Han Xu, who was responsible for meeting these people, first directly explained the current predicament of Yingtian Mansion, and took the initiative to say with a smile:
"You are all a wealthy family with the most land in the local area, and are also famous families loyal to the imperial court. You must not be able to bear to see the price of food in Yingtian Mansion so high, leaving the poor with no food to eat, and the traders without a foundation, leading to chaos in the south of the Yangtze River. Therefore, I am here to ask you all according to the edict, can you bring the grain to the market, or borrow it from the court to use it to stabilize the price of grain?"
"I don't know, Mr. Ge! We are undoubtedly a rich and famous family. We do have a lot of fields left by our ancestors, but we can't support the large population. The food produced by our ancestral fields is no longer enough. Sometimes, the whole family has to eat porridge for several days. Well, there is really no extra food. Otherwise, we would not ask the court to grant more farmland. But we also know the difficulties of the court and the people, and we want to help. Who will let us receive the country's favor in this life? , Gu is willing to donate fifty dan of food, and there is no need to borrow it. It will only be regarded as a donation to the court for the relief of the people."
Gu Mingjiao said first, then turned back to Zhu Guobi with a proud smile.
Zhu Guobi also smiled because of this, raised his eyebrows, and glanced at Han Xu, who looked ugly.
Then, Zhu Guobi couldn't wait to stand up, wanting to make Han Xu's face look even more ugly, so he said: "Mr. Ge, I am the same at Fu Ninghou Mansion. Although there are many fields, there is also a large population, but If you want to donate food, I will also donate. Who makes us loyal ministers? However, my family’s fields are not as large as Zhenyuanhou’s, so I will donate thirty dan.”
Zhu Guobi couldn't help laughing as he spoke.
Han Xu was well-behaved and still had a smile on his face, but he couldn't help but said in his heart: "It seems that we can only support His Majesty in using extraordinary means! These nobles are really selfish. Those who are not ancestors have to be your Majesty and If the imperial court is willing to let you have it, you can have it. If it is not willing to let you have it, if you want to take it away, you can take it away at any time."
Xu Hongji stood up at this time: "Elder Pavilion, please tell your Majesty that several Zhuangzi in the Duke's Palace of Wei have suffered major disasters this year. In order not to implicate the court, Xu has waived the rent of those Zhuangzi. The grain is given to the tenants, but now the entire Wei government does not have much grain in stock, and can barely scrape together a hundred dan."
Han Xu still just smiled.
Then, other nobles and big country officials also expressed their stance, and they were only willing to spend tens of hundreds of tons of food to send Han Xu and the emperor behind him.
…
"Your Majesty, calm down. These nobles and nobles are accustomed to greed for profit. That's why they don't care about the life and death of the court and the people. In my opinion, I can only forcefully confiscate their food!"
After Han Xu reported to Zhu Youxiao the circumstances of his meeting with nobles and nobles, Xiong Tingbi first said something to Zhu Youxiao.
"What Mr. Xiong Ge said is reasonable. Although this is their own food, Your Majesty can increase the tax on them, and increase the tax on them to make them hand over the food!"
Li Zhizao also echoed.
If Zhu Youxiao forcibly confiscated these nobles and nobles for no reason from the beginning, it would make these civil and military officials who sided with Emperor Zhu Youxiao worry that they would also have their property taken away by the court for no reason in the future.
But now, because these nobles and nobles are unwilling to give priority to their own interests, and they are very likely to destroy the country, and it has nothing to do with the emperor's personal character, so the civil and military officials around Zhu Youxiao have begun to actively support and advise Emperor Zhu Youxiao. The school directly forcibly requisitioned the food of these noble families.
"It's not just them who caused the price of food to be so high. There are other people behind it, even the clan members. Taking advantage of this rise in food prices, the court just needs to teach these nobles and the clan members behind them who don't care about the foundation of the country! So! , now is not the time to directly seize their food, let them go crazy for a while, this time I let Han Aiqing see them, I am not begging them, but I am giving them a chance, the last chance!"
Zhu Youxiao bit his lip and said.
"yes!"
Xiong Tingbi and others immediately replied.
Then, Zhu Youxiao asked the ministers around him: "Is the first batch of grain shipped from Suzhou expected to arrive?"
Han Xu hurriedly replied: "It is expected to arrive in the next two days tomorrow."
After hearing this, Colonel Zhu You nodded: "Then first use the military rations to supplement the supply to various government stores, or wholesale to grain stores, but require that each grain store must sell according to the price limit of the Grain Industry Bureau and implement commercial military control! Wait for Suzhou After the grain arrives, it will be replenished to the military rations. In addition, I will send instructions to Fang Congzhe to speed up the grain adjustment and food preparation work in the process of clearing the land."
…
"If the imperial court forcibly requisitions grain, I will have all the grain burned! No matter what, there will be no escape from being confiscated and killed, so no one will have an easy time!"
Xu Hongji responded directly after listening to the advice of his retainer Mei Shuangpu that the court would easily confiscate grain because of this.
Mei Shuangpu couldn't say more.
Xu Hongji also told his son Xu Wenjue: "Go to the village and tell each village head to raise the tenant rent to 80%! Then burn another batch of old grain in each village's warehouse, and then let the tenants each Come and get it at home!”
Xu Hongji said: "Even if it is burned, it will never be put on the market!"
"Father, if the share rent is raised to 80%, isn't it too high?!"
Xu Wenjue couldn't help but ask.
"What do you know! Being able to work as a tenant for my Xu family is a blessing he has cultivated in his eight lifetimes. Even if I charge 80% of the rent, he can still eat chaff without starving to death. Compared with those outside who have no land and no food, they have no way to survive. The untouchables are much stronger. In the entire Yingtian Mansion, whoever has more fields than my Duke of Wei, if he is too high, he can give up his status as a tenant of my Xu family and become a tenant somewhere else, and my Xu family will not stop me!"
Xu Hongji said loudly.
"Yes, let's do it now, kid!"
Therefore, Xu Wenjue took his young man to Zhuangzi.
"Young Master, please do me a favor. The rent of 70% is high enough. The tenants in this village have long been out of food. Some of them don't even dare to have more children because they don't have much food to feed them. Why is it going to go up to 80% now? If I close it then, I’m really afraid that I’ll force them to rebel!”
The head of the Xu family named Wu Guokun excitedly persuaded Xu Wenjue because he learned that Wei Guogong's government was going to increase the tenant rent to 80%.
Xu Wenjue impatiently whipped Wu Guokun: "What's the use of telling me? This is the old man's order. I can't change it. However, the old man said, if you dislike me, the Xu family's rent is high." , just leave on your own and farm elsewhere, and the Xu family will not stop you, there will be no shortage of tenants like them!"
Wu Guokun didn't know what to say for a moment.
But when he saw the Xu family's slaves piled all the old grain in the warehouse outside and poured kerosene on it, he couldn't help but said: "Sir! Why do you need to burn grain again? Even if the grain is not sold, it can be distributed to the tenants to survive." Yeah, wouldn’t burning it make us farmers’ hard work in vain?”
Xu Wenjue kicked Wu Guokun directly: "Get out! Give these grains to the tenants again? You can't imagine, if I give them to the tenants, what kind of rent will I have to pay! This is the grain of the Duke's government, you can do whatever you want. Come on, you damn village head, what are you talking about!"
Wu Guokun let out an ouch and fell to the snow.
At this time, the firewood pile filled with old grains was already on fire. Soon, the old grains were ignited into a fire. The fire was so big that it dyed half of the sky red.
After all, the Xu family does have a lot of old grain.
…
"Your Majesty, what they are doing is simply against nature and human nature! I don't know how many people are still hungry in the Ming Dynasty. Now there are people in the Jiangnan area who drown themselves in rivers every day because they can't stand hunger, but they would rather burn the food than throw it in. When we go to the market, I ask your Majesty to issue an order immediately to deal with these despicable and selfish people! Run the house! Just run the house for food!"
Xiong Tingbi has a rather impatient personality, so when he heard that Wei Zhongxian of the Dongchang reported to Zhu Youxiao that grain burning often occurred in the fields of Wei Guogong and other nobles in Nanjing, he couldn't help but speak out to Zhu Youxiao eagerly.
Zhu Youxiao was not surprised by this, and just asked Han Xu: "What does Han Aiqing think of this?"
Han Xu said: "Reporting to your majesty, I think what your majesty said before is reasonable. Now is not the time to take action against them, otherwise it will be easy to rush them, because the most important thing for the court now is not to deal with them, but to deliver the food quickly. "
"Your Majesty, I beg to differ! These people are already burning food. How long will it take? Does the Second Assistant know how many people can be fed by the burned food?!"
Xiong Tingbi immediately argued with reason.
"Mr. Xiong Ge has thought about it. Since they can burn old food, can't they burn new food when they are forced? The court can use troops to confiscate it, but the top priority of the court now is not what to do to them, but to let the people first Survive.”
Han Xu said: "Your Majesty, the military rations have been personally escorted by officers and soldiers to various shops in Dongchang and grain stores that intend to work with the imperial court to stabilize grain prices. In addition, the officers and soldiers have been responsible for maintaining order in various stores in accordance with the order to prevent looting. , to prevent people from attacking shops, shops selling cheap grains have been put under military control."
Zhu Youxiao nodded: "Very good. There are not enough officers and soldiers in the patrol camp. The army will be used to maintain order first. I have decided long ago to let those people go crazy for a while. When will the second batch of food from the capital be delivered? ?”
"Five days later."
Han Xu replied.
"Continue to ask Fang Congzhe, how much grain will be received after clearing the land in Shandong, Henan, and Huguang? When will it be delivered to Jiangnan?"
Zhu Youxiao continued to give instructions.
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