Tibet.

Chapter 1386 Inspection of Qizhou
In Yong County, Qizhou, Li Ye stood on a high place and watched the laborers busy on the official road below.

It is mid-February now, and the construction of the Tangzhi Road has resumed in early February. The Tangzhi Road, which started construction the year before last, has been under construction for a year and a half, and is nearly half completed. The Guanzhong section is 90% completed, and the Longyou section is 60% completed. Now the Hexi section is mainly under construction.

Tangzhidao is not about rebuilding a government road, but about widening and leveling the existing government road. This way the workload will be much less. Tangzhidao is also not a road. It also has various branches, just like the Yangtze River. In addition to the main stream, there are countless tributaries on both sides, connecting various counties.

Dongshui West Road was one of the two major strategic projects after Li Ye ascended the throne, and it complemented the project of annihilating the country.

The war to annihilate the country was not a rash decision. After the An-Shi Rebellion in history, the Tang Dynasty never recovered and never had the glory of the Tang Dynasty again.

The most important reason was that the population loss was too great, the financial resources were exhausted, the separatist warlords and the Tibetan invasion were like two huge bleeding holes. In order to maintain its rule and the army, the imperial court had to drain the pond to catch fish. Ordinary people were struggling on the line between life and death, as if their bodies had lost water, leaving only decay and decline. Where was the slightest bit of the vibrant atmosphere of the prosperous Tang Dynasty?

After Li Ye ascended the throne, he faced the same problem: how to restore the vitality of the Tang Dynasty after the devastation caused by the Anshi Rebellion and the decline of the entire Tang Dynasty. The solution that most rulers think of is to end the war as soon as possible, reduce taxes and levies, allow the people to recuperate, and redistribute the land.

This is also what Li Ye was doing, but unlike historical rulers, Li Ye was still using the powerful Tang Dynasty military force to conquer neighbors and plunder wealth. This was the fastest and most effective way to replenish blood, which could quickly improve the Tang Dynasty's finances and leave savings.

For example, the Uighurs paid 10 million sheep to redeem the Khan and his 100,000 troops. What did 10 million sheep mean? One sheep cost two strings of money, which meant 20 million strings of money, equivalent to the court's fiscal revenue for one and a half years.

The court officials of the Tang Dynasty were all great scholars who were well-read in the books of sages, but they turned a blind eye and allowed Li Ye to send his army to conquer the east and the west. This was because the war of annihilation could bring back enormous wealth, which could quickly improve the finances and subsidize the finances. Only then could the people reduce taxes and levies, recuperate, and the Tang Dynasty could recover as soon as possible.

Faced with reality and moral concepts, they tend to be more realistic.

The Dongshui Xilu Project was truly beneficial to the country and the people. It distributed the wealth gained from the conquest to the people by building fortifications. With Chang'an as the center, the Tangzhi Road was built west of Chang'an. It not only connected the Western Regions, shortened the travel time between the ruling center and the Western Regions frontier, but also effectively consolidated the Tang Dynasty court's rule over the border areas.

The second is to boost the development of Longyou and Hexi, making transportation more convenient and the flow of materials faster.

To the east of Chang'an, the waterways were widened and dredged, with the focus on the Tianbao Canal, Sanmenxia and Danba Waterways, as well as the Xihan Waterway which is currently under construction. It will connect the Xihan River and the Jialing River, and then through the Danba Waterway, open up water transportation from Chang'an to Bashu.

Therefore, the East Route West Water Project has always been supported by the civil and military officials of the entire court. Although many ministers were worried that the finances could not support it at the beginning, with the continuous influx of wealth from abroad, no one is worried about insufficient financial resources anymore, and at the same time, the construction of the branch line of the Tangzhi Road Project began.

The Tangzhi Road that Li Ye is currently inspecting is the Yong County branch road. A 50-mile-long straight road will be built from Yong County to connect to the main trunk of the Tangzhi Road.

Yong County mobilized 30,000 laborers and prepared to repair this straight road, which was about 50 miles long, in three months.

The reason why it only took three months was that the construction work was much smaller because it was renovated and rebuilt on the basis of the original official road. During this period, merchants could only take the previously abandoned official roads or the waterways.

The construction site was noisy with people working on the site. Laborers were laying gravel. An official introduced to Li Ye, "Your Majesty, these gravel are mined from nearby mountains. Now, using fire mines to mine them is much easier than using manual chiseling before."

Li Ye nodded, "Is it compacted down there?"

"Of course it is compacted. This must be done before laying the gravel. The road surface must be laid flat, and then a huge stone roller is used to roll it back and forth before laying the gravel. Finally, a layer of cooked soil is laid on top."

Li Ye pondered for a moment, and then asked Yang Shenyu, the assistant minister of the Ministry of Revenue, who was accompanying him, "It was agreed that the burden of road construction would be 50% for the local government and 50% for the court. Where did their financial resources come from?" Yang Shenyu bowed and said, "Your Majesty, this straight road is planned to cost 400,000 strings of cash, mainly for labor costs. The court subsidized 200,000 strings of cash, and Yong County itself had to pay 200,000 strings of cash. On the one hand, the people and local wealthy families donated money, and on the other hand, the government provided 30,000 healthy cattle to sell to merchants from all over the country."

"Can Yong County provide 30,000 strong cattle?"

Yang Shenyu nodded. "The county government has three large cattle ranches, which house about 100,000 cattle and two million sheep. They originally belonged to a wealthy businessman named Cao. His two sons died in the An Lushan Rebellion, and he had no grandsons. After Cao died, there was no one to inherit the cattle ranches, so they were taken over by the government, half to the county government and half to the prefecture government."

Li Ye turned around and smiled at the county officials who were accompanying him: "This is the first time I know that the Yong County government has three large ranches. It seems that being an official in Qizhou is a lucrative job!"

Qizhou Governor Wu Huanyuan was so frightened that his face turned pale. He bowed and explained: "Your Majesty, the censors come to inspect every year. I dare not have any improper thoughts."

Li Ye smiled and said, "At least mutton is cheap, and I eat a lot of fat. I have gained weight in the past two years. How can this not be a lucrative position?"

Everyone laughed, and several officials said quickly: "Your Majesty is right. The price of mutton in Yong County is 30% cheaper than that in Chang'an. Many people in Chang'an will come to Yong County to eat mutton."

Li Ye smiled and said, "Let's rest in Yong County tonight and have a good meal of mutton. I will pay for it myself, so you don't have to treat me!"

In fact, Li Ye knew that local officials could not have no benefits. Generally speaking, the trick was the loss. There would always be premature death or disease in raising cattle and sheep! This was the loss. For example, if the loss of 100,000 cattle was 5%, that would be 5,000 cattle, which could be sold for a large sum of money. It would not be paid through public accounts, and everyone would benefit.

Li Ye is certainly aware of this, but if the water is too clear, there will be no fish. Officials will not work hard if there is no benefit. A ranch that can clearly raise 100,000 cows may only raise 20,000 or 30,000 cows in the end because there is no benefit.

This is how the officialdom is. As long as you don't overdo anything and can grasp the right degree, basically nothing will happen.

Just like the three cattle farms, officials took advantage of the losses to make profits, and other local governments also took advantage of the losses of grain in government warehouses to make profits. These are all within an acceptable range. If the county magistrate embezzled the cattle farms, and other local officials embezzled the government land, then they would have crossed the red line and would have been caught.

So being an official is important, but emotional intelligence is equally important. Knowing what you can and cannot do, and knowing where the red line is.

I once read a story that said there was a flood in a certain place in the early Ming Dynasty. The imperial court allocated 30,000 shi of relief grain. The county magistrate found that the quality of the rice was good and it was all new rice, so he exchanged the 30,000 shi of new rice for 30,000 shi of old rice. The county magistrate made a profit of several hundred strings of cash from the difference. The 30,000 shi of old rice was distributed to the victims, but the victims didn't care about the new rice or the old rice. They were all very grateful when they received the relief grain. The county magistrate even deliberately kept several hundred shi of new rice and put them in the warehouse for future inspection.

Later, Zhu Yuanzhang sent an imperial censor to check and found that the amount of grain distributed was completely correct and there was no problem with the remaining grain. The victims praised the county magistrate as an honest official. The imperial censor replied to Zhu Yuanzhang that the officials he checked were of the highest praise. The emperor was very pleased and promoted the county magistrate to a state official.

The victims were satisfied, the emperor was satisfied, the officials were satisfied, and everyone was happy. This is an official with high emotional intelligence. In the era of Zhu Yuanzhang's skinning, he found a balance and did not covet the capital or take advantage of the situation.

Of course, during the prosperous Kangxi and Qianlong eras, being a clean magistrate for three years was worth 100,000 silver coins, which was another matter.

We stayed in Yong County for one night and had a mutton meal, which was naturally treated by the local government and was charged to the public account.

The next morning, Li Ye, escorted by hundreds of cavalrymen, left Yong County with his favorite concubine Yang Yuhuan and continued northward, heading to Linyou County along another official road under construction.

(End of this chapter)