Chen Lifu had just returned home, and before he had time to go to the Yamen to report to his immediate boss, the Director-General of the Grain Collection Department, what he had discovered during his inspection of Zhejiang and some of the tax issues he had dealt with, the news about Chen Lifu's return to Beijing was basically
The news has spread throughout Jinling City and in the ears of everyone who pays attention to him.
"I heard that this cruel official went to Zhejiang and caused a bloody storm in Zhejiang. The world is very difficult." In a certain teahouse, several men in gorgeous clothes sighed while drinking tea.
"That is, a gangster like Chen Lifu can actually sit in the inspection office for several years. Are the adults above being deceived?"
"Why are you being deceived? It's because someone is supporting Chen Lifu. I heard several times that some adults in the court openly impeached Chen Lifu at cabinet meetings, but Qian Zuili refuted them all. If it weren't for Qian Zuili, he would be damned.
How could he be so arrogant with his support!"
"Yes, compared to villains like Chen Lifu, Qian Zuili is the main culprit who has brought disaster to the country and the people. He deceived the superiors and deceived the subordinates, and I don't know how much he deceived the Holy Emperor. He really deserves to die!"
When these people were talking, their voices were a bit loud, and at this time, there were several people in the room next to them who listened to their conversation with their ears pricked up!
There are not many people in the next room, just three, a young man, a middle-aged man, and an elderly man, a mix of young and old!
However, although the old man and the middle-aged man were also sitting, their expressions were more reserved, and they looked at the young man from time to time, as if they were worried about something.
At this time, the young man was heard saying: "Old Qian, it seems that your reputation outside is not very good. Listen, they all say that you are causing harm to the country and the people!"
At this time, the middle-aged man sitting next to him looked helpless: "In the past few years, I have offended a lot of people when I was in charge of taxation!"
Then his expression became frightened: "It's just that this is really unfair!"
The elderly man on the side also chuckled: "I can't help but feel wronged by you for being able to share my worries for the young master!"
The middle-aged man had a straight face: "Taoist Master, if you say this, you are judging a gentleman with a villain's heart. I didn't say that because of this injustice, it is my duty to work for the young master, but
But they said that I deceived the superiors and concealed the truth from the inferiors. This must be an injustice to me!"
Hearing that he seemed to be going on to defend himself, the young man simply lowered his hand and said, "Okay, don't call it a grievance!"
From the names they call each other, you can tell that these people are none other than Li Xuan, the Holy Emperor of the Tang Dynasty, Liu Bagou and Qian Qili, the ministers on duty in the imperial study. Today, Li Xuan has nothing to do and is out for a stroll.
It was considered a private visit incognito. I happened to hear outsiders talking about Qian Zuili and Chen Lifu in this teahouse.
But even though it was a grievance, Qian Zuili felt that he was really aggrieved, but he was happy with this kind of grievance!
Why do I say wronged? Because if there is anyone who is the biggest scapegoat in the Tang Dynasty, it must be Qian Zuili. As for Chen Lifu, he is not even ranked. At most, he is a small scapegoat!
Many policies of the Tax Department are very hateful. There is no way. The purpose of the Tax Department is to ensure that taxes are collected in accordance with the law. If you collect taxes, people in the world will definitely be dissatisfied. After all, no one wants to
Let part of the tax go to the money you earn!
What everyone wants is for the imperial court to be poor and for us landlords and businessmen to be extremely rich. Only in this way can we call it a prosperous age!
And what the Tax Department is doing now is that when you landlords and businessmen make money, you give part of it to the court. People will definitely not be happy. They scold the Tax Department every day, and it is natural for them to scold Qian Zuoli and Chen Lifu.
However, in fact, many of the policies of the Ministry of Taxation are not implemented by the Ministry of Taxation itself. Qian Zuoli himself is at most the official person in charge. In fact, these policies were proposed by Emperor Sheng and implemented by the Ministry of Taxation.
For example, when the tax rate for the raw silk industry was raised some time ago, Emperor Sheng personally said that the raw silk industry was a luxury jewelry industry and that the existing tax rate was too low and that it needed to be increased.
As a result, the tax department did just that, raising the tax rate and asking the inspection office to strictly inspect the raw silk industry. As a result, the raw silk merchants outside caught the tax department's Qian Zuoli and scolded them. It is said that even in Qian Zuoli's hometown,
The local gentry and businessmen were not proud of Qian Zuoli at all, but were ashamed of him!
There is no way, Qian Zili is currently the most traitorous official in the entire empire, and the tax department he leads is also the most hated organization in the world.
No matter what the facts are, this is how outsiders see it.
But, behind all this, who is in control of the overall situation?
It’s the Holy Emperor Li Xuan!
To put it bluntly, Qian Zili is actually a knife in Li Xuan's hand. Can the knife decide who to chop?
The few gentry and businessmen who were talking loudly next door at this time naturally did not know that what they said was heard by the Holy Emperor of the Empire, but even if they were heard by Li Xuan and others, it actually didn't matter.
Naturally, Li Xuan would not go into a big fight just because he heard someone say a few words outside, and then make someone investigate and put the person in jail. After all, there are some things that you can just listen to and not take seriously.
In this tea house, after listening to the people in the next room bragging for more than half an hour, Li Xuan got up and left, preparing to return to the palace and end today's private visit incognito.
But he also thought that he would come out in a few days. He still liked this teahouse. What he liked was not whether the tea tasted good or not, or whether the environment was good or not, but because he could hear some things he wanted to hear in this teahouse.
Understand the world more truly.
On the surface, this teahouse is run by an ordinary businessman, but behind the scenes it is an industry belonging to the Survey and Statistics Section of the Hanlin Academy. Its main purpose is to collect public opinion in the market.
To put it bluntly, I heard about it through eavesdropping. Even if Li Xuan himself comes over occasionally, what he does is actually no different from eavesdropping.
Neither Liu Bagou nor Qian Zili knew this!
After going out and getting on the carriage, the group of people was about to go back. Sitting in the carriage was the same as other times. He sat in the carriage and observed the surrounding environment with his eyes.
If you were an ordinary person, you wouldn't be able to see much from these streets, and you would think they were just ordinary streets. But for Li Xuan, you can see a lot of things behind them from the street.
For example, in the shops on both sides of the street, what goods are sold and how much are the prices? Then look at the appearance of the city, and then look at the clothes, expressions and attitudes of the people on the street. From these, we can actually tell a lot.
thing.
For example, in the winter, if most pedestrians on the street are wearing thin clothes or wearing patched cotton-padded jackets, then it can basically be concluded that there must be something wrong with the economy.
For example, if there are a lot of garbage dumps on the street, it goes without saying that the city appearance work will definitely be left behind.
If you want to truly understand what kind of state the empire you rule is in, you have to see it with your own eyes, listen with your own ears, and understand people's real living conditions!
You can’t tell that just by looking at the report!
Of course, even if you watch and listen, it is possible that what you watch is false and what you listen to is false!
If Li Xuan went to visit some common people's families with great fanfare, he could be 100% sure that what he saw and heard were all fake!
Even if he knew it was fake, Li Xuan would occasionally go to express condolences and inspect!
Why, because this is a show and political necessity!
The newspapers of the Tang Dynasty needed to publish the Holy Emperor's cordial condolences to the families of the martyrs on a certain day, but in fact Li Xuan himself knew that the people he visited to express condolences were all carefully selected.
Everything you see and hear is for political propaganda, so basically don’t expect to see anything good.
In fact, if during a public condolence and inspection, if you randomly choose a house and let Li Xuan see a lot of problems, then Li Xuan will definitely get angry.
This kind of outburst is not meant to address these issues!
It's because of the ignorance of the people below. On such an important occasion of political propaganda, what do you want to prove by doing a lot of nonsense? Prove that the empire under my rule is terrible?
Do you still have any political awareness? Do you know that family scandals should not be publicized? Do you know that positive publicity is required? Is it possible that you want to let the Tang Dynasty newspaper publish the story of the Dawn of the Tang Dynasty, and the people are living in dire straits?
What do you want to do? Do you want to say that I am a foolish king?
When you put on a show, you need to have the awareness to put on a show, and when you publicize it, you need to do it in a positive way, and don’t just mess around!
Therefore, public condolences and inspections basically cannot find any problems, but this does not mean that Li Xuan does not know what happened.
Private interviews on WeChat are actually just a small source of news. The more source of news is the public opinion report of the Survey and Statistics Section of Hanlin Academy!
Hantong's main business is counter-espionage, counter-insurgency, etc.
To prevent rebellion, public opinion monitoring is definitely indispensable. After all, in addition to simple rebellions by political and military ministers, if it is civil unrest, there must be deep-seated reasons behind it.
For example, natural disasters and man-made disasters!
There is nothing we can do about natural disasters, but as for man-made disasters, Hantong can monitor and deal with them in advance.
Due to business needs, public opinion monitoring is very important to Hantong, and these public opinion monitoring reports will eventually reach Li Xuan for Li Xuan to review.
These public opinion monitoring reports actually talk about trivial things, such as the increase in meat prices on the market, or the increase in food prices, and that a factory in a certain industrial zone closed down due to poor management, resulting in a large number of workers losing their jobs.
But it was these little things that Li Xuan paid the most attention to. He asked Hantong to submit a price report for each province every month, especially a price report for food.
There are also many other messy public opinion monitoring reports. Basically, Hantong will send a report every day. The first thing Li Xuan sees when he works every day is Hantong's report.
This Hantong Daily Report is, to a certain extent, a newspaper that only Li Xuan reads!
For this special newspaper that only Li Xuan can read, and only him.
The Investigation and Statistics Department of the Hanlin Academy has more than 15,000 direct employees and more than 40,000 part-time employees across the entire empire. It continuously collects all kinds of messy information, including neighbors fighting, dead cats and dogs, etc.
Collected news.
Then these messages are summarized, analyzed, and various reports are summarized. Finally, these reports will be transmitted to Jinling City through the post system, and the Hantong of Jinling City will sort and summarize them and make daily reports to be submitted to the emperor!
However, many aspects still cannot be understood intuitively by just looking at Han Tong's report, so sometimes when nothing else happens, Li Xuan would go out and go to the market in person to understand the most real situation.
Therefore, the private visit for him in private was different from the private visits of other emperors. The private visits of other emperors were mainly for fun, but for Li Xuan, it was also part of the job.
Of course, he also needs to relax after work, so sometimes Li Xuan will go to the Qinhuai River to pay private visits in private.
Li Xuan went there several times, and once he took Wang Wenhua with him. After Wang Wenhua accompanied him once, he was thinking about what he said two days ago. In order to ensure the healthy development of the entertainment and cultural industry, he was preparing to
Hold an oiran contest.
These words made Li Xuanlong happy!
What does it mean to be a loyal minister?
This is a loyal minister!
Isn't this a good minister who solves problems for the Holy Emperor?
Civil servants, govern the country well and don't cause turmoil every day. This is to solve problems.
Military generals, winning battles and expanding territories is to solve problems and solve problems.
Dear ministers, let the Holy Emperor live happily every day and take care of the dragon body. This is also a solution to problems.
Anyone who can share the worries of the Holy Emperor is a loyal minister!
As the saying goes, there is no distinction between high and low in the industry. As a loyal minister, naturally there is no distinction between high and low.
Therefore, Li Xuan has always been rather fond of Wang Wenhua. Although he knew that this person was incompetent in government affairs, this did not prevent Li Xuan from keeping Wang Wenhua in the imperial study room, hanging as a minister in the imperial study room.
's name.
Wang Wenhua is also self-aware and knows that he is not good at dealing with messy government affairs. Therefore, although he is said to be the Minister of Agriculture, he never takes care of things. All matters are left to the two ministers of the Ministry of Agriculture. After all, he is also worried that one day
It was really because of some negligence that he was killed!
Because he rarely deals with practical affairs on weekdays, Wang Wenhua is also very idle, thinking about how to make the Holy Emperor happier all day long1
For example, last year, when the court was discussing the renovation of the palace in the ninth year of Xuanping, the courtiers all talked about rebuilding the dilapidated palace. Only Wang Wenhua knew that the Holy Emperor had long been concerned about the dilapidated palace.
The Imperial Palace of Jinling City in the former Ming Dynasty was not interested, otherwise it would not have been delayed for several years without repairs.
So he proposed at that time that after all, this palace was the palace of the former Ming Dynasty, and it was already dilapidated and dilapidated. Even if it was repaired, it would not be good, and it would not be able to reflect the superiority of the Tang Dynasty.
Therefore, he suggested that since it looked like a mess after repairing it, he should not repair it at all and directly expand the Royal Villa.
This move made Li Xuanlong very happy and he approved the suggestion on the spot!
Now, Wang Wenhua is preparing to hold an oiran competition again!