Red Mansion: I am Jia Lian

Chapter 597 Answer Me

In May of the 23rd year, the Marines landed in Nagasaki, and on the 30th, the Shimazu clan set themselves on fire after being besieged for several days.

The battle report was very simple, just a few hundred words, and seemed insignificant.

Cai Shiba also asked his staff to focus on reviewing the mistakes made during the Marine Corps' landing operation, which resulted in hundreds of casualties.

And took the initiative to assume the responsibility for the losses caused by underestimating the enemy!
There was not much news worth noting in Japan this year. The major event was the news that the six daimyo, including the Choshu clan and the Satsuma clan, were destroyed.

In order to escort Zhou Junli out of the country, the Tokugawa shogunate awarded an additional 100,000 gold to the naval fleet.

Cai Shiba repeatedly expressed the court's view that it had no interest in the territory. After receiving the money, he delayed the withdrawal of troops for another month, during which time he transported away 30,000 young and strong men and women.

These 30,000 young men and women were successfully sold to the Xue family trading company and shipped to Australia one after another.

For Jia Lian, there is not much to pay attention to about Japan's current situation. At this stage, Japan has a population of just over 30 million due to insufficient arable land.

There is a reason why this country is poor. With such a small population, it is unlikely to become a big problem.

The most crucial issue is the problem of the Zhou Empire itself. As the backbone, the imperial court must be strong and have sufficient control over the local areas.

As for how to strengthen the central government, we cannot completely follow the example of Emperor Wu of Han, but we can use the methods of cruel officials.

Of course not now, it is not yet the time for Jia Lian to take complete power.

Jia Lian thought that some of Emperor Chenghui's actions were helpless, such as not killing officials above the third rank unless they were guilty of treason.

Lin Ruhai killed several officials in Huguang, which led to the exile of dozens of local gentry families, which indeed had a great deterrent effect.

But how can I put it? Given the speed at which information is transmitted, the impact is really very limited. It all depends on the officials' ability to execute. In short, don't expect too much.

At this stage, there is not much Jia Lian can do. He can only continuously increase the financial revenue of the court. Only when the country has money can it do many things.

To put it bluntly, many problems are financial issues.

Many times, it is easier said than done. If the rulers do not have absolute authority, many things will just be dragged on.

After the financial problem is solved, the next issue is the flow of information. When people are at the top level, it is almost inevitable that they cannot see what is going on below.

For example, many directors and actors suddenly lose their spirituality after becoming famous, and the movies they make are not as good as before. But they are still the same people, so why are they changed so much?

It's very simple, the information is isolated, and he can't see what the real bottom layer is like?

Emperor Chenghui was relatively good. He liked to not go on patrol and was still able to see the living conditions of the lower-class people in the capital. As for the current situation of the people in the suburbs of the capital, he could only report it through the Dragon Guard.

So, many times, a person's decision is influenced by the information he receives.

Not to mention Emperor Chenghui, even for Jia Lian, if he didn't try hard to find out, it would be difficult for him to receive information from the lower levels. Even if he did, it would not be first-hand.

Jia Lian can guarantee that the people around him are loyal. This is the innermost circle, so what about the outer circles?
If we regard a person as a dot, the people around him or her are concentric circles. The outermost information that the core dot wants to obtain must have been filtered through layers of screening.

Therefore, during his stay in Beijing, Jia Lian would go to the Engineering College almost every ten days. Not only did he focus on educational issues, but he also wanted to get first-hand information through contact with students.

After reading the battle report from Cai Shiba, Jia Lian replied casually and continued his daily busy life.

Jia Lian has been slacking off a lot, but there are still too many things to do, unless he has no sense of responsibility at all.

As more things happened, the number of Jia Lian's staff also increased, from the initial three or five people, slowly increasing to three or five core staff with a dozen auxiliary staff.

There were many people who wanted to be Jia Lian's aides, and they had to be at least successful candidates in the imperial examinations. Jia Lian recruited some of them one after another, and then asked them to bring with them some young people who had graduated from engineering colleges.

The core circle of staff members is not fixed. There are six staff members who have been given the opportunity to serve as county magistrates. The upper limit of these people may not be high, and being able to reach the first level of the three divisions is basically the limit. However, it is still attractive to those who have failed the imperial examinations many times to serve as county magistrates.

Almost every time after the imperial examination, there would always be dozens of unsuccessful candidates writing self-recommendation letters to Jia Lian.

If he worked for Jia Lian for three to five years, he could get the actual position of county magistrate, which was no worse than the treatment of a newly-appointed Jinshi.

Because the cabinet leaders were all doing this kind of thing, no one would talk about it because it would offend too many people. Occasionally, there were a few young people who were reckless, but they were also collectively suppressed.

This is also a form of mutual protection among officials.

At the end of May in the twenty-third year, Emperor Chenghui once again started his summer vacation plan. He did not bother to take a second look at the report sent by Jia Lian on suppressing the rebellion of the Japanese daimyo.

Emperor Chenghui, who had been less restrained since the beginning of spring, felt increasingly tired and almost ignored state affairs except for the monthly court meetings.

The power of the cabinet headed by Lin Ruhai was greatly enhanced. However, the cabinet tacitly did not touch the area under Jia Lian's jurisdiction, so as not to anger this bastard.

The Tianjin-Liaoning Railway has been opened to traffic, running from Tianjin to Jinzhou and then to Liaoyang. This is only half completed, and the other half needs to be built to Dongping Prefecture.

The Dongping Palace made a request to the Railway Bureau, asking them to build a section of railway at their own expense from Dongping Palace to Hegang, because a huge coal mine was discovered there.

It was a good idea, but the Dongping Palace did not have the technology and could only ask the Railway Bureau for help.

The report before him was the request from the Palace of Prince Dongping submitted by the Railway Bureau.

After reading it carefully, Jia Lian admitted that the request of the Prince of Dongping was appropriate, but useless. How could the railway, as a key strategic resource of the country, be handed over to the local government?

Especially for local governments with strong autonomy like the Dongping Palace?
So Jia Lian approved it decisively, saying that it was okay to build the railway, but the operating rights must be in the hands of the Railway Bureau.

Jia Lian knew very well that the Dongping Palace would also agree to this condition. What did it mean? The railway was built on his territory. As long as the conditions were ripe, he could take it back in minutes. As for the matter of building the road with full capital but no control, it seemed very disadvantageous, but in fact you had to have the railway first. Now this was the only company that could build the railway. If other places wanted to build the road, they would have to wait in line.

As expected, the Prince of Dongping, who was in the capital, did not bargain at all for Jia Lian's harsh conditions and agreed immediately. He only said that he was short of money and hoped to use the shares of the coal mine as collateral to borrow some funds from the Railway Bureau.

After Jia Lian received a report from Liu Chuan, the assistant minister of the Railway Bureau, he was furious and yelled, "The coal mine is underground. Legally, it belongs to the state. Who gave him the face to use the state's coal mine as collateral? And you, you have become an assistant minister, why are you still so cowardly? Why don't you fight back?"

Liu Chuan was not angry even though he was scolded. Now during working hours, there were very few people who could see Jia Lian first and be scolded by him.

The reason why Liu Chuan was able to become a minister was entirely because the Railway Affairs Bureau was created by Jia Lian.

Otherwise, if he continued to stay in the R&D Department, he would have to follow behind the Minister Bi Daoxing and suffer from his shortcomings.

"Since you said that, my lord, I know how to reply." Liu Chuan immediately said that he understood, but Jia Lian was still unwilling to give up: "Tell him that this is his last chance. If he tries to be clever again, he should build the railway by himself."

People are like this, if you show them a little kindness, they will dare to push their limits. Don’t you see how tight the resources for building railways are now? Applications for building railways are being made everywhere.

Even if all the technical personnel of the Railway Bureau were forced to work like slaves, it would be impossible for them to build two railways at the same time. Many newly graduated students were thrown into the construction sites to work like slaves.

Don't think that being a slave in the railway bureau is a hard job. If you want to be a slave in the railway army, you have to wait in line. The railway bureau gives priority to graduates from engineering colleges, and then others.

With the opening of the railway from Liaoyang to Tianjin, goods from outside the Great Wall were continuously transported into the interior, quickly stimulating the economic development of Liaodong.

The most popular commodities in Liaodong were not ginseng or sable fur, but rice, soybean oil, and live pigs.

There is no shortage of land outside the Great Wall, but there is a shortage of people. With the opening of the railway, the new round of immigration to the outside of the Great Wall has been stepped up. Almost every day, there is a carload of immigrants taking the train to the outside of the Great Wall.

These immigrants were promised that newly reclaimed wasteland would be tax-free for five years, and if they rented the land, they would not be responsible for taxes, and the rent would only be 30%.

This rent level is mandatory and unified outside the Great Wall. Once a landlord is found violating it, the best outcome is confiscation of all his properties outside the Great Wall.

Well, this law was also promoted by Jia Lian, the temporary rent interest law. It deliberately did not add any geographical restrictions. The law strictly limited the annual land rent to no more than 30%.

Jia Lian had wanted to reduce rent a long time ago, but unfortunately he encountered too much resistance inside the Great Wall, so he could only implement it outside the Great Wall first. As for places like Nanyang, the government directly distributed land and let the immigrants open up wasteland on their own. There was no need to reduce rent or interest for the time being.

Seeing that the emperor was about to go to Rehe again, Jia Lian seized the opportunity to submit a memorial.

Emperor Chenghui was not in the mood to read it at first, but after reading the title, he had no choice but to open it patiently and continue reading.

What Jia Lian mentioned in his memorial was the issue of loan interest, which was directed at the banking system. The situation of high-interest loans has recently resurfaced.

Jia Lian clearly pointed out that the existence of banks is to promote the development of production. The current high interest rates objectively hinder the development speed and enthusiasm of private production.

In this regard, Jia Lian also pointed out that the central bank has seriously neglected its duties in supervising private banks, allowing private banks to engage in rampant usury, which is killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.

Emperor Chenghui, who was determined to go to Rehe to escape the summer heat, wrote a direct comment after reading the memorial: Jia Lian will be in charge of the task, and all departments should cooperate.

Afterwards, thinking that Jia Lian would definitely not stick to his guns if it had nothing to do with him, he felt uneasy and asked Qiu Shian to call all the cabinet ministers to hold an emergency meeting.

After the meeting, the Minister of Revenue and Li Heng were called to attend.

After everyone read Jia Lian's memorial, Li Heng asked a soul-searching question: "As far as I know, the highest loan interest rate offered by private banks is only 30% per year. How can it be called usury?"

Emperor Chenghui was stunned. He did not expect Jia Lian to be wrong. He quickly asked the Minister of Revenue, who also replied that it was indeed the case.

Emperor Chenghui didn't say anything, but he was curious in his heart. He thought that Jia Lian shouldn't do this.

Jia Lian was immediately summoned for questioning. While waiting, the participants in the cabinet meeting made fun of Jia Lian, saying that he could make mistakes sometimes.

Because it is so rare, everyone was talking and joking with each other, having a lot of fun.

Only Li Heng and the Minister of Revenue did not make any jokes. Instead, they looked solemn.

When everyone was chatting in a relaxed state, Jia Lian came in, first paid his respects to the emperor, and then met the other gentlemen.

"Buqi, did you make a mistake in this memorial?" Lin Ruhai spoke decisively first, defining it as a mistake to prevent others from taking advantage of the situation.

Jia Lian pretended to be surprised, took the memorial and read it carefully before answering, "No mistake."

It's funny, how could they be wrong? This matter has been secretly investigated for half a year and we have obtained a lot of evidence, how could they be wrong?
Emperor Chenghui said, "Third brother, you go ahead."

Li Heng came out with a forced smile, "No, the highest interest rate of the four major private banks is only 30%."

Jia Lian showed his acting skills and said in surprise: "Four major private banks? Aren't there five? Recently, you can see gold shop signs everywhere on the street."

The Minister of Revenue also said: "You said it was a gold-pointing business, but there is a missing word."

Jia Lian put away his smile, looked at the Minister of Revenue and asked, "The problem is, can Dianjin Bank really lend money? And it's all usurious, nine times out and thirteen times back, and the interest is calculated monthly. I just want to know, after the last crackdown on the abuse of issuing business licenses by the private sector, how come such a private bank with branches all over the capital has emerged again?"

The Minister of Revenue smiled reluctantly: "Don't get me wrong, this is just a bank. It is only qualified to repay debts and lend money, not to accept depositors."

Li Heng on the side coughed violently several times and winked at Jia Lian frequently.

Jia Lian was like a blind man. He didn't even look at Li Heng. He stared at the Minister of Finance and asked, "The central bank has the function of supervising private financial institutions. The Ministry of Finance and the cabinet have the right to supervise the central bank. As a candidate for the cabinet, may I ask why the central bank can lend a large amount of money to Dianjinxing at an annual interest rate of 1%? There are also branches of Dianjinxing in Tianjin, Nanjing, Wuhan, Guangzhou and other places outside the capital. What is the origin of this institution? Why can it borrow a large amount of low-interest loans from the four major private banks and then lend high-interest loans to the private sector?"

The Minister of Revenue no longer dared to look up, and Li Qing, the cabinet minister currently in charge of the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Revenue, also had a serious expression.

"What's going on? Why didn't I receive any response?"

The Minister of Revenue lowered his head even more, his body trembling, but he did not dare to speak.

Emperor Chenghui could no longer sit still on the dragon throne, he stood up and glared at the Minister of Revenue: "Jicai, answer honestly!"

(End of this chapter)