In Datang, if a horse is lost, is it a difficult thing to find it, or is it a simple thing?

It depends on where the horse was lost, who lost it, and what the horse belonged to.

If it is a private horse, if it is lost, it will be lost, and the government will be responsible for leaving you a file in line with the principle of "more is better than less".

And if the horses of the government are lost in the territory of this state, they can generally be recovered, and they can even be recovered quickly. Because the horses have soldering irons on their bodies, they are marked with the horse prints unique to the state capital.

Moreover, horses are not inconspicuous small animals like mice, they are still a kind of "armament", which is particularly sensitive.

In the local area, if anyone has an extra horse, it is obvious in the eyes of the locals.

Even if you want to sell the stolen goods, you must find a horse dealer, and no matter where the horse dealer is, he is registered with the local government, and it is not difficult to find a horse dealer according to the map.

In fact, the seriousness of this matter is far beyond Fang Chongyong's imagination.

When Gao Shang came to the county government of Sanshui County to report the case, this matter instantly rose to the political height of "there are gangsters trying to assassinate key members of the center", which made Sanshui County County Ling Yang's name so nervous that it was about to explode!

The central government came to supervise the imperial history of the state on business, and the horses he used, which belonged to the state capital, were actually stolen within the jurisdiction of Sanshui County!

To put it mildly, this is the unfavorable governance of Sanshui County, the people's customs are bad, and there are groups of bandits.

To put it mildly, this is a prelude to the assassination of the favored ministers of the Son of Heaven, but the follow-up conspiracy has not yet been revealed!

In view of this, it must be checked, and it must be checked!

Yang's name is not an ordinary county order, although his official is very small, but it is because he has been demoted all the way that he has served as such a small official!

In fact, even if he debuted in an official position, it was bigger than the county order of Sanshui County, the county order of Zhongzhou.

From the county order to the county order, it has been circulating for many years, and it has not been promoted for many years.

Yang's posthumous name is Hongnong Yang's origin, five years after the opening of the Yuan Dynasty, with the shadow of the door, to supplement the Chongwenguan students. Chongwen Pavilion, that's not something that ordinary people can go in to class, what kind of Guozijian and the like are compared to Chongwen Pavilion, they are all younger brothers.

He started with a high threshold, serving as the right prison gate to lead the palace Cao, specifically responsible for protecting the former prince...... Li Ying.

So it is obvious that Brother Ji killed three sons in one day that year, and Yang's name was also unlucky, and he went from a rising star in politics to a street rat.

First of all, he was demoted to the Right Xiaowei Mansion Cao, and worked in the Right Xiaowei, the "unorganized" department of the Southern Ya Forbidden Army, and Yang's task was to take care of the treasury, and his power was not as good as that of an ordinary official in charge of collecting taxes in Chang'an.

Soon he was released as a county magistrate and was pushed to the end. Then it was leveled to Xinping County, and then moved to Sanshui County, which can be described as a bumpy official road.

If there is no accident, his next stop should be to serve as the county magistrate of a certain county, and then change to another place as the county magistrate, and finally die in office.

Yang's posthumous name was also wide back then, if it weren't for Li Ying being deposed and killed, he would most likely hold positions such as six Shangshu after the other party succeeded to the throne, this is the rule of "one son of heaven and one courtier".

Yang Zhiming, who was well aware of the cruelty of the political struggle, immediately dispatched all the people who could move in the county government to post notices in each village, and the two county lieutenants knocked on the door of each house to inquire about it, and the lieutenants of each village were summoned to issue a search warrant, making sure to catch the thief and return the innocence of the Yang county order.

That's right, if you can't find the thief, Yang's name is a big disaster! Well, it's more appropriate to describe it as a big event. Because he was originally a close confidant of the former crown prince Li Ying, it was because of this that he never got promoted.

The ability of an official who has lost power to resist risks is even lower than that of an official with no background!

A day later, in the county hall of Sanshui County, three middle-aged men in ragged clothes knelt down, who were beaten with blue noses and swollen faces. It was they who took the sheep by the hand and "walked" Fang Chongyong and noble horses by the Jingshui River.

In the case of the general mobilization of the Sanshui County government to "find horses", the "horse thief" was quickly found, and the horses belonging to the government were also found...... But the horse meat that has been turned into boiled is boiling in the pot!

The facts of this case couldn't be simpler.

In a certain village in Sanshui County, to be specific, in the village where Fang Chongyong was exploring in the coal mine, there were three idle veterans Qiu Ba, who were called "rangers" if they were good, and ruffians and hooligans when they went to Jingshui to prepare to dig ice and fish, and saw two "ownerless" horses.

Since it is ownerless, it is understandable to take it back and then find a horse dealer to sell it, right?

So the three of them led the horse and left, not looking at whose horse it belonged or whether they could steal it. Anyway, it's not the first time they've done such a thing.

As a result, before the three of them got home, one of them found that there seemed to be a vague official seal near the horse's buttocks!

After looking closely, I found that both horses belonged to the Bizhou Mansion! This will freak out the three of them!

The three rammed goods originally wanted to sell the horse to exchange for some wine money, and go to the wine shop in the county town to have a dash, but they didn't expect that this horse was actually the horse of the Bizhou Mansion. There was no choice but to slaughter the horse and eat some horse meat.

Otherwise, wouldn't it be in vain? Even if they send the horses back now, they are guilty of not eating the meat and causing a commotion. It's better to eat the horse meat and bury the horse bones in an inconspicuous place. After a long time, who will investigate these things?

As a result, when the county lieutenant found the three of them, the horse meat was boiling in the big pot at home. The three of them are all veterans who have been discharged from the army, they can't find a daughter-in-law, one person eats enough for the whole family and is not hungry, except that they will not kill people easily, there are no other things they dare not do, and they have no scruples.

These three people themselves are registered in the yamen of Sanshui County, and it is not the first time that they have stolen chickens and dogs on weekdays.

This incident made Fang Chongyong a little difficult to ride a tiger, he originally came to Pizhou to do things in a low-key manner, but he didn't expect to be given a flying dragon face by three ruffians who had no power and identity!

The official system of the Tang Dynasty was very magical, the same kind of official position, used on different people, would change according to the collocation of other official positions on that person, and even the effect was very different.

For example, the position of "Imperial Historian", originally the big man of the Imperial Palace, the center of the imperial court, was the Imperial Historian, but in many festival envoys, he also carried the official position of "Imperial Historian".

This is not to say that they can exercise the authority of the Imperial Historian, but that the rank of the Temperance Envoy is equal to the "Imperial Historian" in the center.

The same official position, different powers, very typical.

The same is true of the Imperial History.

Therefore, Fang Chongyong has the position of supervising the imperial history, but whether he can actually use it depends on who his "messenger" is going to "supervise", and there is a question of whether the "artifact" is in his hand or not.

Specifically, in this matter, it means that Fang Chongyong went to Pizhou for a "business trip", what did he come for. At the same time, local officials need to have a basic judgment on this.

And the unspoken rule of this officialdom is to see if there are "subordinate officials" assigned by the imperial court to supervise the imperial history around Fang Chongyong.

A supervising imperial history has at least more than 20 subordinate officials! If you really move, it's not just one person but a group of people!

If Fang Chongyong brought a group of people to the Bizhou Mansion to find the assassin Shi Gonggong, then his position was to picket the lawlessness of the Pizhou officialdom.

To put it bluntly, I'm here to do things! Impeachment of officials!

In this way, not only will the Bizhou government not cooperate with his work, but will "do business" and wear small shoes for him everywhere.

At that time, Fang Chongyong didn't say that he was exploring coal mines, but he had to worry about the safety of his neck when he went out.

But if Fang Chongyong came alone, then it was clearly not to picket the lawlessness of local officials.

Therefore, when Li Qiwu saw Fang Chongyong, he warmly received him as if he was an old friend, gave him the greatest cooperation, and recommended his cronies to give Fang Chongyong a hand, just because: the other party came here without malicious intent, but a good opportunity to communicate with the central party and pull backers.

This is a win-win situation that is beneficial to both parties and has a tacit understanding with each other. Unexpectedly, a few horse thieves broke the calm of the officialdom in Pizhou.

"Fang Yushi, the person has been caught, and the horses are from the Bizhou Mansion, how do you think this matter is better handled?"

County Yahoutang, Sanshui County Lingyang, who was in his forties, bowed cautiously with his crossed hands, and asked Fang Chongyong, who was too young when his son was too young. Above officialdom, the older you are, the less valuable and potential you have. The almost fifty-year-old Yang Zhiming is humble to Fang Chongyong, who is more than ten years old, which is just the norm in officialdom.

Don't bully the young man into being poor, if the young man is no longer poor, you have to be more polite, because he will not only continue to be rich in the future, but may even have power!

"And what is the crime of stealing horses?"

Fang Chongyong pretended not to know, and asked a little confusedly.

Yang Yiming laughed dryly and said: "The horse thief is dead, Tang Luming clearly wrote it." ”

In fact, this sentence is not entirely correct, because the criminal law and punishment in the Tang Dynasty actually have to be divided into circumstances. For example, why did the prisoner steal the horse, because of official business, or because he wanted to make money?

After stealing a horse, did it finally return it, or did it sell or kill the horse for meat?

In different cases, the scale of punishment is also different. The "subjectivity" of criminals accounts for a large proportion.

The lightest is only fifty lashes, and then the heavier ones are three thousand miles of exile, cutting off both hands and other punishment packages, and the heaviest is the execution.

The reason why Yang said that the horse thief died was because these people deserved to die! According to the normal Tang law, these people are capital crimes! What's more, they are still rangers who don't do anything about production!

"Soldiers who are recruited or retired from the government are unable to farm after arriving in the township, so they can only become rangers, stealing chickens and dogs all day long. Is there a lot of this kind of thing in Sanshui County? ”

Fang Chongyong asked with a smile, but the smile on his face looked a little meaningful.

Yang Zhiming put him stunned when he first entered the officialdom, but he didn't know that Fang Ya had nothing to do and studied the explicit and unspoken rules of the Tang Dynasty officialdom, and now he is a very skilled "old bureaucrat".

Yang Yiming was shocked, but looking at this sentence, he knew that Fang Chongyong was by no means a vain person, and he had a lot of experience in dealing with Qiu Ba!

In fact, in the past, the soldiers who were discharged from the army and returned to their hometowns would themselves cause great social problems in the local area, which is no longer a legend, but something that really happened back then. There is such a reason why Brother Ji ordered the abolition of the government military system.

Not only because the time of service is often limited to five or six years, but he has been separated from farming and production for a long time and has lost his farming skills; It is even more because these people are accustomed to the life of licking blood from the knife in the army, and they are no longer willing to return to the ordinary and let others slaughter their fate.

Therefore, it is not news that these retired government soldiers and even military recruits gather people in the township to make trouble, let alone just steal chickens and dogs!

"Don't hide it from Fang Yushi, this kind of thing...... Actually, it's quite a lot. ”

Yang said in a sneering manner, being suppressed by Fang Chongyong and unable to raise his head, he could only say that.

"So killing the three of them now on the charge of stealing horses will deter those who are desperate to commit crimes because they are hungry?"

Fang Chongyong sighed helplessly and asked.

Yang Yiming thought for a while, lowered his voice and said:

"The sage ordered Guanzhong to make peace, and the grain of the people in the prefectures and counties of Guanzhong was sent to Chang'an, and there was no surplus grain for the family. If these rangers don't steal the official warehouse, they can already be regarded as keeping to themselves. Stealing chickens and dogs on weekdays is really forbidden, and there are not many people in the county to arrest bandits. ”

Hearing this, Fang Chongyong immediately understood that Chang'an's "inflation output" really affected the surrounding areas of Guanzhong.

In the final analysis, it is "exchanging light goods for heavy goods", exchanging cloth from the south of the Yangtze River for grain. If the food in Chang'an is cheaper, the price of food around Chang'an will rise, and those homeless rangers will have a more difficult time.

Along the way, Fang Chongyong found that the people of Pizhou, from the post guards to the three horse thieves, were obviously malnourished. Compared with the people of Chang'an, it's not a little bit worse!

These people have no paperwork to travel, they can't go to Chang'an at will, and how they live a hard life in the local area can only depend on their personal imagination.

Full of warmth and lust, hunger and cold make a thief's heart, horse thieves are not born to steal horses, the reason why this is so is because reality "educated" them.

It is not surprising that there is a shortage of grain in Pizhou, because Chang'an is not short of grain, which does not mean that Guanzhong is not short of grain.

Fang Chongyong has a deep understanding of the method of harmony, and even uses it as a "financial credit" in Shazhou. The word "籴" means that the people's grain and straw enter the official warehouse, and the prefix in front of this word is the key to the policy.

How does the government get grain from the people, and what is the purpose, these are the key questions that must be answered.

Whether it is to stabilize prices, or to prepare for war, or to support the capital, there are university questions here, and the difference is a thousand miles. At present, Chang'an's "peace envoys" should buy grain from the private sector and distribute the share to each county.

As for whether the apportionment is fair or not, and what kind of means the county government uses to collect grain, in fact, we can see that there must be many unfair things happening by referring to the quality and institutional configuration of the central and local bureaucrats in the feudal era.

Expectations of these people should not be too high.

The bandits who steal horses deserve to die, but the bigger "bandits" are in Chang'an, in the court, and in the palace!

Horse thieves should be killed, so should these bigger "bandits" be killed?

Fang Chongyong sighed silently in his heart, and decided to let the three horse thieves go.

"Since they steal horses and eat horses, then exile to Hexi to raise horses, it should also be in line with Tang law, right?

The official believes that it is better to let the horse-eaters raise horses to atone for their crimes and serve their sentences than to simply and brutally kill them.

What does Yang County Ling think? ”

Fang Chongyong asked quietly.

Yang Yiming thought for a while and said, "That's true. ”

The flexibility of Datang's criminal law, Fang Chongyong is very proficient, and the typical official characters are two mouths, whether they are dead or alive depends on this mouth. The other party's official is more powerful and heavy, and he is so skillful in using it, Yang's name is really speechless.

"Hahahaha, let's do it. This official came to Sanshui County to explore the coal pit, and in the future, there are still many places that need the cooperation of Yang County's order. ”

Fang Chongyong patted Yang Zhiming's shoulder and laughed, obviously no longer caring about the theft of horses.

"Fang Yushi is really magnanimous, and he has the belly of the prime minister."

Yang Yiming couldn't help but salute with his hands crossed and complimented, and he breathed a sigh of relief in his heart.

When Gao Shang came to the county government before, he used the tiger skin to pull the banner, making the chickens and dogs in the county jump, as if he would be dismissed if he couldn't do a good job as a county order.

Unexpectedly, Fang Chongyong's board was raised high, and he put it down so gently, even the horse thieves fell lightly. Sure enough, being able to become a celebrity around the Son of Heaven at a young age does have its merits.

"Okay, the official is now back in Chang'an. Regarding the matter of horse compensation, you can hand over to Li Tingshi.

The punishment of the prisoner has been sentenced, how to compensate for the loss, then a charter must be made, so that these people can serve their debts after serving their debts, and then go to the frontier to raise horses and serve their sentences. ”

Fang Chongyong waved his hand and said.

Small cases should be dealt with smaller, don't make extraneous branches, this is the experience that Fang Chongyong honed when he was a assassin in Shazhou, and it is just right to use it now.

"Eh, okay, send Fang Yushi."

Yang said attentively.

"No need, just go by yourself."

After Fang Chongyong finished speaking, he turned around and left, not wanting to stay for a moment. On this trip to Pizhou, he saw all kinds of chaos, which made him disappointed.

This is the case in Guanzhong Prefecture and County, and outside of Guanzhong, it is even more unthinkable.

(End of chapter)