Rebirth of Wu Ba Spring and Autumn

Chapter 794

The prime minister on the right, Kong Qiu, held the wat of the tooth, bowed to Qingji on the majesty's platform, and said, "Your Majesty, I have something to say. I don't know if I should say it or not?"

"But it doesn't matter."

"A country with a thousand chariots, respect things and trust them, be frugal and love others, and make the people timely. My country of Wu is a country of ten thousand chariots, and it should be so!"

Kong Qiu said with a heartbroken expression, "My lord, what is 'frugality'?"

"Government is saving money! The annual expenditure of the national treasury is nearly 35 billion yuan. Although the income is huge, it should not be abused."

"Your Majesty should save money and reduce the taxes and corvees of the people of the country, especially the peasants."

"It is even more necessary to eliminate the useless expenses, and put an end to the extravagance and waste of the officials and officials in terms of clothing, food, housing, and transportation!"

After a pause, Confucius said again: "Your Majesty, you have robbed the people of their food and clothing, thinking that the palace, the terraces and pavilions are curved and straight, and the decorations carved in blue and yellow are because their wealth is not enough to treat the hungry, the orphans and the widows, and the country is poor." And the people are hard to govern."

"I think that if you are thrifty, you will prosper, and if you are obscene, you will perish!"

"Your Majesty, please be careful!"

Kong Qiu uttered such polite words, he had obviously held back for a long time, and couldn't bear to see Qing Ji and the usual extravagance of the officials and officials.

The so-called upper beam is not straight and the lower beam is crooked.

Even a monarch like Qingji is so "extremely extravagant" and enjoys life, let alone other ministers?
Ministers who can really be like Sun Wu, Confucius, Ji Ran and others, who are clean, self-denying and diligent, and know how to increase revenue and reduce expenditure, are only a few in Wu State.

"Bold!"

Uncle Zhong Cheng, who had been dissatisfied with Kong Qiu for a long time, immediately stood up and scolded Kong Qiu angrily: "Prime Minister You, how dare you slander the king? Teach the king a lesson?"

"When did your majesty rob the people of food and clothing, and use it as a palace, as a decoration carved in blue and yellow?"

"My Great Wu is now in peace and prosperity, and all the people of Li live and work in peace and contentment. As the king of a country, if there is no magnificent palace, if there is no blue and yellow carved decorations, how can I be worthy of the honor of the king!"

Kong Qiu, who had been slapped with a big hat by Bo Tong, suddenly flew into a rage, pointed at Bo Tong's nose and cursed: "Bo Tong! Don't you want to spit blood on people!"

"The old man is also a snob like you, can you teach me a lesson?"

Bo Tong was spit on his face by Kong Qiu, and couldn't help being furious. He rolled up his sleeves and said angrily, "Kong Qiu! How dare you scold me?"

"The old man scolded you!"

Kong Qiu said indignantly: "You are such a treacherous villain, a fat-bellied person, how dare you stand in the court of Wu State, I am ashamed to be with you!"

"you!"

"shut up!"

Seeing Bo Tong and Kong Qiu quarrelling with each other, Qingji had no choice but to yell, and then said in a deep voice: "Kong Qiu, Bo Tong, the court is not a market, How can you be noisy?"

"If the two of you must decide whether to win or lose, right and wrong, please go out and fight."

Hearing this, Kong Qiu glanced at Bo Tong angrily, and asked, "Bo Tong, do you dare? Do you dare to fight this old man?"

"I……"

Bo Tong originally wanted to reply, "Why don't you dare?", but when he saw Kong Qiu's tall and mighty figure, and the rumored bravery of Confucius, he felt a little apprehensive.

Don't look at the old master Confucius who is over 50 years old. He knows his destiny, but his body is still extraordinarily strong.

Bo Tong was used to being pampered and pampered. Although he has martial arts, how could he beat Confucius?

Seeing that Bo Tong retracted his head, Dazai Jiran hurried out to smooth things over, and said to Qingji, "Your Majesty, I think what Prime Minister You said is not unreasonable."

"However, it is not advisable to blindly increase income and reduce expenditure. Therefore, our country of Wu should further consolidate people's livelihood, strengthen the foundation and save consumption, so that the world will not be poor, and the sky will not be able to make it rich if there is a shortage and extravagance!"

"I have heard that the country is poor if there are many scholars and bureaucrats; if there are many businessmen, the country will be poor; if there is no quantitative measurement, the country will be poor; if the lower levels are poor, the upper levels will be poor; if the lower levels are rich, the upper levels will be richer."

"Your Majesty, please be careful!"

On the issue of increasing income and reducing expenditure, Ji Ran and Confucius held different views.

Confucius judged whether the fiscal expenditure was reasonable or not based on "benefiting the people".

It is advocated that "useful expenses" that are beneficial to the country must be spent, and "useless expenses" that are unfavorable are resolutely removed.

However, Jiran's idea of ​​"throttling expenditure" is based on "strengthening the foundation", so he emphasized that diversion should not reduce agricultural expenditures, but should focus on streamlining the army and streamlining administration, reducing redundant officials...

Qingji knew that in terms of fiscal expenditure, Jiran had always emphasized the principle of income balance and state-owned surplus.

This is also where Qingji appreciates Jiran.

"My minister agrees!"

Fan Li, the official censor, came out and said: "Your Majesty, in the past, Guanzi said: If you take from the people with restraint, if you use it well, the country will be safe no matter how big it is; if you take from the people without restraint, if you don't stop using it, the country will be in danger even if it is large."

"The minister is deeply convinced of this."

"There must be a certain limit to the expenditure of the treasury."

"It is urgent for the country to judge the amount, save food and clothing, save money, and prohibit extravagance."

"First of all, we should start with the expenditure of the palace. Make Xuanmian to distinguish the high and the low, not to seek beauty, set up jubilees to keep their uniforms and not to seek beauty, build palaces to avoid cold and heat, but not to seek greatness!"

After a pause, Fan Li said again: "However, if you are stingy with money, you will not be popular, and if you are not popular, you will complain. Using money will cause resentment, so it is called "fee."

"Now that the palace has been settled, there is nothing to do, but the rest can be reduced as much as possible, such as the living expenses of the royal family, court servants, carriages and horses, etc."

"If you don't know about death, you will have extravagant gifts, and if you don't stop, you will ask for things. If you ask for things to mourn, the people will be poor and exhausted, and the way to peril."

"Your Majesty should reduce redundant officials and turn them into agriculture, so as to reduce the country's financial expenditure."

"For royal palaces, chariots and horses, servants, utensils and clothes, food and beverages, weddings of guests, and burials in ancestral halls, they should be counted on festivals and used in a manner, otherwise it will hurt financial resources."

"What's more, what goes up is what goes down, so that the corrupt officials of the whole country will be free, and the ministers who collect will be put on their hands. This will cause ten times more harm than before!"

Fan Li is worthy of being Ji Ran's disciple, and his views are consistent.

The two not only regard luxury as a matter of financial expenditure, but also raise it to the height of national politics to understand...

After all, Wu Guo's expenses are really too high now.

During the rise of the Wu Kingdom, Qingji encouraged Chinese people to spend money and buy everywhere in order to ensure the circulation of goods in the market.

It's just that once the wind of luxury arises, it is not an easy matter to extinguish it.

Because it is easy to go from thrift to extravagance, but difficult to go from extravagance to frugality!

Throughout the ages, are simple monarchs really good monarchs?

Not necessarily.

For example, Emperor Daoguang in history wore a patched dragon robe and changed his clothes once a month. The queen celebrated her birthday, and just now he reluctantly killed two pigs and asked the ministers to eat stewed noodles...

Miserable?

awful!
It is absolutely wonderful for the king of a country to be replaced by Emperor Daoguang.

For example, Xiao Ji, the eighth son of Emperor Wu of Liang Xiao Yan, was even more picky.

In order to compete with Emperor Liang Yuan for the throne, he proclaimed himself emperor in Chengdu, with the title of Tianzheng, and was attacked by Wei Xiaokuan, a general of the Western Wei Dynasty, and Emperor Liang Yuan.

Before setting off on the expedition, Xiao Ji took out all the gold and silver treasures he had accumulated in Sichuan for many years, and ordered people to cast 1 gold cakes and [-] silver cakes weighing one catty, each of which was packed in a box. A total of [-] boxes of gold cakes and [-] boxes of silver cakes were packed to boost morale.

Inspired by the golden cakes, the morale of the soldiers was high, and they really worked hard in the battle. After several battles, they all won the victory.

However, they didn't get Xiao Ji's reward, because Xiao Ji couldn't bear to...

The results speak for themselves.

Xiao Ji's defeat was not due to incompetent soldiers, lack of courage, and insufficient food, but because of a small problem that ordinary people are prone to make, that is, stinginess.

Because of his reluctance, each of his genuine gold cakes became worthless picture cakes in the eyes of others.

He held on to the gold loaf for a while, but lost the hearts of the people.

When things outside the body are regarded as life, then this kind of life must be sad and short!

(End of this chapter)