Lu Jingyuan was not as knowledgeable as Yu Guantai, but when he heard the word "Xicheng", he immediately realized it, and said: "Is it the Xicheng office that is in charge of the ownerless land and checks the title deed?" ”

Yu Guantai said: "Exactly, last year, the river flood in the land of Lianghuai was injured, and the households were not fed, Lu Zai was ordered to give relief, and he found that the public land confiscated by the local Xicheng was uncultivated and abandoned as a wilderness, so he joined Zhizhou, Tongju and more than a dozen officials who came to the disaster relief with him, and returned these fields to the tenants on their own initiative, and also made a note, promising not to increase the official rent. ”

Speaking of this, he paused for a moment, sighed, and then said: "In this way, although the disaster has been relieved, some of those lands were originally reserved for rewarding and retiring meritorious officials, so his actions not only offended Xicheng, but also offended those meritorious heroes, which is really unwise, and he was soon impeached to this desolate place." ”

Xicheng expands the field, and also makes the Xicheng Kuotian, but also does the west of the city, called the Xicheng Office, its establishment was initially controlled by the eunuchs, aiming to collect the official field, and the camp tax, the Central Plains ownerless land will be annexed, but the boundary of the ownerless field is extremely blurred, but all those who do not have the lease of the land deed in black and white will be confiscated as the official field.

But at this time, except for a very small number of large landlords like Su Yang'er's family, who will have a title deed written in black and white, where do most of the homesteaders who operate the ancestral fields and the migratory farmers who reclaim wasteland get the land deeds?

So suppressing the people to take the tenants, forcibly expropriating the public land money, and the people's beautiful fields, all refer to the famine, which aroused a lot of public resentment for a while.

But there are victims of exploitation in everything, there are vested interests, among which the official financial benefits are needless to say, and there are also many people who benefit from the civil and military affairs of the Manchu Dynasty, because according to the public land law, the official public land can be disposed of at will, and the civil and military magnates are rewarded lavishly, and the Lu family is of course also one of the beneficiaries.

After Lu Jingyuan heard it, he just kept silent, the people lived or died, and he had nothing to do with him, Lu Zai's move was right or wrong, and it had nothing to do with him, so he only secretly thought: "This old thing usually can't think of me, but now he thinks of me, I'm afraid he doesn't want to use my father's name, the fox and the tiger, and then resist the government." ”

So he asked, "Master, do you think I go or not?" ”

Yu Guantai said: "You must go to go, but don't talk too much, you are here to study with him, not to make enemies for your father, so that no matter what they say, you just listen." ”

Lu Jingyuan nodded and said, "Okay, just follow the teacher's wishes." ”

He was born in a family, and he was very sensitive to the power struggle, and he was very thorough, needless to say, when he came to the living room alone, he saw that there were already two people sitting in the room, one of whom was Lu Zai, and at this time he had a large box at his feet, and the box was full of dossiers. The other person is a middle-aged man, who seems to be about the same age as Prime Minister Lu, dressed in a cyan official uniform, with three beards under his chin and no wind and no wind, and his raw thief eyebrows and rat eyes are a little obscene.

In the Song Dynasty, the official uniforms were according to the grade, with purple for the fourth grade or above, scarlet for the sixth grade or above, and green for the ninth grade or above.

Seeing the obscene man dressed in green, Lu Jingyuan immediately felt a little disdainful, what kind of high-ranking official should he be, it turned out to be a small official who was no more than seven grades.

I only heard Lu Zai say: "Envoy Feng, this is the nephew of the lower official, Jing Yuan, come and see the envoy." ”

Lu Jingyuan originally thought that Lu Zai would deliberately advocate his identity, but he didn't expect it to be so lightly written, and he couldn't help but be stunned for a moment before he stepped forward and said, "The kid has seen Envoy Feng." ”

Envoy Feng didn't care about him, didn't raise his head, held the steaming teacup, and said, "Well, sit down." ”

Seeing his expression, Lu Jingyuan was stunned again, not that this person had any official authority, but he felt that he didn't care about everything in the outside world, not only for him, but also for Lu Zai, not like he was aggressive. Previously, Yu Guantai guessed that this person was here to make things difficult for Lu Zai, but now it seems that he is not.

When Lu Zai saw this, he was not without doubts, and thought: "When I was serving in the Central Plains, I never heard of Feng Yutong in Xicheng, and I thought that he was a new official recently. ”

So he pointed to the box at his feet and said: "Envoy Feng, all the records related to land tax in Xiaoxian since last year are here, please take a look, if there is any omission, the lower official will order someone to take it." ”

Feng Yutong finally put down the teacup, glanced at the box at his feet, and said with a smile: "Lu Mingfu, you and I are almost the same in rank, this voice makes a certain person unbearable, Feng was ordered to come, and it is just to upload and distribute, as for these tax documents, I won't look at it, Feng has communicated the land acquisition matter to the governor of your place properly, and it is expected that he will have his own arrangements soon." ”

Hearing this, Lu Zai couldn't help frowning and said, "Then the envoy came to the small county for?" ”

Feng Yu said: "Feng passed by Guibao Land, and he didn't want to disturb Lu Ming's Mansion, but he had another urgent dispatch to do, so he had to come to Brother Lu for help." ”

Lu Zai's heart sank when he heard this, and he said: "It's okay for the envoy to speak, but for all official duties, he should try his best to help." ”

Feng Yu said happily: "It is both official and private, King Kang has moved newly, the mansion is empty, and there is a lack of some female officials to wait, so he sent Feng to find a few women of the right age who have both ability and political integrity for him in Jiangnan. ”

"King Kang's draft?"

Lu Zai and the others were shocked, King Kang Zhao Gou was thousands of miles away, how could he suddenly think of coming to Jiangnan for the draft, not to mention the draft, which has always been mostly sought nearby, and mostly handled by eunuchs, when will it be Xicheng's turn to take care of it?

"This ......"

Lu Zai hesitated for a moment, and Feng Yu asked, "What, is there anything difficult about Brother Lu?" ”

Lu Zai hurriedly said: "That's not true, it's just that why His Royal Highness King Kang wants to draft in Jiangnan, why not go to the Central Plains?" ”

Feng Yutong said unhappily: "Brother Lu, this is a bad word, Jiangnan women have never been favored by the heavenly family, and they treat the king equally, as vassals, shouldn't we share the worries for the king?" ”

His words were obviously strong words, but when Lu Zai heard it, he secretly thought: "Everywhere Xicheng passes, the people's livelihood has plummeted, if it is just a draft, it is indeed much better than land acquisition." ”

At that moment, he said: "What Shangguan said is reasonable, so since it is a draft, I don't know what kind of rules it is?" ”

In fact, the royal family in the Song Dynasty rarely drafted in the people, just because the Han and Tang dynasties were strong, the Song court took it as a warning, and like King Kang entrusted the official draft, it is even more unheard of.

And regardless of whether the woman is willing or not, she must participate on time, and there will be heavy penalties for violators, of course, not all women have the opportunity to participate, it is often after the famous ministers that they have this forced qualification, which can even be said to be a great honor.

I only heard Feng Yutong say: "The specific matters, don't work Brother Lu to do it himself, Feng will arrange it, and this matter should not be too public, just follow the rules of the palace, simply do it, then Feng will send the list of candidates to the house, and Brother Lu will send someone to notify him together, so as to save some people from being unconvinced." ”

Lu Zai said: "That's fine, then the lower official will wait for Envoy Feng's orders." ”

Seeing that the two who thought they would meet each other suddenly hit it off, Lu Jingyuan was silent on the side, but he faintly felt a little funny.

He didn't care much at first, just because with the respect of King Kang, he sent people to find some female officials among the people to go home and wait, at most he could only be regarded as looking for maids, not a big deal.

But when he thought about it, he couldn't help but be surprised: "It's not good, a local school-age woman, isn't Yang Er also among them?" ”