Northern Dynasties

Chapter 442
In the middle of the first month, Li Tai returned to Huazhou City with Daxingtai Yijia, and there was no time to celebrate the Lantern Festival, so he was about to take over a series of new duties immediately.

"Looking at Mr. Xihe for the humble ranks, I am very grateful to learn that Mr. Xihe has joined the Consul of Zhizhitang!"

In the West Hall of the Taifu, a group of subordinate government officials saluted Li Tai after entering the hall.

Li Tai looked down and saw Pei Han, Xue Shen, Huangfu Fan and other old acquaintances, he was immediately happy, waved his hands and said with a smile: "You don't need to be too polite, you must know my style, take your seats and sit down, discuss business Let’s talk about the old days after we decide.”

As he expected, Daxingtai appointed him as the Minister of the Taifu mainly to be in charge of logistics and equipment. The Taifu Scholars Cao, Tian Cao, Kai Cao, Foreign Soldiers, etc. were all assigned to him to manage, and Shi Cao managed the craftsmen. , Tian Cao manages Jitian, which is an important productivity and means of production management organization, and Kai Cao and foreign soldiers are the collection, storage, transfer and distribution of materials.

Zhu Cao mainly subordinated to more than a dozen officials. In addition to the few people who had worked with Li Tai before, there were also Zhao Su, Wang Zizhi, Da Xishi, etc. who were in charge of the Cao Cao and joined the army.

Among them, Zhao Su once supervised the transportation of grain and grass when Duguxin attacked Luoyang in the third year of Datong to ensure that the army had no shortage of military supplies, and was praised by Yu Wentai as "the master of Luoyang".Now, in addition to serving in the Taiwan government, he also serves as the governor of Huashan County under the rule of Huazhou. He is a capable official with considerable qualifications and talents.

Wang Zizhi was born in the Wang family of Jingzhao. He used to be an official in Qinzhou. After the battle of Liangzhou last year, he returned to the country to serve as a secretary and joined the army.

Daxi is a native of Xianbei. He followed Emperor Xiaowu into the customs. He is a talented man with both civil and military skills. Because of his good family background, he was called into the Taifu by Daxingtai to serve as a Zhonglang and lead foreign soldiers.

All the subordinates are not young, even Da Xishi, who is relatively young, is already in his 30s.

But now they have to obey the orders of Li Tai, a young man in the hall, and the scene looks a little funny, and the officials who don't have much contact with Li Tai are naturally a little embarrassed and uncomfortable.As for the few who had known and worked with him long ago, such as Pei Han and Xue Shen, although their expressions were still full of enthusiasm, they were actually not feeling well in their hearts.

Thinking back to when Li Tai first entered the Bafu, these colleagues in the office could still show off their seniority and take care of the young people. Although Li Tai has been promoted step by step because of his repeated suggestions and suggestions, it is still acceptable. within range.

Now that they meet again, Li Tai's officials and nobles have reached the peak of civil and military, and they have completely left them, and they are no longer on the same level.Even though Li Tai still treats them kindly and not overbearingly, but this sense of gap also makes people feel uncomfortable.

Looking at these old colleagues who are still standing still, Li Tai can't help but secretly lament that it is fortunate that he did not choose to stay in the Taifu. Although staying in the Taifu is more comfortable for work and life, it also brings great restrictions to people. , it is difficult to get access to the core resources, and Su Chuo is cultivated as a trumpet, and it is absolutely difficult to obtain the current outstanding meritorious status.

Putting aside these inner feelings, after everyone met and exchanged greetings, they entered the prelude in order according to the level of their respective affairs.

As Li Tai listened, his brows gradually frowned, and he started to have a headache involuntarily.The reason is also very simple, that is, it is too bad to hear.In short, there is a huge gap in material demand in all aspects, but the accumulation is so-so, and it is completely in a state of cooking without rice.

The reason for this situation is, of course, because of the poverty that has always been characteristic of the Hegemony. In particular, Su Chuo has been seriously ill since the middle of the year last year, and it is difficult for him to take care of things. The big housekeeper made the government's financial situation worse.

No matter people or things, it may be ordinary when you have it, but you will feel precious when you really lose it.Without the Su Chuo Duzhi plan, last year's Xianyang Dayue spending more than doubled compared with the previous year, which naturally made the already stretched finances of the Bafu even worse.

Moreover, due to the attack by the army of the Eastern Wei Dynasty, the troops from all sides did not disperse immediately after the Grand Parade, but maintained a state of assembly until the end of the year.

It is not convenient for all the armies to gather here to eat in the village, and it also needs the overlord to coordinate and dispatch the supplies. As a result, almost all the states in the pass have emptied their treasuries and gritted their teeth to lose food and grass. It is estimated that the next year will be spent. Yin eat enough food.

Of course, there is a very important reason for the huge consumption of the Overlord's Mansion in the past year. In the past two years, Li Tai has been searching and buying grain in large quantities, which has kept the price of grain at a relatively high level. .

Although the Bafu does not need to buy grain from the market, the lack of surplus grain among the people also increases the cost of obtaining grain and grass, and it needs to use other types of inventory to exchange warehouses with the state and county governments.After a lot of tossing, although the army of the Overlord's Mansion did not cross the river to fight, the supplies consumed in the past six months are not much worse than those during the war.

When the army of the Eastern Wei Dynasty retreated from Yubi, they discarded a considerable part of their supplies, but they were all collected and divided by the defenders of Yubi City and the local people in Hedong.No matter how shameless Daxingtai was, he was ashamed to order them to hand over the spoils.

Li Tai turned in a batch of goods, but they were not basic consumables. They were all high-end cloth, gold and silver goods, which could not be used directly.

There are a few more important issues before us. The first one is that the production departments such as Gongtian, Zhitian and Huazhou Zhuguantun industries under Tian Cao's management are in short supply of grain, tools and cattle. If they are ready, the upcoming spring plowing will be delayed. If this year's harvest is affected, the situation will definitely be even more difficult.

The second more important one is the foreign soldier Cao. The foreign soldier Cao is responsible for the military affairs of the prefectures and counties, mainly dispatching, distributing and providing supplies.

Now that the military crisis in the Eastern Wei Dynasty has been resolved, there is no need for these state and county troops to gather again. Of course, they need to disperse the states and counties as soon as possible to reduce the pressure on the central government of the hegemony.

In fact, as early as last year, the Eastern Wei Dynasty just withdrew its troops, and the Taiwan government issued an order for all the troops to retreat. However, until the new year, there were still many troops stranded between Huazhou and Yongzhou. The first reason was that they did not have enough supplies to go on the road. The second is that the Overlord's government does not pay back the money owed.

After the autumn harvest in October, the Tyrant's Mansion ordered the armies to send supplies to their respective hometowns to make up for military use. After all rents and transfers from all parties were imported into the Tyrant's Mansion, they would return them in a unified manner, which could just be distributed to the army's return home. Consumables.

But even though the rent adjustment was collected, it was like pissing in the desert, and the land was fucking gone without getting wet.All the tyrants and superintendents can't get back the supplies they paid for themselves, and the travel expenses to return home are all gone. Naturally, they can't leave even if they want to, so they can only continue to spend here.

But even if it goes on like this, seeing that the Bafu will not have a large amount of money and food before the autumn harvest this year, it will be difficult to pay off the advances one by one.And because they were worried that the armies would mutiny and cause trouble due to hunger, they had to search everywhere to extract some supplies to distribute to the armies, so they were not allowed to make trouble.

Although there are other problems, relatively speaking, these two problems are the most serious.It is also very simple to solve these two problems, as long as you have money and things, but the tricky thing is that you have neither money nor things.

Since he has not worked in the Bafu for a long time, Li Tai has never felt the taste of poverty, but when he returns to the Bafu, this familiar feeling will return in an instant.

As the saying goes, there are three thousand nails in a broken boat, but when used here in Bafu, even though there is not a single nail on this broken boat, it is still quite enjoyable to surf.

Although the Bafu has no money, it doesn't mean that the entire Kansai is still impoverished. Take Li Tai himself as an example, the food he has today is enough to support the Bafu for a year.And the tyrants in other realms may not be as wealthy and powerful as him, but they must all be well-off.

As long as some of these assets can be collected, it will be more than enough to overcome the current difficulties.But here comes the question again, how to search?Even Li Tai himself is unwilling to donate the wealth of the loser's family to help the Bafu overcome the difficulties, so how can he expect others to destroy the family and relieve the difficulties.

Seeing that everyone was helpless, Li Tai didn't have any good ideas for a while, after all, he hadn't been poor for a long time.

But today's matters are on the table, and they are all urgent and need to be resolved urgently. After pondering for a while, he put forward two ideas.The first is to send envoys from the Tyrant Mansion to Zhuzhou County to check the surplus materials, and then sell these surplus materials to the people in exchange for urgently needed materials.

At present, the rent and transfer tributes are collected in kind. In addition to basic general-purpose materials such as grain and silk, there are also various other miscellaneous materials. For various reasons, they are stored in official warehouses all year round. Selling is also a considerable income.

But the problem is that these local reserves are generally attributed to administrative costs and official benefits. Once they are reviewed and inventoried, they may be resisted and disgusted by local officials.Moreover, if customization is formed, it is also very easy to breed corruption. Local officials collude with local wealthy families to turn high-value materials into cheap surplus for sale.

The second is to sell land. Although it is not as expensive as it is in later generations, the land resources in some key areas will always be scarce and non-renewable.Selling some land with extremely high added value to the private sector is also a way to relieve financial pressure in the short term.

These lands include but are not limited to mountains rich in natural resources, highways, thoroughfares, land and water, etc., and their development rights and use rights are sold to the private sector through bidding.

The mined copper, tin and other metal materials are directly purchased by the government. The management rights of some transportation hubs also include the responsibility to undertake the transportation tasks assigned by the government. As long as effective supervision can be formed, a benign relationship between public and private convenience can also be maintained. state.

Of course, Li Tai had been thinking about this latter idea for a long time.When he was hoarding grain last year, he planned to cooperate with local clans to build a logistics network covering the entire Kansai, but he found it difficult to implement it.

First of all, the local conditions and customs are different from place to place, and each tyrant has a very different temperament and moral character. Some are easy to talk about, while others are greedy and domineering, and refuse to share local resources with others.

If we negotiate and compromise according to local conditions in every place, the efficiency will be extremely low. It is estimated that Lu, like Li Tai, has seized power, and this matter may not be finished yet.

Therefore, it is better to cooperate with the government. At least the government has unified rules and constraints, and the political resources he owns can also provide certain assistance.

Take the present as an example, if this matter is promoted to be implemented as a decree that the hegemonic government focuses on, it will naturally not worry about the local officials abusing their power and arbitrarily increasing their weight.

This kind of cooperation does not need to last too long, it only needs two or three years to lay and operate, and then it can continue to be maintained even if it leaves the government, and there is no need to worry that Li Tai will leave the government after he is not in office.

When all the subordinates heard Li Tai's idea, their eyes lit up, and they joined the discussion one after another.

This kind of government policy of giving benefits to the people and taking what each needs is not new. For example, the suzerain supervision system implemented in the early Northern Wei Dynasty and the subsequent three-head system all gave up the administrative power at the grassroots level in exchange for the local rich and powerful. Chambers' support for the rule.

Similarly, even if the government does not rent out and sell these land resources, in fact, the local tyrants will seal up the mountains and marsh to reap huge profits.If a system can be established to manage situations other than these laws and regulations, this kind of behavior will not be abolished, but the government will also participate in sharing its benefits. The pressure this will bring to society is actually far less than simply squeezing small farmers .

As the chief officer, Li Tai only proposed a direction of thinking, and naturally he would not plan and verify the specific details, and what kind of plan will be formed in the end, still needs to be discussed and run-in by these subordinates.

Seeing that everyone was talking about it, he stood up again and signaled them to continue discussing it, and he didn't interfere too much.

Although this is a convenient way for him to continue to strengthen the control of Kansai's local resources, he does not intend to lower the price too much. After all, it is a policy plan covering the entire Kansai. The result of convincing the public is obviously unreasonable.

While his subordinates were busy discussing, Li Tai ordered his subordinates to order a sumptuous dinner from the Taifu public kitchen to reward his subordinates, but he himself had no time to stay here for dinner.

Because in addition to the Taifu Shangshu, he is also the new post-military governor. Based on the principle of two bowls of water, after meeting all the government officials here in Zhitang, he has to go to the military city outside the city to meet him. Those generals of the Central Military Department.

The subordinates here in the Taifu complained, which gave him a headache. I hope that the soldiers in the military city outside the city can give him a pleasant experience and enjoy the joy of being in power.

(End of this chapter)