After arranging the expansion of the water camp, Lin Jian went north along the Hanhai embankment to inspect and summoned Liu Tingzhou, Liang Wenzhan, Xiao Kuian, Hu Dahai and others in Yandu on the second day of the first lunar month.

What has been a headache for Liu Tingzhou recently is the rise in grain prices.

In the Jianghuai prefectures and counties, the collection of taxes has long been realized in monetary collection, and while the efficiency is improved, it is destined to be affected by the sharp rise and fall of prices.

It doesn't matter if a certain percentage is retained from the counties, and the rest is paid to the county divisions, which is settled in silver money—but in July, the Jiangning military discussed that the additional part was used as military funds. Affected by the soaring food prices, the county department asked the prefectures and departments to levy an additional 40% of the grain loss. When it was spread to Huaidong Mansion, it was to levy an additional 50,000 taels of silver.

At the same time, Liu Tingzhou also led the Huaidong Army, responsible for supplying money and salaries for the Huaidong Army with 20,000 soldiers.

The allocation of funds from the county department to the military consular department is settled in silver, and the military consul department purchases military rations and other materials nearby.

At present, Liu Tingzhou is in charge of the Huaidong Army's consulate Yamen, which is responsible for supplying about 13,000 stone of military rations, vegetables, salt, charcoal, meat, and other materials to the garrisons stationed in Shanyang, Suining, Suyu, and other places every month.

The actual purchasing power of the silver money drawn by the county division to the military commander has dropped by three percent - the county secretary has to make up for the grain loss when he goes to Huai'an Mansion to collect the money, but the silver money distributed to the military commander does not bear the grain loss, and Liu Tingzhou has to find a way to make up for it himself.

Liu Tingzhou worked hard for the imperial court, and he was also obedient to Yue Lengqiu, and he was so anxious to scold his mother at this time.

Even if the price of grain stabilizes and no longer rises out of control, he will have to raise an extra 112,000 taels of silver - the magistrates below will not understand Liu Tingzhou's hard work, and they will shout that it is difficult.

If you force it to go down, whether it will end up on the head of the farmer or the landlord who occupies a large amount of land, Liu Tingzhou, who is familiar with general affairs, can also think clearly by breaking his toes.

Liu Tingzhou was also a little ashamed to see Lin Bin.

As early as mid-July, Lin Jian foresaw that grain prices might soar, and made it clear that in the name of the military department, he suggested that the counties in Huaidong should levy taxes and change the amount of silver money to rice and grain, so as to avoid the impact of the soaring grain prices on the finances of the prefectures and counties.

For ordinary peasant households, there is no inconvenience in selling grain because there is one less procedure for selling grain than paying silver. Even if food prices skyrocket, ordinary farmers will not enjoy the benefits; The benefits were enjoyed by the landlords who owned large parcels of land and held large amounts of grain rents. As long as it is decided in advance to change the silver and levy grain, and the established facts are formed, the landlords, led by the local gentry forces, will naturally not have many voices of opposition.

Liu Tingzhou has always resisted Lin Lian's interference in the affairs of the prefecture and county, and in mid-July, Lin Jian issued a letter of suggestion in the name of the military department, and Huai'an Prefecture was regarded as waste paper in all other counties, except for the Shanyang County controlled by Liang Wenzhan.

The results are obvious, Shanyang County's autumn grain actually collected 190,000 stone of rice grain (plus the income from public fields), and it was not affected at all, and even enjoyed the benefits of rising grain prices. When settling the tax grain with the prefecture and county, Shanyang County actually underpaid nearly 20,000 stone of rice grain.

Compared with before, Huai'an Prefecture and other counties will have to bear nearly 100,000 taels of grain loss before the summer tax is levied next year.

The Huai'an Mansion also benefited greatly from the Mafu case, which made the finances better, and Liu Tingzhou could barely cope with the additional grain loss of the county department, but the military commander department had a shortage of nearly 6,000 taels of silver every month.

While Liu Tingzhou sent people to the county department to quarrel and fight lawsuits, he could only ask Lin Lian to be more tolerant and give him more time to raise money and food.

Lin Lian's face was gloomy, his brows were furrowed, and he suppressed his voice, and said: "Please Lord Liu personally go to the barracks, please ask the generals to tighten their belts, just say that the military commander was negligent for a while, and did not realize in advance that the price of food would rise, so in the future, please tighten the belt of your pants by three points when you eat......

Song Jia couldn't help but laugh out loud when she heard it next to her, but she just buried her head in copying the text.

Liu Tingzhou's old face turned into the color of pork liver, embarrassed and embarrassed, but he couldn't stand by and leave, and he had to swallow his breath and plead: "My lord has a warning in July, and the lower officials have not paid attention to it, which is really a crime, but the military leader is really difficult right now......"

"This official does not interfere in the affairs of the prefecture and county, those words, you like to listen to them or not, whatever you want, I can't help you," Lin Jian bluffed, stared at Liu Tingzhou, patted the table and reprimanded, "But I want to ask you, the county department should recover the grain loss from the Huai'an Mansion, and the military commander should also recover the grain loss from the county department, and the two are deducted, and it's almost the same - what did you do, use the surplus of Huai'an Mansion to pay the grain loss to the county department, but you want me to bear the grain loss of the military commander for you, you are easy to bully me!" ”

Liu Tingzhou's reputation in Huai'an Mansion is very high, and Lin Jian and Liu Tingzhou have been at odds for a long time, but when they met in the past, they could see each other with courtesy, but this time they slapped the table and reprimanded each other.

Xiao Kuian and Hu Dahai stood at the foot of the hall, listening to Lin Jian slap the table and reprimand Liu Tingzhou, and they didn't even dare to say a word, let alone help Liu Tingzhou argue!

Liang Wenzhan stood at the foot of the hall, squinting his eyes to recuperate, so he was deeply imprinted with the Huaidong system, no matter how good his political performance was, there was no chance of promotion. He is not in a hurry, he is promoted to be an official in other places in this world, and he is far from staying in Huaidong.

Lin Tie's power is getting heavier and his prestige is unmatched in Huai'an for a while, although Liu Tingzhou is controlled by him, but as a senior official in his fifties, he also has a bit of a clay temperament, and he can't meet him when he slaps the table on the spot and reprimands him. Liu Tingzhou couldn't stand by and leave, so he didn't speak with a cold face, and the atmosphere was cold.

"Although Lord Liu said that he held the dual positions of the Huai'an Prefect and the Huaidong Army, the two sides were operated in two systems, that is, the officials in charge of the Xuanfu Envoy and the Governor's Mansion were separated. The food loss on both sides cannot be simply deducted, and Lord Liu is also bitter and can't say it...... "Although Uncle Tang En, the imperial history of the Huaidong Inspection School, has no intention of contradicting Lin Bin, but the atmosphere is not so deadlocked, and he is the only one who can help Liu Tingzhou say a word or two in the hall," For the food loss of the military commander, Lord Liu also pulled down the official and ran to the county department last time to make a big fuss, and Lord Wang promised that he would make up for the silver, but he couldn't get it down in time for a while......

Uncle Tang En's mouth "Lord Wang" refers to Xuanfu envoy Wang Tian.

At that time, the official government did not have much ability to deal with the financial crisis, Wang Tian was in a hurry at this time, plugging leaks everywhere to fill the gaps, Huaidong has always been raised by the mother, and when Wang Tian makes up for other places, maybe it will be Huaidong's turn.

Uncle Tang En's mouth opened his mouth to help, and Lin Lian's tone was better, but the content of his words was still unpolite: "Hailing's situation is not necessarily better than Huai'an, why doesn't Hailing have these things?" ”

When Lin Jian said this, Liu Tingzhou was even more embarrassed.

Compared with Liu Tingzhou, Liu Shidu, the prefect of Hailing, is more regarded as a soft-faced official with no position.

In the name of presence, Lin Jian recommended Xu officials to the counties, but the eleven counties in Huaidong failed to push them off in the end.

However, in Huai'an Mansion, at the behest of Liu Tingzhou, many of the officials recommended by the military department were isolated from the counties and had no access to power. In Hailing Mansion, Liu Shidu did not support or resist, and let each county control it on its own, so the situation was good and bad.

In mid-July, Lin Jian suggested that the prefecture and county should change the silver to levy grain, but Liu Shidu did not support or resist, only saying that it was difficult to change the whole thing, and first change the part of the levy.

In July, the Jiangning Military Council gave the additional money and salary to the Huaidong Military Division, which was borne by the Hailing Mansion, totaling more than 120,000 taels of silver. The counties of Hailing Mansion were the first to change this part, and they also used the officials recommended by the Huaidong Military Department for this matter, and all the 120,000 taels of silver were changed to rice and grain, totaling 180,000 stone and rice grain, so the impact this time was much less than that of Huai'an Mansion.

Xiao Kuian'an understood when he heard this, Lin Jian was so angry, and he was still dissatisfied with the neglect of the subordinates who went to Huai'an Mansion in July and the neglect of the military department's recommended officials in the counties of Huai'an Prefecture, which was to force Liu Tingzhou to bow his head.

Thinking about it, it is no wonder that if Huai'an Mansion attaches importance to the military department's July Order, even if it is to the extent of Hailing Mansion, it can at least avoid bearing the grain loss of 50,000 taels of silver for no reason.

However, it is difficult for Lord Liu to do it, Xiao Kui'an thought to himself, if his attitude softens this time and he lowers his head, how can he resist the military department's interference in the affairs of the prefecture and county in the future?

"I don't care how the military commander raises money-but, if the armies of Suining, Suyu, and Shanyang make trouble due to lack of food, none of you here can bear this responsibility! Think about it! Lin Jian bluffed his face, warned the people in the hall with a threat, paused, and said, "I'm tired today, if there is anything, I'll discuss it tomorrow!" Lord Liang waits a minute. ”

said that he was tired and ordered to evict the guests, but he asked Liang Wenzhan to stay and discuss the matter, which was too undisguised.

Liu Tingzhou's face was pale, he stiffened, and retreated first, Uncle Tang En, Xiao Kuian, Hu Dahai and others saluted one after another, Liang Wenzhan bowed, and sent Liu Tingzhou, Uncle Tang Enshu and others away first.

Waiting for Liu Tingzhou to leave, Lin Jian invited Liang Wenzhan to sit down and speak, sighed and said: "Liu Tingzhou is still a capable person, he is so anxious, it can be seen how bad the situation in other prefectures and counties can become!" ”

"Xuzhou is even more difficult!" Liang Wenzhan said.

On the Xuzhou side, it's not that Zhang Yubo is incapable, it's just that the war that lasted for nearly a year the year before last made Xuzhou's foundation completely rotten. In this situation in Xuzhou, how can Xuzhou not be difficult to bear the supply of nearly 20,000 soldiers and horses of Chen Hansan's department? How could Zhang Yubo not be difficult in Xuzhou?

No matter how difficult Zhang Yubo is, Lin Jian has no possibility of supporting him with money and food to help Chen Hansan's department!

Under these circumstances, the peasants who had just returned to their hometowns in Xuzhou had to bear extremely heavy taxes and fled from their homes, so that although the Red Jacket Army operating in the area west of Bianshui had suffered one defeat after another to Chen Zhihu's troops, their strength had not been severely defeated.

After Liu Xilin led his troops into Xuzhou with Zhang Yubo, under the instruction of Lin Bin, he directly controlled the mines in the northeast of Xuzhou, and now relies on transporting coal and iron to Shanyang in exchange for money and grain, which can support the supply of 2,000 soldiers and horses.

The contradictions in Xuzhou will become more and more acute, unless Chen Hansan can be driven away! However, Jiangning did not want to see Chen Hansan rebel again, and Huaidong did not want Chen Hansan to go to the Liang family, so he could only let the current situation drag on until there was no other good law. On the one hand, it was to strengthen Liu Xilin's military strength in Xuzhou, and on the other hand, it was to suppress Chen Hansan through Sun Zhuang's department, so that he would not dare to make any changes in a short period of time.