prosperous age

Chapter 812 901 Major Cases

Early the next morning, Gao Gong took Liang Menglong's memorial to the Qianqing Palace.

After discussing the attitude with Zhang Juzheng yesterday, he drafted the vote, but instead of delivering the memorial to the Supervisor of Ceremonies, he planned to hand it to Emperor Longqing in person today for his inspection.

After waiting outside the Qianqing Palace for a while, a young eunuch came out to welcome him in and saw Emperor Longqing.

After saluting, Gao Gong directly handed over Liang Menglong's memorial.

The eunuch on duty today was Chen Ju. He handed over the memorial presented by Gao Gong to Emperor Longqing and stepped aside.

Emperor Longqing took the memorial at this time and looked through it carefully until he finally saw the cabinet draft, and couldn't help but murmured.

"Sea transport has been abandoned for a long time and it is difficult to recover suddenly. Please order the Cao Department to allocate grain from Huaihe River to Tianjin, and the Ministry of Industry will provide silver to fund seagoing ships."

Emperor Longqing thought for a long time, looked at Gao Gong, and asked: "Master Gao, does the cabinet think Liang Menglong's memorial is feasible?"

"Your Majesty, in recent years the Yellow River has been flooded year after year, causing grain to be blocked in the Huai'an area and cannot be stored in the area. The grain stored in the Tongzhou warehouse is only enough to feed the capital for two years.

Governor Liang suggested that the canal ship sail from Huai'an to Tianjin, bypassing Shandong, and this route is mostly visited by private merchant ships, so it should be considered safe.

However, considering that the canal ships have not sailed across the ocean for a long time, Mr. Zhang and I agreed that a portion of next year’s canal grain could be allocated to travel by sea to confirm the risks of the sea route.

Once successful, a fleet of ships will be fixed to take this route every year to transport grain northward.

Regardless of whether the Yellow River is flooded or not, the imperial court must control this channel to prepare for unexpected events. "

Gao Gong bowed and replied.

"Canal flooding is a big problem, and transshipment by land would be too expensive."

After listening to Gao Gong's words, Emperor Longqing nodded slightly, then picked up his ink pen and wrote the word "ke" in front of Liang Menglong's memorial.

After completing the approval, Emperor Longqing immediately handed the memorial to Chen Ju, "Take the seal of the Supervisor of Ceremonies, and then send it to the cabinet immediately."

After Chen Ju took the memorandum and left the hall, Emperor Longqing said to Gao Gong: "Master Gao, the matters discussed in this document will probably have to be debated by the Ministry of Revenue and the Caosi Bureau for a long time, so let Master Gao handle it together.

In the past two years, floods in the Yellow River have prevented grain from reaching Beijing on time, and I am always worried. Liang Menglong has done a good job, and the cabinet's plan to preserve this sea route for a long time is also right.

We cannot prevent grain from being transported to the north just because of the floods of the Yellow River. In the future, if we master this sea route, grain will no longer be affected by the floods of the Yellow River, which is a great benefit. "

"This is your Majesty's great blessing. If this happens, water transportation will be relieved of a big burden, and the government's administration will be easier."

Gao Gong still bowed to answer.

"I remember that the imperial court had a lot of objections because of the shipping matter. This time the Shandong Memorial was approved, and I don't know if there will be an uproar in the outer court."

Although Liang Menglong's memorial had been approved, Emperor Longqing was no longer as ignorant as when he first ascended to Dabao. He already knew that many people in the court should oppose this proposal, so he reminded Gao Gong.

"Your Majesty, please rest assured. I believe that Liang Menglong is dedicated to serving the country and has no other selfish motives. I will naturally work for him in the court and ensure that this matter can be implemented smoothly."

Gao Gong understood Emperor Longqing's concerns and immediately assured him.

Now that his prestige in the DPRK is getting stronger, he is confident that as long as it is a policy that he wants to forcibly promote, even if the bureaucrats below have second thoughts, they can only hold their noses and admit it, and they will never dare to make small moves secretly.

Just kidding, a lot of corrupt officials fell under his hands in this year.

And in the imperial court, there were a few clean ones.

As long as anyone dares to blatantly hinder this matter, Gao Gong doesn't mind catching two of them and sacrificing them.

He is different from Xu Jie. Xu Jie is more tolerant to his subordinates. He has become very skilled in using the power of the Ministry of Personnel to promote and demote officials, and directly take down those who have criminal evidence.

Thinking of Xu Jie, Gao Gong couldn't help but think of a fraud case reported by his subordinates not long ago.

In the fifth year of Longqing's reign, a businessman named Gu Shao from Huating came to the capital, intending to report the Xu family for defrauding and delaying the transportation of pigment silver in the 43rd year of Jiajing, and Shen Yuanheng's petition to sue the Xu family for allegedly embezzling money and food. .

At that time, because Xu Jie had replaced Yan Song as the chief minister of the cabinet, he had great power and prestige, so the Xu family had already controlled the Songjiang Mansion's money, and the Xu family's private treasury had become the Songjiang Mansion's treasury.

The fiscal and tax revenue from the land of a government is not put into the government treasury, but is first sent to the Xu family for safekeeping, and will be unloaded from the Xu family warehouse when it is shipped to the capital.

These silver and copper coins entered the Xu family. Although the quantity did not change when they were taken out again, they were mixed with many impurities, and the fine copper coins became private money.

In fact, the officials all knew the inside story, but no one dared to take care of it.

Therefore, in later generations, it was rumored that when Xu Jie was in power, nearly half of Songjiang's tax revenue went into his own pocket, and he eventually became a wealthy party.

However, Xu Jie played a clever trick here, counting seven baht of silver as one tael of silver, and took the difference himself. "Sinong can't tell the difference."

Gu Shao and Shen Yuanheng ran to the capital without permission. When the Xu family learned about it, they sent their servant Sun Wu to sneak into the capital to dissuade Gu Shao and others.

And because Xu Jie was investigated by Hai Rui after he became an official, some of the Xu family's nephews had the idea of ​​resurrecting Xu Jie.

In their opinion, as long as the patriarch Xu Jie still serves as the chief minister, no officials in the Ming Dynasty would dare to investigate their Xu family.

Sun Wu met Sun Kehong, a fellow from Huating, in Xuzhou. At this time, he was serving in the Yanyun Yamen and was also a member of the government.

Taking advantage of the Xu family's influence, Sun Wu was familiar with most of the people from Huating, so he promised him that he could manage Li Chunfang, the chief assistant, and promote Sun Kehong to the position of salt transport envoy to Hedong.

Sun Kehong believed it, so he wrote a ticket, two gift cards and two hundred taels of silver and handed them to Sun Wu, asking him to help him carry out activities in the capital.

When Sun Wu arrived in Beijing, he squandered fifty taels of money defrauded from Sun Kehong.

Xu Tang and others saw him suspicious and learned that he had defrauded Sun Kehong, so they took some silver from Sun Wu.

During this period, Sun Wu and Gu Shao talked repeatedly, promised two thousand taels of silver, and took back Shen Yuanheng's complaint.

Later, Sun Wu was arrested by the Zhongcheng Military and Horse Division. Sun Kehong was not only imprisoned, but also implicated the Xu family's cloth shop and managers in the capital.

In order to avoid taxes and servitude, Zhu Tang and others who ran these cloth shops mortgaged their land to Xu Jie's sons, and used the funds to jointly run the cloth cloth business with the Xu Mansion.

After Gao Gong learned from his subordinates that the Xu family used deceitful mailings and other methods to evade taxes and levies, he contacted the officials Han Ji, Song Zhihan and others to conduct a strict investigation, intending to use this matter to accuse the Xu family of the real purpose of these publishing houses was to "drill and assassinate people." Manage it and try to put it to use."

It is a major moral stain for an official to seek reinstatement after serving in office. All that can be seen is "greed for power."

Gao Gong wanted to make this matter gradually bigger and ruin Xu Jie's reputation in the officialdom, which was relatively good, although his recovery was not glorious.

After arranging for Sun Kehong, Sun Wu, Gu Shao, etc., Gao Gong planned to contact Cai Guoxi, the deputy military envoy of Su Song who had been humiliated by the Xu family's slaves, to start enlarging Sun Kehong's prison.

Because at this time, Gao Gong already knew the way the Xu family made their fortune in Songjiang, which was to embezzle tax money and use the method of squandering wealth.

"Sinong can't tell the difference", is it true that he can't tell the difference, or is he afraid of the power of the powerful people in the dynasty and dare not tell the difference.

Thinking of this, Gao Gong looked at Emperor Longqing with a look in his eyes that was hesitant to speak.

Emperor Longqing was originally very excited to find a solution to the grain transportation problem for the court, but he saw Gao Gong's expression was wrong.

The two masters and apprentices have been together for many years, and naturally they quickly understood the meaning in each other's eyes, and then stepped back. “Master Gao, do you have something to say?”

After everyone went down, Emperor Longqing asked.

"Your Majesty, the Zhongcheng Military and Horse Department captured a criminal a few days ago. It is said that he was intercepting someone who wanted to go to Beijing to sue the local tycoon."

Gao Gong said.

"Oh? A powerful local?"

Emperor Longqing frowned slightly when he heard this. When he was Yu Zhuan, he had heard that in places far away from the emperor, the powerful local emperor was the local emperor, who could speak better than he, the emperor in the Forbidden City.

“One of the charges indicted is embezzlement of national property.”

Gao Gong spoke again.

Hearing that someone was embezzling national wealth, Emperor Longqing frowned again, and then asked: "How to embezzle?"

Therefore, Gao Gong told what he knew about the fact that the Xu Jie family withheld local taxes and collected them directly into the private treasury. When it was necessary to liberate the capital, they took it out of the private treasury and handed it over to the escorting officers and soldiers.

At first, Emperor Longqing was still very angry, but soon he could not help but relax his brows when he heard that all the tax money was being withdrawn and handed over to the escorting officers and soldiers.

The taxes are there, whether they are put into the government treasury or private treasury, it actually doesn't matter.

This was the view of Emperor Longqing. What he guessed at this time was that this powerful man was using government taxes to do loan business and using money to make money for himself.

However, calculated this way, there was no loss of court taxes, and it was not a serious crime.

However, when Gao Gong reported that the transferred taxes were insufficient and were transported directly to Taicang, the Ministry of Household Affairs, none of the officials along the way could recognize them, and he couldn't help but become angry again.

There's nothing wrong with it, but you embezzling national wealth in this way is something he can't bear.

"Who is it? You are so bold that even the local officials and the head of the household department dare not ask about it?"

Emperor Longqing has vaguely realized that this matter is not simple. The person behind it must be a high-ranking and powerful person in the court, otherwise his hand would not be able to stretch so long and have such a great influence.

"Songjiang Prefecture, Huating County, Mr. Xu Jiexuge."

Gao Gong finally spit out the name slowly from his mouth.

"How could it be him?"

Emperor Longqing was a little disbelieving when he heard about the initiator.

Xu Jie and Gao Gong had an old grudge, which he knew very well. When he heard such an unsavory thing from Gao Gong's mouth, the first thing he did was not to be angry, but to think about the authenticity of the matter.

I have to say that joining the cabinet really puts a protective film on civilian officials.

Even if the emperor wants to punish his ministers, he needs to think twice before doing so.

"All the witnesses and physical evidence are in Shuntian Mansion. As for Songjiang, send someone to investigate and find out."

Gao Gong said in a low voice, "The matter is so big that I don't dare to take charge of it, so I have temporarily blocked the news and prevented the case from involving the Xu family. I am just tracing the people involved in the case who blocked the accuser in the capital."

In ancient times, the court did not encourage ordinary people to report officials.

This is mainly because in ancient times, the patriarchal system and blood relationships were relied upon to maintain order. "People suing officials" was equivalent to "son killing father", otherwise local officials were called "parent officials".

During the Zhu Yuanzhang period in the early Ming Dynasty, in order to clarify the administration of officials, the conditions for "people to complain to officials" were relaxed.

If you encounter an official who is corrupt and bends the law, the people can submit a complaint to the "supervisory censor". After receiving the complaint, the censor will send the case back to the higher-level government where the "accused official" belongs, or to the supervisory department at the same level, such as The case will be heard by the Procuratorate.

In addition, during the Hongwu period, it was also stipulated that ordinary people could go directly to Beijing to deliver petitions, and officials could not stop them, otherwise they would be killed without mercy.

But by the middle and late Ming Dynasty, this article was basically invalidated.

Although it has actually been invalidated, after all, the imperial court has not issued an explicit decree to abolish it, so it is still valid in principle.

The Xu Mansion sent people to stop and persuade people to come to Beijing to complain. Strictly speaking, it was a crime, not to mention that the case was actually very serious.

"What are you going to do, Master Gao?"

Emperor Longqing came to his senses, and let go of the authenticity of Gao Gong's words. He listened to Gao Gong's plan before making any calculations.

"I thought that I could film the officials of Songjiang Prefecture to investigate the matter first. If it is true, I will naturally deal with the moth that has embezzled the national wealth and recover the money from the imperial court."

Gao Gong said.

"Let me check it first, and then let me know the results."

Emperor Longqing did not authorize Gao Gong to handle the case involving a former chief minister, but only asked him to send people to investigate.

After Gao Gong left, Emperor Longqing immediately ordered people to recruit Zhu Xixiao, the commander of the Jinyi Guards.

"The arrest of people by the Central City Military and Horse Department is said to involve deception and blocking people from the local government who came to Beijing to complain. Did you, the Jinyi Guards, know about it?"

When Zhu Xixiao entered the Qianqing Palace, Emperor Longqing immediately questioned him.

This matter was actually discovered by Han Ji. He happened to be the censor patrolling the city at the time. He noticed that someone was sneaking around and felt that this person looked familiar. He seemed to be a servant of the Xu family, so he sent someone to arrest him for interrogation.

Through interrogation, they discovered many arrangements of the Xu family in the capital, including that Xu Jie's sons, Xu Fan and Xu Kun, once sent people to spend 30,000 taels of silver to build a private residence in the capital, and also set up shops in the capital while doing business. , while serving as eyes and ears to observe the movements of the court.

Although the person was detained in the Shuntian Mansion Prison, he was not brought to court, so the Shuntian Mansion actually didn't know about it.

Although Jin Yiwei claims to know everything, there is no way he can really do that.

What's more, today's Jinyiwei has long lost its previous scale. Perhaps when Lu Bing was here, Jinyiwei monitored each yamen more closely, but it is no longer what it used to be.

When Zhu Xixiao heard Emperor Longqing's questions, he was naturally confused.

But it doesn't matter, there are already clues. When Zhu Xixiao left Qianqing Palace, he already had one more errand on his shoulders, which was to investigate whether the Xu family's fortune in Songjiang Prefecture was really the result of embezzlement of taxes.

This is a shocking thing.

Emperor Longqing asked Gao Gong to send people to investigate closely, and also sent Jin Yiwei to follow up, just to ensure that nothing went wrong.

However, when Zhu Xixiao left, Emperor Longqing actually had an idea in his mind. Regardless of whether the matter was true or false, he could not use this to deal with Xu Jie, and he had to find ways to cover up the matter.

Just kidding, if everyone in the court knew about it, and those people secretly joined forces to follow suit, the Ming court would not be able to live longer.

(End of this chapter)