amaotonovel Chapter 309 Imperial Formulas: Those Who Use Them Know Best
Chapter 309 Imperial Formulas: Those Who Use Them Know Best
Emperor Zhu's expectations were destined to be dashed.
Officials like Xu Zhenghe and Qu Mingjie are bad, but not stupid.
When they were in Penglai County, they were strangled and their whole family was exiled. But when they arrived in the capital, it became beheading and exile of nine generations of their family. If they were to cry out for justice again, wouldn't it become the extermination of nine generations of their family?
Therefore, Xu Zheng, Qu Mingjie, and all the other officials obediently lowered their heads and stretched out their necks, each one like a lamb to the slaughter.
The expectation in Emperor Zhu's eyes slowly faded.
Zhou Zhen, the Minister of Justice in charge of overseeing the execution, looked up at the sky again, pulled a warrant from the container on his desk, threw it heavily to the ground, and shouted, "Execute!"
As Zhou Zhen finished speaking, the executioners standing behind Xu Zheng and other officials simultaneously removed the red cloth covering their executioner blades, strode up behind them, pulled the wooden plaques with the word "offender" written on them from behind their necks, threw them to the ground, gripped their executioner blades tightly with both hands, raised them high and then brought them down heavily, sending Xu Zheng and the other officials on their way.
"it is good!"
As soon as Xu Zheng and the other officials' heads fell to the ground, cheers suddenly rang out from below the execution platform. Zhou Zhen and the officials who had been brought by Emperor Zhu to watch the execution looked in the direction of the sound and saw that the one leading the cheers was none other than Emperor Zhu himself.
With Emperor Zhu leading the cheers, the onlookers immediately became bolder.
"it is good!"
"Good kill!"
"That corrupt official deserves to die!"
"..."
It's not uncommon for officials to be beheaded, but it's a rare sight to see the emperor cheering while officials are being beheaded.
As for the officials around them, their faces looked as if they had lost their parents...
The people of the capital city were saying, "What the hell does this have to do with me? Do you officials even know who I am?"
……
At the execution ground in the capital, officials were piled up in droves.
In the fields of Penglai County, the sweat of the people was soaked through.
Harvesting wheat, bundling wheat, transporting wheat to the threshing ground to dry it, pressing the threshing floor with a roller to separate the wheat grains from the ears, then winnowing to remove stones, dirt, and husks—the whole process must be done as quickly as possible, and all the work must be completed on a sunny day.
Yang Shaofeng stood at a distance at the entrance of Laowangzhuang Village, watching the busy people on the threshing ground, constantly pondering what to do next.
There are a lot of problems facing me now, and none of them are easy to solve.
Take, for example, the division of land.
Back in Ningyang County, allocating land seemed easy; all the new magistrate of Penglai County, Xu Jingyu, had to do was simply replicate what he had done in Ningyang County.
However, the situation in Penglai County is quite different from that in Ningyang County.
The land distribution in Ningyang County took place before the spring plowing season. At that time, most families did not have more than a few acres of land. In addition, Ningyang County had just been liberated and everything was in ruins. As the county magistrate, he could distribute the land however he wanted.
Penglai County had been liberated for two years. The people had land that had been cultivated since the time of Hu Yuan, as well as land that had been reclaimed spontaneously. Directly distributing the land would involve changes in the land ownership.
For example, Zhang San's land might be allocated to Li Si to cultivate, and the wasteland reclaimed by Wang Wu's family might benefit Zhao Liu.
The simplest and most direct solution to this problem is for the government to directly and forcibly redistribute the resources. To get the people to voluntarily accept the redistribution, one must patiently persuade them.
Does Xu Jingyu have that kind of patience?
Besides distributing land to the people, finding ways for the people of the ten counties of Dengzhou Prefecture to make money was also a major problem.
Boiling salt can be a way to make money, but you can't put all your hopes on it. After all, boiling salt requires taking into account all sorts of factors, such as the weather, tides, and so on. It's not as simple as just setting up a pot and starting to boil.
More importantly, Yang Shaofeng now has to consider the entire Dengzhou region.
Dengzhou Prefecture has ten counties, and the roads between them, the cities of each county, and a whole host of other problems such as county schools and prefectural schools are enough to give anyone a headache.
After a long silence, Yang Shaofeng returned to the Penglai County Government Office and plunged into the room to start writing and drawing.
The closest county to Penglai is Huangxian, so we'll build the road from Penglai to Huangxian first, then from Huangxian to Zhaoyuan, and finally build the roads to the other counties.
We still need to find Wang Guangyang to discuss building a road from Zhaoyuan to Jinan Prefecture. The Dengzhou Prefecture within Dengzhou Prefecture will be responsible for the construction, and Wang Guangyang can figure out the rest himself.
Well, let's have someone from the Ministry of Works survey the area and determine where it's suitable to build roads and where it's not. We can't just make decisions on a whim like we did with Ningyang County.
Then there are the salt fields.
Dengzhou is surrounded by the sea on three sides. Apart from those places that are extremely unsuitable for salt production, the rest of the area should be suitable for salt production.
Should we filter the brine and make refined salt directly?
Since Dengzhou is surrounded by the coast on three sides, there should be quite a few fishermen. Sea fish and shrimp cannot be farmed for the time being, but they can be frozen and presented as tribute to Emperor Zhu.
After all, it's a tribute item, so it's only right that it be sold at a higher price later, right?
Do you have any oysters or scallops around here in Dengzhou?
I wonder how difficult it is to raise these things. If they are easy to raise, I'll invite Yang Qing and Wang Hu to come and study them. Wouldn't these garlic oysters and vermicelli scallops be snapped up by the high-ranking officials and nobles in the capital?
After all, it's a royal prescription; anyone who uses it knows its value.
And then there are those dried shrimp, seaweed, and kelp—aren't these all nutritious and delicious? The high-ranking officials and nobles in the capital must love them.
The dilapidated boats of the Dengzhou fishermen are a disgrace; they look rather frightening. Shouldn't we ask the Ministry of Works to design a special fishing boat?
It seems that there is a type of scissor whaling boat in Henan, Europe, but I don't know exactly how it works. In the end, I still have to trouble the Ministry of Works with this matter.
By the way, are there any iron mines in Dengzhou?
We don't need high-quality ore, as long as it's an open-pit mine like the poor mine in Ningyang County.
Well, we still need to find someone from the Ministry of Works to investigate further.
Furthermore, Dengzhou may very well face a shortage of manpower, just like Ningyang County.
It's no use going to the Ministry of Works about this; we still need to find Old Deng.
As he wrote, Yang Shaofeng realized something was wrong.
What kind of rubbish did I write?
What are the development plans for Dengzhou over the next five years?
No, my superior has become the emperor's son-in-law, you bastard!
He's a prince consort, not a beast of burden!
Growing increasingly displeased, Yang Shaofeng simply looked out the door and shouted, "Fimp Fifth Brother! Send someone to fetch those county magistrates! Oh, and have them bring over another student from Ningyang County. I have something to tell them!"