Outside Jinling Mansion and Jiankang Palace, another group of so-called common people cried for help and left in disappointment. Zhang Hao didn't feel the least bit disturbed in his heart.
There are only a few real common people who can come outside Jiankang Palace to cry and beg. Even if there are real common people, most of them are instigated by the local wealthy families.
Otherwise, the real people, let alone knowing where Jiankang Palace is, would be considered knowledgeable if they knew how to get to the county seat after leaving the village.
The root cause of all this is that Zhang Yan started to touch the cakes of big families such as Southern Tang and Wuyue.
To put it bluntly, in the two countries of Southern Tang and Wu Yue, including the kings who were considered heroes like Li Min and Qian Liu, their overall governance was very rough, or their administrative power was not improved at all.
The Southern Tang Kingdom occupied Huainan, Jiangdong, Jiangxi and the northern part of Jiangnan, that is, most of Jiangsu and the entire Anhui and Jiangxi in later generations, plus part of Hubei land.
Such a top nurturing land in the Tang and Song Dynasties had only less than 5 million registered households in the country, and only 14 million acres of land where taxes were still paid on the books.
This is simply a joke, the average per capita is less than three acres, considering the yield per mu at this time, and the fact that there are still a large number of wealthy families who want to live a good life and powerful families occupy more land.
Doesn’t it mean that among these five million people, at least close to four million are completely landless tenants?
Then the scenes of crowds of people, such dense population, such prosperous commodity economy and developed handicraft industry that I, Zhang Shengren, saw in Jinling Prefecture, Yangzhou Prefecture, Zhenjiang Prefecture and other places are all fake?
As for the Southern Tang officials' explanation to him that commercial taxes accounted for a large proportion of the Southern Tang's taxes, and the number of account books over the years to prove it, Zhang Gao scoffed.
Without a considerable amount of Ueda and Takata products, how could it be possible to feed so many people?
Without so many people, how could such a developed commodity economy be possible?
Without such a developed commodity economy, why would you charge a lot of business taxes?
I, Zhang Shengren, don’t even have to look at it to know that there must be a lot of tricks in it. If there are too many business taxes, it’s just a trick to get rid of Li Jing.
wrong! Li Jingduhu couldn't do it. He had no choice or ability, so he could only hold his nose and admit it.
The Wuyue Kingdom is similar. You must know that the current Wuyue Kingdom is not only Zhejiang in later generations, it also has two super-rich prefectures, Suzhou and Songjiang, plus Fuzhou.
Moreover, in the years from the end of the Five Dynasties to the beginning of the Northern Song Dynasty, the Wuyue Kingdom did not know how to fight for decades. Several generations of Qian kings built water conservancy, reclaimed wasteland, and encouraged production. It was a paradise in troubled times.
Among them, Hangzhou Prefecture is known as the most beautiful state in the southeast, the capital of the Three Wus, and the richest state in the world. It is the first state in the southeast.
Needless to say, Suzhou Prefecture, although it is slightly worse than Hangzhou, is still crowded with people at this time.
In such a wealthy town, the data obtained by Zhang Yan only had 2.17 million registered households and less than 6 million acres of land.
Zhang Hao vaguely remembers that during the second brother Zhao period, less than thirty years ago, after Wu Yue donated his land, Zhao and Song officials conducted a population census and found that the total number of households in Hangzhou was over 81,000, and the total number of households in Suzhou was 39,000. More than a thousand households.
This is still a rough result obtained from a detailed census of the population in Wuyue during the Northern Song Dynasty. In fact, it should be more.
But according to the information in Zhang's hands, there are only about 21,000 households in Hangzhou and just over 7,000 in Suzhou.
This is a separate census of main customers, among which main customers account for the vast majority. In less than thirty years, no matter how many children there are, it is impossible to increase the number of children four to five times.
snort! It seems that someone bullied Zhang Shengren because he had been in the Central Plains for a long time. He didn't know that the southeast had developed, and he was competing with the state for his household registration and farmland, right?
Punishment, really punishment!
The furious Zhang Shengren directly ordered the pro-army and imperial troops to block the three prefectures of Hangzhou, Suzhou, and Zhenjiang, and conduct a population census using military law.
Finally, the city of Hangzhou was obtained, with 54,300 households and more than 267,000 people.
Suzhou City has more than 18,400 households and more than 110,000 people.
Zhenjiang City has more than 16,500 households and more than 97,000 people.
As soon as the data came out, I, Zhang Shengren, was furious.
These bitches dare to conceal the population by two or three times in Tongdu and Dayi. Between the counties and countryside in various places, needless to say, they can't just take off from the same spot?
So, when the river and the plateau were fighting, and Bai Congxin killed hundreds of thousands of people in one breath, I, Zhang Shengren, was not idle either, he was also punishing people.
As for the officials, Pei Yuan could not move for the time being, so Zhang Yan transferred He Ning to Jinling Mansion in the name of discussing state affairs.
Along with He Ning, there were also younger generation civil servants such as Wei Renpu, Tao Gu, and Zhao Pu.
In addition, a large number of talents who were proficient in calculation and familiar with Zhang Zhoutian's tax laws were recruited from the Zhangtai Hanlin Academy of Zhongshu Province and the Qionglin Academy of Shangshu Province.
At the same time, Zhang Yan also has a trump card, which is the Jinyi Guards Fine Examination Department.
This is the accounting and tax review agency that Zhang Zhang personally controls. There are a large number of Sogdians from Anxi and Hezhong, so they are professionally qualified.
These people were based on the volunteer army that Zhang Gao had formed when he was in Anxi.
At that time, Zhang Hao took in a total of more than 300 orphans who had lost their parents in Anxi, Hezhong and Suiye.
Dozens of them had no talent and were gradually eliminated and became ordinary people. There were also more than a hundred people with average talent who were released to serve as minor civil and military officials in various places.
There were only more than 130 people left, and Zhang Yan personally taught them arithmetic using the mathematical knowledge he still remembered in later generations, plus the mathematics books at that time.
Nowadays, these people have no other abilities, but they are quite good in accounting and taxation.
A few years ago, there was a problem with the Hexi Chamber of Commerce's account books, which they came up with during a surprise review. Now that they have been transferred to Jiangnan, it is just right for them to use.
To be honest, I, Zhang Shengren, still lack a ruthless character like Brother Zhao.
Of the two people currently available, Pei Yuan's status is already too high and he is easily agitated.
Zhao Pu still hasn't studied enough. Although he has done well with his extraordinary talent in terms of major political policies, he still cannot satisfy Zhang Shengren in lower-level and more detailed work.
Judging from the actual results in history, Brother Zhao is a ruthless and immoral person, but he has insight into people's hearts, is good at leveraging others' strengths, accomplishes big things at a small cost, and can also build a political framework.
Well, as long as he is not allowed to be in charge of the army, his talents are still good. Although he was a piece of shit in history, he is still a good minister candidate after being trained in this time and space.
However, now, Pei Yuan can't move, and Zhao Pu can only be used as a half-person, so only I, Zhang Shengren, can take action personally.
And there are four 'good helpers' around him who can be used.
Li Jing, Sun Cheng, Han Xizai, Li Quanjin.
Why is it a good helper?
It's very simple. For Li Jing, if he could mobilize all the national power of the Southern Tang Dynasty, Zhang Yan would not be able to fight so easily.
You must know that the size of the Southern Tang Dynasty is similar to that of Zhang Zhou after excluding Hexi, Longyou, Guanzhong, Shuzhong, Hunan and Hubei.
However, because these six places, including Hexi and Longyou, were far apart or had recently been conquered, when Zhang Gao was conquering the Southern Tang Dynasty, except for Hubei, the rest of the places could not count as much help.
In this way, if Li Jing could mobilize the power of the whole country like Zhang Yan, he would not be able to destroy the Southern Tang Dynasty without mentioning Zhang Zhou, but it would definitely be very difficult.
You said that Li Jing is going to live in an apartment in Tokyo now. Can he not hate those moths below and not want them to be beaten with an iron fist like him?
Li Quanjin also understood it very well. After he defected from the Later Jin Dynasty to the Southern Tang Dynasty, he served as military governors in various places and suffered the disdain from these Southern Tang native factions.
And he knew the actual situation in various places. With him as the leader, he could accurately find the resisters within Southern Tang Dynasty.
Sun Cheng and Han Xizai are more suitable, because they were from the north and fled south, that is to say, they went from the Central Plains to the Southern Tang Dynasty.
Although he held a high position, he had no deep-rooted interests to take care of in Southern Tang Dynasty.
Moreover, these two people's ability to govern was pretty good, and they had been officials in the Southern Tang Dynasty for a long time, so they knew the situation very well.
As long as they are willing to serve and assist Zhang Yan in his actions, they will definitely get twice the result with half the effort.
However, Li Jing and Li Quanjin are easy to talk to, and asking them to help is just a matter of words.
But Sun Cheng and Han Xizai are different. Their loyalty to Li Jing or the Southern Tang Dynasty is really not false.
Historically, when Sun Cheng was sent as an envoy from the Southern Tang Dynasty to the Later Zhou Dynasty, Guo Rong was very kind to him and often gave him gifts in person. However, when asked about whether the Southern Tang Dynasty was true or false, Sun Cheng remained silent.
In the end, Guo Rong was angered and threatened to behead him, but Sun Cheng still just tidied up his clothes, bowed to the south and said, "I would like to die to serve the country."
He didn't hesitate at all, and he didn't even lower his head until he died. The hardness of his bones was evident.
And now, since Li Jing donated his soil, the two of them have been staying at home claiming to be ill. Zhang Gao summoned them several times, but they were blocked, showing their uncooperation.
Zhang Yan was leaning on a long couch with a headache. Now that people came to plead outside the palace, it actually proved that he made this gesture. It only made these wealthy families in the Southern Tang and Wuyue feel a little dangerous, but it was not there yet. To the point of breaking your muscles and bones.
In short, half of their actions were pleading, and the other half were threats.
It is conceivable that if Zhang Yan really wants to touch them, there will be more troubles, and there will be an even greater shortage of helpers like Sun Cheng and Han Xizai.
Otherwise, it will be all hosted by people from the north. They do not know the local situation, and they may not be so honest and dedicated. There is a high probability that it will only cause two consequences.
First, there is basically not much progress. It can deal with three or two kittens or one or two outstanding birds, but it cannot change the basic situation.
The second is to cause turmoil in the southeast and arouse large-scale opposition among the people, which will eventually need to be quelled by force.
No matter which one of these two consequences, they are completely contrary to Zhang Yan's plan to quickly use Jiangnan's material resources to complete the eastern expedition to Japan.
There were gentle footsteps behind him, and then there was the gentle touch of a small fist tapping on his shoulder.
Without looking back, Zhang Hao knew that Dazhou Zhou Xian must be here. On normal days, Zhang Hao might have teased her a little, but now he was completely out of mood.
For a moment, Zhang Hao wanted to put a knife directly to the necks of Sun Cheng and Han Xizai, force them to do things, or simply kill them.
But when I think about it, I know that I can't do it like this. Not to mention whether working under the threat of a knife is reliable, even from a moral perspective, I can't do it.
Although Sun and Han made Zhang Yan feel a bit stuck in his throat and even a little disgusting, they were truly loyal ministers!
You have been preaching your loyalty for more than ten years, and then you killed someone for not cooperating. Isn't that clearly telling others that Zhang Shengren's previous propaganda was all false.
If all the people in the court were to betray the monarch as soon as a powerful enemy came, waiting for the new dynasty's high-ranking officials and well-paid ministers, Zhang Yan would not be able to sleep.
The influence of these two people on Zhang Yan was negative and disgusting, but from the perspective of the whole world, they were loyal ministers worthy of respect and the moral benchmark for ministers.
Therefore, not only should Zhang not be treated roughly, but he must also show great respect and appreciation.
However, perhaps it was little Zhouxian's gentle kneading that made Zhang Xuan's mind start to calm down. After some calm thinking, Zhang Shengren realized that in order to drive such loyal ministers, they still have to start with their most cherished reputation.
So, after careful consideration, Zhang Yan began to send people to his door every two days to invite these two people to become officials.
Each time they refused, Zhang Zhi's reward was larger than the last time. By the fifth time, the reward had reached a considerable amount of five hundred strings.
This made Sun Cheng and Han Xizai really unable to stand it, because Zhang Yan's approach would make outsiders think that they were pretending to be loyal ministers on the surface, but in fact they were asking for a price. If they refused the five hundred coins, others would be at risk. The probability is that they are too few.
[The problem of slow update of new chapters is finally solved with an app that can change sources. Download it here
Sun Chengcheng wanted to accept the five hundred coins directly and distribute them to the poor people in Jiankang City. However, as soon as he made this proposal, the whole family of more than thirty people, including his old wife, looked at him in horror.
Especially Sun Cheng's old wife Gao, who was the daughter of the famous Huainan King Gao Pian in the past, was extremely unforgettable about the tragic situation after the family was broken up. She told Sun Cheng bluntly.
"Today's saints treated Lang Jun and Han Xizai so favorably, even during the Zhenguan and Yonghui years, they were extremely tolerant.
It's fine if the prince doesn't accept it. If he still distributes the rewards to the people, it is obviously spitting on the king's face. You are still showing to outsiders that you cherish your own reputation more than your loyalty.
If the prince insists on distributing the rewards to the people, then please kill his wife and children first to show his loyalty by cutting off his retreat! "
Sun Cheng was shocked by his always docile old wife, Gao, and didn't speak for a long time.
Obviously, he dared to decide to be a loyal minister because he felt that an emperor like Zhang Yan would not kill his whole family just because he was in trouble.
This magnanimity of me, Saint Zhang, has been recognized by the whole world.
On Zhang's side, when he saw that Sun and Han did not dare to refuse or accept the reward, he became a little timid and immediately summoned Zha Wenhui, whom he had not taken a liking to before, to the palace to play a duel.
Previously, the struggle between the two forces in the Southern Tang Dynasty was very fierce. Zha Wenhui was a party that agreed with Song Qiqiu. It had been tit-for-tat with Sun Cheng and others for almost ten years. As soon as Zhang Yan summoned Zha Wenhui, other members of Sun Cheng's party could not sit still. .
Sun Cheng's in-law Li Deming rushed to Sun's house overnight and said to Sun Cheng: "Now that the master has surrendered, he has been treated generously and treated like a prince. The public here considers himself a loyal minister. Doesn't he want to harm the king of Wu?"
Moreover, Zha Wenhui and others have no moral character. Once they take power, it would be fine if the saint is in Jinling. But once the saint returns to the north, the people of Jiangnan and Jiangxi will definitely be harmed by him! "
The people of Jiangnan and Jiangxi are bound to be harmed by it. It is clear that Zhang Shengren was forced to re-employ Song Qiqiu and Zha Wenhui in the party. People like them, who are Sun Cheng's party, will definitely be harmed by them.
People! It means that you will be tightly caught in the big net of society, with ties and interests everywhere.
Sun Chengyi really wanted to be a pure and loyal minister, and would never serve in an official position after the fall of the Southern Tang Dynasty.
But the court is like a river and lake. How is it possible to come in and still want to wash your hands in a golden basin without any cost?
Sun Cheng, who had no choice, drank and got drunk, and then had to write a letter to Zhang Yan. Although he said that the servant was too stupid to be driven by the emperor, Zhang Yan understood what it meant.
So he personally issued an order to commend him, Han Xizai and other officials of the Southern Tang Dynasty for their loyalty, and ordered Li Jing to write a letter in person to persuade them to serve the new dynasty.
When Li Jing personally wrote in the letter, "The cycle of heaven coincides with the rise of Holy Week in Helong. I am also willing to go to Sheji for the country. Why are you so stupid?" The drama about how to show loyalty ended At the end, it is also the most suitable node.
Zhang Yan showed his magnanimity, Sun Cheng and others showed their loyalty, and Li Jing also showed his face in a small way. It can be said to be a win-win-win-win situation.
After that, many old officials of the Southern Tang Dynasty who had the same idea as Sun Cheng began to come out to serve the new dynasty.
But there was one thing that Sun Cheng and others guessed wrong.
Zhang Yan summoned Zha Wenhui, not just to stimulate them and give them some strength. Zhang Yan really wanted to use Zha Wenhui and his group.
Because Zhang Gao discovered that among the Five Ghosts of the Southern Tang Dynasty who were scolded as dogs in later generations, Song Qiqiu, Feng Yanji, Feng Yanlu and others actually had very good abilities, and there were no major problems with their character, and they even had something to praise.
Especially Qiqiu of Song Dynasty. Historically, he was forced to be killed by his family by the Southern Tang Dynasty court, and he was given the posthumous title Chou Miao. He was also called a traitor in the Southern Tang Dynasty books.
But in fact, Song Qiqiu was a very capable person, not only good at making political suggestions, but also good at economic and financial management.
The prosperity of Jiangnan, Jiangxi and Jiangdong under the rule of the Southern Tang Dynasty was not due to people like Sun Cheng and Han Xizai, but to Song Qiqiu.
In terms of personal ethics, Song Qiqiu can even be said to be perfect.
In his early years, when his family was in decline and could not even afford food, a private prostitute named Wei admired his talent and knowledge and used the money from selling meat to support Song Qiqiu's hard study.
Song Qiqiu said at that time that if he became successful and famous in the future, he would definitely marry the Wei family.
If it were an ordinary person, if they were really developed, they would definitely avoid it. Maybe in this chaotic world, it would not be unusual for people to kill and silence them.
But Song Qiqiu not only married the Wei family as promised after becoming famous, but what was even more shocking was that.
The Wei family was originally a private prostitute, and her body was damaged by her excessive business of flesh and blood and she was unable to have children. Not only did Song Qiqiu not divorce his wife, he even refused to marry a concubine.
So Zhang Yan didn't believe it. A person who was capable and had such perfect personal ethics could really be useless in politics and governing the country?
Zhang Gao first ordered the Jinyi guards to secretly collect Song Qiqiu's daily words, deeds and past deeds, then summoned Zha Wenhui, and then summoned Feng Yanlu, just to determine who Song Qiqiu was.
Once the results were combined, Zhang Yan knew that in addition to the above advantages, Song Qiqiu's shortcomings and lack of emotional intelligence were also very 'dazzling'.
This person has a fiery personality and likes to seize power. He always dislikes his colleagues and feels that no one in the world is as good as him. He also has no self-awareness, or he is very incompetent.
Because he actually thought that Li Min could accomplish things and he took the greatest credit, so Li Min had to trust him just like Liu Bei trusted Zhuge Liang, and would lose his temper whenever he did not like what he wanted.
He even went so far as to say that if Li Min suffered a landslide, Song Qiqiu would be the only one who could take on the important task of taking care of him like Zhuge Liang.
Well, this old man, Liu Xuande, who came from a young age, still adheres to benevolence in troubled times, is quite affectionate when he is an emperor, and is quite considerate of his ministers. In these thousands of years, not only is it unique, but it is also rare. Just three or two kittens.
If Li Min had the ability and magnanimity of Liu Xuande, he would have really revived the Tang Dynasty long ago. How could he only build a small Southern Tang Dynasty!
Therefore, in history, Song Qiqiu, who still looked so embarrassed when he was in the hands of Li Min's son Li Jing, completely annoyed the petty Li Jing.
So in the end, Li Jing not only insisted on his death, but also gave him the posthumous title Chou Miao, which was extremely insulting and really strange at all.
Zhang Zhang was delighted. He now needed someone to assist Zuo Peiyuan in revitalizing the economy of Jiangnan, Jiangxi, and Jiangdong.
Li Jing can't use Song Qiqiu. I, Zhang Shengren, can still find a way to polish him before using him.
