The wind blows in through the window, carrying the smell of the Yellow River mud and sand, a fresh feeling, not annoying. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

Xu Ping was in front of the window with a kerosene lamp, blowing the night wind, looking at the letters in his hand.

The letter was written by Li Jing, who had already set off from his hometown on Jiangxi Road, and after picking up his mother, he was heading towards Fangcheng County in Tangzhou, and sent a letter to report his safety. After ten years of cold windows and half of the world, it is time for him to harvest the fruits.

After reading the letter and putting it on the table, Xu Ping sighed as he looked at the dark night outside. A hero with three gangs, no matter how you have the ability to reach the sky, you still need someone to help you get things done.

In these days in Heyin County, Xu Ping really felt the embarrassment of having no helper around him. His main job here is to investigate the river, and there is no room for sloppiness in this matter, and most of his energy is spent on it. Correspondingly, although he knew that the situation in this county was strange, he really didn't have time to track it down. Although Lu Fang can be trusted, he can't do these things, and his identity is not good for him to participate in civil affairs.

Li Shen's attitude made Xu Ping uncomfortable, so he had to let him do it, and put more effort into not letting him play tricks. Starting step by step from the magistrate, the benefits are shown at this time, and most of the small methods below Xu Ping have experienced, and it is easy to hide from his eyes.

After thinking for a while, spreading out the paper on the table, Xu Ping lifted it up and wrote a reply to Li Ji. From the beginning of encouraging him to be diligent in political affairs in Fangcheng County, he unconsciously wrote down his experience as a magistrate. The more I wrote, the more I couldn't stop writing, and I wrote down all the things I wanted to do in the past few days but couldn't find time to do them.

While writing, I thought of the things in Heyin County, and somehow thought of a famous peasant movement inspection report that I had read in my previous life, and I still remembered how to analyze the situation of local households, not to mention class, but how to carefully analyze the main household customers, the proportion of fifth-class households, which people depended on whom to support, and what their living conditions were, all of which were written into the letter bit by bit. Tell Li Jing that if you have these information, you will know the general situation of the place, whether it is the local heroes or the officials in the county, you can no longer deceive him.

Grasping the local situation and conducting detailed investigation and study is the most important thing that a new official should do when he or she takes office. Although there was no such name in this era, there were still many people who did similar things. Some capable officials, in the same way, will first hold their troops after taking office, and then suddenly take action after they have a clear understanding of the local situation, so as to deter the officials and people under their rule in one fell swoop.

It is a pity that most of the local officials are not rushing to be good officials, nor do they want to be promoted based on their political achievements, but have other ideas. This is true in this day and age, it is also true in previous dynasties, and it will continue to be true in future dynasties. Most people know how to be a good official, but few people want to do it.

"Knock, knock, knock-" Suddenly, there was a knock at the door, not in a hurry.

Xu Ping put down his pen and wondered. The door of the backyard of the Three Emperors Temple is guarded by people from the bridge and road carriage army, and it is impossible for someone to come in silently, knocking on the door in the middle of the night, it must be someone who lives in the temple.

Who could it be?

Standing up, Xu Ping asked in a deep voice, "Who is knocking on the door outside?" ”

"Xiaguan Li Shen, if you have something to see, you have something to be controlled."

Thinking of Li Shen's attitude during the day, Xu Ping sat back in his seat and said in a deep voice: "The door is not locked, come in." ”

With the sound of the door opening, Li Shen's figure entered the room and bowed to Xu Ping: "Disturb the rest of the system, forgive the sin!" ”

Xu Ping nodded: "It's still early, it's okay, come and talk about something." -- There is some cool wind blowing at night, just except for the heat of the day, don't close the door, just leave it open. ”

Li Shen promised, opened the door behind him, and stood still in front of Xu Ping.

Xu Ping pointed to the chair next to him and said, "There is something to sit down and talk slowly, there is nothing to be restrained." ”

Li thanked him and sat down in the chair below.

After being silent for a while, Li Shencai said: "The lower officials came to see the system late at night, or for the things they talked about during the day. ”

"Oh, what do you think of again, might as well tell me about it."

Li Shen's expression was solemn, and he pondered for a while before he said: "What the system said is good, and the lower officials also know that a large family like Jiang Dayou occupies so much land is basically impossible to do anything like him and commit a crime at all." - But I really can't touch him now, anyway, until after the autumn. ”

"Oh, what's the reason, let's hear it."

"This year, there is a big drought in several counties along the Yellow River, and this disaster is also strange, but there are two or three counties around Heyin, and there are not many affected places, but the disaster is particularly serious. If he is serving in the Third Division, he naturally knows that it is very difficult for a magistrate to deal with such a disaster. Reporting to the imperial court is not a catastrophe, and there will be no disaster relief grain and rice, but it is difficult to rely on the local government to support it. Mengzhou is not a rich place, there is not much grain and rice stored in the regular closing warehouse, and other money and grain are all used, and it is not easy to embezzle. When Xia Guan was in Renzhi County, Yanshan, he also encountered a natural disaster, and he was able to barely get through by mobilizing large local families to produce grain and distributing chaff to the poor. In Mengzhou, this road does not work, like here in Heyin County, there are only two large families, and Tong Qilang is a customer, and there are many reasons not to save natural disasters. The remaining Jiang Dayou family was about to take advantage of the disaster to clean up the tenants in his house, but they refused to take grain and rice out. The subordinate had no choice but to-"

"What is it going to be? Could it be that you still borrowed food from Jiang Dayou's family? ”

"That's not true, the lower officials used the money and grain in the state, and lent it to the people of Heyin County when they were not in charge, and forced Jiang Dayou to have a family as a guarantee. Now that the households have fled, the repayment of debts after the autumn has fallen on the Jiang family, if he is done now, the lower officials really don't know what to do after the autumn? It is to save money and goods, and when the transshipment envoy finds out to Mengzhou, how can I explain? The stakes between this are naturally clear in the mind. ”

Xu Ping listened, squinted his eyes slightly, and analyzed in his heart how much Li Shen's words were true and how much were false.

Changping is inherited from the Tang Dynasty, when the price of rice is low in the harvest year, it is closed at a price slightly higher than the market, and when the grain is scarce in the disaster year, it is sold at a price lower than the market, so it is called Changping. In terms of nature, Xu Ping's previous life was also a variant of the state protective price of grain collection.

This is naturally a matter of virtue, but because it is under the control of the magistrate and there is no strict management charter, the level of management varies from place to place. One official has gone to another, and the officials who are good at accumulating have gone to great lengths to fill up the warehouse, but it is easy for the next official to squander it, but it will be difficult to save again. In addition, in recent years, there have been occasional places where there is less money and food for soldiers and have been diverted from the regular position, and in many places the permanent warehouse has become an empty warehouse, and it can no longer play the role given to it when it was originally established.

Without this large item of money and food in his hands, it is difficult for the magistrate to do great things in the local area. Although there are military depots in the prefecture, and there is a lot of money and grain saved in them, nominally they belong to the central government and the three divisions, and they are called money-saving materials. With the strength of the three divisions, which magistrate can't eat these things without the approval of the three divisions.

Li Shen's meaning is very clear, because of the disaster relief, and there is no surplus grain in the regular closing warehouse that he can use, so he embezzled the money and materials belonging to the three divisions and lent them to the affected people. If you want not to be held accountable by the Third Division, you must fill this vacancy before the transshipment envoy inspects Mengzhou to check the accounts, otherwise, the Third Division will not have the patience to listen to his general judgment.

This reason also makes sense, as for letting Jiang Da have a family as a guarantee, it is inevitable. Only his family has the ability to repay the debts in this county, and without him as a guarantee, it is impossible to recover the loan. And the Jiang family sent people out to hunt down and escape, and there was a reason not to chase people back, and Jiang Dayou's family wanted to help them pay off their debts.

Opening his eyes, Xu Ping asked Li Shen: "Official loans, this is not a good thing, what is your name?" ”

Li Shen smiled bitterly: "Where is the name?" Because it is loaned out when the green and yellow are not accepted, and the green seedlings in the private land are used as collateral, the lower officials call it green seedling loans. Originally, it was a good thing for the households, but this year is different from the past, after the disaster, the green seedlings in the field have turned into nothing, and they will definitely not be recovered, and only the insured households will be settled. ”

"Seedlings loan? BIBS Loan! - Isn't this the first year you've done this? ”

"There is no way to work in Mengzhou, which is close to the Yellow River, and there are floods almost every year, and once there is no flood, the drought will be serious. There are disasters every year, so I have to use this method to accumulate money and food for disaster relief. ”

Xu Ping closed his eyes and thought about what Li Shen said. If I am not mistaken, isn't this the "Qingmiao Method" in Wang Anshi's transformation that I learned in my previous life? Although he knew that the "Qingmiao Law" was not conceived by Wang Anshi Pingkong, but was summarized from the actual actions of previous officials, he did not expect that the first thing to do was the Mengzhou general judge Li Shen in front of him.

Although the general theory is that the "Qingmiao Law" touched the usury interests of the big landlords and big bureaucrats, and was finally destroyed by their opposition and failed, Xu Ping, who had spent time in the countryside in his previous life, knew that there was more to it than that.

The cost of micro-loans, especially for scattered farmers, is extremely high, not to mention that they are aimed at individual farmers, and even banks are reluctant to lend to small businesses, because these loans are too costly compared to large customers, and they will almost certainly lose money.

"Seedlings loan? Let me ask you, how much interest do you charge when the people repay the money and grain after the autumn? ”

"The lower officials don't dare to violate the law and discipline, and only collect two percent."

"Twenty percent?" Xu Ping shook his head with a smile.

Li Shen's heart tightened, and he hurriedly asked, "Do you think the interest rate is too high?" ”

"It's not." Xu Ping just shook his head.

Twenty percent? In his previous life, he could not afford to take out a small loan in rural areas with an annual interest rate of 30 percent. In this era, the interest of 20% must be a loss, of course, the government will not lose money, so if you want to find a policyholder, you must find Jiang Dayou. Historically, as soon as the "Green Seedling Law" was promoted to the whole country, the interest immediately doubled to 40%, and it was necessary to carve off the households in order to ensure that the implementation of this law had a positive income for the imperial court. The "green seedling loan" with 20% interest, is it a joke? Li Shen is now riding a tiger and it is difficult to get down.

It's not a human problem, it's an age when the cost of microcredit in the countryside is there. These officials do not have the concept of cost accounting, so they naturally deserve this loss. The common problem of this era is that officials like to pat their heads on decision-making, and they are all talking about the truth, but in fact it does not work. (To be continued.) )