Qian Song

...

Although there are various indications that the Daqian Dynasty did not have a powerful minister who unified the military and political circles, and the left-behind ministers such as Lu Jiang and Zhang Shi were also very loyal to Li Cun, Li Cun still kept a few thoughts.

First of all, when Li Cun came back this time, he brought back four pro-guard armies, namely the former pro-guard army, the rear pro-guard army, the younger soldiers, and the Youyi army. A powerful navy, the East China Sea Navy.

Secondly, when Li Cun was about to arrive at Yingtian Mansion, he sent someone to go ahead and secretly dispatched Wu Lin to lead [-] Zhongfu troops to the port to meet him secretly.

The key point is that Li Cun didn't inform anyone before he decided to come back. Even if he transferred the entire army of the East China Sea Navy, Li Cun didn't explain in advance what he wanted them to do. It can be said that Li Cun caught everyone by surprise.

It wasn't until Li Cun'an arrived at the port of Yingtianfu that Li Cun sent someone to notify Lv Jiang, Zhang Shi and other ministers to pick him up.

It turned out afterwards that all Li Cun's caution was actually unnecessary.

The Dagan dynasty has not changed, and there is not even a sign of it. Lu Jiang, Zhang Shi and other ministers are all loyal to Li Cun.

In this regard, Li Cun did not have the awareness of treating the belly of a gentleman with the heart of a villain.

Moreover, if there is a next time, Li Cun will definitely do it again.

After all, if this kind of thing doesn't happen, it's fine. If something happens, it's a big event like losing all your wealth and life.

Therefore, this kind of thing cannot be acted on by emotion.

After returning to a large-scale imperial palace, Li Cun did not rest immediately, but first summoned all the civil and military officials to go to court and announce that he was back.

Originally, Li Cun just wanted to show his face and let the civil and military officials know that he was back and that he was not going to handle any government affairs.

As a result, after Li Cun asked Liu Xuan to announce that "if there is a book, the court will be dismissed", Li Guang suddenly came out and played more than [-] books in a row-this may be because Li Guang did not prepare in advance, otherwise Maybe hundreds of copies will be played.

Li Guangzuo was all-encompassing, and the personnel involved ranged from Lu Jiang and Zhang Shi to most of the civil and military personnel of the Manchu Dynasty.

Among them are Lu Jiang's traitorous and domineering, party hegemony, Zhang Shi's cronyism, arrogance and extravagance, and other issues.

Immediately afterwards, last year's No. [-] scholar, Chen Kangbo, also appeared on the list, and published more than a dozen volumes, some of which involved Lu Jiang, Zhang Shi and other important court officials and relatives of the emperor.

Later, some censors made reports, and they also played a lot of questions about the ministers of the Dagan Dynasty and current affairs.

If you only look at the memorials of Li Guang, Chen Kangbo and others, the officialdom of the Dagan Dynasty can be described as extremely dark, and there are extremely serious problems in the system.

Fortunately-

Li Cun also has the three major intelligence agencies in his hands: the Wu De Division, the Pro-military Duwei Mansion, and the Military Intelligence Department.

This made Li Cunren, although not in the court, knew all the civil and military officials under him like the palm of his hand.

Around important ministers like Lu Jiang and Zhang Shi, each intelligence department has more than one spy.

It is not an exaggeration to say that if Li Cun wants to know about important ministers such as General Lu and Zhang Shi who have sex with their wives and concubines several times a night, he will know it clearly.

Did Li Guang, Chen Kangbo and others report these personnel matters?

Have.

But definitely not as serious as Li Guang and Chen Kangbo described it.

For example, Li Guang and Chen Kangbo impeached General Lu for treachery, tyranny, and party hegemony, which is actually a bit too much.

After all, General Lu is the prime minister. During the period when Li Cun was not in the court, if there were some urgent matters that needed to be dealt with, General Lu would definitely have the authority to deal with them. Also, if General Lu did not appoint some people who were obedient to him People, his work can't be carried out.

As for some things Lu Jiang and the others did wrong.

Li Cun thought so.

As the saying goes: "The more you do, the more mistakes you make."

Those who make mistakes are actually those who do practical things, and only those who do not do practical things will never make mistakes.

Some ministers of the Dagan Dynasty cheated and played tricks at work, so they could do as little as possible, so as to avoid corresponding responsibilities.

However, some ministers of the Daqian dynasty did what they should do in a down-to-earth manner, and even actively did more things.

However, it is the latter kind of ministers who often make the most mistakes.

——Ministers who are willing and fond of doing things often do things with good intentions and original intentions, but sometimes it is inevitable that they will make some mistakes due to lack of ability or poor consideration.

If a dynasty wants to develop and grow, it must be inseparable from ministers who do practical things.

If all the ministers of a dynasty are afraid of taking responsibility and making mistakes, and are unwilling to do things, how can the dynasty develop and grow?

And as long as you do things, you will inevitably have shortcomings, because no one is perfect, and it is impossible to do everything perfectly.

The Dagan Dynasty needs more ministers who are willing to do things. If there are no ministers who are willing to do things, the Dagan Dynasty will inevitably stagnate or even regress.

Therefore, Li Cun is more willing to use those ministers who make mistakes and do practical things, compared with those ministers who are lazy and slack in administration, do not do things, do not take responsibility, and cause "small things to become big and big things to be bombed".

Of course, to use such a minister, as the emperor, Li Cun must know how to be considerate and help the minister to bear some faults.

But then again, since Li Guang, Chen Kangbo and others have been impeached, they must go through the process. If there is a problem, it must be dealt with. After all, Li Guang, Chen Kangbo and others are Doing practical things.

Moreover, when the matter comes to an end, Li Cun then grants an amnesty, wouldn't it be better to buy people's hearts?
original--

Li Cun was going to make a formality, so he went back to the harem to reunite with Fang Baihua's concubines and Li Biao's own children.

However, due to the accidents of Li Guang and Chen Kangbo, Li Cun could only deal with it until late at night before announcing the dispersal of the dynasty.

When Li Cun returned to the harem, he found that all his concubines and children were all eagerly waiting for him to come back.

Many of Li Cun's children have even fallen asleep waiting.

Seeing that Li Cun finally came back, many of Li Cun's concubines wanted to wake up the children in their arms so that they could meet their father.

However, he was stopped by Li Cun, who said: "Don't yell, it's too late. I will come back this time, and I won't leave in a short time. I have time to share family happiness with them, not bad." At this time, let's all go back first, tomorrow I will try to come back as early as possible, and everyone will have a meal together."

While speaking, Li Cun hugged Li Biao, who was over three years old, from Fang Baihua's arms, and then hugged Fang Baihua to Fang Baihua's bedroom amidst the envy of many concubines.

Fang Baihua was both happy and gratified about this, but she said: "The concubine has already arranged for concubine Liao and the princes and princesses..."

——Li Cun came back this time and brought back all the concubines and concubines he got in Yanyun area and the children born in Yanjing.

This is inevitable. Although Li Cun has completely recovered the Yanyun area, Li Cun's foundation is still the fourteen lands in the south, so Li Cun must put his concubines and children in this safer place. rear.

After tossing Fang Baihua for a while, Li Cun held Fang Baihua in his arms and talked for a long time at night.

To be honest, I haven't seen Fang Baihua for two years, and Li Cun really misses her, so it's inevitable that he told Fang Baihua a little more.

Of course Fang Baihua was willing to listen to Li Cun talk to her, but Fang Baihua was afraid that Li Cun, who was tired from traveling and traveling on her for so long, would be tired.

So, Fang Baihua hugged Li Cun's waist, and said softly, "Officials, go to sleep, we will have a long life."

The next day, Li Cun got up early in the morning.

Under Fang Baihua's service, after Li Cun got dressed and had breakfast, according to his own habits, he first practiced Taoist health-preserving kung fu with his uncle for a while.

It was not until morning that Li Cun arrived at the Chuigong Hall.

At this time, General Lu had been waiting here for a long time.

Yesterday was in a hurry, and Li Cun didn't pay special attention to General Lu's changes.

Taking a closer look today, Li Cun discovered that General Lu, who is less than 40 years old, has almost half of his hair gray.

Combined with the findings from the Wu De Department, the Pro-Military Duwei Mansion and the Military Intelligence Department, General Lu has to work for about ten hours a day, even when he is eating, he is dealing with official business.

How can Li Cun not know that General Lu is tired out now?
This is actually one of the reasons why Li Cun was so tolerant and even "covered" General Lu.

After General Lu saw Li Cun, he didn't greet Li Cun, but asked straight to the point: "When will Your Majesty plan to attack the Song Dynasty?"

Li Cun can hide this kind of thing from others, but not from his prime minister.

After all, something like Qian Song requires the power of the whole country, not Li Cun alone.

As a result, Li Cun had to make it clear to General Lu, the chief steward of the Daqian Dynasty, so that General Lu could be prepared.

Therefore, Li Cun replied straightforwardly: "After the autumn harvest next year."

Seeing that Li Cun did not attack the Song Dynasty this year, General Lu heaved a sigh of relief, and then said: "Your Majesty is wise."

This year, there was a severe drought in the Lianghuai area, and a major earthquake occurred in the Lanzhou area. Thousands of people were affected.

In addition, these fourteen roads in the south this year also supported a lot of food in the Yanyun area.

This made the treasury of the Dagan Dynasty not so full.

If under such circumstances, Li Cun attacked the Song Dynasty regardless, then it is really hard to say whether the Dagan Dynasty could take over the territory of the Zhao Song Dynasty that was riddled with holes and flooded with disaster victims.

Fortunately, Li Cun took into account the current situation of the Daqian Dynasty, and postponed the attack on the Song Dynasty for a year, giving the Dagan Dynasty, General Lu and other ministers a year of preparation time.

Li Cun asked without hesitation: "I will give you another year, are you sure you are ready?"

General Lu pondered for a while, and said truthfully: "If there is no major disaster, according to the reports sent by the states and counties in the past two years, I should be able to take over the territory of the Song Dynasty. After all, the south has always supported the Central Plains. .”

As soon as Li Cun heard General Lu's words, he knew that General Lu lacked confidence.

Li Cun didn't speak, waiting for General Lu's next words.

General Lu knew that he couldn't hide from Li Cun, who paid special attention to intelligence collection and had insight into everything, so he could only say what he said: "What Li Shilang and Chen Yushi said, local corruption is serious, although it is a bit exaggerated. , but it is not groundless, I am afraid that the local authorities will falsely report the income of money and food, and then they will not be able to provide the money and food that the Central Plains desperately needs."

In fact, not only General Lu was worried about this matter, but Li Cun was also worried about it.

No way, corruption is an enemy that any dynasty has to face.

Although it has only been a little over two years since the establishment of the Daqian Dynasty, there is already a clear rise of corruption.

The key point is that not only General Lu, but even Li Cun don't know the extent of the corruption below, and whether it will affect Li Cun's acceptance of the territory of the Zhao Song Dynasty.

Li Cun was silent for a while, then made up his mind and said, "Check it out."

General Lu reminded Li Cun: "This kind of thing is not easy to investigate. There are policies at the top and countermeasures at the bottom. I'm afraid that when the imperial court sends people to investigate, they will find the rich and powerful families who colluded with them to return the money and food. After the people sent by the imperial court leave, they will return the money and food to the rich and powerful families who colluded with them, and...the officials will protect each other."

Hearing what General Lu said, Li Cun knew that General Lu also wanted to solve these problems, otherwise he would not be able to remind Li Cun of the methods commonly used by corrupt officials.

In other words, corruption is really not easy to investigate, especially in this period when technology is not very advanced.

Lao Zhu was so ruthless that he killed 15 people in anger in order to fight corruption, all of which were symptoms of the disease, not the root cause.

It can be seen that the fight against corruption does not rely on brute force, but on ingenuity.

Li Cun doesn't know if others have a solution, but Li Cun has this method.

That's what Yongzheng used to rule corrupt officials.

Soon, Li Cun ordered the Ministry of Accounts to conduct a comprehensive investigation of the shortfall in money and food.

In order to avoid the situation where officials and officials protect each other, Li Cun first sent imperial envoys.

Most of these people were recommended by Li Guang, and the leader was Chen Kangbo, whom Li Cun was particularly optimistic about.

Not only did Chen Kangbo and the others have nothing to do with the local government, they were also shrewd and difficult to deal with. They all understood the importance of the matter and knew that if the law was not enforced impartially, Li Cun would definitely punish them.

Furthermore, most of the group of people recommended by Li Guang, Chen Kangbo, had good personalities and could be regarded as having political ambitions.

Of course this is not enough.

In order to ensure that these ministers can be fair and just, Li Cun also selected some alternate states and counties from various places to go to the localities to check the accounts with the imperial envoys.

Once a corrupt official is found, he will be dismissed immediately on the spot, and then an official of the same level will be selected from the investigation team to take over.

Li Cun understands that officials and officials are a chronic problem in the officialdom. Newly appointed officials will often help their predecessors make up for the holes, and then leave a large deficit for the next official to continue to make up.

This has led to the situation of corruption becoming more and more serious, more and more places with holes, and the holes are getting bigger and bigger.

But this time the predecessor came to check the accounts, so naturally he would not cover up for the predecessor, because he was the one who was so unlucky.

Therefore, corrupt officials naturally have nowhere to escape and can only bow their heads and plead guilty to accept punishment.

Moreover, the new successor will not fill in the loopholes for him, and he will naturally not take the blame for his predecessor, so even his predecessor, or even his predecessor's predecessor, cannot escape the final punishment for embezzling and embezzling.

Of course, in this era of underdeveloped transportation, it will take a certain amount of time for the people Li Cun sent to investigate the case to arrive at the place. During this period, those corrupt officials may hear the news and try to remedy it.

How to remedy it?

Or he will make up all the embezzled money and food by himself.

That counts as his escape.

If he borrowed money and food from the local rich households to make up for the shortfall, then Li Cun can guarantee that those rich households will never get back their money and food.

Not only that, if the imperial envoy finds out such a thing, Li Cun will also convict the corrupt officials and the wealthy households for corruption and bribery and search their families.

Li Cun established the Huikaofu, which was presided over by Li Guanglai.

From then on, each locality paid taxes or reimbursed expenses, and each ministry and courtyard used money and food and reimbursed funds, all had to pass the examination and government committee, that is, audit and verification.

Going through the procedures one by one, no matter how high the official is, they can't do anything.

At that time, the officials at the top will not be able to profit from the convenience of their positions, and the officials at the bottom will not be able to make up for the big holes made by their previous corruption with just a little money.

At the same time, Li Cun insisted on two steps in dealing with corrupt officials.

That is: Dismiss from office first, then copy the family and ask the family.

Li Cun also ordered that no matter who is found, he will never be lenient. No matter what credits he has made, he will insist on the theory that merit is merit and demerit is demerit. I must clean you up.

It's okay if you don't want to be cleaned up, and you can secretly plug up all the holes by yourself, so as not to let the incident happen.

Otherwise, not only corrupt officials, but even their relatives will also be ransacked and questioned.

Don't even say that their relatives are innocent.

Is it possible that the money and grains of corrupt officials and ink are spent and eaten by himself?
It has to be said that Li Cunzhi's methods of corruption are indeed a bit ruthless. After all, many corrupt officials are people who started with Li Cun.

But for the long-term stability of the Daqian Dynasty, Li Cun had to deal with this ruthless hand.

While fighting corruption, Li Cun also personally took care of the next year's spring plowing and maritime trade to ensure that he had enough money and food for the Qian Song Dynasty.

By the way, after the first year of Hongwu and the second year of Hongwu, Li Cun sent a fleet to Central America and South America to search for sweet potatoes, corn and potatoes with the simple map he drew. In the third year of Hongwu, Li Cun sent another fleet Larger fleets took his maps to Central and South America in search of corn, sweet potatoes, and potatoes.

It is not difficult to see from this that Li Cun is obsessed with corn and sweet potatoes.

Far away.

In the third year of Hongwu, the rainfall was moderate, and the seventeen roads of the Dagan Dynasty (fourteen roads in the south plus Yunzhong Road, Yanjing Road and Pingzhou Road) all had a bumper harvest.

In addition, Li Cun vigorously curbed corruption.

The treasury of the Dagan Dynasty became more abundant than ever.

In addition, just in case, Li Cun specially sent Chen Yun to "buy" a lot of grain from Khmer, Dali and other countries in the Indochina Peninsula.

Li Cun also offered high price rewards for good horses in various ports.

At the same time, Li Cun also took advantage of this more than a year to upgrade the armament of the Daqian Dynasty.

All in all, after more than a year of further preparations, Li Cun finally made all preparations for the Qian Song Dynasty.

At the end of October in the third year of Hongwu, Li Cun quietly returned to Yanjing.

The Qian Song Dynasty officially kicked off the curtain...

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