The first thousand two hundred and sixty-six chapters can speculate on anything, but not food
In the face of disasters, the issue of public opinion is very important. Especially in China, there is a tradition of describing all kinds of disasters as the emperor's lack of morality. When something happens, it is considered that the emperor is not good enough and has offended God. Then the emperor will
I issued an edict to sin against myself or something like that.
But Li Xuan is obviously not so generous. How can he blame himself for God's fault?
Therefore, from the very beginning, he had to guide public opinion to the newspaper department and not be influenced by others.
Direct all kinds of complaints into the praise of heroes!
Therefore, the Morning News Department began to prepare a special report on this flood!
What is the core of the report?
The first thing is to report that the Holy Emperor paid great attention to this matter and was wise, and made preparations in advance to minimize the losses.
The second is to report the official attention and efforts to this matter, especially the military's participation in the flood fight, and the description should be focused on the fact that the efficient organization of the government and the sacrifice of the military have greatly reduced the losses and saved countless lives.
With millions or even tens of millions of people.
The above two points actually highlight the role of the Holy Emperor and the government, letting people know that when disaster strikes, the Holy Emperor and the government always stand on the side of the people and have made huge contributions and sacrifices to fight against floods and provide disaster relief.
Secondly, it reports on some outstanding positive examples, selecting or simply fictitious heroes, focusing on reporting on their response to the call of the Holy Emperor, government organizations, and participation in this flood relief effort in a spirit of loyalty to the emperor and love for the people.
By establishing several positive heroic impressions, it confirms the brightness and greatness of the Holy Emperor and the efficient organization of the government.
Although, in the report, we still need to focus on the positive reactions of some ordinary people when facing disasters, such as the stories of the wealthy gentry and various enterprises in Henan who actively donated money. For example, when ordinary victims faced floods, they responded
The government called for them to move to the resettlement site. Now they not only don’t have to worry, but they can live very well in their new home, even better than before.
In short, the core of this series of reports is to guide public opinion and promote the brightness and greatness of the Holy Emperor, as well as the efficient organization of the government under the leadership of the Holy Emperor.
Li Xuan is very relieved that the Chao Bao Department is responsible for the public opinion guidance work. Over the years, the Chao Bao Department has been quite successful in guiding public opinion through the Tang Dynasty Chao Bao. People have a very good impression of Li Xuan and generally think that Li Xuan
He is a sage. Although the yamen at all levels of the country have problems of one kind or another, they are generally good and do practical things for the people.
Of course, the people's eyes are also sharp, and they also know that there must be corrupt officials. At this time, the Reporting Department needs to provide correct guidance to make people think that these corrupt elements are only a minority among the officials, and the government
These people are also severely punished.
After asking the people from the Chao Bao Department to start the work of public opinion guidance, Li Xuan was not idle. Then he called in the ministers on duty in the Imperial Study Room and ordered them to make arrangements to prepare for the transfer of funds from various local finances.
funds to tide over the difficulties together.
In terms of the current central financial capacity of the empire, it is already difficult to support such a large-scale flood relief costs alone. Now the whole country needs to work together.
Each locality has its own local finance. This place is a little crowded, and that place is a little crowded. This adds up to a huge number, which is enough to reduce the pressure on the central finance.
Well, it is worth noting that this is not a request from the central government for financial assistance to local governments, nor is it an order, but a notice!
Because this operation process does not require the consent of each local government!
The central government is short of money and soldiers, so it still has to ask local governors for support?
Nonsense!
Just take it away!
The Ministry of Taxation can directly adjust the ratio of national tax and local tax for this year. After reducing the ratio of local tax, the excess tax will be directly handed over to the central finance by the Ministry of Taxation.
In this process, the local government has no chance to interfere or even interfere!
Dare to intervene? You want to rebel?
Financial and military power, these have always been the two powers that Li Xuan holds tightest!
Because only by grasping these two items can we talk about centralized power, money and an army. If anyone wants to challenge Li Xuan's imperial power, Li Xuan will dare to chop him down with a big sword.
Under this background, the central government of the Tang Empire has always firmly controlled the power of taxation. The Ministry of Taxation is the only agency in the country that can collect taxes, and the local taxation bureaus are also under the taxation authority.
It is an agency directly under the ministry and not under the management of local government agencies.
The Tax Department is the most independent agency among many agencies. It is more independent than the three agencies: patrol police, inspectors, and courts, because these three agencies are more or less affected by local influence.
These institutions are basically under the dual management of local and central governments. They are nominally self-proclaimed systems. However, local leaders still have strong influence on these three institutions.
But the local tax bureaus under the Ministry of Taxation are different!
Local officials have no power to intervene at all. Even the tax bureaus in various places basically do not deal with the local yamen. They only collect taxes. If they are in trouble, they even do things like armed tax resistance without asking the patrol police or the garrison for help. They
It has its own tax inspection team.
For ordinary tax case investigations and even arrests, they have their own investigation agencies, which have nothing to do with the patrol police.
Large armed tax resistance forces have armed action forces. Ordinary armed tax resistance forces can just fire a salvo of guns and artillery and that's it.
In this general environment, if the central government wants to adjust national and local taxes, it can only be done in one sentence!
Because in this kind of large-scale environmental system, in theory, the central government controls all taxes. Local taxes are only part of the tax revenue left by the central government to the local governments. However, whether more or less is retained is purely based on the central government’s decision-making. Local governments have no responsibility.
There is room for resistance.
Now that the central government's finances are tight, Li Xuan naturally wants to make up for this shortfall!
However, even if local finances are not transferred to supplement the central finances, one cannot apply it across the board, because the local finances in some places are already very difficult. This is not enough to pay civil servants every year, and they still need subsidies from higher-level finances. If it is a one-size-fits-all approach,
, their life becomes even more difficult.
In some places, local finances are more relaxed, so they can take more appropriately.
However, in order to avoid the worries of various local government offices, Li Xuan also ordered that this year's local tax adjustment is a special matter and is not a routine matter.
This is true. Originally, the central government's finances were relatively loose. However, due to the big flood this year, local tax rates were adjusted because they couldn't handle the situation for a while. It is impossible to do this every year. If we really want to do this every year, those places will have to adjust the local tax rate.
The officials would not have any objections. Anyway, the local finance money is not their own personal property. Those who should be officials should still be officials.
But it will affect the development of the local economy, which in turn will hinder the national economy. If the economy is not good, naturally we can't expect to collect much tax.
Therefore, there is a very important balance issue here, and it cannot be messed up.
After dealing with the public opinion and tax issues, Li Xuan called the military people over again and ordered them to focus on the public security issues in the disaster-stricken areas!
Although the official handling of this flood is quite efficient and has not caused any large-scale casualties for the time being, there are millions of victims after all. If these victims cannot be resettled properly, they will become refugees.
.
Even if the arrangements are in place, if any ambitious person jumps out, it can easily cause widespread turmoil.
At this critical moment, Li Xuan will naturally not relax. While guiding public opinion, he also needs to maintain high-pressure military deterrence.
Let those with evil intentions know that even if there is chaos, the powerful military power of the Tang Dynasty is still not something they can fight against.
In fact, there is no need for Li Xuan to give special orders, the military people are always paying attention to the local situation!
The military's general mobilization in disaster-stricken areas, in addition to mobilizing soldiers to participate in flood fighting and disaster relief, has actually put a considerable number of troops on heightened alert to prevent any eventuality.
Especially in all the major resettlement sites for disaster victims, troops are stationed in almost all of them!
The role of these garrisons is not only to protect them and maintain public order, but also to suppress possible unrest on the spot.
After all, these millions of disaster victims are the largest source of mobilization, and they need to be monitored and prepared for at all times.
Because Jiangbei, Wanbei, Henan and other places have insufficient troops, the military has even begun to deploy some troops from Jiangnan, Wannan, Huguang, Jiangxi, Shanxi and other surrounding provinces into the disaster-stricken areas.
If there is any unrest, it will be suppressed as soon as possible and the rebellion will be eliminated at the initial stage.
This flood had a huge impact on the Tang Empire, even greater than when tens of thousands of Tatar cavalry fought their way out of the Great Wall!
The most important one is the economic impact. This is not talking about the industrial and commercial economy, but the agricultural economy!
Large-scale floods will inevitably reduce production in the affected areas. If food production is insufficient, people will starve to death.
What the empire officials have to do now is to collect as much food as possible and use it for post-disaster relief. No matter what, large-scale starvation must not occur.
Otherwise, the Xuanping Era that the entire empire is striving for would be a joke!
People are starving to death on a large scale, and you still talk about a prosperous age?
What nonsense!
Fortunately, the Datang Empire established the Datang Grain Corporation in the early years, and established grain companies in various provincial roads. The Datang Grain Corporation relied on its huge financial resources to produce official grain from official fields and collect taxes.
Grain became the largest grain merchant in the Tang Empire to reserve grain and balance grain prices.
Its grain warehouses in various places have a large amount of grain stored all year round!
Relying on huge food reserves, it can not only be used for disaster relief, but also maintain food price stability.
At least in the last ten years of the Tang Empire, grain prices have been maintained at a normal level. Any grain merchant who dares to buy low, sell high, and speculate in grain will basically end up with the same end. First, he was acquired by the Datang Grain Corporation.
Or they may put in food and go bankrupt, and then they will be arrested for various crimes and sent to jail. In serious cases, their homes may be confiscated and their families may be exterminated.
In the Tang Empire, everything could be speculated on, except food!