"Okay..." Liu De waved his hand to interrupt the two people's disgusting flattery.
"I ordered you to investigate the merchants of Ziqian in Chang'an City. Are there any results now?" Liu De asked.
"Back to Your Highness, I have investigated everything and made a list. Please take a look at it!" Zhang Tang handed over a silk letter and said: "This generation of merchants all have done illegal things, and the brave ones have even committed crimes.
There are several people on the Tingwei Mansion's wanted list for murder!"
Liu De took the silk book and glanced at the densely packed hundreds of names on the silk book.
Ninety-nine percent of these people will become victims of Liu De's attack this time.
Who said these guys are too rich and each one wants to die more than the other?
Liu De picked up his pen and crossed out Wu Yan, who was listed first among the loan sharks by Zhang Tang. Then he threw the silk book back to Zhang Tang and ordered: "Give it to Ju Meng and ask him to remove me from this list."
Find out the crimes and illegal activities of the rest of the family outside the crossed-out family, and collect the evidence!"
Why was the Wuyan family spared?
Without it!
Although this family also engages in various illegal and disciplinary activities and has a lot of lives in their hands, at least this family has sense of taste, some sense of right and wrong, and knows how to behave.
Liu De remembered that after the Wu-Chu Rebellion broke out in his previous life, due to the locust plague and various natural changes, the merchants in Chang'an, especially the loan sharks, were not optimistic that the Han court could win.
When Chehou of Chang'an went on an expedition, he borrowed money from these usurious merchants because his military budget was insufficient.
However, businessmen pursue profits. Since they think Chang'an will lose, how can they do such a business that will mostly result in losses?
No one is willing to borrow it!
Only this Wu Yan family is willing to grant loans.
Just this one thing is enough for Liu De to show his noble hand and let their family go.
"No!" Zhang Tang nodded and accepted the order. Then he asked again: "I wonder when His Highness will ask for it?"
"Before the first month of next year!" Liu De thought for a while and replied.
There are still half a year left before the first month of the year. Half a year is enough time for Jumeng to get to the bottom of these guys.
At that time, when the Wu-Chu Rebellion breaks out, the Chehous of Chang'an will definitely start borrowing money. As long as these guys refuse to borrow money, then the butcher's knife can be raised. There is no need to find a reason!
Coupled with conclusive evidence, these guys can be completely uprooted!
Take the Wuyan clan as an example. In the previous life, the Wuyan clan lent more than three thousand gold to the Chehous...
There are more than a hundred families. Even if ten of them are worth one Wuyan clan, that is still a huge amount of money worth tens of thousands of gold.
With this money, the military expenditure problem can be solved immediately!
Not only that, the land and houses that these guys have occupied through various means in the past decades can also be regained by the imperial court, and it is even possible to organize another land grant in Guanzhong!
With the big killer weapon of granting land, Guanzhong's basic market will definitely be as stable as Mount Tai.
Thinking this way, Liu De felt refreshed.
"How is the locust plague in Hedong County?" Liu De asked again.
"Reporting to Your Highness, yesterday Zhou Yangyou, the governor of Hedong County, wrote to the court. He said that the disaster was basically under control, but only two counties were affected. This year's autumn harvest is estimated to be hopeless, and grain must be transferred from Aocang to help the victims. Your Majesty
An edict has been issued to exempt Hedong from the land tax this year!" Ji An replied.
Liu De thought for a while and said to Ji An: "Send someone to Hedong County to check for me what is the situation in Hedong now!"
For Zhou Yangyou, the cheap dad may trust him very much.
But Liu De couldn't believe it at all.
Liu De remembered clearly that this guy's father was Zhao Jian, the uncle of Huainan King Liu An. Because he was named Zhou Yanghou, he also took Zhou Yang as his surname.
This person is completely different from the famous Legalist officials of the time, such as Zhi Du and Chao Cuo.
Greedy, cruel, eager for success, and killing without restraint, he was almost as cruel as Wen Shu, the ruthless official of the Liu Che Dynasty later.
But Wang Wenshu was at least a loyal minister, and his loyalty to Liu Che was impeccable.
But Zhou Yangyou is a guy who even dares to bully the emperor for a small gain.
In the end, he died of deceiving the emperor and was cut off from the waist and abandoned.
After Zhou Yangyu's death, thousands of gold worth of property were confiscated from his home...
The locust plague in Hedong affected two counties in the previous life, resulting in no harvest. This directly led to Guanzhong having to transfer grain from Aocang for relief and transportation. Because Aocang's grain was transferred, Zhou Yafu's army had to eat part of it when they went south.
There were many counties and counties along the way, so Wu Chu was almost on guard.
No matter how he thought about it, Liu De felt that it was unlikely that the two counties in his previous life were affected by the disaster and had nothing to gain. After taking measures to eradicate the locusts in this life, it was still the same!
Liu De has never been afraid to speculate on others with the greatest malice.
Hedong County has always been the base camp of grain merchants in Guanzhong. These people have deep roots in Hedong. Anyone who is smart can immediately connect the grain prices in Guanzhong from the locust plague.
Starting from Lu Buwei, merchants all over the world have learned how to hoard.
"Your Highness, is there something wrong with privately investigating the county governor?" Ji An asked.
At this time, the county guard was still a high-ranking official, a feudal official who took charge of the military and political power of a county. In the county, the county guard was basically the ruler.
Absolute power will definitely lead to absolute corruption.
Later, Liu Che also discovered this, so he set up the governor and the Zhizhixiuyi envoy. The former supervised the county guards openly, while the latter secretly acted as Jinyiwei, specializing in collecting the illegal things of the local county guards and reporting them secretly.
The situation was sent back to Chang'an and developed to a later stage. It was pointed out that the messengers in embroidered clothes could even hold the emperor's festival, supervise the soldiers of the counties, encircle and suppress the bandits, and conquer the rebels.
But today, the status of the county governor is still only below that of the Jiu Qing. Once he is recalled to Chang'an, he can immediately become an important minister of the Jiu Qing or even the prime minister.
It is indeed taboo for Liu De to investigate important officials privately.
Liu De thought for a moment and said, "That's all, I'll go to Hedong myself!"
"Your Highness..." Ji An heard this and said quickly: "No! Leaving Hangu privately without the Emperor's order is not what the Son of Man would do!"
"Who said I was going to leave seclusion privately?" Liu De laughed and said, "Tang Ji's daughter Yang Yi Weng is seven years old this year. According to the law, she can choose a husband for her. Pingyang Marquis Cao
Shou, I am thirteen this year. I am about the same age and can be promoted to Yang Yi. I want to go to the east of Hedong to examine his virtues. My father will definitely agree to it!"
As an elder brother, if he chooses a husband for his younger sister, then there will definitely be no problem.
More importantly, if the prince of the old Liu family didn't do two extraordinary things, would he still be called the prince of the old Liu family?
At that time, Emperor Hui once secretly slipped out of Dashan Pass and ran to the Kingdom of Zhao to see Zhao Ruyi.
When Liu De's cheap father was the prince, his footprints were all over Sanfu, and even went as far as Hexi.
As for the later Liu Che, he called himself Marquis of Pingyang and visited most of the area north of the river.
In fact, the emperor of the Han family had a tacit and even conniving attitude toward his prince sneaking out for a walk and seeing the outside world.
If you don't take a good look at the people, don't take a careful look at the world, become an emperor, don't know the affairs of the people, and take everything for granted as soon as you slap your head on the head, won't such an emperor be toyed with by his ministers?
Since the Emperor Liu Bang of the Han Dynasty, the emperor of the Han Dynasty has carved a sentence on the stone in the main hall of the Prince's Palace where the prince lives: I was born in a deep palace and grew up in the hands of women. I have never known sorrow or tasted it.
I know worry, but I don’t know labor, I don’t know fear, I don’t know worry.
These are the words of Duke Ai of Lu. Obviously, the emperors of all dynasties have used these words to remind their successors that you can't be a homebody, so you should go out for a walk! (To be continued...)
ps: I slept until 11 o'clock today. After I got up and had nothing to do, I went to play two rounds of Dota and got screwed....
Ahem, but the updates remain unchanged~ Well, at least 3 updates today~
