Dark Sand: My Players Are All Actors
Chapter 301 - 220 The Intersection of Two Lines

Chapter 301: Chapter 220 The Intersection of Two Lines

The mist in his view had cleared again, and Chu Ge began to play the next phase of the role of Wang Wenchuan.

"It’s about time to implement the other contents of the new laws as well."

Chu Ge glanced at the second batch of new law proposals in his hands.

This time, the new laws finally included the Green Seed Law.

From the current situation, the Wang Wenchuan that Chu Ge portrayed had even surpassed the historical Wang Wenchuan in terms of control over the entire royal court.

It could only be said that when gentlemen employ the means of the petty, they become even more terrifying than the truly petty.

The Old Party was also trying to fight back, for instance, by continuously impeaching and attacking the New Party, but Chu Ge effortlessly suppressed these counterattacks, rendering them ineffective.

On one hand, because the Wude Bureau was essentially under Chu Ge’s control, the Old Party officials found it difficult to dig up any dirt on the New Party; even if they did, it wasn’t guaranteed that the Emperor would support them.

After all, the Emperor already had dirt on the New Party officials. As the referee, once he decided to favor one side, there was nothing these people from the Old Party could do about it.

As for the routine attacks on the new laws, they were even less effective.

Chu Ge’s new law proposals were all towards more stable options, and they mainly produced positive outcomes. Furthermore, the official system law firmly tied the Emperor to his own chariot, so the Old Party’s impeachments barely had any impact.

Therefore, after looking around the royal court and seeing that almost everyone was on his side, Chu Ge felt it was about time to move to the next stage.

To promote the Green Seed Law!

Of course, Chu Ge knew that promoting the Green Seed Law might cause significant harm, but he still wanted to try.

On one hand, to win the Battle of Niuzhu, there had to be sufficient military funds. And among the new laws currently implemented, only the Exemption Law significantly increased financial income, while the effects of the other items were very minimal.

Moreover, the Exemption Law had undergone some modifications in order to win over the centrists of the Old Party, so its financial impact was considerably less than the historical Exemption Law.

Thus, by promoting the Green Seed Law now, Chu Ge intended to further increase financial income and give the upcoming Battle of Niuzhu a better chance of victory.

On the other hand, Chu Ge also wanted to see just how far he could push the Green Seed Law at this point.

Historically, when Wang Wenchuan promoted the Green Seed Law, it brought in at least three million guan of income for the Qi Dynasty each year, but as local officials started to increase the interest rates of the green seed loans, the Green Seed Law shifted from "generating wealth" to "extorting wealth," and was eventually abolished.

Now, utilizing his swift and decisive party struggle techniques, Chu Ge had dealt a heavy blow to the Old Party, and his word in the royal court held immense weight.

Unless the Emperor developed a serious crisis of trust in him, the possibility of his dismissal from office was next to nothing.

He wanted to see — under such an unquestionable situation, if he enforced the Green Seed Law, could he achieve an even better result than before?

So, Chu Ge added an extra clause to his revised Green Seed Law proposal.

Strictly forbid the local officials in various states and counties from raising the interest rate on green seed loans, strictly forbid forced apportionments. Each level of government must scrutinize thoroughly, and should there be any forced apportionment or increase in interest rate, the superiors of the area in question were to be punished as well.

In addition, Chu Ge decided to periodically send capital officials to inspect the localities secretly; any instances of deviations from the intended green seed loan policies would result in punishment for the responsible local officials.

Of course, Chu Ge was well aware that it was impossible to completely prevent the lower officials from misinterpreting policies through this system, but it might at least avoid some.

Historically, Wang Wenchuan had failed to address this issue effectively, which can be said to be an oversight.

Wang Wenchuan included the income from green seed loans as part of the performance appraisal, which naturally led to the emergence of many speculative officials who would force apportionment of loans or raise interest rates.

As a result, he inevitably had to shoulder the blame for harming the people.

Chu Ge speculated that historically, Wang Wenchuan had perhaps tolerated these New Party officials to a certain extent out of necessity.

Because back then, Wang Wenchuan did not have the level of control over the entire royal court that Chu Ge now had, he did not decisively purge the Old Party, and he also had limited trust from the Emperor. With only so many people in the New Party, Wang Wenchuan could not spare the effort to rectify the New Party from within; naturally, you use what people you have, collect the money for the national treasury first, and deal with the rest later.

But at this point, Chu Ge could afford to perform a limited purge within the New Party, since the pressure from the Old Party had greatly diminished.

...

[Years until the Battle of Niuzhu: 4]

Soon, Chu Ge had implemented the Green Seed Law for an entire year.

He looked again at the documents on his desk; information from all over the country was piling up before him like snowflakes.

The remaining Old Party officials continued to submit petitions against the Green Seed Law, which naturally included Wen Jun, who had been driven out of Shangdu.

To these, Chu Ge was already completely immune, not even bothering to look at them.

After one year of implementing the Green Seed Law, it indeed brought in a substantial income of over two million guan.

This was indeed a significant amount of revenue.

Many officials in the New Party had been punished for either forcibly apportioning or privately raising the interest rates of green seed loans. Chu Ge’s decisive and swift style stirred some unrest within the New Party, but with the Old Party’s voice already much diminished in the royal court, most of the opportunists in the New Party had no choice but to endure in silence.

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.