Han Dang is stronger

Chapter 508

Hanging Yingbu with white silk, worshiping the ancestors of the Xiang family, and sending away three princes and kings with different surnames, Zhao Xie, Zang Tu, and Wu Rui, Xiang Kang, who encountered rebels and rebellions on his first tour, naturally fell off the donkey, justified He ended his parade ahead of schedule and set off back to Guanzhong with an army of [-].

As for Xiang Kang's original plan to tour Yunmengze——Linjiang and Yunmengze's folks, it's not that I, the emperor of the Han Dynasty, Xiang Kang doesn't want to care for you, it's Yingbo, that damned dog thief who rebelled and conspired in Linjiang. There are many accomplices and accomplices, and there may be changes at any time. For the sake of the common people, and for you to live and work in peace and contentment and no longer suffer from the flames of war, I can only give priority to dispatching capable officials to take over Linjiang, arrest and suppress the accomplices of the Yingbo rebels Running dogs, stabilize the domestic order in Linjiang. Only when peace is restored, can I personally come to Linjiang to care for you!
During this period, Xiang Kang's careful arrangements in advance also achieved satisfactory results. Even before the news of Yingbo's rebellion reached the ears of his party members, the envoys of the Han court had already brought Xiang Kang's edict to rush to the palace. When they arrived in Jiangling, with the help of Linjiang local officials appointed by the Han court, Yingbu's wife, children and several important accomplices were arrested and imprisoned. Hanshui, to prevent Yingbo's party members from raising troops to make trouble, and to take over the Linjiang army.

The trend of the times, seeing that Yingbo had been captured and executed in Chen County on the spot, and seeing that the army directly under the Han court quickly entered the country and controlled all key points including Jiangling, the capital of Linjiang, most of Yingbo's subordinates still chose Resolutely surrender, honestly hand over the power in your hands and cooperate with the Han court army to take over Linjiang, in exchange for life and continue to enjoy the glory and wealth, only a few of Yingbu's cronies who knew in advance chose to commit suicide or escape, and only one Linjiang general named Wang Huang The successful escape allowed the Han court to completely put down the Yingbo rebellion at a small cost, and there were no major incidents in Linjiang.

After confirming these conditions, Xiang Kang's Luanjia has also returned to the Guanzhong Plain, and at this time, the Dianke Lou Jing who accompanied Xiang Kang on the tour suddenly made an important suggestion, suggesting that Xiang Kang choose a place on the Guanzhong Plain. Build a new city at a suitable location and move the imperial palace to the new city Dingdu. The first purpose is to strengthen the defense of the capital of the Han Dynasty, the second is to improve the living conditions of officials and people, and to facilitate the management of capital affairs. The third is to weaken and eliminate the people outside the customs. Resistance to Xianyang.

Given Xiang Kang's personality and the current financial situation of the Han court, Xiang Kang is of course unwilling to labor and mobilize people to build a new city. The resentment of the capital Xianyang is very deep. If Xiang Kang continues to make Xianyang the capital, it will easily cause the people outside the pass to feel that they have changed the soup.

In addition, Lou Jing also said that after Xiang Kang moved the capital, he could free up a lot of land and houses, and then take the opportunity to move the royal families and nobles of the six countries outside the Guan to live in Guanzhong. Compassionate care can also change the population structure in Guanzhong, and prevent the old Qin people from continuing to dominate the family. In addition, after moving the nobles from the six kingdoms to live in Guanzhong, they can be monitored and managed nearby, and they will not be given the opportunity to cause trouble outside the pass and weaken the local government. Power strengthens centralization.

Hearing that what Lou Jing said was reasonable, and that the Huns had already expanded to the Hetao area, the threat to Xianyang without the protection of the city wall was quite serious. After repeated calculations, Xiang Kang nodded and said, "When I return to Xianyang, I will immediately return to Xianyang." Discuss with Uncle Ya and the others to see where the new capital will be built."

After deciding on this idea, in order to avoid disturbing the people as much as possible, Xiang Kang sent people back to Xianyang just after he arrived in Dingqin, so that Zhou Zeng, who led all the officials to stay in Xianyang, would stop organizing the people to greet him.However, to Xiang Kang's surprise, a few days later, before his imperial chariot arrived at Bashang, many Xianyang people knelt on the road and stopped his car, and kept shouting for grievances, begging Xiang Kang to preside over it for them. justice.

"Your Majesty, please decide for us!"

"Your Majesty, the grassroots are wronged! Please give us justice!"

Hearing these voices of grievances from the people in Xianyang, Xiang Kang, who encountered this kind of thing for the first time, was surprised, and of course he immediately ordered the representatives of the people to be summoned to understand the whole story for himself.Then in a short while, a few gray-haired old men were led to Xiang Kang, and when they saw Xiang Kang, they fell to the ground and shouted with great grievances: "Your Majesty, please make the decision for the grassroots! The prime minister is too Bullying people, forcing us to sell our houses and land to him at a low price, and threatening that if we don’t sell them, we will be arrested and punished!”

"Is there such a thing? Buy houses and land forcibly at a low price? If you don't sell them, you will be arrested?"

As soon as Xiang Kang was furious, he immediately turned his suspicious eyes to Chen Ping, the right prime minister of the Han court next to him. The reason is also very simple. Chen Ping is notoriously unclean in terms of money.Chen Ping, who accompanied Xiang Kang on the tour, also had a guilty conscience, so he quickly bowed down to Xiang Kang and said, "Forgive me, Your Majesty, I really don't know about this matter, please rest assured, Your Majesty. What you did, without His Majesty asking, I will immediately take them all down and hand them over to Tingwei for a serious punishment."

Xiang Kang nodded, and just as he was about to speak to comfort the representatives of the common people, he never thought that a representative of the common people yelled loudly again, "Your Majesty, it wasn't the right prime minister, it wasn't the right prime minister who did it, it was the left prime minister, it was the left prime minister." Our relatives forced us to sell our houses and fields at a low price."

"What? Prime Minister Zuo?!"

Xiang Kang and Chen Ping thought that their ears had misheard, and then they quickly looked at each other, and exclaimed in unison: "Are you kidding? Uncle Ya can do such a thing?"

The sun really came out from the west. Zhou Zeng, who was known for his incorruptibility when he was a county magistrate, really failed Xiang Kang’s trust in him this time, even though Xiang Kang and Chen Ping refused to believe Zhou Zeng. It will be corrupt and greedy to this extent, but the accusation documents submitted by several representatives of the common people clearly stated that Zhou Zeng took advantage of Xiang Kang's opportunity to go out of the customs to use his power to indulge his relatives and subordinates to behave mischievously, at a price far below the market price. Not only did they embezzle huge sums of money, but they also arrested and imprisoned more than [-] innocent people who refused to sell their fields and houses. The method was equivalent to robbery.

"Really? Uncle Ya would really do such a thing?"

Although I still find it unbelievable, in front of the representatives of the Xianyang people, Xiang Kang still immediately promised to send people to investigate these things thoroughly, and to give justice to the innocent people of Xianyang as soon as possible, and then quickly ordered the driver to set off, planning to return to Xianyang Palace. Facing Zhou Zeng questioned this matter.But after gradually regaining his composure, Xiang Kang's heart suddenly moved again, and he thought to himself: "No, I seem to have seen this kind of situation in that book or TV movie?"

After thinking about it carefully for a while, Xiang Kang smiled wryly again after thinking of similar related things recorded in the history books, and secretly said: "It's really too cold at the top, I didn't expect that Uncle Ya would do this to me, no, no, I have to have a heart-to-heart talk with Uncle Ya to tell him that there is no need to do this. Otherwise, if even he is divorced from me, I will not be able to find anyone I can trust."

After making this decision and returning to Xianyang Palace smoothly, after going through all kinds of etiquette and cutscenes, Xiang Kang of course immediately brought Zhou Zengxuan, who had stayed in Guanzhong for him for many years, into the apse, and talked to him alone without outsiders, and then directly let Zhou Zengxuan Xu Ji handed him the papers that the people of Xianyang had filed against Zhou Zeng, and said, "Uncle Ya, there are no outsiders. Tell me, why did you do this?"

Zhou Zeng rarely put on a show in front of Xiang Kang. First, he carefully read the documents accusing him of taking people's property with a face full of surprise, and then hurriedly left the table to bow down to Xiang Kang, and said in awe, "Your servant is guilty. The minister was confused for a moment, and wanted to take advantage of the spare money in his hands to buy more property for his descendants and relatives, so he asked people to buy land and property among the people in Xianyang, but he didn't expect... "

"Uncle Ya! That's it!"

Xiang Kang interrupted Zhou Zeng's explanation very angrily, and said very directly: "You can use this kind of rhetoric to perfuse other people. I know better than anyone else whether you are a money lover. Now I only Let me ask you a question, do you do this because you are worried that I will be jealous of your reputation of incorruptibility, and even more afraid that I will worry that you won the hearts of the people in Guanzhong, and you will do something big when I leave Guanzhong? That's why you deliberately seized people's wealth , Self-deprecating reputation, let me rest assured of you?"

"I dare not die." Zhou Zeng hastily denied it.

"Then why did you do this?" Xiang Kang asked with a sneer: "If you just want money, do you need to use such means to rob? Although my court has two prime ministers on the left and right, but the prime minister on the right, Chen Ping The main purpose is to make suggestions for me and supervise all the officials. The power of money and food is always in your hands. You just need to leak a little between your fingers and have as much money as you want. Why bother to make it so conspicuous and recruit people? Hate?"

Seeing that Xiang Kang had seen through his intentions, Zhou Zeng could only keep his mouth shut, while Xiang Kang sighed first, then stood up, walked slowly on the back hall and said, "Uncle Ya, do you think you are so If you do it, will I be happy? You are wrong, if you do this, I will only be sad! Because if you do this, you are tantamount to suspecting that I am the kind of despicable person who hides everything and crosses rivers and demolishes bridges. A senseless tyrant who kills donkeys, do I look like that?"

Zhou Zeng still remained silent, and Xiang Kang didn't force him to speak, but continued talking to himself: "That's right, I just killed Yingbu who made great contributions, but was he wronged? What he did in Linjiang Those things, which one should not be punished? Just like that, before we toured Chen County, I decided that as long as he can obediently confess his crimes and subdue the law, he can be spared, changed his title to a marquis, and continued to let him enjoy Wealthy and rich, it is he who wants to rebel and kill me, so I have no choice but to kill him! Did I do anything wrong in this matter?"

"Of course your majesty did nothing wrong. Yingbo deserves to die for the crime of being a traitor. Your majesty giving him the whole body is already a blessing from heaven to him." Zhou Zeng finally opened his mouth and replied cautiously.

"Uncle Naya, why do you still want to stigmatize yourself? Doing such a thing on purpose?"

Xiang Kang immediately took over the conversation, and made Zhou Zeng speechless again with one sentence. Xiang Kang waited for a while and saw Zhou Zeng not speaking, then sighed again, and said slowly: "Uncle Ya, to say something from the bottom of my heart, I always thought that others might not trust me, worrying that I would be the one to kill the donkey, but you will definitely not trust me like that, Uncle Ya, and you will definitely be able to be of the same heart with my monarch and ministers, and become the one who will be forever remembered by future generations. A respected and worthy model. But I just found out today that I believe in you, but Uncle Ya, you don’t believe in me, and you may even have never believed in me.”

"Uncle Ya, don't worry, I didn't mean to blame you." Xiang Kang said again: "I can only blame myself for being naive, and I didn't understand until today. For the preparation of a lonely family, there can no longer be anyone you can trust, even if it is the elders I have always respected, my friends, my relatives and brothers, even if I wish to dig out my heart to show him, he will never Be of one mind with me again..."

The words from the heart were so emotional that Xiang Kang's voice became a little hoarse, and the expression on his face was full of loneliness. Zhou Zeng felt extremely guilty, and interrupted Xiang Kang's words quickly, saying: "Your Majesty, don't say Yes, this subject is guilty, this subject admits that the matter of forcing people to buy land at a low price was indeed deliberately done by this subject to destroy their reputation, but this subject can swear to the heavens, the reason why this subject did this is definitely not that they cannot trust Your Majesty, let alone because they are afraid Your Majesty, you have hidden all your servants. There are other reasons for your servants to do so."

"Then Uncle Ya, tell me, what is the reason?" Xiang Kang asked immediately.

"Your Majesty, I don't know if you still remember the matter of Shanglinyuan?" Zhou Zeng didn't answer the question, and then continued: "After you entered the Guanzhong, in order to save money and food and reduce the burden on Li Shu, you accepted the advice of your ministers and put All the rare birds and animals kept in captivity in Shanglin Garden were taken away, and Shanglin Garden was sealed up. After the autumn harvest last year, Your Majesty, you granted the request of your ministers to reopen part of the garden in Shanglin Garden, so that our meritorious soldiers and their families, wives and children Entering the garden to cultivate and open up wasteland, just during the spring plowing this year, more than 20 mu of land has been reclaimed."

"Your Majesty trusts me to handle this matter." Zhou Zeng's expression became a little bitter, and he said: "Because of this incident, I offended many colleagues who wanted to seize the opportunity to occupy Shanglinyuan's land, and because of this Incidentally, Li Shuqian, head of Guanzhong, built six ancestral halls for his ministers, but the ministers did not investigate for a while, and failed to stop them in time, so when the ministers found out, the ancestral halls had already been built."

"Uncle Ya is afraid that those colleagues offended by you will take the opportunity to slander and slander Uncle Ya, do you have a different intention?" Xiang Kang immediately understood Zhou Zeng's meaning.

Zhou Zeng nodded calmly and said: "Your Majesty, I know that you are not a jealous person, so I will definitely not mind this kind of thing, but if three people become tigers, if there are too many people who slander you, it is hard to guarantee that there will be no accidents. And This matter also involves our army soldiers, if I don't quickly get rid of the relationship, I'm afraid it will be more likely that I will not be able to argue in the future."

Xiang Kang sighed again, nodded and said: "Uncle Ya, you don't need to say anything, I understand what you mean. Don't worry, if I don't trust you, I won't let you stay in the gate forever, so no matter who is here Making a fuss about this matter will not affect you in any way."

"Thank you, Your Majesty." Zhou Zeng nodded heavily, and said again: "Your Majesty, since the words have reached this point, I don't want to hide any more. In fact, when others suggested that I do this, I also considered whether it is necessary to do so." , but after taking the liberty to weigh the pros and cons for His Majesty, I feel it is necessary to do so."

"Why?" Xiang Kang asked curiously.

"Longqie, the Marquis of Hanoi, was addicted to alcohol and indulged himself. He has killed his servants indiscriminately several times after he was drunk." Zhou Zeng recited: "Marquis Wan Zhongli is ignorant, taking in unscrupulous guests in private, eating and living luxuriously, and going after the prince. Ding Ji, Marquis of Liyang, was lustful and had more than forty wives and concubines, some of whom he bought forcibly from the people. Marquis Zhujishi of Boyang also had the same problem. Although there were not as many wives and concubines as Ding Ji, some of them were The two are the concubines of King Tian Guang of Qi who were supposed to be sent to Xianyang to be dealt with by the imperial court. Marquis Zheng Bu of Jinyang invaded nearly [-] mu of fertile farmland beside the Fenshui River, and the number of wives and concubines is more than your Majesty's concubines."

"Your Majesty doesn't know if you know these things, Your Majesty." Zhou Zeng also sighed, and then said: "Your Majesty only knows, even if you know these things, Your Majesty, you can't bear to pursue these ministers of your Majesty, but if If we don’t remind these people, I’m afraid they will only become more lawless in the future, going further and further down the wrong path.”

"The best way to remind them is of course to kill chickens to scare monkeys." Zhou Zeng's smile became bitter again, and he said, "Your Majesty is your uncle, the great Han Prime Minister Zuo who has stayed in the pass for many years, and the first among all officials. Which chicken is the most suitable. In addition, taking this opportunity can also make your majesty feel more at ease with your servants, killing two birds with one stone, so this servant deliberately made a forced purchase of the people's land."

Xiang Kang didn't say a word anymore, he just supported Zhou Zeng with his own hands, then bowed to Zhou Zeng, and said very sincerely: "Uncle Ya, it's my nephew who wrongly blamed you, and now my little nephew really understands your good intentions, let me let you go!" You are wronged."

"Your Majesty, you don't have to be polite, these are what I should do." Zhou Zeng hurriedly returned the gift and said with a smile: "Don't worry, Your Majesty, I will go to apologize to the head of Li Shu and Guizhou in Guanzhong tomorrow by myself, and return their houses and fields. As for how to punish your majesty, your Majesty will Feel free to decide, in short, we must use this chicken to remind those of us big men who have made meritorious service."

Xiang Kang patted Zhou Zeng on the shoulder and said, "Don't worry, Uncle Ya, I will definitely repay you twice what you sacrificed on your own initiative in the future."

Before the matter was over, he said some heartfelt words with Zhou Zeng, and discussed how to alert the heroes who had gradually begun to corrupt and degenerate. Xiang Kang suddenly remembered something, and hurriedly asked: "Uncle Ya?" , Judging from your tone just now, you deliberately bought people's land at a low price, as if someone else gave you an idea, who is this person?"

"Reporting to Your Majesty, it is a guest of my minister, named Shaoping." Zhou Zeng replied truthfully: "When this Shaoping was in the previous dynasty, he was once named Marquis of Dongling by Emperor Yingzheng of the Tyrant Qin Dynasty. The birth mother Zhao Ji guarded the tomb. Your Majesty, after you entered Guanzhong, he was reduced to a commoner and made a living by growing melons in Bashang. Later, he was accepted by his ministers as a disciple. He heard that Guanzhong Qianshou built a shrine for his ministers, so he offered advice to his ministers. , I advise my subordinates to intentionally pollute themselves as a precautionary measure."

After all, Zhou Zeng, who had misunderstood Xiang Kang's meaning, hurriedly added: "Your Majesty, this Shao Ping offered advice and suggestions to my ministers just to prevent them from being pushed to the forefront, and absolutely did not intend to provoke them. If Your Majesty doesn't like him so If I do, I will give him a sum of money when I return home, and send him back home to continue planting melons."

"Uncle Ya, you misunderstood. I don't mean to blame him. I'm just a little interested in this Shaoping."

Xiang Kang shook his head, and then thought in his heart: "This man is not simple, he has a brain and a long-term vision. He can see the danger that Uncle Ya may encounter early on, and he can also persuade Uncle Ya to be such an upright official who cherishes his feathers to do self-defilement. This shows that his eloquence is definitely not that bad, if such a person is used well, and used in a place suitable for him to display his skills, maybe he can get a miraculous effect?"

Thinking up to this point, and thinking of his most important matter at the moment, Xiang Kang quickly made up his mind, and secretly said: "Give it a try, although it may not succeed, but it doesn't matter even if you fail, the big deal is Just go ahead with what I planned to do.”

After saying this in his heart, Xiang Kang immediately told Zhou Zeng: "Well, Uncle Ya, after the limelight, you bring that Shao Ping to meet me. I have an errand I want to arrange for him. Let's see him." Do you have the guts to do it?"

　I'm sorry, I encountered too many things during the Spring Festival—including the earthquake, so I didn't resume the update until today, and I tried my best to finish the final story of this book smoothly.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)