In Luoyang at the end of August, the temperature has turned cooler, the autumn wind is picking up, and the fallen leaves are rustling. Just like the two hundred years of the Wei Dynasty, although the scenery is still gorgeous, people can't help but feel a bit desolate.
The Princely District in the north of Luoyang City has been extremely busy in recent days. There seem to be more people coming and going than before. These people have a place that was rarely seen before: Yun Guogong's Mansion.
Yun Guogong Yun Lan was worshiped as Taiwei not long ago, and began to be named Taiwei in the central court. Taiwei is one of the three princes, with a very high status, but Yun Zheng holding this position concurrently is quite unreasonable.
Taiwei began during the Qin Dynasty. After King Yingzheng of Qin came to the throne, he changed the system to the Three Gongs and Nine Ministers. The three were the prime minister, the censor, and the Taiwei. They were respectively responsible for assisting the government, supervising, and running the army. However, the Qin Dynasty did not set up Taiwei.
The specific candidate was in name only because Qin was a centralized system at that time, and the military, government and economy were integrated into the first emperor. Therefore, if the military power was handed over to others, the rule of King Qin Yingzheng would be seriously threatened. The name of Taiwei was first seen in
"Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals"
By the Western Han Dynasty, the names of officials at the central and local levels basically followed the system of the Qin Dynasty. However, what was different from the Qin Dynasty was that three sets of parallel bureaucratic systems were established under the emperor, namely, foreign court officials led by the prime minister, and generals.
The highest administrative power of the central government of the Western Han Dynasty was divided between the prime minister, the Taiwei, and the imperial censor, with nine ministers, lie ministers, etc. under them.
However, because there are many names in the official system and there is a certain purpose of decentralizing power, the actual power of the Taiwei is always uncertain. According to the "Book of Han? List of Hundred Officials and Officials": "Taiwei is an official of Qin, with a gold seal and purple ribbon, and is in charge of military affairs."
The highest military position in the Han Dynasty was not always held. When there was no Taiwei, the post of Taiwei was assigned to the prime minister, which was equivalent to the chairman of the Military Commission in later generations.
During the Eastern Han Dynasty, Taiwei, Situ, and Sikong were the three princes. Taiwei was in charge of military affairs, Situ was in charge of civil affairs, and Sikong was in charge of supervision. They opened separate governments and appointed assistants. However, the real power of the Eastern Han Dynasty had been transferred to the Shangshutai, and Taiwei was actually the prime minister.
This can be seen in ancient times. The task of leading troops to fight is not easy to do. Whether they are established or dismissed does not depend on the level of cultivation. They are the leaders in political decision-making and reform, and in governing the country.
Therefore, as the highest military position of the Xianzhi Army Taiwei, in addition to evaluating the merits of military attachés across the country and using it as the basis for promotion and demotion, he also served as the emperor's highest military adviser. The Han Dynasty army was commanded by generals and captains. Taiwei could not directly command the army. For example,
When Zhou Bo put down the Zhu Lu rebellion, as a Taiwei, he could not enter the Northern Army commanded by General Lu Chan, so he had to pretend to be the emperor to enter the Northern Army camp and gain command. Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties: According to the Three Kingdoms, Cao Cao abolished the Three Metrics system
, it was temporarily restored when his son Cao Pi came to the throne as prime minister, but was revoked after he appointed Jia Xu as Taiwei.
Since the Sui Dynasty, the government and assistants have been abolished, and Taiwei has become a gifted official to reward meritorious officials. After the founding of the Wei Dynasty, the military power of the generals in border towns gradually increased. In order to avoid further weakening of military power in the royal family, Taiwei was not often used.
Yun Lan, the lieutenant, should theoretically be in charge of the "national army", but obviously, except for the Northern Xinjiang Army, he cannot transfer this position to any other army. It is completely a false title, but because he is a general.
There is no official position that can be further promoted, the only one is Taiwei
Although the position of Taiwei Yun is empty, everyone knows the power of the words "Yunshan Commander". Both the reformers and the conservatives know Yun Lan's importance in the Wei Dynasty. The reformists know that they have no chance to obtain Yun Lan.
With their support, Yun Lan aroused great attention from them as soon as he took office, fearing that this commander-in-chief with powerful troops would oppose the new law regardless of the consequences. The conservatives were just the opposite. As soon as Yun Lan arrived in Luoyang, the Yun Kingdom Palace was immediately filled with people.
Conservative officials came to visit all day long. What made Yun Lan especially emotional was that not all the conservative officials who came to visit were from famous families. Many officials from poor families also joined the conservatives. This made Yun Lan feel that her son Yun Zheng
What he said makes sense: if the new law fails, it is inevitable that Qiu Linjiang can be the governor of a local county, but cannot be the prime minister of a large country.
For this reason, Yun Zheng once analyzed Qiu Linjiang's new laws one by one for his father. All these new laws and new policies that seemed beautiful were almost completely destroyed by Yun Zheng's refutation.
The direct purpose of Qiu Linjiang's reform is to increase national fiscal revenue. Yun Zheng's analysis is: Such a reform, to put it nicely, is called financial management, but to put it poorly, it can only be called amassing money but not growing it, and wealth not being hidden in the country.
That is to say, there was more money hidden in the treasury of the Republic of China, but the people had less money. Not even half a year after the reform, the thirty-two newly built inner hall warehouses in Luoyang were filled with silk and satin, so they had to rebuild the warehouses. But where did this wealth come from?
?Did it fall from the sky? Did it grow from the ground? Obviously it is not as former left prime minister Shen Chengshangshu said: "If you don't take the people, how will you take them?"
What is especially fresh in Yun Lan's memory is the Green Crops Method. The so-called Green Crops Method uses the money and grain from the Changping Cang and Guanghui Cang that were set up in the past to prepare for shortages as capital. It is divided into two phases every year, that is, when it is necessary to sow seeds and when they are not ripe in summer and autumn.
In the first month of the first month, farmers borrow money and materials from the government on a voluntary basis. After the harvest, the interest rate is increased by 20%. The purpose of implementing the Green Crop Law with the summer and autumn tax collectors is to protect farmers from the usury exploitation of merger forces during the lean years, and to
Enable the government to obtain a large amount of "young crop interest money" income
But Yunzheng easily refuted this method, and after this period of observation, Yun Lan found that his son's view was extremely correct. Qingmiao Method: First of all, the interest rate is not low. The standard set by Qiu Linjiang is two cents per year, that is, a loan of 10,000 yuan.
, the loan period is one year, and the interest is 2,000, which is actually very high, but what are the specific local practices for increasing the amount? A loan is issued in the spring, and it is recovered after half a year, and the interest is 2 cents. Another loan is issued in the autumn, half a year.
Later it was taken back, and the interest was divided into two parts. The result was a loan of 10,000 yuan, a loan period of one year, and an interest of 4,000 yuan. The low-interest loan that was supposed to fully consider the interests of farmers turned into a kind of usury monopolized by the government. Moreover, due to inconsistent implementation, some
Local interest rates are so high that they have reached 35 times the original setting! This is the case in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, for example!
Not to mention the high interest rate, the procedures are cumbersome. Farmers borrow money from landlords, and the two parties can agree on the price and the deal is concluded. Now when borrowing money from the government, you need to apply first, then get approval, and finally you have to pay back the loan. There are many procedures, and all require people, requests, and give.
Every time subordinates and yamen servants pay "favor fees", they will be extorted and exploited by corrupt officials. This is still a simple procedure. If it is more complicated, you don't know how much you have to pay! How much hair do farmers have on their bodies? How can they withstand this?
As a result, the common people increased their burdens, and the government and local officials increased their incomes. The "Market Change Law" originally stipulated the purchase of unsalable goods, but later it became a special purpose for the purchase of in-demand goods. At this time, the yamen had become
An organization that made money turned out to be all-official business. The official-business style became more and more intense, and the government and the private sector competed for profits.
Yun Lan especially felt that her son had made great progress. As soon as the Green Seedlings Law began, Yun Zheng guessed that not only would the Green Seedlings Law be poorly implemented in the future, but also that the emperor and Qiu Linjiang would forcefully implement it after it was not implemented effectively, resulting in even greater consequences.
Sure enough, after the Green Crops Law began, many farmers saw that the new law was more powerful than the tiger, and were unable or afraid to borrow money. Seeing that the implementation of the new law was not going smoothly, Zuo Xiangqiu Linjiang adopted a "one size fits all" approach and ordered each locality to determine how much money they must lend.
In this way, local officials imposed a rigid allocation of quotas. In addition to ordinary farmers who asked for loans, even middle peasants, rich peasants, and landlords had to accept loans. In fact, middle peasants, rich peasants, and landlords did not have the problem of spring famine and did not need loans at all. But local officials
Forcing them to take loans because they have to meet the quota. When it comes time to repay the money, let alone ordinary farmers, middle peasants and rich peasants cannot bear it. Naturally, this measure has become a profit-making method for officials, and their power is rent-seeking.
There is also the supreme excuse of reform, and measures such as the Market Change Law are roughly enforced in this way.
As a result, rebellions also occurred in areas directly under the central government that had always been stable. After the Yueyang Rebellion, a mere few thousand Guxinge rebelled, and in less than two days, they gathered an army of two to three hundred thousand (180,000, the court intelligence was inaccurate). Who can believe it if there is no new law that will harm the people?
Looking at Shen He in the guest seat, Yun Lan smiled slightly and said, "The Ministry of Industry and Engineering is here because of what His Majesty said this morning?"
Chen He sighed: "Your Majesty now completely ignores the opinions of us people. The new law hurts the people so much, but your Majesty still believes in Qiu Linjiang's words, thinking that you can 'endure for a while, and plan for the future.' It's really... ...Alas, Lieutenant Yun, now those of us who oppose the new law are classified into one faction, and we are the ones that His Majesty will never listen to. Among all of us, Lieutenant Yun, you are the only one who can make His Majesty take your words to heart. If If you don't stand up for justice, this country will be ruined by these idiots who only know how to talk."
What Shen He said about "what His Majesty said this morning" is this: After the well-known conservatives attacked Qiu Linjiang's new law, Qiu Linjiang said a famous saying without fear, saying, "There is no need to fear the changes of heaven. Ancestors are not worthy of the law, and people’s words are not worthy of compassion.”
The prefect of Luoyang was from a well-known family. He reported in the early court that in order to circumvent the Baojia Law, some people in the territory had "amputated their fingers and wrists." Emperor Wanchang asked Qiu Linjiang, but Qiu Linjiang replied dismissively: Things are unreliable, and even if they are reliable, it’s not a big deal! I don’t think these scholar-officials can understand the new law, let alone the common people!
Even Wanchang thought this was a bit excessive after hearing this, so he said euphemistically: "If the people agree and listen to them, they will win. You must not be afraid of it." However, Qiu Linjiang believed that he was dedicated to serving the public, and he obviously did not agree with this. Come on, even the opinions of these famous scholars can be ignored, and things like swaying the people's hearts are even more insignificant! Even if the people's interests suffer some losses, it is only the cost of the reform. These costs It must be paid, so it can be ignored
Yun Lan naturally knew the purpose of Shen He's coming, but Yun Lan had no intention of getting involved in political affairs at this time, because according to Yun Zheng's analysis, Emperor Wanchang was determined. It would be better if the Yun family did not come forward. It would be better if the Yun family also came forward to oppose , maybe Wanchang will even get crazier. No one can predict what he will do by then.
"The heavy mountain is dull, and it may be possible to lead troops in battles, but when it comes to political affairs... it is better to say less."
Shen He looked disappointed, sighed, and said goodbye
-------------------- I'll make up for my debt tomorrow, sweat.
