Luyang (Zuoquan County), located in the Taihang Ridge, is quite high, surrounded by mountains and rivers.

It did take Zhao Kuo a long time to rush from wading to Luyang, mainly because of the extremely underdeveloped transportation in Zhao, which made it a very difficult thing to hurry. Therefore, when their group of people had just arrived in Luyang, a local official immediately came out.

The scorching sun is shining, this sun is really a little dazzling, and when you look into the distance, it is full of halos, and you can't see the road clearly. Since Zhao Kuo arrived, it was the first time to see such a strong sunshine, the four seasons in Handan are relatively average, the winter is not very cold, and the summer is not very hot.

Luyang Ling is an elderly doctor, looking solemn, standing meticulously on the side of the road, the county lieutenant led the county warriors, standing on both sides, looking at the Korean thieves, eyeing the tiger, Luyang Ling walked quickly in front of Zhao Kuo, respectfully bowed to Zhao Kuo, Zhao Kuo hurriedly got out of the car and saluted. This Luyang Ling looked very old-fashioned, even in the face of Zhao Kuo, he was not too excited, and he was very calm.

Looking at the Korean people who followed Zhao Kuo, the county commander frowned and asked, "Are these your captives?" ”

Zhao Kuo shook his head and said: "They are the Koreans of Shangdang, and no one wants to accept them, so I brought them here, I heard that the land in Luyang is fertile, but there is a lack of manpower for farming." If you can take them in and give them a piece of land that can be cultivated, I think there will be more exiled Koreans coming here, and the increase in household registration will be a good thing for Luyang. ”

"I'd like to ask you to think about it."

The county magistrate stroked his chin, looked at those Koreans, and said without thinking: "I will take them in, but now I can't let them engage in farming, I will let them be responsible for the construction of the county seat, cutting and other things, and they won't starve them." Zhao Kuo nodded and said with a smile: "They will thank you for your kindness, you are a sage." The county magistrate shook his head and said, "I agreed to take them in because I wanted to make friends with you, how can I be considered a sage?" ”

Zhao Kuo was stunned and looked at him in surprise.

The county magistrate took them into Luyang, but the county magistrate helped arrange those Koreans, and the county magistrate introduced himself to Zhao Kuo, who was called Zhao Yu. The name Yu is really not something that ordinary people dare to use, from this point of view, his background should not be low. It's just that when he heard his name, Di who followed behind him seemed to know something, and he followed Zhao Kuo's side and wanted to talk to him all the time.

Zhao Kuo ignored him, and Di was in a hurry.

The county order brought Zhao Kuo into the mansion to entertain him, the banquet was not very rich, a little simple, which made Zhao Kuo a little happy, what he was most afraid of was that the officials everywhere were extravagant and wasteful in order to welcome him, and the people couldn't afford to eat enough, how could they waste it again? Zhao Kuo sat on the top seat, the county magistrate sat beside him, the two talked about the government affairs of the county, Di pulled Ge on the side, and whispered to him:

"I've heard of this prefectural magistrate."

Ge glanced at him, his face was full of "Ask me quickly", Ge just sighed, don't look over, don't pay attention to him anymore, Di waited for a while, and couldn't wait for Ge to ask himself, so he could only take Ge's hand and whisper to him: "I heard that this Zhao Yu, born in a clan, is upright, never tells lies, and has always told the truth, and there are many people in Handan who respect his honesty, so he has been favored by the king." ”

"So the lord asked him to make a county order?" , Ge was a little unconvinced.

Di continued: "He was originally worshiped as the imperial historian, then as the secretary, and as the acting county guard, and as the county commander of the clouds... Hahaha, I didn't expect that today it became a county order, it is said that Shangjun had asked him if he could accept the Shangdang, he suggested that Shangjun accept Shangdang, and said that whether or not to accept Shangdang, the war between Qin and Zhao could not be avoided, and then the war was lost, Shangjun called him over and asked him why he failed. ”

"He actually told Shangjun: This is because you think about accepting talents all day long, but you don't think about how to use them to govern the country, which is the reason for the failure of Zhao State."

Ge became interested and asked, "Did he really say that?" ”

"Yes, everyone in Handan knows about this matter, Shangjun cherished his talents, did not kill him, and later let him send an envoy... Hahaha, do you say that such a person can serve as a messenger? Sure enough, he failed again, and the Emperor drove him out of the palace..."

Just when they were talking, Zhao Kuo had been a little dizzy by Zhao Yu in front of him, Zhao Yu said to him: I didn't pay much attention to the officials at the bottom, I don't know that they are evil, because their management is very effective, so I know that they do evil, and I don't care, I heard that you want to punish the officials in various places, and allow everyone to atone for their sins, so I hurriedly arrested the evil officials and arranged for the moral sages recommended by various places, will you still punish me?

Zhao Kuo was dumbfounded, and he really didn't know how to answer him. This person should not serve as a county magistrate, he should serve as a royal historian or secretary in the palace, especially an official position that specifically advises and points out the shortcomings of the king, which is most suitable for such a person. Zhao Kuo thought in his heart, ended the banquet, and returned to the house that Zhao Yu arranged for himself, Di, Ge, and Han Fei were already waiting for him.

When Zhao Kuo arrived, Di hurriedly told him what he knew, and Zhao Kuo suddenly realized. Ge said with some admiration: "It seems that this county magistrate is still an upright person. Zhao Kuo faintly felt that it seemed wrong to describe him with integrity, and he should be described as honest. It's a pity that people who are too honest have always been people who are disliked by everyone, and everyone likes to associate with honest people, but they hate people who are too honest.

Zhao Yu did tell the truth, after knowing that Zhao Kuo was coming, he did punish the officials of the entire Luyang, when Zhao Kuo walked to the place, he saw the officials kindly helping the people, and the goal he wanted to achieve seemed to be completed. Zhao Yu accompanied him and inspected all parts of the county, and the people in the county were very excited and gathered around Zhao Kuo.

Walking on the edge of the cultivated land, Zhao Yu said to Zhao Kuo worriedly: "The harvest in recent years is not very good, but the tax is still very high, last year, there were eighty-four people in my county who starved to death, I played to Handan, asked to reduce the taxes here, and told Handan about the casualties here, Handan because of my crime of starving to death of people, fined me two years. ”

"Without it, I wouldn't have been able to help the people, and the situation could be even worse this year."

Zhao Kuo frowned and glanced at him, there were cases of starvation in various places, and it was rare to report the accurate number to Handan, and try to say as little as possible, so as not to attract disasters, and this is the only one, to tell the truth, even Yu Lu is gone. Zhao Kuo said to him: "I have talked about these things with Minister Wei Wuji, please rest assured, this year Zhao will reduce the levy tax and give the people everywhere time to recuperate." ”

Zhao Yu nodded.

Zhao Kuo left here, and the people here went out of the city with the Koreans to say goodbye. Zhao Kuo was still very happy, he could already feel that his inspection had played a role, and in the few cities that he arrived at later, he saw the officials who had "reformed themselves", and saw the happy and scared people, the people were happy because of the change of officials, but they were afraid because they were afraid that they would change back.

Zhao Kuo just told the officials in various places that in the future, he would often send people to inspect the situation of officials in various places, promote meritorious officials, and punish evil officials who harm the people. And he was really thinking about it, if there is no supervision system for officials, officials will do evil, it is inevitable, although the nobles have basic moral integrity, but their moral integrity does not include treating these low-level people well.

In this era, there were no famous ministers who became famous because they were loved by the people, but more because they were lovers, because they could fulfill their missions, because they could keep the king from being insulted. A hundred years later, in the Han Dynasty, after recognizing Confucianism, a group of virtuous ministers who were reluctant to be sent off by the people emerged, which does not exist now. The Qin State was the first to establish a system of supervision of officials.

Speaking of which, it is not a supervision system, but the county order must always pay attention to the situation in each township, and the performance of the township officials is also closely related to the farming situation of the local people, so they dare not be perfunctory like the officials of Zhao State.

Zhao Kuo went to various parts of Zhao State like this, in addition to rectifying the rule of officials, what is more important is that he wants to see this era clearly, he has a lot of systems in his mind, and he wants to use these systems to change this era, but before that, he must understand this era very well, even if it is the memory of the predecessor Zhao Kuo, there is not much about the situation of the people and the countryside, how can you care about this?

Zhao Kuo is probably Zhao Guo... Or maybe it's the most peculiar aristocracy in the world.

The first thing that Zhao Kuo thought of now was the assassination system and the metropolitan postal system. These two systems were born in the Han Dynasty, the reason why he knew, or because of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the states set up a history of assassination, supervised the magistrates, reported the situation of the place to the king, set up a post in the county, inspected the counties, and collected the information and situation of the county, Zhao Kuo still remembered the Romance of the Three Kingdoms Zhang Fei angrily whipped the post.... It was to beat the officials in charge of supervising the county seat.

Speaking of which, they are all descendants of Zhao Kuo, Ma Chao is the descendant of General Fubo Ma Yuan, and Ma Yuan is the descendant of Ma Fujun.... So that Jin Ma Chao is his future descendant?

Zhao Kuo hurriedly shook his head, no longer thinking nonsense, and remembered the supervision system again, at the moment, Zhao did not have a perfect supervision system, this is because the nobles feel that the monarch sends people to monitor themselves, which is a distrust of themselves, and the proud nobles will take this as their own shame, and they will choose to commit suicide to prove their innocence. Zhao Kuo didn't want to see such a situation, maybe only a country like the Qin State that had changed the aristocracy could establish a perfect supervision system.

Zhao Kuo couldn't help but rub his forehead, perhaps, let them supervise on the grounds of inspecting the performance of officials?

There are still a lot of things that Zhao Kuo needs to think about, but what he sees is far more difficult than he imagined, the farther away from Handan, the more miserable the people he sees, in the corners that these noble people will not easily look at, the people huddle together, Zhao Kuo saw those dull-eyed, walking corpse-like people, they didn't even have a complete set of clothes, the clothes were not covered, the officials probably thought that they were very ungraceful to meet Ma Fujun like this, and forbade them to go out.

Therefore, they just hid behind the crack in the door, revealing their numb eyes, observing the situation outside, even if Zhao Kuo walked into their courtyard, they just got up mechanically, saluted, and didn't say a word. In the face of this guest from afar, they were not excited, they didn't know who Ma Fujun was, many people had never walked out of this township in their lives, which was a fortunate thing for them, because few of the young people who walked out of the township came back.

Even when he came back, he dragged his disabled body and heart, and fell exhausted in the countryside, occasionally talking about the cruelty of war, which made everyone even more frightened.

There are many such people in Zhao State, compared to them, the people around Handan are happy, Zhao State's taxes, after several changes, are now calculated according to the area of cultivated land, and then unified taxation, and this calculation of the area of cultivated land, but not every year to calculate, which caused the people to pay taxes even if the cultivated land is wasted and the harvest is reduced, but they still have to pay taxes according to the prescribed standards.

In order to cope with this situation, all countries have carried out reforms, the earliest was the Qi State, they chose to take the household as a unit, the collective arable land into individuals, according to the family assets to collect taxes, this will not cause the people to be killed by taxes, and the Wei State is also through the state to directly control the sale and price of grain to carry out tax reform, the most thorough is still the Qin State.

Although the tax of Qin was very high, but according to the annual grain production and personal assets, the tax would definitely not force the people to die.

Only Zhao State, there was no movement for a long time, even if more people went bankrupt and became slaves, no matter how many nobles collected a large amount of arable land but paid the original prescribed taxes, no one paid attention, until Ma Fujun Zhao Hao appeared, and was responsible for the taxes of Zhao State, he sensed that something was wrong, he executed the nobles who had a large amount of arable land but paid small taxes, and recalculated the arable land and grain production of Zhao State.

It's a pity that the last statistics before Zhao Hao's death turned out to be the last statistics of Zhao Guo.

In addition to this outrageous tax, there is also conscription, the Zhao State often mobilizes the people to serve, sometimes to fight, sometimes to build, sucks away the young and strong, and requires them to pay taxes according to the standard, which is a bit excessive, that is, the Qin State, which has the most frequent conscription, is absolutely not allowed to launch conscription in the busy agricultural season, only the stupid Zhao State will send the young and strong to build the capital in the autumn harvest season.

Ruthless wars, outrageous taxes, stupid conscription, mountains pressed on the Zhao people, making them unable to raise their heads, or even straighten their waists.

"I'm going to change that."

Zhao Kuo said firmly to Han Fei.