Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 300
"Wine and song, life geometry……"

"For example, the dew in the morning, the past days are bitter..."

"Hiss..."

Putting down the wine glass, Xu Qian, magistrate of Danyang County, Zhenjiang Prefecture, picked up a piece of stewed pig's ear on the table with chopsticks, put it in his mouth and chewed it carefully. After savoring it, he squinted his eyes and looked in front of him.

In front of his eyes are the small officials in the official warehouse who are constantly counting, as well as the yamen servants who are carrying grain and the masters who are counting.

As for himself, he is sitting at a table for four with the county magistrate, master Bo, and pawns of Danyang County. There are two jugs of wine, three dishes of cold dishes and three dishes of hot dishes on the table.

The three dishes of cold dishes are deep-fried peanuts sprinkled with salt, marinated pig ears, and marinated pork head.

The three hot dishes are also a plate of Nanjing roast duck, a plate of braised donkey meat and homemade tofu.

Four people, six dishes and two pots of wine, still in this famine year, is enough to see how a county official is treated.

The four supervisors ate meat and drank wine, while the subordinate staff took out a piece of fried pork jerky and chewed it in their mouths, and the yamen servants below ate cold rice cakes.

Just eating after work, you can see the difference and class in their eating and drinking.

The internal personnel of the county government in the Ming Dynasty were mainly divided into three categories: officials, officials, and servants.

In the Ming Dynasty, the county government was often divided into magistrates, magistrates, master books, and history officials.

The county magistrate is in charge of the government affairs of a county, the assistant is the second, and the leader is in charge of persuading farmers, water conservancy, Qing army, patrolling and other things.

Officials are public officials registered with the Ministry of Officials, mainly working in Liufang, Liangke, Make and other housing departments, and handling official documents and accounts.

The yamen servants are in charge of standing in the hall, guarding, guarding, urging subjects, arresting and so on, waiting for the officials to dispatch.

However, following King Qi's order to reform the system, the work of the yamen servants was reduced, and the county magistrate no longer had to handle cases.

The soldiers and horses are responsible for guarding the city, and the chief officer is awarded the seventh-rank soldier and horse doctor, while the chief official of Dali Temple is the judge who is awarded the seventh-rank, and the chief officer of the yamen is the eighth-rank secretary doctor.

The power of a county has been divided from four to seven, and no one will be happy.

For example, the four of Xu Qian are already in a group, and now they have to play with the three Yanshan chief officials who were airborne, so it is natural to feel a little worried.

But it's better to order this sorrow, so Xu Qian picked up a piece of braised donkey meat, and said to the master who was keeping accounts:

"Zhang Shiyan, you have to be careful. If you don't do it well, there are many or few, the higher-ups will have to convict us of insufficient governance."

"Don't worry, Xu Zhi County, I haven't missed this account for thirty years. With these ears and eyes, you can tell what's in the bag at a glance." Master Zhang said, and made two gestures with his pen.

The county government does not have the official position of a master, and most of these people join the county government as aides. As for the salary, it all depends on how much the head official uses his salary.

However, this does not mean that acting as a county magistrate is very hard work. After all, there are too many means and places to be corrupt when he is in charge of a county.

Not to mention anything else, in a county like Danyang, there are more than [-] people and more than one million acres of land, and the annual income is about [-] taels of silver.

In the tax system of the Ming Dynasty, after the local officials left the money needed for the operation of the county, they handed it over layer by layer.

This led to the fact that Xu Qian and the others could do their own thing while leaving the self-sufficient money.

Although subordinate officials do not need to pay salaries, the yamen needs to be operated, and the yamen servants need salaries.

Xu Qian and the others don't need to mention other project rebates, just the government servant's service money, they have to eat four thousand taels of silver every year.

To them, they reported [-] yamen servants in the county, but in fact there were only more than [-] yamen servants in the county government.

After the salary was paid, each of the four of them only had one item of silver, and they could share hundreds of taels of silver.

This is just the silver, in addition to the official grain from the official warehouse, which is just to find an excuse to sell it at a low price at the end of the year.

Not only was he greedy for food, but he could also repair the granary by taking advantage of it, and then get a lot of money on the account.

It is precisely because of these various means that Xu Qian and others can support themselves with a meager salary, and live a nourishing life in this rich and prosperous Jiangnan.

However, the emergence of soldiers, horses and officers has limited the amount they can greedy for ink.

It's just that it doesn't matter, in their view, don't look at the officials and petty officials from Yanshan who are just doing their jobs, but as long as time goes by, they will slowly reach out.

Thinking of this, Xu Qian picked up the wine glass and took a sip, not forgetting to sigh after drinking:

"Suzhou, Changzhou, Huzhou, Songjiang, Jiading and other places were rich in the past, but now they have all become hanged ghosts. It is really embarrassing."

It is now July [-]th, as early as ten days ago, Lu Wenzhao ordered Cui Yingyuan to take Jin Yiwei to the south, and began to track down the officials and subordinates of the Yamen county in the flooded area.

For a time, just after the flood, the officials and subordinates in these places were convicted of crimes, and their homes were ransacked, which is embarrassing.

Xu Qian was sighing, but he looked a little gloating.

Humans, I can't see others better than him, the rabbit dies and the fox is sad, that means when he gets the people around him, the life and death of the Suzhou government officials who are hundreds of miles away has nothing to do with him Xu Qian.

Thinking of this, Xu Qian picked up his wine glass and took another sip. At this time, Master Zhang, who was in charge of bookkeeping, also turned around and said:
"Xuzhi County, after counting, the total is [-] shi, and there is a shortfall of [-] shi."

"It's not much..." Xu Qian glanced at Zhu Bo, the county magistrate and others, and then said: "I will make up two hundred stones."

"I will make up one hundred and fifty shi..." The county magistrate took it immediately, and the master Bo also said: "I will make up one hundred shi."

"I will make up for the rest..." the pawn took the opportunity to speak, and when he spoke, everyone nodded.

With enough food, Xu Qian can order:

"Tomorrow, inform Zhang Langzhong of the Bingma Division to come..."

"No need!"

Suddenly, people holding torches broke into the official warehouse, and when Xu Qian saw the clothes of these people, he immediately stood up.

"This... I don't know that the Shangguan of the Jinyiwei is here in person, and I am far away from welcoming..."

The person who came was none other than a Baihu from the Supervision Department of Jinyiwei, and Baihu's official position was the sixth rank, which was two ranks higher than Xu Qian, who was the seventh rank.

In the Wanli period, Xu Qian would at most talk to the other party, but it is a pity that this is the Tianqi period, and Jin Yiwei's supervisory department is half a step higher than Nanzhen Fusi.

When Cui Yingyuan was arresting officials in Suzhou and other places, Xu Qian did not dare to do anything disrespectful to Jin Yiwei of the Supervision Department.

He thought about answering the other party's words, and sending the other party away after the other party finished his work, but he didn't want the other party to come for him.

"Arrest Xu Qian, magistrate of Danyang County, Zhangliao, Chancellor of Danyang County, Bo Lifu, and He Chao, the pawn!"

"Yes!"

When Baihu gave the order, Xu Qian was arrested before he could say "misunderstanding".

"According to the "Law of the Ming Dynasty", the four of Xu Qian embezzled countless treasuries in Danyang County, seized and confiscated their homes, and will be sentenced by Dali Temple in Zhenjiang Prefecture at a certain date!"

"Slander! What qualifications do you have to arrest me! I want to see Mr. Futai!" Xu Qian couldn't believe it, but still insisted that he was not corrupt.

"Liu Futai has been sent to Nanjing, I'm afraid you won't see it...Take it away!"

At the order of Baihu, Xu Qian and others who were drinking and chatting just a second ago were shackled and taken away by Jin Yiwei. Such a scene was not only in Zhenjiang Mansion, but also in Nanzhili and Zhejiang.

When the news reached the capital, hundreds of officials were arrested in one capital and one province, and more than [-] subordinates were involved.

Yao Zongwen and others never expected that the flood in a place of four prefectures would be made so big by Zhu Youjian.

Not only them, but Han Yu and others from the Donglin Party didn't know how to go to Shushu.

Zhu Youjian didn't even give them time to discuss, and the Beizhen Fusi Jinyiwei, led by Li Ruolian, began to arrest hundreds of officials in Shaanxi, Beizhili, Shandong, Shanxi, Henan and other places.

It's just that compared with the southeast, the cases that broke out in the north are even more scalp-numbing.

Li Ruolian characterized the case as the "Three Niangzi Case", which mainly involved officials who smuggled with Tumote and Hetao.

The third lady had passed away for more than ten years, and no one could have imagined that she would leave such things before her death. Some officials who had begged their elders to recuperate at home were arrested one after another and sent to local prisons.

For a moment, the whole world was shaken, and the wind was turbulent. After seeing the Jin Yiwei of the brigade on the street, some people hurriedly dodged and avoided, for fear of being implicated.

Not only the Baiguan, but also some former senior generals in the Fifth Army Commander's Mansion invited them to the local Baihus to drink tea.

In the city of Zhangye, Hexi, the whole family of the Wang family, who had a hereditary family of thousands, was arrested, and this was clearly seen by a servant in the mansion next door.

Seeing General Wang Can in the army being taken away, the boy hurried to the study, and saw two veterans drinking tea in the study fifteen minutes later.

"Master is not well. The family of General Wang Cang next door has been arrested by Beizhen Fusi."

"What are you afraid of..."

A familiar voice sounded, and the [-]-year-old Li Rubai with white hair and beard glanced at the servant, then at Li Ruzhen who was sitting next to him, and then said:
"Your Highness can move, and I, Mrs. Li, did not participate in the San Niangzi case. Why should I be afraid?"

Li Rubai was not afraid. To put it bluntly, the Li family was most implicated in Jianlu. If Zhu Youjian wanted to settle accounts, he would have already started to liquidate them.

Since they can survive until now, as long as they are obedient, they will naturally not suffer liquidation.

Not as Li Rubai expected, just after he finished speaking, the head of the front yard walked into the study all the way, bowed and said:
"Master, just now Zhang Baihu from Jinyiwei in the city came to send a message, saying that in the next few days, master, please rest well and don't go out for the time being."

"Got it..." Li Rubai and Li Ruzhen heaved a sigh of relief when they heard this.

After Li Ruzhen breathed a sigh of relief, he also turned to Li Rubai and said:

"Having said that, His Highness is carrying out major cases in the north and south, I'm afraid..."

"We don't need to care about these things, we just need to guard Hexi well." Li Rubai raised his hand to signal Li Ruzhen to stop talking.

He could see clearly that what Zhu Youjian needed was an obedient person.

As long as he becomes his person, he can let go of the previous corruption, as long as he doesn't commit it again in the future.

This can be seen from the super high salaries he offered to the generals, such as Li Rubai's annual salary is three thousand taels of silver.

If there is a war, after the fight, you can get rewards ranging from one to three thousand taels of silver, which can be called generous.

With such a generous salary and reward, if there are still people who dare to commit crimes, it would be a little ignorant.

Regarding Zhu Youjian's political behavior, as long as they ignore it, they can still live a good life.

Thinking of this, Li Rubai took a sip of tea...

"Snapped--"

"Say it or not!"

"Speak! I speak!"

In the imperial prison of Fusi Qianhu Office in Beizhen, Taiyuan Prefecture, Shanxi Province, there was an endless stream of lashing and questioning.

This imperial prison, which has been prepared for several years, still failed to accommodate the corrupt officials in Shanxi when the "Three Niangzi case" broke out.

As the commander and accomplice of Beizhen Fusi, Li Ruolian sat in the auditorium at the gate of the Imperial Prison, with food and wine on the table, eating and drinking alone, listening to the wailing in the Imperial Prison.

Until the evening, a stack of family property documents and confessions filled with confiscated property appeared in front of him.

Li Ruolian picked up a book and looked at it hastily, then put it on the table and said:
"These people have a lot of money. It seems that Shanxi's disaster relief funds have been raised."

"Send the document to Yanshan to His Highness..."

After all, Li Ruolian continued to drink with his head down, and as the officials in the imperial prison were sent out with bruises all over their bodies, the new officials were also escorted into the imperial prison by sticks.

Jin Yiwei's methods are not something this group of civil servants can bear. Although some of them gritted their teeth and refused to confess, when the evidence of their participation in the San Niangzi case was put on the desk, they began to cry bitterly. plead guilty.

This kind of arrest is very slow. Li Ruolian followed Zhu Youjian's order, starting with the first rank, followed by the second rank, third rank, and fourth rank...

He was not in a hurry, but chose to interrogate and imprison slowly.

Zhu Youjian deliberately asked Beizhen Fusi to do things very slowly. Some officials and merchants involved in the case began to sell their properties one after another when they saw this.

As long as someone wanted to run away, Jin Yiwei would appear and capture them with money.

This made it much easier to investigate property such as land and houses, which were originally difficult to investigate.

[By the seventh day of September, the San Niangzi case involved tens of thousands of officials, causing panic all over the world, and panic among all officials...]

When the pen was written, the living note official who was recording the emperor's daily note in the Hall of Mental Cultivation dried up the ink, and then continued to eavesdrop on the record.

In the Hall of Mental Cultivation, Zhu Youxiao listened to Lu Wenzhao's report, tightly clenched the document in his hand, his eyes were a little red.

It was less than a month since the case broke out, and the San Niangzi case has already involved more than [-] high-ranking officials and more than [-] subordinate officials.

Behind them are hundreds of thousands of family members and clansmen, and at present they have only reached the first step of Zhu Youjian's formulation.

Followed by officials below the fifth rank, as well as salt merchants and smugglers...

"Long live, the Jiangnan flood case is over, involving [-] officials, more than [-] subordinates, and more than [-] family members."

"The house was confiscated with more than [-] million taels of silver, more than [-] stones of rice and wheat, more than [-] million acres of land deeds, and more than [-] mansions and villas..."

"If all the colors are folded, I'm afraid there will be more than [-] million taels of silver..."

When Zhu Youxiao was angry with the paperwork, Lu Wenzhao revealed the results of the Jiangnan flood case and the proceeds from the house raids.

Although the Jiangnan officials didn't have much money and food, they bought a lot of property that made people jealous.

"What did brother say?" Zhu Youxiao closed the document, frowned and looked at Lu Wenzhao, but Lu Wenzhao bowed and said:

"His Royal Highness said that these officials and subordinates can be exiled to the Old Port..."

"Just exile?" Zhu Youxiao wanted to kill some people to vent his anger, but Lu Wenzhao said:
"Your Highness said, sometimes, living is more difficult than dying."

"..." Hearing this, Zhu Youxiao calmed down a little, but continued:
"The San Niangzi case, how much is the current proceeds from the house raid?"

"After counting all the colors, probably..." Lu Wenzhao hesitated for a moment before slowly speaking:

"About [-] million taels..."

In a word, it expresses the differences and strengths between the North and the South.

Jiangnan officials only involved the officials of the two provinces, and they confiscated nearly [-] million taels of silver, while the entire north of the fifth rank and above, together with the subordinate merchants and merchants who tried to escape, only had more than [-] million taels of silver.

"In your opinion, if the case of San Niangzi is finished, how much can be copied?"

Zhu Youxiao asked Lu Wenzhao with serious eyes, but Lu Wenzhao hesitated and said:
"If it's Zheshi, roughly...it should be around ten million taels of silver."

Ten million taels of silver, this is the total amount of tax paid by the Ming Dynasty for more than two years, and it can only be received so much when the weather is good.

Although Zhu Youxiao knew that most of them were land properties, mansions, villas, and door shops, the amount of money was enough to arouse his extinguished anger again.

"Currently, the cash collected by the North and the South is less than [-] million taels, and the food is less than [-] million shi. It can be used for disaster relief."

"As for the fields, His Highness is going to distribute them to the people, and then encourage the people to report corrupt officials and hide wealth from the people at the same time."

"Mansions and courtyards can be included in Huangzhuang, which may be needed when Long Live rewards officials in the future."

Lu Wenzhao revealed the proceeds from the house raids, but the large amount of real estate made their house raids less successful.

Although the value of tens of millions of taels was reached after the ransacking of the house in the north and south, Zhu Youjian would rather distribute than sell such things as fields.

Selling land will only intensify land mergers, and land development can not only strengthen the policy that land cannot be bought and sold, but also enrich the people.

Of course, Zhu Youjian also left a lot of good things for his good emperor brother, such as those other gardens and villa shops.

However, Zhu Youxiao was very willing to say about this:

"Give these things to the Huangdian to sell..."

"This... the minister takes orders..." After hearing Zhu Youxiao's words, Lu Wenzhao responded, and Zhu Youxiao also asked Lu Wenzhao:
"What is the attitude of the officials in Beijing?"

"The officials were very dissatisfied in private, but due to the majesty of Long Live and His Highness, they didn't make a big deal of it..."

Although Lu Wenzhao said so, Zhu Youxiao understood that what hindered the officials was not his majesty as the emperor, but his younger brother.

Zhu Youxiao was not dissatisfied with this. He knew that if he hadn't tried his best to dissuade him, it would be difficult to guess the attitude of the military generals in the Qi Palace and the Five Army Commanders' Mansion.

Apart from his own persuasion and reluctance to stay now, what is more important is that he needs to stabilize the military officers and civil officials in the Five Army Commander's Mansion and Prince Qi's Mansion.

"The officials who were cleaned up this time are mainly officials from the Zhejiang Party, the Xuan Party, and the Kunming Party. Didn't my brother say anything about this?"

Zhu Youxiao walked back to his seat and sat down, while Lu Wenzhao stepped forward and said:

"His Royal Highness said that the flood, the attack on the three parties of Zhejiang, Xuankun and Kunming is nothing more than a physical injury, far from the degree of injury."

"It is important to take advantage of this time, taking advantage of Enke's opportunity, to install Yanshan officials in Sifu and other counties in the south of the Yangtze River that have been thoroughly investigated."

"As long as you control the three places of Nanzhili, Jiangxi, and Zhejiang, you can check the yellow books of the whole country, and then reduce the land tax, and the gentry will be divided into mu, and the grain will be paid as a whole."

Zhu Youjian's plan is very well-adjusted, and Zhu Youxiao is very satisfied with this. The only thing he cares about is the land tax that Zhu Youjian said he would surrender to the army and garrison the people.

Judging from Daming's current financial situation, if the land tax is really reduced, I'm afraid...

"..." Zhu Youxiao didn't say anything, but asked, "Did my younger brother not mention the matter of the army's field tax?"

"Your Highness means that next year the general's land tax will be reduced to [-]%, because the old port, Liaodong, and Ryukyu lands can already feed back to the imperial court." Lu Wenzhao said while explaining:

"In Liaodong and Ryukyu, nearly [-] million mu of newly cultivated land has passed the three-year agreement. Right now, land taxes can be collected from them, and the annual revenue of the household department is estimated to increase by about [-] million shi."

"In the old port area, gold, silver and copper mines have been opened now, and nearly two million people have moved to the local area to settle down. According to the memorandum of Shen Buzheng, the old port area can not only be self-sufficient now, but there will be thousands of people every year. Yu Wanshi's surplus food."

"Putting these grains locally will lead to local grain prices as low as a penny, and low grain prices will hurt farmers."

"In recent years, people in Guangdong, Fujian and other places have fled to the south and migrated because of the high food prices. Now the food in Jiugang can go north to help the people in Guangdong, Fujian and other places."

"The fields that will be reclaimed in the future will mainly be soybeans and peanuts..."

After Lu Wenzhao finished speaking, Zhu Youxiao raised a question:

"From the old port to Guangdong and Fujian, the journey is by sea. Can the grain be preserved for that long?"

"With our moisture-proof technology, the rice can withstand moisture for about two months at most..." Lu Wenzhao explained:
"His Royal Highness and Minister Shen Bu are transporting grain from Nanhai Prefecture and Palembang Prefecture to Jiugang and Zhongshan Prefectures."

"This time is about half a month, so the grain will be stored in the warehouse after it arrives at Zhongshan Mansion."

"Afterwards, the grain from Zhongshan Prefecture, Sulu, and Boni was transported northward to Luzon Prefecture, and Luzon Prefecture has more than [-] immigrants, which can solve the food of other prefectures. At the same time, the grain from Luzon Prefecture can be transported from The north was transported to Ryukyu and arrived in Fujian."

"During this period, each batch of food will not spend more than a month at sea, and the food is naturally edible."

"Besides, transporting food from the south to the north is just the first point to solve the problem. The second point is that wineries can be built in places such as the South China Sea, and then the official wines can be used to increase the income of the court."

"The last thing is about the vassal king's overseas vassal. Judging from the time, they should have finished patrolling the entire Tianzhu coast, and all the vassal chiefs should have elected the vassal."

"Since it has been elected, the matter of the vassal king overseas will start around next year. The old Hong Kong government, Palembang government, and Nanhai government will become a big granary for the vassal king to become a vassal..."

Lu Wenzhao talked eloquently, but Zhu Youxiao frowned when he heard about the feudal king's feudal lord.

Obviously, he still resists the vassal king's overseas vassal, but this matter is on the right track, even if he personally doesn't like it, there is nothing he can do about it.

It's just that he was also curious whether Tianzhu was really as good as his younger brother said.

With such doubts, Zhu Youxiao's thoughts gradually drifted towards Tianzhu...

　My hands are a little sore, and the code is slow, so I am late, sorry.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)