Chen Ge couldn't have imagined that the territory under Xie Xing's jurisdiction would be like this.

Because he dragged the royal family in his hands, the world believed that Xie Xing's sphere of influence was the orthodoxy of the country, and the territory under his jurisdiction should be the most prosperous, prosperous, and representative of the great power of Great Chu for more than 400 years.

Although Chen Ge also saw some desolate and barren scenes on the way to the wedding from the memory of the original owner, because the original owner spent most of the time lingering on the sickbed on the way to the wedding, and the scenes he saw were limited, Chen Ge always thought that it was just an isolated phenomenon.

Now, it seems that it is not the same thing at all.

What exactly is Xie Xing doing?

Although the states under Wei Yuan's jurisdiction cannot be said to have completely escaped the influence of the troubled times, most of them are also peaceful and stable, and although the people occasionally lament the difficulties of the world, they will not be reduced to the extent that no one cares about starving to death on the streets.

So she always thought that the same was true elsewhere.

On the first night of entering Xie Xing's territory, they arrived in Xuzhou near the Li River, and on the way into the city, Chen Ge looked at the homeless people crowded outside the city gate with sad eyes and numbness, and his mood was complicated.

Lu Wen, who was riding a horse and following her carriage, noticed Chen Ge's gaze, and also smiled slightly bitterly: "Although I have heard that Xie Xing never cares about the displaced people coming from other places, it is still a little unbelievable to see it with his own eyes." ”

Chen Ge couldn't help but look at him and asked, "Why don't you care?" ”

That's his people, isn't it?

"Madame doesn't know?" Lu Wen was a little surprised, organized his language, and said, "Madame, do you know what Xie Xing relied on to stabilize his current position?" ”

Chen Ge was stunned for a moment, puzzled: "It's not the royal family? ”

Lu Wen shook his head, a touch of contempt flashing in his eyes.

"The royal family has long since fallen, and now it is just a fig leaf for him.

Xie Xing's ability to secure his current position depends on the family of Da Chu.

The Great Chu has continued to this day, it has a history of more than 400 years, and many of those big families have risen up with the ancestor emperors, they have taken root in Great Chu for a long time, and they have already spread to all corners of Great Chu, and the officialdom is the children of these big families.

They pride themselves on their dignity, hold real power, even military power, form gangs, and eradicate dissidents.

Madame doesn't know, right? Our old lord was persecuted by Xie Xing back then, because as a self-made general in the army who did not rely on any family at all, he invisibly violated the interests of those families. ”

Chen Ge was stunned.

Although she knew that Wei Yuan's father and mother were persecuted to death by the first emperor and Xie Xing, she only heard about this level of reason today.

The upward arc of Lu Wen's mouth became more and more mocking, "Madame thinks Xie Xing is really so beautiful?" He's just a puppet of those big families.

The extravagance of their lives is unimaginable to ordinary people, and the people are nothing more than lowly grass mustard in their eyes, as long as they do not violate their interests, they can tolerate them to live in this land, and once their interests are violated, they will be ruthlessly expelled and killed, which is simply inhumane.

Madame probably doesn't know, right? There is a popular game among the children of those families in Xunyang City, which is to hunt the living.

Although the rules say that good people other than slaves and sinners cannot be hunted, as far as their subordinates know, the arrogant children of the family ignore these so-called rules, and often because some common people have collided with them, they are carried to the hunting grounds, and let them participate in this cruel game of death. ”

Chen Ge was shocked to the extreme, but he slowly calmed down.

She really didn't know these things, although the original owner had been bullied and abused by Chen Xinyou when he was a child, he had always lived in the back house, and his perception of the outside world was really narrow.

It's just that, looking back now, what Chen Xinyou did to the original owner and the other concubines and concubines of the Chen family can be said to be inhumane.

She used to wonder what kind of family could raise such a little devil with no humanity? Now that I hear Lu Wen's words, could it be that Chen Xinyou's situation is not special? She may be just a microcosm of the children of those families in Xunyang.

She suddenly thought of what Chen Haoan said to her through gritted teeth on the night when Wanyan set up the bureau - "Da Chu is rotten from the roots." ”

Zhong Niang and Lan Yi on the side heard Lu Wen's words, although their faces were also heavy, they were not surprised at all, obviously they had already heard of it.

The original owners are the masters in the end, and they live at the bottom, so they will only be more aware and empathetic about these situations.

Lu Wen shook his head again and said, "Now most of the income of the treasury is used to maintain the extravagant life of these families, and in such a world, the expenses of the army should not be underestimated, and the remaining money is not enough for the operation of a country."

The interests of the big families cannot be moved, and the army must always maintain a certain size, and correspondingly, the interests of the common people can only be reduced.

The subordinates heard that the territory under Xie Xing's jurisdiction had heavier taxes than those under the jurisdiction of the lord and Liu Hou, and whenever there was a natural or man-made disaster, the government's actions were very limited, and even its own people were unable to settle down, let alone settle these displaced people.

You must know that the silver we use to settle the displaced people every year is a large expense, and it is because the White Army Division and the lord insist that they cannot reduce it, so they have been struggling to maintain it.

Fortunately, the lord has always lived a simple life, and he has always forbidden the people under him to have any extravagant behavior, and the lord's expenditure in this regard is the least among the three existing forces. ”

When he said the last sentence, Lu Wen's face was full of pride, as if the person who praised him was himself.

Rao is Chen Ge frowned when he heard this, and when he saw him like this, he couldn't help but laugh out loud.

It seemed that she had not thought wrong before, it was not an easy task for Wei Yuan to maintain the turnover of sixteen states.

If she hadn't fooled at the beginning...... cough, pull Chang Dongyang and Cheng Yi to invest money in the construction of her medical hall and the cultivation of medicinal herbs, her plan is going to be stranded nine times out of ten.

At this moment, the carriage slowly stopped in front of an inn.

Most of the soldiers pitched their tents outside the city for the night, and only a few generals and a small group of soldiers followed them into the city.

After opening a room in the inn, Chen Ge grabbed Wei Yuan, who was going to talk to the soldiers, and said, "On the way, I checked the pulse of Fourteen Niang, and she seemed to be cold and had some typhoid fever.

She is weak now, but she has too few clothes with her, and I would like to go with her to the ready-to-wear shop in the city to get some clothes later. ”

This returned to Xunyang, and Chen Li and Chen Xinyou also followed them back.

Chen Li was originally close to her, and since she knew that she was in danger to save her, she was even more heartfelt and heartfelt to her, and along the way, she came over to talk to her from time to time.

Wei Yuan frowned subconsciously, but he knew that Chen Ge was bored along the way, she said this, in fact, she also wanted to go out for a walk, and then thought that this was in the city, and she was also protected by guards and secret guards, so he quietly pressed the reluctance in his heart, nodded and said in a deep voice: "Be careful, if you notice danger, send someone to call me immediately, come back before dark, don't run around." ”

As soon as he opened his mouth, there was a series of requests, and Chen Ge suddenly had the illusion of being nagged by the old father at home, and couldn't help but look at the sky, and said funny: "Yes, yes, I know." ”

Xuzhou is a small city, obviously it is not dinner time, but the streets are sparsely populated and deserted.

The streets were also full of beggars and homeless people, and the bright crowd of people who saw them looked at them with a gaze that was almost dead silent.

That look makes people hair for no reason.

Suddenly, a beggar who looked to be five or six years old was holding a broken bowl in his hand and running towards them.

The guards beside Chen Ge frowned, and with one step, they stood in front of her and Chen Li, looking at the little beggar who was still running towards them with a wary face.