Eastern Jin Dynasty: My powerful father

Chapter 218 Everyone has their own difficulties

Liangzhou, Guzang.

While Huan Xi asked Wang Meng about the disaster relief situation, Zhao Ju, who was actually in charge of the disaster relief, came to the porridge factory to inspect it in person.

Today is the twelfth lunar month, and on this festive occasion, it is rare to put some minced meat in the porridge water.

Of course, on average, this little bit of minced meat in each person's bowl is only enough to fill the gap between teeth, but it can still be regarded as meat.

Due to the financial constraints of the Liang Kingdom, Huan Xi gave up working-for-relief, and it was impossible for the victims to really fill their bellies. He could only provide two meals of rice porridge every day.

We have to wait until spring plowing to arrange extra meals for the farmers.

But Huan Xi also clearly instructed that no victims should starve to death. If someone else was in charge of disaster relief, there would be policies from above and countermeasures from below.

Since the victims cannot starve to death, it is better to report that the victims were frozen to death. Anyway, the weather is freezing, so if someone freezes to death, that is normal.

But Zhao Ju obviously didn't think so. He thought that he failed to protect Guzang and failed Huanxi's expectations, and regarded it as a great shame and humiliation. Now that he was ordered to preside over the disaster relief, he was trying his best, lest he mess up the matter. Triggered a civil uprising, and then provoked a rebellion for Huan Xi.

After Huan Xi's order reached Liangzhou, Zhao Ju immediately borrowed Zhang Yaoling's governor's seal and issued decrees to the affected counties through the governor's office and sent envoys to the porridge factories in various places.

The messenger only has to do one thing, which is to insert wooden chopsticks into the pot. Once the chopsticks float, it means that there is too little rice in the pot, and the corresponding person in charge will be charged and executed.

Therefore, whether it is the official responsible for distributing rice, the person in charge of the porridge factory, or even the cook who lights the fire, he has to say goodbye to his family before leaving home every day, as if he is being taken to the execution ground.

Zhao Ju also held the three positions of Governor of Liang, Zuofu of Dadan Yutai, and Prefect of Wuwei. It can be said that he was busy with official duties.

But he comes to the porridge factory every morning and evening, inserting wooden chopsticks himself to test the consistency of the rice porridge.

Of course, for Liangzhou currently, there is indeed nothing more important than disaster relief.

Zhao Ju simply moved his office outside the city, not far from the porridge factory.

When Zhao Ju inserted the wooden chopsticks into the hundreds of pots and stoves in the Guzang Porridge Factory one by one, he saw that the wooden chopsticks did not float up. The officials who were transferred to the porridge factory celebrated each other, their faces full of joy of surviving the disaster.

In fact, as long as the porridge is served according to the standards set by Zhao Ju, the consistency of the rice porridge can meet the requirements, and the chopsticks will not float in the pot. Occasionally, if there is an unexpected situation, you can try it a few more times as appropriate.

Zhao Ju's high-pressure approach naturally made the officials below him itch with hatred.

But unfortunately, not only did he come from a distinguished family, he was also the leader of the Tianshui Zhao family, the largest family in Longyou, and he had Huan Xi supporting him behind him.

It is said that when Huan Xi learned about the fall of Guzang, his first reaction was to ask about Zhao Ju's life and death.

No matter his family background, power, or even his relationship with Huan Xi, he was inferior to Zhao Ju. No matter how much he complained, he could only swallow his anger.

After all, Zhao Ju also served as the left assistant of Gu Zang Shanyu Tai. In case of emergency, he had the right to recruit Xianbei from Hexi to come to Gu Zang to listen to him.

Zhao Ju watched the Guzang victims receiving rice porridge before leaving the porridge factory. When he returned to his mansion in the city, the sky had already darkened.

His wife had already prepared dinner. The food was not rich or frugal, but it was enough to fill the stomach.

Zhao Ju is not Huan Xi. If it were Huan Xi who was providing disaster relief in Liangzhou, he would definitely have to pretend to eat with the victims in the porridge factory, then go home and open another stove to prepare some exquisite dishes for himself.

Of course, this kind of thing can only be done by Huan Xi. If others follow suit, they will inevitably be suspected, thinking that this is a deliberate attempt to win people's hearts and that it is an act of ulterior motives.

Although she said nothing while eating or sleeping, Zhao Ju's wife couldn't help but persuade her:

"My husband has fulfilled his duties to repay Duke Liang's kindness, but he leaves early and comes home late all day long. Even when he returns to the mansion, he has to stay in the study to process official documents until late at night.

“How can such hard work last long?

"In my humble opinion, it is better to leave the inspection of the porridge factory to a trustworthy person."

Zhao Ju holds three jobs and has to spend a long time at the porridge factory every day. During the daytime office hours, he simply cannot handle so much government affairs.

Therefore, he could only take the official documents home and continue working, so as not to backlog government affairs.

Of course Zhao Ju knew that his wife's concerns were not without purpose.

At the beginning, Huan Xi was worried about Wang Meng's health and explicitly prohibited Wang Meng from taking official documents home, nor did he allow Wang Meng to stay in the government office and work overtime. Instead, he sent the unfinished official documents to Weiyang Palace for his personal review.

"Rescuing the victims is a big deal. I have sent confidants to various counties, but there are no trustworthy people around."

Zhao Ju said helplessly.

After hearing this, his wife recommended herself:

"I am willing to share my husband's worries, but I am just inserting chopsticks into the pot. Even though I am a woman, I can do that!"

Zhao Ju's eyes lit up. Limited by the idea that the male protagonist is outside and the female protagonist is inside, Zhao Ju had never thought about his wife before.

As my wife said, it is not difficult to insert wooden chopsticks into the pot. The most important thing is that the supervisor must be trustworthy and not collude with the people in the porridge factory.

As for his wife, who has been with him for almost thirty years, who else can be more trustworthy than her?

Zhao Ju put down his bowl and chopsticks and said happily:

"In this case, there is Mrs. Lao." The couple looked at each other and smiled.

As New Year's Eve approaches, the festive atmosphere becomes more and more intense. For the people of Guanlong, this year is another good year.

Different from the original time and space, there was no famine in Guanlong this year.

Of course, the reason why the history books left a sentence in the 10th year of Yonghe: It was the year of Qin's great famine, and a liter of rice was used to make a piece of cloth.

There was also a reason. In the original time and space, Huan Wen attacked Guanzhong and forced Fu Jian to fortify the wall and clear the country, which triggered the famine.

Nowadays, Guanlong has been in peace for a long time. Although Huanxi has been fighting almost continuously for many years, he has always fought outside and has not let the flames of war reach Guanlong. He has never levied excessive taxes on the people because of the conquests.

Therefore, although the national treasury is tight, the people's lives are quite comfortable.

The Liang State under Huan Xi's rule was a country that was strong and its people were prosperous, not a country that was prosperous and its people were strong.

The people had savings, which further promoted the development of handicrafts and commerce. Naturally, Huan Xi finally decided to increase the commercial tax. In nominal terms, it was still a two percent over-tax, that is, a customs duty, and a three percent residence tax. That is trade tax.

However, duplication of taxation has been allowed at customs. Each county has a tax customs. This is equivalent to a 2% residence tax for each county that traders pass through.

Of course, even if there are many tax cards in Guanlong, merchants can still make a profit.

They travel thousands of miles to transport goods that are not available or in short supply locally, all for the purpose of making huge profits.

In the Guanlong area, people live a prosperous life, and there is no need to worry about lack of sales for those popular products.

In the Northern Song Dynasty, there were 1200 county-level administrative units across the country, but 2200 tax customs were established, which was close to the scale of two customs in one county. However, this did not hinder the commodity economy in the Northern Song Dynasty from reaching unprecedented prosperity.

Huan Xi set up a tax customs in every county in the Guanlong area, which would not hinder merchants from chasing huge profits.

The new commercial tax law will be promulgated on the first day of next year. It has already been issued in various places. The increase in commercial tax revenue will also greatly alleviate the financial problems currently faced by Liang Guo.

Nowadays, it is not only Huanxi’s Liang State that is financially strapped, but Huan Wen’s Chu State is also not wealthy.

Although the Northern Expedition was successful, during the Northern Expedition, the Chu State's treasury not only had to provide for the expenses of the allied soldiers and civilians. After the war, Huan Wen did not hesitate to reward the soldiers of Chu and Liang.

The results achieved by Huan Wen were mainly concentrated on the political level.

Among the three counties of Henan, Yingchuan and Xiangcheng, only Xiangcheng County can be self-sufficient, and the two counties of Henan and Yingchuan are undoubtedly a heavy burden for Huan Wen.

Previously, Zhou Cheng was clearing the country in Yingchuan County. At the same time, Zhou Cheng never managed Henan County, but only sent 500 people to guard Luoyang. Therefore, Henan County also failed to gain anything.

Now, Huan Wen has seized the tribes of Zhou Cheng and Lu Hu, which is equivalent to shouldering a heavy burden. He must support their tribes and the families of the soldiers.

When Lu Hu was forced to leave Ye Wang, he brought his soldiers' families to Luoyang.

Zhou Cheng and Lu Hu's original 30,000 soldiers and their families were waiting for food, and the 30,000 households were almost equal to the number of victims in Liangzhou.

But the problem is that there is still a certain amount of surplus grain in the treasury of each county in Liangzhou, and Huan Wen has to allocate grain from other places. The people along the way eat it, which is also a loss.

Obviously, Huan Wen's accumulation in the past seven years will not be too far away from being squandered.

Murong Ke also worked hard on the expedition, but in comparison, Yan's losses were not as great as Huan Wen's.

First, he won Hanoi County for nothing. Lu Hu had previously organized people to farm. Murong Ke sent troops to harvest when the grains in the fields matured after Lu Hu left, which could make up for some of the losses.

The second is that Murong Ke characterized this battle as a defeat, so there was no need to reward the soldiers heavily.

Thirdly, Murong Ke did not carry the big burden of Henan County, so he did not need to allocate food from Hebei to provide relief to the 30,000 households currently living in Henan County.

Therefore, even if Yan's accumulation is not as good as Chu's, Yan still has enough strength to plan an attack on Qingzhou in the coming year.

In a short period of time, Huan Wen was unable to launch any more large-scale battles.

This is why Huan Xi always chooses to send troops before and after the grain is mature, so as to feed the enemy as much as possible and reduce his own losses.

Moreover, when Huan Xi sent out troops, he would only bring a small number of civilians with him, and he would ask various places to prepare meals. However, he focused on having the best troops, not too many. In the past, he commanded battles with as many as 30,000 and as few as 10,000 or 20,000.

At the same time, something can always be captured in every battle, which can more or less supplement the finances. It will not be like Huan Wen's Northern Expedition, which involves losing money and making a profit.

In essence, Huan Wen's Northern Expedition was making money at a loss. A large amount of manpower and material resources would have to be invested in running Luoyang in the future.

Even Huan Xi was implicated and was forced to extend his defense line from Tongguan to Hongnong County, containing 30,000 of his elite troops.

Such consequences are not unpredictable, but Huan Wen needs a victory, needs to manage Luoyang, and force the court to return to the old capital in the future.

Huan Xi could only try his best to cooperate with him. After all, father and son both prospered and suffered losses.

　No more today, good night everyone.

　　

　

(End of this chapter)