Good scenery Huaiyang Pingshan

The salt magistrate court profited

Seeing that the emperor asked him, Han Yanxuan hurriedly bowed his body and replied: What the two prime ministers of Zhongshu said, Weichen also knows a little about it, the three divisions are independent of Shangshu Province and are not subject to the dispatch of Zhongshu, and it is indeed inconvenient to act, but the law of the ancestors should not be changed, and the appointment power of the three envoys is still vested in the emperor, can you take the best of both strategies.

Emperor Zhao Kuo didn't understand, because he was anxious to see his favorite beauty, so he said: Just follow Han Aiqing's plan and disperse the dynasty.

Three days later, Ouchi issued an edict: Ding Qiaoan was promoted to the governor of the government, Wang Xianglong was reappointed as Zuo Zhengyan, and Hu Yingyuan was appointed deputy envoy of the Third Division.

Hu Yingyuan visited Jingyutang and brought the Qionghua dew wine sent by Ye Zhengze, knowing that Hu Ye was a relative, so he asked about Ye's current situation.

The flowers under the Pingshan Hall are like brocades, and the lights in the Qionghua view are like stars.

Ye Zhengze went to Yangzhou and quickly fell in love with it, especially the quiet and quaint Pingshan Hall.

Pingshan Hall is built by Ouyang Xiu, who participated in the politics of the Shenzong Dynasty, and was too punctual in Yangzhou, and it is a good place to travel and cherish his eyes. In front of the hall, the ancient vines are intertwined, the plantain is fat, and above the open hall of the hall style, there is a plaque of "Pingshan Hall" hanging high. Wen Zhonggong has always been not bound by the world, all his life love books, love wine and entertainment, as soon as he arrived in Yangzhou, he fell in love with Shugang, so he built a church here. Every summer day, in his spare time, he often brings his friends here to drink and write poems. Their way of drinking is quite special, ask the servants to go to Shao Bo Lake not far away to take more than 1,000 lotus flowers, insert hundreds of pots, put them between the guests, and then let the courtesans take a flower to pass the guests, pick their petals in turn, whoever has the last piece will drink a glass, write a poem, laugh and laugh, often until late at night, and return with the moon.

Coincidentally, Uncle Huang Wen soon came to Yangzhou to serve as a prisoner. In their spare time, the two flipped through the "Ouyang Wenzhong Collection" and talked about the anecdotes and rumors of the former dynasty writer.

In the spring of the seventh year of Tiansheng (1029), by Xu Yanbao, Ouyang Xiu studied in Guozijian, the highest school in Kaifeng Prefecture. In the autumn of this year, he participated in the Guozi Supervision Examination. Twenty-three-year-old Ouyang Xiu is in his prime, and won the first place in the Guangwenguan Examination and the Guoxue Interpretation Examination of Guozixue, becoming the Jian Yuan and the Jie Yuan, and won the first place in the Provincial Examination of the Ministry of Rites in the second year, becoming the Provincial Yuan, which can be regarded as "Lianzhong Sanyuan".

In the examination room, Ouyang Xiu couldn't help but feel a little complacent: in the upcoming palace examination, he would definitely be able to win the champion. So I made a new outfit and prepared to wear it when the time came. He had a classmate in Guangwen Hall, named Wang Gongchen, who was only nineteen years old and also qualified for the palace examination. One night, Wang Gongchen mischievously put on Ouyang Xiu's new clothes and said proudly: "I'm wearing a champion robe!" "Unexpectedly, on the day of the palace exam, it was really Wang Gongchen who won the champion.

In the eighth year of Tiansheng (1030), the palace examination presided over by Zhao Zhen of Song Renzong was held in Chongzheng Palace. After the palace test was released, Ouyang Xiu was ranked 14th, ranking second, Jinshi and first. The chief examiner Yan Shu later told people that Ouyang Xiu's failure to win the championship was mainly due to the fact that his edge was too exposed, and the examiners wanted to frustrate his spirit and promote his success.

Although he did not win the top prize, Ouyang Xiu also won a good ranking and was awarded an official position. At the same time as the title of the gold list, it also ushered in the flower candles in the cave room. At that time, there was a custom of "choosing a son-in-law under the list". The high-ranking officials of the DPRK and the Central Committee all like to choose the son-in-law of Chenglong among the new science and technology jinshi. Ouyang Xiu just became a junior and became the son-in-law of his mentor Xu Yan.

Soon after getting married, Ouyang Xiu said goodbye to his family and went to Luoyang to become an official. At that time, Qian Weiyan, the prefect of Luoyang, was the son of Qian Yu, the king of Wuyue. Qian Wei plays Aicai, treats Ouyang Xiu very well, rarely lets Ouyang Xiu take on trivial administrative affairs, and also supports him to eat, drink and have fun. Later, Qian Weiyan was politically frustrated and was forced to leave Luoyang. Ouyang Xiu and others saw off Qian Weiyan, and both sides shed tears of farewell. The luxurious life in Luoyang not only laid the literary foundation of Ouyang Xiu's life, but also became the best memory of Ouyang Xiu's life. Later, when he was demoted, he also wrote recallingly: "I was a guest of Luoyang flowers, and Ye Fang didn't need to sigh even though it was late." ”

Ouyang Xiu's wife Xu, who married when he was a high school jinshi, died soon after his marriage. Soon after being demoted, Ouyang Xiu married the second daughter of the late Prime Minister Xue Kui. It is worth mentioning that Xue Kui's eldest son-in-law is none other than Wang Gongchen, who participated in the palace examination with Ouyang Xiu and won the champion. Later, Wang Gongchen's wife died, and he married Xue Kui's third daughter and continued to be the son-in-law of the Xue family and Ouyang Xiu's brother-in-law. Ouyang Xiu wrote a poem to ridicule him: "The old son-in-law is the new son-in-law, and the eldest aunt is the younger brother-in-law." ”

Ouyang Xiu was demoted from the court this time, which was related to an affair case.

His nephew-in-law Zhang was born to his brother-in-law's ex-wife, so she was Ouyang Xiu's niece. This woman is beautiful and romantic, extremely lewd, fornicating with the servants of the family, and was caught by her husband and escorted to Kaifeng Mansion. Kaifeng Yin in the trial, in the court, Zhang confessed the name of the adulterer, one of them is Ouyang Xiu, at this time Ouyang Xiu served as the deputy envoy of the privy envoy, the imperial history Qian Xie has always been at odds with him, so as to attack in a big way, he himself also tried his best to justify, although in the end it ended with no evidence, but the reputation was greatly affected, derogatory to Chuzhou, more than a year later, and went to Yangzhou.

As a transit envoy, his main task is to collect local taxes as much as possible for the imperial court and hand them over to the national treasury. The main sources of taxes on Lianghuai East Road are two major blocks, one is the agricultural tax on land and farming, and the other is the tax on salt and the sale of salt. In several salt producing areas in the country, Huai salt has always been known for its large grains and white color, and its output and tax have always ranked first. It can be seen from the table of the Salt and Iron Division that in the past two or three years, the growth rate of Huai Salt's output and tax endowment has been significantly lower than that of Haiyan in eastern Zhejiang and well salt in western Sichuan.

Like previous dynasties, this dynasty also implemented a monopoly system of salt industry, and salt merchants who distributed salt had to come up with money to buy salt. This salt quotation, also known as salt banknotes, is a certificate for taking salt, and can be circulated in tokens. Each piece of salt is worth six copper coins, and you can receive 116.5 catties of salt.

In order to strengthen the management of salt production, the government classified the salt-making farmers as special household registration, exempted from miscellaneous labor, and exclusively controlled. In terms of the amount of salt produced by the pavilion households, the government strictly enforces the law of counting and transporting salt. The index of each ding year is called Ding amount of salt, 35 stones are 5250 catties. The rest of the boiled salt could only be bought in government-run salt warehouses, and if it was found to be sold privately, it was severely punished.

After a period of open investigation and covert visits, Ye Zhengze soon discovered the root cause of the problem: whether a salt farm can actually pay for salt according to the salt introduction, and whether there is a private sale of official salt, depends on the salt farm's supervisors, salt officials, and bag officials. The supervisor is responsible for supervising production, the salt officer is responsible for salt sales, and the bag officer is responsible for the management of salt warehouses. Don't look at it, this official has no grade and no rank, and he is exposed to the wind and sun, but he is a fat difference.

Ye Zhengze also found that because the government implemented a sales policy on the circulation of salt, the salt in each producing area was restricted to a certain area, and the price of salt was set by the government. Some people in remote and backward areas have difficulty buying salt. Scarcity is expensive, which brings opportunities for illicit salt trafficking.

Strictly paying salt according to salt and putting an end to smuggling can ensure the state's salt revenue and curb corruption and bribery of salt officials. In this regard, Ye Zhengze's method of handling it was very extreme: to implement a large rotation of the officials of the 21 salt works in the entire salt area. Originally, all the salt officials in each salt field were served by the officials of the transfer envoy department, and the rest of the supervisors and bag officials were transferred to other salt works with a boundary of 30 miles. Originally, the account books of each salt factory were all handed over to the Transit Envoy for review.