Eight hundred and sixteenth chapter embark on political reform
The Han Dynasty court founded by Liu Xiu inherited the Western Han Dynasty system, but the bureaucracy of the Western Han Dynasty system was too large, which brought a huge financial burden to the newly established Luoyang court.
The area currently controlled by Liu Xiu includes Youzhou, Jizhou, Sili area, Sanfu area, part of Jingzhou, part of Yuzhou, part of Bingzhou, and part of Yanzhou. It can be said that most of the Central Plains is under Liu Xiu's control.
But problems also arise. With Luoyang's current fiscal revenue, it cannot support a large army and a huge bureaucracy at the same time.
Financial constraints forced Liu Xiu to make a decision as soon as possible, either to cut off a large number of troops or to cut off a large number of officials.
Now that the world is uncertain and the war is still going on, it takes great wisdom and courage to chop the army on the head with a machete.
Liu Xiu went to the Qingliang Palace and summoned Deng Yu, the general on the right, Jia Fu, the general on the left, Jin Wu Zhu Fu, Shangshu Ling Hou Ba, Lantai Ling Shi Liu Yu, and Sili Xiaowei Bao Yong.
At present, Liu Xiu's censor system is still short of a censor Zhongcheng. He first asked Liu Yu for his opinion and asked: "Liu Lingshi, who do you think is the most suitable person to serve as censor Zhongcheng?"
Hearing this, Deng Yu, Jia Fu, Zhu Fu, Hou Ba, and Bao Yong looked at each other, and then lowered their eyes together.
Currently, in the censorship system, the one with the highest official position is Lantai Lingshi. They originally thought that His Majesty had the intention to promote Liu Yu further, but now it seems that His Majesty has no such intention.
Liu Xiu had no intention of appointing himself as Yushi Zhongcheng, and Liu Yu did not show any depression about this.
He is a contented person. He feels that he is quite good as the Lantai Lingshi now. He is in charge of memorials and seals on weekdays. It is easy and does not offend anyone. If he is asked to be the censor Zhongcheng, he may not dare to do it.
Woolen cloth!
Liu Yu and Liu Xiu are clansmen. They are similar in age, but in terms of seniority, Liu Yu is one generation younger than Liu Xiu. According to the clan hierarchy, he has to be called Liu Xiu clan father.
He bowed to Liu Xiu and said, "Your Majesty, I think Li You is qualified for the post of Censor Zhongcheng."
Li Youben was Liu Yu's subordinate and one of the imperial envoys. Among the imperial envoys, Li You was the greenest and the most troublesome to Liu Yu.
Every time he received a letter from Li You, Liu Yu was frightened, because the targets of Li You's impeachment were not only local officials, but also princes and nobles.
What impressed Liu Yu the most was that Li You even dared to impeach King Zhao Liu Liang.
You must know that Liu Liang is the emperor's uncle, and he is the one who single-handedly brought up the emperor. He is called uncle and nephew, but he is actually father and son. Li You even dared to impeach Liu Liang. Although Liu Yu was frightened, he had to admire his courage.
and courage.
After hearing Liu Yu recommending Li You, Liu Xiu thought for a moment and showed a look of surprise. He smiled and said: "I remembered it. I have some impressions of Li You. He had impeached King Zhao before. Speaking of which, he is indeed a good person."
A censor who dares to go to court and give direct advice!"
Liu Yu said with a smile: "Your Majesty, I think that to be able to be the chief censor, I need someone like Li You!"
Liu Xiu nodded, looked at Deng Yu, Jia Fu and others, and asked, "What do you mean?"
Before anyone else could speak, Bao Yong raised his hands and said, "Your Majesty, I second my opinion."
Bao Yong's father's name was Bao Xuan. During the reign of Emperor Ai, Bao Xuan's official position was Sili Xiaowei.
Later, Wang Mang usurped the throne, and Bao Xuan was loyal to the Han Dynasty, which was not tolerated by Wang Mang, and was later killed by Wang Mang. Bao Yong, out of the desire to avenge his father, defected to the Green Forest Army and followed the Green Forest Army to rebel against Mang.
It can be said that Bao Yong is one of the veterans of the Green Forest Army. After Liu Xuan became emperor, Bao Yong's official position has been that of a general, leading troops and horses to guard the east of the river.
Later, the Red Eyebrow Army captured Chang'an and killed Liu Xuan. Liu Xiu sent envoys to Hedong to persuade Bao Yong to surrender.
At that time, the road from Hedong to Chang'an had been completely cut off, and the news was blocked. Bao Yong did not know that Liu Xuan was dead. When he saw Liu Xiu's envoy, he did not believe what the envoy said, and immediately ordered Liu Xiu's envoy to be taken away.
Imprisoned.
Then he personally sent people to Chang'an to inquire about the news, and then confirmed that Liu Xiu's envoy was right. Chang'an fell and Liu Xuan was indeed killed.
After learning the news, Bao Yong burst into tears, dismissed his subordinates, and finally took only a few confidants, staff, and envoys to defect to Liu Xiu.
Liu Xiu was very happy to learn that Bao Yong had come to surrender, because Bao Yong had tens of thousands of soldiers and horses under his command, and Liu Xiu was in urgent need of soldiers and horses at that time.
It can be seen that after seeing Bao Yong, Liu Xiucai discovered that this old man came with only a few generals and staff. Liu Xiu asked him, where are the tens of thousands of troops under your command?
Bao Yong answered bluntly that he had dismissed all the soldiers and horses under his command, and he did not want to use the tens of thousands of brothers under his command to seek high-ranking officials and generous salaries for himself. After hearing this, Liu Xiu's nose was almost crooked with anger, but they had already arrived
They defected to him, and the soldiers and horses they had sent away could not be recovered. What else could he say?
Liu Xiu finally took Bao Yong in, and later appointed him as Sili Xiaowei.
Bao Yong was really very affectionate and loyal to Liu Xuan. Liu Xiu buried Liu Xuan's bones in Ba Ling. When Bao Yong visited Ba Ling, he even went to Liu Xuan's cemetery to clean it.
Liu Xuan's grave, and knelt down crying.
At that time, the officials who followed Bao Yong were so stunned that they almost ran away without holding their heads. Naturally, the news soon reached Liu Xiu. After hearing this, Liu Xiu was furious and immediately issued an edict to summon Bao Yong and reprimand him.
.yyls
Bao Yong's reply was that your majesty was following the late emperor's legacy and restoring the Han Dynasty. The ministers were loyal to the late emperor and the Han Dynasty. Why did your majesty rebuke the ministers? Liu Xiu was speechless by Bao Yong. Although he was angry, in the end
We can only give up. Bao Yong, the Sili Colonel, is such a master.
During Liu Xiu's reign, there was a large court in the court, and a small court beside him. This small court was composed of three institutions, one was the Yushitai, the other was the Shangshutai, and the third was the Sili Xiaowei.
Although Liu Xiu was often angered by Bao Yong, Liu Xiu both trusted and valued Bao Yong.
Liu Xiu saw that Bao Yong also supported Li You as the censor Zhongcheng. He then looked at Deng Yu, Jia Fu and Hou Ba and asked, "What do you mean?"
Deng Yu was the first to say: "Li You Zhongjun directly advises, he is qualified to serve as the censor Zhongcheng!"
Jia Fu and Hou Ba also bowed and said, "Wei Chen seconded the proposal."
Seeing this, Liu Xiu made a final decision: "Okay, this matter is settled."
At this point, Hou Ba, who is in charge of the Secretariat, Li You, who is in charge of the Royal Envoys, Bao Yong, who is in charge of Sili, and the three giants of the small court around Liu Xiu have all gathered together. Next, Liu Xiu raised the issue of the imperial court's financial constraints.
.
Bao Yong was the first to say: "The county has county soldiers, the county has county troops, the state capital has government troops, and the court has capital troops. Such many soldiers and horses really consume a lot of money and food."
Jia Fu frowned and said: "The world is uncertain, and it is inevitable that local governments and even the imperial court will deploy large-scale troops!"
Bao Yong said seriously: "The reason why many county soldiers, county troops, and government troops were set up in the beginning was to annihilate and pacify the bandit armies in various places. Now under your Majesty's rule, the bandit army has dropped sharply. County soldiers, county troops, and government troops have been
It’s really superfluous.”
There were many county soldiers in the county, many county soldiers in the county, and many government troops in the state capital. This was Wang Mang's initiative. During Wang Mang's reign, the world was in chaos, and rebel armies from all over the country rose up one after another.
At that time, there were not one or two rebel armies, but countless ones. The capital army, which was directly under the leadership of the imperial court, could not be put down completely even if it lost its legs. The imperial court could only put down the army through the local army led by the local government.
Chaos led to an increase in the number of county soldiers, county troops, and government troops.
Now that Liu Xiu is ruling the world, the rebel armies have been put down one after another, and all places are peaceful. County soldiers, county troops, and government troops are too redundant. The existence of these troops has also greatly consumed the financial resources of county, county, and state governments.
This further weakened the financial resources of the central court.
After all, Jia Fu was a military commander. For military commanders, soldiers and horses were their capital. Now Bao Yong advocated reducing the number of soldiers and horses, which made him feel like he was being cut off.
He said quietly: "The capital army will also lose the battle. After every battle, there will be a large number of casualties. How to make up for these deaths depends on the local army to supplement the troops!"
After a pause, he said meaningfully: "In addition, the local army does not only eat dry food. Your Majesty's sage has already ordered the local army in various places to farm and be self-sufficient. The money and food they consume is not huge!"
Bao Yong shook his head and said: "Although the local army's farming has achieved results, it is not very good. The money and food consumed every year is still huge."
As he spoke, he looked at Liu Xiu, cupped his hands and said, "I often inspect the local area, and I am well aware of the shortcomings of the local army. Your Majesty, please take a closer look."
Liu Xiu is the emperor of horses, and soldiers and horses are the basis for him to fight for the world and even to gain a foothold in the world. Now it is a very difficult decision for Liu Xiu to reduce the army.
After thinking about it, he looked at Deng Yu and asked, "What do Zhonghua think?"
Deng Yu thought about it and said: "Currently, the capital army has enough soldiers and horses." When the Luoyang court used the most troops, it could maintain the Western Expedition, the Southern Expedition and the Eastern Expedition at the same time, with hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses, just to support them.
The money consumed by the capital army is already astronomical, not to mention that it also has to support a larger number of local armies.
Farming can indeed solve some problems, but it cannot fundamentally solve them.
In addition, the public land leasing system proposed by Zhu Fu also greatly reduced the farmland used by the local armies. These are issues that the court urgently needs to face. The capital army plus the local armies number in the millions. How can the court support them?
Zhu Fu then said: "Your Majesty, I think that not only the local army will be greatly reduced, but the local officials will also be greatly reduced. Now, there are dozens of officials, big and small, in just one county. It is completely unnecessary.
It is necessary to retain the county magistrate, county magistrate, and county lieutenant. As for the county government, the officials are even more complex. Wei Chen thinks that there is no need to set up a captain, and only the prefect can be retained!"
There is an official system for prefects and another for captains, which is complicated and a waste of resources. In Zhu Fu's view, the system of captains can be completely abolished.
After hearing Zhu Fu's words, everyone present frowned in unison, feeling that Zhu Fu really dared to speak, and now he actually advocated killing the captain.
In fact, in private, Liu Xiu and Zhu Fu had already discussed this matter, whether it was necessary to retain the captaincy system in the county. The result of their discussion was that there was no absolute need to retain it.
The prefect of a county is the top leader of a county and is in charge of the military and political power of a county. The captain says he is in charge of the military, but in fact he still has to listen to the prefect. So what is the difference between retaining and not retaining the captain system?
However, it is not a trivial matter to cut off the system of county captains. This is tantamount to changing the ancestral system. Liu Xiu also has to test the waters first to see how strong the resistance is.
He looked around at the people present and asked: "What do you think, do you think I will carry out what I said?"
Everyone looked at Zhu Fu and then at Liu Xiu, and understood in their hearts that the proposal to abolish the captaincy was actually His Majesty's intention. Deng Yu said: "Abolition of the captaincy is a major change in hundreds of years.
!”
Everyone present nodded, it was indeed a matter of great importance. Jia Fu said: "Your Majesty, I think this matter needs to be discussed in the court."
Liu Xiu said with a smile: "Such a major matter must of course be discussed in the court, but before discussing it in the court, I want to know what you mean first!"
