After making arrangements for the expansion of the water camp, Lin Fu patrolled north along the sea dike and summoned Liu Tingzhou, Liang Wenzhan, Xiao Kui'an, Hu Dahai and others in Yandu on the second day of the lunar month.
The latest headache for Liu Tingzhou is the rise in food prices.
In the Jianghuai prefectures and counties, tax collection has long been implemented in monetary terms. While efficiency has improved, it is destined to be impacted by the sharp rise and fall in prices.
A certain percentage of what is levied from the counties is retained, and the rest is paid to the county magistrate and settled in silver. This does not matter. However, in July, the Jiangning Army discussed additional levies and used them as military supplies. Affected by the soaring food prices,
The county magistrate asked each government agency to levy an additional 40% of the grain loss. If it were spread to the Huaidong Mansion, it would be an additional levy of 50,000 taels of silver.
At the same time, Liu Tingzhou also served as the commander-in-chief of the Huaidong Army and was responsible for providing money and wages to the Huaidong Army with a strength of 20,000 troops.
The county division allocates money to the military commander's department in cash, and the military commander's office purchases military rations and other supplies nearby.
Now Liu Tingzhou is in charge of the Huaidong Army Chief's Office, which is responsible for supplying about 13,000 dan of military rations and vegetables, salt, charcoal, meat and other materials to the garrisons stationed in Shanyang, Suining, Suyu and other places every month.
Rising shock.
The actual purchasing power of the money allocated by the County Secretary to the Military Chief Division dropped by 30% - the County Secretary sent additional levies to Huai'an Prefecture to make up for the loss of food, but the money distributed to the Military Chief Division did not bear the loss of food, and Liu Tingzhou himself had to
Think of ways to make up for it first.
Liu Tingzhou devoted himself to working for the court and obeyed Yue Lengqiu's advice. At this time, he was so anxious that he wanted to scold his mother.
Even if the price of food stabilizes and stops rising out of control, he will have to raise an additional 112,000 taels of silver - but the county magistrate below will not understand Liu Tingzhou's hard work and keep complaining about the difficulties.
.
If we force the situation to continue, whether it will ultimately fall on the farmers or the landowners who own a large amount of land, Liu Tingzhou, who is familiar with public affairs, can think clearly with his toes.
Liu Tingzhou was also a little ashamed to see Lin Fu.
As early as mid-July, Lin Fu foresaw that grain prices might skyrocket, and he explicitly suggested in the name of the Military Secretary that the counties in Huaidong change their taxes from money to rice and grain, so as to avoid the fiscal impact of the skyrocketing grain prices.
impact.
For ordinary farmers, paying grain requires one less step to sell grain than paying money, so it is not inconvenient. Even if grain prices soar, ordinary farmers will not enjoy the benefits; those who enjoy the benefits are those who own large amounts of land and control
Landowners who rent a large amount of grain. As long as the changes to the taxation of grain are determined in advance and become an established fact, the landowners headed by the local clan gentry will naturally not have much opposition.
Liu Tingzhou had always resisted Lin Fu's interference in the affairs of the prefecture and county. Lin Fu issued a letter of recommendation in the name of the Military Secretary in mid-July. Huai'an Prefecture except Shanyang County, which was under the control of Liang Wenzhan, regarded it as useless paper in other counties.
The results are obvious. Shanyang County's actual autumn grain tax collection of 190,000 dan (plus public land revenue) was not affected at all, and even enjoyed the benefits of rising grain prices. When settling taxes and grains with prefectures and counties, Shanyang County actually had less
I paid nearly 20,000 kilograms of rice and grain.
Compared with before, Huai'an Prefecture and other counties will have to bear a grain loss of nearly 100,000 taels before tax collection next summer.
The Huai'an Prefecture also benefited greatly from the horse service case, which improved its finances. Liu Tingzhou could barely cope with the additional food losses from the county officials, but the military commander's department was short of nearly 6,000 taels of silver every month.
While Liu Tingzhou sent people to the county magistrate to quarrel and file a lawsuit, he could only ask Lin Fu to be more tolerant and give him more time to raise money and food.
Lin Fu's face was gloomy, his brows were furrowed, and he lowered his voice and said: "Please come to the military camp in person, Mr. Liu, and ask the generals to tighten their belts. I just said that the military commander was careless and did not realize in advance that the price of food would rise, so
From now on, please tighten your belts a little further when eating..."
Song Jia couldn't help but laugh out loud when she heard this, and just immersed herself in copying the documents.
Liu Tingzhou's old face turned the color of pig's liver. He was embarrassed, angry and embarrassed, but he couldn't just turn his back and walk away. He had to swallow his breath and plead: "My lord made a statement in July, but I didn't pay attention to it. It's really a sin."
, it’s just that the Military Leadership Division is really having a hard time right now..."
"I do not interfere in the affairs of the county. You can listen to those words or not. It's up to you. I can't do anything to you." Lin Fu bluffed, stared at Liu Tingzhou, slapped the table and reprimanded, "But I want to ask
You, the county secretary should pursue the loss of grain from Huai'an Prefecture, and the military commander should also pursue the loss of grain from the county division. The two should be offset, and it is almost the same - but what did you do, use the savings from Huai'an Prefecture to make up for the loss of grain to the county division.
You want me to bear the loss of food from the military commander for you, you think I'm easy to bully!"
Liu Tingzhou's reputation in Huai'an Mansion was very high. Lin Fu and Liu Tingzhou had been at odds with each other for a long time. However, when they met in the past, they were polite to each other, but this time they slapped the table and scolded him angrily.
Xiao Kui'an and Hu Dahai stood in the hall, listening to Lin Fu slamming the table and scolding Liu Tingzhou. They didn't even dare to say a word, let alone defend Liu Tingzhou!
Liang Wenzhan stood in the hall, squinting his eyes to rest. In this way, he was deeply imprinted with the Huaidong clan. No matter how good his political performance was, there was no chance of promotion. He was not in a hurry. In this world, it is far less likely to be promoted to become an official elsewhere.
It is safe to stay in Huaidong.
Lin Fu became more and more powerful and his reputation was unparalleled in Huai'an. Although Liu Tingzhou was controlled by him, as a senior official in his fifties, he also had a bit of a temper.
, so he kept a cold face and said nothing, and the atmosphere was so cold.
"Although Mr. Liu holds the dual positions of Huai'an Magistrate and Huaidong Army Chief Envoy, they operate in two systems, that is, the officials in charge of the Xuanfu Envoy Department and the Governor-General's Office are separated. The food losses on both sides cannot be simplified.
For a simple deduction, Mr. Liu also has troubles that he cannot express..." Although Tang Enshu, the censor of Huaidong School, did not intend to contradict Lin Fu, it was not the case that the atmosphere was tense. He could help Liu Tingzhou by saying a word or two in the hall.
He was the only one who said, "Because of the loss of food in the military leadership department, Mr. Liu pulled his subordinates and went to the county department to make a big fuss last time. Mr. Wang promised to replenish the money, but he couldn't do it in time.
Dial it down..."
"Master Wang" in Uncle Tang's mouth refers to Wang Tian, the envoy of Xuanfu.
At that time, the government did not have much ability to cope with the financial crisis. Wang Tian was in dire straits at this time, plugging leaks and filling gaps everywhere. Huaidong had always been the stepmother's. When Wang Tian made up for the rest, it might be his turn.
Huaidong.
Uncle Tang En spoke to help, and Lin Fu's tone became better, but the content of his words was still rude: "The situation in Hailing is not necessarily better than that in Huai'an, why doesn't Hailing have these things?"
Lin Fu said this, which made Liu Tingzhou even more embarrassed.
Compared with Liu Tingzhou, Hailing prefect Liu Shidu was regarded as a soft-faced official with no position.
In the name of jucun, Lin Fu recommended subordinate officials to various counties, but none of the eleven counties in Huaidong were able to reject them in the end.
However, in Huai'an Prefecture, under the instruction of Liu Tingzhou, many officials recommended by the Military Secretary were isolated from each county and had no access to power. As for Hailing Prefecture, Liu Shidu did not support or resist, leaving each county to take control of the situation.
There are good and bad.
In mid-July, Lin Fu suggested that prefectures and counties should change the silver levy for grain, but Liu Shidu did not support or resist it. He only said that it would be difficult to completely change the grain levy, so he wanted to change the additional levy first.
In the Jiangning military meeting in July, the additional payment for the Huaidong Army was borne by Hailing Prefecture, totaling more than 120,000 taels of silver. This part was the first to be changed in the counties of Hailing Prefecture, and the Huaidong Army was also
The officials recommended by the Secretary were used for this matter and all the 120,000 taels of silver were converted into actual levies of rice and grain, totaling 180,000 shi of rice and grain, so the impact this time was much less than that of Huai'an Prefecture.
Xiao Kui'an finally understood after hearing this. Lin Fu was so angry because he was dissatisfied with the fact that he was ignored when he went to Huai'an Prefecture in July and the officials recommended by the Military Secretary were ignored in the counties of Huai'an Prefecture. This was to force Liu Tingzhou to bow his head.
It's no wonder when you think about it. If the Huai'an Prefecture paid enough attention to the Military Secretary's July Post, even to the extent of the Hailing Prefecture, they would at least be able to avoid having to bear the 50,000 taels of food damage for no reason.
But it was difficult for Mr. Liu to do that. Xiao Kui'an thought to himself, if his attitude softens and lowers his head this time, how will he resist the military commander's interference in the affairs of the county in the future?
"I don't care how the military commander raises money - but if the armies of Suining, Suyu, and Shanyang cause trouble due to lack of food, none of you here can bear the responsibility! You should think carefully about it!" Lin
With a bluffing face, he warned everyone in the hall with a threat. He paused for a moment and then said to the guests, "I'm tired today. If you have anything to do, we'll discuss it tomorrow! Mr. Liang, please wait a moment."
He said he was tired and ordered the guests to be kicked out, but asked Liang Wenzhan to stay to discuss matters. This was too shameless.
Liu Tingzhou's face was ashen, he bowed stiffly, and retreated first. Tang Enshu, Xiao Kui'an, Hu Dahai and others bowed and left one after another. Liang Wenzhan bowed and respectfully sent Liu Tingzhou, Tang Enshu and others away first.
After Liu Tingzhou left, Lin Fu asked Liang Wenzhan to sit down and talk. He sighed and said, "Liu Tingzhou is still a capable person. He is so anxious. This shows how bad the situation in other counties can be!"
"Xuzhou is even more difficult!" Liang Wenzhan said.
On the Xuzhou side, it's not that Zhang Yubo is incompetent, it's just that the war lasted for nearly a year the year before last, which completely destroyed Xuzhou's foundation. In Xuzhou's situation, he had to bear the supplies of nearly 20,000 soldiers and horses under Chen Hansan.
How could it not be difficult in Xuzhou? How could it not be difficult for Zhang Yubo in Xuzhou?
No matter how hard Zhang Yubo was, Lin Fu would never be able to support him with money or food to support Chen Han's troops!
Under such circumstances, the farmers who had just returned home from Xuzhou were burdened with extremely heavy taxes, and they continued to flee from their households. As a result, although the Red Coat Army operating in the area west of Bianshui River was defeated by Chen Zhihu's troops one after another, their strength never suffered a serious setback.
After Liu Xilin led his troops into Xuzhou with Zhang Yubo, under Lin Fu's instructions, he directly controlled the mines in the northeastern area of Xuzhou. Now he can support two thousand soldiers and horses by transporting coal and iron to Shanyang in exchange for money and grain.
The conflict in Xuzhou will become more and more acute unless Chen Hansan can be driven away! However, Jiangning does not want to see Chen Hansan rebel again, and Huaidong does not want Chen Hansan to join the Liang family. Before there is any other good solution,
We can only let the current situation drag on. On the one hand, it is to strengthen Liu Xilin's military strength in Xuzhou, and on the other hand, it is to use Sun Zhuang's troops to suppress Chen Hansan so that he will not dare to make any changes in the short term.