Li Zhi, don't be a coward

Li Qinzai rarely tried to reason with others with sincerity, and he was never so patient with his disciples.

Whether it is knowledge or life principles, they all rely on one's own understanding. No matter how much others talk about it, they are still talking about other people's own successful experiences, and most successes in the world cannot be copied.

Dad Ma said he didn't like money and had never touched money.

Gandy Liu said that he was face-blind and had no idea whether his wife was good-looking or not.

Do you dare to listen to these principles?

Li Qinzai himself also hated those people who were eloquent and reasonable. Don't do to others what you don't want others to do to you. Naturally, he didn't like to reason with others.

But Lao Song is different.

I have known Lao Song for many years, and we have become good friends. Moreover, Lao Song has a lot of shortcomings, but his greatest advantage is that he is sincere towards others. Of course, this is limited to being sincere towards Li Qinzai.

Because of this friendship, Li Qinzai was still willing to talk to him a few more words.

After all, they had gotten along well with Lao Song over the years, both in business and private matters. Li Qinzai mentioned Song Sen, partly because of their friendship with each other, and partly out of selfish motives.

He didn't want Baiqisi to be replaced by a stranger after Lao Song was promoted, and Li Qinzai would have to spend time and energy reestablishing friendship with him, which would be too tiring.

Lao Song was a fan of officials. He had been dreaming of being promoted over the years. In his dream, he had achieved the position of chief executive of the Tang Dynasty in Baiqisi. From then on, he became powerful and equal to the ministers in the court.

The dream was beautiful, but once it was exposed by Li Qinzai, Lao Song was stunned for a long time, and the child was confused.

"If you are close, you will be close; if you are far, you will be distant... Hiss, it seems to make sense." Lao Song was like the Buddha sitting under the bodhi tree, suddenly enlightened.

The power is not determined by the official position, but by the distance from the emperor.

Li Qinzai's words suddenly made Song Sen suddenly enlightened.

The more he thought about it, the more it made sense. Song Sen thought for a long time and suddenly stood up and bowed to Li Qinzai.

"Thank you, Lord Li, for your advice. I understand."

Li Qinzai smiled and said: "Don't thank me. If you open your mouth and say thank you, I will be embarrassed to accept money from you... As a wise saying in official circles, ten thousand yuan is not too much for me to charge you, right?"

Song Sen hesitated for a moment, and was about to grit his teeth and agree, but Li Qinzai smiled again and said: "That's all, it hurts our feelings to talk about money. If I need Baiqisi's help in the future, please work hard for me." That’s it.”

Song Sen breathed a sigh of relief and hurriedly patted his chest and vowed to do his best.

…………

The next afternoon, outside Jiangzhou City.

A fast horse galloped over, turning a blind eye to the soldiers on duty outside the city gate, and ran quickly towards the city gate.

After entering the city, he went straight to the Governor's Mansion and dismounted in front of the Governor's Mansion. The knight held up a wax-painted official document in his hand and shouted: "The Duchang County Magistrate has an urgent document to report to the Song Governor!"

After hearing this, the officers on duty outside the governor's mansion did not dare to stop him, so they hurriedly stepped aside and allowed the knight to rush into the mansion.

In the second hall of the Governor's Mansion, Song Jinshan looked solemn and was reading the official document in his hand word by word.

The official document was sent by the magistrate of Duchang County. Duchang County is affiliated to Jiangzhou and is one of the counties under the jurisdiction of Jiangzhou. Song Jinshan is the Shangguan directly under the magistrate of Duchang County.

The official document was held in Song Jinshan's hand, and he felt that the thin paper was a bit hot to the touch.

Naturally, it is not an ordinary and trivial matter that can cause the official to send official documents to Jiangzhou urgently.To put it simply, there is a trouble in Duchang County, involving human lives.

It is now the spring of the fourth year of Linde in the Tang Dynasty. The spring sowing season in various prefectures and counties has passed, and farmers have planted wheat and rice seedlings into the fields.

About [-]% of the farmland in Duchang County is planted with sweet potato seedlings.

This is the result of King Teng’s hard lobbying and promotion in the Jiangnan region last year.

The day before yesterday, Li Qinzai went to a banquet at the Governor's Mansion in Jiangzhou. During the dinner, Lu Yun promised that he would use [-]% of the land within the reach of the Lu family in Wu County to plant sweet potatoes.

This promise was quickly fulfilled by the Lu family of Wu County. Two or three days after the banquet, the Lu family ordered more than [-] villages under the jurisdiction of Duchang County to allocate [-]% of their farmland to plant sweet potato seedlings.

However, the decision to plant sweet potato seedlings was met with widespread opposition from farmers in Duchang County for unknown reasons. In one village, farmers even cut off their fingers in public to show their determination in order not to plant sweet potatoes.

The person who promoted the planting of sweet potatoes was a civil servant in Duchang County Government. He said that he was a "official" and did not even have a formal rank. He was not a high-ranking official in the official system of the Tang Dynasty and was not even an official.

But when this little civil servant went down to the local villages, he turned out to be a local emperor who was bigger than the sky.

A few farmers dared to object to the tasks assigned by the governor and the county magistrate themselves. The civil servants became angry and clashed with the farmers. Under the forced orders of the civil servants, the land where rice seedlings were originally planted was destroyed by the county officials. The government officials plucked all the crops and forcibly replaced them with sweet potatoes.

When the civil servants did this, the conflict finally broke out.

That night, the farmer killed his wife and children with knives at home, and he also pulled a rope and hung himself from the beam.

The whole family died, which was simply shocking in the Tang Dynasty, an era of simple folk customs.

The cause of this murder was due to planting sweet potatoes.

When the official document was handed to Song Jinshan, the governor of Jiangzhou, Song Jinshan's heartbeat accelerated a lot, and he realized that trouble was coming.

An entire household register was dead, and the Duchang County magistrate also knew that the situation was serious and he could not hide it. If he deceived and failed to report, his sin would be even greater, so he had to report it to Song Jinshan urgently.

Song Jinshan sat in the hall blankly, his expression turning green and red. After a while, he gritted his teeth and said: "Come, prepare the carriage. I want to go to see Duke Li outside the city. In addition, I ask Master Lu Yun to move to Duke Li's place. I have something important to report."

An hour later, Song Jinshan and Lu Yun were already sitting in Li Qinzai's tent.

Li Qinzai looked at the official document with a solemn expression. He read it word for word for a long time, and then he turned away and looked at Song Jinshan and Lu Yun.

Lu Yun looked bitter and stood up to apologize to Li Qinzai: "I didn't expect the farmers in Duchang County to be so resistant to planting new grains. I'm really sorry for causing trouble to Duke Li."

Li Qinzai shook his head and said: "This matter has nothing to do with the Lu family in Wu County. What I want to know now is why the farmers in Duchang County are so resistant to planting sweet potatoes. The yield of the new grain species is obvious to all, but the farmers in Duchang County seem to be the same as the sweet potatoes." There is a sworn hatred, why on earth is this?”

Song Jinshan frowned and pondered for a moment, then tentatively said: "Perhaps the official in Duchang County acted too domineeringly and forcibly pulled out other people's rice seedlings and planted sweet potatoes instead. The farmer felt insulted and did not dare to retaliate. Officials have no choice but to commit suicide..."

"In the final analysis, the farmer must have had difficulty swallowing his breath before making such an unwise move. The official believes that it has nothing to do with planting sweet potatoes."

Li Qinzai smiled noncommittally, handed over the official document in his hand, and said: "The matter should not be that simple. Governor Song, please hear this official document..."

Song Jinshan didn't know why, so he went up and smelled it, and then looked at Li Qinzai with a puzzled face.

"What do you smell?" Li Qinzai asked with a smile.

Song Jinshan shook his head blankly: "The lower official is stupid..."

Li Qinzai sighed and said, "I smell a conspiracy."