Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 349: The Sixth Year of Xiantong

"General Jie, I have followed your instructions and passed the message to Deputy Protector General Li and his men."

In the central hall, the captain who left the deputy governor's office was reporting to Liu Jilong behind the screen.

Liu Jilong was busy handling government affairs. When he heard his voice, he nodded and said, "Come in and talk."

"Yes……"

The captain walked behind the screen and saw Liu Jilian, who had just turned thirty years old. Liu Jilian also saw him.

Compared to Liu Jilong, this twenty-five or twenty-six-year-old captain looks very much like someone else.

"What is their attitude?" Liu Jilong asked, and the captain told him the attitude of Li Ji and others in detail.

After hearing this, Liu Jilong was silent, and soon heaved a sigh of relief.

The captain saw this and immediately bowed and said, "General, although they are your brothers in life and death, why should you be polite to them when they treat you like this?"

Liu Jilong frowned slightly when he heard this, then slowly relaxed and said, "Erlang, your brother's problem is my fault, not theirs. Don't take your anger out on others."

"General Jie, that's not what I meant!" The captain, whom he called Erlang, bowed hurriedly, and Liu Jilian looked at him with a very complicated look.

Among the third group, those who were closest to Liu Jilong were Zhang Chang and Zhao Qian.

As for Li Ji, Ma Cheng and others, they gradually became familiar with each other after the Battle of Ganzhou.

This so-called Erlang was the younger brother of Zhao Qian, who moved his family from Jiuquan to Ganzhou and settled in Shandan.

After Zhao Qian's death, he was left behind by his parents, wife, children, and two younger brothers.

The Erlang in front of him is Zhao Qian’s second brother Zhao Ying.

"I just feel that they have been going too far recently..."

Zhao Ying lowered his head and said, Liu Jilong nodded when he heard it: "Now is a time of great contention, not a time for internal fighting."

"Yes..." Zhao Ying nodded, but Liu Jilong could see that he was not convinced.

He sighed inwardly and asked, "How's the progress with Sanlang?"

"Envoy Li is the same as always, without any small moves." Zhao Ying answered without hesitation, and Liu Jilong was satisfied to hear that.

Since Li Ji and his group started to form a group, Liu Jilong began to make arrangements privately.

Zhao Ying and his brother Zhao Sheng were responsible for supervising all officials in Longyou and Liangzhou respectively, and the required money and grain were allocated by the inner hall.

The money and grain of the inner hall originally relied solely on Liu Jilian's salary and the output of the permanent farmland, but Liu Jilian had long since secretly instructed Cao Mao to withhold money and grain from the Silk Road business to supplement the inner hall.

Most of the tens of thousands of strings of money and grain that the inner hall received every year were transferred to the two brothers Zhao Ying and Zhao Sheng.

On the surface, the two brothers are only captains, but secretly they have no less than a thousand men under their command.

"Yishan has never betrayed my trust, but he is of royal blood after all, so I have to be on guard."

Liu Jilong said in a deep voice, looking at Zhao Ying: "How is Zhao Fu doing recently?"

"That boy has just enrolled in Linzhou and will graduate in four years. My sister-in-law and he both remember the kindness of the Marshal and will never forget it."

Zhao Fu is the orphan of Zhao Qian. He is now fourteen years old and has just been enrolled in Linzhou University.

"Okay, you should go back first. If you stay out for too long, it will inevitably arouse suspicion."

Liu Jilong nodded, but Zhao Ying bowed and said, "Don't worry, General Jie, the Outer Hall and the Central Hall are all our people. They are just pretending to submit to them. They will definitely not betray me."

"You must always be on guard against others. You must keep this in mind." Liu Jilong reminded him. Zhao Ying nodded, then left the central hall and walked towards the outer hall.

After he left, Liu Jilong continued to handle government affairs with his head down.

After Li Ji and others got the news that Liu Jilong had deliberately spread, they became very obedient and no longer clamored to fight.

Time flies, and in the blink of an eye, we have entered the new year.

"Crackling..."

As the firecrackers rang, the fifth year of Xiantong became the past and the sixth year of Xiantong came upon us.

Wang Shi was still besieging Mount Tai, Mount Lu, Mount Yi, Mount Dabie and other mountains, while Wang Xianzhi and Pang Xun had not come out to surrender.

Faced with their stubbornness, Wang Shi petitioned the court and, after obtaining the emperor's permission, he immediately relocated several villages within a radius of 20 miles in the mountains.

Now that these bandits have nothing to plunder, it is only a matter of time before they surrender.

Thanks to Wang Shi's tactics, many bandits escaped from the mountains and accepted amnesty. Wang Shi also obtained intelligence from Pang Xun, Wang Xianzhi and others, and reported it to the court.

"The two thieves Wang and Pang hid in Dabie Mountain and Lushan, using their weapons to plunder the bandits."

"But the bandits have nothing to plunder, so they can only flee to the mountains and be pacified. In my opinion, the bandits have nowhere to go, so they will definitely come out of the mountains and surrender to you before summer..."

In Xianning Palace, Li Yi listened to the contents of the memorial read out by Tian Yun and couldn't help laughing: "Well, well, well, this Wang Xiaonian is indeed worthy of being my loyal minister."

Li Yi was very happy to learn that Wang Xianzhi and Pang Xun had no chance of turning things around, but Tian Yun said:

"Your Majesty, Wang Xiaonian also mentioned in his memorial that many people in the He and Huai regions were displaced by bandits and riots. I request that the court exempt the thirteen states from taxes and suspend transportation from the He and Huai regions to transport money and grain for disaster relief. This is the only way to prevent another large-scale banditry."

"Hmm..." Li Yi trusted Wang Shi very much at this moment, and nodded his approval. However, he still asked after approval: "If the taxes of the thirteen states are exempted and the shipments from the two routes are stopped, how much money and grain will be lost by the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Finance this year?"

"This... is about three million strings of cash less..." Tian Yun said tentatively. Li Yi frowned slightly when he heard it.

"The money and grain expenditure is already insufficient, and now there is a shortage of 3 million strings of cash. How can the shortfall be made up?"

"Forget it...Send Prime Minister Jiang to the palace for an audience!" Li Yi opened his mouth to signal, but Tian Yun bowed and said;
"Your Majesty, Jiang Xiangyue said earlier that he had a cold, and now he has a high fever that won't go away. He has resigned three times, but all his requests were rejected..."

After Tian Yun reminded him, Li Yi remembered that he had rejected Jiang Shen's several requests for resignation.

Now it seems that he claimed to be ill and stopped attending to government affairs because I did not approve his resignation.

Thinking of this, Li Yi couldn't help but feel a little resentful...

"They all want to resign. Am I treating them badly?"

"Your Majesty has certainly not treated anyone badly, it's just that they don't understand your Majesty's intentions."

Tian Yun hurriedly tried to comfort Li Yi, but Li Yi said impatiently:
"Forget it. If Jiang Shen wants to leave, he can leave. I don't believe that the court will not be able to function without him."

"Draft an imperial decree to transfer Xu Shang, the Minister of Punishment, to the position of Minister of War, to take charge of Dongguan County, and to be appointed as the co-prime minister."

"Transfer Lu Yan, the co-prime minister, to the position of Minister of Revenue and Director of the Ministry of Finance. There must be no mistakes!"

In a few words, Li Yi dismissed Jiang Shen and appointed Xu Shang, the Minister of Justice, as the new prime minister to supervise military affairs.

Lu Yan, who was originally in charge of military affairs, was now transferred to the Ministry of Revenue, and was in charge of both the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Finance.

"I accept your order..."

Tian Yun had a low status, and after Wang Zongshi resigned from the court, he had no one to support him, so he appeared to be more humble in front of Li Yi.

Li Yi liked to see him grovelling, so he nodded and said, "Hurry up and get this done. After Lu Yan is familiar with the duties of the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Finance, he will come to the palace to see me immediately."

"Yes..." Tian Yun bowed and quickly left Xianning Palace.

Not long after, the imperial edict was passed on to the Southern Court through the Northern Office, and Lu Yan and Qi Yuanshi and other ministers in the Southern Court exchanged glances and had many private contacts.

Seeing that it was an imperial edict sent by the Northern Department, Lu Yan took a quick look at the contents of the edict. Although he felt that the tasks of the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Finance were difficult, he thought that his status would rise as he was in charge of the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Finance, so he passed down the imperial edict.

After receiving the imperial edict, Jiang Shen, who was pretending to be sick at home, immediately ordered his servants to sell his Chang'an residence and the property he could not take away, and prepared to return to his hometown of Changzhou in the east of Jiangnan that day.

At the same time, Lu Yan also began to take over the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Finance, and spent a lot of time familiarizing himself with the local government affairs.

After Lu Yan became familiar with the administrative affairs of the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Finance, Jiang Shen also completed the handover, resigned from his post and returned to his hometown to retire.

However, for Lu Yan, the hot potato had just been passed into his hands.

In mid-February, Lu Yan brought documents from the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Finance to the Xianning Palace. He walked into the palace nervously and saw the mess inside and Li Yi sitting on the golden stage.

"Your Majesty, I, Lu Yan, the Minister of State, have come to see you with documents from the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Finance."

"Give me a seat!"

Li Yi nodded, and then said: "Wang Xiaonian reported to me a few months ago, saying that there are many starving people in the Hehuai and Huaihe rivers. Not only do we need to exempt the taxes of the thirteen states affected by the disaster, but we also need to stop exempting the transportation of money and grain for disaster relief."

"I have already promised Wang Xiaonian. I heard that this approach will reduce the tax revenue by more than 3 million guan. I wonder if the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Revenue can make up for the arrears?"

Li Yi's words hit Lu Yan like a bolt from the blue.

Facing this supreme being who didn't know the value of firewood, rice, oil and salt, Lu Yan could only say with difficulty:
"In our dynasty, 70% of the budget was used to pay for military expenses, but now it has increased to 80%."

"Last year, the military pay alone cost more than 14.4 million yuan, and the salaries of all officials also cost a lot. In addition, the palace spent money on building Buddhist temples and going on tours, and the total debt was 3.76 million yuan."

"If we add the arrears of the past four years, it will be no less than 5.5 million guan."

"If the arrears of grain and money owed by the He and Huai regions are forgiven this year, and the transportation of grain and money is stopped to forgive them, the amount owed by the Ministry of Revenue will probably not be less than 10 million strings of cash..."

It had become a tradition in the Tang Dynasty to eat the food of the next year before the current one. Li Yi had been prepared for this, but he did not expect that the amount he owed would be so huge.

Ten million strings of cash, which is almost equal to 70% of the annual tax revenue of the Tang Dynasty...

"How many households and lands are registered in the Ministry of Households?" Li Yi's heart sank, and he couldn't help asking. "Your Majesty..." Lu Yan paused, and then presented the book in his hand.

"The household and land registers of the Ministry of Revenue are updated constantly on the surface, but in reality they are mostly copies of old Yuanhe, Taihe and Huichang registers."

"Except Hebei Province, the registered permanent residences in all provinces of the country total 4.99 million households and more than 25.65 million people..."

"Except Hebei Province, the registered farmland in all provinces of the country is more than 4,226,000 hectares, more than 422,600,000 mu..."

After Lu Yan finished his first sentence, Li Yi lost interest in reading these books.

After all, Lu Yan said that most of these maps and books were copied from old ones, which means that the situation presented in these maps and books is distorted.

There may be 25 million people in the world, or there may not be.

Thinking of this, Li Yi didn't want to look at the books anymore, but just suppressed his temper and said: "I just want to know if Lu Xiang has a way to make up for the debt."

"Your Majesty..." Lu Yan's mind turned over and over again, and finally he could only bite the bullet and say:
"The only solution now is to exempt the He and Huai rivers and increase taxes in other provinces."

"The two taxes can be increased by 7 cents on the basis of last year's 3 cents. In addition, the additional consumption, conversion, salt, wine, tea and various miscellaneous taxes can be increased by 1 cent."

"According to this calculation, even if the He and Huai rivers are exempted this year, we can still collect 20 million guan."

"Except for this year's expenditure, we should be able to repay the two million strings of cash in arrears."

Lu Yan's words calmed Li Yi's slightly anxious mood a lot.

"In that case, then we will increase taxes according to this law. Once the arrears are resolved, we can reduce taxes for the whole world!"

"I accept the decree..."

Li Yi made a gesture, and Lu Yan did not argue but agreed directly. Then, seeing that Li Yi did not make any other move, he slowly left the Xianning Palace.

Under Lu Yan's operation, the imperial edict was quickly sent to various regions after passing through the Northern Office and the Southern Court.

The people in the thirteen states affected by the disaster in the Hehuai area were exempted from paying past arrears and this year's taxes, but the people in the remaining twenty-nine states in the Hehuai area were no different from the people in other regions. They still had to endure the harsh policy of adding seven cents to the two taxes and one cent to other miscellaneous taxes.

The problem is that the imperial court's 7 cents increase only benefits the imperial court, but not the local government offices.

The officials in the local government offices are not good people, and it is not easy to ask them to increase and collect taxes.

After all, raising taxes and levying taxes involve risks. If the people resist taxes, they must choose to suppress them in order to collect taxes.

The court's salary alone would not be enough to make officials take such a big risk.

Either increase taxes, buy people's hearts with money, and then rely on these people to suppress the rioters who resist the taxes.

Or they would report that the people were resisting taxes and that tax collection was unfavorable, and they would most likely be charged with dereliction of duty.

Of the two options, only the former can be chosen, and the former requires money, which comes from the people, so taxes cannot be levied according to the regulations of the court.

Smarter officials would impose additional taxes based on losses, while dumber ones would impose more miscellaneous taxes.

There is no difference between the two, both are aimed at squeezing more money and food from the people.

Not to mention the common people, even the noble families need to pay some money, not to mention the common people...

“How much tax increase?!”

"Add two cents, not even a cent less!"

In the main hall of the Huang Mansion in Yuanju County, Caozhou, Huang's father, who had finally recovered from his illness, felt dizzy and almost fainted when he heard that the government was going to increase the tax by two cents.

He subconsciously reached out to hold the chair, and then looked at everyone in the hall.

The one closest to him was Huang Chao, as well as Huang Chao's brothers Huang Kui and Huang Ye, his grandson Huang Cun, and his grandson Lin Yan...

"Increase the tax by two cents. Given the current situation of our Huang family, we can only sell our land to make money in order to pay the 4,800 guan tax..."

Huang's father's words made Sanlang Huang Kui unable to help but say: "Father, we won't do this private salt business anymore!"

"That's right!" Huang Ye said indignantly, "I can't make any money, but I lose more than a thousand strings of cash every year."

"Whoever wants to do this business can do it, but we won't do it!"

"You are so confused!" Father Huang said angrily, "Do you think you can stop doing business here if you want to?"

"The family has accumulated so much wealth because of the support of the county. Now that the county is in trouble, it must start with us."

"Even if we abandon this illegal salt trade, do you think the county has no other means to deal with us?"

"I'm telling you... As long as this world is ruled by saints, and as long as you still want to live, the court has plenty of ways to make us hand over our money."

Huang's father seemed to be venting his anger, while Huang Kui and Huang Ye looked unwilling. Huang Cun and Lin Yan also clenched their fists tightly. Only Huang Chao had a sullen expression and no one knew what he was thinking.

"If you want to blame someone, you can only blame my Huang family for having no one in the court. We can only be humiliated by the officials in this county..."

Huang's father stomped the floor with his cane in anger. Then, with the help of his maid, he stood up and walked towards the main hall, hunched over.

After he left, Huang Kui and others turned their attention to Huang Chao.

"Brother, are we going to be humiliated by this bastard official?!"

"Yes, brother!"

"Uncle..."

Facing the indignation of several people, Huang Chao gritted his teeth and said: "Although I have no one in the court, I know the yamen of the Jinzouyuan in Longyou stationed in Chang'an."

"I didn't look for them before because I was concerned about my reputation. Now the court is demanding a lot of money and food. If my family wants to pay it, it will definitely be very painful."

"I will write a letter and send it to the Chang'an Jinzouyuan. If we can get help from the Longyou Protectorate, I think Wang Shizhi will not dare to offend us."

"It doesn't matter if we don't do the private salt business then. At worst, we can sell our land and go to Longyou!"

"Great!" Huang Kui and his colleagues, who had long been fed up with the bullying in the county, cheered when they heard that Huang Chao was willing to move his family.

Soon, Huang Chao wrote a letter and sent Huang Zhou, the guard who had traveled with him to Chang'an to study, to Chang'an.

Time flies by, and March is gradually turning into April.

It was already mid-April when Huang Zhou arrived in Chang'an.

He arrived exhausted and without taking a rest, he rushed to the Jinzouyuan in Xuanyangfang, Longyou.

The Jinzouyuan purchased by Longyou in Xuanyangfang was purchased in the name of Liu Jilian, so it had the privilege of opening the Wutou Gate, inserting twelve long spears, and hanging banners.

A group of soldiers wearing battle jackets were guarding outside the Wutou Gate like servants. Seeing Huang Zhou looking dusty, they thought he was an outsider who came to ask for a job.

"Sir, please stop. We are not hiring workers here."

The foreman stood up and bowed, being quite polite to Huang Zhou. If it were any other soldier from the Jinzouyuan, they would probably have started cursing and telling Huang Zhou to get out before he even stepped into the Wutou Gate.

Because of this, although Huang Zhou knew that he was misunderstood, he couldn't stop being happy.

"May I ask, General, is the yamen officer in charge of the court Yang Xin or Chen Ying?"

"Yang Yaya? Chen Yaya?"

The foreman was stunned, then he said: "These two were transferred back to Longyou several years ago, and the current Ya Ya is Dou Yun Dou Ya Ya."

After the words fell, the captain looked Huang Zhou up and down and asked, "Do you know our General Chen and Envoy Yang?"

"A military officer? A military governor?" Huang Zhou was surprised to hear this. He did not expect that Chen Ying and Yang Xin had both become military officers and military governors.

But after being stunned, he couldn't help getting excited. After all, the two of them served as military officers of Longyou Protectorate and envoys of the provincial government, and the letters they sent must be of great weight.

If we can ask them for help, the crisis can be resolved.

Thinking of this, Huang Zhou solemnly took out Huang Chao's letter and a gold ingot from his arms and said: "My husband is an old friend of General Chen and General Yang. If possible, please send this letter to Longyou and give it to the two of them."

The foreman glanced at the gold, but only took out the letter: "I will give this letter to the yamen in the mansion. The yamen has been following Envoy Yang for several years. If your husband is familiar with Envoy Yang, the yamen will definitely know and will naturally send a fast horse to deliver the letter."

"You can find a place to stay for the time being, and come back here at this time tomorrow to get the letter."

Huang Zhou was holding the gold with an embarrassed look on his face, but when he heard what the captain said, he realized that he had made a fool of himself. He quickly put the gold away and bowed solemnly: "Thank you, General!"

After he finished speaking, he turned around and prepared to go around the gate of Xuanyangfang. He planned to have a good rest in Xuanyangfang tonight and wait for news tomorrow.

However, before he left the Wutou Gate, he saw more than ten riders galloping northward on Zhuque Street.

They came galloping from the south, looking exhausted, with an urgent silk letter in their hands as proof.

"It's the elite cavalry from Xichuan. Something happened in Xichuan. Go report it to Dou Ya Ya!"

Before Huang Zhou walked far, he heard the conversation between the soldiers in front of the Longyou Jinzouyuan gate.

"Something happened in Xichuan? Could it be that the southern barbarians are attacking?"

Huang Zhou couldn't help but guess when he heard this, but after a moment he felt that this matter had nothing to do with him. He shook his head and walked towards the gate of Xuanyangfang.

At the same time, the fast horses from Xichuan will be sent to the Southern Court and the Northern Court in an emergency...

(End of this chapter)