【Emperor short of money】
Although the wife is rich, she does not give her husband money for a private house. This is a problem faced by many married men, and Li Cunxu is no exception, even though he has become the emperor.
Of course, as the domineering president of Hedong Group, using public funds for private use is a good way to solve the problem. Li Cunxu had used crooked ideas in this regard before he became emperor.
As mentioned earlier, the person in charge of the group's finances at that time was Zhang Chengye, an old minister of Tuogu and the eunuch who oversaw the army. Li Cunxu took great pains to set up a trap, trying to trick Zhang Chengye. He deliberately held a banquet in front of the treasury and asked his son Li Jiji to dance for Zhang Chengye to entertain him. The lord and his son chose what Zhang Chengye wanted to hear, flattered Zhang Chengye, and took advantage of Zhang Chengye to reward Li Jiji. Li Cunxu He said lightly: "My child, don't go out with your Uncle Zhang in the future. If you are short of money, just ask him for it. That's not——" He turned back and pointed at the treasury, "——There is plenty of money."
Unexpectedly, Zhang Chengye did not follow this trick and kept a clear distinction between public and private affairs. We are really short of money. I will help you out of my own pocket. Don’t touch even a penny of public money!
Li Cunxu became angry and wanted to kill Zhang Chengye on the spot. Later, the trouble came to his mother, Cao, who gave her a beating. The next day, mother and son went to Zhang Chengye's home to plead guilty.
Zhang Chengye was highly respected and selfless, and refused to take hard or soft advice. Li Cunxu really had no choice but to stare at the treasury.
After Zhang Chengye passed away, Li Cunxu put a lot of thought into selecting candidates to serve as envoys. We must not let a Zhang Chengye-type person manage money anymore, he is not tactful and sophisticated. Therefore, the above-mentioned pieces of materials are in the position of renting mediocre people, and the situation is changing.
I have a bold guess: Douluge and Lu Zhi misappropriated public funds as soon as they took office and did not know where the public funds went. Were they "borrowed" by Li Cunxu? Two people were impeached and removed from office for misappropriating public funds, but they were only relieved of their positions as renters. Other positions were not affected. Not only were they not demoted, but they were promoted in the future.
If Douluge was originally a morally corrupt person with traces of corruption, then what about Lu Zhi? Lu Zhi is a person who is not greedy for fame and wealth, but pursues leisure and comfort. He is not rigid in etiquette and does not care about other people's evaluations. He is aloof from the world. He is also an old minister who was trusted by Li Keyong. His reputation is as good as that of Zhang Chengye. He is such a person. How could a respected veteran cadre embezzle public funds just two days after taking office? It's too sudden to be unsafe in the late festival.
It is very likely that the two of them took the blame for Emperor Li Cunxu.
The huge fiscal deficit problem cannot be solved by secretly using public money for personal gain. Li Cunxu still needs to find other ways to increase revenue and reduce expenditure.
Therefore, the group president Li Cunxu came up with a crude method to reduce the salary: layoffs!
Before Li Cunxu entered Luo, in November of the first year of Tongguang (923), Zhongshu Sheng reported that government agencies should be streamlined and redundant officials should be eliminated to save financial expenses. Li Cunxu immediately approved it and handed it over to the Privy Council for execution.
The eliminated officials are waiting in line, and the existing officials are rotated every 25 months. After the expiration, there are more wolves and less meat. We take turns being officials and taking turns getting paid. Not only civilian officials do this, but military attachés also follow this method.
With the strong support of Emperor Li Cunxu, the Privy Council operated efficiently and the layoffs went extremely smoothly.
Later Tang officials complained.
Even so, the national treasury was still in deficit, and in February of the following year, there was still a dilemma of insufficient funds. In fact, this Jiaotian ceremony was almost a ready-made one. It used a complete set of equipment and utensils purchased by Zhu Youzhen. In theory, it should not cost Hou Tang much.
In order not to embarrass the court, Guo Chongtao dug into his own pocket and donated hundreds of thousands of gold and silk to the "Suburban Sky Committee" for emergency relief. Where did Guo Chongtao get so much money?
Answer: Taking bribes.
Guo Chongtao did not shy away from this, saying bluntly that this was all the bribes he had received from various parties in just three months since he entered Bianzhou.
Many of his close associates were puzzled by this, "Aren't you that kind of person? Why have you become corrupted? Could it be that oranges born in Huainan are oranges, and those born in Huaibei are oranges?"
Guo Chongtao said: "I am now a general and prime minister, with a high position and a generous salary. There is no need for corruption or bribery. But in the face of bribes, why should I accept them all? Because of political corruption in the Later Liang Dynasty, bribery is prevalent. Now they All surrendered. They were once enemies of the empire. Although they were pardoned many times, they still had doubts and uneasiness deep in their hearts. If I refused their bribes, they would be even more fearful and uneasy, which would be detrimental to the political stability of the Later Tang Dynasty. I am only temporarily replacing them. The state takes care of it, look, now is the time to help the country share its worries.”
After hearing this, his subordinates were deeply impressed and admired Guo Chongtao's far-reaching strategy and noble character.
Under the leadership of Guo Chongtao, civil and military officials at all levels were forced to voluntarily donate large and small amounts of money to help Jiaotian.
The foundation laid by Zhu Youzhen, coupled with the money donated by Guo Chongtao and officials, still cannot meet Jiaotian's standards. This is embarrassing. Li Cunxu's post-Tang Dynasty court was simply a gold-eating beast, a bottomless pit.
Guo Chongtao really had no choice but to find Li Cunxu and said that I had dissipated all my family wealth, and civil and military officials at all levels had also paid out of their own pockets. Your Majesty, shouldn't it be time for you to spend some of your own money to help the relevant departments?
He said it very tactfully. He was obviously helping Li Cunxu "have trouble in the southern suburbs", but Guo Chongtao deliberately said that he was helping "relevant departments" to tide over the difficulties. There was enough steps left for Li Cunxu.
Li Cunxu pondered for a long time, and finally gritted his teeth and expressed his position: "I still have some savings in my hometown in Taiyuan Prefecture. I will send someone to get it right now."
Therefore, Li Cunxu sent people to bring Li Jitao's previously confiscated property to Luoyang.
This was not just a public misappropriation of public funds, a large part of the money was used to reward the soldiers who put down the Luzhou rebellion. Li Cunxu's move made the troops in Heshuo and Taihang Mountains full of complaints. Some people even defected because of this, reaching the edge of mutiny.
Although Guo Chongtao is not responsible for finance, he also deeply understands the serious difficulties faced by the government's finances, and the emperor's previous layoff order was too harsh and very unreasonable. Because there are many officials who are not qualified for recruitment, but came through impersonation, transfer of quotas, and fraud. If we want to lay off employees, we must start with these people.
Therefore, after Jiao Tian, Guo Chongtao reported on the matter of eliminating redundant officials and redundant personnel, pointing out that the official system should be strict and those who are cheating should be found.
During the great turmoil at the end of the Tang Dynasty, many gentry and gentry families gradually declined. Forced to make a living, they transferred their status. As a result, impersonation and fraud became rampant.
Li Cunxu immediately approved it, and Guo Chongtao took the lead, with the cooperation of the Ministry of Personnel and Quansi, "Do it quickly! Do it quickly!"
This screening process was equally efficient and cruel. After strict organizational review, more than 90% of the officials were unqualified! A total of more than 1,200 officials participated in the Jiaotian ceremony that day. After review, only a few dozen people met the requirements.
The autumn wind swept away the fallen leaves, and the political arena of the Later Tang Dynasty ushered in a harsh winter.
Among them, there was a man named Wu Yanhao who pretended to be his deceased uncle and sued to become an official. After being found out, he was sentenced to death according to law. Subsequently, all central officials in charge of the appointment and dismissal of officials were jointly and severally punished, and the intensity was quite severe:
Cui Yi, the minister Zuocheng and the minister Quan of the Ministry of official affairs, were demoted to Sima of Linzhou;
Cui Yi, the minister of the Ministry of Personnel, was demoted to Sima of Shuozhou;
During the incident, Zheng Taoguang was demoted to Ningzhou Sima;
Lu Sang, a member of the civil service department, was demoted to the position of chief minister of Fuzhou.
From a second-rank official, a senior official at the ministerial level, to a fifth-rank official, deputy director, he was demoted in one fell swoop to a rankless section chief in a remote and impoverished small place.
Fortunately, the three prime ministers Douluge, Zhao Guangyun, and Wei Shuo at the time begged for mercy at the same time, so they were spared, but Wu Yanhao was dead.
At that time, impostoring was a common thing and there were unspoken rules in officialdom. However, the "Wu Yanhao Impersonation Case" was regarded as a typical example, killing chickens to scare monkeys, and the punishment was unprecedentedly severe.
This is the strong signal sent by Guo Chongtao and the big boss behind him, Li Cunxu, to the outside world: I am not joking with you, and I am serious about it this time.
As a result, more than 80% of unqualified officials voluntarily surrendered and resigned.
The deposed people walked in groups on the road in despair, crying and crying. They had no source of income, and many of them died of cold and hunger.
Reducing government expenditures was only Guo Chongtao's secondary purpose. Guo Chongtao really couldn't stand the chaos left by the Later Liang regime. He sincerely wanted to help the Later Tang Dynasty rectify the official system and regulate the government. But his simplicity and kindness were taken advantage of by Li Cunxu. Li Cunxu borrowed Guo Chongtao's help to deliberately expand the movement to rectify the official system, just to reduce the court's salary expenditure as much as possible.
Li Cunxu's actions offended the public and made officials and soldiers dissatisfied. And he took advantage of Guo Chongtao, making Guo Chongtao, who was in charge of the reduction of officials, the target of public criticism and became Li Cunxu's shield. All civil and military officials, both internally and externally, vented their grievances on Guo Chongtao. For this reason, Guo Chongtao was tired of dealing with the joint efforts of all forces, so that just two years later, Guo Chongtao suffered the catastrophe of genocide.
The death of Guo Chongtao will be discussed in detail later.
So the question is, why is Li Cunxu so short of money? This is about talking about his hobbies.
