A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Starting from the Village Chief

Chapter 831 A Hole Wiped Out
Zhao Yuankai's ruthlessness was, in fact, a way to quickly make up for the deficit.

Li Yi took a deep breath, but ultimately did not agree.

"Bring all those shackled fellows under the city wall back. Don't let them freeze to death, or who will I ask for grain from!"

Those hamsters don't deserve pity.
But now Li Yi still wants them to fill the deficit.

“Your Majesty, please entrust this matter to me. I dare to pledge that I will recover 3.2 million shi of grain within 100 days.”

Li Yi glanced at Dou Jing.

Dou Jing frowned; he was also very dissatisfied with his subordinate, Zhao Yuankai.

He was still here, but Zhao Yuankai always flattered Li Yi, treating him as if he didn't exist. Both of them were sons of prime ministers and came from prestigious families, one from the Zhao family of Tianshui and the other from the Dou family of Wugong.

In terms of status,

Even in the Tang Dynasty, the Dou family still held a high status.

This guy is really willing to do anything to climb the ladder.

After a while,
A group of corrupt officials, shivering from the cold and with bluish lips, were brought in. They were all former officials from Huiluo Warehouse, and none of them were of high rank.

But it is these petty officials,
However, they conspired together and stole 1.6 million shi of grain over three years.

audacious in the extreme,

Extremely arrogant.

It's warm inside.
But they were still trembling.

"Zhao Shaoqing!"

"Your humble servant is here." Zhao Yuankai stood up.

"I'm giving you a task: interrogate them again. You have three days. I need a complete statement."

"Everyone must thoroughly investigate how much they embezzled, how much they received, and where the stolen grain was sold."

He looked at Zhao Yuankai and asked, "Can you do it?"

Zhao Yuankai readily agreed. In his view, this was a piece of cake. These corrupt officials, regardless of their background or connections, were easily dealt with.

At this point, they were like fish on a chopping board, completely at his mercy.

There are countless ways to find out what you want to know.

"Your Highness, it won't take three days, one day will suffice..."

Li Yi interrupted him, "I'll give you three days. Interrogate these people thoroughly. You're allowed to use some torture appropriately, but you can't kill or maim them."
You are also not allowed to touch their family members.

Li Yi looked at the group of corrupt officials still standing in the hall, their teeth chattering and their faces deathly pale.
These guys are practically scared out of their wits now.

"In just three years, you managed a granary city with a storage capacity of 2.4 million shi, and yet you managed to embezzle 1.6 million shi of grain."

They were incredibly audacious and reckless.

Originally, hamsters like you should all have your heads chopped off, your property confiscated, and your wives and children enslaved.

right now,

I, Situ, have asked the saint for your forgiveness.

As long as you confess honestly and actively make up for the deficit, you can be spared the death penalty.

You can forget about ever being officials again.

But your life can be saved, your wife and children can be protected, and even your family property can be preserved after you return the stolen goods.

Three days. I'm giving you three days to confess.

Don't miss it.

Confess honestly, then actively return the stolen goods and make up for the deficit.

If we confront the imperial court, the consequences will be severe.

I can tell you in advance what the consequences will be: you will be taken to the marketplace and beheaded at the waist; your wives and daughters will be sent to the imperial harem or the brothel; the remaining adult males will be executed; and the underage will be exiled to perform hard labor. Furthermore, your family property will be confiscated by the government.

Looking at this group of terrified people,

At this point, he must have felt immense regret and fear, but it was too late.

"Give each of them a cup of hot water to warm them up."

···
Zhao Yuankai led the group of convicted officials away.

In the government office hall,
Dou Jing asked Li Yi, "Does Situ think this method can quickly make up for the deficit?"

"Let's start with courtesy, then resort to force, and proceed step by step," Li Yi said.

Dou Jing hesitated for a moment, but still said, "Zhao Shaoqing's suggestion, although somewhat harsh, is undoubtedly the fastest way to fill the deficit."

Li Yi shook his head.

"If Zhao Yuankai really does that, it will cause chaos and disorder. He will not only kill all these corrupt officials, but also implicate countless others."

You can't do that.
Recovering stolen assets is essential, but there must be limits.

"However, those guys have already sold off most of the stolen grain."

"Therefore, an investigation is necessary."
Wherever the grain was sold, the court should make those who bought it return it. The court can refund them whatever price they paid.

Of course, this money has to be recovered from those corrupt officials before it can be given to them.

If the money can't be recovered immediately, just give them a receipt and pay later.

"Shouldn't these people be punished?"

"These are two different things. Returning the grain and money is one thing, and investigating the crime is another. Let's get them to return the grain first."

As for what crimes they committed and how they should be punished, that's a matter for the relevant authorities to handle later.

Zhao Yuankai intended to implicate the grain merchants and use this as an opportunity to plunder them.

Li Yi, however, was not that ruthless.

“Situ, food is scarce now, and those grain merchants probably don’t have enough grain to return.”

"Then that's their problem. If they don't have enough grain, they can buy some and return it, or borrow it. In short, they have to return it within a certain period. If they can't, their crime will be compounded."

"If they behead him and confiscate his property then, no wonder they didn't give him a chance."

"That's how a Huiluo granary with three hundred cellars is built."

The Xingluo granary, with its three thousand cellars, is now even more in need of filling the hole.

Dou Jing gave Li Yi a wry smile, "I really want to go back to Taiyuan and go to Daibei to farm. The border region is bitterly cold, but things have already gotten off to a good start."

Unlike now,

I have no idea how to clean up this mess.

Li Yi comforted him, "The former Minister of Agriculture was dismissed because he failed to manage the country's finances properly, causing such a huge mess. He cannot escape blame and bears the primary responsibility. His Majesty has summoned you back to court to assume your post."

That's because they value your loyalty and talent; this is a mission entrusted to you in a time of crisis, a mission to turn the tide.

Dou Jing could only manage a wry smile.

"That's the only way. Let's go through everything from beginning to end, clean up the ledgers, and check the granaries."

Li Yi reminded him, "It would be best to reshuffle the officials in the various granaries first. It will be easier to investigate once the officials are transferred."

If any problems are found, remove them immediately.

Furthermore, I will request His Majesty to dispatch troops to rotate the garrison in each granary city.

at this time,
We must be especially careful to prevent water from flowing through.

Prevent water leakage
Actually, it's to prevent someone from destroying evidence.
A fire destroyed the account books and the grain, making it impossible to reconcile the accounts.

"Thank you for the reminder, Situ."
"At this time, which warehouse would dare to have a fire? Whether it's a real fire or a fake one, it will be considered arson. All the officials and soldiers in the warehouse will have to bear all the losses. They must first pay back the lost grain before they can be prosecuted for arson!" Dou Jing said through gritted teeth.

There's bound to be someone willing to take the risk of setting fire to a warehouse.

Now, Dou Jing has announced this method to all the officials in the granaries in advance, precisely to prevent them from having this opportunity.

As long as a fire breaks out, regardless of whether it was caused by human intervention or not...
Everyone should be punished together.

There were still more than 1.2 million shi of grain in the Huiluo granary, but much of it had been replaced with old grain, and fine grain had been replaced with coarse grain.

Dou Sinong,

Disaster relief grain processing workshops should be established as soon as possible.

They will be processed and produced according to the disaster relief grain formula provided by the imperial court.

The imperial court had already been researching disaster relief grains, and there were different combinations available.

A mixture of coarse and fine grains, along with locust meal, grass meal, and even bran, are used.
Some recipes also include grinding the leftover oil cake into powder and mixing it in.

In short, we should mix the limited grain with all sorts of edible things to make it as much as possible, so that when famine strikes, these unpalatable things can become life-saving food.

"After the Lunar New Year, grain prices in Luoyang have already risen several times. Today is only the eighth day of the Lunar New Year, and the price of rice has already increased from thirty coins per dou to fifty coins per dou."
The upward trend is still very strong.

"Is the imperial court really not interfering?" Dou Jing asked.

"Price fluctuations are related to supply and demand. Currently, there is a severe shortage of supply, and famine is clearly expected in the future, leading to a surge in food prices. This is the true reaction of the market."

The imperial court cannot forcibly control the price increase now.

If this were done, grain merchants would not make a profit, and no one would bother to buy and sell grain.

We are facing famine.

Food is life-saving.

If grain prices are allowed to rise, merchants will naturally be able to profit from it and will travel to buy and sell grain, returning from wherever there is grain, no matter how far the journey.

As long as there is enough profit

They would be willing to cross the sea to Baekje and Silla in the east, or to Lin-yi and Champa in the south to trade grain.

The imperial court aims to crack down on hoarding and speculation, and the withholding of grain from the market, not simply prohibit price increases.

That's why the imperial court has now summoned the heads of those grain merchants and major grain traders, laid out the plan for them, and asked them to go south to buy grain.

They are allowed to raise prices according to market conditions.

The imperial court has made preparations to restore the price of rice to two hundred or even three hundred coins, which was the price at the beginning of the dynasty.

After all, famine is a special circumstance.

What's the point of trying to stop grain prices from rising if you can't even buy grain?

During times of great famine, being able to buy grain at all is a blessing; people don't care how expensive it is.

There needs to be a supply of food circulating in the market.

The grain in the imperial granaries was used to fill market shortages. Grain was recorded in ration books according to household registration and given a minimum amount to ensure basic needs.

"Time is running out, we need to speed things up."

Li Yi reminded Dou Jing.

The first wave of famine will occur in March or April, which is the traditional spring famine, commonly known as the lean season between harvests.

Even in peaceful times, food shortages can easily occur during this period.

However, unless it's a time of great disaster or food shortage, it's only the poor who suffer. The wealthy landlords and grain shops in the market still have grain, but people have to borrow it.

The imperial court has allocated a small amount of reserves for this wave, which should be sufficient to cope.

This year's situation,
The real test comes in the summer.

Normally, the wheat harvest in summer would provide a good supply of new grain. However, this year in the north, especially in the Guanzhong Plain, the wheat harvest is not expected to be successful.

That was when the real famine began.
At that time, it won't just be the poor who will be without food; everyone will miss out on a harvest.

"Situ, if it can be confirmed that the drought in the north will remain severe this spring, could we do what we did back in the military and civilian settlements in Daibei?"
Are we now recruiting people to settle and cultivate land in places like Shannan, Jianghuai, and Jiannan?
The people of Guanzhong and Sanhe regions,

"Should we temporarily relocate some people there to cultivate the land?"

"Dou Sinong's idea is good. In fact, the Council of State Affairs has already discussed this method, and it is indeed feasible. They are already preparing to implement it."

The drought in the south is not severe.
Moreover, there is a lot of arable land there.

Organizing people to go south to temporarily reclaim land, even if the yield is low, it is still a harvest and can solve some problems.

Even if the imperial court wanted to subsidize them, they would simply eat in the south, saving the trouble of transporting grain from the south to the north.

Similarly, it could also divert the population from the north, reducing the pressure of disaster relief during famines.

This is actually the same as when the emperor led over 100,000 officials, soldiers, and civilians from Chang'an to Luoyang at the end of last year.

Emperor chasing grain

They went wherever there was grain.

The biggest obstacle to sending people to the south to cultivate land was actually the people themselves.

Even if there might be no harvest in the summer, how many people would be willing to leave their homes to farm in the south? They might be thinking that the crops they planted in the spring would be harvested in the autumn.

This will put the imperial court's organizational and execution capabilities to the test.

The plan is good, but whether it can be implemented is another matter.

The imperial court's previous policy of relocating people from narrow villages to wider villages and allocating them with full land quotas was not well accepted by the people and was not implemented effectively.

With time running out and the task heavy, Li Yi had no choice but to take on the responsibility.

Let's give it our all.

(End of this chapter)