Chapter 52: Kill the Nine Clans? Sorry, there is no Nine Clans for modern workers!
Li Shimin was shocked after hearing this.
No, what exactly do you modern people do when you work?
And couldn't they have informed him first? Why did they have to wait for people to file the complaint directly in front of him?
After all, it was Li Shimin who sent the people out, so Li Shimin thought for a long time and finally said:
"She doesn't have nine clans, so I can't kill her nine clans."
Lu Qi: ...?
Who can be without nine generations of his clan? Is this person a star of misfortune?
Lu Qi was shocked, and then said with even more grief and anger:
"Then I implore Your Majesty to have this woman torn into pieces and left exposed on the city walls!
This woman's crimes are extremely heinous. Even if she is cut into pieces, it would not be too much, Your Majesty!"
Li Shimin calmed Lu Qi down, then said that he needed to send someone to verify it, and that he would discuss the matter with all the officials when he went to court tomorrow.
Lu Qi wanted to say something, but Li Shimin said that if what he said was true, he would never forgive Wen Yuping and would definitely deal with her according to the laws of the Tang Dynasty.
Lu Qi went down in grief and anger, and Li Shimin immediately asked Tianmu:
"Wen Yuping, come out here! What on earth did you do in Fanyang?"
Wen Yuping has been on a business trip for more than a month, and she reports to him on the progress of her work every five days or so.
The work progress from the day before yesterday was still on his desk. And boy, she had caused such a big mess and didn't even remember to tell him about it in her report?
[Boss, do you need me for something? I'm busy on a business trip, working for you, boss.]
"How dare you ask? Mrs. Lu has already reported it to me, what do you have to say?"
"That's it. It's okay, boss. I know what's going on."
Didn’t I tell you all this? Don’t ask me about the dire situation, boss. I can handle it all!]
Li Shimin: …???
"But you didn't tell me that you were in such a deep and arduous situation!"
When others were on business trips, for example, Ma Zhou would at most violate the rules by secretly eating chicken, and then unfortunately be reported to him.
He could also try to smooth things over by saying that chicken is not meat, so just eat it.
But she didn't issue an imperial decree to wipe out the entire prominent family of five noble names and seven surnames. He couldn't say that the Lu family wasn't human, right?
[Boss, you're also responsible for this. Please take the blame for now. I'll explain when I get back.]
Li Shimin: …?
"No, this is how you modern people work. If something goes wrong, it becomes my fault?"
[That's right, boss! We're just low-level employees! You can't let us take all the blame!]
Even if we do something wrong, we workers can't bear such a heavy responsibility. The leaders above us have to bear it, and the boss has to share even more responsibility!
[Yes, yes, everyone has a share of responsibility.]
For example, if our bank miscalculates a sum of money, the teller has to make up for it themselves. The teller manager has to pay 80%, and each of us employees has to pay 20%...
Li Shimin: ………
But this is his court, and we have to follow the rules of the Tang Dynasty.
"Anyway, get back here right now! Give me a reasonable explanation!
Otherwise, believe it or not, I will chop you off!"
After Li Shimin glared and threatened, he suddenly thought that these modern people had resurrection armor and were not afraid of being chopped:
"Believe it or not, I will dismiss you from office!"
[…Oh, dismissal? Rounding it up means I was fired. Then, boss, are you still going to pay me my previous salary?]
"………hair!"
[Hey boss, you are such a nice and generous person!
Boss, what did you say? My signal here seems to be bad, it's intermittent and I can't hear you clearly. Hello, hello...]
Wen Yuping was talking when she suddenly lost the connection and never replied again, leaving Li Shimin glaring in anger.
[Hahahahaha, Erfeng, don't be angry. This is how business trips are these days. Sometimes there's no signal.]
[Yes, yes, a general is not bound by his king's orders when he is away from the court. If the signal is cut off and we cannot connect to the king, there is nothing we can do for the time being.
Anyway, isn't it enough that the reform mission is completed?】
What kind of people are these modern workers?
Li Shimin was angry for a long time, but he couldn't contact Wen Yuping. He felt very depressed. When he went to court the next day, his face was as black as the bottom of a pot.
At this time, all the court officials also knew about Lu's complaint yesterday. Everyone was very shocked, and they were all holding back their energy and wanted to severely impeach Wen Yuping!
We should strive to have these women stripped of their official positions and never again interfere in the officialdom.
However, Li Shimin did not mention this matter first, but started with a small matter:
"Yesterday I said I would actively accept advice and suggestions, but I didn't ask you to interfere in my harem and family affairs.
I see someone is proposing to choose concubines and girls for me, but my queen and I are deeply in love and don’t need anyone else!
There is no need to choose a concubine for me, the Queen is the only woman in my life!"
After saying this, the court officials all opened their eyes wide in shock.
If it weren’t for you, Your Majesty, there would be so many beautiful women in the world, but you didn’t want them all. It would be a waste of your time as emperor!
What a pity!
Also, if you don't want a harem, how can the daughter of our family enter the palace to persuade your husband, give birth to a prince, and become the queen with wealth and glory?
Unable to consolidate the family by marrying into the emperor, everyone felt uneasy from head to toe, as if they had failed in a talent show.
"Your Majesty, since ancient times, the emperor's harem has been both a family affair and a state affair. Your actions are truly inappropriate and violate ancestral rules.
Moreover, favoring one person can easily lead to arrogance, causing the queen to interfere in government affairs...”
Many people stood up to raise objections. Li Shimin listened attentively until Yuan Zai stood up and said:
"Your Majesty is frugal and wise, and has always been learning from the style of Emperor Taizong.
The deeds of Emperor Taizong, who loved his wife Empress Zhangsun, were widely praised, but Emperor Taizong still had three palaces and six courtyards.
Your Majesty, you only favor the Empress, which is really not as good as Taizong..."
[Ahahahahahahaha, don’t you have any other examples to give?
Using Erfeng's past deeds as an example, can you persuade the present Erfeng to learn from his past self?
And you said he's not as powerful as he used to be?】
[Hahaha, when will we let them know how cheap their mouths are?!]
[It's almost done. Once this wave of government affairs is dealt with, we'll find a way to let them know about Er Feng's vest!]
Li Shimin's expression was very unhappy. Just as he was about to speak, the modern workers in the court stood up one after another.
"Your Majesty is not taking a concubine, why are you so anxious, Lord Yuanzai? Is this delaying your entry into the palace?
Do you also want to become His Majesty's concubine?"
"I'm a man, you're talking nonsense and making a fuss!"
"Emperor Wu of Han had many male favorites, and so did Emperor Gaozu of Han! What's wrong with men having sex?
I think you are just jealous of the Queen's exclusive favor and want to get promoted through the backdoor with His Majesty the Emperor!"
Officials: ...I suddenly realized that this is what it means to take the back door!
"It's either that or you all want to sell your daughters so that you can get promoted.
In short, these are things that only people who lack great virtue would do!"
"Everyone, please stop arguing. It's okay for the daughters of the masters to enter the harem!
As long as you all commit suicide to prevent your daughter from entering the palace, just like Yang Guozhong did, in order to prevent the interference of foreign relatives in politics and causing chaos in the world, I will have no objection. "
Civil and military officials and Li Shimin: … …
Sometimes, these modern workers are really useful!
There were three modern historians, a minister of rites and a recorder in the court. The modern people worked together and took turns to perform the duties, while Li Shimin just watched the show leisurely from above.
When these modern workers are not angry with him, they can actually make others angry to death!
Sure enough, the old-school ministers who strongly opposed it were furious.
Then, they stopped criticizing the emperor and started pointing fingers at these modern workers and started cursing:
"What do you guys from overseas know? The emperor has three palaces and six courtyards. This is the rule. The laws of our ancestors cannot be violated!
Otherwise, what will happen if you tell others about it?"
"Who said that the laws of our ancestors cannot be violated? Did your ancestors come out and tell you that?
I think you are unhappy in your own family, so you want to take advantage of our Emperor and break up other couples!
Say! Are you the pinkeye who lives in the lemon tree?
"That's right, and since Your Majesty doesn't choose concubines or take in beautiful girls, this will save a lot of money!
How much money can be saved every year just from the five social insurances and one housing fund and rewards for the concubines? This is a great thing! "
"Yes, that's right, and there are so many people waiting for your Majesty's favor, your Majesty must treat everyone equally, and not leave anyone out!
If you keep doing this for a long time, won't Your Majesty suffer from kidney deficiency?
You just can't stand the fact that His Majesty is strong and capable, and you want him to have kidney deficiency and die young!"
"Humph, what nonsense! We are only considering the future of your Majesty's offspring!
Even if the queen gave birth to one child a year, that would be too few. How could she continue the royal family's bloodline?"
"What's the matter? Are you so anxious about whether the emperor has children or not? Do you want to bear the child yourself?
The emperor is not anxious, but the eunuch is!"
"Besides, what's the point of having so many offspring?
The First Emperor had more than twenty sons and more than ten daughters, but weren't they all killed by Hu Hai in the end?
By the time the Han Dynasty came around, there were no descendants of the First Emperor. It only lasted thirteen years before the First Emperor had no descendants!
"Yeah, is there any use in having so many children?
His Majesty Taizong gave birth to so many children and worked tirelessly in the harem, but in the end, wasn't it because of us two retired emperors that the Tang Dynasty was almost destroyed?
It seems that having too many children is not very useful. You still have to be useful to be born!"
Li Shimin: ...Just tell me, why are you carrying a boomerang?
[Hahaha, you're working so tirelessly like a god, do you really think we, the two Fengs, are horses or ducks?]
"You, you, you are so bold!"
"Yeah, yeah, my gallbladder is bigger than others, so what? Did I say something?
I'm telling the truth, but you're the ones who are scheming against me and trying to silence me because you can't accept the truth.
The pedantic Confucian scholars could not stand it any longer and asked the emperor to kill these modern workers, but Li Shimin said that he had said before that people should not be punished for their words.
"It seems that everyone's opinions have been rejected, and there are no other reasons. Then this matter is settled and there is no need to discuss it further.
This is my decision. I don't want to hear any rumors that are detrimental to the Queen. Do you understand?"
A group of local Tang Dynasty officials could only answer in a listless manner, but many people were not convinced in their hearts, especially the major families.
Marriage means uniting two families and forming an alliance of interests. Now, Your Majesty has been bewitched by this Queen and is tempted by something new. As young people, how can love last?
Even if the love between this young emperor and empress is as strong as gold, can it compare to that of Emperor Taizong of Tang and Empress Zhangsun?
What's more, Emperor Taizong of Tang also has a harem. After a few years, Queen Wei will definitely fall out of favor, and then the question of selecting a concubine can be raised.
They just wait and see who will get slapped in the face in the end!
After talking about this matter and discussing several other state affairs, Li Shimin finally talked about the matter of the Lu family of Fanyang.
Li Shimin called Lu Qi to the court and asked him in detail what the imperial envoy had done.
"Your Majesty, as soon as she arrived in Fanyang, she killed several imperial officials over a disagreement!
Not only that, when the people did not listen to her, she even kidnapped and threatened them in order to enforce her orders, and insisted that it was His Majesty and the court that asked her to do so.
Not long ago, I, Mrs. Lu, couldn't stand it anymore and talked to her about it. She actually insulted our Lu family on the spot, saying that we are worse than pigs and dogs. Her words were so vicious that she was like a shrew!
And a few days ago, seeing the fierce opposition from our Lu family, she was so bold as to set fire to our manor! She also killed many of my Lu clan members!
"Your Majesty, this Wen Yuping is truly audacious and presumptuous. She thinks she can do whatever she wants just because she has the sword from above. How dare she act so arrogantly?
This is truly unforgivable and unforgivable!"
"Your Majesty, it is truly unfitting for a woman to serve as an official in the court.
Women don't know how to govern at all. They just speak sweet words and deceive Your Majesty with their flowery rhetoric!
I hope Your Majesty will punish him severely!"
Especially the male officials in the Ministry of Revenue, headed by Liu Yan and Diwu Qi, they wanted to nail Wen Yuping to the pillar of shame so that the world could see the consequences of a woman holding an official position!
Hearing these words, Lu Shuyuan from the Ministry of Revenue could not help but stood up on the spot:
"You men are arrogant because you only heard one side of the story.
Your Majesty, I beg you to wait for Madam Wen to return so that we can confront each other in court, so as to avoid believing the treacherous words!"
Although this matter had nothing to do with her, as a female official and a modern woman, she absolutely could not allow these men to speak nonsense and slander other female officials.
"So you're going to vouch for her?
With so many lives lost, could the Lu family's descendants still fabricate lies? "
"Since the Minister has said so, let's make a bet. If I'm right after our confrontation, how about you give the official hat to Wen Yuping?"
Diwu Qi snorted coldly:
"I will never lose. If you lose, you might as well resign and go home to embroider and take care of your children!"
"Alright, everyone's bickering and making bets in the courtroom. How disgraceful!"
The ministers quickly demanded that Wen Yuping be brought back for trial.
Lu Qi cried with tears and snot, and looked very miserable and sympathetic:
"Your Majesty, I have nothing left now. I don't want any wealth. I just want to have this Wen Yuping skinned alive and have her tendons torn out! Cut her into pieces to relieve my hatred!"
"Is it right for the wicked to file a complaint first?
If I hadn't rushed back, you, the treacherous man, would have succeeded!"
Just when the officials were shouting the loudest, Wen Yuping walked into the palace and kowtowed to His Majesty to greet him.
"Your Majesty, I have failed in my duty!
I have been implementing reforms in Fanyang, but I have heard that Lu and many of his cronies in the court want to kill me!
I can only leave Fanyang in a hurry and return to the court!"
Li Shimin knocked on the handle of the dragon throne, was silent for a moment, and then cursed in his heart, "This woman is such a fox!"
How could she rush back from Fan Yang so quickly? She must have set off long ago, why didn’t she tell him directly yesterday!
She's just deliberately waiting for someone to sue her first, so she can act pitifully and fight back, right?
We are all thousand-year-old foxes. Li Shimin snorted and pretended not to know and asked her to stand up.
Wen Yuping smiled brightly and immediately said to Diwu Qi:
"Why do you, my Lord Minister, want to give me your official hat so badly?
That's great! I've been eagerly waiting for this official hat of yours for a year since I came to Chang'an. Now it's mine."
"Wen Yuping, how dare you stand here and not apologize to His Majesty?
I think you don't even know how serious your crime is. You women are all so ignorant that you are not fit to be officials!"
"What did I do wrong? Sir Liu, please tell me!
If you don't tell me, how can I know what accusations some villains have made against me?"
“That’s enough!”
If this continues, Liu Yan will be so angry at the modern people's venomous words that he will faint on the spot. Li Shimin quickly asked:
"What happened to you killing an imperial official in Fanyang?"
"Your Majesty, when have I ever killed an official appointed by the imperial court?"
Wen Yuping looked shocked at this moment, and then said:
"I went to Fanyang to promote potato and sweet potato planting and tax reform, but the Fanyang County Magistrate kept making excuses and shirking responsibility.
Especially his clerks and yamen runners, who were lazy and inactive, and did not take the government orders seriously at all.
I think they are probably influenced by the An Lushan Rebellion. The local officials still think they are local emperors and have no idea about our Great Tang Dynasty.
Therefore, I had no choice but to kill those officials to intimidate the local officials!"
After all, those clerks were minor officials who were not even of the ninth rank, so how could they be considered officials appointed by the imperial court?
[I knew Lu Qi had bad intentions! He was deliberately exaggerating the facts!]
We modern women are still very reliable! 】
"Your Majesty, I was afraid that someone would deliberately embellish the story, so I brought back all the people and officials who heard the whole incident.
Who is right and who is wrong will be known once we ask.”
Soon, Li Shimin summoned the witnesses, and they told him everything. From beginning to end, it was indeed not Wen Yuping's fault.
"Then how do you explain why you forced the people?"
"Master Liu, who told you this? You believe it! Are you full of grass? You don't have any judgment at all."
Wen Yuping first criticized her boss, whom she disliked, and then said:
"This is such a huge injustice! Who can't stand us women being officials and is putting this accusation on me?
I went to promote the planting of potatoes and sweet potatoes. We all know that these are good crops that can produce thousands of kilograms per mu, but the people don’t know it!
Some people even believed in An Lushan's teachings and opposed the imperial court.
I thought of sorting them by village, forcibly pulling them out, forming a study class, and explaining to them His Majesty's benevolence and the advantages of potatoes and sweet potatoes.
After I finished my earnest persuasion, they all knew that Your Majesty loved the people like his own children, and only then did they return home convinced."
Modern years of work experience is——
Of course all work must leave traces!
Therefore, Wen Yuping quickly submitted all the work content and meeting minutes recorded by the secretary.
Her speeches to the people at the meeting were recorded, just as these modern historians have recorded them, every word of which was written down.
This includes how the people were initially uncooperative, but were later moved to tears and actively cooperated and went back to do publicity.
"I had hundreds of copies of the meeting minutes printed out so everyone can take a look!"
After reading this, Li Shimin was very pleased. He felt that this modern woman was indeed decisive and able to persuade people with reason and emotion, and win over the hearts of the people with both soft and hard methods.
What a great talent!
[Of course, I was an executive after all!
I could talk about that shady company's crappy corporate culture in detail, so now I have no problem at all!]
Suddenly, the official who had been shouting loudly just now fell silent.
If it weren't for these detailed meeting records, they could still say that Wen Yuping was making up stories. The current records recorded everything she said every hour of every day, so it was impossible to falsify them.
“Then why are you still insulting the Fanyang Lu family?
You remember everything written in black and white, and you called them worse than pigs, dogs and beasts!
You don't have the magnanimity and bearing of a Tang Dynasty official at all; you're nothing more than a shrew!"
Diwu Qi finally found a bone to pick, and Wen Yuping immediately retorted:
“If you were to be the Chief Justice of the Dali Temple, I wonder how many unjust cases would be brought about!
Before you develop Alzheimer's disease, please do me a good deed and give me your official hat. It will be a good deed."
Diwu Qi was so angry that he pinched his philtrum, rolled his eyes and gasped for breath, but everyone on the other side of the sky was almost laughing to death.
Compared to us modern people, have you, a Tang Dynasty person, ever been online? Do you know what keyboard warriors and cyberbullying are?
If you don't even have this much mental endurance, how can you compare yourself to us modern workers?]
[That’s right, you ancient workers were no match for me!]
"Just say what you want to say, don't keep making sarcastic remarks."
The attack power of modern people is so strong that Li Shimin hurried to smooth things over, otherwise he suspected that all his court officials would be angered by modern people and die prematurely.
"I demand a thorough investigation of the Fanyang County Magistrate and an inventory of local land. The Fanyang Lu family has falsely reported the amount of land and concealed a large number of tenants.
They forced the local people into slavery. Even after His Majesty had said that the seizure of the people's land would never be tolerated again, they still repeatedly seized the farmers' land for their own use.
I have verified all of this.”
Collusion between local tyrants and local officials and military governors was not uncommon. This is why the imperial court's orders were so difficult to implement in the local areas after the mid-Tang Dynasty.
Most of the imperial envoys sent from above would be fooled by the local people, but Wen Yuping was different.
Firstly, she visited the site, and secondly, she had a drone!
"That's right. Let's fly our drone over the Fanyang Lu family manor. Can't we figure out what kind of land it is, how many people it has, and how many people it has?"
Upon seeing this, Lu Qi immediately refused to admit it and said that Wen Yuping had deliberately framed him.
Wen Yuping immediately presented the field map drawn by drone and the files of unjust cases compiled after the visit.
“Your Majesty, this is the land situation claimed by the local county magistrate and the Fanyang Lu family, and this is the land situation I have actually investigated.
There was a shortage of as much as 5,000 acres, and they concealed the fact that they had 50,000 people and took them in as tenants!
Such a large-scale evasion of land tax and population tax simply shows that they do not take the Tang Dynasty seriously!"
Li Shimin quickly unfolded the map and saw that it was extremely detailed, with mountains and rivers, even the slopes of the mountains and the width of the rivers were marked.
"Humph, you, the Fanyang Lu family, are quite bold!
Do you really think that your Lu family is the local emperor of Fanyang?"
When Lu Qi saw the map, which was so detailed that it even showed the number of grasses planted in his yard, he turned pale, sweated profusely, and knelt on the ground.
"Your Majesty, please understand!
We, the Lu family, originally wanted to renovate the fields and then present them to Your Majesty to congratulate Your Majesty on your ascension to the throne!
Although I, Lu, am guilty of deception, my crime is not punishable by death. I cannot allow someone to set fire to my house and exterminate my entire clan just because of a disagreement, Your Majesty!"
"Your Majesty, this matter should indeed be left to the court for decision.
If everyone acts so recklessly and kills an entire family over a single disagreement, where will the laws of the Tang Dynasty be placed?"
"Wait, what are you talking about? What happened to the Fanyang Lu family? When did the fire start?"
What are you pretending to be here, you modern fox!
Of course, Li Shimin, the old fox, could see through her feigning ignorance, but he could only play along with her, and the two foxes acted like white lotuses together:
"Don't you know about this? Seven or eight out of ten members of the Fanyang Lu family were killed!"
“Is there such a good thing?
Lu Qi, I haven't even said congratulations to you yet!"
"You, you, you! You're such a heartless thing, worse than a beast!"
Lu Qi was completely defeated when he heard this and started cursing on the spot, but Wen Yuping scratched her ears and ignored him, then said:
"Your Majesty, you may not know that the Lu family actually steamed thousands of kilograms of potatoes and sweet potato tubers that the court had taken for planting, and then distributed them to the farmers!
He also said that the seeds were distributed by the imperial court and asked them to plant them all.
If I hadn't discovered it in time, the consequences would have been disastrous!"
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