The land of Guanzhong in November can already be described as severely cold. Everything is depressed and withered. The north wind sweeps across, and there is a chill between heaven and earth. Although there is no trace of snow, there is a hint of frost. From the air, it seems that You can all smell the biting cold.
Normally during this time of year, not only the people in Guanzhong, but also the animals and wild beasts, all reduce their outdoor activities and huddle up in hiding to survive the winter. In the Guanzhong winter of the first year of Kaibao, the solar terms were not extreme, and it was not too cold compared to previous years. Therefore, it can be found that many Guizhou heads responded to the government's call to carry out public construction, as was the case in Pizhou.
Serving as a laborer was an obligation that every Han household must fulfill. They had to contribute at least one month every year. Of course, this could be deducted with money, grain, silk, and silk. In the early years, due to the lack of labor, poor families in Guizhou even let women who reeled and weaved silk to do labor instead of the men in the family. Today, this situation is much less common.
Moreover, very early on, the imperial court stipulated that when the government calls for labor, the people do not need to bring their own food and tools. All the labor must be borne by the initiating government, and some rewards will even be given if conditions permit. In Tokyo and areas close to Gyeonggi, it is very common. In other places, it depends on the situation of government finance and officials.
The magistrate of Pizhou is named Wang You. He is forty-one years old. He is a suave and ambitious man. He was a Jinshi and is a typical example of a court official who knows the local area. In his early years, he served as censor, household minister, and county magistrate. He was transferred to magistrate two years ago.
Pizhou originally belonged to the Jingnan Army. It was an important place in Guanzhong and an important town in Weibei. It was adjacent to Jingwei to the west and Jingzhao to the south. In the early years, it was a base for the imperial court to stabilize the situation in the northwest. The late Fenyang Gongyao Yuan Fu once served as the Jiedushi of the Jingnan Army, leading Xing Ning's children to control violence internally and defend against enemy invaders externally.
However, as the vassal towns were weakened and the territory actually controlled by the imperial court expanded, Pizhou gradually became the hinterland of Guanzhong. With the convenience of being on the Jingshui River, it can be regarded as a prefecture and county in the middle and upper reaches of Guanzhong.
Wang You was considered a late-blooming official. Less than half a year after taking office, he withstood a test. The severe drought in Guanzhong in the 15th year of Emperor Qianyou's reign also affected Pizhou. The fields were drought-stricken, food production was reduced, and hungry people were breeding. In this context, Wang You took action, actively provided relief, and led the officials and the people to fight drought and disaster. The final result was that by the end of the year, under the rule of Pizhou, not a single person died of cold and hunger.
No matter what the situation is in other states and counties, at least here in Pizhou, the situation is true. Previously, Emperor Liu asked Lu Yin whether there were people who died of cold and starvation in Guanzhong under the disaster background. The fact is, there were! Even if there are no disasters, the northwest states and counties are still suffering from cold and hunger.
The second thing that Wang You is famous for is that he discovered shortcomings in the issue of forced labor. The Ding'an County magistrate under his rule deceived his superiors and subordinates on this matter. On the one hand, he allowed the people under his jurisdiction to use money, grain, cloth, and silk as compensation for their labor; , this double amount of money, food, cloth and silk fell into the pocket of the county magistrate...
Wang You couldn't tolerate such fraud. After discovering it, he immediately detained him under a Ding'an order and then collected evidence. It took almost no effort. The facts were clear, both witnesses and material evidence were available, and he was handed over to the police to be dealt with according to law.
As a court official who presided over the state, Wang You was qualified to report directly to Emperor Liu, so he submitted a memorial to Tokyo about his views on the matter.
Then, Emperor Liu was furious when he learned about this. It can be imagined that what happened in Ding'an County was by no means an isolated case. There were thousands of counties in the country, and anything could happen.
So the central and local departments were ordered to conduct an inventory of such situations. It was obvious that there were still many "smart people" like Ding'an Ling, and several corruption cases were revealed, involving state-level officials. There are more than a dozen officials.
The furious Emperor Liu directly interfered with the judiciary and executed all of them, because a case of this nature was not only a matter of corruption, but also involved deceiving the court and ignoring central authority.
What made Emperor Liu indignant was that the corvee recruitment and infrastructure construction were for the benefit of the country and the people. The court even provided institutional and local support for this. Every time he thought about it, it became a convenience for some corrupt officials to line their own pockets.
Emperor Liu once again felt that it was not easy to govern the country well and be a good emperor. He increasingly felt that the process of governing the country was a battle of wits and strength between himself and the officials across the country.
The follow-up to this incident was to set certain restrictions on the start of projects in various places, which need to be reported in advance and inspected and supervised by higher-level officials. What needs to be repaired must be repaired, and what needs to be built must be built. Don't stop eating because of choking. It's just that Emperor Liu has a plan in mind. Don't expect that there will never be problems. There is no shortage of "smart people" in the world, and there are also many loopholes for people to take advantage of... ....
During this winter, Wang You, in the name of the Pizhou government, issued an order to dig ditches and build ponds and reservoirs in Xinping, Ding'an, Xiangle, and Yilu counties, apparently to prevent drought.
In the northwest region, water is a particularly important resource. In the countryside, there are many incidents of fighting, fighting, and injuries over water sources for irrigation every year. Therefore, with both the official order and the temptation to open canals, coupled with Wang You's accumulated reputation, most of the people in Pizhou responded enthusiastically, and the severe cold could not stop their enthusiasm.
Against this background, a team of thousands of people braved the wind and cold and walked northward along the bumpy road along the old Xingning Road.
Because the country's political and economic center of gravity was in the Kanto region and gradually shifted to the southeast, the imperial court focused its main efforts on improving transportation on waterways. The situation on land routes has never been good. The paving of straight roads and galloping roads is relatively complete in the Central Plains, and the main post roads and official roads have been adequately constructed. As for other dry roads, the current situation cannot be described as bad, but it cannot be said to be developed, as far as the north is concerned. In other words, the further to the northwest, the more obvious this situation becomes.
Therefore, the team passing through Pizhou had a hard time walking and the atmosphere was depressing. This northbound team is not a caravan. No one in the Han Dynasty has the strength to organize a caravan of thousands of people at a time. It is not like the refugees. There are many vehicles, a lot of furniture, and a lot of horses, camels and livestock. , the whole looks like a nomadic tribe.
Of course, this is just an appearance. There are guides in front, patrols in the middle, and officials behind. Most of the people in the team speak Nanyin, and they sink into the water one by one. They are bitter and resentful, showing a kind of suppressed resentment. temperament.
That's right, this team is a powerful force from one of the places that migrated from the southeast. When there is no choice, moving to Hunan is the easiest option to accept, but not everyone is so lucky, and those who move north can be described as disasters.
Being forced to sell off their property and leave the comfortable and prosperous southeastern treasure land, and move thousands of miles away, almost across the border, to the northwest of a bitter and cold land, anyone would be angry and resentful. This kind of emotion will change with time. The hardships along the way have already spread among this team.
Also aware of this sentiment, the officials, soldiers, and servants who were responsible for accompanying the people moving north have been more careful recently and tightened their supervision. In fact, not only the powerful men who were relocated, but also the officers and soldiers responsible for the task were exhausted, and they all looked forward to arriving at their destination as soon as possible so that they could be liberated.
Their team boarded the boat from Jingkou, went north along the waterway, passed through the Huaihe River and entered the Yellow River, and then headed west. After arriving in Shaanzhou, they abandoned the boat and landed. Because basically the whole family moved, and there was a lot of luggage, and there were stops and starts along the way, which was particularly inefficient. More than four months had passed since we arrived in Pizhou.
This journey has gone through a lot of hardships. However, in the cold winter, this long journey seems to have no end in sight, which is a bit despairing.
Therefore, even when it was known that after passing Pizhou and arriving at the final destination of Qingzhou, no one except the accompanying officers and soldiers showed any joy, and most of them were numb...
