New Shun 1730

Now everyone present is in this situation, and they have to be fools.

The magistrate of Funing County is the youngest official, and his vision is still a little bit lacking.

He thought it would be best if more people came to take the blame for this matter.

But none of the people who came thought of taking the blame, and none of them thought of reporting to the emperor before the matter was settled.

Especially those who reported to the emperor.

Isn't this a problem for the emperor?

Everyone thinks it is obvious that the emperor wants to kill people and seize land. Now the case has been brought to the court before it is confirmed, and it is a mess. What should the emperor do?

Originally, those who wanted to kill people and seize land, after making a fuss in the court, there will be rumors and arguments in the court, and there will be opposition.

The emperor can't be like the gangsters in Tianjin Port after the canal was converted to sea transportation, and they shouted with their necks stiff that I killed people and seized land, and I suppressed and annexed manually, so what!

Only after killing those who should be killed and robbing those who should be robbed, and then making this matter a typical case of moral corruption, can it be reported.

At that time, the emperor will hypocritically say that the killing is too much, and then everyone will be happy.

Now everyone in the room is on guard against others.

Everyone feels that they are outsiders and the emperor did not tell them in advance.

Everyone thinks that the emperor must have told Liu Yu in advance, so what does the governor of Huanghuai think the emperor told Liao Hanhui? Did he tell the prefect of Huai'an? Is it really just the idea of ​​the magistrate of Funing County that they were "invited" here?

Is what the magistrate of Funing County said the magistrate of Funing County's own idea?

This matter is not the Six Governments' business at all, and it is not a matter of normal procedures.

If the normal procedures are not followed, then everyone present may be reminded in advance by the emperor through the normal procedures of the non-Six Governments' work process.

Moreover, the normal government work procedures of the Six Governments are themselves a kind of rule "granted" by the emperor. The emperor can break this rule at any time. Whether the emperor is willing to break this procedure is different from whether the emperor can break this procedure.

There is an essential difference between being able to and unable to, willing and unwilling.

There were too many cases of communicating directly with the emperor in private without following the normal work process of the six governments, and it was hard to guard against them.

The magistrate of Funing County was the person who was least likely to be exposed to the court struggle at this time. He saw that all the people who came agreed to deal with the matter strictly, severely and quickly, and he had to ask some questions clearly.

Not everyone can be the magistrate of Funing County. This magistrate was transferred from the head of another county. There are seven characters in the level standard. The counties with five, six and seven characters are all transferred from other places, and they are at the top of the promotion order.

But whether to be promoted depends on the official's self-assessment score every three years.

How is the score reflected?

To put it bluntly, if the few people in the county government really cut off all the gentry, he would not be able to do anything about taxation and labor.

The court gave him that little salary, and in theory he could also set up his own "shogunate" and find some advisers to participate in management as "non-staff members".

But this is not giving that much money.

Besides, if there is so much money, can't the court just support its own financial staff?

The current tax model itself is actually tacitly approving local corruption, bribery, additional taxes, and apportionment. You can do whatever you want.

After all, the court has only so much tax. If you collect more than the national tax, in theory, it is against the reputation of the court's benevolence and light taxation. If something goes wrong or if they want you to get into trouble, they will punish you; if they collect less, nothing can be done. They may not punish you, but if you have no political achievements, you will definitely not be promoted.

This is what the Funing County Magistrate is worried about.

I thought to myself, if I were like the Duke of Xingguo and the Governor of Huanghuai, with money and power in my hands, I could support my own team of staff, open a government without opening a government, and support dozens of advisors, hundreds of accountants, three or five hundred teachers, etc., I would not need these gentry.

You are going to kill all these gentry. After killing them, the grassroots will collapse, and you will pat your butts and leave. What should I do?

The magistrate of Funing County thought that it was easy for you to destroy the old county and village system, but where would the new one come from? As a county magistrate, I don’t care about the hundreds of miles of new land that has been flushed out to the east of Fangong Dike. With the county magistrate’s people who eat the financial food, there are no gentry left. What else can I do?

It’s really like the time when the Tianbing in northern Fujian was rioting in the late Ming Dynasty: the order cannot be issued beyond the county gate!

"Duke, governor, prefect... I am the youngest here. If I have something to say, I am the only one who can say it."

"These people are indeed unforgivable, but after executing them, the court will have to start the second phase of the project in such a large Funing County... This... This, this humble official really can't manage it."

"Don't be afraid of being laughed at by you gentlemen, I really have never managed a place without gentry. Moreover, even if I have the system of restoring the Qin Dynasty, organizing the Lijia and filling the county officials, I have no money and no people."

"So, gentlemen, please give me some advice. What should we do here in the future?"

This is a good question.

The good thing is that, except for the magistrate of Funing County, almost no one present cares about what will happen to Funing County in the future.

But how Liu Yu answered this question can reveal a lot of hidden things from his answer.

So, everyone almost turned their eyes to Liu Yu.

The prefect of Huai'an thought, this Funing County Magistrate is also very slippery, is there really no way for him? No, he has a way, and I have a way, but whether these methods are what Your Majesty wants is hard to say.

Liu Yu did not avoid the gazes of the crowd and smiled: "Indeed, killing so many people at once, what should Funing County do in the future? This is indeed something that needs to be discussed."

"Now the court has spent a lot of money to repair the Huaihe River, turning flood disasters into water conservancy. And the Grand Canal has been abandoned, so there is no need to restrain water to flush sand, and the previous rule that the Yellow River protects the north but not the south has been broken. In addition, the sea salt has been retreating in recent years, and it has been more than a hundred miles east of Fangong Dike."

"In a few years, northern Jiangsu can be called a granary, and land cultivation will no longer be as difficult as before. I am still optimistic about northern Jiangsu."

"In "Yu Gong", the two Huaihe Rivers are top-notch land. The mud of the Yellow River is fertile. As long as the flood problem is solved, the fields in northern Jiangsu may not be worse than those in southern Jiangsu in the future."

This is a real change.

If the Huaihe River is not repaired and the Grand Canal is not abandoned, there is no need to talk about taxes in northern Jiangsu.

Excluding the salt tax that the local government had no control over, the court's requirements for northern Jiangsu were "don't have civil unrest, provide relief when there is a disaster, and ask for relief only once every three years, please don't ask for it every year."

According to the administrative divisions of later generations, Funing County now manages Binhai County, Sheyang County, and Funing County. If the grain output is added together as one county, it is very high.

Except that it cannot be compared with the top three counties such as Yushu, Nong'an, and Gongzhuling, whose output in just three to five years is enough to meet the grain needs of the Ming Dynasty from the Yongle period to the Chongzhen period for 200 years.

It is no problem to compete with Fuyu and Wuchang to rank in the top five.

But now... let alone the large grain-producing counties, the average annual relief grain and disaster relief funds can rank in the top five in Dashun.

When Hongze Lake, the Yellow River, and the sea tide are throwing tantrums, they basically compete with Shuyang, another strong grain-producing county in Jiangsu in the future, for the first and second place in Dashun relief grain, disaster relief funds, and the number of disaster victims.

Why must they go to Nanyang first and then abolish the canal to build the Huaihe River?

In addition to the military security considerations of the court, according to Liu Yu, if the Huaihe River was built first and the canal was abolished before going to Nanyang, the current labor price of the Nanyang plantation would not be "cheated" by half of the people in northern Jiangsu.

Northern Jiangsu, which was and will be a good place, is now tortured into the eighteenth level of purgatory by the Yellow River, Huai River, canal transportation, and salt administration.

Now the dawn is beginning to appear, and Liu Yu said this, and everyone can understand the changes after a little thought.

Although Liu Yu's statement that the grain output in northern Jiangsu may not be worse than that in southern Jiangsu in the future is still skeptical, it is definitely better than before.

This almost directly reminded the magistrate of Funing County: The court chose you to come to Funing County at this critical moment, not for your disaster relief ability, nor for your ability to coordinate the repair of the Huaihe River, but for your ability to make Funing better in the future.

As for how to do it, Liu Yu said: "Now that the main trunk of the Huaihe River into the sea channel has been completed, whether it is for reclamation or planting in the future, it is necessary to re-measure the land."

"Fortunately, the court sent some surveying and mapping professionals to practice before, so I asked them to measure the wasteland, which can also be used to measure the reclamation of land in the future."

"Since we want to reclaim land and live up to the court's investment in repairing the Huaihe River, it is definitely not enough to rely on only one Funing County Government. After this matter, these surveying and mapping students will work here for another year. I will submit a memorial to the court and ask the court to send some capable officials to fill the villages and towns."

"Don't the ancient Confucian school want to implement equal distribution of land and school system and separate education? They can also try it here."

"Where does the money come from Come, I think we should also implement the eleven-tax system like that in southern Jiangsu. When the national tax is sufficient, the rest can be used for local use, such as water conservancy and schools. "

"Since southern Jiangsu, Weihai, Jinghai and other places can be unique in the world and try new policies. I think northern Jiangsu is also possible."

"In addition, these wastelands can also follow the stories of Ezo and Taiwan, attracting capital and recruiting people to reclaim wasteland."

"Now the court is not short of money, nor is it short of scholars who can go to the grassroots level. Although they don't read serious books, they can still be minor officials. I think the issue of Funing Magistrate is not difficult."

When he said this, the rest of the people understood it better, thinking that you, the Duke, are really here to deal with moral issues, and it really has nothing to do with land distribution.

And then they thought, now that this person is not dead yet, the emperor has even prepared the blowers, suona bands, fat meat for funeral banquets, and paper money for the first seven days, so what else is there to discuss? Let's get started quickly.

It is said that if the king orders his subjects to die, they must die. But the king did not order the gentry to die, but only sent some paper money, tin foil, and linen pieces. Will he die or not?

The magistrate of Funing County was mixed with joy and sorrow.

The joy was that if he did this, his achievements as the magistrate of Funing County would definitely rise.

The worry was that if he did this, he would probably not be able to get rid of the label of being a member of the New Party.

Although Wen Zhonggong had "On Factions", the saints also said that gentlemen gather but do not form parties.

However, I am neither a gentleman nor a villain, I am just a pure bureaucrat.

I really have no ideals and beliefs. No matter whether it is the rule of the Three Dynasties, the prosperous age of the kingly way, the equal distribution of land among small farmers, the sharing of the world by scholars and officials, or the new industry and commerce, I have none of them, and I don't believe in any of them... Why am I labeled as a member of the party?

I don't even have ideals and beliefs, so how can I be qualified to be a member of the party?

Since I have no ideals and beliefs, I can't use them as a basis to determine whether my means of governing as an official are in line with my ideals and whether I am doing good or bad.

According to Mohism and Confucianism, official power is a tool to realize ideals, and whether the government is doing a good job should be reflected and judged by whether it is closer to or further away from the ideal.

However, I have no ideals at all. I am an official just for the sake of being an official. I can tell whether I am a good official by looking at whether I am promoted or demoted.

I am a typical bureaucrat. I call whoever supports who in the temple and whoever sits on the dragon throne a saint. But the emperor can't really live forever. What if the wind changes in a few years? Is my label of being a member of the New Party good or bad?