In the elegant palace, the two brothers sat opposite each other.
Luo Qing asked with a smile: "Brother, is there any big deal in calling Qing back from Chang'an this time?"
Luo Bai summoned Luo Qing back from Chang'an, naturally he didn't just let him be a seeder. After all, Luo Qing was his biological brother, and he couldn't do such inhumane things casually.
Luo Bai thought for a moment and said, "There are many things, but for a moment I don't even know where to start."
Wang Wenjun and Luo Ling walked in from the outside. Wang Wenjun knelt down next to Luo Bai, while Luo Ling knelt down and sat behind Luo Bai on the right side.
After Wang Wenjun sat down, he pinched Luo Bai's arm. The two looked at each other. Wang Wenjun glanced at Luo Ling from the corner of his eyes, and then whispered in his ear: "A Ling is beautiful and knows everything. She is a good match for A Qing. If it weren't for A Qing, You should have gotten married a long time ago since you have been traveling around a lot.”
Luo Bai was stunned for a moment, then glanced at Luo Ling and nodded, "A Qing and A Ling have known each other since childhood and have been together day and night for several years. It is indeed suitable. After that, you can talk to A Qing in private and then report it to your father. Although A Qing There is definitely no problem with Ling’s pedigree, but we still have to go through the process.”
Genealogy is about calculating the generations of inheritance.
Wang Wenjun nodded, then looked at Luo Qing with a smile, which made Luo Qing's hair go crazy. She didn't know what her sister-in-law, who had been cheating people since she was a child, wanted to do.
Having solved Luo Qing's life-long event so quickly, Luo Bai felt a little happy.
Luo Qing had an ominous premonition, so he quickly changed the subject and asked, "Brother, is there a lot going on in the family?"
Luo Bai smiled and said: "You have done many things in Chang'an, including palace changes and preaching, and the family has not stopped moving forward.
The stall run by the family is really too big. Fortunately, Emperor Xiaoxuan has managed the world well in these years, otherwise it will definitely affect the family.
But now it's time for the family to seek change.
It has been one hundred and fifty years since the founding of the Han Dynasty. In these years, various conflicts have become prominent, and land annexation has become increasingly serious. Previously, Emperor Xiaoxuan used his personal ability to suppress it, but he does not know what will happen in the future.
The most critical order to relocate powerful powerful people may be about to expire. Once the court finds that the costs and harm of relocating powerful powerful people exceed the benefits, it will definitely stop this policy.
In the past, the lower-level officials in Kanto were fighting against the powerful, but now they are almost colluding.
The key point is that even if the officials sent by the imperial court dare to attack the powerful, the purpose is not to maintain the operation of the court, but to enrich their own pockets by forcing the powerful to death. This is already a vicious cycle. "
Luo Qing has been staying in Guanzhong. He didn't expect the situation in Guandong to be so serious. What he saw in Guanzhong was that the royal family and their relatives were more arrogant and domineering, and the land occupation was serious. Ordinary county magnates and officials did not dare to blatantly do so. Do so.
Luo Qing frowned and asked in a deep voice: "Emperor Xiaoxuan sent the governor and Xiu Yi Zhizhi to Guandong without reporting them. Could it be that they were suppressed?
Huo Zimeng is not a good person. Haven't the killings in the past three years shocked them?
Could it be that Huo Zimeng didn't dare to take action?
Then the situation is serious. "
Luo Qing is quite clear about Huo Guang's character. If he doesn't dare to take action on a large scale, it means that the development of the situation has become uncontrollable.
Luo Bai said softly: "Huo Zimeng is only an assistant to the government after all, not the emperor. There are some things he dare not do."
Luo Qing was silent when he heard this. This was a very real problem. Huo Guang had to worry about what happened after his death.
If it were Liu Xun, even if he went on a killing spree, no one would dare to retaliate.
But Huo Guang cannot do that. He is not alone. He has a huge family. If he offends too many people, once he steps down, the family will definitely be liquidated.
In this world, only Luo Shi's assistant government dares to do it with all his strength without fear of retaliation and liquidation. It's not that no one dares to retaliate, but Luo Shi will beat those people down again.
The problem of powerful officials was something that the family was determined to fight against when the Luo family decided on its path.
Seeing Luo Qing's silence, Luo Bai added: "It's not just the powerful local officials.
The official camp of Yantie Liquor also started to have problems. You should have heard about what happened in Yuzhang County last year. "
Luo Qing nodded, that incident was relatively famous.
The quality of the ironware produced by the official camp in Yuzhang County was so poor that it could not be used for farming. The imperial court monopolized all ironware and did not allow private casting. It also forcibly sold it to farmers, resulting in farmers having to use primitive stone farm tools for farming.
The efficiency difference between stone tools and iron tools was too great. As a result, production in Yuzhang County was reduced on a large scale. In the absence of natural disasters, people starved to death.
This matter was originally suppressed by the Yuzhang County Sheriff, but it happened that a Mohist disciple came to Yuzhang County to visit friends and found out about it, so he shot the Yuzhang County Sheriff directly with his own crossbow. Outside the house.
A high-ranking official worth two thousand stones was assassinated!
The court was furious, and Prime Minister Liu Xiang personally supervised the incident. As a result, he pulled out the radish and brought out the mud, which exposed the poor quality of the ironware in Zhongguanying of Yuzhang County, which resulted in famine and forced the death of more than a dozen people.
Huo Guang was furious. He killed many people because of this incident, and because Yuzhang County was close to Lingnan, he directly exiled the family members of the prisoners to Lingnan. However, according to the King of Lingnan, they all died on the way because of the epidemic, and no one reached Lingnan. As for what the real situation is, no one knows.
Maybe he really died on the road because of the epidemic, maybe the person being escorted was killed on the road, or maybe he was hidden by the King of Lingnan and became a hidden slave in the kingdom.
The sky is high and the emperor is far away, so it is impossible for the court to investigate the hidden population in the Lingnan Kingdom.
Luo Bai said in a deep voice: "According to the information the family has mastered over the years, this situation exists more or less not only in Yuzhang County, but also in almost most counties, and Yuzhang County is the more serious one.
This situation is no longer just a simple issue of salt and iron government operations. The entire world's food production is declining, and there are many dissatisfied people. "
The Salt and Iron Government was originally an institution to ensure the unification of national decrees, to facilitate management and control, and to prevent local powerful people from exploiting it, but now it has caused a decline in the productivity of the entire society.
This is a very simple mathematical question. If there was one stone of food and grass in the world before, the court would get three dou, the powerful would get five dou, and the common people would get two dou.
Now it becomes that there are only seven dou of food and grass in the world. The court still wants so much, so the loss of the powerful will naturally be smaller. If you get three dou, it will be difficult for the common people to get even one dou.
Luo Qing took a breath of air when he heard this. The Yantie official camp was an extremely important tax revenue channel for the imperial court. It was also a weapon for the imperial court to control the world. All the pingzhen officers and Yantie officials were directly under the supervision of the chief ministers and chief ministers. The two Jiuqings of Shang were in charge.
In other words, this falls under the direct jurisdiction of the central court.
As a result, this weapon has such serious problems now. The people are exploited by the powerful, local officials, and even the central court. This really has no way to go to heaven and no way to earth.
After thinking for a moment, Luo Qing said in a deep voice: "Brother, what you are saying is that there are voices among the people now who want to abolish the Yantie government camp?
This is impossible. There is absolutely no way the court will agree to it. Besides, even if the Yantie official camp is gone, will those powerful men stop exploiting the people?
impossible!
There is no end to the greed of the powerful, but this matter should indeed be discussed by the court. In any case, this issue must be faced head-on by the court. "
Luo Bai said solemnly: "Now the family is in a dilemma. The pros and cons of Yantie's official camp are too obvious. The family is currently in a state of neither supporting nor opposing. This requires a lot of arguments to decide. How should we do it? I have been in Chang'an for a long time and I must have seen more. What do you think it should be?"
Luo Qing pondered.
————
About 150 years after the establishment of the Han Dynasty, the unique shortcomings and contradictions of the autocratic dynasty began to gradually arise. After the death of Liu Xun, the powerful emperor, the burden of reform fell on Huo Guang and Liu She. Perhaps it should not be called a reform, but an improvement, because when the dynasty reaches this stage of development, no one can completely change it, but can only delay its onset.
In "The Rise and Fall of the Zhou Dynasty", the author once made the following evaluation of Duke Luo Wen's reform of Wangji: "After being widely opposed, especially by those who supported his reform, he decisively stopped some of the more important reforms. Radical Reform".
This evaluation can also be applied to the Han Dynasty. Everyone has to admit that after successive turmoils, the basic structure of the Han Dynasty gradually changed, and the groups that supported it were different. ——"The Rise and Fall of the Han Dynasty"
(End of chapter)
