The elite did not migrate south

Chapter 709 The Great Good Man

Ji County, Ji County.

Under the night sky, Du Yu stood on a high place and looked into the distance.

In the distance, there were densely packed temporary dwellings, all of which were simple thatched huts or tents used by the army.

There was a bonfire set up at regular intervals, dimly illuminating the surroundings.

Du Yu was wearing a thick fur coat, with two officials standing behind him. For some reason, he was stunned at this moment.

"Mr. Du, be careful of catching a cold. It's better to go inside."

A subordinate spoke up to remind him.

Du Yu smiled.

He looked at the canal that ran through the plain in the distance and said, "This policy of hiring people is quite effective here."

"Everywhere in Ji County where there is a canal that can be built, we will start construction at the same time. I don't think this place will be transformed in just three years."

Judging from the situation in Sizhou alone, this new policy has achieved considerable results.

Du Yu planned many water conservancy and reclamation tasks here.

Almost all the refugees in the entire Sili area gathered here. Under the leadership of Du Yu, the construction work went extremely smoothly.

Of course, the pressure on the national treasury is also increasing day by day.

Du Yu was both happy and worried.

He didn't know whether the national treasury could last until next autumn.

As construction started in various places, the expenditure became larger and larger, and the scale of refugees in various places also continued to increase. Du Yu now returned to his original state and dared not approve those construction plans easily.

He needed to know the state of the treasury.

Lu Zhi was going to come from Luoyang to see him.

Du Yu has been waiting for Lu Zhi these days. He stood here today because he wanted to see Lu Zhi's carriage as soon as possible.

The current situation of the national treasury is very important to Du Yu. It is an important basis for planning next year's projects.

Despite the officials' repeated persuasion, Du Yu was unwilling to leave. He just stood there and waited quietly.

The official said helplessly, "Mr. Du, even if the Duke of Lu wanted to come, he wouldn't travel at night. You should go back and rest first. Perhaps he will arrive tomorrow morning."

"It's okay, you guys go back and rest first. I have so much to do that I can't sleep even if I lie down inside. You guys go back first."

As Du Yu was speaking, a torch appeared in the distance.

The pedestrians quickly alarmed the soldiers and officials who were on night patrol.

Du Yu turned around and walked towards that direction.

"But Minister Lu is here?"

As he spoke, his pace became faster and faster.

Before he arrived, a knight came to report.

"Lord Du! Minister Lu is here to pay his respects!"

Du Yu was overjoyed, and soon he saw Lu Zhi, who looked exhausted.

Lu Zhi looked particularly tired, but his eyes were very bright. When he saw Du Yu, he burst into laughter and walked up to him and held his hand.

"Yuan Kai!"

Seeing Lu Zhi's expression, Du Yu felt relieved.

Seeing him so happy, there probably isn't any big problem with the national treasury?

At this time, Du Yu and Lu Zhi divided the work to handle this matter, Du Yu was responsible for the "project" and Lu Zhi was responsible for the "funds".

Lu Zhi had been stationed in Luoyang, coordinating food and grass. This was his first time to meet Du Yu.

"It seems that the Minister has good news to tell me!"

Du Yu was also overjoyed. He hurriedly took Lu Zhi's hand and walked towards his tent. He also asked someone to prepare hot tea.

After entering the tent, someone replaced the candles with new ones and a servant prepared tea. The tent was steaming hot. Du Yu and Lu Zhi sat facing each other. Lu Zhi first took a sip of the hot tea and then said to his attendants, "You all go out now."

There were only two of them left in the tent.

Lu Zhi then smiled and said, "I came here this time to tell Yuan Kai not to worry about the national treasury! Do it if you can! Whether the localities want to increase the number of participants or build more water conservancy projects, you can approve it! No need to hesitate!"

Du Yu was stunned for a moment.

That's not what you used to say.

What's going on? The treasury suddenly has money?
Looking at Du Yu's bewildered face, Lu Zhi finally explained, "It's just as we said before. The national treasury has run into a serious problem. It's almost empty, and the remaining food is barely enough for the army!"

"So now?"

Lu Zhi looked up and said with a smile: "No matter how poor the national treasury is, it cannot withstand the many good people in the world!" "You probably know about the case of the famous scholar in Yanzhou."

"These are kind people. They know the national treasury is poor, so they come here to donate their property."

Lu Zhi couldn't contain his inner joy. He smiled and said, "Your Majesty has ordered severe punishment for these people. More than twenty Yanzhou clans have been implicated. With this confiscation of property, the national treasury situation will be greatly improved!"

"These people are richer than those in Yongliang. One person is worth ten people from the great frontier clans. I was wondering why they looked down on the great frontier clans. Now I understand."

"After these people were executed, the situation in Yanzhou improved, the national treasury had money, and projects in various places could be carried out."

Du Yu knew about the case of the famous scholar in Yanzhou, not only because it was related to what he had done, but also because the matter was too complicated and had already caused a sensation in various places, but almost no one knew about it.

But he didn't expect that killing some big families could actually solve the crisis of the national treasury.
Aren’t these people a little too rich?
Although Du Yu also came from a prominent family, his grandfather and father were both relatively upright and honest people who never associated with these people. This is also the reason why his father was exiled and died.

Therefore, Du Yu could not imagine what kind of family this was.

Lu Zhi sighed, "Your Majesty executed the leaders, and the rest were exiled, and all their property was confiscated."

"These people were exiled to Jiaozhou. They must have arrived in Jingzhou by now."

Du Yu remained silent.

His father died in exile.

In this era, exile is actually a disguised form of execution.

It sounds good to say that the Wu people moved north, but is bringing people from the south to the northeast meant to allow them to settle down and work there?
No, it was clearly a request for their death.

The same logic applies to relocating northerners to Jiaozhou in southern China.

It would be a good thing if half of those exiled survived.

They probably know this themselves, but what’s the use of knowing it?

If we obey the imperial edict, half of us will die; if we don’t obey the imperial edict, all of us will die.

Lu Zhi continued, "Almost all the great families in Wu were relocated to Youzhou, and their property was confiscated. Chen Tai petitioned to ship grain and other supplies to Luoyang, and Your Majesty ordered him to use them to hire people in Wu."

"From now on, you don't have to worry about the food and money expenses in Wudi."

"With the current state of the national treasury, it's very easy to make it through to next year. However, given the current situation, I wonder how much higher next year's taxes will rise."

When Lu Zhi said this, there was a mixture of happiness and disappointment in her eyes.

The good news is that the national treasury is finally not short of money, and we can live lavishly.

What's disappointing is that although Lu Zhi has worked diligently over the years, done so many things, and established so many policies, the results are still not as great as those achieved by raiding houses several times.

This time, the land reward order resulted in a huge amount of arable land being donated by the major families in various places. The taxes from these arable lands alone could multiply the income of the Wei Dynasty by many times.

Moreover, they also spit out the population they had hidden. Adding all these together, Lu Zhi felt that next year's income would be an unprecedentedly large number!

At this moment, Du Yu felt as if a huge stone had fallen from his heart.

It seemed as if even breathing became much smoother.

He smiled and said, "That's easy. To be honest, I've been thinking about this all day long these days. As the canal gets closer and closer, I'm getting more and more uneasy."

At this moment, Lu Zhi suddenly asked, "Yuan Kai, do you think His Majesty will spare these great clans in the north?"

Du Yu, who was originally expressing his inner distress, suddenly stopped.

The two were silent for a moment, and Du Yu asked, "Are you worried that His Majesty will forgive you? Or are you worried that His Majesty won't forgive you?"

Lu Zhi glanced at him and said, "Yuan Kai is just too cautious. He can't even tell me the truth?"

Du Yu smiled bitterly and replied, "I think Your Majesty will definitely order the great clans of the Central Plains to migrate as well."

"However, it still depends on the people among them. As long as the prince is still serving as the Minister of Chancellery, then the Wang family cannot be relocated to other places."

"I don't think so."

Lu Zhi suddenly spoke up, "Your Majesty loved Lu Kang very much, and Lu Kai also served in the country. However, during this migration, Your Majesty only left behind the families of Lu Kang and Lu Kai. The rest of their relatives were exiled."

"Even Lu Kai doesn't dare to question His Majesty about this matter."

"I think if there is evidence of guilt, Your Majesty will do the same as what was done to Lu Kang. He will be relocated without delay."

Du Yu smiled and said, "Is Duke Lu thinking about his own clan?"

"Don't worry. Wu was defeated, and the great families of Wu are all guilty. Therefore, Your Majesty can directly order their exile, and the soldiers will carry it out with all their strength. The people of Wu will not dare to object."

"But in the north, Your Majesty will not treat the great clans that have followed you for a long time as you did to the Wu people. As long as you can control your clans and don't do anything that would displease Your Majesty, and have not committed any crimes, you will not be treated like the Wu people."

Lu Zhi took a sip of tea and said, "I'm not worried about my own clan. I'm worried that this incident will cause the ministers to be frightened and worried, and they will no longer dare to fully assist Your Majesty."

"You don't have to worry about this. After Your Majesty issues the Land Reward Order, they will only assist Your Majesty even more diligently. In the past, those famous scholars could use the official titles of their clansmen to register farmland in their clansmen's names, avoid paying taxes, employ people to farm, and refrain from assisting the court. They would live in seclusion in the mountains and call themselves refined scholars."

"After the land award order was issued, these prominent scholars, even though they didn't hold official titles, had to pay taxes as usual. Given their daily extravagance, their only option was to assist Your Majesty."

"As for the ministers, this is even more true. If they want to protect themselves and their clans, they must establish sufficient merits and absolutely dare not refrain from contributing."

(End of this chapter)