Chapter 521 Shocked Luo Qing for a Whole Year
In the simple and elegant palace, the two brothers sat opposite each other.
Luo Qing asked with a smile: "Brother, is there something important that has called Qing back from Chang'an this time?"
Luo Bai called Luo Qing back from Chang'an, of course, not simply to let him be a seed drill. After all, Luo Qing was his own brother, and he couldn't do such a cruel and inhumane thing casually.
Luo Bai thought for a moment and said, "There are many things, but I don't know where to start."
Wang Wenjun and Luo Ling walked in from outside. Wang Wenjun knelt beside Luo Bai, while Luo Ling knelt behind Luo Bai on the right.
After Wang Wenjun sat down, she pinched Luo Bai's arm. The two looked at each other. Wang Wenjun glanced at Luo Ling from the corner of her eyes, and then whispered in her ear: "A Ling is beautiful, knows her background well, and is a good match for A Qing. If A Qing hadn't been running around outside all the time, they should have been married a long time ago."
Luo Bai was stunned for a moment, then glanced at Luo Ling and nodded, "Ah Qing and Ah Ling have known each other since childhood and have been together for several years. They are indeed suitable. You can talk to Ah Qing privately and then report to your father. Although Ah Ling's pedigree is definitely no problem, we still have to go through the procedures."
Pedigree is the calculation of inheritance algebra.
Wang Wenjun nodded, then looked at Luo Qing with a smile, which made Luo Qing feel scared. He didn't know what his sister-in-law, who had always liked to cheat people since childhood, was going to do now.
Luo Bai was somewhat pleased that Luo Qing's lifelong event was resolved so quickly.
Luo Qing had a bad feeling, so he quickly redirected the conversation and asked, "Brother, are there many family matters?"
Luo Bai smiled and said, "You have done a lot in Chang'an, including the palace coup and preaching, and your family has not stopped moving forward.
The business the family has run is simply too big. Fortunately, Emperor Xiaoxuan has governed the country well over the years, otherwise it would have definitely affected the family.
But now is the time for the family to change.
The Han Dynasty has been established for one hundred and fifty years. Various contradictions have emerged over the years, and land annexation has become increasingly serious. Emperor Xiaoxuan previously suppressed it with his personal ability, but no one knows what will happen in the future.
Or the most crucial order to relocate the powerful may soon be ineffective. Once the court finds that the costs and harms of relocating the powerful outweigh the benefits, it will definitely stop this policy.
In the past, lower-level officials in Guandong would still fight against the powerful, but now they are almost in collusion with each other.
The key point is that even if the officials sent by the court dare to crack down on the powerful, their purpose is not to maintain the operation of the court, but to enrich their own pockets by forcing the powerful to death. This has become a vicious cycle. "
Luo Qing had been staying in Guanzhong, but he had not expected the situation in Guandong to be so serious. What he had seen in Guanzhong was that only the royal family and relatives by marriage were arrogant and domineering, and they occupied land seriously. Ordinary county tyrants and officials did not dare to do so openly.
Luo Qing frowned and asked in a deep voice: "The governor and the embroidered official sent by Emperor Xiaoxuan to Guandong were not reported. Could it be that they were suppressed?
Huo Zimeng is not a pushover. Aren’t they frightened by the killing over the past three years?
Could it be that Huo Zimeng didn't dare to take action?
That would be a serious situation.”
Luo Qing was quite clear about Huo Guang's character. If even he did not dare to take large-scale action, it meant that the development of the situation had become difficult to control.
Luo Bai said softly: "Huo Zimeng is only a regent after all, not the emperor. There are some things he dare not do."
Luo Qing fell silent after hearing this. This was a very realistic problem. After all, Huo Guang would need to consider what would happen after his death when doing things.
If it were Liu Xun, even if he started killing people indiscriminately, no one would dare to retaliate.
But it was not the same for Huo Guang. He was not alone, he had a large family. If he offended too many people, his family would surely be liquidated once he stepped down.
In this world, only the Luo family's regent dares to do it with all his strength without worrying about being retaliated against and liquidated. It's not that no one dares to retaliate, but that the Luo family will defeat those people again.
The problem of powerful officials was something the family had been determined to fight against when they had decided on the path of the Luo family.
Seeing Luo Qing remain silent, Luo Bai continued, “It’s not just the local powerful officials.
The salt, iron and wine industry has also started to run into problems. You should have heard about what happened in Yuzhang County last year."
Luo Qing nodded. That incident was quite famous.
The quality of the iron tools produced by the government in Yuzhang County was so poor that they could not be used for farming at all. The imperial court monopolized all the iron tools, did not allow private individuals to cast them, and forced them to be sold to farmers, forcing them to use primitive stone tools for farming.
The efficiency difference between stone tools and iron tools was too great, resulting in a massive reduction in production in Yuzhang County. Even though there were no natural disasters, the terrible incident of people starving to death occurred.
This matter had originally been suppressed by the prefect of Yuzhang County. However, a disciple of the Mohist School happened to be visiting a friend in Yuzhang County. He learned about this matter and shot the prefect of Yuzhang County to death outside the prefecture's mansion with a large crossbow he had equipped.
A high-ranking official with a salary of two thousand stones was assassinated!
The imperial court was furious, and Prime Minister Liu Xiang personally supervised the matter. As a result, he pulled out the radish and brought out the mud. The poor quality of the ironware in the official camp of Yuzhang County was exposed, which resulted in famine and forced more than a dozen people to death.
Huo Guang was furious and killed many people because of this incident. Since Yuzhang County was close to Lingnan, he directly exiled the family members of the criminal officials to Lingnan. However, according to the King of Lingnan, they all died of epidemics on the way and no one reached Lingnan. As for what the real situation was, no one knew.
It is possible that he really died of the plague on the road, or that he was killed on the road by the people he was being escorted, or that he was hidden by the King of Lingnan and became a hidden slave in the kingdom.
The emperor is far away and it is impossible for the court to investigate the hidden population in the Lingnan Kingdom.
Luo Bai said in a deep voice: "According to the intelligence the family has obtained over the years, this situation exists to a greater or lesser extent not only in Yuzhang County, but in almost all counties and kingdoms, and Yuzhang County is just one of the more serious ones.
This situation is no longer just a simple issue of state-run salt and iron. The grain production of the entire country is declining, and many people are dissatisfied. "
The state-run salt and iron institutions were originally established to ensure the unity of state policies, facilitate management and control, and prevent local tyrants from profiting from them. However, they have now caused a decline in the productivity of the entire society.
This is a very simple math problem. If there was one stone of grain in the world before, the imperial court would get three dou, the powerful would get five dou, and the common people would get two dou.
Now the total amount of grain in the world is only seven dou, and the court still wants the same amount. The losses of the powerful will naturally be smaller, as they get three dou, while the common people will have a hard time getting even one dou.
Luo Qing took a deep breath when he heard this. The salt and iron industry was an extremely important tax revenue channel for the imperial court, and it was also a powerful tool for the imperial court to control the world. All the price stabilization officials and salt and iron officials were directly supervised by the two Nine Ministers, the Grand Minister of Agriculture and the Grand Minister of Commerce.
In other words, it was under the direct jurisdiction of the central court.
As a result, this weapon now has such a serious problem. The people are exploited by the powerful and the local officials, and even by the central court. They really have no way to go to heaven and no way to enter the earth.
After thinking for a while, Luo Qing said in a deep voice: "Brother, what you mean is that there are voices among the people who want to abolish the state-run salt and iron industry?
This is impossible. The imperial court would never agree to it. Moreover, even if the state-run salt and iron factories were gone, would those powerful people stop exploiting the people?
impossible!
The greed of the powerful is endless, but this matter should indeed be discussed by the court. No matter what, this issue must be faced head-on by the court. "
Luo Bai said in a deep voice: "Now the family is caught in a dilemma. The pros and cons of state-run salt and iron are too obvious. At present, the family is in a state of neither supporting nor opposing. It requires a lot of discussion to decide what to do. You have been in Chang'an for a long time, so you must have seen more. What do you think we should do?"
Luo Qing pondered.
————
About 150 years after the establishment of the Han Dynasty, the unique ills and contradictions of autocratic dynasties began to gradually emerge. After the death of the powerful Emperor Liu Xun, the burden of reform fell on the monarch and minister Huo Guang and Liu She. Perhaps it should not be called reform, but improvement, because when the dynasty developed to this stage, no one could completely change it, but could only delay its onset.
In "The Rise and Fall of the Zhou Dynasty", the author once made the following evaluation of Luo Wengong's reforms: "After encountering widespread opposition, especially from the sources of power that supported his reforms, he decisively stopped some of the more radical reforms."
This evaluation can also be applied to the Han Dynasty. Everyone has to admit that after a series of turmoil, the Han Dynasty's base gradually changed, and the group supporting it was no longer the same. - "The Rise and Fall of the Han Dynasty"
(End of this chapter)
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