History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 292 Small Goal: Rent and Labor Service 2
[Small goal: Rent and Labor Service 2]

Lu Zhi, who loves to drink and act crazy, was not particular about details. Just two days after taking office, Kong Qian caught him with a handle - embezzlement of public funds. So he reported to the organization, "He embezzled public funds just two days after taking office. Can such a person be employed?"

Guo Chongtao: "Yes, it cannot be used. Then please ask Comrade Wang Zhengyan to take charge of the rent and labor service work."

Comrade Wang Zhengyan, the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue and Mayor of Weizhou (Prefect of Xingtang Prefecture), was appointed as the Rent and Labor Commissioner.

"My life is so difficult!" Kong Qian wanted to cry but had no tears.

Wang Zhengyan's father was a minor county magistrate in Jiyin County. His father died early, leaving Wang Zhengyan alone and poor, so he became a monk. He liked reading poetry and was good at writing poetry. He Delun, the then governor of Mizhou, admired his talent and advised him to return to secular life and arranged a job for him. When He Delun was in charge of Wei Bo, he promoted him to the position of observation judge. The division of Wei Bo by the Later Liang Dynasty triggered a mutiny, and He Delun was forced to surrender to Hedong. Li Cunxu entered Weizhou to take over, and Wang Zhengyan was able to retain his original position and continue to serve as the judge of Wei Bo.

It is obvious that Wang Zhengyan was born in a humble family, had no family background to rely on, and had no distinguished academic qualifications (he was not a Jinshi). His only supporter, He Delun, also fell from power, which determined that Wang Zhengyan was a good man in the officialdom, submissive and no one dared to offend him. At the beginning of Wei Bo's entry into Hedong, he was repeatedly bullied by his old colleague Sikong Yan, but Wang Zhengyan dared not even fart and was inferior to him without any complaints.

It was not until Sikong Yan was killed for secretly communicating with the Later Liang that Wang Zhengyan took over as the judge of Weizhou Jiedushi. After Li Cunxu became emperor, he was appointed as the Minister of Revenue and the mayor of Weizhou.

Wang Zhengyan has been a coward all his life. Although he is Kong Qian's immediate superior, he is still bullied by Kong Qian. Kong Qian is nominally the deputy envoy of the rent and labor service, but he exercises all the powers of the envoy of the rent and labor service, and Wang Zhengyan is only responsible for signing.

"The right words are in office, and the main promise is the authority. The power comes from Kong Qian." - "Old Five Dynasties History"

According to records, upon learning that Wang Zhengyan was appointed as the Rent and Labor Commissioner, Kong Qian went completely crazy and lost his patience. In a fit of rage, he actually submitted a letter of resignation, "I quit!"

Li Cunxu was furious. "You dare to give up? Behead me!"

Kong Qian quickly offered bribes lavishly, and finally, after the actor Jing Jin pleaded for mercy, Li Cunxu spared his life.

Kong Qian had tried very hard before but failed to achieve his wish. Unexpectedly, this time, his temper would help him achieve his wish.

Kong Qian's behavior frightened the honest and cowardly Wang Zhengyan. Within a month, Wang Zhengyan suffered a stroke and was unable to perform his job due to physical reasons. So, under the strong persuasion of the actor Jing Jin, Li Cunxu finally let Kong Qian, the deputy envoy of rent and labor, replace Wang Zhengyan and become the envoy of rent and labor; and Kong Xun was appointed as the deputy envoy of rent and labor.

Kong Xun once murdered Emperor Zhaozong with Jiang Xuanhui, and then framed Jiang Xuanhui for death. He also gained a foothold in the Later Tang Dynasty by means of bribery.

Wang Zhengyan's stroke was probably fake, because the next year after the rumors died down, he replaced Zhang Xian as the mayor of Weizhou and the governor of Yedu. It is very likely that his "stroke" was deliberately made to make room for Kong Qian.

Kong Qian finally got what he wanted and became the long-cherished position of tax collector. From then on, he levied heavy taxes and extorted money from the people even more blatantly.

Kong Qian was Li Cunxu's mobile ATM, but his money-making methods were not very clever. In one word, he was bold! So bold that he openly disobeyed the emperor's orders.

After Li Cunxu entered Bianzhou, in order to alleviate the suffering of the people and to establish himself as a benevolent monarch, in February of the second year of Tongguang (924), when he was attending an event in the southern suburbs, he issued a general amnesty and drastically reduced rents and taxes.

On that day, the wind was gentle and the people said that this was a grand ceremony that had not been seen for fifty years. The people of the world were bathed in the emperor's grace and celebrated the revival of the Tang Dynasty and the return of the benevolent emperor. However, Kong Qian not only did not reduce the tax, but instead increased it, causing the people to complain.

Faced with Kong Qian's heavy taxation, Li Cunxu actually adopted a tacit attitude. In order to further implement the unspoken rule of exploiting the people, Kong Qian bypassed the Jiedushi and directly issued the central government's orders to various states. Among them, Li Cunba, the Jiedushi of Tianping in Yunzhou, and Fu Xi, the Jiedushi of Pinglu Army in Qingzhou, jointly wrote a memorial accusing Kong Qian of violating laws and regulations.

Kong Qian was a rogue and cunning man. He raised the issue to a political level for no reason. He said that during the Tang Dynasty, taxation and other tasks were directly issued by the central government to various states. It was only after the Later Liang Dynasty usurped the Tang Dynasty that the Jiedushi took over the task. Now it is just a restoration of the old system.

Staring and telling lies.

Li Cunxu issued an edict, saying that Li Cunba and Fu Xi were right. From now on, except for paying tribute, all official business of each state must go through the Jiedushi.

Although there was an imperial edict, Kong Qian still turned a blind eye and continued to bypass the authority. Over time, the Jiedushi and the inspectors also understood the double act of Li Cunxu and Kong Qian, and had to keep silent.

Being a whore, she still wanted to establish a chastity arch. Li Cunxu wanted to have the reputation of a benevolent monarch, but he also wanted Kong Qian to help him make money and take the blame.

In order to make money, Kong Qian has another basic operation - "routine loan": first force the people to borrow high-interest loans from the government, and then secretly manipulate prices, adding "fleecing" and "cutting leeks" on the basis of high-interest loans.

Simply put, it means first lending money to the people, and then when they repay the money, they are asked to pay in kind (raw silk) and the price is converted. The production and operation of raw silk is completely controlled by the government, so the government can shear the sheep at will. Let's take a simple example to understand this wave of "routine loan" operation:
Assuming that the normal price of raw silk is 100 wen per piece (the price is written randomly for the convenience of calculation and cannot reflect the real price), the common people originally wanted to borrow 100 wen. Therefore, the government first lowered the price of raw silk to 50 wen per piece, and then when processing the loan procedures, it was written on the document that "on the due date, return two pieces of raw silk in exchange for cash."

The common people saw that there was nothing wrong with it, 50 wen for one horse, 100 wen for two horses, so they happily took the loan.

But when the repayment date approached, the people suddenly found that the government had violently raised the price of raw silk to 200 coins per piece! I need to pay 400 coins to pay off the previous loan!
Borrowing money, paying back raw silk, the price of raw silk is still controlled by the government, and the sheep are fleeced. Nowadays, Western capitalists manipulate exchange rates and use the hegemony of the US dollar to fleece the sheep, but they are nothing in front of the ancient Chinese. Although the ancient Chinese did not refine "finance" into an independent discipline, the ideas about finance, and even the theories and practices of financial wars and trade wars, are the ancestors of the Chinese.

Moreover, there is no interest calculated in the above example, it is just a charitable way of borrowing 100 and repaying 100.

Kong Qian mainly used these two methods with low technical content, which were simple, crude and effective. Like a vampire or a parasite, he sucked the blood of the people crazily and greedily. There were three main destinations for these unscrupulous money: Li Cunxu, bribery, and squandering.

The reason why the actor Jing Jin was able to speak well of Kong Qian at the critical moment was because Kong Qian used a large amount of bribes to the key people including Xiao Liu, actors, eunuchs, and dignitaries.

Some upright officials, such as Lu Zhi, wrote to Li Cunxu, pointing out that Kong Qian was exploiting the people, especially using the "routine loan" often used by Zhao Yan, the "foreign relatives gang" of the Later Liang Dynasty, to fleece the people, which was destroying the foundation of the empire! This spring, the sky was cold and frosty, which seriously affected the production of raw silk. The people could not even pay the normal taxes, but Kong Qian still forced them to pay high-interest loans. Isn't this forcing the people to death? The officials forced the people to rebel!

After receiving the memorial, Li Cunxu not only did not punish the greedy vampire Kong Qian, but instead bestowed upon Kong Qian the honorary title of "Meritorious Minister Who Made the Country Rich and Supportive".

Did Li Cunxu have a brain short circuit?
No, he was just crazy because of poverty. He needed money so badly, whoever could get him money would be the hero, no matter what means he used to get the money…it didn’t matter if it was a black cat or a yellow cat, whoever got the money was a good cat.

(End of this chapter)