For ancient people, population was a symbol of prosperity and troubled times.

In any prosperous era, the standard for measuring population is population.

For example, during the reign of Emperor Wen of Sui, the population once exceeded 9 million households. In the early Tang Dynasty, although the Li Tang Dynasty won steadily in the war, people only called it the Zhenguan period the rule of Zhenguan, and would never call it the prosperous era of Zhenguan.

The root of this is that during the Zhenguan period, it was not yet attained by the prosperous era.

It was not until Emperor Xuanzong of Tang ruled the world that the Tang Dynasty ushered in a real prosperous era, that is, the Kaiyuan prosperous era.

The reason is that the population during the Zhenguan period was so small.

Emperor Yang of Sui was able to conquer Goryeo, build canals, overhaul palaces, and even build the eastern capital Luoyang. This is the fundamental reason.

After all, Emperor Wen of Sui left too much capital, so Emperor Yang of Sui could squander it at will.

But by the time of Li Shimin, it was completely different. Although there were many military victories, the scale of the war was far from comparable to that of the Sanzheng Goryeo.

As for the canal... it's just repairing.

To put it bluntly, it means there is insufficient money and food, and insufficient manpower.

In fact, the population of the Tang Dynasty was only three million households, but in fact... later historians estimated that the population would not be so sparse.

The biggest problem is the hidden households. Because of the war, a large number of people were concealed by the aristocratic races in order to escape taxes.

They cannot be seen in the household registration book of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, as if they have never existed, but in fact... they are living people again.

However, the investigation of hidden households was not only full of resistance, but also had no way to check, because the household registration book during the Sui Dynasty... was lost.

During the Sui Dynasty, there was a large-scale investigation of the hidden households of the aristocratic clans. If these households were obtained, it would be of great help to investigate the hidden households.

Dai Zhou's family was poor and did not come from a great family. He was very honest and had no selfish intentions.

Now that I heard Chen Zhengtai... no, my mentor actually said that I could find a way to find a way to find a hidden house, which made him excited all of a sudden.

But... can we really find those household registrations? If they are found, how can we carry out our work?

And the jade seal of the kingdom, didn’t you hear that you were taken to Mobei?

He looked up at Chen Zhengtai, looking puzzled.

"Anyway, you must be prepared as soon as possible." Chen Zhengtai explained: "You must not leak the news before the result comes out, and you cannot reveal a slight news. Xiao Dai, do you have a confidant in this Civil Affairs Department? What I mean is, an absolute confidant."

Dai Zhou said seriously: "There are dozens of people who can entrust them."

This surprised Chen Zhengtai a little, there were so many.

Chen Zhengtai said: "There are many people in Erpigou University Hall that have learned basic mathematics. These people are still idle when they are studying. Can they be idle when they are free? I can do it if I can do it..."

"But... they just entered the school and just pulled it out like this, would they be a little bit unintentional? Well, for peace in the world, I can't take care of so much. Once this matter is leaked, I'm afraid that it will be noticed. So before that, you must be careful. But if you check the population secretly, the students in the university are probably not skilled enough. Xiao Dai, you have to take the time to help your junior brothers more."

Dai Zhou: "..."

Every time Chen Zhengtai emphasized that he was Chen Zhengtai's apprentice, he always couldn't help but feel upset.

Moreover, Dai Zhou felt a little bit like Chen Zhengtai was frightening people. He didn't know where this household registration... he didn't know where he was. After all, it was a household registration twenty years ago. Can it be found out?

At this time, Chen Zhengtai beat him up and stood up and said, "This matter is settled. Okay, I have something to do with the prince, see you again."

Chen Zhengtai came out of the Ministry of Civil Affairs leisurely, while Li Chengqian said in surprise: "Senior Brother, what you said just now is true?"

"Actually, I'm not sure." Chen Zhengtai spread his hands: "But you can give it a try, but you can't tell anyone about this."

Li Chengqian patted his chest and said, "Don't worry, how could I tell anyone about such a thing?"

Chen Zhengtai calmed down: "Young brother will wait for a huge contribution to this."

As he said that, he rode his horse, said goodbye to Li Chengqian, and led Xue Rengui away.

A few days later, Chen Zhengtai summoned a group of Chen's family to set out sneakily.

The dozens of people tiptoed and carried a total of several carriages, which were covered with felt cloth, and no one knew what was in the carriage.

It didn't take long to arrive at a foot of the mountain, and then everyone began to remove all the tools. Not only that... Xue Rengui also took a few people to inspect around.

Everyone built several tents here, but there were a lot of things that were unloaded, including gunpowder, pickaxes, and various daily necessities.

All the people who came here were Chen's family, who was the one Chen Zhengtai could trust the most.

The leader is Chen Zhengxian.

Chen Zhengxian's skin was dark. According to his many years of mining habits, he did not rush to eat dry food after arriving at the place. Instead, he carried his hands behind his back and forth, studying the rocks here, and sometimes bent down and picked up a few stones. He also carried a small hoe in his hand, occasionally knocking to check the soil quality.

After thinking for a long time, I knew it.

In the afternoon, I found a few people and started to arrange gunpowder.

Chen Zhengtai explained it carefully before riding a horse and leading Xue Rengui away.

Chen Zhengxian stayed here, but in fact, he didn't quite understand.

How could he come here to dig mountains? Judging from the soil and terrain, there should be no mine.

However, my cousin gave me instructions, how dare he say anything. Now at least he can play with gunpowder all day long. If he provokes this cousin, he might send himself to mine with a pickaxe again.

…………

"Official Master...Official Master..." Huang Chenggong found Wei Xuanzhen again with a tragic expression.

In the main hall of the Wei family, Wei Xuanzhen was slowly drinking tea.

As soon as he saw Huang Chenggong coming, he subconsciously raised his eyebrows and said, "What are you doing? Didn't you see me drinking tea? You don't even see what kind of tea this is. I tell you, this is the tribute tea in the tribute palace. Ordinary people can't even drink it. It was sold secretly from Erpigou. It costs more than one or two or three hundred yuan, which is more expensive than gold and silver. Don't disturb me."

Huang Chenggong looked at the tea, subconsciously swallowed his saliva, and then his face became serious again: "Owner, it's going to be bad."

"Oh?" Wei Xuanzhen calmed down and said: "In this world... Is there any other man who sold the land in the west of the city to the Chen family at a low price? No matter how bad... Is it bad if I used precious grain to exchange for the Chen family's money? Even if I take a step back, it's worse, how bad can we sell the land later? Not to mention, I missed the stocks to reserve. When the stock price was unattainable, I went to buy it, but the market trend in the past few days has a downward trend."

"Scared, I have never seen any storms now? Mr. Huang, don't be surprised. If you encounter something bad, you will be dead. I will have died ten or eight times."

Huang Chenggong became embarrassed for a moment. Indeed... Compared with Wei Xuanzhen's calmness, he seemed to have lost his composure.

So Huang Chenggong said with a shame: "Oh, it's all the students who can't hold back, but they make the boss laugh."

Wei Xuanzhen looked numb: "Yes, the sky cannot fall. If this God really falls, I will crush me, Wei Xuanzhen, and teach me that I will die and destroy my family. That is really bad. Other things... are like clouds, and I will take it lightly."

Huang Chenggong coughed: "What the boss taught me is that even the ancient wise men cannot compare with each other, and the students admire it."

Wei Xuanzhen then took another sip of tea, slowly echoed the tea on the tip of her tongue, and then drank it.

He closed his eyes, felt the fragrance of tea leisurely, and then calmly said: "Tell me, what's the matter?"

Huang Chenggong then said: "I heard... the Chen family has begun to investigate hidden households. Not only that, Chen Zhengtai also conspired with Dai Zhou, the Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs yesterday. By the way, there is His Royal Highness, who hid in the public housing and conspired for a long time."

Hearing this, Wei Xuanzhen frowned: "That's it?"

Huang Chenggong said again: "After the secret spy yesterday, Chen Zhengtai took his tribe members to Songzhuang sneakily. It is said that he also brought a pickaxe to dig the soil, as if he also brought gunpowder?"

Wei Xuanzhen was moved at this time and couldn't help but say, "This is a big deal. What are they doing there? Is there a mine there?"

"It should be that there is no such digging. Even if it is mining, it is not like this. Students have also heard that this investigation of hidden households... seems to start with the household registration book left in the Sui Dynasty."

Wei Xuanzhen's eyes opened and she said in surprise: "Didn't those household registrations say they are missing?"

Huang Chenggong stared at Wei Xuanzhen deeply: "But... Master, have you forgotten who Chen Zhengtai is? Every time he... wasn't he able to do anything despicable?"

"I think he is determined to win this time. Think about it, if he is not sure, how could he bring His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and the Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs? Combined with their Chen family, the students have a bold guess."

Wei Xuanzhen hurriedly said, "You said."

Huang Chenggong said word by word: "Maybe... the household book... Chen Zhengtai knew where he was, and he might even... had begun to break the ground and search."

When Wei Xuanzhen heard this, her face turned pale: "Even if there is a household registration, it has been so many years, why should they..."

Huang Chenggong sighed and said, "This is what Chen Zhengtai is cunning. He always unexpectedly. The boss thought about it carefully. What was the thing that Chen Zhengtai did that could not be done... I also heard... he already knew where the imperial seal was?"

Wei Xuanzhen's body was stiff, and his eyes suddenly became dull. He suddenly felt that the tea was no longer fragrant, and his voice became sad and choked: "Where did this news come from? Is it accurate? My God, he is going to cut off the roots of our Wei family."
Chapter completed!