Chapter 177 Must Have a Collateral
Zhao Yulin thought for a while and said, isn’t it the young lady he personally saved?
Huo Fenghuang nodded and said to Luo Mingqiu, "She is working as a secretary in the Military Discipline Bureau. She is eloquent and quite good. What's wrong with that?"
Luo Mingqiu let out a long sigh and said thank God that he finally found it.
Then, Luo Mingqiu told the story of the emperor's daughter Zhao Feiyan and the commoner Xiao Yan. He said that he knew that the emperor had sent people to assassinate Lord Zhao and his subordinates. He was not afraid that Lord Zhao would kill him immediately, just to protect the little princess.
Then, the guy took out the gold medal given to him by the emperor to ask for money.
The Fire Phoenix was shocked, her eyebrows immediately raised, and she became angry.
Zhao Yulin smiled and waved his hands, not even looking at the gold medal. He said that the emperor wanted his subjects to die, so did the ministers have to fight the emperor to death? Let's not talk about this. Our Shenwei Army is particular about dealing with things on a case-by-case basis. We don't even punish the families of criminals, so why would we harm a policeman?
He pointed at Fenghuang and said, Chief Yuhou had just clearly affirmed that Xiao Yan had done a good job, and Eunuch Luo could go and ask her herself whether she was willing to stay in Hanzhong or find another place and come and go freely.
If the young lady wants to stay in our Shenwei Army, then you will have to be her groom. Eunuch Luo should have brought some people with him, and they can all work here, but I can only be an ordinary soldier.
Luo Mingqiu sighed and said that he knew Lord Zhao would make arrangements, but he didn't just ask him to be a groom, but it was just right for him to take care of the little princess.
Zhao Yulin did not explain, and said to Fenghuang, since the father-in-law has agreed, then please let the chief military officer arrange it.
Huo Fenghuang immediately wrote a warrant and asked the captain of the guard to come in and tell him to lead out Zhao Yulin's big white horse and hand it over to Luo Mingqiu, and let him go to the base of the Jinzhou Second Column to report to Xiao Yan.
Luo Mingqiu looked at Zhao Yulin and asked if there was anything else he wanted to explain.
He said that many people in Lin'an disliked the Shenwei Army, and there were also many spies from the north who were spying on the court. He did not want the secrets of the Shenwei Army to be leaked out, so he asked the eunuch to decide how to reply to the emperor on his own.
After Luo Mingqiu finished telling the story of the princess, he broke out in a cold sweat and thought that he was doomed. However, he did not expect that Zhao Yulin was so open-minded and confident. He did not care about the bad things done by the Lin'an court and did not restrict his actions.
A sense of awe arose spontaneously, and he bowed deeply to Zhao Yulin and his wife before saying goodbye and leaving.
After Luo Mingqiu left, Fenghuang hugged Zhao Yulin tightly and said, "It was a close call. Xiao Yan turned out to be a princess of the royal family and also the discipline inspector of our Shenwei Army."
Zhao Yulin said with a smile, "We are acting aboveboard, and have not done anything wrong. We have not done anything to offend the government, so what's the danger?"
Then, he took Fenghuang out for a walk, and as they walked he told her sisters to be careful when speaking in the future and not to use "this palace" anymore. If they said "this palace" too easily and someone got hold of it, it would be the capital crime of usurping the throne and they could be beheaded.
Phoenix snuggled up to him and asked him with a smile, "Brother, do you get scared sometimes?"
Zhao Yulin said it was just a matter of words, there was no need to waste time, he patted the woman on the back and walked away.
In Chengdu, Cao Youwen and his wife went south, met old friends in Lizhou and Langzhou, and then came to the government office in Chengdu. The articles about Zhao Yulin's self-help production in Hanzhong and Guanzhong all flew into the hands of Lord Ding.
Mr. Ding invited him to Wenjun Restaurant for a drink to welcome him.
Cao Youwen expressed his true feelings and asked Chengdu to issue a document to withhold tax silver and reserve some military funds for the Shenwei Army.
Ding Gong raised his glass and clinked it with Lao Cao's . He took a bite and said that he had seen the articles about Guanzhong and Hanzhong practicing strict economy and supporting the army. He knew that it was difficult to lead a large army, but it was even more difficult in Lin'an.
Fairy Banban, Prefect Ding is complaining to Lao Cao about the hardships of Lin'an, and now he needs to play Tai Chi and pass the buck.
He said that Lianghuai was occupied, Jinghu was barren, and Jiangnan was hollowed out, so the court had to rely on Shu to get some money.
Lao Cao was a little unhappy. He didn't expect that Lao Ding would not give him any face at all.
He said that the imperial court took away the tax silver and did not provide any salary to the Shenwei Army, so how could the army survive?
At present, there are hundreds of thousands of Shenwei troops guarding the border. If we lose Lanzhou and Guanzhong, how much money will we have to spend and how many men will die to take them back...
Lord Ding sighed and told him: Lord Cao does not need to worry about these. In the eyes of the court in Lin'an, as long as the northern barbarians do not break into Yangping Pass and occupy Chengdu, it will be fine. The court will still ask them to pay taxes to protect Jiangdong.
Cao Youwen felt a chill in his heart. He then realized what Zhao Yulin meant by it being useless to look for Ding Gong. He felt extremely upset.
He settled for the next best option, which was to purge the inland garrisons, set up training camps in Chengdu, Qiongzhou and Hezhou, and recruit new soldiers to go to the front lines.
Mr. Ding did not stop this matter. Because of the increase in taxes and the prevalence of thieves in various places, the guards had to be driven away to strengthen their bodies and deal with emergencies.
Seeing that Old Cao was in a bad mood, Mr. Ding knew that he had just blocked the withholding of tax silver, which made Mr. Cao unhappy. He smiled and said that in recent years, thanks to the new things made by Jiading Prefecture's ingenious craftsmanship, the tax silver has increased.
Cao Gong first took 100,000 taels of silver, and later allocated the increased portion to the border troops for expenses.
Then I told Lao Cao that the government had approved the request and agreed that the new currency of Mr. Yulin would be issued in Guanzhong and Hexi. I spent a lot of time and effort writing three memorials.
Lao Cao listened and realized that Ding Gong still supported the border and the Shenwei Army. He finally felt that the trip to Chengdu was not in vain. A slight smile appeared on his face, and the two of them raised their glasses and drank.
After returning, he happily wrote a letter to Zhao Yulin to report the good news. The next day, he took the official documents from Chengdu and rushed to the other two places to look for money.
The Imperial Palace of Dali Kingdom.
The old Zhennan King ascended the throne and became the new emperor, and Duan Xiaolin naturally became the new Zhennan King. Zhao Yulin's sister Zhao Sihan happily became the princess.
They were only happy for a few days when the new emperor summoned the couple to have dinner together and discuss state affairs.
The young emperor told Duan Xiaolin that he wanted him to go on a diplomatic mission to Jiading Prefecture of the Song Dynasty to discuss with his uncle Zhao Yulin about paying a share of the taxes in Xinshi, which was a business worth tens of thousands of taels of silver a year.
Duan Xiaolin immediately looked at Zhao Sihan, who pretended not to know what he meant and continued to drink and eat with the women. The boy had no choice but to bite the bullet and say that the armistice was signed at the beginning, and it was agreed that they would talk again after three years. Now that the time limit has not yet arrived, how can he argue?
The young emperor said earnestly that he and his son had not achieved anything since they came to power, so how could they convince the people if they did not do something? Now the Shenwei Army has become a thorn in the eyes of the northern lion, with a large territory and weak military strength, and they certainly do not want to be enemies with Dali. It is a good opportunity to go to Jiading Prefecture to ask for some bonuses.
He said that Yibin was building new warships, which were flying ships. They didn't need to give him money, but he wanted two new ships. If they didn't want new ships, he could have ten or twenty old ships. We promised that we would never attack Xinshi again. This time, we also had to reorganize our army and improve our combat effectiveness before we could fight against the Dai Viet Tran Dynasty and Tubo and take back what we deserved.
Duan Xiaolin is even more Buddhist than his father. When he heard that his father was taking advantage of someone's misfortune, which was not a gentleman's behavior, he would not go.
The young emperor immediately became displeased, saying that he was still the eldest prince and should share the worries of the court. Was the King of Zhennan in Dali just doing this for fun?
Duan Xiaolin was the type of young man who loved to travel and have fun. He just wanted to have a good time with Zhao Sihan in his fiefdom of Kunming, where birds were singing and flowers were blooming. There was no worry about power struggles.
Now he is the King of Zhennan. Although he seems to be in a high position, he is actually surrounded by dangers. His father has three wives and four sons. His three younger brothers want to be kings under the guidance of their mothers so that they can inherit the throne in the future. He is caught by his brothers if he is not careful in what he says or does. He feels very tired.
Now that his father was pressuring him again, he had no choice but to accept it first. He immediately said "yes" and accepted his father's order, thinking that he had never been to Yibin even though he became a king, so he might as well go out for a trip and not care about taxes.
When it comes to taxation, the whole world is racking its brains to figure it out. The Khan of the northern grasslands is also listening to the opinions of Prime Minister Yelu Chucai in his big tent.
Prime Minister Yelu reported to him: The princes are too cruel. They don't care about people's livelihood at all and let their Persians lend lambs to debt. That is a business of compounding interest, interest on interest, skinning and digging out the heart. The grassland people can't pay it back, and the longer it takes, the bigger it will be like a snowball.
Fortunately, they implemented household taxation in the conquered areas of Hebei and Hezhong, forming a stable source of tax revenue, otherwise it would have affected the finances of the royal court.
He suggested that the emperor issue an edict to cancel the lamb debt, and the borrower only need to repay the principal, or let the government treasury take out some silver to compensate the princes who lent the money?
This was the national financial plan being discussed in the court of the Great Mongol King. Their wealthy princes and generals handed their silver to the captured Persian smart men to manage, and started the most high-end financial micro-loan business.
The grassland empire was engaged in a large-scale small-amount loan business. Whenever someone borrowed money, the creditor would write a contract and cut the interest before paying. These borrowers did not know the seriousness of the matter. They happily borrowed the loan for consumption, waiting for the weather to warm up before sending troops to the south to rob and pay off the debts. However, they returned empty-handed after several wars, and could not even repay the loan by selling their children, so they were forced to go to the royal court to solve the problem.
The Khan knew that his subordinates were the type who loved to eat big chunks of meat and drink big bowls of wine. They had no income but to eat Zhao Qi'er's top-quality grains. As their expenses were not enough to cover their income, they had no choice but to borrow money from Yang Lamb.
He thought that Hebei had received taxes anyway, so he followed Yelu's advice and issued an edict to abolish the Yangyanger debt, and told Yelu Chucai not to mention the subsidy. When the princes and nobles could no longer bear it, he would send them off one by one with rewards.
Therefore, the grassland royal court issued an order that lamb debts were illegal, and borrowers could pay back the principal instead of interest. If the debt was too large and the principal was too large, the debt could be reduced a little bit and only half could be paid back.
The debtors on the grassland immediately felt relieved and became happy.
The wealthy princes were dumbfounded.
Damn, they saw their wealth shrink tenfold or even a hundredfold in the accounting office. Those who used to dream of mountains of gold and silver suddenly fell into the gutter. Some of them lent too much money for the sake of interest, and those who borrowed money and lent it out lost everything. They had no choice but to ride on horses to ask the Khan for help.
The Khan has a way. No one dares not to repay the debt he has lent, and there must be collateral.
