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Su Changzhen's case was extremely implicated and directly caused a strong earthquake in the officialdom of South Zhili!
After Su Changzhen was accused of having his house confiscated, 11 of Su Changzhen's cronies were successively convicted by Huang Yourong and had their homes confiscated. One-third of the prefecture-level officials in Southern Zhili were implicated.
But in fact, the real number is far more than that. Six officials, such as Suzhou Prefect Guo Huaiyuan and Xuzhou Prefect Jiang Wenshan, have less crimes, less reputation, and are not as careless as other officials when doing things on weekdays. Without any scruples, and they were all smart people, they expressed their "repentance" in time - the so-called repentance means that they will only follow Zhao Junchen's lead from now on - so they were secretly saved by Gu Quan and were not involved by Su Changzhen. .
Regarding Gu Quan's little actions, Huang Yourong turned a blind eye and adopted a tacit attitude of approval without any interference.
After all, Huang Yourong was able to get the imperial envoy's job only because of Zhao Junchen's support. Now that he had gained nearly one million taels of silver through a series of house raids, he naturally wanted to reciprocate. Not only did he not stop Zhao Junchen from taking the opportunity to intervene, The approach of the Southern Zhili officialdom opened the door to convenience, and even personally helped.
Huang Yourong's attentive attitude was completely different from the way he kept a distance from Zhao Junchen back then!
In the past month, Huang Yourong confiscated the properties of twelve officials in total. On the surface, a total of 2.71 million taels of silver were confiscated. In addition, there were various treasures and properties with a total value of no less than 800,000 taels of silver. .
This number seems high, but the real number is at least double!
At least 2.5 million taels of stolen silver were secretly withheld by Huang Yourong. When the properties of the offending officials were auctioned, Huang Yourong also made some secret moves and took the opportunity to make another sum of money. Some manipulations in the accounts showed that Huang Yourong made a total of 3.7 million taels of silver from this house raid!
Of course, these 3.7 million taels of silver did not fall into the pocket of Huang Yourong alone. Huang Yourong also needed to work hard to distribute some benefits to the local snakes in South Zhili. This expenditure alone was as high as 600,000 taels. So many! In addition, Huang Yourong also gave Gu Quan a benefit of one hundred thousand taels of silver. After all, Gu Quan was the deputy imperial envoy and the spokesperson for Zhao Junchen's interests, so he couldn't let his work go in vain.
Huang Yourong divided the remaining three million taels of silver with Zhao Junchen after hesitating for a long time, leaving the bulk to Zhao Junchen, leaving only 30% of the silver for himself.
In fact, Huang Yourong originally planned to have a 50-50 split with Zhao Junchen - although Zhao Junchen recommended him to become the imperial envoy, it was also a last resort. The two were only in a cooperative relationship, not subordinate. If Zhao Junchen left him You can’t get so many benefits at all! ——But after careful consideration, Huang Yourong took the opportunity to sell Zhao Junchen a favor, seemingly intending to cooperate with Zhao Junchen in the long term.
Regarding Huang Yourong's change of attitude, Li Chuanwen, Zhao Junchen's aide sent to South Zhili, was fully aware of it, and he quickly wrote a secret letter to Zhao Junchen, indicating that Zhao Junchen's plan could proceed to the next stage.
Zhao Junchen's layout and plan in South Zhili this time were actually far more complicated and huge than Huang Yourong and Gu Quan imagined!
Now, it’s just the beginning!
If the most eye-catching thing in South Zhili in recent times is the downfall of Su Changzhen and Huang Yourong's series of house raids, then the second most eye-catching thing is undoubtedly the founding ceremony of the "United Shipping Company" .
Even in the eyes of many people, the founding ceremony of the "United Shipping Line" is far more important than the official changes in Nanzhili.
The official changes in Southern Zhili are only related to Southern Zhili, but once the "United Shipping Company" is officially established, it will have a profound impact on the entire Ming Dynasty!
This incident is still closely related to Huang Yourong, because Huang Yourong came to Nanzhili as the imperial envoy this time. In addition to reviewing Su Changzhen's case, he also represented the imperial court to participate in the founding ceremony of the "United Shipping Company"!
On this day, after nearly half a year of preparations, the "United Shipping Company" joined by a total of 37 powerful Huizhou merchants was finally officially established!
The founding ceremony of the "United Shipping Company" was naturally extremely grand. Not only were all the Anhui and Zhejiang merchants who joined the "United Shipping Company" present, but the imperial court also sent Huang Yourong and Gu Quan as representatives, and all the local officials from South Zhili came to support them. !
In order to achieve a blockbuster effect, the wealthy Huizhou and Zhejiang merchants chartered the largest dock in Yangzhou Prefecture, mobilized dozens of 3,000-stone ships to show their strength, and also ordered the ten most expensive restaurants in Yangzhou to entertain guests.
On the pier, when Lin Yunpu, the first boss of the "United Shipping Company" and the president of the Salt Merchant Association, announced the formal establishment of the United Shipping Company, there were naturally loud firecrackers and gongs and drums, and the guests also applauded to show their support.
Then, as a representative of the imperial court and an imperial envoy, Huang Yourong publicly expressed the importance and support of the imperial court to the "United Shipping Company" and repeatedly emphasized the importance of the "United Shipping Company" to the imperial court's rectification of commercial taxes.
"In recent years, it has become increasingly difficult for the imperial court to circulate money and grain. One of the main reasons is that the evasion of commercial taxes is too serious. According to the estimation of Mr. Zhao Junchen, Secretary of the Ministry of Household Affairs, the annual tax on silk and cloth from the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal is only The imperial court loses as much as one million taels of silver every year! The establishment of the 'United Shipping Company' is one of the important measures taken by Mr. Zhao to reverse the commercial tax dilemma! The imperial court attaches great importance to the establishment of the 'United Shipping Company', not only providing Many discounts, and I was specially sent to attend the founding ceremony of the 'United Shipping Line', just to show the support of the imperial court! Everyone, the imperial court has such high hopes for the 'United Shipping Line', and you must not let the imperial court let it go in the future. It’s the disappointment!”
After saying some high-sounding words, Huang Yourong turned to look at Lin Yunpu and said, "Master Lin, you have seen the importance attached by the court. If your 'United Shipping Company' encounters any difficulties, you can take advantage of today's event." If the opportunity arises, as an imperial envoy, I will do my best to help you as long as it is a reasonable request and within the scope of my ability."
After hearing Huang Yourong's words, all the Huizhou and Zhejiang merchants who had joined the 'United Shipping Company' looked at each other, and under the leadership of Lin Yunpu, they all walked up to Huang Yourong, kowtowed to Huang Yourong, and said in unison: "Your Majesty, the Imperial Envoy, we have indeed encountered some troubles. Please make sure to make the decision for us, Your Majesty the Imperial Envoy!"
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Well, second update! There will still be double updates tomorrow!
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