I am Emperor Shizu of Song

Chapter 67: One month after taking office, the boss was laid to rest
After receiving reminders from so many of his subordinates, County Magistrate Li could not completely ignore what Zhao Zicheng had done, so he decided to investigate it.

However, he himself was not born into this kind of work, and he might not even understand the audit of money and grain.

He didn't have the ability to investigate whether the corvée soldiers hired by Zhao Zicheng were slacking off and doing private work, or whether there was anything fishy about the levied funds voluntarily donated to Zhao Zicheng by local wealthy families.

Fortunately, a gentleman is not a tool, he just needs to make good use of people. Things that you are not proficient in can be handed over to others.

After thinking it over, County Magistrate Li found Lu Jian, who was also familiar with him and had worked as a "contractor" in Yingfeng Bureau, and asked him to help take a look at the situation first.

Lu Jian, who had accompanied Zhao Zicheng and Yang Zhi to Bianjing to deliver the Flower and Stone Gang six months earlier, was the chief officer of the Yingfeng Bureau. After Duan Ming was executed by Zhu Jie, he temporarily took over Duan Ming's duties to monitor Zhao Zicheng and the others.

He had come from a background in helping Zhu Jie manage projects like river and garden construction, so his expertise was quite relevant. He could tell at a glance if there was anything fishy going on with the corvée work. Magistrate Li asked him to help check things out, saying, "If there's nothing wrong, I'll encourage you. I'm afraid my colleagues might be cheated."

Lu Jian's current position was not very high, and when County Magistrate Li invited him to have a few drinks, he agreed to do it, thinking it was just a small favor for a friend and also a way to resolve the misunderstanding between County Magistrate Li and Zhao Zicheng.

"Leave this matter to me. I am also familiar with the young marquis. He is an open-minded person and generally nothing will happen. Even if there is a problem, it is because he is young and does not know how to be an official. He spends money recklessly and is cheated by his subordinates." Before Lu Jian took action, he left such a sentence as he was trying to reconcile both parties.

Zhao Zicheng's father had been granted the title of Founding Marquis by imperial favor, and word of this had spread from his hometown of Xiuzhou to the Suzhou officialdom. Consequently, Zhao Zicheng's colleagues, who were on good terms with him but of lower rank than him, began to jokingly address him as "Little Marquis."

No matter what, the young marquis sounds much more noble than an eighth-rank county magistrate.

County Magistrate Li also quickly stated that he was not suspicious of his colleagues, but was just afraid that Zhao Zicheng would manage poorly and be paid without doing any work.

……

Lu Jian accepted the assignment from his colleagues and quickly began to investigate.

He decided to start with Zhao Zicheng's channels for raising money to see whether the money and grain levied by Zhao Zicheng involved any interests that were not in compliance with the laws of the court.

After a brief investigation, he quickly discovered that although most of the corvée donations and loans raised by Zhao Zicheng were provided by the local wealthy family Murong, that was not all of them.

The Murong family accounted for more than half of the funds raised so far, but a small part was donated by other wealthy families in just one month out of their trust in County Magistrate Zhao.

Lu Jian was curious, so he investigated further to find out why these people were willing to donate.

He first found an old acquaintance, Deng Yue, the steward of the Murong family, and asked him a few questions on a personal basis.

Deng Yue's answer was also very reasonable: "As soon as the young marquis took office, he taught us many secret methods of craftsmanship and livelihood, which benefited the people and greatly helped our industry. We are willing to give back to our hometown out of gratitude, and there is no other intention."

Lu Jian had been hanging out with them for a few months and knew Zhao Zicheng had some skills in this area, so he quickly understood. Zhao Zicheng was "trading technology for funds," using many of his ideas to teach wealthy local families, allowing them to expand their businesses and benefit from other aspects in exchange for donations to the government.

This kind of thing smacks of "trading one's own ideas for public benefits" and is overly selfless, but strictly speaking, it's fine. Especially since the Song Dynasty didn't have a "patent law," anyone with a new idea could only profit quickly, not maintain a long-term monopoly. If someone with an idea to improve people's livelihoods happened to be an official, sharing it with wealthy businessmen in exchange for their support was perfectly natural.

But out of duty, he still had to ask a few questions about what exactly County Magistrate Zhao had helped to come up with that made them think it was worth spending a fortune to support. He didn't have to ask for technical details, but he still had to understand the general situation so that he could report to his superiors and help Zhao Zicheng shut down others.

Deng Yue also understood this principle, so he did not hide it from him: "When the young marquis was in Tokyo, didn't you help the people of the Ministry of Works improve the method of planting flowers and trees? You also mastered the secret method of picking stars from the white floribunda flowers, which can increase their production.

Later, the young marquis delved deeper into this method, expanding it to other areas, and discovered several more ingenious methods that could increase yields for even more crops. Our Murong family also has thousands of acres of fertile land locally, and we've benefited greatly from applying these improved methods. Although it's not yet harvest season, our young master wants to express his gratitude in advance by supporting a distribution.

Seeing that Lu Jian wanted to know more details, Deng Yue wanted to see it in person, but Deng Yue told him that it was already winter and the season was not right, so if he wanted to see it, he would only see some harvested vines and dead tendrils.

Lu Jian had no choice but to settle for the next best thing and followed Deng Yue to the Murong family's farm to take a general look. He mainly had to learn about the wonderful methods that Zhao Zicheng had come up with from Deng Yue's retelling.

It is said that Zhao Zicheng derived his conclusion from the observation that "the yield of cotton can be increased after the pinnacles are picked", and he generalized the idea to find that vine crops such as gourds and cucumbers can also do the same, and that they can also rely on "pinching the tips and beating the vines" to reduce the consumption of soil fertility by the stems and allow the nutrients of the crops to be fully concentrated on the fruiting.

Lu Jian looked at the piles of vines that had withered after the fruits were picked on the Murong family's farm. After thinking about it, he was willing to believe that this statement was true.

Because as early as the Han and Tang Dynasties, the ancients already knew that when planting winter melons, they needed to pinch the tips and vines so that the melons would grow bigger. This was recorded in "The Book of Si Sheng" and "Monthly Orders for the Four People".

It’s just that the ancients didn’t know how to draw inferences from one instance to another, and they didn’t have the concept of plant taxonomy. They wouldn’t transfer the experience gained with winter melon to crops like cucumbers and gourds. Among the latter, cucumbers in particular were not originally produced in China, but were introduced later.

Perhaps some people in the folk had done this, but no scholar-official summarized it into a systematic experience, checked for omissions and deficiencies, and further expanded and promoted it, so there was no record of it in agricultural books.

In contrast, after Zhao Zicheng took office, he only spent a few days using the biological experience of later generations to systematically sort out the issues and easily found many points that could be improved. He "encouraged people to engage in agriculture and sericulture" and made political achievements. He started with the local wealthy families and asked them to promote new technologies in their respective farms to increase production.

Although there are many aspects to the improvement of the cultivation techniques of these plants, the core principle is the same, which is similar to the apical dominance of cotton. The bud tips that grow too fast and waste nutrients are pinched off, saving the nutrients for the fruits.

As if to prove that County Magistrate Zhao was really able to serve the people in such a short period of time, Deng Yue also took out a few particularly large gourds and cucumbers for Lu Jian to try.

Gourds have to be cooked before they can be eaten, but cucumbers can be eaten raw. Lu Jian ate one and immediately believed it.

In any case, the fruits grown in the Murong family manor seem to be bigger than those seen on the market.

The fact that the fruits are bigger is enough to make the wealthy families who own thousands of acres of fertile land believe that County Magistrate Zhao is doing good for them and believe in the future of following County Magistrate Zhao.

Don't underestimate this little bit of progress. If you can find some larger harvests of crops, you can offer them as auspicious gifts.

In ancient times, fruits that grew unusually large were considered an important political achievement to encourage agriculture and sericulture. This was especially true given that the current emperor was a man who revered Taoism, auspicious signs, and prophecies.

Lu Jian felt that he could understand the motivations of those wealthy families for responding enthusiastically, but he still discovered some other problems. That is, the Murong family should have received these suggestions several months ago, which means at least two months before the autumn harvest.

If Zhao Zicheng had started tinkering with these things after taking office, given the growth rate of crops, he would not have had time to see results.

He raised this question, and Deng Yue immediately admitted it. "It was indeed several months ago. At that time, the young marquis was still waiting for a vacancy in Tokyo. However, he was discussing ideas with his colleagues at the Ministry of Works. Whenever he had a new idea, he would write back. My mistress also trusted him very much, and she let the tenants try out all his suggestions."

Lu Jian: "What about the other wealthy families who are willing to donate or lend money? Did they also receive favors from County Magistrate Zhao several months ago, before he took office?"

If that's the case, it's quite taboo. What does it mean that you, Zhao Zicheng, are trying to curry favor with people when you weren't even an official in Suzhou yet?
However, Deng Yue's second answer immediately blocked this issue: "No, the other wealthy families only received his guidance after their recent donations. It can only be regarded as a way for the young marquis to repay the righteous people who are loyal to the court." Deng Yue insisted on his words, emphasizing that it was the local wealthy families who gave money first, and then County Magistrate Zhao taught them something out of reciprocity and the goodwill of encouraging farming. It was not a naked transaction.

In fact, these local wealthy families were willing to give a little money at the beginning, definitely because they wanted to test the waters for the sake of the Murong family. They didn't expect that there would be sweet benefits later, so they became more and more interested.

Although the Murong family has fallen on hard times, they still have some reputation in the local area. The older generation knows that they are very righteous in the local area, and there are still some wealthy families who are willing to listen to them.

Lu Jian was still a little skeptical: "But those wealthy families didn't immediately verify whether the secret method taught by County Magistrate Zhao to encourage them to engage in agriculture and sericulture was effective, so they were willing to spend so much money?"

Deng Yue: "Although they didn't have time to see the results with their own eyes, with our Murong family's harvest in front of them, they can't help but believe it. These gourds and cucumbers that are much larger than usual can't be fake, right?"

The fruits Deng Yue showed were undoubtedly the largest and best he had carefully selected. It wasn't as if all the fruits would grow that big after using Zhao Zicheng's new farming techniques. But as long as he could find exceptional examples in a few varieties, it was enough to convince people.

Lu Jian thought about it and realized it was true, so he stopped questioning it.

Finally, as if to prove County Magistrate Zhao's ability, Deng Yue also gave Lu Jian some other things for free, all of which also utilized the "top advantage" principle summarized by Zhao Zicheng.

For example, Deng Yue took Lu Jian to see the Murong family's mulberry garden. There were many mulberry trees, and some of the extra branches at the top had been pruned off during the winter.

Lu Jian didn't notice the difference at first, because he had been in Jiangnan for a long time and was familiar with mulberry planting and silkworm breeding. He knew that mulberry trees had to have some branches cut off for propagation by cuttings.

Mulberry trees have rarely been propagated by seeds for many years. As early as the Han and Wei dynasties, "Si Sheng Zhi Shu" and "Si Min Yue Ling" had already summarized the layering propagation method of mulberry trees.

That is to say, press down some low branches of the mulberry tree, bury them in the soil, cut the bark and leave some gaps, so that the mulberry branches can regenerate roots, form new plants, and slowly multiply.

During the Tang and Song dynasties, the method of cuttings was further developed. Specific branches were cut off and inserted directly into the soil to reproduce into new plants.

So when Lu Jian saw that the Murong family's mulberry forest had been pruned in large quantities, he initially thought that it was just normal cuttings that required so many branches. He was just wondering why the Murong family didn't prune from the bottom, but from the top, as if they were deliberately doing something unnecessary and increasing the difficulty.

But Deng Yue told him, "In Suzhou and Lake Tai, where are there any new mulberry gardens to cultivate now? All the places that can be planted are already planted. If it's just for cuttings, there's no need for so many branches."

But it was also the young marquis who taught us that even if we don't need to do cuttings, we still have to cut off some of the extra branches, especially the ones on top. This way, the mulberry tree will have lush and thick leaves next year, and we can even raise several times more silkworms.

This method has not been verified yet, but the several methods that the young marquis taught us before have all been effective. We are willing to follow his lead and we all believe in him."

After hearing these descriptions, Lu Jian was also moved. It seemed that County Magistrate Zhao was truly a man of inference. He could generalize from the fact that picking white floribunda flowers could increase production to sort out so many agricultural policy knowledge.

If all these things are accomplished in the future, I'm afraid I can get half the title of Shennong.

He could definitely speed up his promotion by promoting these things and encouraging agriculture and sericulture. Using this method of giving benefits to the people in exchange for enthusiastic donations from local gentry and wealthy families and raising local corvée labor was definitely a purely meritorious political achievement.

Lu Jian did not completely believe Deng Yue's words. After leaving the Murong family's manor, he talked to several other wealthy families who had recently donated money to Zhao Zicheng, but the information he obtained did confirm each other.

After finding out the truth, he went back to Magistrate Li and explained the situation:
"Zhao County Magistrate is far more capable than you and I anticipated. The county's wealthy have indeed donated generously, but that's all because Zhao County Magistrate is so capable of encouraging agriculture and sericulture, and the people have benefited from it first. There's no need to investigate further regarding fundraising. However, we can observe whether the hired soldiers are misusing money or taking the money without doing any work. If Brother Li needs it, I can make another trip to help."

Upon hearing this, Magistrate Li's suspicions were largely reduced, but his thoughts quickly turned to his political achievements and auspicious signs, and subconsciously a bit of greed arose:
"Oh? The farmers of the Murong family, following the advice of the county magistrate, were able to grow much larger fruits and vegetables than usual? If these were presented to him, would it be considered a good omen? At worst, I could share this achievement with him."

Lu Jian shook his head. "Brother Li, I advise you to stay out of this mess. This is for your own good. You haven't been to Tokyo, so you don't know where County Magistrate Zhao got the idea of ​​cultivating these alien species and picking stars with white floribunda flowers from.

When he was in Tokyo and presented the flower and stone tribute to the Ministry of Works for delivery, he saw that people all over the country were wasting money and time on the pursuit of rare flowers and trees, so he discussed with his colleagues in the Ministry of Works the idea of ​​artificially cultivating various exotic species. His original intention was to hope that the government would reduce the demand for natural rare flowers and trees from all directions and reduce the flower and stone tribute.

If you get involved in his future offerings of these auspicious signs, and he reports his original intentions truthfully during an investigation, and further investigation reveals that by promoting his secret method, many exotic flowers and trees can be cultivated artificially around Tokyo, how will you cope then? Reducing the number of flower and stone tributes would be interfering with Mr. Zhu's financial resources.

He was young and ignorant, full of hot-bloodedness, and only wanted to benefit the people, not to offer auspicious signs. If you had persuaded him to offer auspicious signs, and the government were to promote the practice nationwide, and there would be fewer rare flowers and trees to be transported from the local areas, who would Lord Zhu resent?

County Magistrate Li immediately fell silent.

The Hua Shi Gang was the "food and clothing of millions of grain transport workers" in another sense. Many vested interest bureaucrats who had made a fortune from it were deeply involved in it. Anything that might have an impact was beyond the ability of a county magistrate like him to handle.

Magistrate Li was so frightened that he dared not say anything. He just lowered his voice and asked, "Then let him do whatever he wants?"

Lu Jian: "He just wants to benefit the people. If you don't remind him, he may not offer auspicious signs. And even if he does, Mr. Zhu can't blame you."

Magistrate Li nodded and said, "This is not something you and I can get involved in. Well, let him do what he wants. I will just do my job as magistrate and wait for the transfer when the time comes. A county like this is always full of trouble."

Although I am his superior, a forty-year-old county magistrate has no prospects comparable to those of a seventeen-year-old county magistrate. If he accidentally offends Prime Minister Zhu in the future, let Prime Minister Zhu deal with him as he pleases. I will pretend I have no knowledge of the matter."

County Magistrate Li had only worked with Zhao Zicheng for more than a month when he was completely defeated by Zhao Zicheng.

It wasn't because Zhao Zicheng was so powerful, but because Fuguo County was already full of trouble. County Magistrate Li also encountered a deputy who was somewhat capable but ignorant of the seriousness of the situation and could offend the boss at any time. He didn't want to be involved in the fight between the gods.

It would be better to wait and see the outcome. If Zhao Zicheng took too big a step and was defeated by Zhu Zhen, then there would be no need for him to take action.

If Zhao Zicheng had not taken such big steps and had not been dealt with by Zhu Zhen, County Magistrate Li would not have been able to deal with Zhao Zicheng on his own.

If there's no hope, then why bother? Lie down! Start swinging!
Seeing that the suspicion between Magistrate Li and Zhao Zicheng had been initially resolved, Lu Jian stood up to take his leave. However, out of concern, he decided to go to Yang Zhi to take a look. If there was indeed a problem, as a friend, he would also like to persuade Zhao Zicheng or Yang Zhi to restrain themselves and avoid the jealousy of his colleagues.

County Magistrate Li may not mind what Zhao Zicheng did, but the other friendly neighboring troops in the state's wing army, as well as Dong Tuanlian above, will definitely be jealous of Yang Zhi's battalion that enjoys exclusive food and good treatment.

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PS: I'll just post a few chapters now that the book is online. I'll also post a few chapters this afternoon because I'm too lazy to break up the chapters. I can't expect a big explosion, as this book is only one-tenth of my brother Zhuge Liang's achievements. At most, I'll post a few more big chapters just to show my appreciation.

(End of this chapter)