Chapter 437 436 The Opportunity to Send Yan Shifan Away

The Zhejiang battle report was sent to the capital, but it did not get the jubilation that Hu Zongxian had expected.

In recent years, such victory documents have been sent every year, but the Japanese pirates still appeared on time in coastal prefectures and counties to plunder the next year.

This is also the reason why the Beijing officials' attitude towards Hu Zongxian has deteriorated. He reported victory and killed countless enemies, but the Japanese pirates came again the next year. What does this mean?

It is obvious that Hu Zongxian also made the same mistake as the generals in the border towns and falsely reported his military exploits.

The officials below all thought so, not to mention the people above, who had more channels to obtain information. Even if they knew that the Taizhou battle had won nine battles and nine victories, they did not have to wait until the end of the year. The Japanese pirates would come as scheduled in September and October.

The cabinet and Emperor Jiajing's approval also reflected the attitude of the superiors. Let the Ministry of War check the merits, and it would be done.

However, Yan Song still asked his son to write to Hu Zongxian who was far away.

Regardless of whether the Japanese pirates are to be wiped out, the key point of your majesty's attention is to quickly wipe out the rebels in Fujian.

With the arrival of Yunnan copper materials, although some of them were taken away by the inner court, there was still money to make up for the salaries owed to officials before, and the letters sent by the Ministry of Revenue to various places to raise money were also responded to.

Yan Maoqing, the Chief Censor of the Salt Law, reported that the salt tax in Liangzhe is 440,000 jin. Now the regular tax is stagnant and private sales are rampant. The reason is that the jin is not available and the jin has been waiting for a long time. The one regular and one surplus is the common practice in Lianghuai, Changlu and Shandong. In the old days, the small salt jin in Zhejiang was 300 jin, and the large salt jin was 400 jin recently. The high price of the package is not willing to sell. Now it is appropriate to divide the regular and surplus into two packages, each with 280 jin as the rate to collect the surplus salt profit. The price of each jin is 3.5 qian in Hangzhou.

Yan Maoqing, whose courtesy name is Jingqing, was from Fengcheng, Jiangxi. He was a Jinshi in the 20th year of Jiajing. He was promoted from a messenger to a censor and then to the chief censor.

It is rumored in later generations that Yan Maoqing attached himself to Yan Song and was appointed as the chief salt administrator of Liangzhe, Lianghuai, Changlu and Hedong Salt Transport Offices. He was a famous corrupt official in Jiajing Dynasty.

This memorial was also Yan Maoqing's intention to adjust the salt law system in Liangzhe and restrict salt packages and local salt prices in order to combat private salt.

The cabinet and Emperor Jiajing both agreed to this.

However, the court had different attitudes towards Yan Maoqing's memorial, but Wei Guangde was somewhat helpless about Prince Yu's attitude.

Perhaps influenced by official rumors, it seemed that Yan Maoqing was a member of the Yan Party, and the so-called salt law reform was just to gain greater benefits.

"Your Highness, the court does not use people based on whether they are honest or corrupt, but on the results."

One day, when Prince Yu talked about the salt law adjusted by Yan Maoqing, he couldn't help but complain that this reform might increase the salt expenditure of the local people in Zhejiang and Nanzhili, and Wei Guangde couldn't help but say.

"What's the price of salt in the salt field? What price did he set?"

Prince Yu was not being unreasonable. The price of salt set by Yan Maoqing this time was indeed higher than the previous salt price, which seemed to increase the burden on the people.

However, the salt administration was the most profitable industry in the Ming Dynasty. Wei Guangde had the idea of ​​getting into it, but now, the original dream is long gone. Now he just wants to try his luck as a cabinet minister.

When awake, he holds the power of the world, and when drunk, he lies on the lap of a beauty.

Wei Guangde just smiled, "Your Highness saw the salt price reported by the officials at the time, but can the people really buy salt with that little silver?"

"What do you mean? Do they dare to deceive the emperor?"

Prince Yu raised his eyebrows and asked sternly.

"The price the court knows is the price at the salt field and the price at which the salt merchants transport the salt to the local area. The local merchants have to add a price after subcontracting the salt, so the price the people pay for salt is far higher than the court's price.

Yan Maoqing's method is just to make the previously hidden things public and put them on the surface. The interests involved are complicated and difficult to explain.

But Your Highness, have you ever calculated how much the court's salt tax can increase after this method is implemented?"

Wei Guangde replied.

"What's there to say about competing with the people for profits?"

Prince Yu shook his head.

After hearing what Prince Yu said, Wei Guangde didn't know how to continue, but after thinking about it, he said something.

"Before Yan Maoqing took charge of the salt administration, the four salt transport offices in Liangzhe, Lianghuai, Changlu, and Hedong collected 600,000 taels of silver per year, and Maoqing increased it to 1 million taels."

Wei Guangde shut up after saying this, and Prince Yu did not refute.

The silver issue is undoubtedly the most important thing in the Jiajing Dynasty.

Previously, Wei Guangde said that the court's standard for employing people is not to look at moral character, but to look at results. Prince Yu knew that this was fulfilled here.

The meaning of Wei Guangde's words was nothing more than that Yan Maoqing's salt field made money and paid more money to the court, so he was naturally considered an available official.

"Well, Yan Maoqing is your fellow villager, I can understand if he speaks for you."

Finally, Prince Yu said perfunctorily.

Wei Guangde felt speechless when he heard the words. He spoke for Yan Maoqing, purely telling Prince Yu that judging whether an official is good or not and whether he can use him should be based on the interests of the court. At least within the scope of Yan Maoqing's salt field, local officials did not impeach the high salt price that caused the people to live in poverty, so they should not be criticized too much.

The common people must want to use high-quality and low-priced goods, but with the existence of government and merchants, is it possible?

In fact, as long as there is a degree, it will be appropriate.

The situation of the Ming Dynasty is similar. The system certainly has flaws, but if it really wants to make drastic reforms as some people think, I am afraid that the people will not only not support it, but will also rebel.

The system of the Ming Dynasty is actually suitable for this era, at least suitable for the early Ming Dynasty, but it was not adjusted in time after the development of people's livelihood, and failed to keep pace with the times. This is the root cause of the current problems of the Ming Dynasty.

In the early Ming Dynasty, all industries were withered, and commercial taxes really could not collect much money. The finances depended entirely on agriculture, so Zhu Yuanzhang was right to emphasize agriculture.

But now, the imperial court has become bloated, but its finances still rely on agricultural support. Industry and commerce that were not profitable before are now prosperous and have become the most profitable industries, but they have not shared the burden borne by farmers at all. This time it is a problem The crux of the matter.

Refining troops and streamlining administration is easy to implement but difficult to implement, so we can only expand financial resources and work hard on industry and commerce.

In later generations, finance was entirely supported by industry and commerce, and agriculture not only did not bear taxes but also received subsidies.

Wei Guangde knew this but couldn't explain it. Because of the limitations of the times, today's industry and commerce are far from meeting those conditions, even in another two hundred years. It is useless to say more.

However, Wei Guangde still had to respond to what King Yu just said, otherwise it would be bad if he mistook him for a township party.

"Your Highness, my evaluation of Yan Maoqing is only based on his political performance in charge of the salt farm, not because he is from Jiangxi."

Wei Guangde argued.

"Well, I understand, but when he won the salt field, the chief assistant should have considered his identity as a Fengcheng native."

King Yu sighed and said: "Actually, I understand that, the minister below is not like this. Naturally, my fellow countrymen have to take care of him. At least Yan Maoqing has made great achievements in state affairs. As for his character, let's not talk about it."

After joining the salt administration, no one would get rich. Wei Guangde understood that and did not want to continue to dwell on this.

If King Yu really wants to find upright officials to fill the court, he is afraid that only new recruits will be left in the officialdom, because they have not had time to be greedy.

Well, even Qingshui Yamen can make some money from office expenses. Wei Guangde knew this when he was in Hanlin Academy, but he didn't bother to do it with the little money.

The capital has always been the capital, and every day it was sent to the capital like water from various places. The situation in various places in the Ming Dynasty was also known to the upper echelons of the imperial court in this way.

Only two days after this incident, another memorial from Zhang Yuanchong, the censor of the governor of Jiangxi Province, was sent, causing the somewhat stable officialdom to start turbulent again, with undercurrents surging.

Zhang Yuanchong, the censor of the governor of Jiangxi Province, reported that from December last year to the leap month of this year, bandits from Fujian and Guangzhou broke into Jiangxi from Guangze, Ninghua and other places, peeked into Xincheng and Guangchang, and looted Wan'an and Taihe. Please tell me to the south. Ganjunmen assisted in the suppression.

Li Tinglong, the censor of the Fujian patrol, also reported that the bandits Lu Shangsi, Li Zhanchun and others, together with the remaining Japanese in Fuxing and Zhangquan, went out to plunder. From the north of Jianning to the south of Funing, there were no robbers.

Zhang Yuanchong's memorial mentioned for the first time that Zhang Lian's rebel forces had begun to invade Jiangxi. Before, they only contacted local people to cause rebellion, but now they have sent troops into Jiangxi to plunder.

Li Tinglong, the censor of Fujian, reported directly that Jianning and Beifu had become gathering places for thieves, and they also collaborated with Japanese pirates to plunder everywhere.

Just now, Hu Zongxian reported that Fujian and Zhejiang had defeated the Japanese pirates. The back-foot censor reported that the bandits were colluding with the remaining Japanese. This was undoubtedly a slap in the face to Hu Zongxian. The verification process of the Ministry of War was also directly affected by a note from Xiyuan. Stop.

For more than ten days, Jinyiwei quickly checked the reports from Zhang Yuanchong and Li Tinglong. Naturally, Jinyiwei was still conducting the investigation at various police stations, and the news was quickly passed back.

At this time, Emperor Jiajing would not believe the reports from the officials below. He only trusted the reports from Jin Yiwei.

Later, Wei Guangde and others got the news at Prince Yu's Mansion. Xiyuan issued several imperial edicts in succession, instructing the Minister of War, Governor Hu Zongxian, Liu Tao, the censor of Fujian, Yang Yizhi of Nangan, and Zhang Nie of Guangxi and Guangxi to pacify Zhang Lian's rebels and issued a decree. The Ministry of War decided to report that the bandits were rampant and caused harm to the three provinces. They should blame all ministers. Since they were too lazy to devise strategies to eliminate them, they were ordered to be punished and killed. If things went wrong again, the censor would name them and take part in the serious punishment.

When the news spread, the officials in the capital talked a lot, and they all said that it was fortunate that no commendation had been issued yet, otherwise the court would have lost all face by praising him first and then issuing instructions.

However, before the officials in the capital could see the fun, the capital was also in trouble.

Of course, this joke is not funny at all.

Zha Bingyi, whose courtesy name is Xingfu and nickname is Jinchuan, was born in Haining County, Hangzhou Prefecture, Zhejiang Province. He was a Jinshi in the 17th year of Jiajing's reign, and became a doctor in Yazhong and Yin of Shuntian Prefecture.

After entering the court for more than 20 years, reaching the third rank was actually a good official career, but such an official suddenly died in office.

According to the imperial doctor, he died of illness due to exposure to heat.

However, everyone familiar with the matter knows that Mr. Zha Bingyi was not in good health before. He has not been doing much in the past two years as Taipu Temple Minister. I don’t know what he thought, but he actually used various tricks to win the official position of Shuntian Prefecture Yin. .

Then the officials reported him, and the emperor approved him. He died five days after taking office.

After hearing this news, King Yu couldn't help but get angry, "How did the Ministry of Personnel do it? Didn't they first find out whether those people were in good health before arranging official positions?"

In King Yu's view, if you are not in good health, you should recuperate. Why bother occupying an official position and die in an official position? It seems that the court does not care about officials.

"This is strange."

However, Yin Shizhen shook his head and said to King Yu: "I know this, Mr. Zha. In the 26th year of Jiajing, Wang Gao, the Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue, was imprisoned. Zha Bingyi and his colleague Li Rujin came to rescue him and impeached Zhang Lu, the deputy envoy to the Huaihe River, for bribery. Taichang Shaoqing Yan Shifan and others stole their father's power and took bribes.

He was punished for this at first, and he was not from the same family as the Yan family, but Ouyang Shangshu promoted him. "

The Yin of Shuntian Prefecture is of the third rank, but the Minister of Taipusi is of the third rank, and in terms of authority, the Yin of Shuntian Prefecture is much larger. No matter how you look at this, you find this strange.

"Could it be"

Wei Guangde didn't think anything was wrong at first, but after Yin Shizhen said that, he felt something was wrong. Suddenly he thought of something and couldn't help but speak.

"What is it? Just say it."

Yin Shizhen glanced at Wei Guangde and asked directly.

"I just guessed that they were planning to attack the Imperial Household Department. After all, the horse market and Changyingku are all profitable places."

Wei Guangde thought about it and said what he had just thought of.

The horse market was naturally the policy that the Ming Dynasty had been implementing since its founding, trading with neighboring countries to obtain war horses.

At first, Zhu Yuanzhang spent a lot of effort to build a horse farm, hoping to train a large number of war horses himself, and even started raising official horses by the people. The government assigned the task of raising official horses to each household and gave certain preferential conditions in exchange. It seemed that the business was not a loss, but in the end, both officials and civilians were exhausted and could not make a living.

Later, this showdown task directly became a kind of tax and service. The local government collected silver for fodder and went directly to the Imperial Household Department, and the Imperial Household Department used the silver to buy fodder and raise horses.

This money is one of the main incomes of Changyingku.

However, the horse market business mentioned by Wei Guangde is another matter.

By purchasing horses from the horse market, corrupt officials will sell the horses that meet the standards of war horses and have good quality to the market to earn a lot of money, and send the weak and old horses with low quality to the border towns as war horses.

"This is just a guess, and it can't be accurate. We can only know by looking at who will replace the Minister of the Imperial Household Department."

Wei Guangde hurriedly explained that he certainly didn't know whether there were these twists and turns, so he made it clear to avoid misunderstandings.

"Give Master Gao a message to keep an eye on this matter."

Prince Yu nodded, but still instructed Li Fang.

When Wei Guangde left Prince Yu's Mansion and went home, he received a message from his family on the way that the wife of Prime Minister Yan Song, Ouyang, had died.

Hearing this news, Wei Guangde was a little sad and a little relieved.

Sadness, because Wei Guangde still had to go to Yan's house during festivals. Although Yan Shifan was critical of him, Yan Song and his wife Ouyang were still quite nice to him.

Fortunately, he suddenly felt as if the burden on his shoulders was lightened, because Yan Shifan had to mourn.

The death of Yan Song's wife naturally had no impact on him, but it was different for Yan Shifan, as his son. According to the rules, he had to carry the coffin back to his hometown to mourn for 27 months.

He went to Yan's house instead, which was also reasonable.

The next day, Emperor Jiajing sent an order to Xu Jie, the second assistant, "I heard that Song's wife was indeed unable to get up. There are not many couples who are 80 years old. You should show the ministers of etiquette to discuss the relief regulations, and do not follow the example in the future."

Yuan Wei was of course different from Wu Shan. After Xu Jie came, he proposed, "We should follow the precedent and be generous."

Then the two discussed a general plan and Xu Jie sent it to the West Garden.