The Flourishing Tang Dynasty: Beginning with Marrying Yang Yuhuan

Chapter 211 Vicious Circle

Everything Li Heng did in the beginning was all for his own benefit, and the so-called people's livelihood were all excuses he used.

But step by step to the present moment, his relatives and subordinates, his enemies, and everyone who knows him basically think that he is a true gentleman who is dedicated to his country and his people.

Those who came to him became more united because of this, and his enemies harbored murderous intentions towards him because of this. Whether he was willing or not, he could not turn back.

Li Ying was stunned for a moment, then he touched Yang Yuhuan's head and said, "With a wife like this, what else can a husband ask for?"

"I am lucky to marry such a man." Yang Yuhuan smiled sweetly.

Just as Li Heng was about to say more, a servant came to report, "Your Highness, Liu Yan, the military officer, has arrived and is waiting in the lobby."

Yang Yuhuan stood up and straightened Li Heng's clothes that she had just messed up, saying, "My dear, go and get busy."

"Yeah." Li Ying kissed Yang Yuhuan, then turned around and kissed Zhang Mujin, then walked out the door.

When Li Heng arrived at the hall, Liu Yan quickly stood up and saluted, saying, "Greetings, Your Highness. Yesterday, I heard that Your Highness had been assassinated, and I was worried. Today, I see that Your Highness is fine, and my heart is finally at ease."

"They are just some petty thieves." Li Ying asked Liu Yan to take a seat and then asked, "Did Shi'an encounter any danger along the way?"

"I also encountered a few thieves. Fortunately, Your Highness sent someone to protect me, so I was able to escape danger."

Liu Yan said this and stood up again to thank Li Heng.

Liu Yan is now a sixth-rank official, but this time Li Heng has assigned him twenty or thirty guards. Some of the guards are of higher rank than him. He is naturally grateful for such preferential treatment.

However, Li Heng treated him so well not to win people's hearts, but out of genuine consideration for his safety.

Because the places Li Heng asked him to go were Xizhou and Yizhou.

Regarding Zhou Yi's rebellion, Zhang Guangsheng "corrected" one of the participants, and that participant told Li Heng everything, through which Li Heng learned some information about the situation in Beiting.

Therefore, Li Heng traveled slowly all the way, asking Feng Changqing to go to Tingzhou first to stabilize the army, and at the same time asking Liu Yan to take people to Xizhou and Yizhou for open and secret investigations.

The corruption in Beiting was mainly in Xizhou and Yizhou. In order to ensure Liu Yan's safety, Li Heng arranged for guards.

"I'm glad you're alright." Li Heng raised his hand to signal Liu Yan to sit down, and asked, "What's the situation in Xizhou and Tingzhou?"

"It's very bad." Liu Yan shook his head and sighed, "Last year, two counties in Xizhou suffered from disasters, but the local government couldn't provide a penny for disaster relief. I secretly investigated and found that the charity granaries in Xizhou were empty. Logically speaking, given the development level of Xizhou, it shouldn't be so bad that not a single grain of food could be provided."

The charity granary mentioned by Liu Yan was one of the warehouses in the Tang Dynasty.

The Tang Dynasty set up various types of warehouses, the more important ones included official warehouses, military warehouses, charity warehouses, Changping warehouses and transfer warehouses.

The so-called Zhengcang refers to the official warehouse that directly receives the regular rent all year round. The taxes and grain paid by the people are mainly stored in the Zhengcang. The grain in the Zhengcang is used to maintain the public expenses of the court, such as salaries, military expenses, etc.

The purpose of setting up the charity granary was to provide disaster relief. In normal years, the people would pay a tax of two cents per mu and store the grain in the granary. In disaster years, the grain in the granary would be used for disaster relief.

The more developed the agriculture, the more grain there is in the charity granaries. If the disaster is not serious, there is no need to transfer grain from other places.

However, this was the original intention of its establishment. By now, Li Longji was greedy for pleasure and Li Linfu was blindly catering to him, so the grain in many local charity granaries was transported to Chang'an to supply the court for extravagance.

Previously, Pei Yaoqing reformed the grain transport system so that grain from all over the country could be transported to Chang'an more easily. However, Pei Yaoqing only wanted to transport grain from the main warehouse, and he did not want to move other warehouses, which made Li Longji love and hate him. As the grain transport system became more mature, Pei Yaoqing's methods were mastered by others, and Pei Yaoqing's existence became unnecessary, so Li Longji gradually made him withdraw from the center of power.

Then Li Linfu took sole power and no matter what warehouse you had, you just had to transport everything that could.

Yang Guozhong also took advantage of this opportunity to transport all the grain in Jiannan warehouses to Chang'an.

Changping Warehouse was mainly used to balance grain prices.

The specific method was that in good years, when the people had a good harvest and surplus grain, the price of grain was low, and the court would buy the surplus grain of the people at a high price and store it. In bad years, when the people did not have enough food and the price of grain was high, the court would sell the grain in the Changping warehouse at a low price to balance the price of grain.

As for military warehouses and transfer warehouses, as the name suggests, they are used for military rations and transportation.

Li Heng pondered for a moment and said, "Xizhou did not transport grain to Chang'an, and the grain in its charity granary was not used for military rations."

"Yes." Liu Yan agreed, "There is only one explanation. Someone embezzled the grain. But it's not easy to blame for this."

"Why?" Li Ying asked.

Liu Yan said: "After checking, I found that the local officials borrowed grain from wealthy households and filled up the granaries."

"Interesting." Li Heng pondered, "But Xizhou had no food for disaster relief, and did not ask the court for it. How did they appease the people?"

"Usury." Liu Yan sighed, "Your Highness has been innovating production tools, building water conservancy projects, introducing new varieties, and vigorously cultivating land in Anxi over the years. In addition..."

Liu Yan paused because he felt that what he was about to say was inappropriate.

"Shi'an, you can talk as you please." Li Ying said.

"Yes." Liu Yan accepted the order and continued, "In addition, the soldiers nowadays are all Long March warriors, not government soldiers. They have stayed in Anxi for a long time, their families have followed them, and the settlements have developed well, so Anxi has more food every year."

What Liu Yan said was the impact of the change from the military recruitment system to the conscription system on military farming on the border.

Under the fubing system, soldiers only stayed in one place for a period of time, and eventually they would return to their hometowns.

However, under the conscription system, these soldiers had to serve for a long time. In addition, due to the frequent wars on the Tang Dynasty's borders, the soldiers could not go back even if they wanted to, so they could only settle down on the border.

Therefore, behind every soldier is a big family.

When these large families arrived at the border, the imperial court helped them settle down, divided up land, and encouraged them to reclaim land, so the development of the border settlements became better and better.

Liu Yan continued, "There is a surplus of grain in Anxi every year, so the price of grain is low. Therefore, merchants passing by buy Anxi's grain at a low price in Xizhou, and unite with Xizhou officials and local big families to lend high-priced loans to disaster-stricken people. When the people can't pay back the loan on time, they annex the people's land. The people have no land, so they either become refugees, bandits, or hide in the upper class. This continues, a vicious cycle."

The vicious cycle that Liu Yan finally summarized actually lacks a link.

But the missing link was not due to his oversight, but rather he and Li Heng both understood it, so there was no need to explain it so clearly.

The overall closed-loop situation is that corrupt officials emptied the warehouses, the government had no grain to provide disaster relief, and wealthy merchants took the opportunity to lend money at high prices and annex land. These annexed lands became the assets of the wealthy families, and most of these wealthy families were tax-exempt households.

As a result, the land of the taxpaying people became less and less, and the government's tax revenue also became less and less. With less tax revenue, the government's ability to respond to sudden disasters became weaker, and then it could only unite with the big families to lend money and annex land.

(End of this chapter)