In the face of disasters, the issue of public opinion is very important, especially in Huaxia, there is still a tradition of saying that all kinds of disasters are the immorality of the Son of Heaven.

And Li Xuan is obviously not so generous, how can he blame himself for God's fault?

Therefore, from the very beginning, he had to do a good job of guiding public opinion to the newspaper department, and not be driven by others.

Draw all kinds of complaints to the praise of heroes!

Therefore, the Chaobao Division is starting to prepare a special report on this flood!

What's at the heart of the story?

First of all, it is necessary to report on the importance and wisdom of the Son of Heaven to this matter, and made preparations in advance to minimize the loss.

The second is to report on the importance and efforts of the government to this matter, especially to focus on the deeds of the military's participation in the flood fight, and to focus on describing the fact that because of the efficient organization of the government and the sacrifice of the military, the losses have been greatly reduced and millions or even tens of millions of people have been saved.

The above two points are actually to highlight the role of the Holy Son of Heaven and the official, and let people know that when the disaster came, the Holy Son of Heaven and the government always stood on the side of the people and made great dedication and sacrifice for flood relief and disaster relief.

Secondly, it is to report some outstanding positive examples, select or simply fictionalize a number of heroic figures, and focus on reporting on their response to the call of the Son of Heaven, the organization of the government, and the spirit of loyalty and love for the people to participate in this flood relief effort.

By establishing a number of positive heroic impressions, it confirms the brightness and greatness of the Son of Heaven and the efficient organization of the government.

For example, when ordinary people faced the flood, they responded to the government's call and moved to resettlement sites, and now they not only do not have to be afraid, but also live very well in their new homes, better than before.

In short, the core of this series of reports is to guide public opinion, publicize the brightness and greatness of the Son of Heaven, and the efficient organization of the government under the leadership of the Son of Heaven.

Over the years, the Department of Public Opinion has been responsible for the work of guiding public opinion through the Tang Dynasty Newspaper, which has been quite successful, and the people's impression of Li Xuan is very good, and it is generally believed that Li Xuan is a saint of heaven, and the yamen at all levels of the dynasty, although there are problems of one kind or another, but on the whole it is also good, and it is to do practical things for the people.

Of course, the people's eyes are also clear, and they also know that there must be corrupt officials or something, and at this time, the court newspaper department needs to give correct guidance to make people think that these corrupt elements are only a minority of the official group, and the government is also cracking down on these people.

After letting the people of the Chaobao Department start the work of guiding public opinion, Li Xuan was not idle, and then he called the minister on duty in the imperial study in, and instructed them to make arrangements and prepare to draw funds from various local finances to tide over the difficulties together.

With the current financial capacity of the central government of the empire, it is already difficult to support such a large scale of flood relief expenses on its own, and now the whole country needs to work together.

Each locality has its own local finances, and the squeezing of a little in one place and a little in that place is a huge number, which is enough to reduce the pressure on the central government's finances.

Well, it is worth noting that this is not a request for financial assistance from the central government to the local yamen, nor is it an order, but a notice!

Because this operation process does not require the consent of the local yamen!

The central government is short of money and soldiers, and it has to ask the local governors for support?

!

Just take it!

The Ministry of Taxation can directly adjust the ratio of national tax and local tax for the current year, and after reducing the proportion of local tax, the excess tax will be directly handed over to the central government by the Ministry of Taxation.

In this process, the local yamen did not have any opportunity to meddle or even intervene!

Dare to meddle? I want to rebel against you!

Finance and military power, these have always been the two most important powers that Li Xuan grasps!

Because only by grasping these two items, then we can talk about centralization, money and army, whoever wants to challenge Li Xuan's imperial power, then Li Xuan dares to directly swing a big knife and cut it down.

In this context, the central government of the Tang Empire has always firmly controlled the tax power, and the Ministry of Taxation is the only institution in the country that can collect taxes, and the local taxation bureaus are also directly subordinate to the Ministry of Taxation, and do not belong to the management of local yamen.

The Ministry of Taxation is the most independent of many institutions, and it is more independent than the three institutions of patrol police, supervision and court, because these three institutions will be more or less influenced by the local government, because these three institutions basically belong to the dual management of the local government and the central government, and nominally claim to be a separate system, but the local leaders still have a strong influence on these three institutions.

However, the local tax bureaus under the Ministry of Taxation are different!

The local officials do not have the slightest power to intervene, and even the local tax bureaus basically do not deal with the local yamen, they only collect taxes, and when they encounter trouble, they do not need to ask the patrol police or the garrison for help, and they have their own tax inspection teams.

Ordinary tax case investigation and even arrest, they have their own investigation agency, and it has nothing to do with the patrol police.

The big armed anti-tax force, they have armed action troops, ordinary armed anti-tax, and the matter is over with a direct fire of guns.

In this environment, if the central government wants to adjust the national tax and local tax, it is a matter of one sentence!

Because in this kind of environmental system, in fact, theoretically speaking, the central government controls all the tax revenues, and the local taxes are only a part of the tax revenue left by the central government to the local governments.

Now that the central government's finances are tight, Li Xuan naturally wants to make up for this shortfall!

However, even if we do not transfer local finances to fill the central finances, we cannot do a one-size-fits-all approach, because in some places, their local finances are already very difficult, and this is not enough to pay the salaries of public servants every year, and they still need subsidies from the higher levels of finance.

In some places, local finances are more relaxed, so they can also take more appropriately.

However, in order to avoid the worries of the local yamen, Li Xuan also ordered that this year's adjustment of land tax is a special matter, not a common practice.

This is a fact, the central government was originally relatively lenient, but this year there was a major flood, and the turnover for a while and a half will not be able to adjust the proportion of local taxes, and it is impossible to do this every year, if they really want to do this every year, those local officials will not have any opinions, anyway, the money of the local finances is not their own private money, and those who should be officials are still officials.

However, it will affect the development of the local economy, which in turn will hinder the economy of the whole country, and the economy is not good, so naturally do not expect to be able to collect many taxes.

So, there's a very important balance here, and it's impossible to mess around.

After dealing with public opinion and tax issues, Li Xuan called the military people over again and ordered them to pay attention to the security problems in the affected areas!

Although the official response to the flood was quite efficient and there was no widespread human loss for the time being, there are millions of people who will become displaced if they are not properly resettled.

Even if it is properly settled, if any careerists jump out, it is easy to cause large-scale turmoil.

At this critical moment, Li Xuan will naturally not relax, and while guiding public opinion, he also needs to maintain high-pressure military deterrence.

Let those with bad intentions know that even if it is chaotic, the powerful military power of the Tang Dynasty is still not something they can fight against.

In fact, there is no need for Li Xuan to specifically order, the military people are always paying attention to the local situation!

In addition to mobilizing military personnel to participate in flood fighting and disaster relief, a considerable part of the military's general mobilization in disaster-stricken areas has actually raised their vigilance to prevent any contingencies.

Especially in the major resettlement sites for the victims of the disaster, almost all of them have troops stationed!

The role of these garrisons is both to protect them and to maintain law and order, as well as to suppress possible unrest on the spot.

After all, these millions of victims are the biggest source of mobilization, and in any case, they need to be monitored and prepared at all times.

Because of the shortage of troops in Jiangbei, northern Anhui, Henan, and other places, the military has even begun to transfer some troops from Jiangnan, southern Anhui, Huguang, Jiangxi, Shanxi, and other neighboring provinces into the disaster-stricken areas.

If there is any unrest, it will be suppressed as soon as possible, and the rebellion will be eliminated at the beginning stage.

The impact of this flood on the Tang Empire was considerable, and the impact was even greater than tens of thousands of Tatar iron horsemen fighting out of the Great Wall!

The most important of these is the economic impact, which is not an industrial and commercial economy, but an agricultural economy!

Widespread floods will inevitably reduce production in the affected areas, and food production will be insufficient, which will starve people to death.

What the official needs to do now is to collect as much food as possible and then use it for post-disaster relief, and in any case, there must be no large-scale starvation of people.

Otherwise, the prosperity of Xuanping, which the entire empire has been striving for, is a joke!

They all starved to death on a large scale, and you still say that it was a prosperous age?

!

Fortunately, in the early years of the Tang Empire, the Datang Grain Corporation was created, and grain companies were established in various provinces and highways, and the Datang Grain Corporation became the largest grain merchant in the Tang Empire by relying on huge financial resources, official grain produced in Guantian, and tax grain, in order to reserve grain and balance grain prices.

There is a lot of grain stored in the grain warehouses all over the country!

Relying on the huge food reserves, it can not only be used for disaster relief, but also to maintain food price stability.

At least in the last ten years of the Tang Empire, grain prices have been maintained at a normal level, and any grain merchant who dares to buy low and sell high, playing grain speculation, is basically the same fate, first by the Datang Grain Corporation through the purchase or release of grain, made bankrupt, and then will be caught for various crimes, and then sent to prison, serious cases even raided and exterminated.

In the Tang Empire, everything can be speculated, but not food!