As a frontier official of the imperial court, Hu Zongxian had a very high priority on the documents he submitted. Soon, heavy rains in Zhejiang for days caused the collapse of the dams and the documents were delivered to Jiajing.
"Go and call Jin Yiwei Lu Bing over to me! I have something to tell him."
After reading the contents of the memorial, Jiajing put it aside with a calm expression, and then gave instructions to Lu Fang behind him.
"Yes, I will inform you immediately." Seeing Jiajing's calm look, Lu Fang secretly thought something was wrong. As the closest person to Jiajing, Lu Fang knew that it would be okay for the emperor to be angry. If the emperor looked calm, then It means something big is going to happen.
After Lu Fang left, Jiajing stood up from the dragon chair and looked at the coupon handed over by Hu Zongxian with disillusionment in his eyes.
"My lord, Lu Bing, the commander of the Jinyi Guards, has met your Majesty!"
"No courtesy, get up." Jiajing waved his hand and said calmly.
"Thank you for your grace!" Lu Bing stood up and met Jiajing's eyes.
Jiajing did not speak, but silently looked at his half-brother and the person who saved his life. After seeing the white hair growing on his head, he sighed: "Sit down."
As soon as Jiajing finished speaking, a eunuch prepared a seat for Lu Bing. After Lu Bing sat down, Jiajing personally handed the memorial that Hu Zongxian had handed over to him.
"Take a look."
"Um."
After Lu Bing responded, he opened the memorial and read the contents carefully.
"Your Majesty!" After Lu Bing finished browsing the memorial, he said in a deep voice.
"Well, you should ask your subordinates Zhu Qi and others to investigate this matter. How could the embankment that the imperial court spent so much money to build collapse after being washed away by heavy rain? After you find out the results, report them directly to me."
"Yes, I'll do it now!" Lu Bing said and prepared to leave.
Unexpectedly, Jiajing stopped him: "Wait, don't worry, we haven't chatted for a long time, chat with me."
Hearing Jiajing's words, Lu Bing stopped in his tracks as he left, turned around and responded: "Yes."
After a while, the entire Yangxin Hall was filled with the aroma of tea. Only Jiajing and Lu Bing were sitting opposite each other in the huge Yangxin Hall.
…
Capital, Prince Yu's Mansion.
"Our strategy worked! Now that the dam in Zhejiang has been destroyed, the progress of converting rice to mulberry will be greatly delayed this time. We can use this gap to plan other things!" After receiving a letter from his subordinates, , Xu Jie's face was full of joy.
"It's just that there was no obstruction in the operation to destroy the embankment. The entire plan was implemented very smoothly. Could this be a trap by Party Yan?" Gao Gong raised a possibility after being happy for a moment.
"This Yan Song is a treacherous and cunning person. You must be careful! Go down and deal with all the people responsible for this matter. Remember, they must be clean from beginning to end and leave no traces." After hearing Gao Gong's words, Xu Jie frowned and ordered road.
"I'll tell people to go down and take care of it right now." After Gao Gong accepted the order, he left directly.
"It's really nice to be able to defeat the Yan Party this time! Although we can't uproot them yet, it can be considered as a blow to their arrogance." King Yu Zhu Zaijing looked excited after hearing this.
Zhang Juzheng, on the other hand, has become more and more taciturn since the last argument with Gao Gong. At this moment, he was sitting aside and watching with cold eyes.
…
At this time in the Yan Mansion, Yan Shifan rushed to his father Yan Song's room to report after receiving the letters from Zheng Mi Chang and He Maocai.
"Dong-dong-dong! Dong-dong-dong!" There was another rapid knock on the door.
"Come in, stop knocking!" Yan Song's somewhat impatient voice came from the room.
"Father, what a happy event! As expected, the dam in Zhejiang was destroyed by the Qing faction. Are we ready to start the next plan?" As soon as he entered the door, Yan Shifan sent Zheng Michang and He Maocai over. Hand the letter to Yan Song to read.
Yan Song took the letter and after reading the contents carefully, his brows furrowed even more.
"Idiot! Why are you so anxious now? Now that the dam in Zhejiang has been destroyed, the imperial court will definitely investigate to the end, and let them keep their tail between their legs recently!"
"Yes, my child, let me go now."
…
Today's cabinet is quite dull, no one dares to speak, especially after the emperor brought Lu Fang into it.
The emperor just kept stroking the carved dragon head on the dragon chair without any intention of speaking. Lu Fang stood beside Jiajing like a sculpture, motionless.
In this suffocating silence, I don’t know how long time passed. Finally, Jiajing sighed and took the lead to speak out, breaking the silence: "I think you all know about the collapse of the dam in Zhejiang, right? "
"Your Majesty, I knew about the collapse of the Zhejiang dam before I came here. I am currently discussing countermeasures with my colleagues and will come up with a detailed disaster relief plan soon." After hearing Jiajing's words, Yan Song stood up from his seat first and spoke. road.
"Your Majesty, the imperial court spent four million taels of silver to build this dike last year! Now, a heavy rain has washed away the dike. There must be something fishy in this. I request a thorough investigation into this matter!" After Yan Song spoke, Xu Jie also followed suit and said.
"Yes, Your Majesty, there must be something wrong with this. Someone must have embezzled the project funds during the process of building the dam." Gao Gong also stood up and advised Jiajing.
"When the imperial court built the Zhejiang dam last year, who was responsible for supervising it?" Jiajing turned to Lu Fang beside him and asked.
"Your Majesty, it is Li Xuan who is responsible for supervising the repair of the river embankments." Lu Fang responded in a deep voice with a respectful face.
"Okay, then send someone to Zhejiang and bring back Li Xuan and other people related to this matter for a good trial! Don't let anyone go." After listening to Lu Fang's report, Jiajing waved his hand. Give the order.
"My slave, I obey." Lu Fang bowed slightly and responded.
"Next, let's talk about how to provide disaster relief. How much money is expected to be spent on this disaster in Zhejiang? Xu Jie, you are the Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, please tell me." After Jiajing said that, he turned his eyes to Xu Jie and said.
"Your Majesty, according to Wei Chen's rough estimate, the collapse of the dam will endanger the nine counties below and hundreds of thousands of people. It will cost about three million taels!" Xu Jie pondered for a moment and then gave the answer.
"Now that the national treasury is full, it is no problem to spend three million taels of silver! Besides, in a while, it will be time to collect the salt tax." Xu Jie added after giving the exact figure.
"Give Hu Zongxian as much money as he wants. In addition, ask Zhao Zhenji, the supervisory censor, to send someone down to investigate the matter thoroughly, and don't let anyone go!"
"Yes!" All the ministers accepted the order.
…
At this time, Zhejiang, Zhejiang Governor's Mansion.
With everyone's efforts, the gap in the dike was finally blocked, and the rain gradually stopped. Due to timely response, the collapse of the dike only endangered two subordinate counties, Jiande and Chun'an.
At this time, in the study, Hu Zongxian was immersed in his desk, writing a detailed report to the court about the dam collapse.
"Your Excellency, since the previous Chun'an County Magistrate was impeached! The new Chun'an County Magistrate has not yet taken office. The Jiande County Magistrate Wang Yonghe has occupied most of the share that originally belonged to Chun'an County. At present, the victims of Chun'an County There's trouble happening outside."
In the hall, an official reported the matter to Zheng Michang.
"What? What does Wang Yonghe want to do? It's a troubled time right now. Let him return Chun'an County's share as soon as possible." Zheng Michang frowned and ordered after hearing this.
"Then what is the name of the new magistrate of Chun'an County? Why hasn't he taken office yet?"
"Sir, my name seems to be Hai Rui."
