The middle-aged man said: "A while ago, when the imperial court asked people with more than 5,000 acres of land at home to report the grain deposit, due to the negligence of the subordinates, they omitted to report 3,000 stones. ”

Seeing that the county order looked embarrassed, the middle-aged man took out a silver ticket and put it in the county order's hand and said, "No one should know if you just rewrite the day." ”

The county magistrate glanced at the number of silver tickets, stuffed them into his sleeve, nodded with satisfaction, and said, "Brother Nian is too outside, Brother Nian's business is the business of the younger brother, but this grain ......?" ”

The middle-aged man said: "Send someone to pull it tomorrow morning, the county does not have enough money, so you can write an arrears note and owe it first." ”

The county order said: "So the little brother will go to write the account first and come to Guizhuang tomorrow morning to pull grain." ”

Early the next morning, eight Jinyi guards came to Wangjiazhuang in Donghu County with 500 soldiers, and saw from afar that the fields outside Wangjiazhuang were full of men, women, and children, all of them with tired faces, and some of them were holding torches that had been extinguished.

The Jinyi guard officer, who led the team, asked, "Are you here Wangjiazhuang?" ”

Hearing someone ask, a young man stood up, it was the person who had run more than a hundred miles on horseback yesterday, he rolled his eyes and said, "This is Wangjiazhuang, is there anything wrong with you?" ”

The Jinyi guard officer, who led the team, asked, "What are you doing here on a cold day?" ”

The young man said, "What can the farmer do? Farming. ”

The Jinyi guard officer asked, "Young people farm the land, and the old people and children also farm the land?" ”

The young man said: "The old man is an old man with experience in guiding everyone how to plant, and the child does not understand how to plant while learning how to plant." ”

The Jinyi guard officer asked, "What's the matter with some of them holding torches?" ”

The young man said: "If you work hard overnight, you will not be lazy." ”

The officer asked, "What's the matter with the ashes in the field?" ”

The young man said, "If the land is burned, the fire will not burn the fields and the fields will not be fertilized." ”

The Jinyi guard officer asked, "Then is this wasteland or farmland?" ”

The young man said: "The grass in our south grows fast, and in a few days it will grow the farmland into wasteland, so it has to be burned at any time. ”

The Jinyi guard officer asked again: "Then does your owner's family have more than enough food to eat for three years?" ”

The young man said: "Yes, but our owner has already sold it to the imperial court, and today the county will come to pull it and see them come." ”

I saw a group of officials pulling a long cart along the way, and an official wearing a county order uniform came over and asked: "Xia Guan is the county order of this county, and today I brought someone to pull the surplus grain sold to the imperial court in Wangjiazhuang, I should have come three days ago, because the rain leaked in the treasury and was delayed for two days, I don't know what the adults are doing here?" ”

The officer of the Jinyi Guard looked at the county order with straight eyes, then looked at the young man, and said in his mouth: "This official has always been warm, take people to see if anyone is needed to help burn the wasteland here, or whether someone is needed to help pull the cart, do you need it?" ”

Everyone shook their heads slowly.

At the beginning of November, in the Qianqing Palace, Yang Gongchun, the head of internal security, was reporting to the apocalypse that the arrest operation had ended. At the beginning of October, according to Wei Zhongxian's secret report, Tianqi found that more than 30 large households in the southern provinces with a field output of more than 5,000 mu had concealed too much grain, and some of them destroyed the seedlings and planted mulberry in disregard of the ban when the price of raw silk rose. On 15 October, the Apocalypse issued an order to let the officers and soldiers of the Jinyi Guards and the local guard posts, who had already gone to various places to be on standby, take people to raid their homes, and half a month had passed, and now Yang Gongchun was to report the results of this operation.

Yang Gongchun said: "This time, ten families were successfully raided and arrested, and five families saw the opportunity to resell the surplus grain before Jinyiwei went, and those with mulberry trees destroyed the trees. Three of these ten families were implicated in court officials, including Fan Youdao, the left attendant of the household department, Han Budo, the political envoy of Shandong, and Lin Hao, the director of the Arsenal and Officials Department of the Ministry of War. A total of more than 800 people involved in the case were arrested and detained by the local government on the spot, and 7 million taels of silver were copied, 150,000 mu of contracted land was collected, and real estate, pawnshops, and shops were being liquidated. ”

Seeing that Tianqi did not speak, Yang Gongchun whispered: "When I searched the house, I also copied out some antique utensils to play, and the slave asked someone to quietly transport them into the palace." ”

Tianqi smiled and asked, "Did anyone take advantage of the fire to rob the Jinyi guards and the soldiers of the guard who went to raid the house?" ”

Yang Gongchun said: "According to the emperor's will, people from four different places are found separately, so that they can supervise each other. However, later, the internal guard received a secret report that when the Fan family was raided, two sergeants were hungry, and it happened that the Fan family was holding a banquet, so they took two chicken legs to gnaw on without authorization. ”

Apocalypse asked, "How did you deal with it?" ”

Yang Gongchun said: "Each person has 20 mouths, and they take out the three disciplines and eight points of attention to copy ten times, and write an understanding of not taking a stitch from the people." ”

Tianqi nodded with satisfaction and said, "The soldiers who participated in this operation will be rewarded with ten taels each, the Jinyi guards will be rewarded with fifty taels each, and the internal guards will be rewarded with one hundred taels." All the real estate and shops were sold, and the land was returned to the imperial village, and the local government found someone to plant it on its behalf, preferably to settle people from the north who were willing to settle in the south. ”

After Yang Gongchun went out to do errands, Tianqi returned to the dormitory to find the queen, and the queen just came to Tianqi to say that there was something, and Tianqi asked the queen to wait in the dormitory for a while, and when he finished dealing with things, he would come over immediately. I found the queen to know that the old queen mother had something, this old queen mother is about sixty or seventy years old, is the concubine of the Wanli Emperor, in a day of casual conversation with people said that the king of the letter is almost sixteen should be married, afraid that the apocalypse will forget to go to the queen to let the queen give the emperor a reminder.

As soon as Tianqi heard this, he said: "Yes, King Xin will be sixteen next year and should be married, and if he becomes a family, he will have to live in the palace, so the construction of King Xin's mansion must be done." ”

Seeing that there was a faint joy on Tianqi's face, the queen asked, "What is the emperor's pleasure about?" Can you say it to make the concubine happy? ”

Tianqi said: "I just found a few disobedient big families, copied their homes and copied some silver by the way, and I just happened to build a mansion for King Xin, so I don't have to worry." ”

The queen said, "What is the emperor going to do with those people?" I have no money and no home on a cold day, it's pitiful. ”

Apocalypse took the queen's hand and said, "I have given them opportunities again and again, who is to blame if they don't cherish themselves?" But for the queen's sake, I can give them another chance without killing them. ”

The queen said: "The emperor's kindness and generosity will be blessed." ”

Tianqi said: "I have thought of one thing a long time ago but I have forgotten it, and now I remember it when I hear you say good fortune, and we just happened to be free today to meet someone together." ”

The queen asked, "Who is it?" ”

Tianqi said: "Old Concubine Zheng." ”

The queen was surprised: "How did you think of looking for her?" ”

Apocalypse said, "You will know when you come." ”

The two of them came to Cining Palace and saw that although the gate of the palace was deserted, it was still clean. Knowing that the emperor and the empress were coming together, Concubine Zheng Guifei was surprised and sent a personal palace maid to greet her. This old concubine Zheng is also the concubine of Emperor Wanli, the grandfather of the Apocalypse, and she also thought about making her son King Fu the crown prince back then, but she didn't succeed. After Tianqi entered, he saw Old Concubine Zheng standing up and hurriedly stepped forward and said, "How is the concubine?" It's not an outsider, let's sit down and talk. At this time, the queen also bowed slightly to salute her, and after the two of them sat down, she stood next to the apocalypse.

Old Concubine Zheng was already in her sixties, and when she saw that the apocalypse came to her, she was a little inexplicable, and asked with a smile: "I haven't seen the emperor for a long time, is there anything wrong?" ”

Tianqi smiled and said, "I came today for the sake of the Three Kings and the Blessed King. ”

As soon as Concubine Zheng Guifei heard Tianqi mention King Fu, her face pulled down, and she said coldly: "King Fu has already gone to Henan, and he can't provoke the emperor in this life." ”

Tianqi said: "The old concubine is too careful, I just care about King Fu, after all, he is also my uncle, but some people say that they want to cook him and eat his meat." ”

The flesh on Concubine Zheng's face trembled, and she asked in a deep voice, "Who?" Who is going to eat his flesh? ”

Apocalypse said, "Rebel rebels! ”

Concubine Zheng's eyes widened and asked, "How can someone rebel?" Why the rebellion? ”

Apocalypse said: "In the event of a natural disaster, the government urged the rent to be paid, and there was no way for the government to force the people to rebel." ”

Concubine Zheng lowered her eyelids and said, "That's the emperor's business, what does it have to do with King Fu?" ”

Tianqi said: "The victims have nothing to eat, I have paid 500,000 yuan for them to relieve the disaster, and King Fu has occupied all the good land and will not allow them to owe rent, who do you say those people hate more?" ”