The snow is coming down, and it doesn't stop.

Two days later, fearing that the snow would close the road, Xi Shantu resigned as expected by Yang Chao. It has been selected, and Gao Chong is still the envoy to Huanmeng, and on this morning, Gao Chong took the people of the mission and left Guyin with Xi Shantu and went to Nanyang County.

When Xi Shantu came, Xin Er did not greet him in person, and now that he is leaving, it is good to say that it is to send him away, or to send Gao Chong, but Xin Er is to send it in person. Set up a shed on the side of the road, surround it with a curtain, set up a banquet with wine, everyone drinks a few glasses, after the ancestral road, Xi Shantu, Gao Chong and other people wear high crowns, wear official uniforms, salute to Xin Er, after the ceremony, a line of more than ten people, respectively board their own cars, under the escort of more than 100 knights, in the fluttering and falling snow, along the official road to the southeast.

Snow for two days, far and near plain white, looking at this team of cars to ride in the wind and snow, like a black line slowly far away, Xin Er stopped for a long time.

The sheep who sent him to the entourage reminded Xin Er and said, "Duke Ming, General Qu is still waiting." ”

"And the canal general", if you can be also.

And the people of the Qu Department have no surname, only a name, and the people of their department take "and Qu", their tribal name, and at the same time it is also the official name of the Xiongnu period earlier, originally only Qu Yuanguang was alone, but Ba Ruo Neng is now awarded a military position of a five-grade general by Dingxi, in order to call him,—— he can not be called "Pull General", it is to Dingxi officialdom has the right to "and Qu" as his surname.

Xin Er came back to his senses and said, "What was I thinking just now? I don't know if Huan Jingzhou has beaten Pheasant County? I don't know if the governor will go to Nanyang here, can he make a military agreement with Huan Jingzhou as soon as possible to join hands with the two of us to fight against Puqin? Therefore, I can't help but be distracted for a while. "Looking back at the many officials standing behind him? found Ba Ruo Neng from it, beckoning him to come closer? Smiled, "Brother! ”

If you can be sixty years younger? More than 20 years older than Xiner? But because he was afraid that Xin Er's prestige was far from being comparable to the past, he didn't dare to accept the word "brother" anymore, and said in fear: "Old Hu is a vulgar slut? How dare you be the call of Ming Gong's 'brother'! ”

"The two of us married Jin Lan back then? The people of the country know, why can't you afford to call this out? ”

"Back then, it was handed over by the Ming Gong Festival, and I couldn't count it, I couldn't count it!"

"...... 'Break the knots', brother? Your knowledge has grown. ”

Ruo Neng's pigtails and beard are gray, but a face is still chubby? It's more red than before, which shows how many years he has been attached to Xin'er? It's really nice to treat him. He said: "Lao Hu admires the country's Wende, in the past few years? How many teachers have been hired? Studying Tang Wen hard? It's just that when I'm old, my brain can't keep up, and no matter how hard I work, I can't change the crude nature. ”

"Brother, the imperial court issued a decree last month prohibiting those who set up shops or sell them privately without a city registration, and the violators will be severely punished, has your family been affected because of this?"

Because Xin Er first discussed the Western Regions, and then set up Shazhou, Yumen and other three major camps, specially used to protect the safety of the business route from the Western Regions to Guyin, the business in Guyin City is now very prosperous, a single midtown, now there is one more "city", however, although the commercial activities are more and more prosperous, the state tax in this area is also more and more, but to open a store and do business, but not casually, anyone can, according to the regulations, must be in the "city registration", in order to open a store in the "city". - Of course, an agrarian society needs to be "agriculture-oriented", and this old system, which existed in the previous Qin Dynasty, was largely aimed at protecting agriculture.

However, with the increasing prosperity of commerce, looking at those merchants in the Western Regions and the local areas making money day by day, the magnates, officials, and scholars in Guyin City inevitably have many hot eyes, so as to violate this system, or sneak, or be upright, and privately purchase shops in several "cities" in Guyin, and there are a lot of people who start trading.

On the one hand, these magnates, officials, and scholars violated the rules of the imperial court by opening shops privately, because they were not in the "scholars' registers", and they also had their own backgrounds and backgrounds, and the "mayors" and other officials in the "cities" could not collect taxes from them, which was equivalent to reducing the normal tax revenue of the state, which was intolerable.

So, last month, Sun Yan, the left servant of the central government in charge of state finance, went to the court and asked for the chaos to be brought under control.

It is under the decree that "it is forbidden to set up a store without a city registration or sell it privately, and the offender will be severely punished".

Ba Ruoneng's family has indeed been affected, he is Xin Er's "righteous brother", Sun Yan after obtaining Xin Er's consent, the first thing to take is his family's shop to open a knife, and his family's shop was confiscated,—— the shop that begged vigorously to open the store specializing in meat Cistanche was also confiscated, the shop in the city is one of the big sources of wealth for Ba Ruoneng's family, this confiscation, like cutting meat, his wives and concubines crying and crying, all want him to go to Xin Er to intercede, but Ba Ruoneng is the one who knows the severity, not to mention and Qu Yuanguang is a big traitor in Dingxi, Sun Yan confiscated his shop, and he could guess it with his toes, which must have been approved by Xin Er, so he didn't squeak about it.

Hearing Xin Er's inquiry at this time, Ba Ruo was able to make a ashamed appearance and said: "Lao Hu doesn't know the rules and regulations of the country, and accidentally violated the country's legal system, and it is natural that those shops should be confiscated!" The court was benevolent and did not punish Lao Hu for this, and Lao Hu was grateful. ”

Xin Er smiled and said: "I know that those shops are the largest income of your family, you have many wives and concubines, many children, without the income of the store, only rely on your small ranches and your money, I am afraid it will be difficult to support the family." After you went to Qilian County this time to assist Zhang Taishou in solving the problem of the official horse ranch, I asked for a decree for you, allowing you to rent 50,000 acres of idle pasture in Qilian County to raise horses, and when the horses are raised, as long as they meet military standards, they will all be bought by the imperial court! Count me as a brother, and find another way to support your family. ”

A few days ago, Qilian Taishou Zhang Dao will write to the court, saying that this year is colder than in previous years, and the horses raised by the official horse farm have a small amount of frostbite, and he is worried that if it gets colder again, there will be more frostbite horses, and the official ranch in Qilian County is the largest official-owned pasture in Dingxi, and the horses produced here are the main source of war horses for the troops in Dingxi.

Animal husbandry is under the control of the Ministry of Industry of the Central Committee, and the Ministry of Industry has selected a few experienced officials and set off yesterday.

Ba Ruoneng is the chief of most of Lu Shuihu and the canal department, as a chief, although he does not need to herd cattle himself, but he also has rich experience in raising horses, and the Qilian County officials have low-level officials and herdsmen in the pasture, and now there are many herdsmen from all parts of Lushuihu who have moved here, all know him, and his prestige in it is not low, so Xin Er asked him to go to Qilian as well. If he has a big family, he has to arrange the time for housework one day, because he only set off today, and it just happened that Xin Er sent Xi Shantu and Gao Chong, and he also sent him by the way.

After listening to it, he was greatly moved, regardless of the snow on the ground, he knelt on the ground, bowed down and said: "Ming Gong's kindness, Lao Hu, Lao Hu, only death is repaid!" ”

Xin Er bent down to help him up, beat him with the snow on his pigtails, face and beard, held his hand, and said with a smile: "Brother, you are also old, and you are in the age of happiness, after the ranch is rented, raising horses and other affairs, I don't think you have to do it yourself, just leave it to Pingluo to take care of." ”

"Yes, I will follow the orders of the Ming Princess."

Xin Er looked at the sky, the clouds were dense, not only did the snow not stop, it seemed that it would fall bigger and bigger, so he said: "Brother, the horses raised in Qilian Ranch are related to my armament in Dingxi, this is just when I Dingxi and Pu Qin will be in a fierce war, the horses of Qilian Ranch are particularly important, and there must be no leakage, you should start now, try to arrive as soon as possible!" Zhang Taishou, my son of the Longming clan, you and he are old acquaintances, and when you arrive, you need to be respectful to him, and you must do your best to solve the matter of the horse being frostbitten. ”

Ba Ruo Neng replied respectfully: "Yes." ”

Seeing that Ba Ruo could lead the horse to leave, surrounded by seven or eight Hu Nu, they went far away, and only then did they get on their horses and raise their whips, and galloped towards Qilian, which was four hundred miles to the west, Xin Er retracted his gaze.

He stood on the side of the road under the snow, raised his head to look at the sky again, stretched out his palm, a few petals of snowflakes fell on it, the water was cold, and he saw the sparse fireworks in the snow-covered township in the suburbs, and looked at the southeast and southwest, the residents were mainly poor households and camp households, and there were few people in the snow, and even the Tanghu people who went out of the city and entered the city could not see a few. sighed: "The people are poor, the winter is not easy, and this winter will be colder than in previous years!" ”

"Yes, Ming Gong, in the past hundred years, there have been constant wars, and I have established the country in the west to the present, in order to resist the invasion of Zhuhu, I will collect more people's strength, and the country will wither! Although the Ming Duke always has compassion for the people and compassion for the people, Nai Qin captures the wolf and peeps at the war, and the life of my people is still not easy. ”

"Shidao, this snow is the first snow of this winter, the weather is so cold, the horse can't stand it, there will be two more heavy snowfalls, the poor households will not be able to survive, there will be a lot of people who freeze to death and starve to death, Qing and Brother Qing will discuss and work out a few ways to help the people survive this cold winter!"

Yang Fu, the elder brother of Yang Chao, is now the secretary of the household department of Zhongtai, and it is his job to manage the people.

Yang Chao promised, said: "Because of the Ming Gong's request, the Yicang created and established the year before last, after the harvest of grain in the year before last, last year and this year, in addition to the relief out, there is still quite enough now, plus the monk's good newspaper warehouse, the grain of the two warehouses is in one place, I dare not say that it can help the people of Quanlong to survive this winter, but at least it can help some of the poor households." ”

The current warehousing system, originally only the system of regular liquidation, and the regular closing is strictly speaking, not specifically used to help the people, it is to buy grain in good years, to prevent grain cheapness, to sell grain during famine, to prevent rich merchants from hoarding and profiteering, so that the year before last, Xin Er played with the permission of the court, and created a special system in Dingxi to help the people, and has now been established in all counties in Dingxi.

The nature of the Yicang is different from that of the Chang Ping position, and the source of its grain storage is also different from the Chang Ping position.

The grain storage that is often closed is bought by the state with real money, Xin Er made it clear in the recital, and he suggested that the grain storage in the Yicang should be collected in the form of collecting rent in addition to the regular tax, and to put it bluntly, that is, the state does not pay the money to buy grain, but is only responsible for undertaking it, and the grain in the warehouse is raised by all sectors of society.

So it is easy to set up this system, but how to collect the "free rent"?

At that time, the court and the central government discussed, and some courtiers suggested that since the relief of Yicang was for the people of the whole country, it should be collected from the people of Dingxi, that is, regardless of the rich and poor, all of them should be collected; Some people oppose this suggestion, believing that the purpose of setting up a righteous warehouse is to help the people, and the poor households among the people are already very poor, and now they are also collecting "free rent" from them. It is believed that it should only be collected from the wealthy.

Naturally, Xin Er took the latter suggestion.

Then the method of collecting "free rent" was determined: all households such as Chinese capital will pay five buckets of free rent per person per year, and those who are senior citizens will pay eight buckets of free rent per person per year, and those who are superior will pay one stone per person per year.

"Household level" is the level of households determined according to the family background, which is divided into three grades: upper capital, middle capital, and lower poverty, and each level is divided into three grades, a total of nine grades. ——In the Qin Dynasty of the previous generation, it was also divided into households, but it was only divided into three classes, everyone, the middle family, and the small family, and now it is subdivided into nine classes, which is to adapt to the "nine products mixed" levy and adjustment method.

However, although the method of collecting this "free rent" was formulated in accordance with this, it seems that the grain was brought from the rich households to help the poor households, but in fact, for those rich lords and scholars who have hidden a large number of people, have privileges and do not pay, and pay less taxes, the collection of this free rent is simply painless, in other words, the main source of grain for the free storage is actually the Chinese-funded people such as households, and Xin Er is not satisfied with this, but he has not yet begun to reform the economic system, and he has no other way to face this situation.

At this time, out of the purpose of expanding the influence of Buddhism among the people, Dao Zhi came to ask for a meeting, and took the initiative to say that he was willing to help the monks for such good deeds as compassion and relief for the poor, and proposed that the monks should take the lead and also build a "righteous warehouse" to collect food donations from Buddhist believers. There are many scholars who believe in Buddhism, such as the Yin side branch of the Buddha who believes in Buddhism, etc., are scholars, and the family is very rich.

Considering that among the people who believe in Buddhism in Longdi, poor households and poor people account for a large proportion, in order not to increase their burden, Xin Er asked Daozhi not to accept food donations from households below Chinese capital, implying that he should "ask" for more food donations from the people of the third grade of upper capital who believe in Buddhism, especially those rich believers who have a large amount of money and grain to dig Buddhist caves and shape Buddha statues in the mountains of Longzhou, and let them donate more, and the more the better.

Since the establishment of the two warehouses, as Yang Chao said, the grain storage in the two warehouses is quite sufficient, which is enough to help many poor households to survive this year's cold winter.

In response to the problems that arose last year, on the way back to Guyin City, Xin Er explained to the sheep and said: "When the grain was released last year, there was a bold traitor who dared to sell grain at a high price, or exchange old grain for new grain in the warehouse, and this winter to release grain, we must not allow similar phenomena again!" There is also the grain of the good newspaper warehouse, last year let the monks of the monk put it once, some people privately sent their children into the temple, this winter can not let the monk put it again, you tell the truth, together with the household department unified management. ”

Yang Chao replied: "No." ”

Saying these miscellaneous things, Xin Er and the others returned to the city and went to the gate of the Duke of Xin's mansion.

As soon as they got out of the car, they saw a row of tall horses tied near the Huan table outside the door, and there were more than a dozen of them with braided hair or buns, all wearing sheepskin folds and hakama, Xianbei and Tang warriors stood tall with their heads held high, holding their spears and knives, standing in the snow with their heads held high.