filled with joy.

But before Fan Chou could be happy for long, the news of the emperor's death reached Liaodong.

As a result, the whole category was numb!

Simply put, he now has two pieces of news.

The good news is that he got the credit for destroying Goguryeo.

The bad news is that his backer’s backer is gone and his achievements are useless.

Now, let alone taking credit for it, Fan Chou doesn’t even know how long he can survive.

After the new emperor and his party stabilize the political situation, they, the disciples of Hongdu Sect, will certainly not be spared!
So after much thought without any results, Fan Chou simply chose to give up.

Live one day at a time, living a life of drunkenness and dreams all day long, and just don't care about anything anymore.

After figuring out the situation, Mao Wei was speechless.

But it is impossible to give up just like that, and he is willing that the powerful people behind him will not give up just like that.

You have to know that the powerful people's annexation of land is just like businessmen's pursuit of profit. It is their nature and cannot be changed.

Moreover, the local tyrants of the Han Dynasty were very bold and dared to seize any land.

Whether it is government land or private land, as long as the land is fertile and in a suitable location, it will become their target.

Under such circumstances, even though Wei Zhe had already cleaned out a group of Lelang tyrants, the newly-elected tyrants could not help but be eager to set up military farms in various places.

Even though their plan to persuade Fan Chou to take the blame failed, they still did not give up.

Since they couldn't get through with the official means, they started to resort to underhanded tactics.

As a result, the military farms in the nine counties of Lelang gradually encountered various troubles.

Either the granary was stolen or various disturbances occurred within the military farms, delaying the military farm work.

Some daring local tyrants even used wealth and beautiful women to persuade the agricultural envoys to sign land sales deeds, and then came to collect the land openly.

One or two incidents would be fine, but when such problems occurred frequently in Lelang County, Guo Yuan keenly realized that things were definitely not that simple.

……

At night, the lanterns are lit.

When Guo Yuan learned that Hua Xin was coming to visit, he hurried out to greet him.

Being from the same place in Qingzhou, although they had only a superficial acquaintance in the past, they could still be considered old acquaintances.

So after some warm greetings, Guo Yuan ordered his servants to prepare another meal to entertain Hua Xin.

While the servants were preparing the banquet, the two of them sat down in the pavilion and played chess.

Guo Yuan plays white and Hua Xin plays black.

"Ziyu, you're so courageous!" Guo Yuan chuckled as he made his move, "I heard you even turned down the offer from the General's Mansion?"

The so-called conscription actually refers to the conscription of someone by a noble or a prefecture to serve as an official.

In the current Han Dynasty, official recruitment is actually divided into levels.

Apart from the emperor personally issuing an order for recruitment, the highest level of recruitment is by the government offices and prefectures and counties.

Therefore, when describing how famous a certain person is nowadays, people often say that he failed in three expeditions and seven expeditions.

Sometimes the more one refuses to be drafted, the more famous the person who is drafted will become.

Of course, this tactic of playing both sides is mostly used in the recruitment of prefectures and counties.

If they were to be summoned by the Three Dukes or be the emperor's special officer, most of the famous scholars would not refuse.

Because no one can guarantee that if you are rejected this time, there will be another such opportunity next time.

After all, there have been many cases in the past where the strategy of playing the game of pretending to refuse but actually accepting has failed!

Among these official conscriptions, the conscription from the General's Office was second only to the conscription by the Emperor.

For example, after the ban on political parties was lifted, General He Jin recruited Xun Shuang and Wang Yun as Zhonglang officials; Kuai Yue as Dongcao clerk; Wu Fu as Dongcao subordinate; later he successively recruited Kong Rong, Wang Lang, Yuan Shao, Liu Biao, Wang Kuang, Bian Rang, Xu You and others as government officials, and in total he recruited more than 20 famous scholars from all over the country.

Even though these were only official positions with a rank of 300 stones, Yuan Shao and others still chose to accept them.

No one knew who recommended him this time, but He Jin suddenly wanted to recruit Hua Xin as a Shangshu Lang.

When the official document of recruitment was sent to Liaodong County School, many scholars looked at Hua Xin with envy.

However, what surprised them was that Hua Xin actually refused He Jin's invitation.

The reason he gave at the time was that he had already accepted Wei Zhe's appointment as Sima of the Zhendong General's shogunate, so he could only thank the general for his mistaken love.

After hearing what he said, the envoy from the General's Mansion felt regretful but left without saying anything more.

After all, if Hua Xin accepted Wei Zhe's call and then defected to the general, he would look down on Hua Xin.

However, the people from the General's Mansion came from afar and did not know the inside story, but Guo Yuan knew it in his heart.

In fact, this time the General's Office was recruited first, and the princes were recruited later.

This time, the prince intends to give Hua Xin a chance to choose to see if he will leave again.

Fortunately, Hua Xin’s final decision did not disappoint Wei Zhe.

In fact, Hua Xin could have left as early as the beginning of the year when Wang Fen was executed by the previous emperor.

However, after staying in Liaodong for two years, Hua Xin now has some different ideas.

"Same here!" Hua Xin casually placed a chess piece down and said with a calm smile, "Brother Zini, didn't you also choose to stay in Liaodong?"

Hearing him say this, Guo Yuan laughed, but nodded secretly in his heart.

It is said that the person Wei Zhe recruited this time was not just Hua Xin.

You should know that according to the Han system, the General Zhendong had the power to establish a government office, and the government office could have one Chief Secretary, one Sima, two Assistant Secretary, twenty-nine officials of various departments, and thirty-one clerks and secretaries.

Among them, the Chief Secretary was the head of all officials in the shogunate and was in charge of assisting the emperor.

Wei Zhe originally wanted to recruit Zheng Xuan as the chief secretary of the shogunate, but Zheng Xuan was indeed not interested in being an official now.

Unlike those celebrities who sought fame and prestige, Zheng Xuan was truly devoted to academics and had no interest in becoming an official. In fact, he actually enjoyed teaching and educating people more than entering the government.

Similar to him was Bing Yuan, who also had no intention of joining the shogunate, but was content to be a county school chief.

When Wei Zhe learned of their intentions, he did not force them and only recruited Cui Yan, Gongsun Fang, and Xi Lu, who were willing to serve as officials, as officials in the government.

Wei Zhe then made adjustments to the powers of the Buyehou Mansion.

All other things remained unchanged, except that Wei Zhe separated the "military settlement system" from the Marquis' Mansion and placed it under the fledgling Zhendong Shogun's Office. As for the civilian settlements, they were still under the jurisdiction of the Marquis' Mansion.

On the surface, Guo Yuan's authority was undoubtedly weakened, but he was very calm.

As the game was coming to an end, Hua Xin was about to win, but Guo Yuan suddenly made a brilliant move and killed Hua Xin's dragon, turning the situation around.

After seeing this scene, Hua Xin thought for a moment and shook his head with a smile.

"Brother Zini is more skilled, I lose!"

After saying this, Hua Xin casually threw the chess piece onto the chessboard and went straight to the point: "The shogunate is just beginning. I wonder if Brother Zini can teach me anything?"

Guo Yuan was not surprised to hear Hua Xin say this. In fact, he had already expected the military settlements to be separated.

Even after Wei Zhe separated the military settlements, Guo Yuan felt relieved.

In the whole of Liaodong, perhaps only Guo Yuan understood the intention behind the military farming reform.

So when faced with Hua Xin's question, Guo Yuan didn't say much, but took out a file from his sleeve and handed it to him.

"What does this mean?" Hua Xin couldn't help but wonder.

"Zi Yu will know it at a glance!" Guo Yuan replied.

Seeing this, Hua Xin could only calm down and start from the beginning.

After a while, seeing Hua Xin seemed to be lost in thought, Guo Yuan said quietly, "The powerful people in Lelang are too greedy. They are destined for death. However, it is not convenient for the Marquisate to intervene in this matter. The shogunate is just beginning, so this is a good opportunity to establish its authority! As for the others..."

At this point, Guo Yuan paused for a moment, thought for a moment, and then shook his head, saying, "Your Excellency should have already made a decision. I will not elaborate further. You only need to understand that the military settlement is of great importance and must not be compromised."

When these words came out, Hua Xin couldn't help but feel a chill in his heart. He nodded immediately and said gratefully:
"Thanks for the advice!"

……

The next day, in the morning.

After completing the handover with the Marquis' Mansion, Hua Xin finally got all the archival files related to military farming.

To be honest, Hua Xin had already attached great importance to the military farming in Liaodong before reading these files.

However, after reading the files of these six years, Hua Xin realized that he had underestimated it.

Wei Zhe's military farming reform seemed insignificant at first glance, but the more time passed, the more shocked Hua Xin became.

How to say it, it's like a subtle clue that hides a clue thousands miles away.

For example, Wei Zhe did not directly resettle the people of Qingzhou who had flocked in during the past two years. Instead, he re-registered all of them and included them in the civilian settlements, which were directly governed by the Marquisate.

Whether it is military farming or land reclamation, the Liaodong County Government has no right to govern, interfere or intervene.

In this way, some of the methods commonly used by local tyrants in the past have become ineffective.

So when faced with this wave of more than 100,000 Qingzhou people pouring in, the Liaodong tyrants didn't even get a sip of soup and were completely defeated by Wei Zhe alone.

With this foundation, Wei Zhe was able to have the final say and carry out his orders in Liaodong County!
In the past, the biggest headache for prefectures and counties was the annexation of land and the hiding of refugees by local tyrants.

After all, by doing this, they are not only evading taxes themselves, but also preventing other people from paying taxes.

If this continues, the court will have less and less direct jurisdiction over the people, and naturally the taxes it can collect will become less and less.

It is precisely because of this that cracking down on the powerful has become the duty of local officials since Emperor Wen of the Western Han Dynasty.

However, faced with such a stubborn disease, many measures taken by local states and counties have had little effect.

They could certainly kill a powerful family, but they could not kill all the powerful people in the county.

Therefore, most of the time, the purpose of state and county officials was to curb the development of powerful people.

After taking office, he would kill a few powerful families to intimidate other powerful families and make them restrain themselves a little, and then he would be satisfied.

But this method is only a temporary solution and cannot even solve the problem fundamentally.

If not for this, the world wouldn’t be in such a mess today!

Hua Xin didn't think there was any problem before, but after seeing Wei Zhe's resettlement plan for the influx of Qingzhou people, he suddenly felt like the clouds had cleared and the sun was shining.

You should know that when Wei Zhe first took office, the registered population of Liaodong County was only over 80,000.

Although he had sorted out a lot of hidden populations by cracking down on powerful people over the years and restored the registered population to 130,000, it was still far from the current 300,000.

In other words, there are now nearly 170,000 people outside the control of the Liaodong County Government, but they are completely under Wei Zhe's direct control.

If the people under the jurisdiction of the county government were counted, then Wei Zhe's control over Liaodong County was simply unprecedented.

In front of Wei Zhe, the social resources controlled by the Liaodong tyrants are completely insignificant.

Thinking of this, Hua Xin couldn't help but feel confused.

He was a smart man and quickly thought of what would happen if this system was implemented in each county and each country.

However, Hua Xin couldn't help but feel his blood boiling and his heart surging just thinking about it.

This made Hua Xin feel like he was looking up to Wei Zhe!

In his opinion, Wei Zhe's method is the real way to save the world!
For a moment, he didn't even think about it any further, and immediately set off for Lelang to deal with the military farming matters.

He would never allow these rats to ruin such a plan to save the world.

……

Let’s not talk about how Hua Xin went to Lelang in such a threatening manner.

Wei Zhe, on the other hand, was listening to Zheng Xuan's lectures in the county school with a leisurely look on his face.

However, if he knew what Hua Xin was thinking, he would probably be in a dilemma.

In fact, the truth is quite different from what Hua Xin thought.

The military farming system modified by Wei Zhe could theoretically achieve the effect that Hua Xin imagined.

However, theory is theory, and reality requires consideration of many factors.

In fact, although Wei Zhe swallowed these more than 100,000 Qingzhou people in one gulp, what he ate was half-cooked rice.

Because when absorbing this wave of Qingzhou immigrants, Wei Zhe needed a large number of agricultural promotion envoys and military farm officials.

After all, a town has no more than a thousand people, and more than 100,000 Qingzhou people need more than a hundred agricultural encouragers.

As for the grassroots military farming officials, there are even more of them, and more than a thousand people are needed to meet the needs.

Can Wei Zhe immediately come up with so many management talents? Of course not!
Don't underestimate more than a thousand people. Anyone who can manage the agricultural production of more than a thousand people in an orderly manner is actually considered a standard talent.

Why were the aristocratic families still able to grow stronger despite the suppression of the Former Han Dynasty and the current dynasty?

It’s because they have accumulated a lot of talent!
Due to the imperfect talent selection and training mechanisms, objectively speaking, the gentry actually has more management talents than the court, but they are quite scattered.

For a similar fortress, the stewards of aristocratic families could generate a surplus year after year, even having enough to gradually open up new land. However, if a prefecture or county directly sent people to manage it, it would most likely become unsustainable.

Therefore, many times, state and county officials would choose to compromise with local gentry in exchange for short-term benefits.

After all, the governors of prefectures and counties are just temporary officials and do not have enough time to waste.

This time, Wei Zhe is actually facing such a situation!
But he did not choose to give in, but chose to fight head-on.

Even if the rice is half-cooked, he will force it into his stomach.

Since there were not enough agricultural envoys, he ordered all the existing deputies in the towns and villages to be promoted to regular positions.

If that is still not enough, then the residents of each town will be asked to recommend outstanding farming officials under their command.

As for the vacancies of military farm officials, Wei Zhe chose to fill them with the elderly people from the townspeople.

After all, they came here a few years earlier and have some experience, so they can be used.

It can be said that Wei Zhe had to use all his strength to finally absorb this wave of Qingzhou immigrants.

However, there is a price to pay for forcing things to happen.

These newly appointed agricultural promotion envoys and military farm officials were of varying quality, and it was inevitable that they would make mistakes in actual management and pay some tuition.

All in all, Wei Zhe could be said to have wasted a lot of supplies.

Hua Xin had not yet discovered this, but Guo Yuan, the chief steward of Liaodong, knew it clearly.

For this reason, he even had an in-depth discussion with Wei Zhe in private.

He felt that Wei Zhe did not need to be on high alert against the powerful, and could just cooperate with them like Liu Yu did.

In this way, the government can easily accommodate a large number of refugees and immigrants, and local tyrants can provide food, fodder, cattle, horses and farm tools.

As long as the prefectures and counties make appropriate concessions, the powerful people can greatly reduce the pressure on the officials.

This is acceptable in Guo Yuan's opinion!

And in this way, the states and counties can quickly obtain considerable returns.

However, Wei Zhe sternly refused upon hearing this. He clearly told Guo Yuan that the powerful should not interfere in the military farming.

So from then on, Guo Yuan began to vaguely understand the deep meaning behind the Liaodong military farming!

But then again, eating half-cooked rice once is enough.

This is also the reason why Wei Zhe appeared in the county school and why he was listening to Zheng Xuan's lectures...
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Sorry, this chapter is hard to interrupt, I can only finish writing it and then post it.

OK, time to sleep! (￣o￣). z Z
(End of this chapter)