Chapter 863 Shock

Chapter 863 Shock

Chapter 863 Shock
"Haha, Li Dagang, are you worthy of wearing official uniform?" In a manor somewhere in the south of Pingyang City, Shiqiao Defense Force soldier Qiu Ren looked at the funny appearance of his comrade and laughed.

"What? I can't wear it? Don't come to me when you want to slaughter a sheep during the New Year. I won't do it for your family." Li Dagang was short in stature, and the official uniform looked like a sack on him, which was very ridiculous and funny.

"What's the use of this official? I heard that he can't manage people or affairs?" someone asked.

"You can only take care of yourself." Someone familiar laughed and said, "Although the position of the Special Military Officer is only the ninth rank, which is lower than the Flying Cavalry Officer you got. But even if the Special Military Officer has no honorary title, but only a position, he can still take care of you. If you violate military orders, you can be punished with just a word."

"Then it's useless? Two hundred acres of land is still more practical."

"It can be seen that officials do not worship, is this a benefit? Honorary officials can also buy land and property. They can buy as much as their rank. But I see that you have no money."

The others all sighed after hearing this.

Buying land costs money.

The Luonan area where they were located had been peaceful for almost twenty years, and there was not much vacant land left.

Perhaps you can also open up wasteland to obtain land. After all, there are many mountains, forests and swamps. You can obtain new land by cutting down trees to open up fields or reclaiming lakes to create farmland, but who has the time to do this? Unless the government conscripts laborers to open up wasteland and then sell it to them.

But there is no one who doesn't like land.

Some people think long-term, thinking that there are several sons in the family, how to divide it in the future? Two hundred acres of land may seem a lot, but one division will be less. Moreover, there are also soldiers, what to do? Drive them away? Obviously, this cannot be done.

When you go to the battlefield, your soldiers help you set up tents, boil water and cook, take care of horses, maintain equipment, and sometimes they even go into battle with you. You are a life-and-death friendship with them, so you really can't treat them like this.

If possible, you should buy more land.

The higher the official rank, the more land he can own. In the future, he can choose a son to inherit the palace army, and the others will become ordinary civilians.

The love of the parents is far-reaching.

Every soldier wanted to own more than 200 acres of land, the more the better.

"Stop talking. Pack up your robes and official seals and get on the road." Xu Meng, the military governor, rode a red horse and stopped not far away. He pointed with his whip and said, "Don't get carried away when you return to your hometown. You may not even be able to control your fierce wife if you get an official title."

The soldiers burst into laughter after hearing this.

"You missed one thing just now. An honorary official position can be used to atone for your crime." Xu Meng added, "If you commit a serious crime, you can use your official position to atone for it. If it is not enough to make up for the money."

When everyone heard this, they thought this benefit was very useful.

Do the government oppress the people a lot? Actually, a lot.

If someone wants to frame you, it is very easy to frame them. This is when you can see the importance of military merit, which is more effective than money. Because spending money may not necessarily exempt you from punishment, but being an honored official can atone for your crime.

"General, can killing someone be used to atone for one's crime?" suddenly, a palace soldier asked.

Xu Meng was startled, looked at him, and nodded, "Okay. But how high an official rank do you have to be to avoid the crime of murder? The law of official rank is not exhaustive, and I don't know what official rank can be used to avoid the crime of murder. Why, you want to kill someone?"

The man rolled his eyes and said, "A fellow villager told me that when I was away at the battle site, my wife was having an affair with someone..."

When his comrades heard this, they immediately stopped him and said anxiously, "Don't be stupid! It wasn't easy for you to be a flying cavalry officer. How many comrades fell when the Xianbei cavalry rushed over? Go back and divorce that bitch and get another one."

"Alas!" The man stomped his feet heavily.

His comrade whispered a few words in his ear, and the man gradually quieted down.

Xu Meng turned his head away, pretending not to see it, and walked away.

Not far away on the post road, several clerks were loading empty boxes onto a carriage.

Leading the group were two officials from the Ministry of Personnel. They silently watched the military men "celebrating" and felt sad in their hearts.

It is true that honorary officials are not as good as official officials. Firstly, they cannot manage affairs and secondly, they have no salary. But one thing is true: they can purchase land according to their official rank.

In today's world where land reclamation is in full swing, legally owned land is extremely precious.

If a soldier had three or four sons, and each son had a piece of the 200 acres of land, he would only have a few dozen acres. This might still be enough to support the growth of a soldier, but it would be far inferior to that of the previous generation.

But what if it is 400 acres? The old man will give half to his son who will inherit his position as a soldier in the palace, and divide the rest so that the next generation can still maintain it.

Where did these lands come from?
They seemed to have seen a group that was thirsty for land and constantly hoping for new wars.

From then on, the country began to engage in militarism.

In the end, they were afraid that the Tuoba Xianbei and Liu Han Xiongnu would not be enough for them to defeat, so they had to go to the Western Regions, Liaodong, and Jiangnan to continuously accumulate merits, acquire land, and pass it on to future generations.

They seem to have lost some understanding of this world.

After the Luonan soldiers left, the Chenliu soldiers also left.

After hearing about the honorary officials, they were also very envious, but so far King Liang has not ordered to expand the scope of the honorary officials.

Pity!
******
In the afternoon, Wen Qiao woke up after taking a nap in the office.

Shen Ling, a military officer in the General's Office, happened to come to discuss something. Seeing Wen Qiao's sleepy appearance, he smiled and said, "Tai is so relaxed."

"I was scared and my mind was in a mess, so I took a nap." Wen Qiao yawned.

"But Xun..." Shen Ling had just said half of it when Wen Qiao threw a manuscript in front of him and said, "This is a copy sent by the Imperial Medical Bureau. Please send it to the various states and counties. It is not yet finished, so please add to it as you go."

Shen Ling took it with doubt and found that it was "Endemic Diseases·Bingzhou Chapter". The first one was "spot disease" (rash-like diseases, not subdivided), the second one was "leprosy" (leprosy), and the third one was "corpse transmission" (tuberculosis)...

Shen Ling threw it away after reading it, as if he had seen something unlucky.

It’s been just over a year since the pandemic ended, but everyone is still feeling the effects of the pandemic and cannot stand seeing anything related to the disease.

Wen Qiao calmly picked up the manuscript and said, "I don't like it either, but this book is useful."

"My family lives in Taiyuan, and I have seen many of these diseases since I was young." Wen Qiao added, "Some people accidentally contracted tuberculosis, and tuberculosis gnawed their heart and lungs day and night. It was a horrible sight. The book said that if you go to a funeral, you may get tuberculosis burrowed into your stomach. I believe it. After the book spread, not many people went to the homes of people who died of tuberculosis to pay their respects, and countless lives were saved."

"Is this written by King Liang?" Shen Ling asked.

"Huangfu Fanghui wrote this on the orders of King Liang. He is still in Xihe investigating the disease and has not returned."

"Your Majesty is really..." Shen Ling said with a wry smile.

"You came here to talk about the honorary official, right?" Wen Qiao stood up and called the old servant, asking him to fetch water and make tea.

The old servant came from Taiyuan and held a position as a servant in the government office, specifically responsible for communicating with Wen Qiao. Naturally, all his expenses were paid by Wen Qiao himself.

"That's right." Shen Ling said, "Isn't the king too hasty? No less than 2,000 people have been appointed as officials. If they buy property, the land price will be raised. From now on, the Sun Wenji incident may happen again. It's really a disgrace to the country."

Wen Qiao laughed when he heard this, but Shen Ling was a little unhappy.

Sun Wenji is Sun Jue, the magistrate of Jinyang County.

There are only about three or four hundred farmhands of the Sun clan in the entire Taiyuan - and I heard that there are even fewer recently.

Sun Jue was a distant relative of the Sun family, and was forced to marry the daughter of Liu Runzhong, the governor of Shangdang. Why? Because they were poor!
Many branches of the noble families didn't have much money to begin with, and once the land price went up, there were still people competing for it, so they couldn't afford to build a family business. What should they do in the future?
In this way, the aristocratic families could not expand effectively, and many of them might really only be able to "cheat" the Hu people or warriors out of their money, taking advantage of their desire to curry favor with the gentry, marrying off their wives and daughters, and making ends meet.

Shen Ling was not wrong.

There are more than 2,000 officers in Luonan Prefecture, which means more than 2,000 small landlords. Individually, they are insignificant compared to the gentry, but their numbers are unmatched.

These small landlords were easy for the imperial court to control, but the big aristocratic families were difficult to control.

How difficult is it to guess what King Liang is thinking?

It’s not that Shen Ling couldn’t guess it, he just wasn’t very satisfied.

"Tai Zhen is still watching the fire from the other side of the river, doesn't he know that the fire is already burning?" Shen Ling couldn't help but said, "The King of Liang conquered Pingcheng and pacified the Xianbei, and his power is amazing. Now no one dares to persuade him, but it is easy to get into trouble if he insists on his own way. Didn't the Taiwei say anything?"

Wen Qiao glanced at him, slightly surprised.

Shen Ling is an old resident of the Yue Mansion, and has some unclear relationship with the Pei family and Madam Pei.

The relationship between the Grand Commandant and the Pei family is average, what does Shen Ling mean by this?

"Since you know that persuasion is useless, why bother to persuade him?" Wen Qiao asked in return: "The king knows how to act in moderation. He never pushes people into desperate situations. Take the matter of the honorary officials, for example. There are few people and much land now. Isn't it too much to worry about the future?"

Shen Ling sighed.

The phrase "I can't persuade you" is really frustrating.

Pingcheng was taken, and the Tuoba Xianbei was divided and could no longer achieve anything significant.

Before the army returned, tens of thousands of slaves and nearly one million livestock of various kinds were sent back from the front. When the scholars all over the world heard about it, they were deeply frightened and almost no one dared to openly oppose him. They could only hide their dissatisfaction deep in their hearts.

Before, when Wu's troops marched north, some powerful families surrendered their cities and rebelled. If they were to fight again today, I wonder if anyone would dare to rebel.

If a person's martial arts skills are extremely strong, as long as he does not force others into a corner with no way out, not many people would dare to openly oppose whatever he wants to do.

"There are always people who can't figure it out." Shen Ling calmed down and said, "Your Majesty is too impatient. If you act so drastically when the world is not yet settled, you may bring disaster."

Wen Qiao did not directly refute this point.

However, he could understand King Liang's mentality to some extent. After all, he was 37 years old.

"Jing Gao, since you came here today, I believe that everything must have been done?" Wen Qiao asked.

"It's settled." Seeing that Wen Qiao didn't want to talk too much about the honorary official, he said, "The Luoyang Shaofu is preparing the emperor's flags, crown tassels, golden chariot, palace hangings and other objects. The angel will set off to Pingyang at the latest at the end of the month."

"Has the emperor made any unusual moves?" Wen Qiao asked.

"No." Shen Ling shook his head and said, "Zheng Shida, the deputy minister, often disrespects the emperor. I have already reminded him to be more restrained."

"Zheng Shida..." Wen Qiao muttered, then asked, "How is Luoyang?"

"What else can we do?" Shen Ling said with a wry smile, "Tear down the water mills, seal the ridges, and I heard that the best fields in Qianjin Weir and Jiulong Canal will be distributed to the families of the soldiers."

"Got it." Wen Qiao nodded, not wanting to say anything more.

Just by looking at Shen Ling, you can get a glimpse of the whole picture.

A lot of big things have happened recently, and the turbulent currents make people feel uneasy.

At this time, he didn't want to express his thoughts too much. It was always right to observe first.

(End of this chapter)