Chapter 324 New Situation

It took more than half an hour to call. Some people talked endlessly once they drank; but when their topic was limited to one or two things, it became a sluggish thing.

"Liangzhou suffered a severe drought this year, with grain production cuts by more than 60% and about 200,000 hungry people. Liangzhou Governor Guoyuan wrote a letter to the House of Representatives, requesting His Majesty to allow the opening of warehouses to provide relief grain and distribute part of the military ration to the hands of the hungry people."

In Zhaoming Hall, the elders sat in several rows on the left and right inside the hall, and Cao Chong sat upright on the main seat. More than twenty meters in front of him, a Senator of the House of Representatives from Liangzhou made a statement to Cao Chong with a document in his hand.

On both sides of Cao Chong, there were twenty-four well-armored guards standing, which were extremely majestic. Since the emperor had just implemented face-to-face discussions with senators directly elected from the local area, some necessary security measures were naturally needed. These guards were specifically responsible for protecting the emperor; in addition, the shocking momentum produced by the guards could also highlight the emperor's majesty to a certain extent.

After listening to the statement of the Liangzhou Senator, Cao Chong looked at the dozens of veterans below. Without Cao Chong's inquiry, Liu Ye said:

"Report to Your Majesty, what the Senate said is basically true. According to the information obtained by me half a month ago, the most serious famine in Liangzhou was Jiuquan under Wuwei, with nearly 100,000 hungry people; in addition, in other disaster-stricken areas of Liangzhou, the total number of hungry people should have reached about 200,000."

Cao Chong frowned slightly when he heard this, nodded, and then asked:

"I wonder how much military rations are stored in Liangzhou? How many military horses are there? How much military rations can we take out for disaster relief?"

As a civil servant, Liu Ye was not very concerned about these military situations, so he did not know exactly what he had to shake his head.

Just when Cao Chong was unsure, another person in the veteran's seat bowed to Cao Chong to show his respect, and everyone looked at him, but it was Cao Chun.

"Report to Your Majesty, Liangzhou's military horses are about 150,000 and military rations are about 2.8 million. One million is used to provide disaster relief at a time, and the remaining grain is enough to consume in one year."

After saying that, Cao Chun turned his head and looked out of the hall with a somewhat unnatural expression.

As a relative of the Cao family, he was naturally a diehard who opposed reform. However, he was designated as a veteran by Cao Chong when he could not stop the reform. At this time, as expected by the reform, he solved the emperor's worries and problems as the veteran.

This made Cao Chun feel uncomfortable, but he couldn't bear to see Cao Chong unable to make up his mind and ignore him.

Therefore, the contradictory scene just now was staged.

After hearing this, Cao Chong understood and immediately approved the documents submitted by the senator.

The senator was also very pleased that his local proposal would be successfully passed. While expressing the gratitude of the people of Liangzhou to Cao Chong, he bowed and left.

Next, several documents from several places were asked for instructions from Cao Chong through the senators. Cao Chong gave a reply one by one based on the opinions and information of the elders.

The last senator came empty-handed, just because the proposal he submitted had long been accepted by Cao Chong.

The senator is from Ji County, Youzhou. The bill he submitted was a case of a civil servant complaining to an official in Lelang County, Xiangping County, under Youzhou rule, which is commonly known as the complaint.

According to the villagers' complaint, the local county magistrate took a fancy to an old house passed down from his family's ancestors and wanted to build a large house for himself, so he bought it from the villagers at an extremely low price. The villagers thought the price was too low and did not agree. After the county magistrate was unable to achieve the consequences of the coercion, the local magistrate secretly instructed the local evil spoils to destroy the villagers' parents and force them to hand over the house.

The villagers' family was already poor, and they lost the only house worth a few dollars. Their parents were crippled by evil spies, and they struggled every day. The villagers wrote to the Xiangping County government many times about this matter, but they all went into the sea with no news. Later, a kind-hearted person told him: the county magistrate has strong connections in the Xiangping government, and his prosecutors were suppressed by relevant people. In addition, even if the Xiangping prefect saw the prosecutor, they might not be responsible for you, because it is said that the county magistrate and the prefect also had some friendship.

The villagers suddenly realized that they were desperate and hoped to be established by Wu Fan's reform. In order to avoid falling into the county magistrate's network of contacts again, the villagers traveled hundreds of miles away to Ji County and handed their letter to the senator elected by Ji County.

There is a Chinese saying that has been passed down for thousands of years, and it is called the emperor far away.

Lelang County, under the jurisdiction of Xiangping County, is located near Pyongyang, North Korea today. This county is very small, with a population of only tens of thousands, and is far away from Middle-earth. Judging from the communication and transportation level of this era, it really feels beyond the reach.

When the senator heard Cao Chong say that his proposal had not been resolved yet, he immediately said:

"Your Majesty, if the people had no choice but to force them, they would not give up the near and far away. They would present the letter to you as ministers. Please urgently order the people to supervise this matter, give them an explanation, and give them a fairness to the law."

The main reasons why the senator attach so much importance to the written confession submitted by ordinary villagers who have nothing to do with him are two main reasons: one is that if the senator receives documents submitted by local governments or civilians but is lax and slack, the Supervision Department will accuse him of inaction. If the accusation is true after investigation, he will directly lose his position as a senator. The other is that if the senator receives documents submitted by local governments or villagers, he will take it seriously and strive to fight for the emperor. After the document is approved, it will thus become his political achievements and become his capital for re-election of the senator.

The reason why the position of senator is so popular is that the senator is different from the senator. The senator does not have any power except his own official position, nor does he have any remuneration other than his own official position. The senator has generous salary and various welfare subsidies.

In addition, in this era, the spiritual beliefs of the Chinese people have not yet been castrated by foreign invasions for nearly two thousand years, nor have they destroyed the four old ones on a large scale. Therefore, the Chinese people generally have the creed of the rise and fall of the world and the fall of every man is responsible. Becoming a senator, doing some practical things for the local people, and revitalizing the country is the general dream of many people in the world who are determined to serve the country.

Therefore, it is not difficult to understand why the position of senator is popular.

Cao Chong had a headache from the moment he saw this senator. In just half a month, the senator had already urged this case three times. If an ordinary villager wanted to sue the emperor before the reform, there would be no way. After the reform, as long as he found a senator and handed the senator over the letter, he would quickly hand over the letter to himself.

However, this is good. At least local officials are afraid of it and dare not do anything wrong. The whole country is in a clear and clear political situation. When the Senate was first established, a large number of civil imperial documents were reported every day. After these three months, local officials were sentenced to punish a large number of imperial officials, and now the number of imperial officials is getting smaller and smaller.

What really made Cao Chong's headache was not the complaint that made his government affairs busy, but the fact that Lelang County was too far away. In half a month, the case-handling officials sent to Lelang had just arrived there and the news had not been sent back. In this case, the senator came to urge him repeatedly, and of course he had a headache.

After finally sending the senator away, Cao Chong turned his head and looked at the elder Wu Fan, who was sitting in the first row below, and said:

"Uncle Eighth, I still come to urge the senator repeatedly, even though I know it is fruitless. Should I make a relevant rule? I really can't stand this formation."

Wu Fan retracted his eyes to the senator who had already walked away, looked at Cao Chong and bowed:

"Your Majesty, this move is probably inappropriate. Don't Your Majesty feel that it is precisely because of the Senate's active urging that His Majesty has to approve these cases quickly? If His Majesty formulates rules for this and restricts the Senate from urging the Senate, it would be empty talk. After that, His Majesty's descendants succeeded to the throne, and it is difficult to guarantee that new rules will not be formulated on this precedent, which will eventually make the Senate's power narrower until it is in vain."

Cao Chong suddenly realized and nodded. Uncle Ba was indeed right and asked himself. If the senator had not come to urge him repeatedly, he would not have been anxious to ask the relevant personnel to handle the cases presented as soon as possible.

Moreover, once you formulate a restrictive rule on this matter, your descendants will definitely copy it as usual. They may not only formulate rules for the senators, but also add various rules to more than a dozen other reforms, which will eventually lead to a complete failure of the reform. In this way, the ideal of the country and the people who have been expected to be truly transformed after the reform will be ruined.

Wu Fan continued:

"In addition, I am for your words to be frank. Your Majesty is supported by all people, and should solve the problems of all people. Now that the people are bullied by some bad officials, your Majesty should severely punish these officials who violate the law and discipline, so as to thank the people for their support. How could you repay the grievances because of the urge of the Senate? Even the common people in the market are grateful for their kindness, how can your Majesty be worse than the common people?"

Cao Chong blushed and was at a loss when he said this.

Wu Fan's series of reforms not only included some Academy, Architecture, or new arrangements in the system; these can only be regarded as superficial changes. On the other hand, there are many hidden changes; for example, the attitude and wording of the ministers in the court when he advised Cao Chong was obviously different from the previous supreme attitude.

Before the reform, if Wu Fan wanted to say such arguments to Cao Chong, he had to be very tactful and tactful to avoid damage to the imperial power. However, such a method of expression often made the emperor feel no pressure and did not have a deep understanding. And like now, it is almost the same as before. The effect is naturally very different from before.

After Cao Chong blushing for a while, he said to Wu Fan:

"Uncle Eight said very well, I will never mention the rules again."

Subsequently, the Supervision Department sent another inspector to report that Yuan Shu, the minister in the court, was suspected of accepting bribes, and listed a series of evidence of crimes, asking Cao Chong to file a case. Cao Chong immediately approved.

After that, neither the Senate nor the Supervision Department delivered any proposals, and today's morning court was basically nothing.
Chapter completed!