Chapter 414 The court borrowed money

Li Qingan returned to Saiye from the river for almost a month. During this month, he had been quietly recuperating at home. The injury on his left shoulder recurred again on his way back to Saiye, and his injuries had worsened a little. After returning to Saiye, he found that he had injured his muscles and bones by that arrow. Thanks to his strong body, he could barely resist it. If someone else, his left shoulder would definitely be disabled.

Under the compulsory order of the chief military doctor of the Anxi Army, Li Qingan was forced to rest at home for a month, but this month also allowed him to taste the warmth of his family and the joy of a father.

As soon as dawn was dawn, Li Qingan got up and quietly visited his two children, his five-month-old daughter and his three-month-old son. Both children were sleeping sweetly. Li Qingan gently touched their pink faces and tiptoed away, fearing that they would wake up the children's sleep.

Li Qingan immediately came to the study. Rushi had already opened the window and passed through the wind. A bunch of beautiful plum blossoms were placed in the vase on the table, which looked particularly fresh under the spring sunshine.

He sat down at the table and flipped through the Anxi newspapers delivered in the middle of the night. This was his daily habit. The newspapers were always printed in the middle of the night and then delivered immediately to ensure that he could see them every day.

Anxi Miscellaneous Newspaper was opened under the instructions of Li Qing'an. It imitated the Kaiyuan Miscellaneous Newspaper of the imperial court and was run for the official newspaper. It mainly publishes some major military and political affairs, and there are also many news from the Central Plains. These news are all information from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and some events that do not involve confidentiality were selected to publish them to increase reading.

Although a lot of news is not a military and national event, Li Qing'an still likes to read these trivial news. As long as it happens in the Central Plains, he has a strong interest.

However, Li Qingan was a little surprised today. The miscellaneous newspapers from last night were not delivered. The ones on the table were still the miscellaneous newspapers from the day before yesterday. He looked through the coffee table next to him. Except for a few reports, there were no miscellaneous newspapers that should have been delivered last night.

"Brother, what are you looking for?"

Rushi brought a bowl of bird's nest and walked in quickly, asking, "Are you looking for miscellaneous newspapers?"

"Yes! Why didn't there?"

Rushi put the bird's nest in front of Li Qing'an, smiled and shook her head and said, "It was not delivered last night."

"What's going on?" Li Qingan was a little confused. Even if he was not on the shattered leaves, the miscellaneous newspapers would be delivered every day, and they had never stopped. How could it be gone today?

"I have asked Haitang to ask, there should be news soon."

After she finished speaking, a maid's report rang out from the door, "Three Lady!"

It was Rushi's maid Haitang who came back. Rushi hurriedly opened the door and saw a maid standing at the door holding a newspaper that had just been printed in her hand. Li Qingan recognized it at a glance. It should be the newspaper from last night.

"Three Lady, Master, the newspaper has just been delivered. The newspaper deliveryman said that all the newspapers printed last night were invalid. They were printed only at the fourth update today, so it was too late."

"Did he say why it's invalid?"

The maid shook her head, "I asked, he didn't know."

Li Qingan took the newspaper and it turned out that it had just been printed, and there was a faint fragrance of ink. After thinking about it, he wrote a note and asked Rushi to hand it to the maid, saying, "Please give this to Master Zhang and ask him to ask the reason."

The maid went, Rushi poured another cup of tea, and without disturbing him, she left quietly. Li Qingan changed to a comfortable sitting position, drinking tea and reading today's newspapers. The warm sunlight shone on his back, making his left shoulder feel particularly comfortable.

After reading the first page of Anxi government affairs, Li Qing'an habitually turned to the third page, where there were some news from Chang'an and the Tang Dynasty.

The first news attracted his attention. Zhang Yi, the chief clerk of the Prince Zuo Chunfang, took advantage of the night to carry goods for Hu Shang to make money in the West Market. He was dismissed from his official position. There is another one below: An official's wife, a man who was recognized by her husband's colleagues, committed suicide in shame, and his official name and position were unknown.

Seeing these two news, Li Qingan felt as uncomfortable as eating a fly. His brows frowned. He also heard that the court officials had not received their salary for three years, but how could it be that their wife was selling her spring? I guess this official didn't know that, but the difficulty of his family forced the housewife to have no way out.

Li Qing'an couldn't sit still anymore. He walked out of the study yard. At this time, his personal soldier Zhang Jie came forward to report: "General, I have found out that it was Mr. Yan who stopped the printing of the newspaper last night. He said he would come to explain to the general."

"I'm going to find him without him explaining."

Li Qing'an immediately ordered: "Prepare a carriage for me, I want to go to the Political Affairs Hall."

Soon the carriage arrived, and Li Qing got on the carriage. Under the strict escort of hundreds of personal soldiers, the carriage drove to the Political Affairs Hall.

In the carriage, Li Qing'an leaned against the wall of the carriage and read a report. It was sent by the Political Affairs Hall the day before yesterday. The court wanted to ask Anxi to borrow one million silver dollars, that is, one million guan. The court's documents said that the borrowing money was mainly used to pay the salary owed by officials, but Li Qing'an was worried that Li Yu would spend the money on military expenses, so he did not agree immediately and needed to consider it.

In fact, Li Qing'an had obtained detailed information from the information of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The court's financial situation has reached this predicament in his expectation. It was impossible to increase revenue or reduce expenditure. I heard that the palace expenses alone cost 500,000 to 600,000 yuan a year, and the daily administrative expenses of the court were not enough. Li Yu even had to support a 100,000 army. If it were not for the money in Li Longji's inner palace last year, his 100,000 army would have escaped. Now that the money in the inner palace is gone, all the crises will be exposed at once.

Now Li Yu can only make plans for the royal relatives, otherwise he would not be able to survive April.

The carriage turned a corner and entered Li Qing'an's court room from the side door of the government affairs. In a sense, Li Qing'an was resting at home for a month, and wanted to see with his own eyes that the operation of Anxi government affairs when he was not here. The result made him very satisfied. Anxi government affairs were very stable. In fact, Anxi government affairs were also set up according to the system of three provinces and six ministries, checking and balancing each other, and making collective decisions. Especially after the Hexi march Sima Pei Mian, judge Du Hongjian, and the Attorney Cui Yi came to Anxi, he greatly strengthened Anxi's government affairs capabilities. Historically, Pei Mian, Du Hongjian, Liu Yan and others were all the pillars and beams of the court in the middle and late period of the Anshi Rebellion, and they enjoyed a reputation. They might not be able to fight, but they all had rich experience in handling government affairs.

Li Qingan walked into his court room. Although he was not there, he was still clean and spotless. As soon as he sat down, Yan Zhuang walked in with a miscellaneous newspaper.

"Does the general want this newspaper? I stopped it from printing half of it last night."

"Take it to me and take a look!"

Li Qingan took the newspaper and asked, "Why should I stop it?"

"Because there is a piece of news about it and I think it's inappropriate to print it out, so I stopped it, on the third page."

The third page is the news from the mainland of the Tang Dynasty. Li Qing'an opened the third page, Yan Zhuang pointed to the headlines and said: "That's what happened!"

The headlines read, "Thirty landlords and hundreds of tenants in Weinan County sued Princess Huo's slaves for 300 hectares of fertile land at a price lower than 60% of the market price."

‘Weinan County?’

Li Qingan suddenly remembered that his manor was also in Weinan County. It was related to him. Does it mean his manor? He continued to look down and saw his name in the middle of the news, "The 300 hectares of land occupied include the 40 hectares of Yongye Field of the Duke of Anxi and His Highness Zhao."

"What? This old princess Huo dared to occupy my land!" Li Qingan said angrily. This old princess Huo didn't take him seriously.

"General, I guess this Princess Huo didn't know that you had your land. Otherwise, she wouldn't dare to give her a hundred courages. I was not talking about this problem."

"What's the problem?"

Li Qingan felt very strange. This news was nothing but a target for Li Yu. What does it have to do with him?

"General, the newspaper said that forty acres of land is the Yongye field of the General, but the 100 hectares of Yongye field of the General are in Anxi, which is openly hung in the Political Affairs Hall. If the newspapers are spread, everyone will think that the General occupied more forty acres of Yongye field in Anxi, which will affect the reputation of the General."

"This..." Li Qing'an did not consider this. In fact, the 4,000 acres of land was rewarded by Li Longji, and he did not explicitly say it was Yongye Field. He did not take the land seriously. Although he was angry just now because Princess Huo occupied his own land, it was just a matter of face and had nothing to do with the land. Thanks to Yan Zhuang's carefulness, otherwise his reputation would be seriously damaged. He firmly restricted land annexation in Anxi.

Thinking of this, Li Qingan smiled gratefully at Yan Zhuang and said, "Thank you, I didn't expect that, but the land was not my Yongye Land. The Ministry of Personnel ascended the throne and divided the land, and in fact, it was not even the ones. It was Li Longji who rewarded me with my property. My earliest Yongye Land was in Bahuancheng, with one hundred acres, and I don't know how it is now."

Seeing that Li Qing'an had cleared the matter, Yan Zhuang was relieved and said, "What do the general think about Princess Huo being told?"

"Is this still necessary? Li Yu is almost driven crazy by money. It just so happened that Princess Huo's affairs came out. Li Yu would definitely make a fuss about this matter, use this old princess to take some money and food from her. However, things were not as simple as he thought. He thought Princess Huo had no power and could be punished by him, but in fact, there would be many people to protect her, including Li Longji, and even those local vassal kings, who would put pressure on Li Yu."

"What if Li Yu used the name of protecting the general's land? Using the charge of infringing on the prince, this would transfer everyone's anger to the general, making everyone think that it was Li Qing'an, the governor of Anxi, to put pressure on him."

Li Qingan nodded and smiled, "He might do this, use me as a shield, but others are not fools. It depends on how much he wants to do this case. If he just talks about the matter, retires the three hundred acres of land, and then kills the so-called slaves. In this way, others may think that it is my pressure, and no one will investigate it in depth. But if he wants to seize Princess Huo's food and confiscate Princess Huo's property, just watch it! I'm afraid even Li Yu himself would not think of the consequences."

At this time, the guards came to report, "General, the order of the Changfu is here."

"Please come in!"

After a moment, Chang Jin hurried in, bowed to Li Qing'an and said, "See General."

Chang Jin was also appointed as the Interior Office Order, in charge of Anxi's intelligence system and was directly responsible to Li Qing'an. Not only did the Interior Office have a large number of people, but it also established a complete intelligence transmission network. Relying on Fei Ge, even the intelligence far away in Guangzhou can be transmitted to Shuye through Fei Ge.

"I want to know, how much has the eyeliner in the palace made progress?"

Chang Jin quickly replied: "Report to the general, we spent 20,000 silver dollars to bribe 60 palace maids and eunuchs with certain status in the Daming Palace and Xingqing Palace, and have obtained information."

As he said that, Chang Jin took out a pigeon letter and handed it to Li Qing'an, saying, "This was sent this morning. The emperor visited Li Longji and had a conflict, mainly because of the Princess Huo. In addition, Li Longji asked the emperor to use An Qingzong to exchange for the King of Xiliang with An Lushan, but the emperor seemed to have no reaction. An Qingzong was still under house arrest in An Lushan's mansion."

After reading the Gexin, Li Qingan smiled at Yan Zhuang: "It seems that Li Longji is not willing to be lonely."

Yan Zhuang nodded and said, "This is actually understandable. He has been an emperor for more than 40 years and has become accustomed to the supreme emperor's life. Now he suddenly lost everything. Moreover, Li Yu ascended the throne without authorization. How could he be willing to be lonely? If I guess correctly, Li Longji must have the plan to restore the throne."

"It seems that Chang'an is going to be lively again, so I really want to go and have a look."

Speaking of this, Li Qing'an said to Chang Jin: "We must strengthen the monitoring of Chang'an. I will give you a list and monitor the people on the list for their every move."

"Subsidiary obeys the order!"

Chang Qianyi Li was about to leave, but Li Qingan called him and smiled and said, "When did the Changfu Ling become so impatient? I haven't told you the right thing I've come to you today!"

"I am ashamed!"

Chang Jin scratched his head embarrassedly and walked back, "Please give orders to the general."

Li Qing'an pondered for a moment and said, "There are three things. The first is to increase the staff in Chang'an and concentrate the forces of Guanzhong and Luoyang in Chang'an; the second is to strengthen the security protection of the Huaqing Palace. I estimate that Li Yu will reduce the expenses of the Huaqing Palace, but we must ensure the daily expenses of the imperial concubine. In addition, the Dugu family must also send special personnel to protect them; the third is to order Anxiguifang to help the poor officials of the family, and think carefully as much as possible, and don't care about any faction. Even Yang Guozhong's subordinates should help them. Tell them that I, Li Qing'an, have always cared about them."

Speaking of this, Li Qing'an said to Yan Zhuang again: "Go and tell him to send a document to the court. If the court wants to borrow one million silver dollars, it is OK to exchange the heads of Meng Yun and Luo Zhengyi."
Chapter completed!