Traveling through Chenghan Xiandi, fortunately I have a simulator

Chapter 182 Remediation of Officials
This war against Zhang Yang was a complete victory. From the very beginning, the cavalry of the Southern Huns attracted most of Zhang Yang's attention. Then, while Zhang Yang was destroying the royal court of the Southern Huns, the imperial army launched a general attack and successfully captured the cloud. Zhongcheng, then set up a bureau on both sides, annexed the [-] cavalry and [-] infantry who came to support, and finally Huangfusong let his subordinates pretend to be reinforcements, successfully sneaked into Dingxiang County City, and finally Lu Bu succeeded Captured Zhang Yang who wanted to escape.

However, the layout of this battle started in June, and it was already early September when Zhang Yang was won. Although it only took three months, the results were huge. Now Wuyuan County, Yunzhong County, and Dingxiang County Most of the soldiers have either died or surrendered. Yanmen County, Shuofang County, and most of the soldiers are still defending the Northern Huns on the border. They did not participate in this battle, so their combat power is still relatively complete.

As for Xihe County controlled by the Royal Court of the Southern Huns, Shangdang County and part of Taiyuan County, now with the elimination of the three tribes of the Southern Huns, Shangdang County and part of Taiyuan County are already in a state of no ownership, and the Southern Huns Although the royal court has not yet perished, there is only one Southern Xiongnu Shanyu Fuluo left, so it is tantamount to dying in name only.

Huang Fusong, Lu Bu, Xu Rong and other generals discussed it and decided on the final plan to stay behind. Lu Bu's army continued to return to Hanoi County, because Hanoi County is located in the most marginal area of ​​Sili Xiaowei's Department and needs an important general to guard. Prevent the princes from having some undue ambitions.

Huangfusong stayed in Yunzhong City to guard the Sifang of Bingzhou, while Xu Rong continued to undertake the task of suppressing bandits to reduce the turmoil when the power changed. Anyway, Zhang Yang has been governing here for a long time and has a certain influence , although the imperial court won Zhang Yang this time, some people inevitably took the opportunity to make trouble. While the imperial court had not fully grasped Bingzhou, they waited for an opportunity to rebel and try to become a new prince along the way. The situation in Bingzhou.

As for the letter of victory, Huangfusong had sent the courier back to Chang'an as quickly as possible early in the morning. As for the imperial court's arrangements later, Huangfusong could only continue to wait in Bingzhou.

At the beginning of September, it was already the harvest season. Although there was almost no rain in the whole summer this year, the land in the north was completely cracked, especially in the Bingzhou area. Although there is the Hetao Plain, Zhang Yang did not do a good job of resisting it in advance. In preparation for the drought, the irrigation of the Yellow River alone cannot meet the water needs of the farmland in the Hetao Plain, so the farmland in Bingzhou has almost reached the state of ten fields and nine deaths.

But fortunately, after Bingzhou was taken by the imperial army, Zhang Ming's innate skills can also be applied to the land of Bingzhou, so even if only a few farmlands survived the drought, although the output of food is not much, it can still be used. To solve part of the crisis, as for more people in Bingzhou, they can only become refugees under the drought, or choose to sell slaves for a living, or choose to flee to other places.

However, the Guanzhong area is a completely different scene, especially in the Sanfu area. Due to the excavation of canals, the eight major rivers have provided irrigation water for the Sanfu area. In addition, the Sanfu area has completely popularized keel waterwheels. Therefore, the entire Sanfu area was hardly affected by the drought. Coupled with the influence of Zhang Ming's talent, it can be said that the grain output far exceeded previous years.

Although Hedong County did not dig water sources, the impact of farming was not small at all, and because it was the first time to farm, it enjoyed relatively good support from the imperial court, not only agricultural equipment, but also waterwheels, all of which were sent by the imperial court. Provided, coupled with militarized management, and the enthusiasm of the refugees to farm, the farmland output in Hedong County is also higher than in previous years, much higher than the farmland output of other wealthy families in Hedong County.

Zhang Ming, who lives in Chang'an, already has a general understanding of the local agricultural situation through Jinyiwei in various counties. According to his judgment, although there has been a drought, overall, the agricultural harvest this time has created a higher record than previous years. , this actually made him settle down, at least there won't be too many rebellions in the short term.

In the high gate hall, Zhang Ming was listening to Zhuo Yun's report on the sales of Shu Brocade.

"Your Majesty, now the aristocratic families from all over the world want to buy top-quality Shu brocade from my minister, but the output of the factory is only half of their demand. May I ask your Majesty, do you want to expand the factory and increase the production?" Zhuo Yun asked cautiously.

"Let them wait in line." Zhang Ming said lightly. He knew very well that the reason for Zhuo Yun's proposal was nothing more than profit. Businessmen in any era have a characteristic, that is, their extreme desire for money. For Zhuo Yun For each piece of Sichuan brocade sold, although only less than [-]% of the profit can be obtained, for luxury goods, less than [-]% of the profit is already very good.

Although Zhang Ming is not as good as Zhuo Yun in terms of business, he has seen the marketing methods of later generations, and at least knows more about the operation model of top luxury than Zhuo Yun, so in this regard, Zhang Ming can still give Zhuo Yun a little guidance .

"By the way, crops are starting to be harvested in various places. During this time, you will go to buy as much crops as possible for me. Remember that the purchase price should not be lower than two hundred yuan a stone." Zhang Ming said slowly, he didn't want to Let local officials buy grain, because they are prone to corruption and are not good at business operations, so professional things should be left to professional people.

"Your Majesty, this purchase price is a bit too high. Although I have never purchased grain, if Your Majesty wants to, I can receive 150 yuan a stone." Zhuo Yun said puzzledly, he is no longer the same as before. Since he started the Shu brocade business, he is a top businessman even in the whole country, so he is more cautious about some things.

"I didn't intend to deceive me, that's fine." Zhang Ming said with a smile.He is well aware that the purchase price of grain in the market used to be around 150 to 180 renminbi. Although this year is a drought year, the Sili Xiaowei Department has little influence, so even if the purchase price rises, it will not exceed at most [-] coins a stone.

"I don't dare." Zhuo Yun couldn't help but sweat on his face.

"However, I still let you buy grain at a price of two hundred yuan. As for the grain you buy, the imperial court will buy it from you at two hundred and five yuan. I will remind you one last thing, don't think about buying it at a low price. Farmers’ food.” Zhang Ming slowly increased the volume, he needed to warn Zhuo Yun again that businessmen are greedy by nature.

"Yes, I understand." Although Zhuo Yun didn't know why His Majesty bought grain at a high price, he didn't dare to disobey the holy will. He knew very well that as long as His Majesty said a word, he could be beaten back to his original form.

Zhang Ming has a deeper understanding of cheap grain hurting farmers.Due to the impact of the drought, although the grain output in Guanzhong has increased, it does not mean that other places have also increased. This means that farmers in many places still need to rely on selling farmland to survive.

Once farmers sell their farmland, it will further lead to the growth of local aristocratic families. Therefore, to prevent farmers from selling farmland, one is to allow farmers to survive. On the one hand, the imperial court will provide assistance through low-priced grain sales and disaster relief. The second is to let farmers see hope. Only in this way can they feel that the farmland under their name is a good thing and cannot be easily sold to a wealthy family. The best way to see hope is to buy grain at a high price.

In fact, there should be a third benefit, which is to increase farmers' enthusiasm for farming, but I am afraid that we will have to wait until next year to see the effect of this.

Sure enough, after Zhuo Yun offered the purchase price of two hundred yuan per stone for grain, a large number of farmers who had stockpiled grain decisively chose to sell their grain. food action.

In order to purchase these grains, the imperial court threw away almost all the profits it had obtained from the Shu brocade in the past two months. For a time, the grain depot in Chang'an stored the most grains in the world, grains worth millions of shi.In order to prevent fire problems, Zhang Ming divided the grain into multiple granaries, and these granaries were guarded by Imperial Guards.

However, an unexpected thing happened during the grain purchase, that is, the county magistrates in many places actually hoarded grain in the name of taxation and sold it to Zhuo Yun.

On the main hall of Weiyang Palace.

"Okay, okay, I didn't expect that the face of my great Han court was completely lost by these county magistrates. Tell me, how should this matter be handled?" Zhang Minglang said.

Just now, at the court meeting, Zhang Ming asked the eunuch to explain the matter from the inside to the outside. The matter itself is not complicated, it's just too unimaginable.

In the Han Dynasty, the most common tax was land tax, that is, the corresponding tax was levied through household registration and farmland. Generally speaking, this kind of tax was mainly collected by county magistrates after the autumn harvest.

However, in September, nearly one-half of the county magistrates actually submitted memorials to the imperial court. The contents of the memorials are similar, almost all of which are saying that the drought has caused a severe reduction in local grain production, so the land tax has not been collected. I hope the imperial court can exempt it. partial taxation.

This is the first time that the court officials have heard that so many county magistrates proposed to reduce taxes. In the past, although some local county magistrates occasionally asked for partial tax exemptions, those were extremely special circumstances. Not only Zhang Ming has never seen a request for tax exemption on a large scale, but it is also the first time for all officials to see it.

"Your Majesty, the drought this year is indeed serious. When I returned to Hongnong County some time ago, I only knew that there was a drought in various places. Therefore, it is not surprising that the county magistrates asked to reduce the land tax." Yang Biao stood up and said.

"Your Majesty, I heard that this year's drought has affected a wide range of people. Not only the Sili Captain, but also Bingzhou, Liangzhou, Yanzhou, Yuzhou, and Jizhou have experienced droughts of varying degrees. Considering that it is a good thing to benefit the country and the people to ask the imperial court to exempt part of the tax." Shang Shu Lingshi Sun Rui also stood up and said, he also saw these memorials, and did not think there was a big problem.

Zhang Ming wanted to laugh in his heart. Although the officials could know some things that happened in the outside world, they knew very little. Not that serious.

Of course, it would be difficult for Zhang Ming to deal with this matter if he only relied on guesswork, because limited by traffic problems, local management has always been a problem. The county magistrates in other regions have all petitioned for tax exemption.

"But Jin Yiwei from all over the country told me that some county magistrates who have submitted memorials, the drought in the county under their jurisdiction is not as serious as they said. Although I can't see that far away, I can hear it." Zhang Ming said angrily, now Jin Yiwei's status as a local supervisory envoy has already been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.

"Your Majesty, is this really the case?" Yang Biao said suspiciously.

"The county magistrate of Hu County in Hongnong County, the Taifu should know him, he is still a student of the Taifu. Hu County is close to the Yellow River, so how could there be a severe drought? According to the Jin Yiwei of Hu County, the harvest in Hu County this year is only It will be better than last year, but under such circumstances, the county magistrate of Hu County still gave the imperial court a memorial requesting tax exemption, is this treating me as blind?" Zhang Ming said angrily.

"Not only Hu County, but also Xin'an, Yiyang, and many other county magistrates. They all lied to me. Do they really think that I don't know?" Zhang Ming said angrily.

"Your Majesty, if there is such a thing, it should be dealt with strictly, and they must not be indulged." Yang Biao said quickly, but he still didn't believe it, but he would not refute His Majesty in front of all the officials, even though the county magistrate of Hu County was He is a student, but he doesn't know the truth of the matter at all, so it is not easy to express other opinions.

"I know that many officials here are a little confused, and many county magistrates are also your students, so you find it incredible. Don't worry, I will never wrong them."

"Tingwei, Jing Zhaoyin." Zhang Minglang said.

"The minister is here," Zhong Yao and Sima Fang said as they walked towards the center of the hall.

"The two of you will go to these tax-free counties to investigate for me. I believe you will never wrong them." Zhang Ming said with a smile.

In fact, Zhang Ming already had a lot of evidence from Jin Yiwei's investigation, and most importantly, Zhuo Yun had evidence of transactions with these local officials. It was with these evidence that Zhang Ming brought up this topic.

"Yes, Your Majesty, I will definitely complete the task." Zhong Yao and Huangfu Song bowed.

This is Zhang Ming's first large-scale rectification of officials. Although he has set up local guards and Jinyiwei organizations in the counties of Sili Xiaowei, local officials still go their own way. They continue to maintain the official style of the year without realizing it. Today's court is no longer the original court, and today's emperor pays more attention to people's livelihood.

However, in this incident, Zhang Ming discovered that some relatively smart county magistrates actually thought of a way to evade the supervision of the Jinyiwei. In any case, as a superficial monitoring organization, the Jinyiwei is not assimilated. Zhang Ming won't be aware of the information Zhang Ming got from Zhuo Yun. It seems that the speed of evolution of local bureaucracy still needs to improve the means of supervision.

(End of this chapter)