After the Yanzhou case broke out, there were endless disturbances in the capital.
The Yanzhou corruption also caused a major earthquake in the officialdom of Feng Zhou and Danzhou. All of this caused the capital to be in turmoil. The local officials always had someone to rely on in the capital and communicate with each other.
Thus, the officials in the capital and the local officials all had inextricable connections. Even if these connected officials didn't embezzle, they were still worried about bringing the fire to themselves because of their close connections. At this critical juncture, they had to maneuver from top to bottom and ask for favors from all sides in an effort to clear their names.
The officials who had nothing to do with the corruption cases in the three northwestern provinces took the opportunity to eye the vacancies in the northwestern officialdom. These were all juicy pieces of meat. Who didn't want a bite? If you held resources in your hands, wouldn't people curry favor with you?
If they placed their trusted aides in important positions, they could use them to strengthen their power. Even if they won some of the lowly or unimportant positions, they could give them to their friends, trusted aides, and old friends to indirectly expand their authority.
Those who took advantage of the situation and those who were eager to clear their names made the already muddy water even more muddy. At the same time, a series of problems appeared after the flood retreated, leaving the court in a terrible shape.
Because of the flood, a portion of the river was blocked.
After the flood, there were many things to do. It was not easy to immediately recruit laborers to dredge the river. Even if it could be started immediately, it would take two months before the river could be used again. During this time, the transport of grain was not possible. If they wanted to transport grain to Jingdou by land, the huge losses were negligible, and the efficiency was not optimistic.
It was already autumn. In winter, a portion of the river would freeze. The court had to transport this autumn's grain to Jingdou before that. If it was delayed, it would cause Jingdou to run out of grain. From a safety perspective, this was a great threat to Jingdou. From an economic perspective, this would cause prices in Jingdou to remain high and create a very unstable situation.
Although Wu Zetian hated and loathed the collusion of the officials in the three northwestern provinces and the vile behavior of all officials who were not corrupt, given her unyielding personality, she would not let this matter rest. She also knew that the most important thing for the court was to solve the transport problem.
In order to focus her energy on solving the current predicament, Wu Zetian had no choice but to end the Yanzhou case as soon as possible so that all the officials of the imperial court could focus their energy on the transportation problem. Wu Zetian dealt with the matter very quickly. In just three days, she sentenced 29 corrupt officials to death by hanging, exiled 42 officials, and dismissed and demoted dozens of officials. After a storm of corruption eradication, the entire Yanzhou bureaucracy was emptied. The matter of following the vines to get rid of the maggots could be left to the three law divisions to deal with slowly, but the large-scale verdict was a signal: Yanzhou's corruption case had come to an end.
Wu Zetian summoned the prime ministers and officials from the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of Revenue to discuss how to solve the difficulties the capital was currently facing. For the next few days, all the officials expressed their opinions, but none of them could come up with a perfect plan.
Wu Zetian was impatient. She glanced at Minister of Revenue An Lingyu, who had been frowning and pretending to be deep in thought, but couldn't come up with a proper proposal. She said coldly, "Minister An has been thinking hard for many days. Do you have a good plan? Could it be that the Ministry of Revenue has no opinion on this? "
Hearing the anger in the empress's words, Minister An's heart trembled.
Although the Yanzhou case had all sorts of problems, the main cause was grain. As the head of the Ministry of Revenue, he couldn't absolve himself from the blame for such a major case occurring right under his nose. If it weren't for the fact that the transportation problem had "fortunately" occurred and the imperial court was in need of manpower, he would have inevitably been implicated.
Now that the emperor was furious, if he didn't offer a plan, the consequences would be dire. Minister An steeled his heart and gathered his courage. He spoke of the plan that Liu Nanquan, the Minister of Duzhi, had offered when he was discussing it with his subordinates at the yamen. "Your Majesty, this subject believes that this winter's danger can be easily resolved, but the crisis of 10,000 years is over! Luoyang floods once every decade, and the power of heaven and earth can't cure it. The capital of the nation, the center of the world, shouldn't be built in a place of worry. "
Wu Zetian frowned and asked, "What does Minister An mean?"
Minister An gritted his teeth and said, "This subject believes that the imperial court should return the capital to Chang 'an!"
Once these words were spoken, the hall instantly fell silent.
… …
Luobing Workshop was located in the northwest corner of Luoyang. Across the Luo River was the Chongqing Gate of the imperial city. At this moment, countless craftsmen were repairing the Chongqing Gate and a section of the city wall that had collapsed during the flood.
On this side of the river was Shen Mu's manor. Outside the manor's walls was a workshop wall. Both walls had been destroyed by the flood and hadn't been rebuilt yet. Thus, Shen Mu could see the slightly muddy Luo River flowing away as he sat in the courtyard.
In the courtyard and in the hall, a group of servants were busy sweating profusely. There was a thick layer of mud everywhere in the mansion. If they wanted to clean the manor as good as new, it would be impossible to do it in two or three days. It had already been seven days, but only a small area had been cleaned.
Shen Mu was currently sitting under a large tree. There was a leisurely chair under the tree and a stone table next to it. The area had already been cleaned, and the ground was exposed. A few tenacious blades of grass covered in mud were slowly recovering their vitality. There was a large tree to the side, and there were obvious traces of it being soaked in water.
Lan Jinhai stood beside him, dressed in a scholarly robe, appearing gentle and elegant. Lan Jinhai gazed at the buildings of the imperial city across from him. With the azure sky as the background, he said thoughtfully, "Will the Emperor do as the Headmaster wishes and return the capital to Chang 'an?"
Shen Mu picked up a teacup from the short table beside him and took a small sip. He lightly said, "I'll do my best and leave it to fate. I only have a 40% chance!"
Surprise flashed through Lan Jinhai's eyes. Shen Mu glanced at him and said, "What? You think it's impossible to succeed?"
Lan Jinhai shook his head repeatedly and said, "No, I think it's unimaginable to have a 40% chance of influencing an Emperor's decision, especially something as important as moving the capital. I'm worried that the Emperor will intentionally move the capital just because the flood has cut off the transportation and affected the grain storage in the capital this winter. Although Luoyang is in danger of flooding, Guanzhong is also in danger of drought. It's not a perfect place. "
Shen Mu said, "Of course it's not because of this matter. It's not because of the problems shown by these matters, it's because of some of the reasons revealed."
Shen Mu leisurely said, "From the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors until now, if we carefully look at the capital cities chosen by the dynasties, we can find that there are traces of it. Pan Geng moved to Yin because Yin was rich and it was easy to gather provisions. Another reason was that by moving the capital, it was easy for him to weaken the strength of the nobles in the old capital. The third reason was to stay away from the territories of the disloyal foreign races, stabilizing his rule.
King Ping of Zhou moved the capital to Luoyi because of the War Hounds Rebellion. Moreover, the War Hounds were still watching from the side, so moving the capital was safe. As for Emperor Xiaowen of Wei moving the capital, one was to stay away from the threat of the nomads in the north. The other was to move the capital from Ping City to Luoyang, where agriculture was flourishing and transport was convenient. It could also break away from the power of the Xianbei nobles in the north, allowing for a smooth revolution.
With the past as a mirror, when an emperor chooses a capital, they will always consider four aspects. The first is geography, the second is economy, the third is military affairs, and the fourth is politics. Geographically, although Guanzhong had droughts from time to time, floods posed a greater threat to the capital. If this flood got bigger and flooded Luoyang, the consequences would be unimaginable. Although this place had the advantage of transportation, in terms of advantages, it was barely equal to Chang 'an.
Speaking of economics, from the warring states until now, Shandong and the Pass Central were the most developed areas. No one knew what the future would be like, but for now, there were only these two areas. Of the three, Shandong had the Khitans to the north and the Turks to the west, so the only ones suitable to be the capital were Chang 'an and Luoyang.
In terms of military affairs, with our dynasty's military power, there was not much difference between Chang 'an and Luoyang. Then the main deciding factor was politics. The Pass Central was the foundation of our dynasty, having been managed by three dynasties. The current emperor only moved the capital to Luoyang ten years ago, but the heart of the dynasty was still in the Pass Central.
If Pass Central was lost, the dynasty would be in danger. Although the empress moved the capital to Luoyang, she still valued Pass Central. The prefectural military occupied thirty percent of the country, and anyone who was the commander of Chang 'an was the emperor's confidant. From this, one could see how much the current emperor valued Pass Central. In the end, although the emperor did not know of our existence, she knew that the elders of the major families often came to Chang 'an. Do you think she was at ease?
Now, such a major corruption case had occurred in Yan, Ji, and Dan provinces. These three provinces were all in the Pass. It had only been ten years since the emperor moved the capital to Luoyang, but the governance of the Pass Central had been ruined. The foundation had become like this. Do you think the emperor was at ease?
Why had the Emperor not sent officials to fill in the vacated positions when there was such a major problem with the Guanzhong officials this time? He was not willing to have the Ministry of Appointments choose officials like last time in the Southern Frontier. Instead, he considered them one by one, deliberated again and again, and personally chose people for each important position?
Hehe, some people thought that they would be able to get official positions this time, but they never thought that they were only eyeing a few positions. From the perspective of the Emperor, how could the woman sitting on the throne of the Emperor be thinking what they wanted? Pass Central was so important, but such a major problem occurred. How could the emperor not be cautious?
Also, the current emperor had already chosen a crown prince. One day, the government would be returned to the Li family. Right now, the military power was firmly in the hands of the Wu family. The second Zhang Clan had recently risen and frequently acted, placing trusted aides in the court and military. Only the Li family, other than a few loyal old officials, had almost no power.
The Wu family had operated in Luoyang for so many years. On the surface, their power was far greater than the Li family's. Who knew how much power they had in the dark. How could the emperor not consider how to stabilize the inheritance? When the empress had set the capital in Luoyang, it was because Chang 'an was the foundation of the Li family. That was then and this was now. Since she was determined to return the power to the Li family and the capital to Chang 'an, it was a good method.
This way, she could make use of this opportunity to adjust the power of the Wu and Li clans in order to achieve a balance. Of course, this is the logic. We are just making use of this suggestion. When the emperor hears it, she will then think of these problems. As for how she will choose in the end, it is not something we can control. "
Lan Jinhai was sincerely convinced. "Sect Patriarch's words have enlightened this subordinate. From the looks of it, the emperor does have sufficient reasons to move the capital. Haha, Yang Fan had just moved the 'Succession Hall' to Luoyang. Sect Patriarch's move of 'removing the firewood from the bottom of the cauldron' has grasped the initiative. "
At this point, Lan Jinhai couldn't help but chuckle. "The three northwestern prefectures were originally a huge blow to us. Sect Patriarch was able to turn the disadvantageous situation into an advantageous one and made use of this matter to urge the emperor to move the capital to Chang 'an. We have the advantage in terms of terrain and manpower in Chang' an. Hehe, with such a situation, what else does the Hidden Sect have to go against me?"
Shen Mu smiled and squinted his eyes to look at the white clouds in the azure sky. He lamented, "It is still too early to say victory or defeat. Yang Fan has the heavenly authority in his hands. What is the heavenly authority now? It is the imperial power that he can use at any time. The heavenly authority is unfathomable, and I don't dare to belittle this little erlang anymore. The younger generation will surpass us in time! "
At this moment, a family member walked over quietly and arrived at Shen Mu's side. He leaned over and whispered, "Young Master, Cui Lin from Clear River requests for an audience."
Shen Mu smiled faintly and said to Lan Jinhai, "Look, the person who came to make trouble is here!"
Shen Mu turned around and said to that family member, "Invite Young Master Cui to the study room!"
Finishing his statement, Shen Mu stood up and swaggered off.
There was an empty rocking chair under the tree, and it was swaying non-stop.
…
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