Chapter 1085 Aftermath
Chapter 1085 Aftermath
"Inspect the households, inspect the households. All they do every day is inspect the households." In the Huaide County government office, Liu Sui, the son of the Minister of the Interior Liu Kui and the Royal Guards' Consort Liu, could not help but complain.
But the county clerk just looked bitter, and his subordinates showed no intention of compromise.
First, the pressure from above was too great, and there were many high-ranking officials who supported him, such as Prime Minister Wang Dao and Liu Sui's father Liu Kui.
The second reason is, of course, that Liu Sui’s title of imperial concubine had little real power and could not take charge of things.
In these days, the emperor's son-in-law must be the emperor's consort, but the emperor's consort is not necessarily the emperor's son-in-law, and some of them don't even marry a princess.
However, Liu Sui did marry a daughter of the royal family, but it was of no use as he didn't even get a proper official position.
He is currently mainly managing his business in Piling.
There are still many wild scenes there, but there are also many manors, which are like development bases, changing the landscape bit by bit.
Most of the troops in Liu's manor were people from Pengcheng who had followed them south. But such a small number of people was definitely not enough, so he used his influence to gather many refugees who had migrated south as farmhands.
It was these people that the imperial court was investigating, intending to separate them from the manors, register them as separate civilian households, and grant them land to cultivate.
From the perspective of both the imperial court and the aristocratic families, this was actually an example of "tolerance for the sake of the country."
Without granting land and checking the population, the imperial court could only rely on the nobles to pay tribute. It was not impossible, but it was certainly inconvenient. Once the imperial court was at odds with the nobles, basically nothing could be done, such as the so-called Northern Expedition.
The vigorous Tuduanjianhu has entered its second year, and overall it is pretty good. There have been disturbances, but they have been suppressed, and the coverage is relatively wide, basically Yangzhou and Jiangzhou are involved.
However, compared with Shao Xun's land measurement in the north, the Eastern Jin Dynasty's land measurement and household inspection can only be said to be a drizzle, and it was not involved in depth at all. The wealthy families symbolically handed over some land and population, and most of them were still retained. The court also accepted it with a pinch of the nose because of their limited ability. Not to mention that the first wealthy family like the Wang family of Langya still retained a large-scale manor and troops. What else can you say?
But then again, the Wang family of Langya was wealthy and powerful, so it was not a big deal for them to hand over some land and population. However, the Liu family of Pengcheng was not good at business, and it was really painful for them to hand over hundreds of farmhands at once.
This is why Liu Sui was cursing.
Zhuge Heng, who came with Liu Sui, saw this and advised: "Liu Wan'an has already checked the household, why can't you do the same?"
Liu Wan'an, also known as Liu Sui, was the nephew of the former Shizhong Liu Bao and a native of Gaoping.
The two Liu Sui were both in Jianye and were often compared with each other. Naturally, the result was that Liu Sui of Pengcheng was far inferior to Liu Sui of Gaoping.
When Liu Sui heard Zhuge Heng's words, he was stunned for a moment, then laughed and scolded: "You haven't even started a family yet, what do you know?"
After that, he sighed and said, "Forget it, forget it. I won't make things difficult for you. Let's do it this way. Three hundred households, no more. I don't care about the land grant. When you want to pick someone up, just go to Piling Manor."
The county official thanked him profusely.
It was not easy to be an official in Huaide County. You didn't even have real land and had to work in a small house. Unfortunately, most of the registered residents in the county were powerful and famous people, so it was really hard to offend them.
Moreover, the population obtained through household inspection has nothing to do with Huaide County and will inevitably be diverted to the overseas Chinese counties and prefectures where the land division has been completed. This job is simply a thankless task.
Liu Sui was no longer interested in staying, so he pulled Zhuge Heng away.
The guests followed in a ox cart, while the two walked in front.
"Junwen, are you really going to the north?" Liu Sui asked after they reached a relatively secluded place. After that, he said seriously, "In fact, you did a bad thing and shouldn't have told me. If I had bad intentions and reported it directly, your family wouldn't have suffered a great disaster, but you wouldn't have been able to be the governor of Jingzhou."
Zhuge Heng shook his head and said, "I have to say goodbye to you."
"You!" Liu Sui was somewhat touched, and then asked in a frivolous way, "How about Deng Bodao's daughter?"
"never seen it."
"Then what's the difference between what you are doing and gambling?" Liu Sui said, "I don't think Deng Bodao looks that good, so how pretty can his daughter be? In Luoyang City back then, Wang Yifu was handsome, and the Imperial Censor Yu Zimei was also good-looking. I heard that his son Yu Liang was also very handsome. Tsk tsk, the Empress Yu of Liang should be very beautiful. Compared to these people, Deng Bodao's appearance is really not good enough. It's hard for you, Junwen."
Zhuge Heng was somewhat dissatisfied and asked, "Why do you say that about my new bride?"
Liu Sui laughed, put his arm around Zhuge Heng's shoulders, and walked forward as if no one was around. He asked, "I heard that Deng Bodao lived in seclusion in Pingyang. How did you get there?"
"Do you know Wang Hui and Wang Youren?" Zhuge Heng asked.
"Who is this?" Liu Sui really didn't know.
"The former Jingzhou governor, Wang Cheng, is the second son of Wang Pingzi." Zhuge Heng said, "He is willing to help."
Liu Sui laughed when he heard this and said, "Although the Wang family and the Zhuge family are both great families in Langya, Wang Youren may not be helping you out of past friendship. He may be following the orders of Wang Yifu or even Shao Xun."
After saying this, he sighed: "If Wang Hui was in Jianye, he must have been very famous. But now he is in the north, and I don't even know him. It has only been a few years, and the northern and southern nobles are so unfamiliar with each other. My generation is still lucky, and we can still build some connections from our ancestors. By the next generation, even if we are from the same clan, I am afraid we will be strangers and not know each other."
Zhuge Heng nodded. "Those old slaves are really cruel. They treat the people in power in the north as old friends and acquaintances, but they treat them as enemies. How unreasonable!" Liu Sui added, "Life will be better only when they are gone."
Zhuge Heng was dumbfounded. He felt that Liu Sui had scolded many people, including their father.
In addition, he was a little puzzled: "If the Liang army marches south, the manor may not be able to be saved, right?"
"You're right." Liu Sui sighed, "I'm afraid we can only ask our relatives for help. At worst, we can manage the industry together with them. We were one family before, and now we are two. We can become one in the future. We came early and have some money and food, but we are short of people. They can bring farmers from the north to the south. I can't say how many there are, but we can still support a thousand families for two years. By the third year, the wasteland will be almost ready, and even if there is no harvest, we can still support ourselves. In fact, we all went through this way in the beginning, and it was even more difficult. No one helped us."
Zhuge Heng could not find any words to refute.
First, there was nothing wrong with his reasoning, and second, he might be even more extreme than Liu Sui, because he returned to the north to get married. He first lived with his wife's family, and after a period of stability, he would go out to make friends with other people through the relationship of the Langya Zhuge family. There were still people in his family who served as officials in the Liang State, but he couldn't harm his father, so he really didn't plan to become an official. After all, his father asked him to return to the north because he was worried that his family would be completely destroyed.
At the same time, Zhuge Heng also clearly felt the change in the atmosphere.
Let’s not talk about the old people first. They are relatively loyal to the Sima family. For example, his father had worked for the late emperor when he was young, and he was relied on as a confidant. It would not be so easy to give him up now, and he would be criticized.
But the attitudes of the middle-aged officials in their thirties and forties other than the old men are quite interesting.
Liu Sui just turned thirty this year, and he dared to speak out and express his attitude publicly. Moreover, compared with previous years, he became more and more outspoken and unbridled, but no one could deal with him. Perhaps it was because he was the son-in-law of the emperor, or perhaps it was for other reasons.
As far as Zhuge Heng himself felt, the Battle of Jingzhou was a watershed.
In March, he participated in two discussions, and the attitude of the crowd towards Tao Kan was not pity, but ridicule...
What kind of attitude is this? Are you mocking him for his incompetence, or for his overestimation of his own abilities?
Zhuge Heng did not dare to think too deeply about it, but he knew that the situation was different. He did not dare to imagine what would happen to the Jin Dynasty after the participants of the Qingtan entered officialdom or slowly climbed to high positions.
Only because of the naval advantage now, Jiangnan will be stable for a while. If one day the navy can no longer gain the upper hand, the large number of surrenders may not be a fantasy, but a reality that is about to happen.
Zhuge Heng thought for a long time without paying attention to what Liu Sui said next. He just responded perfunctorily with half-heartedness.
Seeing that he was in a bad mood, Liu Sui stopped talking, said goodbye at the roadside, and said they would meet again next time.
Zhuge Heng then got on the ox cart. Next time? He was going to Wuchang and Pingyang, so when would that be?
After returning home with a heavy heart, Zhuge Heng suddenly discovered that his sister had also returned.
"Sister." He bowed immediately.
Zhuge Wenbiao, who was always cold and aloof, smiled a little when he saw his brother and said, "Junwen, you are going to get married soon, so don't be so shy."
Zhuge Wenbiao holds his little sister Wenxiong in his arms.
Wen Xiong was still a little child. When she saw Zhuge Heng, she stretched out her hand and asked him to play with her.
Everyone laughed.
Zhuge Wenbiao looked at her happy family and felt warm in her heart. What did it matter if she suffered alone? There were always many things worth cherishing in a person's life. She was not interested in most things, and only her family could make her feel at ease and satisfied.
However, when he thought about parting with his family soon, Zhuge Wenbiao's expression became gloomy again.
When her younger sister Zhuge Wenbao saw this, she reached out and hugged Wenxiong, saying softly, "Sister, go and talk to mother."
Zhuge Wenbiao hummed, looked at his second sister with satisfaction, and said, "In a few years, you will also get married. Are you going to find a husband in Wuchang?"
Zhuge Wenbao blushed and said nothing.
"There is no wealthy family worth mentioning in Wu." Zhuge Heng heard this and couldn't help but say, "Second sister should still find a good family in Jianye."
Zhuge Wenbiao sighed. How could this be possible?
She could guess what her father was thinking: if he could defend himself, he would, and if he couldn't, he would not resist to the death.
This type of people existed before, but now there are more and more of them, especially when Xiangyang and Jiangling fell and Jingzhou could only use Yunmengze and the Yangtze River as its protection, the number of this type of people suddenly increased sharply.
To be fair, they didn't want to rebel or surrender to the enemy, they just felt that it was meaningless to resist. Many times, as long as they were given a reason that convinced them, they would surrender reluctantly.
This is the impact of the Battle of Jingzhou, not only on the battlefield, but also on people's hearts.
At this point, it is the Wu nobles who have the strongest will to resist.
(End of this chapter)