I, the Ming Dynasty, can still save me

Chapter 355 Hong Chengchou’s new destination

South Zhili, Nanjing City.

In the side hall of the yamen of the Chief Secretary of the Southern Zhili Province, Hong Chengchou, a doctor in the Ministry of War and the censor of the Military Preparation Road in Nanjing, and Sun Chuanting, a doctor in the Ministry of Hubu and the censor of the Food Road Patrol, sat on both sides.

Following him were the officials from the Ministry of Husbandry and the Ministry of War in Nanzhili. They all sat upright and seemed to be very afraid of Hong and Yang, who were serious in speech and speech.

"Is the grain and grass shipped to Guizhou ready?"

"Your Majesty, the Censor, these grains and fodder for the Zhenwu Army are very important, so they have been prepared and are now waiting to be escorted."

Sun Chuanting nodded when he heard this. He looked very young. He was still less than [-] years old, but he was very capable and steady in what he did.

"The imperial court has issued reminders several times before, asking Nanzhili to prepare all the food and grass. Now that the preparations are completed, they can be escorted to Guizhou as soon as possible."

As Sun Chuanting spoke, he looked at Hong Chengchou on his right. Hong Chengchou was the same age as him, but he was a Jinshi in Wanli 44, so he was older than himself.

But after being selected by His Majesty to follow Bi Ziyan to Nanzhili last year, the two quickly became familiar with each other. Sun Chuanting admired Hong Chengchou for his rigorous work and thoughtful thinking.

"Hong Yushi, you will be responsible for escorting the food and fodder this time. Since the Yongning She family was wiped out this year, the imperial court is afraid of the An family's power, so if they want to take advantage of it, they can just hand over An Bangyan and forget about it.

Unexpectedly, they are still stubborn and want to resist.Now that the imperial court is determined to use troops and has nearly [-] troops from the five provinces in Beijing, the matter of food and grass must not be careless. "

"Don't worry, I will personally escort you this time, and I will not miss the important events of the court."

Hong Chengchou also nodded and expressed his relief. He had been paying attention to the war in southwest China.

It was just that he had never expected that it had been delayed until now. It was understandable that Zhu Xieyuan and others mobilized troops, but this An Bangyan was also waiting to die for so long?
He thought to himself that An Bangyan was really a tough-tempered person. He didn't take advantage of the imperial court's delay in sending troops to take advantage of the situation. Instead, he still hesitated until now. Now that the imperial court was fully prepared, he would definitely be in trouble. Walk around.

"There have been too many things going on in South Zhili recently. In the first half of the year, we have been dealing with the issue of collecting arrears and collecting summer taxes. Thanks to the lessons learned from Li Sancai and other people, and Governor Bi and Wei Yushi behind, Those wealthy gentry households have also begun to obediently pay their land taxes, and I heard that Mr. Fang Ge sold a lot of land for this purpose."

Seeing that the most important grain and grass supplies were taken care of, Sun Chuanting immediately started chatting with Hong Chengchou.

"Haha, these gentry families have tens of thousands of hectares of land at home, but they have to pay taxes all the time. They are living or dying. They really pretend to be alive. Fortunately, His Majesty has repeatedly supported Governor Bi, otherwise he would have Anyone who encounters these embarrassed people will find it difficult to deal with them.

But now that the big thing is over, the court's debts have been collected, and the grain and silver have been escorted to the capital. In the future, the difficulties in Nanjing's household department will be much less, and we can relax. "

Hong Chengchou's words instantly made Sun Chuanting laugh, and he naturally understood what they meant.

Last year, the emperor ordered the self-respecting Governor of Nanzhili to rectify the financial affairs of Nanzhili. In addition to paying taxes, the other thing was to seize the power of the Nanjing Ministry of Household Affairs and transfer it to the Beijing Ministry of Household Affairs.

Because the Nanjing Ministry of Household Affairs is in charge of the salt industry and yellow books across the country, it is also responsible for the taxes of Southern Zhili, and is responsible for the taxes of Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Huguang, as well as the salaries of various institutions in Nanjing. Half of the taxes of the imperial court will go through Southern Zhili. .

Therefore, in matters of finance and taxation, as long as the Nanjing Ministry of Household Affairs interferes even slightly, it will affect the finance and taxation operations of the entire imperial court. Isn't this chronic debt problem in Jiangnan the product of their inaction.

Therefore, after Bi Ziyan brought the two of them to Nanzhili, he placed one of them in the Nanjing Household Department and the other in the Nanjing Military Department to share the power of finance and military. From then on, he began to vigorously rectify the situation. Now he has taken preliminary steps. Effectiveness.

Today, the finance and taxation of South Zhili, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Huguang, etc. are only transferred to Beijing according to the new system after being calculated by the Nanjing Ministry of Household Affairs. Today, the Nanjing Ministry of Household Affairs no longer has the power to reduce expenditures at all.

This is not only true for finance and taxation, but also for salt affairs.

Since the Wenhua Palace issued an edict this year and it was determined that the salt affairs would be restructured, the emperor ordered that the Ministry of Household Affairs set up a special Salt Affairs Department to be responsible for it. The Minister of the Ministry of Households was also in charge of the salt administration, and all the salt affairs powers of the Nanjing Ministry of Households were directly transferred to Beijing. Household Department.

Even the current auction of salt merchants in Yangzhou operating in Beijing is handled by the Beijing Ministry of Household Affairs, and the Nanjing Ministry of Household Affairs only has to assist.

Therefore, after the restructuring, the Nanjing Household Department now only has the task and responsibility of managing yellow records, and the remaining work is to cooperate with the Beijing Household Department. This has caused officials in South Zhili to complain and feel that the court's handling of this is very inappropriate.

However, after Bi Zi severely punished corruption, collected debts, and dealt with Li Sancai and other corrupt officials, the dissatisfaction of these people was suppressed by violence.

Compared with the officials in Nanzhili, Sun Chuanting and the two were more relaxed, and in their opinion, there was less heavy work.

"It was only through the thunderous methods of His Majesty and the imperial court that these people were dealt with submissively. Otherwise, we don't know what kind of trouble would have arisen."

Sun Chuanting was thoughtful and sighed with emotion when he heard what Hong Chengchou said. "Yes, it was difficult first and then easy. The debt was recovered successfully, and the salt tax was also strictly implemented. The fiscal strength of the imperial court will be greatly improved, and His Majesty will have one less thing to worry about."

Hong Chengchou smiled and said after hearing this, he was actually very envious of Sun Chuanting in his heart.

This time, the two of them followed Bi Ziyan to the south. Sun Chuanting had been working in the Nanjing Household Department and had done a lot to help Bi Ziyan recover the debts. However, he had been serving in the Nanjing War Department. Although he was arresting Li Sancai and pursuing the debts, He did help when he owed money, but compared to Sun Chuanting, he was far inferior.

Now that all matters in South Zhili have been settled, Sun Chuanting will definitely be rewarded and promoted by the court for his contribution to reforming the Nanjing Household Department. This makes Hong Chengchou also start to worry about his whereabouts and future.

Therefore, he was very concerned about escorting the grain and fodder this time, thinking about whether he could move around and stay in Guizhou to serve for a period of time. It would be better if he achieved military merit.

"That's true. I don't expect them to make any big waves. In addition, I heard that Governor Yuan Keli of Fujian and Zhejiang arrived in Nanjing not long ago and has been discussing matters with Governor Bi during this period. Now there are rumors in the public that Governor Yuan also wants to In the pursuit of tax arrears in Fujian and Zhejiang, some people even said that the emperor wanted him to implement equalization of land and labor in Fujian and Zhejiang, which caused panic among people, but I just don’t know what is going on?”

Sun Chuanting also nodded after hearing this. The situation in South Zhili is now considered stable, especially the court's proposal to completely liberalize the sea ban and protect industry and commerce, which immediately made the Jiangnan scholars have a much better impression of the court.

In addition, under the vigorous propaganda of the Donglin Party members in South Zhili, the small and medium-sized gentry and merchants in South Zhili accepted the new policies of the court very much.It's just that the wave of pursuit of arrears at the beginning of the year did involve a lot of things, and many people were afraid that the court would take advantage of it and repeat the same methods, so they were so worried.

"I did hear some news about this."

While drinking tea, Hong Chengchou listened to Sun Chuanting's doubts and began to explain, but just then a voice came from outside the house.

"For your information, Your Majesty the Censor, Governor Bi has invited you two to go to the back hall to discuss matters."

After hearing this, the two looked at each other, not knowing what was going on, and immediately stood up and replied:

"Understood, the two of us will go now."

After saying that, the two of them immediately stood up and asked the clerk to continue their errands. Then they left the side hall and walked to the back hall in a familiar manner.

The Chief Secretary's Office of South Zhili seemed quite large, but Sun and Hong had been working here for so long and were very familiar with its layout, so they quickly arrived at the back hall.

As soon as the two of them entered, they saw the Governor of Southern Zhili sitting at the head of the desk. Also sitting on the left was an elder wearing a red official uniform. They knew who this person was at a glance, Yuan Keli, the Governor of Fujian and Zhejiang.

"Lord Governor."

"Sit down."

When Bi Ziyan saw the two coming, he immediately waved his hand for them to sit down. After hearing this, Sun and Hong sat upright and did not dare to go beyond the rules.They were now even more puzzled as to why Bi Ziyan asked them to come over, and Governor Yuan was actually present.

"Yan Yan (Hong Chengchou's name), are the grain and fodder escorted to Guizhou ready?"

Upon hearing this, Hong Chengchou immediately stood up and cupped his hands and said:
"Please rest assured, Lord Governor, all the food and grass have been prepared. I will set off to escort the food and grass to Guiyang in the future. I will not let the food and grass be delayed and delay the important military affairs of the court."

"Well, I'm relieved. You are thoughtful and methodical. Since you became the Censor of Military Beidao, you have also done a lot to rectify the military affairs of South Zhili. Now that the war in Guizhou is about to begin, we will definitely need the support of talents like you. .

The official document just sent by the imperial court this morning stated that you were promoted to the position of Chief Secretary of Guizhou Province, Zuo Shenyou, and Censor of the Grain Road, responsible for the raising and approving of military supplies.

So don’t rush back to Guiyang this time. I heard that Zhu Xieyuan, the governor of the five provinces, has recently stationed in Guiyang. You will leave for Guiyang soon and serve under him. "

As soon as the good news came out, Hong Chengchou was shocked. Just now he was thinking of finding the right opportunity to make a contribution.It actually came here, and it was so satisfying, which caught him off guard.

"Impossible to take orders."

"Well, that's good. His Majesty attaches great importance to the war in Guizhou. There are also many officers and soldiers in Guizhou, and it is bound to take down the Shuixi'an clan. But more people means more things to do, and your burden is also very heavy. Don't be lax and negligent. Ah. As long as we raise enough food and fodder, and when the rebellion is put down, I will naturally give you a great credit."

Bi Ziyan looked at Hong Chengchou who was a little surprised, and patiently gave instructions. He was very satisfied with Hong Chengchou. This person did things in an orderly manner and made decisions before taking action.

So after seeing the official document this time, he was not surprised at all, and even felt a little happy. It seemed that the emperor still valued these young talents.

(End of this chapter)