Chang'anjun's policy of recruiting fugitives did not work very well at first.

The thousands of households who had broken away from Nanxiang's household registration and relied on hunting, fishing, and eating wild fruits in the forests around the mountain were living a life without food and clothing, but they could barely survive on the newly opened land, and when Chang'anjun sent people to find their settlement and invite them to return to Nanxiang, everyone refused to believe it.

"Re-granted? Providing seeds, food and clothing? The ragged fugitives were amused when they heard that they were from the county.

"How can there be such a good thing in the world, I'm afraid it didn't trick us into going out of the mountain, and we should be arrested as slaves!" Older people are extremely wary.

"I only see the county officials who have said that they are urging taxes, and the county officials who have not heard of the benefits given to us, they must be deceitful!"

When Post Wuxin informed Chang Anjun of the feedback from the fugitives, Chang Anjun and Cai Ze looked at each other.

Mingyue was a little angry on the spot: "It seems that Qi County is so difficult to govern, it is all a mess left by the previous county officials, and the government is as harsh as a tiger, driving the people away." ”

Fortunately, the Qin and Hanjun counties next to it are not much better, they are all heavy taxes and heavy labor, otherwise these people would have gone to Hedong and Shangdang a long time ago.

Cai Ze shook his head and said: "It's no wonder that the county officials, after all, the annual calculation is not based on the well-being of the local people, but on the amount of taxes paid......

In the Zhao Kingdom, each county had to regularly report to the central government in September each year on its local tax revenues, household statistics, and public order conditions, and the imperial court evaluated the performance of the local chief executive.

Cai Zedao: "The minister has heard of one thing, back then, Yan Zi governed Dong'e for a year, and did not accept the personal request of the local tycoon, and did not accept financial gifts; The mountains, forests and rivers are open to the people, so that the poor people can benefit from frost and hunger, but at the end of the year, Qi Jinggong saw that Dong'e's taxes were less, and the local chief was also very dissatisfied with Yanzi, so he indiscriminately blamed Yanzi, thinking that Yanzi had made Dong'e chaotic, and ordered him to improve within a year, otherwise he would be dismissed. ”

In another year, Qi Jinggong looked at Dong'e's plan again and found that the taxes had increased, and the elders were full of praise for Yan Zi, so they praised Yan Zi again and again. However, this time, Yan Zi pleaded guilty to Qi Jinggong, saying that he had reversed his previous attitude this time, not only obeying the personal requests of the wealthy elders, accepting property and gifts, and letting the children of each family fill the county officials, mountains, forests and rivers, prohibiting the people from using them, and handed them over to the Haochang's family to open mines and cut wood for profit. In addition, the levy of taxes was doubled, and the use of rhetoric and money to curry favor with the court's close ministers, now, more than half of the people in Dong'e are starving, but the monarch is not worried but happy, Yan Zi said, the ministers are foolish can not govern Dong'a, willing to beg bones, avoid the road of the sage......"

Yan Zi relied on this incident to warn Qi Jinggong that he could not just look at the plan and listen to the words of his close ministers to judge the merits of governing the city.

After talking about this matter, Cai Ze sighed: "With Yan Pingzhong's sage, if the plan is not good, he will also be punished by the monarch, not to mention the ordinary county officials." They are outsiders, and the first thing they do when they take office everywhere is to curry favor with the local chiefs, recruit their children, and open the door for each family. Whenever they are counted upwards, those who hand in more grain than in previous years are often regarded as capable officials and are promoted, while those who hand in less than in previous years are regarded as mediocre officials and are rebuked......"

Cai Ze said that the county magistrates in the princes' localities can be roughly divided into three categories: the superior is the Ximen leopard, who has enough insight and courage to break the traditional barriers, lead the people to open canals and get rich, and at the same time let the people live a good life, they can also hand in a plan that satisfies the king, and the more the place is governed, the better.

The middle ones are ordinary officials, who can make a certain balance between their political achievements and the lives and deaths of the people, and the people can barely make ends meet, and they will not be short of food handed over to the state.

The inferior ones are like the previous county officials of Qi County, in order to climb up, compete to implement harsh government and exploit the people, and bribe the officials, as for the well-being of the people, can the praise of the people reach the ears of the monarch? Can it be counted as a political achievement? As long as the policy remains unchanged, there will be no relaxation below.

In this way, they ignored the military disasters and droughts in Qi County, and repeatedly raised taxes, which finally led to the flight of the people, the drop in household registration, and the destruction of border order.

The replacement of bureaucrats for doctors, while generally improving tax efficiency, is not necessarily a good thing for people in individual places. The people can only pray that they can meet a good official with a conscience, but not every county official has the benevolence of Yanzi, and not every county official has the vision of Ximen Leopard to lead the people to create wealth.

Cai Ze's words were sobering, and Mingyue said after pondering for a long time: "Fishing with all your might, won't you get it?" There will be no fish in the coming year; Burn the serval and the field, will you not get it? There will be no beasts in the coming year......"

Playing like this in Nanxiang, which has been plagued by war and drought, the final result is that there are fewer and fewer fish, and finally when it is Mingyue's turn to accept this pond, there are no fish to be found.

But in the end, he laughed.

"This is indeed a dead knot that is difficult to untie, and the county officials must choose between political performance and the life and death of the people, but fortunately I don't have to."

The county officials only need to be responsible upwards, even if the local government is angry and resentful, they will be transferred away after a few years.

The feudal monarch is different, he also needs to be responsible for his subordinates, and he can't force the people too much, after all, everyone hopes to pass on the territory from generation to generation, and in case of crisis, the territory can become the last refuge.

Cai Ze also suggested: "However, if Gongzi wants to be stable in Qi County, he still needs to follow Yin Duo's rule of Jinyang......"

More than 200 years ago, when Zhao Jianzi sent Yin Duo to govern Jinyang, Yin Duo asked: "The lord sent his ministers to Jinyang, did he let the ministers loot the wealth of the people like a cocoon?" Or do you want the minister to build the Jinyang camp into a safe place for the Zhao family? Zhao Jianzi, who had the intention of making the family stand out in the Liuqing, of course chose to let Jinyang as a guarantee, so Yin Duo went to the local area, reduced taxes, and won the support of the people, Zhao Jianzi also instructed his son Zhao Wuxian to say that once the Zhao family is in trouble, don't be afraid that Jinyang is far away, and must use it as the last barrier of the family!

Sure enough, later the Zhi clan invited Han and Wei to besiege Zhao Wuxian, and Zhao Wuxian relied on the full support of the people of Jinyang to survive the most difficult three years.

In Cai Ze's eyes, the so-called popular will is a kind of force that is used to enhance the power of the sovereign. Yin Duo's fundamental purpose is to win the hearts of the people, so that when the Zhao family is in danger, the people of Jinyang can stand up and work for the Zhao family.

Feng Chen's righteousness for Meng Weijun in Xuecheng is also based on this kind of thinking.

"The Queen Mother gave her son heavy weapons and treasures, dogs and horses in the stables, and beauties filled Chen, and her status has reached the point where no matter how meritorious she is, she will not be rewarded. In the opinion of the ministers, what the prince lacks is not a treasure, nor a plan that satisfies Handan, but the support of the people in the territory! ”

Mingyue listened to Cai Ze's suggestion, and agreed that the harsh government of Qi County over the years could not continue, and he needed to regain the trust of the people of Nanxiang and even the people of the county.

"Pass the order, from now on, the people of Beixiang, Dongxiang and Xixiang in Qi County will pay half their taxes within one year; If the fugitives in Nanxiang are willing to return to their hometowns, each household will be granted 100 acres of land, and the government will provide seeds, lend cattle, and the taxes will be completely exempted within one year and halved within three years! ”

"From tomorrow, let the county and township officials bring grain into the mountains again to publicize the new policy of Qi County, and I will also personally go to the nearby fugitive strongholds and invite the people to go out of the mountains!"

PS: Chapter 2 before 12 o'clock 8)