A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Starting from the Village Chief

Chapter 166 Impeached
"Alang, it's snowing."

Early in the morning, Li Yi was still sleeping when he was awakened by the noise in the yard.

When Li Yi got up, Shuying was making a snowman with Hongxiao and several other maids, while Du Shiniang and Yu Youniang were standing in the corridor watching them, wearing sable furs and cloaks.

Snow falls and winter hides away.

"It's snowing heavily today."

Winter is here, and it's time to pickle bacon, salt fish, and dry sausages and dried meat.

"Light snow pickles vegetables, heavy snow pickles meat," Li Yi grabbed a handful of snow and threw it at Shuying, who exclaimed. "We need to pickle some meat too. I think we can just buy a few pigs to make bacon, sausages, and ham, and then buy some chickens and ducks to make cured chicken and duck, and some cured fish."

"Drink more mutton soup to nourish your body in winter," Shi Niang said with a smile, "I specifically asked the kitchen to make mutton soup this morning. Shuying, quickly bring it to Alang."

Light snow covers the land, heavy snow covers the rivers. When the heavy snow season comes, the weather becomes very cold and the wind is biting. You really need to eat more warm and nourishing mutton.

Nobles like Li Yi were lucky enough to live in big houses with thick walls, and there were fire walls and stoves in the house for heating. Generally, after the Frost Descent, the nobles in Chang'an City would start to burn stoves one after another.

They all started to store firewood and charcoal in advance.

Li Yi took advantage of his position as the deputy supervisor of the palace gardens and bought a lot of coal produced by his colleagues in Weibei on the palace procurement vehicle.

At present, the use of coal in the Tang Dynasty is not yet widespread. Although there are some coal fields in the capital, the output is limited and is generally supplied to the palace, nobles, etc.

The price is also very expensive.

In the countryside, Li Yi bought pinewood, a load of 100 jin (approximately 200 coins), and coal in Chang'an cost 60 coins per load.

This weight weighs about 15 jin, which is four cents per jin, twice the price of firewood.

But charcoal also has advantages. It burns at a higher temperature than firewood and does not take up as much space.

The fuel problem in Chang'an during the winter was a major problem every year. The palace had a special agency to purchase coal, firewood, charcoal, etc., and each government office would send people to purchase them in advance every year. Otherwise, when the cold winter came, it would be very difficult to have enough fuel.
Now a new profession has emerged in Chang'an City: boiling hot water and selling it.

This way, people can directly spend money to buy hot water, which is more cost-effective than boiling it themselves.

For the people in the capital, fuel costs are a huge expense in winter. Unlike the suburbs of Beijing or ordinary counties and towns, the demand for fuel is not that great and it is cheaper. There are many people in the capital, and the supply is tight every year, so the fuel price is very expensive every year.

For ordinary people, winter is the most difficult season.
There was a shortage of food, insufficient warm clothes, and even insufficient fuel, so people could only hide at home and spend the winter.

Many ordinary families have several children but only one or two sets of winter clothes, which are not enough for them to wear if they all go out.

Coal at four cents a pound, firewood at two cents a pound,

There are more expensive charcoals here, some high-quality smokeless charcoal and silver charcoal are surprisingly expensive.
Li Yi himself had connections. He heard that coal was also sold on the black market in Chang'an, and the expensive ones were sold for two hundred coins per weight, more than three times more expensive than what he bought.

The Goudun Office under the Sinong Temple was specifically responsible for the fuel supply to the emperor and officials. The salaries of officials in the capital also included the supply of firewood and charcoal.

The firewood and charcoal supply of Chang'an City mainly came from Mount Zhongnan, as well as Qi and Long prefectures west of the capital. However, almost every year, there would be a shortage of firewood and charcoal in Chang'an, resulting in a supply shortage.

As a sixth-rank deputy supervisor of the imperial gardens, Li Yi enjoyed the special treatment of a fifth-rank official. The imperial court provided him with three catties of charcoal per day in spring and five catties of charcoal per day in winter.
There are also wooden stakes, which are two points in spring and three points and a half in winter.

This piece of wood is a little more than one cubic meter of firewood. The firewood supplied in spring and winter is nearly five cubic meters, and one cubic meter of firewood weighs eight or nine hundred kilograms.

By this calculation, there are 4,000 kilograms of firewood and 720 kilograms of charcoal in two seasons, which sounds like a lot.

Actually,
Because the Tang Dynasty was just established, the world was still in the midst of war and all supplies were unstable.

Only the payment of rice as stipend could be guaranteed, and even the monthly salary had to be distributed by each government office on its own. Therefore, there was no firewood or charcoal for those below the sixth rank.

For grades five and above, the payment is intermittent and the arrears are serious.

It can only barely guarantee officials of the third rank and above.

Fortunately, these nobles were also landlords themselves, and they were all rich. They could spend their own money to buy it, or even send people to Zhongnan Mountain, Shannan, Qi, Long and other places to purchase it.

Every year before winter begins, the nobles would send people to stockpile vegetables, grain, firewood, and charcoal, and they would even collect ice for storage in winter.

Around the Big Snow solar term, people will start to pickle meat and dry fish.
Li Yi did not count on the firewood and charcoal given to him by the court, so he bought 25,000 kilograms of coal in one go, spending 100,000 coins.

Spent a house.
He did not keep all the coal he bought for himself, but also sent 2,000 kilograms to his senior brother Sun Fujia, 2,000 kilograms to Wang Lingshi, and 2,000 kilograms to Du Ruhui.
Another ten thousand kilograms were sent to Wuji Fort in the countryside.

Officials in the Song Dynasty were well treated. The prime minister received 1,200 bundles of firewood a month, 200 weights of charcoal a month in winter and spring, and 100 weights a month on other days.

In the Tang Dynasty, the capital officials had no salary, and the local officials did not even have a salary.
The soldiers of the government even provided their own food and clothing to fight for the court.

I have to say, it’s pretty awesome.

The mutton this morning was delicious. The stewed meat was soft and tender, and very fresh.

broth,

He actually enjoyed the monthly supply of nine sheep.

Last night, Jin Yusu got the permission of the head lady and worked very hard, making Li Yi very tired. It was obvious that the Silla maid really wanted to get pregnant.
If Li Yi hadn't told her that having sex more often would make it easier to have a daughter, while having sex less often would make it easier to have a son, this goblin would have even planned to fight until dawn.

Fresh lamb and soup with wolfberries can really replenish qi and blood.

Maybe it's because I'm young and I recover quickly.

After eating a large piece of meat, drinking two bowls of soup, Li Yi also ate two white flour buns, then changed into his official robe, put on a cloak, and went to work in the wind and snow.

It's snowing today, but it's not a day off.

Fortunately, I didn't have to go to court, so I didn't have to get up early.

Work on the new greenhouse has come to a halt.

Liu Jiancheng, the Palace Garden Supervisor, came over and said, "Someone wrote to me, saying that the weather is cold and snowy, and Chang'an is short of firewood and charcoal. Many people have no firewood or charcoal to keep warm, and many people freeze to death every day. However, our Palace Garden Supervisor is building a greenhouse.
We use precious firewood to grow vegetables and flowers, and sell them to the rich and powerful. They say we are wasting firewood, violating the natural order, and being extravagant.

They built greenhouses to grow vegetables and flowers, which were then sold to wealthy families to generate some income for the palace and the prison. This not only increased some public expenditure, but also provided some benefits to the officials, gardeners, and others in the prison.

Li Yi took the lead in this matter, and everyone supported it and was very motivated. They wanted to make some money to buy some firewood, charcoal, rice and vegetables during the cold winter.

But I didn't expect that I would be reported and impeached halfway through.

Li Yi felt that those people were meddling in other people's business. It was true that the supply of firewood and charcoal in Chang'an was tight, but a few greenhouses would not have much impact. Besides, those people who froze to death were not because Chang'an lacked firewood and charcoal, but because they had no money.

The Palace Garden Supervisor can have some side jobs, not rely on others or wait for others to help him, but work hard. When he makes money, he can not only turn it over to the public, but also give some money to the officials and gardeners in the office, or use the money to buy firewood and food for distribution. How great it would be.

"Do you know who reported us?"

"I don't know for the time being." Liu Jiancheng was also helpless. He had taken out money from the public office to build a greenhouse, but it was half built and they were not allowed to continue. He did not make any money but instead lost some.

"I heard that the deputy supervisor bought some coal from the Hook and Shield Bureau a few days ago?"

"Well, I wrote a note to Wu Gong, the Junior Minister of Agriculture, and went to the Goudun Office to buy some charcoal."

"Could the deputy warden help us buy some for our prison? We're all short of firewood and charcoal, but we don't have many other options. There are some on the black market, but they're very valuable."

"Okay, I'll ask later."

Buying some charcoal for my colleagues and subordinates in the Palace Garden Supervisor is not a big deal. As a deputy supervisor, I have to seek some benefits for my subordinates.

Before he could go find Lao Wu,

Senior Brother Sun from the Imperial Censorate sent his servants to look for him.
"My son Alang asked Uncle Qianshui to go to the Censorate for official business." He added.

Li Yi thought that it might be related to the report on them.

He rode his horse to the Imperial City's Censorate Office,
Li Yi came to Sun Fujia's public house.

"Sit down. Do you know why I called you here?"

"It has something to do with the greenhouse."

"Well, it was Censor Dou Zhiyuan who impeached you. He's the son of Duke Deng, Dou Jin. When did you ever offend the Dou family?"

When Li Yi heard Dou Jin, he immediately thought of Ji Wen.

The two had met in Jingzhou, but parted on bad terms because of Ji Sujun's incident. Later, he sent his steward to the Pingkangfang residence to demand her, but their attitude was too arrogant, so Li Yi had Li Cunxiao and the four Qiang people beat them up.

Li Yi told Ji Wen about his situation.

Sun Fujia poured him a cup of tea and said, "Since Ji is your concubine now, you should ease the relationship with the Ji family. There is no need to make enemies over this. Wouldn't it be better for you to handle the matter with the Du family?"

Although Ji Wen held a low official position and the Ji family was in decline,
But he was Dou Yin's son-in-law after all. Dou Yin and his brother were both dukes and royal relatives, so it was not appropriate to offend them.

Dou Kang, the brother of Dou Jin, was dismissed from his position as prime minister a few days ago. It is said that the reason was that during the last battle of Jingzhou, the emperor sent Zheng Yuanjin to Jingzhou to take Xue Rengao and his subordinates above the third rank and execute them.
The King of Qin refused, but Dou Kang finally spoke on his behalf and saved a group of people including Zhai Changsun and Chu Liang, and also detained two thousand elite cavalry from Longyou, especially the eight hundred heavily armored cavalry.

This incident made the emperor unhappy with his cousin.
Then not long ago, he found a reason to dismiss Dou Kang from his position as prime minister, and the reason for his dismissal was precisely because Dou Kang's servants forced the charcoal seller to buy it from him.

A cart of charcoal weighed more than a thousand pounds, but the Dou family servants only gave five pieces of silk, which was of poor quality.

It is only worth about 1,700 to 1,800 yuan, which is a little over one cent per pound.

An old man selling charcoal filed a complaint with the Yongzhou government, saying that a servant of the Dou family forced him to buy a cart of charcoal at half price. This was a trivial matter and was not worth mentioning. Dou Kang was the son of Li Yuan's uncle and had grown up with Li Yuan. After Li Yuan started his rebellion, Dou Kang, who was ordered to go north to Lingwu to inspect the Great Wall, immediately went south to Chang'an to join him.

Li Yuan always called him brother, and people in the palace called him uncle.

Why would I really care about such a thing?
But Li Yuan really dismissed Dou Kang from his position as minister of state because of this incident, and only retained his position as the left general.

The two prime ministers of the Dou family, Dou Wei died of illness and Dou Kang was dismissed.

"Brother, this servant of Dou Kang's was punished for forcing the charcoal seller to sell him at a low price. There's no need to vent your anger on me, right?"

Sun Fujia laughed,

"Didn't you also say that you have a conflict with the Dou family's son-in-law? He is just using this as an excuse to make a fuss."

"Although your original intention is good, you still need to be more cautious sometimes."

Li Yi smiled bitterly, "The more you do, the more mistakes you make, and if you don't do anything, it's not a big deal."

"You don't have to worry about this impeachment. It's not a big deal. At most, you will be fined a little and your performance evaluation will be affected." Sun Fujia comforted you.

"Then I'll simply request a suspension and accept the investigation. I'll treat it as a vacation and go back to my hometown for a few days. Wuji Castle and Wuji Academy have been repaired, so I have to go home to take a look and attend a few weddings."

"You still need to resolve the issue between you and the Ji family. Do you want me to come forward and invite Dou Zhiyuan and his brother-in-law Ji Wen, and you can bring your concubine Ji, so that we can talk face to face and resolve this conflict?"

"I have no conflicts with the Ji family, let alone the Dou family. Everything started with Yujun, but I won't let her down.

I'll go back and discuss it with her. If she's willing to meet with her family, then she can. If she's not willing, then she can't."

(End of this chapter)