Chapter 396 A Thunderous Sound
As soon as Hua Yue said these words, it was like a loud thunderclap. Many people were stunned and the entire venue suddenly became quiet.
After a short rest, Lao Cao asked Hua Yue, "Why do you say that, Mr. Hua? The operation of Yibin's shared tourist carriage bureau has been reported in the newspapers. It was also created by Commander Zhao's family. How can it be considered as corruption at the expense of the public interest?"
After Lao Cao's speech, the atmosphere became more solemn and the entire venue was silent.
Hua Yue insisted that it was because the matter had been made public and was done by Lord Zhao's family . If the officials below had something to say, the Censorate would definitely speak on their behalf and get to the bottom of it.
Zhao Yulin finally understood that it was not just Hua Yue who had opinions, but that different voices of questioning had been gathered in the Censorate.
Yangjin coughed twice and spoke cautiously. She said that this matter concerns her family and she must talk about it. This public carriage bureau is the second one run by her family in Yibin, in addition to the one in Chengdu. How much did the two carriage bureaus invest?
How much profit?
There are clear accounts of how much money was handed over to the court.
As for Yibin, it is privately operated, which is called private enterprise. As long as private enterprises operate reasonably, legally and in compliance with regulations, our court will support them, right?
She proposed that the Ministry of Works and the Censorate organize a team to go to Xuzhou to verify the situation. Should they report the situation to the Xuzhou government and publish it in the newspapers?
If yes, then there is nothing wrong with it.
Everyone then breathed a sigh of relief and slowly started discussing the matter.
Hua Yue continued to arrest him and asked him how he explained the occupation of government land and public housing.
Is it also called investment?
Should the government profit from converting land and houses into shares during operations?
Lao Cao looked at Hua Yue with some dissatisfaction. What a big deal! It’s just a few kids who set up a scaled-down version of the public carriage bureau. Why did this guy keep going after Zhao Yulin?
Zhao Yulin is actually this guy's great benefactor.
Otherwise, how could he grow from a small minister to the vice-president of the New Song Dynasty and the head of the Censorate?
Zhao Yulin found it interesting.
What Hua Yue said was not without reason. For example, the government's land and public housing have prices. Even if converted into rent, the government should have an income every year.
Seeing that the discussion in the meeting room was gradually dying down, he knocked on the table and asked everyone to be quiet, and said: Mr. Hua asked a good question, and what he said makes sense.
This was the first time that a private citizen set up a carriage bureau, so it was inevitable that there were some shortcomings. For example, the use of government land and houses for the carriage bureau should have its own benefits.
The government also provides security for the carriage bureau to maintain public order. How to calculate these, you gentlemen can discuss it carefully. Formulate more detailed regulations for the carriage bureaus to be opened in the future.
He personally thought that the land and public housing needed for the carriage bureau should be provided by the government, because the carriage bureau could be run by the Zhang family or the Li family, and if one family was not doing well or was operating illegally and needed to be replaced, they could not choose the land to build the carriage bureau.
Everyone listened and began to nod among themselves.
Then he said that Yibin's shared tourist carriage bureau must be thoroughly investigated according to Director Yangjin's instructions, because that place is Xuzhou, and Lu Youpeng has just taken charge there. He is also a veteran of the Shenwei Army, and the carriage bureau was run by his family. If anyone raises questions, they should be clarified, and after verification, the results should be published in the Chengdu Weekly for public announcement.
Lao Cao immediately stated that he wanted the Censorate and the Ministry of Works to form an inspection team to verify the matter.
Zhao Yulin said that after investigation and verification, his family no longer operated the carriage bureau and held an open auction for Xuzhou residents. All proceeds from the auction were donated to Yibin as expenses for the maintenance of the ancient monument of Jiuzhouba.
Lao Cao felt that he was just angry, and said, "What's the problem? He was doing well."
Zhao Yulin shook his head and said that he had his own arrangements, so we did as he said.
Lao Cao felt that he had been sitting for too long and was too tired. He asked them to take a short break before discussing it.
Everyone got up and left. Lao Cao took him to the toilet to relieve himself. As they walked, he said to them, "Why bother about such trivial matters? He, Hua Yue, is a stubborn person."
Zhao Yulin shook his head and said that it was not just his problem, everyone in the world who knew the situation would see it this way.
That's why he said he wanted to withdraw from the management of the carriage bureau.
After returning, the gentlemen discussed again the restrictions on street construction.
In view of the fact that three unfinished streets had been reported from various places, unscrupulous businessmen and local officials had arbitrarily expropriated land to expand streets and build houses, which led to the breakdown of the capital chain for construction, people who wanted to buy houses could not get houses, and the bank's funds were pressed into unfinished streets. The Central Council instructed the Ministry of Industry to formulate regulations for the construction of streets.
Hua Yue proposed forming an inspection team to go to the scene of the incident to investigate the incident and hold those responsible accountable.
Lao Cao agreed and asked the Censorate to send someone to be in charge, and the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of Personnel to send personnel to conduct an immediate inspection.
What Zhao Yulin is most concerned about is the banks, and nothing can go wrong in the financial sector.
He asked the bank head office to strictly follow the loan regulations when making loans, and any violations must be severely punished and not loaned.
Then he said that from now on the bank would no longer lend money to merchants who built streets.
Merchants can only set up shops here if they have capital. Without capital, they can forget about making money here.
The Ministry of Industry also needs to check the housing prices offered by the merchants building the streets and impose a limit on the profits from building the streets to a level slightly higher than the loan interest.
By tightening the rules like this, there will naturally be fewer people who want to take risks to make big money.
Yang Jin went on to say that there would be another restriction, which is for merchants who buy land but do not build houses, and attempt to wait for the land price to go up before reselling it to make money. This is called land speculation, which actually increases the cost of building the street, and the New Song Dynasty will never allow this.
If you want to buy land, you must first come up with your intention and what you are going to use it for. If you buy the land but do not build streets or houses or set up factories as agreed upon before, we will impose a fine according to the breach of contract and even take back the land.
Zhao Yulin nodded and said, "Let's tentatively plan for three years. After buying the land, we'll spend a year planning, and the second year building. It should be completed within three to five years."
If it is not repaired within five years, we will take it back free of charge and make it state property.
Moreover, banks are never allowed to lend money to businessmen to buy land.
The gentlemen had no objection to these and each of them spoke up and added to the discussion.
Lao Cao asked him what to do with the unfinished streets in Daojiang County?
Brother, did you promise the people at that time that you would take over the reconstruction within half a month?
Wu Yuqi from the Shunfeng Division reported that they had formed an investigation team with the Inspection Division to conduct a secret investigation. They had initially identified some officials from Daojiang County and Yongkang Army and the Zhang family who were in charge of Qijie, and were conducting an in-depth investigation.
Lao Cao knew that it was a stopgap measure taken by Zhao Yulin at the time to stabilize the people and criminals. Now that there was progress in the investigation, it would be easier to deal with.
However, Zhao Yulin agreed to restart the construction of the unfinished street. He felt anxious and worried when he saw the dilapidated street.
Zhao Yulin said that the construction of streets should be further regulated. He believed that it could be divided into several links: First, businessmen who pool funds to enclose land and prepare to build streets can be called developers, as they make money by developing land.
Everyone laughed immediately.
He went on to say: The second group is the craftsmen who take jobs from developers to build streets and houses. They can be called contractors, which means businessmen who undertake construction.
Third, everyone who buys a house or a shop is a property owner, and they are the ultimate owners of these houses and shops.
From now on, our Ministry of Industry can be called the Ministry of Construction, which means the Construction Work Department.
The Ministry of Construction must manage these links well, and the Ministry of Transportation must sort out the taxes in these links. They must neither increase taxes wantonly nor miss out on collecting any taxes.
Old Cao listened to another long lecture and thought that governing this country was too damn troublesome. It would be better to go to the border and fight the northern barbarians to vent his anger. He really didn't want to be the leader of this country.
He immediately asked Mr. Qiu to take note of everything, plan carefully, and send the notice to all the prefectures and counties to inform them.
Yangjin said affirmatively: Commander Zhao said that our family will go to Daojiang County next, and we must take it over. Not only the unfinished streets in Daojiang County, but also the unfinished streets in other places must be revitalized. Only in this way can the losses of the people be minimized.
These words sound very comfortable.
However, Zhao Yulin was worried. Damn, what a spendthrift woman! Does her family have that much money?
He knew that there were already three large unfinished streets in the country that had collapsed. If the Ministry of Industry introduced detailed regulations and continued to block loans to merchants who were building streets, who knows how many new streets would collapse and be ruined.
Old Cao was happy, as he felt that Yangjin was eloquent and capable, which had lightened a lot of his burden.
He simply said, "Okay, let's adjourn the court."
Everyone was stunned for a moment, then burst into laughter again.
Haha, Lao Cao is the king of the country. In the previous dynasty, he would be the emperor. He can totally call for the dissolution of the dynasty.
Lao Cao also laughed and quickly changed his words to "Let's go, let's go."
I guess when Cao is having fun at home, he treats himself as an emperor and speaks happy words all the time.
After returning, Wu Yuqi said that she had nothing to do and was going to Daojiang County to supervise the corruption case of Lanwei Street.
Zhao Yulin knew that she was doing some research on where to take the children. He knew that as a mother she was worried and concerned about the little ones.
He said it was not necessary and just let Dongmei watch over it.
She said that her brother just didn't care about others, and Dongmei was pregnant again.
Haha, Zhao Yulin slapped his head and said that he was a person who only talked about official business and didn't care about personal life. He didn't expect that Guoan would have another addition.
He asked Yuqi to supervise the process and use the collected money to first refund the merchants' advance rent and then repay the bank loans. All the captured criminals were escorted back to Chengdu and handed over to the Dali Temple for retrial.
Wu Yuqi glanced at him and said, "I understand." She would never be like him, breaking his limbs and cutting off his head when he was caught, and becoming the King of Hell.
Zhao Yulin chuckled and said that it was an extraordinary period. Since the founding of the New Song Dynasty, when had he ever arrested criminals and tortured them to death?
At this time, Fire Phoenix shouted outside the study: It's time to eat.
They went out hand in hand. When Wu Yuqi saw Fenghuang, she asked, "Sister, why are you shouting so loudly? Just ask a maid to come and greet them."
Fenghuang said that the two of them were kissing in the study, and even she didn't dare to get close, so how could the maid dare to disturb them?
