Having said this, Sima Hong, who was obviously unwilling, clenched his hands and said with a somewhat ferocious expression: "Otherwise, they would dare to deduct money and food from the kiln workers, but they would never dare to open a private kiln. If this matter hadn't happened, If a person with powerful hands and eyes covers it up, he will die if he is discovered, and may even bring trouble to the nine tribes."
"My "Da Qi Lv" clearly states that privately making items for imperial use is tantamount to treason. A single minister of the Ministry of Industry will never have this ability. Unless he really wants to kill the whole family, he will never have the courage. But during the investigation, I discovered something strange. Although the number of Jun porcelain they secretly made in a year was not large, there were still more than 10,000 pieces of artifacts."
"But I have never found so many Jun porcelains on the market. Even the people who bought them knew that these Jun porcelains were royal objects, so they hid them carefully and did not dare to reveal them. But there are so many. Jun porcelain was circulated, but the price outside did not fall back."
"Jun porcelain is expensive, let alone ordinary people's homes, even ordinary wealthy households cannot afford to buy it. The market for the Jun porcelain they make privately is still limited. According to common sense, so With so much private porcelain flowing out, the price of Jun porcelain on the market should have dropped. But in the same year when I became an official abroad, I discovered that the price of Jun porcelain on the market has not dropped a penny."
"Over the years, we must find out where the Jun porcelain they fired privately has gone. Otherwise, they will kill these private kilns as backup kilns for the official kilns. Because I also know that collapses in porcelain kilns are common. Yes. So half of the official kilns have spare parts, and the kiln mouth is sealed inside on weekdays."
"Prepare to use it when there is a big ceremony in Tianjia and the number of porcelains that need to be fired is high. The original official kiln cannot be fired for some reasons. If we don't find out where the privately made Jun porcelain goes, there will be a thousand porcelains. Even if you open your mouth and rely on the fake account they handed over, you can't explain it. When they bite back, the unlucky one will be the old man. "
"Fortunately, they were too wary of Lao Chan at first. But under Lao Chan's deliberate paralysis, they slowly relaxed their vigilance. After a whole year of secret investigation, Lao Chan finally found out the whereabouts of the Jun porcelain they fired. . The porcelain they fired privately flows in three directions. One is to Japan and Korea, the other is to Northern Liao, and the other is to south."
"At present, luxury is also growing in Japan and Northern Liao. The Jun porcelain and Ru porcelain produced by our dynasty were tributes during the Tang Dynasty, so they were very popular among local princes and nobles in Japan, Korea and Northern Liao. And Jun porcelain Because porcelain is an imperial item, its value is higher than your porcelain. However, I have only found two of their three smuggling channels."
"Their privately fired porcelain is loaded at night and transported to Dengzhou and Laizhou on Shandong Road, and then goes to the sea from there to the east, north, or south. At present, Japan and Northern Liao are very luxurious to this dynasty. The demand for things is increasing day by day. The Jun porcelain they shipped out was not directly exchanged for money or goods, but was bartered to exchange for things that the dynasty urgently needed and lacked."
"Usually one shipload of Jun porcelain can be exchanged for five shiploads of copper and one shipload of silver from Japan or Goryeo, or ten shiploads of folding fans, Japanese knives, and Japanese women, and Goryeo cloth, bronze utensils, and maidservants. The same furs, ginseng, and pearls can be exchanged from the Northern Liao Dynasty. Among these things, the copper exchanged is directly sold to the Ministry of Industry to make money and make copperware, so there is no need to worry about sales. "
"Silver was melted into silver ingots by them, either for reserve or deposited in Wuwei Bank. The furs, ginseng, and pearls exchanged from the Northern Liao Dynasty, the handicrafts, Japanese women, and Japanese pearls exchanged from Japan and Korea Korean maidservants were either sold to the capital, or to the south of the Yangtze River, or even sent as gifts to the prince's palace of the Yuanzhi clan."
"Such a sale will not only prevent those royal porcelains from appearing in large numbers on the market and attract the attention of the court, but also have the Ministry of Industry as a guarantee to ensure a profit without loss. Making use of the price difference to make money at both ends can be said to be a huge profit. In addition to going to sea, God may Apart from causing trouble, you don’t have to take any risks at all.”
"Shandong Road has many good harbors along the coast, and Shandong Road is far away from the sphere of influence of the Guilin County Prince's Palace. Shandong Road Navy has long been in disrepair and is almost useless. Shandong Road is also close to Henan Road, which avoids the long journey southward. It is easy to cause the risk of exposure. These people are really calculating and have good intentions."
"It's just that I found out where they went to the east and north, but I couldn't find out where they went south to sell. Moreover, there is another thing I haven't figured out. It has been several years since these two people were transferred to Jun Kiln, and since then they have Judging from their style of work, it’s no longer just a year or two for them to open a porcelain kiln privately.”
"According to their conservative estimates, their income is over a million dollars a year. This does not include the silver they left behind privately. Their income in the past few years has been enough for them to live and clothe themselves for a lifetime, or even for several lifetimes. Why do they continue to risk the whole family’s head? Don’t they know that this kind of thing cannot be hidden at all?”
"It wasn't until half a year before the incident that the deputy governor had a quarrel with the supervising eunuch. He went to see the old man for a drink, and he made a mistake after drinking. Only then did the old man find out. There were nearly a hundred private kilns around Jun Kiln, except for two of them each. Except for the few that are jointly owned by officials from top to bottom of the Ministry of Industry and the few that are owned by the Minister of Industry, the rest belong to the prince."
"At least 60% of the annual income of these private kilns goes into the prince's pocket. Both of them work for the prince and make money for the prince. It turns out that the old man thought that the prince was just the backstage of these two people. When it comes to that Only later did I realize that the two of them were just people who worked for the prince and were exposed to outsiders. The real owner behind those private kilns was the prince.
"After learning that the secret messenger of all this was actually the prince, I became timid. So I thought of being transferred through various means, so as to stay away from that place of right and wrong. It happened that the imperial court transferred Lao Chen to build a palace for King Teng who was about to leave the vassal. . After receiving the imperial edict, the old man thought he was out of danger. But he thought that King Jing had found out the matter from nowhere. "
"After King Jing found out about the matter, he directly exposed the matter in the name of Lao Cao. I don't know if the prince was implicated. Anyway, we all were in great misfortune. The three presidents of Jun Kiln all lost their heads. The minister of the Ministry of Works was also given a three-foot white silk ribbon. The two ministers of the Ministry of Works had their homes confiscated and were sentenced to death. More than 40 officials of the Ministry of Works were also implicated, either killed or exiled. "
"At that time, because I took office less than two years ago and had a good official reputation before, I was spared my life. I was assigned to Longyou, and my family members were not involved. I was the one with the lightest punishment. The rest of the people with the lightest punishment were also the whole family. They were sent to Sichuan West Road. As for the deputy governor and the supervising eunuch, they were executed by Lingchi. All the men in the family were beheaded, and the female family members were distributed to the border troops as slaves."
After Sima Hong looked at what he said, Su Jin was stunned and said: "You were just used as a spearman. Otherwise, how would you, a poor official, know that those people secretly made imperial porcelain and resold it?" I, the prince, think that I leaked this matter to King Jing, so I was sent to Longyou."
Having said this, Sima Hong turned his head and glanced at Huang Qiong, who was also deep in thought, and sighed: "It only took a month from the inception of this case to everyone being locked up and taken to Beijing to the verdict. Moreover, everyone's judgments were hand-picked by the emperor's imperial pen, and did not go through the Ministry of Punishment, Yushitai and Dali Temple at all. Even the execution was handed over to the North and South Town Fusi.
"King of England, why don't you think about it, why did the emperor do this and not even give us a chance to appeal? Unless the emperor has the intention to abolish the crown prince's position as the crown prince, otherwise as long as the prince reigns, there will be no way for the old man to reverse the verdict. . King of England, although you are now serving as the envoy to deal with Zhengzhou, you should forget about this old case."
"If you are really serious, do something for those Jun kiln workers, at least change their situation. As for the old man, last year the emperor prayed for Empress Daxing's blessing and amnesty, and then he saved his life from Longyou and returned home. . In the past few years in Longyou, it is considered good that I can save my life, and I really don’t want to worry about it anymore."
Sima Hong's words made Huang Qiong sigh slightly in his heart. He knew that the reason why the emperor treated the case so seriously and quickly was that the emperor was wiping the prince's butt, and even killing people to silence him. Otherwise, once the case is handed over to the three divisions for trial, no matter how powerful the emperor is, it may be difficult to suppress it. You know, the Ministry of Industry at that time was all a party of princes.
But other people in the court had their own affairs, but they were beyond the control of the prince. Once word spreads that the prince secretly made royal objects and sold them for profit, not to mention the other princes, even the prince's direct brothers would be surprised if they didn't do something. And that concubine, I'm afraid she will never let this opportunity go. When the time comes, whether the crown prince can still hold the position of heir apparent is anyone's guess.
Even if it was not for the sake of the prince, but for the sake of Queen Daxing, the emperor had to suppress the case even if he was angry. Otherwise, as the current crown prince, but he is bent on making huge profits for personal use, how should the prince face the people of the world? How could he have the face to face all the civil and military officials of the dynasty?
As for this Sima Dujian, it was precisely because he was not the prince's son that the prince thought he was the culprit in the case being finally revealed. At that time, the Ministry of Works was also the prince's money bag. If the money bag was cut off, I am afraid that the prince had the heart to swallow the governor alive. Fortunately, although the emperor said that he had saved the prince in this case, after all, the matter was not done yet.
He also knew that he had suffered on behalf of his son, and ultimately saved him. Otherwise, once the prince takes notice of him. Even if he had nine lives, he wouldn't have the chance to talk to himself here today. Although he knew that this man was not wrong, in order to protect the prince and himself, the emperor still exiled him to Longyou. The sky is high and the emperor is far away, and the prince's hand may not be able to reach there.
Although he was a little wronged, it could be regarded as indirectly saving his life. Otherwise, after the case is completed, whether it is to kill people and silence them, or to hide them behind the scenes. Even though he was not the one with the bow, unfortunately he was the one who made the arrow. No matter it is the crown prince who has not yet fallen, King Jing who started all this, or King Shu behind him, they will not let go.
Huang Qiong was not surprised by the emperor's behavior. But Huang Qiong was a little puzzled by the miserable plight of the kiln workers he mentioned. It stands to reason that at this time, government-run workshops, whether in Beijing or outside Beijing, are equivalent to state-owned enterprises more than a thousand years later. It can be said that the harvest is guaranteed despite droughts and floods. Even if they don't earn a penny, it won't delay their pay.
How could these kiln workers with inherited temperament in such a workshop lead miserable lives? You must know that the government-run workshops at this time only served the Tianjia and there was no market competition at all. The imperial court distributes money and food on time every month, so they won't suffer even though they are suffering? Moreover, these people are all skilled workers. In order to ensure the quality of products, the people above would not be bold enough to undercut them.
