Li Longji did not directly answer whether he wanted Fang Chongyong to go to Hexi, but the next day he invited him to take a hot spring bath together and rejected the others.
As for Yang Yuhuan, she never showed up at all, and Fang Chongyong didn't know if she was here.
The scale of the Kowloon hot spring is much smaller than expected. At this moment, it is snowing heavily outside. Fang Zhongyong is soaking in the hot spring with an expressionless face, not feeling the chill of winter at all.
The enjoyment of an emperor is that all seasons are like spring and there is no suffering of hunger or cold.
A strange thought came to Fang Chongyong's mind. What if the hot spring pool was too big and the emperor fainted and drowned while taking a bath in it?
I'm afraid even rescue will be troublesome by then.
Sure enough, it's better to be smaller.
"The official position of your Qianniu Guards Lieutenant General can be promoted. I think it would be good for you to be a Qianniu Guards General."
Li Longji laughed while stroking the long beard on his chin.
Fang Chongyong looked at the other person's soft belly, sagging skin, and the fat on his body that was not fat but was covered up when he put on a robe, and quickly and unconsciously looked away.
He crossed his hands and saluted, saying: "Everything depends on the saints."
"Well, but can you tell me, what do you want to do when you go to Hexi? Buy Kunlun slaves or buy items from the Western Regions?
Liangzhou is nice, but you'll get bored after staying there for a few days. It's not interesting to face the yellow sand all day long. "
Li Longji asked in confusion, still unable to figure out Fang Chongyong's true thoughts.
"Back to Sage, half of the atmosphere of the Tang Dynasty is in Hexi. If you don't go to Hexi, it's like you were not born in the Tang Dynasty. Sage has no time to move to Hexi because of busy state affairs, but I am a boy and have nothing important to do. . It is not a waste of time to go to Hexi to experience the glory of the Tang Dynasty while you are still young.
It is much better than staying in Chang'an and riding horses and fighting cocks with those powerful children. "
Fang Chongyong saluted solemnly and said.
"You just don't want others to say that you are Fang Jieshuai's son. Why are you saying so many polite words to me?"
Li Longji waved his hand triumphantly, and then sighed: "Your father is a rare good general. I heard that you are engaged, and your future father-in-law will also be one of the best generals. I think you will be under a lot of pressure."
"The saint knows everything clearly. Nothing can be hidden from the saint."
Fang Chongyong carefully bowed and saluted.
"Although Hexi is in chaos, Liangzhou City is still safe. If you want a casual job in the state capital to join the army, then I will give you a state capital to join the army. Just stay with Cui Xiyi and watch and learn more. As for your father-in-law , I also sent him as Chishui Military Envoy to take charge of Liangzhou City, what do you think of this?"
"Thank you saint!"
Fang Chongyong said excitedly, he didn't expect that he had been planning for a long time and had follow-up operations, but he could actually get it done in advance!
"By the way, being an official requires status. If you don't take the imperial examination, then I will give you the status of a concubine."
Li Longji chuckled.
Anyway, Fang Chongyong carried the coffin for the former crown prince Li Ying and the other two, so it would not be too much to give him the status of "bailout".
Fang Chongyong thought that Fang Youde had caused many things in Youzhou, which made the vain and arrogant Li Longji happy, and that was why he was so easy to talk to.
But when he returned to his residence in the Huaqing Palace, Li Longji called another heavyweight courtier here. That person was Li Linfu, whom Li Longji nicknamed "Genu"!
Compared with the relaxed atmosphere just now, the conversation between Li Longji and Li Linfu was very serious at this time.
In the ninth year of Kaiyuan, the Sogdians in Shuofang rebelled. After the rebellion, the Tang Dynasty moved all the Sogdians from the six prefectures to avoid future troubles. "More than 50,000 Sogdians in the six prefectures of Hequ moved to Xu, Ru, Tang, and Deng , Xian, Yu and other states are thousands of miles away from Henan and Shuo."
Now that these barbarians have begun to collude with the party to cause chaos again, Li Linfu suggested that the barbarians in the six states be moved back to their original places to solve the problem of chaos in the six states.
At the beginning, the land of the six states had been relatively well developed by these miscellaneous people. The Tang court moved these Turkic Sogdians away. To be honest, it was a bit disgusting. Taking back other people's fertile land and then forcibly moving them to open up wasteland is indeed unethical.
But now, after twenty years of development, the Zahu people have developed new territories. As a result, Tang Ting wants to move these people back again!
This operation is a bit like fattening a piglet and then recycling it by the store, exchanging the old piglet for a piglet and continuing to raise it, which is a bit despicable.
Even Li Linfu felt embarrassed and came to ask Li Longji for advice.
"What do you think would be a better way to deal with it?"
Li Longji asked nonchalantly. He didn't want to care about this kind of thing at all. As long as Li Linfu's method was okay, then let's do it.
"Niu Xianke was in Hexi at that time. He mostly dealt with the Sogdians and was a loyal person. You can send Niu Xianke to the six states to recruit miscellaneous barbarians. In this way, the problem can be solved without spending a single soldier."
Li Linfu's face was not red and his heart did not beat, so he killed Niu Xianke.
The key is that all this is in compliance with the rules and regulations of the imperial court. Niu Xian's position as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Industry can be started by adding a "recruiting envoy", and there is no need for any troublesome procedures at all.
You are a minister of the imperial court and a minister of the six departments. What's wrong with asking you to recruit barbarians? Is it because I'm not worthy of you or because I don't want to go?
There are two official words, not to mention that Niu Xianke is just an "honest person" without a backing. Even if he is as slippery as Zheng Shuqing, he cannot escape such a mission.
Recruiting miscellaneous barbarians to settle in the frontier is naturally a great achievement, but who says that those miscellaneous barbarians can't be displeased with the imperial envoys and chop them into pieces with a knife?
It can only be said that Li Linfu's method of treating people is so clever that it is hard to guard against him. He didn't need to be embarrassed or slanderous to trick a high-ranking official into death.
"Then send Niu Xianke. But Genu, I don't think we can make King Shou the crown prince."
Li Longji suddenly changed the topic and said solemnly.
"Prince Shou is kind and loving. He is the prince's first choice. Your Majesty, please think twice."
Li Linfu crossed his arms and saluted with a calm expression, and it was hard to tell what he was thinking in his heart.
"That's all, let's discuss this later. What you told me last time was that Wang Zhongsi had a close relationship with King Zhong, so it was inconvenient for him to be the general of the left army of the Longwu Army. I have thought about it these past two days and think you are right. reason.
So I transferred him from Chang'an to serve in the Chishui Army. What do you think? "
Li Longji asked casually while stirring the warm spring water with his palm.
"Wei Chen has no objection. This is a very good move."
Li Linfu smiled and saluted.
"Fang Youde wrote a letter suggesting that Wu Zhiyi be the general of the left army of the Longwu Army. What do you think?"
Li Longji asked again.
"Wei Chen believes that Li Shizhi, the censor Zhongcheng, can take over the post of Wu Zhiyi and Pinglu Jiedushi."
"Well, I think so too, then you can be responsible for drafting the edict."
After handling the government affairs, Li Longji waved his hands a little tiredly. Li Linfu got dressed and left Tangchi, taking a carriage back to Chang'an without any further delay.
Inadvertently, he had driven Huangfu Weiming, Wang Zhongsi, Niu Xianke, and Li Shizhi out of Chang'an. The rest is to use Luoyang Hanjiacang's affairs to slowly cut the flesh with a dull knife.
Now most of the central offices in Chang'an are his people, and Li Longji also tacitly allows people from all walks of life to go on official business and not interfere with Li Linfu's governance.
Build the canal between Chang'an and Luoyang, reform existing legal provisions, delete outdated ones, gradually reduce the proportion of rent in tax revenue, and gradually increase household taxes to make up for the difference.
Li Linfu was thinking about one "earth-shaking" event after another.
Renting a mediocre household registration means vacationing more and more every year, and people running away from home become more and more common every year. The more people flee, the more rent problems will be imposed on those who don't flee, and then there will be more people who flee. Anyway, the account books are all fake, and there is nothing the local officials can do. Not every place is a commercial port like Kuizhou, and the difference can be easily made up with commercial taxes.
The country's expenses are also increasing year by year, and the proportion of soldiers listed on the government list is getting smaller and smaller. The account book of the Ministry of War no longer uses the term "fubing" to mark the origin of soldiers. Unification is all about words like "Athletes of the Long March" and "Unity".
Even the Longwu Army is not composed of government soldiers.
The military expenditure for recruiting soldiers is at least 10 million guan a year, which accounts for the majority of the central government's expenditure, far exceeding the 2 million guan in the early Kaiyuan years.
Li Linfu was thinking about one troublesome thing after another, none of which seemed to be easy to solve.
"The saint's stall is too big."
In the carriage, Li Linfu couldn't help but sigh.
…
In Luoyang City, heavy snow fell one by one.
At this moment, Zheng Shuqing stood in front of this magnificent granary, feeling complicated in his heart. I feel so bitter and I don’t know who to turn to.
Because Zheng Shuqing found that he seemed to have been tricked by Li Longji or Li Linfu, but he was unable to save the situation.
Fortunately, it is winter now, not the season for harvesting food, so there is still time to think of a solution. If he still can't think of a good solution by early next summer, then he, the Minister of Household Affairs, will really be in trouble!
Hanjiacang was the largest granary of the Tang Dynasty. At its peak, it stored half of the national grain reserves of the Tang Dynasty.
It is indeed a giant granary that is powerful in all directions, unparalleled in the world. At least it used to be, even ten years ago or even five years ago, but now it is mostly empty.
When Zheng Shuqing came, Li Linfu said that it was enough to check the inventory of the grain depot and not to worry about anything else. As a result, after those officials were investigated and dealt with, the task of transporting grain to Hanjiacang fell on him, the Minister of Household Affairs and the transport envoy!
Originally, the management of Hanjia Cang was mutually restrictive, with Sinong Temple as the mainstay, with the prison gate guards and the Yushitai supervising. The officials of the main warehouse were only responsible for inspection, correspondence, planning, recording, storage and other matters. Sinongqing made the final inspection, and it was not Zheng Shuqing's turn to intervene.
But now the former Sinong Qing Huangfu Weiming has been transferred to Longyou to take up a military position and lead the war against Tubo.
A leader is missing.
Coupled with the transfer, this official position was newly established not long ago to integrate the operations of different departments. So this pot was taken over by Zheng Shuqing.
If it were an ordinary granary, it would be fine to think of a way to fool it. But Hanjiacang is different. It is too big and too important to be taken lightly.
Hanjiacang is located in Luoyang City, the eastern capital of the Tang Dynasty. It is a small gated city named "Hanjiacang".
Its warehouse city is rectangular and surrounded by high walls. Among them, the north and south city walls are 615 meters long, the east and west walls are 725 meters long, the wall width is 15 to 17 meters, and the wall height is 1 to 6.5 meters. The city area is about 430,000 square meters, with amazing reserves!
Even if it is only 20 to 30% of the maximum reserves, the food reserves are still a terrifying astronomical figure.
Before Pei Yaoqing changed the route to Tongji Canal, the transshipment centers of the North and South Canals were Hanjiacang in Luoyang. All grain and grass from Jianghuai and Jiangnan must be stored in Hanjiacang and then transported by land to Chang'an.
The Tang Dynasty opened a separate "Chi Road" between Chang'an and Luoyang, which was responsible for transporting grain to Guanzhong.
However, the situation in Hanjiacang is not as simple as ordinary people think. The main reason for the lack of food in the warehouse this time is not official malfeasance.
There is no granary in the world that can supply the world for a hundred years. Those are the delusions of people who don’t know the inside story.
In fact, the granary has a very critical and very hidden data, which makes it unable to exist alone. It is precisely because of this that Hanjiacang is in today's situation.
The key data is that all food has a shelf life, and this shelf life is not long compared to the life of the dynasty.
Hanjiacang is an underground granary. When it was first built, it was built to the highest standards. The shelf life of the stored grain is also long, but it means that "in a dry place, millet can be stored for 9 years and rice for 5 years; in a humid and warm place, millet can be stored for 5 years." 5 years, rice is kept for 3 years.”
The system of the granary is to introduce the old and bring out the new. If water transportation cannot go through Luoyang, then the Hanjia granary will inevitably be empty. It is such a simple and straightforward truth.
If the food is not transported away, the shelf life is about to expire, and it will have to be sold locally in Luoyang. The granary is only responsible for storing grain, and there are other agencies responsible for government disaster relief and collecting and purchasing grain.
It seemed like everyone was responsible, and it seemed like no one did anything wrong, but in the end it turned into a bad debt.
In front of Zheng Shuqing, the censor of Hanjiacang prison and the history of Oshicang didn't even dare to show their anger. As long as the transporter sends a memorial, they will be finished immediately.
"Do you two have anything to teach me?"
Zheng Shuqing looked at the two people who didn't dare to raise their heads and asked with a sigh.
"Shilang Zheng, back then Xianggong changed the water transportation channel, but the rules for the operation of Hanjiacang remained the same as before. Now the grain has gone to Heyin Granary over Biankou, and there is nothing we can do."
The white-haired prison censor sighed.
Everyone knows that Biankou has become a new transshipment place, with piles of grain. But no one was willing to take the initiative and proposed abandoning Hanjiacang, which has been operating for a century, and abandoning this giant national strategic reserve warehouse.
Li Linfu asked Zheng Shuqing to find a way to "restore blood" to Hanjiacang within a few years, filling at least half of the granary.
And while doing this, grain must be continuously transported to the "exclusive grain depot" outside Chang'an City to supply Hexi military supplies.
How to do this!
Zheng Shuqing had no idea at all, and he couldn't produce food!
"I have already written a memorial to the saint. If you cannot complete the imperial decree by then, I will just drag you to the end.
The most I can do is to be dismissed from office. The food shortage in Hanjiacang was discovered by my own officer, so I have no responsibility. But what will happen to you in the end? Go back and think about it yourself. "
Zheng Shuqing shook his sleeves, turned around and left to get on the bullock cart.
Is it necessary to use the Hebian method?
He pondered those conventional methods in his mind, and the more he thought about it, the more he felt that he would die miserably in the end.
