open sea

Chapter 1156 Enlightenment

Ding Shiqing and others brought a high official to the emperor, the governor Wu Shanyan.

But apart from him, there are only Hangzhou country gentry Shen Yu, big weaver merchant Huang Shangyan, and others. By the way, there is Jiang Zhao, the county magistrate of Qiantang, but the county magistrate is obviously nothing in the eyes of the emperor. Citizens are the same.

The civil uprising in Hangzhou City was naturally due to the Interim Tax and the Fire Armor Law, but the real cause of the uprising was because of this squire Shen Yu.

They were all taken to the Tsinghua Garden of Emperor Wanli. The bound bureaucrats and gentry were arranged to sit on the right side by the emperor, Ding Shiqing and the common people were arranged to sit on the right side by the emperor, and the emperor sat in the middle. The Royal Guard.

The old man Xu Xuemo, who was specially appointed by the emperor, thought that the trial would be held by him, and even put a gavel in his pocket from the case of the Ministry of Justice. As a result, the emperor appointed him to sit at the door with the officials of the Ministry of Punishment. Bring him a big chair.

And in the shade of the trees farther away, the battalion generals Ma Wenying and Yang Tingyong, who were bothered by the salary, waited quietly with their veterans.

"I don't understand many things about this commotion. Tell me in turn, no one should make a mess, just talk about things if you have something to say. First of all." The emperor leaned back in his chair, glanced at everyone and asked, "Wu Shanyan, as a Governor, I was beaten up by the officers and soldiers demanding pay, I thought Zhang Wenxi was right, saying that you asked for the beating yourself, and now you are escorted to Beijing by the people, do you know why you were escorted here?"

Wu Shanyan has seen the emperor, but he has never seen the emperor with the helmet on.

"Your Majesty, the old minister is guilty. When the money is being spent today, all the provinces are reducing expenditures for the court. The minister is useless and useless. The method has nothing to do with the Hangzhou City Fire Armor Law and the interim taxation. The minister does not know about them. Why did they bring the offenders here while carrying the statue of Grandpa Taizu, and they beat the offenders on the road, even if they wanted to, they shouldn't have beaten them."

Han Jin, who was sitting on the right, wanted to say something, but was held down by Ding Shiqing. This down-and-out literati who had been teaching for [-] years was examining the unconventional behavior of the emperor with his own eyes.

Wanli ignored Han Jin, he nodded slowly at Wu Shanyan, and said with emotion: "You still know that you are a mediocre minister, and you are a mediocre minister. Cutting expenditures can be achieved by reducing military expenditures?"

He had read the report that the most beautiful thing Wu Shanyan did as governor was actually cutting military expenditures, because military expenditures are indeed a big problem that Zhejiang needs to solve urgently. This military expenditure.

Just like this small Hangzhou mansion, the number of troops in the Nine Battalions is 48, and this is the number of troops left over from Hu Zongxian's era.

Where does the city of Hangzhou come from for the huge military salary of nearly 50 taels?From the folk, so the tax collection is complicated, the government embezzles the interim tax but does not hire people, and it is still a law of fire.

Wanli didn't notice this at first, until he found out that Wu Shanyan cut the military pay by 16% and even expected the veterans to return to their hometowns to farm. After checking how much money Wu Shanyan had left for the Hangzhou government, he found that he had saved 2000 taels of silver. realized the seriousness of the problem.

It is this huge amount that is why Wu Shanyan dared to bite the bullet and reduce military expenditures.

Now that Haiphong is calm, recruiting soldiers and reducing pay is a normal measure. From Wanli's point of view, Wu Shanyan's fault was really radical and inappropriate;

But here, Wanli thinks that Wu Shanyan has made a new mistake: "As the governor, you are a feudal official in the local area, and you are the local eyes and ears in the court, but you think that what happened in the subordinate local Hangzhou Prefecture has nothing to do with you, then I will let you It was only right to go home and rest."

"During the difficult period of the Japanese Invasion, the common people were required to share weal and woe with the imperial court. The common people cut down on food and clothing to join the army, paid taxes for the imperial court, and established the Baojia system. No one said anything; The people are suffering, so my court is worse than Japanese pirates."

"Do you know how much this incident has affected the southeast?" Wanli said, raising his hand and sweeping over Ding Shiqing and others, saying: "The people in Hangzhou have demolished the buildings for the curfew, destroyed the barriers that prevent people from traveling together, burned down the buildings, and burned down the streets. The mansion of the nobleman was destroyed, and the surrounding counties were shaken."

"The people of Lin'an wrote about the upheaval and the city gate, the people of Haining gathered in Anguo Temple to discuss the uprising, and the people of Fuyang simply brought dry food to help Ding Shiqing. As a governor, do you know these things? Could it be that the people's anger was formed in a day? ? Or do you know it but don't care?"

"I don't want to blame you for what happened this time. You are old enough to be punished for suffering this time. Take some time to go to the Beiyang Medical Academy. You are very angry because you have a liver problem. Go home and recuperate. Don't be so angry again. temper."

It seemed that Wanli had already made a final conclusion on Wu Shanyan's matter. He turned his head and looked at Ding Shiqing and other people, as if he thought that the people were waiting for him to say something, and said: "Qiantang county magistrate is not good at doing things, Hangzhou magistrate is not fair, my lord The governor of Zhejiang can be punished, but I am the biggest man in the world, so I can't take my anger out on villains, their faults are my faults."

As he said that, Wanli pursed his lips: "I will issue an edict against myself, because I focus on the outside world and cannot understand the feelings of the local soldiers and civilians. From now on, I will seek the welfare of the common people, the soldiers and the people...don't say too much and don't pray too much."

Wanli obviously cared about this edict of guilt, but he pretended to laugh lightly, and said: "I was young and forced the eunuchs in the palace to cut off a strand of hair. The teacher even drafted an edict of guilt on my behalf. Now It is far more serious than that to cause the people's soldiers to suffer from cold and hunger."

"I want to make the world more enlightened, but this can't be solved by you social studies teachers leading the weaver households to set fire to the houses, and it is impossible to expect the old ministers to suddenly be as considerate as the roundworm in my belly."

"Maybe I'm in charge of the army. The first thing I think of when encountering such a thing is to kill people. It's not to kill you, but to kill the officials and the people. People, don’t be afraid to kill so that no one becomes an official.”

The grumpy old man Wu Shanyan burst into tears for some reason, every crease of his bruised and swollen old face was twitching, the people were so frightened that their faces were pale and they didn't know what to say, Ding Shiqing sighed silently, but his face showed a little relief relieved.

"Killing people, the problem is still there. The [-] battalions still have to be solved by Hangzhou City. If the military pay is not reduced, the common people still have to deal with all kinds of taxes and exhaustion; if the military pay is reduced, the soldiers will not be able to survive; What can these [-] veterans who have been recruited to serve in the army do in their youth?"

When Wanli said this, he paused, raised his hand and told the guards of the imperial forest to let the generals Ma Wenying and Yang Ting use it. He said: "If this happened earlier, I could buy a loom for each soldier, but It's too late now, I have no more than half a tael of silver in my inner treasury."

"That's why I would like to ask you, the [-] soldiers of the Ninth Battalion of the Luomu Camp, if I allow you to cross the sea with your family members to explore the East Ocean, the East Ocean is not the South Sea, the West Ocean is also possible, how many people do you think are willing to go?"

　Good morning!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)