Jiajing Chengming

Chapter 238: Kill the evil official angrily and overturn the table!

Zhang Cong spoke at this time.

Zhu Houcong then looked at Zhang Cong and said, "Tell me your reasons."

"Return to your majesty!"

"Although the Datong Mutiny was caused by the officials forcing the soldiers to rebel, the rebels have killed the governor and the lieutenant general, which is a rebellion and must be suppressed directly. We cannot just punish the ringleader in order to rectify the situation and enforce discipline!"

"If we just appease them blindly, it will only encourage evildoers and make the soldiers who are dissatisfied with the officials and generals follow suit!"

"Besides, the corruption of the guard system has not happened overnight, and the corruption of border generals and the blood of soldiers has not happened overnight. It cannot be solved in a short time. I still say that tax reform is the top priority at the moment, and if we want to reform the tax policy, the discipline must not be disrupted!"

"So, whoever rebels must be suppressed. Even if they are forced to rebel, they cannot break the rules."

Zhang Cong replied.

After hearing this, Zhu Houcong smiled and asked Zhang Cong: "According to what you mean, the soldiers and civilians who are forced into a desperate situation by corrupt officials cannot resist even if they are forced to death?"

Zhang Cong was silent for a while, then resolutely bowed and said yes.

Zhu Houcong didn't say anything after hearing this, he just looked at Wang Yangming: "What do you think?"

"I think we should do as Yuanfu said and focus on appeasing the people and only punish the main culprits who started the rebellion!"

"The rest can be considered as accomplices."

"Although discipline is important, it is not as important as human feelings. Moreover, the new discipline that Your Majesty wants to establish is for your military households, which is the foundation that Your Majesty really needs to protect."

Wang Yangming said at this time.

"Your Majesty! I have always believed that now is not the time for your army to be occupied."

Zhang Cong said another sentence at this time.

Zhu Houcong turned around and questioned Zhang Cong: "Now is not the time, when is the time? The military households in the nine borders have been bullied to such an extent! Not to mention the military households in the south, do we really have to watch all the military households flee, or even lead the foreign invaders to plunder the interior, before we think it is the right time?!"

Zhang Cong puffed his face and said nothing more.

"I have made up my mind!"

"According to Yuan Fu's words, have the Ministry of War immediately select and dispatch senior civil and military officials to pacify the country!"

Zhu Houcong said something at this time.

Mao Ji quickly agreed.

then.

Mao Ji said, "Your Majesty, through this Datong mutiny, I realized that the difficulties and resentment of the military households in the Nine Frontiers may be more serious than we thought. This is not only related to the great damage of the Wei Suo system, but also to the great damage of the Kaizhong Law. Now the food supply of the Nine Frontiers is almost entirely supported by the grain transported by the big merchants. Therefore, I ask that the increase in commercial taxes be temporarily postponed to replace the bamboo and wood tax and the silver for craftsmen, so as not to anger the big grain merchants."

"It's only about 100,000 silver dollars a year, and the big banknotes only make a little over 10,000. Are they going to stop doing business just because of this little tax increase?"

Zhu Houcong asked.

Mao Ji did not answer.

Zhang Cong then interrupted and said, "Your Majesty is right!"

"Even if we try to appease the Datong mutiny, it will cost money."

"It was the right thing for Governor Zhang Wenjin to build a castle in the north of Datong to defend against the Tatars, but he pushed too hard and didn't provide enough food and clothing, which led to the mutiny!"

"And next, we still have to build border forts. Otherwise, if the Tatars really come, they can easily enter the capital, and the consequences will be disastrous!"

"However, we need to provide sufficient food and silver for future construction, and send soldiers to provide protection. But in this way, the income from the gold mine, in addition to being used to promote the new policy and deal with the Portuguese, the remaining will need to be used for this purpose. If we don't increase the commercial tax, then the construction of warships will have to be shelved!"

"Of course, we cannot put the construction of warships on hold. The Portuguese have bullied us right to our doorstep and have announced it to the world. We should definitely take some action! Therefore, I believe that the levy of commercial taxes cannot be postponed!"

"Zhang Qing is right."

Zhu Houcong nodded.

Mao Ji had no choice but to agree.

After returning to the cabinet, Mao Ji informed Yang Yiqing that the emperor was unwilling to give up the increase in commercial taxes.

Yang Yiqing was not surprised after hearing this, and only gave a copy to Mao Ji: "If this copy falls into the hands of the emperor, it should be postponed."

"What book?"

When Mao Ji took it and looked at it, he saw that it was a memorial from the Ministry of Works presented by the Minister of Works Tong Rui.

After Mao Ji opened it, he realized that it was a report from the Ministry of Works, saying that they had checked the bamboo and wood extraction reports from various bamboo and wood extraction bureaus and extraction factories, and found that since the second year of Jiajing, the amount of South Sea timber brought as tribute from foreign countries had increased too much, so the bamboo and wood inventories in various bamboo and wood extractions had increased greatly. The amount of high-quality bamboo and wood alone could meet the demand for building hundreds of warships. In addition, the discount on bamboo and wood extraction had increased several times compared with previous years, which was enough to meet the cost of shipbuilding. Therefore, they requested the emperor not to abolish the bamboo and wood extraction system for the time being.

"This is the Ministry of Industry saving itself!"

Mao Ji said this very affirmatively.

then.

Mao Ji said with a suspicious look on his face: "But do the local factories under the Ministry of Industry really have so many bamboos, woods and folding colors?"

Yang Yiqing smiled faintly and said, "It doesn't matter whether it is true or not, our cabinet will just report it truthfully! Your Majesty is a wise and sage king, it is impossible for him to arbitrarily not send someone to investigate, and he will definitely send Zhang Yongjia! Only this person will investigate seriously, and he would like the Ministry of Works to deceive the court, so that he can have a reason to increase the commercial taxes of each banknote customs."

Mao Ji nodded: "I will go and ask to see the emperor again!"

Let’s talk.

Starting from the third year of Zhengde, as more and more foreign countries participated in tribute trade, the Ming court began to set up drawing factories in some major areas where tribute trade landed.

However, due to official corruption and the fact that foreign countries participating in tribute trade began to collude with local wealthy families to smuggle goods to the Ming Dynasty in order to evade taxes, the income from bamboo and wood tax collection at the tax collection factory has been in a state of rapid decline.

Otherwise, the entire Ming Dynasty would not have only collected about 70,000 taels of silver each year from bamboo and wood taxes.

Now the Ministry of Works suddenly said that its revenue from bamboo and wood extraction increased significantly last year. Just as Mao Ji said, it was the officials in the Ministry of Works system who were trying to save themselves.

After all, the court is currently planning to abolish the tax directly because the revenue is too little.

This abolition naturally meant that the Ministry of Works lost a sum of income, and the officials in the entire Ministry of Works system also lost an excuse to make money by collecting bamboo and wood commissions.

Therefore, the officials of the Ministry of Works suddenly said that the bamboo and wood tax had increased significantly last year.

After Mao Jilai reported the matter to Zhu Houcong, Zhu Houcong looked at Zhang Cong and said, "Go check it out!"

Zhang Cong accepted the order and said, "Your Majesty, I request to be promoted to the position of Chief Censor so that I can mobilize troops to conduct inspections after I arrive at the local area!"

"allow!"

"Then I will appoint you as the Right Censor-in-Chief, and supervise the bamboo and wood extraction bureaus and factories throughout the country. I will also grant you the Imperial Sword, so you can execute first and report later, and do whatever you want!"

Zhu Houcong nodded.

He had already realized that the Ministry of Works made this report in order to prevent Zhang Cong from levying additional commercial taxes and thus preventing his own warships from being built.

Therefore, he took advantage of Zhang Cong's intention to rectify the tax policy and let him promote his own goal of building a large number of warships.

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

Zhang Cong replied and took the imperial sword from Qin Wen.

then.

The day.

Zhang Cong then obtained an imperial edict from the Ministry of Public Administration, which was drafted by the cabinet and ordered him to supervise the lottery bureaus and factories throughout the country.

After the cabinet issued this decree, Yang Yiqing said to Mao Ji: "Let's see whether Zhang Yongjia lives or dies!" "I'm afraid it's more likely to be dangerous than good!"

Mao Ji said.

Yang Yiqing continued to laugh and said, "Perhaps he will suffer before he even leaves the capital!"

……

……

"Master, the merchants won't sell us rice!"

"They said that they don't want to do business with you because you want customs duties and taxes."

Zhang Cong was planning to buy some rice to make fried rice for his long journey, but he saw his servant who had bought the rice coming back with an empty bag, saying that the merchants in the capital were unwilling to sell rice to them.

Zhang Cong couldn't help but sneer after hearing this: "They found out pretty quickly!"

Zhang Cong then asked his servants: "Didn't you say you were willing to buy it at a high price?"

"said!"

“But they don’t sell it either!”

The servant replied.

Zhang Cong couldn't help but sigh, "Looks like I'll have to borrow some rice!"

"No need to borrow it!"

Wang Yangming came over at this time and asked his followers to carry a bag of rice.

Zhang Cong turned away and said, "Go away! You are not welcome here!"

"Why, just because I didn't support you in dealing with the Datong mutiny, you're going to break up with me?"

Wang Yangming asked.

Zhang Cong brushed off his sleeves and said solemnly: "This is not a question of lack of support, this is a question of different ideals and different plans!"

"Do you think that a mutiny in Datong would be so easy to suppress?"

"You have never led troops, so you don't know how serious it is here. You also don't know how bad the governors, generals, and lieutenants will be when they get to the local area. They will either be greedy for merit and advance recklessly, or raise bandits to plunder property!"

"Besides, most of the ministers in the court and the gentry in the border towns will definitely support the pacification. So even if the court sends a capable person to suppress the rebellion, it will be impossible due to their hindrance. They will either leak the news to the rebellious soldiers in advance or deliberately double the exploitation to create a bigger rebellion!"

"As long as they can prevent you, the public enemy of the government and gentry who want to increase business taxes, from succeeding, they will do everything they can to ruin your plans."

"So, your majesty is wise and knows that at this time we can only pacify and not conquer! I can only support the pacification! Do you understand?"

Wang Yangming started coughing after he said this.

Zhang Cong nodded after hearing this, and then looked at Wang Yangming: "Then tell me, do the various bureaus and factories under the Ministry of Industry really have a large amount of bamboo and wood and bamboo and wood color?"

"The major lottery bureaus and lottery factories don't have them! But the big households near these lottery bureaus and lottery factories definitely have them!"

Wang Yangming replied.

Zhang Cong smiled and said, "That makes sense!"

Wang Yangming said, "Let's go to Hangzhou and Taiping to draw branches first. There are many wealthy and powerful people in Jiangsu and Zhejiang who build gardens, and most of them are bamboo and wood."

"As it should be."

Zhang Cong said to Wang Yangming, "Thank you for lending me the rice!"

Wang Yangming smiled slightly and asked his followers to hand the rice to Zhang Cong's servant.

Zhang Cong also went to Hangzhou on a government ship the next day.

Because of the canal, it was convenient to travel from the capital to Hangzhou, so Zhang Cong arrived in Hangzhou nearly a month later.

In the seventh year of Chenghua, the Ming court added three officials to the Ministry of Works, who were sent to Wuhu in Taiping, Nanzhi, Shashi in Jingzhou, Huguang, and the south of Hangzhou, Zhejiang.

In the third year of Zhengde, after strengthening the tax collection on overseas tribute traders, an imperial censor and an assistant official were added to participate in the management of the tax collection in order to achieve the purpose of mutual checks and balances.

Now, Hangzhou has become the most important place for drawing points, because many overseas countries transport wood as tribute from here.

After Zhang Cong arrived at the lottery factory in the south of Hangzhou, he sent the soldiers he had transferred from the Zhejiang Commandery to take over the place. He first inspected the factory warehouse where the bamboo, wood and colored paper collected by the lottery factory were kept.

The factory warehouses of the selected factories are sorted according to the Thousand Character Classic.

Therefore, Zhang Cong first inspected the Tianzihao factory warehouse.

That night, when Zhang Cong arrived at the Tianzihao factory warehouse, he saw that there were indeed a large number of bamboos and woods placed in the warehouse, many of which were top-quality nanmu, sandalwood, and pine woods that were hundreds of years old.

“Does every warehouse have so many?”

Zhang Cong asked the accompanying censor Yan Weiqing, the director of the extraction factory Su Rongshou, and the co-magistrate of Hangzhou Prefecture Gong Hecheng about this.

Censor Yan Weiqing said first: "Of course!"

"I don't believe it!"

Zhang Cong said this and went to another factory warehouse.

But at this time, a raging fire broke out in other factory warehouse areas outside.

Seeing this, Zhang Cong couldn't help but look at Yan Weiqing and other officials of the branch factory and asked: "Is this fire for us to see?"

Yan Weiqing pretended to be shocked and asked, "What's going on?!"

"Do you still need to ask?"

"It must be that the Ministry deliberately sent people to set the fire in order to increase commercial taxes!"

"We dare not do such a thing!"

Su Rongshou looked at Zhang Cong and said, and when Zhang Cong looked towards the firelight, he sneered.

Gong Hecheng, the deputy governor, also said to the censor Yan Weiqing: "The emperor is wise, we dare not burn the storehouse. After all, no one would ask for trouble!"

"rational!"

Yan Weiqing nodded, then looked at Zhang Cong: "No wonder the Minister asked the Zhejiang Command to take over the area as soon as he arrived in Hangzhou. The Minister has a really good plan!"

"You are slandering me, aren't you?"

After hearing this, Zhang Cong asked, then gritted his teeth and clenched the sword in his hand.

Pfft!

Then, Zhang Cong drew the imperial sword in his hand, and suddenly turned around and stabbed the sword into the chest of Tongzhi Gong Hecheng.

Gong Hecheng, who was snickering, was shocked.

Zhang Cong then smiled and held up his sword and asked: "Have you never thought that since you dare to slander me, I can also slander you?"

"I said you were the ones who burned it, and I am executing you for this. Do you think the emperor believes me or you?"

Zhang Cong drew out his bloody sword and pointed it at the chief officer Su Rongshou: "Tell me, what is going on?!"

(End of this chapter)