Gate valve, that is, the Tuas clan.It is a unique product of Chinese feudal society.The scholar family refers to the family of poetry and book heirlooms.In ancient times, especially before the improvement of papermaking and the invention of movable type printing, books and paper were expensive and scarce.Reading is unattainable for ordinary people.Only those children of rich and noble families have books to read.Thus, a cultural monopoly is formed.The scholars are the product of cultural monopoly.Before the advent of the imperial examination system, the way for scholars to become officials was basically by recommendation.Those who were born into the noble clan have a unique advantage.Their ancestors were officials, so it was easier for the children of the scholars to become officials.This led to more and more people from the noble family becoming officials, and their families were also developing more and more.During the Sui and Tang dynasties, although the imperial court had begun to select officials through the imperial examination system, the imperial examination system at this time was still only a prototype.Recommendation and shade are still the main ways to get out of office.Even scholars who participated in the imperial examination had to submit their papers to the officials of the DPRK and China, that is, to submit the articles and poems they wrote to the officials of the DPRK and China.Only by gaining the appreciation of the officials of the DPRK and China can they become officials smoothly after participating in the imperial examination.In order to get greater opportunities to become famous, some local scholars who are not from families often take refuge in these families.In other words, in order to maintain their own power, the family took the initiative to select some local scholars with better talent to cultivate.After these scholars became officials, they further strengthened the power of the family gatekeepers.The family not only monopolizes human resources, but also its influence on society is reflected in the large amount of land occupation and business behavior.Although the family gate valve is orthodox in Confucianism and pays attention to poetry and books, it does not have a rich economic foundation and cannot support the survival and development of the family.Because there are many officials in the family, the family's possession of land has also become extremely convenient.The bigger the family, the more land it occupies.Take the Qinghe Cui clan as an example, in the entire Shandong region, nearly half of the land is in their hands.In Shandong, a large number of people have also become tenant farmers who cultivate land for the Cui family.In addition, the people of the Saga Gate Valve are also engaged in commercial activities.Although the status of merchants in ancient times was very low, this was only a division of ingredients, and it did not mean that all those who did business were untouchables.In fact, the nobles were not only engaged in business, but they were also taken care of by the government in the payment of commercial taxes.After all, there are countless officials in people's families, who would be stupid to ignore the interests of the family.Therefore, in terms of commercial activities, the Saga Gate Valve has also suppressed some small merchants, thus exerting a huge influence on the society.To sum up, the family gate valve, whether in terms of social status or economic strength, is a giant.It also has an unparalleled influence on the whole society.In fact, before the Tang Dynasty, the rulers could only really control the country if they had the support of the family lords.For example, Li Yuan, the ancestor of the Tang Dynasty, was supported by the Guan Long family to establish the Tang Dynasty.Li Yuan claimed to be from the Li family in Longxi, but in fact, he was putting gold on his face.He was in a hurry by himself and insisted on relying on the genealogy of the Li family in Longxi.In order to advertise himself as a nobleman of the family, so as to get the support of the Guanlongmen valve.It is precisely because of this that except for the Guanlong Li family gate valve, the rest of the gate valves look down on the Li Tang royal family.In the early years of the Tang Dynasty, the biggest ruling opponent of the Li royal family was also several other gate lords represented by the Qinghe Cui clan.That is, the open and secret struggle between the emerging Guanlong aristocracy and the old gate valve.Historically, at the end of the Tang Dynasty, the gate valve force had a great influence on the entire society.It was not until after the Huangchao Uprising in the late Tang Dynasty that the family gate lords were rudely shuffled by the rebel army, and gradually faded out of the historical stage, and their status was replaced by the landlord and gentry class.Now, Wei Zheng and Zhao Yunze have been ordered by Li Shimin to set up Changping and Yicang in Shandong and Hebei, and if they don't get the support of the gate lords in these two places, then they can't do this.Therefore, Wei Zheng directly found the Qinghe Cui clan.At this time, the drought in Shandong had appeared, and the local government also reported the situation to Li Shimin.Similarly, there has been a drought in Hebei, and Li Shimin has also been reported.Since Zhao Yunze really responded to what Zhao Yunze said, there was a drought in Shandong and Hebei, then the Chang'an court could not ignore it and had to provide disaster relief.And if you want disaster relief, you need to have food.Not to mention that Chang'an is far away from Shandong, and far water can't quench the thirst of the near, let's just say that Chang'an can't allocate food for disaster relief.Everything can only be raised locally.This brings us back to the issue of the establishment of regular positions and righteous positions.Li Shimin directly appointed Wei Zheng as the disaster relief envoy and Zhao Yunze as the deputy envoy to preside over the disaster relief in Shandong and Hebei.In fact, before the arrival of the inspection team led by Wei Zheng, the Qinghe Cui clan had already started disaster relief work.After all, Cui's land has also been affected by the drought, and if the tenant farmers are not retained, then even after the drought, Cui's land will be barren because it is uncultivated.Besides, Cui Valve flaunts Confucian orthodoxy, and if he doesn't save him when he sees death, it will also hinder their prestige.But the death or life of those people other than their own tenant farmers, Cui's family can't care about it.After Wei Zheng came to Shandong, he mentioned the matter of raising grain for disaster relief with the patriarch of the Cui clan, and the reply of the patriarch of the Cui clan was very simple, we support this matter, but we can't get food.Now that the whole of Shandong has been affected, our family and tenant farmers also have to eat.I don't know how long this drought will last, and I don't know if the autumn grain will be planted.If we can't even grow autumn grain, let alone tenant farmers, I'm afraid our own family will have no food to eat this year.As for the other people, we also want to help, but we are powerless.Is Cui Valve really so short of food, the answer is no.The biggest hobby of landlords in ancient China was to save money and stock up on grain.With food and money, their first thought is not to sell the grain for money to invest, but to save it first.Only when they have saved enough money and food to deal with the risks for several years, and the surplus food and money, will they take it out to do something else.Don't look at Cui Valve crying poor, but Wei Zheng estimates that there is no shortage in their family's granary, and they dare not say that there is enough food for the whole clan to eat for three years, and there must be something.As a result, Wei Zheng no longer blindly asked the Cui clan for food, but took the patriarch of the Cui clan and a group of clan elders to one of the boats of the inspection team a few days later.On that boat, Cui Valve's group of people in power saw warehouses and bags of refined salt.They have eaten salt for most of their lives, sold salt for most of their lives, and this is the first time they have seen so much refined salt.I'm afraid that the refined salt that these people have used and sold for most of their lives is not as much as this boatload of refined salt.At this time, Zhao Yunze threw out his method of opening the middle.When they learned that the salt works of the imperial court could already produce a large amount of refined salt, the elders of the Cui clan couldn't resist the temptation.After discussing for a few days, they finally agreed to accept the opening of the Chinese law and provide food to help the victims.However, the elders of the Cui clan are also shrewd people, and they also proposed to Wei Zheng that this time they could donate grain to help the imperial court for disaster relief, in exchange for the salt of refined salt.However, in the future, they could not always donate grain in exchange for salt, but instead sold grain to the imperial court at a low price.Correspondingly, the amount of salt introduced by selling grain in exchange for the same amount of salt also naturally decreased.This condition involves the flexible application of the Kaizhong method, and Wei Zheng agreed to this condition after discussing with Zhao Yunze and Ma Zhou.Moreover, Zhao Yunze also proposed that in the future, if the imperial court needs it, they will also help the imperial court transport grain to the designated place.Naturally, if there is such a need at that time, the amount of salt that the imperial court will exchange for them will also increase accordingly.Once the two sides have negotiated the intention of cooperation, the next disaster relief work will be relatively smooth.With the successful experience of the Qinghe Cui clan, there were no accidents on the Boling Cui side, and they reached a cooperation intention with the imperial court on the same terms.In fact, the Qinghe Cui clan and the Boling Cui clan were already in the same breath, and Wei Zheng held the handwritten letter of the patriarch of the Qinghe Cui clan and met the patriarch of the Boling Cui clan, and he successfully raised food.This is more than two months.Although there was still no rain during this period of time, and the drought was still continuing, because of the establishment of Yicang and the food for disaster relief, the people in Shandong and Hebei were able to survive this year's drought.At the time of disaster relief, Zhao Yunze also suggested to Wei Zheng that the method of cashing out work should be implemented, and that young and strong laborers among the victims should be summoned to build water conservancy facilities on a large scale.Originally, this work was also one of the tasks of persuading farmers.In dry years, most rivers dry up, and it is easier to build water conservancy facilities.This is a good thing that kills two birds with one stone, and the people of both clans of the Cui family also support it.Because of the measure of cash-for-work, the construction degree of water conservancy facilities in Shandong and Hebei has been at the forefront of Datang.In mid-June, God finally opened his eyes, and it rained heavily.The rain lasted for two days and two nights, and the coverage was extremely wide, covering almost the entire Hebei Province.The land was finally moistened, and the riverbed, which had been dry for months, was filled with water.At this point, it's too late to plant other crops, but it's not too late to plant soybeans and sorghum.Although the harvest will certainly be lower than in previous years, it is better to have a harvest than to have no grains at all.As a result, farmers in Shandong and Hebei finally planted autumn grain.With water in the river, the water conservancy projects built on cash-for-work can also play a role.In this way, even if there is another drought in the second half of the year, it will not be as serious as the drought in the first half of the year.At the very least, food that can keep the people alive.At this point, the work of the inspection team can finally be completed.The inspection team left Chang'an City in mid-February, inspected all the way, and then provided disaster relief in Shandong and Hebei, which lasted more than four months.On the second day of July, the inspection team embarked on the journey back to Chang'an under the welcome of local officials, gentry, and ordinary people
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