Chapter 827: From the bottom of my heart, come if you want to die
The tavern was not big, but it could accommodate four tables. The tables looked quite old, and there was no grease on them after wiping them clean. It was obvious that the owner was diligent and clean.
The curtain swayed, and a woman came in carrying a dish. She had a smile on her face and looked quite relaxed.
"Hey!" The woman saw Jiang Qingzhi at the door and said with a smile, "What would you like to eat, sir? Come in first to avoid the wind. It's okay if you don't want to eat."
Jiang Qingzhi was exhausted both physically and mentally after traveling continuously for this trip.
He put the 羃 into his arms and looked around the tavern. "Your place?"
Chen Yao nodded, "Yes and no. Long Wei Bo has worked hard on his journey, Sanniang will prepare a pot of hot wine for him."
"Okay." The woman looked at Jiang Qingzhi curiously, "It is said that Chang Wei Bo is unfathomably majestic and awe-inspiring. Seeing him today..."
"How?" Jiang Qingzhi asked with a smile.
"Extraordinary bearing." The woman nodded and then went to the back.
Jiang Qingzhi came over and sat down. The staff member quickly stood up and stood beside Jiang Qingzhi, looking more like his follower.
Chen Yao no longer looked at him, and said with emotion: "Seeing Chang Wei Bo reminded me of my past. I recalled how excited I was when I passed the imperial examination. It was as if the world was in my hands. I rode my horse at full speed and saw all the flowers in Chang'an in one day."
Jiang Qingzhi rubbed his face and said, "Logically, you have a bright future."
"Yes!" Chen Yao nodded. "I am the left assistant minister. The right assistant minister Lan Qingtian works diligently, but he is a bit rigid. The Minister of Revenue can be rigid, but he cannot be less flexible. Otherwise, how can we rule the Ming Dynasty?"
Jiang Qingzhi picked up the chopsticks and picked up a piece of marinated mutton. He felt that the taste was not particularly good, but there was an indescribable feeling.
"Does Long Wei feel that the taste is not right?" Chen Yao said with a smile.
“Somewhat ordinary.”
"Sanniang's cooking is good, but this is the taste of my hometown food. I want a homely style." Chen Yao picked up a piece of marinated mutton and chewed slowly. "This marinated mutton must be made from fat sheep in their prime. If it's too young, the meat will be chewy, and if it's too old, it will be a bit dry. This is just right."
"Homely?"
"Yes. I have been an official for many years and have been away from home for many years. Although I seem to have unlimited glory in the officialdom, I have actually experienced countless dangers. Even though I have many people around me, I still feel lonely. When I have nothing to do, I will come here to have a drink and eat some home-cooked food. Here..."
Chen Yao pointed to his chest and said comfortably: "It's comfortable here. Come here once, and I can hold on for a little longer in this sea of suffering in this world."
"The sea of suffering is boundless, there is always a way out." At this time, the woman brought a pot of wine. Jiang Qingzhi touched the pot and found it was slightly hot.
"Enjoy your meal, Chief Wilbur." The woman took a towel and wiped the table.
Sun Bu Tong came over, picked up a wine glass, poured the wine, and drank it all in one gulp.
After smacking his lips, Sun Bu Tong said, "It tastes just average."
"I didn't know you would come." Chen Yao said sarcastically.
This is not a dangerous place, so we won't prepare poisoned wine in advance.
Jiang Qingzhi's old face turned red. He filled his glass with wine and took a sip.
After the wine was heated, all the flavors in the wine were stimulated, and Jiang Qingzhi tasted a fermented smell, just like... the smell of old-fashioned bread in the early years of later generations.
It tastes a little sour at first, but if you taste it carefully, you will find that the sourness is followed by a sweet aftertaste, and the various flavors produced by fermentation are extremely rich.
"How?" Chen Yao asked with a smile.
Jiang Qingzhi nodded, "Delicious food is among the people."
"Hahaha!" Chen Yao laughed triumphantly, and after a long while he pointed at Jiang Qingzhi and said, "Ordinary people would say this dish and this wine are ordinary. Why? Because most people put their hearts on fame, wealth, and desire. Their minds are elsewhere, and they are like walking corpses inside. How can they appreciate the delicious food that is made with so much care?"
"I brewed it myself." Jiang Qingzhi nodded.
"Yes." The woman turned around and said with a smile, "He likes this taste. There is no other way. I will brew some every once in a while. If Long Wilbur likes it, he can take some away with him."
Jiang Qingzhi nodded, "Thank you very much."
The wine tasted ordinary at first, but it had a long aftertaste, which was just what Jiang Qingzhi liked.
"What were you talking about? Oh, right, the Ministry of Revenue." Chen Yao took a sip of his wine and squinted his eyes. "The Ming Dynasty may look prosperous from the outside, but only the Ministry of Revenue knows what's going on inside. In the past few years, local governments have complained frequently, saying that the land and population are decreasing, so taxes are naturally decreasing. Taxes are decreasing, but more and more people are taking money from the court."
Chen Yao sighed, "Now if you stand on the streets of the capital, you will see how many families are eating from the government. The rich and powerful pass down their wealth from generation to generation, and there are more and more officials. The worst thing is that the princes of various places give birth to children like piglets."
Jiang Qingzhi couldn't help but smile, "That's right."
The princes of the Ming Dynasty had one characteristic: they could have children. Jiang Qingzhi said, "The princes were almost like prisoners in their fiefdoms. They had nothing to do, so they had to eat, drink and have fun to numb themselves."
"If you have nothing to do, you can just give birth. Who will raise so many children? It has to be the court. It's too much to bear!" Chen Yao sighed, "But the Ministry of Revenue's method for this is... except for those who can't be pushed away, those who are outside the fifth degree of mourning have no money to pay for their own living."
At this point, Chen Yao couldn't help but express his own opinion, "In my opinion, after three generations, the royal family should be allowed to make a living on their own. This will reduce the expenses of the court, and those people will be freed from their cages, so everyone is happy."
Jiang Qingzhi nodded, with appreciation in his eyes, "This is a proper method." Chen Yao's resume is very clean, and it can be seen that he relied on his own efforts to get to the top. Such people have rich resumes and outstanding abilities, and Chen Yao is in his prime. If nothing goes wrong, he may be able to enter the government hall in the future.
"Local annexation of land is getting worse and worse. To be honest, I am openly dissatisfied with Chang Wei Bo and the Mohists, but in fact..." Chen Yao smiled and said, "In fact, I admire some of Chang Wei Bo's words. For example, Confucianism was wrong from the beginning. What is the point of studying? For fame and fortune, if you are indoctrinated with such mean words from a young age, it is difficult not to become a mean person when you grow up."
Jiang Qingzhi nodded and took a sip of wine.
His Qi and blood were still somewhat insufficient, so he would get cold easily in winter, and he had to wear thicker clothes than ordinary people. He could hardly feel the warmth in his body during the whole journey, like a zombie. Only then did he warm up.
Good wine!
Jiang Qingzhi couldn't help but praise inwardly.
"Local scholars and officials like to form groups. Once they do, local officials have to stay away from them. So some people say that today is the world of Confucianism, and this is true."
Chen Yao ate a piece of tofu, squinted his eyes and savored it, "It will be difficult for the new policy to break through."
"Tell me about it." It was rare for a Confucian general to take the initiative to analyze the matter, and Jiang Qingzhi was quite interested.
"First, we need to break the impasse. Money and grain are the first priority." Chen Yao held the chopsticks. "The government is currently short of money. If we can't get money and grain first, we have to fight tooth and nail and snatch it from the hands of those scholars and officials. How can those people just sit there and wait for death? If the two sides fight, either the world will be in chaos or there will be bloodshed. The new policy is full of blood from the beginning. It will be even more difficult to implement anything afterwards."
Tsk!
Jiang Qingzhi nodded, "Continue."
"So we have to find money and food at the beginning of the new policy, so that we can carry it out calmly. But where does the money and food come from?" Chen Yao sighed: "In the past few years, the government was short of money, and the final solution... was to squeeze the people out of their pockets.
But the people are not cattle and horses, they also need to eat, drink, defecate and urinate. If you continue to exploit them like this, I am worried that one day the world will be in flames of war. "
"This is what I really think." Jiang Qingzhi nodded and poured wine for Chen Yao.
"If word gets out that Chang Wei Bo personally poured wine for me, I'm afraid many people will be envious." Chen Yao smiled, picked up the wine glass and took a sip.
Chen Yao stroked his beard, "In my opinion, the most important thing right now is to find money and food from the outside. Let's put it this way! The Ming Dynasty is now like a patient with a serious illness, with both Qi and blood deficiency. If we stimulate the potential from the inside, it will be like draining the pond to catch fish, destroying the already scarce vitality. The only way is to start from the outside, that is... to use medicine to make up for the lost vitality!"
clap clap clap!
Jiang Qingzhi clapped his hands gently, "Excellent."
"Thank you for the compliment." Chen Yao said with a smile: "That's one reason. Secondly, once the new policy is implemented, local scholars and officials will inevitably rise up in opposition. Those policies will be resisted or even destroyed when they are implemented in the local areas. How to deal with it is a big problem."
Chen Yao scratched his head. "If we are weak, we will repeat the mistakes of Emperor Renzong of Song. If we are tough, even a strong man like Wang Anshi will inevitably be defeated."
Chen Yao looked at Jiang Qingzhi, "In the past, I would have thought the new policy was a joke. Does Lord Wei know why?"
"Please speak." Jiang Qingzhi sipped his wine, feeling very comfortable.
At this time, Mo Zhan came in, walked behind Jiang Qingzhi, leaned over and whispered, "Master, the Jinyiwei people are here."
Jiang Qingzhi didn't look back, "Wait."
"Yes."
Mo Zhan went out and saw more than a dozen Jinyiwei standing outside the tavern with swords drawn, and the leader was Zhu Hao.
The cold wind whistled, and Zhu said in a deep voice: "The Jinyiwei has been ordered to arrest people. Why doesn't Chang Wei Bo allow it?"
Mo Zhan stopped and said calmly, "Master is inside, please wait for a while."
Zhu Hao laughed, "This is an order from His Majesty. Does Lord Chang Wei want to disobey His Majesty?"
This pot is quite big, no one can catch it when it falls down.
Sun Chonglou rolled up his sleeves and asked, "Why, Zhu Hao, are you going to convict the young master?"
Zhu Hao glanced at Sun Chonglou, with a smile on his face, "How about you give it a try?"
Sun Chonglou was furious and was about to attack, but Bol said sinisterly: "My Lord is interrogating Chen Yao, and you, the Jinyiwei, want to interrupt him at this critical moment. What is your intention?"
What the hell!
Sun Chonglou couldn't help but look at Boer with new eyes, "Bobo, that's great!"
Bol said modestly: "It was all my uncle's teaching."
The two men treated Zhu Hao and more than a dozen Jinyiwei as nothing.
Zhu Hao took a step forward and asked, "What if I want to go in?"
The matter of Chen Yao made the Taoist priest furious, and the Jinyiwei who had gone to the Ministry of Revenue to investigate the corruption case earlier were in trouble. Lu Bing was kicked by the Taoist priest, and when he returned to the Jinyiwei, he vented his anger on Zhu Hao and others.
——Find Chen Yao and bring him back!
However, Chen Yao was found by Jiang Qingzhi first, which made Zhu Hao extremely anxious, which is why he was so aggressive at this moment.
Mo Zhan pressed his hand on the hilt of the knife and said slowly: "If you want to die, come here!"
(End of this chapter)
