When we returned to Jurong County, the sky had darkened.
Gu Zhengchen sat tiredly in the second hall. As soon as he picked up the tea bowl, Zhou Mao, the official, came over and saluted: "The county magistrate, Sun Wu, the official, Wang Jin from the military department, Lin Shan, the clerk, Han Qiang, the government servant, and other eight people ask to see."
"Let them in."
Gu Zhengchen took a sip of tea and straightened his clothes.
Sun Wu, Wang Jin, Lin Shan and others entered the second hall and saluted one after another.
Gu Zhengchen looked at everyone and said indifferently: "If I remember correctly, Sun Wu and Wang Jin, aren't you seriously ill and unable to walk? Why, are you cured after taking the magic elixir?"
Sun Wu, Wang Jin and others trembled, kowtowed and shouted: "We realize our mistake, and please forgive the county magistrate."
Gu Zhengchen snorted and looked at Lin Shan: "Isn't your mother lying ill in bed and now running to the county government? Doesn't it mean that you cannot fulfill your filial piety. The Ming Dynasty established a country based on filial piety. If you are an unfilial person, how can you be loyal to the court? Loyal to His Majesty? Let me tell you, you can go back and fulfill your filial piety first."
Lin Shan was frightened and lowered his head to admit his mistake.
Gu Zhengchen looked at the yamen servant Han Qiang: "What brings you here? Oh, I remembered it. Your wife is about to give birth, right? Is it a boy or a girl? How about I give you a gift during the full moon wine?"
Han Qiang shivered and broke into a cold sweat.
Gu Zhengchen slapped the table and angrily shouted: "Everyone is pretending to be sick and causing trouble for nothing. Are they planning to go against me or the court? Tell me!"
Sun Wu, Han Qiang and others kowtowed repeatedly.
Seeing that something was wrong, Wang Jin directly betrayed Chen Zhong: "Your Majesty, Dian Shi ordered us to do this. We dare not disobey him."
"Oh, is it so?"
Gu Zhengchen's eyes turned cold.
Wang Jin gritted his teeth: "That's right, it's him! Chen Zhong is still threatening us. If we don't obey orders, he will report our deprivation of corvees and embezzlement of food to the court. We dare not disobey."
Gu Zhengchen pointed his finger at the desk and nodded slightly: "I have heard about the deprivation of corvees and embezzlement of food for a long time, and I know that you are helpless, so I persuaded the court and used some means to set up a trustworthy bank. Now that Wang Jinfan is in charge, Wake up, you will find your way back, and it will be difficult for me to pursue it. Zhou Mao, the family member Luo Shao, gave Wang Jin three guan of money, which can be used as this month's support for integrity."
Wang Jin was very excited and quickly thanked him.
Gu Zhengchen turned his attention to Lin Shan, Han Qiang and others: "As for you, can you get this month's Lian Yang Silver, haha..."
Lin Shan, Han Qiang and others understood what Gu Zhengchen meant, and no longer cared about the "friendship" in the past, they bit out the classics Chen Zhong one by one.
Zhou Mao recorded what everyone said, and after keeping them in custody, handed a stack of papers to Gu Zhengchen.
Gu Zhengchen looked at it carefully and nodded slightly: "Pass this message, I will not pursue those who exposed and reported lawless things in the county government tonight. I will not pursue the corruption in the past. I will give Sanguan an honest silver. I will do my job well in the future. If tomorrow dawns, , the subordinate officials, government servants, etc. are still stubborn, pretending to be sick and refusing to do their jobs, I will investigate the account books, and if any illegal things are discovered, they will be severely punished!"
Show your sword!
Gu Zhengchen made a decisive decision!
Lin Shan, Han Qiang and others rebelled against Shui Dian Shi Chen Zhong, which shows that this group of people can no longer bear the pressure.
The longer time passed, the more panicked these people became.
Kicking out a group of people and replacing a group of people is a straw in itself.
The emergence of Yanglianyin moved people's hearts.
The forced arrest of Guo Jie, Guo Liang, and Guo Ning showed Gu Zhengchen's attitude: it was the Guo family who did it.
After a series of actions, the subordinate officials and government servants who were mentally fragile have been succumbed. Now the remaining "hard bones" must be knocked down with a hammer.
It is not difficult to find out the problems with the county government's bad debts. Whether the accounts can be reconciled does not depend entirely on the accounts, but also on witnesses.
Take the yamen's corruption of grain for the corvee. The grain has been paid out in the accounts, but the common people have not received so much. No matter how flawless your account book is, it cannot stop the investigation. If you check it left and right, and arrest a few people who handled it and torture it, everything will be cleared up. white.
Gu Zhengchen did not intend to wait any longer. With this group of people and twelve students here, the basic operation of the county government would not be a problem. Even if more than twenty people were kicked out, it would not be a problem. At most, he would work overtime to help these people. It’s a “nine-nine-six”. Anyway, there is no labor law in Ming Dynasty.
If that doesn't work, Jurong County Government can also learn from experts and adjust the time off.
One night, don’t give me more, just give it.
Extreme pressure, you have to kneel if you want to leave, whatever you want.
Nowadays, the initiative is in one's own hands. In the feudal era, no, in all eras, in front of the tough leader, everyone else is a slave.
Gu Zhengchen left Lin Shan, the clerk, and took out the household document and handed it to Lin Shan: "Prepare this document as a notice and post it early tomorrow morning. In addition, spread the news to the district chiefs, armor chiefs, grain chiefs and the elderly in various places."
Lin Shan took it and took a look, his face was a little ugly: "We use cotton cloth to transport autumn grain. County Lord, as far as I know, there is not much cotton in Jurong..."
Gu Zhengchen rubbed his eyebrows.
Zhu Yuanzhang issued a decree that all people with five to ten acres of land should plant half an acres of mulberry, linen, and cotton, and twice that amount if they have ten acres or more.
The people of Jurong grow cotton, but the planting area is limited.
Calculated based on civilian land, the autumn tax rice per mu is more than three liters, and twenty acres of land equals six buckets of rice.
Documents from the Ministry of Household Affairs stipulate that six buckets of rice can be folded into one piece of colored cotton.
For ordinary people with 20 acres of land, they usually only have one acre to grow cotton, and the cotton harvest from one acre of land is only 60 to 70 kilograms. Counting sixty kilograms of harvest, after removing the seed cotton, there is only less than forty or fifty kilograms left.
One pound of cotton, one pound of yarn, and one piece of cotton cloth require about fifteen to twenty pounds of cotton.
Judging from these figures, it is not difficult for ordinary people to fold colored cotton cloth.
But the problem is that Jurong is divided into five mountains, one water and four fields. There are not many fields. In addition, the people's cultivated land is scattered. The good fields are used to cultivate rice for eating and mulberry fields for weaving, leaving the barren land for Without cotton, there are many people who cannot produce ten pounds of cotton from half an acre of land.
Besides, pay the grain, transport the grain to the local area, sign and stamp the tax receipt, and this year's tax task is over.
But cotton is different. After picking the cotton, you need to find someone to play the cotton, spin it into thread, and then weave it into cotton cloth. This process is time-consuming and labor-intensive. If you don’t know how to play cotton, you need to spin the thread and weave the cloth. Any of the three steps requires money. If you don’t know these three steps, it’s easier to just buy cotton cloth...
Gu Zhengchen bought a piece of linen cloth for 350 yuan. A piece of cotton cloth was relatively cheaper, but it still cost 300 yuan.
Three hundred cents is just the current price. When supply exceeds demand, the price will rise, and people will have to pay a greater cost to purchase cotton cloth. The total cost of all kinds of things is not less than six buckets of rice.
This is still true for the people who have more land, but what about those who have less land? Some people don't have more than five acres of land and don't need to grow cotton. They can only sell grain to buy cotton cloth.
Gu Zhengchen looked at Lin Shan and asked with some worry: "Do you think it will be difficult for the people of Jurong to use cotton cloth to replace the autumn grain? Let's be honest."
Lin Shan thought carefully and said, "Your Majesty, Jurong doesn't have a lot of cotton, but it's not too little. 60% of the people should be able to use cotton cloth to transport autumn grain. The remaining 30% to 40% may need to purchase cotton." Or cotton.”
Gu Zhengchen frowned: "Only 60%?"
Lin Shan quickly said: "I only speculate based on experience. As for how many there are, it's hard to say."
Gu Zhengchen nodded.
Lin Shan is a native of Jurong, and his words have a certain degree of credibility.
At 60%, at least the overall situation can be stabilized. If we can stabilize the situation, we will have time to solve the problem.
"This task is a challenge!"
Gu Zhengchen murmured, thinking of something, and looked at Lin Shan: "We can turn challenges into opportunities! This time the imperial court uses cotton cloth to transport autumn grain, not just in Jurong, but in the entire Yingtian Prefecture, Zhejiang and Jiangxi! Such a move Come, cotton will become in short supply, and the market price will rise a lot."
Lin Shan was puzzled, what is turning challenges into opportunities?
Gu Zhengchen stood up, paced around, thinking about whether it was feasible or not. He suddenly turned around and ordered Lin Shan: "Let someone send a message. The morning after tomorrow, all the district chiefs will come to the county government office!"
Although Lin Shan didn't understand, he still agreed.
Gu Zhengchen looked at the empty second hall and clenched his fists: "Old Zhu, thank you for your policy. The Yanglian Bank is in place..."
Jinling.
Liu Xian, a clerk in Jurong's ceremonial chamber, stood beside the Qinhuai River in despair, feeling extremely cold all over.
After collecting ten thousand yuan of money from someone, he went to the Jinling Yushitai to expose that Gu Zhengchen, the magistrate of Jurong County, was good at dividing the county treasury. In the name of raising honest money, he turned the court officials into his staff, intending to eliminate dissidents and control the Jurong County government!
Liu Xian believed that if these accusations were handed over, Gu Zhengchen would definitely die without a burial place. He could not say that he would be appreciated for his merits in reporting and would rise to the top in one step!
But the reality made Liu Xian want to cry.
When he arrived at the Yushitai, he explained the situation and handed in the report documents, but the people at the Yushitai kicked him out!
This is the Yushitai, the place where officials speak. Aren’t they all fearless figures who dare to expose the darkness and speak out their opinions?
Why do you watch Gu Zhengchen doing evil and violating the law without doing anything?
Not to mention being kicked out, what Liu Xian never expected was that someone would threaten him, saying, "If I see the documents that impeach and expose Gu Zhengchen's illegal activities again, I will kill you first."
Liu Xian was afraid. What kind of extraordinary ability did Gu Zhengchen have that could allow Yushitai to support him?
If Chen Ning knew that Liu Xian thought this way, he would probably scold him. I am not supporting Gu Zhengchen, but I am afraid that Gu Zhengchen will break my back!
Once the official department ordered, Gu Zhengchen was safe and sound, while the censor and the official minister went to the beach to play with crabs.
After an impeachment by the censor, Gu Zhengchen was still safe, and Li Rang, who impeached him, is still in prison. From what he heard, he may not die, but he may end up going fishing three thousand miles away.
Hu Weiyong had ordered Chen Ning, and Chen Ning had also suffered from Gu Zhengchen. He knew that the people standing behind Gu Zhengchen were Crown Prince Zhu Biao and Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang. How could you, a small subordinate, handle such a person?
Liu Xian, you are not dragging Gu Zhengchen into trouble, you are digging a hole for Yushitai. I, Chen Ning, have offended you or something, get out, get out as far away as possible...
When Liu Xian looked at the lights of the Qinhuai River and stood shivering in the autumn wind, Gu Zhengchen closed an account book, looked at Liu Daxing kneeling in the hall, smiled softly and said: "With these account books, I You can treat me to a treat."
