Datang: What's wrong with my fief being a billion points larger?

Chapter 232: People's Request, Officials' Harshness

Li Yuanji closed his eyes and thought deeply. The more he thought, the more confused he became. He really couldn't figure out what these people were doing, and he couldn't see any cause and effect.

After thinking for a while, Li Yuanji suddenly stood up. Now that he couldn't think of it, he had no choice but to go out and ask those people.

Just then, Yang Jianhe hurried in.

"Your Majesty, thousands of people have gathered in front of your statue. They are from Guangzhou, Nanzhou, and Jiaozhou, with the largest number of people from Leizhou.

I have arranged for the army to maintain order. Fortunately, no one moved, caused any trouble, and no one got emotional.

Four of the old men have come to the outside of the palace and want to see the king."

Li Yuanji listened quietly. Although he showed no expression on his face, he was extremely solemn in his heart. The four prefectures were all originally from Lingnan and were the four most prosperous prefectures.

Especially Leizhou Prefecture, after his vigorous development, it has now surpassed Guangzhou Prefecture and become the richest prefecture in his entire fiefdom, and it even has the largest number of participants.

Listening to the four old men asking for a meeting outside, Li Yuanji's heart was full of sneers. Four mansions, four old men, are these four people the members of the organization?
Li Yuanji looked at Yang Jianhe and said calmly, "Go and bring them here. I will wait for them here."

There was no unusual movement, just a gathering, which meant that things were still under control. However, Li Yuanji was very curious about what it was all about.

After a while, Yang Jianhe came in with four people.

"See you, Your Majesty."

The four old men saluted one after another. Li Yuanji looked at them and said with a smile, "Hurry up and sit down."

"Old man Zheng, I didn't expect you to be in there too. If you have any problem, just tell me. If it can be solved, I will solve it for you personally."

Li Yuanji did not mention anything about this gathering. He was smiling while speaking and did not seem to care at all about these people's overstepping of their authority.

When Old Man Zheng heard this, he felt a little embarrassed for a moment. Everyone knew why things had turned out like this, but they were helpless.

Several people looked at each other, and finally Old Man Zheng stood up.

"My king, you still remember me. I am grateful to you. We know that we have caused you a lot of trouble this time, but please rest assured, we all know what to do.

This time we have no choice but to ask for an audience with the king in this way.

Nowadays, more and more people come here to do business, and we have learned a lot that many people in the village want to go out to sea to do business and make some money.

But if we wanted to go out to sea, we had no boat and no certificates, so we reported the matter to the county government, but the people there were extremely perfunctory, and there was still no response after more than two months.

The king once said before that he encourages people like us to do business, and even go out to sea to do business. We want to do it, but the county government has been dragging its feet.

I had no choice but to come to Haikang and personally meet the king to explain the matter.

As for the others, they heard that there was a statue of the king in the city, so they came here spontaneously, just to tell the king about their sufferings, and they had no other intentions. They are all the king's most loyal subjects. Please don't blame me, I am willing to bear all the responsibility."

Li Yuanji listened quietly. He was stunned at the end and then his heart was filled with anger.

He had made the decision early on to encourage people under his rule to do business and to go out to sea. In his place, just growing grain did not require so many people. With the widespread use of hybrid rice and corn, and the gradual improvement of the development of Luzhou Prefecture, Songzhou Prefecture, and Nanzhou Prefecture, food was no longer a problem at all.

He needs continuous development here and needs more tax revenue. It would be most appropriate to encourage business to develop the economy. However, such a policy is now encountering difficulties at the grassroots level.

He asked why, even though the encouraging policies had been passed down, there were still so few private businesses. It turned out that the problem lay here.

Li Yuanji really didn't expect that after just a short time of development, there would be corrupt people appearing so soon.

The salaries offered to the officials under him were not low at all. Compared with the salaries of officials in the Tang Dynasty, for the same positions, the salaries he offered were much higher, up to nearly twice as much.

He did this because he didn't want to make things difficult for those honest officials who truly served the people. Since he couldn't screen all the officials and increase the salaries of those honest officials individually, he simply increased the salaries of all of them together.

Li Yuanji did not expect to increase his salary and benefits to get rid of those dirty people under him. Li Yuanji was prepared for this.

Although he was angry now, he was only slightly angry. He had been prepared, but he did not expect it to come so soon.

Li Yuanji looked at Old Man Zheng calmly, then looked at the others.

"I know about this matter and will deal with it later. Encouraging the people to go out to sea to do business has been decided long ago. I will not let any of those black sheep go.

Now, apart from this matter, is there anything else? Is this the reason why you came here this time?"

Under Li Yuanji's gaze, one of them stood up.

"Your Majesty, my surname is Lin, my given name is Han, and I am a Wu Bian from Aizhou, Jiaozhou Prefecture. I came here not to go out to sea for business, but because Wu Bian is now suffering from a flood. Please, Your Majesty, save us.

Wubian, Chong'an, Jiuzhen and other places suffered from floods. However, the government of Jiuzhen and other places were trying their best to provide rescue. We in Wubian and the people around us have waited for too long, but still have not received any disaster relief from the government.

The county magistrate turned a blind eye to us. We wanted to report it to the higher authorities, but the county magistrate Chang Ping obstructed us for no reason.

Later, with the help of everyone, the old man was able to board a foreign merchant's ship and come to Haikang. He happened to meet Zheng Hai and was able to meet the king.

Please save us, my king. If it’s too late, without the support of more than 30,000 people, we will really be gone, my king!"

At the end of his speech, Lin Han knelt down on his knees in front of Li Yuanji, and Li Yuanji quickly helped Lin Han up.

In the Tang Dynasty today, elderly people, especially a sixty-year-old man like Lin Han, can be exempted from formalities when meeting the emperor even though they are commoners, and the emperor still has to arrange seats for them.

Li Yuanji helped Lin Han up and looked at him with a determined look.

"Don't worry, I will not sit idly by and watch the unwritten matter. I will make arrangements now. I will track down anyone who is corrupt and commits illegal acts, no matter who he is!"

Lin Han's old eyes were red. This time he came to Haikang with the lives of ordinary people on his shoulders. He knew that he had a heavy responsibility. Now that he got Li Yuanji's reply, he burst into tears.

At this moment, Lin Han didn't look like an old man at all. He seemed to have found support and sustenance, and tears kept flowing down.

"Your Majesty, we are all waiting for you. We know that you will make the decision for us. We always believe in you."

Lin Han was choked with sobs. As the first few prefectures to develop, they all had great faith in Li Yuanji, because Li Yuanji really made them live a better life. Li Yuanji was a god in the hearts of each of them.

This is also the reason why so many of them gathered in front of Li Yuanji's statue and knelt down devoutly.

Li Yuanji calmed these people down, and after the four of them left, he could no longer control the murderous intent in his eyes. "Yang Jianhe!"

Yang Jianhe, who was outside, heard Li Yuanji's angry voice and hurried in.

"Your Majesty."

"Go call Cen Wenben and Wei Zheng!"

Li Yuanji did not go to see Yang Jianhe. He was really angry at this time. Not only did he know nothing about the flood in Aizhou, but more importantly, if Lin Han had not arrived, would the people there have starved to death or frozen to death?
At this moment, Li Yuanji really couldn't hold back. Such a big thing happened in his rule, and he knew nothing about it. This was extremely bad.

After a while, Cen Benwen and Wei Zheng arrived.

Ever since Li Yuanji asked Li Shimin for Wei Zheng, he had not assigned any tasks to Wei Zheng. After observing him for such a period of time, he had to start assigning tasks to Wei Zheng.

"See you, Your Majesty."

Cen Wenben and Wei Zheng had serious expressions on their faces. Li Yuanji's anger was not concealed at all, and they could all feel it.

Li Yuanji turned around and looked at the two of them, and his eyes immediately fell on Cen Wenben.

"I have already made it clear just now. There are two main reasons. One is that the people want to go out to sea to do business, but the officials below, especially the county government, ignore the people's demands.

This king has said before that if the people want to do business, especially to go out to sea, they must be encouraged, and registration must be done, etc. Those who need funding should be given funding, especially seagoing ships.

But what about now? These people below are ignoring this order. This matter must be investigated by the king!

All those involved should be arrested, those who should be beheaded should be beheaded directly, and those who are not guilty of capital crimes should be sent to build roads. Now that all prefectures are building roads and they are short of people, let these people go!"

Cen Wenben knew that this was what Li Yuanji said to him, and he immediately agreed.

"Please rest assured, Your Majesty. I will handle this matter personally and will resolve it as soon as possible to appease the public opinion!"

Li Yuanji nodded, and then continued: "I don't care about the specific process, I only want the result, and I want to see the result within half a month!

Besides, there is one more thing. There was a flood in Aizhou, Jiaozhou Prefecture, especially in Jiuzhen, Chong'an, Wubian and other places. Are you aware of this?"

Cen Wenben was stunned when he heard this, and then he became solemn.

"Your Majesty, I know about this matter. Siyan mentioned it in the letter. Siyan also personally went to preside over the resettlement of the victims. At the same time, Siyan also requested funds to dredge the river and increase the special funds for tributaries.

I have already approved it and presented the memorial to the king. After the king agreed, I replied to Siyan.

The money was sent half a month ago, and Siyan should have received it by now."

Li Yuanji had a blank expression on his face. He knew about the disaster, but he had no idea about the unwritten things.

"I know about the flood this time, but do you know that more than 30,000 civilians have not received any relief money or food, and even resettlement has not started yet?"

When Cen Wenben heard this, his pupils shrank, his heart was shocked, and his eyes were full of disbelief.

"Your Majesty, I really didn't know that the resettlement and disaster relief for the unincorporated people had not yet begun. When Wei Siyan went to Jiuzhen in person, I thought he had already made arrangements.

I am guilty, please punish me, Your Majesty."

Cen Wenben was extremely shocked. He had not expected that there was such a big hidden story behind this flood. He was really disappointed with Wei Ye. Wei Ye did not report such a big thing, and now the people have directly reported it here.

Li Yuanji put Wei Ye in charge of Jiaozhou Prefecture. Wei Ye was Wei Gui's cousin and a relative of Yang Qingwan. He was also one of the first members of the Yang and Wei families who followed Yang Cheng to Lingnan. Li Yuanji once had great expectations for Wei Ye.

In Li Yuanji's eyes at that time, Wei Ye's achievements were probably even higher than Yang Cheng's, but now he has directly caused him such a big trouble.

Li Yuanji looked at Cen Wenben and spoke slowly.

"I called you here to talk to you about this matter. I am not trying to punish anyone. You should go down and prepare immediately. Prepare to provide financial aid to the unregistered people and send troops directly to provide disaster relief.

The resettlement and rescue of Wu Bian will be handled directly by you, without going through Wei Ye. At the same time, you must find out for me what is going on with Wu Bian!

No matter who is involved, even if it involves Wei Ye, they should be arrested without mercy!"

Having said that, Li Yuanji looked at Cen Wenben with a gloomy expression.

"When the people you arranged arrive at Wubian, have them tell Wei Ye about the disaster in Aizhou and Wubian's situation, and have him give me a reply!"

He didn't know whether Wei Ye was involved in the Aizhou incident. In his eyes, Wei Ye should not have been involved. But what the final outcome would be, Cen Wenben needed to check first.

Li Yuanji really didn't want Wei Ye to get involved, otherwise, he would show no mercy at all.

After hearing this, Cen Wenben agreed to all of them.

"Yes, I will start making arrangements right away and prepare to go to Wubian to provide disaster relief as quickly as possible!"

After Cen Wen finished speaking, Li Yuanji looked at Wei Zheng, and Wei Zheng also looked at Li Yuanji.

Wei Zheng had been in Haikang for some time and had some understanding of Haikang. After understanding it, Wei Zheng realized how ridiculous the things they had formulated in Chang'an were.

Especially as he learned more and more, Wei Zheng even had an idea that if Li Yuanji had governed the Tang Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty would probably have been extremely prosperous today.

Wei Zheng now undoubtedly has a very high approval rating for Li Yuanji. What he sees and hears here has refreshed his understanding, especially his previous understanding of Li Yuanji.

As for Li Yuanji's handling of the matter just now, Wei Zheng also approved of it. Without any delay, he started to solve the problems for the people directly when they occurred. He did not cover up for the responsible persons and got to the bottom of them directly.

Li Yuanji looked at Wei Zheng for a while, feeling extremely complicated.

He recognized Wei Zheng's talents, but Li Yuanji was somewhat displeased with his loyalty.

Now he has no other choice, there is no one around, so he can only use it.

"Wei Zheng, I've heard that you are bold and good at making suggestions. Are you still bold and good at making suggestions now?"

　Thanks to: 'Zhang XX? ' for the 6500 coin reward. Thanks again for your support!
　　This is the first time I have received so many rewards. I am a little excited. Thank you again.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)