On the occasion of rebirth Zhou Sui

Chapter 72 Exaggerating Results

Author: He Tiantian from Lotus Picking

Chapter 72 Exaggerating Results

Cui Che was not alone in his resentment over the sharp decrease in salary, but Yang Jian really had no choice. The state treasury could not make ends meet, and he had trouble sleeping and eating because of this.

At least financially, Yang Jian inherited a mess.

Last year, the three general managers rebelled, disrupting local agricultural production and life and causing a sharp drop in treasury revenue.

Which one is not about mobilizing troops and spending a lot of money and food to quell the rebellion?

After the war, the soldiers were rewarded and the treasury was almost completely drained.

In February of this year, Yang Jian replaced Zhou Jian for the Sui Dynasty. The officials in the capital should be rewarded, and officials from other places should also be expressed. The army officers and soldiers could not turn a deaf ear. This was another huge expense.

If Yang Jian could usurp the country a few years later and wait for the national treasury to recover, he would naturally not have such troubles.

But now is the time when its prestige is at its peak. In a few years, who knows whether another Yuchi will appear.

After Yang Jiancheng usurped the country, he hurriedly issued an edict to inspect the fields and hide households. In the final analysis, he was forced to do so by the poor financial situation.

This is especially true with the reform of salaries. During the Northern Zhou Dynasty, high-ranking officials could barely maintain their huge salaries. However, after Yang Jian founded the country, he greatly increased the rewards for courtiers. For example, more than 100 members of the Li Mu clan were granted official titles, and their descendants, even their babies, were

A first-grade Yitong with a salary of ten thousand shi.

If the salary is not reset, the finance will really go bankrupt. Of course, the clever skill of Yang Jian and his cronies is that while cutting high salaries, they also raise the minimum income standard to show favor to lower-level officials.

For example, although there are many lower-level officials of the seventh, eighth, and ninth ranks, each of them has increased their income by several hundred dan, but the income of other officials of the sixth rank and above has been severely cut.

Brother Che was cut down from 4000 stones to 960 stones from the fourth level.

Suppose Cui Che becomes an official in fifty years and his official position is never promoted. He will lose 3,040 dan every year. Cumulatively, Yang Jian will wipe out his 152,000 dan. Who can bear this?

A seed of dissatisfaction was sown, and it had nothing to do with the situation.

After all, Brother Che worked diligently and diligently for the Yang family, but Yang Jian, the boss, casually reduced his salary by four times.

If you can still laugh about this, then people are really happy to welcome the increase in oil prices.

The staff of the General Manager's Mansion are in mourning. Yes, most of them are junior officials of seventh, eighth, and ninth rank, and they seem to belong to the group of people who have benefited.

But as an official who followed the King of Jin out of town and merged with the state, who wouldn't have a bright future? They were promoted very quickly, and they could reach the top in just a few years. Who cares about the hundreds more they get in a year at the low-level official stage?

stone.

Although Cui Che did not express his dissatisfaction with his salary being drastically reduced in front of others, and he always maintained a diligent attitude at work and never slacked off, but his heart was really bleeding.

Yang Guang also noticed that the morale of the staff in the General Manager's Office was low, but he had nothing to do. The officials in charge of finance in the court were so worried that they could not sleep at night, and their hair was falling out all day long.

If in the middle of the dynasty, there is a shortage of money and food, the worst thing is to find someone with a weak hand, and exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes can be paid out, which can solve the urgent need.

But I have never heard of a country that was founded in a hurry and did not benefit the people, but instead exploited them.

Yang Guang had no choice but to hold a banquet in the official residence to comfort his subordinates.

The King of Jin was still the virtuous king that everyone praised, and no one dared to complain about Yang Jian in Chang'an City, so the person who helped Yang Jian create this salary system became the target of taking the blame.

Not only the staff of the Bingzhou Governor's Office, but also all officials of sixth grade and above, often abused the officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs behind their backs.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and History is responsible for decision-making, so of course they have to bear the blame, so Brother Che escaped early, otherwise as one of the eight people, he would have to follow the two chief officials Yu Qingze, and Li Delin would be criticized.

It's just that there are gains and losses, and taking the blame for the emperor is not without reward.

Of course, except for Li Delin, there was no other way. Since he opposed the slaughter of the Yuwen clan, in Yang Jian's view, Li Delin could not be of the same mind as him.

Time passed day by day, and the inventory and accounting of the land in the 24 states under the Bingzhou Governor's Office were completed one after another. However, when the data was submitted, Cui Che was quite suspicious, and he always felt that something was not right about the data.

Since the official data of the Sui Dynasty in later literature was seriously adulterated, Cui Che decided to check it carefully.

The official data of the Sui Dynasty went to such a crazy level that the population cannot be counted specifically, but acres of land can be used as an example.

In the ninth year of the founding of the Sui Dynasty, 49.4 million hectares of farmland were cultivated. In the fourteenth year of Emperor Xuanzong's Tianbao of the Tang Dynasty, the year when the population reached its peak, there were 14.3 million hectares of farmland, which was less than one-third of the cultivated land in the ninth year of the founding of the Sui Dynasty.

By the middle period of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty, the number of acres reached an astonishing 55.85 million hectares, more than twice the area of ​​cultivated land in China in 2015.

The imperial court wanted to collect taxes based on these false data. In addition to land taxes, there were also head taxes, household taxes, etc.

The data can be falsely reported, but the revenue from the treasury cannot be reduced. In the end, it will still be passed on to the heads of the mud-legged people. The wealthy families will not suffer this grievance.

The clerks of the General Administration Office who were originally sent to the various states to supervise were worried that the state and county officials in various places would not do their best.

I just didn't expect them to work too hard for political achievements.

After receiving reports from the scribes, Cui Che finally confirmed that the inventory data, whether it was hidden houses or acres of land, was seriously contaminated with water.

After hesitating for a long time in the side room, he finally found Yang Guang.

"Does Zicheng think that the provincial governors are committing fraud?"

"I dare not deceive Your Highness. According to reports from scribes, there are exaggerations in many states and counties."

Cui Che replied.

"Zicheng wants to investigate this matter thoroughly?"

Yang Guang frowned and said in thought.

Cui Che's heart tightened. Of course he understood the connection. Seeing Yang Guang's appearance, he stopped insisting:

"Che is here just to inform His Highness about this matter. As for how to act, I just follow His Highness' instructions."

Only then did Yang Guang stretch his eyebrows. The officials had already been dismissed, and there were only two of them. Yang Guang was not afraid to tell Cui Che the truth:

"I don't care about the authenticity of it. What's important is that I can come up with an answer that satisfies my father."

After that, stamp the official seal of the general manager on the official document recording the inventory data.

Cui Che knew clearly that local state and county officials were falsely reporting data to gain political achievements, and Yang Guang wanted to take credit from Yang Jian.

As for the people at the bottom who bear a heavy burden because of this, who cares.

The court is still waiting to ask for money.

Today, those are good people who do light corvee and pay little tax. Have you ever seen that the tax amount set for every acre of land and every village is not high? As for how much tax the people actually bear, history books will not write it down.

Cui Che walked out of the main hall with the official document and found a scribe who ordered him to find a messenger and send it to Chang'an.

What a beautiful answer sheet, I think both Yang Jian and the other officials in the court will be satisfied.

Cui Che knew that it was impossible for anyone to cause trouble, otherwise how would the exaggerated acres of land come about in the ninth year of the founding of the Emperor.

In the Changshi's wing, Cui Che looked down at his fourth-grade official uniform and fell into silence.

The cold is gone.

(End of chapter)