Li Chengqian of the Tang Dynasty: Please say long live His Majesty

Chapter 646: Officials are the most important (Part )
Countless torches suddenly lit up in the dark mine.

Qiu Shenji, dressed in red and golden armor, rushed out on horseback, picked up the corpse with his long spear, and roared: "Kill!"

Countless Jinwu Guards surged out from behind him like a tide, and attacked the mine guards who were standing opposite with knives in their hands and looking confused.

There is no tolerance, no mercy.

There was not a single word of persuasion to surrender, and anyone who appeared in front of the charging army was killed.

The killing was bloody.

……

Xingzhou Posthouse.

Backyard lobby.

Li Chengqian sat in the main seat in the center, while Yu Zhining, Gao Jifu, and Lu Chengye stood on the left.

Xu Yushi, dressed in a light purple official robe, stood on the right, with Fang Yizhi and Zhang Daxiang standing behind him.

Xu Yushi bowed to Li Chengqian and said, "The matter of the counterfeit coins was discovered by Weizhou, who then informed me. After a secret investigation, I discovered that it was the Huai family, a powerful family in Xingzhou, who secretly minted the counterfeit coins in the mountains, and they were also protected by the Longgang County Secretary and Xingzhou Chief Clerk Quyang."

Li Chengqian closed the memorial in his hand, looked at Fang Yizhi expressionlessly, and asked, "How did you find out?"

"Since last autumn, a lot of ill-gotten money has appeared in Weizhou. I traced the source and finally found it in Xingzhou. Then I contacted Envoy Xu." Fang Yizheng bowed seriously.

"Yeah!" Li Chengqian nodded calmly, then looked outside the yard.

A burst of hurried footsteps came from outside the courtyard, and Qiu Shenqi, dressed in red and golden armor, strode into the courtyard.

Arriving in the hall, Qiu Shenji bowed earnestly to Li Chengqian and said, "Your Majesty, the mines have been thoroughly investigated. They used the pottery workshop as a cover, making pottery in the front mountain and minting coins in the back mountain. A total of 6,000 strings of finished counterfeit coins have been found, as well as a large number of copperware and copper bars."

Li Chengqian immediately looked at Xu Yushi, who cupped his hands and said, "Your Majesty, these must have been stolen by them in collaboration with the copper mine."

There are copper mines in Xingzhou, but the mines are under the jurisdiction of the Shaofu.

Li Chengqian looked at Zhang Ananda who was standing to the side and said, "Order the Minister of the Interior to conduct a thorough investigation of all mines to see if there is collusion between the inside and outside and theft of ore. If any such cases are confirmed, all will be beheaded and their entire clans will be held accountable."

"Yes!" Zhang Ananda bowed solemnly.

Li Chengqian looked at Xu Yushi and said, "This matter is also easy to deal with. All the people involved, both inside and outside, will be beheaded and their entire clan will be exiled."

"Yes!" Master Xu Yu bowed with a serious expression.

The emperor was extremely sensitive about copper coins.

Once verified, the punishment will be extremely severe.

"Your Excellency has done well." Li Chengqian's expression softened as he said to Xu Yushi, "When encountering such matters, we should report them to the emperor so that a thorough investigation can be carried out quickly."

"Yes!" Master Xu Yu breathed a sigh of relief.

Li Chengqian smiled and nodded.

Although Xu Yushi was the governor of a state, he had connections with the chief secretary and local powerful families, so it would be difficult for him to deal with them.

At this point, it’s time for someone at a higher level to intervene.

Many local governors, even at this point, still wanted to handle the problem themselves, but ended up making a mess of it.

"Your Majesty!" Fang Yizhi stepped forward, bowing earnestly. "The problem of corrupted coins in Xingzhou has been going on for at least three years. It's only in the past year that it's become particularly severe, and that's why it's only now being discovered. Even so, over the years, who knows how much corrupted coins have been lost. I request that this be investigated and a reasonable proportion of them be recovered."

Li Chengqian glanced at Fang Yizhi, then shook his head and said, "What you said is right, but you can't do things this way."

"Your Majesty!" Fang Yizheng looked up in surprise.

Li Chengqian looked at Qiu Shenji standing beside him and said, "Send someone to transport all the bad coins, copperware, and copper bars back to Luoyang as soon as possible. Have the Shaofu speed up the forging and then send the corresponding copper coins to Hebei."

"I obey your order." Qiu Shenjie immediately bowed and turned away.

Li Chengqian then looked at Fang Yizhi and said, "My dear minister, you should have heard that I will exempt Hebei from rent and taxes this year."

"Yes!" Fang Yizhi bowed and said, "Your Majesty is benevolent."

"Although rent and taxes have been waived, Tuzhou still needs a large supply of grain and fodder." Li Chengqian raised his head slightly and said, "While it is true that we can transfer grain from Chang'an and Luoyang, I think since Hebei has surplus grain, we can simply purchase it directly from Hebei."

"Buy grain?" Fang Yizhi couldn't help asking, "Buy grain from the people of Hebei?"

"Yes!" Li Chengqian nodded and said, "Use a sufficient amount of newly minted Kaiyuan Tongbao coins from the court to purchase grain from the people."

"Then what about those bad coins?" Fang Yizhi, still mindful of the past, bowed and asked, "Since the court has newly minted copper coins, why not just exchange them for the bad coins?"

"I don't care about bad coins." Li Chengqian shook his head and said, "My dear, think about it from another angle. Suppose you have a hundred coins, and thirty of them are bad. At this time, the government buys back the bad coins at a ratio of one to two, or even one to three. This will result in you only having eighty, or eighty-five good coins left. Would you be willing to do that?"

Fang Yizheng was stunned and shook his head subconsciously.

Li Chengqian continued, "If at this time, you get another 100 new coins for selling grain, then at this time, you have 170 new coins and 30 bad coins in your hand. At this time, if the government offers you the opportunity to exchange them, will you be more willing to do so?" "More, but not much." Fang Yizheng expressed his feelings directly.

"So you have a thousand new coins in your hand, and the market is full of new coins, and no one wants the old coins. Do you want to exchange thirty coins out of the thousand coins with the government and spend them, or do you plan to hide them and use them later?" Li Chengqian asked again.

Fang Yiai was completely hesitant at this time.

"I will not force a ban on bad money." Li Chengqian shook his head and said, "Those were earned by the people with their own blood and sweat. We cannot allow the people to suffer losses just because of a single statement about worldly affairs...even if it is their own fault."

"Your Majesty!" Fang Yizheng bowed with some shame.

Li Chengqian waved his hand and said, "In fact, if we really want to conduct a large-scale exchange of new and bad coins, the real beneficiaries will only be the local noble families. They have the most bad coins, and they will also exchange them before the common people. Rather than that, I'd rather not exchange them."

"Your Majesty is wise!" Everyone in the hall bowed.

Li Chengqian raised his head and said, "Also, after the autumn harvest this year, the government will collect grain from the people. To be honest, in my opinion, the government is simply unable to collect grain from the people. They will more likely collect grain directly from the aristocratic families, and the aristocratic families will then collect grain from the people."

Everyone nodded in agreement, as local officials were sometimes very lazy.

"You said, I use the new money to collect grain from the hands of the aristocratic families, then will the aristocratic families use the new money to collect grain from the hands of the people?" Li Chengqian said this, and everyone couldn't help but bow solemnly.

Li Chengqian shook his head and said, "Spread the word. I don't care if the noble families collect grain from the people and sell it to the government, then profit from the price difference. However, if they dare to use illegal money to collect grain, we will find out and punish them severely."

"Yes!" Everyone bowed seriously and couldn't help but look at Li Chengqian.

In fact, they understood that even if the emperor strictly required and the government strictly enforced it, such things were inevitable, and it would be difficult to investigate afterwards.

"One more thing." Li Chengqian sneered softly and said, "I will select people from the Censorate, the Supreme Court, the Ministry of Justice, and the Ministry of Personnel to conduct secret investigations everywhere. I will not directly deal with the results of their investigations, but these local aristocratic families and powerful clans, as long as they hold positions in the court, will all be given an additional level of assessment this year."

The performance evaluation of top grade will be downgraded to upper-middle grade; the performance evaluation of upper-middle grade will be downgraded to middle grade; the performance evaluation of upper-middle grade will be downgraded to lower-middle grade.

Basically, if something like this happens, forget about getting promoted this year.

And with this record, who knows when it might pop up in the future and affect their promotion.

The higher the official, the more he fears this.

Because those with low official ranks are usually handled directly by the Ministry of Personnel, and the problem can be solved by spending some money, but those with high official ranks basically require the emperor's personal permission. If he just says no, even if Zhangsun Wuji comes, it will be useless.

These high-ranking officials from aristocratic families know best how to make the choice. Once a word is passed down, even their families need to take it seriously.

After all, being an official is the most important thing.

"Of course, it's only for this year. Next year, there will be no rent and tax exemption, and I won't have to buy grain from the people." Li Chengqian raised his eyes slightly and looked at everyone.

"Yes!" Everyone bowed in unison. They now fully understood that the emperor knew that in this world, the families with the most evil money would always be the aristocratic families.

If they don't use their dirty money to buy grain from the people this year, the emperor won't care about it next year, so they can do whatever they want.

"One more thing." Li Chengqian looked at Yu Zhining and said, "Send the Imperial Censor and the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, Liu Shi, to Hebei to clear out all cases of privately minting Kaiyuan Tongbao coins. If you discover any furnaces producing coins, you can directly dispatch the imperial troops to crack down on them."

Having bad money and minting bad money are two different things.

Even if the former is caught, it is hard to say that he is not a victim, but once the latter is caught, it would not be excessive to behead him directly.

Moreover, such matters are always accompanied by a large number of guards and vigilance, and there might be suspicion of treason.

"Alright, let's get it done." Li Chengqian waved his hand and said, "I've finally come to Hebei. At least while I'm here, everything should be clear and bright here."

"Yes!" Everyone saluted in unison, then bowed and said, "I'll take my leave."

"Yeah!" Li Chengqian nodded lightly.

……

Only after everyone left did Li Chengqian sigh softly.

Li Chengqian stood up and walked into the inner room.

Cui Luan sat behind the door, then stood up and handed the written paper to Li Chengqian, bowing earnestly and saying, "Your Majesty, thank you for your hard work!"

Li Chengqian took the record and read it, then sat down calmly beside Cui Luan.

Cui Luan sat down obediently, then leaned slightly into Li Chengqian's arms.

Li Chengqian hugged Cui Luan and shook his head bitterly, saying, "The world is bustling with people, all for profit; the world is bustling with people, all for profit. There are some things that even if I were the emperor, I would find it difficult to control. All I can do is to let the people of Hebei save more new money.

This way, whether they keep the money in their own hands or trade it with other states, they can gain some advantages; in the future, their family assets will be more solid, and no matter what problems they encounter, they will have sufficient confidence to deal with them. "

"Your Majesty!" Cui Luan did not expect that Li Chengqian had such thoughts beneath the surface.

Li Chengqian smiled, gently pinched Cui Luan's chin, and whispered: "Of course, these are just small things, but they can ultimately make life a little better for the people of Hebei...even if it's just a little bit, things have to be done bit by bit."

"Yes!" Admiration was already rippled in Cui Luan's eyes.

(End of this chapter)