King Xiang of the Red Chamber

Chapter 824: No Hunger in a Prosperous Era

It is not easy to amend the laws. It requires detailed discussions with important officials to come up with a feasible plan.

This matter can be done slowly, but we should investigate the forced purchases and sales by the gentry, bring out a group of typical cases to quell public anger, and then make an example of them to curb mergers and acquisitions.

In fact, Zhu Jinghong was also wondering whether it was necessary to increase efforts to curb mergers after the land tax had been allocated. After all, there was not much difference in the taxation of the court before and after.

But how to arrange for these landless people has become a new problem. Although it would be good to move them out and let them occupy the land, they may not be willing to leave their hometown because it is difficult to leave.

Developing productivity and creating more jobs will take five to ten years or even longer to show results. During this period, who will farm and who will go to the factories will be a history of blood and tears for millions or even tens of millions of people.

Considering that we are still an agricultural country, we have to follow the practices of thousands of years, so curbing mergers is something we must do.

Otherwise, if we really let loose on annexation, it wouldn't be long before only the big landlords would be left in the country, and then it would be time for a change of dynasty.

On February 14, Zhu Jinghong's edict arrived in Jiangbei, ordering Li Ziheng to thoroughly investigate the annexation, and especially to severely punish those powerful people who used intimidation, inducement, and robbery.

With this decree, Li Ziheng could act freely, and his actions became radical.

The first step in investigating a case is to check the accounts, especially the land changes in recent years. In an era without electronic spreadsheets, it was almost as difficult as climbing to the sky to filter out useful information from the government offices of various prefectures and counties when the other party did not cooperate.

This was extremely time-consuming, and half a month after the deadline, he could be said to have made no progress.

On the one hand, there are not enough people, and on the other hand, the accounts are too messy, and there are also some cover-ups. Anyway, it is impossible to sort them out.

In early March, Zhu Jinghong sent more people from the East Factory and the Northern Pacification Office, which greatly strengthened Li Ziheng's "calculating power" and finally made progress in his investigation work.

Zhu Jinghong sent the royal servants, ostensibly to help Li Ziheng, but in essence to further express his attitude on the matter.

Land annexation is not limited to Jiangbei, it must exist in more than 20 provinces across the country. It would be strange if local gentry did not intervene by implementing land survey and land tax distribution. It is still going on now.

This phenomenon must be curbed, so Zhu Jinghong must make his attitude clear and the case in Jiangbei must be dealt with severely.

As March approached, Li Ziheng's investigation was progressing steadily, and he had already caught a big fish, the Chen family, a local prominent family in Fengyang.

The Chen family is no simple family. A hundred years ago, when Emperor Muzong (Emperor Shizu's grandfather) was in power, the old man of the Chen family was promoted to the rank of Grand Secretary of the Wenhua Palace.

Seventy years ago, when Emperor Taizu ascended the throne, the grandfather of the current head of the Chen family was the Minister of Rites, and the edict issued when Emperor Taizu ascended the throne was drafted by him.

This large family, which has been passed down for more than a hundred years, still has three members serving as officials. The one with the highest position is the second son of the eldest branch of the Chen family, who is now a councilor of the Henan Provincial Government.

The head of the Chen family, Chen Yuying, served as the prefect of Chengdu. Although he was not as outstanding as his second son, he surpassed many people in the officialdom.

Old Chen is very depressed now, because the Jinyiwei have come to his house three times and took away the land deeds of his family.

His family has indeed bought a lot of land in recent years. Of course, the main family only purchased 12,000 acres, and the majority of the land is "held on behalf of" by branches and in-laws, which adds up to 24,000 acres.

In other words, in the past ten years, the Chen family has annexed 36,000 acres of land. Together with the land they already owned, they now own nearly 45,000 acres of land.

It was inevitable that such a behemoth would be discovered first, so when the imperial edict arrived half a month ago, Chen Yuying had anticipated this day.

Therefore, he has not been idle for the past half month. He has sent his clansmen to various places to discuss countermeasures with some old friends.

This was true for the Chen family, and for other big families as well, including those small and medium-sized landowners with thousands or tens of thousands of acres, who also managed everything in their own way.

Even so, Chen Yuying was still very worried. To him, Li Ziheng was not scary, including his backer Wang Pei'an.

What really made him unable to sleep or eat was the emperor who was thousands of miles away and who could allow his entire family to go to Southeast Asia to grow potatoes.

Although she was trying to save herself, Chen Yuying knew that the situation was very dangerous and she was just doing what she could.

Sitting in the pavilion in the back garden, looking at the spring scenery of the lake in the distance, Chen Yuying sighed.

"Dad, something happened in the north!"

The man who came was Chen Yuying’s youngest son. He did not study hard enough, so now he is just a scholar, an old scholar in his forties.

But being born in such a big family, even though Chen Laoqi was only a scholar, his bearing and manners were far beyond those of ordinary students.

"What happened?" Chen Yuying asked.

"Just received news that there was a riot at the canal construction site in Sizhou. More than 200 people were killed in the riot. It has been suppressed by the nearby garrison, but the nearby grain depot was looted and set on fire, resulting in the loss of nearly 30,000 shi of relief grain!"

Hearing her youngest son's words, Chen Yuying rarely smiled. Now Li Ziheng was in trouble.

In addition to investigating the case, Li Ziheng was also the official in charge of disaster relief. He had to take responsibility for the civil unrest.

In addition, there are tens of thousands of disaster victims in the Sizhou section of the canal. Now that the relief grain has been burned, the first problem is how to fill the gap and prevent people from starving to death.

The civil uprising came so timely that Chen Yuying knew that many people were suffering from Li Ziheng, and this was just the appetizer.

In Fengyang Prefecture, inside the Jiangbei Thousand Households Office of the Northern Pacification Office, Li Ziheng frowned.

During this period, he worked at the Jiangbei Qianhu Office. The mixing of clean officials and factory guards seemed very incongruous no matter how you looked at it.

Li Ziheng doesn't care about these things. For him, as long as he gets the job done, that's all.

The sudden civil uprising dealt him a heavy blow, forcing him to divert his attention to solving these troublesome issues, the first of which was to fill the food gap.

Of course, the civil unrest also had to be investigated thoroughly, so he handed the matter over to the Jiangbei Thousand Households Office. As for the people from the East Factory and the Jinyiwei Tiqi, they continued to investigate the annexation.

"To deal with the food shortage in Sizhou, we can use food from other places to deal with it!"

The imperial court used work-for-relief. In addition to arranging people to dredge the canal in Sizhou, there were also several other relief points that organized the victims to build roads, dig canals, and reclaim wasteland.

It is a more feasible approach to allocate some resources from other places to Sizhou for emergency response, so as to free up time to plug the gap.

Li Ziheng was ordered to be in charge of disaster relief. He could allocate all relief grain, so he could decide these matters on his own.

So he immediately issued an official document to transfer grain, and then he went to Sizhou in person, one to appease the people and the other to investigate the situation.

Of course, he still had one thing to do, which was to go to his old friends to beg for alms.

The so-called old friend is Feng Yuan. He had been in office for less than five years, but he had already been appointed as the Chief Censor of Nanjing, which shows how fast he was promoted.

Feng Yuan was the top scorer, but even for a top scorer, it was rare for him to be promoted so quickly.

The reason why Feng Yuan was promoted so quickly was entirely because he had a good grasp of the wind direction, knew how to understand his superiors' intentions in everything he did, and put them into practice.

On the fifth day of March, Li Ziheng arrived in Sizhou. After staying there for two days, he had not found anything yet, when he received news that public grievances were increasing sharply in other places.

The reason for the increase in public resentment was simple: there were rumors that he was transferring grain from various places just to starve others to death.

This rumor was very low-level, but it spread very quickly, and the automatically upgraded version became more and more distorted, and then Li Ziheng could no longer transfer grain.

He had no choice but to write a letter to Shi Chong, the governor in charge of suppressing the rebellion, hoping that he could temporarily transfer military rations to Sizhou for emergency use.

Then, Li Ziheng rode to Yingtian on horseback. It took him another two days to get from Sizhou to Yingtian. He arrived at the Inspectorate's Yamen on the morning of March 9th.

Logically speaking, one should go to the governor to borrow grain, but the current governor of Jinling has been suspended, apparently impeached by someone in the court. Li Ziheng is not sure about the specific reason.

Although the position of governor was vacant, the provincial administration was still in operation. Only the financial and grain matters were temporarily managed by Feng Yuan, which was quite strange.

In the back hall of the Chief Censor, Feng Yuan cordially met Li Ziheng, his old friend and superior.

Needless to say, they are old friends, and Shangguan's statement is no joke. The rank of the Chief Censor is higher than that of the Inspector Censor, not to mention that Li Ziheng is an imperial envoy.

"You've caused quite a stir in Jiangbei. Let me tell you something you may not like to hear. People everywhere are in a panic now!"

Feng Yuan and Li Ziheng are good friends, so he can speak these words frankly, and he can also help many people express their thoughts.

Li Ziheng looked calm and said, "A person of integrity is not afraid of his own shadow. People who are afraid... are mostly criminals!"

"It's a pity that there are not many people of integrity in this world!" Feng Yuan sighed. Li Ziheng put down his teacup and said solemnly: "I came here this time not to reminisce with you, but to ask for your help!"

"It's a rare opportunity for you to ask me for help. How can I help you?" Feng Yuan asked with a smile.

"You are now in charge of Jinling's finances and grain. I want you to increase the amount of grain to Jiangbei by 30,000 shi!"

Hearing this, the smile on Feng Yuan's face disappeared. After a moment of silence, he replied, "The money and grain in the government treasury are not my private property. If it is not for normal expenses or the emperor's order, I dare not dispose of it at will!"

"I am the imperial envoy. Your Majesty has ordered me to be in charge of disaster relief in Jiangbei. Jinling needs to transport 250,000 shi of grain to Jiangbei. I don't want you to give me extra money. It's not a bad rule to advance the grain that has been delivered!"

Jinling allocated 250,000 shi of grain, but it was not paid all at once. After so long for disaster relief, only 170,000 shi of grain were given out, and there were still 80,000 shi of grain that needed to be transported.

Li Ziheng had already thought of a plan to advance 30,000 yuan from here, and he didn't want to make things difficult for Feng Yuan.

However, Feng Yuan is now in a more difficult situation, because this reason that is difficult to refuse forces him to think of new reasons to refuse.

After a few moments of silence, seeing Feng Yuan didn't say anything, Li Ziheng asked, "Why? You don't want to do this either?"

"There is no precedent for this, so I have to ask for your permission. I will immediately..."

Li Ziheng said hurriedly: "I asked for an imperial decree the day before yesterday. Even if the reply is fast, it will take at least ten days to come, but the disaster victims in Jiangbei can't wait that long!"

"Brother Ziheng, you once said that there is no order without rules, and everything must be done according to the rules..."

"But there is also a matter of emergency. Don't worry... I will take responsibility if anything goes wrong!"

The two close friends were about to have an argument, so Feng Yuan calmed down, then stood up and walked towards the door.

Li Ziheng thought he was trying to hide, and when he was about to get up and leave, he saw Feng Yuan closing the door.

Then Feng Yuan turned back and walked up to Li Ziheng with a serious look, with a bit of confusion on his face.

After a while, Feng Yuan sighed and said, "Now that things have come to this, I can only tell you the truth!"

"It's not that I don't want to transfer grain to you, but there is no grain left in the government warehouse. This is also the reason why the previous governor was dismissed!"

"Jinling is the richest city in the world, and you're telling me there's no grain to transfer?"

"The treasury should have 500,000 dan of grain in stock, but in reality there are only 200,000 dan. After the allocation to Jiangbei, there are only 30,000 dan left!"

"You have 80,000 shi of grain left in Jiangbei, but it has not been found yet. I have already reported the relevant situation to the court five days ago!"

"Where did the food go? Who embezzled it? Who is so bold?"

Feng Yuan knew the answers to these three questions, but he would not tell anyone, especially someone like Li Ziheng, without an order.

In fact, even if the grain reserves in Nanjing did not match the actual situation, local officials had ways to resolve the problem and prepare enough relief grain for Jiangbei.

The reason why the story went so wrong was actually due to the influence of the high-level party struggles. To be more specific, it was actually a matter between Jia Yucun and He Gujin.

In order to compete for the chair in the cabinet, Jia Yucun got rid of the Jiangbei governor. It was not until Song Ziyu took office as Jiangbei governor that He Gujin was sure that it was this guy who was behind it.

He was the leader of his own party. If he didn't make up for the loss he suffered, people would lose their support and the party would collapse faster, so He Gujin set his sights on Jinling.

The Governor of Jinling was a disciple of Jia Yucun. A few years ago, when he was the Minister of Works, he was responsible for rebuilding the Eastern Capital of Yingtian. In order to facilitate his actions, he arranged for himself to be the Governor.

This time, He Gujin targeted the deficit in Jinling in order to deal with the Jinling governor and then implicate Jia Yucun.

The occurrence of this deficit is related to Yingjiandong, which is a difficult account to settle.

In short, whether it is the political struggle among the top leaders or the cause of the deficit, Feng Yuan cannot take the initiative to touch it, let alone tell Li Ziheng, the fighter.

At this moment, Feng Yuan told him about the relevant losses, which was actually a very friendly act. After all, he was gambling with his future and even his life.

"I can't tell you, and you'd better not ask too much. You will know when you are supposed to know!"

Jia and He are important ministers and the key to the balance of the court. Whether these matters should be investigated thoroughly and to what extent requires the emperor to weigh the matter.

To be more precise, Jia, He and their followers were all die-hard supporters of the emperor. Taking action against these people would be tantamount to the emperor abolishing his own martial arts. Of course, it could also be said to be scraping the bone to cure the poison, but either way it would be painful.

"So I came here for nothing?"

"The remaining 30,000 shi of grain is Jinling's last emergency reserve. I dare not touch it no matter what!"

If there are really only 30,000 left, Li Ziheng would not be able to ask for more. After all, Jinling also needs a certain amount of reserves to deal with various unexpected risks.

"Okay, I'll leave now!"

Although he was relieved, Feng Yuan still felt sorry for not being able to help, so he comforted her, "Take a night off first. We haven't seen each other for a long time, so we have to catch up!"

"I have a gift of wine from the emperor, but I have never been willing to drink it. Let's enjoy it together tonight!"

Li Ziheng sighed and said, "Thank you very much, but the victims are still waiting for food to be cooked, and I have to find a way to make a living for them!"

Feng Yuan advised: "You have to do things and take care of your body. If you collapse from exhaustion... it will only make more people suffer!"

Seeing Li Ziheng looking exhausted and much older than before, Feng Yuan was worried about his friend.

After serving as an official for several years, Feng Yuan made many friends, but Li Ziheng was his only true friend, so he didn't want to see him suffer too much.

"I can handle it. Goodbye!"

…………

March 15th is a very special day because it is Zhu Jinghong’s birthday.

The emperor’s birthday was called the Wanshou Festival. During the Zhengtong period, there was an emperor emeritus, so the Wanshou Festival was celebrated simply.

After the old emperor died, Zhu Xianming still kept the ceremony simple to show his filial piety, and of course he also did so to save money.

A few years later, Zhu Xianming also passed away. In the three years before Zhu Jinghong ascended the throne, he simply celebrated his birthday to show his filial piety.

That is, in the fourth year of Qiansheng, the scale of celebration was greatly expanded, and at that time the imperial court was waging wars in both the north and the south.

This year is the fifth year of Qiansheng, and Zhu Jinghong has turned thirty years old. Although there are some minor problems at the local level, the external threats have been eliminated and the overall situation is stable, so naturally he has to take care of the overall situation.

Therefore, as early as the end of February, the Ministry of Rites, under the leadership of Jia Yucun, had already been preparing for the Wanshou Festival, and the Minister of Revenue He Gujin fully supplied money and materials.

These two people are also fun to play with. Although they are incompatible, they have no grudges when it comes to cooperating. They even talk and laugh when they meet on weekdays. It's just that the people below them have to risk their lives and property to play with them.

After careful preparation by all parties and costing nearly 500,000 taels, the Wanshou Festival demonstrated the prosperity of the Ming Dynasty and can be said to be a very successful event.

The envoys from various foreign countries and diplomatic envoys have once again witnessed the prosperity of the Ming Dynasty and will be more well-behaved in the future.

The outer court's Wanshou Festival was over, but the inner court, under the organization of the Queen, held a family banquet in Chonghua Hall to celebrate Zhu Jinghong's birthday again.

At the banquet, Zhu Jinghong sat at the top seat, Baochai sat on his side, and below him were the concubines.

Although the royal family banquet is not as grand as the state banquet, its delicacies, decorative objects, entertainment, etc. are all top-notch in today's era, and the cost is naturally huge.

At this moment, the person standing in front of Zhu Jinghong was his seven-year-old second son Zhu Muzhen, who was reciting a poem to him under the watchful eyes of everyone.

"In a prosperous age, there is no hunger or starvation, so why should we farm and weave?"

Hearing this, the first person who was touched was Daiyu.

This was a poem she had written many years ago when she was a tutor to an emperor. It was hardly circulated and even her own son did not know about it. But now it was spoken by Zhu Muzhen.

(End of this chapter)