Chapter 366: All the heroes (forty-four)

When the eunuchs and palace maids were hiding far away, Fu Ying held Hou Dayong's arm and leaned beside him, sighed and said, "Alang, it's not that I'm a little sensible, Hou Zongwu is too unreasonable. He used to make trouble in the Hou Mansion in the south of the city, but now he is in the palace, and he is even more restless. He just took Xiaoqing to push Zonglin into the garden, making him covered in mud and his hands are rubbed."

Ajige was the first woman to Hou Dayong come to this world. He gave birth to Hou Dayong's first child and was a healthy boy. It was an amazing thing for this era. Hou Dayong was more grateful to Ajige than love. For Hou Zonghu, he was a different concept. Hou Hu was a relative of his flesh and blood, and he had a clever spirit of not being afraid of heaven and earth. It was very suitable for Hou Dayong's appetite. In Daliang, whenever he had time, he liked to call Hou Hu in front of him, teach him a few boxing techniques, or tell him about "The Art of War". He even sorted out some basic knowledge of physics and chemistry in later generations, specifically teaching Hou Zonghu and Zonglin.

Fu Ying always had some psychological burden on Hou Zonghu. This was a natural reaction of a mother to protect her son. Although she was the queen, Hou Hu was the eldest son. There are still many variables for who will continue the throne in the future. Secondly, Hou Zonghu is indeed a headache. In the past, he was in the palace, but now in the palace, climbing mountains and trees, teasing cats and dogs, and he would cause trouble creatively every day, making people uneasy.

Seeing Fu Ying being so angry, Hou Dayong smiled and said, "This guy Zong Hu is really energetic." He praised him and said, "He is over eight years old and needs to teach some rules. If he becomes lawless, it is not a good thing." He advised with kind words: "It's all for children. When I was a child, I often play with my friends, and fighting is common."

Fu Ying is also an extremely rational person. After she complained, she was afraid that Hou Dayong would misunderstand that she was here to file a lawsuit specifically, so she said, "Princess Shou'an just came to the palace."

Princess Shou'an was the daughter of Guo Wei, the Taizu of Zhou. Her husband was Zhang Yongde, the former commander of the Palace Front Office. After the Guard Office and the Palace Front Office were divided into six, Zhang Yongde lost the control of the Great Zhou Jingwei Imperial Army. He brought a partial army to guard Zezhou for many years. When the Great Zhou army was in northern expedition, his main task was to defend the Northern Han.

This is just a general position of senior generals. Zhang Yongde was the son-in-law, and the Zhou Dynasty did not stipulate that the son-in-law could not serve as a senior official. Therefore, he was stationed in Zezhou and was expelled from the power center of the Zhou Dynasty in disguise by Chai Rong. When Li Yun was annihilated, Hou Dayong took the opportunity to transfer him back to Daliang and gave him a vacant position as Duke of Wei, so he was placed in Daliang to support him.

Hou Dayong had long forgotten the general who had once commanded the army. When he heard Princess Shou'an enter the palace, he asked, "Princess Shou'an. What did she do in the palace?"

During the reign of Emperor Taizu Guo Wei, Princess Shou'an's mansion was once the favorite place for the ladies of Daliang. During the Chai Rong period, Princess Shou'an's mansion also won the house for a long time. At that time, Fu Ying was the sister of Queen Fu, the wife of Hou Dayong, the governor of Lingzhou, and the daughter of Fu Yanqing, the King of Wei. She had an extraordinary status, so she was naturally a guest at Princess Shou'an's mansion. Although the relationship between the two was not particularly deep, they often came and went to each other.

Fu Ying smiled faintly and said, "Princess Shou'an's daughter is over three years old. She wants to become a family with us and marry her daughter to Zong Lin." Fu Ying still agrees with this marriage. Although Princess Shou'an is different from the past, she is the blood of Taizu Guo Wei after all. From the perspective of family background, she is still extremely noble in people's hearts. If the two families can marry, they can invisibly improve Zong Lin's status in the palace.

Hou Dayong carried his hands behind his back and walked around the palace for a few times. He said, "Men are married when they are old, and women are married when they are old. This is a law that has not changed for thousands of years. Since this is the case, we have no reason to reject Taizu's bloodline." He sighed in his heart: "These children born in the imperial family have become the targets of countless hunters before they have grown up. They have not even had the right and opportunity to choose love and life. This is also the helplessness of the imperial family."

Seeing that Hou Dayong agreed, Fu Ying looked happy and said, "Princess Shouan will come to the palace tomorrow, and she will definitely be very happy."

Fu Ying returned to the palace happily. Hou Dayong sat in front of the hall for a while. He saw Xue Juzheng, the political magistrate, hurried in with a black wooden box in his hand. Xue Juzheng was the political magistrate, and Hou Dayong gave him the right to enter the hall at any time. Therefore, no one stopped him with this pass and allowed him to walk into the hall.

After Hou Dayong became the emperor, he issued twenty passes, that is, these twenty ministers were able to come to the hall anytime and anywhere with the passes without having to go to the eunuchs to inform them. This included several prime ministers, political leaders, censors, Privy Councillors, and several important generals of the Black Eagle Army.

"Your Majesty, the Heimu memorial from the governor of Langzhou Zheng Qi has arrived."

After Hou Dayong became emperor, he still retained Chai Rong's black wood memorial system. Without His Majesty's consent, even the prime minister could not read the black wood memorial. This was a privilege for the officials in the border areas. They could directly use the black wood memorial to report major issues to His Majesty. One was to keep it confidential, and the other was to avoid misleading things because the official documents were slowly running in various yamen.

Hou Dayong took the black wood memorial, took a silver knife, and cut the wax sealed paper. The memorial was very short, but a thin page, Hou Dayong read it very slowly. After reading it, he handed the memorial to Xue Juzheng and said, "Look at it too."

After reading it, Xue Juzheng said, "It seems that the memorials submitted in Jiangling and other places are true, and the envoy Zheng also admitted this matter. However, according to the opinions of his ministers, the envoy Zheng first arrived in Langzhou and encountered natural disasters, which caused a large number of people from Langzhou to flee. The emergency measures he took were not bad, so he could be exempted from his responsibility."

"Everything in the world has a cause and a result. Zhou Baoquan couldn't help but feel guilty about the Langzhou rebellion. Now that he was caught in Langzhou, he also responded to that sentence: The seeds planted will bear whatever fruit."

Hou Dayong took a thin memorial again, looked it again, tapped the table with his finger, and raised his voice: "The Zhou father and son were in Langzhou, urgently levying heavy taxes and competing to exploit the people. In addition to the continuous increase in the two taxes of the regular tax, there are also agricultural tools taxes, cowhide sharp, bridge taxes, salt money, alum money, shoes money, wine money, and even more, willows spit catkins and goose yellows are all taxes. These taxes are real tyrannical taxes. Some of them have been included in the Three Divisions, and most of them have been fed by officials from all over the country."

"Langzhou is so conservative and seeks the people randomly. No wonder our army is in an unstoppable attack on the Jinghu area. Langzhou and Yuezhou people also take the initiative to provide information. Langzhou affairs are bloody experiences and lessons, and we must not be taken lightly."

Xue Juzheng made a statement: "According to my opinion, the most urgent task is to transfer a batch of grain from Xiangyang to Langzhou and appease the people. Now it is attacking Western Shu, so the troubles cannot be made in Langzhou."

Hou Dayong nodded in praise and said, "Langzhou is stable, and the will to resist in Western Shu will be weaker. This matter should be handled quickly and you cannot slack off at all. In addition, Langzhou not only needs to abolish all local taxes, but also exempt the rent and taxes arrears in Jingnan, Tanzhou, Langzhou and other places over the years. All nameless miscellaneous taxes are also exempted. In addition, the people of Jinghu will be given three years to recuperate and all taxes, especially at the junction of Jinghu and Western Shu. Such notices are posted on the notice, and the rent and taxes in Western Shu will be exempted for three years."

Xue Juzheng did not expect Hou Dayong to exempt the tax on Jinghu land. He hesitated and said: "Western Shu is much bigger than Jinghu. If we exempt Western Shu from three years of tax on Western Shu, the burden on the court would be too great."

"Everything has pros and cons, it depends on whether the pros and cons is greater than the cons, or the cons is greater than the cons." Having said this, Hou Dayong laughed inexplicably, because when he was in high school in another world, it was a very popular debate competition for a while, and the topics for the debate competition were naturally erratic. Therefore, whether the pros and cons outweigh the cons or the cons outweigh the advantages, became a common topic in debate competitions. On the days of debates every day, "the pros and cons outweigh the disadvantages, or the disadvantages outweigh the advantages" became a catchphrase.

Xue Juzheng was very knowledgeable and listened to Hou Dayong's speech seriously. When he saw His Majesty suddenly smile on his face, he was a little confused, so he lowered his head to look at himself. There was nothing ridiculous about him. He was a Confucian person and paid great attention to the superiors and inferiors. His Majesty could laugh at his will, but his subjects must follow the etiquette of his subjects.

Hou Dayong quickly returned to the right track. He said: "Don't worry, the Western Shu Dynasty was quite rich, and these assets were enough for three years to manage Shu, and there was no problem at all. In my hometown, this policy is called releasing water to raise fish. If there are too many fish, you can naturally slaughter the net at any time. If there are no fish, no matter how good your net is, it will be in vain."

After explaining the policy, Xue Juzheng walked out in depressed mood. Although His Majesty's ideas and methods were still good, His Majesty's words were not as restrained as Confucianism at all. Just like those businessmen, he secretly extended: "Your Majesty is a general after all, and he is not well-educated. If he is familiar with the words of the saint, his words will definitely be much more pleasant."

Although the words were not satisfactory, the method was excellent. Xue Juzheng returned to the school and asked the officials to take the paper and pen. He personally drafted a notice, which was the plan set by Hou Dayong. Of course, the sentences were full of righteousness filled with heaven and earth, and expressed the great emperor's grace to the fullest.

After this announcement was issued, the people of Jinghu regarded Hou Dayong as a living Bodhisattva who saved the suffering. Of course, this is a later story, so I won't mention it here for now.

After leaving Xue Juzheng, Hou Dayong was about to get off work early. As soon as he stood up and stretched, he saw Prime Minister Wei Renpu and Privy Councilor Shi Hu entering the hall together. Seeing these two people coming together, Hou Dayong had to sit down heavily and said, "The two are serious. Is there a problem in the war in Western Shu? However, the armies are still marching now. I guess the war has not started yet. Which border has a problem."
Chapter completed!