The matter of the harem draft has come to an end for the time being, and Liu Jian and they have new troubles.

Since becoming the emperor, Liu Jian has never slept peacefully, not because he is afraid that someone will assassinate the king.

It's a bunch of trivial things that force him to breathe, and when they are all put together, there is just no money.

Military grain and grass cost money, local security maintenance cost money, disaster relief money costs, large and small officials and employees need money, water conservancy repairs cost money, city wall repair costs money, sacrifice festivals cost money, Liu Jian, the emperor should live like a rich man who picks the door.

The court discussed it a few times, saying that it was to open up the source and reduce the expenditure, but the reduction of the expenditure said a lot, the open source is all empty words, what is the wide implementation of benevolent government, what is the wide opening of business, what His Majesty sets an example and so on.

Chen Hongyi and others have a little more than a little martial arts, but they are not enough to govern the country, and the people in the academy are even more open-mouthed and closed-mouthed, in short, the tax can not be increased, but the country must be rich.

Liu Jian couldn't bear it anymore, so he privately summoned Xiang Xiaoyu: "Why is the income of this treasury so small?" ”

"Does Your Majesty know about the donation of money, cloth, gold and silver to the imperial court a few years ago?"

"I was present at the time, and of course I knew that Emperor Ming had nothing to succeed to the throne, so in order to maintain the operation of the imperial court, I had to reach out to the major families to ask for money. But I am not Emperor Ming, and now there are only two great families, Cui Chen! ”

"Your Majesty is wise, and will never directly reach out to the Cui Chen family to ask for money, but our current territory is not half of what it used to be, and the big family is gone, but their land in the past is occupied by some local big families. The big surnames and big families are now local officials in various places, and according to the ancestral system of this dynasty, if you become an official, you will not pay food! The only way to collect taxes is to collect taxes from the common people, and then from the merchants! ”

"I understand a little bit of what you said, you mean that the officials of this world occupy countless lands but do not pay taxes to the imperial court. I think it's time to change this ancestral system! ”

"If Your Majesty wants to reform the system at this time, you must be prepared to deal with local rebellions! They won't spit out the meat in their mouths! Xiang Xiaoyu was a little worried

Liu Jian also pondered for a while: "It seems that this matter has to be convened to discuss with the court!" Either you don't do it, or you can't do it! ”

"Your Majesty, the ministers think that the interests of most of the important ministers in the court are also involved, and if it is suddenly implemented, they will oppose it. Your Majesty must send people to try it out in several counties and gradually spread it throughout the country! ”

"Well, I understand what you mean, in this court, General Chen is from a family, although he will not oppose me, but he will not fully support it. The people in the academy are already the largest gate valve group in Jingxiang, and at present, only Li Xiaofei has the soldiers and horses of Linjiang Country in his hands and is the minister of state, only his Linjiang country can try it first! ”

said that after Li Xiaofei took office in Linjiang Kingdom, he took over the two masters, Hongrui and Murong Qing.

Hongrui took the little Linjiang County King Liu Fu'an with him to read and write, while Murong Qing taught Li Xiaofei swordsmanship from time to time, or took his thirty maids out of the city to hunt.

Li Xiaofei ostensibly became the lord of a country in Linjiang State, and he relied on him to train soldiers and horses, maintain law and order in Jiangling City, and collect taxes in his name.

According to the old practice of the Great Liang, the prime minister of the feudal state has no personnel power, that is, he cannot appoint officials in the feudal state.

And the Taishou Sima and others in Jiangling City directly obeyed the orders of the imperial court, and they would not pay attention to the orders of the prime minister of the state at all.

After Li Xiaofei received the edict sent by the imperial court, he opened it and saw that the content of the edict was very broad, and there were many long speeches, but there were only two things, one was to collect taxes, regardless of men, women, old and young, and family background, and the other was to train soldiers, and within half a year, 3,000 new troops who could fight with ghost sheep should be trained.

Li Xiaofei had no choice but to shake his head secretly and try out the new policy, which was basically impossible to implement if personnel rights were not granted.

And if you want to train the troops, unless you borrow the 800 ghost sheep horses that have returned to Tuyuhun, there may be hope.

Li Xiaofei has no one under him!

Coming to the river country one

In the month, except for the three banquets invited by Gangneung County, basically no one came to meet the prime minister.

In this month, the imperial court allocated Sima, Duwei, Shaofu, Changshi, Joining the Army, Gongcao, Cangcao, and Ji Cao to Linjiang State one after another.

Half of these people are from the academy, and the other half are newcomers selected by Liu Jian from the people.

The fifty-six subordinate officials of Linjiang State are the officials that Li Xiaofei can reluctantly transfer, but the hands of these people can't reach out to the palace and the prime minister's mansion.

In Li Xiaofei's opinion, with this set of teams, it is enough to talk to the Jiangling County Shou about the new policy.

Li Xiaofei specially asked Changshi Sima Ke to tell the subordinate officials about the new policies that the imperial court was preparing to implement, as well as the next plans.

Everyone agreed, saying that they would work with the prime minister to implement the new policy of the imperial court in Linjiang State.

"Dare to ask the Minister of State, should we first write out the specific strategy of the new policy and send it to the county guard mansion and let them do it?" Shaofu Cao Wuxin asked

"The strategy is wanted, but we must first talk to them, to get the household registration file of this Linjiang country, to measure the acres of mountains and forests in Linjiang country! Otherwise, how will the New Deal be implemented? ”

"This matter belongs to the county guard to go to the county guard and copy these data back, can't it be done?" Gong Cao Shi Sang Qingyang felt that this matter was very simple

"If it's so easy, why do you want us fifty-seven people to come to this Linjiang country? The archives of the county guard can only be used as a reference, if you take it seriously, I'm afraid we will only have to drink the northwest wind in the future! Li Xiaofei has a headache for this kind of person who comes out of the academy, but he can't scold, now is the time to employ people, even if he is a nerd, he has to use it first.

Li Xiaofei looked at Cangcao again: "Liu Zhengqing, tell me, how many materials are left in our Linjiang Kingdom's treasury?" ”

Liu Zhengqing took out a list and looked at everyone unhurriedly: "The 30,000 stone corn and 10,000 pieces of cloth allocated by the imperial court will not be able to be distributed by the end of this year!" repaired the palace and the prime minister's mansion and the residences of various officials, and owed 3,000 yuan! ”

As soon as I heard it, I might not be able to send it, so I immediately fried the pot

"Hurry up and collect taxes! Prime Minister! ”

"I'm willing to go with the Prime Minister to talk to the county keeper about the implementation of the new tax system!"

"It can't be delayed any longer, I have long said that the new deal must be implemented quickly!"

Li Xiaofei glanced at everyone: "Okay, I am very relieved that you can think like this, without further ado, let's think about how to talk about tax collection while we go!" ”

Before going, Li Xiaofei had already sent someone to pass it on.

Wang Qingzhi, the county guard, originally wanted to avoid it, but the reasons had already been found, but Sima Luoan persuaded him to stay and meet Li Xiaofei, no matter how Li Xiaofei was also a close confidant of the emperor.

Wang Qingzhi had to take his subordinates to greet Li Xiaofei outside the mansion, and his face was extremely good, and everyone was surprised, Wang Qingzhi has always looked down on Li Xiaofei, a person who was born in a pariah, but today he is extremely thoughtful in his courtesy.

When all the subordinate officials of the Prime Minister's Mansion saw Wang Qingzhi so polite, they all relaxed, and the Prime Minister thought too badly about this county guard.

After a greeting between the host and guest, Li Xiaofei got straight to the point

"Lord County Shou, entrusted by the imperial court, to try out a new policy in this Linjiang country, and I hope that Lord County Shou will give full support, and today I will discuss with my lord to re-verify the number of acres of mountains and forests and the population in Linjiang country!"

"The new policy of the imperial court, Wang should have fully supported it, but in recent years of war, the population of Jiangling County has been scattered in large numbers and the land is barren, which is also very difficult to verify. Mr. Li didn't know that Wang would have documents from various counties every day about the murder case due to the competition for the acres of land. It's really tricky."

Li Xiaofei's eyebrows moved, it seems that Wang Qingzhi does not support the new deal at all, it seems that what he said is reasonable, but in fact it is a contradiction, since it is a large population flow

The scattered land is barren, why would they compete for acres?

But Li Xiaofei couldn't directly expose it: "So that's the case, it's hard to guard the county!" In this case, our Xiangguo Mansion is willing to help adults share their worries, and Li's idea is to take the files of the people and the county guard to reconcile county by county, township, and pavilion. What does the county keeper think? ”

Wang Qingzhi smiled slightly: "Lord Li and all of you are distinguished guests from the capital, they are not familiar with the situation in Jiangling, and the local people are fierce, if you have a mistake, how can Wang explain to the imperial court?" In this matter of reconciling the people's struggle for land and mountains, I and the county officials just spent a little more time! ”

"Lord Wang, it is precisely because I have been in the capital for a long time that I have to go to various counties and townships to experience and experience, since the Lu of the Eater Monarch naturally wants to be loyal to the king, even if the sword is added, I can't retreat!" Changshi Sima Ke spoke, and he could also see that Wang Qingzhi didn't want to support the new deal

"Unfortunately, my lords, the officials of Jiangling County and various counties are now persuading the peasants, if the agricultural time is delayed for the sake of the new policy, and there is a famine and civil uprising, Wang's ten heads are not enough to cut off! Of course, the new policy must be implemented, but there are priorities, and the people take food as the sky, what do you think? ”

Wang Qingzhi is worthy of being an old fritter for many years, and what he said is all about worrying about the country and the people, and he rejected Li Xiaofei and them in a high-sounding manner

"Persuading agriculture is the national policy of our dynasty, and Li and everyone must support it, and this matter is indeed the first priority. Since Lord Wang and the county officials are not skilled, it is better to lend me the files of the household registration fields and acres of mountains and forests, and we will check and calculate them ourselves! Li Xiaofei didn't want to go around the bend with him, so he directly said what he thought in his heart, since you Jiangling County officials refuse to cooperate, then our Prime Minister's Mansion will do it alone!

"This, these archives are not accurate due to years of war, and they are lent to Lord Li, but it will mislead Lord Li, and when the new policy is not implemented effectively, or even fails, Wang is not the first sinner!"

Wang Qingzhi's meaning is very clear, people will not cooperate, and files will not be given, if you want to do it, you can do it

Li Xiaofei was a little annoyed, "Even if it's not accurate, it's better than nothing, and we can also update all the files of Jiangling County, which is also a great achievement for Lord Wang!" Is Lord Wang really going to refuse our request from Linjiang Kingdom? Li Xiaofei stared at Wang Qingzhi fiercely

Wang Qingzhi smiled: "Master Li, don't be angry!" This file can be borrowed, but you have to send someone to copy it, this file can't be taken out of the county guard's office, if you lose it, you can't afford to bear this responsibility! ”

"I'm willing to copy it!" Sang Qingyang came out

Sima Ke on the side didn't have time to stop him, so he had to sigh: "The archives of this county are piled up in two rooms, Lord Sang, do it yourself!" ”

Wang Qingzhi laughed: "The Prime Minister's Mansion is really full of talents, okay, then this matter is decided, Master Li just sent someone to copy it, and the wine, food, housing and transportation are wrapped on Wang!" ”

Li Xiaofei smiled helplessly: "Thank you, Lord Wang, when the trial of the new deal is successful, Lord Wang will be the first hero!" ”

On the way back to Xiangguo's mansion, everyone complained that Sang Qingyang had no knowledge, but Li Xiaofei persuaded everyone: "Lord Sang is young, but it is not easy to come forward, everyone, let's work together!" Since they were willing to give us the opportunity to copy, we sent someone to copy it, and it had to be done by a serious person like Lord Sang! It's also a good thing that we hit a nail today, at least we know that we can't count on the county officials in this matter! ”

"I used to stay in the county government, and many of the contents of those archives are still decades old, and they are actually not very useful. Since we want to implement the new policy, we should start from scratch! In my opinion, this copying can be avoided! Liu Zhengqing suggested to Li Xiaofei not to send someone to the county guard to copy the files

"Lord Liu is well-informed, in a word, but copying is still required, at least it can distract them. In my opinion, the biggest obstacle to this new policy is none other than the officials of these counties! ”