The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 378: Cleansing Local Forces
The Southeast is in chaos right now.

The navy officers and soldiers arrested all the local tyrants and gentry, which was like stirring up a hornet's nest.

What do you mean by colluding with the Japanese pirates?

This is clearly a frame-up!
They have done so many things to frame others, how could they not know the trick here?

Those who secretly colluded with the Japanese pirates would have their property confiscated and be executed. Could they keep silent and suffer such a huge loss?
Just kidding.

No one would take this kind of loss, let alone them.

The relatives and friends of those local tyrants and gentry all have some power in the local area. There are countless village heads and even scholars with official titles.

Once these people started the riot, the local area became extremely chaotic.

Those craftsmen and poor people who were so poor that they had to sell their children seemed to have taken some crazy medicine and started to quarrel with the relatives and friends of the local tyrants and gentry.

This is simply adding fuel to the fire.

The two gangs were about to have a huge fight.

In the prefectures and counties, inside and outside the government offices, in the streets and alleys, and even in the fields outside the city, there were quarrels and even fights everywhere.

Local officials have no control over it at all. If yamen runners try to intervene, they will be scolded, and if constables try to intervene, they may be beaten.

The yamen runners and constables are also local people. If there are only one or two people causing trouble, they may be afraid of them, but if everyone is causing trouble, there is no point in being afraid of them.

If they dare to interfere, a bucket of feces might suddenly be thrown in while you are eating at home.

The situation at the local level was in complete chaos and was totally out of control.

At this time, Zhu Guozuo, the governor of Zhejiang and Fujian, was still hiding in the navy camp in Jiangxinzhou and had not come out.

He was ordering the Jinyiwei to torture the captured local tyrants and gentry.

The entire Jiangxin Island was like purgatory, with ghosts wailing and wolves howling, and the shipbuilders felt a little scared when they heard it.

Fortunately, the outskirts of Jiangxinzhou are either water wheels, shipbuilding workshops or docks, so the screams in the navy camp cannot be heard by people outside.

If this were heard by the relatives and friends of the local tyrants and gentry, it would be even more outrageous.

Zhu Guozuo looks gentle and refined, but he is extremely ruthless when he fights.

The local tyrants and gentry are basically all delicate and weak, and few of them can withstand torture. Even if they can, they will collapse after repeated torture.

After this severe torture, thousands of local tyrants and gentry confessed everything, even the crime of colluding with Japanese pirates was forced into them.

After Zhu Guozuo received the confessions of all the local tyrants and gentry, he immediately ordered that all the captured local tyrants and gentry be beheaded!
He was in charge of both killing and burying. After chopping them off, he ordered the navy soldiers to take these guys directly to an uninhabited deserted island overseas and bury them.

Immediately afterwards, he gave orders, ordering the navy's express ships to take the Jinyiwei and Shenshuying to the coastal prefectures respectively, to set a time, and to start searching their homes at the same time.

He also knew that Wanli wanted to take this opportunity to purge local forces, so he ordered all the officers and soldiers to post the confessions of these local tyrants and gentry outside the gate and have someone watch over them.

Anyone who dares to stop the house raids in the local area will be beheaded or killed if caught, no matter who they are!
He was so cruel and ruthless that he dared to kill anyone as long as Wanli ordered him to do so, no matter who they were or how many there were.

Wanli also knew that there would be no problem if this matter was handed over to this guy. The incident in Fuzhou Prefecture proved that this guy really dared to kill.

It's time to clean up the local forces in the southeast. These guys are the foundation of the Zhejiang Party.

He will have to deal with the Zhejiang Party sooner or later, and this time he just took the opportunity to dig out the roots of the Zhejiang Party, which will make it easier to deal with it in the future.

The southeast was in chaos, but the capital remained unusually calm.

Wanli seemed to be unaware of what was happening in the southeast, and the Zhejiang Party also pretended that the affairs of the southeast had nothing to do with them.

Both sides are secretly working hard.

Wanli handed over the important task of cleansing local forces to Zhu Guozuo, and the next step was to deal with the problems of the craftsmen.

Those craftsmen have already exchanged the IOUs for theirs with petitions, so they no longer have to pay back the money and grain they are owed.

However, the livelihoods of over 100,000 craftsmen still need to be arranged. If the livelihoods of so many craftsmen are cut off, problems will arise sooner or later.

This question is also very important.

He has already gathered people to prepare for the discussion.

At about 5 p.m. that afternoon, when it was getting dark, the emperor's father-in-law Zhang Zhen quietly returned to the capital on a navy speedboat and came to the palace.

Wanli had already summoned Zhang Yuangong from Britain, his father-in-law Zheng Danian, Zhou Danquan and others to wait in a side hall where maps were specially displayed.

Unexpectedly, this time, the father-in-law Zhang Zhen did not return alone. He actually brought Xu Weizhi, the prince of Wei. After the emperor and his ministers exchanged greetings, Wanli could not help but ask curiously, "Weizhi, why are you here too?"

This is it.

Xu Weizhi said carefully, "Your Majesty, I heard that Zhang Guozhang said you wanted to find a large area to build a workshop. Duke Wei's mansion happens to have such a large area. So, I came with Zhang Guozhang to ask what you think of that piece of land."

Is there such a large area in the Duke of Wei’s Mansion?
Upon hearing this, Wanli was quite surprised and said, "The place I'm looking for is not just any big place, it must be at least 100,000 mu, and it must be by the river for easy water transportation. Do you have such a large area in the Duke of Wei's Mansion? Where is it?"

Xu Weizhi quickly pointed at the map and explained in detail: "Your Majesty, our Duke of Wei's mansion is in Zhenjiang Prefecture, right here.

This place is called Xinzhou. Like Longjiangzhou, it is an island in the middle of the Yangtze River sandwiched between the main trunk of the Yangtze River and the Jiajiang River. This Jiajiang River is called Xinjiang.

During the Hongwu and Yongle dynasties, this place was called the Xinjiangkou Naval Base. Our ancestors once led their troops to garrison here, so Emperor Hongwu rewarded our ancestors with this Jiangxinzhou.

This Jiangxinzhou is more than ten times larger than Longjiangzhou. I estimate that it is at least 300,000 mu. Your Majesty, do you think it is big enough?"

It was originally the fief of Xu Da, King of Zhongshan.

Wanli took a closer look and nodded in satisfaction, saying, "Well, this Jiangxin Island is quite good. It's close to the Yangtze River Estuary and even closer to the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. It's also quite large. Not bad, not bad, really good. How many acres of land does your Duke of Wei have here? I'll buy it."

How can we take your money?
Xu Weizhi said rather embarrassedly, "Your Majesty, this is just a sandbar. There aren't many farmlands on it. We, the Duke of Wei, have only opened up tens of thousands of acres of land on it.

This little bit of land is nothing, so I'll just consider it a gift to His Majesty. However, Xinzhou is a bit troublesome because there are also fields opened up by ordinary people. We, the Duke of Wei, were once involved in a lawsuit over these fields."

This is not a big deal for the emperor.

Wanli was quite curious and asked, "Isn't Jiangxinzhou the fief of the King of Zhongshan? How come there are plots of land opened up by common people on it?"

Xu Weizi sighed slightly and said, "Yes, Your Majesty, this Jiangxin Island originally belonged to our Duke of Wei's Mansion. However, we only opened up the fields that were easy to open up. Some places were too sandy and difficult to open up, so we didn't open them.

The common people living nearby may not have enough land on their own, so they came to Xinzhou to open up wasteland. At the beginning, our Weiguo Mansion had already agreed with them that they could open up wasteland and cultivate the land, but they had to pay rent.

After all, this Xinzhou belongs to the Duke of Wei's Mansion. If common people come here to open up wasteland and cultivate the land, and we turn a blind eye to it, then the entire Xinzhou will probably be crowded with common people who come here to open up wasteland and cultivate the land.

Unexpectedly, after these common people opened up their land, they were unwilling to pay rent, and even caused our Duke of Wei to be sued."

what?
Is there such a thing?
Wanli couldn't help but asked in surprise, "How did your Duke of Wei's Mansion get sued?"

Xu Weizhi said carefully, "They went to Nanjing to file a complaint with the emperor. They said that the land was too difficult to cultivate. They had to build a dike, irrigate it with water, and wash away the sand before they could plant crops. Why should they pay us rent for the land they worked so hard to cultivate?

The Hongwu Emperor felt that the common people had indeed worked hard, so he awarded the land to them."

This ancestor probably did this on purpose to suppress the nobles.

Wanli nodded slightly upon hearing this and said, "Well, this is just a small problem. It just so happens that Zhaolong is about to start confiscating property. Those thousands of local tyrants and gentry own at least millions of acres of land in the coastal prefectures.

Calculate how much land your Duke of Wei's Mansion has in Xinzhou. I will exchange it with you. You can also exchange the land of Suzhou Prefecture with the common people. I will also give the rest to your Duke of Wei's Mansion to manage. However, you have to pay more land tax.

How about this? In addition to the 20% land tax paid by the court, you will also pay one million shi of grain each year and send it directly to Xinzhou. In the future, they will build many workshops there and recruit many craftsmen. One million shi of grain will definitely not be enough for food."

what?
You can't take advantage of this. My father asked me to use the land to curry favor with His Majesty, not to take advantage of him. His Majesty's favor is more important than anything else.

Xu Weizhi thought for a moment, then said carefully, "Your Majesty, we don't know how much land those local tyrants and gentry own, and our Duke of Wei's Mansion can't swallow up so much land.

Otherwise, how about this: we, the Duke of Wei, will send people to manage those lands. In addition to the land tax, we will collect a hundred thousand taels of silver as labor fees each year. You can send boats to transport the rest of the grain to Xinzhou, and we won't charge a penny."

Well, good, promising.

Since you are such a good person, I will give you some benefits.

Wanli nodded slightly and said, "It just so happens that I was thinking that it would be too troublesome to bring the raw silk produced in Bashu to the capital. Yuan Gong, Zheng Guozhang, you should send people to Xinzhou to build some special spinning water wheels, and build more looms and ship them over.

From now on, silk will be woven over there, and you will focus on spinning wool yarn and weaving cloth here. The silk weaving will be handled by the Duke of Wei's Mansion. You will share 10% of the profits, half between you two families and half between the Duke of Wei's Mansion."

That’s good, it saves me the trouble of running around.

Duke Yingguo Zhang Yuangong and the father-in-law Zheng Danian bowed repeatedly and said, "Your humble servants understand."

Indeed, as long as one can please the Emperor, there will be countless benefits.

Xu Weizhi repeatedly bowed and said, "Thank you, Your Majesty, for your grace."

The next step is to build various workshops, water wheels and docks.

Now that we have a place, everything will be easy. As long as Xinzhou is cleaned up, the craftsmen from the coastal areas can move there to work, and the livelihood problems of the craftsmen will be solved.

(End of this chapter)