Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 108
"boom!"

On November [-]th of the first year of Taichang, Zishi...

When Li Juren, who was sleeping soundly, heard the sound of kicking the door, he hurriedly pushed away the maidservant next to him. Just as he wanted to get up, he felt something cold against his neck.

"Li Juren, please come with us."

A cold voice came, and when Li Juren came back to his senses, he only saw Jin Yiwei in crimson robes in front of the bed.

At this moment, Li Juren's whole body was cold, and he felt powerless in his hands and feet.

"It seems that you won't be able to leave, then..." Shen Lian turned to look at others and said:

"Invite Li Juren to the Baihu Office!"

"Yes!" The Jin Yiwei next to him responded, and then lifted Li Juren up. Even in the cold winter, Shen Lian still asked someone to carry Li Juren, who was only wearing a middle coat, to the Baihu House.

It wasn't until Li Juren was pushed into the Baihu Depot that he realized it, but he soon discovered that the prison in the Baihu Depot was already full of familiar faces.

They all wore middle clothes, not even a thick piece of clothing.

Fortunately, the repairs by Baihu are okay, there is no air leakage, otherwise, if they are locked inside for one night, at least one-third of them will die.

Facing this kind of encounter, Li Ju sat aside disheartened, and other people who were close to Li Juren in the past also kept their mouths shut.

After yesterday's letter from Nanjing, they knew that they had all become abandoned sons of Nanjing officials to protect themselves.

It's okay if the family property is gone. As long as they don't recruit out and retain the strength of Nanjing, their relatives can still get shelter, and the family may make a comeback in the future.

Right now, nothing can be said, nothing can be recruited.

Everyone sitting here has fame and fame, thinking that Jin Yiwei would not dare to torture them severely.

With this thought in mind, everyone leaned against the wall and waited quietly to die.

Just at the door of Baihusuo, Lu Wenzhao drank a cup of ginger tea, looked at the wind and snow in front of him, and said to Shen Lian:
"This group of guys probably won't say anything. If Wanzai doesn't speak, we don't have the qualifications to torture them."

"But don't worry about these things. The most important thing right now is to do well what His Royal Highness told you."

What Lu Wenzhao was referring to was ransacking the house and checking the fields. Shen Lian kept this in mind, so he wrote:
"Don't worry, my lord. Right now, we only need to find out the officials involved, and then send people out to measure the acres."

"Officials, subordinates, these have to be investigated clearly." When Lu Wenzhao said this, he paused, took a deep look at Shen Lian and said:

"Speaking of Shen Lian, you and I are old acquaintances, why don't you stay and help me."

The gang that Lu Wenzhao talked about must not be limited to this Huaibei Great Hunger. According to the personality of others, they might have agreed directly for the sake of prosperity, but Shen Lian did not.

"My lord, I still like to work with my elder brother."

"Hahahaha..." Hearing Shen Lian's words, Lu Wenzhao laughed and patted Shen Lian:

"Sure enough, I knew that your character is like this."

Even though he said that, Lu Wenzhao still felt a little regretful in his eyes.

He continued to drink tea, and he didn't care about the wealthy households, officials, and subordinates who were arrested in the Baihusuo, just waiting quietly.

After an hour, a Jinyiwei Qianhu came from a distance, stepped forward and said:
"My lord, all the criminal officials, subordinate officials, gentry, and grain merchants in Pizhou have all been arrested, a total of [-] people."

"Okay." Lu Wenzhao nodded slightly and said:
"Since they've all been arrested and brought to justice, I'll ask the brothers to keep watch. When the news comes from Huai'an and Xuzhou tomorrow, we'll submit it to Du Yang for handling."

Lu Wenzhao didn't want to be a villain, and more importantly, he was afraid that after being a villain, the five parties of Qi, Chu, Zhejiang, Xuan, and Kun would turn their anger on himself and his highness.

That's why, right now, he only helps arrest people, and the real villain has to be Yang Lian, a member of the Donglin Party.

So after arranging everything, he took people to rest, until the next day at [-]:[-], the names of gentry, grain merchants, and officials from Huai'an Mansion and Xuzhou were all handed over to Yang Lian.

There were six hundred and seventy-four people in total, tens of thousands of people were behind them, and there were hundreds of thousands of tenants and servants.

It is also these [-] people who have mastered more than [-]% of the wealth in Huai'an Mansion and Xuzhou. Although Jin Yiwei has not confiscated their homes, the various information written by Jin Yiwei behind their names can be seen. energy.

Yang Lian's hands kept shaking, which was a sign that he was holding back his anger, but after Lu Wenzhao's arrival, it was like adding fuel to the fire, igniting his anger.

"Yang Duge is in the middle of the matter. This is just the directory of the government and gentry, as well as the officials of the guard. It will take half a month before the Zhejiang soldiers go north."

Lu Wenzhao sat on the side, as did Zuo Guangdou, and Yang Lian suppressed his anger when he heard Lu Wenzhao's words:
"When will Qi Yuanfu arrive in Pizhou?"

"Qi Yuanfu is training soldiers in Shaoxing, so he should have received the will of Long Live today." Lu Wenzhao explained:
"They should be able to travel by water, take a boat to the north, and then divide their troops in Zhenjiang. One will go to Nanjing and the other to Pizhou."

"If we take the water route, plus the time to prepare food and grass, we should be able to reach Pizhou on November [-]."

Now it is November [-]th, that is to say, Qi Yuanfu will arrive in Pizhou in [-] days.

This speed is already very fast. If it is by land, it will take at least a month.

In this regard, Yang Lian did not urge Qi Yuanfu, but tightened the list in his hand and said:
"When Boqin comes, I will interrogate everyone together with Boqin. Afterwards, Jin Yiwei ransacked the houses of the convicted people, filled the food with government food for disaster relief, and went south to buy food with money, and all the land was included..."

"Yang Du is in progress." Lu Wenzhao interrupted suddenly:
"I'm really sorry, Wansui and His Highness have a decree, the food relief, the silver will be used as internal funds, and the fields will be returned to the Imperial Horse Supervisor, and will be distributed to the local people and refugees for cultivation, and the Imperial Horse Supervisor will be divided seven to three."

"..." Wen Yan and Yang Lian remained silent.

He was wondering if he wanted to dismiss Zhu Youjian's idea, and Zuo Guangdou next to him was also paying attention to his old friend.

Based on his knowledge of Yang Lian's character, Yang Lian would get angry in the next second.

But accidents always come quickly, Yang Lian was not as angry as Zuo Guangdou expected, but said calmly:
"The old man understands. If this is the case, then follow what His Highness Fifth and Long Live said."

"Wen Ru..." Zuo Guangdou frowned slightly, and whispered Yang Lian's name.

You must know that these more than [-] households involved millions of acres of arable land. Even if the Yumajian got the arable land, they still had to pay the land tax to the local government.

However, the Tian Fu of the Yumajian does not include Liaoxiang, which means that Liaoxiang in Huaibei and Xuzhou will pay less than a hundred thousand taels of silver in the future.

Not only that, but the burden on the people will not be reduced, which is harming the people in disguise.

However, Lu Wenzhao understood what Zuo Guangdou meant, and took the initiative to explain:
"Please don't worry about Zuoqian Capital Censor. After all the fields are merged into the Yumajian, the Yumajian will be divided into [-]% and [-]% among the common people.

"In addition, all the fields investigated will be paid the land tax and Liao Xiang's tax. These land taxes are delivered by the Yumajian with money and grain."

As soon as Lu Wenzhao explained, he showed that this was an act of helping the people, not harming them.

Giving land to the people, and then only collecting [-]% of the grain production each year, and finally helping to pay taxes, this is simply high pressure in the eyes of later generations.

But in this era when the landlords accounted for [-]% and the common people accounted for [-]%, this is already an excellent benevolent government.

"But even so, with millions of acres of land involved, this matter is not something that the old man and Yang can decide." Zuo Guangdou replied.

Indeed, if millions of acres of arable land were all under the management of the Yumajian, then the Yumajian would be the third department that officially controlled the most acres of land besides the Taipusi and the Weisuo.

It's normal that Zuo Guangdou didn't dare to agree. As for why Yang Lian agreed, it was because Yang Lian knew Zhu Youjian's thoughts.

To put it bluntly, what Zhu Youjian thought was very simple, that is, to set up a branch of the Yumajian in Nanzhili, and put a nail here. Once Nanzhili changes in the future, it can be easily taken down.

Jiangnan is the stronghold of the Kunming Party, the Xuan Party, and the Zhejiang Party. If a nail is driven here, the three parties will feel very uncomfortable.

Of course, in addition to making the three parties uncomfortable, Yang Lian's more important thing is to make Zhu Youjian disagree with the three parties.

Since Zhu Youxiao's accession to the throne, in less than two months, Zhu Youjian has done many things to influence the court by relying on Zhu Youxiao's favor.

Others may not know these things, but Yang Lian and Zhu Youjian have been staying together and know his methods very well.

Asking him to evaluate Zhu Youjian is resourceful and immature.

The former is a compliment, and the latter is not a derogation.

Many of the policies proposed by Zhu Youjian are aimed at the key points. Once he promotes them according to his ideas, it is normal for Ming Dynasty to regain its vitality.

But his problem is that his political means are too immature. At best, he is only a subordinate, or the level of a county magistrate, far from worthy of the big stage of the Ming Dynasty political center.

Of course, at his ten-year-old age, such a method is already very good.

Moreover, due to Zhu Youxiao's supplementary comments on Zhu Youjian's political methods, the two brothers cooperated quite harmoniously. It can even be said that the current situation is caused by the two brothers playing together.

If the current situation continues, and Zhu Youjian takes charge of military affairs and reforms, and Zhu Youjian takes charge of government affairs and balance, then within ten years, the revival of the Ming Dynasty will be just around the corner.

But Yang Lian also knew one thing, that is, the Donglin Party was not so united and clean.

Now he wants to help Zhu Youjian and Zhu Youxiao to stabilize their power while he is still occupying a certain position within the Donglin Party.

If one day the Donglin Party is as corrupt as Qi, Chu, Zhejiang, Xuankun and other township parties, then he will resign and return to his hometown, and go home to guard the ten acres of paddy fields in his home.

Yang Lian's thoughts are very simple, but Zuo Guangdou next to him doesn't know it.

He still insisted on his point of view, thinking that the Yumajian could not get so much arable land.

But just as he was about to continue speaking, Yang Lian kicked him cryptically, and then spoke first:

"Millions of acres of arable land are too involved. Specific matters need to be reported to the court after the Huaibei famine case, and the six ministries, the cabinet, and the six departments will discuss together."

"It's just that in order to help the people get back to life right now, I'll hand it over to the Imperial Horse Supervisor for the time being."

Yang Lian played a game, and Zuo Guangdou was kicked, knowing that his friend didn't want to interrupt him, so he kept silent, while Lu Wenzhao nodded when he saw this, and then opened a new topic:

"I will ask my subordinates to interrogate these people who are detained in the prison."

"However, will the Huaibei Great Hunger case continue?"

"Naturally!" Zuo Guangdou couldn't help but speak.

Although they are both members of the Donglin Party, Zuo Guangdou, like Yang Lian, was born in the rich peasant class, not even a small landlord.

They want to reduce the field tax because they know that the people really can't stand the field tax and various additional payments.

The other members of the Donglin Party wanted to reduce the land tax because they didn't want to pay taxes, so the reduction of the land tax could lighten their burden.

But after the land tax is reduced, the tax on the land tax needs to be filled with other things, and this thing is miscellaneous.

In fact, the burden of farmers in ancient dynasties was never on regular taxes, especially in the Ming Dynasty.

If you only look at the tax rate of the Ming Dynasty, and compare it with the tax rate of [-]-[-]% or even half in Europe, then Ming Dynasty is a very benevolent government.

But in fact, in addition to taxes and land rent, farmers in the Ming Dynasty had to bear corvee.

Especially corvée, which is compulsory labor that requires farmers to bring their own dry food for several months. Once the farming season is missed, the burden will suddenly increase.

Corvée is the biggest burden, and the second biggest burden is the "consumption" that is several times higher than the regular land tax of [-] to [-], as well as the apportionment sent by officials from all walks of life.

But even here, even if one acre of arable land yields two stones per mu, about three hundred and twenty catties of grain, and the harvest after shelling is less than two hundred catties, and the land tax plus fire consumption is only a few dozen catties Food is all, farmers can barely survive.

All kinds of miscellaneous miscellaneous items that really make farmers unable to survive.

For example, when you go to the market and encounter checkpoints, you need to pay customs duties. In addition, there are water foot money, car foot money, food money, and warehouse money, bamboo basket money, bamboo basket money, along the river gods and Buddha money, etc., all kinds of money. All kinds of things.

There are even official salt monopoly prices that are extremely high, which is also taxation in disguise.

Inside the Donglin Party, as it is now, most of them are rich peasants and small and medium landlords.

Therefore, the Donglin Party's proposal to reduce land taxes and customs duties at checkpoints is actually for their own sake, and the benefits for farmers are only incidental.

People like Zuo Guangdou, Yang Lian, and Yuan Keli are a minority within the Donglin Party, and because they are a minority, it is almost impossible for them to implement the New Deal.

Zuo Guangdou said "naturally" because he wanted to use the case of the Huaibei famine to directly overthrow the four most powerful and wealthy Zhejiang, Xuan, Kun, and Qi parties, and the remaining Chu parties to find opportunities to slowly clean up.

As long as they rely on the case of the Huaibei Great Famine and cooperate with the emperor's revised Jingcha, they can even seriously injure the four parties in this Jingcha.

At that time, the vacancies will be filled by officials from Donglin. Even if the people who come up are not clean, it is enough to support their political ideas.

Both Zuo Guangdou and Yang Lian thought so, and they also did so in history.

The tragic result is that, based on the principle that if I can’t beat you, I will join you. A group of township parties poured into the Donglin Party. In addition, most of the officials promoted by the Donglin Party’s Jingcha were also talkative. In the end, Tianqi got bored.

Without the emperor's support, the Donglin Party would only end in collapse.

Right now, relying on the imperial power to stand on his side, what Zuo Guangdou has to do is to use his status as the censor of Zuoqian Capital of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, use the Huaibei Great Famine to attract jade, and thoroughly investigate Jiangnan!
Lu Wenzhao would have no objection to this, and he even wished that these civil servants would bite them harder.

So he set his sights on Yang Lian, wondering what Yang Lian would say.

Under his gaze, Yang Lian pondered for a long time, and then said:

"In my opinion, the case should continue to be investigated, but how much can be investigated depends entirely on Lu Tongzhi."

"Please don't worry about Yang Du's incident. This incident is on me. I will find out everyone involved in the Huaibei Great Famine."

Lu Wenzhao would not let go of this opportunity to ask for credit, but the recipient of the invitation was not Yang Lian, but Zhu Youjian and Zhu Youxiao.

As many officials can be found, as many can be copied.

Leaving aside the mention of food for the time being, just the acres of land and silver can please the two above.

"Since that's the case, then Lu Tongzhi should send someone to investigate the situation in the south, and the north can be handed over to us."

Yang Lian opened his mouth, and Zuo Guangdou also nodded, but Lu Wenzhao narrowed his eyes slightly, nodded after hesitating again and again, stood up, saluted and then backed out.

But after Lu Wenzhao withdrew, Zuo Guangdou frowned and said:
"Wen Ru, do you know how big it is for you to temporarily hand over all the fields involved by officials to the Yuma Supervisor?"

"If this matter is reported back to the capital, whether it is the Xiangdang or Qingliu, you will be impeached!"

"This is the will of Long Live, and has nothing to do with the old man." Yang Lian stroked his beard, as if it was true what he said.

"Didn't you think that the matter could be covered up with a sentence of long live decree?" Zuo Guangdou got up angrily, walked left and right in the main hall, and said anxiously:
"If these fields are given to the Yumajian, then it will undoubtedly bring disaster to you."

"It's a disaster, but it's not our disaster!" Yang Lian responded with a frown and explained:

"Giving the arable land of wealthy households in Huai'an and Xuzhou to Yumajian is a nail in Nanzhili."

"No matter how the relationship between Wansui and Zhexuankun's three parties changes later, it is impossible for Emperor Shenzong and Shen Yiguan to be as harmonious as they are!"

"Just to bury a nail, temporarily hand over these millions of acres of cultivated land to the imperial horse supervision?" Zuo Guangdou stepped forward to question Yang Lian, but Yang Lian also said:

"Lu Wenzhao has conveyed the meaning of His Highness the Fifth Highness, that is, these millions of acres of arable land are no different from ordinary farmland, and they still need to pay the land tax and Liaoxiang!"

"But if we regret it later, it will be too late for us!" Zuo Guangdou was heartbroken, wishing he could beat his chest and stamp his feet.

"In the current situation, there is no good choice." Yang Lian responded coldly, but Zuo Guangdou could only sigh when he saw this:

"I hope His Highness the Fifth Highness can match what he says with deeds..."

"Naturally..." When Yang Lian heard this and nodded, his eyes also became sad.

He understood from the quarrel between Zuo Guangdou and himself that even close friends would sometimes have political disagreements, so what about within the party?
He hesitated, and while he was hesitating, Lu Wenzhao brought good news and ordered people to go to Jiangnan to investigate.

The person who went to investigate, the first to bear the brunt was Shen Lian, who had made great contributions to the Huaibei case.

He was promoted by him to be the official of the Hundred Households of Fusi, Jinyiwei South Township, and led a hundred people to Nanzhili to investigate all the people involved in the Huaibei case.

As long as Gu Dazhang from Pizhou arrives for interrogation, Lu Wenzhao will send the list of convicted persons to Shen Lian, and he can start further fishing.

The fish in the south of the Yangtze River are plump, and even if you only catch one net, it is enough to feed the court for several months...

What he, Lu Wenzhao, had to do was to sit on the boat of the Donglin Party to the other side, catch big fish while on the boat, and finally hand over the big fish to the two noblemen on the other side.

At the same time, when he was planning to catch big fish, a valiant force was practicing on the coastline of Shaoxing Prefecture, Zhejiang Province.

There are so many of them, looking from a distance, it is a vast expanse. Although they are not as big as Beibing, the bravery in their eyes has been tempered.

This is the army of the Qi family of three generations, and also the soldiers and horses trained by Qi Yuanfu, the third generation of the Qi family.

At this time, Qi Yuanfu was wearing mountain armor in high spirits, standing on the edge of the beach, looking at the Qi family army training around the beach, his heart was full of pride, and he wanted to roar at the sea.

How many years have passed, how many years their Qi family has kept a low profile under the eyes of the ministers of Ming Dynasty, and now they are finally proud.

"General, a letter from the capital."

At this time, suddenly a general handed over a letter on good paper, and Qi Yuanfu, who heard the words, took the letter and opened it quickly.

This letter came from the imperial palace, and it was the emperor's order, but there were some changes compared to the previous order.

"How much silver do we have left?"

Suddenly, Qi Yuanfu asked the general, and after hearing the words, the general turned his attention to the counselor next to him. The counselor heard the words and hurriedly wrote:

"Forty-five thousand three hundred and twenty-six taels left."

"That's all there is?" Qi Yuanfu frowned slightly, and sighed in his heart.

He went south this time and encountered many difficulties.

At the beginning, the emperor asked Nanzhili and Zhejiang to send him an additional [-] taels of silver for military training, but the Nanzhili military department and Zhejiang only gave him [-] taels, and the remaining [-] taels of silver were not given anyway.

He had no choice but to bite the bullet and sold the last field of his family, and finally collected more than [-] taels of silver.

He finally came to Zhejiang with money, but he didn't want Zhejiang officials to embarrass him and hinder him from recruiting troops.

Fortunately, because there are a large number of hidden people in Zhejiang, and there is no arable land and so many cities to work for them, Qi Yuanfu used the military salary of one, two, three dollars a month in Zhejiang to recruit people bit by bit.

He originally wanted to recruit troops slowly, then train the army honestly for a few months, and then ask the Southern Zhili War Department, the Household Department, and the Zhejiang Chengxuan Political Envoy Department to bring the remaining [-] taels of silver when the army's salary is almost exhausted.

As a result, within two days, the emperor's decree came down, and he was directly asked to lead his troops to Nanjing after training. Yangzhou will send more silver, autumn tax, and next year's summer tax to escort Shuntian one after another.

At that time, he was still happy, thinking that with the emperor's will, no one would dare to stop him anymore, so he accelerated the speed of recruitment, and recruited [-] people to full strength a few days ago.

He originally planned to train for another month, but this letter disrupted his plan.

He had to take this untrained army to South Zhili in advance, but this time it was not on the battlefield, and he was not afraid.

The only thing to worry about is that there is not enough money. After the money is issued, can we still invite enough civilian husbands.

"Forget it, even if the money is not enough, it will be enough in Nanjing!"

Thinking of this, Qi Yuanfu gritted his teeth and ordered directly:

"Order the entire army to receive five taels of silver each after today's drill, and allow the soldiers to return home for three days. The generals must prepare all the marching needs within three days. At [-] o'clock on November [-]th, the army will set off and head north!"

　Tomorrow, I don't know whether it will be [-] chapters per day or [-] chapters per day. There is a high probability that it will be two chapters. It depends on whether the company will work overtime today.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)