At the end of Qin, I became a son of the plane

Chapter 485: Rectification of Chen County and the Re-emergence of the Economic Crisis

On December 5th, the 19th year of the Han calendar, Chen County, the County Magistrate's Office.

After taking control of the entire Chen County, Zhou Bo summoned all the officials of Chen County, including the Shaofu Manager, the County Shaofu Manager, the County Managers of the four major money houses, and others.

Zhou Bo stared at these people with a very stern look. If he hadn't investigated it personally, he wouldn't have believed that the local Han officials dared to be so bold. 12 billion coins was almost half of Chen County's annual tax revenue.

The Han officials around were all sweating profusely under Zhou Bo's stare. Zhou Bo directly sealed Chen County. This was the first time since the founding of the Han Dynasty. They understood that this matter could not be concealed. Moreover, the court's attitude towards them was extremely bad. The army was mobilized. It was almost a punishment for them with the attitude of suppressing rebellion.

However, Zhou Bo did not have a good reputation in the Han officialdom. Collecting taxes was a disgusting job, not to mention that Zhou Bo was an armed tax collector. Every time Zhou Bo got promoted, he used his own people as meritorious officials. Therefore, in the Han officialdom, Zhou Bo was known as a cruel official. Although this was a bad reputation, it was very deterrent.

Especially the managers of the four major money houses, they are already as worried as cows and sitting on pins and needles at this time. What they have done is to deceive their superiors and not hide the truth from their subordinates. If the superiors don't investigate, it's good for everyone, and they can easily make high profits. But as long as they investigate, there are loopholes everywhere and they can't make up for it at all.

Now they all regretted why they were so greedy, and now they have lost their bright future. But soon they began to blame the Han officials who contacted them, saying that if they hadn't dragged them into this, they wouldn't be in this situation today.

After all, they were obsessed with money. They took money from the bank at an interest rate of 2%, and then lent it out at an interest rate of about %. Ten points would go to the people upstream and downstream, and ten points would go to them. They could make millions of dollars a year, and this business made them richer than kings and princes. If Zhou Bo hadn't made a surprise attack this time, no one would have noticed it. The borrowed money would have been paid back eventually. Who knew that the court would make a surprise attack?

After Zhou Bo looked around at the Han officials present, he threw out a pile of documents and angrily shouted, "Wang Dao, how can you be a county governor? You don't even know that your subordinates have taken 1.2 billion yuan from the court. Do you still want to be a prefect?"

The entire Chen County was rotten from top to bottom. This was the first time such a terrible thing had happened in the Han Dynasty, and the county governor Wang Dao should bear the main responsibility.

Wang Dao was frightened when he was scolded like this, but he soon remembered that he was a veteran who had defected to the emperor in Chen County. In terms of seniority, he was above Zhou Bo. But Zhou Bo was about to become the prime minister of the Han Dynasty and rule the world, while he was still serving as a county governor with a salary of 2000 stones. Was this fair?

Wang Dao couldn't tell whether he was complaining about the court's injustice or jealous of Zhou Bo's future, and retorted: "This is a loophole in the money house system. I didn't take a penny from them, and the court also forbade us to interfere with the operation of the money house system. This is the fault of the money house. What does my Chenjun government have to do with it? The false appearance cannot be blamed on me. The court doesn't want me to be involved in anything, so they won't come to me again when there is a problem."

Ten years ago, Wang Dao was the prefect of Kuaiji County, which was one of the top five richest counties in the Han Dynasty. In addition to his status as a veteran of Chen County, his status was half a point higher than that of an ordinary prefect.

At that time, Wang Dao was ambitious to make greater political achievements, to challenge the positions of the Nine Ministers in the court, and even the position of Prime Minister. He wanted to rule the world and realize his ambitions.

But what disappointed Wang Dao was that the court did not take him seriously. Xiao He, a minor official at the time, became the Prime Minister of the Han Dynasty, Ye Teng, who had less qualifications than him, became a false face of the Han Dynasty, and even the merchant farmer who looked more like a farmer than an official became a false face of the Han Dynasty.

In terms of seniority and merit, these younger generations surpassed him. The court did not even give him a position as one of the Nine Ministers. Wang Dao had nothing to say about Cao Shen's merits in taking over the position of Tongzhengsi. Wang Dao was not jealous of Li Shang, who had a relationship with his elder brother and was also an outstanding military general, so he took over Li Shiqi's position as the Minister of Internal Affairs.

But Zhang Qiang was just a private, so why could he take over the position of Grand Minister of Agriculture? You can't give him the important position of Nine Ministers just because he was born a farmer and knows how to farm. It's even worse that Wu Jun, who replaced Wu Guang as the Minister of Justice, is just a retired old soldier with a broken arm and his limbs are not complete. Your Majesty, you would rather reuse a disabled person than even look at him!
After the second appointment of the Three Dukes and Nine Ministers of the Han Dynasty, Wang Dao felt resentful towards the emperor. He believed that he should go further in terms of qualifications and merits. In the next ten years, Wang Dao made no progress in his career. He was just transferred from Kuaiji County to Nanyang County as a prefect, and then from Nanyang County to Chen County. The position of Nine Ministers he dreamed of seemed to be within reach, but it was like a piece of transparent glass blocking his path to progress. Now he is over sixty years old, which is still the time when an official can be considered young and strong at other times.

But the Han Dynasty was in its founding period, and there were few dukes and nine ministers older than him. Behind him was a large group of young and strong governors who ambitiously wanted to challenge the positions of dukes and nine ministers.

Wang Dao knew that he had no chance to advance further. The governor of 2000 shi was his limit. When he realized this, Wang Dao had a broken jar in his heart. He no longer cared about the government affairs of Chen County and entered a state of retirement. The current chaos in Chen County has a lot to do with Wang Dao's inaction.

When Zhou Bo heard Wang Dao still wanted to distance himself from the matter, he angrily said, "You are just quibbling. It was not the Han officials of Chen County who were in contact with the money house. The court asked you to guard the place where the dragon rose, but you guarded it like this. You did nothing every day and let the people below do whatever they wanted. The court asked you to reduce the scale of your workshops in the past two years, but you, Chen County, pretended to obey and did not do it. Not only did you not reduce the scale of your workshops, you also borrowed money from the money houses to expand the scale. Don't you know these things? You have to pay back the borrowed money. When the economic crisis broke out, what can you use to pay it back? You can only use the tax revenue of Chen County in the next few years to repay it. Don't you know that these are all the blood and sweat of the people of the Han Dynasty?"

Li You, the county's junior official, said with great guilt, "The false appearance is mainly the fault of my subordinates. I did not manage the workshops well."

Zhou Bo snorted coldly, "Your head is not enough to bear the debt of 1.2 billion. You Chenjun is responsible from top to bottom. Wang Dao is the county governor and should bear the main responsibility. You can't escape. I tell you that this matter is too big and you are too lawless. This time, exiling your whole family to Lingnan is a light punishment. If you don't pay the debt with hundreds of heads, you will not get through this matter."

Hearing this, the people at the scene trembled with fear and broke out in cold sweats. Three Han officials even fainted.

Zhou Bo said coldly, "In the name of the emperor, I temporarily dismiss Wang Dao, the governor of Chen County, and keep him in the mansion, waiting for the court to deal with him."

When Zhou Bo inspected Xu Fan this time, he was granted the scepter representing the emperor, so he really had the power to dismiss Wang Dao. Of course, Wang Dao was a prefect with an official salary of two thousand stones, and if they wanted to try him, they could only do so by order of the court, so Zhou Bo just kept him under surveillance.

"Come here, take Wang Dao back to the mansion and keep him under strict guard."

"Yes!" Two soldiers took Wang Dao away.

Then Zhou Bo selected a dozen Han officials from Chen County, all of whom were connected to the bank. To prevent these petty officials from being deceived, Zhou Bo said bluntly: "Throw them into jail and torture them severely. Make them confess everything they know. Ask them to tell me all the mistakes they have made since they were young."

"Yes!" Dozens of soldiers took away the Han officials named by Zhou Bo.

These Han officials who were taken away were all terrified. "We confess, please spare our lives, Prime Minister!" Zhou Bo's reputation as a cruel official was well known to them, and they didn't dare to imagine their future outcomes.

But Zhou Bo was not moved at all and watched them being dragged out one by one.

Then Zhou Bo looked at the managers of the four major banks with a look of disappointment and scolded them, "You have brought shame to your father and are unworthy of His Majesty's trust in you. The Han Dynasty was established by the emperor with me and your fathers. Your family also has a part of the Han Dynasty's foundation. You are just selling off my land without any regret, you are a bunch of losers."

These four people are all descendants of the elders of Chen County. After their meritorious service, a large number of these people entered the money bank system. There is no other reason, it is just that the salary of the money bank system is the highest among all the Han officials in the entire Han Dynasty. Of course, relatively speaking, in the money bank system, it is a little bit worse to enter the official career. This was also specially set up by Xu Fan, who wanted to try his best to reduce the influence of the meritorious families on the Han court. It is better for them to earn more money than to become the aristocratic families of the Han Dynasty.

But obviously everything has its pros and cons. Not allowing them to enter the officialdom of the Han Dynasty can limit the birth of aristocratic families. The downside is that these second-generation people will do whatever they want in the financial field and even disrupt the entire financial market of the Han Dynasty. And now this is the consequence that the Han Dynasty must bear.

Chen Mu, the manager of a commercial bank, was a little unconvinced and said, "This money is just loaned out. As long as the merchants pay back the money, the court will not suffer any loss at all." Zhou Bo heard that Chen Mu wanted to refute and said angrily, "This is how your father taught you to enrich yourself. You loaned out money at a 30% interest rate. As the manager of a bank, don't you know that high profits mean high risks? You make money, but the court has to bear the risk for you. This is the truth in the world.

The court has already restricted lending in order to prevent a financial crisis, but you are doing the opposite. You think you are smarter than the court. If a crisis really breaks out and these people can't pay back the money, what will you use to repay the court? Outsiders in a bank can see the risks involved, but you are blinded by greed and can't see it. You even dare to refute it. You have disgraced your father. Not only have you ruined your own future, but you are also dragging your father down. If only your father had not given birth to a rebellious son like you."

"Come here, take these four away, make them explain all the problems clearly, and return all the money that belongs to the court. If they can't pay it back, their entire family will be exiled to Southeast Asia to pay off the debt."

"Yes!" A team of soldiers rushed in and took Chen Mu and several others away.

Zhou Bo then looked at the remaining Han officials and stewards with a very stern look and said, "I am now acting as the prefect of Chen County. You must carry out the orders I give you meticulously. If I find that any of you are indecisive again, or even do something contrary to the decision of the court, I will punish you for both crimes. I will put you in prison to reflect on your actions, and your entire family will be exiled to India."

These Han officials were simply lawless. They dared to go against the imperial court for their own selfish interests and didn't even know whose salary they were receiving.

"We will definitely follow the Prime Minister's lead." The Han official, who had been made a warning to others, answered tremblingly.

Zhou Bo said, "Chen Lei, you will temporarily serve as the county's junior official. You will take full control of Chen County's official workshops and supervise the workshop managers to execute the court's orders. If there are any omissions, I will hold you accountable."

Chen Lei immediately said, "Prime Minister, you are shirking your responsibilities like this. I really cannot accept this order. I don't know what is going on inside the official workshops in Chen County. This is just a pack of dynamite. Who knows when it will explode? I am already taking risks by helping the court to manage these workshops. Now I have to take the blame. I don't want to do such a thankless job."

Chen Lei is not afraid of Zhou Bo. His father is the Shaofu Ling, and he is also the manager of a steel plant under the Shaofu. He is not in the same system as the Han officials, and not even in the same system as the Chenjun workshop. He is directly under the Shaofu of the imperial court, so he was able to stay out of it.

Zhou Bo could only say: "You have done a good job in handling the Chenjun workshop and reduced the losses to the court, which is a great achievement for you."

Only then did Chen Lei take over Zhou Bo's order.

Then Zhou Bo looked at the bank managers who had not been taken away yet, pointed at four older ones and said, "You will temporarily take over the bank managers' positions, and then order the banks under you to strictly implement the court's orders and recover the money that has been loaned out."

Zhou Bo had no good face for these people: "You are now in a state of redeeming your crimes. How much of the 1.2 billion yuan of the court can be recovered will determine your crimes. If you fail to do your job well and cause the court to suffer heavy losses, I guarantee that you will spend the rest of your lives in Southeast Asia and will have to pay back the money you lost for the rest of your lives."

"Yes!" The money shop managers who had just been appointed by Zhou Bo said in a sweat. This was not an easy task to accomplish.

On the 15th day of the twelfth month of the 19th year of the Han calendar, Chen County.

The Imperial Censor Wu Guang and the Chief Justice Wu Jun led a large army to Chen County.

Prime Minister Zhou Bo led the remaining Han officials of Chen County to greet the two men and said, "The hole in Chen County is too big. I have been busy with this matter for a while. Investigating cases is not my strong point, so I will leave it to you, Censor Wu."

Wu Guang said: "I will retire next year, but Prime Minister Zhou found me a good job. I can help the emperor dig out a group of termites before I retire."

Zhou Bo said with regret: "Chen County is the birthplace of our Han Dynasty. It has always been one of the richest counties in our Han Dynasty. But this is because they colluded with each other and created a debt of more than one billion. After this, Chen County will definitely be seriously damaged and will never be able to stand in the first line of counties in the Han Dynasty. It will take five to ten years to recover."

Then Zhou Bo said viciously: "Wang Dao and his people deserve no death."

Wu Guang said: "After all, this money never left the Han Dynasty. It is not a loss for the Han Dynasty to use the useless Chen County in other counties."

Then Zhou Bo and Wu Guang began to cooperate separately. Wu Guang kept interrogating the Han officials in Chen County. At first, they were minor officials who shared profits with the money houses. However, this kind of thing has always been systemic corruption. People who are not one of them will be squeezed out by them. Only by forming a complete interest group can this kind of thing be concealed for so long.

As a result, more and more Han officials were implicated during Wu Guang's trial, including the prefect, lieutenant, and military supervisor. Half of the Han officials in Chen County were implicated in this incident, and the entire political system of Chen County was paralyzed. For this reason, the Han court could only transfer Han officials from Donghai County, Kuaiji County, and Yingchuan County to fill the gap.

Relatively speaking, Zhou Bo was in greater trouble. Those corrupt officials had nowhere to escape. Catching them, confiscating their property, and exiling their entire family to Southeast Asia could minimize the losses.

But it is not so easy to recover the money that was loaned out illegally. The money was either turned into machinery in factory workshops or used as payment for purchasing goods at sea. The borrowers were all floating on the sea and it was impossible to recover the money. The situation of the machinery factory was the same. They could only repay the debt by selling the goods. At this time, Zhou Bo could not get the money even if he went to collect the debt.

Zhou Bo could only order the managers of those money houses to change the interest rate to 15%, as long as these people could repay the loans in advance.

The interest rate was reduced by half, and many merchants actually reduced the price of their goods. This loss was compensated by the loan, and they also sold their goods better. However, they did not expect that this behavior would become the last straw that broke the camel's back.

Now that the growth of investment and production capacity in the Han textile industry has once again exceeded the absorption capacity of other sectors, all factories are struggling, but these factories that have cut prices have broken the cost line of goods production.

As a result, the price of cloth began to decline, and many small textile factories that could not bear the pressure went bankrupt, which eventually led to a large number of bad debts in the four major banks of the Han Dynasty. At the same time, a large number of workers were unemployed and could not find jobs. With the arrival of winter, ordinary people in the Han Dynasty began to reduce consumption, which further led to the sluggish market, thus forming a vicious circle. More factories went bankrupt, more workers lost their jobs, and a crisis began to spread from Chenjun, Donghaijun, Kuaijijun and other places to the entire Han Dynasty.

Zhou Bo could only watch as more than 800 workshops in Chen County collapsed in less than a month, starting with the textile industry, spreading to the machinery industry, bricks, cement and other infrastructure industries, and then expanding to all walks of life. The four major banks in Chen County accumulated more than 100 billion in bad debts, and these bad debts were almost uncollectible. Those merchants were also in a mess, and there was no money to pay. If the court wanted to collect debts, they would use these workshops to pay off the debts, even if they had to pay for their lives. Anyway, they were finished with everything. Even if the court didn't want them, other usurious creditors would not let them go.

Zhou Bo was caught off guard by such a situation.

(End of this chapter)