In Yong County, Qizhou, Li Ye stood on a high place, watching the busy civilians on the official road below.
It is now mid-February, and the construction of Tangzhi Road has resumed in early February. The construction of Tangzhidao, which started the year before last, has been completed for a year and a half, and nearly half of it is completed. The Guanzhong section is 90% completed, and the Longyou section is 60% completed.
, now mainly the Hexi section is under construction.
Tangzhidao is not rebuilding an official road, but widening and smoothing the existing official road. In this way, the amount of work will be much less. Tangzhidao is also not a road. It has various branches, just like the Yangtze River. In addition to the main stream,
There are countless tributaries on both sides, connecting various counties.
The East Water West Road was one of the two strategic projects after Li Ye came to the throne, and it complemented the project of destroying the country.
The war to destroy the country was not a hot-headed one. After the Anshi Rebellion in history, the Tang Dynasty never recovered and never had the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty.
The most important reason is that the population loss is too great, the financial resources are exhausted, the separatist vassal towns and the Tubo invasion are like two huge bleeding holes. In order to maintain the rule and the army, the imperial court has to drain the lake, and the ordinary people are struggling on the line of life and death, as if
The body has lost its moisture, leaving only decay and decay, and there is no trace of the vitality of the Tang Dynasty.
After Li Ye came to the throne, he faced the same problem. How to restore the vitality of the Tang Dynasty after the devastation caused by the Anshi Rebellion and the decline of the entire Tang Dynasty. The solution that most rulers thought of was to end the war as soon as possible, reduce taxes, and cooperate with the Tang Dynasty.
The people needed to recuperate and redistribute the land.
This is what Li Ye is also doing, but unlike rulers in history, Li Ye is still using the powerful force of the Tang Dynasty to conquer his neighbors and plunder wealth. This is the fastest and most effective way to replenish blood, which can make the country more powerful.
The Tang Dynasty's finances improved rapidly and savings were still left.
For example, Huihe delivered 10 million sheep to redeem the Khan and his 100,000 troops. What does 10 million sheep mean? One sheep has two guan of money, which is the wealth of 20 million guan of money, which is equivalent to
The imperial court’s fiscal revenue for one and a half years.
The courtiers of the Tang Dynasty were all Confucian scholars who had read the books of sages and sages, but they turned a blind eye and allowed Li Ye to send armies to conquer the east and west, because the war to destroy the country could bring back a huge amount of wealth, and could bring back huge amounts of wealth.
By quickly improving the finances and subsidizing the finances, the people can reduce taxes and taxes, recuperate and recuperate, and the Tang Dynasty can restore its vitality as soon as possible.
In the face of reality and moral concepts, they prefer reality.
The East Water and West Road project is a real benefit to the country and the people. It distributes the wealth obtained from conquests to the people through the construction of fortifications. With Chang'an as the center and the Tangzhi Road built to the west of Chang'an, it not only connects the Western Regions, but also shortens the center of the rule.
The passage time to the frontiers of the Western Regions effectively consolidated the Tang Dynasty's rule over the frontiers.
The second is to promote Longyou and Hexi, so that transportation will be more convenient and material circulation will be faster.
To the east of Chang'an, waterways are widened and dredged, focusing on the Tianbao Canal, Sanmenxia and Danba Waterways, as well as the Xihanshui Waterway, which is currently being excavated, connecting the West Hanshui River and the Jialing River, and then through the Danba Waterway, it connects Chang'an to Chang'an.
Water transportation in Bashu.
Therefore, the East Road and West Water Project has always been supported by the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty. Although many ministers were worried that the finances would not be able to support it at first, with the continuous influx of wealth from abroad, no one is now worried about lack of financial resources. At the same time, it began
Branch line construction of Tangzhi Road Project.
The Tang Zhi Road that Li Ye is currently inspecting is the Yongxian Branch Road. A fifty-mile-long straight road is being built from Yong County to connect to the main Tang Zhi Road.
Yongxian County mobilized 30,000 people to build this straight road, which is about 50 miles long, in three months.
The reason why it only takes three months is because the amount of work is much smaller due to the renovation and construction of the original official road. During this period, merchants can only use the abandoned official road or the waterway.
There was a lot of noise on the construction site, and the workers were laying gravel. An official introduced to Li Ye: "Your Majesty, these gravels come from nearby rock mining. Now it is much easier to mine with fire mines than to quarry manually before."
Li Ye nodded, "Is it compacted down there?"
"Of course it's compacted. It must be done well before laying the gravel. The road surface should be laid flat, and then rolled back and forth with huge stones to lay the gravel. Finally, a layer of mature soil should be laid on top."
Li Ye pondered for a moment and then asked Yang Shenyu, the Minister of Household Affairs who was accompanying him: "It was previously agreed that the burden of road construction would be half of the local government and half of the imperial court. What is their source of financial resources?"
Yang Shenyu bowed and said: "Reporting to your Majesty, this straight road is planned to cost 400,000 guan, mainly for wages. The imperial court subsidized 200,000 guan. Yongxian County itself has to spend 200,000 guan. On the one hand, the common people and local wealthy families donated money.
In addition, the government provided 30,000 healthy cattle and sold them to merchants from various places."
"Can Yong County produce 30,000 healthy cattle?"
Yang Shenyu nodded, "The county government has three large-scale cattle ranches with about 100,000 cattle and two million sheep. They originally belonged to a big businessman named Cao. Both of his sons died in Anlu.
During the Shan rebellion, there were no grandsons. After the death of the merchant named Cao, there was no one to inherit the cattle farm, so it was returned to the government, half to the county government and half to the state government."
Li Ye turned back and smiled at the accompanying prefectures and counties: "This is the first time I know that the Yongxian government has three large ranches. It seems that being an official in Qizhou is a fat job!"
Wu Huanyuan, the governor of Qizhou, was so frightened that his face changed. He quickly bowed and explained: "Reporting to your majesty, the censor will come to monitor every year. I don't dare to have any inappropriate thoughts."
Li Ye smiled slightly and said: "At least mutton is very cheap. I eat it and my mouth is full of oil. I have gained weight in two years since I took office. How can I not be fat?"
Everyone laughed, and several officials quickly said: "Your Majesty is right, the price of mutton in Yong County is 30% cheaper than that in Chang'an, and many people from Chang'an will come to Yong County to eat sheep."
Li Ye said with a smile: "I will rest in Yong County tonight and have a good meal of mutton. I will pay for it myself, so you don't need to treat me!"
In fact, Li Ye knew that local officials could not be without benefits. Generally speaking, the trick lies in the loss. Cattle and sheep will always die of illness and death! This is loss. For example, if a hundred thousand cattle lose 5%, that is 50%.
A thousand cows can be sold for a large sum of money, and it will be beneficial both up and down without going to the public account.
Of course Li Ye knew this, but if the water is clear, there will be no fish. If there is no benefit to the officials, they will not work hard. A pasture that can obviously raise 100,000 cattle may only raise 20,000 to 30,000 cattle in the end because there is no benefit.
This is what officialdom is like. As long as you don't overdo anything and can control it to a certain extent, you'll basically be fine.
Just like the three cattle farms, officials used the losses to gain benefits. Other local governments also used the loss of grain in official warehouses to gain benefits. These are all within an acceptable range. If the county magistrate embezzles the cattle farms, other local officials will
If you embezzle official land for personal gain, you have violated a red line. It would be strange if you don't get caught.
So the ability to serve as an official is very important, but emotional intelligence is equally important. Do you know what you can do and what you cannot do? Know where the red line is?
I once read a story that there was a flood in a certain place in the early years of the dynasty. The court allocated 30,000 shi for food relief. The county magistrate found that the rice was of good quality and was all new rice, so he exchanged 30,000 shi of new rice for 30,000 shi of old rice. The county magistrate ate a few
For a price difference of one hundred guan, 30,000 shi of old rice were distributed to the victims. The victims did not care what kind of new rice or old rice they received. Everyone was extremely grateful after receiving the relief food. The county magistrate also deliberately kept a few hundred shi of new rice without replacing it and kept it in the warehouse for future reference.
Later, Zhu Yuanzhang sent the censor to verify, and found that the amount of grain distributed was completely correct, and there was no problem with the grain left behind. The victims praised the county magistrate for the blue sky, and the censor replied to Zhu Yuanzhang, saying that the officials he checked were highly praised, Long Yan was very happy, and the county magistrate was praised by the emperor.
He was promoted to state official.
The victims are satisfied, the emperor is satisfied, the officials are also satisfied, and everyone is happy. This is an official with high emotional intelligence. He has grasped a certain degree of control in the era of Zhu Yuanzhang's skinning, and is not greedy for capital and gets rich.
Of course, in the heyday of Kangxi and Qianlong, it was another matter to clear the prefecture in three years and earn one hundred thousand snowflakes of silver.
I stayed one night in Yong County and had a meal of mutton. Naturally, it was treated by the local government and was recorded in the public account.
Early the next morning, Li Ye, escorted by hundreds of cavalry, left Yong County with his beloved concubine Yang Yuhuan and continued northward, heading to Linyou County along another official road under construction.
