In the 16th year of Yankang, the first court meeting of the new year ushered in a quarrel among the ministers.
Shangshu Xun stood up tremblingly and told the emperor to divide the states and counties. He divided several large states of the Han Dynasty and finally came up with thirty-six states. He just finished saying that the group
The ministers immediately divided into two groups and began to discuss the policy. The elderly Xun Linggong waved the crutch in his hand and shouted loudly, regardless of the dignity of the ministers.
He had many supporters, and Xun Yu's reasons were very sufficient. Today, the territory of the Han Dynasty is extremely vast, the area is too large, and there are many temples and decrees. The state pastors and the like are too tired, and the implementation of policies is also very troublesome. It is best to
It was so appropriate to be able to divide a large state into individual states and increase the number of officials. Of course, he also had some unstated reasons, which was to avoid the serious consequences of local rebellions.
This is something that cannot be spoken to others. It is good that everyone knows it well.
The first person to rise up to oppose was Liu Ba. Liu Ba said dissatisfiedly: "Today's officials are complicated and numerous, and the annual salary and salary that the temple has to bear is enough. If Xun Linggong's idea is followed, today's officials in the Han Dynasty
I'm afraid it will be tripled or even tripled. How can the already empty treasury bear the burden of so many officials? There are few people but many officials. Can the people support them?"
The reason for Liu Ba's opposition started from the pressure on the treasury. The ministers heard Liu Ba's words, but did not take it to heart. Everyone knew that the treasury had accumulated savings for fifteen years, how could it be empty?
This is completely idiotic. Presumably Liu Gong, like the previous Wen Renggong, was just thinking about how to save money for the national treasury, so he discouraged it like this.
Faced with Liu Ba's question, Xun Linggong was a little dissatisfied. He asked: "You are an old man and you don't know? The annual income of the treasury is so much. Even if a lot of money is spent on enforcing the law, now all industries are prosperous and overseas
The government's ships rushed to Luo County in a steady stream, as did the carriages and horses of Xizhou. Due to the law, the collection of taxes was also much faster. There were no gaps. There was no way the national treasury could not afford this salary.
.The salaries of Han officials are not high!"
For a moment, Liushang was speechless. He slowly looked at Zhuge Liang on the side. Only Zhuge Liang had the most thorough view of the state of the treasury. This time the laws were enacted and implemented, and the wealth spent was
It was very huge, but he could not explain these situations in detail to the ministers, because the idea of hiding money from the people that he and Zhuge Liang had figured out would be difficult for these people to understand.
If we tell the ministers that the Han treasury is empty and they invest their wealth into the people to keep the economy running, I am afraid these ministers will not allow it.
However, before Zhuge Liang could speak, someone had already jumped out. This person was Zhong Changtong. Zhong Changtong looked at Xun Linggong in front of him and said dissatisfiedly: "Let's not mention the treasury first, but from the administrative aspect
In other words, can refinement really promote administrative efficiency? In my opinion, local refinement will not only fail to promote efficiency, but will probably make many political affairs more cumbersome. This is inconsistent with the implementation of the new official system.
Those who go against the grain.”
Xun Yu was not surprised by Zhong Changtong's opposition. This was the kind of person he was. As long as he felt something was inappropriate, he would object. He never cared who proposed this system. He admired and loved Xun Yu very much.
Xun Yu, this does not affect his views on the policies proposed by Xun Yu. It is precisely because of this that Xun Yu also favors him very much.
Just as Xun Yu was about to explain, Zhuge Liang also came out, faced the emperor, bowed, and then looked at Zhong Changtong. He said seriously: "I think what Xun Linggong said is reasonable."
"Oh?" Most of the officials thought that there was a conflict between Zhuge Liang and Xun Yu. The two were already at odds with each other due to legal matters. They did not expect that Zhuge Liang would actually sit in the upper position towards Xun Linggong.
Liu Xi was also a little shocked. He was not surprised that Zhuge Liang would speak for Xun Yu. After all, he knew Zhuge Liang's temperament. Zhuge Liang had never blamed Xun Yu. On the contrary, he still admired Duke Xun.
However, as Liu Ba said, he, Zhuge Liang, knows the current situation of the treasury. After Liu Ba mentioned it just now, Liu Xi's heart was indeed shaken, and then he felt heartache. My treasury is
It's really empty.
However, Zhuge Liang obviously knew this situation, so why did he still support it?
Zhuge Liang looked at Zhong Changtong and said seriously: "Zhong Changtong still didn't see it thoroughly enough to understand the profound meaning of Xun Linggong's policy... Zhong Changtong is responsible for household registration. Dare you ask Zhong Changtong?"
Changjun, how many household registrations does the Han have now?" Zhuge Liang had just asked, and Zhong Changtong said without thinking: "The household registration survey has not yet been completed, but now there are 96 million people... By the time the survey is completed,
, the household registration is probably over 100 million."
Hearing Zhong Changtong's words, the officials in the temple were in an uproar and shouted, "One hundred million people, what is this concept? According to the alchemists, the Emperor of Heaven only has 160 million people."
People, that is a shocking number, but now, the Emperor of the Han Dynasty is about to become the emperor who rules over 100 million people. This is an unprecedented number of household registrations!
The ministers seemed very excited. Even with this, they were enough to go down in history. Liu Xi also had a smile on his face. He himself was a little surprised. Unknowingly, the number of people in the Han Dynasty actually numbered hundreds of millions?
Not bad, not bad!
Looking at the restless ministers around him, Zhong Changtong was unexpectedly calm. He continued to ask: "What does this have to do with what Xun Linggong mentioned?"
"Of course it does. Do you know how many scholars there are today?"
"I don't know..."
"Menzixue, as well as local schools in various places, have a large number of students. These people have to pass the examination and serve as officials. It can be said that the positions of officials are getting fewer and fewer, but the number of students is increasing..." Zhuge Liang just said
After a while, he did not elaborate and returned to his seat. Only then did the officials get rid of their enthusiasm for household registration numbers and began to think about Zhuge Liang's words.
There are more and more common people nowadays, and so are the official schools. This has led to the continuous increase in the number of scholars. If they pass the examination with great difficulty, but there is no place for them to go, then this will be a very embarrassing situation.
After the incident, they thought of many disasters. If it caused a large number of scholars to be dissatisfied, students would not want to study anymore. They were afraid that the great cause of official education and assessment in the past few decades would be interrupted like this!
It may even trigger new unrest.
Zhong Changtong naturally understood quickly. He bowed to Zhuge Liang, and then to Xun Yu, and then returned to his position, with a little more admiration for Xun Linggong in his eyes.
Xun Yu was also a little confused. To be fair, the students' problem was indeed not within his thoughts, and the opposition voices among the officials suddenly decreased a lot.
Only Liu Ba was still a little anxious. He said helplessly: "The treasury is empty! Gentlemen, this policy is good, but it also requires the support of the treasury. Today's treasury cannot support it!"
, he looked at Zhuge Liang, but Zhuge Liang was not anxious at all. He smiled slightly and said: "At most, it will cost more than a million dollars."
"This!! You guys!!" Liu Ba was so angry that he was speechless. He pursed his lips, frowned, and thought for a moment before saying: "In that case, in this case..." He hesitated.
After a moment, he just said: "Please increase the admission fee of Taixue and Menzixue, and the enlightenment textbooks will no longer be provided free of charge... As for the salary of officials, it will be divided into two parts. The basic salary will be lowered, and then it will be added based on their political performance...
.”
Liu Ba said his thoughts with a straight face, and the ministers listened very seriously. Among the ministers, Xun Yu's eyes widened, he looked at Liu Ba in front of him, rubbed his eyes, and looked at him again.
After a moment, he laughed to himself.
Finally, Liu Xi agreed to Xun Linggong's proposal. The partition would be implemented locally starting from this year. Originally, the emperor wanted Xun Yu to implement it, but he did not expect that after Xun Yu declined, he recommended Zhuge Liang to the emperor.
The emperor did not refuse to do this, so he ordered Zhuge Liang to work with the Lifu, Hufu and Shaofu to carry out the matter.
After the court meeting was over, Liu Xi and Zhuge Liang returned to the Hall of Houde.
"Kong Ming, it's not like you don't know the situation of the treasury, why are you in such a hurry to implement it?" Liu Xi complained as soon as he returned to Houde Hall. After doing so much, the treasury became increasingly empty.
What should we do? Zhuge Liang was not in a hurry. He sat in front of the emperor and said with a smile: "Your Majesty, the situation of the treasury is not that critical..."
"Isn't it urgent? Look at Liu Ba, you have forced him to become Wenren Gong... Isn't it urgent??"
"Haha, Mr. Liu attaches too much importance to the national treasury, so that's why most of the things circulating among the people today are vouchers. Officials' salaries were originally given to grain, but now they are vouchers for withdrawing money from banks. This is different from the past.
The national treasury is now empty, so it can survive this period of time relying on paper money, not to mention, Liu Jun also gave good advice just now..."
"There is a limit on the ever-increasing number of students, and at the same time there is a limit on the salary of officials, which plays an encouraging and supervisory role."
"Forget it, I won't argue with you anymore. Anyway, you have to remember that if something happens to the treasury one day, I will not pursue Liu Jun. I will directly send you to Ningzhou to eat fish and let you eat as much as you can!
", Liu Xi said and glared at Zhuge Liang.
"Your Majesty, you can rest assured that if something happens, I will be responsible for it alone... However, I have a way to deal with these, and I will not make any mistakes. In addition, this division and rule may seem easy, but it is really
It cannot be implemented exactly as Xun Linggong said. It is best to divide according to local specialties, number of household registrations, rivers, etc..."
"You can just take care of these things. By the way, don't leave Luoxian County. Now I still need your help with everything in the temple..."
"But to do this, someone must go to various places in person..."