Seeing this, the prince hurriedly asked someone to pour a glass of cold water on Wang Huan to wake him up.
After Wang Huan woke up, he was confused for a while.
But then, after he regained consciousness, he opened his mouth and started crying again, thinking:
"The imperial court is claiming to strictly investigate private mining, but it is actually forcing us to move overseas!"
Later, Wang Huan told the prince, the magistrate of Xiuning, with tears in his eyes: "With this sacred mandate, I naturally dare not complain. Besides, I am indeed guilty and should not allow myself to violate national laws."
then.
Wang Huan bowed to the prince and said: "But I would like to ask my parents to be aware that there are not many people who mine privately in Xiuning. They would not dare to do it unless they are powerful and wealthy. Therefore, I ask my parents not to make a fortune just to cater to the emperor's wishes." He has been involved in prison matters and widely falsely accused the villagers of privately exploiting minerals, making everyone in this county uneasy! Woohoo!"
"Wang Gong, please get up."
The prince hurriedly helped Wang Huan up and said, "This county will never do anything harmful to the people. Don't worry."
"But since someone in your house is suspected of illegal mining, he will be exiled and confiscated according to the order."
The prince said again at this time.
Wang Huan reluctantly agreed and said: "I am willing to cooperate to pay for my sins."
"slow!"
But when the prince was about to wave his hand and order the soldiers to enter Wang's mansion to search, Wang Dabin shouted loudly.
The prince then looked towards him.
Wang Dabin also bowed to the prince, and then asked:
"Don't my parents think that the imperial decree is too harsh, and is it simply a harsh rule?!"
The prince was not in a hurry to express his position.
Because he realized that Wang Dabin was forcing himself to express his position by asking this question.
The prince smiled deliberately and replied: "You cannot violate your orders. As for merits and demerits, future generations will comment."
"But now, the people standing in front of my old parents are all living people, and they are all your children."
"Are you really going to sit back and watch them and their relatives from the three clans being exiled overseas because of Wang's dandy's violation of the law?"
After Wang Dabin asked, he raised his hands and said to the prince: "Please ask my parents to make decisions for the people!"
“Then what do you want this county to do?!”
The prince suddenly shouted and asked, and then said: "The imperial court has repeatedly issued orders not to allow private mining, so as not to damage the feng shui and affect the national destiny, but you always don't listen, even for officials like your family who have been favored by the country. The clan also turned a deaf ear to this decree and had no regard for the laws of the king and the country!"
"Now that the imperial court has discovered you, you are blaming the imperial court for being unkind, saying that this is harsh governance, without mentioning any faults on your part."
"It's a shame that we are from a large official family, yet we are so unreasonable!"
"You want to force this county to accuse the imperial court?"
"But you don't even think about it. According to the ancestral system, private mining operators will be killed without mercy. Now just exile is a mercy. You are still blaming the court here, and you have to force the county to blame the court. You don't know how to express your gratitude to the saints and kindness. Benevolence."
"Please forgive me for not being disloyal and disobeying the emperor's orders. However, if you really want to say that this county does not care about the people, then you can call on the people to tie up the county now and go to see the emperor!"
When the prince said this, he took off his crown and looked at Wang Dabin.
Snapped!
Wang Huan suddenly slapped Wang Dabin: "Presumptuous!"
Wang Dabin immediately covered his face.
then.
Wang Huan bowed to the prince again and said: "My parents, please calm down. The Wang family does not dare to threaten my parents, let alone criticize the government."
With that said, Wang Huan glared at Wang Dabin.
Wang Dabin also had to endure the pain on his face, cupped his hands and apologized:
"My parents, please forgive me. I made a mistake with my words. You should not discuss government affairs indiscriminately. You should not be without any guilt or gratitude and be willing to accept any punishment."
"snort!"
The prince didn't say much, just snorted and ordered the house to be searched.
So Wang Jingdi led a group of soldiers into Wang's mansion.
After the prince, Wang Jingdi and others left, Wang Dabin whispered to Wang Huan: "Although these old parents are young, they are not so easy to fool. They are very articulate and quite shrewd!"
"So, what I'm more worried about is actually that he has seen the intentions of the higher-ups, and he does not hesitate to falsely accuse many wealthy families of being mine thieves who mine privately. This not only makes money, but also allows the higher-ups to see that he is working very hard to create many squires. Hao You can be moved out, and he also takes the opportunity to have most of the rural eunuchs in Xiuning County forcibly relocated, so that more ordinary people can do business and become officials after the large rural eunuchs move away."
"Fortunately, when I begged him on behalf of the villagers not to expand the scope of arresting people and ransacking their homes, he agreed. It seems that he is not a greedy and shameless official."
Wang Huan spoke with a serious face at this time, and continued to blame Wang Dabin:
"But so did you! Seeing that I had tested his conscience, he came to the surface and actually asked him to admit that the current national policy is harsh government. Although he is young and innocent, he is not stupid!"
"I made a mistake!"
"Seeing that he really promised you that he would not arbitrarily accuse others of mining for the sake of political achievements and accuse him of being a mine thief, I thought he was really naive and useful, so I thought of taking the opportunity to bring him to our side and become our He is eloquent, but who knows that he is naive, but he is not without his own thinking."
“I have to admit that young people today are not as easy to use as they used to be.”
"I think back then, when we were young, just because of a few words from the elders from our hometown, we dared to ask for orders for the people, even if we were punished by the imperial staff!"
"It's only when I get older that I realize that I became someone else's pawn."
Wang Dabin said.
Wang Huan sneered and said, "Don't look at what education is like now and what education was like back then."
In addition, Wang Huan, Wang Dabin and other members of the Wang clan were subsequently locked up in the county jail.
The prince did not make things difficult for them. In order to prevent them from losing their physical fitness due to poor nutrition due to being in jail, and being unable to take root overseas smoothly in the future, he even still provided them with good food and rice.
The prince still asked Wang Jingdi to continue investigating the private mining matter.
After all, this is something that the imperial court requires strict investigation at the moment, and it is clearly a priority. If you pass the exam, it will undoubtedly be a key part of the exam.
Because Zhu Yijun transferred the field troops back in advance and was responsible for inspecting the mines, many people who mined privately were captured.
Of course, this is also related to the fact that the army was not allowed to do business in the first place. Otherwise, it would be impossible to rely on the army to inspect.
Private mining workers in Xiuning County were also quickly arrested.
As a result, there were almost no mining people in the entire Xiuning County, the mountains and forests were quiet, and the birds were singing more happily than before.
As the first heavy snow fell, the entire Xiuning County seemed completely silent.
However, just as the winter snow was falling, Zhang Yunsheng suggested to the prince:
"Since Dong Weng has decided to implement the court's decision conscientiously and is not afraid of offending the local gentry, he might as well implement it more rigorously and try to catch as many local gentry as possible and accuse them of being private mining thieves. This might make the superiors See, among all the counties in the world, Dong Weng is undoubtedly the county magistrate with the most backbone to investigate mines, so Dong Weng will definitely be favored by His Majesty!"
"But Mr. Wang didn't mean that."
The prince couldn't help but say.
Zhang Yunsheng said: "Dong Weng no longer needs to care about what these squire giants think. Anyway, if you want to be loyal, then you must be loyal thoroughly. It is best to be the number one loyal minister!"
"I heard that in Xinzhi County, Wuyuan County next door, more than 5,000 households were arrested for mining thieves who resisted the decree, but we only have more than 300 households, less than 10%!"
"If this continues, it will be difficult for Dong Weng to be seen from above."
Zhang Yunsheng said.
"More than five thousand people?"
The prince was also quite shocked after hearing this.
Zhang Yunsheng nodded: "And we are still doing it."
“Is Wuyuan County crazy?!”
The prince immediately stood up and said:
"How can there be more than 5,000 households in Wuyuan County who are mining privately? I'm afraid there are not enough mines in Wuyuan County for more than 5,000 households to mine. This is obviously over-implementation!"
"Dong Weng, this is not important anymore!"
"His Majesty first set up a police force, and then issued an edict to strictly investigate the situation of private mining. It is obvious that the main direction of this year's examination is to see who detects more mine thieves."
"In addition, the imperial edict clearly states that mine thieves can be killed or exiled without mercy. There is no doubt that the purpose is to forcibly relocate more people through mining."
"At this time, if you want Jian to be in the heart of the emperor and be reused by the superiors, you should work harder to investigate and deal with the mine thieves. The superiors will not care about whether there are unjust cases against you. They are even afraid that there will be unjust cases so that more people can be arrested. , allowing more scholars and people to be relocated, but this kind of thing cannot be said openly, and can only be understood by the officials below. "
Zhang Yunsheng started talking at this time.
After hearing what Zhang Yunsheng said, the prince could not refute it for a while. Even at first glance, he felt that what Zhang Yunsheng said seemed to make sense.
In the eyes of those in power, right and wrong are actually not that important; maximizing national interests is the most important thing.
However, the prince is not someone who follows what others say, he has his own thoughts.
Therefore, the prince did not make a decision rashly, but pondered.
But he was indeed a little confused for a moment, because he didn't know whether he should act with his conscience, not caring about his personal future, and try not to wrong a kind family; or he should give up his conscience and forcibly accuse some wealthy officials in the county of being mine thieves. , the euphemistic name is for the country.
Here, although it is easy to frame a wealthy family of rural officials who have always been law-abiding, they are naturally desperate for this family of rural officials who have been framed. At the same time, more people have to believe that abiding by the rules is actually useless.
It will indeed be of great benefit to the country and Xiuning County to allow more wealthy rural officials to be relocated. After all, many wealthy rural officials are parasites. Although they control many industries, they are not direct producers. , as long as the court does not allow them to leave with their skills and craftsmen, regardless of the short-term losses, more middle-class families can rise and become new rural eunuchs in a county.
Here, which one is more important, right or wrong or pros and cons, is the choice he, the prince, is now facing.
After thinking for a long time, the prince finally made up his mind, stood up and looked at Zhang Yunsheng.
(End of chapter)
