Traveling through history leaving a name

Chapter 147 The Peacemaker

"This matter ends here, I will go to the governor of Youzhou to ask for clarification." Cao Pi said to everyone.

Although he is still very young, he also knows that if Li Bai is really arrested as some ministers said, then the whole Youzhou will be messed up.

This time, even if Cao Pi didn't want to, he had to favor Li Bai.

Cao Pi married Liu Rushi, so he was considered half of Zhang Qingfeng's student, and also a member of Zhang Qingfeng's lineage.

If he can get the support of Zhang Qingfeng's family, it will be decisive for him to inherit Cao Cao's family property in the future.

After finishing the discussion, Cao Pi hurried to Youzhou Governor's Mansion.

"Li Bai met General Zhonglang." Li Bai saluted Cao Pi quickly.

After that, Li Bai met Cao Pi in a study.

"Brother."

Cao Pi called Li Bai a senior brother, and he followed Liu Rushi, and I can get closer to each other by calling him this way.

"Brother, you should understand why I'm here?" Cao Pi asked Li Bai.

"I know, it must be because of this crackdown." Li Bai said.

"Strike hard?" Cao Pi didn't understand the word "strike hard" that Li Bai said.

"Strike hard is to crack down on criminals who affect social stability."

Li Bai explained: "A few years ago, when Youzhou was just developing, the social security was very chaotic due to the increase in the number of people fleeing famine from outside. At that time, there were one or two murders every day."

"In order to stabilize the social order, Youzhou launched a crackdown back then. That crackdown not only wiped out all the banditry in Youzhou, but also captured thousands of criminals. Among them, hundreds of heinous criminals were beheaded. Thousands of people are still being punished for work and rest.”

After a pause, Li Bai said: "In the past few months, we have found that the law and order in Youzhou has begun to become chaotic again. The tax collector killed a vegetable shopkeeper."

"This kind of situation puts many people in danger, and it leads to the skyrocketing prices in Youzhou. If you don't restrain it, Youzhou will fall into turmoil. Therefore, after we discussed it with the officials in Youzhou, we decisively launched the crackdown again. "

"This..." Cao Pi did not expect Li Bai to explain this matter in such a way, which made him at a loss for what to say for a while.

Everyone understands that the reason why Li Bai did this was to resist the imperial court's withdrawal of Youzhou's tax rights.

But although Cao Pi knew this, he couldn't say it directly. This would make people lose face, and it would be more likely to tear their faces.

So he thought for a while and said, "Senior brother, I don't think this matter should make a big fuss. If the people who are arrested are not guilty of any serious crimes, see if you can let some people go first."

Cao Pi refers to some people, although he did not say it clearly, but anyone with a discerning eye understands it.

Of course Li Bai also knew who some of the people Cao Pi was talking about were the arrested court tax collectors.

Cao Pi came here just to be a peacemaker.

Hearing Cao Pi's words, Li Bai thought for a while, and said earnestly: "Actually, the main reason for this crackdown is the teacher's intention."

"You know, in order to develop Youzhou's industry, the teacher even refused the prime minister's invitation to the old man to be the chief farmer."

"And in the imperial court, some people want to take back Youzhou's tax rights. This is undoubtedly to destroy the industry that the teacher has worked so hard to develop. This time the crackdown, the teacher also wants to warn some people with ulterior motives."

"It's not that serious, is it? What does taxation have to do with destroying industry?" Cao Pi asked in surprise.

Although he did not support the move to transfer Youzhou's taxation rights to the imperial court, it did not mean that he did not have such an idea.

Now Youzhou collects too much tax every year, so much that anyone who sees it will be jealous.

Not only some ministers in the court, but also Cao Pi was moved.

"Why not serious?" Li Bai asked Cao Pi: "General Zhonglang, if the imperial court takes back the tax rights of Youzhou, how much money can the imperial court allocate to Youzhou every year?"

"This... Youzhou is in need, the imperial court will naturally call..."

"I'm afraid General Zhonglang doesn't believe it himself? If the imperial court really takes back Youzhou's taxes, it would be considered good to be able to allocate [-]% of Youzhou's taxes every year."

Li Bai said: "You must know that if Youzhou wants to continue to develop, it cannot do without the support of Youzhou's taxes. Without these taxes, Youzhou's development will stagnate."

"You can see how fast Youzhou has developed in recent years. Tax revenue has increased from hundreds of millions a year to billions a year now. If it continues to develop, it is likely to be broken in a few years or more. Ten billion, these are the results of Youzhou's continuous investment."

"If the development of Youzhou stagnates, have you ever thought about how much Zhonglang will lose? The imperial court took back the tax rights of Youzhou. This is simply killing the chicken to get the egg!"

"Well, if you say that, I understand. When the prime minister comes back, I will tell the prime minister that I must strongly support the development of Youzhou." Cao Pi nodded and said, it seems that he was fooled by Li Bai.

"General Zhonglang, you can rest assured that every sum of the tax collected from Youzhou will be spent on something useful. No one dares to embezzle the money. Every account is well documented. If the court is worried Youzhou can send people to supervise the indiscriminate use of these taxes." Li Bai said to Cao Pi.

"That's unnecessary, I believe in senior brother."

Cao Pi said: "What's more, brother, you all have your own property, and you are making money every day, so you probably don't think much of this tax."

Li Bai's industry developed almost along with the development of Youzhou. Yuyang Machinery Manufacturing Factory, Yuyang Porcelain Factory, Luping Neihe Shipyard, and Quanzhou Shipyard are all Li Bai's industries.

Of course, these industries are not owned by Li Bai alone. Many of them have shares, such as Zhang Qingfeng, Yang Shen, Li Kui, and so on.

In addition to the manufacturing industry, Youzhou also has a sea trade business. Every time they go to the sea trade, they can bring them a lot of money. Compared with the taxes in Youzhou, Li Bai and his family earn a lot more money.

Hearing Cao Pi's words, Li Bai thought for a while and said, "Supervision is still needed, but supervision belongs to the supervisor. I don't want the imperial court to intervene in Youzhou's use of these funds at will."

"Okay, I will arrange this matter as appropriate." Hearing Li Bai's words, Cao Pi nodded and agreed.

Cao Pi and Li Bai met, and the court and Youzhou reached a settlement.

In the end, Li Bai did not let some of the court tax collectors go so easily, but sentenced them to several months of hard labor and sent them to work on the railway.

And the imperial court no longer pursued Youzhou's series of actions.

At the same time, after Li Bai issued an administrative order, the merchants who were on strike in the market also resumed business, which brought prices in Youzhou back to normal levels again.

Through this action, Youzhou also showed his muscles to a group of bigwigs in the court, which made some people in the court want to target Youzhou again, they had to weigh whether they could bear the consequences up.

In addition to arresting tax collectors this time, the crackdown also achieved good results. More than 100 people in the vegetable market were shot and more than 2000 people were sentenced to hard labor, which cleared up the law and order in Youzhou again.

Even many court officials began to restrain their second-generation ancestors, telling them not to do evil outside.

However, Xun You was the most unhappy in this fight.

The dispatch of tax collectors was entirely the result of Xun You's own efforts. In addition, many court ministers were also jealous of Youzhou's taxes, so this incident happened.

It's just that they didn't expect that this time, everyone met a stunned opponent. The opponent didn't engage in any conspiracy and tricks, and they just came up with a tough meal. In the end, the court had to take appeasement measures.

This made Xun You fully realize that any conspiracies and schemes are nothing compared to absolute power.

"Youzhou acts so domineeringly, I think they will be finished sooner or later."

PS: I recommend a book: "Jianbao Live Studio", this book is quite good, I recommend everyone to read it.

(End of this chapter)