Daming Yinghua

Chapter 448: Divide a Part First

That night, accompanied by Wei Zhongxian, Huang Qirui led a group of Heluo officials into the music hall of Prince Fu's Palace with ease and displayed the dragon robe that was actually smuggled into the palace under the Kunqu opera costume, and a crown with twelve tassels.

The Governor of Henan and the Prefect of Luoyang looked solemn, but they were actually very happy in their hearts.

Thank God and thank Emperor Taizu, the imperial court finally came to deal with this foolish king.

After Zheng Haizhu brought the brainwashed Huang Bingshi to meet them and gave them some hints, the two governments no longer had any concerns. They wrote a memorial overnight and sent it to the capital, waiting for good news.

Although Prince Fu Zhu Changxun was compared to Prince of Xiang by his somewhat loyal but not too loyal subordinate Huang Bingshi, in fact, he did not have the courage of the former Prince of Xiang to put on armor and ride into a fire to burn himself in order to prove his innocence.

During the one month of house arrest, he was reluctant to skip a meal, so much so that when he met the officials from the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Clan Affairs who came with the imperial edict, he cried loudly for his father Wanli and his mother Concubine Zheng, and cursed the treacherous villains for alienating the relationship between him and the current emperor. Finally, he was stuffed into an official ship on the Yellow River and transported to Fengyang.

The Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Clan Clan Affairs completed the important task of having Prince Dechang Zhu Yousong inherit the title as the second Prince Fu, and his wife returned to Beijing peacefully.

The head of the Henan Qingli Division of the Ministry of Revenue appeared on the scene happily.

"Have you made it clear what Minister Bi meant in the official document from the capital?" Zheng Haizhu asked the person in charge.

The official knew that his immediate superior Bi Ziyan was on good terms with Zheng Siqing, so he said respectfully, "I have read it carefully. The ministry has already told us that the salt permits for Jianghuai and Sichuan should be returned to their respective positions. Fortunately, the salt permits for this year have not been issued yet, so the two places have just issued a notice to attract merchants."

Zheng Haizhu nodded: "The salt shops run by the deposed king's minions can no longer stir up trouble, and the salt permits in Hedong can be put back on track. However, I wrote to your Minister Bi half a month ago, begging him to take this opportunity to change the rules of the Transport Commissioner's Office."

"Well, how should it be changed? I would like to know the details."

Zheng Haizhu said bluntly: "During the reign of Emperor Hongzhi, the Minister of Revenue Ye Qi was from Lianghuai. For the convenience of his fellow merchants, he stipulated that salt merchants could use silver to exchange for salt permits, instead of having to transport grain from the south to the north before exchanging for salt permits as before. I told Minister Bi that this rule was not acceptable and had to be changed back."

The head of the Ministry of Revenue was a little confused: "Why is paying silver in exchange for notes more harmful than paying grain in exchange for notes? The court can also buy grain and ship it to the north with the silver."

"No, it's very different. The original intention of the salt permit system was to mobilize the power of private merchants to transport grain from the south to the northern military towns. Because the weight of grain transported to the border is directly linked to the number of salt permits that can be exchanged, the merchants not only transported it quickly, but also tried their best to reduce the loss during transportation. This idea was taken to the extreme, and it became that the merchants recruited farmers themselves and cultivated land near the border. The per-acre grain yield of this merchant settlement is much higher than that of the military settlements in our Ming Dynasty. Just imagine, if you can get salt permits by paying silver in this town, what will the situation be like?"

"Ah, I understand."

The head of the Ministry of Revenue just lacked experience, but he had a sharp mind. After hearing what Zheng Haizhu said, he immediately came to his senses.

Merchants are always pursuing profits while saving effort. They can use silver to directly exchange for salt permits in the south, so why bother running commercial settlements near the border?

The commercial settlements were abandoned and the job of transporting grain fell back to the transfer office that received money from the salt merchants. No wonder the grain prices in Xuanda, Jizhen, Liaodong and other places rose again. During the lean spring season, the price even reached four or five taels of silver per stone. Even if the monthly salaries of the border troops were paid on time and in full, it was still difficult for them to have enough to eat.

"Madam, rest assured. I am in charge of the Henan Qingli Division and will keep an eye on the new rules of the department. If the Hedong salt permit can be exchanged for grain to the nine borders this time, I will immediately inform Heluo."

A few days later, Zhu Yousong, the second Prince of Fu who inherited the title, under the auspices of his father-in-law Huang Qirui, honestly handed over 600,000 taels of silver to the Henan Qingli Division of the Ministry of Revenue for counting and signing.

Interestingly, Wei Zhongxian asked his trusted eunuchs to escort the Henan beauties to Beijing, and he himself took advantage of the month to visit several prefectures around Henan Prefecture as a semi-imperial eunuch. The Zhou King in Kaifeng, the Zhao King in Zhangde, and the Lu King in Weihui had already heard the news of Zhu Changxun's failure in Luoyang. When they saw the court eunuch personally coming to their door, they were not very interested and only asked for 100,000 taels of silver from each family.

Obviously, this is completely different from the emperor's posture of dealing with Prince Fu in order to avenge the conflict over the foundation of the country. So why is he hesitating?

Wei Zhongxian then collected 300,000 taels of silver and handed over 200,000 taels to the Henan Qingli Division of the Ministry of Revenue.

The head of the Qingli Division was so happy that he couldn't stop smiling. In this year's performance evaluation, he would definitely be ranked first among all the Qingli Divisions in the Ministry of Revenue.

"Mrs. Zheng, even a fly's legs are meat, don't you think?"

Zheng Haizhu said with a smile: "They are not fly legs, but camel legs. Two hundred thousand taels can buy 150,000 dan of grain from Sichuan."

After laughing, he asked the Ministry of Revenue for money.

The head of the Ministry of Revenue has received an order from the capital, leaving 200,000 taels to be managed by the Minister of the Ministry of State Affairs, and the rest should be sent to the capital.

This was originally agreed upon by Zheng Haizhu with the Emperor Zhu Changluo and the Chief Seal of the Imperial Household Cao Huachun before his trip to Henan.

It was estimated that it would take until July to finish this big drama, and the autumn harvest would come soon. Zhu Changluo had full trust in Zheng Haizhu, a close minister who came from a merchant family and had sufficient ability to increase revenue and reduce expenditure, so he gave her some money orally.

Zheng Haizhu then allocated 100,000 taels and found Huang Qirui, who was an excellent actor, and asked him to take advantage of the lowest grain prices in July and August to transport tens of thousands of dan of grain all the way to Xuanda and hand it over to Governor Sun Chengzong to be stored by the court first. In return, in addition to a small share of the price difference, he was promised some salt permits from Sichuan, which was equivalent to expanding his business in his hometown.

Huang Qirui gladly accepted the job.

Shanxi is to the north of Henan, and the road to transport grain to Xuanda is not difficult. It is profitable for him, and he can also share the profits with Zheng Siqing tacitly, thus consolidating his relationship with this popular figure around the emperor.

For the remaining 100,000 taels, Zheng Haizhu asked the soldiers of the standard camp in Henan Province to escort him to Jizhen via Shanxi. Under the witness of Du Song, the general of Jizhen, he spent 50,000 taels to buy winter clothes for the border troops.

Of course, these winter clothes were shipped directly from Chongming to Dusong’s private port in Shanhaiguan.

Du Song did the math and said to Zheng Haizhu cheerfully, "Of course it is. This cotton lining is bulging. You can tell at a glance that it is not the junky stuff that Li Guojiu stuffed with straw and brought to the border town that could freeze soldiers to death."

What he meant was that even so, I could still make 12,000 taels of silver. The property of Siqing's family produced really good products. I think Siqing should give the bulk of his share to me, Old Du, as a filial duty. He really did a great job.

The last 50,000 taels were sent by Zheng Haizhu to Daning Town and handed over to Huang Zunsu and Ma Xianglin.

"You continue to recruit soldiers and buy horses. I will report the accounts to the capital. I haven't taken a penny," Zheng Haizhu said to the two. "This is only a small part. The big battle next year will cost money."