"Xiang ...... To the north, here you are. ”

Gao Gu called intermittently, and then raised an arm with difficulty, as if trying to grasp something.

Seeing Gao Gu's action, Shen Yichen also hurriedly reached over and held him tightly, and a relieved smile appeared on the other party's face.

"Old man, I'm afraid...... I'm afraid it won't work. ”

Nearly seventy years old, in ancient times, he was already a long life, Gao Gu did not escape too much fear, and said this sentence with a relatively calm expression.

"There will always be some minor illnesses when you get older, don't think too much about it in high school, you can recover after a few days of good cultivation."

Even though he knew in his heart that Gao Gu had reached the point of running out of oil and running out of lamps, Shen Yichen still tried his best to comfort the other party in a relaxed tone.

Hearing Shen Yichen's words, Gao Gu shook his head and said freely: "To the north, the old man's physical condition is well known in his heart, so there is no need to be too relieved." To be honest, I can fulfill my promise to Yang Yuanfu, and seeing you stand in the position of the first assistant of the cabinet, God has already treated me well. ”

Gao Gu has no regrets in his heart, he thinks that he has done everything he should do in this life, he is a high-ranking minister in public office, and he fulfills his promise to assist his juniors in private.

If you have to say that there is any other wish, it may be that there is no way to witness Shen Yichen's reform and change, he knows what kind of drastic changes will occur to the whole world when the gentry are on errands and pay food.

"High school, is there anything else I need to ask the younger generation?"

Shen Yichen asked silently, he had indeed received too much help from Gao Gu, but he couldn't repay it. Now that the other party has reached the last stage of his life, as long as Gao Gu speaks and is within his ability, then he will definitely reciprocate.

"I should say that the old man has any last words."

Gao Gu smiled bitterly back, and then a ray of heaviness flashed in his eyes. Although I am mentally prepared to meet death, I still have a memory of this world after all, and it is time to explain the future.

"People are still inevitably selfish, and the old man neglected to discipline his son in his later years, and cultivated a gentleman."

"If you can, the old man cheekily asks to take care of the north to prevent him from going to a dead end!"

has been in officialdom for so many years, Gao Gu knows too well what will happen when there is no one in the court and the arrogant nature of the gentlemen. The only thing he could do was to ask Shen Yichen to take care of him, at least to save his life at a critical moment.

"High school hall rest assured, the juniors are duty-bound, but I'm afraid that Ling Gongzi will have to suffer some hardships."

Taking care of Gao Gu's family can be Shen Yichen's business, but he is definitely not the kind of person who covers up and connives, and only after suffering a lesson and setbacks will he wake up, otherwise he will only be a disaster, which Shen Yichen cannot tolerate.

"It's okay, you can do it to the north."

With Shen Yichen's promise, Gao Gu was relieved, and it might be a good thing for the other party to educate him well.

"Originally, the old man was going to tell you a few words about the court, but when I thought about it, you have already been fearful in the future, and you will not lose to my group of officialdom. The only thing you need to pay attention to is that you don't have a rush mentality, and many things can't be done quickly! ”

Gao Gu still gave a little warning after all, he knew that under the calm surface of the court, there were actually turbulent waves, the civil official group was accumulating strength and preparing to launch a counterattack, and Cao Jixiang was ambitious, and if he didn't pay attention to it, he would become the next Wang Zhen.

With Shen Yichen's current age, he could completely use ten, twenty, or thirty years to do something and eliminate the opposition invisibly.

Time is on Shen Yichen's side, just draw it slowly.

"Juniors understand."

Shen Yichen nodded yes, there is no need to defend anything at this time, let Gao Gu seek peace of mind.

"To the north, I still remember that when I said goodbye to the East Pavilion, the old man said that the literati's lifelong pursuit is to be immortal in virtue, meritorious service, and speech."

"At that time, he had already made a statement that water control is a meritorious service, and if the reform and change of the law are successful, the virtue of the saint will be achieved."

"It's a pity that the old man can't see the day when you succeed in changing the law."

Gao Gu let out a long sigh, then closed his eyes, and his mind fell into deep memories.

He still remembered the back of Shen Yichen's departure from the East Pavilion that day, compared to the red walls and golden tiles of the Forbidden City, a cyan official uniform looked so small. Looking back now, this son has always practiced his original intention and become more and more great.

Hearing Gao Gu suddenly talk about the past of the East Pavilion, Shen Yichen also instantly felt a sour nose, and his eyes immediately turned red. People are like this many times, recalling the past is easy to touch the emotional point in the heart, in fact, even if the court is an official with different political views, who has not had a public heart and righteousness?

"High school, you have a good rest, the juniors will retreat first."

"Go ahead...... Go for it......"

Gao Gu's conversation just now was like a return to the light, and now he fell into a kind of muttering, constantly replying to Shen Yichen's words "go".

Seeing this situation, Shen Yichen gently withdrew from the door, exhaled a long breath, and felt extremely heavy in his heart.

Thinking that when I first entered the official career, the court was full of old ministers of the Yongle and Renxuan dynasties, and I also encountered the tail of the "Sanyang" era. As time passed, Gao Gu had become the last of the cabinet ministers, and he would soon sail west.

Life is just a few autumns, time flies so fast, but it seems like yesterday.

On September 27, the second year of Mingliang, the day after Shen Yichen's visit, Gao Gu passed away.

As a veteran of several dynasties and a cabinet minister, Emperor Ming Liang gave him the honor of mourning after his death, and under the premise that the Ministry of Rites was vacant, Shen Yichen Yue gave the decision to make a decision, and gave Gao Gu the title of "Taibao", and nicknamed "Wenyi", highlighting his achievements in assisting the left dynasty for many years.

At the same time, Shen Yichen also completed Gao Qian's entrustment, and immediately shaded his son Gao Yu to study in the Guozi Prison, and specially visited the Guozi Supervisor for sacrificial wine, entrusting the other party to treat this gentleman strictly.

In addition, Zhao Hongjie was also asked to say that Gao Xiang's fox friends and dog friends would dare to continue to pull him to eat, drink and have fun, and give him a free trip to Jinyi Guard's prison.

You must know that a spy agency like Jinyiwei is already full of deterrence, and with the blessing of Shen Yichen, Zhao Hongjie's power and status have basically reached its peak, who dares not to ignore his words?

Shen Yichen doesn't know if Gao Xiang can finally study with peace of mind and change his evil ways and return to the right, but as long as this kid can honestly live his life as an ordinary person, marry a wife and have children to leave a legacy for the Gao family, he can be regarded as worthy of Gao Qian's deathbed entrustment.

Due to the holding of Gao Gu's funeral, the originally scheduled Ministry of Rites, Shang Shutingtui, was retreated, and the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty basically went to Gaofu to mourn. However, Shen Yichen was not idle, the decree of Qingzhang across the country is just the beginning, and the key depends on how people implement it, otherwise it will be meaningless.

Don't think that clearing the land is a simple matter, let alone putting it in the feudal dynasty, even if it is placed in the modern society with the blessing of various technologies, many countries still can't have accurate figures on the land and cultivated land.

Although Shen Yichen has not yet promulgated the tax law, as soon as the decree of Qingzhang land is issued, the local gentry will be like central officials, and they will soon realize that it has something to do with taxes.

The imperial power of the past dynasties is basically not lower than the county, and the most basic Qipin county officials must have a good relationship with the local famous families if they want to sit in a stable position, and over time, the two sides will be bound into a community of interests.

In order to pay less or not pay taxes, the easiest way is naturally to conceal the true number of acres, anyway, the emperor of the mountain can just report the number casually, can you Shen Yichen still walk all over the mountains and rivers of Daming and measure each piece of land?

Historically, Zhang Juzheng relied on the power of the "test method" to clear out 280 million mu of concealed fields only for partial implementation, and increased taxes by more than 4 million taels per year for the Ming Dynasty. Ten years of law change to fill the treasury, disguised for the Ming Dynasty to continue at least forty years of life, until the three major campaigns of Wanli are still eating the old book of Zhang Juzheng's reform.

Shen Yichen's goal is to surpass Zhang Juzheng, and he believes that the number of acres of land concealed by the Ming gentry class is at least 350 million mu. If all of them can be registered, and then implemented according to the tiered tax system, this part of the silver taels will be more than 6 million taels, and with the construction of water conservancy facilities, it will increase year by year.

It is not an easy thing to dig out this part of the hidden land and collect taxes in the future, even if there is the blessing and persecution of the "test law", there will still be many officials who do not contribute to the work, and casually confess a result to the court.

Since Shen Yichen served as the first assistant of the cabinet, the Ming Dynasty has held two imperial examinations, and a considerable number of "Shen Party" officials have entered the middle and low levels of the Ming Dynasty's various state capitals, and they can greatly improve their administrative ability and efficiency.

However, it is far from enough to rely on the "Shen Party" officials, no matter how partial Li Xian, the secretary of the ministry, is, it is still less than one-tenth of the total number of officials in the Ming Dynasty. If Shen Yichen wants to solve this problem and implement effective supervision of local officials, then start elsewhere.

After thinking about it, Shen Yichen set his sights on the "mortal enemy", the group that has been most disgusted with himself for a long time, that is the "clear stream of officials" in the court!

Although Shen Yichen also hates this group of "rotten Confucians" who only know empty talk about righteousness, he has to admit one thing that he has not been interrupted before the Ming Dynasty Great Rites Discussion Incident, and he has not fallen into the clear stream of party disputes.

Most of them, who can be called literati, are pure idealists!

The concept of serving as an official and benefiting one party is not only Shen Yichen, but also the officials and Qingliu, but the two sides take two completely different paths.

In the supervision system of the clear stream of officials, the Metropolitan Procuratorate actually has a ready-made template, that is, the Thirteen Supervision Imperial History. Patrolling counties and counties through the dispatch of Beijing officials has proven to be very effective in correcting local prisons and investigating official corruption.

It's a pity that the number of people who supervise the imperial history is too small, only more than 100 people in total, which is not enough to be assigned to each state capital.

Since it is not enough to simply supervise the imperial history, it would be good to add six branches to this group of trolls in the matter. If it's not enough, the group of nerds in the Hanlin Academy spend more than ten years repairing books or something, waiting for the opportunity to be promoted step by step, to be honest, it really doesn't mean much.

simply use the sense of justice and the original intention of the official to supervise the implementation of the Ming and Qing dynasties. As the saying goes, the wicked have their own wicked people, and the big trolls in the court don't even give face to the high-ranking officials of the cabinet, and they ask about the impeachment at every turn.

At the same time, in order to ensure their safety, Shen Yichen also planned to transfer a group of soldiers from the Beijing camp to set up a special tax inspection department, and follow the Taoist officials to the countryside to serve as a military presence.

Although the imperial power has not been lower than the county since ancient times, the Ming Dynasty has not yet reached the level of erosion in the later period, the authority of the central government is there, and the local people who dare to do it to the officials of the science and Taoism are still in the very small number after all.

The plan is very full, but the reality is very skinny, the group of Yanguan Qingliu has not dealt with Shen Yichen for so many years, how can it be possible to follow his arrangement to "go to the countryside" to clear the acres of land and check taxes?

You must know that the Beijing officials of the Ming Dynasty have a natural career advantage for foreign officials, and expatriate means degrading officials.

If you can't convince the Yanguan Qingliu group, let's not talk about whether Shen Yichen has the power to forcibly send them out.

Even if there were, this kind of forcible dispatch would not have the slightest effect on supervision, and perhaps the resentful local authorities would begin to join the charge.

If you want to solve this problem, then you must find a respected person to build a bridge as an intermediary, and then use it to persuade the other party with emotion and reason.

In addition, the promulgation of the "Examination Law" is not only useful for Shen Party officials, but also effective for all officials of the Ming Dynasty. As long as you do well, you can also get the opportunity to be promoted quickly, and no one wants to be at the bottom all their lives and be a pure troll in the name of nobility.

After thinking about it, Shen Yichen put the goal of this candidate on Ni Qian, the former attendant of the Hanlin Academy, and now the head of the Hanlin Academy.

Since it was decided, Shen Yichen immediately took action after worshipping Gao Grain. Ni Qian is a literati who is really interested in fame and fortune, and after so many years, he still chooses to stay in the Hanlin Academy to study knowledge, rather than completely devoting himself to the "officialdom" to seek the seat of the cabinet minister.

Standing in front of the threshold of the Hanlin Academy again, looking at the few big characters above his head, Shen Yichen's thoughts in his heart were full of emotion for a while. This was once the starting point of his career, and he crossed this threshold to become a scholar class, which can be described as "the court is Tian Shelang, and the twilight is the Tianzi Hall".

However, after so many years, Shen Yichen has never returned to the Hanlin Academy, because he always feels that he is out of place with the atmosphere here. I didn't expect to come back again after many years, and I actually wanted to invite the officials and Qingliu to go out of the mountain to do something practical, which is really embarrassing.

The military service in front of the door, seeing Shen Yichen's scarlet robe and young face, it was easy to guess his identity, and he didn't dare to stop him in the slightest and immediately bowed and let him go.

In the past, when you saw a cabinet minister, you had to kneel down and salute. However, Shen Yichen has issued decrees in recent years, prohibiting the behavior of martial artists in military uniforms and saluting, maintaining the dignity and honor that soldiers should have.

Stepping over the threshold stone and stepping into the courtyard, the Hanlin people were busy in the duty hall as they had done back then, until one of them casually raised his head and looked at Shen Yichen in the courtyard.

The next scene was that he stood in place dumbfounded, and his whole face was full of disbelief, and the first assistant of the cabinet actually returned to the Hanlin Academy for the first time!