After hearing this, Wu Zhong immediately expressed his position: "Don't worry, sir, I will leave this matter to my subordinates! In order to facilitate the business with Jiangnan merchants as soon as possible, the slave chief gave his subordinates a lot of power. As long as those salt merchants are bolder, If you are a little bit, you will definitely not be able to withstand the temptation of heavy profits!"
"Haha, which big salt merchant didn't break the national law to get where they are now!" Li Ruolian heard this and sneered, "But this matter is urgent. In order to save you time, I will send you the news about those big salt merchants later. All delivered to you."
At this point, he added another sentence: "I came all the way under the emperor's order, and I only arrived one day before you. The first thing is to contact you first, and other things must be done secretly. And there are accomplices of those big salt merchants in the officialdom, so it still takes some time to collect information about those big salt merchants."
Upon hearing this, Wu Zhong immediately noticed that the Commander did indeed look a little tired. However, he had ignored the Commander before because he was too excited. Thinking of rushing like this for his own sake, Wu Zhong suddenly felt very confident. With the emperor watching from behind and the entire Jinyi Guard as his backing, what would be difficult to do?
With this thought in mind, he quickly said: "Thank you for your hard work, sir. My original plan is to stay here for a few more days. Just take your time!"
"We can't take our time!" Unexpectedly, after hearing this, Li Ruolian shook his head and replied, "Your matter also involves the emperor's layout in Liaodong. The emperor wants you to report the news to Liaodong as soon as possible and let the slave chief believe that as long as If he keeps the sea route open, he will be able to continuously transport supplies to Liaodong, prompting the Jianlu to divert the limited supplies in their hands to the navy, and consume them as much as they can."
At this point, he sneered again and said: "Haha, just look at the bitter cold land of Liaodong, let's see how much supplies they can consume!"
Upon hearing this, it was actually related to the situation in Liaodong. Wu Zhong immediately felt that his thoughts were not as far-sighted and comprehensive as the emperor's. So, he immediately turned serious, nodded and replied firmly: "My lord. Don’t worry, my subordinates understand now!”
So, after making an appointment with the contact information, Wu Zhong returned quietly. There were Jinyi guards here secretly watching, but they didn't notice anything unusual, so Wu Zhong drank some more wine and had a good sleep. After all, he had also been at sea for so long, so it would be strange if he wasn't tired.
Emperor Chongzhen naturally had real-time control over their affairs. After seeing the conversation between Li Ruolian and Wu Zhong, he felt relieved.
This hidden line was aimed at the salt merchants, as well as the Jiangnan officialdom and the layout of the situation in Liaodong. It was a strategy of killing three birds with one stone. Even if some birds were too cunning to hit, it would be profitable if they could catch one or two birds.
Just as he was thinking this, he heard that another pile of memorials had been brought in from the Supervisor of Ceremonies.
The emperor's main job was to review the memorials endlessly.
In this regard, Emperor Chongzhen naturally asked his eight personal servants to practice. After more than a year of training, he was satisfied with the review of some things.
This time, as usual, Lan Tianbao, Chen Baoting and others each divided a pile and began to write approval and reasons on the slips of paper, and classified them according to their respective degrees of certainty. After one of them has finished their review, they will exchange reviews with each other. After each memorial passes through their respective hands, it will eventually be divided into many categories of memorials. Or classify them in order from everyone is unsure to everyone is confident.
This time, Emperor Chongzhen unexpectedly found a memorial that none of the eight of them were sure of. This situation is relatively rare, so I asked to come over and have a look.
This memorial was written by Huang Yinsi, the deputy commander-in-chief of Linqing. It was actually about shipping, and it was accompanied by a "Shipping Map".
In his memorial, he said: In the matter of water transportation from the north to the south, the difficulty must be reviewed, the danger must be unclear, and the cost must be saved. The dangers of the sea are not all one and everyone knows and fears them. On top of the mountain, there are Shihuang Bridge and Bailang Reef. I have been here before, and I know that there are winding paths within the mountain that can be accessed, and there is an ocean outside the mountain that can be accessed. Although Chengshan is dangerous, the Huaisha boat rides the wind and sails straight across the ocean, turning around Liugong Island to Dengzhou. This is a dangerous and easy task. Land transportation to Deng and Lai cost up to three taels and five cents per stone, and sea transportation cost two cents and seven cents per stone. In addition to drifting losses, Tianjin saved two gold and one gold per stone.
The general meaning of what he said was that water transportation was too expensive, and the reason why the court switched to water transportation before was that it was afraid of the danger of the sea. However, he had traveled by sea before and knew that if he went north around the coastline and reached Tianjin, even if there were drifts on the sea, compared with water transportation, he would save about one tael of silver per stone per stone compared to water transportation.
Emperor Chongzhen naturally didn't know that Huang Yinsi, the deputy commander-in-chief of Linqing, in the original history, it was Emperor Chongzhen who, at the suggestion of Yang Sichang, levied additional training rates, so that more grain could be transported to the north. So, on July 15, the 13th year of Chongzhen, he wrote this memorial about shipping. The memorial finally gives an example of Liao's salary, saying that Liao's salary was more than 3.4 million shi, saving more than 4 million gold.
The original Emperor Chongzhen was also desperate because of lack of money, and he was overjoyed after seeing this memorial. But the danger of the sea passed down from ancient times made him hesitate a little, so he held a court meeting to discuss the matter.
Regarding this memorial, the eight chamberlains of Emperor Chongzhen all entered the palace at a young age. For such a memorial that requires experience, it is understandable that they do not know whether the shipping idea is good or bad, and they are all unsure.
But Emperor Chongzhen at this time was different. He came from later generations, so he naturally knew good and bad. After seeing this memorial, I couldn't help but be overjoyed. Because he is currently thinking about reopening the sea.
With this memorial as an introduction, whether it is to open the sea or let Ming Dynasty overcome its fear of the sea, it will be natural.
However, the cabinet's vote on this memorial was written by Xue Guoguan himself, saying that if it was true as written in the memorial, it would be natural for the court to switch to sea transportation. However, since millions of soldiers and civilians are involved, this matter needs to be discussed with caution at the court.
Emperor Chongzhen looked at it, thought for a while, and immediately held a court meeting. Although he knows the benefits of sea transportation, he is really not very familiar with water transportation. After all, in later generations, there was no water transportation, and in the memory of the original Emperor Chongzhen, there were only a few relevant descriptions in previous memorials.
In the Wenhua Hall, after Emperor Chongzhen let the ministers read the memorial, he first expressed his position: "The benefits of cheap sea transportation are not only mentioned in Huang Zongbing's memorial, but I also know it. However, I feel that the chief minister is also mature and prudent, so I I would like to hear your opinions. If I decide to change to water transportation, what will be the impact, what difficulties will there be, and how will they be solved?"
This set the tone and allowed these ministers to discuss within this framework.
The ministers looked at each other, and in the end it was Xue Guoguan who came out first and said: "Your Majesty, I am not alarmist. In terms of food in the north of the Ming Dynasty, we only talk about the needs of the capital, and there is also military food at the border, mainly from South Zhili and Zhejiang, accounting for about 60% of the country's grains are from the Caoliang. In addition to the Caoliang, there is also white grain, which is supplied by Suzhou, Songjiang, Changzhou, Jiaxing and Huzhou. The annual amount is 214,000 shi, all of which are white-cooked japonica and glutinous rice produced locally. So much food was transported through canals.”
At this point, after a short pause, he continued: "To this end, the imperial court established a governor of water transport, leading a guard army of 127,600 people in total, and 11,700 transport ships. Responsible for transporting grain from the south. With such a large scale, once there are changes, it must be handled properly."
After hearing this, Emperor Chongzhen suddenly came up with an idea for some reason: In the late Ming Dynasty, the inns were abolished across the board, and as a result, the king of Chuang Li Zicheng emerged; if water transport was abolished across the board, would there be another Chuang? Wang Liu Zicheng? It seems that some famous gangs in later generations originally came from the Caogang!
Just when he was worried about this, he immediately saw some ministers coming out to object, saying that water transportation was related to the food and clothing of millions of civilian and military households in the Ming Dynasty. If this was touched, it would be equivalent to waiting for their food and clothing source. It will cause chaos in the world. Changing water transportation to sea transportation cannot be done!
When Emperor Chongzhen heard this, he immediately frowned. Didn't he hear that he wanted to change sea transportation? If you have any difficulties, no problem, you can mention them, but more importantly, propose solutions instead of beating them to death with a stick. ah!
When he was about to be reprimanded, Zuo Maodi of Hu Ke suddenly coughed loudly, and then immediately stepped out of the queue and shouted loudly: "Your Majesty, I think this is alarmist. I live in a temple and don't know the actual situation of the people. I take it for granted. !”
Upon hearing this, the officials who had spoken against him all turned red in the face. When they really wanted to refute him, Emperor Chongzhen said to him first: "Oh, you have a different opinion, please tell me!"
In the original history, on March 14, the 13th year of Chongzhen's reign, this household secretary gave a report to Emperor Chongzhen on March 14th, explaining the four shortcomings: the people were poor, the army was weak, the ministers and workers were exhausted, and the national economy was Waste etc. Please also strictly prohibit soldiers from plagiarizing and asking for scattered rice money to help the hungry people. The original Emperor Chongzhen adopted his words and ordered that the old training in the seventy-five prefectures and counties affected by the upper disaster should be stopped at the same time. The sixty-eight prefectures and counties affected by the medium disaster should stop collecting training pay. The twenty-eight prefectures and counties affected by the lower disaster should wait until the autumn to collect pay, and then Order the prison to be cleaned up.
In this plane, because Emperor Chongzhen personally conquered the area, he put down the rebellion of bandits, and did not increase the amount of taxes and training, so he usually paid attention to the disasters in various places. Therefore, Zuo Maodi's memorial naturally disappeared, but memorials similar to those focusing on people's livelihood appeared from time to time, which made Emperor Chongzhen have a good impression of him.
Speaking of which, Zuo Maodi and Zhang Pu were in the same year, and both were Jinshi in the fourth year of Chongzhen. After that, he let his local experience go and went to Hancheng to be the county magistrate. He knew the sufferings of the people, loved and cared for the people, and led the people to repel the bandits many times and ensure the safety of Hancheng.
In October of the eighth year of Chongzhen, Zuo Maodi used the prestige he had established to negotiate repeatedly with the gentry in the county and decided to re-measure the land in the county and equalize the land tax, completely changing the current situation of Hancheng people losing money and food. . It turned out that Emperor Chongzhen heard about Zuo Maodi's political achievements in Hancheng and felt that this person was useful, so he transferred him to the capital to serve as a household officer.
However, it was obviously impossible for the original Emperor Chongzhen to popularize Zuo Maodi's method based on his ability. As a result, Zuo Maodi basically has no use.
After crossing the border, Emperor Chongzhen had to deal with important matters first, which was to expel the Manchu and Qing troops in the pass and build captives. Then the bandits started again, so he had no choice but to immediately lead his troops and conquer the capital in person. After he came back, he found that the influence of the Fushe was so great that it had already affected the inner palace. For this reason, he was busy drawing out the firepower and planning for the south of the Yangtze River, killing two birds with one stone, dismantling the Fushe and cracking down on official corruption at the same time.
Next, he took a breath and continued to use Zuo Maodi. On the other side of the Yangtze River, Zhang Pu charged into the battle and lit the first fire, which was a severe shock to the corrupt officials in the officialdom.
Next, whether it is checking the quota of officials' exemptions or exemptions or calling for payment of arrears, it will be the key work of the court in the next few years. And if you want to do this, it is imperative to measure the land nationwide and re-verify the land situation. At this time, Zuo Maodi's experience in Hancheng can be used.
In fact, before, when Emperor Chongzhen had some concerns, he summoned Zuo Maodi and learned about his experience in Hancheng in detail.
Zuo Maodi naturally knew everything about this and said it endlessly.
He originally promulgated the "Instructions on the Law of Uniform Land" in Hancheng and formulated a rigorous "Three-Fan Qingzhang Law".
That is, each district will clear out the number of acres of land, make a "Fish Scale Book" and report it to the county.
Then Zuo Maodi led his people to attack each other one by one, and finally the whole county returned to each other within 28 miles.
After the marriage, they allowed each other to report. If there were any reports, Zuo Maodi would personally take people to measure them. Those who deliberately "conceal leaks", "accept bribes" and "force unfairly" will be "convicted in accordance with the law and will never break their promises."
Even in order to prevent anyone from offering bribes, Zuo Maodi ordered all officials and government officials to "bring rations and buy food wherever you go in villages and towns. No place is allowed to set up tents to hold wedding ceremonies, and no rice or tea is prepared for tea."
It is through these measures that Zuo Maodi accurately grasped the amount of land in the county and achieved the goal of "if there is land, there is food, and if there is no land, there is no food." It no longer appears that real landlords do not pay taxes, but landless farmers have to. Responsible for tax inequities across the county.
Even the "Fish Scale Book" compiled under the leadership of Zuo Maodi was used to manage riverbank beaches, solving the problem of land submerged by rivers and no land for farming, and the problem of land without farming after the river receded and still having to pay taxes.
Of course, all of this is based on the prestige he has established since arriving in Hancheng by serving the people wholeheartedly, fighting against bandits, and defending Hancheng.
In the original history, there were ten temples for outstanding celebrities in Hancheng, two of which were Zuo Maodi, namely Zuogong Temple and Luoshi Temple. He is one of them again, which shows Zuo Maodi's lofty status in the hearts of Hancheng people.
In fact, not only in Hancheng, Zuo Maodi was known as Wen Tianxiang in the late Ming Dynasty in the original history. He was one of the truly promising and upright officials in the late Ming Dynasty, which was very rare.
Although Emperor Chongzhen didn't know so many details, he naturally took it very seriously when he stood up and spoke, and listened attentively to what he said.
