On the surface, the Yanzhou prefecture truly did not give off the flourishing atmosphere of a major city like Dafu.
This was a vast and boundless loess plateau. The layers of terraced fields were like dancing musical notes, and the villages were scattered between the mountain ranges and ravines. Most of the people lived in caves that were warm in winter and cool in summer according to the terrain. As a result, the buildings within Yanzhou City were largely affected by this.
The buildings within the city were mostly tall and thick mud brick walls, flexible and ever-changing wooden square lattice windows, and large red paper-cut window decorations. They were very similar to cave dwellings, giving off a unique rustic atmosphere. However, the unending stream of people on the streets, the merchants driving their cows, goats, and camels, and the rising and falling sounds of hawking their wares still gave off a flourishing vitality.
The architectural style of the Yanzhou provincial governor's residence was completely different from the other buildings within the city. Xie Yubin had already been the governor here for nine years, and the provincial governor's residence had continuously expanded, becoming like a castle. The front castle had basically retained the original appearance of the provincial governor's residence, but the rear residence had been continuously expanded.
The deep residence had large courtyards, connected rooms, carved pillars, elegant windows, and beautiful women. Folk songs and dances were played day and night. It was practically a paradise on earth. However, the people in the front courtyard simply could not imagine that behind a crescent door, within the dense thicket of trees, was a completely different world.
At this moment, in the western courtyard of the rear residence, a tree was a fiery red and a tree was a golden yellow. The fiery red and the golden yellow were like flying sparks, drifting along with the breeze, drifting above the pavilion, sprinkling on the railings, and floating on the water.
The roof of the pavilion had greenish-black overhanging eaves, hidden in the shadows of the fiery red and golden trees. In front of the pavilion, there was a stone railing made of carved white marble. Below the railing was a clear blue water, red leaves rippling, and a clear pool. There were weeping willows by the shore, and there was an isolated island and a thatched cottage in the water. It was extremely quiet and elegant.
Inside the pavilion, a floor-length red sandalwood screen inlaid with jade sat behind the master's seat. It was warm and simple, and its color was natural. It was clearly an extremely expensive item. The middle-aged man with a beautiful beard sitting behind the screen in a wide-sleeved robe was the master of this residence, Yanzhou's governor, Xie Yubin.
There were a few seats on both sides of the main seat, all of which were occupied by beautiful women. Governor Xie was also served by beautiful women in luxurious clothes. On the left was a woman with a slender waist and half-exposed breasts. She was as beautiful as the moon and as charming as a flower. She was the most favored concubine of Governor Xie, and her maiden name was Xiao Yu.
The beauty on the right was dressed very modestly. Her skin was as white as snow, and there was a red dot between her eyebrows. A green hairpin was inserted into her shiny black, peach-shaped bun. Apart from that, she had no other adornments. Her face was not made up, but her face was smooth, tender, and beautiful. Below her chin was a protruding Adam's apple. She was Xie Qingshou's favorite catamite, called Bodhi Zi.
Governor Xie was wearing a moon-white shirt with black plum blossom embroidery. He had lived like a prince for many years, plus he had grown a long beard; he really looked like a learned scholar. He also had a big belly, which made him look even more like a prime minister.
Speaking of which, the people of Yanzhou did not have any ill feelings towards Governor Xie. Ever since Governor Xie had arrived in Yanzhou, he had always governed from the sidelines, not caring about anything else. Fortunately, there had been no natural or man-made disasters in Yanzhou, so it had been peaceful.
Fortunately, Governor Xie did not care much about politics. Otherwise, with Governor Xie's ability, if he really wanted to do something, even if he had good intentions and sincerely wanted to do something for the common people, it would probably become a "man-made disaster" in the end. Governor Xie was greedy. He was very greedy, but other than collecting taxes, he had never used any kind of extravagant taxes to harm the people.
It was not that he pitied the people's resources, but because he did not need to do so. How much money could he squeeze from those poor people? His courage was greater than that of other corrupt officials, and he directly coveted the country's wealth.
High Official Xie had always been a county lieutenant in Ningyuan County of Zhenzhou. He had only become a governor because he had treated Wu Chengsi and his family well. In his first year in office, Yanzhou experienced a drought. That year, the drought in Yanzhou was not serious, but Yanzhou's foundation was already thin, so this drought inevitably caused a portion of the people to starve.
Thus, as a governor, Xie Yubin naturally had to submit a petition for relief. Xie Yubin's petition described the drought in Yanzhou as very serious. It was as miserable as a thousand li of barren land.
In fact, this was a bad habit he had developed in Zhenzhou. That place was too far from the heart of the empire, and the local officials were the local tyrants. But in that kind of place, even the local tyrants were very poor. When there was an opportunity to ask the court for money and grain, they would always report when there was no disaster and report when there was a big disaster. Furthermore, they did not have to worry about the court sending people from thousands of li away to investigate.
Now that he had arrived in Yanzhou, Governor Xie still did this out of habit. As a result, when the petition was submitted to the court, a large sum of money and grain was indeed allocated. At that time, Wu Zetian was busy purging her political enemies. Zhou Xing and Lai Junchen spent all day trying to figure out the emperor's intentions and framing the ministers. The prime ministers did not even warm up their positions before they were sent to prison. The situation in the capital was very serious. Who had the time to care about Yanzhou, which was located in the northwest?
In the end, Governor Xie only symbolically distributed some relief rice. Most of the relief supplies were swallowed up by him. Xie Yubin tasted the sweetness. There was no disaster the next year, and he reported it without delay. Just like that, he intercepted the taxes paid by the people to the court, and he also intercepted the relief money and grain allocated by the court. His superiors were greedy for the court's money, and his subordinates were greedy for the local areas. In a short period of time, he was very fat.
The governance of the outlying areas was already very poor, and the governance of the northwest was not much better than that of the southern borders. The local officials in Yanzhou rarely had noble characters. They were originally intimidated by the law, and they were only petty thieves. When they saw that the governor was even more daring than the heavenly dog, what did they have to fear?
Governor Xie also knew that in order to maintain this kind of situation, he needed his subordinates to fall into the mire, and he never thought of monopolizing it. In a short period of time, all the local officials in Yanzhou became part of this corruption net. Even if there were some officials with a conscience who wanted to stay clean, in the end, they had no choice but to succumb to the corrupt officials.
If others were greedy and you weren't, who would feel at ease working with you? How could the emperor recognize a low-level official like you? Promotions and promotions were all based on the evaluation and recommendation of your superiors. If you wanted to stay clean, you would be ostracized and criticized by everyone from top to bottom. In the end, there were no officials in Yanzhou who were not corrupt. Everyone protected each other. Without a strong external force, it was impossible to expose this dark curtain.
The imperial censors of Guannei also followed the rules and inspected Yanzhou every year. However, the local officials in Yanzhou colluded to deceive them. In addition, Governor Xie occasionally used the Prince of Wei, Wu Chengsi, as a shield. The Wu clan had overwhelming power in the imperial court. How could a lowly imperial censor dare to be like an ant trying to shake a tree? As a result, this shocking corruption case went undiscovered for nine years.
Today, Governor Xie's wealth was comparable to that of a country.
"Hahahaha …"
Governor Xie enjoyed the singing and dancing and laughed heartily.
A few days ago, he had sold a hundred thousand stones of grain. Fifty thousand of the grain funds went into his own pocket, and the remaining fifty percent was divided among his subordinates. This year was another bumper harvest year in Yanzhou. The local taxes were constantly being sent in, and it was all money. He had just submitted a memorial to the imperial court to continue reporting disasters and requesting for relief. Before long, another sum of money would be coming in. How could he not be wild with joy?
Governor Xie was in high spirits. He excitedly pushed his cup and stood up. Xiao Yu and Bodhi hurriedly supported him. Governor Xie wrapped his arms around the slender waists of the two beauties and said with a smile, "This old man is drunk. Two beauties, accompany this old man to rest."
Xiao Yu and Bodhi looked at each other and blushed. This Xie Taishou liked beautiful women and also liked catamites. Sometimes when it was dark, he would ask his catamites to fool around with his beloved concubines, in order to boost his' elegant mood '. That muddled account in the Taishou's mansion would never be cleared.
The beauties sitting on both sides stood up and were about to respectfully send off the Governor when the mansion's steward suddenly walked in and whispered something in Governor Xie's ear. Governor Xie was startled. The steward said, "Ah Lang, the visitor is in the hall, do you think …"
Governor Xie released the two beauties and said, "Let's go! Let's go take a look! "
In the Provincial Governor's Hall, Yang Fan was dressed in black and was sitting upright. Looking at his attire, he looked like a low-ranking official in some yamen. Governor Xie hurriedly rinsed his mouth, changed his official attire, and came out from the back of the hall. As soon as Yang Fan saw him, he immediately stood up and cupped his fists in salute, saying, "Fengchen supervisor, Beta Persei, pays his respects to Governor!"
Governor Xie had heard people say that the current Empress had recruited a group of beautiful young men to fill the back palace, and even set up an inner court yamen for them called the Fengchen supervisor. Now that he saw Yang Fan in high spirits, with an imposing appearance, bright eyes, white teeth, and extraordinary handsomeness, he thought, "Sure enough, he came from the Fengchen supervisor. But this Fengchen supervisor is a yamen of the palace, why did he come to my place?"
Governor Xie was still in a state of bewilderment when Yang Fan solemnly said, "The Emperor has issued an edict!"
Xie Yubin was startled; he hurriedly took two steps forward and cupped his fists. In a deep voice he said, "Subject Xie Yubin awaits the edict!"
Yang Fan took out a roll of yellow silk from his sleeve and recited it in cadence. Xie Yubin pricked up his ears to listen. Turned out the Emperor had ordered the Fengchen supervisor to patrol the world on behalf of the Saints, and to invite the local elders to a banquet to express the Emperor's kindness. By now Deputy Minister Fengchen Zhang Changzong had already arrived in Danzhou; his next stop was Yanzhou, so Governor Xie had to make early preparations.
As soon as Xie Yubin heard it was about this matter, he could not help but inwardly let out a sigh of relief. Receiving the imperial edict, he unfolded it and read it carefully. Because he had been reporting about natural disasters every year, every year he received the imperial edict, this time he did not need to examine the seal; he could tell whether this imperial edict was real or fake. After confirming that there was no mistake, Governor Xie placed the imperial edict on the official table and invited Yang Fan to take a seat. He politely asked, "The Angel has worked hard to travel from afar; I wonder why His Majesty is sending an imperial envoy to visit the elders from all over the world?"
Yang Fan said, "The Son of Heaven is doing this, first, to enlighten the world, to advocate the virtue of respecting the elderly; second, to carry forward the benevolent and benevolent legacy of our ancestors; third, the elders from all over the world are the revered elders of their respective regions; the Saints hope that through the elders from all over the world, the Emperor will convey the Son of Heaven's concern for the common people from all over the world. Originally, His Majesty held a 'Banquet of the Thousand Old Men' in the Capital, but that time the elders who participated were all from the Capital and the suburbs. This time, originally, His Majesty wanted to order the local government officials to escort the elders to the Capital and hold a 'Banquet of the Thousand Old Men', but he was worried that it would be a long and arduous journey. The elders are getting on in years; if something bad happened to them, it would be unavoidably disappointing His Majesty's benevolent and benevolent heart. Therefore, he sent the imperial envoy to appease them. "
Xie Yubin clapped his hands and sighed, repeatedly praising the kindness.
Yang Fan smiled and said, "Zhang Fengchen will arrive in Yanzhou in about five days; I wonder if Governor Xie has enough time to summon the elders from all over the world?"
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