Chapter 177 The mystery of changing a horse to a mulberry
Wuwei, Hexi Jiedushi Mansion.
Seeing the tall and grand Hexi Jiedushi Mansion, and seeing the Wuwei City that was as prosperous as Lingwu, and even comparable to Fengxiang Mansion, Fang Guan couldn't help but feel that his choice was the right one.
Instead of staying in Fengxiang Mansion and acting like a prime minister like a clay statue of Buddha, it is better to go out of town and be a powerful governor.
Dou Shen, Fang Guan's chief aide, came to Fang Guan's side and said, "Commander Jiedu, the time has come. All the generals and officials in Jiedushi's palace are waiting in the lobby."
Fang Guan said calmly: "Let's show them off! These despicable generals and officials are mostly unruly, let's kill them first!"
Emperor Li Heng may be grateful for Fang Guan's contribution to persuading the emperor to abdicate, or because he voluntarily resigned from the position, so in order to allow Fang Guan to better control the Hexi Jiedushi Mansion, he retained the Jiedushi envoy and later transferred him away from Hexi.
After the Jiedushi left, he was generally considered to be the deputy commander of the Jiedushi. In the era of vassal rule in the middle and late Tang Dynasty, the successors of the Jiedushi would be held by the Jiedushi's successors.
The former Hexi Jiedu envoy Guo Ziyi led Hexi from afar, and the Hexi Jiedushi envoy Liuhou was in charge.
Now that the Hexi Jiedushi envoy has been transferred out after staying there, the generals, schools and officials in the Jiedushi envoy's office are now leaderless.
The former Jiedu of Hexi, Guo Ziyi, was strict in running the army, and all the unruly generals in the Hexi Jiedushi Mansion had been cleaned up by Guo Ziyi.
The generals and officials of the Jiedushi Mansion standing in the lobby are all waiting with trepidation for their new bosses.
Moreover, this boss had also served as prime minister, so everyone was even more trembling.
Today's vassal towns are not as unruly as they were in the middle and late Tang Dynasty, and the authority of the prime minister is still not small!
In the backyard of Jiedushi's mansion.
"Come on, Shizhong, let's talk about it!"
Shizhong is the cousin of Dou Shen, and Shoutan means playing Go.
The officer outside the door immediately brought the chessboard, and Fang Guan, the newly arrived governor of Hexi Province, actually took Dou Shen, the judge of the governor's office, to play chess.
Dou Shen couldn't help but secretly praise in his heart: "You are truly worthy of the prime minister's demeanor!"
At this time, in the lobby of the Jiedushi Mansion, all the generals and officials were standing with their legs numb, but everyone was standing upright, and no one dared to move rashly.
The veteran officialdom immediately understood that the new commander-in-chief was not Guo Shuai’s style. He was a “big shot” with a lot of airs and arrogance!
This is a killing stick!
Everyone lowered their heads, and it looked like the days ahead would be difficult.
In the backyard of the Jiedushi Mansion, Fang Guan was holding a white chess piece and was competing with Dou Shen for a big dragon.
Seeing that the dragon was about to be cut off by Dou Shen, Fang Guan did not expect that Dou Shen had such chess power at such a young age.
Seeing that he was about to lose, Fang Guan simply threw away the chess piece and said:
"No more, Shizhong, before we came to Hexi this time, His Majesty took me and told me that there is only one thing to do when we come to Hexi, and that is to change the horse into a mulberry!"
Dou Shen nodded quickly, saying that power is the best aphrodisiac. In Fengxiang Mansion, Fang Guan was a submissive person, but when he became powerful, he immediately became tough.
The further to Wuwei, the greater Fang Guan's official authority.
When he first entered Suzhou, when the officials who came to greet him presented him with treasures, Fang Guan would always shirk the offer and would only accept the gift after resigning.
But after arriving in Wuwei, Fang Guan of the local Jiedu government only asked the concierge to accept the gifts sent by the school administrators. He quickly scanned the gift list every day, and then asked the servants to send the gifts to the warehouse.
Unless it is a famous calligraphy and painting or a rare treasure, Fang Guan will ask the servant to take it out and then record the name of the gift giver.
As a close confidant of Fang Guan, Fang Guan did not shy away from him when receiving gifts, which sowed a fiery seed in the heart of Dou Shen, a young scholar.
This is how a man should be born!
This is the purpose of being an official! The big officials are feudal and are in charge of the government! This is the purpose of becoming a general and becoming a prime minister!
Dou Shen said carefully: "Jie Shuai, the imperial edict that the horse should be a mulberry has been sent to the Hexi Jiedu envoy's office in advance. This is a win-win matter for all parties. You will naturally have no difficulty in implementing it, but..."
"But what?" Half an hour had passed, but Fang Guan still had no intention of meeting his subordinates. Instead, he casually chatted with Dou Shen.
Dou Shen said: "This is a mulberry tree. First we need to plant mulberry trees. If we want to produce silk this year, we need to transplant adult mulberry trees. This costs a lot of money."
Fang Guan nodded. The price of mulberry trees has always been high. Moreover, if the mulberry trees are transported to Hexi, there will definitely be losses along the way.
Therefore, in order to implement the national policy of using horses as mulberries, Hexi must pay for this money itself.
This is a large amount of money, and obviously the Hexi Jiedushi government cannot afford this money now.
Fang Guan asked: "Shizhong, who should pay for this money?"
Dou Shen said without thinking: "It is a national policy to make horses into mulberry trees. Of course, this money should not come from the Jiedushi government."
Fang Guan sighed and said: "But the current situation is difficult. As the governor of Hexi, I came to Hexi to share the worries of the imperial court. It is really not easy to continue to ask the imperial court for it."
Dou Shen said: "Jie Shuai, it's not easy to ask the court for this money, but you can ask the local people for it."
Dou Shen explained the plan he had come up with and said: "Jie Shuai, as far as I know, there were horse donations in Hexi. The imperial court wanted horses, so the Hexi Jiedushi asked the Uighurs to buy horses, so he started collecting horse donations in Hexi.
."
"Now we have to convert horses into mulberry trees, and turn racecourses into mulberry fields. Then we use silk to exchange money to buy horses. This is something that is beneficial to the people, and the people should also contribute money."
"So I think the Jiedushi government can abolish the horse donation and change it to mulberry donation, and then use the money to buy mulberry trees in the pass."
Fang Guan nodded and said, "That's true. Then we in Hexi will level up the racecourse, replant it with mulberry trees, and then sell it to the capable people?"
Fang Guan asked again: "But why not just sell the land?"
Dou Shen said: "These people are just short-sighted. If they don't plant mulberry trees on the land and sell it together, and they directly buy the land of the horse farm, I'm afraid they won't spend money to buy mulberry trees. By then, if the people
How can the Jiedushi Mansion complete its task of planting crops?"
Fang Guan nodded. If they were just growing crops, then although the land would be fertile, the Jiedushi Mansion would not be able to receive much rent.
But if mulberry trees are planted and silk is woven, the Jiedushi government can use the silk to trade with the Western Regions and earn money to buy horses.
Dou Shen added: "Although it is troublesome to organize the land and then sell it, there are many ways to do it."
Fang Guan was born in Yanguan Qingliu and did not know much about these sects.
The Dou Shen family has always been a low-level official, so they are naturally very familiar with the hidden rules of the place.
Dou Shen took the initiative and said: "Whether it is buying mulberry trees or leveling the land and selling it, it will definitely cost the government more to do it."
Now Zifang Guan understood. Dou Shen had made it very clear that buying mulberry trees and leveling the land for the racecourse were both profitable things!
If the racecourse is simply sold to the people, including Fang Guan, the Jiedushi, all that can be handled is the money from the sale of the racecourse.
The money from selling the horse farm must also be paid to the imperial court, at least it cannot be used casually by the Jiedushi government.
But if you add in the purchase of mulberry trees and the leveling of the land for the racecourse, and these matters are all led by the Jieduzhengfu, then the fishiness will become even bigger!
All the people who handle it can make a lot of money. Anyway, these horse farms are sold to the people, the price is a little higher, and the money is not paid by the Jiedushi government.
At worst, those with connections can come and buy land, and the price will be cheaper.
Fang Guan also suddenly realized, no wonder those poor Jinshi from Yushitai, as long as they can be sent to serve as officials, can spend a lot of money to buy real estate when they are transferred back to Xijing. It turns out that there are so many ways to do this.
Now Zifang Guan relied more on Dou Shen. When he saw that the time was almost up, he put on his official uniform and walked to the lobby of Jiedu Envoy's Mansion.
Not to mention how Fang Guan used both kindness and power, after arriving in the Tang Dynasty, he directly announced two appointments.
First, in the name of the Hexi Jiedu Envoy Office, Dou Shen was appointed as the Shepherd Superintendent of the Hexi Group, fully responsible for the horse administration of the entire Hexi.
The pastoral supervisors of the Hexi Qun group were subordinates to the Minister of Taipusi. Originally, the Hexi Jiedushi had no right to interfere with this position.
But before setting off, Fang Guan asked the emperor for an imperial edict and obtained control of this position.
The former Hexi Qun Shepherd Supervisor had a deathly expression on his face. Fang Guan directly asked someone to take off his official robe, and the soldiers "sent" him out of the Jiedu Envoy's Mansion.
The generals, school officials, and officials were even more afraid of Fang Guan. Seeing this frightened everyone, Fang Guan said:
"Your Majesty asked me to come to Hexi for one thing! To change the horse into a mulberry!"
"This is a great thing that is good for the court, good for Hexi, and good for the people! If someone drags me down, I will never let him go lightly!"
All the generals and school officials immediately crossed their hands and said they didn't dare. They lowered their heads and continued to listen to Fang Guan's lecture.
Fang Guan said with satisfaction: "Changing horses into mulberries is not simply selling the racecourse to the people. If we want to do a good job in converting horses into mulberries, everyone in the Jiedushi government must take responsibility!"
All the generals and officials looked at each other in confusion.
Fang Guan said: "We are going to plant mulberry trees on the horse farm, turn it into a mulberry field and then sell it to the people. This will all depend on your efforts!"
Fang Guan said it bluntly, but the knowledgeable people in the lobby became excited.
Buying and selling mulberry trees and rebuilding a racecourse is a big project! There is too much oil and water involved!
Fang Guan continued: "There is also the matter of horse donation. If the Hexi racecourse can plant mulberry trees and spin silk, there will naturally be money to buy horses. So I decided to stop the horse donation first and open a new one.
The mulberry donation was specially used to purchase mulberry trees."
The generals and school officials were even more happy. Instead of collecting horse donations, they changed to mulberry donations, so that they could blackmail the people.
Although this Jiedushi Master has a little more official power, he really leads everyone to make a fortune!
Compared to the former military commander Guo Ziyi, who was strict in running the army, all the generals and officials in the hall were thinking about their calculations. They all said in unison: "I obey!"