The Flourishing Tang Dynasty: Beginning with Marrying Yang Yuhuan

Chapter 213 This is a feudal society
"Thank you very much, Your Highness."

He Jin bowed to Li Ying and was about to leave.

But Li Ying stopped He Jin and said, "Miss He, please listen here. I may have questions for you later."

"I am not worthy of your advice. Your Highness, please tell me what you want to say." He Jin stayed and paused, then said, "I am worried that you may hear the government's confidential matters here."

Li Ying said: "The government has no private accounts, so you just listen to it."

"Yes." He Jin said no more and stepped aside to sit down.

Liu Yan continued, "Your Highness, the officials involved in this case are Xizhou Governor Zhou, Sima Tang, and General Guo. The fathers of these three were all generals who conquered the West back then, and they are new nobles in Xizhou. The local big families involved in the case are Luo and Qian, and the wealthy merchants are Shi and Kang. Among them, Governor Zhou is the mastermind who planned the murder of Your Highness, but according to my investigation, Tubo seems to be involved, but there is insufficient evidence."

Li Heng said: "Tibet is now in a hostile relationship with the Tang Dynasty. It doesn't matter whether they participated in the assassination of me."

"Yes." Liu Yan accepted the order and added: "In addition to direct corruption and bribery, and illegal land annexation, they also violated many regulations in other industries."

Liu Yan then went on to give examples.

"The Silk Road was a long journey, which resulted in expensive labor and material resources, so most of the goods on the road were luxury goods. The governor of Zhou and other officials colluded with businessmen to hoard luxury goods, push up their prices, and then resell them to others. The soldiers and people of Beiting saw that it was profitable, so they bought them. As a result, the prices plummeted, and many luxury goods were left in the hands of the soldiers and people. Because of this, the people of Beiting were resentful, and the morale of the soldiers was unstable."

This kind of scam has been common from ancient times to the present. Ancient merchants knew how to hoard goods and would naturally go a step further and play these tricks. However, these tricks were relatively small in scope and feudal society was centered on self-sufficiency, so they did not cause much waves.

Li Heng was silent for a while, then asked, "What do you think should be done?"

“Although this matter was initiated by high-ranking officials such as Governor Zhou and several wealthy businessmen, some minor officials and small and medium-sized wealthy businessmen who handled the matter also made profits. It is easy to eliminate the main culprits, but it is difficult to deal with the middlemen who benefited.” Liu Yan said, shaking his head and sighing.

"It's nothing difficult to deal with." Li Heng had made up his mind and would not think about appeasement. "All the culprits involved in embezzling the stored grain in the warehouse and assassinating me will be imprisoned and handed over to the court for trial. All their property will be confiscated. The middle officials and wealthy merchants who used the hoarding of luxury goods to defraud funds will be convicted of business chaos and fined according to the money they defrauded. The money from the fines will be used to buy luxury goods from soldiers and civilians."

Li Heng is now living in a feudal society, not a capitalist society.

Capitalist society must pamper capitalists, but this is not the case in feudal society. As long as the local tyrants are not beaten and the land is not distributed, the rest of the things, such as randomly selecting two lucky capitalists to hang street lamps, will not cause any waves.

Li Heng did not choose to hang them, which showed that he had exercised considerable restraint.

"This..." Liu Yan didn't expect Li Heng to be so tough. He began to understand why these corrupt officials would rather risk the annihilation of their entire families than assassinate Li Heng.

Liu Yan was stunned for a moment, and said worriedly: "If we offend the wealthy merchants in Xizhou, it may be bad for Xizhou."

"Why is it not beneficial? Please tell me in detail, Shi'an." Li Heng asked seriously.

Liu Yan said: "Over the years, the caravans have become more and more prosperous, but the transportation capacity of the court has gradually decreased. Therefore, although the transportation of the court's materials is ostensibly borne by the court's official transportation, in fact, most of them have been handed over to local caravans for transportation. If the caravans in Xizhou resent Your Highness for this and would rather not make money than transport materials, I am afraid that the transportation capacity will be paralyzed."

Li Heng understood this.

The Tang Dynasty's transportation of cloth to the Western Regions changed from a delivery system via horse farms under the jurisdiction of prefectures and counties to a transportation system that essentially relied on merchants during the Kaiyuan period.

In addition to cloth, in order to ensure military rations, the government also implemented a policy of buying grain from merchants as the main target, and a tax on foreign merchants to reduce the burden of military expenses.

"Is that so." Li Ying nodded, looked at He Jin next to him, and said, "Can He's transportation capacity fill the vacancy vacated by Xizhou?" "Sure." He Jin agreed immediately.

The He family had long wanted to get involved in Xizhou's transportation capacity, but a strong dragon cannot defeat a local snake. Xizhou's transportation capacity has always been monopolized by local wealthy businessmen in collusion with local officials, and the He family has always wanted to get involved but could not.

Now that these wealthy businessmen have been dealt with by Li Ying, He family can take the opportunity to intervene.

After hearing He Jin's words, Liu Yan instantly understood why Li Heng asked He Jin to stay.

At the same time, Liu Yan also realized that Li Heng had already thought about what to do from the moment he saw what he presented.

More importantly, Li Heng clearly knew how to solve the problem, but was still willing to discuss it with him humbly.

Li Ying is not only smart, but also knows how to control people.

Liu Yan was thinking to himself when Li Heng asked again, "Shi'an, do you think there are any other problems that need to be solved?"

Liu Yan came back to his senses, thought for a moment, and said, "Shi and Kang are from the Sogdian tribe. After they are investigated, the corresponding items may become scarce."

Li Ying asked, "Does Shi An have a solution?"

"I have an immature idea." Liu Yan spoke more carefully. "The Shi family is from the Shi Kingdom, and the Kang family is from the Kang Kingdom, but these people cannot fully represent their countries. On the contrary, due to the influence of the previous situation in the Western Regions, these people are closer to the Arabs and Tubo. Now that His Highness has ordered the Western Regions to return to the Tang Dynasty, you can support another group of caravans that are more pro-Tang."

"Shi'an's suggestion is very good. Let's do as you say." Li Heng nodded, turned to Zhang Guangsheng, and said, "Send a message to General An and tell him about what's going on here. He is currently discussing the Silk Road with the countries in the Western Regions. He knows what should be done."

"Yes." Zhang Guangsheng accepted the order.

"Does Shi'an have any other suggestions?" Li Ying asked again.

Seeing that Li Heng was receptive to advice and decisive in his actions, Liu Yan wanted to test him and said, "Your Highness, we used fines to buy back the luxury goods of the soldiers and civilians. Although this solved the urgent needs of the soldiers and civilians, we also left a lot of useless things in our hands. I have a suggestion. We can use these things to make more money for Your Highness."

"Oh?" Li Heng became interested and said, "Shian, please tell me what you suggest."

Liu Yan said: "Your Highness, do you know about flying money?"

"I know." Li Ying glanced at He Jin and said, "The He family has issued a lot of flying money."

The so-called flying money is not money, but a kind of lease certificate.

Transportation in the Tang Dynasty was not well developed, and the currency in circulation was mainly copper coins and silk, which caused great difficulties in circulation.

Merchants pull things from one side of the mountain to the other side of the sea to sell. The money they earn from selling the things may be more difficult to transport than the things they pull there. This is not only inconvenient, but also makes it easy for them to be robbed along the way.

So a rental certificate came into being.

(End of this chapter)