Chapter 348: Great Harvest in Jiangsu and Zhejiang
Li Shanchang found a seat in the hall and sat down, while Hu Weiyong went to inquire about Guo Niansheng's situation.
Not long after, Hu Weiyong came back and whispered: "Teacher, the Prime Minister is in the fourth cabin of No. A. Should we go and see him?"
Li Shanchang smiled and said: "There's no rush. It's not too late to have dinner first and then go visit."
The two sat and drank a pot of tea before asking the boatman to serve food.
Li Shanchang was eating when his sleeve was suddenly pulled by Hu Weiyong.
When I looked up, I saw a plump, wealthy man entering the cabin, followed by a young man in white robes and several capable entourages.
Li Shanchang and Hu Weiyong hurried over to greet him, bowed and said, "I have met Mr. Guo!"
Hu Weiyong said: "Students pay homage to Mr. Guo!"
The person who came was none other than Guo Niansheng. Because he wore regular clothes and took the passenger ship, the two of them did not address him by their official titles.
Guo Niansheng's eyes lit up and he laughed and said, "Mr. Li, Weiyong, why are you here too?"
Li Shanchang and the other two invited Guo Niansheng to sit down at their own seats. Li Shanchang sat down with him and said with a smile: "I just happened to be in Beijing, so I don't want to run into you by chance."
The young man next to Guo Niansheng squinted his eyes and said, "Did we meet by chance? That's really a coincidence!"
Li Shanchang glanced at the man and said, "I wonder who this is..."
Guo Niansheng stood up and said with a smile: "It's not convenient to talk here, go to my cabin to talk!"
Li Shanchang agreed and ordered the crew to deliver the food to Guo Niansheng's house.
After the four people entered the room, Guo Niansheng introduced them: "This is Tongzhi Yang Xian from Hangzhou. You must get closer to each other in the future."
Li Shanchang smiled and said: "It turns out to be the Iron-faced Yang Tongzhi, whose name I have admired for a long time!"
Yang Xian was recommended by Liu Bowen and became a fellow magistrate in Hangzhou at a young age. He was a very famous figure in Jiangdu officialdom.
Many people are secretly paying attention to him, and many even hope that he will make a big mistake in Hangzhou!
Unexpectedly, Yang Xian was young but extremely sophisticated in his methods. After taking charge of Hangzhou's government affairs, he pretended to be close to a group of wealthy gentry and businessmen in Hangzhou, but secretly collected evidence of their crimes.
As soon as the evidence was sufficient, they turned their backs on each other and arrested and dealt with all the wealthy gentry and powerful people who were corrupt and perverted the law.
These wealthy gentry all mobilized their connections and showed off their magical powers.
Some people mobilized the people and put a lot of shit basins on Yang Xian's head to ruin his reputation. They also paid people to go to the government office to cause trouble.
Some people were even more powerful and uncovered Yang Xian's bribery of his superiors when he was a civil servant in Jiqing, which even alarmed the Zhongshu Province.
However, Liu Bowen was there to support Yang Xian in Zhongshu Province, and Liu Bowen blocked all the overt and secret arrows.
Yang Xian is also indifferent, like an iron man.
In the end, the gentry's counterattack failed, and Hangzhou's deep-rooted official and business groups were uprooted.
Because of this incident, Jiangdu officials gave Yang Xian the nickname "Iron-faced Tongzhi".
Yang Xian said calmly: "Mr. Li, you're welcome. You are the number one scholar in a subject appointed by the king, and I admire you very much."
Yang Xian was recommended by Liu Bowen, so he regarded Liu Bowen as his teacher. Not only did he often correspond with Liu Bowen, but every time he went to Jiangdu Mansion to report, he would also go to Liu Mansion to pay his respects.
When he and Liu Bowen talked about Li Shanchang, he found that Liu Bowen didn't like this person, so he was influenced by Liu Bowen and was not polite to Li Shanchang.
Hu Weiyong narrowed his eyes and said: "I heard that under the governance of Yang Tongzhi, Hangzhou's business has become more prosperous. I wonder how much the commercial tax will increase this year?"
Yang Xian's face suddenly turned ugly.
Because he punished profiteers, many large merchants moved out of Hangzhou. Hangzhou's commercial tax this year is not good.
His behavior is extremely beneficial to small and medium-sized merchants in Hangzhou. By creating a fair business environment for them, Hangzhou will definitely be more prosperous in the future.
However, this was a few years later.
By that time, he, a melon grower, is likely to have been transferred out of Hangzhou, and these benefits will become other people's political achievements.
All he got was a bad comment that "Hangzhou is poorly governed, resulting in a decline in commercial taxes."
At this moment, when he heard Hu Weiyong's sarcasm, how could Yang Xian not be angry? He said coldly: "You are the Hu scholar who failed the second exam, right?"
Hu Weiyong's face suddenly darkened.
Guo Niansheng saw that there seemed to be some difficulty in dealing with the two sides, and hurriedly said: "Mr. Li, how is Danyang County's tax revenue this year? Can it achieve the pilot effect?"
Li Shanchang smiled and said: "Thank you, Prime Minister, everything goes well."
Guo Niansheng smiled and said: "That's good, the king is most concerned about this matter, and he will be very happy after hearing the news!"
Li Shanchang cupped his hands and said, "Thanks to the Prime Minister for his recommendation."
Guo Niansheng waved his hand and laughed: "No need to thank me, it's your idea that can really relieve the king's worries, of course I will recommend it!"
Hu Weiyong suddenly said: "Master Xiang, all the prefectures and counties in Zhenjiang Road have greatly increased their grain output this year. It should be a bumper harvest this year, right?"
Guo Niansheng laughed and said: "Of course, I guarantee that my colleagues in Zhongshu Province will be shocked when they learn about this year's grain output!"
In the evening of the next day, the passenger ship entered Jiangdu Prefecture.
It is now late December, and the weather is getting colder and colder. The heavy snowfall the day before has not yet melted, and the pier is full of snowdrifts.
When Guo Niansheng got off the boat, he almost slipped and said: "What a heavy snow!"
Auspicious snow heralds a good year, and no one dislikes heavy snow.
Yang Xian separated from Guo Niansheng and the other three at the dock and headed straight for Liu Bowen's mansion.
When I arrived at Liu Mansion, I was ushered into the study by the housekeeper. After waiting for a while, Liu Bowen walked in and said with a smile: "Xiwu, you're back. You must have gone back with Zuo Xiang!"
Yang Xian hurriedly said: "Yes, and the students also met Li Shanchang and Hu Weiyong on the way!"
Liu Bowen frowned, walked behind the case and sat down, then stretched out his hand to signal Yang Xian to sit down and talk.
Yang Xian was impatient and did not sit down. He walked up to Liu Bowen and said: "Those two people must have found out the left prime minister's itinerary in advance, so they happened to be on the same ship. They were so flattering along the way!"
Liu Bowen said calmly: "What are they doing? I heard that the left prime minister has coordinated the land tax. I heard many people say that the harvests in various places in the south of the Yangtze River are good, so the land tax should not be low?"
Yang Xian's eyes flashed and he said: "Not only is it not low, our land tax in Hangzhou alone is more than 500,000 shi of grain!"
Liu Bowen was surprised and said: "So many?"
Yang Xian smiled and said: "I heard that there are more roads on Pingjiang Road. Teacher, how did you grow the late rice like King's? It's incredible!"
Liu Bowen smiled and said: "Brother Song and I discussed this matter. He said that this kind of grain may have been introduced from Southeast Asian countries. If there is this kind of grain in the country, it is impossible for no one to know about it!"
Yang Xian nodded and said: "I guess so, Champa rice is also introduced from Nanyang countries."
After a pause, he said: "Teacher, since November, the price of food has been decreasing every day. The price of food in Hangzhou has fallen below two taels per stone!"
Liu Bowen said: "It's the same in Jiangdu Prefecture. The price of food has dropped to one or two or six yuan per stone."
Yang Xian came closer and said in a low voice: "Teacher, I heard a piece of news that Chen Youliang is in Huguang, and Jiangxi has recruited a large number of soldiers, causing people to live in poverty. Many Jiangxi people are migrating to Wenzhou, Chuzhou and other places."
Liu Bowen was surprised: "Is there such a thing?"
Yang Xiandao: "Students think that if we can send more people to Jiangxi and Huguang areas to promote our low food prices, we will definitely attract more people here!"
Liu Bowen's eyes flashed sharply and he said: "Yes, not only do we need to publicize our food prices, but we also need to tell them that they can receive relief food when they arrive in the Jiangdu Military Area!"
Yang Xian said happily: "Teacher, let's go talk to the king about this now?"
Liu Bowen hesitated for a moment and said: "I want to think about this matter carefully and report it to the king tomorrow!"
Yang Xian said anxiously: "We can't wait. Others can definitely think of this method, but don't let others get there first!"
Liu Bowen didn't care about the credit, but seeing Yang Xian's anxious look, he knew that he was eager to show off in front of the king.
"Okay, wait for me, I'll change clothes."
The cold wind is biting and the cold moon is silent.
After Yang Xian and Liu Bowen arrived at the palace together, they were led to the study. Unexpectedly, Li Shanchang and Hu Weiyong were also waiting outside the study.
The two sides met again, and after a while of silence, Li Shanchang handed over his hand and said: "I have met Liu Xiang!"
He smiled at Yang Xian again and said, "Yang Tongzhi, we meet again so soon."
Liu Bowen bowed his hand in return and said nothing.
Yang Xian said calmly: "Magistrate Li is really busy with his official duties, and he still comes to meet the king so late."
Li Shanchang said: "When it comes to being diligent in official duties, how can I compare to Mr. Liu?"
At this moment, a person walked out of the study, it was Guo Niansheng.
When he saw Liu Bowen, he smiled slightly and said, "Mr. Liu is here too."
Liu Bowen cupped his hands and said: "Prime Minister Zuo."
Guo Niansheng returned the gift and said to Li Shanchang: "I will go to the back house to say hello to the princess. We will meet in the main hall later."
After saying this, he said hello to Liu Bowen and turned towards the corridor.
Yang Sanqiang said to Li Shanchang: "County Magistrate Li, your Majesty, please..."
Before he finished speaking, Zhang Yangquan's voice came from the study.
"Three shots, I seem to hear Mr. Liu's voice?"
Yang Sanqiang hurriedly said: "Back to your Majesty, Mr. Liu and Yang Tongzhi are also here."
Zhang Yangquan said: "Let them come in together!"
So Li Shanchang, Liu Bowen, and Yang Xian entered the study together, while Hu Weiyong was the only one waiting outside.