Jiajing Chengming

Chapter 209: Appointing an official to observe customs and rectify practices to resolve the grievances of the scholars

At this time, a Confucian scholar called Mr. Qingzhai stood up and walked to Gui'e with a dignified look:
"I am the author of the epitaph, but I did not organize them. They came here on their own initiative to mourn Master Jingtong."

"Because they are all dissatisfied with the local powerful Yuan family competing with the people for profits. As a military officer, you do not make decisions for us soldiers and civilians, but are willing to be a pawn of the powerful. Aren't you afraid of the wrath of heaven and the resentment of the people?!"

Gui E did not answer, but asked the clerk beside him to write a confession to the scholar who had surrendered because of fear of death and then had him sign it. Then he pointed at the Confucian scholar named Qing Zhai and said:

"We have the evidence and witnesses. If he is in contact with the traitor, we will kill him right here!"

"Yes!"

The soldiers under Gui E immediately forced Mr. Qingzhai to his knees on the ground.

Mr. Qingzhai shouted loudly: "Gui Anren, why don't you answer?"

Click!

Mr. Qingzhai was beheaded on the spot.

"Mr. Qingzhai!"

Many of the scholars present cried out in pain, and many turned pale on the spot.

Gui E just smiled coldly.

He did not intend to reply, nor did he even intend to criticize these Confucian scholars for treating rentiers as civilians.

Because he knew that it would be useless to say anything if they were on different sides.

In his memory, from the beginning of the discussion on the grand ceremony, opponents started killing people. The first person to threaten that those who did not follow the order were traitors and should be executed! Then, in the Wuding Marquis's mansion, the ritual-protecting faction took action first.

Therefore, for Gui E, even if the emperor showed leniency to his opponents, he would not show leniency.

As one of the scholar-officials, he would treat those with different political views from his own class more harshly than the emperor.

After all, even if the other party wants to forgive anyone after gaining power in the future, he will only forgive the emperor, not them.

……

……

The tenth day of the eighth month in the second year of Jiajing.

On Wansui Mountain, the maple leaves are red.

Zhu Houcong reached the top of the mountain, put his hands on his waist, and looked out at the Forbidden City where the summer heat had ended.

The Forbidden City, which now belongs to him, is shrouded in the sunset.

Brilliant and majestic.

It's spectacular.

What he found even more spectacular was the scene of vehicles loaded with silver dollars passing through the Forbidden City like two long dragons.

One road goes from the north-bound East Gate to the north-bound West Gate, and is used to load the silver dollars returned from the outer treasury and the dignitaries into the inner treasury.

One road goes from the north-west gate to the north-east gate. It is used to load the silver dollars borrowed from the outer treasury into the inner treasury and transport them out.

This allowed Zhu Houcong to intuitively feel that a lot of silver dollars were circulating in society and generating corresponding value.

"Your Majesty, Zhu Liu has a new secret report."

When Zhu Houcong came back from the mountain, Qin Wen brought him a new secret report from the Jinyiwei.

Zhu Liu reported in a secret memorial the arrest of Jue'an and Miao Shan.

Zhu Houcong was very happy after reading it, and clapped his hands and said, "Very good! Tell the Northern Pacification Office to interrogate these two people as soon as they arrive in the capital! I want to learn from them everything about Zhu Zhige and all the motives for their appearance in the Liao Palace."

"Yes!"

In addition to secretly reporting on the matters of Jue'an and Miaoshan, Zhu Liu also reported the reactions of the Huguang region to Yuan Zonggao's low-interest loans, official system reforms, and severe crackdowns. He said that the royal family and gentry in Huguang were very resentful of these things, and scolded Yuan Zonggao for competing with the people for profit. He also said that Gui E was a cruel official who should be executed. He also said that all court officials in power were treacherous ministers, and that the order to issue such a severe crackdown made the people of Huguang live in misery.

Zhu Liu also attached an anonymous petition written by a local scholar from Huguang, which was full of words denouncing Gui E for being a pawn of the powerful and allowing Yuan Zonggao to compete with the people for profit.

Snapped!
Zhu Houcong slammed the petition heavily on the imperial desk, his face gloomy and without saying much.

The Huguang gentry would confuse right and wrong, and describe the low-interest loans they asked Yuan Zonggao to make as competing with the people for profits, forcing Zhu Houcong to admit that the shamelessness of the local rentier class was truly admirable, as if they themselves were the people and the lower-class people were not.

In fact, the cabinet also received many memorials reflecting that Yuan Zonggao was competing with the people for profits. Not only those who said that Yuan Zonggao was competing with the people for profits, but also those who said that Liang Chu was competing with the people for profits.

Of course, Zhu Houcong and the cabinet ministers all knew that the more local officials and gentry complained that Yuan Zonggao and Liang Chu were competing with the people for profits, the more it proved that they were not using the money lent to them by the emperor to lend money at high interest rates, but were actually lending at low interest rates.

Otherwise, there wouldn't be such a big reaction. It is obvious that Yuan Zonggao and Liang Chu's actions affected other people's interests.

After all, many local tycoons rely on lending to exploit the common people in order to achieve mergers. Now the court is lending at low interest rates, liberating people's productivity, and promoting the circulation of silver dollars, which simply makes it more difficult for the lower-class common people to be swallowed up and annexed by local tycoons!

Many local officials clearly sided with the local tycoons, which is why they actively and accurately reported the grievances of the local tycoons to the court, saying that local people responded that Yuan Zonggao and Liang Chu were competing with the people for profits.

After all, these officials are also worried that low-interest loans will continue to appear in their hometowns. Moreover, their families will also use their power to lend money at high interest rates in their places of residence, so now, lending at low interest rates will naturally affect their income.

Although they did not dare to oppose directly, nor did they dare to do anything to Yuan Zonggao and Liang Chu directly, they could still respond selectively to some local situations.

The local censors even reported directly what they had heard from others. For example, they said that they had heard from local people that Yuan Zonggao and Liang Chu forced the people to borrow money from their families, and even killed people. They also said that they had heard from local people that Yuan Zonggao and Liang Chu colluded with the government and deliberately forced the people to repay their debts before the due date. When the people could not repay, they threatened the government to arrest the people and confiscate their property, which caused public resentment.

In short, it seemed that Yuan Zonggao and Liang Chu, two high-ranking officials who had just retired, had no role at all in the local area, and their families were said to have no role at all, and it seemed that each of them was responsible for several homicides and rapes.

For local censors, they only reported things based on hearsay and did not need to provide concrete evidence, so they simply reported everything.

They even made up some bizarre and excessive stories on their own. For example, they would tamper with the evil deeds they knew about some evil gentry and bullies in the village and report them to the authorities, pinning the blame on Yuan Zonggao and Liang Chu.

They didn't care whether the emperor believed it or not. After all, as long as there were enough reactions and enough rumors, some people would go from not believing to doubting, and from doubting to thinking it was very likely.

Mao Ji, Fei Hong, Yang Yiqing and Shi Yan all looked at the pile of memorials that had just been drafted, all with solemn expressions.

Mao Ji also twirled his wrist as he said, "Let's each select fifteen memorials that best reflect the grievances of the local officials and show them to Your Majesty."

"Row!"

Fei Hong also took down the 叆叇 and chose carefully, saying as he chose:

"Just a low-interest loan of 200,000 silver dollars to each of the two retired elders has caused such a big stir among the people. This shows that it is indeed difficult to improve people's livelihood and regain financial power!"

"We can't really just rely on work-for-relief. Work-for-relief can only provide basic security for the people, but lending at low interest rates can allow hardworking people to get rich with a sum of money!"

Yang Yiqing also expressed his own views when selecting the book.

Shi Yao said, "Those who eat meat are vulgar and have no long-term vision! To deprive them of their benefits is like depriving them of their lives! Therefore, our ancestors were not unaware of this way to benefit the people, but they did not leave the money and grain in the warehouse to be eaten by rats and worms. In fact, they knew earlier that it is better to save money than to compete for benefits with the people."

No one said anything.

Only Shi Yan dared to say such words.

The four of them each held fifteen memorials reflecting on how Liang Chu and Yuan Zonggao were causing trouble for the local community and competing with the people for profit, a total of sixty volumes, and entered the palace and came to the imperial study.

"I won't watch!"

“Nothing to see!”

After Zhu Houcong learned the purpose of Mao Ji and others' visit, he looked at the memorials, waved his hand and said this.

Mao Ji said: "I didn't think that Your Majesty would have to read it. I just wanted to let Your Majesty know how heated the local discussion is. I am worried that Liang and Yuan will not be able to stand it. They are both so old. Logically, they should enjoy their old age and not worry about such a small matter!"

"Are you blaming me, Yuan Fu?"

Zhu Houcong asked.

Mao Ji hurriedly cupped his hands and said, "I have no such intention! I just want to ask if you should make an appropriate statement and send a minister to investigate, just to make a show of it? To avoid people saying that the central government of the court does not take this seriously."

"We can send someone to do it just to show off."

"But don't worry too much, the sky won't fall!"

"In my opinion, the essence of this matter is that many officials are not conscious enough, have no respect for the court, and their consciences are completely corrupted!"

After Zhu Houcong said this, all the cabinet ministers remained silent.

Naturally, they agreed with the emperor's words.

Zhu Houcong then continued, "But there is no legitimate way to deal with them. After all, they are just reporting the situation, and it is the censor's duty to report what he hears. It is up to us whether to listen or not. If we really suppress their words, some people will say that I am blocking the way for speech and not allowing the truth from below to be heard."

"But is this really the only sound in this place?"

"Ordinary people don't dare to take the initiative to find officials to express their true feelings. Can't the officials of the court take the initiative to ask?"

"It is obvious that someone was lazy in conducting the investigation and even had bad intentions."

"The court must strengthen its power in this regard, first to guide public opinion, and second to clarify rumors."

"The Prime Minister just said to send someone to investigate."

"In my opinion, we should just set up a permanent official position responsible for guiding the investigation and investigation of public opinion. This official position should be called the Commissioner for Observing Customs and Rectifying Public Opinions!"

"He will be appointed as the Chief Censor, responsible for observing the customs and prices of the people and guiding the discussion of matters."

"Specifically, it means publishing official newspapers to reflect the real local situation, raising funds to organize associations and activities, preaching correct ideas, investigating the real situation and opinions of the people, investigating and cracking down on evil works that are detrimental to the long-term stability of the country, and promoting excellent works."

"The envoys for observing customs and rectifying social practices in each province and the southern and northern Zhili provinces were directly appointed by the imperial court. Each prefecture, state, or county also had an envoy for observing customs and rectifying social practices, who were appointed by the prefectural vice-governor and the county chief clerk. Therefore, each prefecture, state, or county had an additional vice-governor and chief clerk."

"This is done so that local officials can guide public opinion when they carry out reforms, eliminate corruption, crack down on the powerful, and improve people's livelihood in their jurisdictions, so as to avoid being disgraced while serving the country and the people."

"Of course, these local officials in charge of observing customs and rectifying habits must also be controlled by the officials sent by the imperial court, so as to prevent them from becoming the mouthpieces of the local officials!"

Zhu Houcong said.

Recently, a lot of subscriptions have been lost. Is it because the content has collapsed, or there are too many people supporting the books?
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(End of this chapter)