New Shun 1730

This set of tempting criminal methods is extremely crude compared to the salt policy and the canal reform that has been planned for 20 years, and it cannot even be counted as fishing.

Before in Songjiang Mansion, Tian Zhenyi had also ridiculed Liu Yu, saying that Liu Yu had done so many conspiracies and that he no longer understood what conspiracy was.

Liu Yu, on the other hand, laughed and said that Tian Zhenyi may know about the palace and the court, but she doesn't know what a grassroots squire is.

There was a very famous case in history, the Gansu rice case in the Qing Dynasty. This case is very simple. Later generations will understand that it is selling academic qualifications. One wants to sell and the other wants to buy. In the end, if it were not for the counter-insurgency war caused by the conflict between the Sufis and the Hanafis, it would be discovered that the drought was reported every year. It is difficult to march when it rains, and the case may not be solved for the rest of your life.

One wants to buy and the other wants to sell. You can understand why it is so hidden. But the subsequent operations of this corrupt criminal in Zhejiang were more magical, and he could be called a "financial pioneer."

To put it simply, they just want to be greedy for money. But the local money is too little, what should we do?

Add leverage.

Use local apportionment, make interest, and borrow money from squires. Then ask the people to collect local assessments and use the assessments to pay "annual interest". Once this small leverage is added, you could only be greedy for 10 yuan, but now you can be greedy for 50 yuan.

As long as the "tax" is guaranteed to be lower than the "interest", it can be maintained. At the same time, because in Zhejiang, there was a large inflow of silver and it depreciated quickly, so it held up for a long time.

The gentry made large loans to the government, and the government collected the poor people's money as interest. The officials squandered the squire's principal to make up for the shortfall, and the gentry enjoyed an annuity with a high rate of return. Such a cycle went on, but no one reported it. When the authorities came to investigate, the squire all said that there was no deficit in the province and that the officials were doing good governance. This kind of leveraged loan spread to the entire province, but the outside world knew nothing about it.

In the two provinces, the whole province was silent, the officials were silent, the gentry were silent, and no one reported it. This is the real grassroots.

Northern Jiangsu in Dashun is an even more special place. The gentry has long since replaced the bad gentry, and the good people have gone bankrupt.

Therefore, in mocking Tian Zhenyi, Liu Yu directly stated that it was not that he did not understand tricks, but that Tian Zhenyi did not understand the grassroots squires at all.

If you really use those complicated calculations, maybe they won't be fooled.

Let’s just go straight to the straightforward, simple, and crude.

Anyway, the northern Jiangsu region has been providing disaster relief in recent years, and reselling disaster relief products has long formed an industrial chain. Now it is just a slight upgrade of the past industrial chain, eliminating the process of "exchanging the withheld grain and selling it for money" .

It’s so tiring to resell food, and you have to hire people to transport it. How easy and convenient is it to just sell the tickets?

Liu Yu was also anxious about the country squire's needs, thought about what the country squire wanted, and provided the best service.

It's not as troublesome as you think to lure a squire into doing something like this. The carnival that started in the previous dynasty among the grassroots, petty officials and squires is still going on today.

Therefore, when Butler Li returned home and told his master Li Xiangshen what he had seen, Li Xiangshen immediately keenly grasped the opportunity to make a fortune.

But there are rules for how to do this kind of thing.

It's like someone else just deducts a tenth when cooking, but you directly get a third. This can easily lead to trouble.

But if everyone does this, then there will be no problem.

And this kind of thing is not something you can do yourself.

Liu Yu asked the country gentry to undertake the contract, but the power of a country gentry to undertake the contract was limited, so several groups came together to select a general person in charge.

For example, if you have the title of Juren, or the elders in your family have served as officials and returned to their hometown.

In short, he is the general person in charge, with seven, eight, or a dozen squires under his jurisdiction. They all work together to contract a section, and the money will be calculated in the future according to the heads they contribute.

In fact, many people were complaining at this time. If Liu Yu hadn't been engaged in the development of Nanyang in recent years and transported people from northern Jiangsu to Nanyang, he would have earned more this time. The more people there are, the more money will be distributed in the future.

Now, those who were in debt and were supposed to go to Nanyang this year have been forced to work in basic and critical areas. Or key places such as intersections across rivers, estuaries, or tidal walls.

These people are no longer under the control of these squires, and naturally they can't get the head money.

As for the construction of the Huaihe River itself, it was difficult for the gentry from all walks of life to say whether they supported it or not.

This is a very complex situation that cannot be summed up simply by water conservancy.

If the Huaihe River is not repaired, it will suffer frequent disasters, and there will be disasters. The main beneficiary of the exemption... Nowadays, the tax is per acre and the head tax has been abolished. Of course, the main beneficiary of the exemption is also the land owner.

But on the other hand, after the Huaihe River water conservancy was built, the land was improved, and the rent I collected increased.

However, on the other hand, the flood disaster turned into water conservancy, and the ninth-class fields became second-class water-irrigated fields. The tax also increased, and the court would definitely send people to check the acres. As soon as the acres were checked, many evaded taxes were found again.

In short, there are good and bad.

But they also know the importance of the task of repairing the Huaihe River. Since they have been contracted, they must complete it. If you don't finish it, big trouble will happen. This has nothing to do with Sheji. The main reason is that Liu Yu said before that he only wanted the river section and the rest could be discussed. If the river section could not be completed, he could choose one of two options: planting wheat in the Western Regions or cutting sugar cane in the Nanyang.

And this also leads to the basic logic of this major corruption and expropriation case: the court distributes rice, and there is no difference between the people eating rice and eating cornstarch noodles for work.

You can't die even if you eat corn noodles or mixed noodles, you can still work, you can still be full, and you can still complete the work.

Just as the emperor told Liu Yu: finishing the winter work is the first priority.

Gentlemen have the same logic.

As long as you finish the work, the rest will be easy to talk about.

The squires and bureaucrats see money as flies see blood. I am not afraid of peeling day lilies. I know that I have to finish the work first and make money under this premise. This is a huge awakening.

When Li Xiangshen arrived at the home of Wang Jiansheng, the leader of a prominent family and squire in this area, all the squires who had contracted with them had already arrived.

Just as the civil forts of the Ming Dynasty triggered donations, there are several places in Dashun that have the largest number of student supervisors.

One is Northern Jiangsu and the other is Xijing.

The tax system and fiscal system are incompetent and inefficient. When there is a local disaster or a war on the border, it is necessary to mobilize the power of the local gentry.

Mobilization cannot be done with lip service, but with benefits. The only benefit Dashun can give is academic qualifications.

Including Dashun's ability to fight back and restore the world, it was not through the slogan of "protecting the world", but through the slogan of "protecting the world" that the previous land equalization policy was reasonably cancelled.

Otherwise, of course, when Dashun came to Beijing in the Jiashen year, the slaves in the south exclaimed that the world was turned upside down, why would we always be slaves? Behind a stone, the gentry also saw that the world was turned upside down, and why were we being asked to pay and distribute the land.

Wang Jiansheng's supervisors were donated money and materials during the great disaster in northern Jiangsu.

The squire provided money, and the court provided academic qualifications and an "entry ticket to the ruling class."

However, since the last burial alive incident, the squires in northern Jiangsu have been honest for a while, at least they have not done anything like falsely accusing others of rebelling and directly burying more than thirty people alive.

He can be regarded as a squire in northern Jiangsu, and he gave the court a huge face.

It's just that this time it's not a big deal like burying people alive, but a trivial matter like making some money through loopholes in the court. Wang Jiansheng's mind has already become active.

When Mr. Li arrives, all the squires who have contracted the river section together will be here.

Wang Jiansheng also knew what the crowd meant, so he started to make a tone.

"Everyone, this time the imperial court trusts us and wants to repair the Huaihe River. This matter is also very beneficial to us. After all, you, like me, have suffered from the floods."

"The Huaihe River must be repaired, and the working people must be fed. There's no telling."

Everyone nodded and said yes again and again.

Wang Jiansheng said again: "It's just that, once again, Duke Xingguo is no better than you and me. He lives in a home with bells and pans, and he doesn't know the affairs of the poor. If you ask the people, would they rather eat two kilograms of white flour or four kilograms of sorghum a day? , they mostly choose four pounds of sorghum.”

"Nowadays, both the court and the people pay attention to 'not talking about vain numerology and mind', but focus on 'practical affairs'."

"We should have this idea when contracting the river section this time. What is 'practical'? The biggest practical thing is to keep the working people well fed."

"In previous disaster relief, some people said that it would be better to replace the rice distributed by the court with coarse grains, so that the victims can have enough to eat."

"If you really do something practical, sir, you will praise it as a good deed."

"But there are also some people who talk empty talk, are stubborn and do not know how to adapt, but they judge a gentleman with a villain's heart, thinking that if they open their mouths, they will lead to corruption."

"But what is the result? For the same disaster, with the same 200,000 kilograms of rice, those who do practical things will have plenty of food for the victims and fewer starve to death; but those who stubbornly talk empty talk will make the hungry people skinny."

Everyone was happy when they said this. Why didn't they understand what Wang Jiansheng meant?

As for disaster relief, exchanging rice for coarse grains is the consistent logic of corruption.

The logic is absolutely fine:

The imperial court was incompetent, the financial system had completely regressed, and the imperial court had no resources. The only national grain reserves it could mobilize were rice. Therefore, the imperial court could only issue rice and silver.

Theoretically, if rice is exchanged for whole grains, the hungry people want to be full rather than satisfied. This logic is not problematic at all.

However, reality is reality and logic is logic.

The reality is, who will ensure that all the rice is replaced with sufficient coarse grains?

The reality is that once it is released, it will become chaotic. As long as a small opening is opened, the borers can destroy the entire embankment.

If the imperial court could guarantee that every grain of rice could be replaced with coarse grains and had the ability to govern, then why would they take off their pants and fart to transport rice? Just spend money to buy coarse grains and ship them over.

Because I have no ability, I have to use the most rigid system.

Now Liu Yu has directly dismantled this rigid system, leaving a huge loophole, and naturally people will get in.

Of course, Wang Jiansheng would not say that he wanted to be corrupt and expropriate, but he would point out the way for them to make money in this contract period.

Liu Yuliu has too many paths, targeting different courage and greed. The path pointed out by Wang Jiansheng is to exchange fine grains for coarse grains and take advantage of the price difference between fine grains and coarse grains.

To do this, Wang Jiansheng then pointed out the practical operational problems.

For the contracted river section, two ends must be dug first and then dug inward from both ends.

In this way, you can ensure that the people on your side are not connected to the people next door. In case you really encounter someone who is really stubborn, and you really want to provide the people who are digging the river with fine grains with guaranteed amount and quantity, it will be easy for them to reveal their secrets.