Chapter 113 Privy Council Confidential
Zhao Yanna from the Privy Council suggested that the emperor should find a son-in-law and marry a princess to Zhao Yulin.
Zhao Yanna had worked in Hanzhong for a long time and thought he knew Zhao Yulin very well. His reason was: Which man doesn't like beautiful women?
Or is she the authentic princess?
A slim lady is a gentleman's dream.
Zhao Qi'er was handsome and charming, and had a special affinity with women. The government recruited him as a consort, which was like putting a cage on a tiger's mouth. No matter how meritorious he was, he could only be a consort.
Zheng Qingzhi of course understood all this and immediately told him to stop. This matter involved the royal harem, so he couldn't just talk about it casually. He should think carefully about how to actually reward him...
At the Nanzheng Wharf on the Han River, Zhou Ping stopped the boat and went into the warehouse to greet everyone. Zhao Yulin woke up because the boat was no longer shaking and sneezed twice in succession. How could he know that the court in Lin'an was discussing his affairs overnight?
At daybreak, Lao Cao took him to eat Yibin yanmian, and said with a smile that they were eating his Zhao family's authentic yanmian.
However, it was the first time for Zhao Yulin to eat Nanzheng's yanmian. His master was taught by a master chef from Yibin. He knew that he was the founder of yanmian. When he heard that the third young master was coming to eat noodles in person, he immediately brought the shop assistants over to greet him and hurriedly cooked the first pot of noodles.
Lao Cao joked that he was lucky, saying that he had eaten yanmian three times in Nanzheng but had never tasted the first pot of noodles.
The two of them smiled and drank tea. He sent Lao Cao to the dock and then went straight to Qingyeyuan.
Then, the guards led her to the government office, and the maid led her to the back hall and courtyard. Ma Ling'er had not gotten up yet.
The woman lazily called her husband, and Zhao Yulin hurriedly undressed and moved quickly...
The sunlight poured into the room. Ma Ling curled up in his arms like a cat and said cutely that she was so tired. She asked Chen Chen to come and serve her brother together. That way she would be half as relaxed.
Zhao Yulin also felt weak all over, so he pinched her lightly, and Ma Linger screamed and got out of bed.
In the afternoon, he summoned officials to hold a meeting in the government office. This was the first time these people met the commander of the Shenwei Army.
Zhao Yulin was very efficient. After briefly introducing himself and Ma Ling, he asked Li Sanqiang to call out the names of the people on the roster. Everyone who was called had to stand up and introduce themselves to everyone. He looked at the roster on the table and recorded everyone's speech.
One round took half an hour.
Then, Zhao Yulin announced that Hanzhong would follow Yangzhou's example in eliminating bandits and tyrants throughout the territory, implement reforms to eliminate the cancer among the people, and adopt methods such as redemption and confiscation according to law to recover the landlords' land and distribute it to farmers. The excess land would be returned to the government to implement military farming.
The Shenwei Army garrisons in various places must send assistance teams to enter the forts and villages to publicize and assist in the distribution of land. Officials who do a good job will be promoted and rewarded, those who do a poor job will be punished, and those who dare to abuse their power for personal gain and corrupt practices and undermine the reforms will be imprisoned or even beheaded depending on the severity of their crimes.
Before Zhao Yulin finished speaking, there was no sound from the audience. The transport officer beside him asked him: How much silver would it cost to take back the land from the landlords?
Xingyuan Prefecture does not have this amount of funds.
Zhao Yulin glared at him and said: "If you still need to ask him for money, what's the point of keeping you as a transport envoy?" The soldiers on both sides of the venue immediately released arrows in their eyes and shot at him, and the guy withered immediately.
Zhao Yulin said sternly to the inspector: You have half a month to eliminate the bandits and fight against tyrants. If you fail to do so, you will be fired.
Then he waved his hand and adjourned the meeting.
Entering the back hall, he asked Lu Youpeng if he was ready.
Lu Youpeng said with a smile that he came back half a month earlier than the young master, and there was already an arrangement for him to do more. This reform was to be carried out from top to bottom, so the two stumbling blocks of the transport envoy and the inspection envoy must be taken down first, as well as Bao Bupei, a large landowner by the Baoshui River.
The Bao family relied on the foundation built over hundreds of years to occupy thousands of acres of fertile land along the Bao River. They also took in large amounts and gave out small amounts, oppressing the common people and abducting women. If we don't take action against them, how can we intimidate the landlords of all sizes?
He told Lu Youpeng: There are still good people among the landlords. For example, Li Dagui of the Second Column gave away all his wealth and led his clansmen to follow our Shenwei Army.
Here, we need to make a simple distinction between landlords: small landlords who get rich through hard work are one category; happy landlords who know how to run a business and manage well are another category; bully landlords who collude with officials, businessmen and habitual bandits are another category; and the traitor landlords who hold the bowl of our Song country and make enough money from the Song people to work for the Jin people and the Mongolian army are the most hateful and must be severely punished.
Therefore, we in the Shenwei Army cannot do things in a one-size-fits-all manner. We must find the pulse and make a cut first in the Bao family, open up the situation, and then steadily advance reforms in a pragmatic manner.
The next day, Zhao Yulin personally led a team to arrest the master and the eldest son of the Bao family. Haha, these two guys were the kind who wouldn't cry until they saw the coffin. They thought they were big shots in Hanzhong and never thought that Zhao Yulin would touch them.
After being imprisoned, their attitude was extremely bad, and they showed no intention of cooperating or repenting. The police sent them a letter, asking them to confess and avoid physical torture, but they acted like masters, cursing the police and soldiers as scum. They refused to confess.
Zhao Yulin learned the Guanzhong dialect and said to the audience that in his opinion, these people were all trivial.
He had already anticipated this situation, and told Lu Youpeng that there was no need to escort him to Lin'an for execution. He could just use direct means to let the father and son experience the wonderful feeling of hydrotherapy asphyxiation, which would make life worse than death.
The soldiers immediately dragged the man to the torture room of the prison. When Master Bao saw the bloodstained house and the prisoner covered with bruises, he urinated as soon as he was pressed on the chair that smelled of blood, and before he was tied up.
Master Bao was afraid of death. When he saw the Shenwei Army was really coming, he immediately collapsed to the ground and said that he would confess. A clerk immediately waited to record it. In order to make meritorious deeds and atone for his sins, Master Bao first exposed the vicious case of his son robbing a woman and causing her death. Shunfeng immediately went to collect evidence as he said, and soon found witnesses, material evidence and accomplices.
The eldest son of the Bao family next door immediately became incontinent after receiving the hydrotherapy. In order to stop suffering, he told his father that he had taken a fancy to his wife's maid, and secretly entered the house to tease her, but saw his wife bathing naked.
The daughter-in-law was so humiliated and ashamed that she hanged herself that night. In order to hide the truth, his father even ordered the servants to beat his wife's personal maid to death. It was all his father's fault.
Zhao Yulin saw that the crimes confessed by the two masters were enough to punish them with beheading according to the laws of the Song Dynasty. So without waiting for other crimes to be confirmed, he immediately had them taken to Caishikou for execution. The father and son of the Bao family were beheaded at Caishikou the next day, and all the people involved in the case were taken into custody.
This incident had a huge impact on Hanzhong. Everyone saw the Shenwei Army's determination to implement reforms.
Afterwards, Xingyuan Prefecture launched a massive campaign to eliminate bandits and fight tyrants.
Zhao Yulin was worried that the generals of the Shenwei Army, who were born in a poor family , would hate the rich and fight against the landlords without asking questions. That would cause chaos. He asked Ma Linger and Lu Youpeng to inspect and supervise, issue a notice, and do a good job of carefully identifying the landlords to protect the legitimate income of the enlightened gentry.
The land reform in Hanzhong was proceeding in full swing, but the transport envoy Guo Zhenguo was in a very anxious situation.
This man became panicked when he saw that the powerful and wealthy Bao family was arrested and beheaded at will by Zhao Yulin.
He was in charge of taxes and stayed in Hanzhong for a long time, so it was inevitable that he colluded with big merchants and engaged in extortion and personal gain. He contributed to the tax evasion of the Bao family and naturally gained a lot of benefits.
Guo Zhenguo went to the inspector to have a drink and find out what he was thinking. The inspector said, "What are you afraid of? We are all officials appointed by the court and Jinshi scholars appointed by the emperor. Zhao Qier should know that the one who dares to touch me has not been born yet."
Guo Zhenguo ate half a calming rice dumpling and returned home. Before he could even sit down, the constables and soldiers of the Shenwei Army came to his house and arrested him, and started to search his house.
His housekeeper had long heard that the Shunfeng police used all kinds of torture in their trials, and that no one could withstand it. When he saw the constable coming, he immediately cooperated, opened the basement where his family's gold and silver were hidden, took out the account books and confessed many of Guo Zhenguo's crimes. His only request was that Guo Zhenguo's concubine be awarded to him, because they had long admired each other.
Zhao Yulin felt that the woman had not committed any crime and needed someone to take care of her, so he agreed.
After catching the criminal red-handed, the government easily clarified Guo Zhenguo's crimes and put him in death row.
When the inspector learned that the transport envoy was suddenly investigated, he panicked and secretly cursed Zhao Qi'er for being so bold as to investigate and arrest anyone.
As a result, people were coming in and out of this guy's front door, back door, and side door. The captain of the police, the prison warden, the businessman, the casino owner, the brothel owner, and even the military academy guarding the city were all in a hurry to communicate.
Capturing a transport envoy was enough to keep Zhao Yulin busy, but a favorable place is a favorable place. They had already made arrangements in Nanzheng, and with the assistance of the troops entering the city, how could these trivial tricks escape their eyes.
Lu Youpeng came in and told Zhao Yulin that the inspector's net was cast very wide. He smiled and asked if the net could be cast as wide as in a place with favorable wind?
Beggars everywhere are our eyes and ears, so what are you afraid of?
Lao Lu smiled.
It is true that there are fewer beggars nowadays, but they are still not uncommon on the streets and roads. Perhaps one of them is his spy in a favorable place.
Just as it got dark, three horse-drawn carriages came out of the back door of the inspector's house, and galloped towards the south city gate with the clatter of horses' hooves. When they reached the city gate, a group of horses suddenly rushed out from a side alley and blocked their way. They seized a cart of gold, silver, jewelry and a pair of twin concubines kept by the inspector from the carriages, but the inspector himself was not in the carriages.
The search team was puzzled. After dismantling the secret compartment of the carriage, no one was found. However, there were some precious jade articles and four crystal glasses.
At this time, the house of the inspector at the South Gate caught fire again, attracting a large number of rescue workers to the house to rescue people and put out the fire.
The Shenwei Army had no choice but to arrest people and search their homes in advance.
But a strange scene happened. The house was surrounded tightly and the inspector himself could not be found.
