A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 382 How can the Wu family be slaughtered?

retreat.

The samurai is in a good mood.

The governor of Liangzhou transferred to the governor of Jingzhou, which is actually a promotion.

In the fifth year of Wude, Jingzhou set up a general manager. In the seventh year of Wude, the general manager was changed to the governor.

Jingzhou is the Governor's Mansion, but recently the imperial court is undergoing a round of intensive regional adjustments, one of the more important ones is to cut down and merge some of the Governor's Mansions.

There is also the intention to change the large, middle and lower capital governor's mansion into the upper, middle and lower capital governor's mansion. Although the imperial court uses the prince to lead the general governor from a distance, it has not enlarged the characters in the official imperial edict.

The original Metropolitan Governor’s Mansion was renamed Shangdudu’s Mansion, and it was only called XX Dudu’s Mansion in official writing.

The actual existing Shangdudu mansions are Yangzhou, Bingzhou, Yizhou and Jingzhou, as well as Anzhou and Xiangzhou. There are a total of six Shangdudu mansions.

During the heyday of the Wude period, there were 81 Dudu mansions in the world, but after Emperor Zhenguan succeeded to the throne, in just over a year, more than 30 have been abolished and merged, leaving only more than [-] Dudu mansions. After the withdrawal, the governing states are directly under the jurisdiction of the central government.

Some remaining capitals have also reduced the number of prefectures under their jurisdiction.

Like the Liangzhou Dudufu, which is the Zhongdudufu, Lingzhou, Youzhou, Guangzhou, Guizhou, and Luozhou are also more important in the Zhongdudufu.

Nowadays, in the Shangdudu Mansion, the prince usually takes the post of governor from afar, commonly known as Dadudu.

But now the samurai has moved to the governor of Jingzhou, whether it is temporary or not, it is quite special.

Gao Shilian had previously dismissed his prime minister and demoted him to be the governor of Anzhou, but now he has changed to the governor of Yizhou. royal.

The samurai Xun felt that the emperor's reaction this time showed that the samurai family was still safe.

It's not bad that the third child is transferred from the governor of Lizhou to the governor of Yuzhou. Yuzhou is an important place in Henan. Although it is not as good as the governor of Luozhou, it is the heart of the Central Plains.

"Perhaps one day the Jingzhou Governor's Mansion will be abolished, and this governor may not be able to serve for a few days." The warrior Xun said with a smile, but he was still in a very happy mood.

Wu Huaiyu was also deeply involved in the matter of Emperor Zhenguan's establishment of the Dao and the abolition of the prefecture's governor's mansion. He has some inside information.

In the past year or so, the court has cut down 81 governor's mansions from the heyday of the Wude Dynasty to 48 governor's mansions now, but the court still intends to continue to cut down.

It is planned to cut down to keep only 24 Dudu's mansions in the whole country, and only keep four Jingyang and Bingyi in the upper Dudu's mansions, and the remaining [-] are the middle and lower Dudu's mansions, so as to reduce the number of Dudu's mansions as much as possible, and at the same time reduce the number of prefectures under the jurisdiction of the Dudu's mansions.

In the Jianghan area, there are now Jingzhou and Anzhou, two capital governor’s houses, which are very close to each other. Jingzhou belongs to the center of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and has been a battleground for military strategists since ancient times. Anzhou is the second hometown of Emperor Li Yuan when he was young. special.

If you really want to cut one, it must be cutting Anzhou.

Just like the Luzhou Metropolitan Government that has been laid off, when Huang Junhan was the governor, the Luzhou Metropolitan Government was also the Metropolitan Government, commanding Zelu and other states, as a barrier to the north of Luoyang, and also controlling the connection between the east, Guanzhong and Henan. The core areas of Hebei.

However, after Huang Junhan was defeated in the eighth year of Wude and was swept south by the Turkic cavalry, Huang Junhan was transferred to the governor of Kuizhou, and then Luzhou was reduced to the governor's mansion of the central capital.

At the beginning of the founding of the country, Jingzhou was originally the base camp of Xiao Xian. After the Tang Dynasty took it, it basically pacified the southeast half of the country. It is not as good as Yangzhou and Yizhou in Bingzhou.

But in any case, Jingzhou is the most critical point in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River.

In the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, Xiangzhou is now the most important strategic location. This is the golden lifeline of transportation, finance, taxation and water transportation on the middle road. Xiangyang is the throat of the world, and it is extremely important in military transportation.

However, its location is in the north, so in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, Jingzhou is still the core of the region. This also makes the Jingzhou Governor's Mansion not lower, and it is even less likely to be abolished and merged.

The samurai Xun served as the governor of Jingzhou at this time, that is, the actual governor. It can indeed be regarded as a warrior family without losing the trust of the emperor.

But from another perspective, Liangzhou is currently in a more important position for the entire layout of the imperial court. After all, Liangzhou is the center of Hexi, facing the three forces of East, West Turks, and Qinghai Tuyuhun. The most reliable and trustworthy people will do.

Although Jingzhou is also very important, the north is the core area of ​​the Central Plains Dynasty. Although the Shu, Hunan and Jiangxi in the south are still to be developed, and there are many barbarian tribes, it is not like the current Liangzhou, which threatens the safety of the empire if something happens.

"Should I ask myself out too?"

Wu Huaiyu asked the warrior Xun.

"Let's see the situation first, I don't think you are in a hurry."

Lao Wu means that Huaiyu is very young. Wu Huaiyu, 20 years old, is a close minister of the emperor and his confidant.

"Fourth Uncle, Zheng Shanguo jumped so high today, is it possible that our martial arts family has something to do with Zheng Shanguo? Could he be the mastermind behind this?"

Zheng Shanguo is the head of the Zheng family in Xingyang. As the patriarch of one of the five surnames and seven clans, he is indeed fully capable of doing such a thing.

But Wu Huaiyu felt that he danced too much today, so it was not so possible. If he was behind the scenes to direct this, then he should hide himself well.

"You should start with Li Chunfeng, after all, he is the best clue now."

The samurai Xun couldn't think of any relationship between him and the Zheng family. He used to sell timber to participate in the construction of the Eastern Capital and earned a lot of money. At that time, he and Liu Shilong were said to be the richest in Hedong.Later, one of the two spent money to buy a captain of Yingyang Mansion, and the other bought a township head of Jinyang.

Then the two invested in Li Yuan together, using all their wealth to fund Li Yuan's recruitment. Afterwards, one was named as Duke Ying and the other as Duke of Ge.

Both of them are Li Yuan's confidantes, Ge Guogong Liu Shilong is in charge of the money bag, and warrior Xun is in charge of logistics.

The Zheng family is the family of the concubine Jiancheng, and also Li Yuan's in-laws. They belonged to Li Yuan very early, but the warrior Xun had no conflict with Zheng Shanguo and the others. One was the emperor's confidant Yuan Cong, and the other was a hardcore princeling.

In the past, Li Yuan and Li Jiancheng, father and son, did not have any conflicts.

"I always feel that Zheng Shanguo's reaction today is unusual. He seems to be running towards Wei Zheng, but he is obviously staring at our Wu family."

"Then check Zheng Shanguo together."

Killing intent flashed in the warrior Xun's eyes, "We are not the soft persimmons that can be manipulated by others. We are not as good as the Zheng family in Xingyang, but if they insist on killing us, then we have to fight him to the death."

Go back to Yongxingfang home.

Fan Xuanfu came to Huaiyu on his own initiative, and while helping him massage his shoulders, he talked about the rumors that were spreading now.

"Whoever dares to spread rumors and plot against our family, let me find out, and I will kill him and destroy his whole family." The female tiger said fiercely.

"Take good care of your children. Leave these things to me. Don't worry, it's not a big deal."

Today's samurai family has two [-] households who have sealed the meritorious officials, so they are so easy to bully?What's more, Wu Huaiyu's adoptive father Qin Qiong is the prime minister, his in-laws Wei Zheng is also the prime minister, and his master Li Jing is also the minister of the Ministry of punishment.

With such a hard relationship, those who want to assassinate the Wu family must also be prepared to be backlashed.

No matter who it is, he will lose some of his big teeth.

Anyway, he never believed in Li Chunfeng's so-called stargazing and divination. This must be a secret conspiracy, a backstabbing.

He closed his eyes and let his wife knead his shoulders, but his mind was running at high speed.

Thinking about how to find a gap to break through, how to contact allies, and how to fight this counterattack.

Next,
Wu Huaiyu is business as usual.

He got up early every day to go to court, sometimes he was left for court discussion, and sometimes he went directly back to Yongzhou Yamen.His main job now is to provide relief with work, resettlement and relief for the victims.

The projects of Da'an Palace, Nanshi, and Liufanmen Dungeon recruited many hungry people from the Kanto region who came to Beijing. Wu Huaiyu also recruited victims. Outside the gates of Chang'an City, many temporary camps for victims were built, tents were set up, or people were made of wood, etc. Build some simple sheds.

Although the unified planning and arrangement are relatively simple, at least they will not be messy, especially since toilets, bathhouses, etc. have been repaired in the camp, and the Baojia system is also implemented.

Not only were scribes and yamen servants sent for management, but also some elders with prestige or the prime of life were appointed from the victims to assist in the management, and some villagers of the victims were also formed to patrol the night and maintain law and order.

After these strict organization and management, the situation is not so chaotic. The victims go to work on various construction sites every day. There is food on the construction site, and they can earn some food to go home.

Even the Yongzhou Yamen organized and arranged for firewood to be sold at a low price to ensure that everyone can keep warm in the cold winter.

In fact, the temporary camp is quite miserable. The tents and wooden sheds are very simple, with air leakage everywhere, food is limited, and there is even a shortage of doctors and medicines.

But the vast majority of the victims can at least have a job and food to satisfy their hunger. In fact, very few victims died of freezing, sickness or starvation.

The selling of children and daughters in the camp, and even pawning wives and prostitution are much better than in the past years of catastrophe, all because of the organization and arrangement of Yongzhou Yamen and the imperial court.

Of course, the Ministry of Civil Affairs has now begun to issue bonds on a trial basis, and let the princes, nobles, officials, scholars, wealthy businessmen in Chang'an start to subscribe. It is said that it is voluntary, but there must be some task quota.

Interest is not high.

Wu Huaiyu happily bought a thousand guan.

The interest on these two coupons is actually not worth it to the aristocrats who are capable of lending money on their own, and the interest on the money and food they release is higher.But after all, it was issued by the imperial court, and they must buy as much as possible to save the emperor.

The higher the official title, the more people will buy it.

However, for ordinary traders and small people, the interest on this novel bond is quite attractive.The idle money in their hands does not have the lending channels like nobles and powerful people, and it is difficult to guarantee that it will be recovered after being released. Instead of leaving it idle, it is better to buy some bonds, and there will be good interest at that time.

The only thing that makes everyone hesitate is the credit issue. Will the court be able to exchange it, can it give the principal, can it really give so much interest?
The people in Yongxingfang walked ahead of the people in Chang’an. Many people followed the Wu family to buy bonds. Wu Huaiyu bought a thousand strings. Many people bought one thousand coins, he bought three to five thousand, and some only bought three to five hundred. Anyway, the bonds issued by the Ministry of Civil Affairs this time adopted Wu Huaiyu's suggestion, all of which have quotas or even bearer names.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs issued bonds to raise a lot of funds, and then immediately used the money to ask the nobles, powerful merchants and merchants in Chang'an to purchase relief materials such as food, cloth, quilts, and firewood, especially food, which were mostly in the hands of those nobles. inner.

The imperial court requires low-cost purchases, and special matters are handled specially, and everyone dare not follow suit. Anyway, Wu Huaiyu is also taking the lead in selling grain to the imperial court again. After all, the Wu family also has a lot of farms in Gyeonggi, and there are still a lot of grain in hand. The price is a bit higher than the market price, and it is not a loss.

The imperial court issued debts to borrow money, and then used the money to buy supplies.

Yongzhou and other yamen borrowed these materials and used work as relief to carry out some projects, repair palaces, city walls, moats, roads, etc. Anyway, these are also livelihood projects, and now they hire disaster victims to work.

In the end, these materials borrowed, the accounts are done, and the court is still used to offset the expenses, basically a small internal cycle can also be realized.

Compared with simply releasing food for relief, the current model is undoubtedly much better. Everyone has work to do, can eat more food, and even earn a lot of food, and the living environment is much better.

Of course, everyone is busy with work, and it is not easy to get together to make trouble.

After the Chinese New Year is over, they will be sent back to their hometowns for spring plowing and production recovery after the beginning of spring.

Although these disaster victims are still working hard this winter, at least they have the most basic protection. Everyone is still very grateful to the Holy Son of Heaven, to Yongzhou for not driving Wu Huaiyu, and to the prime ministers and princes in the court.

Wu Huaiyu mobilized all his connections, looking for the black hand behind the scenes.

Various investigations were also carried out on suspects such as Li Chunfeng and Zheng Shanguo.

The new year is approaching day by day, and the rumors in Chang'an City are slowly subsiding. The main reason is that Liufanmen and Yongzhou, Zuowuhouwei and other yamen are conducting special investigations on this matter, severely cracking down, and arresting many spreaders. After going to beat the board, or even sent directly to Tufang for forced labor,
Not so many people dare to spread it casually anymore.

This thing seemed to start suddenly and end suddenly.

But Wu Huaiyu believes that this matter is endless, and the emperor must still be investigating. After all, Li Chunfeng is still locked up in the Taishi Bureau. Of course, Wu Huaiyu is not finished.

Aunt Gao Huitong came to visit his nephew Xiao Erlang Wu Chengye, "I found out that Li Chunfeng once borrowed a Beijing debt, but he still couldn't repay it. The interest piled up and the amount was astonishing."

Upon hearing this, Wu Huaiyu immediately regained his spirits.

It is not unusual for Li Chunfeng to fail to repay the Beijing debt. His hometown is Yongzhou, and his father was only a county official in the Sui Dynasty. He even became a monk when Li Chunfeng was young. Li Shimin shogunate.

Although he has been an official for eight years, he has been promoted from the sixth rank to the eighth rank. He is only a doctor of calendar. Such a trick officer is still a doctor, which is the least powerful.

The last time he went to Li Chunfeng's house, he also saw the appearance of his house. It is a simple and simple house with a bamboo fence and a wooden door in the thatched cottage. It is said that it is still rented.

He has an old mother, a wife, two concubines, and several children. There are also several servants, old and young, in his family. If such a big family has to spend, it must be difficult to live in Chang'an if only relying on Li Chunfeng's salary.

Moreover, Li Chunfeng likes to study mathematics, astrology, calendar, astronomy, Fengshui, etc. These studies must also cost money.

Many officials from other places in Beijing had to borrow Beijing debts to live.

In the end, the only way to make up for the hole is to take bribes and take bribes.

"Where did Li Chunfeng borrow the Beijing debt? Who is the creditor?"

Huaiyu felt that the answer had already come out.

(End of this chapter)