After the morning court the next day, Pei Ju did not return to his official room, but walked towards the imperial study room of Wencheng Palace.

Walking through a long corridor, Pei Ju saw Xiao Yu seemingly scolding Shao Ming, the Minister of Revenue, from afar, and he stopped. At this time, Xiao Yu felt something. When he turned around, he saw Pei Ju not far away, and waved his hand to let Shao Ming leave.

"Shi Wen seems to be in a bad mood!" Pei Ju walked over with a smile.

Xiao Yu is the younger brother of Empress Xiao, who is less than fifty years old and is a generation younger than Pei Ju. Although he served as the Minister of Inner History and was in a high position, he respected the elderly quite respectfully. He bowed to Pei Ju, "It made Mr. Pei laugh."

Pei Ju glanced at Shao Ming's back as he was gone, and smiled with concern: "Is it ugly for the tax last year?"

Xiao Yu is in charge of land finance and taxation in the Sui Dynasty. Every April, the Ministry of Revenue will report the taxes of various places to him in the past year. When Pei Ju saw him scolding Shao Ming, he knew that the situation last year was not optimistic.

Xiao Yu sighed softly, "Last year, taxes in various places have dropped sharply by 50%. I can't report to the emperor!"

"How could it be reduced so much?" Pei Ju was shocked.

Since the outbreak of the Goguryeo Battle in the eighth year of Daye, the financial and taxation of the Sui Dynasty has been decreasing every year. The main reason is that the population is demise and the rioters are rampant. Many counties have actually been controlled by %% and the rioters. Therefore, everyone is accustomed to the reduction of fiscal and taxation every year, but this year it has actually decreased by 50% compared to last year. This can no longer be called a sharp reduction, but an avalanche, so Pei Ju was really surprised.

Xiao Yu was in a heavy mood and shook his head and said, "Last year, Heluo and Bingzhou suffered consecutive disasters. The rebellions in Jiangnan have been one after another. The impact of natural disasters is too great. The merger of manors in Guanlong is too powerful, and the self-cultivation farmers have dropped sharply. The only slightly stable one is Bashu. All kinds of unfavorable situations are summarized, and the final result is very ugly."

"But this is not the problem of Minister Shao! Why did Shi Wen blame him?"

"I'm not scolding him for lack of taxes, but his idea is wrong."

Pei Ju looked at Xiao Yu in confusion, and Xiao Yu continued to explain: "He suggested using inventory to offset taxes and using inventory to make up for the shortage of income and expenditure, but he wanted to cheat the emperor. So I scolded him hard."

"It's hard for him. You also know that once the emperor gets angry, he will not consider who's responsibility. The Minister of Revenue is the first to be the one who is responsible. He just wants to protect himself."

"Even if you protect yourself, you can't even think about fraud. Wouldn't the crime of deceiving the monarch be even more serious?"

Pei Ju knew that Xiao Yu was very principled, or was not good at adapting, and he couldn't talk about many things with him. Pei Ju smiled and said nothing more, so he said goodbye and walked towards the imperial study room.

Xiao Yu was worried. He was still considering how to report to the emperor about the sharp tax reduction last year. In fact, he knew the real reason better than anyone else.

The Guanlong nobles have pleaded with the land of Guanzhong and Longyou in the past few years. The local governments dared not stop it, and at the same time they did not report it, which led to a sharp reduction in self-cultivation farmers. In addition, the tax on the manor could not be collected. It was precisely because of the sharp drop in taxes in Guanlong that caused the entire tax to fall by 50%.

Xiao Yu hesitated for a long time. He finally decided to tell the emperor the real reason. After all, it was not as simple as reducing taxes. Xiao Yu hurried to his official rank.

Pei Ju waited outside the imperial study for a while, and a eunuch came out and laughed and said, "Mr. Pei, the emperor is welcome!"

Pei Ju smiled slightly. "Don't say the word 'please' in the future, just say that the emperor would just let me see you, so as not to make people laugh."

"Haha! Mr. Pei is right. It's because our family is not considering it well. Mr. Pei. Please!"

Pei Ju shook his head and walked into the imperial study quickly. Yang Guang had just returned from the morning court and was savoring a bowl of bird's nest porridge. Pei Ju stepped forward and gave a deep gift, "Old minister, please see Your Majesty!"

"Mr. Pei came just right, and today's bird's nest was stewed well."

Yang Guang smiled and ordered his side, "Supply a bowl of bird's nest for Pei Xiangguo."

"Thank you, my elders!"

A eunuch presented Pei Ju with a bowl of bird's nest. Pei Ju just drank a little symbolically. The emperor was just polite. How could he really drink it up to heaven?

Yang Guang tasted two more bird's nests, then put the bowl aside, pondered for a while and said to Pei Ju: "I am considering letting Zhang Xuan be the governor of Qi County. Pei Ren is the governor of Xingyang County. What do Pei Qing thinks?"

Pei Ju's face changed slightly. He was afraid of this result, so he tried every means to find the reason for Pei Renji's defeat. Unexpectedly, the emperor came up with a plan so quickly. Fortunately, he was just asking for his opinions and did not really implement it. He must try his best to prevent the emperor from implementing this decision.

"The old minister can understand Your Majesty's mood, but your Majesty has thought about it. Zhang Xuan's qualifications are still too shallow. It will make the military dissatisfied with him so quickly, and it will not be beneficial to him. The last time I opposed the promotion of him to the Hu Ben General was precisely for this consideration. Please think twice."

Yang Guang nodded slightly, "Mr. Pei's words make sense, but if Langya County is not recovered, Qing and Xu will not be able to connect the two states of Qing and Xu, which will not have enough security support in the northern part of Jiangdu. I am even more worried about Xuzhou. Once the bandits from Donghai County and Langya County join forces to attack Xuzhou, the bandits in the Central Plains will break out again, Jiangdu will lose the northern barrier and even cut off the connection between Jiangdu and Luoyang. Does Mr. Pei understand my concerns?"

"The old minister fully understands the bad impact of the failure to suppress bandits in Langya County, but the old minister believes that the failure to fight against Langya County this time was caused by many reasons, not entirely because of Pei Renji's lack of personal ability. I hope Your Majesty can understand this clearly."

"Tell me, I'm willing to listen."

Of course, Yang Guang knew very well that Pei Ju wanted to defend Pei Renji. Although he was extremely disappointed with Pei Renji, Pei Ju and Pei Yun were all senior officials of the court, so it was impossible for him not to consider their ideas.

"Your Majesty, Pei Renji's failure in attacking Langya County, the old minister believes that there are two reasons. One is that Sun Xuanya and Wang Bo's old nests are in the southern part of Langya County, and the mountains in the north of Langya County are rolling for hundreds of miles, with inconvenient transportation and difficult logistics supply, which is not conducive to attacking Langya County from the north. Therefore, although Langya County belongs to Qingzhou, it still has to be attacked by Xuzhou's garrison. This is a reason. His Majesty also agreed last time, but this is not the real reason for Pei Renji's defeat."

"Oh? Then what is the real reason?" Yang Guang also became a little interested.

"Your Majesty, the real reason is that at the important moment of the confrontation between the two armies, Wang Shichong of Qinghe County took advantage of the empty troops of Qi County and led his army south to plunder more than 100,000 people of Qi County, resulting in chaos in the morale of the front. Pei Renji was forced to withdraw his troops, and the bandit army took the opportunity to chase him, which led to heavy casualties in the Feiying Army. This is the real reason, Your Majesty!"

In fact, Pei Ju also understood that Pei Renji was looking for reasons for herself, and it might not be the reason, but Pei Ju also needed to find a sufficient reason to convince Yang Guang and continue to let Pei Renji stay in Qi County.

More importantly, Pei Ju believes that Yang Guang also knew about Wang Shichong, but with Yu Shiji pleading for Wang Shichong, Yang Guang may not pursue this matter, which made Pei Ju catch a handle. If Yang Guang does not pursue Wang Shichong and cross-border robbery, then Pei Renji will not be investigated for defeating Langya County, and he cannot favor one or the other.

This is the balance strategy in the art of emperors. One party cannot be allowed to monopolize the interests, nor can one party bear the blame alone. As the emperor, of course, Pei Shiji can be punished, but Wang Shichong must be punished, otherwise Yang Guang will not be able to balance between Yu Shiji and Pei Ju.

Yang Guang did not speak for a long time, and he also received a report written by Wang Shichong, which stated that the Qianli Chiye in Qinghe County did not have enough people's strength to prevent him from launching an attack on Gao Shida and Dou Jiande.

At the same time, Wang Shichong also accused Pei Shiji and Zhang Xuan of obstructing the people of Qinghe County from returning to their hometown. In order to calm Dou Jiande and Gao Shida as soon as possible, he had to forcefully move back to the people of Qinghe County.

In addition, Yu Shiji used detailed data to explain the current miserable situation in Qinghe County and tried his best to defend Wang Shichong. Yang Guang finally decided not to punish Wang Shichong for cross-county robbery, but only asked him not to give an example.

But now the problem arises. Pei Ju pointed out that Pei Renji's defeat in Langya County was because of Wang Shichong's attack behind the scenes. Regardless of whether it was for this reason or not, Yang Guang had to give Pei Ju an explanation, either Wang Shichong and Pei Renji would be punished together, or they would not be punished, which made Yang Guang feel very embarrassed.

After pondering for a long time, Yang Guang finally nodded, "Well! If it is for this reason, it is understandable that Pei Renji's defeat in Langya County is defeated. I will give him another chance and hope that he will not let me down next time."

Yang Guang took the edict to confer Zhang Xuan as the governor of Qi County, drew a fork on it, and threw it into the discarded document.

Pei Ju secretly breathed a sigh of relief and finally saved Pei Renji.
Chapter completed!