A night of noise.
In the early morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year, Yunzhou County returned to silence again.
However, Prince Yun's Mansion has been surrounded since early in the morning by officials from all levels of Yunzhou County who came to congratulate them on the New Year.
Due to the special circumstances of Yunzhou County, other state capitals in the Song Dynasty were divided into administrative agencies such as prefectures, counties and towns under the administrative division of counties. As for the villages, they were generally governed by themselves, mostly by the highly respected clans of each village. As the village chief, Lao is responsible for coordinating with the county government.
Villages usually took care of matters such as paying taxes, serving in the military, and cooperating with various policies and decrees issued by the imperial court. Therefore, in the feudal era, the lowest control of the imperial power was at the county level, that is, It is often said that imperial power does not go to the countryside.
But Yunzhou County is different. There is only one city like Yunzhou City in the large area of Yunzhou County. Therefore, the Yunzhou County Sheriff's Mansion directly governs the entire territory. Except for the Sheriff's Mansion, other areas are still controlled by various tribes. Taking care of themselves, that is to say, the nomadic tribes in Yunzhou County are not much different from the past except for the addition of the Song Dynasty court above their heads.
Therefore, although there were many officials surrounding Prince Yun's Mansion on the first day of the Lunar New Year, they were not too many.
Although everyone in Prince Yun's Mansion had just settled in, under the command of Wang Huai'en, they still received these officials at all levels who came to congratulate them on the New Year in an orderly manner.
As the Cloud King, Zhao Jun himself perfectly assumed the role of a mascot today. He sat in the reception hall without moving, and received batches of officials who were qualified to see him in person. , as for those who were too low-level, they handed over the New Year's gifts and were sent away by Wang Huaien on his own.
In fact, these officials were mainly here for a formality, and naturally they knew enough to leave after delivering the gifts.
There is something special about why they insist on coming to give gifts even though they don't seem to be able to meet each other.
Although the officialdom of Yunzhou County is rather special, no matter how special it is, it is still officialdom.
It doesn't matter whether you can get any benefits during the holidays, but it is a rule to give gifts to Shangguan. People may not remember you if you give them gifts, but if you don't give them, you are screwed. People will definitely remember you. Of course, this Not a good thing.
Therefore, regardless of the personality of the new Shangguan, this New Year gift must be given to him, just to prevent himself from being too conspicuous, and to gain peace of mind, and to prevent others from sitting at home and making pots come from the sky.
At this time, it was noon.
As mentioned before, there are not many officials in Yunzhou County. After a morning of reception, most of them have been met.
Now there are only a few people left who need to be interviewed alone. Among them are the governor of Yunzhou County Li Yi, the county magistrate Liu Xishan and the defense envoy Cheng Cheng, the three most senior officials in Yunzhou County.
After some polite greetings, the three of them sat down one after another.
County Governor Li Yi looked at Liu Xishan, who was sitting next to him, and then at Cheng Cheng, who was sitting opposite him and was drinking tea calmly and silently. After coughing twice, he raised his hands to the person sitting at the top. Zhao Jun said:
"Your Highness, on the occasion of the New Year, our Yunzhou County has His Highness coming this year compared to the past. I believe that the people of the entire Yunzhou County will live better and better under the leadership of His Highness.
What I want to know is, does His Highness have any ideas about the development of Yunzhou County this year? Or can we just follow the practice of previous years? "
According to Li Yi's thinking, even if King Yun wanted to take action when he first came to Yunzhou County, he would not be so quick. For the sake of stability, at least there should be no major changes in Yunzhou County this year, and it should be no different from previous years.
Now this question is just a formality. After all, King Yun is already the nominal controller of Yunzhou County. A subordinate should report everything he knows to the leader, so that he can carry out his work, right?
Zhao Jun, who had been the mascot all morning, breathed a sigh of relief now. Now that he had almost met everyone who should be interviewed, he could go back to rest with the last three left.
But since Li Yi mentioned the development issues of Yunzhou County this year, he has some ideas.
After thinking for a moment, he touched his chin and asked, "What was the charter of Yunzhou County in the past?"
Seeing that King Yun actually asked about previous years' charter, Li Yi was a little surprised, but he quickly recovered, recalled it, and immediately replied:
"Actually, our Yunzhou County does not have many events in a normal year. Due to the special nature of Yunzhou County, most of the local people are still in the lifestyle of tribal migration. Except for Yunzhou City, most of the other people follow the tribes throughout the year. Migrate everywhere.
Usually, each tribe manages the trivial matters on its own, and there is no need for the yamen to worry about them.
All Yunzhou County has to do every year is to convene the tribes after the beginning of each spring and divide the pastures and migration areas of each tribe for the year to prevent the tribes from fighting over the pasture issues. On weekdays, they just mediate. Conflicts between tribes try not to escalate the situation.
The rest is to collect cattle and sheep taxes from each tribe every autumn.
In fact, when Yunzhou County first surrendered to the Song Dynasty, the entire Yunzhou County did not collect any taxes for the first ten years due to the grace of the previous emperor.
The tax on cattle and sheep began to be collected ten years after the tribe surrendered. Each tribe paid a tax based on the number of cattle and sheep raised this year in a ratio of 1 in 20.
Then the county magistrate's office will force these taxes to be purchased at the market price by the Guan Nei Guan Neihui. If the money returned is counted as three parts, one of them will be used to maintain the repair and maintenance of Yunzhou City, the salary of the county governor's office and All kinds of consumption, and the remaining two will be allocated to General Cheng to pay the Yunzhou Army and maintain and replace military equipment.
After using these in twos and threes, the whole Yunzhou County can only have about a thousand guan of funds left as reserves in the government office at the most time of the year. "
After listening to Li Yi's report on the daily work, financial status and usage of the Yunzhou Army, Zhao Jun immediately turned to look at the other two people in the hall.
When the county magistrate Liu Xishan and the defense envoy Cheng Cheng saw Prince Yun, they immediately nodded and confirmed what Li Yi had said.
Looking back, Zhao Jun pondered for a moment, then asked again:
"So although the Yunzhou Army nominally belongs to the Song Dynasty, in fact, Yunzhou County has not paid a penny of food to the court since its surrender, and the income tax and food are just enough for its own consumption, is that right?"
Li Yi nodded: "Hui Wangye, that's exactly what it is."
Zhao Jun nodded. Although his face was expressionless, he started to complain crazily in his heart. No wonder the financial power was given to him so easily, and his feelings were not available to him in the first place.
There were even times when Yunzhou County was hit by a disaster, and the court had to allocate money and food for disaster relief in order to maintain stability. The Yunzhou Army was like a trap that could only get in and out. The court probably wanted to get rid of this burden for a long time, so this was just the right time. It's really a good plan to throw it on your own head!
Extending this to other aspects of autonomy given to him by the imperial court, Zhao Jun was even more speechless. It was because of his feelings that he could not afford any money or food at all, so he was given such a large authority. Although the authority was large, it was not. Even if Qian Liang himself had these permissions, what kind of trouble could he make?
This is probably the main reason why the courtiers and several of my brothers feel free to give themselves these autonomy.
Thinking of this, Zhao Jun couldn't help but raise a slightly sarcastic smile.
But they never expected that for themselves, money and food were the least restrictive condition for them. The permissions they regarded as useless were the most difficult problems for them to solve. Now these permissions are in their hands easily!
This is really God helping me!
Thinking of this, Zhao Jun calmed down his mind, suppressed the almost uncontrollable smile on his face, straightened his expression, and suddenly turned his head to look at Cheng Cheng, the defense envoy who had not spoken from the beginning. Yunzhou County The top commander of the garrison said:
"General Cheng, since I have come to Yunzhou, I will have to take care of General Cheng in terms of security in the future."
Cheng Cheng was stunned for a moment at first, but he quickly realized what he was doing and stood up and said, "Don't worry, Your Majesty, everyone in Yunzhou County will definitely protect Your Majesty's safety, and we will never let Xiao Xiao threaten Your Majesty's safety!"
Zhao Jun smiled and nodded: "That's very good. Since we have to let the soldiers of Yunzhou County protect me from now on, then so be it. General, please arrange your schedule tomorrow. I want to go to the military camp to see those who protect our Yunzhou County." My dear soldiers, this shouldn’t be a problem, right?”
Cheng Cheng's heart sank when he heard this, but his face remained calm and he nodded without hesitation:
"Your Majesty, you are worrying too much. What's the problem if Your Majesty wants to see the soldiers? I will make arrangements for it when I get back later. I will make sure that Your Majesty can see the appearance and majesty of our Yunzhou Army tomorrow. Take a look at our Yunzhou Army." Is the army capable enough to ensure the safety of the prince?"
Although Cheng Cheng agreed simply, Zhao Jun still noticed the unnaturalness in his eyes, but he didn't say anything more, just smiled and nodded, and then looked at the last person who hadn't spoken yet—— Jun Cheng Liu Xishan!
"Liu Juncheng, I heard that Liu Juncheng is very familiar with the tribal leaders in Yunzhou County..."
