Chapter 552 Family Long-term Plan
Chapter 552 Family Long-term Plan
In Luoyang, Prime Minister Yu Shiji hurried to the imperial study, only to see the emperor standing there with a gloomy face. His heart skipped a beat, not knowing what had happened. He quickly walked into the imperial study, bowed and said, "Your Majesty, I am here to see you!"
Yang Guang asked coldly: "Could you please predict how much the tax will increase this year?"
"This. I will immediately make a forecast from the Ministry of Revenue and submit it to Your Majesty within three days!"
"Do you still need the Ministry of Revenue to make a prediction? I can make a prediction. It will drop by at least 30% this year. Don't you, the Prime Minister, have any idea at all?"
"Your Majesty, I know that there have been severe droughts in the Central Plains and Shandong in the past two years. Locusts have also been wreaking havoc in Nanyang County, Yuyang County, and Huaihe County. Various natural disasters have continued, and a reduction in grain production is inevitable, which will indeed affect taxation."
"Humph! Aside from natural disasters, are there no man-made disasters?"
Yang Guang handed a memorial to Yu Shiji, "This is a memorial written to me by the Censor Yu Shinan, your brother. I just found out that more than one million households have fled to the south of the Yangtze River. Don't you, the right prime minister, know about this?"
Yu Shiji was sweating profusely. How could he not know? In the past two years, the governors of various counties had submitted memorials to the court, complaining about the rapid population loss and asking the court to take measures. However, these memorials were withheld by Yu Shiji. Unexpectedly, a memorial from his brother broke the abscess.
"I really don't know. Taxes have dropped sharply in the past two years. I have always thought it was due to the impact of taxes in Jiangnan Province and various disasters, but I didn't expect it to be related to population loss."
Yang Guang ignored him and asked the eunuch, "Have Prime Minister Pei and Prime Minister Yuwen arrived?"
"Already here!"
As soon as the eunuch finished speaking, Yuwen Shu and Pei Yun hurried in and saluted together, "Your Majesty!"
"Everyone, sit down!"
The eunuchs brought three soft stools, and the three of them sat down. Yang Guang said, "The large-scale migration to Jiangnan has been going on for three years. I have heard about it a long time ago, but I had no evidence. However, the report of the Supervisory Censor Yu Shinan made me understand it completely. You can see for yourself. This is the report that Yu Shinan spent a year investigating and writing."
How could the three not know? Everyone knew, but they all kept it a secret from the emperor. They only reported good news but not bad news, which was of course to please the emperor. Xiao Cong and Pei Ju, who liked to report bad news, were both dismissed from their positions. Who would want to make the emperor unhappy?
The three of them pretended to read Yu Shinan's report. Yang Guang glanced at them and said, "Prime Minister Yuwen, please speak first!"
Yuwen Shu thought for a moment and said, "Your Majesty, what Yu Yushi said makes sense. The key is the issue of safety. There are too many bandits, and the local government is not doing enough to suppress them, which has led to rampant banditry. The people have been repeatedly robbed, and they have no sense of security, so naturally..."
Yang Guang waved his hand unhappily to interrupt Yuwen Shu's words, "What you said is all in the investigation report. I don't want to hear it again. Tell me the solution!"
Yuwen Shu was a little embarrassed. The solution was to suppress the bandits, but they had been suppressing them and the problem was becoming more and more rampant.
Helplessly, he could only bow and say: "I will increase the force to suppress the bandits!"
Yang Guang was obviously not satisfied with his answer, and asked Pei Yun again: "Does Prime Minister Pei have a good plan?"
Pei Yun said slowly: "The best way is to restore the previous system of the General Manager's Office. The General Manager will lead the troops and be responsible for the security of several counties. He must eliminate the banditry in the jurisdiction!"
Yu Shiji could tell from the emperor's expression that he was not willing to restore the system of the General Administration Office.
Yu Shiji immediately said, "Your Majesty, the General Administration Office will become too big to be eliminated after a long time, causing new troubles in reducing the power of the vassal states. I suggest that we should appoint a county governor to be responsible for public security, under the governor. This person will be responsible for recruiting and training county soldiers, eliminating the rebellious bandits in the county, maintaining security, and ensuring local security from an institutional perspective. In this way, the people will feel safe and will not easily flee their homes."
Yu Shiji's words touched the heart of Emperor Yang Guang. He was worried that restoring the general control would lead to new separatist regimes. However, setting up a security officer would be different. Without a special office and subordinate officials, the power would not be great.
Yang Guang nodded and said, "You can cancel the post of county Sima and add a Tongshou, one level lower than the governor, responsible for commanding the county soldiers and maintaining the public security of the entire county." The three agreed together, and Yuwen Shu added, "Your Majesty, you can also send special troops to clear out several bandit gathering places, including Gaojipo, Douzigang, Wagangzhai, and Du Fuwei and Li Zitong in Jianghuai. After they are wiped out, the rest of the small bandits are just petty thieves."
Yang Guang said happily: "I will appoint Prime Minister Yuwen as the commander-in-chief of the national bandit suppression, commanding an army of 100,000 to wipe out the above bandit troubles!"
The carriage sped away, and Yu Shiji had a gloomy expression inside the carriage. In fact, he knew very well the real reason why the people fled. The endless labor gradually overwhelmed the dynasty.
Forced labor is more ferocious than a tiger. The people would rather become thieves than perform forced labor. There are countless thieves in various places, and they cannot be killed all at all. How can the problem be solved by simply adding a guard?
On the contrary, the Jiangnan Province is well governed, and the people live and work in peace and contentment. The hope of the Sui Dynasty lies in Jiangnan!
As a minister born in Jiangnan, Yu Shiji felt very regretful. As the number one family in Kuaiji County, their Yu family should have a high status in the Jiangnan General Administration Office.
However, they did not seize this opportunity. They should have let their brothers burn incense to King Jin, and stayed to burn incense to the Emperor. This way, no matter which side won, their Yu family would have been prosperous.
When Yu Shiji returned home, he immediately sent someone to find his brother Yu Shinan, who lived in the east courtyard of his mansion.
Yu Shinan was low-key and simple, completely different from his greedy brother, but the two brothers had always had a good relationship. Seeing that his brother could not afford a house in Luoyang and was unwilling to accept the special treatment he gave him, Yu Shiji arranged an official residence for him. Yu Shiji then had the east courtyard vacated for his brother's family to live in.
However, this time, Yu Shinan's report on population loss was reported directly to the emperor without prior communication with his brother, which violated Yu Shiji's vital interests. The emperor must have noticed that he was concealing the truth.
Not long after, Yu Shinan hurried over.
"Brother, do you have something to ask me?"
Yu Shiji said slowly: "The emperor summoned me today to discuss the investigation report you wrote. Why didn't you submit this report to me in advance?"
Yu Shinan was silent for a while and said, "I submitted the report on the charity granary to you, brother, but in the end, did you hand it over to the emperor?"
"The situation of the charity granary is special. The emperor has asked Yuwen Shu to be in charge. We should not interfere."
Yu Shinan shook his head. "The problem of the charity granary has not been solved at all. It has been forcibly suppressed. Without an explanation to the people, it will explode one day, and the problem will be even bigger then. Yuwen Shu deceived the emperor and said that the problem of the charity granary has been solved. Who will bear the responsibility if a big problem explodes again?"
Yu Shiji said coldly: "No one can solve the problem of the charity granary. What's the point of reporting it to the emperor? It will only make me offend Yuwen Shu!"
Yu Shinan responded sharply: "It is because my brother only cares about his own interests and does not care about the life and death of the court that I submitted the population loss report directly to the emperor."
"you!"
Yu Shiji was so rebuked that he could not say a word. After a while, he said coldly: "The King of Jin is planning to build the Jiangnan Imperial College and asked the Imperial College to recommend someone to be the principal of the Imperial College. I have decided to recommend you. You can report to the Imperial College tomorrow!"
Yu Shinan said dissatisfiedly: "Brother, are you taking revenge on me?"
Yu Shiji snorted, "You think I'm taking revenge on you, I can't do anything about it, but since I'm the head of the Yu family, I have to consider the long-term future of the family. I asked you to go to King Jin because I hope that there will be people from the Yu family in the upper echelons of King Jin. In this way, no matter who comes to power in the future, our family will be invincible!"
Only then did Yu Shinan understand his brother's considerations. But then again, he had always wanted to know how the Prince of Jin solved the charity granary problem. He needed to consider it on the ground and then offer a charity granary solution to the emperor.
Thinking of this, Yu Shinan nodded gently, "Okay! I'll go!
(End of this chapter)