Chapter 1071 Water Transport Reform

In previous years, the amount of grain delivered to Bianjing on this road was as high as 6 million dan. In recent years, the large-scale development of Jinghu in Zhejiang and Zhejiang, plus a part of the South China Sea being brought to the two Zhejiang provinces, the price of rice has exceeded 10 million dan.

So huge.

According to the principle of "the price doubles when goods are transported by water", the losses along the way are quite astonishing.

However, Su You completely overestimated the virtue of the officials. When the statistics from the Third Division came out, tens of millions of dans of rice had been transported to the capital, and the loss was as high as 15 million dans!

The water transport method of the Song Dynasty originated in the Tang Dynasty. In the 22nd year of Kaiyuan, Pei Yaoqing built a river warehouse at the mouth of the ancient Bianhe River to transport grain from the Yangtze and Huaihe areas and store it there to wait for water transfer.

Then it passes through the Yellow River and the Weishui River to Chang'an, which is the beginning of the transformation of the Dharma.

In the past, during the Song Dynasty, the Bianhe River was not navigable in the spring and winter, and there were many delays along the way for direct canal transport. In order to ensure the supply of food and other materials to the capital, starting from the fifth year of Kaibao, separate stations were established in Si, Chu, Zhen and Yangzhou on the canal transport road.

Transfer to Bancang to unload grain from the Sixth Route to the Southeast, and then change ships to transfer it to the capital. The Huaiyan salt required for the Sixth Route can also be transported back by empty ships.

After Jiayou, water transportation became corrupt, the number of official ships decreased, and officials and soldiers transported more and more pirates.

After it was changed to the Shipping Department, it had some effects in the short term. However, as Xue Xiangren left the government, the Shipping Department also embarked on the old road of water transportation.

Zhang Fangping once changed the general method to the direct method, and the effect was remarkable. He served as the third envoy for three years, giving the capital ten years of savings.

Later, people left the administration and the administration of Cao was once again abandoned.

So Su You simply suggested to Zhao Xu that he should take a multi-pronged approach.

The first step is to re-activate Zhang Fangping and Xue Xiang's methods to improve efficiency and reduce losses.

The second step is to utilize the procuratorial organs and strengthen supervision.

The third step is to improve water conservancy so that the Bianhe River can also be effective in spring and winter.

The fourth step is the most ruthless, directly cut off half of the roots of water transportation! Let water transportation make way for private commercial transportation!

The grain from Jinghu is no longer sent to Bianjing, but is directly transported to Shaanxi via another waterway.

The grain Hebei needs is no longer transported by water, but directly by sea from Hangzhou.

These two lines were contracted by merchants and were responsible for their own profits and losses, which suddenly reduced the amount of grain that the canal needs to transport to Bianjing every year by two-fifths!

Cai Que once again had some understanding of Su You's deep intentions, and the front desk admonished the separation, but all the officials applauded, thinking that life would be easier now.

As a result, the supervisory agencies have penetrated into the prefectures and counties, and officials can tolerate it. After all, part of the overstaffing problem has been solved, which is what the question is about.

When these people started to play their role, officials suddenly discovered that the cost of bribery had doubled!

But the dead Taoist friends are not the poor Taoists. The officials in Caocang are really greedy. Hehehe, it turns out that if they come out to fool around, they will have to pay back sooner or later.

The many details of this inventory gave the warehouse rats nowhere to hide.

All the granaries were inspected together, giving officials no chance to use the east wall to make up for the west wall.

The only way was to ask the local squire for help.

But what followed were several shipping orders. The squires were not fools. They knew that if they lent the grain to officials, the grain might be taken away at any time, so they all covered their grain bags.

Moreover, now is the time when the economy is lean and the landlords don’t have any surplus grain. How can this be the time to borrow grain?

Then a strange phenomenon occurred. In the land of fish and rice in the south of the Yangtze River, the price of rice suddenly skyrocketed.

This is because corrupt officials paid huge sums of money to purchase rice to make up for their shortfalls.

Sitong Company keenly seized the business opportunities.

Using one season's goods as collateral, he borrowed 4 million shi of rice from the Changping warehouse on Liangzhe Road, and collected another 6 million shi from wealthy people, heading north to stabilize grain prices along the way.

The two parties agreed that when the wind direction changes in June, five million single rice crops will be brought from the South China Sea to replenish the Changping warehouse.

Nanhai rice matures in March, and Lu Huiqing is now worried about the low price of rice.

Miraculously, Liangzhe Road Changpingcang actually agreed.

So at the same time, by the time the prosecution was officially launched, most of the granaries had been refilled, and for those that could not be filled in the end, the on-duty officials had no choice but to go to jail to await trial.

When the new account book was handed back to Gao Taotao, Gao Taotao sneered: "Why did you eat it for me and spit it out for me!"

Sitong sold a dou of rice for a hundred yuan, while Nanhai's rice sold for only 30 yuan. Including the shipping fee, which was less than 50 yuan, this one made more than 5 million yuan.

This was Gao Taotao's maximum tolerance for officials. Even so, countless officials were dismissed from their posts and investigated.

The biggest of them was digging a big hole in Zhenzhou that could not be filled. From Zhenzhou, he established a shipping envoy, a deputy shipping envoy, a judge, and Cangcao. Because of the huge amount of corruption, he was sent to the capital and handed over to Dali Temple.

Strict investigation.

For a time, the atmosphere in the officialdom was subdued, the merchants cheered and the common people praised him.

Although they endured a short-term rise and fall in rice prices, they felt that the trouble was well worth it when they saw the corrupt officials who usually showed off their power were eliminated.

And the driving force behind all this, Su You, is now standing on the Bianjing Pier to see off a group of people.

It is impossible to catch them all in one fell swoop. Even in later generations, there have been special periods when deadlines were imposed and leniency was dealt with, let alone now.

After all, someone has to do the work, and the peak season for water transportation will begin in three months, and there will be no time to implement a major change.

Therefore, Su You was happy to see the success of Gao Taotao's operation and was highly cooperative.

But this incident is a signal that the wind is about to change.

…

The wind is about to change, some people are coming back and some are leaving.

Currently, the Military Aircraft Department is sorting out the archives and documents collected from the Third Division, Zhongshu, and Privy Council.

Cai Jing was so miserable that he cried for his father and mother, and asked Chao Buzhi every day when he would come back.

The three departments also have different attitudes towards this matter.

To my surprise, the ones with the best attitudes turned out to be Wang Gui and Cai Que.

The close integration of logistical preparations and clarification of water transportation brought great benefits to Zhongshu. In exchange for bargaining chips, Cai indeed fully cooperated and fully possessed the ethics of a politician.

The ethics of politicians is to proceed from the interests of the group in everything they do.

The Third Division also cooperated well. After clarifying the water transportation, he was able to get the words "let these dog officials go for the time being" from Gao Taotao's mouth. Su You could be considered as wiping the Third Division's ass.

Li Suzhi didn't want to do it on the surface, but he felt so happy in his heart.

Among the three divisions, water transportation is the biggest administrative problem.

Now the Queen Mother, Your Majesty, and the three mountains of Zhongshu are pressing down. Li Suzhi seems to be lying down and letting himself be ravaged, but in fact he is enjoying it secretly.

Moreover, after the crux of the business road is eliminated, this year's business tax will definitely be softened. If Zhongshu received soft benefits from the official clarification, then what the Third Division received is obvious and substantial real money.

Su You always looked aggrieved when doing things, and it was the same this time.

Anyway, according to the gossip, the Queen Mother scolded Su You bloody.

Sitong Company has been taken advantage of by various officials for so many years. How have you endured it? If Tianjia had not invested in it, were you prepared to endure it for the rest of your life?!

Are you still the first-class Duke of the Song Dynasty? Are you still the sweet son-in-law of a noble family in the Song Dynasty? Can you be a bit tough when you become a civil servant? It has really embarrassed us all! It’s been embarrassing!

Li Suzhi felt that these things were most likely an act, but since the protagonist was the Queen Mother, no one dared to say it.

Moreover, the Queen Mother really brought herself into this matter, full of emotions, profound acting skills, and completely out of character.

After all, acting skills must be worthy of the pay, which can reach tens of millions!

The biggest resistance came from Su You's once closest partner - the envoy to the Privy Council, Feng Jing.

The responsibilities of the Privy Council are to assist the emperor in controlling military command, formulating strategic policies, dispatching troops, selecting commanders, and issuing instructions to frontline commanders for the implementation of campaigns.

Another department of the Song Dynasty, the Ministry of War, was in charge of specific affairs such as military attache personnel and military establishment.

The privy envoys of the Northern Song Dynasty went through a long process from "having both civil and military roles" to "serving as civil servants".

Before the Zhenzong dynasty, there were more military officials than civil servants. In the Renzong dynasty, there were twice as many civil servants as military officials. In the Yingzong and Shenzong dynasties, there was only one Guo Kui.

This is definitely not a normal phenomenon.

Therefore, in the current DPRK, the Privy Council composed of Feng Jing and the civil servants is called the "Left Council", and the military department composed of Su You and the military ministers is called the "Right Council".

The functions of the two organizations overlapped in large part, but Feng Jing had to recognize the existence of the Military Aircraft Department. The reason was very simple - he couldn't figure out what the New Army was doing.
Chapter completed!