Fu Shanhe

Chapter 104: The Prefect Arrives
The cabinet ministers have been selected, and some are happy while others are sad in the court.

The new official took office three fires.

Both the two new cabinet ministers and cabinet minister Pang, who was promoted to the position of Prime Minister, need to make achievements.

The government affairs that had been piled up before were suddenly included in the processing schedule.

The most direct manifestation is that the previously pending personnel appointments were approved in the shortest time possible.

Upon receiving the confirmation of the candidate for Yangzhou prefect, Li Mu, who was in charge of Yangzhou City, very tactfully moved out of the government office ahead of schedule.

“Sir, I just received news that the new Yangzhou prefect, Mr. Gu, the Yangzhou co-prefect, Mr. Ma, the Yangzhou magistrate, Mr. Zhou, the Yangzhou magistrate, and the Yangzhou prosecutor... will arrive tomorrow.

You need to come up with a set of rules to decide how to welcome them."

Lan Linjie was nervous as he finished talking about the leadership team of Yangzhou Prefecture in one breath.

With the previous incident of Marquis Wuyang targeting Lord Xu, he was really afraid that his master would follow suit, so he first gave the officials of Yangzhou Prefecture a warning.

“According to official rules, just make normal arrangements.

Most of these people are Xu Ge Lao's people, so I think they should be easy to talk to."

Li Mu said with a smile.

His previous boss had seriously offended Lord Xu.

Although he did not show up directly, he still supported Marquis Wuyang through his actions.

Now they have met a group of Xu Ge Lao's younger brothers. Who knows if there will be some young and foolish people among these people who want to vent their anger for their boss.

In the officialdom, if the relationship between the bosses of a camp is not good, the relationship between their subordinates will most likely not be good either.

Even if the relationship is not good, it will not affect everyone's cooperation in working together.

When the imperial court appointed local officials, it liked to put officials with conflicts together to prevent local forces from colluding with each other.

“Sir, you must not be careless.

This Mr. Gu is the favorite student of Lord Xu, and he is a descendant of the Hanlin Academy. He has an extraordinary status in the Chu Party!"

Lan Linjie reminded carefully.

When officials from Beijing are sent to other places, the treatment they receive will also depend on the person they are assigned.

Generally, young officials coming out of the Hanlin Academy are looked up to.

Especially those who can become Hanlin academicians often make their presence felt in front of the emperor and cabinet leaders.

In the eyes of outsiders, your status and position will be higher.

Considering his special position as the prefect of Yangzhou, it can be determined at a glance that Gu Youwen was an official who was being trained as a priority by the imperial court.

Usually, such officials can mobilize much more political resources than ordinary officials.

"Don't worry, I know the severity of the matter.

The more powerful the ancient prefect is, the more beneficial it is to us.

The current situation in Yangzhou Prefecture requires a capable and strong prefect to clean up the mess.

What he needs most is political achievements, and whoever can help provide them is his friend.

As far as I know, he was first recommended for the position of Yangzhou prefect by Marquis Wuyang.

We do have some conflicts with Lord Xu's lineage, but they are far from being a fight to the death.

Some things are just for show, there is no need to really make enemies. "

Li Mu waved his hand and said.

The situation in Yangzhou is special. No matter who serves as the prefect, he cannot do without the cooperation of the military.

The local armed forces were wiped out during the rebellion and have not recovered to this day.

The Beijing Camp and the Five Cities Army are only temporarily taking over the defense, and the responsibility will be gradually handed over later.

Although local military officers have been appointed one after another, it will take time to restore their strength.

The success of the salt tax reform is currently only a success on paper.

The Lianghuai salt industry is in the process of recovery and is unable to provide taxes in the short term.

Salt taxes from other places are being collected one after another, and it will take some time before the money can be sent to the capital.

In the short term, the court's finances were still in serious deficit.

The prefectures and counties under Yangzhou were even poorer.

Lacking official financial support, the reorganization of local armies depended entirely on the personal efforts of generals.

Li Mu was confident that he could get the money, so he dared to recruit thousands of soldiers at once. Other generals did not have such courage.

In a short period of time, the only people with any combat capability in Yangzhou were the several thousand regular troops under his command.

A rebellion had just ended, and there were quite a few escaped prisoners still living outside.

If you want peace in the area, you need to rely on him a lot.

For this reason alone, the ancient prefect should not make things too embarrassing.

……

Late at night, on the canal boat.

“Brother Gu, Yangzhou City will be here soon.

Judging from the intelligence collected, Yangzhou’s current situation is not very good.

I wonder if you have any plan for what to do next?"

Ma Cunzhong asked with concern.

As a team that cleans up the mess, they are now all in the same boat.

After governing Yangzhou Prefecture well, everyone was promoted based on their achievements.

If you mess up, everyone will go to the cold government office and might even be held accountable.

“Brother Ma, you are being too reserved.

The situation in Yangzhou is not just bad, it is extremely terrible.

There are three problems facing us now.

First of all, we need to resettle the hundreds of thousands of refugees outside Yangzhou city.

The dredging of the moat has been completed, and now the refugees have been sent by Lieutenant General Li to build barracks.

In the short term, there are not so many projects in Yangzhou Prefecture that can continue to use work-for-relief, or the court’s finances do not allow this.

The first problem is how to persuade the people to return and properly resettle them.

Secondly, there are a large number of prisoners of war in Yangzhou who need us to deal with.

My mentor specifically told me that these prisoners of war must be handled with caution.

We can neither lift the butcher knife nor give lenient sentences.

It would be best to handle it in a low-key manner so as not to leave an ignominious memory in history books.

Finally, three states and seven counties were destroyed in the war and we were responsible for their reconstruction.

If the imperial court could allocate enough money and grain, these problems would not be a problem.

Unfortunately, the funds allocated by the imperial court were only 300,000 taels, which was not enough to do so many things.

The local gentry in Yangzhou were also badly damaged in the war, so even if they wanted to help, they probably couldn't do much.

This is a tricky problem!" Gu Youwen couldn't help but sigh.

In official circles, everyone wants to climb up.

But the process of climbing up is difficult.

The more attention you receive from the court, the more problems you have to solve for it.

No one likes the kind of idiot who does nothing and complains all day about not being able to find a job that recognizes his talent.

Those who worked in the Dayu Dynasty might not necessarily be promoted, but officials who made political achievements would definitely be sought after by various factions.

Even if you don't have any connections before, after you become famous, you will have connections coming to you.

The reason is very simple. The current emperor is pragmatic and officials are selected into the cabinet based on their political achievements.

It doesn’t matter if you can’t achieve any political achievements yourself, as long as your subordinates can achieve some, that can still be counted as an achievement.

"Brother Gu, you have understood the problem clearly, and the problem is actually half solved.

Yangzhou Prefecture is neither short of money nor short of money.

The large amount of ownerless items left behind after the war can all be turned into money.

The problem now is that there are too many people targeting us, and it is not easy to sell our products.”

Judge Zhou Tong, who was standing by, added.

Before they even left the capital, a lot of people came to greet them.

From princes and nobles to officials in the court, although they did not say anything explicitly, their intention to get a piece of the pie was obvious.

No matter how much unowned land there is, it is not enough for the powerful people in the court to share.

“Brother Zhou is right, the current Yangzhou Prefecture is a big piece of fat meat in their eyes.

It seems that the distribution right is in our hands, but in fact we can't afford to offend anyone.

Apart from anything else, if their wishes were fulfilled, it would be difficult for Yangzhou Prefecture to collect taxes in the future.

What I mean is that you can sell some of the unowned land, but not all of it.

The government needs to operate, and leaving some official land behind is also an income source.”

Gu Youwen said helplessly.

It is very difficult to be an official in Dayu.

The powerful officials in the court cannot be offended, and local tax revenue must be guaranteed.

If you want a good reputation, you must also consider people's livelihood.

Land annexation is a major trend and no one can stop it.

As a member of the gentry interest group, they could not stop it.

Being unable to stop it does not mean agreeing with it.

In addition to those who seek fame and reputation, the Dayu Dynasty also had officials who wanted to get practical work done.

Even within the Qingliu faction, there were more than one or two officials who opposed land annexation.

It was not a betrayal of the class, but rather that they realized the harm of land annexation.

……

The next morning, the Yangzhou gentry were waiting at the dock early in the morning to welcome the arrival of the ancient prefect.

This treatment is completely different from the last time Lord Xu came.

Among the local gentry, the seven most powerful families were uprooted, and the remaining wealthy and powerful families all learned their lesson.

There is no fighting among the bosses, and everyone gives face to the officials.

As the highest-ranking official in Yangzhou, Li Mu did not appear in the team, but was waiting for the transfer of power in the government office.

It's not that they don't give face to the ancient prefect, but there is no rule in the officialdom of Dayu for superiors to greet subordinates.

No matter how powerful the Yangzhou prefect was, his rank was still only the fourth rank, while the lieutenant-general was the third rank.

In order to obtain military funds, ordinary military generals had to bow to civil officials, which led to the saying that civil officials are more noble than military officials.

Li Mu, who had a clear plan for military expenditure, obviously did not belong to this category.

Stepping onto the land with a group of colleagues and glancing at the welcoming crowd, Gu Youwen felt a little disappointed.

Apart from the local gentry, the only official representative was a legal advisor.

Not only did Lieutenant General Li Mu not come, but none of the mid- to high-level military officers showed up either.

"I'm really sorry to trouble you fellow villagers to welcome me here!"

I felt uncomfortable, but I didn't show it on my face.

The reception standards at hand were completely standard.

There was no intention to intimidate him, nor was there any attempt to please him.

There was no official representative, so the local officials were either behind him or rushing to Yangzhou from all over the country.

Not only is there a shortage of civil servants, there is also an acute shortage of military officers.

The Beijing Camp and the Five Cities Military Command cannot be counted. Even if these generals came to welcome him, Gu Youwen would choose to take shelter temporarily.

If one wants to advance rapidly in officialdom, civil officials should not get too close to military generals, especially those in the capital.

"Student Lan Linjie greets the prefect and all the gentlemen.

The Lieutenant General has official duties to attend to and cannot come to greet you.

I specifically instructed my students to prepare a banquet in the yamen to welcome you all.

Please move on, gentlemen!"

Lan Linjie said with a little excitement.

For a mere juren, the fact that he could meet so many court officials here was enough for him to brag about when he returned.

No wonder so many people are willing to be legal advisors. If they really do a good job in this position, they can really accumulate connections.

If he stayed in his hometown, the limit of his contacts before he passed the imperial examination would be the county magistrate.

Even if you want to see the county magistrate, you may have to queue up.

It is impossible to chat and laugh with a group of court officials.

"Mr. Lauran is leading the way!"

Gu Youwen said slowly.

He could see it from everyone's reactions.

Today's welcome was obviously led by Lan Linjie.

Although the local gentry had all come over, they were still looking at the expression of Lieutenant General Li behind Lan Linjie.

It was very rare in the Dayu Dynasty for a military general to have such a deterrent effect on local gentry.

After a brief contact, he realized that taking control of Yangzhou Prefecture was not as easy as he had expected.

The accompanying officials all looked very unhappy after getting off the ship.

I don’t know if it was due to seasickness or because Li Mu didn’t come in person, which made them feel embarrassed.

……

(End of this chapter)