The two largest aristocratic families around Jiangling County were named Wen and Shen.
The Wen family was the largest landowner in the area, with numerous fields and also engaged in other industries, the most famous of which was loan sharking.
The Shen family is engaged in water transportation. The family owns more than 200 large and small cargo ships, and they rely on water for their livelihood.
Ten years ago, when Yuan Xiaoze served as the general manager of Jiangling, the Shen family was the most popular in Jiangling County. Later, when Yang Liang served as the general manager of Jingzhou, the Shen family was replaced by the Wen family.
Small families like this always seek protection from powerful families, because they know that without support, the family's interests will be gradually cannibalized and divided by other aristocratic families.
A piece of cake is only so big. If you eat less, others can naturally eat more.
At the moment, all Shen can count on is Yuan Xiaoze, but Yuan Xiaoze is old and is already retiring in Daxing. Now he is just carrying the title of Duke of Anchang, waiting for his son to take the title after his death. Woolen cloth.
Originally, the Shen family was ready to sell more properties in exchange for living space and continue to survive in Jiangling. Who knew that the arrival of Yuan Wendu had boosted their confidence again.
Yuan Wendu also informed Yang Ming that Shen sent people to contact him.
In the General Manager's Office, Yang Ming took the tea handed to him by Yuan Wendu and said curiously:
"So, the Shen family has always been in contact with your family?"
Yuan Wendu nodded and said: "Earlier when my father was the general manager of Jiangling, the Shen family was considered the most prestigious clan in Jiangling. Their family arose during the period of Duke Wei (Shikang). At the beginning of the founding of the emperor, Duke Wei took office in Jingzhou. General Manager, because this is the hometown of Jiuliang, many local wealthy families are disobedient to discipline, and there have even been incidents of people gathering to attack the General Manager's Mansion."
"Wei Gong was tough. He directly summoned 2,000 soldiers from the government and raided eight families within fifteen days. Among them, the three largest families were killed, and their mansions were burned down. In this way, only It can be said that these local powerful people have been temporarily suppressed."
"Later, Wei Gong successively supported the Shen family, the Gao family, the Wang family, the Fei family, etc., and was able to further control the surrounding areas of Jiangling and Jiangxia. Even so, during Wei Gong's period, the Jingzhou area was still in chaos, and the government troops were mobilized at every turn. Suppression."
"This phenomenon did not change much when my father took over as the general manager of Jiangling. He still followed Wei Gong's idea of cultivating some obedient families and then using the military government to suppress the disobedient ones to maintain balance."
Regarding the position of Jingzhou General Manager, Yang Ming is quite clear.
In the early years of the founding of the Emperor, the position of General Manager was set up in Jingzhou, which was held by Wei Shikang. Later, due to the marriage between Yang Guang and the Xiao family, this position was temporarily abolished and changed to the General Manager of Jiangling, which was held by Yuan Xiaoze. In the thirteenth year of the founding of the Emperor, It was restored and replaced by Yang Liang, King of Han Dynasty.
The areas under the jurisdiction of the General Manager of Jingzhou and the General Manager of Jiangling are different. The former has twenty-two counties, while the latter has eight counties.
Nominally, it was because Concubine Xiao married Jin Wang Guang that Yang Jian slightly relaxed his control over the Jingzhou area, which was equivalent to giving Xiao family face, which meant that I can trust you.
But the actual reason was that Yang Jian could not find suitable people to guard Jingzhou because Yang Liang, the king of Han, was still young at that time.
And Yang Jian didn't want to give this position to someone with a foreign surname anymore.
Neither Wei Shikang nor Yuan Xiaoze were ordinary people, and the Wei and Yuan families were also married. Wei Shikang's wife was Princess Xiangle, the daughter of Emperor Wen of the Western Wei Dynasty Yuan Baoju.
Yuan Xiaoze's sister was the wife of Yu Wenhu, a powerful official of the Northern Zhou Dynasty. His niece was the concubine of the deposed prince Yang Yong, and his daughter was married to Wei Shikang's third son, Wei Fuxian.
Wei Fujie is Yuan Wendu's brother-in-law.
As for Yang Liang, the king of Han after them, he was only eighteen years old when he took office in Jingzhou. It was the time for a young man to be brave and fearless. What's more, he was the emperor's son. When he first came to Jingzhou, he did nothing and just left this. Everyone in the area was restrained.
With such an identity, one would only dare to offend someone if one's brains are filled with water.
So Yang Liang quickly found a group of obedient dogs in the local area. At first, Wen's family was not the strongest, but Wen's family was lucky.
Because in the eighteenth year of the founding of the Emperor, Yang Liang was awarded the title of Marching Marshal and led
The army went north to conquer Goguryeo, and when they left, they took away all the tribes of several wealthy families in Jingzhou.
This time, the expedition against Goguryeo resulted in heavy casualties. Seventy-eight out of ten people died. The vitality of the Jingzhou wealthy family was greatly damaged, so that the Wen family came from behind and successfully developed from their original hometown in Songzi County into a powerful family that encompassed the entire Jiangling area.
But now, Yang Ming has the final say in Jingzhou, so he also needs to find some obedient subordinates locally.
A family like the Wen family that seized land and oppressed others was obviously not within his scope of consideration.
Although Yuan Wendu served as a capital minister earlier, he still received not a penny less from the filial piety money sent to their family by the Shen family every year.
If he hid this from Yang Ming, Yang Ming would never pay attention to the Shen family. However, Yuan Wendu did not regard Yang Ming as an outsider because of his relationship with Concubine Yuan, so how much money did his father Yuan Xiaoze take? All told the truth.
Yang Ming looked surprised and said: "The Shen family is really generous. Are they betting all on Duke Yuan?"
Yuan Wendu looked ashamed.
The filial piety money that the Shen family sends to Yuanfu in the capital every year is a large amount. Based on Yang Ming's preliminary understanding of the Shen family, this money is almost one-third of their income.
In the former Yuan family, although Yuan Xiaoze was already idle at home, there was still the signature of Crown Princess Yuan Zhen, but that is gone now.
So after Yuan Wendu met with the Shen family this time, he bluntly said that he should not send money to their family in the future. He couldn't help much and he was really embarrassed to accept it.
This is a sincere person. If he were someone like Yang Yue, he would never stop until his family was destroyed.
But now the Shen family has other aspirations. After all, Yuan Wendu is already the chief steward of the palace and a confidant of King Hedong, so they still want to continue to stay close to this big tree in order to get close to the giant tree of Yang Ming.
However, Yang Ming believed that contact with the Shen family should not be rushed, and he should wait and see before making a decision.
On the day of the New Year's Eve, the Shen family also received generous gifts, most of which were gold, silver and jade articles, but there were a few paintings among which Yang Ming was quite interested.
After leaving the Changshi Office and returning to the inner garden, Yang Ming specifically asked Xu Jing to find those paintings from the inner treasury, and called Yang Yinjiang and others to watch them together.
As soon as the scroll was unfolded, Yang Yinjiang immediately recognized the author of this painting.
In Sui Dynasty calligraphy and painting, there is no such thing as inscriptions and inscriptions. A painting is just a clean painting, with nothing else.
Collectors will only mark the person who painted the scroll on the box where the scroll is stored.
The reason why Yang Ming paid attention to these paintings was because the words "Zhan Ziqian" were written on the scroll box.
Yang Yinjiang's eyes fell on the scroll and said slowly: "This man's ancestral home is Bohai, and he later moved to the south of the Yangtze River. He made a living by painting murals in Buddhist temples in various places. He absorbed the style of the south of the Yangtze River and his skills greatly improved. Later, he was called to Daxing by the Supreme Being and taught Chaosan. Doctor, specializes in painting."
Obviously, Yang Yinjiang still knew Zhan Ziqian, but that was all. Even after seeing those few paintings, he could just say a few words of praise and that was it.
Because elegant tastes such as calligraphy and painting are not very popular in Daxing, and only a few people like them, which also leads to the low collection value of such things.
But Yang Ming knew that these paintings would become more and more valuable as time went by.
As far as he knew, there were only two extant paintings by Zhan Ziqian from later generations, one was "Teaching Sutras" and the other was "Spring Outing", both of which are national treasures.
"The Picture of Teaching Sutras" is stored in the National Palace Museum in Taipei, and the "Picture of Spring Outing" is stored in the National Palace Museum in Beijing.
Zhan Ziqian is still alive now, and he is only about forty years old. Yang Ming feels that he must meet this person if he has the opportunity in the future.
From this point of view, the Shen family is still discerning, and he actually regarded a painting that others did not value very much as a congratulatory gift to Yang Ming.
This shows that in the Shen family's opinion, these paintings are good things, but because they are not good things, they dare not give them to Yang Ming.
About half a month later, Yuan Wendu presented a stack of files about the Wen family in front of Yang Ming.
Originally, Yuan Wendu had done some research on the Wen family before he took office, but now he has learned more from the Shen family, and
He sent people to smell some things in the streets and alleys. After summarizing them, he handed them over to Yang Ming for review.
The county captain of Jiangling County is named Wenhui, and the county captain of Jiangling County is named Wen Zheng. They are cousins.
These two people had already served in the yamen before the governor Murong Sanzang took office, and Murong Sanzang did not dare to change them at will, because the Wen family was protected by the King of Han.
As a result, whether Jiangling is in chaos or not is entirely up to the Wen family. It doesn't mean that Murong Sanzang has been sidelined, but he just turns a blind eye. As long as they don't act recklessly, he doesn't care too much.
But Yang Ming cared about it.
The farmland under their Wen family name alone exceeds 1,700 acres, and Yang Ming wants to deal with them.
Having more than one hundred acres of land was a capital offense in the Sui Dynasty.
Of course, in fact, there are many farms with more than 100 acres. It depends on whether it is done to you or not. If it is not done, you will be fine even if you have 500 acres.
One hundred pounds is ten thousand acres, which is not much at all for a big family.
As the emperor, Yang Jian also knew this well, so he would occasionally send inspection ministers to the local areas to investigate the situation of land equalization. As long as the investigation was carried out, a lot of problems could be found.
For example, the last time Su Wei inspected Jiangnan, he found 610,000 acres of exposed farmland. These 610,000 acres of farmland will be re-granted to the people to obtain land tax.
Land tax was the main source of income in the Sui Dynasty, and these all relied on the land equalization system.
According to the equal land system, the open fields granted to adult men are 80 acres, women are 40 acres, and oxen are 60 acres, with a limit of 4 per household.
In addition, the wife was granted 40 acres of land and the maidservant was granted 20 acres of land.
This is an ideal situation, but in reality it is not possible.
Ordinary people belong to the lowest level of society. How many acres of land you can get depends entirely on how much land is left after the land is divided up.
Generally, thirty acres is considered too much, and there are two or three acres that are less.
Although the Sui Dynasty explicitly stipulated that a commoner family could have up to sixty slaves, was it really only sixty? The Wen family and the Shen family are both common people. There are probably thousands of slaves in their houses.
And they will receive the land grant in the name of the slaves in the mansion, and when it comes time to pay taxes, they will only pay according to sixty people. The slaves have no household registration, so it is difficult for you to check.
There is a lot of room for manipulation in this kind of thing, and the specific details vary from person to person.
According to the Sui Dynasty system, the number of slaves of a county king could not exceed two hundred, but in Yang Ming's General Manager's Mansion plus Hedong Mansion, the number of slaves had exceeded 2,000, but no one would say anything.
Because he is not breaking the law, why? Because this was a reward from Yang Jian and his wife, and the reward was not within the scope of the law.
Historically, during the period when Yang Zhao was the crown prince, the total number of servants and slaves of the official family exceeded 10,000.
Yang Ming could have used the slaves in his house to receive the land grant, and then used 200 people to pay the taxes, but he was unwilling to do this, even though everyone did so.
The reason why father Yang Guang angered the family in history was because he canceled the land grant for slaves and young cattle. Didn't this cost people their lives?
Ding Niu refers to adult cattle over four years old.
If we cancel the land allocation by slaves and oxen, and conduct household registration redistribution, more land will be distributed to the people. This is a good policy that benefits the country and the people.
Without the courage and courage beyond ordinary people, this law would not be promulgated. Unfortunately, although Dad has done a lot of good things, he has done more wrong things.
So Yang Ming handed over the matter to Yuan Wendu and sent people to thoroughly check the number of acres owned by the Wen family.
As Yuan Wendu was the director of the General Palace, he would definitely not do this kind of thing himself. Instead, he would leave it to his confidant He Chou, who would take the warrant from the General Palace and two hundred soldiers to start the investigation from Songzi County. .
Just a few days after he left, Murong Sanzang, the governor of Jiangling County, came upon hearing the news.
In the government office, Yang Ming asked the other party to sit down and said with a smile, "What? Does Murong Gong have a stock in the Wen family?"
"No, no," Murong Sanzang waved his hand quickly: "I want to make money, but I won't make money from people like this."
He really has nothing to do with the Wen family, and he can't make any money from the Wen family. They are paying for Yang, the King of Han Dynasty.
Forgive the tribute.
Yang Ming asked again: "If this is the case, why do you advise me to be merciful?"
Murong Sanzang hurriedly said: "Your Highness is here for the first time, so he doesn't know the inside story. The Wen family has its own way in the Han Palace."
In fact, what he means is that the Wen family is protected by the King of Han. If you dare to move, aren't you afraid of offending your fifth uncle?
Yang Ming smiled and said: "I followed the imperial law and counted the number of acres of land. The king of Han would not say anything if he knew it. What? Could it be that these fields belong to him?"
Not entirely, but at least half of it, but Murong Sanzang didn't dare to say it. If he did, it would be a slap on Yang Liang's head. This was "framing" the prince, which would be fatal.
So he could only say: "As far as I know, His Highness the King of Han has nothing to do with this."
"Isn't that right? How can my fifth uncle care about this?" Yang Ming said with a smile: "The Second Sage will send inspectors to inspect the local area every six months to check the land equalization matters. This king also does this for the sake of The problem will not be discovered in the future, lest the Two Saints find out about it and blame me."
Pull him down...Murong Sanzang secretly murmured in his heart, even if the problem is found, which unsighted inspector dares to involve you in the matter, and who doesn't try to keep the relationship clear with you?
Murong Sanzang said: "His Royal Highness took drastic measures when he first took office in Jingzhou. I thought it was a little too hasty, but actually we can take our time."
You are a military general, you know nothing, go home and show off your swords, guns and sticks...
Yang Ming chuckled: "What? Mr. Murong is teaching me how to do things?"
"Don't you dare, don't you dare," Murong Sanzang stood up quickly and said, "How dare I overstep my bounds."
Yang Ming nodded: "In that case, just go back. If anything happens, I will find you."
Murong Sanzang repeatedly said yes, resigned and left.
Along the way, Murong Sanzang kept repeating the scene of his conversation with Yang Ming in his mind.
In addition to the night of the New Year's Eve, this was the second time he had close contact with Yang Ming, but the impression the other party gave him was very shocking.
He is only thirteen years old this year, right? Why do you speak and act so maturely? Moreover, there was a sense of arbitrary cruelty in his words. He had been in officialdom for half his life, and this was the first time he had seen such a figure.
He is worthy of being the son of a dragon and his grandson. It is indeed extraordinary.
Originally, the Jingzhou officialdom was still rejoicing that the person who was appointed as the general manager of Jingzhou this time was a minor highness. They thought that as long as they could open up the relationship between Yuan Wendu and Yuan Wendu, basically everything would be easy to handle.
But Murong Sanzang no longer thinks so. This young highness himself is very independent and has sharp methods.
Now it's interesting... I'll just sit back and watch to see how big a wave this little highness will make in Jingzhou.
...
When I first came to Jingzhou, a lot of interesting things happened.
Chen Shuyi took Gao Yue out for shopping under the pretext of going out for shopping. She also took five Bu Qu with her. Just then, they were surrounded by a group of young people in the street.
The five princes' subordinates were all from the military. They were wild-tempered and ruthless, and they killed one of the young men on the spot.
To be crippled means to kill.
At this time, the group of people were dumbfounded. They shouted that they should not leave if they had the guts, and went back to fetch reinforcements.
Chen Shuyi felt helpless at the time. After all, there were few people around her, so she hurriedly walked back with Gao Yue. As a result, she was chased out by others on the way. About a hundred people started fighting with five members of the palace in the street.
As you can imagine, Chen Shuyi was almost kidnapped again.
Fortunately, the county governor Murong Sanzang was passing by and saw that Chen Shuyi looked familiar, as if he had seen her in the Governor's Mansion, so he rescued her.
After Yang Yinjiang learned about this, she was very angry. She rode her horse in person, took three hundred full armor steps, and went to find someone to settle the score.
The troublemakers came from three families. One was the Tohara family from Gangneung. A girl from the family married into the Wen family.
The remaining two families were ordinary nobles from surrounding counties. Their ancestors had served as officials in Jingzhou, similar to small officials such as county captains and county lieutenants. Moreover, they were not officials of the Sui Dynasty, but officials of the old Liang Dynasty.
Yang Yinjiang
He likes to wear men's clothes and has a heroic appearance. Under the guidance of the county government's Kuaishou, he led people directly into a mansion in Nancheng.
The head of the Yuan family was named Yuan Guangqing. When he saw this battle, he was dumbfounded and hurriedly took his family papers to kowtow and beg for mercy.
Yang Yinjiang is different from Yang Ming. In her concept, there is no harm to others. As long as you are the same, she will not be soft. This is the result of being influenced by two ruthless people, Yang Su and Yang Yue, for many years.
To exaggerate, Yang Yinjiang regards human life as child's play. This is a common problem of the Guanlong Group and a basic characteristic of the aristocratic group.
The one who caused trouble in the Yuan family was Yuan Guangqing's youngest son, but Yang Yinjiang led people to beat all the men in the Yuan family, as long as he was a man.
Wangfu's troops were already arrogant and had been honed on the battlefield, so their attacks were careless and they killed a dozen of them directly.
And Yuan Guangqing's youngest son was whipped to death by Yang Yinjiang with a riding crop in his hand.
With her little strength, she knew how many whippings she had received.
After Yang Ming found out, he didn't say much. With Yang Yinjiang's background, it was normal for her to do such a thing.
However, after this experience, Chen Shuyi also learned a lesson. In the future, she will take more people with her when going out, and she will not let the palace servants wear plain clothes. They must wear armor.
This is not Daxing. There are few people under the emperor who have the courage to make trouble in the capital. Chen Shuyi has been taken to Daxing since she was a child and has never experienced such a thing.
This day, a piece of good news came,
The taxes of Hedong County were paid, and those who remained were quite wealthy, equivalent to 230,000 yuan, which had been put into treasury and sealed by Fang Xuanling.
Yang Yinjiang sat at the table and read over and over the accounts sent by Fang Xuanling. Afterwards, she rubbed her sore eyes and said with a smile:
"This man is still very capable. Last year, 20,000 people in Hedong were exempted from taxes, and rewards were also distributed. It should have been a shortfall, but I didn't expect that there was such a surplus. With this man running the palace for you, you will have no worries."
What Fang Xuanling was doing was actually the same as what Yang Ming was doing in Jiangling, which was to check the fields.
The difference is that Yang Ming is really conducting an investigation, while Fang Xuanling is using Yang Ming's name to spread the word, causing the clans in the Hedong area to send merciful money.
Hedong Pei and Hedong Liu also agreed. Each family gave out 20,000 guan, and Hedong Xue gave out 10,000 guan.
In the records about Hedong Xue, Fang Xuanling made a special mark at the bottom, probably hinting to Yang Ming that this family was producing less.
But Yang Ming could tell that Fang Xuanling could only play this excuse once. If there was another deficit this year, he would have to find another way.
After all, these families in Hedong are all powerful families. Although they are located in Hedong, they also belong to the aristocratic group in Guanzhong, unlike the jumping shrimps in Jiangling.
At present, Li Jing is still serving as the Prime Minister of Hedong County, but Yang Su promised that if there is a war in the future, Li Jing can lead the troops from Hedong to follow him.
And Yang Ming learned from history that there were several wars between the Sui Dynasty and the Turks this year. In this way, Li Jing led the children of Hedong to win the battle, not to mention the gift, but also to get a reward. I don’t know that Fang Xuanling I will think of ways to make up for this year's shortfall.
This is really embarrassing for him. From the time he took up the position of recorder of the palace to now, he has been making up for his shortcomings.
There is also news coming from the capital.
Taishi ordered Yuan Chong to measure the length of the shadow and said that the days had become longer since the founding of the Sui Dynasty, which meant that the daytime was getting longer and longer.
So Yang Jian said to all the officials: The long day is a blessing from heaven, so we should take the meaning of the long day as the year name.
Yuan Chong wrote: At the beginning of the emperor's birth, not only the divine light and auspiciousness, but also the auspiciousness should be felt. As for the birth year, birth month and birthday, they are consistent with the movement of heaven, earth, sun and moon, and the laws of yin and yang... Today is updated with things. , should be changed to Renshou.
Yang Jian was overjoyed, so he changed his name to Renshou, and stipulated a hundred tasks, and added tasks for the sake of longer days.
It is equivalent to adding one or two hours to the eight-hour working day, and it is legal.
The "Kaihuang" title, which had been used for twenty years, became a thing of the past.
