Chapter 12 Ximen Baozhi Ye

At the same time when Wu Qi was attacking Hexi and Leyang was attacking Zhongshan, Zhai Huang also recommended a person to Weiss—Ximen Bao.About this person, I don't want to use too much introduction, because most people are familiar with him. Wei Si sent Ximen Bao to serve as the governor of Yecheng (now Anyang, Henan Province), which is located in Hanoi among the three rivers.Sanhe is rich and prosperous, and the world knows it, but Yecheng has suffered from poor harvests year after year, and its people have been displaced.Weiss replaced Ye Ling several times, but all failed. He hoped that Ximen Bao could find the problem for him and manage Ye City well.

When Ximenbao arrived in Yecheng, he found that the hardships of the local people were far beyond his imagination, so he went deep into the people, chatted with the local elders, and asked them why it was so difficult. The elder told Ximen Leopard an unbelievable thing-it turned out that the local officials collected an extra sum of money from the people every year for "Hebo marrying a wife", the total amounted to millions of dollars.The common people plant a hundred mu of land all the year round, and after paying all kinds of taxes and fees, there is not much left, just enough to barely maintain food and clothing, plus the cost of He Bo's marriage, it is not enough.

Ximen Leopard found it very strange that Wei's law did not stipulate such a tax!He asked the elder, "Why did He Bo marry a wife?" The elder told him that because Zhangshui often flooded, the local witch said that He Bo was angry, and every year he sent a young woman to He Bo to be his wife to appease his anger.At that time, the magistrate took the witch to every house to inspect, and seeing someone's daughter was beautiful, he said that He Bo had a fancy, so he dropped a little bride price and took it away.Then bathe her and change her clothes, and let her float down the river in a straw boat. After only a few tens of miles, the straw boat is flooded and sinks to the bottom of the river together with the woman.The people in Yecheng, as long as their daughters are beautiful, all their families move out, so this place is getting more and more depressed.

Ximen Leopard screamed "absurd" in his heart, and asked again: "Even if this is the case, it won't cost a few million dollars!" The elder said: "You really don't know or you don't know, the money that was really used for Hebo to marry a wife was only two to three hundred thousand yuan, and the rest was divided up privately by magistrates and witches!" Ximen Bao was silent for a while, and said, "Next time He Bo marries a wife, you must tell me." On that day, Simon Leopard came to the river and saw local officials, witches, and village elders, and there were as many as two to three thousand people watching.The witch was an old woman in her seventies, with more than ten female disciples, dancing and casting spells there.

Ximen Leopard watched them perform for a while, and suddenly said: "Please bring He Bo's daughter-in-law out and show me!" The local officials looked at each other, thinking that this was the first time they had encountered it, but they did not dare to disobey, so they led the crying woman out of the curtain and brought it to Ximen Leopard. Ximen Leopard glanced at it, and cursed: "You just gave He Bo such an ugly woman? It's too much, it's too embarrassing for us Yecheng people! How about this, please ask Dawu to go there personally, and talk to He Bo Tell me, let's search carefully and find a beautiful one to send to his old man in a few days."

Before the witch came back to her senses, several soldiers stepped forward to lift her up, and threw her into the water together.The witch didn't know how to swim, and she was dressed in cumbersome clothes. After dipping her head in the river a few times, she sank. After a while of incense, Ximenbao said: "Hey, the witch has been away for so long and hasn't come back. Could it be that He Bo left her for dinner? Send someone to look at it." Then another disciple of the witch was thrown into the river. After a while, Ximen Bao said: "The disciple has been away for so long, so send another person to see what's going on."

So another official was thrown in. Ximen Leopard held a gui (gui, the ancient jade under the upper tip), bent over, stood respectfully by the river, and waited for a long time.The local officials watched from the sidelines, trembling and afraid to speak.Ximen Leopard said: "This matter is difficult to handle. He Bo is too arrogant, so he has to send people." When those people heard this, they immediately fell to their knees and kowtowed to Ximen Leopard for mercy, until the blood flowed all over the ground. . Ximen Leopard sneered and ignored them.After a long time, he said, "Get up, everyone. It seems that He Bo doesn't want them to come back. You guys are also gone. Go home!"

From then on, no one in Yecheng dared to mention Hebo's marriage to a daughter-in-law.Ximen Bao struck while the iron was hot, and organized the people to dig twelve canals, diverting water from Zhangzhou to irrigate and flush the farmland.It turns out that the land near Yecheng has high salinity and alkalinity, which is not conducive to crop growth.After several years of irrigation with water from Zhangzhou by Ximenbao, the soil quality has been improved and it has become a fertile field suitable for the growth of rice and sorghum.Ximen Bao's rule of Ye also became a model of land improvement in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods.

It is said that the project of digging the canal was very huge at that time, and the people were quite enthusiastic at first, but gradually became bored.Ximen Leopard's determination did not waver in the slightest. He said to his subordinates: "The common people are always happy to enjoy achievements, but they are unwilling to do hard work for it. Today, the fathers and brothers in Yecheng feel that I have brought them hardships, but one hundred Years from now, their children and grandchildren will still remember what I did for them." Ximen Leopard is too modest. "Historical Records" records that after the establishment of the Han Dynasty, the government planned to rebuild the Twelve Canals of Zhangshui River in order to build Chidao (ancient highway).The local elders firmly disagreed, thinking that the project was built by Ximen Bao, and "the law of a virtuous king cannot be changed."The government complied with public opinion, and in the end did not renovate, but spent more cost to make Chidao turn around Yecheng.

At that time, at least two hundred years had passed since the time of the Ximen Leopard.