In the autumn and seventh month of the first year of Qianyou, Wushenshuo, Liu Chengyou entered the Chongyuan Hall and entered the imperial dynasty.
Since he took the throne, due to various reasons, he has not conducted a few imperial dynasties in total. However, every time a great dynasty is held, discussions on state affairs and current affairs are long and complicated.
"Your Majesty, the summer harvest in the Kinki prefectures has been completed, and the summer grains have been put into the warehouses in various prefectures. The towns under the control of the Central Plains and Hebei have also come to the end of the summer expedition." Wang Zhang, the envoy of the Third Division, went out to report to Liu Chengyou The "good news" was also announced to the ministers.
After saying this, Liu Chengyou's facial muscles became much softer, as did the ministers present. For almost a year, the Han Dynasty court was suffering from food shortage. Although the court tried its best to raise food, and even signed a contract with Hou Shu to "lose power and humiliate the country", it was always a drop in the bucket and could not make ends meet. Up to now, the lower-class people in Tokyo, including many petty officials, almost all have hungry faces.
After enduring this for so long, I finally had a real turning point. Of course, we plant in autumn and harvest in summer. Last year, due to the lack of peace in the country and the war, the scale of autumn plowing was not large, so the output of summer harvest was still not satisfactory. For the most part, it still depends on the autumn harvest. However, the drought in Hebei for several months has dealt a big blow to agriculture and has spread to the Central Plains...
However, no matter how many difficulties there are, how can they be as difficult as last year and when Liu Chengyou first took the throne? It is a good thing to get new grain into the warehouse.
"I am ordering all the governors in charge of the army, envoys and officials to complete all summer harvest tasks and settle summer taxes before July!" Liu Chengyou sat upright, with a loud voice and clear enunciation. When he spoke, the beads on his crown did not move much.
After a pause, he continued: "I have ordered all the prefectures to levy summer taxes starting from June 1st and autumn taxes starting from October 1st. This will always be custom-made."
After thinking about it for a while, Liu Chengyou said: "In addition, the state governments will keep 40% of the taxes in summer and autumn for themselves, and the rest will be lost to Tokyo! The three divisions select capable officials as grain envoys and send them to each state to supervise them. thing!"
"Yes!" Wang Zhang agreed without any hesitation.
"Your Majesty, Qingzhou Jiedu Envoy Liu Zhu reported that the locust plague has disappeared. A total of more than 50,000 locusts have been caught in the prefectures and counties within the territory, and the field seedlings are harmless." After Wang Zhang finished playing, his servant Dou Zhengu stood up to report.
Droughts are often accompanied by locust plagues. Last month, the drought in various states in Hebei became increasingly severe, especially in Pinglu. Locusts appeared, flooding and destroying people's fields. Upon hearing the news, the first reaction of the ministers of the imperial court was to pray to the sky for rain and set up an altar to pray to the "Locust God". A slightly more useful suggestion was to ban the hunting of Qu pigeons because Qu pigeons eat locusts.
This was rejected by Liu Chengyou and he issued an edict directly, telling officials and people in Qingzhou and Hebei Daozhou that locusts have destroyed our crops and I will eat them immediately. Locusts can be of great nutritional value.
The officials were hesitant, but this edict had precedents to follow and could be tested, so they did not stop it.
Under the imperial edict, Liu Zhu, the envoy of Pinglu Festival, reacted very quickly, quickly conveyed the imperial edict and the emperor's holy will, and organized Jingzhou and county generals to lead the people to exterminate the locusts. In fact, before the imperial edict came, Liu Zhu had already made preparations to catch locusts. Therefore, after spending a month inspecting Zi and Qing, nothing was missed. The crops did not suffer too much from insect pests, but tens of thousands of dendrobium "grains" were obtained in vain.
Of course, Liu Chengyou doesn't really believe that "field seedlings are harmless". How can the drought locust disaster have such a small impact? Even if the insect infestation is suppressed, the drought of many days without rain will be enough to reduce the autumn grain production. In Qingzhou, Liu Zhu responded quickly, but in other places, there is a question mark.
"Reduce the system, commend the generals of Qingzhou, add Liu Zhu to the title of Sikong, Tongpingzhangshi, from Jiedu and below, those who protect the fields from locusts will be cited for their merits, transferred to their posts and rewarded." Liu Chengyou still replied steadily.
"yes."
After careful calculation, after the summer harvest, there are not many prefectures and towns that have enough energy to support Tokyo. The two capitals of Kinki are Datou, Kaifeng, Luoyang, Zheng, Ru, Xu, Song, Hao, Chen, Cai, etc.
Among these prefectures and counties, the two capitals and Zhengzhou are the core. Zhengzhou was also affected by the Yuanwu breach. For the rest, during the early rule of Ru, Song, and Hao, Xuzhou was tormented by Liu Xin, and the separatist regime was restricted to the south of the land of Chen and Cai.
In addition, Xuzhou's hunger situation has eased somewhat, Yanzhou's situation is OK, and Yunzhou's self-sufficiency is still difficult to achieve under the governance of the emperor's relative Murong Yanchao.
As for the towns in Hebei, the Weibo area was still devastated by the war last year, and the rest were all affected by drought. The three towns of Chengde, Henghai and Pinglu were slightly better.
In addition, in Heyang and Hedong, the military and political affairs are considered stable and the production is sufficient. However, last year, more than half of the population in Hedong followed Liu Zhiyuan and moved south to the Central Plains. Their potential was almost reduced, and it was difficult to provide sufficient food.
Guanzhong was automatically ignored, and the rest were either in the border areas, or the court was not able to control them well, or they needed to be fed back by the court.
In short, for the Han Dynasty, although the food shortage can be solved after the summer harvest, it is still not optimistic. If the drought continues today, the trouble will be even greater. Recently, due to the drought, Liu Chengyou has been increasingly depressed.
"Your Majesty, I heard from the Censor's Office that there are many people in the world who are committing lies and murders. Local states, counties, and vassal towns reported punishments and killings, but the imperial court did not investigate the truth and complied with their requests. There are even those who did not report and committed punishments and murders. This has led to There are countless officials and people in the world who have died in vain. Under the sky, there is a lot of complaints. I ask your Majesty to issue an edict to rectify the situation so as to eliminate the people's resentment and highlight the saint's benevolence." The person who entered the performance was Cheng Bianwei, the censor.
After Bian Wei finished speaking, "Prime Minister" Yang Bin, who was sitting in the front row, looked a little unhappy. He agreed to all the punishments and executions because of the local government's punishment, citing the profound legal practice in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China.
Liu Chengyou also glanced at Yang Bin, got angry, and spoke directly about the rectification measures: "From now on, when reports of executions are made in Fanzhou Town, Dali and the Ministry of Punishment must verify the facts before dealing with them. All state governments, all involved Murder cases must be reported to superiors for review, and no arbitrary killings are allowed. In addition, the Han Dynasty’s criminal system must be reorganized to speed up the progress!”
"Your Majesty is wise!"
"yes!"
"Your Majesty, Hengzhou and Cangzhou reported that since the summer this year, the northern land has been famine-stricken and households have fled south. Hengzhou has taken in 3,741 Yan people, and Cangzhou has taken in 4,360 people." Prime minister Li Tao reported.
"With Zhang Yanwei and Wang Jing, follow the previous example and make good arrangements!"
"yes."
"Your Majesty, Huazhou Guo Congyi reported that the breach in the fish pond has been resolved. The fields were damaged and there were no casualties."
...
"Your Majesty, based on reports from all parties, after nearly half a year of crackdowns by the imperial court and local officials, since the founding of the People's Republic of China, the thieves who have caused trouble to the local area have been basically eliminated. As of now, it can be said that the banditry of the Han Dynasty has been eliminated!" Yang Bin As a prime minister, it is impossible not to say something. Once you speak, it will be good news.
"Because of your Majesty's bravery and bravery, the military and political parties are united, the people are loyal to you, and the world is in order!" Su Yugui followed suit.
The imperial army was sent to local areas to suppress the enemy, and the effect was remarkable. If not, it would be too late to just rely on local governments to do their own thing. Moreover, it is gratifying to have the bandits suppressed, but if good governance is not implemented, it will only happen overnight if the people become bandits again.
"Your Majesty, please collect the Imperial Army and return it to the court, and issue an edict to reward those who have made meritorious service in fighting thieves!" Yang Bin asked with a serious face. That somewhat reserved expression made Liu Chengyou feel strange.
"Yes!" Liu Chengyou's expression remained unchanged and he responded calmly.
Just like in the past, a court meeting lasted for nearly three hours. Everything is complicated, and it seems that all important military and political affairs in the world are concentrated on this day. Of course, there are urgent matters, and there are also reporting matters that have been handled long ago.
But what is really important is not suitable to be discussed with the courtiers at the court meeting. After the dynasty dispersed, the ministers and ministers were very understanding and tacitly agreed to go to the Guangzheng Hall. Obviously, there were still matters to discuss.
For example, the situation in Youzhou and the unusual movements of Li Shouzhen in the river.
