Song Beiyun

It seems that Da Song has spent the most money on industry in the past few years, but they can't see how much the industry earns, and even if the industry makes a lot of money, Da Song is still tight and tearing down the wall to make up for the west The hole in the wall is so worrying that the household department has to think about adding a few when eating a bowl of noodles, because this Tuntian is a huge mouth that can't be filled.

But now that the matter has come to an end, people have finally discovered the power of the Tuntian Division. Before Song Beiyun set off from Jinling, the third counselor of the household department raised his neck like a fighting cock when talking to others, even if he was talking to the officials of Fengjiang. The deputy villain's proud face said that it was okay to ask for food, but the Ministry of Households had to appoint the Yushitai to monitor the whole process, so that those governors often couldn't get off the stage.

But people don't care, they have food, and now the household department is the court's relatives, and in this year, if they have food, they can do whatever they want.If you really want to offend them, they are all arrangements for early arrangements and late arrangements, but those who are arranged late will be on pins and needles.

"By the way, Master Ding. What do you think of the split into six parts I mentioned earlier?"

"Military reform, political reform, school reform, you now have to dismantle six departments." Ding Xiang sighed, "Aren't you creating a problem for me? How can dismantling six departments now be successful?"

"It's true." Song Beiyun whistled: "When the three major reforms are over, young people will take to the stage. At that time, the Six Ministries and the Privy Council will be split up, and the power will be minified and decentralized. It is best to be able to centralize The three provinces have also been dismantled, administrative power has been gradually reduced, and the level of difference has increased. This will make governance much less difficult.”

"Then how should it be governed?"

"Governance is also simple. From now on, we only look at the reports. Who cares about their process? If they don't come out, they will be incompetent, so just get out." Song Beiyun raised his hand: "It's better to divide Yushitai into two, yours Dali Temple is also divided into two."

"Dali Temple?"

"Well." Song Beiyun nodded and said: "Divided into courts and procuratorates, and then integrated into the criminal department to form a complete code department. Why do we want to amend the law? Isn't it because we want to realize the world that the code has given us, right? Don't say anything The dream of Peach Blossom Land, at least one day in the future, will let future generations have laws to follow and follow. I dare not say that it is very fair, but at least it must make people feel that we are on the road to fairness. Power is the law The biggest nemesis is that the laws of the Song Dynasty cannot punish officials, nor you and me, because the power in our hands is enough to subvert the law, is this a good thing?"

Ding Xiang's occlusal muscles instantly bulged, and it seemed that his anger tank was about to be full.

"Okay, okay, Ding Xiangmo." Song Beiyun picked a withered reed leaf from the side of the road and played with it in his hands: "Go three miles forward and you will arrive at the official post. Take a rest. Anyway, I That’s what I said, that’s what you heard, we still have to take it step by step, don’t count on one or two generations, it takes about ten generations. That’s 300 years, let’s use 300 years as a ruler, after all, dynasties come and go That is about 300 years, whether it will be successful or not will be left to the people behind.”

"Alas..." Ding Xiangchang sighed, "I wish I could live forever."

"Who are you going to talk to about this thing?" Song Beiyun shook his head helplessly, then turned around and said to the accompanying guards not far away: "Liu Qi, go ahead and talk about it, and tell Yi Cheng that Ding Xiang is going on tour in a low-level suit, don't make too much noise .”

"Yes."

The guard urged the horse forward and arrived at the station first.As soon as the news was conveyed, Yi Cheng's legs were weak.When did his small inn in a remote mountainous area ever receive such a big man? Usually, even a governor would never see him. Suddenly, a prime minister came, and he called the lazy cook behind him to cook quickly.

Ding Xiang and Ding Xiang arrived within a cup of tea, and the postman had stood at the door to greet them a long time ago. After seeing Ding Xiang, he was so nervous that he couldn't even speak.

"Don't worry, just speak slowly." Song Beiyun smiled and said, "This postman, what are your specialties? Get some."

"Yes, that's what happened. I don't know what taboo Mr. Xiangguo has."

But Ding Xiang gave Song Beiyun a hard look, raised his hand to stop Yicheng, and said in a deep voice, "Now that disasters are happening everywhere, it would be unreasonable for me to taste the delicacies of mountains and seas here."

However, Song Beiyun said with a strange look on his face: "Eat it as soon as you eat it. What is Ding afraid of? Is it possible that this drought can calm down your meal? What's the matter with eating somewhere? You have to eat that bran Only those who make bread and chaff are called to share the hardships of the people, right?"

Ding Xiang stared at Song Beiyun with wide eyes: "Shao Bao, you know that what you said is already a heinous crime."

"Yicheng, don't bother with this old man, he is pedantic." Song Beiyun raised his hand: "Just now I saw that your sausages hanging are not bad, so let's steam some. Another bowl of braised pork, can I have it?"

"Meat... gone. But... but... but fish."

"Well, it doesn't matter if there is no fish or shrimp, then let's have a fish."

Yicheng's calves are trembling now. Although he only knows that Ding Xiang is coming, he doesn't know who the person next to him is, but from the way this person talked to Ding Xiang just now, he doesn't look like a subordinate at all. It's like a person of the same level, and I heard Ding Xiang say Shaobao.

At this age, Shaobao and Yicheng are not fools, and only the world-famous Song Beiyun was left after the screening.

I would rather offend the emperor than Beiyun.This is a jingle that even he, Jiupin Yicheng, knows. At that time, his legs were really shaking with fright, and he almost couldn't stand up.

"Song Shaobao!" Ding Xiang scolded, "Nowadays there is a severe drought, how can you..."

"It's not me who caused the severe drought in the world." Song Beiyun sneered: "I've been walking all the way, and my feet are blistered. Why don't I eat a sausage? Ding Xiang, you are too old-fashioned, God There is nothing more important than eating and drinking."

"If it gets out..."

"What's the matter with the news? The Prime Minister has personally experienced the disaster. He walked all the way, ate and slept in the open, and ate two fucking sausages. Who dares to talk nonsense?" Song Beiyun smiled wildly: "I tore his mouth!"

Ding Xiang didn't want to argue with him, this guy was full of fallacies, but when the sausage came out, it was indeed much better than dry food and hard cakes. Ding Xiang, who usually doesn't eat much, ate as much as two bowls of rice today.

After eating, Ding Xiang sat in front of the hall and chatted with the postman, nothing more than asking about the situation of the disaster.

At the beginning, Yicheng still answered the questions, but later he hesitated.Who is Ding Xiang, he was the first prosecutor of the Song Dynasty, and the minister of Dali Temple.At this glance, he saw the strangeness in it, and he knocked on the side, which really made him fiddle with something out of the mouth of the post.

It is said that the food relief from the imperial court did arrive a few days ago, and it was indeed full of catties when it was distributed to the victims, but there are still many people in this area who are not full to eat. On that day, when the magistrate's mother of Tong'an County celebrated her birthday, the local gentry asked the people to collect donations, saying that the donations were actually just a coincidence, and they collected another batch of grain.After the people have paid, they are now in a stage where they can't eat enough and starve to death.

"This..." Song Beiyun scratched his thigh: "I'm afraid he has lived a good life for too long."

Ding Xiang could hold his breath, but continued to ask: "Then why didn't the Yushitai inspector find it?"

"After passing the post station of the villain, there is a mountain in front of it. The mountain is the only way to pass through Tong'an. If someone with a suspicious appearance passes by, the messenger on the mountain will pass the message. In addition, the villagers listen to the demagogy. If it is said that if there is no food in the family, they will be forced into corvee, so naturally they will be fooled by the inspection of Yushitai."

Song Beiyun pursed his lips and remained silent for a moment: "This kind of thing should be an isolated case."

"I haven't heard of other lands, but because of the inconvenient transportation in Tong'an, the news is blocked. It's not easy for a villain to go..."

Corvée had been completely abolished in the first year of Shunde, and it has long been an employment system. Now this small county should have taken advantage of the lack of information to play this hand.

This is very common, and it's not big news. After all, if no one died of starvation, the county magistrate has a conscience.It's just that this time he may have hit the gun. Who told Ding Xianghao to go this way.

"The old man already knows." Ding Xiang nodded, showing no emotion: "I'll go and see when the time comes."

"Xiangguo, once this stranger goes, he will be tipped off."

"This is not something you are worried about." Song Beiyun picked up a piece of sausage and put it in his mouth: "Ding Xiang is so smart, how can this be settled?"

Ding Xiang squinted at Song Beiyun, and then said to Yicheng: "Go down, I have something to discuss with Shaobao."

Chapter 680, September 9th, six years

"Ding Xiang, what do you want to discuss with me?"

"The old man was thinking that since he hit his head here, it might as well be easy."

"What are you going to do?" Song Beiyun tilted his head: "Tomorrow, I will let the secret agents of the imperial city go in quietly, put those squires and county magistrates into sacks, and then bury them in deep mountains and old forests. After 500 years of safekeeping, they will see the light of day again. .”

"You bastard!" Ding Xiang flicked his sleeves: "This old man speaks well, but you tease him like this."

"I didn't intend to tease Prime Minister Ding. It's just that our mission this time is to inspect the disaster situation, not to supervise the handling of cases. This kind of case can be handled by just a few people from Yushitai. Why do you need such a big man to do it?"

Song Beiyun lightly raised his hand, lifted his hat and said with a smile: "The big treacherous and small evils in the world are like the crucian carp crossing the river, and Xiang Ding can't stop checking them out."

Ding Xiang frowned, with a very impatient expression: "The old man wants to see how the county magistrate here deceives the villagers."

"Hi." Song Beiyun flicked his sleeves: "Dingxiang, what you said is not pleasant. In my opinion, this is not a case. Even if I know, I won't get involved."

Ding Xiang asked curiously: "Why did you say that? This is an act against the law."

"Who knows?" Song Beiyun took a sip of the wine he brought from Jinling. Now that the national alcohol ban has been imposed, it is too difficult to drink now: "In this poor mountain valley, as long as people don't starve to death, they can do whatever they want."

Ding Xiang's eyes widened, and he pointed at Song Beiyun: "You still call yourself a reformer of the new law, and you are so conniving?"

"Oh, Ding Xiang. You have been in the temple for too long. Why did we make the death rule that people are not allowed to starve to death? To put it bluntly, it is to give these people a loophole to take advantage of. It really scrapes all the oil and water Now, who will be an official in this kind of place? It's not like Gyeonggi, or those rich counties. This is a poor village hidden in a mountain depression." Song Beiyun shook his head and said: "If it is really investigated, you will come to be the county Ling or me to be the magistrate? What the Yicheng said just now should be true, but some things are so helpless, knowing that they are against the law, but in the end they have to be mixed with some extralegal things. You and I can't even mention this , but also invisible."

Song Beiyun's words made Ding Xiang feel uncomfortable all over. He tried his best to refute, but in the end he became speechless under Song Beiyun's narration.

Right now, the officialdom of the Song Dynasty is in a period of inactivity. The younger generation has not yet grown up, and the older generation is inseparable from it. Although it is a small place, it is really not the time to fight corruption in the Song Dynasty.

Ding Xiang is naturally right, but the problem is that he is single-mindedly pursuing the ideal country, which may eventually cause more serious problems than it is now.As far as it is concerned, as long as people don't starve to death, the county magistrate is already a good county magistrate.

"I know I can't convince Ding Xiang, so how about we go in and see tomorrow?"

Song Beiyun's proposal was accepted by Ding Xiang, and as soon as the two sides met, they decided to go to the county seat as a businessman to make an unannounced visit tomorrow to see what was going on.

In the early morning of the second day, the guards all changed into the clothes of the caravan. Ding Xiang was naturally the leader of the caravan, and Song Beiyun was dressed like a follower. The group walked into the territory of the small county in a big way.

Along the way, Ding Xiang only saw scorched yellow seedlings everywhere, the land was cracked and caked, and many thin children were looking for things like wheat grains and grasshoppers in the fields. The scene was heartbreaking.

After entering the county town, the place is already showing a dilapidated appearance, but fortunately there is still cooking smoke, although it is very sparse, there are no people starving to death on the side of the road.This gave Ding Xiang a little bit of comfort.

Song Beiyun, who was dressed as a follower, dangled a copper bell in his hand, and shouted as he walked: "Receive grain! Exchange grain! Grain for bran, grain for bran!"

This kind of grain harvesting model is relatively common in the Song Dynasty. It is the means of lower-level grain merchants. They buy grain from the official treasury, but if they sell the grain directly, they usually can’t make much money, because the price of grain is locked, and it is easy to change it. It's a matter of sticking your head out.

But the businessmen are so smart, they naturally want to try their best to get another ball out of this little oily water, so this kind of harvesting and exchanging grain has become the most common private business, which is also the scope allowed by the imperial court business activities within.

Usually, one catty of rice noodles is exchanged for three to four catties of dry bran. Many livestock farmers will choose to exchange it in this way. It is more expensive than pulling the bran directly by themselves, but it saves shipping costs. The cost is kept very low, so both sides are considered to have won.

Hearing his yelling, many doormen opened their doors, but most of them were just waiting and watching, and no one came to exchange food.

When passing by the county government office, he was suddenly stopped by an officer behind him: "For food changers, stop."

Song Beiyun turned his head and said with a smile all over his face, "Officer, what about food?"

The guard looked back at Song Beiyun, then looked at Ding Xiang behind him and said, "The old man, are you the big class?"

A generation of grandpas was called an old man, Ding Xiang was displeased, but he still nodded in response: "Yes."

"Follow me, our grandfather wants to see you."

Ding Xiang glanced at Song Beiyun, Song Beiyun immediately stopped the pretending caravan, and followed Ding Xiang into the county office.

When the two came to the courtroom, there was no place to sit. The two stood there for about a quarter of an hour before a person slowly emerged from the back hall.

This person's official uniform is the seventh-rank attire, and he cupped his hands towards Ding Xiang: "This Taipan is a bit unfamiliar, I don't know how to call him?"

"Ding."

"Daban Ding." The county magistrate nodded lightly, "Is it the grain-exchanging caravan? Where is Daban Yuan from before?"

"He couldn't come because he had something to do, so Dapan Ding brought someone here himself. The county master didn't know that Taiban Ding was the second shopkeeper of the Zhao family business in the capital."

Who is the number one shopkeeper?Naturally, it was Zhao Xiang who was sitting in a wheelchair, and the Zhao family business name... the name sounds terrible.

Sure enough, when the county magistrate heard the name of the Zhao family business, his eyes shrank, and he quickly became polite: "It turns out that he is the head class of the Zhao family business, and we are not welcome. You two have come from a long way, and you haven't eaten yet, right? Then I will do my best as a landlord and invite the two of you to have a light meal."

After finishing speaking, he ordered the servants below to prepare meals. While waiting, the county magistrate said some things, which were somewhat clichéd.

The Zhao family business name in the capital, can this name be messed up?There is no need to assume that it is 100% the firm of a relative of the royal family. No matter whether it is famous or not, as long as it is stained with the royal family, it is not something a small county magistrate can afford to offend.

Therefore, he tried his best to behave politely, and judging from the temperament and demeanor of this taipan, this might not necessarily be the taipan but the shopkeeper!

When eating, there are seven dishes for a total of three people, which can be described as extremely luxurious in the year of the catastrophe. Ding Xiang, who had to be mentally trained by Song Beiyun to eat a bowl of sausage, was full of resentment, wishing to chop the county magistrate on the spot up.

"Try it, both of you. This is a famous product here, peach blossom mandarin fish." The county magistrate pointed to a fish and said, "This year is not good, and this fish is rare."

Song Beiyun frowned, and took a sneak look at Ding Xiang, only to see that his face was livid and his eyes were like eagles.It seemed that the old man had murderous intentions, but he didn't attack on the spot because he agreed with Song Beiyun that today was just an unannounced visit.

The county magistrate also saw Ding Xiang's expression. He didn't know why he made the nobleman from the capital unhappy, so he couldn't ask directly, so he asked Song Beiyun with a smile, "I don't know what to call this person?"

"Whether it's right or not." Song Beiyun got up quickly: "The villain is just an apprentice."

When he declined, the magistrate saw the calluses on his fingers at a glance. The calluses on the middle finger clearly showed that this person was not only a scholar, but also a scholar who had read a lot of books. There were no hundreds of thousands or millions of words. When writing, it is impossible to have such thick calluses on the fingers.

There is no doubt that this young man is a scholar, may even have a reputation, and must have a good handwriting.

Song Beiyun saw that the county magistrate's eyes were fixed on his finger, and he said badly in his heart, and quickly retracted his finger in a feigned demonstration, and handed the price code written in the morning to the county magistrate.

"The price is a bit high." The magistrate shook his head and said, "Three catties is not worth it. In these days, how can one catty of polished rice be exchanged for five catties of bran. Three catties is too expensive."

Song Beiyun became interested when he heard the words, and said with a treacherous smile: "The county magistrate's words are not right, so what's the matter with buying and selling for nothing?"

The magistrate of the county frowned, and immediately looked up: "This little gentleman can't speak in such a random way, why is it a business without money."

"Hey, don't be alarmed, master of the county. Master and I have come this way, but we have seen a lot. Those counties are all three catties and three catties. How can you be so fussy like the master."

"They are them, and they are worth five catties here." The magistrate of the county refused to back down: "There is no negotiation on this matter."

Song Beiyun glanced at Ding Xiang, and Ding Xiang coughed: "I don't know how much this master has. If there are many, it's fine."

"One hundred thousand catties."

Song Beiyun was stunned. The relief food from the top was calculated at 5000 catties per person per month, and 5000 people were exactly [-] catties.He came up with [-] catties?Could it be that he ate all the relief food for [-] people?

Okay, okay, today you are going to fall into the hands of the first prosecutor of the Song Dynasty. Ding Xiang is not a soft-hearted person.

Sure enough, Ding Xiangwen's hands started to tremble when he heard the words, obviously he was angry, but Song Beiyun was quite calm, he smiled and said: "One hundred thousand catties, this is a lot of money, if you don't mind, this master can take me The two of you go check it out?"

"That's natural."

The atmosphere of the meal was very tense. The county magistrate was obviously wary of Song Beiyun and the two of them, and the two of them had to be careful not to let this guy see the flaws. People are so depressive, even the delicacies that come to their mouths are tasteless.

After eating, the county magistrate brought Song Beiyun and the others to the warehouse in the backyard. There were more than a dozen side rooms filled with grain.

"Please also check."

Song Beiyun stepped forward, pierced a sack with a bamboo whistle, then poured the rice in the bamboo tube onto the scale to observe carefully, and put a few grains into his mouth from time to time to chew.

"No, this county master. Why does this rice look like the imperial court's disaster relief food?"

Song Beiyun's acting was of course a complete set. He stared at the magistrate in disbelief with his eyes wide open: "My lord, this is a crime of beheading you."

Ding Xiang was also looking at him coldly, but the county magistrate smiled: "Don't look at me like this, Tai Pan, there is a reason for this."

"Oh, I'd like to hear the details, otherwise I wouldn't dare to take this food rashly."

In this small warehouse, the county magistrate closed the door to enter the courtyard and said: "There are [-] catties of grain donated by the local gentry, and [-] gold is donated by the local people."

"Will the squire donate food?"

"That's natural." The county magistrate's face was full of pride: "I told them that in this year of catastrophe, I don't know how many more times the imperial court will provide disaster relief. They wanted to rob food. The first thing they robbed was the houses of the township officials, and then the county government. They obediently handed over, and then the official set up a name for the people to pay half of the food for disaster relief. .”