Chapter 208 Undercurrents

Yang Guozhong has had a very irritable temper these two days, and has a gloomy face all day long. He will beat and scold the servants in the mansion. The whole Yang Mansion seems to have returned to the day of the 39th cold. The reason is that his eldest son Yang Xuan is the head of the Ministry of Rites and the Department of the Food Department of the Ministry of Rites. All links have been opened. Even Li Linfu nodded and agreed. However, when he was transferred to the Ministry of Personnel, he was rejected by Yang Shenjin, "If he is not from the imperial examination, he will not be hired!"

Yang Guozhong naturally understood that it was clearly that Yang Shenjin took revenge on his own, and that he was not from the imperial examination. Otherwise, how could he be the chief censor and now he has the position of Shaoqing of Taifu Temple. But even if Yang Guozhong knew about it, he had no choice. Yang Shenjin was the Minister of Personnel and had real power in his hands. When his anger was nowhere to be released, his slaves were in trouble.

That afternoon, after returning from the Imperial City Sanchai, Yang Guo locked himself in his study. Of course, he did not want to read the scriptures and history, but to his son's master, Zhao Yue, the top scholar in the imperial examination the year before yesterday, discussing the eldest son Yang Xuan's participation in the imperial examination this year.

"The Jinshi emphasizes poetry and is biased in understanding the classics. The subordinates think that the young master's foundation is not very good, but he can report the classics and the chances of winning are much greater."

While Zhao Yue said, he carefully peeked into Yang Guozhong's face. Since Li Linfu inserted him to Yang Guozhong's side, Zhao Yue quickly won the trust of Yang Guozhong, who was eager to be talented and became his courage. However, he really despised this ignorant person. He became famous by his nepotism and nepotism. He did not have the scheming and elegance of Li Xiangguo.

His son is even more foolish. He hasn't finished learning the Four Books and Five Classics. Just because he donated last year, he also wants to participate in the provincial examination of the Tang Dynasty? Humph! It's really ridiculous.

But he couldn't show any of his face. He bent down and smiled, "I can prepare more than a dozen policy statements for the eldest son at that time, as long as the young master remembers it."

Although Yang Guozhong was ignorant, he had been an official in Beijing for nearly a year and knew that the Tang Dynasty imperial examinations had to be passed by memorizing more than a dozen policy statements. Seeing that Zhao Yue was talking lightly, he was obviously bullying his ignorance. He was slightly angry and immediately said in a long voice: "Xuan'er is not a good source of study. If you can pass the exam, you can go to the palace to be a guard. Didn't Li Xiangguo also come from a guard back then?"

After saying that, he glared at Zhao Yue fiercely, and his eyes showed dissatisfaction.

Seeing that Yang Guozhong looked bad, Zhao Yue quickly changed his words: "I didn't mean that. I mean that as long as I get the secret of the scientific examination in advance and then prepare well, I will be confident that I can pass the Mingjing scientific examination."

"So that's what you meant, I misunderstood you."

Yang Guozhong's face cleared a little, he pondered for a moment and said, "I wonder who the chief examiner is this year?"

"I heard that Da Xixun, the Minister of Rites, was the chief minister, and Miao Jinqing, the doctor of the Ministry of Personnel Examination and Examination Bureau, was the deputy."

Seeing Yang Guozhong's face looked embarrassed, Zhao Yue couldn't help but smile and said, "Why didn't Master Zhongcheng ask for the Prime Minister in this matter? In fact, it only takes Li Gao's words."

Yang Guozhong woke up, but refused to lose face in front of Zhao Yue, so he coughed dryly and said solemnly: "The imperial examination is a major event in the country. How can my son be the heart of all the scholars in the world be cold? As the chief censor, I must abide by the laws and regulations. I will not mention this matter again in the future. You should review it for him. If you can pass the exam, you can take the exam. If you can fail the exam, you can become a guard. In a few years, I will be the only one who will be the first to be a senior official."

Zhao Yue secretly scolded him for being shameless, but his face showed shame and said, "The Chief Censor is so kind, but his subordinates are so dirty."

At this time, the sound of rapid footsteps came from outside, and the butler whispered outside: "Master, Your Highness Qing sent someone to wait outside the mansion, he wants to see the master!"

"His Highness Qing sent someone?"

Yang Guozhong's brows were twisted in surprise. Li Qiu, the son of King Qing, was very familiar with him, but that was just a friendship at the table. King Qing specially sent someone to come here, but this was the first time. What would happen to him? He looked at Zhao Yue and smiled and said, "The lord is working hard in the back house, so I'll bother sir." Zhao Yue understood and went straight.

After a while, the housekeeper led a man to Yang Guozhong's study. He saw that he was less than 30 years old, with a handsome appearance and fair skin, but there was always a sinister aura between his eyebrows and eyes. If Li Qing saw this person, he would definitely be shocked. This person was the only person who escaped from the Hai family back then, Hai Lan's second son Hai Zhongheng.

He fled to Chang'an to find his sister, but soon the Hai family incident broke out. His sister was retired by King Qing and sent to the sect. Because of his handsome appearance, he was attracted by King Qing, who had a treacherous sleeve, and hid beside him and changed his name to Jia Hai. He had hatred and was willing to welcome King Qing, and gradually gained his trust and became his confidant. He was appointed as a deacon, who was fully responsible for managing his business. Early this morning, King Qing Li Cong sent him to find Yang Guozhong to test the possibility of an alliance between the two sides.

He stepped forward, knelt down and gave a big gift to Yang Guozhong, took out a letter from his arms, and handed it on both hands, "This is my prince's handwritten letter to Yang Zhongcheng, please check it out."

Yang Guozhong took the letter and looked up and down at Hai Zhongheng first, and suddenly asked: "I heard that your accent seems to be from Shu. What's your name? What's your position in Prince Qing's Mansion?"

Hai Zhongheng stood up and bowed to Yang Guozhong again, saying neither humble nor arrogantly: "I am Jia Minghai, a great deacon in the prince's mansion, and I am a native of Chengdu. I came to Chang'an two years ago because of my family's defeat. When Yang Zhongcheng was the county magistrate of Chengdu, I also met Yang Zhongcheng."

When Yang Guozhong heard this, he couldn't help laughing, "So it's still an old friend, come! Please sit down and talk."

Yang Guozhong pulled two chairs and asked Jia Hai (who will be called Jia Hai later) to sit down, and then he leaned lazily on the bench, tearing open the letter, pulled out the letter inside, and read it carefully.

The content of the letter is very simple, it is nothing more than admiring him for being upright and virtuous, and finally invited him to the Prince Qing’s Mansion for a banquet.

Yang Guozhong looked over and over again twice, studying the meaning of each word, but still couldn't understand the letter. Logically, King Qing is the eldest son of the emperor, and has a respectable status. He has no relationship with him. He has not even said a few words. He has no handle on his hands. Why did he suddenly show kindness to him? Could it be that he has any internal news that he is going to get promoted?

In just one year, Yang Guozhong was promoted from a small Jinwu Guard to a fourth-rank censor, and also served as the Jingzhao Shaoyin, Taifu Temple Shaoqing and other positions. It can be described as the four words "good luck". Despite this, Yang Guozhong was still not satisfied. He wanted to get a full position in the fifth prison of the Nine Temples, or as a minister in the six ministries, and suppress Li Qing, who had always been jealous of him, but he himself knew how to get promoted without any achievements.

I wanted to wait for a few years before talking about my qualifications, but a letter from King Qing rekindled his hope. He spread the letter on the table and stared at Jia Hai and said, "Do you have any verbal words about Your Highness Qing?"

"My prince asked me to tell Lord Zhongcheng that a grand banquet has been set up tonight, so I would like to invite you to come."

After pausing, he saw that Yang Guozhong was still hesitating, and slowly said the second half of the sentence, "My prince is quite connected in the capital. If there is anything difficult for Lord Zhongcheng, you might as well tell my prince clearly that if he can help, he will help."

"A difficult thing?"

Yang Guozhong suddenly thought of his son's participation in the imperial examination, which was a good opportunity. He immediately smiled and said, "If you go back, please tell the prince, just say that Yang will be here tonight."

At the same time when Yang Guozhong accepted the invitation of King Qing and agreed to go to his house to attend the banquet, he deployed the yamen in the households of the Imperial City Shangshu Province. Li Qing was still discussing specific measures to implement the Salt Law with several of his subordinates. Li Qing was fully prepared for the resistance to the implementation of the new Salt Law. Since ancient times, no reform or reform has been completed successfully. Moreover, his Salt Law is the reallocation of interests, which has a strong impact on those who gain benefits. Although the new law has only been promulgated for two days, he can already imagine how those who earn salt profits should panic, and how to conspire to connect and discuss countermeasures.

According to Li Qing's plan, it took him at least three months to find out the current situation in the salt market. For example, who are backgrounds making profits from it? What are the channels and means for local governments to collect salt taxes? This requires a lot of manpower and material resources to investigate, so that they can be targeted and find a breakthrough in implementing the new salt law. However, Li Longji did not give him time to investigate, so he was anxious to promulgate the new law, which also shows the embarrassment of the imperial court's finances.

It was not until a few days after Li Qing took office that he was surprised to find that the embarrassment of the treasury was far worse than he imagined. Taxes from various places had just been lifted into Beijing, and after deducting various expenses, Zuozang saved less than 300,000 guan, and the palace expenses were at least 100,000 guan a month. In other words, even if others do not eat or drink and only provide one place in the palace, it is only enough for three months of expenses. No wonder he had just proposed to Li Longji to delay the implementation of the new law for three months, but Li Longji refused it.

"It seems that I can only cross the river with my own stones!"

Li Qing had no choice but to test his ability to handle emergencies!

There were two people sitting there, one of whom was Wei Jiansu, the left assistant minister of the Ministry of Revenue, and the other was Wu Qi, the Du branch secretary. Wei Jiansu was a side branch of Wei. He was always cautious in his official position and was famous for his official reputation. This time, Wei Jian's disaster did not involve him, but the Wei family was also incompatible with Li Linfu. After the establishment of the Zhang Qiu Party, he was the first important member to surrender to Zhang Qiu and Qiong. In addition, the right assistant minister Li Qing, the entire Ministry of Revenue was basically controlled by the Zhang Qiu Party, so Li Linfu reported that Yang Guozhong was the Shaoqing of Taifu Temple. The functions of Taifu Temple were equivalent to the current central bank, the General Administration of Grain Reserves and the General Administration of Industry and Commerce, which could greatly control the Ministry of Revenue.

"Mr. Li, I think the biggest difficulties in implementing the new salt law this time are probably two. First, they dare not disobey orders in the local area, but the local yin and yang will not be less. For example, the number of salt fields is misrepresented, such as delaying time, such as manipulating local salt markets, especially Yangzhou, is the main production area of ​​salt, so important personnel must be sent to Yangzhou. The second difficulty is that the powerful and wealthy people in Beijing are involved in salt benefits, so I won't talk about the smaller ones. Princes, King Qing and King Yong are involved, especially King Qing, who sells private salt in huge amounts and operates publicly. Even the emperor turns a blind eye to him, but he can't get around it."

Speaking of this, Wei Jiansu secretly glanced at Li Qing. He had been an official for more than ten years. He knew very well that if he wanted to successfully implement the salt method, he would probably have to remove King Qing first. Otherwise, if the superiors did not follow him, how could the subordinates follow him? But it would be easier to really touch him. It is actually said that Wei Jiansu was cautious in being an official, but in fact, he rarely caused trouble and could protect himself.

"What subordinates mean is to establish the yamen of the salt and iron envoy as soon as possible, so that the government can be separated and the people can be dedicated. Otherwise, the matter will not only be difficult, but will also miss the affairs of the Ministry of Revenue."

Wei Jiansu's meaning Li Qing understood that the salt method should be done by someone with sharp strength. An old man like Wei Jiansu who never offends others even if he wants to participate, Li Qing would not use him. Li Qing smiled faintly and said, "I came to Wei Shigong to tell you that my energy may be put on the implementation of the salt method. In the future, the daily affairs of the Ministry of Revenue will need to be paid more attention to Wei Shigong."

"Of course!"

Wei Jiansu was secretly happy, but he was a little ashamed of Li Qing. He thought for a while and said, "I can recommend someone to Mr. Li. This person is a chief of the Jin ministry. His surname is Liu and his name is Yan. He is very proficient in taxation and is capable and capable. Mr. Li might as well use him well."

Li Qing nodded, then turned around and said to Di Wuqi who was silent on the side: "You are an old official from the Ministry of Revenue. Within three days, you will draft a list of personnel for me."

Li Qing also served as the doctor of the Duzhi, while Di Wuqi was the Duzhi's official Wailang, and his immediate superior. In history, after the Anshi Rebellion, it was Di Wuqi who adopted the method of selling salt to raise money used by Yan Zhenqing in Hebei to implement the new salt administration nationwide, which made the court survive a serious financial crisis after the Anshi Rebellion.

At this time, Wei saw that Su had said goodbye and left. When Di Wuqi saw him walking away, he took out a thick list from his arms and handed it to Li Qing and smiled and said, "I have already prepared it for the Minister."

Li Qing was overjoyed and took it over. There were as many as a hundred people on the list, including their resumes, qualifications, identity backgrounds, and most of them were under forty. In his prime, he put down the list and stared at this capable and capable middle-aged man who knew his thoughts. He thought for a while and said, "Yangzhou is a major area of ​​salt and iron, and I am going to put my breakthrough point there. I want to order you to be a member of the salt and iron to go to Yangzhou to promote the salt method. Are you willing?"

Wuqi stood up and bowed a lot, and said solemnly: "How can I refuse to do my duty for the country!"

"Okay! Get rid of it and you'll leave tomorrow."

Li Qing patted his shoulder and smiled and said, "If you have anything that cannot be solved, you can report it to me immediately."
Chapter completed!