After everyone left the ship, Yang Su stayed.
The cabin on the second floor of the big ship,
Chen Shuyi was making tea for the two of them. Yang Su particularly liked drinking tea and had a common topic with Chen Shuyi, who was proficient in tea ceremony.
After taking a sip of tea, Yang Su smiled calmly and said: "There are many wealthy families in the Guandong region, and most of the food is in their hands. You can borrow it, but you can't steal it."
He now knows Yang Ming relatively well, and he knows that Yang Ming would rather attack the family than embarrass the people.
If he wanted to solve the problem of food shortage, Yang Su would choose to recruit from the people without even thinking about these two aspects.
He could offend anyone in the noble family, but he did not dare to offend the entire family.
Yang Ming is his grandson-in-law, so he must advise him carefully to prevent Yang Ming from going the wrong way.
Guandong is the area east of Hangu Pass, almost the area around Henan and Shanxi.
Yang Ming frowned and said: "Right now, just in Hanoi County, the food supply is reduced by half. If other places also have this problem, the food problem will not be optimistic."
"There must be problems in other places," Yang Su said with a smile: "One of the sixteen strategies proposed by His Highness was to ensure the food supply for the people. In fact, it was taken for granted. Food will never be enough. You just put the four major Even though all the food from the warehouse has been requisitioned, it’s not enough. Do you believe it, Your Highness?”
Yang Ming was stunned for a moment: "Please Mr. Yue clear up my confusion."
Yang Su smiled and nodded: "A steamed bun is a meal, a Hu pancake is a meal, four dishes and a soup are still a meal. A person's stomach can hold it, but it's just a matter of filling and hunger. There is little food, so there is nothing to eat." It’s just less. If you have more food, you will naturally eat more. In fact, it’s the same. So I think that except for masons, bricklayers and other laborers, for other people, three Hu cakes per person per day is enough.”
"Three Hu cakes?" Yang Ming said blankly: "Isn't this too little?"
Yang Su shook his head and said: "That's too much. Can we afford it? Three Hu cakes can basically sustain daily consumption. I once calculated that if each person has five cakes a day, it will only take less than four months." If we run out of food, what will happen then?"
"Your Highness, please don't think that I am abusing the power of the people. It was the same when Gao Jiong built Daxing City. 600,000 people built Tokyo and 600,000 mouths opened. These mouths are usually solved by themselves, but now, the unified solution is solved by the imperial court. It is also difficult for the imperial court. .”
Yang Ming knew in his heart that he was giving advice from a practical point of view, but three pieces of cake was too unreasonable. No wonder so many people died in your Xiu Renshou Palace.
Yang Ming knew that every decision he made must be made carefully because it was related to the diet of more than 600,000 people.
"How many days do you offer meat?" Yang Ming asked.
Yang Su said: "Ten days are the best. At night, add a meal of gruel every day."
"It's really small. If we borrow food from the wealthy families in the Guanzhong area, how much does Yue Gong think we can borrow?" Yang Ming asked again.
Yang Su couldn't help but laugh and said: "I said borrowing food, but it was just a perfunctory statement because I was worried that you would force me to recruit you. In fact, it is not easy to borrow food. First of all, in whose name should I borrow it? The court? You don't have the qualifications. You yourself ?You don’t have such a big face.”
Indeed, even though Yang Ming was a prince, if he really wanted to affect the interests of the family, they would not be at his mercy.
Borrow food? Everyone is not stupid. Everyone knows that it is not easy to get something borrowed back. In most cases, it is wasted.
Besides, Yang Ming couldn't afford the repayment. He couldn't be recruited in the name of the imperial court, and Yang Guang didn't give him this authority.
How could he have imagined that before he arrived in Luoyang, there would already be a huge problem in front of him. Needless to say, the same situation would be the same for Dou Yan and Pei Xizai in Hedong County.
Seeing that Yang Ming was deep in thought, Yang Su kindly reminded: "Your Highness should take more care of yourself. You think about the people, but no one thinks about you. Over in the capital, His Majesty is waiting for you to deliver an errand. If you can't handle this errand, Your Highness will have a difficult time in the court from now on."
His words were already very reserved. Yang Ming knew that his father would not let him go easily if there was a problem in Tokyo, but food supply seemed to have become an unsolvable problem.
There are many wealthy families in Guandong, among which the Yang family of Hongnong, the Yuan family of Luoyang, the Dugu family of Luoyang, the Changsun family of Luoyang, the Zheng family of Xingyang and the Yuan family of Chenjun are the first.
A large number of children from these families are serving as officials in the court. Except for the Yuan family, they all belong to the Guanlong aristocratic group.
If Yang Ming discussed other matters with them, it would be easy. How about borrowing food? No need to talk!
As the saying goes, one percent of people own ninety-nine percent of the wealth. The food reserves of these families are astronomical figures.
But can't move.
As for Yang Ming's little family property, it's not enough to fill the gap between his teeth.
Yang Su thought she had persuaded Yang Ming, so she chatted with Chen Shuyi on the side about the tea ceremony. Little did she know that Yang Ming was still thinking about the aristocratic family.
Of course, he didn't have the guts to touch the largest ones, but it was still possible to cause trouble for some small landowners.
So the question is, how to deal with the landlords?
Sitting there until evening, Yang Ming couldn't think of a way.
After turning on the lamp, Yang Ming went to the second floor deck to take a breath. He heard from the sailor who was operating the ship that the ship would slow down tonight in order to reach the Zhuzhu Mountain around noon tomorrow. It was too difficult to walk there. If he passed at night, something would happen.
At this time, Li Xiuqing walked out of the cabin and put a piece of clothing on Yang Ming:
"It's cold at night, so your Highness should be careful."
Yang Ming collected his emotions, turned around and said with a smile:
"I'm going to ask you a question. If you answer it, you'll be rewarded."
Li Xiuqing smiled sweetly and said expectantly: "Excuse me, Your Highness."
Yang Ming said: "If you want to take something from someone's hand, what is the best way to do it? Of course, you can't use stealing or other means."
Li Xiuqing closed her mouth and thought hard. After a while, she said:
"I can't seem to figure it out."
Yang Ming smiled slightly, raised his hand and brushed her temples, and said, "It's cold outside, please go back."
"But..." Li Xiuqing held Yang Ming's wrist and said innocently:
"When I was young, if I wanted to take something away from Jiancheng, I would lie and say it was my grandma's idea, because only in this way would Jiancheng give it to me honestly. As for other people, I didn't take them. things, so I don’t understand.”
Yang Ming was stunned for a moment, as if he suddenly grasped something, but he couldn't figure it out at the moment.
"Go back first and let me be alone," Yang Ming said.
Li Xiuqing smiled playfully and said, "Then does your Highness still have any rewards?"
After having sex with Yang Ming, Li Xiuqing became closer and closer to Yang Ming. Although she was still taciturn at ordinary times, she was still very talkative with Yang Ming. Almost every little move she made seemed to be coquettish, but... Her intention was not to act coquettishly.
Yang Ming laughed, raised his hand and slapped the opponent's crotch. The latter screamed, covered his face and crawled into Yang Ming's arms: "Be careful of being seen."
"Go back to the room and wait for me," Yang Ming kissed her forehead gently: "Don't put on any clothes."
Li Xiuqing squealed and ran back to the cabin with a blushing face.
Just now, Yang Ming had already figured out what to do. He suddenly realized it from Li Xiuqing's words.
If you want to take something from a wealthy family, you have to find a legitimate reason to ask them to hand it over.
】
This reason can only be given by Yang Guang, but Yang Ming does not have the ability.
Historically, after Yang Guang ascended the throne, he issued an edict to exempt women, slaves, and tribes from taxes, and at the same time, he no longer granted land to women, slaves, and tribes.
This policy was a huge blow to all the aristocratic families, but historically, the aristocratic families had not resisted very strongly. Although I don’t know why, this policy almost wiped out a large area of acres in a short period of time. Be taken back to the state and redistributed by the state.
But right now, Yang Guang has no such idea.
What would Dad think if he wrote a memorial stating the matter and delivered it to the capital?
It is definitely the original intention of his father Yang Guang to weaken the family and strengthen the centralization of power, so Yang Ming plans to give it a try.
So he returned to the cabin and called Xu Jing and Chen Shuyi to prepare pen and ink.
He had to write the memorial himself. Chen Shuyi had good literary talent and could help polish it.
In the memorial, the food shortage in Hanoi County was mentioned, as well as Yang Ming's concerns about the food supply of states, counties, and counties, so he applied to temporarily exempt slaves and grant farmland in the Guandong area for a period of two years.
He did not include women here, because this item is mainly aimed at the common people.
The reason why Yang Ming petitioned to be exempted from the two-year exemption was because he did not want to take too much of the blame, because once Yang Guang agreed, he would definitely point out at the court meeting that this was the petition of the King of Qin, and I also think it is more appropriate and can be implemented.
In that case, the major clans would hate Yang Ming to death, but if it only lasted for two years, it would be just a superficial injury, not a physical injury, and the hostility of the major families towards Yang Ming would not be that great.
Once the land grant is exempted, the taxes on these acres of land this year will belong to the state. Although the tax collection is at the end of the year, Yang Ming can borrow some grain from grain merchants from various places and pay it back in the tax revenue. This is called Yin Chi Mao Liang.
The acres of land returned to the country will be redistributed by the local chief official, and that is Yuzhou Mu Yang Jian, and Yang Jian is now on his way to Luoyang.
My brother is easy to deal with. He is endorsed by the government, so those grain merchants have to borrow him even if they don't want to.
Throughout the process of writing the memorial, the expressions on the faces of Xu Jing and Chen Shuyi kept changing, because the content in the memorial was a bit shocking to them.
After Yang Ming finished writing, he looked around the two of them and said with a smile: "Don't spread it out."
The two of them were stunned at the same time and nodded hurriedly.
After sealing it with wax, Yang Ming handed it to Xu Jing: "Ask Chen Kui to pick a suitable one from the royal palace and send it to Chang'an Station in the capital as soon as possible. From there, it will be presented to His Majesty."
Eunuchs from the Ministry of Internal Affairs were stationed at Chang'an Posthouse all year round, and they would deliver all memorials directly to the emperor to the palace.
Then, Yang Ming stretched out comfortably, looked at Chen Shuyi, who had been standing aside for a long time, looking forward to it, and said with a smile:
"Go back to sleep, I'll be at Anu's place tonight."
Chen Shuyi shrugged with disappointment, turned around and left.
