"First, with your salary, how did your family's land come from?"
"Secondly, are your butts really clean these years you have been officials? Can you withstand the thorough investigation of Jin Yiwei and Dongchang?"
"Third, do you think that since His Majesty issued the edict, have you thought about the current situation?"
"Fourth, think about it carefully. Is your current position really indispensable to you? Will the entire department not be able to function without you?"
"fifth……"
After Fang Guiwei finished speaking, he nodded to the other ministers and left.
Several ministers also left. The officials looked at the departing superiors and then at the Wenyuan Pavilion with the door closed. After sighing, they left with a sad face.
Every problem with the magnificence of the official's study room cannot be ignored by them.
Their salaries are all there. Jinyiwei can find the eight major locust merchants, so they are almost half-covered. There is no need for Jinyiwei. Even a censor from the Inspectorate can check them out.
Especially Fang Guiwei's third question, based on what the emperor has done since he ascended the throne, he must have anticipated the current situation.
Maybe just wait for them to cause trouble, and then find a reason to directly remove them, or even click them out.
When they thought of this, everyone trembled all over and felt windy when walking.
But there are still some people who think they are innocent and complain all the way, preparing to go back and write notes to persuade His Majesty.
Some people in Beijing have mentioned it, but it is different in each province, state, and county.
If officials have some scruples because they are within the imperial system, businessmen don't have so many scruples.
After calculation, the cultivated land in their hands will be abandoned.
So they found friends, alliances, and officials who they usually had good relationships with, and used all kinds of coercion and inducement to ask the emperor to withdraw the edict.
For a time, official documents from various provinces, prefectures and counties were sent towards Beijing like snowflakes.
After Shengjing and Huang Taiji learned the news, they locked themselves in the room for a day. After leaving the room, they said in a hoarse voice: Act as planned.
He could naturally understand Chongzhen's intentions and the series of changes that would result from the smooth advancement of this strategy, but he could only watch.
It's not that he doesn't want to attack Ming Dynasty immediately, it's because Guan Ningjin's defense line cannot be broken through in a short time, so he can only use the strategy of borrowing the passage.
Some places where wealthy businessmen gathered also started to do something, with Jiangnan being the most prosperous.
These matters were naturally sent to the emperor's chariot by the Jin Yiwei who had been stationed in the provincial capitals for a long time.
At this moment, Luan Jia was stationed beside an official road in the central county of Yan'an Prefecture, three hundred miles away from Xi'an Prefecture.
They walked three hundred miles in six days, and the speed was extremely slow. It was not that they didn't want to go quickly, but that too many people along the way blocked the road and complained.
Basically, after hearing about the sale of farmland by Xi'an Prefecture and Fengxiang Prefecture, they sued the local wealthy businessmen and gentry. There were almost ten cases every day.
Every time, Chongzhen would stop and listen to the contents of the people's complaints.
The contents of the complaint were basically about local wealthy businessmen seizing land, robbing women, monopolizing the market, charging heavy rents, etc.
If you don't listen, you won't know. After listening, he realized how bad Ming Dynasty had become.
I finally understand more clearly why Chongzhen triggered such a big popular uprising two years later in history.
If Yuan Keli hadn't been there to dissuade him, he would have probably killed a thousand people.
However, there were some exceptions. Several wealthy businessmen and gentry actually donated their cultivated land on their own initiative, just to ask the emperor to spare their family. The total cultivated land was more than a thousand hectares.
Regarding this, Chongzhen also gave them a promise. As long as they did not kill anyone, they would be fined some money. If they did kill someone, the principal culprit would pay with his life.
As soon as a group of people were sent away, Cui Ming arrived in front of Luan Jia: "Your Majesty, the Yangzhou Jinyi Guards are reporting urgently!"
He handed over a small sealed box, opened it at Chongzhen's instruction, took out a letter, and presented it to Chongzhen with both hands.
“At Yin time on April 16, the first year of Chongzhen, at the intersection of Hangou and Huai River of the Grand Canal, two fleets collided with eighteen cargo ships. The ship sank and the river was blocked!
At midnight on April 16, several ships on the Jiangnan Canal collided and sank more than ten miles away from Zhenjiang. The entire river was blocked, and more than 20 boatmen died! "
Looking at the secret letter, Chongzhen was a little confused. How could Jin Yiwei spread this matter here?
Under such ancient navigation conditions, isn't it normal for several ships to sink?
If a few don't sink in any year, that would be abnormal.
"Bring me the map!"
After a while, Cui Ming spread the map on the ground and marked it according to the contents of the secret message.
"Zhenjiang, Yangzhou, Hangou, Huaihe?"
Yuan Keli read the secret letter and then looked at the location marked on the map, with a confused look on his face.
"What's there in Yangzhou? Fireworks in Yangzhou in March? No, it's the largest hub of water transportation...the largest distribution center of Haiyan!"
"Salt?"
"Salt?"
Chongzhen and Yuan Keli exclaimed at the same time and fixed their eyes on the map. Yuan Keli picked up his pen and circled two places on the map.
"Your Majesty, I seem to understand!"
Yuan Keli's face was solemn, and he pointed at the map and said: "Your Majesty, the two places I just circled are the 19 salt fields in the Lianghuai Salt Fields.
The Lianghuai Salt Field is the largest salt field in the Ming Dynasty. There is a saying that "since ancient times, the benefits of boiling salt are more important than those in the southeast, and the Lianghuai Salt Field is the most important."
The annual salt production accounts for a quarter of the quota of the salt divisions of the Ming Dynasty, and thousands of ships often pass through it every year. "
“Yangzhou is located at the intersection of the Grand Canal and the Yangtze River, with the Yangtze River to the south and the Huanghuai River to the north. From here, you can cross from east to west, and from north to south.
Because of convenience, transport warehouses have been set up since the Song Dynasty to transport salt produced in Haizhou and Lianshui. Almost all salt from the southern part of the Ming Dynasty left here. "
“The Jiangnan Canal is connected to the Yangtze River and is the busiest waterway for transportation. The Hangou is connected to the Huai River and the Yangtze River, and the Huai River is connected to the Tongji Canal.
The two shipwrecks blocked the entire water transportation from south to north. The salt from the Lianghuai Salt Farm could not enter the Yangtze River through the Jiangnan Canal, and was then distributed to all parts of the country.
The salt from Yangzhou cannot go northward through the Huai River. As a result, the north and south cannot be connected, and delays in freight transportation will cause big problems. "
Chongzhen also understood the problem now, and a fierce look flashed in his eyes.
Salt is the first of all tastes and a necessity in daily life. Without salt, various physical symptoms will occur.
If water transportation is blocked, how many people will be short of salt, and what consequences will it have?
This is a silent protest against the edicts of the two Shaanxi governments on the sale of cultivated land!
He was certain that the two shipwrecks must have been caused intentionally by salt merchants or wealthy merchants and gentry.
Even if the imperial court sends people to investigate, they will only say that it was dark and they could not see clearly, and the ship owner died of old age. That is to say, there is no evidence of death.
Salt merchants will also say, it’s not that we don’t transport salt, it’s that we don’t have the conditions to transport it!
The width and depth of the river are there, so many boats have sunk, and if they are not salvaged in time, the river will be entangled in silt, dead branches and leaves, fishing nets, etc., which may cause the river to overflow its banks.
But as long as you pay, there are many people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait who will come to salvage it.
But since there is a first time, there is a second and third time. If you salvage today during the day, you will sink the ship again tomorrow night.
The last time we transported food, the next time we transported stones, ores, etc. The difficulty of salvaging became more and more difficult each time.
Yuan Keli stared at the map, his face becoming more and more solemn, and Chongzhen was a little frightened.
He had never seen Yuan Keli look like this before.
"Your Majesty, I'm afraid the problem is more serious than we thought, and it's not just about salt!"
