Prince of Song Dynasty

Chapter 95 No right to speak without investigation

"You..." Lu Yuqing's face changed, and he was furious. He pointed at Ye Chen for a long time, and finally turned to Zhao Kuangyin who was sitting on the throne and said, "Your Majesty! The origin of this Ye Chen is unknown, so don't trust it!"

The four words 'unknown origin' suddenly touched Ye Chen's sore spot and worry in his heart, because he knew that Zhao Kuangyin had always been suspicious of him because of these four words.

When he looked at Lu Yuqing again, there was a cold light in Ye Chen's eyes.This enmity is really inexplicable. As Luo Gongming told him more than a month ago, it is really inexplicable to offend someone or make enemies with someone.

Because of the words 'unknown origin', Zhao Kuangyin's face also changed instantly, but after looking deeply at Ye Chen, he finally said: "I have made up my mind on this matter. Besides, Kaifeng is in short supply of food, so we need to raise more money." Some food will be convenient for foreign troops in the next year. And the construction of the embankment of the Yellow River is a must, but this year the embankment needs to be built higher and stronger."

Lu Yuqing's face suddenly became extremely ugly, and he said anxiously: "Your Majesty, this matter involves too much manpower and material resources, and it involves all aspects of things, how can it be trifling."

Zhao Kuangyin's face darkened, and he said, "Okay! This matter is settled like this. Now the Zhengshitang, Kaifeng Mansion, the Third Secretary, and Ye Chen, each of you will report and explain the food raising plan you have made."

Lu Yuqing could only step back sadly, but when he looked at Ye Chen again, there was a sneer and sarcasm in his eyes.He has already said what he should say, and expressed his attitude. After two or three months, the truth will come out. Ye Chen, that lucky clown, will naturally be ruined, punished by the embarrassing emperor, and fall into the abyss.When the time comes, find an opportunity to treat him again, and just express today's qi by the way.

At this time, Ye Chen also submitted the written plan he had prepared through the small yellow door next to him.

At this time, Zhao Pu had already described the plan put forward by the Political Affairs Hall.

At first glance, the plans of the Zhengshitang, Kaifeng Mansion, and the Third Division Envoy sounded sound and mature. Compared with yesterday, they had made great progress, and Zhao Kuangyin nodded a lot when he heard it.But if you think carefully, you will find that there is a problem and deficiency in the three schemes.

First of all, they are just general plans, and there are not many specific problems that may be encountered, and how to solve these problems.Secondly, the proposals proposed by the three companies are similar, but rather general, and ambiguous in many aspects.When Ye Chen heard this, he thought of those later generations who sat in the office all day, did not do research and research, but only relied on information and inferences to make plans, and fooled their superiors.

Ye Chen was the last one to report. After listening to the reports from the previous three parties, Ye Chen became more and more confident in his plan. He coughed lightly and started to speak under the watchful eyes of everyone.

"Your Majesty, I believe that in just over two months, only water transportation can be used to raise 600 million shi of grain for Kaifeng, and the Jianghuai area is the main granary of our Great Song Dynasty, and it happens to have a waterway leading to Kaifeng. Therefore, this matter must be done in the Jianghuai area.”

There was no reaction from the crowd, because these three parties had already mentioned it, and a trace of undisguised contempt flashed in Lu Yuqing's eyes. Could it be possible that a child with a yellow mouth can really mention that a feasible solution will not work, and it's just picking up people's teeth.

Ye Chen ignored everyone and continued: "Whether this matter can be completed smoothly depends on the three aspects of the local government, the large grain merchants represented by the gentry and landowners, and water transportation. First, the local government. Buying grain from the people, Concentrated transportation to the wharf is inseparable from the local government. Because, for fear of causing panic among the people, the court needs to keep the truth of the matter secret, and the local government does not know the details. Therefore, even if the court is in a hurry to go to the house, if the local government is obedient and obedient, it cannot fully cooperate , the whole thing will never work. But to solve this problem, it cannot be solved by issuing a few harsh edicts. What problems do you think may be encountered in this? What is the crux of the problem? Problems? All of this needs to be inferred in advance, and specific strategies should be formulated in advance to solve the problem with the right medicine.”

"Secondly, there are local gentry and landlords and large grain merchants. As far as I know, once the people have a good harvest of grain, the first thing they do is to sell it for cash, and the more abundant the harvest, the more so. Most ordinary households only keep There is nothing else to store the rations and grain seeds for the next autumn harvest. Therefore, the grain is basically stored in the granaries of the grain gentry and grain merchants, and the sole purpose of the grain gentry and grain merchants to purchase grain is to To make money. Where the price of grain is high, where to transport it, it is an inevitable thing. Therefore, if the imperial court suddenly buys grain on a large scale, even if there is no edict to the world, these grain gentry and grain merchants will be able to smell unusual things Taste, thus raising the price for sale. How to solve this matter?"

"The last aspect, and the most critical issue, is transportation. Even if the local government is willing to use their lives wholeheartedly, the grain gentry and large grain merchants can sell grain happily, so that all states and counties have stockpiled the required amount, but if they cannot If it was transported to the capital before the Yellow River broke its embankment, it would lose its proper meaning."

When Ye Chen said this, except for Lu Yuqing who was still sneering, everyone from Zhao Kuangyin to other important officials nodded their heads. What Ye Chen said was clear and easy to understand. But it made people understand what was said, and more intuitively understood the difficulties and crux of the food raising.

"These three things are intertwined, and one is indispensable. If the local government is unwilling to use its life, then things will fail. If the problem of hoarding grain by grain gentry and grain merchants cannot be solved, there will be insufficient grain collection. And the transportation problem is even more unnecessary. said."

"The next minister will predict the difficulties that will be encountered in these three links, and then propose solutions."

As soon as Ye Chen's words came out, Zhao Kuangyin's eyes lit up completely, and he deeply felt that in the future, everyone in the court should talk less about things, and more of this kind of capable and direct way of speaking would be great.

"As the saying goes, a country is built on the basis of soldiers, soldiers depend on food, and food is based on water transportation. Water transportation mainly relies on the transshipment department, delivery department, and purchase department. These are the main yamen involved in water transportation. The imperial court is eager to buy grain. Right now You can only rely on the people in these few yamen. However, the transshipment department, the purchase and delivery department, and the delivery department have been in the local area for a long time, and they have many connections with the local wealthy gentry and businessmen. The staff, staff, and subordinates will more or less collude with the local gentry. Normally, they would also collude with each other to hoard grain, deliberately causing insufficient procurement by the imperial court, and then selling it to the imperial court at a high price. Now such a golden opportunity, they I will definitely not let it go. This is the number one difficulty in this matter, and it must be resolved, otherwise it will be difficult to raise enough food on time."

"It is conceivable that once the imperial court orders the local government to collect grain, there will inevitably be varying degrees of collusion with local grain gentry and grain merchants, hoarding grain and selling it reluctantly, and taking the opportunity to raise prices. Of course, the imperial court can save this crisis by spending more money. But the imperial court naturally cannot do this kind of thing. Besides, there is always a process from their hoarding of grain to selling it at a high price. I bought food in my hands, but it was too late to transport it to the capital."

Everyone involuntarily nodded and said yes, Zhao Kuangyin also nodded slightly, and a trace of surprise flashed across Lu Yuqing's expression, and his expression was a bit complicated.

"After I went back yesterday, I found some people in the know, and consulted about their ways, such as the various speculations of local officials selling grain and grass, as well as issues such as forced distribution, non-payment, and underpayment. These things are very important to ordinary households. The harm is the greatest. If it is not properly resolved, the difficulties of Kaifeng have not been resolved, and the people of all roads, provinces, and counties will have nowhere to go. This matter was also mentioned in the plan of the third envoy just now. I will not say more gone."

"In addition, I can see from the experience materials of grain raising in the past years sent by the three envoys to the ministers that the more important the court is, the more competition will arise between the different roads, states and counties. In order to ensure that the states and counties bear the responsibility If the grain purchase task can be successfully completed, trying to exclude other local governments from encroaching on their own territory will inevitably become a normal choice for local governments based on their own interests. This kind of thing is actually common sense, and it has been common in the past. It is called "containment" in the materials, and it has been banned repeatedly for many years, and the methods of local government's resistance are endless. However, the harvest varies from place to place, and some places encounter drought and floods, so they must not be able to harvest the specified amount of grain. A bumper harvest will not only raise enough grain, but even surplus. If the balance problem in the middle is not resolved, the total amount of grain will not be enough.”

Zhao Pu nodded in agreement, and said with a nod: "What Uncle Xiangfu said is true. In troubled times, heavy codes should be used. The situation is critical and cannot be treated normally. In my opinion, the censors, inspectors and observers from all walks of life, prefectures and counties Ladies and gentlemen, in the past three months, we have to put down all the affairs in our hands and delegate them to the prefectures and counties, and the imperial court issued a special decree on the matter of supervising grain requisition to temporarily delegate power. Officials have the right to remove them on the spot. There should be far fewer foolish officials who have to be their own when it comes to their official career. "

Zhao Kuangyin nodded slightly, expressing his deep understanding, and his eyes flickered, signaling Ye Chen to continue.

Ye Chen continued, "What Mr. Zhao said is the key to this matter. Shipping Department, Transshipment Department, and Purchasing Department are originally equal-level yamen, but the responsibilities overlap. This is originally for the purpose of decentralization and checks and balances , but at this critical moment, it is easy for them to shirk and argue with each other, resulting in the result that the law does not blame the public. Therefore, the minister suggested that the three divisions envoy the next general document, and choose one of the three divisions to take charge of the overall situation and take responsibility. Responsible."

(End of this chapter)