On the occasion of rebirth Zhou Sui

Chapter 72
Cui Che was not alone in his resentment over the sharp drop in salary, but Yang Jian really had no other way, the treasury was unable to make ends meet, and he was so worried that he couldn't sleep or eat.

At least economically, what Yang Jian took over was a mess.

Last year, the rebellion of the three chief managers disrupted local agricultural production and life, causing a sharp drop in treasury revenue.

Which one didn't mobilize the army and spend a lot of money and food to counter the rebellion.

Rewarding the soldiers after the war almost wiped out the treasury.

In February of this year, Yang Jian took the place of Zhou Jiansui. The officials in the capital wanted to reward him, and officials from other places had to show something.

If Yang Jian could usurp the country a few years later and wait for the treasury to recover, he would naturally not have such troubles.

But now is the time when its prestige is at its peak, and a few years later, who knows if there will be another Yuchi Jiong.

When Yang Jiancai usurped the country, he hurriedly issued an edict to investigate the fields and hidden households. In the final analysis, he was forced by the bad financial situation.

This is especially true in the reform of salaries. During the Northern Zhou Dynasty, the huge salaries of senior officials were still able to maintain, but after the founding of Yang Jian, the courtiers were greatly rewarded. Yipin Yitong with a salary of [-] stones.

If the salary is not reset, the finances will really go bankrupt. Of course, the cleverness of Yang Jian and his cronies lies in the fact that while cutting the high salary, they raised the minimum income standard and bestowed favor on the lower-level officials.

For example, although there are a large number of lower-level officials of the seventh, eighth, and ninth ranks, each of them has increased their income by several hundred shi, but the rest of the officials of the sixth rank and above have their income cut too hard.

Brother Che was from the fourth grade, originally 4000 stones, but was chopped down to 960 stones alive.

Assuming that Cui Che resigned from office after 50 years and his official position was not promoted, he would lose 3040 shi every year. After accumulating, he would have to be wiped out by Yang Jian with 15 shi.

A seed of dissatisfaction is planted here, which has nothing to do with the pattern.

After all, brother Che worked hard and worked hard for the Yang family. As a result, Yang Jian, the boss, cut his salary by four times.

If you can still laugh at this, then the masses really welcome the rise in oil prices.

The staff of the general manager's mansion were even more mournful. Yes, most of them were small officials of the seventh, eighth, and ninth ranks, and they seemed to belong to the beneficiary group.

But as an official who followed the King of Jin out of the town and state, which one is not very promising? They are promoted very quickly, and they will be able to go up in a few years. stone.

Although Cui Che did not express his dissatisfaction with the sharp cut of his salary in front of others, and he always maintained a diligent attitude in his work and never slack off, but his heart was really bleeding.

Yang Guang also noticed that the morale of the staff in the general manager's mansion was low, but he could do nothing about it. The officials in charge of finance in the court were so worried that they could not sleep at night and lost their hair all day long. They really couldn't change money and food.

In the middle of the dynasty, if there is a lack of money and food, it will be a big deal to ask the mud legs to reach out, and the miscellaneous taxes will be apportioned, which can also solve the urgent need.

But I have never heard of a country that was created at the beginning, and instead of being kind to the people, it exploited the people.

Yang Guang had no choice but to hold a banquet in the official residence to appease Liao Zuo.

King Jin was still the virtuous king praised by everyone, and no one dared to complain to Yang Jian in Chang'an City, so the person who helped Yang Jian to come up with this salary system became the target of blame.

Not only the staff of the Bingzhou Governor's Office, but all the officials of the sixth rank and above often abused the officials of the Ministry of Internal History behind their backs
The Ministry of Internal History is in charge of decision-making, and of course they have to bear the blame, and Brother Che escaped early, otherwise, as one of the Basheren, he would have to be blamed along with the two chief officials, Yu Qingze and Li Delin.

It's just that there are gains and losses, and taking the blame for the emperor is not without rewards.

Of course, except for Li Delin, there is no way, because he opposed the slaughter of the Yuwen family, in Yang Jian's view, Li Delin could not be of one mind with him.

Time passed day by day, and the 24 prefectures under the jurisdiction of the Bingzhou Governor's Office completed the inventory of land and households one after another. However, when the data was submitted, Cui Che was quite suspicious, and always felt that the data was not quite right.

In view of the fact that the official data of the Sui Dynasty in the literature of later generations was heavily watered down, Cui Che deliberately checked it carefully.

The extent to which the official data of the Sui Dynasty was injected with water is insane. The population cannot be counted in detail, but we can use the acres of land as an example.

In the ninth year of Kaihuang's reign in the Sui Dynasty, 4940 million hectares of land were reclaimed, while in the 14th year of Emperor Xuanzong's Tianbao, the year when the population reached its peak, there were 1430 million hectares of land, which was less than one-third of the ninth year of Kaihuang's reign in the Sui Dynasty.

In the middle period of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty, the number of acres reached an astonishing 5585 million hectares, more than twice the area of ​​China's cultivated land in 2015.

The imperial court has to collect taxes based on these false data. In addition to land taxes, there are poll taxes, household taxes, and so on.

The data can be falsely reported, but the revenue of the treasury must not be small. In the end, it will still be passed on to the mud-legged people. The aristocratic families will not be wronged by this.

The clerks of the general manager's office who were originally sent to the states to supervise them were worried that the state and county officials would not do their best.

It's just that they didn't expect them to work too hard for political achievements.

After getting the reports from the scribes, Cui Che finally confirmed that the data of this inventory, no matter the hidden households or the fields, were seriously contaminated.

After hesitating for a long time in the wing room, he finally found Yang Guang.

"Does Zicheng think that the governors of the states are deceiving?"

"Don't dare to lie to His Highness, according to the scribe's report, there are exaggerated words in many states and counties."

Cui Che replied.

"Zicheng wants to thoroughly investigate this matter?"

Yang Guang frowned and pondered.

Cui Che's heart tightened, of course he understood the joint, seeing Yang Guang like this, he stopped insisting:
"Che came here just to inform His Highness about this matter. As for how to proceed, he should follow His Highness's orders."

Only then did Yang Guang stretch his eyebrows, the officials had already retreated here, only the two of them, Yang Guang was not afraid to tell Cui Che the truth:

"I don't care if it's true or not. What's important is that I can come up with an answer that satisfies my father."

After all, stamp the chief executive's seal on the official document that records the inventory data.

Cui Che understood that local state and county officials falsely reported data in order to reap political achievements, and Yang Guang wanted to ask Yang Jian for credit.

As for the heavy burden on the people at the bottom, who cares.

The court is still waiting for money.

Today, he is a good man with light labor and little tax. Didn’t you see that the tax amount set for each mu of land and each Dingkou is not high. As for how much tax the people actually bear, history books will not write it.

Cui Che walked out of the main hall with the official document, found a clerk and ordered him to send a messenger to Chang'an.

What a beautiful answer sheet, I think Yang Jian and all the princes in the court will be satisfied.

Cui Che knew that it was impossible for someone to tear down the stage, otherwise how would the exaggerated fields in the ninth year of Kaihuang come about.

It's just Chang Shi's wing, Cui Che looked down at his fourth-rank official uniform, and fell silent.

　The cold is gone.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)