"Mother..."
"Stone, Stone, come here and let mother see, let mother see..."
The citizen who had blocked the road to complain tightly hugged his child, crying his eyes out. As he hugged his child, he kowtowed to Xia Pingan, "Thank you, sir, thank you..."
The crowd and commoners outside the villa were already boiling with excitement.
The commoners of Daozhou City who had heard the news hurriedly rushed to the Long Cloud Villa. The scene of the kidnapped children meeting their relatives one after another made them both sad and happy.
There were also some who had been separated for too long. Those relatives who had rushed over could not even recognize their own children. Because those children had not seen each other for many years, they had been ravaged into dwarves. Their physiques and appearances had changed greatly. They could only slowly recognize each other.
Xia Pingan let Zheng Yi drive the carriage to send the child and the woman home. The matters of the villa were left to his subordinates to handle.
Today, he had just arrived in Daozhou City and had already dealt with the Long Cloud Villa. It could be considered a victory at the start. But Xia Pingan knew that this was only the beginning. Whether or not he could succeed in stopping the tribute in Daozhou City depended on the following game with the imperial court and the officialdom. Once the following game failed, the imperial court and the people above could change the Provincial Governor at any time, and Daozhou City would once again have to pay tribute to the dwarf terracotta troupe.
Therefore, this matter was not over yet.
Xia Pingan recalled the various records of events after he arrived in Daozhou City in his mind. At the same time, he returned to the Provincial Governor's Office with the officials of the Provincial Governor's Office.
When he returned to the Provincial Governor's Office, the entire Daozhou City was in an uproar. Along the way, he was welcomed by commoners who said that they were righteous. The situation was completely different from when Xia Pingan first arrived.
The Provincial Governor's Office in Daozhou City was not large. It was just an office with several courtyards. It was divided into a front hall and a back hall. The front hall of the Provincial Governor's Office was the office of the Provincial Governor of Daozhou City, while the back hall was the official residence of the Provincial Governor of Daozhou City.
After going in and out of the city for so long, it was already evening when he returned to the Provincial Governor's Office.
The officials of the Provincial Governor Manor had long prepared a welcoming banquet. After hastily finishing the welcoming banquet, Xia Pingan returned to the back hall. He went to the study and began to write memorials to the Emperor.
The current Emperor of Chang 'an was Li Shi of Tang Dezong. To be honest, Li Shi was ambitious and always wanted to make some achievements. He wanted to work hard and create a situation like the Kaiyuan Age for the Tang Empire. It was a bit unfair to say that he was a fatuous ruler. However, Li Shi was born at the wrong time. There were vassal towns fighting each other outside, and he didn't know how to use people inside. He didn't know how to judge people. On one hand, he wanted to be a wise Emperor and bring the Tang Empire back to glory, but on the other hand, he was doing some useless things. Many loyal ministers were driven out of Chang' an by him. In the end, he even began to rely on eunuchs to rule.
Xia Pingan knew that in history, Yang City had written memorials to Li Shi to stop paying tribute. However, he had never seen how the memorials were written, nor did he know. At this time, Xia Pingan could only rely on himself to write them.
Xia Pingan thought for a long time in the study. In the end, he decided to start with emotions first and then reason. He wanted to persuade Li Shi to give up the dwarf tribute from Daozhou City.
With this in mind, Xia Pingan picked up a brush and began to write.
"… When I first arrived at Daozhou City, there was a woman who knelt and cried out for injustice. She said that her child was taken away and that mother and son were separated by life and death. It was a tragedy in the human world. The woman cried and wailed, tears and snot flowing down her face. Her voice was like weeping blood. She was very miserable. Mencius said that everyone has a heart of compassion and benevolence.
From the woman's situation, I thought of the old events of the second year of Qianyuan. The traitor Siming led an army to attack Luoyang. Your Majesty's birth mother, Empress Dowager Ruizhen of the Tang Empire, disappeared in the chaos. Your Majesty lost his mother before he was even a year old. It was a tragedy in the human world and the misfortune of the country. Later on, Zong Zong ascended the throne and searched for Empress Dowager Ruizhen for more than ten years without success. Your Majesty's love and filial piety is well known.
However, Your Majesty is the ruler of the world. How can you bear to see the mother of the world lose her son, and the son lose his mother? There are beasts in the mountains. The separation of mother and son goes against common customs and the holy way, let alone humans. I am Your Majesty's subject. How can I turn a blind eye to such a tragedy in Daozhou? When I asked, I found out that the woman's son had been taken away by the cruel officials and evil gentry. He was going to be placed in a jar and raised for more than ten years until he was turned into a dwarf and offered to Your Majesty as a tribute …
Previously, there was the traitor Shi Siming who separated Your Majesty from your birth mother in Luoyang. Today, there is Daozhou's cruel officials and evil gentry who used Your Majesty's name to separate the mother and son of countless people in Daozhou City. This disaster is even worse than Shi Siming's. This cruel officials and evil gentry bullied the people below and the emperor above. This goes against common customs and goes against the holy way. If Empress Dowager Ruizhen were in Daozhou, she would not be able to bear to see it … "
…
Xia Pingan had written a little less than half of the memorial when Xue Yue knocked on the door and said that an official from the manor wanted to see him.
Xia Pingan put down the memorial and asked Xue Yue to call the person in. A moment later, he saw the grantor of the Provincial Governor's manor walk in with his head lowered and a few ledgers in his hands.
The grantor of the Provincial Governor's manor was a civil official in his fifties. He was tall and thin, and he seemed to be very cautious.
"This lowly official has committed a crime. Lord Provincial Governor, please punish me …" The moment the grantor saw Xia Pingan, he kneeled down and touched the ground with his forehead, not daring to raise his head.
"What crime have you committed? Stand up and speak!" Xia Pingan calmly said.
"Yes!" The grantor cautiously stood up, but his head was still lowered and his waist was bent. He handed the ledgers in his hands to Xia Pingan. "This lowly official's crime is all in these ledgers. This lowly official does not dare to hide anything. Lord, please take a look!"
Xia Pingan took the ledgers, opened them, and casually flipped through a few pages. With this look, Xia Pingan frowned and almost couldn't help but curse.
Putting down the ledgers, Xia Pingan's face was as still as water.
"How long has this situation persisted?"
"Lord, ever since this lowly official took charge of the grantor of the Provincial Governor's Manor, it has always been this way. This lowly official once questioned the officials, and they also said that the Provincial Governor's Manor has always handled things this way. Although this lowly official felt that it was inappropriate, he was powerless to change it. He could only follow the rules of the grantor and did not dare to overstep …" the grantor cautiously replied.
Fuck! Xia Pingan had found it strange that the officials of Daozhou City would not compensate the people after kidnapping their children. They had already embezzled the compensation. It wasn't that these people didn't know the amount of land that the Great Tang's laws required, but that they did not want the people of Daozhou City to know.
For every child they kidnapped, they would report fifty pieces of silk as compensation to the grantor. The more children they kidnapped, the more silk they would receive. The grantor's ledgers stated that these silk would be distributed to the families that had lost children, but in reality, they did not receive any.
Just this sum alone was enough for these people to swindle several thousand bolts of silk from the grantor each year. This was no small sum. It must be known that in this era, a fine horse was only worth forty pieces of silk, and the ones who shared this money were the officials of the Provincial Governor's Manor. They called it 'tribute' …
And because they could falsely claim this' compensation 'for the land, the officials of Daozhou City were especially enthusiastic about paying tribute to the Pygmies. They would only catch a few children, never too many.
"What else do you know? Speak!"
The grantor clenched his teeth. "Lord, the Imperial Court only needs one pygmy each year for the land tribute, and the vast majority of the pygmy figurines in Long Cloud Manor are taken from the homes of the common people in the name of tribute. After being trained into pygmy figurines, they are sold to Chang 'an and the other wealthy clans. Quite a few pygmy figurines are even sold to the Western Regions. Every year, foreign merchants come to Daozhou City to purchase them!"
Xia Pingan took in a deep breath. "How much money do they get for selling a pygmy figurine figurine?"
"The cheapest is around one thousand taels of silver, while the most expensive is several thousand taels of silver …"
"Does everyone in the Provincial Governor's Manor know about this?"
"Basically everyone knows!"
"Why does Zhuang Chao come here? Doesn't anyone dare to stop him?"
"Indeed, nobody dares to stop him. Firstly, it's related to the tribute. If there's no tribute, the Provincial Governor would be responsible for it. Therefore, he could only turn a blind eye to it. Those in the Provincial Governor's Manor who have taken the tribute wouldn't complain about it either. Additionally, Zhuang Chao often said that he knew the relatives of the rich clans in Chang 'an City who often came here to buy pygmy figurines for him. Nobody knows how deep his background is. Therefore, all the officials in Daozhou City dare not offend him.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
