Han family achievements

Chapter 512 Different from the past
The first year of Jian'an, the last day.

Liu Bian appeared in the main shop of the Royal Money Shop, which was located on the south side of the Luoyang Imperial Palace, on the west side of the Imperial Street, opposite the Six Ministries and other government offices.

Liu Bian was sitting in Liu Ba's duty room, flipping through the account books.

Liu Ba, Wang Jing and others stood opposite him, respectful and cautious, not daring to breathe.

Behind them was Dian Wei, who was as tall and strong as a door god, and many plainclothes guards.

Liu Bian looked at each business and the numbers behind them, analyzing them quietly.

The business scope of the Royal Money Shop is already very wide, but the most profitable business is still the deposit and withdrawal business, followed by loans.

As the northern part of the Han Dynasty gradually became completely stabilized and the court's control over the local areas continued to increase, the development of royal money shops in various states and counties was in full swing.

Many common people and noble families were terrified by the war and deposited their valuables and money in the Royal Money Shop. This enabled the Royal Money Shop to earn a lot of "cash flow" in addition to handling fees and storage fees.

According to the statistics in Liu Ba's account book, the total deposits of the Royal Money Shop have reached nearly 20 million. Even though they are distributed in various places, they still make the Royal Money Shop wealthy.

When Liu Bian looked at these numbers, he couldn't help but feel a sense of heroism in his heart.

With so much money in hand, there is nothing that cannot be done!

Even if the money is only temporarily kept with him.

"Three thousand hectares?"

Liu Bian suddenly saw the data on the acreage of land, and looked up at Liu Bian and Wang Jing in surprise, and asked, "Is this all the land you bought this year?"

Wang Jing was startled and quickly explained: "Your Majesty, these are all fertile fields, basically in Yanzhou and Jizhou. They are the best fields. I, your humble servant, have also spent a lot of effort..."

Liu Bian waved his hand to stop him from speaking, took the box beside him, threw a stack of documents from it onto the desk, and said, "You should also put these into the warehouse."

Liu Ba went forward and opened a pile of documents and found that they were all land deeds, and there were a lot of them.

Five thousand hectares!
Liu Bian was slightly surprised. This was not a small number, and it did not belong to the imperial farm. At most, it was fertile land near Sili and Yanzhou!

"Your Majesty, this?" Liu Ba said in surprise.

"It's given by others, so put it into the warehouse." Liu Bian didn't even raise his head and continued to look at the account book.

Liu Ba responded softly and turned to hand it to Wang Jing.

Wang Jing only felt his scalp tingling and his heart chilled.

His father Wang Zifu was Dong Cheng's man and had been implicated and dismissed from all official positions, but he was spared and was not held accountable.

Obviously, it was not that the Ministry of Justice could not find out, but that His Majesty in front of him protected him!

Now, the deed to five thousand hectares of land fell into his hands, which made him extremely frightened and his legs trembled.

Dong dong dong

Suddenly, there was a shrill sound outside the gate, as if someone was beating a gong.

Liu Bian frowned, closed the account book, and said to Liu Ba with a smile: "Well done."

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Liu Ba said flattered. He needed Liu Bian's compliment, which meant that at least there was nothing wrong with his account book.

Liu Bian stood up, hesitated for a moment, and said, "Do as you wish. In the next few years, the court will need a lot of expenses. After these years, the states will be stable, the land will be reclaimed, and taxes will gradually increase. Everything will be fine."

"I understand." Liu Ba said quickly.

Liu Bian hummed and was about to speak when the harsh sound at the door sounded again, and it seemed a little impatient and knocking urgently.

"I will deal with it right away." Liu Ba said anxiously when he saw it.

Liu Bian was slightly curious and followed Liu Ba out.

When they arrived at the gate, they saw more than 30 oxcarts parked outside, piled with boxes. A big man with his chest exposed and holding a big gong shouted at Liu Ba who came out, "Manager Liu, I have more than 200 boxes. Do you want to take them or not?"

Liu Ba smiled like a businessman, raised his hand and said, "Manager Yang, it's not that the shop doesn't want to take it, it's just that we don't have the capital."

The big man surnamed Yang snorted coldly, looked around, and said, "Aren't you afraid that I will beat drums and gongs, and shout all over the street, saying that your shop is a bully? You accept other people's money, but not my surname Yang. Shopkeeper Liu, are you deliberately bullying my Yang family?!"

Liu Ba hesitated for a moment, then stepped forward and whispered a few words to the big man named Yang.

The big man named Yang was holding a large gong, clearly threatening, but his voice also became quieter.

Watching the two talking, Liu Bian saw that more and more people were watching and asked Wang Jing, "What's going on?"

Wang Jing stood behind Liu Bian and said in a low voice, "Your Majesty, these people are from the Yang family of Nanyang. On the surface, they are a noble family, but in recent years they have been engaged in grave digging, which is despised by people. Most of their things are not clean, so Manager Liu refused to accept them. This is the third time they have come."

Liu Bian understood, and after thinking about the Nanyang Yang family carefully, he became interested and asked, "Does the Yang family have some relationship with the imperial court?"

Wang Jing's mouth twitched and he said, "I don't know about this."

Liu Bian had already understood, and looked at the more than 30 ox carts thoughtfully.

"Tomb robbing? Grave robbers? Did Cao Cao get his money and food in this way?"

Liu Bian thought to himself that in the past few expeditions, Cao Cao took away the soldiers and horses from the imperial guards camp, but he had to raise the money and food himself. This might be possible once or twice, but he could always raise the money and food, which could not be explained by common sense.

The imperial court had always suspected where Cao Cao's money and grain came from, and now Liu Bian had another direction to think about.

Not long after, Liu Ba turned around with a grim look on his face, as if he was about to go into the shop. But when he saw Liu Bian, he suddenly remembered something and turned back. He whispered a warning to the big man named Yang, "Not only do we not accept money here, but all branches and sub-branches of the Royal Money Shop will not accept money. Look carefully at the word 'Royal' on the plaque, and you'd better be more restrained."

The big man named Yang held up the gong, and suddenly smiled. He whispered, "Manager Liu, how do you know that other places don't accept it? Or, they confiscate it?"

Liu Ba's eyes were gloomy, and he shouted in a low voice: "Yang Zheng, don't think I'm easy to bully. If you push me into a corner, I won't buy into the people behind you! I can hand over the things they deposited in the money shop directly to the Criminal Department!"

Yang Zheng laughed, a little foolishly, and said, "If Manager Liu really wants to do that, I won't stop him. By then, when the court investigates thoroughly, how many of Manager Liu's money shops will be clean? How will Manager Liu explain to the Ministry of Revenue and the palace?"

Liu Ba gnashed his teeth in hatred, glanced at the hundreds of boxes, thought for a while, and said, "I can take them, but this is the last time! If you force me again, I will go to the palace to apologize, and we will both die!"

Yang Zheng seemed to be afraid of pushing Liu Ba too far, so he put down the gong and said, "Everything is up to Manager Liu."

Seeing that he still knew what was good for him, Liu Ba took a deep breath, called the guys behind him, whispered a few words to them, and the guys began to receive the big boxes.

Yang Zheng leisurely took a small stool and sat directly at the door of the Royal Money Shop, watching the clerks of the Royal Money Shop open the boxes and register them one by one. He ignored them and had no intention of stepping forward to supervise.

Liu Ba calmed down again and again, then turned around and came to Liu Bian who was at the door.

"They are all stolen goods. You accepted them too?" Liu Bian asked curiously.

Liu Ba's expression was stiff, he was about to speak but hesitated, finally he took a step forward and whispered: "Your Majesty, now the situation of the shop is a bit complicated. Even if I don't accept it here, there is no guarantee that other branches and sub-branches will not accept it. In the end, it will still fall into the money shop." Liu Bian raised his eyebrows, understood what he said, and said: "What kind of people are they? They are so arrogant that even you want to give in?"

Liu Ba had no real job and not many people knew about him, but he was the owner of the "Royal Money Shop", which in itself showed that he had a strong background.

Liu Ba didn't know where to start for a moment, so he said briefly: "Your Majesty, Nanyang and Yingchuan are adjacent to each other, and their in-laws and teacher-student relationships are complicated. If I really offend you, I am worried that it will be difficult to promote the Royal Money Shop in various places."

Liu Bian said, "Oh," nodded, and said with a smile, "Your family has its own difficulties, I understand."

Although Liu Ba was only the owner of a small royal money shop, he also had many concerns, like the imperial court, the Secretariat, and Prime Minister Xun Yu. It was not that he could do whatever he wanted just because he had power, nor that he could solve all problems by using force and killing some people.

"Thank you, Your Majesty." Liu Ba whispered.

Liu Bian took another look at the more than 30 ox carts, and left through the back door with his men without making a sound.

As soon as they entered the Suzaku Gate, Zhao Yun came to meet them. Seeing that there were many people around Liu Bian, he nodded solemnly and said, "Your Majesty, Yu Fuluo is ready."

Liu Bian narrowed his eyes, smiled, and said, "That's good. He is loyal, let him go back."

"Yes." Zhao Yun responded.

Liu Bian continued to walk inside. He saw Lu Yu coming out of the Shizhong's residence out of the corner of his eye. He couldn't help but ask curiously, "Zijia, what are you doing here?"

Lu Yu came up to him quickly and said, "Your Majesty, the Secretariat needs some things, and I am collecting them everywhere."

Liu Bian looked towards the direction of the Jiade Hall and asked with a smile: "What? Are you still arguing?"

Lu Yu lowered his head and said, "Yes."

It was the end of the year, and the Secretariat and the six ministries and nine temples were arguing about many things, such as a series of policy plans and budgets of each government office and temple, as well as the appointment and transfer of officials at all levels.

Although the "Yingchuan Party" is the only dominant party, it cannot be too greedy and must maintain its dignity, so disputes are inevitable over the division of interests.

"Let them quarrel."

Liu Bian continued to walk forward and said, "Zilong, what do you think of the reduction in the number of troops proposed by the Grand Marshal's Mansion?"

Cao Cao and Liu Bei had intensive discussions and finally came to a conclusion that the number of troops was too full.

Therefore, on the basis of "separation of military and political affairs", a plan was proposed to reduce the number of soldiers from top to bottom, to control the Han Dynasty's "imperial guards" to within 200,000 and the city defense soldiers to within 250,000.

The president reduced the number of soldiers by nearly half.

Zhao Yun followed Liu Bian and thought for a moment before saying, "Your Majesty, I think it's possible."

"Oh?"

Liu Bian was a little surprised. He looked back at him, thought for a moment, and said with a smile, "Reducing the military and government. Okay, I agree."

Zhao Yun was stunned. He thought Liu Bian would ask further questions and had prepared a reply. However, he did not expect that the emperor in front of him would not stop at the point as he did in the past and agreed directly.

At this moment, he also discovered that his Majesty was very different from before.

When Liu Bian passed through the Jiade Hall and returned to the Chongde Hall, he vaguely heard the sound of quarreling coming from the Shangshu Terrace. He just smiled and ignored it.

The meeting room of the Shangshutai was packed with more than 30 people, many of whom had red faces and were drooling.

They have lost their former gentle and refined demeanor and are just about to roll up their sleeves and get to work.

Xun Yu was troubled by the quarrel and tried to persuade them to reconcile, but even so, he could not stop his colleagues from arguing.

Kong Rong roared, "Why are you cutting the budget of my Taichang Temple? Your Majesty clearly promised to increase it!"

Huangfu Jian sneered, "The Li Cao disagrees. On what basis do they disagree? They were all wise ministers of the previous emperor. What's the problem with them being re-appointed? I have so many vacancies in the Bing Cao, but the Li Cao keeps blocking them. What's their intention?!"

Chen Gong was even more direct, saying calmly: "The wages and grain of the Gongcao must be increased by 30%. If there is another heavy rain next year and the dam bursts, who can bear the consequences?"

Chen Lin looked calm, but his tone was unfriendly. He said, "What do you mean I, the Rites Officer, have almost nothing to do? I, the Rites Officer, am so busy that I have no time to rest. Prefect Zhou, be careful with your words!"

Xun You and Zhong Yao also personally stepped forward to persuade all parties to back off.

But the ministers and ministers who were arguing were not paying any attention to it. Some of them were so excited that they pushed Zhong Yao away and almost knocked him down.

The scene was chaotic and difficult to control at one point.

It was not until midnight that Sima Yi left the Secretariat and came to Chongde Hall with a memorial.

Liu Bian was reviewing memorials when he heard footsteps. He looked up and saw Sima Yi coming in cautiously with a tired look on his face.

"Are you done arguing?" Liu Bian reached for the teacup and said with a smile.

Sima Yi came closer, handed over the memorial respectfully, and said, "Your Majesty, the Secretariat has not yet made a decision."

"Oh, that means you haven't finished copying it."

Liu Bian smiled and drank a sip of tea, then said, "Then take it back and continue arguing."

Sima Yi was stunned and felt a little at a loss.

Pan Yin handed the memorial back to him and gave him a look.

Sima Yi raised his hand in understanding and said, "I will take my leave."

Liu Bian shook his head slightly, waited for him to leave, put down the teacup and continued marking.

It's the end of the year and he is even busier, with a bunch of things waiting for him to make decisions or take the blame.

"His Majesty."

I don’t know how long it took, but suddenly, Pan Yin came to Liu Bian’s side and whispered.

Liu Bian slowly raised his head and saw that Huangfu Jian had arrived without him noticing.

Liu Bian glanced out the window. It was getting light in the sky. He frowned and asked, "Something happened?"

Huangfu Jianchang looked calm and said, "Your Majesty, it's not a big deal. Yuan Shao and the Shi family were at a stalemate in Nanhai County, and Yuan Shao sent people to Changsha. The secret talks in the Imperial Palace got news that Yuan Shao's adviser Guo Tu bribed Liu Biao's wife Cai, saying that they wanted to divide Jiaozhi equally. Liu Biao was tempted and might send troops to help Yuan Shao conquer Jiaozhi."

Liu Bian couldn't help but sit up straight and turned to look at the map on the right.

Pan Yin immediately took the candle and illuminated the map.

(End of this chapter)