Thief Emperor

Chapter 186 Yuezhou Control Plan!

Li Yun did not gain nothing from these ten days of thinking.

No matter what era, economic construction is always the foundation of the foundation. If Yuezhou wants to become strong under Li Yun’s leadership, it must first have money.

If it were a peaceful and prosperous era, or at least a less chaotic era, soap, glass, and other modern products that are easy to make would probably start to generate huge returns for Li Yun in a period of about five years.

But now, the chaotic times are approaching step by step, and Li Yun has already received several rumors about the war in the Central Plains. Under such circumstances, it is not so easy to make money from those non-essentials.

Not only will these non-essential items lose most of their effects, even the copper coins of the Great Zhou Dynasty may become ineffective. After all, in times of chaos, nothing is valuable, and only two things are valuable.

One is a necessity of life, the other is...

It is a tool that can be used to grab the necessities of life.

Therefore, before Yuezhou becomes stable and strong, Li Yun must put aside those modern products. He must change his mindset and focus on the necessities of life.

Zhuo Guangrui hesitated for a moment, then bowed his head slightly and said, "General Li, my family is from Chuzhou. In my early years, my elders managed the salt fields in Chuzhou for the imperial court."

Li Yun understood immediately.

In this era, if you want to be rich, this kind of specialized business is naturally the first choice.

Unfortunately, unlike Chuzhou where there are salt fields everywhere, Yuezhou, which Li Yun is in charge of, does not have so many salt fields, and it is unlikely that he can take control of the salt industry from the court at this time.

In that case, the court will soon send an imperial envoy.

Zhuo Guangrui took a sip of tea and said, "Since my father, we have not been engaged in the salt business. My uncle was an official during his lifetime, and our family was well-off, so we have a lot of land, and we also run a grain store and a cloth business, although we can't be considered a wealthy family."

County Magistrate Zhuo said softly, "But at least we can get by."

At this point, he looked up at Li Yun and said with a smile: "Speaking of which, among the generations of my family, the least capable person should be this magistrate."

Li Yun sighed and shook his head slightly, saying, "If I were County Magistrate Zhuo, I would stay at home and be a rich young master. Why would I come out and be a county magistrate?"

"There is no way."

County Magistrate Zhuo bowed his head slightly and said, "In this generation of my family, I am the only scholar, so I am the only one who can become an official. I will serve as a county magistrate for one or two terms first. After seventy or eighty years, if I can become a governor, that will be enough."

"Otherwise, the family property..."

County Magistrate Zhuo sighed silently and said, "I feel uneasy."

Li Yun smiled silently.

This County Magistrate Zhuo is really honest.

However, what he said was all true. According to him, the Zhuo family must be a wealthy family in Chuzhou, and with such a huge family fortune, there must be an official in the family.

It's too unreliable.

After all, this is a society where officials are the most important. If you are targeted by others, no matter how rich your family is, it will be in vain and you will end up being a puppet for others.

Li Yun reminisced about the past with County Magistrate Zhuo before they finally got down to business.

"Zhuo Zhixian, you also know that Li was originally just a captain in Qingyang and had never been an official. Now he has been appointed to guard Yuezhou. He really knows nothing about the affairs of these places."

"Yuezhou is in a state of disrepair now. I want to start governing Yuezhou, but I don't know where to start. Brother Zhuo is an official, can you give me some pointers?"

"what?"

County Magistrate Zhuo looked at Li Yun in shock. He was stunned for a long time before scratching his head and saying, "General Li, you have been ordered to guard Yuezhou. Just make sure there will be no rebellion in Yuezhou. As for other matters in Yuezhou..."

"Isn't it about the next governor?"

He looked puzzled and said, "I heard that the new governor will arrive after the New Year, which is still two or three months away. General Li, if you guarantee that Yuezhou will not be in chaos and the rebels will not start a rebellion, you will have fulfilled your duty."

"As for the decline of Yuezhou..."

County Magistrate Zhuo shook his head slightly and said, "After the disturbance by the rebels, it will take at least 10 to 20 years for the entire Yuezhou to recover. This is a long-term process and we cannot rush it."

"The new governor has arrived, and I'm afraid he will do the same thing. He will maintain the government and ensure that there is no chaos in the country. The rest of the things can only be recovered slowly."

Li Yun frowned.

From the perspective of authority, whether Yuezhou is in a state of disrepair or has been revived, it has nothing to do with him as the garrison general and the future state Sima.

Just as he was about to speak, Zhuo Guangrui continued, "General Li, when I was in Shan County, I heard from General Li's subordinates that the court would exempt Yuezhou from taxes and grain until the end of next year, and would only start collecting taxes and grain in the sixth year of Xian De. Is this true?"

"I am in the county government office and have not received any documents from the court."

County Magistrate Zhuo said with emotion: "If the imperial court really issued this order, then Yuezhou should be able to recover much faster, but it will take at least four or five years to recover as before."

Li Yun lowered his brows and thought for a while, then said, "No matter what, this year's taxes and levies will definitely not be collected. We'll talk about next year's taxes and levies next year. As for whether I should be involved in Yuezhou's government affairs or not."

Mr. Li smiled and said, "Before the general left, he left me a handwritten order, ordering me to garrison Yuezhou and be responsible for all affairs of Yuezhou. Not to mention that before the governor came, the political affairs of Yuezhou were all my responsibility. Even after the governor came, he had to cooperate with me to quell the rebellion and suppress the bandits." These words stunned Zhuo Guangrui.

After a long while, there was something wrong with the look in his eyes when he looked at Li Yun again.

After a long silence, the county magistrate Zhuo slowly nodded and said, "I understand what General Li meant."

He took a deep breath and said, "I will do my best to cooperate with all the orders of General Li."

Li Yun nodded in satisfaction and took County Magistrate Zhuo to have dinner together.

During the meal, Li asked a lot of questions, including many questions to County Magistrate Zhuo about how to handle government affairs. County Magistrate Zhuo did not get annoyed and answered Li Yun in a proper manner.

Just like that, two days later, the heads of five other counties and Yuecheng County, which was attached to the capital of Yuezhou, all arrived to pay their respects to Li Yun, the new chief of Yuezhou.

The reason why they are called responsible persons is that among these six people, only Zhuo Guangrui was the county magistrate of Shan County before the war, and the other five were either county secretaries or county lieutenants, and even the chief clerk and the registrar came to serve as the responsible persons of each county.

This shows how much change Qiu Dian's rebellion caused to Yuezhou, especially to Yuezhou's ruling class.

It can even be said that Yuezhou's originally unbreakable ruling class was shattered by King Qiu.

Although this action was accompanied by blood and countless dead bones, it also brought Li Yun an opportunity, an opportunity to rebuild Yuezhou.

After all, except Zhuo Guangrui, all the people present here are only temporarily in charge of their respective counties and are "temporary workers". If Li Yun can let them continue to work as temporary workers, it will not be difficult to gain their loyalty.

Li Yun still attaches great importance to the people in charge of these counties. He knows that if his team wants to grow and develop, its foundation must be taken among the grassroots people of Yuezhou.

Otherwise, the team will become a gang.

And those who govern on his behalf are quite crucial.

After explaining his rules to them, Li Yun concluded: "For one year, you are not allowed to take any money or grain from the people."

"After you return, you should also actively gather the people who have fled Yuezhou and let them return to their hometowns. The houses and properties in each county that have been occupied by the rebels should be returned to their original owners if possible."

“Ensure that all counties restore their original order as soon as possible.”

At this point, Mr. Li paused and continued, "Before returning the land of a single household with more than 50 mu, it must be reported to the state. After I send someone to confirm that it is correct, it will be returned to the original owner."

When these words came out, the six people were stunned.

What does it mean?
Some people looked at Li Yun with amusement in their eyes.

Obviously, they thought that the young military officer in front of them wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to make a fortune from those big households.

Only Zhuo Guangrui looked at Li Yun silently, as if thinking about something.

"Also, there is the most important issue of traitors."

At this point, Li Yun knocked on the table and said in a deep voice: "Counties must not harass the people in the name of suppressing rebellion. If you find suspicious people, if there are few of them, you can control them on the spot. If there are many of them, send someone to notify the state, and I will send someone down."

"Whether you are a traitor or not is up to me to decide."

This is the detail that is most easily overlooked.

These officials, who have no way of collecting money and grain from the people, will use other pretexts to gain benefits.

Among them, the most effective way is to label someone a traitor.

And this is actually Li Yun’s current core power in Yuezhou. It must not be delegated and must be firmly held in his own hands.

The governor of Yuezhou will come next year, and he will also want to hold this power in his hands.

All six people nodded.

"Subordinate to obey!"

"it is good."

Li Yun stood up and wanted to say something, but outside the door, Li Zheng suddenly knocked on the door with a happy look on his face.

"Second... General Li, the imperial appointment document has arrived!"

Li Yun looked calm.

"understood."

After saying that, he did not continue to pay attention to Li Zheng, but continued to look at the six people below and spoke lightly.

"Let's continue talking."

(End of this chapter)