Chapter 333: State troubles (Part 1)

In the early morning, it was not yet dawn. In the city covered by the cold, merchants and servants who had gotten up early had already revealed traces on the streets. Many people's lights were already on. At the fourth update, there was also noise in Zhang Huan's mansion. The chef started to make breakfast and the servants began to clean up the night goods. The housewife Pei Ying also got up early and arranged a new day busy. Today is the second day after Zhang Huan returned to Longyou. He needs to listen to the performance reports of his important officials and understand the current strength of various places for his future development. At the fifth update, when Pei Ying sent a maid to ask Zhang Huan to get up, an accident happened. Zhang Huan went out early in the morning, and even Cui Ning didn't know where he went?

Zhang Huan quietly left the mansion from the back door in less than 4 o'clock. He came down to the west of Jincheng County under the escort of more than a dozen personal soldiers. This was the settlement of ordinary people in Jincheng County. There was also a large area of ​​slums living on the ground floor in the southwest of the city. Just as the sky was dawn, he came to a small street called Wudong Lane. Several personal soldiers were carrying a booklet to search door to door.

"Governor, there is a family here." A personal soldier found the first household in the booklet. There were seven military households living in Wudong Lane, among which three families were killed in the battle of Zhang Sancheng. Zhang Huan looked at the family, three old tiled houses, low mud walls, white courtyard gates hit by wind and rain, and an old apricot tree that had no door signs here. Each household here had no door signs. The characteristic of each household was their respective signs. The characteristic of this family was this old apricot tree, which was unique in Wudong Lane.

But Zhang Huan felt a little uneasy in his heart. This was the home of Zhang Xiaoping, the fallen soldier. Logically, the news of Zhang Xiaoping's death should have been heard long ago, but there was no trace of pain here. Everything was as calm as before. Don't they know that Zhang Xiaoping had been killed? Seeing that the blue smoke had appeared from the side room next to him, Zhang Huan winked at the personal soldiers when he knew that the master had gotten up.

A personal soldier stepped forward and knocked on the door vigorously. After a moment, trembling footsteps came from the yard. The door creaked a crack and an old face appeared. This was an old man in his sixties, his back was already hunched, and he was leaning on a stick. He saw more than a dozen officers and soldiers standing at the door, and he was stunned, and then a deep sadness appeared in his eyes.

"Who are you looking for?" His voice was hoarse and old.

Li Dingfang stepped forward and clasped his fists and said, "Brother-in-law, we are all Zhang Xiaoping's brothers. We have just returned from Anxi, so we will come to see his family."

"Oh! Please come in quickly." The old man quickly opened the door and let everyone in. When the door opened, Zhang Huan saw a bunch of white banners hanging under the eaves of the house at a glance. He felt a little relieved. If the old man didn't know that his son had been killed, he wouldn't know how to open this mouth.

Everyone entered the yard, which was an extremely simple yard. They planted several beans and a vine pumpkin in one corner of the yard, and there was nothing else. When Zhang Huan saw that the room was dark, he smiled at his father-in-law and said, "We just asked about the situation and left, and we won't go in the house."

"That's really neglecting you." The old man took out two stools from the house with difficulty. A personal soldier hurriedly stepped forward to take them and sat down for the governor. The old man also sat down. His eyes were blurred. Only then did he realize that Zhang Huan was not wearing a military uniform, and it was the heads of these soldiers.

"You are..." With rich life experience, the old man vaguely felt that the man in a green robe in front of him was probably not an ordinary person.

Zhang Huan bowed and said, "I am the marching Sima of the army. I came to learn about the pensions of the fallen soldiers. I just found a few of them, and you are the first one."

Hearing the word "Please", the old man's lips began to shake violently, and two turbid old tears rolled out of the corners of his eyes. He couldn't control his sorrow in his heart, and suddenly covered his face and sobbed silently. Zhang Huan silently stared at the back of the old man's hand like a bark, and his heart was filled with sadness.

After a long time, when the old man's mood was slightly calmer, he asked, "How many sons do you have in total?"

The old man wiped away the tears in his eyes and said slowly: "I gave birth to five sons in total, three died young, only Erlang and Wulang are left. Kopei is Wulang. The army he had been with the previous year, but he didn't expect to be killed in Anxi. Oh, it's your life!"

Speaking of this, the old man sighed and pointed to the house and said, "After receiving the news of Goro's death, his mother was overly sad and fell ill. All the pensions she gave were used to get medicine, and there was no improvement."

Zhang Huan's face was extremely serious. He nodded and said solemnly: "Brother-in-law, please don't worry, we will cure Zhang Xiaoping's wife's illness for her. He died in battle for the country. We will support his parents for him."

After pausing, he asked again: "I heard from my father-in-law that he had received the pension. I want to know how much I actually got?"

"This is a bit hard to say. We got thirty signs, some people got 40 signs, and some people got 50 signs."

Zhang Huan's face immediately sank, "Why is this? Didn't it mean that the soldiers' first pension will be fifty-ton marks?"

"It's fifty acres, but there are still some choices." The old man quickly explained: "A coffin and a cemetery are equivalent to ten knots, and the compensation for five acres is equivalent to twenty knots. I asked for five acres of land, so I only took thirty knots. Now, Erlang went to Longxi to see the land."

Thinking that he finally had fifteen acres of land, he could finally marry Erlang, and the government would support grain and rice for the rest of his life, Old Man Zhang showed a slight smile on his face, and he waved his hands repeatedly and said, "Enough! Enough! I'm already satisfied."

But Zhang Huan's face was extremely gloomy. He turned around and asked Li Dingfang coldly: "What's going on? The coffin must be considered money. Also, isn't land an additional pension? Why do you have to occupy twenty tanums? Do you know about this?"

"I don't know!" Li Dingfang replied tremblingly.

Zhang Huan held back his anger and asked the old man again: "Can Zhang Xiaoping's remains be buried?"

Old Man Zhang was stunned and said hesitantly: "Isn't Wulang's remains still in Anxi? I ​​haven't sent back, so how can I be buried?"

"What!" Zhang Huan was finally furious. He stood up. Hu Yong was so brave. Except for the ashes of the soldiers who fell into battle in Shule, the ashes of the soldiers had been sent back by himself. Hu Yong had not sent them home yet. Zhang Huan restrained the strong anger in his heart and asked in a deep voice: "Apart from Zhang Xiaoping, have the remains of the soldiers who fell into battle been sent back?"

Old Man Zhang shook his head, "I don't know anyone else, but the neighbors in Wudongxiang are the same as me and have not yet obtained the remains."

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The cold wind was cold, and the biting north wind was drilling straight into the collar and sleeves. It was already clear. Tang Xianyao, the governor of Jincheng County, was organizing civil servants to clean up the snow on the road. Zhang Huan rode on his horse and slowly headed towards the Jiedushi with a gloomy face. He was extremely angry. He had repeatedly told Hu Yong to pay the fallen soldiers in this Anxi Battle, but the result of today's undercover investigation disappointed him. Even if the ashes of the fallen soldiers were not sent home for a long time, he could not tolerate them in the pension. If he just wanted to save money, it would be fine to change them, but if it was involved in corruption, he would have to kill people.

It is no wonder that the army is the foundation of Zhang Huan's entrepreneurship. If there was no strong army as a backing, who would have kept him in front of him? He would have even been wiped out. Especially now, when civil strife in the Tang Dynasty is about to occur, the army in his hands is important. He originally planned to use the opportunity of the Anxi Battle to inspire a new round of military participation in the people, solve the problem of guarding the border for him and solve the problem of insufficient troops in the fight for the Central Plains. However, the distortion of pensions is likely to make his plan fail.

The war horse turned a corner and walked onto Wuquan Avenue. Not far ahead was the Jiedushi Headquarters. The Jiedushi Headquarters were actually the Longyou Government Affairs Council, Longyou, Shuofang, Hexi, Shuzhong, Hanzhong, Shannan and other places, all of which were handled here. The Jiedushi Headquarters was newly built a few years ago, covering a large area, with more than a dozen majestic buildings distributed. There were more than 200 officials in the business and were very cautious. They were three steps and five steps. Most people were not allowed to enter. They had to sign a waist card or a seventh-rank official.

At this moment, several carriages were sparsely parked in the open space outside the gate. Some officials had already come to work early, and there was no horse allowed inside. Zhang Huan turned over and dismounted and threw the reins to his personal soldiers. He quickly walked into the office. The soldiers on duty immediately straightened their backs and greeted the governor. Although this place was actually the chief secretary Hu Yong in charge of the situation, Zhang Huan's room was still the first room on the right of the main building. Every day, people came to clean it up to make it spotless.

Since Zhang Huan returned to Longyou yesterday, a man came to ventilate the room early in the morning, lit a brazier and burned an incense, and the room was very warm.

Zhang Huan came to his room, took off his outer robe and sat down. It was still early, so he flipped through several memorials on the table, but he was still thinking about Old Man Zhang's words.

"How can people not die when they fight? The key is to make people willing to die. Ask this official to tell Governor Zhang on my behalf, if you win the hearts of the people, you will get the morale of the army, and if you win the morale of the army, you will not be afraid of the emperor and the queen mother. As long as you give the people a piece of land and give everyone a bite of food, everyone will hold their heads to work for Governor Zhang."

Zhang Huan breathed a sigh of relief. Since ancient times, the rise and fall of dynasties has been rooted in the land. Land involves the interests of countless classes, and it is not so easy to solve. At present, we can only use official fields to solve the problem of military system first.

He thought to himself, but his eyes were looking through the memorial in his hand. Before he knew it, he was gradually attracted by the content of the memorial. The memorial was submitted by Chen Shaoyou, the governor of Shu County, to the court. The copy in his hand was a copy sent by Chen Shaoyou. It was just delivered yesterday. The memorial said that the population in Shu had been greatly reduced due to the Zhuli Rebellion, especially the countless wealthy families were destroyed, which caused a large number of unowned lands in Shu, with hundreds of thousands of hectares. Chen Shaoyou suggested that these lands be taken as officials, which could be used as rewards for the eternal land of the court officials and the royal family in the future.
Chapter completed!