Guangzong Yaoming

Chapter 121 A Cao River, Swallowing Gold and Silver
Tian Le was silent for a moment, then replied, "My humble opinion is that it is probably less than 20%. Among these 20%, apart from the grain transport officials with a rank of 100 households or above, most of them are recruited from the grain transport troops and the guards."

Zhu Changluo nodded: "That's less than 30,000 people, plus tens of thousands of common people who make a living by boating."

The outer interest circles naturally have a greater impact, but the more than 20,000 ordinary military households and civilians, who are actually hired boatmen, laborers, and sailors on board the ship, are also things that Zhu Changluo needs to consider.

Tian Le said carefully, "Since Your Majesty has asked me for a strategy for the rotation of the fleet, I can only say that the Beijing camp is not yet completed, the barrier is not yet completed, and the canal and the south of the Yangtze River should not be moved lightly. The people have suffered for so long, and it will take Your Majesty a long time to cure the serious illness. Although Your Majesty can only punish more corrupt officials and cruel officials as a new monarch, you have finally done something for the people. The strategy proposed by the cabinet ministers for the rotation of the fleet is generally appropriate."

Zhu Changluo nodded: "Okay, let's train the troops first and handle the case first."

On the one hand, he wanted to achieve his goal in one fell swoop, and on the other hand, he wanted to weaken their strength.

Then he said, "The imperial examination is coming soon. Who would Xizhi like to recommend as the chief examiner?"

After a winter, the candidates taking the imperial examination are finally about to face the last hurdle on the road to the imperial examination.

In the courtyard of the Six Shang Bureau of the Forbidden City's inner palace, the concubines will soon face the first hurdle after entering the palace.

Fan Sirong glanced at the eldest daughter of the Wang family, lowered her head and dared not say a word.

Circling the courtyard wall, Wang Xun's youngest daughter walked with proper steps, her eyes filled with fear and despair, trying not to walk too fast or lose her posture.

She held her hand flat, holding a bell, which she shook every few steps.

Then, she would shout out in a long and pleasant voice: "The world is peaceful."

The punishment of ringing the bell seems lenient, but it is actually cruel.

Since she had been punished to stay up late into the night, it was natural that she would be eliminated in the first round and would be the most humble maid in the palace from then on.

But why did Daddy send her here?
Late at night, Qi Yuechan, who was summoned from Zhongcui Palace to Qianqing Palace, faintly heard the sound of Taiping and couldn't help but vaguely recall the years many years ago.

Things are different now.

……

"Nothing different!"

In the headquarters of the Grand Canal Transport Commander in Huai'an City, among Wang Chengxun's direct subordinates, there were only six people who had been in Huai'an for a long time: two lieutenant generals, two assistant secretaries, one experiencer, and one assistant minister.

The last four were doing clerical work, and Wang Chengxun was now answering the two lieutenant generals.

"Since July and August last year, various generals have come to lobby for the exchange of transportation and rotation. Is there no conclusion yet?" Lieutenant General Wei Haixian was a little anxious.

"If the court has a final decision, there will be an imperial decree." Wang Chengxun shook his head, "Now that the grain ships have started to set out one after another, you two should patrol the river north and south to prevent bandits."

The other one, Cui Sheng, just clasped his fists and said, "I will obey your orders."

Wei Haixian stamped his feet and left.

Wang Chengxun then called over the two court officials and asked, "Did the Caotai come here and order you to hand out the flags first?"

Every grain boat had a round flag hanging around the waist of a person; on the "captain" of the same flag consisting of five boats, there was also a description of the age and appearance of the persons in charge of the other four boats.

This not only explains their mission, but also makes it convenient for them to communicate along the way.

Duan Yunxiu, a court official with a graying beard, said in a low voice, "The transportation period is approaching, and the Lord has not returned for a long time. The Minister of the Grain Transport Commission has ordered me to do something important, and I dare not disobey..."

Wang Chengxun did not blame him: "Bring me the list of all the members of the Qian faction."

"Yes."

"Uncle Meng should have received my letter, right?" Wang Chengxun asked another person.

"Got it, General Cao."

The other secretary in the hall who responded was named Meng Chuanfei. He was a person Wang Chengxun trusted. He was his grandfather Wang Shouren's student in his later years and later served as his father's aide.

"What's unusual about Li Caotai's arrangement?"

Meng Chuanfei said: "Because time is running out, the Caotai has changed the water exchange times for some of the guards?"

Wang Chengxun said solemnly: "That means some changes have been made to the rotation system!"

"It's not important. Because the chief minister delayed the work, the governor of the canal issued a statement to impeach the chief minister."

"...I went to congratulate His Majesty on his ascension to the throne!"

"Of course he knew, but he always had an excuse that the canal transport was too much and the chief canal officer was absent from his post. Besides, since His Majesty had kept the chief canal officer, he could have pretended not to know." Meng Chuanfei shook his head. "Not only that, he left Huai'an as soon as the fifth day of the first lunar month to inspect the canal. I think he was going to find some charges against the canal troops for impersonating others and carrying too much local goods."

"Why doesn't he impeach those who conscripted and occupied the transport troops to build and serve!"

Meng Chuanfei looked at him and said in a calm tone: "My Lord, although you are happy in your letter, you cannot change your usual behavior now. You should continue to be patient in the past."

Wang Chengxun was silent for a moment, then nodded: "Let's talk about it in detail tonight. First let me figure out which water schedules have been changed." Duan Yunxiu had already asked the clerks in the general's mansion to bring over the list of assigned persons.

After reading it once, he thought about it carefully and then looked at Meng Chuanfei.

Seeing Meng Chuanfei nod slightly, Wang Chengxun knew why Wei Haixian was so anxious.

Most of those who were temporarily assigned to take charge of those difficult-to-handle prefectures and counties were captains and commanders of the grain transport army who had a good relationship with Cui Sheng.

It is difficult to transport grain to the south, why is Wei Haixian in such a hurry?
I hope this will be the final conclusion, because since Li Sancai has made such a change, it means that the exchange and rotation plan he submitted before was like this.

Although Wang Chengxun had not dared to challenge Li Sancai before, he had been in the Cao Army for so many years and was quite familiar with the situations of his generals.

At night, he said to Meng Chuanfei, "Uncle Meng, keep an eye out in the city. When the owner of a business called Changming comes to visit you, go and meet him."

"Changming?" Meng Chuanfei had never heard of this in the letter.

Wang Chengxun said without further ado: "You should accept whatever he gives you. Then ask him to do something for you."

Meng Chuanfei looked at Wang Chengxun and thought that he was probably an old acquaintance of his uncle.

"Old Cui is reliable, we need to protect him." Wang Chengxun ordered, "Ask the owner of Huai'an Changminghao to prepare 300,000 dan of new grain in Tongzhou. The grain supply to the prefectures south of the Yangtze River will definitely be a problem. If all the grain is stored in the warehouse this year, there will be no problem."

Meng Chuanfei was shocked. "Three hundred thousand dan of grain? Who is the owner of Changminghao?"

"Uncle Meng will know in the future." Wang Chengxun just said, "Just tell him, he has a way."

Then Wang Chengxun laughed: "Your Majesty, how could you not know the importance of grain transport? Leaving me in Beijing is just asking the grain transport commissioner to help!"

Fan Yuanzhu was still on the road at this time. He didn't know that he had a new task before he even started the preparations for "making arrangements" in Huai'an.

At this time when the Caohe River was clear of passage for the grain fleet, it seemed an impossible task to prepare 300,000 shi of grain, especially new grain.

But Wang Xun in Beijing had already received the emperor's oral order from Baohe Liudian.

"Your Majesty has issued an oral instruction: If the civil officials want to take charge of the grain transport, they will definitely plot to trap the grain transport troops. I have already discussed this with the Grand Marshal, and the grain transport cannot be lost..."

With people like Tian Le who have been transferred to various places and are familiar with practical matters, and three cabinet ministers who have their own plans but must really protect themselves, the long-term plan for all matters related to the grain transport can already be laid out.

After Wang Xun heard the oral order, he said, "Please report back: I can think of a way to protect the Xinjian Earl from committing a serious crime. When the grain is transported north, it is the time when the new grain from Jiangnan is sold to the border areas. We are the big buyers, so don't worry, Your Majesty!"

The commander of Baohe and Liudian was Wang An, who continued to preside over the talent show at the Liushang Bureau of the Palace Administration Department. After receiving the report, he went to the Qianqing Palace to submit a report.

After listening to this, Zhu Changluo just nodded and continued to read the memorial from August of the 20th year of Wanli.

This month, the commander-in-chief of the grain transport system, Marquis Huaining, retired due to illness. Zhu Yijun wanted to appoint Xu Weizhi, the then Duke of Wei, to be the commander-in-chief of the grain transport system. The censor Hao Shike impeached Zhu Yijun and eventually stopped his idea. He was replaced by Wang Chengxun.

There is something interesting in this month's memorials:

At that time, the then Director of the River Administration Office, Shu Yinglong, the Governor of the Grain Transport Department, Chen Yubei, the Southern Zhili Provincial Inspector, and the Imperial Censor Peng Yingcan jointly reported that the area around the Qingkou of the Caohe River was silted up. This year, there was a lot of rain, and the river water would flow back to the upper reaches, which might endanger the Zhu Ming ancestral mausoleum in Sizhou. It would cost more than 360,000 taels of silver to clear the sand and divert the water, and it could be completed in one year.

Then at the end of the month, Peng Yingcan said: The water level has receded by two feet and seven inches, and the ancestral tomb will probably be fine this year. The river work can be suspended, and the important thing is to start transporting the grain that will arrive soon.

So it was paused.

Zhu Changluo became interested: So has the 360,000 taels of silver been allocated? Has the suspended river works been started?
This is the benefit of looking back on the past.

A canal is a bottomless pit that swallows up all the gold and silver.

If we look at it in detail, the average annual cost of maintaining river navigation is 500,000 to 600,000 taels. If it comes to major projects such as river control and Huai River control, the expenditure will be millions at one time.

It costs more than 200,000 taels to build and repair ships every year.

Every year, the salaries and grain transport silver for more than 120,000 grain transport troops must be paid according to the list, totaling over one million taels, which is distributed among the local governments.

Every year, the cost of building and maintaining warehouses, sluices, customs and other official facilities used by the grain transport army actually exceeded two million taels, which was shared among the areas along the river.

However, the labor consumption in maintaining the Caohe River channel was not included in the calculation at all, and it was impossible to calculate it accurately because most of it was local corvée.

The income was just one million taels of gold and silver, more than 210,000 dan of white grain, 4 million dan of grain for tribute, and a total of 300,000 to 500,000 taels of tax silver from the seven major banknote offices.

But can this Grand Canal, which runs from north to south, really only produce such limited benefits?

No, look at the riverside cities such as Huai'an, Linqing and Yangzhou, the floating population has approached one million.

Xixi in the world is Lilai. The hustle and bustle of the world is all for profit.

For whom was this river in the Ming Dynasty built and maintained?

(End of this chapter)