Chapter 34 Insight

Yang Yong and his party lived in Wanrong County for four or five days and had roughly figured out the situation in Wanrong County. Wanrong County belongs to Hedong County, located on the edge of the Yellow River, and the Fen River meets the Yellow River in the middle. Hedong is rich and rich in Shang Yidun during the Spring and Autumn Period, Zhou Bo, Jianghou of the Han Dynasty, and Guan Yu, famous general of the Three Kingdoms, all came from Hedong.

There is also a temple at the intersection of Huangfen and Rivers in Wanrong County, which is the Holy Mother of Houtu. The Holy Mother of Houtu is Nuwa. This temple is said to be the strong desire to worship our ancestors after Huangdi defeated the Chiyou tribe in the Battle of Zhuolu and completed the unification of China. With a strong desire to worship our ancestors, the place where the supreme female king of the matriarchal society lived and reproduced, the place where Fenyin Miaoqian Village, the supreme female king of the matriarchal society was swept into an altar. Therefore, later generations regarded the Houtu temple here as the ancestor of the temple in China.

During the Han Dynasty, the court designated the sacrifice of Houtu as a national ritual system, and clearly stipulated that "Houtu in Fenyin was a sacred temple in three years, and Mount Tai was built every five years." After the Han Dynasty fell apart, the world was in chaos. Although there were no large-scale sacrifices in the court, the nearby prefectures and counties kept sacrificing the Houtu Niangniang Temple. Wanrong County was so prosperous that it benefited from the Houtu Niangniang Temple in the territory.

Another reason for the prosperity of Wanrong County is that the large yellow cows in the country are tall, long, large skeletons, lion heads, tiger brains, and thick limbs. They are more popular than the yellow cows that flow into the Central Plains on the grassland. Every year, vendors from all over the country sell yellow cows are always in constant contact, so there are so many restaurants and inns in Wanrong County.

It is July now, not the peak of selling scalpers. If the cattle sellers flock to Wanrong County after September, the county's inns and restaurants will be full. If the birthday of Houtu Niang Niang in March and April, Wanrong County will be crowded, and later people will find it difficult to find a place to stay.

Although Wanrong County had these two unique conditions, when Zhou and Qi split, Wanrong County was still inevitably weak because Wanrong was at the battle between the two armies on the border. It was not until Qi was unified by Zhou that this place was no longer a border and became an inland area. Yuwen Cheng took office at that time and became the county magistrate of Wanrong County.

When Yuwen Cheng first took office, due to frequent wars, Wanrong County was in ruins and had only 2,000 households, and was rated as Xiazhong County. Yuwen Cheng has been serving as the county magistrate for seven years. In seven years, Wanrong was rated as Zhongzhong from a Xiazhong County. The number of households in the population has more than doubled, and he is already considered a capable official. If Yuwen Cheng reported to the court, Wanrong County could be rated as Shangshang County, I am afraid that the court either suspected that it was false or wanted to establish a typical example and promoted Yuwen Cheng to the title.

Yang Yong took his guards around the streets of Wanrong County these days, and naturally knew that Wanrong County could be rated as Shangshang County without fakes. Since this is the case, why did Yuwen become the court? You should know that Fang Gongyi, the magistrate of Xinfeng County, was the first in the third auxiliary, and the emperor directly assigned Fang Renyi to Sima Dezhou. Sima was the fifth rank, which was four levels different from the seventh rank county magistrate. If Yuwen Cheng reported Wanrong's political achievements and were confirmed by the court, then the treatment would at least not be worse than Fang Renyi.

In the main hall of the inn, except for the two of them, Yang Yong summoned everyone around him: "Tell me, what do you think of Wanrong County?"

Liu Hu first said: "Young master, I thought Wanrong County was very prosperous, and things were abnormal, and Wanrong County was just a central county, so how could it be so prosperous?"

Xing'er whispered from the side: "Little Huzi, isn't Wanrong prosperous? I wish there was the prosperity of Wanrong County everywhere in the Sui Dynasty."

Xiaohuzi was naturally the nickname Xing'er gave to Liu Hu. Liu Hu was eighteen years old and had great progress in military tactics and martial arts. He thought that he would follow the prince and at least be the general in the future. The nickname of Xiaohuzi was very harmful to his image. However, facing Xing'er, who was sharp-tongued, Liu Hu had to pretend not to hear it.

Lu Mulin said in a deep voice: "The prosperity of Wanrong County is naturally nothing wrong with it. I just deliberately concealed it from the court, so it is a pity. Wanrong County has reached the standard of Shangshang County, but only reported Zhongzhong County to the court. If he charges taxes from each household according to the standard of the court, the taxes held every year may have exceeded the taxes paid. Moreover, Wanrong, in addition to agricultural taxes, may have more commercial taxes. Wouldn't this huge fee fall into Yuwen Cheng?"

Xing'er clapped her hands and shouted, "I understand. This Yuwencheng is a corrupt official, young master, so arrest him quickly."

Of course, it is not a problem to arrest Yuwen Cheng. Just because he concealed so many state taxes, it is enough to remove Yuwen Cheng from his post as the people, and sentence him to another three thousand miles to defend the border. Moreover, if Yuwen Cheng is arrested, Yan and Fan's two families will definitely be involved. Yang Yong came to Wanrong County to arrest Yan. Fan's two censors took the blame, but unexpectedly, he led a Wanrong County Magistrate in. This move would definitely shock the officials in the court and dare not underestimate the East Palace again.

However, there was a slight inconvenience in Yang Yong's heart, as if Yu Wencheng could not move easily, but he could not think of where this uneasiness came from. Not to mention a county magistrate, even the chief of a prefecture and a state, as long as he found out that he was indeed illegal and disorderly, Yang Yong could also take it down on the spot.

With one state and one prefecture, Yang Yong finally knew where this uneasiness came from: "Mu Lin, who is the county magistrate of Hedong County?"

"Return to the young master, the county magistrate of Hedong County is Zhang Xu."

"Zhang Xu, can you have detailed information about this person?"

"Does your son suspect that Zhang Xu was involved in this matter?" Lu Mulin was excited. Wan Rong thought it was just a small matter, but he didn't expect it to be implicated in the prefectures of a county. The Sui Dynasty was divided into three levels of prefectures and counties. In fact, due to the chaos of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the prefectures were increasingly divided. The prefectures of the big county were higher than the governor of the Xiaozhou. Hedong County belonged to the Zhong County. The prefectures were already from the fifth-rank official, while some governors of the small state were only the sixth-rank. Yang Jian had intended to remove the county and transform it into the prefectures and counties, but it has not been implemented on a large scale yet.

If the county knows nothing about the county below, it is definitely unreasonable. Zhang Xu at least had shelter, or was simply a co-conspirator. However, there were more than 100 states and more than 300 counties in the Sui Dynasty. It was amazing that Lu Mulin could know that Zhang Xu was the prefect of Hedong County. No matter how he remembered it, he could not remember the resumes of all the officials. Hearing Yang Yong's question, Lu Mulin hurriedly took out a book he carried with him and read it. Not a single one, a smile appeared on Lu Mulin's face: "Young Master, I found it. Zhang Xu was from Chang'an and was once a Taoist priest. His cousin Zhang Bin gave the emperor the "Kaihuang Calendar" in the first year of Kaihuang. Zhang Bin was transferred to the governor of Huazhou, and Zhang Xu was the prefect of Hedong."

The calendar is a symbol of the dynasty. Before weaving the Zhou Dynasty, Yang Jian planned to use the talisman to set some preparations for the change of dynasties and openly recruited knowledgeable people to write the calendar. At that time, several people were recruiting the Northern Qi Dynasty's calendar officer Liu Xiaosun, Liu Zhuo, Liu Hui, who was well versed in astronomy, and another was the Taoist priest Zhang Bin.

At that time, both Liu Xiaosun and Liu Zhuo and Liu Hui compiled the calendars more realistic and accurate than Zhang Bin. Yang Jian used Zhang Bin's calendar as the "Kaihuang Calendar". Zhang Bin's calendar vigorously promoted Yang Jian's luck as an emperor. Liu Hui understood Yang Jian's thoughts and turned to support Zhang Bin. As a result, Liu Xiaosun and Liu Zhuo drove out of the capital on the grounds of "spoken support and confusing people at the time", and Zhang Bin won a complete victory.

The celestial body was not alive for Yao or died for Jie. Zhang Bin's calendar tried his best to cater to Yang Jian's emperor's way, so naturally it was inevitable that it would be omission, but it did not prevent Zhang Bin from enjoying a high position. Even his cousin was awarded for his merits.

In fact, Zhang Bin made his mark in the court when he was Emperor Wu. At that time, Emperor Wu of Zhou adopted the words of Zhang Bin and another Taoist priest Wei Yuansong, and in the fourth year of Tianhe (569), he asked the two religions of Buddhism and Taoism to debate the pros and cons.

When talking about Zhang Bin, Yang Yong suddenly remembered something. When Lu Ben went to the East Palace to tell bad things about Gao Ying and others, Zhang Qiu Taiyi once said that Lu Ben had a close relationship with Yuan Xie, Zhang Bin, Liu Fang and others and wanted to depose Gao Ying, Su Wei and others. This was confirmed by the Secret Guard. However, after he rejected Lu Ben, he did not see them taking any follow-up actions. Now more than a year has passed, have they given up?

From the attacks by Fan and Yan, two censors, to discovering that Wanrong County Magistrate Yuwen Cheng concealed his political achievements and intercepted a large amount of taxes in the court. Yuwen Cheng and Yuwen Xin were of the same clan, Yuwen Xin, Liang Shiyan and Cui Hongdu were once heavily bribed by Yuchi Jiong. After pacifying Yuchi Jiong, these people did not receive the reward they deserved. Do they have any resentment towards the court? Yuwen Cheng's boss was Zhang Xu, and Zhang Xu was Zhang Bin's cousin. Zhang Bin was closely connected with Lu Ben, Liu Fang, Yuan Xie and others. These people were ambitious and wanted to replace Gao Ying, Su Wei and others.

Yang Yong was shocked when he connected these people. If these people attacked, although the scale of the rebellion was far less than that of Yuchi Jiong's rebellion, Yuchi Jiong's rebellion was limited to Qi after all, and Huazhou, Puzhou and Hedong County were completely connected to the front line. The nearest Huazhou is only a few hundred miles away from Chang'an. It can be said that it is the heart of the Great Sui Dynasty. The vibration caused can be imagined, not to mention that they also had Yuan Xie, Lu Ben, Liu Fang and others in the court to help.

"You guys are all out, I'll have something to talk about with Mu Lin."

Yang Shi, Liu Hu and others were extremely strange. After Lu Mulin said that the prefect of Hedong County Zhang Xu was Zhang Bin's cousin, the prince remained silent. Could it be that the prince was still afraid that a Taoist priest would not succeed? They did not know that so many thoughts had turned into Yang Yong's mind.

After everyone stepped back, Yang Yong cut his discovery out on the table with tea. Lu Mulin suddenly became solemn: "Prince, if this is true, then we will suffer, which is equivalent to hiking among these people."

"So we must not touch Yu Wencheng. If we start a frightened attack, these people will start attacking, and only 300 people will be able to take one as ten, which is not enough for them to get into their teeth."

"Crown Prince, are we too sensitive? Maybe things are not that bad?" Lu Mulin still hesitated. After all, he was young and smart, but he had not experienced too many struggles. He did not understand why, while the foundation of the Great Sui Dynasty was stable, some people dared to take risks.

"Then can you explain why Yuwen Cheng is unwilling to be promoted? It is definitely not a year to achieve such prosperity in Wanrong County. As a boss, did Zhang Xu really not know about Wanrong County? If he knew, why should he hide it? Promotion and wealth have always been the first to be promoted. If there were no more important things, why would Yuwen Cheng not be promoted?"

Lu Mulin was dumbfounded by Yang Yong's series of questions and asked questions. He suddenly became panicked: "Crown Prince, then let's leave Wanrong County quickly."

"What after leaving?"

"Of course, I report to the court and arrest these people one by one."

"These are just speculations. Except for Yuwencheng, there is no evidence in the rest. How can we arrest them? How can we believe the court? If we arrest them correctly afterwards, it would be fine. If we catch them wrongly, do you know how much reaction it will cause? If we only arrest Yuwencheng, what if our speculation is true, it is equivalent to directly forcing them to rebel. How much damage will it bring to the Sui Dynasty?"

"Then please ask the prince to leave first, and the Weichen stay here to investigate and obtain their evidence."

"It is not necessarily dangerous to stay here. If you leave here, something will happen. If you leave this place, you will definitely receive news. Fortunately, you have not alarmed anyone when you arrive here. Otherwise, it may fall into Liang Shiyan's hands when you pass by Puzhou. I believe they are looking for traces of this palace at this moment. If someone discovers when you return to Puzhou, can you rush out with three hundred cavalry?"

Although it was just speculation, Lu Mulin was still scared. The Yellow River was just across the Yellow River between Puzhou and Huazhou. If the identity of the prince was discovered, it would be a desperate situation.

Lu Mulin cursed hatefully: "The secret robe guard is really a stake. He spent more than 200,000 dan last year. There was no news about such a big thing."

Lu Mulin was also anxious. Even if the secret guards were supported by money, they would not have the energy to invest at the county level for only three years. It is not surprising that they could not find out the matter in Wanrong County. However, Yang Yong also felt that he should hit the secret guards so that it would not be difficult to control in the future. At least he would inevitably scold Yuan Hao, the person in charge of the secret guards.

When Yang Yong and Lu Mulin were still trying to discuss, Liu Hu's voice sounded: "Young Master, that Yuwen Yuan is here again."

Since Yuwen Yuan was slapped by his father on the first day, he was like a different person the next day. Not only did he apologize to Yang Yong, but he also worked hard to do so. He used the excuse that Yang Yong and others were not familiar with Wanrong County and acted as a guide. He reported every day for several days that he could not even be chased away like a dog skin plaster.
Chapter completed!