[Small goal: Ren Yongshi 2]
Lu Zhi, who loved to drink and be drunk, was unconventional. Kong Qian caught him embezzling public funds just two days after taking office. So he made a small report to the organization, "He embezzled public funds just two days after taking office. Can such a person be used?"
Guo Chongtao: "Yes, it can't be used. Then ask Comrade Wang Zhengyan to take charge of the work of leasing."
Comrade Wang Zhengyan, Shangshu of the Ministry of Revenue and Mayor of Weizhou (Yin of Xingtang Prefecture), served as the envoy.
"It's so difficult for me!" Kong Qian was about to cry but had no tears.
Wang Zhengyan's father is a small county magistrate of Jiyin County. His father died early, leaving Wang Zhengyan alone and poor, so he became a monk. He loved reading poetry and was good at composing poems. The then governor of Mizhou, He Delun, appreciated his talent and learning, persuaded him to return to secular life, and arranged a job for him. When Hedron was in charge of Weibo, he promoted him to the position of observation judge. Later Liang's division of Weibo triggered a mutiny, and He Delun was coerced into surrendering to Hedong. Li Cunxu entered Weizhou to take over, and Wang Zhengyan was able to retain his original position and continue to be the judge of Weibo.
It is obvious that Wang Zhengyan came from a humble background, had no family background, and no outstanding academic qualifications (except for Jinshi). His only supporter, He Delun, also fell. This determines that Wang Zhengyan is a good old man in the officialdom, and he is submissive. No one dares to offend. When Wei Bo first entered Hedong, he was repeatedly bullied by his old colleague Sikong Ting. Wang Zhengyan did not even dare to fart and submitted to him without any complaints.
It was not until Sikong Ting was killed for secretly communicating with Hou Liang that Wang Zhengyan took his place as the judge of Wei Bo Jiedu. After Li Cunxu became emperor, he was appointed as the Minister of Household Affairs and the mayor of Weizhou.
Wang Zhengyan has been a submissive and coward all his life. Although he is Kong Qian's immediate boss, he is also bullied by Kong Qian. Kong Qian was nominally the deputy envoy of Zuyong, but he exercised all the powers of the envoy of Zuyong. Wang Zhengyan was only responsible for signing.
"The right words are in office, the Lord's promise is just that, and the authority comes from Kong Qian." - "History of the Old Five Dynasties"
According to records, after learning that Wang Zhengyan was temporarily serving as a mediocre envoy, Kong Qian went completely crazy and lost his patience. In a fit of anger, he actually resigned from his job, saying, "I quit!"
Li Cunxu was furious, "You dare to challenge me? Kill me!"
Kong Qian quickly bribed him profusely, and finally Li Cunxu spared his life only after the actor Jing Jin begged for mercy.
If you plant flowers intentionally, they will not bloom, but if you plant willows unintentionally, they will create shade. Kong Qian had tried so hard before but failed to get what he wanted. Unexpectedly, this time he lost his temper and got his wish fulfilled.
Kong Qian made such a fuss, which frightened the honest and coward Wang Zhengyan. Within a month, Wang Zhengyan suffered a stroke and was unable to do his job due to physical reasons. Therefore, under the strong persuasion of the actor Jing Jin, Li Cunxu finally let Xu Yong serve as deputy Kong Qian was appointed to succeed Wang Zhengyan as the envoy of Zuyong, and Kong Xun was appointed as the deputy envoy of Zuyong.
Kong Xun and Jiang Xuanhui killed Zhaozong, and then framed Jiang Xuanhui to death. He also used bribery to gain a foothold in the Later Tang Dynasty.
Wang Zhengyan's stroke was most likely a fake, because the next year after the news passed, he replaced Zhang Xian as the mayor of Weizhou and stayed in Yedu. His "stroke" this time was probably to make room for Kong Qian on purpose.
Kong Qian finally got his wish and became the coveted military envoy. From then on, they became even more blatant in collecting taxes and plundering people's wealth and wealth.
Kong Qian is Li Cunxu’s mobile cash machine, but his method of making money is actually not very clever. It’s just one word: courageous! It goes so far as to blatantly defy the decree and show no respect.
After Li Cunxu took control of Bianzhou, in order to relieve the sufferings of the people and create a benevolent monarch, in February of the second year of Tongguang (924), when he was in trouble in the southern suburbs, he declared a general amnesty and greatly reduced taxes.
On that day, the wind was gentle and smooth, and people said that this was a grand ceremony that had not happened in fifty years. The people of the world bathed in the mighty emperor's favor and celebrated the resurgence of the Tang Dynasty and the return of the benevolent emperor.
However, Kong Qian not only failed to reduce or reduce the tax, but intensified it and increased taxes, which made the people complain.
Faced with Kong Qian's heavy taxation that violated the decree, Li Cunxu actually adopted a tacit attitude. In order to further implement the unspoken rules of exploiting the people, Kong Qian went beyond the level, bypassing the Jiedushi, and directly issued the central government's orders to the states. Among them, Li Cunba, the military governor of Tianping in Yunzhou, and Fu Xi, the military governor of Pinglu Army in Qingzhou, jointly accused Kong Qian of violating laws and regulations.
Kong Qian was rogue and cunning, and raised it to a political level for no reason. He said that during the Tang Dynasty, taxation and other tasks were directly distributed from the central government to the states. Old system.
Stare and tell lies.
Li Cunxu issued an edict, saying that Li Cunba and Fu Xi were right. From now on, all state affairs, except paying tribute, should go through the Jiedushi.
Despite the emperor's edict, Kong Qian still turned a blind eye and continued to operate beyond the level. Over time, the Jiedushi and Observer envoys also understood Li Cunxu and Kong Qian's double-acting skills, and had no choice but to remain silent.
She became a bitch and still wanted to build a chastity memorial. Li Cunxu not only wanted the reputation of a benevolent king, but also wanted Kong Qian to help him get money and take the blame.
In order to make money, Kong Qian also had another basic operation - "routine loan": he first forced the people to borrow usury from the government, and then secretly controlled prices, adding "sheep shearing" and "leek cutting" to the usury.
To put it simply, the borrowed money is first lent to the people, and when the money is repaid, the people are asked to deliver it in kind (raw silk) and convert it according to the price. The production and operation of raw silk was completely in the hands of the government, so the government could shear the sheep at will. Let’s give a simple example to facilitate understanding of this wave of “routine loan” operations:
Assuming that the normal price of raw silk is 100 Wen per piece (for the convenience of calculation, the price is written blindly and cannot reflect the real price), the people originally had to borrow 100 Wen. Therefore, the government first lowered the price of raw silk to 50 yuan per piece, and then when applying for the loan, it was written on the receipt that "on the maturity date, two pieces of raw silk will be returned to be converted into cash."
When the people saw it, there was nothing wrong with it. One horse cost 50 coins, and two horses cost 100 coins. So I happily received the loan.
But when the date for repayment approached, the people suddenly discovered that the government had violently increased the price of raw silk, reaching 200 yuan a piece! I need to come up with 400 yuan to pay off the previous loan!
Borrow money and return raw silk. The price of raw silk is still in the hands of the government, and the sheep are properly sheared. Nowadays, Western capitalists manipulate exchange rates and use the hegemony of the US dollar to shear sheep. They are scum in front of the ancient Chinese. Although the ancient Chinese did not refine "finance" into an independent discipline, the Chinese are the ancestors of ideas about finance, and even the theory and practice of financial wars and trade wars.
Moreover, there is no interest calculation in the above example, it is just a charitable method of borrowing 100 and repaying 100.
Kong Qian mainly uses these two low-tech methods, which are simple, crude, and effective. Like a vampire or parasite, he crazily and greedily sucks the blood of the people. This unscrupulous money mainly goes to three places: Li Cunxu, bribery, and squandering.
The reason why the actor Jing Jin was able to speak favorably to Kong Qian at the critical moment was because Kong Qian bribed many people including Xiao Liu, actors, eunuchs, and powerful people.
Some upright officials, such as Lu Zhi, went to Li Cunxu and pointed out that Kong Qian was exploiting the people, especially using the "routine loan" often used by Zhao Yan, the "foreign relative gang" of the Later Liang Dynasty, to shear the people's wool, which was destroying the foundation of the empire. ! This spring, a frost hit the sky, seriously affecting the production of raw silk. The people could hardly afford to pay the normal taxes. Kong Qian still forced usury on them. Isn't this driving the people to death? The officials are forcing the people to rebel!
After receiving the memorial, Li Cunxu not only did not punish the greedy vampire Kong Qian, but instead gave Kong Qian the honorary title of "He who helped the country with wealth".
Did Li Cunxu have a short-circuit in his brain?
No, just poor and crazy. He needs money so much, whoever can get it for him will be the hero. As for what method he uses to get the money... No matter black cat or yellow cat, the one who gets the money is the good cat.
