"Don't worry!"
Sun Chengzong immediately refused and said: "You must have read the newspaper. In order to prevent your majesty from planning and training the Liao army, the princes in the court used money as an excuse to extort money from their families! How can I treat the princes in the court and the emperor?" I understand that major corruption cases will inevitably occur in the future. The wealth that your Xu family acquired was earned by your master through his loyalty. Don’t act recklessly! Not only will your Xu family be harmed, but your master will also be harmed!"
"Yes! What Fuchen teaches is for students to remember."
Xu Yue replied solemnly.
"The Xu family must guarantee the profit of the next six million. I will return to Beijing tomorrow and relay your words to His Majesty!"
Sun Chengzong started talking.
Xu Yue was very excited after hearing this. He knew that this was an opportunity for him to prove his ability to the emperor, so he hurriedly said: "Student, thank you Fuchen! Please rest assured, Fuchen, after the student has explained the situation of the cotton mill, he will go there in person." A trip to Haojing and Batavia is guaranteed to bring six million taels of sari to the court this year!"
…
Tongzhou.
The private residence of a senior civil servant.
"I thought that the emperor was very smart, far better than his grandfather, but now it seems that I was wrong, I was wrong! He Zhu Youxiao actually gave away all his money so generously for those fools and Qiu Ba! Everyone said Zhu Youxiao is a tyrant, but I think he is a rare good emperor in the world! It's a pity that Cao Gai and Qiu Ba can't talk, and the pen is in the hands of our scholar-bureaucrats! Zhu Youxiao, Zhu Youxiao, you don't plan to raise your own new son. Are you ready to join the army? Hahaha! If I were to do this, even if I didn’t change my strategy for the Liao Dynasty and didn’t allocate internal funds, the people and soldiers would starve to death! A group of people would starve to death without destroying the world! The scholar-bureaucrats wouldn’t tolerate it either. The rogues have conquered your Zhu family! This move by Zhang Heming and others is good, but I really didn’t expect that the emperor would be so generous. Now, all the princes in the court are going to get rich. They immediately sent people from the government to Guangyuan, Henan, and Bianzhen. These places are speculating on food prices. Anyway, now the imperial court has a lot of money. If we don't make money, we will make nothing! Let the military towns over in Liao land go to the imperial censor to ask for the same pay for Liao soldiers and guest troops, and give it to His Majesty the Emperor. If you increase the difficulty and ask him to spend more money, he will have no money to train troops at all!"
When Xu Shilin reported the situation in the capital to his master, Xu Shilin's master laughed and told Xu Shilin to come.
Xu Shilin also laughed and immediately replied: "Understood!"
But at this time, a housekeeper from outside ran in and reported: "Master, you asked us to inquire about Sun Chengzong, the governor of Susong, coming to Beijing to report on his duties. We found out the emperor's true purpose of letting Sun Chengzong come to Beijing. We bribed him Sun Chengzong’s servants learned that it turned out that Sun Chengzong brought more than three million taels of silver to Beijing this time, and it had been transported into the inner treasury by Li Yongzhen, the eunuch of the ceremonial supervisor, and the royal guards!"
After hearing this, the gentleman put away his proud look on the spot, and the pen he was about to use stopped in his hand: "Three million taels?!"
"What's going on? Sun Chengzong has just been the governor of Susong not long ago. Where did he get so much money? How did he do it? Even if he could make money, how could he give so much money to the emperor so willingly?! You have to be loyal! Not so loyal!”
The Jin gentry suddenly realized that his brain was a little weak, and immediately threw the wolf hair in his hand on the table: "Go and find out! Go and find out! Go and find out what Sun Chengzong did in Susong! Then, reveal the news to the gentlemen of Donglin. , tell them that Sun Chengzong made a lot of money in Susong, a total of three to four million!"
As he said this, the Jin gentry took a few steps back and said, "I didn't expect that the emperor would still have money to come from. It wasn't all about confiscation of homes. No wonder he was so generous. Now some of the princes in the court are going to be in trouble!"
…
A few months later.
Wenhua Hall.
"Your Majesty, this is the detailed account book of the cotton mill operation. Please take a look. According to Xu Yue, the cotton mill will bring huge profits to the court this year to six million taels! However, I suggest that Xu Yue be appointed as a thousand households in Jinshanwei. There is a If he is an official, it will be convenient for him to take the boat out to sea."
Sun Chengzong started to make suggestions as he spoke.
Zhu Youxiao nodded: "Yes!"
Then, Zhu Youxiao said to Xu Guangqi: "With this money, the students in the martial arts hall are about to graduate, and the recruitment work will begin, but the money to recruit soldiers and form a new army does not need to be spent on the remaining internal funds." You can take the few million taels of silver away first and immediately prepare for the next recruitment of new troops."
"I obey the decree!"
Xu Guangqi replied.
At this time, Wei Zhongxian came over in a hurry. Seeing that his emperor's feast was not over yet, he stood outside the palace first.
But Zhu Youxiao saw him.
After Xu Guangqi and Sun Chengzong left, Zhu Youxiao hurriedly called him in: "What's the matter?"
Wei Zhongxian hurriedly said excitedly: "Your Majesty! Our Dongchang has investigated and found out that Zhang Heming, the Minister of War, and other officials of the Ministry of War, together with many governors and civil servants, embezzled military pay. Your Majesty, you have allocated the internal funds to pay the arrears of the world before they left the capital. More than two million taels were lost by them! They planned to transport the silver to Tongzhou in two ways, and transport the lost silver to Zhangjiakou.
Together with the Shanxi merchants in Zhangjiakou, they lent the lost silver to the Shanxi merchants, who then sold the grain outside the customs and then laundered it into their own money;
However, this matter involved many governors, including Governor Wenqiu of Jiliao and Governor Dong Kewei of Datong;
In addition, Ministry of Works Minister Wang Zuo and other Ministry of Works officials also misappropriated and falsely reported project funds. Please tell me, please! "
Zhu Youxiao snorted after hearing this: "You really didn't control your hands! It seems that you really didn't take my decree seriously. Everyone will be punished!"
As Zhu Youxiao spoke, he asked Wei Zhongxian: "How is the expansion and training of factory guards these days? Will there be unreliable people sneaking in? Can such a major case be handled well?"
Wei Zhongxian hurriedly replied: "Your Majesty, please rest assured, all those who are disobedient will be purged out. According to your Majesty's instructions, the recruits for Dongchang Fanyi and Jinyiwei are all powerful men with clean family backgrounds. The good ones from the clan and the loyal and honorable nobles will be recruited." People are the Lord, and loyalty is absolutely guaranteed.”
"That's good! First, on the pretext of handling a major case, the city will be sealed off immediately!
Then, arrest all the officials from the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Industry, identify one, and release the other!
He then drafted an order with the cabinet and sent out the Jin Yiwei to arrest the foreign officials involved in the case, and confiscated the Shanxi merchants as well!
I didn't take action against the Shanxi merchants in Zhangjiakou Fort before because I was worried about making things bigger and they would seize my money and food. Now I no longer have such scruples and just confiscate them!
However, according to Fan Yuqing's confession, Zhangjiakou Fort was a place where Shanxi merchants had been entrenched for many years, and their tribesmen had many brave people. The local civil and military officials may have colluded with them, and the number of factory guards alone was not enough;
Censor Hou Xunshang said that the pay for the guest army was too high. If this was the case, then let the guest army do other things for the court besides fighting;
You send someone with my imperial edict to see the Qin Liangyu tribe of white-pole soldiers who are about to be transferred back to the capital, and tell them that the salary and reward money were embezzled by corrupt officials like Zhang Heming, and were given to Shanxi merchants, asking them to assist you in going to Zhangjiakou to confiscate your homes. Go get your salary and reward back! After taking it back, I will reward them again!
In addition, I allow your East Factory to transfer a few artillery and firearms from the General Administration of Ordnance for use, and let the Zhejiang soldiers who are preparing to rush to Liaodong first cooperate with you to raid homes in Zhangjiakou. The reason is naturally the same as that of the white-armed soldiers. "
Zhu Youxiao gave orders.
"My slave obeys the order!"
Wei Zhongxian was relieved now. In his opinion, if the white pole soldiers who had just fought against the Donglu and the Zhejiang soldiers who were good at handling firearms could help him capture the Shanxi merchants, the Shanxi merchants would undoubtedly have no chance of escaping unless they could really do so. Directly persuade Donglu to help him.
