A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 288 Earn private money for the emperor

Changan.

East Palace, in Lizheng Hall.

Li Shimin looked at Wu Huaiyu's secret performance in front of him, and couldn't help being surprised.

It was too surprising.

"Prince Bin, come here and take a look at this."

The emperor handed over the secret music in his hand to Ma Zhou to watch.

"Is this impossible?" Ma Zhou swept across quickly, also surprised.

It's not that the monarchs and ministers are making a fuss, but the content of Wu Huaiyu's performance is really amazing.

"I originally said that the Ministry of Civil Affairs would send another batch of money and food to Shuofang. After all, the soldiers and horses in the multilateral town need to eat, drink, and prepare for the war, but who would have thought that Wu Huaiyu really gave me a big surprise. .”

Ma Zhou was also amazed at this brother-in-law, "Yes, the military governor returned to Yanzhou without bloodshed, and immediately brought such a big surprise to His Majesty."

Wu Huaiyu's surprise to the imperial court was that he secretly played the emperor's pre-sale of [-] hectares of land in Yanzhou, and tens of thousands of hectares of grassland and forest land. The price of only [-] hectares of land reached [-] guan.

As long as the emperor approves, the money can be collected immediately.

And this land is not sold out, Wu Huaiyu has additional conditions for selling the land. In the future, each mu of land will be purchased from Yanzhou for one bucket of public grain, and the market price will be equal to the market price.

This means that the imperial court can buy [-] shi of millet in Yanzhou every year at a reasonable price, plus [-] shi of grain storage for disaster relief and famine.

Yanzhou is close to the frontier. If the cost of transporting grain from the inland used to be extremely high, not to mention that Guanzhong has not been self-sufficient. Chang'an needs to transfer a large amount of grain from Jianghuai and other places into Beijing every year.

If Wu Huaiyu can resume farming in Yanzhou, and even complete so many public purchases of grain, it will really solve a big problem for the court.

Not to mention, Wu Huaiyu sold the land for [-] yuan.

Then, Wu Huaiyu also set aside [-] hectares of unowned land in Yanzhou for the army to garrison. According to Wu Huaiyu, if there were no disasters, at least [-] stone millet could be harvested a year.

There are a total of 4000 government soldiers transferred to Yanzhou for garrison, plus [-] local soldiers, a total of [-] people. If they can really collect [-] stone troops to garrison food, then the rations of these [-] soldiers will be enough for self-sufficiency, and there may even be a lot of them. remaining.

If you sell land for [-] guan, if you buy grain, you can buy grain for [-] shigong every year for four or five years.

But Wu Huaiyu said that the money for the land sale was actually unnecessary, because the salt ponds had gradually begun to recover, and when the official salt production came, they could directly pay for the public purchase of grain and exchange grain for salt.

After the recovery of the salt pond, taxation can be collected at that time, and the salt horse trade can be resumed, and another tax can be collected.

In short, Wu Huaiyu described the current situation and prospects of Yanzhou very well, and it is simply bright, even better than the states in the interior.

I thought that the wasteland outside the Great Wall would turn out to be a cornucopia, but Wu Huaiyu also made it clear that there are salt and resources here.

Not to mention that after Liang Shidu moved people away, Wu Huaiyu, the sixth son, very rudely turned the original owned land into unowned land, took it back to the government, and then packaged it up and sold it cheaply.

One hundred yuan per mu of land is not very cost-effective, but if it is packaged and sold at least one thousand mu, such a complete large plot will be more attractive.

Besides, slaves are also cheap here. The big nobles and tyrants directly hold slaves for farming, and they can also be connected with the salt industry. Farming is busy farming, and slack farming is salting and grazing. The utilization rate of slaves is extremely high, and the benefits are naturally good.

The emperor sighed again and again.

"How long has this kid been out of Beijing? On the way to Pingluoyi, Lingzhou has been rectified. A large amount of taxes have been collected for the court, and many fields have been taken back. Now that Yanzhou has been recovered without bloodshed, it can also bring money to the court. With two thousand hectares of military settlements and a thousand hectares of official settlements, you can still sell ten thousand hectares of land in exchange for so much cash."

Ma Zhou said, "I think selling the land is easy, but the additional one must be cultivated so that it cannot be left unused, and it is guaranteed to complete one bucket of public purchase grain per mu every year, and the two liters of grain in the free warehouse is more powerful."

"Yes, yes, this is very important."

Li Shimin stroked his beard happily and laughed, got up and paced.

"Since the founding of my dynasty, Yanzhou has existed in name but not in reality. Now that I have restored the Zhenguan Dynasty, I can support these two thousand prefecture soldiers and two thousand united soldiers without paying the court's food, and maintain the Great Wall of Yanzhou and the beacon towers. Fort border defense, this is amazing."

Raising soldiers is expensive.

Therefore, Datang implemented the Fubing system, giving a piece of land and leaving it alone.

However, the borderlands needed to be guarded, and the transferred military commanders needed food and even subsidies from the imperial court, and every military operation cost more money and food.

Even if it is to maintain a frontier army of several thousand people, it costs a lot of money every year. More importantly, Yanzhou is a frontier fortress, and the cost of food and grass transportation is even greater.

But now, Wu Huaiyu is actually omnipotent and self-sufficient.

"Prince Bin, you reply to Wu Huaiyu for me. I allow him to sell the land, and his strategy of stationing troops, officials and merchants is also approved."

"By the way, didn't he say that he also wants to buy land in Yanzhou? I may, let alone fifty hectares. He just wants to buy more. I agree, as long as it is not embezzlement and corruption."

"I have specially ordered that Yanzhou grant him five hectares of land, forget it, give him ten hectares."

Li Shimin happily took the map of Shuofang. Yanzhou was originally very inconspicuous. After the founding of the Tang Dynasty, the Yanzhou government offices were all located in Lingzhou City. Basically, they never really controlled Yanzhou. Only the Lingzhou government sent troops to Yanzhou several times. Forts were erected at one time.

He didn't expect that Yanzhou would become a treasure in Wu Huaiyu's hands.

With [-] hectares of land, even if it mainly depends on the dry land where it rains, it can still produce food after all.

I thought that Liang Shidu would come to fortify the wall and clear the country, and forcefully move everyone away. Wu Huaiyu would be very sad if he went. Who would have thought that this kid would have such a way to break the situation.

"If you sell [-] hectares of land, those noble families who bought the land will have to hire people or buy slaves to cultivate and manage it. In this way, Yanzhou will not be empty, and the frontier will not be empty."

As for the land being occupied by the nobles, Li Shimin doesn't care about it now. After all, Yanzhou is filled with frontier land, and after the chaos, there are not so many people to enrich it.

Yanzhou is not Guanzhong, not Chang'an. The first consideration is not to prevent mergers, but to develop and cultivate. If it is left unused, it is nothing. If it is planted, it will be food and the foundation of controlling Yanzhou.

Wu Huaiyu is very smart and sensible.

In the secret memorial to the emperor, he added a special item. He built ten Huangzhuang for the emperor in Yanzhou, each with a thousand mu of land, all within the Great Wall, totaling ten thousand mu.

This is the benefit of the emperor, public is public and private is private.

There is still a difference between Guantian and Huangzhuang.

The emperor also needed private money from domestic funds. After all, private funds from internal funds do not need to go through the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the treasury, and there are not so many eyes on them.

Even the four major salt ponds have already reserved places for the emperor, waiting for the emperor to send someone over.

Which emperor would not like such a clever and capable courtier.

Regardless of public or private, they are all so considerate.

"I really didn't expect that Yanzhou is not only important in the military, but also a golden bump."

Ma Zhou was also moved and happy for his brother-in-law, he did such a good job and made the saint so happy, the future is boundless.

Later, Li Shimin called Zhang Anan and asked him to arrange a few reliable servants and eunuchs, select a group of royal slaves to go to Yanzhou, manage the hundred hectares of Huangzhuang, and participate in the salt production of Wubai Salt Pond, and Yanzhou A matter of trade.

Of course, these internal servants went there not only to earn private money for the emperor, but also to monitor the civil and military officers and soldiers of Yanzhou, as well as the wealthy and powerful merchants of Yanzhou. They were the emperor's other eyes and ears.

If you listen to one side, you will be dark, but if you listen to both, you will be clear. Wei Zheng always persuaded the emperor like this. Li Shimin firmly believed that the six doors are the eyes and ears of the emperor, but the emperor cannot only have the eyes and ears of the six doors.

Although Wu Huaiyu is the confidant of the emperor's favorite minister, he can't believe it all.

As soon as the emperor was happy, Wu Huaiyu was promoted again.

With the merit of recovering Yanzhou, and also the merits of farming and restoring Yanchi, Emperor Jinwu Huaiyu was promoted from the fourth rank to the middle doctor, and was promoted to the third rank without examination.

Xue Wanche was promoted to the first rank because of his meritorious service in attacking Hu Zhenfu, and Enyin's son was named Wuqiwei.

In order to express his favor to Wu Huaiyu, the emperor even sent Yang Jieyu to the Shouyang mansion with a female official to visit Wu Huaiyu's pregnant wife, Fan Shi, on behalf of the emperor and empress, and brought a royal title and a reward of ginseng Waiting for some precious medicinal materials, as well as beautiful silk.

and a pair of silver bottles.

This Yang Jieyu can also be regarded as a relative of the Wu family. Her father is Yang Gongdao, the younger brother of the former Prime Minister Yang Gongren, and Yang Shidao, the emperor's brother-in-law, is her uncle.

Li Shimin married his brother-in-law's niece into the palace, and she was the fourth Hongnong Yang's daughter in his palace.

Wu Huaiyu's fourth uncle, the samurai Xun's wife, Yang Shi, is Yang Jieyu's cousin, and indeed she is quite close.

On that day, Yang Jieyu went to the Wu family with a lot of pomp and circumstance, and the emperor specially sent Baiqi and Qianniu guards to escort her, and the whole of Chang'an knew about it.

Then the next day, rumors from the neighbors were flying all over the sky, saying that Wu Huaiyu had made great achievements in Yanzhou again, and then some people reported that the land in Yanzhou was cheap, and there were many slaves there. It is very profitable to exchange salt, slaves, and horses in the state, and then transport them back to Guanzhong.

All of a sudden, many women who were heads of noble families in Chang'an came to the Wu family to visit Mr. Fan in carriages, and at the same time, they also inquired about the purchase of land and slaves in Yanzhou to build a manor and open a salt farm.

Even Li Jing's wife, Zhang Chuchen, and his sister-in-law, Changsun, also came to visit.

Now that Fan Xuanfu's pregnancy is stable, she has started to walk out of the small courtyard. Although she usually likes to wield swords and swords, she is quite stable when receiving these noble ladies, and she has no disrespect in the slightest.

"A Zhuangzi only needs a hundred guan for one thousand acres of land?" Changsun's heart was greatly moved when he heard this. It is not easy to buy a complete land of one hundred acres in Gyeonggi, let alone a thousand acres.

After hearing this, Li Sanniang, who came with her, said, "Then let's go to Yanzhou to buy a few villages, get some pastures, and raise some cattle and sheep. I heard that the Tan sheep in Yanzhou are delicious. From now on, our family will eat sheep. Sent to Chang'an from our ranch in Yanzhou, "

A farm of only one hundred acres and one thousand mu is really exciting, not to mention that there are salt and trade benefits there.

"Sage, maybe our Wu family bought land in Yanzhou, and we gave ten hectares of land. My family, Alang, originally said to buy fifty hectares. I think fifty hectares is too petty. It's rare to have this opportunity. I just bought one hundred hectares, but it's only a thousand hectares. It’s just money, my sister-in-law’s father, General Cheng, also won a great victory in Luzhou, and captured a lot of wild animals as slaves. He just bought some and sent them to Yanzhou to farm and graze salt.”

When Fan Xuanfu heard Li Sanniang said that he was going to Yanzhou, he immediately became vigilant.

But Li Sanniang already had the idea of ​​going to Yanzhou, "I just happened to go to Yanzhou to see my second uncle."

Fan Xuanfu hurriedly spoke out to dissuade them, saying that there would be a war at any time, but Li Sanniang smiled slightly, "Last time the Turkic 20 rode southward, and I went to the besieged Huining Pass as usual, don't be afraid."

(End of this chapter)