In a flower hall in the back garden of the Xi'an Metropolitan Procuratorate, Cui Chengxiu, Yang He, Xia Yunyi are sitting together cooking tea and talking, the windows around the flower hall and the skylight of the ceiling have been replaced with glass in imitation of the popular style in Beijing, although Xi'an in early winter is cold and cold, but the daytime sun can still bring a little warmth to people.

After the flower hall was replaced with glass, it was not only bright and warm during the day, but also blocked the cold wind outside, so it became Cui Chengxiu's daily office. The three of them are sitting together today, naturally not because of personal friendship, but for official business. After all, with Cui Chengxiu's reputation, Yang He and Xia Yunyi didn't think about making any friendship with him.

According to the rules of officialdom, if there is any official business, Cui Chengxiu and Yang He only need to meet in the court, as for Xia Yunyi, how can they be qualified to talk to them about official affairs.

It's just that things in Shaanxi are complicated now, and although Xia Yunyi has no official status, he has taken the convenience given by the emperor to visit around Shaanxi. Cui Chengxiu and Yang He naturally couldn't ignore the opinions of the leader of the Youth Society, not to mention that the two of them also had different views on some issues, and they also needed a weighty third-party person to contain each other.

Cui Chengxiu thought that since the emperor favored this student of Yenching University so much and promoted him to the position of the leader of the younger generation of Shilin, he always wanted to stand on the side of him, the minister who acted on behalf of the emperor. And Yang He heard about Xia Yunyi from his son Yang Sichang, knew that this person was upright, and felt that he should stand on his side.

Yang Sichang and Cui Chengxiu are of the same age, but they entered the official career one course earlier than Cui Chengxiu, but they are not as smooth as Cui Chengxiu in their official career. Because he was afraid of the expansion of the party struggle between the DPRK and China, he resigned in the fifth year of the Apocalypse and returned to his hometown with his father. It wasn't until last year that he was reinstated by the imperial court and appointed as Tobe Langzhong.

Although Yang Sichang talked to his father about Xia Yunyi's character, he actually had no dealings with Xia Yunyi, after all, one of them was an official and the other was just a university student. Therefore, he still has less description of Xia Yunyi's character, Xia Yunyi's personality is upright, but in addition to this, he is also very stubborn, as long as he thinks it is the right thing, he will rush forward.

As a result, Cui Chengxiu and Yang He did not get their ideal helper, but had one more opponent. It should be said that Xia Yunyi's personality is much better than in the past, and under Chongzhen's constant orders, Xia Yunyi personally came into contact with the lives of the low-level peasants in Henan, Shaanxi, and Shanxi, and also learned about the life and work of the workers of the Tangshan Iron Works.

These experiences of contact with the people at the bottom changed his superstition that the scriptures in books can solve all problems, and also made him realize that the difference between a gentleman and a villain is not black and white. A person who is regarded as a gentleman by the scholars may be a villain in the eyes of the people; A person who is considered a gentleman by the people may be a villain in the eyes of the scholars.

Today, Da Ming evaluates whether a person is a gentleman or a villain, and everyone does not look at this person's words and deeds, but where his ass is sitting. A person who has defended his own interests is a gentleman; The person who damages his own reasons must be villains.

It is precisely with this understanding that Xia Yunyi was able to sit down and talk with Cui Chengxiu, the leader of the eunuch party in his eyes in the past, and hoped to reach a consensus with Cui Chengxiu and Yang He as much as possible that would be beneficial to the people of Shaanxi. Instead of flapping the table, scolding the other party as a villain, and then nothing can be solved.

With realists like Cui Chengxiu, sleek handlers like Yang He, and active promoters like Xia Yunyi, whether it is the handling of the rebellion case of the vassal king or the aftermath of the Chengcheng incident, they are all advancing rapidly.

The liquidation of the local gentry by the Shaanxi People's Rebellion Army and the devastating blow to the two major princes of Shaanxi by the rebellion of the vassal kings caused a large amount of land in the names of the palace and these gentry to be confiscated. In a way, the disappearance of these landowners has eased the class contradictions in Shaanxi.

The next question is how to distribute these lands to the people of Shaanxi, the land under the names of the two princes, plus the land of the gentry who are related to the palace, this is tens of thousands of hectares of fertile land. If it is properly distributed, tens of thousands of Shaanxi households can be stabilized, and it is unlikely that any large-scale civil uprising will break out in Shaanxi in the next few years.

However, on this issue of land distribution, the three were caught in a dispute, and no one could be convinced. In Cui Chengxiu's view, these lands should indeed be distributed, but they cannot be distributed free of charge, after all, most of the land confiscated from the palace and the gentry is fertile land, which can be said to be quite valuable land.

On whether to allocate land for compensation, Yang He supports Cui Chengxiu's view. In addition, he believed that if the land was distributed without compensation, it would be easy for the local officials, gentry and gangsters to take over the land. It is not to exchange good land for bad land; It is to impersonate the land and then take it for yourself; Or a country scoundrel who gets a share of the land and directly resells the land to others.

In order to prevent the gentry, officials and gangsters from taking advantage of the imperial court, Yang He thought that it was most appropriate to divide the land into small portions and then sell them.

However, although Cui Chengxiu and Yang He both supported the sale of land for compensation, Cui Chengxiu believed that these fields should be sold to the gentry and wealthy merchants who supported the imperial court, and the share of land sold should not be too limited; Yang He believes that the objects of land sales should not be restricted, and the fields sold should be divided into small portions as much as possible to meet the needs of a family.

Xia Yunyi objected to the two men's proposals, arguing that the land should be distributed free of charge and divided into land sizes suitable for each family's farming requirements. He believed that the reason why the imperial court wanted to confiscate the land in the hands of these people was to allow the displaced people in Shaanxi to settle down, and that these displaced people had no money to buy land, and that the distribution of land according to the method of paid sale would only let these lands fall into the hands of the local gentry and powerful people, and the local displaced people and commoners still received nothing.

Although Xia Yunyi is constantly obstructing, the proposition between Cui Chengxiu and Yang He has become closer and closer, and today Cui Chengxiu wants to make a conclusion with Yang He on the final plan of land distribution and put Xia Yunyi aside.

“… The students hoped that the two adults would give more consideration to the people of Shaanxi, because if the method of land distribution was adopted, the displaced and poor people in Shaanxi would hardly get any land, and they would still be in a situation where they could not support themselves. In the event of another natural disaster like the previous few years, I am afraid that the poor people everywhere will soon become a member of the people's rebellion army, and the stable situation that Shaanxi has won with great difficulty will be destroyed in one fell swoop..."

Cui Chengxiu finally interrupted Xia Yunyi, and he said unceremoniously: "Xia Shengyuan, this official admits that what you said has a certain amount of truth, but after all, national affairs are not child's play, and you can't judge the quality of a thing by your personal likes and dislikes."

This official and Lord Yang have also discussed before, why can't we implement paid land distribution, we are also responsible for the Shaanxi fathers and the imperial court, with the current finances of Shaanxi, where is there any excess funds to supervise the distribution of land in the local area? The distribution of land for free is to send the mouse to the cat's mouth, and whether to eat the mouse or not depends on the size of the cat's appetite.

The paid distribution of land is different, and under the mutual supervision of the gentry and the powerful, the whereabouts of the land will be clearer, and it will not be privately carried into their pockets. In addition to appeasing displaced people everywhere, the proceeds from the sale of land can also be used to subsidize water conservancy and transportation facilities in Shaanxi, which is also the best of both worlds.

As for what natural disasters Shaanxi will encounter in the future, that is also a matter of the future, the so-called car to the mountain before there must be a road, the future of the matter is still left to the future to solve. Why bother with today? ”

Yang He also twisted his beard and nodded: "It's almost November now, and although the autumn harvest on these lands this year has solved the trouble because of the lack of taxation, some places have the habit of planting winter wheat, if the property rights of these lands are not analyzed clearly, how can the people dare to continue sowing seeds?" Doesn't this delay the farming work? Xia Sheng, don't be stubborn..."

Xia Yunyi lowered his head and pondered for a long time, before he said to the two of them with a straight face: "Since the two adults have already made a decision, the student naturally does not dare to use force, but the student's companion has already reported the situation here to His Majesty, if the two adults don't mind, you might as well wait for two more days before making a decision,"

Cui Chengxiu and Yang He glanced at each other, then nodded at Xia Yunyi and said, "Since you have sent the problem to Your Majesty, we will give you a few days." Tell me, how long will it take for us to receive His Majesty's will? ”

Xia Yunyi gritted his teeth and said: "It is reported that Your Majesty is presiding over military exercises outside the customs, and the students' companions have left the customs from Zhangjiakou, and after 10 days, there should be news." ”

Cui Chengxiu frowned and said, "Ten more days?" ”

Yang He immediately said in a round game: "Okay, just ten days, if there is no response from Your Majesty after ten days, we will do things first according to the way of distributing land for compensation, so that the local fathers and elders can rest assured." ”

Xia Yunyi was silent for a moment, then nodded and said, "Just do what Governor Yang said." ”

Xia Yunyi's companion is Zhang Mingzhen, a native of Jiangning County, Yingtianfu, although he is young, he is quite talented, and he is the family background of Nanjing Jinyiwei, so he is quite favored by Cao Huachun, the eunuch of Nanjing, and personally recommended him to enter Jinling University to study, and then transferred to Yenching University and joined the Youth Society.

Unlike most members of the Youth Society who refused to leave the capital, Zhang Mingzhen admired Xia Yunyi's deeds, so he went to Shaanxi with Xia Yunyi to investigate the Chengcheng incident. When Xia Yunyi disregarded his identity and plunged headlong into the whirlpool of land distribution issues in Shaanxi, Zhang Mingzhen was even more desperate for Xia Yunyi's courage and despair, and was willing to run around for it.

At the request of Xia Yunyi, Zhang Mingzhen rushed to Zhangjiakou with a few family members without fear, and went to the emperor who didn't know where he was outside the pass.

In fact, with the vast and sparsely populated land outside the Guan, the young and reckless Zhang Mingzhen may not be able to reach Chengde smoothly, but his luck is very good, as soon as he arrived in Zhangjiakou, he heard that the emperor was rushing here, preparing to meet with Lin Dan Khan of the Chahar Department.

So Zhang Mingzhen waited patiently for a day, and when the emperor arrived, he handed over Xia Yunyi's letter to the guards guarding the emperor as his own brocade guard, and was summoned by the emperor half a day later.